Ultimate Hockey Warrior

Luc Bourdon was killed in an accident on his motorcycle on May 29^th.  Bourdon just completed his 1^st year in the NHL this year with the Vancouver Canucks, and was in his home town in New Brunswick when his motorcycle crashed into a tractor-trailer. 

Bourdon was drafted in the 1^st round in 2005, 10^th overall by the Canucks.  Bourdon won a Gold medal at the WJC in 2006 for Canada and later that year won a Junior Championship.  Before the game tonight, there will be a moment of silence for Luc Bourdon and his family.

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It looks as though Barry Melrose will be returning to the bench of an NHL team for next season.  Melrose is said to be the next coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning, replacing current head coach, John Tortarella.  Melrose last coached the LA Kings over 10 years ago, since then he has been a TV personality and NHL commentator.  The motivator should find a decent team  to inherit, including stars Lecavalier and St. Louis, and more than likely, the phenom Steve Stamkos. 

This post will be updated as more information is known.

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The Pittsburgh penguins exceeded everyone’s expectations this year making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. At the beginning of the year everyone was saying that the Senators were a lock. Clearly they weren’t as they were swept by the very same Penguins in the 1st round of the playoffs. The Senators made it to the Stanley Cup Finals last year and lost to the Ducks. Everyone thought that with the same roster and the experience they gained in losing the Stanley Cup that the Sens knew what it takes to win the Stanley Cup. But the Senators never came together as a team and collapsed in the 2nd half of the season.

The Penguins will not win the Stanley Cup this year because they lack the experience that the Senators gained last year, and wasted this year. The Penguins don’t have the experience or the knowledge of what it takes to win the Stanley Cup. The Red Wings do, and they are schooling the Penguins. Sidney Crosby is an incredible player, and while he is doing his best individually to help his team win, his teammates aren’t following his example. The team as a whole needs to understand the sacrifice of your body and your individuality, and they need to taste defeat before they will truly understand what it takes to win. I expect the Penguins will have a great chance of being back in the Finals next year, and next year they will bring forth a more mature team. A team that is willing to sacrifice everything on the ice, and play as a team. Malkin and Crosby are not there yet, but after this playoff series loss, they will be one step closer to understanding.

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Johan Franzen has been sidelined with a concussion since Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals series vs. the Dallas Stars.  Johan Franzen, nicknamed the Mule, is tied for the NHL Playoff lead in goals with 12, despite missing 6 games in a row.  The Red Wings will certainly welcome back Franzen, who should be able to take some of the scoring load off of Datsyuk and Zetterberg.  Franzen had this to say about playing in today’s finals game:

“It’s better, I don’t feel anything anymore.  It’s good.  There will be so much adrenaline, it doesn’t matter what shape you’re in,” Franzen said Sunday.

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The Detroit Red Wings sure looked good in front of their home crowd tonight destroying the Penguins 4-0.  The game easily could have been 7 or 8-0 if not for some lucky breaks and a bad call by the refs.  The first period had the Penguins on the Power Play four times putting up 8 of their 12 first period shots on the power play but coming up empty-handed.  Late in the 1st period the Red Wings thought they scored a goal when Datsyuk set up Lidstrom who beat Fleury high to the short-side.  The refs waived off the goal and gave Tomas Holmstrom a penalty for goalie interference.   The call was totally bogus as Holmstrom brushed Fleury with his stick and never actually interfered or impeded Fleury’s ability to make the save.

The 2nd period saw the Red Wings completely take over the game.   From the 2nd period on, the Red Wings outshot the Penguins 25-7, and outscored the Penguins 4-0.  Mikael Samuelsson scored a brilliant wrap-around goal with a bunch of tired Penguin’s players on the ice.  Ruutu had a chance to step into Samuelsson as he came around the net, but half-assed his way there and allowed an easy wrap-around goal.  The 2nd period ended 1-0 in favor of the Red Wings.

The 3rd period continued just as the 2nd period ended with the Red Wings dominating.  Mikael Samuelsson scored his second goal of the game on a great fore-checking play, which resulted in a turnover by the Fleury and he slapped in his second unassisted goal of the game.  With time starting to run low, Daniel Cleary added a nifty shorthanded goal going top corner on his backhand.  And with less than 20 seconds left, Henrik Zetterberg scored on a killer shot over Fleury’s glove.  All in all, this game was dominated by the Red Wings.  From this recap you can see that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin’s names don’t appear much.  That is because the Red Wings collectively shut the two all stars down.  They had very little skating room and were only effective on the power play.  Game 2 will be in Detroit on Monday night at 7:30/4:30.

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Tony Granato was demoted from his Head Coaching position 4 years ago by the Avalanche.  Today, Tony Granato was re-hired as the Colorado Avalanche’s head coach.  Joel Quenneville was fired after getting beat up in the 2nd round by the Red Wings.  The Avalanche decided that they had played enough of Quenneville’s brand of hockey and were interested in returning to what Granato has to offer.

Granato has been an Assistant Coach for the last 4 years with the Avs, however he did achieve some success with the Avalanche as their Head Coach.  With some more experience under his belt I think Granato should be able to implement a strong system for his players to follow.  The next question for the Avalanche comes in the form of what kind of team are they going to field next year.  Their stars are getting older and more brittle, and their captain Joe Sakic is an unrestricted free agent.  Stay tuned in the coming months for any new developments with the Avs.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will meet the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2008 NHL Playoffs. The Stanley Cup finals begins Saturday for the two teams who dominated their ways into the finals. The Red Wings lost 4 games and the Penguins lost just 2 so far in the 2008 hockey playoffs. I will offer my Stanley Cup Finals Predictions below, but first a little info about each team.

2. Pittsburgh Penguins - A dominant team out of the Eastern Conference played well all year long with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the way. They picked up some major scoring punch in Marion Hossa at the trade deadline, and Hossa has played incredible on a line with Crosby. Marc-Andre Fleury was untested heading into the playoffs and a lot of people doubted his ability to come through in the playoffs, but he has been stellar so far with 3 shutout and only 2 losses in the playoffs.

1. Detroit Red Wings - The Red Wings are led by a great group of players. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are machines and can score from anywhere on the ice in any situation. The Wings have a deep forward lineup that boasts a lot of skill and speed. Their defense is led by Lidstrom, but he is backed up by a solid core of veterans and young guys who know what it takes to win the Stanley Cup. Chris Osgood has been outstanding in the nets since he replaced Hasek in the 1st round.

My Stanley Cup Finals Predictions has the Detroit Red Wings beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in 7 games. I think this will be a great series, but as Gretzky has said in the past, you need to know what it feels like to lose before you can win. I think the Wings experience will beat the Penguins energy in this series.

Here is the schedule for the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals:

Saturday, May 24 8 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit
Monday, May 26 8 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit
Wednesday, May 28 8 p.m. Detroit at Pittsburgh
Saturday, May 31 8 p.m. Detroit at Pittsburgh
Monday, June 2 * 8 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit
Wednesday, June 4 * 8 p.m. Detroit at Pittsburgh
Saturday, June 7 * 8 p.m. Pittsburgh at Detroit

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The United States hockey team lost for the 2nd consecutive game to Finland and have been knocked out of the World Hockey Championships.  The US was losing 2-0 late in the 3rd period before they got goals from Kessel and Stafford less than 40 seconds apart, but wound up losing in overtime on a goal by Lepisto.

Overall, the US was one of the strongest teams but a lack of goaltending and a subpar defensive unit contributed to their demise.  On a bright note for the US, was that this was a very young team with far less big stars than teams like Russia and Canada.  The US lost to Canada 5-4 on a late goal and lost twice to Finland 3-2.

Russia will play Finland and Canada will play Sweden in the semi-finals in the World Hockey Championships.

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