Despite a tough loss in Detroit on Wednesday evening, Boston Bruins Gregory Campbell continued a three-year tradition close to his heart on Thanksgiving day. The center has been in the giving spirit during past seasons and this year is no different. Buying and delivering 400 pies, totaling around $2,000 to Boston area shelters and charities. The pies are purchased on special order at the famous Mikes Pastry in the North End, Boston.
Campbell will be making stops at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans, Home for Little Wanderers, St. Francis House and Pine Street Inn. From there, at least another dozen organizations will receive the rest delivered by members of the Bruins organization.
Many of our readers celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last month, well today we wish a very happy thanksgiving to all of our American readers. May the day bring you good food, good friends and if you’re up for it, some hockey.
The Canucks play the Senators at 7:30 ET and the Oilers and Predators face-off at 8:00 ET — so when you wake up from your turkey hangover, you’ll have a game to watch.
Have a happy holiday friends, we here at the Pink Puck are all thankful for each and every one of you.
The New York Islanders as of last night’s standings have fallen to last place in the Metropolitan Division with 19 points. They are currently in 27th in terms of league standings. Tonight the Islanders fell to the Winnipeg Jets with a score of 2 -3 giving the team its 4th straight loss. Throughout the game chants of “Fire Capy” and “Snow Must Go” made their way through the Nassau Coliseum.
After making the playoffs for the first time since 2007 last season, fans felt optimistic at the start of the 2013-2014 season. Things started off fairly well, however, the team began to slip leading fans to question the way the team is being handled.
Head Coach, Jack Capuano started as the assistant coach with the Islanders during the 2005-2006 season. The following season Capuano moved to the assistant coach position with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. During the 2007-2008 season, Jack Capuano was named head coach of the Sound Tigers where he stayed until 2010 when he was called up as the Interim head coach of the New York Islanders after head coach, Scott Gordon was fired. Capuano has held his place on the bench since.
The New York Islanders current GM, Garth Snow is no stranger to the franchise. Snow signed with the New York Islanders during the summer before the 2001-2002 season after playing one season with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Garth Snow primarily acted as the team’s backup goaltender until he retired in July of 2006. He was then named General Manager of the Islanders after the GM at the time, Neil Smith was dismissed after only 41 days on the job.
The question is, should both, a coach and GM with so much experience with the Islanders franchise be more effective? Fans certainly think so. I asked a few fans for their views on the matter and many said that they began to turn on Snow once he traded fan favorite, Matt Moulson to Buffalo last month. One fan even mentioned the possibility of bringing back former Islanders head coach, and recently fired Philadelphia Flyers head coach, Peter Laviolette.
If the team does not start to turn their play around, it will be interesting to see if the organization listens to the fans and makes some changes.
Islanders Head Coach, Jack Capuano Islanders GM, Garth Snow
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced yesterday that the deadline for countries to submit rosters for the 2014 Olympic games has been pushed back from December 31 to January 7. Several countries were apparently lobbying for an even later date, but January 7 was chosen by IIHF in conjunction with the NHL and the NHLPA. The date was also picked to avoid a conflict with the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship, ending January 5. The delay is good news for teams like Canada, who now have Stamkos’ injury to consider and will appreciate the extra time.
The United States, however, will proceed as planned and announce their Olympic team on January 1 during the Winter Classic, just as they did 4 years previously at Fenway Park. That year, the American players were announced by children skating out in jerseys bearing their names.
“We look forward to celebrating the American player through the announcement of our Olympic teams as part of the NHL Winter Classic,” said Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey. “It will be an extraordinary stage with an Original Six matchup, a record crowd, a worldwide television audience, the great pageantry of the event itself, and of course the unveiling of both our men’s and women’s Olympic teams.”
The final roster for the U.S. Women’s National Team will be announced during the 2nd intermission, and the men’s team will be revealed on ice after the end of the game. I, for one, am looking forward to these announcements more than the Winter Classic itself.
But I’ve been waiting hungrily for these Olympic games since the conclusion of the hockey tournament last time around, so maybe that’s just me.
The San Francisco Bulls faced the Bakersfield Condors with a refreshed offense that delivered a 5-1 victory for the goal-deprived Bulls. The new additions of Adrian Foster and Tyler Gron brought a breath of life to the forward lines, and new Dman Kalvin Sagert delivered a solid performance at the blueline, helping the Bulls to break out at key moments of the game. Tyler Gron showed why he had captured Coach Curcio’s eye turning in two top notch goals and registering an assist for his first night in a Bulls sweater.
Dean Ouellet broke the scoring drought seven minutes into the first period, when he picked up a beautiful feed from Adrian Foster coming into the Bakersfield zone on the power play. He fired off a shot from the left circle that went by Condors netminder Chet Pickard to put the Bulls ahead 1-0.
Chris Collins would score the lone goal for Bakersfield in the second frame on a broken play that had Bulls tender Beskorowany venture out of his net to play the puck. He couldn’t get good wood and the puck skittered out to the waiting stick of Collins who tucked it behind Beskorowany to tie the game 1-1.
The Bulls would go on to score 4 unanswered goals. Tyler Gron went coast to coast and put it top shelf. Then Dylan King shot one through traffic off a deflection from Chris Crane, giving him his first goal of the year. Brett Findlay added another goal when Tyler Gron carried the puck into the Bakersfield zone, passed it to Jordan Morrison who cruised around the back of the net, at first faking a stuff to the side, then sent it ahead to Findlay in the slot, who one-timed it past Pickard. Gron picked up one more goal as he flew down the middle, pulled the puck to the side and then tipped it past Pickard’s shoulder, the final tally 5-1.
The two new forwards Foster and Gron added a new dimension to the Bulls’ front line. Foster delivered solid support and generated plays that led to good scoring opportunities for the team. Gron drove the net with intensity and carried momentum into the offensive zone. Head Coach Pat Curcio talked earlier in the week about getting more production out of his veteran forwards, Ouellet, Belan and Morrison, who in particular has had a rough set of games over the last three, with a -15.
“We expect big things and we had some real good talks. We are trying to find different ways to help them out of this funk. We need to surround Morrison with some better players, players that know the league and can help.”
At least from the look of things, tumbling the lines and pairing Ouellet with Foster and Morrison with Gron worked well for all players involved, including Brett Findlay, who turned on the jets and camped in front of the net, then scored a goal off Morrison’s feed. Curcio will need to rely on these forwards along with Chris Crane and Ron Linsmayer to get pucks in the net as both Dale Mitchell and Ryan McDonough are not expected back in the line-up til at least December. There is always the possibility too that the Worcester Sharks will send down another forward, depending on the health of their line-up and who the NHL San Jose Sharks pull in.
One area that the Bulls need to shore up, which will help their offensive production, is their faceoff. It all starts with puck possession and teams that don’t win faceoffs spend a lot of time and energy hunting down the puck, rather than scoring goals. When asked about the Bulls faceoff numbers, Curcio concurred that the numbers they were winning weren’t great.
“I would say we are probably in the 30th percentile, which is not very good. We need to get the puck at least half the time. When you are starting with the puck you are able to make plays. Faceoffs are real important especially with special teams, on the power play. When we win a power play faceoff we get puck possession right away and if we lose it we’re chasing it 200 feet and then worry about coming out of our end.”
This week in morning practice, Curcio dedicated time to the faceoff, making minor adjustments to hopefully improve the chances of winning the draw. More wins on the dot may translate into more wins for the team.
The San Francisco Bulls take on the Bakersfield Condors on Wednesday 7:30 at the Cow Palace to finish their home and home series against their division rivals. They then head on the road over the Thanksgiving weekend, traveling to Utah to face the Grizzlies for a two game series.
The thing about shutouts is that they’re kind of the narwhal of hockey: science says they’re real, but every time you see one you can’t help but think, “No way is that an actual species that exists.”
The Blue Jackets face-off against Toronto began with two goals in 20 seconds, thanks to Cam Atkinson and RJ Umberger, whose one-two punch got the team off to a riotous start that they rode through all sixty minutes of the game. Atkinson’s goal was off an assist from Matt Calvert, who was back for his second game since being injured.
The second period started much the same as the first, with Jack Skille scoring at 3:07 thanks to a pass from Mark Letestu. It was at this point that the Leafs began to unravel, as their hockey turned into a bad round of Fight Night. As their frustration grew, so did their physicality. A hooking call gave CBJ a powerplay that Murray capitalized on for the second goal of the period and Murray’s first career multipoint game.
Ryan Johansen dominated the third period with two goals, both times off assists from Nick Foligno. Johansen also earned the first star of the evening. Sergei Bobrovsky, who stopped all 18 of the shots against him for his fifth career shutout.
The team played with an intensity that likely rose from the frustration of last week’s struggles, never letting up on the puck and managing to do at last what they haven’t really been able to all season: play sixty minutes of hockey. The same Blue Jackets came out to play during the second period as had the first, and came out to play during the third period as the second. They’ve spent all season chasing consistency, and they finally found it.
Of course, the Blue Jackets aren’t going to earn straight shutouts even if they recreate the energy and cohesion they displayed last night. But at least they won’t have to play every game with the goal of forgetting their last.
The Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa, who has missed the past two games due to a family emergency, has rejoined his “other family” on the road in Calgary Wednesday.
As with most hockey absences, details were sparse until his return.
Now that Hossa is back for the Flames matchup, the team has revealed he went to be by Jana’s side while she was hospitalized with an illness.
He revealed that his wife had a difficult labor with their new daughter, Zoja, earlier this month and then went to the emergency room Saturday morning.
“You love hockey so much but family is the most important thing for me and, I’m sure, everyone here,” he said. “As soon as something like this happens, you want to be there for them.”
Jana was discharged from the hospital Monday. Hossa said she has improved.
Continued well wishes to the Hossa gang.
As for the Blackhawks on-ice family, Michal Handzus played in Edmonton and Michael Kostka returned to practice in Calgary. Kostka isn’t expected to play against the Flames, but should be back soon.
Johnny Oduya may be a scratch against Calgary, too, after stopping a puck with his left knee against the Oilers.
Nicolai Khabibulin is still out after the injury that pulled him (and possibly his groin?) mid-game in Nashville the 16th.
Goaltender Anti Raanta is expected to make his NHL debut, giving Corey Crawford some much-needed rest during the Blackhawks’ grueling road tour.
“We’re excited about him getting into the net,” Coach Joel Quenneville said. “It’ll be a good challenge for him, a good test.”
Raanta had a 7-5-0 record with a 2.83 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage in 14 Rockford IceHogs appearances this season before being called up to the Blackhawks.
Enter the TD Garden in Boston and you will inevitably hear someone talking about not poking the bear. There is some truth to this–as each time another team causes the Boston Bruins to become even more emotionally invested by causing them to hit harder, threaten fisticuffs, or actually drop the gloves to avenge liberties taken on one of their skill players. The Bruins are the epitome of the hard hat, work boots, blue collar team and they often take pride in doing things the hard way. They take a sense of accomplishment in working as a team. As a result, if an opponent pokes one bear, he in essence is poking a sleuth of bears. Don’t poke the bear.
Bears are tough. Let’s consider that the only mammal who may even consider taking on the impressive 6′ 9″ Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara is perhaps an actual bear. At least the bear might stand half a chance. Such strength and belief in your abilities can on occasion cause a little pain, and there was a little pain involved in Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
To say there was not emotion–at least on the part of the fans who were looking at this as another opportunity to remind the Penguins that they had been measured and come up lacking during the Eastern Conference Finals of last season–would be a falseness. However the Bruins themselves seemed to struggle throughout much of the game, allowing the Penguins plenty of opportunities to try and get one past Tuukka Rask. At one point, the shots on goal were ten to three in favor of the Penguins. And though not everyone noticed, Rask had offered some advice to Penguins James Neal early in the first. After catching Neal’s shot, apparently Rask suggested that Neal “shoot harder next time.”
The next two shots on Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury would result in the Bruins capitalizing on first an even strength goal at 12:27 of the first, by Loui Eriksson, followed approximately three minutes later by the power play goal of Reilly Smith just eight seconds into the power play. As the two teams headed to their respective locker rooms for the first intermission the shots on goal showed 10-5 in favor of Pittsburgh, but the score told a different story as it stood at 2-0 in favor of Boston.
However apparently Neal didn’t appreciate the advice from Rask in the first because just 37 seconds into the second Neal had a snap shot past the Bruins’ net minder and had cut the Bruins lead in half, where the score would stall for the remainder of the second and a little more than 11 minutes into the third. At 11:09 into the third Neal with another snap shot found the back of the twine again and just like that the game was tied.
When Chara got a wrist shot past Fleury, from the assists of David Krejci and Milan Lucic, the look on Lucic’s face spoke to what every fan was thinking–that perhaps the Bruins could hang on and win in regulation.
Of course the Penguins were equally determined to ensure that such an outcome would not happen. And just as it looked like the Bruins had hung on by their teeth, Sidney Crosby got one into the net with–after review–just .3 left on the clock. The hockey gods can be cruel sometimes.
The air seemed to get sucked out of the arena as Bruins fans tried to wrap their minds around what had just taken place, while each team focused on the upcoming four-on-four five-minute overtime period.
Two faceoffs later, both won by the Bruins, and a snap shot from one of the Bruins cubs–first year defenseman Torey Krug–at just 34 seconds into the overtime period and the Bruins were cheering, as were their fans. And the Penguins? They headed off to their locker room to get changed and head out, glad to be taking a point out of the tilt.
The moral of the story? Perhaps bears shouldn’t poke penguins. And if they do, be sure to have a cub with a snap shot just aching to use it.
That is the cost of the new NHL’s holiday gift. If you haven’t heard yet, the NHL has gone into the warm- fleece- stay- at- home- wear!
They are called Snuggies. It is like wearing a big blanket with a hole in the middle for your head. (sounds like a poncho) They have all your favorite teams. Separate arms make it easier to use your hands. Bright fleece team colors can keep you warm in the long dark days of winter.
They really remind me of kindergarten when we used to wear our dad’s shirts for art class. The teacher would put the shirt on backwards on us. This way we would not get paint on our clothes. (remember that?)
It is supposed to look like you are wearing your teams uniform. One word— not! The whole concept of these Snuggies are old. Commercials of the same product were shown on TV a few years ago. Everything is the same except that now, you can get your team colors on it. Does anyone remember the old commercials that showed people trying to read or eat while watching TV, but cannot because of not having an arm hole??
I think that the NHL can do much better than Snuggies! Where are the marketing giants and their creative juices? Should we challenge the NHL marketing groups to come up with a new and awesome product for next holiday season? I think so!
We have the shirts, hats, jackets and such with our teams logo and colors on it. Now, we want something different! Something that says NHL, something that we can be proud of. I do hope that the NHL’s marketing people are ready and up for the challenge!
Prev
