Thanks Leaffan. That’s a thing of beauty.
Two of my buddies at work showed me the Hertl goal this morning; the kid is freaking awesome. Of course, we all think he’s gonna get pounded into the boards like he was a nail the next few games…
Wow.
Canes hold out, and won in D.C. Nathan Gerbe scores again. Key ref quote: “OK, it’s over.”
Leafs on a roll. 4-0 in Nashville.
I’m liking the retooling, and especially Bernier.
Were you watching on TV? I was at the game and couldn’t figure out the embellishment call on Semin.
I couldn’t figure it out, either.
Probably another penalty for reputation not actions.
Martin Biron is going to start in goal for the Rangers against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. The Blues are certainly not a high goal scoring team (Ken Hitchcock) so this should be quite an interesting game to watch. I watched the last 2 periods of the Rangers/Ducks game and could not believe how bad the Rangers looked on defense. The Ducks were resting 3 injured forwards in the third period and still hung on to the 6-0 shutout.
I’ll also be watching Panthers/Penguins tonight. The Panthers might get blown out 10-0. Peter Laviollete for a new coach of the Panthers?
Nope, 6-3 Pathers, Phoenix beat Philly 2-1, and the Canes lose to the Kings 2-1 in the shootout. Not a bad game by the Canes, the didn’t collapse after the Kings’ shortie. And both Quick and Ward looked more solid than in the past few games.
I don’t know if I can make it through an entire season with Dan Bylsma at the helm. First 3 games went great, it was obvious Martin had a lot of influence – the cycle was back, controlled breakouts with support through the neutral zone, defensive support from centers, etc. But these last two games stink of Bylsma: the stretch pass is back, the defensive system can be best described as “chaos”, and the personnel decisions are infuriating. Through two periods, Dupuis, Kobasew, and Kunitz EACH have 2 minutes more ice time than Malkin. Bennet – whose been one of our best wingers so far this season – has been benched, with no explanation. Also, Bennet has not ONCE played with Crosby this season, probably because Dan’s afraid of how good they’d be. And the Maata/Bortuzzo pair, which has played brilliantly for the first 4 games – easily one of our best D pairs – has been broken up, Bortz has been benched in favor of Engelland (who is useless at best), and now Maata is trying to be everywhere at once, and as a result will probably be shipped backed to juniors. A final example: 18 seconds left in the 2nd, down by 1, what line does he put out? Vitale - Malkin - Kobasew… WHAT?! Wouldn’t you try, I don’t know, Sidney - Malkin - Bennet? Or any Top 6 talent rather than 3rd liners + Malkin?
It sucks, because Pens are talented enough to somehow keep winning, which dooms them every. fucking. year. in the playoffs. Blah.
But you make it. Evey. Year. I miss the playoffs.
Trust me, I get that. I remember the 2003 Pens quite well. My complaint is that Pens have managed to have some of the best talent in hockey – including 2 of the top 5 players currently in the league – and they’ve done (and continue to do) everything possible to waste their prime years, including this Bylsma experiment that’s been a 4 year broken record, that plays out the same way every season. Not only do they not build around Geno/Sid (drafting/trading for complimentary talent) Bylsma doesn’t even use the talent currently on the roster to best benefit them. And it’s infuriating, because very rarely do you get to root for a team that has two of the best players in the sport, and it’s something a franchise may only get one chance at… ever. Penguins got lucky with Jagr/Mario only 20 years ago (even though that era was also full of regrets), so when Sid and Geno are done, who knows if Penguins will ever have the potential to be so good again?
Like tonight, that was Sid basically deciding to win the game by himself, in spite of coaching. And he’s good enough to do that, and he’ll put up gaudy numbers all regular season, because he can. But come playoffs, when everything is played so much tighter and teams game-plan around you so much closer, they’re going to go out in flames, yet again. And none of the rookies will be able to step up to help out, because they’ll have no regular season experience.
These sky is falling posts just make me shake my head. In hockey there are no guarantees, and last year, with made a great run to the ECF. Should we win another cup? Yeah, and I think we will, but come on. We’re 4-1 on the season…you’d think by your post we were 1-4.
I hate when fans think that they know more about the personnel than the professional coaches who see these players for hours every day in practice. If those lines you said we’re working better in practice, he’d play them.
You want sky is falling? Check out some of the Canes board post from before the season. You’d think we were fielding an over 50 C-League team. 
Did anyone see Coach’s Corner last night? I don’t know if it was intentional or what, but Cherry was constantly misusing the words ‘staged’ and ‘spontaneous’. It drove me nuts.
Khudoben pulls something, the Canes embellish themselves on the ice, and lose 5-3.
And the Stars hand the Sharks their first lost of the season, granted it was a shootout but still.
Canes come back from 2-0, win 3-2. Bernier should get an assist on the GWG. 
Ixnay on the Eafslay.
They’re off to a good start, obviously, and they’re not going to win every game, but it’s been an entertaining start!