Hockey Updates!

Good morning everyone. I apologize to everyone for not posting anything in the past couples days. I was on Christmas vacation and did not have time to! Perfect excuse. So what has been happening since my last post?

Let us start with the latest debacle from the Leafs, a 4-1 loss to the Penguins. Now, I realize that there are some key forwards missing in Toronto, but sweet Jesus when are we going to start rolling again? Anyway, since they won their previous game against Minnesota I cannot start ranting too crazily so I will say this: expect a post after tonight's game if they lose again (Montreal lost as well last night so that kind of makes the 4-1 episode easier to take).

Team Canada is 3-0-0-0 at the World Juniors. That's about all I can comment on that. They are a pretty good hockey club with I think Pierre said 11 returning players, and let me tell you Pierre knows this shit! Alright, no Pierre McGuire bashing today, we'll save that for his next dexterity moment.

That's about it from the hockey world. I mentioned a couple posts back that I would update on the CIS standing and I will make that a task for my next post as they have still not returned to playing since their Christmas break (i.e. nothing has changed).

Ok, that is all for now. Later.

Where Are They Now - Patrick Grandmaitre

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our third edition of Where Are They Now. Our chosen player today is former X-men captain Patrick Grandmaitre. It wasn't that difficult to track down his current team (Schwenningen ERC), however, it was a little more difficult finding out exactly what league this team belongs to. From HockeyDB.com, it says 2.GBun next to the team name, which I assumed to be the German Tier II Elite League, but I wanted to make sure of this. And, since there are limited english resources for German hockey leagues, I had to do a little bit of digging. Anyway, this is Patrick's second year in the league and looking at the roster, and using a very broad assumption, I take it Patrick picked this team because another former X-men (Dominic Auger) also plays here. Patrick led all scorers last year with 24 goals and 34 assists for a total of 58 pts. This year he is off to a bit slower start with 6 goals and 12 assists for a total of 18 points in 27 games, but is still contributing.

Check back tomorrow when I probably get to rant about the Leafs again and NO, I am not going to comment on the other night's game right now. I'll let them prove themselves in their next match before I start shooting off.

Leafs On A Role

A couple days since my last post. I intended on writing something yesterday morning, but was busy. The Leafs SMOKED the Rangers Saturday night. Disgusting. Great news, but sometimes I get a little worried when they get the offense going that good; almost like they're not going to have anything left for there next couple games. If you remember the game on November 24th when they whipped the Capitals 7-1, that also coincides with the beginning of their seven game losing skid. This is why I will stop talking now! When they prove themselves tomorrow night against the Panthers I'll have more to say. But until then, nadda. Ok, tomorrow I'm going to do another feature of Where Are They Now and hopefully Wednesday I'll touch on the standings in the Atlantic CIS Hockey – Men and Women.

Sid The Kid

Good (early) morning. Well, early for this cat! I tried to post an update from work yesterday, but there were technical problems. I just wanted to mention the performance by fellow Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby. And being that the game was on TSN, I got to watch his 1 goal, 5 assist show live! About time! Anyway, without beating this thing to death like the rest of the world has already, it was a great game. He's fun to watch, to say the least. He looked great out there, but even more importantly, a lot of other Penguins were involved in the scoring. Ok we'll see where he goes from here. Sorry this is so short; I have to get ready for work. Or......call in sick, no, never. I'll save that for the new year.

Where Are They Now - Brad Peddle

Welcome to part 2 of Where Are They Now. Today's feature, as mentioned last night, is the coach of the X-Men Brad Peddle, who also played for the X-Men. I had the chance to watch Brad during my first two and his last two years of University. To give you an idea of how good he was as a defenseman, in his last year he had 18 goals and 29 assists for a total of 47 points (1998-1999). Pretty impressive for a defensemen (3rd in team scoring behind the french connection of Loranger (55 pts) and Evola (56 pts)). However, what I remember most about him was his defensive game. He was almost funny to watch. I use the term “funny” lightly, but when the opposing team was in X's defensive zone it was like he morphed into a dog with rabies. Almost salivating to make sure that the puck not only cleared the zone, but that there were no shots on net. After his university career (HockeyDB resources), he had stints in the ECHL, BISL and 2.GBun. He then coached the Antigonish Junior A Bulldogs for a year, after which he took over as head coach of the X-Men during Danny Flynn's leave for the Moncton Wildcats. When Danny signed with the Islanders as an assistant coach under Ted Nolan, Brad was offered the head coaching position and accepted. If you are in the Antigonish area and would like to take in some excellent hockey, see if the X-Men are playing. They offer a great atmosphere with their new facility (the Keating Millenium Centre) as well as a very consistent lineup from year to year.

Better Effort From The Leafs

It's almost a shame that I'm getting excited for a 5-4 come from behind win by the Leafs. But the past couple weeks have been shaky at best. Things were not going very good to start the game, going down 3-1 pretty quickly. I like the coaching moves to YELL at the players from behind the bench. He was just berating them; proper thing. They're hockey players, not f*ing ice dancers. And it worked! Better effort from everyone and Colaiacovo is back; even better news! I just pray that they keep this effort going for a couple weeks. They have to rifle off three or four wins in a row to get back into playoff contention, but more importantly to build up the confidence level they had before the skid. Ok, I'll continue tomorrow with a Where Are They Now post. I think I'll profile the newest X coach who played for the X-men not so long ago.

My Poor Leafs

I'm reluctant to comment on Saturday’s game because I didn’t see it; not 1 play. Instead I had the privilege of attending my wife’s Christmas work party. Good times. Anyway, what I can say is that my tone from last week’s post saying that I wasn’t worried about the Leafs is changing…..just a bit. We have to get a win! That is as simple as it gets. However, before that happens I have that feeling that something is going down at the head office in TO; might even happen today. Every team has a shakeup when they go on a skid. Take Columbus for example, they hire Hitchcock and they’re 5-3 since his arrival. Anyway, I vote Sundin because I think they could easily get two really good players in return for him. There, I said it. OUT WITH SUNDIN.

Leafs in trouble, I Think Not

I love the media's reaction to the Leafs' recent winless stretch. "The Leafs Are Done!" …...Priceless. Hey, last time I checked, the top team last year in each conference didn't go 82-0…..they actually did "lose" games. I admit that I'm a little upset that they haven't been winning, but they'll bounce back. And I really like the off season moves they made; getting rid of Berg first and foremost. And although I did like Domi, it's definitely a different league now and his departure was needed. "An-drop-off" as quoted by Cherry has now blossomed into the Antropov that we wished for and is actually showing signs of life. Everyone else was already in my good books. Oh wait, did I forget to mention the twin tower pickups, Kubina and Gill. And Peca? GREAT PICKUPS. Yup, I'm excited. I'm not going to get all upset that they're losing, even if they continue down that road. They will come around and next spring, we will be in the playoffs.

MJAHL Update

I was hoping to copy and paste the current standings in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League into this post, but I couldn't get it to look right! If you are that interested, the link to the MJAHL is on the right hand bar. Now, for the info. The league in my mind has got better and better the last couple years. I watched a couple playoff games between Pictou County and Amherst last year and with the excitement in the crowd (PACKED HOUSE) and the quality of the game, I was sold. I have yet to make it to any games so far this year as I have been busy, but I'll be checking a couple out after the holidays.

Where Are They Now - Danny White

My original plans for this blog included this next post, which is to update people on the whereabouts of former X hockey players. Why X? Because it's where I went to school and it's hockey I enjoyed watched regularly. This week's profile is Danny White who is a local guy who played most of his hockey in the Antigonish area before making the leap to University hockey. I got the chance to play with Danny after one of his season's at X in a gents tournie and he is fun to watch. Currently he is tied in team scoring for his new club in the ECHL, The Richmond Renegades located in Richmond, Virginia. He has collected 6 goals and 10 assists for 16 points in 15 games. What is quite impressive is his past. Not to knock Danny or the MJAHL, but he only played Junior A. The ECHL has a large population from the CHL (QMJHL, WHL & OHL) as well as the NCAA. It goes to show that you cannot generalize from league to league as Danny's numbers so far this season speak volumes. I am quite sure that spending 3 years under the now assistant coach of the New York Islanders, Danny Flynn, didn't hurt either.

Here is a link to Danny's bio on the Renegadres website - Click Here.

Who The Hell Is Sheldon Souray?

I don't mind losing, never have. Do I like it, hell no. But when my Leafs go to a shootout with the Habs and of all people a defensemen pulls off a goal like that, I feel like vomiting. It just doesn't make any sense. I'm not even mad that they blew the 3-1 lead. I fully expected that, but to lose to the Habs in a shootout with a defencemen scoring the game winner. That's borderline cruel. Anyway, better luck next time I guess. The worst part is that I work and live with too many Habs fans and I'm sure they will be reminding me today and tomorow about the game. Lovely.

Some more links on the right hand bar. I don't plan on putting team names because that will get kind of crazy, but each of those league pages has links to the teams. So if you're looking for a particular team, drill into that league and you should be able to navigate quite easily to find what you are looking for.

Leafs vs Habs

Quick post tonight. Leafs face off against the Habs tonight. Not feeling overly confident going into this game as my Leafs have been slumping of late. Let us all take a couple minutes in silence to pray.

Side bar is being worked on and will continually be added to. I want this blog to also serve as a portal for all notable hockey organizations across the world, but more specifically in North America.

WELCOME

Welcome to the Hockey World web blog. This is an opportunity for me to rant about my favorite sport and at the same time provide you the reader with information about hockey all over the world. I will probably concentrate mostly on hockey in my area - Maritime Provinces, Canada - but I will not limit myself to just this area.

Please check back often as I plan to make this a daily rant, I mean blog!