Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Key Matchup In The Stanley Cup Final

by Paul on 05/26/12 at 12:37 PM ET
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from Pierre LeBrun and Scott Burnside of ESPN,

Devils centers vs. Kings’ dynamic depth down the middle: The Kings have won the center battle throughout the playoffs against Vancouver, St. Louis and Phoenix, and it’s a big reason for their success. Kopitar and Richards are a dynamic 1-2 punch down the middle but don’t forget the veteran Stoll, who has provided clutch two-way hockey as the team’s No. 3 center. The Devils will counter with a group of lesser-known pivots but let’s not underestimate the work done by Travis Zajac this spring. He lost most of the regular season to injury but his seven goals are one off the playoff lead. He will center the Devils’ top line and could see a lot of Richards as a result. Adam Henrique, the overtime hero in Game 6 of the conference finals, might be the key to this matchup. A Calder Trophy nominee as rookie of the year, he played the last part of the conference finals with Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias, and DeBoer said the only time he has seen Henrique nervous was playing cards with Kovalchuk. And then there’s Josefson, whose return to the lineup in Game 4 of the conference finals coincided with a Devils revival. Speaking of centers, the Devils rank last of all 16 postseason teams in faceoff percentage.

read on as LeBrun and Burnside break down the series and make their predictions…

Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

No Longer A Dream For Kings Fans

by Paul on 05/26/12 at 12:14 PM ET
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from John Horn of the LA Times,

Sheri Patko plans to visit her father’s grave in Costa Mesa and thank him for introducing her to the sport. Charles Kinninger aims to fly with his family from Guadalajara to Los Angeles to witness history. And Blake Kidder might get a tattoo memorializing the unprecedented event.

Los Angeles Kings fans have endured 45 seasons without ever winning a championship. While that futility can’t match the drought baseball’s Chicago Cubs have experienced, hockey supporters finally believe that the Kings’ turn has arrived. The prospects of a first-ever Stanley Cup now have the team’s longest-suffering fans struggling to come to terms with how redemptive, if not still incomprehensible, a championship could be.

Like North Korean rocket scientists who keep trying despite years of failed launches, wary Kings fans hope for success but fear that the object of their affection will go down in flames. In a city where the Lakers and the Dodgers are expected to triumph and often have, the Kings at best have shown occasional flashes of mediocrity. But hard-core fans remain hopelessly loyal.

“It feels like you’re in a dream, that you’re waiting to wake up, that somebody is playing a trick on you,” said Kidder, 34, who works in advertising and recently relocated to Boston from Los Angeles. She became a Kings fan when she was 12.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Low Seed Meets Lower Seed

by Paul on 05/26/12 at 08:56 AM ET
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from Kirk Penton of the Winnipeg Sun,

Congratulations, everybody! We have the worst Stanley Cup final in more than 20 years!

That’s only technically speaking, of course, as New Jersey and Los Angeles should be solid entertainment.

But when the Devils beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime on Friday night to set up a date with the Kings, it meant the ninth and 13th overall teams from the regular season will battle it out for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s mug.

New Jersey was ninth overall and the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, while the Kings were 13th overall and eighth in the Western Conference. Their regular-season placings total 22. The only higher sum was in 1991, when the No. 7 Pittsburgh Penguins beat the No. 16 Minnesota North Stars.

In fact, not since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1980 has the better seed among the finalists been as low as No. 9 overall.

continue for some playoff notes…

Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Morning Lines

by Paul on 05/26/12 at 08:38 AM ET
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“We’ve won three Stanley Cups since then, but winning against them on the big stage is not just for me, but for the fans of New Jersey who’ve always taken the second seat,” Brodeur said. “They’re going to be pretty happy, going to work, going to school.

“We made a lot of people really happy by beating them.”

-Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils.

“There’s only one guy that likes beating the Rangers more than Marty, and that’s Lou [Lamoriello, the GM].”  Hey, these guys have been through this rivalry for 20 years.”

-Pete DeBoer, head coach of the Devils.

More from Marc Everson of the NY Post.

Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Martin+Brodeur, Pete+DeBoer,

Video- The Relationship Between Brodeur And Kovalchuk

by Paul on 05/25/12 at 11:28 PM ET
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In his Inside Hockey segment on HNIC, Elliotte Friedman takes a look at the relationship between the two stars.

Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Ilya+Kovalchuk, Martin+Brodeur,

Video- “Lof Of Good Guys In Hockey”

by Paul on 05/25/12 at 11:02 PM ET
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So says Donald Trump in this short interview with Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada.

Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Donald+Trump,

It Will Be The New Jersey Devils Against The Los Angeles Kings In The 2012 Stanley Cup Final

by Paul on 05/25/12 at 10:52 PM ET
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The Devils’ Adam Henrique scores early in OT to defeat the New York Rangers 3-2.

The game was almost a repeat of game 5, Devils take an early lead only to see the Rangers tie it up.

Same thing tonight but this time the Devils score in OT.

added 10:58pm, Watch the Henrique OT goal.

added 11:06pm, Video of the traditional handshake line can be viewed below…

added 11:15pm, Second video below contains game highlights…

Continue Reading »

Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Noggin Talk

by Paul on 05/25/12 at 10:25 PM ET
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from Greg McArthur and Lisa Priest of the Globe and Mail,

Next week, a group of businessmen and a podiatrist will unveil, at the Hockey Hall of Fame, what has been dubbed a “revolutionary” step in the protection of athletes’ heads – the noggin, a form-fitting black skull cap outfitted with cushioning gel packs that athletes can wear under their helmets….

But one word not likely to be uttered at Tuesday’s press conference is “concussion” – even though the company previously claimed in promotional material that wearing the $29 polyester and spandex cap under a helmet “significantly reduces the chance of concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries.”

The noggin, some neurologists and biomechanical engineers say, is the latest example of an overhyped attempt to solve hockey’s concussion epidemic with protective equipment – a trend preying on parents’ worst fears.

read on

Here’s the website for the Noggin if you want additional information.

Filed in: Hockey Equipment | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Video- Coach’s Corner Tonight

by Paul on 05/25/12 at 09:55 PM ET
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Don Cherry discussed the Rangers’ defensive play, the Drew Doughty OT incident and Shane Doan.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting, CBC HNIC | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Should We Start To Panic?

by Paul on 05/25/12 at 09:22 PM ET
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from Rick Westhead of the Toronto Star,

Don Fehr has spent much of the past year delivering his warning to the NHL’s 700 players: Prepare yourselves, a storm is brewing….

Fehr says bargaining with the NHL should begin over the next few weeks and while he is cryptic about what he is telling players about the coming labour battle — “I’m acquainting the players with what I think the issues are likely to be,” is how he puts it — others are more plain-spoken about what’s being said.

“His message to players is that NHL owners are going to come at us with Ginsu knives on the end of samurai swords,” says Mike Liut, the former NHL goalie who is now a player agent. “The owners are going to come hard and if the players don’t put their hands up, they will end up decapitated.”...

Fehr says Bettman enters negotiations on a confident footing. In most labour impasses, workers risk wages and job security, while management risks revenue and market share, Fehr says.

“If (General Motors) shuts down, people buy Fords,” he says. “They don’t all come back.”

But Fehr says Bettman was quoted at a recent sports business conference saying that the NHL’s revenue was the same the season after the 2004-05 lockout as it was the season before.

“The problem is the (NHL) owners believe they have a complete monopoly, so they don’t believe they lose market share at all (and) it doesn’t matter how long they shut down the business,” Fehr says.

more

Filed in: NHL Talk, NHLPA | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Donald+Fehr,

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