Happy New Year! This will be the first of a feature that takes a look back at the month just passed in hockey.
The 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic:
Okay, yeah, the ratings were down on NBC, but smart money is that the shift from the now-traditional New Year’s Day to the second day of the year was the reason why. The alternative, of course, was to go up against the might of the NFL, the last regular season Sunday of the season with playoff spots still up for grabs. If the ratings were deemed to be bad for the game on January 2, they would’ve been abominable against the NFL.
On the ice, the contest was as good as ever, a heated game between two great rivals both at or near the top of the NHL and it showed. The hockey world was treated to another amazing performance in net from Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist and a cameo effort from Mike Rupp, whose two goals sparked a furious New York comeback and eventual win. Amazing how in the big games, it’s nearly always a lesser light rather than a bonafide superstar who is the difference. I mean, how many times have we seen that in a Game Seven environment?
Whatever the reason for the penalty shot being called – I thought Tortorella’s tongue-in-cheek comment that the referees were conspiring with NBC to take the game to a fourth frame was hilarious, and deserved to go unpunished by the league; he was being sarcastic after all – the stop by Lundqvist on Danny Briere will go down in history as perhaps the greatest Winter Classic moment after Crosby’s game winner in the shootout back in Buffalo, 2008. It was a fitting end to a wonderful sixty minutes.
I heard complaints about sight lines in Citizens Bank Park, but that was always going to be a problem in a venue built for baseball rather than hockey. That aside, it’s fair to say that CBP wasn’t anywhere near as important a venue – not in the same way that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are – as some in the past, and a more tradition venue next year would make the game even more special. What’s that you say? Michigan Stadium, Detroit vs. Toronto? Yes please!
HBO’s 24/7 – Road to the Winter Classic
I must confess that I enjoyed this year’s show a little more entertaining – and it was far more family friendly without the constant Bruce Boudreau F-Bombs, which seemed to litter every single show, every single minute last year – but only because I’m a Rangers fan. It was consistently gripping television for hockey nerds like myself, and, more importantly, it puts fans right in the locker room, and gives them a far more personal look at the players they follow and worship six or seven months a year.
Of course, there were highlight moments: nearly every single moment Ilya Bryzgalov had a camera in his face, Sean Avery’s priceless “you’re in so much trouble” grin at Artem Anisimov after the infamous “sniper” moment and the amazingly-crafted game footage. It’s a shame to see that a Version 3.0 of this show is still up in the air. If the League knows what’s good for it, they’ll do everything in their power to make sure that we get another Road to the Winter Classic ahead of the 2013 outdoor game. The show has become such an expected part of the entire build-up to the Winter Classic that not having it appear next year would almost take away some – just a little – lustre from the league’s other signature moment.
IIHF World Junior Championships
Another gripping World Junior tournament in the country that supports it like no other in the world, and a strange – but strangely welcome relief – occurrence to not see Canada in the Gold medal game. The talent of these kids never fails to amaze me. You only have to look and see that half the players on the ice for all countries are already either properties of NHL teams or expected to go very highly in coming drafts. You only need look back to previous teams and see how many have graduated to the big-time.
Then you have to remember that the guys out there are twenty years or younger. Incredible! They play at almost-NHL speed, and the talent level, particularly on the Canadian, Russian and Swedish rosters, probably beats the talent level on some of the NHL teams currently languishing in the league’s cellar.
Okay, call me crazy, but when two teams other than the boys with the Maple Leaf on their sweaters are in the Gold Medal Game, it’s good for hockey. Canada are great, no doubt about it, and will always be at the forefront of world hockey, so when a team ousts them before the championship game, it makes you realise that the future of international hockey is in very safe hands. After this year, it seems brighter than ever.
The 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic:
Okay, yeah, the ratings were down on NBC, but smart money is that the shift from the now-traditional New Year’s Day to the second day of the year was the reason why. The alternative, of course, was to go up against the might of the NFL, the last regular season Sunday of the season with playoff spots still up for grabs. If the ratings were deemed to be bad for the game on January 2, they would’ve been abominable against the NFL.
On the ice, the contest was as good as ever, a heated game between two great rivals both at or near the top of the NHL and it showed. The hockey world was treated to another amazing performance in net from Rangers’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist and a cameo effort from Mike Rupp, whose two goals sparked a furious New York comeback and eventual win. Amazing how in the big games, it’s nearly always a lesser light rather than a bonafide superstar who is the difference. I mean, how many times have we seen that in a Game Seven environment?
Whatever the reason for the penalty shot being called – I thought Tortorella’s tongue-in-cheek comment that the referees were conspiring with NBC to take the game to a fourth frame was hilarious, and deserved to go unpunished by the league; he was being sarcastic after all – the stop by Lundqvist on Danny Briere will go down in history as perhaps the greatest Winter Classic moment after Crosby’s game winner in the shootout back in Buffalo, 2008. It was a fitting end to a wonderful sixty minutes.
I heard complaints about sight lines in Citizens Bank Park, but that was always going to be a problem in a venue built for baseball rather than hockey. That aside, it’s fair to say that CBP wasn’t anywhere near as important a venue – not in the same way that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are – as some in the past, and a more tradition venue next year would make the game even more special. What’s that you say? Michigan Stadium, Detroit vs. Toronto? Yes please!
HBO’s 24/7 – Road to the Winter Classic
I must confess that I enjoyed this year’s show a little more entertaining – and it was far more family friendly without the constant Bruce Boudreau F-Bombs, which seemed to litter every single show, every single minute last year – but only because I’m a Rangers fan. It was consistently gripping television for hockey nerds like myself, and, more importantly, it puts fans right in the locker room, and gives them a far more personal look at the players they follow and worship six or seven months a year.
Of course, there were highlight moments: nearly every single moment Ilya Bryzgalov had a camera in his face, Sean Avery’s priceless “you’re in so much trouble” grin at Artem Anisimov after the infamous “sniper” moment and the amazingly-crafted game footage. It’s a shame to see that a Version 3.0 of this show is still up in the air. If the League knows what’s good for it, they’ll do everything in their power to make sure that we get another Road to the Winter Classic ahead of the 2013 outdoor game. The show has become such an expected part of the entire build-up to the Winter Classic that not having it appear next year would almost take away some – just a little – lustre from the league’s other signature moment.
IIHF World Junior Championships
Another gripping World Junior tournament in the country that supports it like no other in the world, and a strange – but strangely welcome relief – occurrence to not see Canada in the Gold medal game. The talent of these kids never fails to amaze me. You only have to look and see that half the players on the ice for all countries are already either properties of NHL teams or expected to go very highly in coming drafts. You only need look back to previous teams and see how many have graduated to the big-time.
Then you have to remember that the guys out there are twenty years or younger. Incredible! They play at almost-NHL speed, and the talent level, particularly on the Canadian, Russian and Swedish rosters, probably beats the talent level on some of the NHL teams currently languishing in the league’s cellar.
Okay, call me crazy, but when two teams other than the boys with the Maple Leaf on their sweaters are in the Gold Medal Game, it’s good for hockey. Canada are great, no doubt about it, and will always be at the forefront of world hockey, so when a team ousts them before the championship game, it makes you realise that the future of international hockey is in very safe hands. After this year, it seems brighter than ever.
Team Canada’s semi-final game against Russia where they were down 6-1 and ended up clawing back to make it a 6-5 game at the death was one of the highlights of the tournament, as was watching the Swedes and Russians battle for gold into OT. The 1-0 decision to the Swedes was the most enthralling and entertaining 1-0 game I’ve ever seen.
Outdoor College Hockey Games
Fenway Park hosted two – New Hampshire vs. Maine and Vermont vs. Massachusetts – and the Cleveland Indians held the Progressive Frozen Faceoff at Progressive Field between arch rivals Michigan and Ohio State – and I enjoyed all three of the games, because outdoor hockey is perhaps the most pure version of the great game. It hearkens back to when these players were youngsters, playing on frozen ponds and creeks and rivers. The fans love it, too. You can tell, the excitement as clear on their faces as their cold breath trails into the cool night sky. There was some terrific hockey played. The special atmosphere seems to bring out the best in every guy on the ice.
That said, let’s keep it at two or three college games a year outdoors, or we’re going to cheapen the experience. Here’s hoping that, if the 2013 NHL Winter Classic does take place at Michigan Stadium, the Wolverines will get a chance to play someone, perhaps Michigan State or Ohio State again. It would be good to see the NHL again feature their game amongst a week of AHL and college games and public skates. Here’s hoping.
NHL All-Star Weekend
Nothing but good things to say about a wildly entertaining weekend in Ottawa. From the Fantasy Draft on Thursday night through to the final siren of the 12-9 Team Chara victory on Sunday afternoon, the hockey festival was a wonderful chance for some of the most humble sportsmen anywhere in the world to shine. And shine they did.
It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a hockey event as much as I enjoyed the Skills competition. Carey Price, Patrick Kane, Corey Perry and Zdeno Chara gave us moments that we won’t soon forget. Z’s 108mph slapper has pretty much confirmed that, if I were somehow suddenly blessed with the necessary skating skills, becoming a goalie is the last thing I would do with them. I mean, aside from having a puck fired at you by a Goliath of a man like the Bruins’ captain, you look at Ilya Bryzgalov and shake your head.
Ratings were good in Canada and as respectable in the US as anyone expected. That means the system is fantastic, and it shouldn’t really be changed that much. Maybe opening up the Fantasy Draft to include a – mandatory? – trade would add another dynamic, but the idea of having two team captains choose their teams is brilliant and totally entertaining, even if Chara took all the Slovaks and Bruins while Alfredsson took all the Swedes and Senators. No matter who the captains are, there’s always going to be national and team pride in play. Oh, yeah, TSN’s James Duthie did a great job; the perfect host for that environment.
Can’t wait for the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus Ohio, where Rick Nash, unless he’s traded before then, will finally get a chance to be big-time in the League.
My 2011-12 Hockey Road Trip
As I have expressed in previous blogs, it was great to get back to NHL rinks. We saw eight pretty solid games, and one stinker at the back end, but, at the end of the day, when you live in Australia, ten or twelve thousand miles from the nearest NHL franchise, just being in the building to see live pro hockey is enough. Sharing those game day/night experiences in Vancouver, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles and Anaheim with some of the best people on earth made it even better.
We saw amazing goalie performances – the King, Henrik Lundqvist shut out the Predators at Madison Square Garden in (sadly) my only game there, the high-priced free agency pick-up Tomas Vokoun stopped 43 of 44 shots for Washington against Carolina on a windy Sunday afternoon in the nation’s capital and Tim Thomas, showing us just how he won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year, carried a somewhat lacklustre Bruins team to victory against Montreal underneath the fluttering 2011 Stanley Cup Champions banner.
There were great rivalries, too: Chicago vs. Detroit, Boston vs. Montreal, Vancouver vs. Edmonton, and, as I’ve always said, there’s nothing better than hockey when there’s a little hatred on the ice. It’s why Montreal vs. Boston is, no matter the position of the two teams in the league, is consistently some of the best hockey of the season. If nothing else, these rivalry games are a regular season window into playoff hockey.
Then, there were impressive glimpses of the greatest players in the game – Toews, Kane, Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, the Sedin twins, Nugent-Hopkins, Chara, Thomas, Lundqvist, Gaborik, Ovechkin, Semin, Kopitar, Perry, Ryan and Getzlaf, among many others. A side note while we’re here: that incredible line of Perry-Getzlaf-Ryan that the Anaheim Ducks ice every game has to be the best going around at the moment. They are as intuitive as the Sedin twins on the ice. The Ducks would be crazy to trade them.
The worst thing is going home, coming back, and only being able to watch the game on TV, but seeing some live hockey is better than none at all. I’m already looking forward to my next trip over there!
And that’s that, NHL Rewind for January 2012. See you next month!
Outdoor College Hockey Games
Fenway Park hosted two – New Hampshire vs. Maine and Vermont vs. Massachusetts – and the Cleveland Indians held the Progressive Frozen Faceoff at Progressive Field between arch rivals Michigan and Ohio State – and I enjoyed all three of the games, because outdoor hockey is perhaps the most pure version of the great game. It hearkens back to when these players were youngsters, playing on frozen ponds and creeks and rivers. The fans love it, too. You can tell, the excitement as clear on their faces as their cold breath trails into the cool night sky. There was some terrific hockey played. The special atmosphere seems to bring out the best in every guy on the ice.
That said, let’s keep it at two or three college games a year outdoors, or we’re going to cheapen the experience. Here’s hoping that, if the 2013 NHL Winter Classic does take place at Michigan Stadium, the Wolverines will get a chance to play someone, perhaps Michigan State or Ohio State again. It would be good to see the NHL again feature their game amongst a week of AHL and college games and public skates. Here’s hoping.
NHL All-Star Weekend
Nothing but good things to say about a wildly entertaining weekend in Ottawa. From the Fantasy Draft on Thursday night through to the final siren of the 12-9 Team Chara victory on Sunday afternoon, the hockey festival was a wonderful chance for some of the most humble sportsmen anywhere in the world to shine. And shine they did.
It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a hockey event as much as I enjoyed the Skills competition. Carey Price, Patrick Kane, Corey Perry and Zdeno Chara gave us moments that we won’t soon forget. Z’s 108mph slapper has pretty much confirmed that, if I were somehow suddenly blessed with the necessary skating skills, becoming a goalie is the last thing I would do with them. I mean, aside from having a puck fired at you by a Goliath of a man like the Bruins’ captain, you look at Ilya Bryzgalov and shake your head.
Ratings were good in Canada and as respectable in the US as anyone expected. That means the system is fantastic, and it shouldn’t really be changed that much. Maybe opening up the Fantasy Draft to include a – mandatory? – trade would add another dynamic, but the idea of having two team captains choose their teams is brilliant and totally entertaining, even if Chara took all the Slovaks and Bruins while Alfredsson took all the Swedes and Senators. No matter who the captains are, there’s always going to be national and team pride in play. Oh, yeah, TSN’s James Duthie did a great job; the perfect host for that environment.
Can’t wait for the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus Ohio, where Rick Nash, unless he’s traded before then, will finally get a chance to be big-time in the League.
My 2011-12 Hockey Road Trip
As I have expressed in previous blogs, it was great to get back to NHL rinks. We saw eight pretty solid games, and one stinker at the back end, but, at the end of the day, when you live in Australia, ten or twelve thousand miles from the nearest NHL franchise, just being in the building to see live pro hockey is enough. Sharing those game day/night experiences in Vancouver, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles and Anaheim with some of the best people on earth made it even better.
We saw amazing goalie performances – the King, Henrik Lundqvist shut out the Predators at Madison Square Garden in (sadly) my only game there, the high-priced free agency pick-up Tomas Vokoun stopped 43 of 44 shots for Washington against Carolina on a windy Sunday afternoon in the nation’s capital and Tim Thomas, showing us just how he won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year, carried a somewhat lacklustre Bruins team to victory against Montreal underneath the fluttering 2011 Stanley Cup Champions banner.
There were great rivalries, too: Chicago vs. Detroit, Boston vs. Montreal, Vancouver vs. Edmonton, and, as I’ve always said, there’s nothing better than hockey when there’s a little hatred on the ice. It’s why Montreal vs. Boston is, no matter the position of the two teams in the league, is consistently some of the best hockey of the season. If nothing else, these rivalry games are a regular season window into playoff hockey.
Then, there were impressive glimpses of the greatest players in the game – Toews, Kane, Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, the Sedin twins, Nugent-Hopkins, Chara, Thomas, Lundqvist, Gaborik, Ovechkin, Semin, Kopitar, Perry, Ryan and Getzlaf, among many others. A side note while we’re here: that incredible line of Perry-Getzlaf-Ryan that the Anaheim Ducks ice every game has to be the best going around at the moment. They are as intuitive as the Sedin twins on the ice. The Ducks would be crazy to trade them.
The worst thing is going home, coming back, and only being able to watch the game on TV, but seeing some live hockey is better than none at all. I’m already looking forward to my next trip over there!
And that’s that, NHL Rewind for January 2012. See you next month!
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