Hockey Thread

I lurk on HFBoards, and currently the Rangers are Stanley Cup competitors right behind Pittsburgh. That is unless they lose to Edmonton, at which point we might as well trade Callahan, Staal, Girardi, Stepan, Hagelin, and Zuccarello for picks because there's no way we'll ever compete with Vigneault as our coach. Gah, (young) hockey fans make me angry.



UPDATE:  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnd I was pretty much right.  They're calling for Callahan's head on a stick.

I do that with some of my favorite blogs.  I used to be a really active Devils blogger, so while I'm not nearly as immersed in hockey online as I used to be, I still have some pockets of opposing-team game threads that are just so delightfully schadenfreude-licious.  So if you're a bad person, I'm right there with you.  It's this shared assholery that can bring Rangers fans and Devils fans together.  (Actually, I frequently bristle at how other team's fans handle their rivalries, because I feel like if it's not the Devils/Rangers or Islanders/Rangers rivalries, it's just not quite as legit.  So that's another thing I feel we have in common -- New York area hockey fans know how to do rivalries right, dammit!)

I've been enjoying Vancouver's slide lately. Realignment has been so brutal for that team, and it makes me happy.

Well it looks like Team USA had an easy time with Slovakia.  Anyone here catch the game?  They opened the local hockey bar here in Houston at 6:30am this morning, but that's just crazy.

If you have NBCSN, you should be able to watch the Team USA games.  I wasn't expecting to be free this morning to watch the game, and when I realized that I had been free, it was too late, as I'd slept through the game.  I needed the rest though, and in pool play I'm most excited to see our game against Russia on Saturday morning (7:30 am Eastern Time).  I'd have liked to see the game against Slovakia though, if only because I'd have liked to see Carolina defensive first linemates Justin Faulk and Andrej Sekera go against each other.

I caught part of it this morning on CBC and then I just rewatched it on NBCSN. Jonathan Quick is a great goalie.

What a fucking game, so glad I woke my lazy ass up for it. I was jumping up and cheering like I used to do for Penguin games.

So I actually got to watch pretty much the whole game Great Satan vs Mother Russia on tv here, not having watched Ice Hockey before (hence, calling it Ice Hockey.)

Ice Hockey's a good game, and you can totally see the puck, it's real easy. Flows quite a bit - I like the fluid line changes, rather than pulling the whole game to a halt every 2 minutes (I like the play in the NBA, but that shit is terrible). It seemed power plays were the time to really try and score goals, so it seems a bit weird to a first-time viewer that teams would just seem to give them away like they do.

That disallowing of the third Russian goal seemed pedantic, but I see looking around other places that not only is that the rule, but it's the rule to also be completely pedantic about that rule in international ice hockey. Also, maybe the moorings should be better, it didn't seem to take much to get the goal unmoored.

I'd have to start paying for tv in the first place and then see what hockey is served up in the package, but I'd probably watch a bit if it was there. However, I feel there is a similarity between how Canadians feel about hockey and New Zealanders feel about rugby, so I'd probably have to support some Canadian team out of a We're Really Good At This One Sport, The Only One That Really Matters solidarity.

Please don't support Vancouver. Even though Torts is fun, their fans are so obnoxious. Definitely go for Toronto or Montreal.

Also, the NHL is a slower style of play than International hockey, so be aware of that.

I would give anything for the Olympic games to not come on at 5:30am. I LOVE Olympic hockey more than anything. I hate not being able to watch games live. But, I don't love it enough to get up at 5:30am. Well, maybe I would for the gold medal game.

I looked over the brackets earlier. It seems as though the USA and Russia are in different brackets and therefore could only play each other again in the gold medal match. I am pretty sure the sports media would have a meltdown if that happened.

The Leafs are so far past breaking hearts...like, even when they were beating Boston in that game 7 last year, you knew Boston was going to score 5 unanswered goals, right? It's just kind of expected at this point.

Also we've forgotten to mention the Senators, but I could never in good conscience suggest someone cheer for Ottawa.

Finland looks really good. I hate Russia for the most part but feel sad for my man Malkin. Not that he wasn't part of the problem.

Poor Tavares

I turned on the women's gold medal game with about 5 minutes left. It all went downhill from there, and fuck that puck that bounced off the post.

Amazing game, though. The US will exact revenge tomorrow.