Anze Kopitar

this week: giggling, sometimes, on the internet, looking at gordie’s numbers

/ puckstruck

We learned, this week, that the Toronto Maple Leafs have new slogans adorning the walls of their dressing room this season:

Blue noise

If you are not in you’re in the way

Unite a city

That’s how James Mirtle from The Globe and Mail reported them; as a big fan of punctuation, I’m really hoping that on the wall itself, the middle one has a comma.

Training camp had come and was gone, this week, time for the NHL to drop the puck for its 97th season, though not before the @NHLBruins let the world know that Milan Lucic was looking forward to, quote, “taking a hit, getting in on the forecheck, battling on the wall, knowing where you are in the D zone again.”

From Los Angeles, we heard from @AnzeKopitar:

One of the best thing [sic] about hockey season… Afternoon nap! #boom

King's bling (Photo: @DustinBrown23)

King’s bling (Photo: @DustinBrown23)

The Kings handed out rings, too. That was another L.A. thing from the week. “This is pretty special,” tweeted @DustinBrown23. “But my favorite ring…… Is still the next one.”

Which, according to EA Sports, is coming. Possibly. If the simulation they ran on their NHL 15 video game means anything, which it can’t, really, can it, other than as a clever bit of product marketing that the NHL and actual purveyors of news were happy to promote. In EA’s virtual 2014-15 NHL season, the Kings ended up beating the Bruins in six games to win the Stanley Cup again. A story on NHL.com deemed this a “prediction” while explaining:

EA Sports conducts its simulation using artificial intelligence and real-life player data. In an attempt to provide realism to the game, injuries and hot streaks are also thrown into the mix. EA Sports NHL 15 is also the first edition of the popular series to use 12 Player NHL Collision Physics and Real Puck Physics to more authentically replicate the unpredictability of what happens on the ice.

In Toronto, a former King, Matt Frattin, was back with the team that gave him his NHL start. Kevin McGran from The Toronto Star listened to Leafs’ coach Randy Carlyle on his disappointing September:

Frattin has had a mediocre camp. He needs to find a way to regenerate some enthusiasm. I feel sorry for him right now. The puck is not his friend. It’s going away from him versus bouncing for him.

Bruce A. Heyman, new U.S. ambassador to Canada/old Chicago Blackhawks fan, tweeted from Ottawa:

Ok… It’s beginning!!! #Hockey season is about to begin. Excited to experience it here in #Canada #myfirstcanadianwinter.

The New York Islanders traded for two defenceman on Puck-Drop Eve, acquiring Nick Leddy from Chicago and Johnny Boychuk from Boston.

@StanFischler thought that boded well:

#Garth Snow’s latest double-dip, Boychuk-Leddy spells playoff-bound. Solid up front and in goal.

Leddy (@ledpipe08) was quick to tweet:

I want to thank the @NHLBlackhawks and all the fans for everything! Excited to start my new adventure with the @NYIslanders

Boychuk had mixed feelings. He told Joe Haggerty from Comcast Sportsnet about his bond with Boston.

It’s tough because this is the place where I started my career. I grew to love Boston. This is a pretty easy place to play. The fans really took me in, and I worked as hard as I could so people would appreciate me. This is the kind of town where they like those types of players.

They liked that I would throw big hits on people, and sacrifice my body to help us win. It’s a working man’s town, and I always felt that love. I think it was just a really good fit for me, and the people are just fucking awesome.

Continue reading →

this week: there aren’t enough adjectives in the vocabulary

/ puckstruck
Shadowy men, in a shadowy Garden: Bruins host Maroons at Boston's Garden, circa the mid-1930s. (Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection)

Shadowy men, on shadowy ice: Bruins host Maroons at Boston’s Garden, circa the mid-1930s. (Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection)

“Happy holidays everybody!!!,” tweeted @AnzeKopitar this week, “#besttimeoftheyear”      ‪

In Ottawa, Governor-General David Johnston told CTV’s Powerplay what he thought of his next-door neighbour’s book, which is to say Stephen J. Harper’s A Great Game: “I enjoyed it enormously.”

“God fortsättning!” offered the Rangers’ goalie, Henrik Lundqvist. “Hoppas ni haft en härlig jul och att ni får ett gott nytt år!”

New Jersey’s Jaromir Jagr scored his 13th goal of the season this week in a 5-4 win over Washington’s Capitals. It was the 694th of his career, too, which ties him with Mark Messier in seventh place on the list of all-time NHL goalscorers.

“He amazes me every night I come to the rink,” Devils’ coach Peter DeBoer said of Jagr, who’s 41. “I don’t have a lot more adjectives to describe him, but he’s a pleasure to work with.”

Don’t cry for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their injured, coach Randy Carlyle said this week, via James Mirtle of The Globe and Mail. According to Carlyle, 108 players are out of action at the moment, or fully 15 per cent. “There’s a lot of injuries taking place,” Carlyle said. “We’re not the only ones.”

“There aren’t enough adjectives in the vocabulary to keep describing Jaromir’s goals,” said a teammate, Rick Tocchet. That was in 1992, back when Jagr played for Pittsburgh.

howe, lindsay

Terribly Ted: Detroit’s Red Wings announced this week that Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe will be participating in the team’s alumni game against Toronto on December 31 leading up to the Winter Classic game at Comerica Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo: @DetroitRedWings)

Evgeni Nabokov was the Islanders’ goalie yesterday when they lost to the Devils.  “It’s the same music all the time: Why don’t we win?” he said afterwards. Continue reading →

this week: why you think I’m not happy?

/ puckstruck

bobby oOn his 65th birthday, Bobby Orr said he didn’t feel sick. Probably, he said, he should exercise more. But: “Overall, I’m thrilled.”

Janet Dziurzynski was sitting at home in Lloydminster, Alberta, watching on TV on March 6 as Toronto’s Frazer McLaren punched her son Dave in the head and he fell, smack, to the ice. “Of course, I was crying,” she said this week.

A defenceman, Cody Franson, spoke to TSN.ca of that point in a game the Leafs play where it all falls apart. “You can almost feel it coming sometimes. We get sloppy for a shift. It’s like it’s just kind of contagious. The bench can feel it.”

Jordin Tootoo’s teeth fell out and broke or were swept away in a raging river or … thieves made off with them? We don’t know the whole story, just what Tootoo tweeted: “The joys of having fake teeth……. They eventually fall out. Toothless for a while I’m guessing. First day of our week long roadie. UNCLE.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper liked the old-fashioned maroon-and-white uniforms the Vancouver Canucks wore this week in their game against Detroit.  “The Millionaires sweaters are a nice tip of the cap to the 1915 Cup champions and to hockey history,” he twittered. “Well done.”

A former teammate, the Kings’ Mike Richards, said, “Kimmo Timonen is classiest guy in the league.” Which was nice. The Philadelphia defenceman was playing his 1,000th NHL game on his 38th birthday, so there was more, too. Teammate Braydon Coburn said, “He’s not the fastest guy. He’s not the biggest guy. He’s a tough little Finn. He’s been a smart player to be in the league that long.”

That was before the game, which the Flyers lost 4-2 to Tampa Bay. A few hours later, CSNPhilly.com reported, “Players appeared both dazed and disillusioned after the game.”

Said goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, “It’s sad. What else can you say? Nothing else you can do.” Continue reading →