AllPuck

Archive for the ‘NHL confidential’ Category

Part 4 in a series. Read parts 1, 2 and 3.

DATELINE UNKNOWN – Well, it’s been interesting here. We’ve had a full-scale brawl between the Bruins and Canadiens, Todd Bertuzzi whimper like a dog when an electric fence knocked him unconscious, Drew Doughty sipping beers on the bench, five pudgy agents flatten Shane Doan WWF-style, Henrik Lundqvist customize three buses into “Pimpmobiles,” and Ryan Suter join Zach Parise in the penalty box … even though Suter was never penalized.

Hard to believe, but it’s all happened through two weeks of our Secret Season.

And you’ll never believe what happened this week: A missile nearly struck our village.

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We previously noted our stay in a mental institute, the devastating effects from missing doses of puckahol during the All-Star break. Four days without actual NHL games, nothing but boredom and gimmicks, and it all created a horrific relapse. No puckahol? A fan can lose his mind.

But now, this fan has been cured. He’s been treated and released after a 12-day stint. During the entire time he was cooped in solitary darkness one thing didn’t change: The Chicago Blackhawks.

They were on a losing skid when he entered.

They are still losing as he exits.

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Flyers center Claude Giroux is the first-half MVP | photo by Dan Hickling

It is January 6 and several NHL teams have played their 41st game of the 82-game regular season. The Calgary Flames even jumped the gun Thursday and became the first NHL team to play 42 – ironic, considering they are among the oldest teams in the league. (Slow down, Jarome Iginla, and bask in what remains of your Hall of Fame career!)

For our purposes, we will call this the halfway point – an opportune time to take stock of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Having voted in the last four postseason awards, I can attest that teams and players seem to rise and fall on a whim; for example, last year’s Hart Trophy winner, Corey Perry, wasn’t even in the conversation until he started playing like an elite player in January. There is no hardware at stake here.

So we’ll reserve the proper nomenclature on these awards for June. But if ballots were cast today …

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BOSTON

Like the word “stanchion,” the term “quiet room” has managed to worm its way into the hockey conversation.

While each of the NHL teams have now had to set aside a spot of serenity for suspected concussion sufferers, no such measure is really necessary in Boston’s TD Garden.

These days, the quietest room in the joint, and maybe all of New England, is the visiting team’s dressing room.

Especially post-game.

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