This Week in the NHL

The Wild blew a 3-1 lead with a little over 4 minutes to go to lose in OT to Buffalo on Thursday night.



The only reason I show these highlights is because Rick Jeanneret is hands down, the best announcer in the NHL and even though the Derek Roy scores the game winner, it's an absolute joy to listen to his exuberance.

So the Wild are 4-0-0-1 and I am beyond frustrated with this squad and their management. Without going into a full blown rant, I need to voice my frustration by the absolute paucity of scoring chances. In the last two games I can't remember seeing one legitimate scoring chance. All of the goals (three in two games) were goals by M&G'ers (muck & grinders), unless you count Ryan Miller being rushed into shooting it in his own goal as a finesse goal. Jacques, ya gotta loosen up the trap and allow the boys to wheel & deal rather than toss it in.

At the beginning of the pre-season, I stated that I had some bad feelings about letting Gaby on the ice without a new contract. Unfortunately, that was too prophetic because Gaby has now had his third annual October "lower body injury" which makes it impossible to move him. Mike Russo reported that Bob Gainey and Montreal have shown interest and would possibly consider offering Chris Higgens and Ryan McDonaugh, the kid from Cretin. That's all fine and good, but there's a gap of about 5 million in cap space, so that deal is going nowhere.

Every day that Gaby remains with the team means less and less value for him. This will get uglier before it gets resolved. Read more of Russo for more info - if you can stomach it.



Poor Manny Legace. He trips on Sarah Palin's carpet before the game and strains his hip flexor. Apparently her fifteen minutes of fame aren't up.



Speaking of ugly, how about the Flyers coming into the Rock last night and throwing six past Marty? Brutal. Not to mention that the boys scored three of their own in the first period. Scary - although Brent Sutter probably saw that and told the boys that only Parise and Elias were allowed cross the blue line in the second and third periods. To make matters worse, it was Philly's first win of the season. And to make matters even more worse, it was Philly.

I love defence as much as anyone, but the only way you score goals in this league is if you're around the net. How is it possible to backcheck when you are constantly in the neutral zone?

Captain Langenbrunner left the game with a "lower body injury" and didn't return. He's going to make the bus trip to Philly tonight and see how he plays. That's cool - they take the bus on "local" road trips. I wonder if there's beer on the bus. I hope Rolston doesn't bring his guitar and lead the team in Beetles tunes.

More Politics

This has absolutely nothing to do with hockey. My apologies. However it's fairly funny and I believe it appropriately encapsulates our nation's political landscape.

Diablo Dominance - The 08-09 Edition

The season is on. The full schedule is up and the first games are this weekend.

The D1 Squad has their opener on Sunday at 7:40 pm against the Wingmen. They are on the big rink at Wakota Arena in South St. Paul.

The C2 Squad is opening up against ShameonIce on Sunday ten minutes later at 7:50 pm. They'll be skating at the "Big Biff" in HockeyTown, i.e. Saint Paul.

Here are links to the complete schedules. D1 Diablos C2 Diablos

By the way - we need names for our teams other than D1 and C2. How about...

D1 - The Fancy Diablos!
C2 - The Zippy Diablos!

If there are any other good suggestions, please let me know!

Hockey Night In Canada - New Theme

It looks like the CBC has chosen it's new HNIC theme song. After going through hundreds of original compositions by Canadians, they finally chose this one...



Fairly bland - nothing too fancy. The song was composed by Colin Oberst, an elementary school teacher from Beaumont, Alberta. What I can't understand is the bagpipes. They may be Canadian, but they originated in Scotland and haven't we discussed how the Brits have denigrated hockey already? For Cripes Sake!

The other (better) finalist was Robert Frasier Burke, a thirteen year old from Toronto.



Either way, they both pale to the original.

And did anyone notice from both videos - the HNIC map pans out from... Minnesota. Nothing surprising there.

Frickin British Idiots

I thought the whole idea of NHLRocks two nights ago was an awesome idea. A little hockey and a little 80's Hair Metal. I didn't really care for the whole Alannis Morissette deal, but hell, she's from Canada and did a kick-ass version of the anthem in Ottawa two years ago in the Cup Finals.

But Def Leppard? Way Cool. The Hockey Hair. The One-armed Drummer. Pyromania, Photograph, Hysteria, Rock of Ages, and Pour Some Sugar On Me? Classic. How can something that takes me back to Pee Wee's be wrong?

Oh, but it was. It was so wrong when this happened.



I'll let Puckdaddy take it from here...

"Def Leppard's Joe Elliott redefined the concept of embarrassment during one of their NHL Face-Off Rocks segments at the Fox Theater in Detroit. This is what you get for booking a band from England: Drive on the wrong side of the road, place the holiest of holy hockey grails on a pedestal upside down. Epic, epic fail. Even Draper's kid had the good sense to poop in the thing right-side up.

This was the proverbial slow-motion car crash; like on "The Price is Right," when a contestant is about to put the $199 price tag on the tube of toothpaste and the crowd simultaneously shrieks "NO! NO!"

You saw him turn the Stanley Cup the wrong way, and you just wanted to reach through the television and flip it back before he put it down. If only someone on stage had helped him. Why couldn't the drummer have lent a ... bit of moral support?"

Good stuff from the daddy.

I have a problem with the NHL letting any stupid idiot carry the cup, let alone kiss it. I'm 38 years old and am playing beer league hockey but I will never touch the cup because I know that if I touch it, there's still no way that I'll ever win it.

I mean, you never know.

Desparate Attempt to Hide a Scar

Clint Malarchuk's neck is in the news again... Do you remember this?



Apparently he was cleaning out his .22 rifle with the butt in between his feet. You can figure out the rest. Fortunately, he's on the mend and should be o.k. The (tasteless) question I have is, "Will he be able to connect one scar to the other in order to make them both less noticeable?"

Best Wishes, Clint!

Hockey Season Again

There is a crispness to the air and violent emails from Todd in all of our inboxes. Yes, it's hockey season again folks.

There will be some scrimmaging going on fairly soon so mark your calenders.

- October 12, 11:30am to 1:00pm. Breck Arena vs. the C2(Luv-a-)Bulls. Bring a Dark Jersey. Some of you may need to skip church.

- October 19, 9:15pm. Parade Park (Home of the Wild's practice facilities) vs. the C2 Renegades.

Politics

Sarah Palin. No Milf jokes on this blog... Too Easy. However, when I saw her acceptance speech at the X a few weeks ago, there was a joke that I didn't get.



I didn't get the joke until I remembered this part of the movie "Garden State".

Let the NHL Season Begin

Since we are starting the season in Europe this year, let's bring out the best rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner ever. This version screams kick-ass, bloody-mouth, balls-to-the-wall hockey. Ladies and Gentlemen of DiabloHockey, I present to you, Burton Cummings, best known as the lead singer and keyboard player of the Canadian born and bred band, The Guess Who.




Tears streaming from my face keep me from seeing the screen.