May 10 2008
Seen Stamkos?
The consensus number one pick of the upcoming 2008 NHL Entry Draft is Sarnia Sting Center Steven Stamkos. With the Tampa Bay Lightning holding that pick it has been obvious that the club would select Stamkos. How obvious? Obvious enough that the club has put out a website for the kid already and he is not even on the official roster. Stamkos is an incredible goal scorer netting 58 in his final year in Juniors with Sarnia, 14 more goals than current Lightning star Vinny Lecavalier. The website Seenstamkos.com is not the only way Tampa Bay is letting the community know of it’s intentions to select Stamkos with the number one pick, the club has also purchased billboards throughout Tampa Bay that simply say, Seen Stamkos? During halftime of one of the Tampa Bay Storm Arena Football League games, the Storm Dance team revealed Seen Stamkos T-Shirts provocatively to the crowd and TV audience. If word of mouth is truly the best form of advertising, the Tampa Bay Lightning have not only hit the jackpot with Stamkos, but with the Tampa Bay area as well. After a season in which the Lightning finished dead last in the NHL, Steven Stamkos may help the Lightning make a Philadelphia Flyer like return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Despite the normal negative opinions of the NHL that seem to permeate throughout the press and population of the United States, the NHL is on pace to have a season that I believe will go down as the true turning-point for the league’s future. There are always hordes of fans calling for the firing of Gary Bettman, the retraction of southern NHL teams and the addition of teams in cities such as Hartford, Winnipeg and hell, why not Saskatoon?
The hardest thing to do is eliminate a team from the playoffs when their down to their last game and last chance to stay alive, because their going to give their best shot. While you would expect there to be veteran leadership on any team, there are just certain players who are special and have another kind of aura about them that motivates their team. The Sharks came back from a 2-o deficit in the 3rd period to win Game Five 3-2 and stay alive against the Stars tonight. I am convinced Jeremy Roenick was the reason why. He made the play and a hell of a pass for the assist on Brian Campbells game tying goal in the 3rd. Then not that long later, JR made an enormous hit that aroused the Shark Tank (A hell of a loud building with great fans who were still cheering so loud 10 minutes after the game ended, Joe Pavelski’s interview could barely be heard.) After the crowd got going during the game it seemed like Dallas had no chance. Joe Pavelski scored the winning goal unassisted but the Sharks leader gets the assist on the victory. Can Roenick lead the Sharks to the first comeback in the NHL from a 3-0 series deficit in 33 years? With JR’s leadership, A shark attack at history is within his teams bite.
After defeating the New York Rangers 5-3 tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins extended their playoff winning streak to 7 straight games. It is the first time since the 1994 Rangers that a team has won their first 7 playoff games and it’s only the eleventh time it has been done in NHL history. It may also be a good sign for the Penguins, as 7 of the 10 teams who have accomplished this feat before them, have gone on to win the Stanley Cup. The Penguins will have a chance to extended the streak to eight games by sweeping a second consecutive opponent to open the playoffs on Thursday, while the Rangers will desperately try to stay alive. Sidney Crosby and Evegni Malkin have been spectacular up to this point, but credit Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for the teams success, he has made all the key saves when Pittsburgh has needed him to. Add the fact that Marian Hossa seems to be heating up, the question may become will this team even lose a game during these playoffs? Is it possible that Sid the Kid and company could provide that kind of historic run? That is why I love this time of year! Expect the unexpected!
Up until this point in the playoffs, things have gone pretty much the way I expected. The one thing I wasn’t expecting, was how well the Dallas Stars would be playing. It was pretty easy to see how good the Penguins are, that the Rangers were just flat out faster than the Devils, that Montreal would eventually take care of business against Boston and that the Flyers and Capitals series would go 7 games in the East. In the West, I expected Detroit to take care of the Predators, The Flames to push the Sharks to 7 games and Colorado’s playoff experience to tame the Wild. What I did not expect, was that the Dallas Stars, who struggled down the stretch of the regular season, falling from 2nd in the West to 5th, would defeat the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks with relative ease… 
Earlier on in the season, I wrote an article entitled 
Once in a while we all lose our cool, it’s human nature. The nature of the goalie fight has seemingly been passed down from father to son. We all know that Patrick Roy was in some excellent fights during his NHL career, the fight against Mike Vernon may have been the best goalie fight in NHL history. What Jonathan didn’t learn however, is that you dont just go sucker punch the opposing goalie at the other end of the ice when he wants nothing to do with you and then flick off an entire arena with both hands because they are booing you since you are a member of the road team. One thing is for sure, since Jonathan Roy’s record is 3-10-2 in the QMJHL, this may be the only way he will ever be comparable to his father. Enjoy the video!
Recently I ranked the 
The Washington Capitals started tonight in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, still trying to push for the playoffs. Taking on the Boston Bruins, the Alexander Ovechkin led Caps looked like the best team in the East. The Caps opened tonight by scoring six, that’s right six goals! All in the first period! Alexander Ovechkin was up to his usual magic, scoring the hat trick on the night to add to his league leading goal total, which is now at 52. Newly acquired Matt Cooke scored, Brooks Laich put 2 biscuits in the basket, rookie of the year candidate Niklas Backstrom lit the lamp, tough guy Donald Brashear knocked one in and fittingly number 10 Matt Bradley finished off the night with his second goal of the game and the Capitals 10th goal of the game as Washington annihilated the Boston Bruins 10-2. The Capitals looked poised to make a run at the Southeast Division tonight, beating a Bruins team that has been one of the hotter teams in the NHL of late. Both Bruins Goaltenders played in the game, I’d hate to be Tim Thomas or Alex Auld right now. The Bruins will get a chance at revenge this Saturday afternoon at 1.
