Memorial Cup

 

Lets take a brake form the NHL and focus on the players that will be the future of the league.

A couple of weeks ago the Memorial Cup took place a tournament that takes place annually that takes the Champions of each CHL(Canadian Hockey League) league (the Quebec Major Junior Hockey league, the Ontario Hockey League, and the Western Hockey League) along with the city's team that gets to host the championship and pits them all against it other in a round robin tournament to decide the best team in the CHL.

This year the four teams were the Saint Johns Sea Dogs (QMJHL) London Knights (OHL) Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL) and the Shawinigan Cataractes (Host). It was an exciting year to watch if you were a habs fan as 3 of the 4 teams contained top prospects for them 2 of which were captains of their team (Jarred Tinordi of the London Knights, and Micheal Bornival of the Cataractes).

I was personally hoping for a London Saint Johns Final but it turned out to be London vs Shawinigan which is probably the 2nd best match up I could have asked for and was definitely what the fans were hoping for, it was won of the loudest building I've heard in a while despite the fact that it was a chl game, it really goes to show you how much Canada loves it's hockey.

The game it's self was very entertaining to watch despite the fact that it went into to overtime tied 1-1. It was a fast paced game that resulted in end to end rushes and desperation saves all game long, it was the kind of game that you didn't want to see either team to lose, but in the end Shawinigan managed to get one past London giving them their first memorial cup in team history.

The Memorial Cup was great fun to watch this year and I look forward to watching it again next year and hopefully so will many others as this under rated tournament continues to grow in popularity.

IIHF Championship

For those who don't know the IIHF(international ice hockey federation) have a round robin tournament every year around the same time as the Stanley Cup playoffs. This year the Championship was won by Russia which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that was watching the IIHF games this year.

Russia essentially had their Olympic team out there as nearly every top Russian player in the NHL had been eliminated in the playoffs as apposed to the other members of the "Big Four" (Canada, USA and Sweden) who were all missing some of their top players who were either still participating in the Stanley Cup playoffs or were sidelined due to injures.

This I found was very apparent in team Canada's case (if you even want to call them that). I'm not sure if you could really call them Team Canada when your missing players like Crosby, Giroux, Toews, Thorton, Price, Weber and many other top Canadian players. The USA was also missing some star players that could have made the difference in Quick, Parise and Brown who are still battling it out in the Stanley Cup playoffs, not to mention Sweden who had to do without the Sedin Twins and Henrick Lundqvist all these players can be game breakers when they're on their game, and as for team Russia I can't think of a single star player for them that wasn't able to play so if you ask me it's no surprise they won.

Something that both bothered me and surprised me though was when one of the commentators during a game mentioned how other national teams were starting to catch up with the Big 4 because of the upset of Canada, USA and Sweden earlier in the tournament. I'm shocked what a professional would mention that when anyone who looked at the teams rosters with a half sense of hockey could tell that  Canada, USA and Sweden weren't anywhere near the best they could be. It's not to take away from the other national teams there's some great players that come from places like Slovakia, Finland, Czech Republic etc. but those countries are still some time away before they have enough talent to compare to a full fledged team Canada, USA, Russia or Sweden team.

On the bright side Canada did win Gold in the Woman's!

Habs Revamped

After the Montreal Canadiens finished dead last in the Eastern Conference this year it was apparent that changes had to be made. It started with the firing of GM Pierre Gauthier and now several months later the last piece to the Habs management has been added in new coach Michel Therrien. Well when I say new coach I mean new old coach as Therrien was the coach of the Canadiens back in the early 2000s.

Up until now I was quit pleased with Montreal's management with they're choice to make Marc Bergevin the new GM and naming Rick Dudley as the assistant GM. They both seemed like solid well thought out decisions made by owner Geoff Molson and what was left of the management. The decision to make Therrien the new head coach of Montreal doesn't strike me as a good one. I can't understand why a team would want a coach who they've not only fired once before but a coach who has a similar defencive style of coaching to Jacques Martin who was the Habs previous coach. On top of that I've also seen interviews with players saying he is literally the worst coach they've ever played for. That being said that was dearly a decade ago and I suppose Bergevin and company must know what they're doing as Montreal was in the process of selecting a new coach for over a month. So all I can hope for is that Bergevin knows what he's doing and Therrien really is ready to coach a Montreal team this time around, god knows he'll have enough pressure on him. I wish the best of luck to the Habs new management team and for a much stronger year than last year.

Lidstrom Retires

Detroit Red Wings star defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom retired after 20 seasons at the age of 42



Detroit's "Mr. Perfect" has finally decided to call it a career at the age of 42, and what a career it has been for him with over 1000 career points 4 Stanley cups and 7 Norris Trophies (best defenceman of the year) this man is a shoe-in for the hockey hall of fame. It's still an odd thought to think that this man is retiring I mean I haven't known the NHL without him he's been playing it longer then I've been alive. This man is considered by many not only the best defender of this era but one of the top 5 Defence man to ever play the game, up there with some of the greats like Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey and Larry Robinson. He's one of the few players I've never heard someone speak ill off even those who are rivals of the Detroit Red wings can only say what a classy man Lidstrom is. I can Honestly say Lidstrom is probably the only professional hockey player that I've never seen in a gight or even be involved in provoking a fight. Lidstrom will be more than just a massive hole for the Red Wings to fill on the blue he's been one of Hockey's best ambassadors there's ever been and will be missed greatly by not just those who are a fan of him but those who have head to pleasure to play with or even against this man. He will surely be missed by every fan of the sport.

Stanley Cup Predictions

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are officially set to start on Wednesday May 30th between the 8th seeded Los Angeles Kings and the 6th seeded New Jersey Devils, not a final that to many would have expected to see. Personally I don't see it as that big of a surprise. You have the New Jersey Devils which have been one of the more successful teams in the last decade or so and have made it to the finals several times, and the Los Angeles Kings which have an all around solid roster with a star goaltender in Jonathan Quick. As much as I would like to see New Jersey beat Los Angeles because of the large amount of bandwagoners support the team, I can't deny that the Kings have been one of the most dominating teams to make there way to the Stanley cup finals in years. After already upsetting the 1 2 and 3 seeded teams in the west and at that only losing 2 out of 14 games the kings seem pretty unstoppable with their roster full of star players, but if there's anything I've learnt from the playoffs this year, it's not to under estimate a team like New Jersey. Every time I've predicted against them New Jersey has not only proved me wrong but been able to put up a dominating performance against the other team, and they themselves also have a few star players on there roster in Kovalchuck and Parise. Another factor to take into account in the Stanley cup is experience, without experience it can be difficult for players to stay calm and remain poised, and when it comes to Stanley Cup experience there aren't very many players that have more than New Jersey's netminder Martin Brodeur. I have a feeling that this could be one of those series dictated by the team to win the first game, if LA can win they will have the comfort of knowing they'll be able to continue their dominating playoff run, but if New Jersey wins it could send panic through out the LA lockeroom letting New Jerseys more experienced team take control of the series. My final prediction though is LA in 5 games, as much as I want to see New Jersey win I think LA are just on a roll that can't be stopped this year and could pose a threat for the cup for many years to come.

Eastern Confrence Finals

The second round is over and the final 4 looks like this:

Eastern Confrence

Rangers vs Devils

Western Confrence

Kings vs Coyotes

After getting literally every one of my predictions wrong last round I'm hoping I can do a bit better this round, but I guess it's nothing really to be ashamed of because this years playoffs have been more than just a little unpredictable.

Having new York in the finals doesn't come as a suprise being as they were the number 1 seeded team in the east but I don't believe very many people had New Jersey in the finals, Thats doesn't make this a bad series though, in fact it makes for quite a good one being as New Jersey and New York are rivals. At first glance you would exspect that New York would deal with New Jersey in 4-5 games but New Jersey has proven to us time and time again that they are not a team to be under estimated. They've had their star players step up to the plate which is exactly what every team needs if they want to be succeful in the playoffs. even Brodeur who was thought to be to old to make a deep playoff run has managed to step up and provide the team with some solid goaltending. However despite all this I belive that New Jersey just doesn't quite have what it takes to beat New York. New York has received some of the most solid goatending in the playoffs thus far and i belive that this will be tghe diffrence 9n the series, new york may not be a team that goes out and scores several goals a game but they always seem to manage tho get things done with there grind it out style of play, and I belive thats exactly what will happen, New York will recieve their solid goaltending from Lundqvist and then be able to grind New Jersey's defense down with there physical play over the course of the series. Although I would peronally rather see New Jersey in the Stanley Cup Finals I think that, like New Yorks other two series they're going to manage to outast New Jersey. My prediction is New Jersey in 7 games.  

Playoffs 2nd Round Western Conference

So even though these two series are nearly half over already I'm not going to be changing any of my original predictions.

Western Conference

Blues vs Kings

Coyotes vs Predators

Let's start off the with St.Louis Blues and the LosAngeles Kings. This is one of those series that should be incredibly tight. These two teams finished 1st and 2nd respectively in goals against in the regular season (1st being the least amount of goals against) and on top of that they have two of the top goalies this season. So this makes this series a hard one to predict, and I believe we're going to be seeing a lot of one goal games in this series, but ultimately I believe St.Louis will win because they've proven over the regular season that they're capable of playing that defencive kind of game better than LosAngeles. I predict a Blues win in 7 games. 

The Coyotes and Predators is another hard series to predict because they also both play similar styles and also both have elite goaltending. At first glance you would think that Nashville would have a major advantage over Phoenix but that's not the case, because in a series like this goaltending is everything and I don't think there's been a better goaltender in the playoffs than Mike Smith, not to mention Shane Doan has been a major force in this years playoffs. However I still believe that Nashville will win because of more experience, not only as a team but as a group of individuals and I also believe that Nashville is the more hungry of the two teams. I predict a Nashville win in 6 games.



Playoffs 2nd round Eastern Conference

Since round 1 is already over it's a little late for round 1 predictions, so I'm gonna jump straight to the 2nd round.

Eastern Conference

 Capitals vs Rangers

Flyers vs Devils

sorry for the crappy bracket apparently it's impossible to find one online

So let's start off with the Capitals and the Rangers. Most people including experts have the New York Rangers pegged to win this one, which is understandable since they finished on top of the Eastern Conference and have played stellar nearly the entire year where as the caps haven't been so good and were only just able to sneak into a playoff spot, but despite that I still have Washington pegged to win this series. Largely based off of the fact that Washington has eliminated New York 3 years running coupled with the incredible goaltending they have received from rookie goaltender Braden Holtby. I think it'll be a very close series between the two, but I believe the caps will go in there with more confidence then the rangers and that will be the difference in the end. So my prediction is Caps in 7 Games.

The second match up in the east is the Philidelphia Flyers and the New Jersey devils. In this series I'm going to have to agree with everyone else and pick the Flyers. mainly because neither team has received solid goaltending so it should just come down who ever can score more goals and at the moment I don't believe there is more offensive team in the playoffs then the Flyers, they scored 36 goals in the first series alone, by far the most of any team in the playoffs. So unless the Devils can receive some stellar goaltending from Martin Brodeur this series should be over pretty fast. My prediction is the Flyers in 5 games.   

Gauthier's Gone Hurray!!!

After the worst season the Montreal Canadians have had in over 50 years they've finally released GM Pierre Gauthier. When I heard the news yesterday I was thrilled, best birthday present ever, I thought. This man has thoroughly ruined the Canadians with horrible trade after horrible trade, I don't think I could recall more than 1 or 2 good trade made by him to be honest. So now that Mr. Gauthier has finally been removed from the situation what’s in store for Montreal other than a new GM? Well more than likely a new Coach as well (someone who speaks french of course cause that would be a crisis if he couldn't) A lot of speculation has been around former habs star goaltender Patrick Roy who is currently GM and Coach of the Quebec Ramparts (a team in the CHL) I think he'd be a good fit, the man shows a lot of passion about hockey and he's familiar with the city already plus he speaks french so no riots hurray. As for the GM there are lots of names floating around at the moment so your guess is as good as anyone else’s but I personally want to see Pierre Mcguire as the next GM of the Montreal Canadians. The man has an incredibly knowledge of hockey and is very familiar with the young players entering the league, something that's kind of important for a GM as they decide who the team drafts. Oh and he also speaks french so the french people can be happy too. So lets hope for a bright future for the habs as a new era begins for them.

Graham James



When Theo Fleury the former NHL star finally came out and admitted he was molested by Graham James no one was expecting how big the controversy that followed would be.

Graham James was a highly regarded coach in junior hockey so when Theo Fleury found out he was going to be playing for him he was thrilled. However over the following years Fluery's opinion on Graham James changed drastically as James molested him dozens of times over his stay with the team. When asked why he never told anyone about until now he replied with "I was afraid that I'd lose my chance at the NHL if I did". Since Fluery there have been several others who have come out and admitted to being molested by Graham James. So how long does a man like this get sent to prison for? 10, 20 years? Nope James has been sentanced to 2 years and will be availible for full paroll in 8 months. So naturally people aren't very happy about this and for a damn good reason, what kind of judge thinks oh hey he's only raped several boys several times that's not so bad lets just give him 2 years. The fact that he can go on parrol after 8 months makes it even worse, less then a year and the man is already out doing his "stuff" again. Luckily James is being tried for other crimes as well and will have another hearing in the short future. I guess at the very least Theo Fleury can get some sleep over the next eight months knowing that the man who terrorized him during his childhood is finally in jail.