"Probably Not"

As a fan of the game I was pretty shocked to hear Daniel Alfredsson's comments after their last playoff game. Recently nominated for the Mark Messier Leadership Award, Daniel Alfredsson has been a pretty solid leader in Ottawa for most of his career and is a pillar of the franchise. Ask Siri and she'll even say Alfie is God. But after last night's loss he much pretty much tossed up the white flag, booked his flight home to Sweden and surrendered to the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins.

Glenn Healy Says The Darndest Things

Glenn Healy should really think before he speaks because he is starting to sound like a hockey analyst that is working some minor league game in the sunbelt. For a guy working a job on Hockey Night in Canada that most people dream about doing, Healy often appears to know nothing about the game. Healy has been the bad guy on Hockey Night the last few years being straight to the point and not being afraid to rip on the Maple Leafs or any team that is featured on Hockey Night in Canada for that matter. That's allowed, but his rips are often so unpopular and statistically proven wrong it's just getting embarrassing.

Mikhail Grabovski Comes Clean About Bite

The bite did happen says Mikhail Grabovski. In an interview with Dmitry Chesnokov for Puck Daddy, Grabovski admits to biting Habs forward, Max Pacioretty. Here's the quote from the interview:

What about the incident with Max Pacioretty?

“The incident? It wasn’t that much. He was choking me and I bit him. Don’t stick your hands where you shouldn’t. To be honest with you he was choking me pretty hard, to the point where I really couldn’t breathe. And I couldn’t pull his hand away at all. I tried to hit him with my other hand, but I couldn’t because he was choking me. There was nothing left to do but bite him.”

The NHL Playoffs Injury Parade

It's that fun time when NHL teams start to reveal what injuries their players had or suffered during the playoffs and we shake our heads in awe. We like to call this time of year the Playoffs Injury Parade as teams disclose injuries that were suspected about during series' or completely unknown about. These injuries are kept under a veil of secrecy during the playoffs as you can't give your opponent a sniff of weakness so it's always interesting when a team is eliminated and you get to see what players were playing through. There are only a few injuries that will keep a player from playing this time of year and if you don't have have some battlescars when you win than you're not doing it right.

The Good, The Bad and The Mike Ricci From Round 1

Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs have come and gone so it's time to look at the good, the bad, and the Mike Ricci from the past two weeks. There was plenty going on with a record number of overtime games in the first round, three game sevens and only one sweep meaning you had no reason to complain about there not being enough hockey to watch. If you watched every night, you definitely noticed some players lighting it up, and probably didn't notice certain players as they turned into ghosts.

Who's Taking The Hart?

On Friday it was announced that the three nominees for the Hart Memorial Trophy were Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and John Tavares. All three deserve the nominations, but only one can take it home. What's interesting this year is that all three have different season storylines that make them worthy of the MVP award. It past seasons it seems that the top scorers are simply chosen or a goalie who stood on their head, but this year with the a shortened season there is no clear front runner for the award.

Mark Fraser Has A Hole In His Forehead

You've probably seen the video of Mark Fraser taking a Milan Lucic slapshot to the forehead and knew the severity of the play immediately. Hustled off the ice and on his way to hospital before the 3rd period even ended, Fraser's playoffs were clearly over after suffering a devastating injury. Well now we have this disturbing x-ray image of a fracture to his forehead. Yes, that's a fucking hole in his forehead.

Phil Kessel Wake Up Call

An ongoing joke I have with my brothers is that Phil Kessel doesn't get enough sleep. He always looks sleepy on the bench and it's probably only a matter of time before he gets the Paul Maurice bags under his eyes. Clearly this look doesn't affect his play as he still has the speed and scoring touch to finish 8th in league scoring this year. Well, a Boston radio station named WAAF thought he needed even less sleep so they sent a a host from the Hill-Man Morning Show with a bullhorn to heckle Phil Kessel outside the hotel where the Maple Leafs were staying:

The heckling was a retaliation for Toronto radio station host, Dean Blundell, attempting to send pizzas to the Boston Bruins hotel in the morning. Here's them talking about the prank at the 51:00 mark:

The last time the Maple Leafs were in the playoffs...

Last night was not only the 2nd Maple Leafs playoff game since 2004, but it was also the 9th anniversary of Jeremy Roenick's OT winner that started that drought. Nine years is a long fucking time so of course there were hundreds of "last time the Leafs made the playoffs" jokes going around this week. Those jokes were well deserved as a lot has happened in nine years. While watching the game last night with my bros we got to reminiscing about what life was like back in May 2004.

• Most of our friends were still virgins. 
• Todd Bertuzzi was the most hated man in hockey. 
• Facebook had just launched, but just for Harvard students so you couldn't creep girls at your school yet. You had to use ICQ and MSN to hit on girls until 2am at night. 
• Dick Tarnstrom was one of the highest scoring defencemen with 52 points. 38 of those points came on the powerplay and Tarnstrom was a -37 that season. 
• Paris Hilton wasn't an amateur pornstar yet. 
• Dan Cloutier was a winning goalie in the NHL. 
• You wouldn't be able to rewatch the Darcy Tucker hit on Sami Kapanen thousands of time because YouTube wasn't invented. 
• Justin Timberlake had recently showed the world Janet Jackson's right titty. 
• Joe Nieuwendyk was a Leafs hero in the playoffs and wasn't getting fired as GM of the Dallas Stars.
• Joe Sakic hadn't stuck his hand in a snowblower yet.
• Dion Phaneuf's hottie, Elisha Cuthbert, had just appeared in The Girl Next Door and became every teenage boys fantasy. 
• Marty St. Louis won the Art Ross Trophy putting up 94 points in 82 games and he's won it again this year with 60 points in 48 games. 
• One of our favourite video games ever, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, hadn't even come out yet meaning I hadn't spent most of my time robbing hookers and starting gang wars. 

How was your life in 2004?

2013 NHL Awards Predictions

The 2013 NHL  regular season has come to a close and it's time to pick our winners for the major NHL awards before the playoffs influence our opinions. Some of these awards are very difficult to choose with many candidates in the running for each award. This was expected in a shortened 48-game season as nobody really had the time to run away with an award. We may not get an actual say in who will win, but our picks will make for a fun drinking game in June. 

Say Goodbye To Your Wife And Kids

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE RELEASED! GO STOCK UP ON BEER AND CHIPS!

2013 EASTERN CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS

#1 Pittsburgh vs. #8 NY Islanders

Wednesday, May 1 7:30 p.m. NY Islanders at Pittsburgh NBC Sports Network, TSN

Friday, May 3 7 p.m. NY Islanders at Pittsburgh NBC Sports Network, TSN

Sunday, May 5 Noon Pittsburgh at NY Islanders NBC, TSN

Tuesday, May 7 7 p.m. Pittsburgh at NY Islanders NBC Sports Network, TSN

*Thursday, May 9 7 p.m. NY Islanders at Pittsburgh TSN

*Saturday, May 11 TBD Pittsburgh at NY Islanders TSN

*Sunday, May 12 TBD NY Islanders at Pittsburgh TSN

#2 Montreal vs. #7 Ottawa

Thursday, May 2 7 p.m. Ottawa at Montreal CBC, RDS, CNBC

Friday, May 3 7 p.m. Ottawa at Montreal CBC, RDS, CNBC

Sunday, May 5 7 p.m. Montreal at Ottawa CBC, RDS, NBC Sports Network

Tuesday, May 7 7 p.m. Montreal at Ottawa CBC, RDS, CNBC

*Thursday, May 9 7 p.m. Ottawa at Montreal CBC, RDS

*Saturday, May 11 TBD Montreal at Ottawa CBC, RDS

*Sunday, May 12 TBD Ottawa at Montreal CBC, RDS

#3 Washington vs. #6 NY Rangers

Thursday, May 2 7:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Washington NBC Sports Network, TSN

Saturday, May 4 12:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Washington NBC, TSN

Monday, May 6 7:30 p.m. Washington at NY Rangers NBC Sports Network, TSN

Wednesday, May 8 7:30 p.m. Washington at NY Rangers NBC Sports Network, TSN

*Friday, May 10 7:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Washington TSN

*Sunday, May 12 TBD Washington at NY Rangers TSN

*Monday, May 13 TBD NY Rangers at Washington TSN

#4 Boston vs. #5 Toronto 

Wednesday, May 1 7 p.m. Toronto at Boston CNBC, CBC, RDS

Saturday, May 4 7 p.m. Toronto at Boston CNBC, CBC, RDS

Monday, May 6 7 p.m. Boston at Toronto CBC, RDS, NHL Network U.S.

Wednesday, May 8 7 p.m. Boston at Toronto CBC, RDS, NHL Network U.S.

*Friday, May 10 7 p.m. Toronto at Boston CBC, RDS

*Sunday, May 12 TBD Boston at Toronto CBC, RDS

*Monday, May 13 TBD Toronto at Boston CBC, RDS

2013 WESTERN CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS

#1 Chicago vs. #8 Minnesota

Tuesday, April 30 8 p.m. Minnesota at Chicago NBC Sports Network, CBC

Friday, May 3 9:30 p.m. Minnesota at Chicago NBC Sports Network, CBC

Sunday, May 5 3 p.m. Chicago at Minnesota NBC, CBC

Tuesday, May 7 9:30 p.m. Chicago at Minnesota NBC Sports Network, CBC

*Thursday, May 9 TBD Minnesota at Chicago CBC

*Saturday, May 11 TBD Chicago at Minnesota CBC

*Sunday, May 12 TBD Minnesota at Chicago CBC

#2 Anaheim vs. #7 Detroit 

Tuesday, April 30 10:30 p.m. Detroit at Anaheim NBC Sports Network, TSN

Thursday, May 2 10 p.m. Detroit at Anaheim NBC Sports Network, TSN

Saturday, May 4 7:30 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit NBC Sports Network, TSN

Monday, May 6 8 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit CNBC, TSN

*Wednesday, May 8 10 p.m. Detroit at Anaheim TSN

*Friday, May 10 TBD Anaheim at Detroit TSN

*Sunday, May 12 TBD Detroit at Anaheim TSN

#3 Vancouver vs. #6 San Jose

Wednesday, May 1 10:30 p.m. San Jose at Vancouver TSN, NBC Sports Network

Friday, May 3 10 p.m. San Jose at Vancouver TSN, CNBC

Sunday, May 5 10 p.m. Vancouver at San Jose NBC Sports Network, TSN

Tuesday, May 7 10 p.m. Vancouver at San Jose CNBC, TSN

*Thursday, May 9 10 p.m. San Jose at Vancouver TSN

*Saturday, May 11 TBD Vancouver at San Jose TSN

*Monday, May 13 TBD San Jose at Vancouver TSN

#4 St. Louis vs. #5 Los Angeles

Tuesday, April 30 8 p.m. Los Angeles at St. Louis CNBC, CBC

Thursday, May 2 9:30 p.m. Los Angeles at St. Louis CNBC, CBC

Saturday, May 4 10 p.m. St. Louis at Los Angeles NBC Sports Network, CBC

Monday, May 6 10 p.m. St. Louis at Los Angeles NBC Sports Network, CBC

*Wednesday, May 8 TBD Los Angeles at St. Louis CBC

*Friday, May 10 TBD St. Louis at Los Angeles CBC

*Monday, May 13 TBD Los Angeles at St. Louis CBC

* if necessary

TBD – To Be Determined

We're Going Streaking!

Last year when the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup as the #8 seed and knocked out all the Western Conference division winners they turned a lot of heads. The Kings weren't a true #8 seed though and really shouldn't have surprised anyone with their late-season play. They heated up down the stretch and were one of the best teams in the league as the playoffs got underway. Going 16-3 in the Stanley Cup playoffs as a #8 seed was no fluke, they were a great team during the regular season that under performed. It's always a good thing to be on nice streak going into the playoffs and this season there are plenty of teams that could remind us of the 2012 LA Kings.