Fast Tube by Casper

Thanksgiving has come and gone and here is another issue of my weekly round up. I will have to admit with the holiday weekend, I have slipped a bit but here we go with some things that you have may of missed as you turned to football for the weekend or just simply slept your turkey dinner away.

Who is in, who is out?

Out for the next two games would be the Penguins Matt Cooke. Once again we see a cheap shot  and the NHL has responded properly by issuing Cooke a 2 game suspension for a high hit to the head on the Rangers Artem Anisimov. Cooke threw an elbow to Anisimov’s head and dislodged his helmet which to me was a total cheap shot as it was no where near the puck at the time.

The Avalanche have lost David Jones who torn his ACL  and will be out till late March. Colorado has been struggling of late and losing Jones will not help matters.

The Boston Bruins can’t catch a break in the injury department. Just 4 games after getting power forward Milan Lucic back in the line up, Lucic once again goes down for another 4 weeks as he has a high ankle sprain. Anyone in Boston that saw that injury live was thinking the worst as it appeared to be a knee injury at first. The B’s also got back Vezinar trophy winner, Tim Thomas on Saturday after missing 5 games. In that shootout win for the B’s, Patrice Bergeron rolled his right ankle and then took a slap shot off the leg. Bergeron missed Monday’s practice and there is no new if he will play their next game Wednesday against the Lightning.

The Chicago Blackhawks finally got what they were waiting for with Marian Hossa who made his debut on Wednesday. The red hot Hawks added had to have been on cloud 9 with Hossa’s two goals to what already appears to be a stacked line up.

New York Newsday is reporting that Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro will play in part of Bridgeport’s game in the AHL to start his road back to the NHL. GM Garth Snow is hoping to see Dipietro back with the Islanders by mid-December.

Black Friday killed some streaks

Like mentioned above, the Blackhawks are on fire as they rang up a 8 game winning streak before getting shut out Friday night by the Ducks and losing in a shoot out the next night to the Kings. Still at 8-1-1 and Hossa’s arrival, the Western Conference has reason to be worry.

Friday also killed Nashville’s 7 game winning streak as they lost to the Blues. The Predators are 8-2 in their last 10 and host one of the best road teams in the League as the Devils who have 10 wins on the road and are 7-2-1 in their last 10. Speaking of the Devils, they stopped the Bruins 4 game winning streak in a great battle of the goalies. Martin Brodeur also set another record as he passed Patrick Roy in all time minutes played.

Another southern team is also making some noise as the Atlanta Thrashers is riding a 3 game winning streak and 7-1-2 in the last 10 will host the Florida Panthers who are 5-2-3 but have lost the last 2.Even with all the injury issues the Bruins have had ,they have suddenly surged from 12th to 3rd  in the Eastern Conference by going 6-1-3 in the last 10.

The Carolina Hurricanes continue to struggle as they have lost their last 3 and are 3-5-2 in the last 10. The Canes are still without a win on the road will host the Avalanche who are 2-5-3 in their last ten games. Despite the recent slump of the Avalanche, they are still holding 4th in the West thanks to the great start they had at the beginning of the season.

Key Match-ups this week ahead

Tonight’s Pittsburg/Rangers game should be interesting as they play the back half of a home and home. Good thing for the Pens, the NHL suspended Cooke or this one could of gotten real ugly. The Penguins have a tough week as they face the Avalanche on Thursday and the Blackhawks on Saturday. Also tonight you have a battle of two hot teams as the Devils visit the Predators.

The Buffalo Sabres will try to leap frog over the Sen’s and Bruins to capture first place in the Northeast as they visit Toronto tonight as well.

The Bruins will have to beware of the set up game Wednesday night against the Bolts as they will visit Montreal for a Friday night battle against the Habs but more importantly the game that every Bruins fan has been waiting for as Phil Kessel makes his first appearance in the city he wanted to leave. I wouldn’t expect too many cheers for Kessel at the Garden Saturday night.

Ovechkin scored a goal in his return against the Rangers and the Caps haven’t won since, losing to the Habs on Thursday and handing the Leafs victory on Saturday. The Bruins will finally get Marc Savard back tonight as they visit the Blues in St.Louis.

The battle of the cellar dweller’s  played out pretty much how I expected it. Bad goal-tending  and a high scoring affair. The Bruins had some interest in this game and it wasn’t to see old friend Phil Kessel who by the way did not have one point in the 5 goals Toronto scored…still miss him? Anyways, the reason the Bruins have interest in the progress of Toronto is the repercussions of the Kessel trade. The Bruins own the Leafs first round draft pick and the way it is going right now, the B’s are looking at the number one pick overall.

On that note, the leafs go out on Saturday night against one of the best teams in the East and beats them in a shootout after a 1-1 tie. Some things don’t make any sense and that is one of them. Now we saw hockey’s version of a rally cap going on as the Leaf players wore their helmets  backwards on the bench during the shootout. And there was several thousand Leaf fans that attended their morning skate for support.

Streaks

One of the hottest teams in the NHL right now has been the Chicago Blackhawks who are riding a 7 game win streak and are 8-1-1 in their last 10. Rookie goaltender Antti Niemi stopped all 30 shots he faced Sunday night against the Vancouver Canucks to get his first career shutout.

After a shaky start, the Nashville Predators have something working for them of  late as they are 8-2-0 in their last 10, winning the last 5.

Both the Sharks and Blue Jackets are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games. San Jose has found themselves first in the West thanks to their recent hot streak. Another team to watch for is the Detroit Red Wings who have picked up the pace lately going 7-2-1 in the last 10.

After stopping  New Jersey’s run for the road record at 9 games, Philly beat the Kings but has now lost the last 2 games. The Flyers’ are 7-3 in their last 10.

The Canes finally snapped their 14 game skid and have now won 3 of their last 4. Manny Legace has been holding the fort down for the injured Cam Ward. The Hurricanes and Maple Leafs have been playing a game of leap frog all season for the worst record in the East.

Home Sweet Home

There are 2 teams in the NHL that have not suffered a loss at home yet. The San Jose Sharks are 7-0-2 and the Lightning who are 5-0-4. Both teams are home on Wednesday night with the Sharks hosting the Blackhawks for a battle of the titans. Tampa Bay should have no problem keeping their record in tact as they host the Leafs. Carolina is the only team without a win on the road so far at 0-7-3.

Key Match-ups coming up this week

The game of the week is clearly on Wednesday night as the 2nd place Blackhawks visit the first place Sharks at the tank in a Western conference battle. As I mentioned before, San Jose has not lost a game at home yet. The Eastern Conference has a similar match up on Wednesday night when the 3rd place Sabres visit the 1st place Capitals in DC. Both teams have struggled a bit lately but any time you put a top scorer like Ovechkin facing  a top goaltender like Miller, you will be entertained.

Tonight you have the 3rd place Avalanche who have struggled of late hosting the Philadelphia Flyers who are 5th in the East. Friday, the Bruins have their annual noon time start and this year they face the 4th place leafs. With Savard and Lucic back, this will be a great battle.

Retired and Un-Retired

Brendan Shanahan Retired after 21 seasons in the NHL, you can read my article on Shanahan here. Peter Forsberg decided to stay in Sweden and influences Markus Naslund to come out of retirement  to team up together to play with Modo.

Boo-Hoo, the ref’s hate me

One of my favorite stories of the week has to be from the City of Anaheim where according to Duck fans, the officials gave Toronto their first win with phantom calls. I wrote a whole piece on that earlier this week and you can read the article here. The irony is the day after I posted that article, I had one less follower on Twitter…coincidence? Nah….poor sport. Just for the record, I think the site is cute, the Rally was stupid.

Win one, Lose a bunch more

Toronto finally got their first win and like I said earlier in the week, Toronto’s wins will be far and few this year. Although goaltender Vesa Toskala looked solid in his first start since being sidelined, the Leafs still managed to lose Saturday night to the Habs in a shootout. And yes Toronto is once again on another losing streak at 3 games. The good news is that Phil Kessel is rumored to be returning Tuesday night when they host the Lightning. The Leafs best chance of winning a game this week will be on Friday when they visit the lowly Hurricanes (2-8-3) who have their worse start since the franchised moved from Hartford.

Bay-”B” I got your number

Henrik Lundqvist certainly has the Bruins number which is zero. Lundqvist earned his 150th NHL win Sunday by shutting out the Bruins for the 4th time and his 21st  career shut out. The Bruins are still on the lose one, win one pattern since the opening face off on October 1st.

The Goalie Shuffle

Being a back up goalie in the NHL is a tough on a young player who is just itching to get into the action and be your teams #1. What better way to prove your point than to make 50 saves against the Ottawa Senators. That’s what Atlanta Thrashers goalie, Ondrej Pavelec did on Saturday night. With starter Kari Lehtonen recovering from back surgery, Pavelec has filled in and done the job for the Thrashers.

Speaking of goalies,  once Avalanche backup, Andrew Raycroft shut out his old team last night 3-0 . Raycroft has been the Canucks net minder since Roberto Luongo has been injured. Don’t read into that one too much, Raycroft wasn’t challenged only facing 18 shots.

Key Match-ups this week ahead

The defending champs and best in the East, Pittsburgh Penguins hit the road this week as the start of a 4 game road trip. Saturday night you will see the Crosby vs Thorton showdown as the Pens visit the 2nd in the west San Jose Sharks. Pittsburgh is still undefeated on the road this season with a 6-0-0 record.

The other top 3 teams in the west will be playing what looks to be round robin tourney as #4 Phoenix draws #1 Avalanche on Wednesday night and then has the #3 Blackhawks on Thursday night. Friday night the Blackhawks visit Colorado to face the Avalanche.

Boston Bruins

The B’s hot and cold season continued Saturday night in Phoenix without the services of Milan Lucic as they lost to the Coyotes 4-1. Although they played an above average game, they ran into hot a goaltender, Ilya Bryzgalov as he stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced. The B’s are now one game under .500 (3-4)

Who’s hot…. Who’s not

The Atlanta Thrashers are off to their best start in franchise history (4-1-0) and handed  Buffalo their first loss of the season beating them 4-2.

After losing their opener, the New York Rangers have peeled off 7 straight wins giving them a share of the top spot in the NHL with Pittsburgh who has a 5 game winning streak of their own. Both teams are 7-1-0 and unlike the Rangers who are undefeated at home(4-0), the Penguins are undefeated on the road (5-0)

The Colorado Avalanche are riding a 4 game winning streak and top in the west with a 6-1-1 record, two points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks who are off to their best start in 27 years at 5-2-1

With the Rangers and Sabres off to great starts, fans in New York must be happy ( big deal from us Boston fans), not all is good as the Islanders are one of two teams still without a win at 0-3-3. Moping up the cellar so far this season are the Toronto Maple Leafs who after losing to the Rangers Saturday 4-1, gave the Leafs a 0-6-1 record. To us Boston fans we are wondering how Kessel is loving his new team.

Transactions and Key injuries

The Boston Bruins traded Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday for Craig Weller,  the rights to Alexander Fallstrom and a second round draft pick in 2011. The 28 year old Weller is 6’4, 220 # with 4 goals , 10 assists and 127 pim in 95 NHL games. He was playing for the Houston Aeros of the AHL. The 19 year old Fallstrom is currently in his freshman year at Harvard University.

Milan Lucic was placed on long term injured reserve Sunday with a broken index finger, meaning that he has to miss a minimum of 10 games and 24 days making his earliest return on  Nov 10th. With Lucic out, the Bruins recalled Lefebrve, Marchand and Sobotka from the Providence Bruins of the AHL.

Toronto’s defenseman, Mike Van Ryn will be out for the season with a torn MCL, he is scheduled for surgery on Oct 22nd

Buffalo’s Thomas Vanek is listed day to day with an upper body injury

Chicago’s Mirian Hossa is on injured reserve with a right shoulder injury

Islander’s Rick Depietro is out with knee surgery

Washington’s Jose Theodore is listed day to day with lower back spasms