Kukla's Korner Hockey

Ducks Plan To Play ‘Smart’ In 2nd Half

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 05:46 PM ET
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from Dan Wood of Ducks Blog at the OC Register,

Carlyle came away from a series of one-on-one meetings with players the past week with his own midseason assessment of where the team stands. Among the harsh realities are a November knee injury that knocked defenseman Francois Beauchemin out for the season, current injuries sidelining right wing Teemu Selanne and defenseman Kent Huskins, and a second-half schedule that is heavy on road games.

The Ducks have also been hurt by a maddening tendency to blow leads, particularly of late, and their continued propensity to take penalties. The Ducks have been short-handed 216 times, compared to their own power-play total of only 155, which accounts for by far the largest discrepancy in the league.

“We’ve found ways to give points away, and that cannot continue,” Carlyle said. “You have to be smart, and we have not been smart enough. That’s a criticism that’s pretty easy to make when you take the number of penalties that we take.”

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Stirring The Pot

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 03:28 PM ET
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from Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer,

Still stung by his team’s 7-1 defeat at the Wachovia Center last month, Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau recently took some verbal shots at the Flyers for what he perceived as running up the score.

“What goes around comes around eventually,” he told NHL.com. “And it will.”

Boudreau’s Caps play host to the Flyers tonight.

Relayed Boudreau’s comments, Flyers coach John Stevens bristled after today’s morning skate.

“You guys can take this Boudreau stuff and you can take it somewhere else,” Stevens told reporters. “I’m not getting drawn in tit-for-tat stuff. I don’t know where this is going. Bruce coaches the Washington Capitals. I don’t care what he says. I’ve got my team to get ready here. This is obviously an important game, a hard game, and I don’t care what he said, to be honest with you. He can say what he wants....”

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

SuperSkills 2009

by Alanah McGinley on 01/06/09 at 02:48 PM ET
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NEW YORK (Jan. 6, 2009)—The game’s most dazzling shootout artists will attempt to wow the voting public in the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge and the classes of 2007-08 and 2008-09 will battle for youthful supremacy when NHL All-Star Weekend gets underway with the 2009 Honda/NHL All-Star SuperSkills Competition Saturday night, Jan. 24, at Montreal’s Bell Centre.

The realigned NHL YoungStars Game presented by Upper Deck and the fan-judged Scotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge will join SuperSkills mainstays such as the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater, McDonald’s NHL Accuracy Shooting and Cisco NHL Hardest Shot competitions to determine the League’s best in various disciplines. The evening will culminate with the best hockey players in the world doing what they’ve done to end practices ever since shortly after their parents first tied their skates: engage in an elimination shootout contest that won’t end until there’s only one man left unstopped.

Note: Competition results for 1990-2008 noted below. 

Continue Reading »

Filed in: | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: asg,

Free Falling Penguins

by Alanah McGinley on 01/06/09 at 02:34 PM ET
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From Craig Simpson at CBC’s hockey blog:

There is some serious concern and all kinds of tough questions coming out of Pittsburgh.

This Penguin team is a shell of the one we watched in June, and despite the legitimate excuse of some key injuries to Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar and the departure of Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts, they have underachieved in a big way.

Pittsburgh still boasts two of the three top scorers in the NHL, but even Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby have not been themselves. Malkin, the NHL leading scorer has zero goals in his last right games and has only two points in six. Crosby has done more damage with his fists than his stick lately with just two goals in his last 17 games played, and has been held pointless in eight of those 17.

If the players have tuned out their head coach Michel Therrien and are trying to get him fired, they are doing a good job.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Pittsburgh Penguins | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: evgeni+malkin, michel+therrien, sidney+crosby,

Power Rankings- TSN Style

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 12:23 PM ET
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The top 3 teams-

1. Boston Bruins

2. San Jose Sharks

3. Detroit Red Wings

read on for the rest of the rankings…

Filed in: NHL Teams | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Pominville On Blogging

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 11:18 AM ET
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Jason Pominville of the Buffalo Sabres talks blogging.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Buffalo Sabres, NHL Media, Hockey Bloggers | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Jason+Pominville,

Big Game In The East Tonight

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 10:05 AM ET
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from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

...OK, puckheads, now that we’ve wasted a few seconds of your time, we draw your attention to tonight’s game between Backstrom’s Capitals and the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

The last time these two teams met was Dec. 20, when the Flyers pasted the Caps, 7-1. That was their first encounter since last spring’s first-round, seven-game playoff victory by Philadelphia. Needless to say, the Caps were looking forward to tonight.

“We had like 50 shots on them that night [48 to be exact],” Backstrom said of the Dec. 20 game. “It was a weird game. Everybody on the team is very much excited about this game [tonight].”

We like Washington’s chances. The Caps are an Eastern Conference-best 17-1-1 at home.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Nicklas+Backstrom,

When In Detroit, It Was Referred To As A Sock On His Head…

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 09:59 AM ET
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...Now, who knows.  Also, at the end of the interview, “Hockeytown is back here (Washington), that’s for sure.”

Filed in: NHL Teams, Washington Capitals | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Sergei+Fedorov,

Hey, Get Your #$%@$%! Head Up

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 09:10 AM ET
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I normally refrain from posting vulgar language, but this one is funny.  It happens about the 40 second mark but watch from the beginning to understand what happened.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Edmonton Oilers, NHL Talk, NHL Officiating | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Tragedy Struck Hockey In 1907

by Paul on 01/06/09 at 08:59 AM ET
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from Kevin Lagoie of the Cornwall Standard Freeholder,

McCourt now found himself laid out on the ice. Throop also suffered a stick blow to the head in the brawl that ensued. The referee, Thomas Quinn, tried to get the players to stop, but they had tuned him out. Finally, he shouted “Look at the man on the ice,” and that was enough to bring the brawl to a halt. Quinn then helped McCourt to the dressing room, at which time he noticed the player had two cuts on the left side of his head.

McCourt was sitting with his head in his hands, and complaining of having a headache and being dizzy. Despite the pain, McCourt insisted on returning to the game.

At first, he seemed to be all right.

The pain for McCourt was finally too much to handle. Saying he was “all in,” McCourt headed for the dressing room.

Those would be his last words

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Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Owen+Dud+MCCourt,

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