| UPCOMING GAMES |
| NO SCHEDULED GAMES |
|
LAST 10 GAMES
|
| 5/10 |
STL 1 at LAK 2 |
Lost |
F |
| 5/8 |
LAK 3 at STL 2 |
Lost |
OT |
| 5/6 |
STL 3 at LAK 4 |
Lost |
F |
| 5/4 |
STL 0 at LAK 1 |
Lost |
F |
| 5/2 |
LAK 1 at STL 2 |
Won |
F |
| 4/30 |
LAK 1 at STL 2 |
Won |
OT |
| 4/27 |
CHI 1 at STL 3 |
Won |
F |
| 4/25 |
CGY 1 at STL 4 |
Won |
F |
| 4/23 |
COL 1 at STL 3 |
Won |
F |
| 4/21 |
STL 3 at COL 5 |
Lost |
F |
| Won-5 Lost-4 OT-1 |
|
 St. Louis Blues
News
Schedule
Roster
| Mikhail Grabovski on biting Max Pacioretty; his disappointing Leafs postseason; losing Game 7 (Puck Daddy interview) (Puck Daddy) |
| As impressive as the Toronto Maple Leafs were in their playoff series against the Boston Bruins, Mikhail Grabovski had a different experience. The forward had just two assists and was a minus-10 for the Leafs – a performance that came after a 9-goal, 7-assist one in 48 games this season.
I spoke with Grabovski about the Leafs’ playoff run; whether Game 7 was his worst loss of his career; his season under coach Randy Carlyle; his Datsyukian goal attempt; his incident with Max Pacioretty; and what the future holds.
Q. Let’s start with a couple of thoughts about the season.
GRABOVSKI: “The season turned to be positive overall. I wouldn’t say it was the best one for me or very successful, but it was certainly interesting, I gained a lot of experience.”
Yet it ended in a big disappointment. If you were asked to describe what happened in a few words, what would you say?
“I would say… You know, it is so difficult to describe it, very difficult to talk about it. It left a very bad feeling. But it was still an experience. It showed that as a team we are not yet ready to compete for the Stanley Cup. At the same time, we are almost there.” |
| Posted: 05/20/2013 |
| What We Learned: Complaining about NHL officiating? Time to fine these sore losers (Puck Daddy) |
| Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.
No one is ever going to be totally happy with the ways in which the NHL's referees or officials make their decisions. We can all agree on that.
If there's a game in which neither team is whistled for a penalty, both will likely complain that the refs missed calls on the other. If there's a game in which both teams receive 10 power plays, both will complain that the referees were overly harsh in doling out discipline. No one is ever especially happy with calls that go in between those two extremes, either, because unless you win, you aren't happy. And sometimes, even when you do win, you aren't happy.
It's tough to know what, exactly, brought all this to a head in these playoffs. Alex Ovechkin complaining about a league-wide conspiracy in Game 6 after the end of Game 7; Jonathan Toews stamping his feet when his team got clobbered on home ice by its archrival; Sidney Crosby saying the league needs to institute video review for puck-over-the-glass calls; Jonathan Quick abusing officials because the Kings gave the Sharks a two-man advantage in overtime.
Doesn't it strike anyone as being a bit much?
No one likes to lose in October, let alone in the second round of the playoffs, and you might even say that the refs have made a bit of a spectacle of themselves in the last few games. The best thing a ref can do, the old saying goes, is not be noticeable, and things have admittedly gotten a bit out of hand in some instances.
But nonetheless, can you imagine the eye-rolling or outright mockery in Chicago if Henrik Zetterberg had said the same things Toews did after they got creamed in Game 1? Or the uproar if Ryan Callahan of the lionized New York Rangers had complained about a conspiracy to push the series longer? Or the furor if Joe Thornton had done what Quick did after the Sharks gave up a similar late-game 5-on-3 advantage that allowed the Kings to tie Game 1?
What it boils down to is being a sore loser. |
| Posted: 05/20/2013 |
| Kings 2, Sharks 0 (The SportsXchange) |
| LOS ANGELES -- Before Tuesday, the Los Angeles Kings hadn't enjoyed home-ice advantage in a playoff series in more than 20 years. |
| Posted: 05/14/2013 |
| Puck Daddy’s 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2 staff prognostications (Puck Daddy) |
| In which your friends at Puck Daddy attempt to pick the winners of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Our first-round picks are here.
Greg Wyshynski, Editor
Penguins in 6
Rangers in 6
The Penguins’ goaltending situation scares the bejesus out of me. So does Craig Anderson’s goalie prowess. So does the fact that Ottawa is one of those teams piling up compelling storylines – Karlsson’s comeback, Spezza’s potential one, Paul MacLean-as-walrus, a ton of unsung heroes – that sometimes lead to a team of destiny vibe. But the Penguins are too good and too deep to lose this series.
The Rangers and Bruins is going to be a slobber-knocker. I give the Rangers the advantage in goal with Lundqvist and their scoring depth is a bit better than expected. That said, it’s time for Nash to become a force, and I think this is the spot for it. The Bruins were exposed a bit in the Leafs series, miracle comeback be damned.
Blackhawks in 6
Sharks in 7
If Detroit plays as it did in Game 7 against the Ducks, this is going to be a very tight series. But I think Chicago knows it played average hockey against the Wild and will course correct. Plus, they’ll exploit the Wings’ defense in ways the Ducks did not.
The Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are the series of the semifinals. Two teams at the top of their games. Can the Sharks crack the Kings’ defense? Can the Kings solve a locked-in Antti Niemi. This could be a classic, but in the end, it’s the Sharks. Who seem like a team of desti … I can’t even finish that yet. |
| Posted: 05/14/2013 |
| NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Preview: Round 2 (The Hockey News) |
| The first round did not disappoint thrill-seekers as it was full of overtimes, last-minute comebacks and epic collapses. But while there were a couple of upsets - as there are every first round - the top two seeds in the league and heavy Cup favorites are still alive |
| Posted: 05/13/2013 |
| NHL-National Hockey League roundup (Reuters) |
| May 13 (The Sports Xchange) - Former NHL coach Mike Keenan signed a contract to coach in Russia. Keenan, currently an analyst for the MSG Network, announced via Twitter from the Ural Mountains on Monday morning that he will coach Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. Keenan coached the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames from 1984-2009. He won a Stanley Cup during his one season with the Rangers in 1994. ... |
| Posted: 05/13/2013 |
| Watch Matthew Perry’s super-squirmy chat during LA Kings game after ‘Go On’ is cancelled (Video) (Puck Daddy) |
| Matthew Perry is a big Los Angeles Kings fan, so their Game 6 victory over the St. Louis Blues was a joyous occasion. OK, somewhat joyous: Earlier on Friday, Perry’s NBC sitcom “Go On” (or according to Ryan Lochte , “GOON”) was cancelled after one season.
So the Kings game might have been a nice escape from this professional strife for the former “Friend” … save for FOX Sports reporter Dan Moriarty’s super-awkward interview with Perry, as he congratulates him for the cancellation.
Er … uh … so, we’ll just go ahead and assume that Moriarty and Perry are cool enough where he’s able to crack a joke like this without being a heartless jerk.
But for this potential faux pas, we sentence him to a weekend watching “Mr. Sunshine” and “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” box sets. Assuming they exist.
s/t Awful Announcing |
| Posted: 05/13/2013 |
| Mike Keenan will coach Metallurg Magnitogorsk, according to hilariously intense KHL video (Puck Daddy) |
| Legendary NHL coach Mike Keenan has signed a 2-year contract to coach Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. We’ll just go ahead and assume it’s to launch a thousand “Iron Curtain Mike” jokes.
From Metallurg’s press release, about the “Canadian Specialist”:
May 13 an agreement was signed between Magnitogorsk "Metallurg" and the Canadian specialist Mike Keenan. The agreement is for two years.
Mike Keenan was born in October 21, 1949 in Baumanvill, Ontario, Canada.
A professional hockey player. From season 1979/80 years starting coaching.
Since the season 1984/85 started working as a head coach in the National Hockey League, coached eight teams: Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames.
In 1987 and 1991, the position of head coach national team Canada wins Canada Cup. With the club New York Rangers Mike Keenan won the Stanley Cup in 1993/94, in addition, three went to the finals of the NHL playoffs.
The team announced Keenan’s hiring with the single greatest introduction video we’ve ever seen:
OK, second-greatest, behind this one .
Keenan isn’t the first North American coach to take over Metallurg. Dave King coached them from 2005-06, and Paul Maurice was the team’s coach last season.
Now comes the most difficult part for the KHL team: Hiring a translator that can capture Keenan’s unique brand of whimsy, and meeting Jeremy Roenick’s asking price when he comes out of retirement to play for Keenan again (we assume).
|
| Posted: 05/13/2013 |
| What We Learned: Pittsburgh Penguins have to get rid of Marc-Andre Fleury (Puck Daddy) |
|
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.
One of the things people said constantly throughout the Pittsburgh Penguins' six-game series victory over the New York Islanders was that their play was well below the expected level of quality.
In fact, the most common refrain was that this particular brand of awful play -- rife with defensive irresponsibility and baffling lack of execution for a team that was pretty much incredible from start to finish this year -- was probably only good enough to get them past a try-hard pretender like the Islanders.
Against a real team, it was generally agreed, this kind of play would result in them losing the series in short order, probably pretty badly.
But that kind of talk ignores two things. First, we were told repeatedly by just about everyone that if there was any team the Penguins, not exactly fleet-of-foot, didn't want to take on in the playoffs, it was these New York Islanders. And yeah, they had their hands full throughout, but still never really looked to be in all that much trouble; the scores were close, yes, but they still only needed six games to put these guys out of their misery.
Second, and more important, is that — lo and behold — the second they took Marc-Andre Fleury out of the crease, they won both games. That's not to say that Tomas Vokoun really won them either game, because he didn't. He posted a shutout in Game 5 because almost any goaltender in the world (with at least one notable exception) would have, but he was also victimized on occasion by the bad defensive work that didn't help Fleury much either.
But the fact of the matter is that if you have pretensions of winning a Stanley Cup, your goaltender has to at least be league-average. The Penguins, with their galaxy of stars and excellent coach and top-quality GM, have that goal. They do not have that goaltender. People will argue that Fleury is a winner, insofar as he won a Stanley Cup. Four years ago. Since that postseason, when he posted just a .908 save percentage and a not-good 2.61 GAA, his save percentage has crept above .899 precisely zero times. This year, when he gave up 14 goals on 128 shots in four games before Bylsma dead-bolted the door to the doghouse from the outside.
Or at least, he should; there's only so many times an entire team can roll its eyes and think, "Oh no, not again," like a pot of petunias, before it's the only reasonable course of action.
I don't know how much longer we need to suffer through the narrative that Fleury is any good at all before it crumbles to sand and is scattered by the wind. That is, if it hasn't done so already behind save attempts like this and this and most notably this .
I mean, look, the fact of the matter is that apart from one good playoff run five years ago in which he fell a game short of winning the Stanley Cup for that not-quite-ready Penguins team, he has always been sub-average, and now things are getting markedly worse .
|
| Posted: 05/13/2013 |
| Eulogy: Remembering the 2012-13 St. Louis Blues (Puck Daddy) |
| (Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The bloggers who hated them the most . Here is Los Angeles Kings blogger The Royal Hal f, fondly recalling the St. Louis Blues. Again, this was not written by us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.)
By The Royal Half
It's been said that you have to know the past in order to understand the present. And for the 2012-13 St. Louis Blues, this has never been more true. The Blues entered the NHL as part of the 1st wave of expansion in 1967 when the league doubled the number of teams from the Original Six. (Not to be confused with NBC Sports' Original Two .)
Boy, they sure played the game differently back then.
This is not a visual representation of NHL expansion in 1967 but rather the total amount of goals the Blues scored against the LA Kings in the 1st Round of 2013.
Truthfully, the St. Louis Blues only came into existence in the NHL because the father of one of the worst human beings of all time , Chicago Blackhawks owner Arthur Wirtz, needed to get rid of an old, neglected and run-down structure in St. Louis. At the time, little did the NHL know that "old, neglected and run-down" would not only become a symbol for the fate of the Blues franchise... but also for the city of St. Louis itself!
Never change, St. Louis. Never change.
|
| Posted: 05/12/2013 |
| NHL-Unpredictable Penner again comes up big for Kings (Reuters) |
| By Mark Lamport-Stokes LOS ANGELES, May 11 (Reuters) - Left wing Dustin Penner has made a habit of coming up with the crucial play at the best possible time, even though his National Hockey League career has endured more ups and downs than a runaway roller-coaster. He has scaled giddy heights with the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, and enjoyed a fair measure of success with the Edmonton Oilers, but he has also plunged forgettable depths in his seven NHL seasons. Yet the burly 30-year-old Canadian can never be overlooked - whether by his team mates or his opponents. ... |
| Posted: 05/11/2013 |
Yahoo!Sports
|
| GAME STATS |
|
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
| HOME |
27 |
17 |
8 |
2 |
| AWAY |
27 |
14 |
12 |
1 |
| TOTAL |
54 |
31 |
20 |
3 |
| MAY STATS |
|
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
| HOME |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| AWAY |
3 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
| TOTAL |
5 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
| CENTRAL DIVISION |
| Team |
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
PTS |
GF |
GA |
| CHI |
48 |
36 |
7 |
5 |
77 |
155 |
102 |
| STL |
48 |
29 |
17 |
2 |
60 |
129 |
115 |
| DET |
48 |
24 |
16 |
8 |
56 |
124 |
115 |
| CBJ |
48 |
24 |
17 |
7 |
55 |
120 |
119 |
| NSH |
48 |
16 |
23 |
9 |
41 |
111 |
139 |
| WESTERN CONFERENCE |
| Team |
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
DF |
PTS |
| 1. CHI* |
48 |
36 |
7 |
5 |
53 |
77 |
| 2. ANA* |
48 |
30 |
12 |
6 |
22 |
66 |
| 3. VAN* |
48 |
26 |
15 |
7 |
6 |
59 |
| 4. STL |
48 |
29 |
17 |
2 |
14 |
60 |
| 5. LAK |
48 |
27 |
16 |
5 |
15 |
59 |
| 6. SJS |
48 |
25 |
16 |
7 |
8 |
57 |
| 7. DET |
48 |
24 |
16 |
8 |
9 |
56 |
| 8. MIN |
48 |
26 |
19 |
3 |
-5 |
55 |
| 9. CBJ |
48 |
24 |
17 |
7 |
1 |
55 |
| 10. PHX |
48 |
21 |
18 |
9 |
-6 |
51 |
| 11. DAL |
48 |
22 |
22 |
4 |
-12 |
48 |
| 12. EDM |
48 |
19 |
22 |
7 |
-9 |
45 |
| 13. CGY |
48 |
19 |
25 |
4 |
-32 |
42 |
| 14. NSH |
48 |
16 |
23 |
9 |
-28 |
41 |
| 15. COL |
48 |
16 |
25 |
7 |
-36 |
39 |
|
