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Posts Tagged ‘AHL’

The NHL season has reached its most exciting point, down to the final two teams. This year’s Stanley Cup Finals can already be called a success on many levels. It involves two Original Six teams (last time this occurred: 1979), lots of superstars and two rabid fanbases, which should provide a big ratings boost for NBC.

Chicago and Boston have traveled similar paths on their way to the Finals. Both have had a blowout series win, a series that went seven games, and one series that required a dramatic comeback. The Blackhawks and Bruins are also two of the three most recent Cup winners and have struggled in the playoffs after winning the title before breaking through again this year.

This is a very difficult series to predict, but I’m confident that I’ll get it right, just like last season.
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The NHL is down to its final four teams, and I’m left with as many questions as answers.

The first question: Will the San Jose Sharks ever reach the Stanley Cup Final? After the thrashing they gave Vancouver in the first round, I figured maybe this would be the year. Then they lost in seven games to the Kings and their star goalie, Jonathan Quick. San Jose was stacked offensively with Joe Thornton, Logan Couture and Patrick Marleau, and finally had a truly sharp goalie in Antti Niemi, but for reasons I’ve yet to figure out they can’t seem to get past that final barrier. I’ve asked fans of all sports which is worse, having a team that never makes it far in the playoffs, or one that is consistently right there but comes agonizingly short every time? The consensus was that they both are terrible, but the latter is a lot more painful. It must suck to be a Sharks fan right now.

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Images courtesy of seattlehockey.net

So Seattle is building a new arena, the SuperSonics are on the way back, and the NHL is sure to follow?

Unless you live in Seattle or enjoy the occasional lockout, you’d better hope not.

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Before he was discovered "super drunk" behind the wheel and dressed as a Teletubby, Riley Sheahan played college hockey at Notre Dame | photo by Dan Hickling

I have a love-hate relationship with BadJocks.com’s Blood Alcohol Count ranking page. If that sounds like a scandalous website, it is. This is no Bleacher Report click-through photo gallery – just a comprehensive list of coaches, athletes, broadcasters and jock-sniffers who have challenged conventional notions of how much booze one can consume while incurring mere embarrassment, not death.

I love it because you pick up tidbits like this, about retired NBA center Arvydas Sabonis’ wife: “Her second drunk driving offense in less than a year, her BAC in the first arrest was only 0.23%, but she was on the way to pick up the kids from school.” Ingrida Sabonis is tied for 16th place on BadJocks.com’s all-time BAC list, at .26 percent.

I hate the site because, well, it’s never good to see role models behaving badly. Fatal freeway accidents aren’t good either, but this is like a compilation of the best fatal freeway accidents ever — you just have to get a close look at the wreckage as you drive past.

Today brought a big one worth slowing down for: Detroit Red Wings prospect Riley Sheahan, who already earned infamy for a 2010 arrest for public intoxication and minor consumption while at Notre Dame, just took “mere embarrassment” to new heights.

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Hockey season is a little more than a month old, and things are proceeding as expected. The NHL players are still locked out, negotiations continue to move at a snail’s pace, and Commissioner Gary Bettman seems hell bent on establishing himself as the worst professional sports commissioner ever.

Seriously, you have to give it to Bettman. It takes a lot of talent to have two work stoppages in one decade. Grantland’s Bill Simmons offered a great way of describing Bettman’s tenure as commissioner, but I think I found a better analogy.

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Original photo by Dan Hickling

It’s official. Last week the NHL cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season, angering fans across the continent and also keeping me from watching Zach Parise and Ryan Suter play the defending Central Division champion Blues at the Scottrade Center.

As angry as I am that this has happened twice in my lifetime — and twice in the last decade — I’ve decided that, until the millionaires and billionaires grow up and hash out a deal, I’ll get my hockey fix by watching other leagues play. Here are some examples for you to do the same.

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The American Hockey League, like the NHL, is a coast-to-coast, international league. Unlike the NHL, there is no looming threat of a work stoppage.

With that foreboding, we bring you the American Hockey League season schedule [downloadable .pdf].

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It was often said that Kevin Dineen had a nose for the net.

Dineen backed up the assertion, goal by goal, 355 times over a distinguished two-decade NHL career.

And while there were a few tap-ins, and a few more empty netters to pad the count, most of those hundreds of tallies involved equal parts skill and will.

It was said too that Dineen had a nose for trouble. For further proof, I would direct you to the 2,229 PIMs he racked up as a Whaler, Flyer, Hurricane, Senator, and Blue Jacket.

You wanna guess how he amassed that much box time?

Not for diving, that’s for sure.

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