Despite a dearth of true talent under the Unrestricted Free Agent column heading, the 2011 off-season has brought a free agent spending spree like no other upon the NHL. (Be confident, true believers, Pucked in the Head is hard at work on a Seven Things about the Free Agent Firesale column. Well, maybe not ‘hard’ – and ‘work’ is a strong word – but trust me, we’re talking big game about maybe hashing something out over beer sometime before training camp. Or not, whatever.) Most agree that the New York Rangers were the undisputed winner, signing the cream of the crop Brad Richards to a nine-year, $60 million deal. And who’s to argue with Glen Sather, considering his wonderful track record with signing UFAs to big dollar contracts?

Well, us, that’s who. Since taking over the Blueshirts, the guy’s been an absolute disaster on July 1.

1.Scott Gomez had scored an average of 64 points per year with the New Jersey Devils in the first seven years of his career, winning the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and two Stanley Cups along the way. He turned that consistent, tier-two play into a first rate deal on Free Agent Day in 2007. Slats rewarded him with big bucks, $51.5 million over seven years. Gomez responded with an average of… you guess it, 64 points over the first two years of the contract. Despite giving the Rangers precisely what they had paid for, fans reacted poorly – in 2009, Gomez was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for a cricket bat, three buckets of fried chicken and a box of chewing tobacco. Continue reading 05 July 2011 – Slats and the Never-Ending Ranger Shitshow →

Sadly, hooligans used the Stanley Cup final as an excuse to go apeshit in Vancouver’s downtown core. Vandalism, arson, looting and assorted acts of violence have stained our beautiful city. A very small group of Neanderthals went out of their way to mimic the riots of 1994 — these “people” (and I use that word loosely) have no connection with hockey whatsoever. Real Vancouverites, hockey fans or otherwise, are disgusted by these acts, and embarrassed that a wonderful run of great hockey has now been marred, even overshadowed by this ferret dung in loose pants posing as Canucks fans.

And now, on to the hockey.

1. Congratulations to the Boston Bruins for winning their first Stanley Cup in 39 years. Sure, we’d love to see a city north of 49 win it all, but if it’s not going to happen, the Bruins are as good as it gets. The Canadian content on the Boston roster outstrips even that of the Blackhawks and Flyers last year. It’s the third time in four years an Original Six team takes home hockey’s holy grail. A great achievement for this team of pluggers who virtually nobody chose to outskate the skilled Canucks. There were five Bruins teams to make the finals since 72 – guys like Cam Neely, Ray Bourque and Andy Moog weren’t able to win it all in Boston. Now names like Brad Marchand and Shawn Thornton will go down in Bruins lore beside Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. That sounds like a sarcastic comment, but it’s not. I’m honestly impressed by the sheer strength of team play that the Bruins put together this year. On paper they’re a decent team. On the ice, they’re quite literally world-beaters. Continue reading 16 June 2011 – A Black & Gold Championship, Stating the Obvious and Going out on Top →

1. Roberto Luongo acquitted himself nicely in game five Friday night, backstopping Vancouver to a 3-2 series lead. It’s hard to imagine, considering the type of heat Lou has taken in the media for what was clearly the team’s poor performance mid-series against both Chicago and Boston, but he now leads the NHL with four post-season shutouts this year. He was the best penalty killer in a blue jersey, and dug deeply enough to rebound from giving up more goals in two games than any other keeper in Stanley Cup finals history. Now, wait. Before you get me the wrong way: I’m just going by pure stats here. Luongo was not the problem in games 3 and 4, he just has the nasty numbers beside his name in the loss column. In game 5, however, he was every bit the first star of this game for Vancouver. Some goalies, like Chris Osgood for example, get playoff shutouts by stopping 12 shots from the outside behind defensively impossible teams like Detroit. Luongo made 31 saves in game 5, many of them spectacular. He was solid through traffic, in tight, on deflections, with rebounds, early and late. He was everything the bandwagon jumpers said he couldn’t be: clutch. Continue reading 10 June 2011 – Lou’s rebound control, Tanev’s balls of steel, and for the love of all that is holy, somebody buy Maxim Lapierre a drink →

1. Before this series, this series was billed as Zdeno Chara vs the Sedin twins. None of those three have lived up to the billing, but it’s still worth the time in Photoshop. Pucked in the Head presents, Charzilla versus the Mothratwins. Continue reading 6 June 2011 – Tim Thomas, Charzilla and the Mothra Twins →

This post was originally published at The Hockey Writers

So Winnipeg is back in the NHL party, is it?

Mark Chipman’s work for the people of Manitoba has been remarkable. He’s been a huge figure on the Winnipeg scene, from programs for First Nations youth, girls and other community groups to traditional boys’ hockey; from lobbying provincial and federal politicians for new support to athletics and the arts, to building the rink that the new NHL team will inhabit; from a huge role in the 1996 Save the Jets campaign to the May 31, 2011 purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers. Continue reading Seven Things about Hockey in Winnipeg →

7. Fitting that Milan Lucic would figure prominently in a tight-checking, hard-hitting Eastern Conference final game seven. Forget that the Lightning have three of the best pure scorers in the game. Ignore the fact that Dwayne Roloson had never lost an elimination game before Friday night. Hell, throw off the balcony the observation that Zdeno Chara and Martin St Louis are so disparate in size that anthropologists don’t consider them to be from the same species. Looch deserves the trip to the finals because he’s from Vancouver. He led theVancouver Giants to the city’s first Memorial Cup in eleventy million years. His maternal uncle played for theVancouver Canucks. What more do you need? This storyline writes its bad self. Continue reading 28 May 2011 – Homecomings, Severed Fingers & Green Babies →

Seven Things – 25 May 2011

1. Before these playoffs began, much was said about the Vancouver Canucks and the Curse of the Presidents’ Trophy – which by the way would be a bitchin’ summer movie, unless of course it starred Nicolas Cage.

Anyway, since 1986, when that particular piece of bling was adopted for the top points-getter in the NHL regular season, just 7 of its 24 recipients have gone on to win the Stanley Cup. Loads of people predicted when the Canucks became the 25th team to be engraved upon the PT that they’d fall under that spell, too. “Look at Washington last year,” they crowed, “and San Jose before them.” Well look no longer, folks, because the stats are now on Vancouver’s side. Of the nine teams to win the Presidents’ Trophy and make the Stanley Cup finals, only two have lost. The Canucks not only have a red hot team with a solid roster going into the fourth round, they have 78% of historical precedent behind them. Continue reading 25 May 2011 -The Curse of the Presidents’ Trophy, Double OT & the Road to Hell →

Seven Things – 22 May 2011

1. The Vancouver Canucks rode their power play through much of the regular season. They were first overall in goals and had the best PP in the league this year; when they win, the man advantage very often is one of the main reasons. Sunday afternoon was no exception, as the Canucks scored three goals on two-man advantages in unusually quick succession. In fact, the buck fifty-five between the first and third goals broke the franchise record for the fastest three goals of any kind scored by the Canucks in a playoff game. I’ve yet to find any time in NHL history where three goals were scored by one team on the 5-on-3, let alone in under two minutes.

Did I say the only reason? Because another solid part of the Canucks win in game four is explored in #5 below. Continue reading 22 May 2011 – Sharks on the Brink, Records A-Falling, and Lightning Bolts at the Airport →