Pittsburgh All-In For Cup Run

"In my club, I will splash the pot whenever the fuck I please."

The Pittsburgh Penguins were already one of the top teams in the league before Ray Shero started working the phones earlier this week. Unbeaten in 12 games with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on the shelf with injuries, Shero decided to add some depth to his squad. Adding Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray, the team extended their winning streak to 13 on Tuesday. Then they got into the Jarome Iginla sweepstakes and landed him to their already star-studded roster. With all these moves it was no wonder Ray Shero was quoted as saying, "we're all-in, we want to win" today. No shit, he's built a team that should be illegal to play with in NHL 13.

The Phil Kessel Hits Drinking Challenge

This past weekend while watching the Leafs/Bruins game we witnessed a rare occurrence: a legitimate Phil Kessel hit. We took a guess at how many hits the Leafs sniper had this season and overestimated at around 15. We assumed that Phil Kessel must have at least one hit every other game just from bumping into an opposing player or having a friend in that statistician recording hits. Well, that hit on Tyler Seguin was his 8th hit of the season (in his two games since he still has 8 hits). Now there's nothing wrong with Kessel not hitting, that's not his job, we just figured he would have more than 8 in 34 games.

Favourite NHL '94 Tributes

NHL '94 is getting a lot of love these days as the iconic video game celebrates it's 20th anniversary. Every site seems to rolling out some sort of tribute to the game, and all of it well-deserved. NHL '94 was a game changer. Playing with real NHL players on real NHL teams for the first time in 1993 was a dream come true. I can remember being in middle school when it came out and it was like "NHL94mania" all day, every day. Guys would have leagues going on with schedules made up for who would play where afterschool, some guys would play for money, and some guys had all the ratings memorized to the point that they would write out line combinations during class. It was truly an exciting time in the world of video games, and it's no surprise the game has been getting so much love since it's debut 20 years ago. With that said, here are our favourite tributes to NHL '94 over the years:

Kamloops Blazers NHL '94 Celebration

 

Unmade Movie Sequels: Mystery, Alaska 2

Unmade Movie Sequels is a series of synopsis' from popular hockey movies we wish were made.

Four years after the town of Mystery, Alaska hosted the New York Rangers in an exhibition game on their own pond, it is revealed in Mystery, Alaska 2 that much has changed since we last saw our favourite hockey-playing small town. The town of Mystery saw a big boom in business as their nationally televised game against New York boosted tourism in the area and actually had a negative impact on the town and their hockey. The story also shows life outside of Mystery and focuses on the young rookie, Stevie Weeks, and the town grocer, Connor Banks, who left with the New York Rangers on a pro tryout.

3 Reasons Why Fans Shouldn't Jump The Glass

It's never a good idea for fans to enter the surface of play at a sporting event. It doesn't end well in football, it doesn't end well in baseball, and it certainly doesn't end well in hockey. People can barely walk on a sidewalk with patches of ice, so why would they want to attempt to have some fun on a 85 foot X 200 foot ice surface? It's really high risk-low reward to even attempt it. Fans don't like it, paying fines suck, and players don't like you being in their workspace. In fact, we can only find one incident of someone being on a rink without skates and coming out unscathed: James Bond.

Undrafted Fantasy Gems

No we're not talking about the undrafted gems of the NHL such as Marty St. Louis or Adam Oates, we're talking about the guys that saved your fantasy season when you picked them up as free agents following your fantasy draft. These players might have been on some of your radars to start the season, and depending on the depth of your league you might have even drafted them late, but the majority of people caught their hot starts and snatched them up early. Regardless, these players have made fellow GMs weep at their success and feel like idiots for not picking them up first.

How NHLers Celebrated St. Patrick's Day

It's the day after St. Patrick's Day and you might be wondering how some of your favourite NHLers spent St. Paddy's Day. While no TMZ-like photos have surfaced of any NHLers passed out wearing green, we feel like we know the players pretty well to make some educated guesses as to how they spent March 17th this year.

Sergei Kostitsyn With The Worst Backcheck We've Ever Seen In Hockey

"You got this right, Shea?"

If there's one thing you get yelled at by a coach or teammate the most about it's backchecking. Even guys in beer league will give it to you if your strolling back as an odd-man rush breaks out - it's just something you have to attempt to do in hockey. Well Sergei Kostitsyn put every terrible backcheck to shame last night when he made a line change as a 2-on-1 developed. While on the powerplay, the puck hopped over Kostitsyn's stick and he lost a race for the puck with Sam Gagner. Rather than continuing to pressure Gagner from behind or peek over his shoulder to see if any other Oilers were breaking out, Kostitsyn puts his arm up to indicate a line change and heads to the bench. Perhaps the greatest thing about the entire sequence is the Nashville Predators coaches losing their shit on the bench as Kostitsyn comes to the bench oblivious to what is happening behind him.

Awards At The Half

Most teams are hitting the 24-game mark of the season now so it's time to make our picks for NHL Awards at the halfway point of the 2013 NHL season. A few weeks ago we did our awards at the quarter and much has changed since mid-February. 

How Are The NHL Rookies Doing This Year?

There were some high hopes coming into a shortened NHL season for the new crop of rookies. Having been playing hockey full-time in either the AHL, KHL or junior, these kids were among the minority of current NHLers playing hockey regularly during the stupid Lockout. This definitely gave them an advantage coming into their first NHL season in mid-season form and looking to make an impact when it really matters in a 48-game season. Well they haven't disappointed and have been big parts of their teams success halfway through the season. 

Surprising Stats In The NHL

We are coming up to the half way point of the season and as I kill time at work reading hockey blogs and looking at stats there are more than a few stats that jump out at me. Going into the shortened 2013 NHL season we didn't really know what to expect. There were so many question marks surrounding teams and how players would perform after an extended offseason. Well, a lot of those questions have been answered and the stats will most definitely surprise you.

Matchups We're Missing :(

Thanks to the NHL Lockout and shortened 48-game season it caused, hockey fans will only be getting intra-conference games during the regular season. While we still get Sid vs. Ovi  Stamkos and everyone vs. Vancouver (everyone really does hate them eh?), there are some fun matchups that we'll be missing this season which really suck for hockey fans. You always like to see a players return to their former team or a classic rivalry, but some of those will be on hold at least until the next season.