Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Gold Club

by Paul on 02/23/10 at 06:31 AM ET
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from Risto Pakarinen at IIHF.com,

The 22 winners of the three major championships - the Stanley Cup, a World Championship, and an Olympic gold medal – were inducted into the Triple Gold Club in a ceremony held in Vancouver on Monday. All 22 members of the exclusive club were present, as they were introduced to the stage and handed a national team sweater with special TGC patches….

Their careers span over four decades, and over four different countries, but on Monday night, the only thing that mattered was that exclusive membership in the Triple Gold Club, as the players reconnected with old teammates – like Peter Forsberg and Valeri Kamensky, and Nicklas Lidström and Igor Larionov – or exchanged a few words with their former idols – like Niklas Kronwall and the former Soviet stars, over some.

read on

Check out some interviiews from the players involved in the ceremony at NHL.com.

Filed in: NHL Talk, Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: IIHF,

Calm Down Canada

by Paul on 02/23/10 at 06:11 AM ET
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from the CP at CBC,

Steve Yzerman has a message for Canadian hockey fans: Take a deep breath.

While many across the country fret about the fortunes of Team Canada, the executive director remains calm and confident that the 23 men he chose to wear the maple leaf will get their act together in time to make a run at Olympic gold.

“They want to win and they really want to do well and things are taking a little bit of time to settle down,” Yzerman said Monday.

“In general, that’s been our history as a national team for some reason — it takes a little time to get going and get it figured out. We’ll continue to work at it ... I really feel our team has done a lot of things much better with each game.”

continued

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 Tags: Steve+Yzerman, Team+Canada,

Babcock Doesn’t Handle The Goalie Switch Well

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 10:53 PM ET
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from the Toronto Star (no writer mentioned),

Martin Brodeur doesn’t feel like he was lied to. Just blamed unfairly, and undoubtedly disrespected by head coach Mike Babcock.

Not only did Babcock call out Brodeur for his play in a 5-3 loss to the United States on Sunday, he then told Roberto Luongo he would be in goal for the qualification match against Germany a few hours after the game but waited to deliver the news to Brodeur, the winningest goalie in the history of the sport, until before practice on Monday.

Maybe you can never make these kind of momentous changes and keep everyone happy.

But Babcock didn’t really try.

So now he’s got to ride Luongo to the end of these Olympics….

Anytime Babcock has had success—1997 world juniors, 2002 Stanley Cup final with Anaheim, 2008 and ’09 Cup finals with Detroit—he has identified a starting goalie and rode him hard.

He didn’t pull Marc Denis in ’97 when that team struggled, or J.S. Giguere in ’02, or Chris Osgood in either of the past two playoff season.

more and someone forgot who the starting goalie for the Wings was in the 2008 playoffs (hint, it wasn’t Osgood)..

note 7:07am 2/23/10, The article is from Damiien Cox.

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 Tags: Mike+Babcock, Team+Canada,

Canadians Watching Hockey In Record Numbers

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 08:45 PM ET
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from Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star,

If Canada can’t get past Russia later this week, the consortium can say goodbye to a potential ratings bonanza. Sunday’s game against the United States, a loss that raised blood pressure across the land, was the most-watched sports program in Canadian history.

According to BBM Canada overnight ratings, the game was seen by an average of 10.6 million, more than the 10.3 million who watched the gold medal final on CBC at Salt Lake City in 2002. Sunday’s audience may be dwarfed by the number tuning in for Wednesday’s quarterfinal against Russia, assuming Canada gets past Germany on Tuesday.

Sunday’s average was 2.4 million more than what MSNBC averaged in the U.S. NBC took some heat from the U.S. press for not airing hockey on its main channel. Considering how good the game it was, they’re right.

more TV talk…

Filed in: NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting, Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Winter+Oiympics,

Evening Line

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 08:31 PM ET
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“Real excited. I think it’s going to be fun to play in front of the fans again. I had a great experience in my first game against Norway.  The support was unbelievable so obviously the stage is bigger. Tomorrow night I’m assuming it’s going to be a little louder.”

-Roberto Luongo of Team Canada after being told he will be starting in goal tomorrow.  More from Craig Custance of The Sporting News,

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 Tags: Roberto+Luongo, Team+Canada,

Ex-Pistons CEO Wilson Expected To Work For Ilitch Organization

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 07:29 PM ET
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via WXYZ.com,

Tom Wilson will soon work for llitch Holdings, sources tell Action News. Having resigned last week as president and CEO of the Pistons and their owner, Palace Sports and Entertainment, he now joins the company that owns the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings.

Wilson will be responsible for heading up all the talks surrouding a new stadium for the Detroit Red Wings. The move is right up Wilson’s alley considering he was involved in the building of the Palace in Auburn Hills.

He will report directly to Mike Ilitch. It is not yet known if Ken Holland and Dave Dombrowski will report to Wilson.

A press conference could be held as early as Tuesday.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Tom+Wilson,

No Decision Yet On Canada’s Starting Goaltender

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 07:11 PM ET
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from CBC Sports,

Mike Babcock says he’s not prepared to announce that Roberto Luongo will get the start in Tuesday’s qualification-round game at the Vancouver Olympics.

In an interview on Monday, Canada’s head coach told Vancouver radio station THE TEAM 1040 that he was not ready to make an announcement on which goalie will be in net for the crucial elimination game.

Earlier Monday, Yahoo! Sports reported that it was confirmed Luongo would replace Martin Brodeur, a report based on an unidentified source.

“All athletes, especially proud ones that have been successful many times, want to be good every single night, and sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want it,” Babcock told the station of Brodeur.

more

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 Tags: Team+Canada,

Remember The NHL?  Talking Playoff Bubble Teams

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 05:30 PM ET
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from Darren Eliot of Sports Illustrated, .

..in the Red Wings, Stars and Ducks, you’re looking at teams in transition despite their long playoff histories. Certainly the Wings are legitimate playoff contenders. They’re counting on their roster returning to health after the Olympics and, with that, a more robust offense. If Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom and Niklas Kronwall can all stay healthy, then the prospect of Detroit in the playoffs is much more probable. If the sparkling play of Brian Rafalski for Team USA should carry over, then the Wings’ once-vaunted power play will likely be another factor in Detroit’s improved play down the stretch..

The Stars’ situation is interesting in that they acquired goaltender Kari Lehtonen from Atlanta before the Olympics and the move seemed to spur incumbent Marty Turco. He backstopped successive wins before the break, stopping 73 of 74 shots, including a 45-save shutout at Phoenix.

Maybe the deal had nothing to do with Turco’s triumphs.

more including the teams for the East…

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Watching NBC & MSNBC

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 05:07 PM ET
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VANCOUVER – February 22, 2010 – NBCU’s Sunday Olympic broadcasts were seen by 87 million total viewers, the most viewers for any day so far for the Vancouver Games, 16 million more and 22 percent higher than the comparable Sunday from the 2006 Games (72 million), according to data available today from The Nielsen Company.

The primetime coverage on NBC and MSNBC that included figure skating’s original dance and alpine skiing’s men’s super combined on NBC and the USA-Canada hockey game on MSNBC had 69 million total viewers, the best viewership for the comparable Sunday night since the *tabloid-fueled Lillehammer Games (79 million).

*Fueled by the tabloid coverage of the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal.

8.2 MILLION AVERAGE VIEWERSHIP FOR WATCH USA-CANADA HOCKEY GAME ON MSNBC: An average audience of 8.22 million watched the USA hockey team defeat Canada, 5-3, nearly matching the best average viewership for a program on MSNBC. (Election Night Coverage, 8.23 million on Nov. 4, 2008).

★ The hockey game on MSNBC received a national household rating of 4.3, the third highest-rated program in MSNBC’s history behind the Democratic Presidential debate (2/26/08, 4.9 rating) and the analysis following the debate (4.4 rating).

Filed in: NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: NBC, Winter+Olympics,

Team USA Taking Care Of Business

by Paul on 02/22/10 at 04:54 PM ET
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from Larry Brooks of the NY Post,

No longer underdogs, no longer able to hide in the weeds following Sunday’s seminal triumph, the Yanks are off until Wednesday, when they will face the winner of tomorrow’s Switzerland-Belarus qualification match.

“I can’t say that I’m surprised at where we are and what we’ve been able to do,” said Drury, who has scored twice in three games while filling a variety of roles. “We came here with a lot of belief in ourselves. We came to take care of business.

more

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 Tags: Chris+Drury, Team+USA,

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