Off Wing Opinion

In Montreal, Daniel Alfredsson scored twice to help the Senators beat Montreal 4-2. Filling in for Dominik Hasek, Ottawa's Ray Emery had 27 saves to help keep the Senators undefeated. The loss was the first of the season for the Habs.

In Toronto, the Maple Leafs got third period goals from Jeff O'Neill and Eric Lindros in a 4-2 victory over Philadelphia. Mikael Tellqvist had 31 saves for Toronto.

The Blues got their first victory of the season, a 4-1 win over Chicago. Patrick Lalime had 32 saves. Despite being 1-3, the Blues are third in the league in scoring. In Dallas, Antti Miettnen and Jussi Jokinen scored, but Jere Lehtinen curiously did not, in a 3-2 Stars win over Phoenix.

Edmonton fell from the ranks of the unbeaten after a 3-1 loss to the Kings in LA. Shawn Horcoff, off to a hot start, assisted on Edmonton's only goal by Mark-Andre Bergeron. Horcoff has three goals and three assists in four games so far this season.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 6:52 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

After getting pounded by the Thrashers by a combined score of 15-4 over the weekend, the Capitals bounced back and grabbed a 3-2 home victory over the visiting New York Rangers. Alex Ovechkin had the game winning goal, his third score in just four games so far this season. Petr Sykora and Steve Eminger also tallied for Washington, as Olie Kolzig posted 30 saves in the win. Jaromir Jagr scored his third goal of the season for New York. HDH at Hockeybird is feeling the pain.

Though the announced attendance was 10,760, very large swaths of empty seats were visible throughout the arena. For more local color, check out the indispensible japers' Rink.

In yesterday's other matinee, Florida downed the Islanders in scenic Uniondale, 3-1. Roberto Luongo, who had 29 saves for Las Panteras, made his biggest stop in the third period when he turned aside a penalty shot attempt by Miro Satan with the Islanders trailing 2-1. After making the stop, Luongo put an exclamation point on the save by swatting the puck out of the air with his stick one-handed.

In Buffalo, the Sabres kept Pittsburgh winless when Jochen Hecht scored with 21 seconds left in OT for a 3-2 win. And thanks to Mike Emrick of OLN for passing along the news that despite signing enough players to fill the roster of the 1997 All-Star Team, the Pens are still $8 million under the cap. And I have neglected to mention that my friend Jes Golbez has decided to trail Sid Crosby all season long with yet another blog.

As for OLN, Kukla's Corner has detected some decidedly Soviet-style airbrushing of history. Here's a solution free to the folks of OLN -- just fix the problem.

The game of the night was in bucolic Kanata, as the Sens edged Toronto 6-5 after a shootout, marking the second time they've beaten the Leafs this season after regulation. Once again, Toronto failed to score on Dominik Hasek in the shootout, this after beating him five times in regulation. Jason Spezza scored twice in regulation, while Dany Heatly scored the only goal Ottawa would need in the shootout.

In Tampa, Boston edged the Lightning 4-2 on third period goals by Travis Green and Brad Isbister. Brian Leetch scored his first goal of the season for Boston, and Andrew Raycroft had 26 saves. In Detroit, Anson Carter scored his first goal of the season to help Vancouver to a 4-2 win over the Red Wings. Henrik Sedin had a goal and two assists and Alex Auld had 28 saves for the Canucks. Meanwhile, Jim Mirtle is thinking about Todd Bertuzzi.

In Colorado, Marek Svatos had a hat trick for the Avalanche in their 7-3 drubbing of Calgary. Tony Amonte scored twice for the Flames, while rookie Dion Phaneuf scored his first career NHL goal. Despite the loss, Matt of The Battle of Alberta has found a silver lining.

And finally, in the OC, Edmonton went to 3-0 on the season with a 4-2 win over the Ducks. Raffi Torres, who Islanders GM Mike Milbury traded to Edmonton, scored twice for the Oilers, bringing his season total to four. Jussi Markkanen had 31 saves in the win, his second in a row.

Not content to bask in his team's hot start, Mike of Covered in Oil has had his thoughts turn to the East:

I think I got my hate back for the Leafs, remembering the whiney, ubiquitous nature of Toronto media and their team. With their loss tonight, I'm certain we'll see a rash of commentary on whether the shootout is "a good way to end the game" the same way we've seen national, roundtable discussions on high sticking or visors the second one of their players gets hurt. Meanwhile, their team sucks.

Ahhh, nothing like some gratuitous Leafs-bashing to start the week out right! Elsewhere, Hockey Leaks is very giddy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 11th, 2005 at 6:39 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov both tallied a goal and an assits as the Kings beat the Coyotes 3-2 in LA's home opener. But the big news was the lineup mistake Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky made in only his second game behind the bench:

Phoenix right wing Fredrik Sjostrom took the ice at the start of the game despite being listed as a scratch.

Kings coach Andy Murray realized the mistake and even double-checked the rule book. Ever gracious, he planned to keep quiet unless Phoenix scored with Sjostrom on the ice, which would have nullified the goal.

But the Kings' stat crew noticed Sjostrom and alerted referees, who ruled Sjostrom ineligible for the rest of the game. Phoenix center Petr Nedved was the actual scratch, but he was listed as being available.

A subdued Gretzky called it an oversight that was "just inexcusable."

"It's my responsibility," he said. "It just was utter nonsense that it happened and I feel bad for Freddie and I feel bad for the team. It happened and it won't happen again."

But as reader Jay Kumar points out, Gretzky wasn't the first head coach to commit such a gaffe. The night before, Grant Kerr of the Globe and Mail got Gretzky to give the new version of the NHL a thmubs up:

"It was a great hockey atmosphere, as good as any I've seen in a long time," Gretzky said. "[In] this new game and new system, you've got to be able to skate. If you can't skate, you can't [play] at this level."

In St. Louis, the Red Wings completed a home-and-home sweep of the Blues with a 4-3 win. Manny Legace had 23 saves for Detroit, and Brendan Shanahan got his first goal of the season. Doug Weight had a goal and an assist for St. Louis.

And in New York, Michael Ryder scored twice, including the game winner in OT to give Montreal a 4-3 win over the Rangers. Montreal's Jose Theodore faced only 19 shots to get the victory.

If you're interested in persisting labor questions, check out this TSN feature on NHLPA escrow payments (zzzz).

In other off-ice news, average tickets prices are down league-wide:

In a bid to lure back fans, average ticket prices for the 2005-06 National Hockey League season are lower than they were before a lockout eliminated last season's games, accroding to a marketing survey report from Chicago Wednesday.

The average ticket price for NHL games has fallen 7.5 percent from the 2003-2004 season to 41.19 US dollars, with two-thirds of the 30 teams dropping prices.

These NHL price reductions are the first in 12 years, according to Team Marketing Report, a sports marketing firm that performs cost surveys.

The Detroit Red Wings, a perennial NHL power who have some of the league's highest ticket prices, dropped their average ticket cost nearly $14 to $43.13, the report said.

The initial reports seem to indicate that the league got off to a great start on Wednesday:

The league emerged from the lockout that wiped out the 2004-'05 season Wednesday with all 30 teams in action on the same night for the first time ever.

And what the record total of 275,447 spectators in the 15 arenas and record television audiences saw was goals, power plays and some gutsy calls from officials, who this season have been ordered to crack down obstruction fouls.

''I saw courage last night,'' Stephen Walkom, the NHL director of officials, said Thursday of the referees. ''There were calls that haven't been made in 25 years.''

The result, for the most part, was exactly what the NHL wanted - more freedom for the most talented players to make plays, and more goals.

A total of 95 were scored on the night, an average of 6.33 per game. In 2003-'04, the average regular season game produced 5.19 goals.

And finally, with Mats Sundin sidelined with a horrific eye injury, Steve Simmons of the London Free Press says it's time for mandatory visors:

And you have to wonder why it's taken this long, why there have been this many injuries for the game, the owners, the insurance companies, the GMs, the fans, and yes, even the players, to come up with some kind of reasonable alternative.

"I played in an era that had no helmet," said Leafs coach Pat Quinn. "We did it because that's the way we did it."

That's the old-time logic. When Quinn played in the NHL, there was no such thing as seatbelt legislation, no regulations regarding child car seats, drinking and driving wasn't necessarily taboo, cigarette smoking was in vogue and why bother using condoms?

But times change, people progress. No construction company would allow an employee to go without a helmet on a job site. Why should Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment Ltd. be on the hook to pay Sundin $83,414 a game when the player himself made the choice not to wear protection?

Sounds to me like it might be time for the same compromise that the league brokered over helmets -- grandfather current players and let them make a choice, but require visors for every new player entering the league.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 7th, 2005 at 6:30 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Ahhh. So good to be back looking over boxscores instead of parsing the latest PR stunt associated with the CBA. To my readers: Thanks for sticking with Off Wing through our long national nightmare. It's great to be back. And it's even better to see plenty of new folks try their hand at hockey blogging.

Let's get started.

In New Jersey, Sid Crosby's debut was spoiled when the Pens were dumped by the Devils, 5-1. Though Crosby assisted on the Pens only goal, the real star of the night was Devils goalie Martin Brodeur. In just the first ten minutes of the game, as the Pens outshot New Jersey 14-2, Brodeur was perfect, and stopped 36 shots on the night. U.S. college product Brian Gionta tallied a goal and an assist for New Jersey.

A friend in the crowd last night in New Jersey passed along this note:

Overheard at the Devils game last night: Overrated, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap - everytime Crosby was shut down. The kid has some potential, I just hope he doesn't show it as long as he's on the Penguins.

Something tells me that's unlikely. About 4 hours down I-95, Alex Ovechkin took the lead in the race for the Calder as he scored twice in a 3-2 Caps win over Columbus. After Ovechkin's second goal, Washington got the game winner from Dainius Zubrus. Olie Kolzig stopped 35 shots for the Caps (get used to it Olie) and Dan Fritsche tallied twice for the BJs. For a hometown perspective, check out japers' Rink.

In Buffalo, the Sabres downed the Islanders 6-4. The opening goal was scored by Buffalo's J.P. Dumont, who Isles GM Mike Milbury traded away for a bag of pucks a couple of years back. Since then, Dumont has gone on to score 102 goals. Ryan Miller had 22 saves, while New York's Rick DiPietro had 33. Relive it all in the Sabrefans.com gameday thread.

In Boston, Michael Ryder scored with 12 seconds remaining to lift the Habs to a 2-1 win over the Bruins. For those of you who care about such things, the Boston arena is now known as TD Banknorth Garden. Jose Theodore had 29 saves, and Heather Creegan's main squeeze, Patrice Bergeron, scored Boston's lone goal.

In Philly, the Rangers scored three in the third period to dump the Flyers 5-3. Jaromir Jagr scored twice, but my favorite goal of the night came as Mike Richards took a two-line pass, fought off Rangers defender Fedor Tutin and put the puck past Kevin Weekes.

In Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers took down the Thrashers, sans Kovalchuk, 2-0. Roberto Luongo stopped 34 shots in recording the 24th shutout of his career.

Did I mention that Luongo was traded to Florida by Isles GM Mike Milbury? Since that trade, Luongo has posted 23 of his 24 career shutouts, and never posted a save percentage lower than .915. Just saying...

Elsewhere in Florida, Tampa Bay fans got the night they were cheated out of last Fall, as the team finally raised its first Stanley Cup banner. Later, they efficiently disposed of Carolina, 5-2. Be sure to share the joy with John Fontana.

The league's first shootout saw Ottawa win the first skirmish in the Battle of Ontario, 3-2. Daniel Alfredsson scored twice for Ottawa, and put one past Ed Belfour in the shootout. Dominik Hasek stopped 23 shots, before stoning Eric Lindros to win the shootout for the Sens.

Don at the Battle of Ontario is feeling a little insecure:

6 of 7 TSN experts pick the Senators to win the cup. 4 of 6 from the Sportsnet panel pick the Sens to be in the final. 0 of 7 experts from ESPN pick the Sens to win the cup.

Damn Americans. I hate those bastards.

That's Ok Don, we love you anyway. And it looks like Paul Kariya is going to love Nashville, as he scored a goal in the Preds' 3-2 win over preseason favorite San Jose. I wanted to get some insight from Jason Kirk at Predators Den, but he's MIA on the World Series of Poker Circuit since August and hasn't been seen since.

Off Wing reader and Minnesota native Ellie Shaw went home happy after the Stars rallied from 4 goals down in the first period to beat LA 5-4. Jeremy Roenick scored twice in his debut for the Kings, but it was Phillipe Boucher who was the hero when he scored the go-ahead goal for Dallas in the third period.

And speaking of Minnesota, the trapping Wild scored six times, and got three goals from Josie's brother Marc in a 6-3 win over Calgary. The Ducks dumped the Hawks in Chicago, 5-3, as both Niedermayers scored. Edmonton edged Colorado 4-3 as Shawn Horcoff scored twice for Edmonton, but some edge was taken off the victory for Mike Winters:

The only thing that sucked was I missed about half of the goals in the first few minutes, thanks to TSN's steadfast resolve to stick with the last minutes of the 6-3 Calgary/Minnesota game, which seemed to have a stoppage every ten seconds, with an injury, and a timeout thrown in for good measure. The Flames find a way to vex Oilers fans even when we don't play them. At least they lost!

And finally, in Vancouver, the Canucks spoiled Wayne Gretzky's debut as a head coach, defeating Phoenix 3-2. Markus Naslund scored twice for the Canucks.

It's great to be back. Only 81 games to go till the playoffs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 6:33 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.