David Legwand was the first draft pick in the history of the Nashville Predators back in 1998, and a mere 13 years later, he finally made it to the second round of the playoffs.  The series between Nashville and Vancouver could be one of the better series of this round, from a defensive style of hockey standpoint.  Vancouver had some problems in the first round getting their top line producing, and Nashville has been very balanced so far.  Toss in the remarkable play of Pekka Rinne, and this is going to be a very low scoring series.  Plus, that just means we get to see these guys do their things at Canucks homegames.

And then we have the Bruins and Flyers.  I do believe everyone will agree with me, and I have said this before, Philly needs a goalie.  Sure, you can make a good run with a hot goalie one year, but you need some stability.  There have been many goalies in the past few years that have made the impressive run, such as Kiprusoff, Halak, Ward, Emery, and so on.  I thought that this was going to be the year that Miller did that for Buffalo, but I was wrong.  In the Boston/Philly series, this one has all the ingredients to get ugly.  Philly was extremely undisciplined in the series opener, but Boston was still unable to tally on the power play.  In hockey, there are good penalties to take and bad ones, and Philly loaded up on the slashing and roughing penalties.  Boston will be one team that Philly will not be able to bully, and if Boston decides enough is enough, things could get interesting.

Back to the Western Conference, we have the Sharks and the Wings.  One thing is for sure, this series will be on NBC.  Granted, I won't be watching any of it because I can't fucking stand Pierre McGuire.  He is like the fucking Rain Man of hockey.  He can tell you where everyone played their junior hockey, how many points they scored, and where they were born.  Sure, I guess I could remember all that kind of stuff, but I'm to busy trying to do normal things.  Like get me some strange and have some fun with my life.  This series will be one that Bettman and the NBC will adamantly push to the American market.  That is why I'm curious is Vancouver will make it to the conference finals.  We will all get to see how quickly NBC will switch their focus to the Eastern Conference just so they don't have to showcase a Canadian team.  But I digress...the Sharks are a team ripe with opportunity, but they always seem to shit the bed and leave everyone hoping for next year.  Trust me...as a Boston fan, I can tell you that Thornton's OT winner against the Kings was probably the biggest goal of his playoffs career.  Fuck, do I ever hate Pierre McGuire.

How far Tampa goes in the playoffs is entirely dependent on Roloson.  Sure, we have all seen Rolie carry weaker teams all the way to the finals, but that was also a few years ago, and Rolie is a little longer in the tooth and greyer in the pubes now.  Tampa has a well rounded team, and I am actually a little impressed that Steve Downie has smartened up moderately.  I was pretty hard on him a few years ago, and he has actually calmed down a bit.  Washington may finally be moving in the right direction on their back end.  Neuvirth looks to be their goalie of the future, but he is going to have his hands full with a balanced Tampa offence this round.

Now, I don't know if Harvey Dakota is going to like this next part.  How much longer is the NHL going to try to sell the Coyotes to the Hulsinger group?  They keep trying to find new ways to raise the money and deal with the Goldwater Institute when they have a billionaire in another city, with a perfectly good arena, and a perfectly good market.  That is all I am going to say about that.

No hockey fight of the week, but instead, here is something new.

SIDE BOOB OF THE WEEK!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Now that didn't take long did it?  A mere few hours after the Sens lost their last regular season game, Cory Clouston was fired.  But yet, they resigned Bryan Murray to a 3 year extension.  That little bit right there, puzzles the shit out of me.  First of all, Clouston had a 95-83-20 record with the Sens, and the Sens finished near the bottom of the standings this year.  Bryan Murray said that he felt that they still had a competitive team and should have done better this season.  Is he fucking serious?  Lets talk about who you have traded away...Heatly, Fisher, Kovalev, Kelly, Campoli...it goes on.  I view this as Murray firing Clouston to save his own ass.  Here is my prediction for the Sens next year...after signing Anderson to a 4 year extension, Anderson will start the season with a few wins in a row, and then start shitting the bed.  Just look at his past performances in Colorado.  Always a good start, always a shit finish.  Good luck to you Murray, you fucking douchebag.  You are the one that needs to be unemployed right now.

What the fuck does this have to do with hockey?  Sully and I were just talking about this last night.  OSSTF, my union, has recently announced that they are going to listen to offers to buy out their share of MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment).  Now, keep in mind, that they are the majority shareholders at 66%.  How much will it cost to purchase their share?  For starters, they aren't listening to any offers under $1.5 billion.  Yup, that's right...BILLION.  They are expecting to get somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1.8 billion for their 66% of shares in MLSE.  And that is the funny thing for me...I can't fucking stand the Leafs and how much media attention they garner up here, but it is kind of bittersweet.  After all, every ass in a seat goes towards my pension.  Every $11 hot dog driven down a throat goes towards my pension.  Every loonie dropped into a condom machine for a buckshee budget french tickler in the washroom goes towards my pension.  I should be appreciative of the fact that no matter how shitty they are, they still manage to sell out every game.  And I can guarantee you, that they will not have a hard time finding someone to buy the shares quickly.  None of this confusing nonsense of dealing with municipality bonds and pending sales that last for months.

In the past, there has always been a lower seed that plays out the last games of the season and enter the playoffs on a hot streak, riding a hot goaltender, and they usually make the most noise.  Just look at Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, Philadelphia, and so on in recent years.  However, this year, I am having a hard time figuring out who that team is going to be this year.  Here is my prediction...it could be Buffalo.  Buffalo has the best record in the last 10 games entering the playoffs.  Luckily for them, or maybe not so lucky, they are getting Philly in the first round.  Philly is the polar opposite of Buffalo right now; they have the worst record in their last 10 games entering the playoffs.  If Buffalo is going to make any noise this post-season, they are going to need Miller to stand on his head, and he is fully capable of that.  But of course, the matchup that I am going to be watching is the Boston/Montreal series.  PIttsburgh/Tampa will be another good one as well.  Come to think of it, all matchups in the East look to be fairly competitive.  Unlike the West, where you have a potential Vancouver/Chicago matchup (Chicago still has 1 game to play and could leapfrog LA).  However, Chicago has been Vancouvers nemesis in recent years.  Chicago has had Vancouver's number in recent years, and have even taken it to them a couple of times this season.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Speaking of the Kings...

they are done without this guy...

 This past season, Canadian Hockey Teams have donated more than 43,000 meals to homeless shelters.  Instead of just tossing all the leftover and unsold food after each game, it is all donated to homeless shelters.  The concept was though of by Syd Mandelbaum, and steps are taken to ensure that the food is handled appropriately and kept at the right temperature.  As well, the homeless shelter receiving the food items must be inspected and have a good track record before they are selected to receive any food.  In total, the NHL has donated 91,000 kilograms of food (25,000 from the Canadian Teams) to homeless shelters in their respective areas. 

A little bit of a follow up from last week.  If they want to identify themselves however they like in a nonaggressive manner, I say fuck it.  Let 'em.  But for those of you that feel it was politically incorrect, the correct word would have been "Queer".  Sounds derogatory, but it is not.  "HOCKEY LOVIN' QUEER" and no one would have said shit to them.  Let them describe themselves however they like. 

Does anyone see anything out of the ordinary in this clip? 

I don’t know what the refs saw, but all I saw was two willing combatants.  No reason whatsoever for the extra 2 for instigating and a 10 minute game misconduct for Konopka.  The conspiracy theorists are building their case right now, but everyone had to know that the league was going to be watching this game intently after their last meeting.  But for the refs to blow this call that badly?  I don’t know what to say about that.  Handle this fight like you did the first one; identical 10 minute misconducts and a 5 for fighting.  Done.   

FIGHT OF THE WEEK!!!

George Parros and Kevin Westgarth

 and Nathan Horton vs Zack Smith

 Thanks for stopping by.

Hotchnuts

Okay, some of you may have heard about this, some of you may not have.  Either way, I found this to be pretty fucking funny.  I guess these two guys have been "friends" for a long time, and regularly take in the Canucks ....errrr.....the Vancouver home team....errrr....fuck it...they're big hockey fans.  Personally, I don't care.  I found it quite funny.  As it turns out, they had the word "homo" on their shirts covered with a strip of duct tape.  Once the Canucks were leading the game, they chose that it was the appropriate time to remove the tape revealing the word "homo."  This was great...Vancouver has already entertained us this season with the likes of the Green Men, and now, this.  And of all places, right behind the players bench.  But as it turns out, arena staff in Vancouver had a problem with the word "homo" as it is a slang term that is not allowed to be used.  Eventually, these two guys were removed from their seats.  Here's the question...is it still slang or derrogatory if they are using it to describe themselves?

Last week, everyone joined hands in a big kumbaya like trance and unanimously disagreed with ol' Hotchnuts.  Just allow me to clarify my statement briefly...it takes more than one good idea to make a change in the way that the league is operated and I am aware of that.  My suggestion was a mixture of sarcasm/hyperbole.  In my opinion, Bettman is doing a horrible job when it pertains to the fans, and any change is a good change.  At least Wayne has a nicer chunk of arm candy for us to look at.

What a difference a year makes.  Last year, I was on the outside looking in watching the fantasy season get flushed down the toilet.  Two straight years making it to the YouGab Fantasy Hockey Finals, and two straight 2nd place finishes.  First year, getting it all handed to me by "Sully's Bruins", 5-4-1, and last year, "Killer Beeze" made a statement win over my "Body Czech Republic" 13-2.  This year, I thought it was going to be much of the same with a rematch against Beezer in the finals.  Now, the finals are not over yet since Beezer and I still have players rolling in today's games, but I have to like my chances this year.  Could a Hotchnuts victory be on the horizon?  Man, I hope so, but only time will tell. 

This years fantasy pool was not without entertainment or tension.  By the way Sully, has anyone made the trip down to your neck of the woods with a SherWood yet?  Once we had a little bit of a hiccup, it was business as usual.  I would like to thank everyone for participating, and I would also like to thank Felber and Sully for organizing this once again.  I'm sure a great time was had by all, and those that would probably disagree with that aren't around to comment on it anyways.

Another week, another couple of suspensions for blows to the head.  It has gotten to the point where I am just giving up on trying to figure out what Campbell is doing.  Fuck it...let him work himself out of a job.  I've pretty much had it.

Speaking of blows to the head, I think that Mark Recchi was on to something.  I am not disputing the fact that Pacioretty was injured on this hit, but I am disputing the severity of the injury that the Habs made it out to be.  Currently, we have Crosby just starting to skate again after being away from the game for about 3 months.  A week after the Chara/Pacioretty incident, Maxi Pad was twittering from a movie theatre.  Now, a couple weeks after this hit, he is once again skating with the team.  You can't argue that he got knocked the fuck out, but did it look worse than it actually was?

Beezer already touched on the Rosehill/Lucic fight from Thursday night.  Now this is from the TSN feed, which is the biggest fucking group of Leaf homers around.  First of all, they made such a big deal about the Komisarek signing a couple of years ago.  Touting him as a tough defenceman...blah blah blah.  In my opinion, he picks his spots.  Sure, Komisarek may look tough when he is bullying around smaller players, but what happens when he tries to fight in his weight class?  He gets knocked around like a pussy.  Now, pay attention to the end of this clip.  This is why I fucking hate Pierre McGuire.  That is not team toughness.  That is a wanna be tough guy hiding behind a legit tough guy.  By the way, if Looch was on the Leafs, he would be their leading scorer.

Fucking fight him yourself Komisarek you fucking pussy.  Why won't you fight him again?  Oh yeah...

Thanks for stopping by.

Hotchnuts

Last week, Wayne Gretzky came out and mentioned quite a few key points.  First off, Gretzky addressed the issue of the appearance of a lack of respect in the league.  Wayne said that in the early days with the Oilers, they would regularly practice without their helmets on.  To him, that taught the players to keep their sticks down, keep their elbows down, and keep the shots from the point low.  Makes sense to me, but you have to factor in the size difference of the players from then until now and also factor in the difference in equipment.  But Wayne suggested one thing that really made me think.  He hinted around the suggestion that the league isn't doing their part to ensure that the players respect each other, so Wayne recommended removing the instigator rule for one season.  That's it, just one season, kind of on a trial basis.  Now that is a movement I can get behind.  I have always been a big advocator against the removal of the instigator rule.  The thought of physical violence may do more for a player on the edge than a phone call with Colin Campbell.  I am pretty sure that some players wouldn't lay out as many questionable hits if they looked over at the other teams bench and saw a Semenko or a Probert staring back at them.  The instigator rule simply protects the gutless weasels of the NHL.  Wayne, unlike Mario, says things useful once in awhile.  Sure, you can argue that he wasn't the best coach in the league, but his ability stands alone.  Does that mean he would make a good commissioner?  Who knows, but I would be more interested in watching his press conferences if he brought his leggy wife with him.  Bettman, I would pay you money so that I wouldn't have to look at the person that is willing to sleep with a little midget troll.

It's about time.  Cooke is done for the rest of the season and the first round of the playoffs.  Great timing for this one, isn't it Mario?  Prior to the suspension, Mario suggested a new rule that the team is fined by the league everytime one of their players gets suspended by the league.  Mario was going at this one pretty strong, but he stated that he is going to try to get some momentum behind it at the next Board of Governors meeting in June.  Wow...you really dodged a bullet there Mario.  According to the rule and the standards to which you would like it applied, this recent suspension of Matt Cooke would have resulted in a fine to the Penguins in the neighbourhood of $600,000.  Now Mario, this is your chance to prove you aren't the douchebag we have come to despise these last few months.  Push for the new rule to go through and then prove you are serious about the "sanctity of the game" by putting Cooke on waivers.  Cut your losses Mario.  This bum can't be taught to play by the rules.  If you decide to keep him on, he is going to cost you more money than he is worth and you deserve every little ounce of discomfort this weasel can bring you.

Times have been very busy for Hotchnuts.  Let me take a few minutes and get some of you caught up on some things.  To say that this past year has been utterly ridiculous would be an understatement.  As Ricky off of Trailer Park Boys would say, I've had to swallow my prize.

This weekend, my oldest boy is in the last hockey tournament of the season.  One thing that pisses me off, and I have mentioned this before, are the parents that are overexuberant at games.  We are dealing with 7-9 year olds in this league, and it is a fun league.  There was actually 2 adults sitting in the row behind me, making comments about what that number 4 is doing?  Well, you know what sizzlechin, number 4 is my son.  I turned and the one adult recognized me because I worked with him a few years ago.  We exchanged pleasantries, and he asked if my son was playing today.  I simply said "Yup...he's number 4" and left it at that.  Now, I have never like this douchebag.  I remember we were working at the same school a few years ago, and he decided he would be the hero and go onto the roof and throw all the balls down that have accumulated over the past few weeks while I was on yard duty.  Well, as he was throwing them down, I was grabbing them and kicking them back onto another part of the roof.  Yup...I can be a dick if I want to.  But fuck him...he's lucky he didn't lose any of the good teeth left in his mouth after his performance.  And to think...this prick is going to be my oldest boys grade 3 teacher next year.  Not if I have anything to say about that...

So now, as a result of an extremely busy weekend, I had an early game today with Holten, and now I am on my way back to the rink.  I apologize for the lacklustre entry, but there are times in life that take priority, and this weekend is one of them.

FIGHT OF THE WEEK

Michael Haley vs Daniel Carcillo.  I am slowly becoming a big Haley fan.  I've mentioned his name a few entries ago, and this kid continues to impress.

LNAH entry of the week...

Tidbal vs Duplain.  Duplain gets the right moving early and often in this one.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hotch

Where does ones loyalties lay?  Is it with their hometown or home state team?  I have realized that Canada and the United States are far different when it comes down to which team you support.  For example, in Canada, not everyone that lives in Calgary is a Flames fan.  Flames fans, as well as Oiler, Canucks, Leafs, Sens and Hab fans, can be found in all different city centers.  Hockey is very diversified in Canada, and the regions that different fans can be found in speaks volumes about the amount of passion we display in the game.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Americans are just as passionate about the game as we are, but it is different.  I have discovered that during my trips to Minnesota, you are likely to have an offer of violence thrown your way if you want one of the TVs in a sports bar changed to a different channel so that you can watch an out of state or town game.  When you go into a sporting goods store, you are likely to find the majority of the hockey related merchandise to be geared towards the home team or the defending Stanley Cup champs.  An example, I searched all of Duluth this past week, and was unsuccessful in turning up 1 item that was Boston Bruins related.  In Canada, you have a selection of team hats or shirts that you would like to purchase at any sporting goods store.  Everywhere I searched in Duluth was geared towards the Wild. 

For me, how I became a Boston fan isn’t really that interesting.  One of my favorite Uncles growing up was a Bruins fan.  Big time…his rec room was covered with Boston memorabilia.  Even as a youngster, I found this a little interesting since he only lived 45 minutes away from Toronto.  But still, at an early age, he praised the Bruins and talked shit about the Leafs.  That is one lesson that has always stuck with me; that whole hate the leafs part.  How does this affect everyone here?  I know Sully is a huge Bruins fan that lives in Georgia, but he grew up in Boston.  Beezer…why the Rangers?  Lanz, why the Bruins?  Is it all about geographical location that determines which team you grow up supporting? 

Well, now it’s official.  GQ has come out and ranked the Montreal Canadiens fans as the worst in all of hockey.  It must have taken some work to be able to usurp the famously evil Philly fans.  But I guess if your fans have become famous for rioting following a quarter final series win, that provides ammo for the argument.  And then we have this… 

Not only are they the worst fans in hockey, but they could be potentially the most racist as well.  Now, I know that is a broad generalization and that it isn’t fair to paint every Habs fan with the same brush.  But lets consider the evidence…Kevin Weekes had banana peels thrown at him while he was leaving the ice in Montreal; a Midget B league in Montreal has had to adopt a zero tolerance policy in regards to on ice racism.  Teams with players of First Nation descent were subjected to war cries, tomahawk chops, and verbal taunts on a regular basis.  Herb Carnegie, the first African Canadian to be offered a contract in the NHL, was subject to multiple taunts while he was playing in the Quebec Senior League.  Habs fans regularly chant “Go Habs Go” or boo relentlessly during the American National Anthem.  On that note, I love how the Bruins fans responded…they cheered loudly during the Canadian National Anthem.  But shit rolls downhill so to speak.  You have the owners of the Habs denouncing the league and it’s inactivity on the Pacioretty incident.  You have the owners demanding that the press stop using the term “Habs” when the media is covering the Canadiens.  For those of you that aren’t aware, the H in the middle of the Canadiens logo is a tribute to the French settlers, Les Habitants, that first settled the area.  Hey, if the owners are willing to piss on their history and the league, the fans pick up on that. 

I know that I have touched on this topic before; there is no place in sports for racism at any level.  Being a parent with 2 young boys that love hockey, I have come to understand that children are born innocent.  They become mean and hateful from being exposed to a poisonous environment.  Is it in the house or at the schools or in the playgrounds?  That doesn’t matter to me.  I honestly feel that a strong home life with open communication can deter any negative behaviours that your children can pick up during their daily activities.  Shit, my mom used to buy me my rubbers when I was in high school, and I look forward to buying my boys theirs.  Where in the fuck did this touchy-feely Hotchnuts come from?  A little bit of a complete 180 from last week… 

FIGHT OF THE WEEK 

Chris Neil vs Deryk Engelland.  Why?  I didn’t even realize Neil was still in the league. 

And now for your weekly bit of action from the LNAH…you may want to turn down the volume…I did… 

Thanks for stopping by.