After all the Halloween candy has been dispensed, your division leaders are the Kings, Avalanche and Blackhawks in the West, and the Habs, Bolts and the Pens and Flyers in the East.
The Flames looked just awful in the second period of their game last Saturday against Washington, giving up six goals, including two on the PP to Ovie within 12 seconds.
Interesting that there were no games at all scheduled. Not sure if the league didn’t want to compete against the NFL and the World Series or just a scheduling quirk.
Huh? There seemto be three games scheduled today; CHI@NYR, CAR@PHI and NJD@VAN. I wonder whether any of those will air on the various channels I have.
I wasn’t able to watch either of the Habs games this weekend due to a family event - I’m in hockey withdrawl.
On Sunday there were no games.
Ah, but Sunday wasn’t November! I’d blame it on a scheduling quirk. 
What is going to happen in Philadelphia when Leighton returns? Bobrovsky and Boucher have both done well to start the season.
Don’t worry. One of them will find a way to get injured again.
Oh geez. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! What an unlucky year the guy is having. Makes me think of Markov; one thing after the other.
Stop the season! The Kings are #1!
Ok…a little premature.
On another note…Tim Thomas is on a horrible slump…of not losing.
Raffi Torres scores his first hat trick against his old team and the Canucks squeak out a win!
The Sharks are on their way to being shut out again tonight with about 5 minutes left in the third. I’m not at all iimpressed with Antti Niemi this season.
On the other hand, I’m really looking forward to the Kings/Lightening game tonight. Drew Doughty comes back tonight and Stamkos has been amazing so far this year.
Ah Flyers goalie talk. Always something new there.
As mentioned above, one of them will probably have a bus fall on them or something. They’re due for a bizarre injury or two. Leighton is a few weeks away from returning and I have no doubts that if Bobrovsky is still going well, they leave him down in the minors for as many rehab starts as possible. At that point, they COULD get away with leaving all three up with the big club for a few weeks, due to the extra cap room they have with LTIR players. Not that they would ever carry 3 goalies for any length of time, but they could do it financially.
As of today, Bobrovsky is the clear number 1 over Boucher, as evidenced by Laviolette’s comments and the number of games in a row he’s played. Once Leighton returns, I guess the conventional wisdom would be to send Bobrovsky down to the Phantoms and run with Leighton and Boucher. However, there’s a few problems with that. One, the Phantoms are terrible and they’re having locker room and coaching issues that might not make for a good environment for a 22 year old who speaks very little English. Secondly,with the Phantoms he would not have access to Jeff Reese, the goalie coach, with whom he seems to have developed a good relationship. Its almost worth it, if they decide to go with Leighton and Boucher, to keep Bobrovsky in Philly with the team as a scratch and get him the coaching time with a decent goalie coach.
Or if they decide to go with Bob as the starter for time being, they could waive Boucher or Leighton and just bite the bullet and hope he’s the real deal. Money’s on Boucher getting the ax in that scenario, since presumably Leighton was higher on the depth chart and pecking order.
Or they could all come down with a case of hysterical pregnancy and we’ll see the triumphant return of Ray Emery and his bionic hip. Nothing surprises me at this point.
I’ve always said it doesn’t matter which goalie the Flyers will choose. It will be the wrong choice regardless. Even if they somehow traded for Ryan Miller.
Going to a Hamilton Bulldogs game tonight, in Montreal. I am assuming the Bell Centre will let us know how the Habs are doing in Buffalo? I hope so!
Being the loser that I am, this will be my first hockey game ever. We have seats in the reds, centre-ice, about 10 rows back. If my damn husband could stop travelling so much for work, we could possibly find a Habs game we have time to go to! Still, I like several of the 'Dogs players (Desharnais, White, Palushaj), and I’m looking forward to it!
Well, the last game wasn’t as good.
That’s unacceptable, Mr. Thomas…letting 2 goals in against a hapless Sabre team…SHAME!!!
On the other coast, there was the best of the East vs. the best of the West, and I witnessed an excellent goalie dual between Quick and Smith…it took some fancy spin-a-rama move by Justin Williams (assisted by an excellent heads-up play/pass from Ryan Smyth) ftw…Kings-1, Ligntning-0.
That was sweet.
The Bulldogs game last night was fun! They won 5-2 (two empty netters) in front of a crowd of 13 267. I’m sure there are some NHL teams that wish they could have that! Our view was perfect.
There was a little kid - maybe about 5 years old - sitting behind me excitedly prattling off his own play-by-play of the game, and he was pretty good! He knew which number Max Paccioretty and Ben Maxwell were, so he’d say their names (and Sandford, the goalie), but for the rest, he’s just say the number on the jerseys, and kept reminding his mom how many shots on goal there’s been! So cute - I want him sitting near me for any other games I get to!
The Bell Centre also showed highlights of the Habs-Sabres games, and the place went wild after every goal! So much fun!
Bulldogs play in Montreal again on Feb 25th, and we’ll probably be there! For the same price, I’ll take nosebleeds for a Habs game, but there’s something to be said for centre ice in the reds!