| UPCOMING GAMES |
| NO SCHEDULED GAMES |
|
LAST 10 GAMES
|
| 4/27 |
FLA 5 at TBL 3 |
Lost |
F |
| 4/25 |
TBL 0 at BOS 2 |
Lost |
F |
| 4/24 |
TOR 2 at TBL 5 |
Won |
F |
| 4/21 |
CAR 3 at TBL 2 |
Lost |
F |
| 4/18 |
TBL 2 at MTL 3 |
Lost |
F |
| 4/16 |
TBL 3 at WPG 4 |
Lost |
SO |
| 4/14 |
TBL 1 at BUF 3 |
Lost |
F |
| 4/13 |
TBL 5 at WSH 6 |
Lost |
OT |
| 4/11 |
PIT 6 at TBL 3 |
Lost |
F |
| 4/9 |
OTT 2 at TBL 3 |
Won |
F |
| Won-2 Lost-6 OT-2 |
|
 Tampa Bay Lightning
News
Schedule
Roster
| Alain Vigneault fired by Canucks; who takes over the coaching gig in Vancouver? (Puck Daddy) |
| Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis didn’t mince words during his postseason press conference, calling the team’s 2012-13 campaign a “terrible season” after their ouster at the hands of the San Jose Sharks in Round 1.
"We’re going to have to reinvent ourselves and do things differently in order to be successful. The macro look at this team is that changes have to be made,” said Gillis.
On Wednesday, changes were made: According to Louis Jean of TVA, head coach Alain Vigneault and assistant coaches Rick Bowness and Newell Brown were all fired by Gillis in a massive house cleaning for the franchise.
It was later confirmed by the Canucks:
“We have made the very difficult decision to relieve Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Brown of their coaching duties today,” said Canucks President and General Manager, Michael D. Gillis. “Alain, Rick and Newell worked tirelessly to lead this team to great on-ice success. I am personally grateful to each of them and their families for their commitment to the Canucks and the city of Vancouver and wish them continued success in future.”
Vigneault coached the Canucks from 2006-2013, winning 313 games. He captured the Jack Adams in 2006-07, and coached Vancouver to the playoffs in six of those seasons, including that Stanley Cup Final loss to the Boston Bruins in seven games.
|
| Posted: 05/22/2013 |
| Jersey Fouls: Parros mustache foul; Alex Brovechkin; Jagr, Schenn Dead To Me sweaters (Puck Daddy) |
| Jersey Fouls is our ongoing exploration of the rules and etiquette for proper hockey jersey creation and exhibition. If you spot what you think may be a foul in your arena, email a photo to us at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com for inclusion in future installment.
Via reader Jenni comes this bro-tastic bro-dacious Jersey Bro, bro:
Seen at a Charlotte Checkers game, this guy was REALLY proud of his "BROVECHKIN" jersey, and asked me to take a picture of him (and the Nutcracker) with his own camera as well.
I can assure you, the Checkers were NOT playing the AHL affiliate of the Capitals... so that too, is a foul, in my opinion!
Your opinion is correct. This is a Russian nesting doll of Fouls.
(Also, it speaks to the power of the Foul that we didn’t even notice the albino cousin of Cookie Puss holding a bag of peanuts next to him.)
We were curious if “Brovechkin” was an actual thing, and not just Mike Green’s daily greeting to his captain. We discovered it has an Urban Dictionary entry:
“a bro who has dirty swag.”
That bro should probably find a Laundromat.
Anyhoo, there’s also “Brovechkin” gear available on sites like Bros Like These Shirts , in case you absolutely have the need to call attention to what a wide bro-cabulary you have. Vomit.
(Coming Up: A George Parros mustache Foul; a hideous Tampa sweater; Toronto Maple Leafs Tribute jersey; Detroit Red Wings hate Frankenjersey; another Caps Foul; Revisionist Sweaters; and a rather crude ‘69’ jersey.)
|
| Posted: 05/21/2013 |
| 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 |
| Unsung Hero: Cory Conacher, Ottawa Senators agitator and playoff scorer (Puck Daddy) |
| Cory Conacher has lived two NHL lives this season.
He played 35 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, scoring 24 points and counted among the Calder Trophy candidates for most of 2013.
But at the trade deadline, he was dealt to the Ottawa Senators in a multi-player deal that had goalie Ben Bishop going back to Tampa. He scored two goals in 12 games, and was no longer in the rookie of the year race.
Yet while the Lightning failed to make the playoff cut, the Senators are a second-round playoff team – and Conacher has been an unsung hero for them. |
| Posted: 05/17/2013 |
| Lady Byng Finalists: Patrick Kane vs. Matt Moulson vs. Marty St. Louis (Puck Daddy) |
| The NHL announced the finalists for the Lady Byng Trophy on Thursday, as right wing Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, left wing Matt Moulson of the New York Islanders and right wing Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning are up for the award given “to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability” as voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
This is the award given to the highest scorer with the fewest penalty minutes, or at least that’s the way it’s seemed for the last few seasons. As you all remember, defenseman Brian Campbell -- more on that in a second -- won the Lady Byng in 2011-12; alas, he had an elephantine 12 penalty minutes this season, so no repeat.
It’s a fairly worthless award, although Adam Proteau of The Hockey News made an interesting case on XM Radio the other day: That being a player who takes punishment but doesn’t take penalties in retaliation is a unique brand of toughness for an otherwise delicate award.
Of course, that speaks directly to why defenseman should be up for this award every season, and yet Campbell was the first D-man to win since 1954. But we digress …
Who wins the Byng this season? |
| Posted: 05/16/2013 |
| Kane, Moulson, St. Louis finalists for Lady Byng Trophy (The SportsXchange) |
| Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, Matt Moulson of the New York Islanders and Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning are the finalists for the 2013 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, awarded "to the player judged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." |
| Posted: 05/16/2013 |
| Eulogy: Remembering the 2012-13 Washington Capitals (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 Puck Daddy’s own Ryan Lambert , fondly recalling the Washington Capitals . Again: This is a roast and you will be offended by it , so don't take it so seriously.)
We are gathered here today to mourn not only the loss of the Washington Capitals, but also the loss of their chances of reasonably competing for a Stanley Cup any time in even the relatively near future.
You tend to hear a lot of talk about how one team or another has a "window" in which they can reasonably win the Stanley Cup. San Jose, for example, has had its window open and close so many times — by the media's reckoning — that Doug Wilson finally installed a revolving door to save on energy.
Another team for whom we hear entirely too much about their "window" is the Washington Capitals.
But the thing about that is if it was open at all any more (and frankly, it probably wasn't), it was open in the way that smokers crack their window on the highway, and that horrible high-pitched sound of wind rushing in so loud that you can't hear the radio any more was the voice of a thousand Alex Ovechkin apologists who wanted nothing more than for that incredible back half of the season to once again be reality, rather than outlier.
Just as death is inevitable, so too was this result; the kind of slow, heavy train you could feel coming miles away if you touched your hand to the track, its whistle a deep and mournful cry carried to you by the wind.
Of course the Capitals were going to trip in the first round. It couldn't happen any other way. Because, with the Capitals goes the Southeast Division, and nothing in the history of hockey has ever been more fitting than the last-ever champion of the worst division in the history of professional sports than losing at home to a six-seed that finished the regular season with one fewer point.
|
| Posted: 05/14/2013 |
| 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 |
| Ted Lindsay Award Finalists: Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin vs. Martin St. Louis (Puck Daddy) |
| The NHLPA on Thursday announced the finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, as center Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, right wing Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and right wing Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning are up for the award presented annually to the “Most Outstanding Player” in the NHL, as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA.
Huzzah! The Ovechkin/Crosby rivalry is reignited, if only for a shortened season!
All three players have won this award previously – Crosby and St. Louis won the Pearson, Ovechkin won both the Pearson and the Lindsay. So did Markus Naslund, which still trips us out.
Who wins the Lindsay? |
| Posted: 05/09/2013 |
Yahoo!Sports
|
| GAME STATS |
|
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
| HOME |
24 |
12 |
10 |
2 |
| AWAY |
24 |
6 |
16 |
2 |
| TOTAL |
48 |
18 |
26 |
4 |
| MAY STATS |
|
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
| HOME |
|
|
|
|
| AWAY |
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| SOUTHEAST DIVISION |
| Team |
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
PTS |
GF |
GA |
| WSH |
48 |
27 |
18 |
3 |
57 |
149 |
130 |
| WPG |
48 |
24 |
21 |
3 |
51 |
128 |
144 |
| CAR |
48 |
19 |
25 |
4 |
42 |
128 |
160 |
| TBL |
48 |
18 |
26 |
4 |
40 |
148 |
150 |
| FLA |
48 |
15 |
27 |
6 |
36 |
112 |
171 |
| EASTERN CONFERENCE |
| Team |
GP |
W |
L |
OT |
DF |
PTS |
| 1. PIT* |
48 |
36 |
12 |
0 |
46 |
72 |
| 2. MTL* |
48 |
29 |
14 |
5 |
23 |
63 |
| 3. WSH* |
48 |
27 |
18 |
3 |
19 |
57 |
| 4. BOS |
48 |
28 |
14 |
6 |
22 |
62 |
| 5. TOR |
48 |
26 |
17 |
5 |
12 |
57 |
| 6. NYR |
48 |
26 |
18 |
4 |
18 |
56 |
| 7. OTT |
48 |
25 |
17 |
6 |
12 |
56 |
| 8. NYI |
48 |
24 |
17 |
7 |
0 |
55 |
| 9. WPG |
48 |
24 |
21 |
3 |
-16 |
51 |
| 10. PHI |
48 |
23 |
22 |
3 |
-8 |
49 |
| 11. BUF |
48 |
21 |
21 |
6 |
-18 |
48 |
| 12. NJD |
48 |
19 |
19 |
10 |
-17 |
48 |
| 13. CAR |
48 |
19 |
25 |
4 |
-32 |
42 |
| 14. TBL |
48 |
18 |
26 |
4 |
-2 |
40 |
| 15. FLA |
48 |
15 |
27 |
6 |
-59 |
36 |
|
