Almost every hockey fan has seen a seriously bad call made by the officiators but this one is probably the worst I’ve seen in a long time.
The Detroit Red Wings were looking for a game-tying goal and they got it.  The only problem was that it was deemed a non-goal and I can’t understand how anyone could make this call.  It’s clearly in the net, fricking Alex Auld has to scoop in and dig it out and they still claim it wasn’t conclusive?  It’s pretty obvious that it was a goal but the Red Wings ended up losing 3-1 and …read more

I have to confess – I didn’t watch most of Battle of the Blades partly out of embarrassment since everyone else in my house thought it was lame and partly because I’ve just been so flipping busy.  Either way, I have been keeping an eye on it since it’s really like Dancing With the Stars but on ice, featuring former hockey players.
Last night, the winner was crowned and, apparently, it was no surprise to the show’s many viewers (it did so well that CBC is ordering up a second season!).

Olympic pairs gold-medalist, Jamie Sale, and ex-Oiler/Hocker Night in Canada commentator, …read more

I hate skate injuries.  They are such a reminder of how dangerous the game can really be.  Carolina Hurricanes goaltender, Cam Ward, is in the hospital after his leg was cut open by the skate of Rick Nash.  The injury occurred during the first period of their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ward is still in the hospital and didn’t fly home with the team after the 3-2 loss.  “It’s a significant injury and all I mean by that is I don’t have any timeline,” coach Paul Maurice said. “There was a fair amount of blood on the ice. All …read more

The Carolina Hurricanes will be without forward, Tuomo Ruutu, for three games.  The suspension stems from his hit on Colorado Avalanche forward, Darcy Tucker, last night.

The hit definitely was ugly – Ruutu slammed Tucker to the boards while he was trying to play the puck in Carolina’s end and Tucket collided with the glass and then was knocked unconscious and appeared to be bleeding.  The medical workers put a neck brace on him and took him off the ice.
At the hospital, Tucker received 40 stitches to his forehead and he stayed in the hospital overnight even though the CT scan …read more

During practice, the Tampa Bay Lightning players decided to take one item of clothing off for every breakaway shot that they didn’t make.  I’m not exactly sure whose idea this was but the video that is currently making the rounds is of Martin St. Louis.  He ends up losing his skates and wearing flip-flops on the ice (kind of dangerous but whatever).
Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune wrote:  “After a near two-hour practice on Tuesday, and just after the coaches all vacated the ice, the players took a tongue-in-cheek approach in order to lighten the mood by playing a round …read more

Did you catch the Columbus Blue Jackets at Calgary Flames game last night?  The Flames won 6-3 and, while I was happy with the result, it was the goal by Fredrik Sjostrom that served as the highlight for me.
Sure, Calgary didn’t really need it with 4:05 left in the third since they were already up two goals but since Sjostrom is new to the team, I haven’t really seen what he can do and last night I was totally surprised.

He approached the net and couldn’t get a shot away, faked out Columbus goalie, Steve Mason, and then did a spin-o-rama …read more

As if the Carolina Hurricanes aren’t already off to a bad enough start, they’ve now lost Erik Cole for 4-6 weeks.  The power forward seems to have bad luck with injuries and now he’ll be sitting out after an MRI showed a fracture in his lower left leg.
The break happened after he made contact with Boston Bruins defenceman, Dennis Wideman, during their terrible loss on Saturday night.
There was so much action during that game that I have to admit that I had almost forgotten about this injury and I’m disappointed that it is this serious.  Honestly, though, you can pretty …read more

It was a big night in my neck of the woods.  Last night was the first Battle of Alberta and was the first home game of the season for the Edmonton Oilers.  I’m not even going to go into how lame I thought their whole pre-game celebration was (I’m sorry but it was really stupid to me) since I was really just interested in their starting lineup.

After the Calgary Flames were stonewalled by goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin in the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning, I’ve always hated playing against him.  I wanted to see how Miikka Kiprusoff would …read more

A few days ago during a pre-season game between the Calgary Flames and the visiting New York Islanders, Flames defenceman, Dion Phaneuf, laid into forward, Kyle Okposo, in what many feel was a clean hit, although some believe it was unnecessary.

Okposo had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher after remaining motionless for several minutes afterwards.  Immediately, Pascal Morency (Islanders) jumped onto the ice and went for Phaneuf but was intercepted before he could get to him.  A small fight broke out as guys tried to restrain Morency and, ultimately, he was given a game misconduct and, since …read more

I spotted a demo showing the Battle for the Cup gameplay for NHL 10 and I thought I’d share.  The start of the new season is still more than a month away but at least I can start to enjoy hockey in some form when this game gets released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 15, 2009.
There are a lot of cool new features that have been added since NHL 09 so I’m looking forward to seeing how it changes the feel of the game.  I know that I’m definitely going to enjoy the more physical …read more