How about a part-time NHL position? One that pays..er…well…..hmmm… great! A part-time career position where the lights and the pressure is on you? Would you take it? Would you take a job as a part-time goalie? Just ask Rob Laurie, he did! Rob Laurie is a part-time goalie who stills gets called up at age 44. How cool is that? Don’t knock him. He has played for the Anaheim Ducks and the Vancouver Canucks.
I feel like I should be running a job wanted sign for him. What can a part-time goalie do? Well, I started a little resume for goalie Laurie. What do you think?
Likes and Skills:
Likes to have pucks flying at him at hundreds of miles per hour! Enjoys a little free time when all of the other employees are way down the ice. Engages with others. This happens when his area of work is full of moving arms and legs! His love for his work, gets him to work early so he can get his uniform on, before the game starts! He thinks ahead by going to the bathroom before he finishes putting on the last goalie pad! He has mastered the art of seeing though a goalie mask! Did you notice all of the skills so far? The words like: free-time, love for his job, master and thinking ahead. Very powerful words, indeed!
He is full of talent! What kind of career jobs are out there for him? He can be the dunk-ee at a street carnival. You know the person who gets dump into water when someone hits the circle with a ball. He can be a clown for children. He would have the protection needed to play the part of a crazy balloon animal making clown! What other career positions are there for him? Any ideas?
Well, I have done my part. By the way, if goalie Laurie reads this, I need a pool boy!
The St. Louis Blues picked up a road victory against the Nashville Predators 4 to 1. Ryan Miller now has 6 wins since joining the Blues and only one loss. The Blues have won the last 7 of 8 games, the only loss coming in overtime against the Dallas Stars.
Patrik Berglund lead the Blues to a 2 to 0 lead when he scored the first goal of the game in the first period, and the second goal early in the second period. Vladimir Tarasenko quickly added a third goal in the second period to give the Blues a 3 to 0 lead. Nashville was able to respond late in the second period with a goal by Eric Nystrom.
In the third period, Alex Steen scored his 30th goal of the season with a slapshot past Pekka Rinne. The Blues won the game in Nashville 4 to 1, climbing higher up the ladder at the top of the NHL. Ryan Miller stopped 27 of 28 shots, giving him a 6-0-1 record since being traded to the Blues.
The Blues face off at home on Monday, March 17th at 7:00PM (CST) against the Winnepeg Jets.
The Islanders drafted the now 19-year-old defenseman, Pelech, in the third round (65th overall), at the 2012 National Hockey League Draft. Pelech has two older brothers who are also in the NHL Prospect system. His brother Matt Pelech, a first round (26th overall) selection in the 2005 Draft by the Calgary Flames is currently playing for the Worcester Sharks in the AHL. Other brother, Mike, went in the sixth round of the 2009 Draft, selected by the Los Angeles Kings. Mike Pelech is currently playing in the ECHL for the Utah Grizzlies. Unlike Adam, his brothers are both forwards.
Pelech is in his fourth year of the Ontario Hockey League, where his nine goals and 45 assists are each career highs, while his plus-45 rating leads the Erie Otters and ranks fifth overall in the OHL. He currently ranks third among OHL defensemen with 54 points in 59 games with the Otters this season.
A warm March day in Boston found the Bruins with their eighth consecutive win, topping the Carolina Hurricanes with brute force 5-1. It’s been a team affair in terms of success, with contributions coming from all four lines night in and night out.
“You know it seems like we’re playing at our highest level throughout the season so far and it seems to have gotten better since the start of February,” said Lucic, “you know after the Olympic break and see where we are now and we’ve just got to, like I said, not get too high, not get too low and stay even keeled and just stay focused on what we need to do to keep our game sharp and the coaching staff has done a good job of keeping us energized and giving us our rest when we need it and like I said we’re just having fun looking forward to every game that’s ahead of us.”
Now sitting high atop the Atlantic Division with a cool 95 points, the Bruins are poised to keep their surge going for the remainder of the season.
“Well if he thinks we’re peeking too soon I can show him a lot of areas where we can get better,” lamented Head Coach Claude Julien when asked about Lucic’s remark of peaking too soon. “That’s not hard for me to find, but no we’re playing well we’re playing hard I think we’re doing a lot of good things here but we just got to stay the course here. Again, I don’t think we are doing things to peek too early I think we are utilizing our players, our bench as much as we can, giving guys some rest and all that stuff – doing the best we can.”
The night hosted an offensive surge from veteran forward Jarome Iginla, who netted two goals in the win.
“He’s exactly what he was advertised as, as a good team player, a hard-worker, competitive guy, and again I can see why he had a letter in Calgary because he’s got that leadership quality in him,” said Head Coach Claude Julien in regards to Iginla. “As I mentioned before, we have a lot of guys here that could easily wear that letter, but he’s part of our, what we call, our core group. When there’s some decisions to be made between coaches and players he’s part of that group, it’s been around a long time. But he’s exactly what was advertised, there’s been absolutely no surprises with him.”
It hasn’t been Iginla powering forward alone, it has been the offensive push and chemistry from line-mates Krejci and Lucic as well.
“Krech [David Krejci] and [Milan] Looch [Lucic] – it’s been fun playing with them all year, and they have a great chemistry with each other and they have been great to join,” said Iginla. “And Krejci can pass it anywhere, you know he has his sauce, and he can shoot he can score. And Looch competes and works as hard as anybody, and he’s fast. You know we’ve been building chemistry throughout the year, and it’s been fun as a group.”
While superstars are an added benefit to any team, having a roster full of depth and determination is key. In a system designed not for a superstar but superstar talent from all it’s inhabitants, the Bruins are certain to shine. Pushing hard for a full 60-minutes, wearing down opponents and finding a way to get it done is the definition of Boston Bruins hockey — a premise that has skated with the team since the first puck drop of the season.
“Yeah it’s been a lot of – all year, it’s been fun. But especially in the last 20 games or whatever each line is finding ways on different nights to put a lot of pressure on the other team,” said Iginla. “We have a very balanced attack all the way through – different guys, different lines, our D-men jumping up on the play. We’ve been able to get that zone time and be good offensively, but also still defensively. So things are going well and it’s a fun roll that we’re on as a group. But nobody is complacent. Every day we’re trying to come and stay focused, and the coaching staff and Zee [Zdeno Chara] has got us focused. It’s game time, it’s ready to go. But it’s been a lot of fun too.”
The chemistry that has placed the team at the top can only continue to grow. Boston will looks to make it lucky number 9 when they face the Minnesota Wild in a St. Patrick’s Day showdown at TD Garden on Monday. Minnesota currently sits at number 4 in the central division with 79 points, trailing Stanley Cup champion Chicago who sits in third. The Wild 6-1-3 in their last ten games will head into Boston with the will to win and upend the streaking black and gold.
The first semi-nice, semi-warm day in Boston and people are running around with shorts on like it’s a Saturday game in Tampa. However, I chose to not freeze to death on press level, while putting in minimal effort. Always have a go-to outfit that you feel comfortable in. Today was my day for that outfit. I’ve worn the top part of this ensemble to a few media events across the leagues, including the Stanley Cup Final (although mid-June, I paired it with a skirt and ballet flats).
Breakdown:
Black Blazer, TjMaxx, $12.99
Grey pants, Forever 21, $21.90
Purple silk blouse, my mothers closet circa ?
Black wedge booties, Marshalls, $17.99
Purple and grey bauble necklace, gift
Media Tip: Always check your lanyard and make sure the clasp is working correctly. Today, my pass fell off my lanyard and thankfully someone on press level returned it to me. Losing season credentials, is not a good thing!
The Manchester Monarchs came into Friday night with the most points and best winning percentage in the AHL. It has been a season where they started out hot and kept rolling, despite a number of roster changes they’ve had to deal with over the season. Bridgeport, conversely, has been a team struggling throughout the season and are below .500 hockey right now. This was the final meeting of 6 between the two teams this season. The Monarchs would come away from the series 5-1. This also meant the last time former Monarch Justin Johnson would visit this season.
Although the Monarchs have struggled on the power play this season, tonight was not a night where that struggle continued. Bridgeport came out playing an undisciplined game and Manchester capitalized on that. They switched up the lines for the man advantage and it seemed to work. Just over 2 minutes into the game, the Monarchs executed a couple clean passes that ended up putting the puck on the stick of Zach O’Brien. He had a clear shot and beat Bridgeport goaltender Kenny Reiter easily.
The tone of the game from the beginning seemed to be aggressive with a lot of pushing and shoving both before and after whistles. It ended up hurting Bridgeport, though. They took four minor penalties in the first period alone. The fourth ended up being another key time for the Monarchs. With traffic in front of the net, Monarchs forward Jordan Weal has his back to Kenny Reiter, he fed the puck between his legs and managed to find the stick of Brian O’Neill, who puck it home for his first of the game.
The teams went to the first intermission with Manchester leading 2-0, but the Monarchs were nowhere near done. The second showed a greater pressure by Bridgeport through the first half of the period. Just past the fifteen minute mark, the duo of Weal and O’Neill struck again. Weal made a beautiful pass from the face-off circle across the crease. Reiter misread the play and it left O’Neill with a wide open net on the other side.
Not to be outdone, O’Brien added his second of the night two minutes later. He put pressure on a Bridgeport defenseman trying to keep the puck in their offensive zone and it paid off. The puck jumped over the defenseman’s stick and O’Brien had the breakaway. In alone on Reiter, he managed to just slip it by as the puck trickled over the goal line.
The Monarchs were not letting up and sitting on their lead, as they went to the second intermission leading 4-0. When the teams came back out for the final period, the Monarchs were still flying. Although the shots were more even in the final period, it was too little, too late. About five minutes into that final period, it seemed like Monarchs defensemen Andrew Bodnarchuk had registered a goal of his own. The took a laser of a shot that hit the inside of the crossbar and went in. This was the third power play goal of the game.
A couple minutes later, the announcement came that O’Neill had actually tipped the Bodnarchuk shot and was getting credit for the goal and the hat trick. It was an anti-climatic moment and nobody tossed their hats. But, that hardly matters to the forward who has stunned with his second hat trick in just four games.
The final frame was when Monarchs goaltender JF Berube had to do the most work. Although it might not appear he made a lot of saves, he made some impressive ones to preserve his shutout. He also got a lot of help from the team in front of him. Rookie Nick Shore added his 14th of the season at 14:08 and it seemed to be the final straw for the Sound Tigers.
Tensions finally boiled over just 13 seconds after the Monarchs took the 6-0 lead. Monarchs rookie Scott Sabourin took on Sound Tigers rookie Andrey Pedan. Sabourin has been known to drop the gloves this season and seemed to be the winner of this fight once again. He landed more of the punches and took Pedan to the ice.
Finally, with just about 2 minutes left, Monarchs forward Hunter Bishop made the score 7-0. He and O’Brien had an odd man rush where O’Brien passed off to Bishop for an easy score.
Brian O’Neill (3g), Zach O’Brien (2g, 2a), Linden Vey (2a), Hunter Bishop (1g, 1a), and Jordan Weal (2a) all finished with multi-point games. JF Berube made 23 saves for the shutout, his second of the season. The Monarchs get an unusual Saturday night off from a game before heading down to Worcester to take on the Sharks tomorrow afternoon. It will be the first time newly acquired forward James Livingston will face-off against his former team.
The Columbus Cottonmouths, part of the South Professional Hockey League (SPHL) announced Friday morning that they will start goaltender and two-time Olympic gold medalist Shannon Szabados in Saturday’s matchup against the Knoxville Ice Bears at the Columbus Civic Center.
The 27-year-old won a gold medal as a member of the Canadian women’s hockey team in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia last month.
Szabados was the first woman to play in the Western Hockey League and becomes the first in the Southern Professional Hockey League’s ten year history. She played college hockey at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology with current Cottonmouths players Jordan Draper, Andy Willigar and Kyle Johnson.
“Shannon has looked phenomenal in practice in her short time with us. She hasn’t missed a beat since the Olympics wrapped three weeks ago,” said assistant head coach Brad Prefontaine. “We would love to see a full arena to support our newest Snake as she makes her professional debut.”
The goaltender arrived at Columbus headquarters on Wednesday and signed a contract with the Cottonmouths on Thursday. Later that day, she took in a short practice, but did not play in the Snakes’ 5-0 loss to Pensacola on Thursday night.
In the Olympic final, Szabados made 27 saves in Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory over the United States. She also posted a 28-save shutout over the Americans in the 2010 Olympic final.
Szabados also made headlines last week when she stepped in at practice for the Edmonton Oilers while the NHL team waited for Viktor Fasth to arrive after a trade with Anaheim.
Her practice with the Oilers was her first time on ice since the gold-medal match on Feb. 20.
Szabados joins a short list of female hockey stars who have laced up their skates with men’s professional teams. Most notably, Manon Rheaume, becoming the only woman to appear in an NHL exhibition game with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992. Noora Raty also just announced that she has joined a team in the Finnish Elite League.
The St. Louis Blues dominated the Edmonton Oilers 6 to 2, exemplifying why they are the best team in the NHL.
The Edmonton Oilers put the first point up on the board when former Blue David Perron netted one past Ryan Miller in the first period. Vladimir Sabotka tied it up for the Blues in his first game back after being out with a leg injury for the last 12 games, and the entire Olympic break. He dangled through the defense and pushed the puck in past Edmonton goaltender, Ben Scrivens, as he was falling.
Vladimir Tarasenko gave the Blues the lead at the start of the second period when he grabbed a pass from TJ Oshie and popped the puck top shelf. Before the period would expire the Edmonton Oilers tied the game up at two.
St. Louis started the third period strong scoring 18 seconds into the frame. Alex Pietrangelo gave the Blues a 3 to 2 lead right off the bat to start the third. Jaden Schwartz would increase the lead to 4 as he put one past Scriven’s off a perfect pass to the slot by David Backes. The Blues went on the power play in the third period and started to run away with the game and separate themselves from the Oilers. TJ Oshie capitalized on a power play opportunity to give the Blues a 5 to 2 lead. The Blues were not done yet, they had one more goal in them at 12:56 into the third. Jaden Schwartz registered his second goal of the game off a backhand shot, low into the corner past Scrivens. With that goal Schwartz registered his 21st goal of the season, and his first 20 goal season in just his second year in the NHL.
Ryan Miller held his place in the paint stopping 22 of 24 shots. The Blues finished off the Edmonton Oilers beating them 6 to 2. The Blues travel down to Nashville to take on the Predators at 7PM (CST) on Saturday March 15th.
Third line play is pivotal to Boston Bruins hockey. A team that rolls four lines, relies on balanced scoring and the ability to wear down an opponent’s defense, the third line is producing and the Bruins are rolling.
With Carl Soderberg now centering Chris Kelly and Loui Eriksson, all three are playing at a high level. Kelly looks faster and stronger after the extended Olympic break, Eriksson looks more comfortable and confident in the Bruins system, and Soderberg, the most impressive of the three, really looks to be coming into his own as a North American hockey player.
On Thursday, in the second night of a back-to-back games, coming off a spirited win over their hated rival the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins dropped the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 on home ice.
Between the three-zone play and continued elite goaltending by Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask, the Bruins sudden surge ensued.
Just over five minutes into the first period, it was Soderberg who dodged a Coyote in the neutral zone and gained possession in the offensive zone. Pressure from both he and linemate Loui Eriksson forced a brutal turnover from Keith Yandle, who set up Zdeno Chara with the perfect opportunity. Chara skated to the slot and ripped the perfect wrist shot by Mike Smith, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
Just like their game on Wednesday in Montreal, the Bruins third line contributed to the crucial first goal lead.
Post-game, Head Coach Claude Julien attributed much of the Bruins recent success to their commitment to the system; a full team buy in that translates consistency to winning.
“It’s pretty obvious when you play the number of games that you’ve played, and you look at the way you’ve played, there’s a pretty good commitment right now from our guys,” said Julien. “Even tonight, you could see that maybe we were getting tired there at the end in the third, but I think they had about ten minutes of power plays, and a pretty good power play at that. So we had to use a lot of those same players over and over again, and that’s not usually a good sign, but Tuukka [Rask] was really good for us obviously tonight.”
After killing off a four minute high-sticking penalty to Jordan Caron, who in no way helped himself in return to game action due to the Daniel Paille concussion, the Bruins finished the period on a good note.
Jarome Iginla extended the Bruins lead to 2-0 after tipping home a Johnny Boychuk rocket from the point; and the Bruins spent much of their time in the Coyotes zone to finish off the initial frame. An impressive start considering the circumstances.
Julien praised his team’s ability to build off last night’s emotional victory with another good effort against a rested club.
“Certainly a good effort on a back-to-back night again, and everybody knows we came off of a pretty important game, in our minds, yesterday, about going out there and playing your game, and making everybody understand that it’s not so much the matchup [with Montreal] than it’s been our make-up. All that put together, I’m pretty pleased with our effort, and it’s not so much the streak. It’s the consistency, and the consistency leads into that streak that you’re seeing.”
Captain Chara agreed with his coach, reiterating the importance of a full team effort that allows for consistent play.
“We are finding a way to win games,” he said. “For sure there are areas that we need to improve, but we are just finding a way to win hockey games right now so that’s a big difference. I mean when you look at it, every game we have somebody who is playing really huge for us. For sure Tuukka is making big saves, but we have every game some line or somebody really stepping up and making big plays.”
The Coyotes made things interesting late in the third when the Bruins fatigue finally caught up to them.
Pounding shots on net and coming within inches of a tally, Phoenix all but tied things up late in the third period at the garden. The biggest scare came when Antoine Vermette threw a puck at a wide-open net, only to be denied by Soderberg who busted through and broke up the play.
“Yeah, I’m not sure if I got a piece of it,” said Rask postgame. “It kind of felt like my glove hit something but then Carl [Soderberg], well he was the one who passed it back, he got the rebound there. So I’m not sure if I saved it, but whoever saved it did a great job.”
Everyone contributed to Thursday night’s victory.
It’s honestly gotten pretty simple. Redundant. With everyone buying in, and chipping in, the Bruins are rolling at the right time of year. It’s a sprint to the postseason and along with the Pens, the Bruins are taking it to the Eastern Conference. Blowing away the competition.
From goaltending, to defense, to depth in scoring, Julien once again has a Bruins team playing championship caliber hockey- further establishing himself as one of the NHL’s best head coaches.
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