Awesome. Now that that's off my chest, we've had a few things going on in the league over the past few days. Jonathan Quick gives up a quickie.. lol Rick Nash took a bump to his noggin, on the same night the Rangers get smoked.... by the San Jose Ninja Hertl's. Torts is still yelling at people, at least its not at Pete Deboer this time. Anyways...
Just quickly had a conversation with my associate Chris Macri, and he says Tomas Hertl is just the flavor of the week. I disagree. I think he's going to end up like Vlad Tarrasenko on steroids. The Sharks haven't had an up and comer like this since Logan Couture. They reached the conference finals the first two years into Couture's entry level contract. Not only that he killed it in the playoffs those two years, netting 4 goals as a rookie in his first year. He went on to sport 56 points next year followed by 14 in the playoffs.. He's still on the team. So is Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Martin Havlat.. There's just too many weapons on this roster for him not to continue his success. Obviously he's not going to record two goals a game for the rest of the year, but he's going to produce. Another reason I think he's going to have a successful season is this:
Props to the two smoke shows in the back making him blush. But its not because of the women, fame, and fortune. It's because he's humble. He loves to play the game. Look at how excited he is in that interview just to be playing in the league. You can tell just by the way he plays how happy he is to be in the league. On top of that he's the first rookie to score four goals in a game since 1988 when Jimmy Carson did it, and the first player to score four goals in a game since the great Owen Nolan. The kid is going to have a year, and I wouldn't be surprised if he broke 40-50 points.
In this same game, Rick Nash took a nice shot to the head, shoulder. It's debatable, Stuart was just finishing his check, and it looks like he caught his shoulder more than anything. In my honest opinion, the Rangers weren't getting smoked just yet, but Nash new it was coming.. the Rangers played like garbage all night, and Nasher didn't want to stay out for an embarrassment. Come on.. I love my blueshirts more than anything, but the guy barely hit you. You'll be lucky if he sees a fine. If he is out for a while though, being that this is a concussion scenario, the Rangers scoring woes will be even worse. In case you haven't been watching, they're currently being outscored 6-14. Three of those goals came with help from the other team, like this one:
So really they've only scored three goals themselves. Pathetic. Something needs to change. On the other side of the river, the scoring isn't the problem. It's keeping the lead. Things will come around for the Devils but it has to be heartbreaking to lose three games in a row with a lead. Vancouver is a toughie, but there's no excuse for the Islanders at home, and losing to Edmonton. Jagr can't be their number one scorer all year.. and its not going to happen, because he's probably going to get hurt. When is Henrique and Mr. Ryder going to show up?
Speaking of Injuries, Niklas Backstrom suffered his first of many injuries this year stopping a breakaway from Eric Nystrom. During the move, he sprained his knee and left the game. The worst part about it is, they called a penalty shot on the play, and Josh Harding was left out to dry, taking a penalty shot as his first shot of the game. The guys has averaged 49 1/2 games in the past four years. The Wild were hoping that the Injury prone Backstrom would come around this year, but he's out right in the middle of week two. Take note fantasy fans: he's on my team, and I'm probably getting rid of him.
Tim Thomas also left his game last night with an apparent groin injury. I guess that's what happens when you take a year off to practice politics, big time Timmy Jim. Taking a look back at the play though, you can clearly see that he's injured. It was a SOFFFFFT shot from the point, and he barely got back to the far post before the puck came out of the back of the net. There's no time table for his return, but both are listed as day to day.
That same game got new head coach Craig Berube his first win as a Flyers coach. I still think good ol' Pete got the short end of the stick but that's neither here nor there. The Flyers looked better last night, and had a little more jump to their step. They were playing the Florida Panthers mind you... but a W is a W.
While we're on the subject of goalies, check out this new mask from Detroit keeper Jimmy Howard:
Howard is supposedly wearing pink pads, a blocker and catcher. What a stud. Real classy thing to do, to support all of those beautiful women out there that fight this terrible disease. If you're interested and feelin' saucy, donate to Relay for Life and support cancer research right MEOW. That's all for today folks, don't forget to check out Chirp Hard radio tonight, drink some beers, and talk hockey.
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