Off Wing Opinion

Hey everyone, Joe Dumas here. Eric has again been kind enough to let me cover tonight's game. Eric is currently patrolling the concourse, gathering fan opinions on fighting in the league. Alan Clark is down on the glass tonight.

Tonight's matchup should be a good one, as fans get to see yet again the NHL's two biggest sophmores, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Ovechkin sits 12th in the league in points, and 4th in scoring, while Crosby sits in first for points, and 2nd for assists. Washington's other stellar sophmore, Alexander Semin, is second on the team in scoring. Both teams also have some talented rookies. Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal leads the league in shorthanded goals(7) and shooting percentage(25.2), while Evgeni Malkin leads all rookies in goals(32), assists(48), and points(80). Washington's Tomas Fleischmann, Mike Green, and Alexandre Giroux have all made some nice contributions over the course of the season.

It's also a showdown between two teams in completely different situations. Washington is wrapping up what can be most gently described as a trying season. Statistically eliminated from playoff contention a few weeks ago, they are playing the rest of their season for pride. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, is battling New Jersey for the top record in the Atlantic Division and home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Last time these teams met here, Pittsburgh came back from a 4-0 deficit to win in a shootout. The Penguins also won both of their meetings in Pittsburgh, so they're looking for the season series sweep tonight. But Washington has done a decent job with their role as underdogs, so expect them to give Pittsburgh a tough time.

First Period: WSH 2, PIT 1 Washington jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to some nifty plays. Semin

Off Wing's Man Of The Night: Dominik Hasek
25 crucial saves in 1-0 shutout victory

DET 1 ANA 0: Hasek (25 S), Datsyuk (G), Holmstrom (A).

OFF THE ICE
Player Theatrics Are Finally Proving To Be Genuine Flop, INS Sports
Top 10 NHL Goalies (Post-Expansion), Sun Media
Added Poundage Weighs Heavily On NHL Issues, Sun Media
Luongo On Verge Of Ending Seven-Year Wait, CanWest News
Team Sturggles For Support, Slam! Sports

HOCKEY VIDEO: Check out hilarious outtakes from the recent NHL Road Trip promo:

RANDOM HOCKEY BLOG GENERATOR
Blind Sight is 20/20
The Blackhawk Experience
Red and Black Hockey
Bring Back Potivn
Dear Lord Stanley

TONIGHT'S SCHEDULE: (All times ET)
7:00PM PIT at WAS FSPI, CSN
7:00PM FLO at TBL FSFL, SUN
7:30PM NYR at MON MSG, RDS
7:30PM NJD at NYI VS.
7:30PM BOS at OTT NESN, RSN
7:30PM CAR at TOR FSS, TSN
8:00PM CAL at MIN FPPV, KSTC
8:00PM EDM at NAS RSW, FSS
8:00PM CLB at STL FSOH, FSMW
8:30PM PHO at DAL FSAZ, KDFI
9:00PM VAN at COL RSW, ALT
10:30PM LAK at SJS FSW, FSBA

No AHL games last night

"We largely are what we are and there is nothing Darcy Tucker can do about it." -- ESPN.com's John Buccigross on the effect of hockey fights on the general public.

Apparently, Ryan Hollweg isn't going out of is way to make himself available for an in-person apology by Chris Simon:

Hollweg was asked by the Daily News if had heard from Simon yet and he replied, "No, I haven't talked to him to this point and I'm not going to go out of my way now."

The paper then asked if the news about the possibility of an apology was encouraging.

"Not really," Hollweg replied.

Can you blame the guy?

I like Todd Fedoruk. He has to be brave to do the job he does. But this isn't a good idea. From the Canadian Press:

The NHL should take a page from the UFC when it comes to fighting, says in-the-spotlight Flyers enforcer Todd Fedoruk.

Fedoruk, who spent the night in hospital earlier this week after being at the wrong end of a nasty knockout, says maybe NHL tough guys should wear padding on their hands under their gloves.

"You look at extreme fighting, they've got those four-ounce gloves on," Fedoruk said.

I got a better idea. How about spiked gloves, just like in Rollerball?

When I uploaded a few locker room interviews with some Washington Capitals players last week, I inadvertently created an RSS feed. Just paste this link into your favorite newsreader, and you'll get all the Off Wing videos as they're uploaded.

Look for more videos to come.

One of the reasons I love hockey as much as I do is because of its visceral connection to every city and town in Canada, no matter how large or small. Wherever you go, every town or neighborhood has a hometown hero who skated with an NHL team. And no matter how long that stint lasted, that man is treated like a hero by folks who know just what it takes to make it in the NHL.

Read this feature on Bryan Trottier that appeared in this week's editon of the Wetaskiwin Times Advertiser when the Hall of Famer stopped by to visit his Mom, and took the time to talk to an assembly at a local elementary school.

It might not be Steve Rucchin, but Nick Puhjera's piece is pure magic as far as I'm concerned:

He explained how his mother keeps pucks from his most memorable games on the mantlepiece.

Minnesota is coming off a scare by Air Force and is looking to get an early lead. North Dakota scored 8 goals last game, the highest total so far this tournament. After Kellen Briggs' shaky start last night, Minnesota is starting Jeff Frazee in net. This is a re-match of the WCHA championship, which Minnesota won 3-2 on Blake Wheeler's one-handed chip shot goal that he scored while sliding across the ice.

Miami (OH) comes in looking to build on their first ever tournament win last night over 1-seed UNH. Boston College is riding an 11-game winning streak, hoping to make it 12. Miami will come out strong, carrying momentum from their win over UNH. But Boston College has the veteran roster. This year's seniors have been to the tournament every year, making it to the Frozen Four twice, including losing the championship last year.

Off Wing's Man Of The Night: Tomas Vokoun
26 saves in 4-0 shutout win over Oilers

NYR 2 BOS 1 (SO): Jagr (GWG SO, A), Lundqvist (40 S). Savard (G).
NYI 4 PHI 3: Blake (G), Kozlov (2A). Carter (G, 2A).
PIT 2 ATL 1: Staal (G), Thibault (25 S). Mellanby (G).
STL 3 DET 2 (SO): Weight (GWG SO), Bacashihua (40 S). Hudler (G).
CAR 6 SJS 4: Ladd (2G), Walker (3A). Thornton (G, A).
MON 4 WAS 1: Kovalev (2G), Halak (27 S). Clark (G).
TOR 4 BUF 1: Tucker (2G), Antropov (G, A). Hecht (G).
NJD 4 FLO 3 (SO): Zajac (GWG SO, A), Dowd (2G). Weiss (G).
OTT 7 TBL 2: Heatley (2G, A), Corvo (G, 2A). Boyle (2G).
MIN 4 LAK 1: Rolston (G, A), Koivu (G, A). Brown (G).
NAS 4 EDM 0: Vokoun (26 S), Radulov (G, A), Forsberg (2A).
DAL 4 PHO 3 (SO): Lehtinen (GWG SO), Morrow (G, 2A). Carcillo (G).

OFF THE ICE
NHL Will Examine Fighting, CBC Sports
Finishing On Top Only Second-Best, New York Times
Ex-NHL Agent Charged With Fraud, Kingston Whig-Standard
Fedoruk: Allow Tough Guys To Pad Hands (Subscription), The Ottawa Citizen
Moitoring The NHL's Final 16 Days, Sports Frog

HOCKEY VIDEO: Last week's spectacular stops, from NHL Video:

RANDOM HOCKEY BLOG GENERATOR
Duck Calls
Confluence Of The Three Rivers
Avalanche!
The Puck In Providence
Puckhead's Thoughts

TONIGHT'S SCHEDULE: (All times ET)
12:30PM NYR at NYI NBC
12:30PM BOS at PIT NBC, TSN
3:00PM CAL at CHI RSW
6:00PM STL at CLB FSOH
10:00PM COL at VAN ALT, CPPV

AHL SCOREBOARD: (NHL affiliates in parentheses)
Portland (ANA) 0 Bridgeport (NYI) 2
Philadelphia (PHI) 2 Hershey (WAS) 3
Chicago (ATL) 3 Peoria (STL) 4 (SO)
Rochester (BUF/FLO) 2 San Antonio (PHO) 1
Hamilton (MON/EDM) 2 Toronto (TOR) 3 (SO)
Providence (BOS) 3 Worcester (SJS) 1
Norfolk (CHI) 4 Binghamton (OTT) 2
Milwaukee (NAS/EDM) 3 Iowa (DAL/EDM) 0
Manchester (LAK) 4 Lowell (NJD) 0
Hartford (NYR) 4 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (PIT/EDM) 3
Grand Rapids (DET/EDM) 3 Mantioba (VAN) 4 (SO)
Albany (CAR/COL) 2 Syracuse (CLB) 3
Omaha (CAL) 10 Houston (MIN) 2

NCAA TOURNAMENT SCOREBOARD:
First Round
Air Force 3 Minnesota 4
Miami (Ohio) 2 New Hampshire 1
St. Lawrence 1 Boston College 4
North Dakota 8 Michigan 5

Second Round
UMass 1 Maine 3
Michigan St. 2 Notre Dame 1

*Check out the updated bracket here.

Notre Dame is looking to buck the trend of troubled #1 seeds this tournament. Two, UNH and Clarkson, lost in the first round, while Notre Dame won in double OT and Minnesota came back from 2 down to win by 1. It will be interesting to see if Notre Dame can dominate the way a 1 seed should, or if MSU steps up big against a better team like they did against Boston University last night.

Minnesota's going to be coming into this game a little nervous. The Atlantic Hockey representative last season, Holy Cross, beat Minnesota in overtime, becoming the first 4-seed to beat a 1-seed in tournament history. This year 4th seeded UMass beat top-seeded Clarkson in the East Region, and UAH took top-seeded and top-ranked Notre Dame into double overtime before losing. The smart money's on the Gophers, but don't count out the Falcons.

While the better team, BU has the lowest scoring percentage of all the teams in the tournament, so the offense needs to step up for a couple goals, and goalie John Curry needs to have another big game.

ESPNU has cut away from the Maine-St. Cloud game to televise the overtime of the ND-UAH game. So my blog of that game will the cut until this game ends.

This is the first appearance for each team, so no matter who wins it will be their first tournament victory. This is also UAH head coach Doug Ross' final season behind the bench after 25 years. UAH is the third team in history to make the tournament with a sub-.500 record (13-19-3).

I've gotten here just in time for the second period of the game. I would have made it sooner, but a pickup truck engulfed in flames impaired my walk back.

UMass and Clarkson kick off the NCAA men's hockey postseason at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY. UMass is making it's first appearance in the postseason, and many analysts have them advancing through the East Regional to the Frozen Four.

After a couple of days of agony -- Macs don't like Mpeg-4 -- I've finally gotten the video I took last Sunday after Washington's 7-1 win over Tampa Bay. Click here for my main page over at Dailymotion.

Here's the video of the media crush around Olie Kolzig:

Be sure to check out the rest: Milan Jurcinia, Alexander Semin and Boyd Gordon too.

Hilarious video short. Trust me.

Thanks to longtime reader Dave Smith for the pointer.