http://thetwolinepass.com Hockey Opinions From My Local Rink's Basement Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:51:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Flyers prospect James van Riemsdyk closed the USA's World Juniors tournament with a pretty awesome goal to give the Americans a 3-2 overtime win against the Czech Republic in the fifth-place game. If you remember the move Marek Malik used to win that long shootout against Washington in 2005-06, it's ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2009/01/how-does-that-goalie-feel/ In the dying moments of 2008, roughly three hours before the ball dropped in Times Square, the United States and Canada were playing in a rollicking back-and-forth game in the group stages of the World Junior Championships in Ottawa, and Dustin Tokarski made the unequivocal save of the year. With the ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2009/01/dustin-tokarskis-save-probably-cures-cancer/ The Lead The Sharks are an astonishingly good team, the Red Wings are very good as well. The Blackhawks have a great deal going for them. And all of them pale in comparison with the Boston Bruins, who just two seasons ago finished 23rd in the league. Tonight, Boston, playing its third ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/good-night-its-official/ I was reading the Calgary Sun this afternoon when I stumbled upon this story about the contents of the basement of Brent Burns' house. While the subject struck me as odd, the basement's inhabitants are even odder. He's got birds, huskies, cats and a big saltwater fish tank that includes a ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/brent-burns-is-a-weird-dude/ The Lead It should be noted that I'm a fan of defense-first hockey. I don't think the trap was detrimental to the health of the sport, I don't find the style pioneered by New Jersey to be upsetting in any way, and I would certainly prefer to see a 1-0 game ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/good-night-the-worst-defensive-team-ever/ [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="427" caption="Yeah, pretty fuckin' much."][/caption] Because I tend to not blog on the weekends, here is a feature that will run through the entire season. It aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact about each team. And hell, there’s ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/what-we-learned-oh-yeah-this-is-entertaining/ With the year finally winding down, we can now look back on the prior 350-something days and start to put together some conclusive feelings about them. It seems, to me at least, that this has been literally the stupidest calendar year of hockey in maybe a decade. 10. Tampa backs up ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/the-10-stupidest-hockey-stories-of-2008/ The Lead Forget all the dickpunching and whining and diving for which Sidney Crosby's been called out lately. It's become quite clear that the guy plays with a different rulebook than most other NHL players, and that's just one of those things you have to accept as a fact of life. ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/good-night-high-sticks-are-legal-if-youre-sid-crosby/ Because I tend to not blog on the weekends, here is a feature that will run through the entire season. It aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact about each team. And hell, there’s a ton of other crap for me ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/what-we-learned-on-the-obvious-parallels-between-mats-sundin-and-mark-messier-signing-in-vancouver/ The Lead At the risk of angering both people who bother to read Good Night on a nightly basis, I have a confession. I only watched the Bruins game tonight because I went to an art show — I start my internship at Vogue next summer haw haw! — and at ... http://thetwolinepass.com/2008/12/abbreviated-good-night-because-i-can-only-say-the-same-thing-so-many-times-before-i-have-a-hemorrhage-and-die/