National Hockey League 2012-2013 Thread - Page 32

Basically hitting the half way point for everyone.

The hockey out West is pretty dull, total shutdown hockey. A 1995 Devils & 2002 Wild kinda stuff. While the East looks like pond hockey - lots of fun to watch. Clearly the East is more entertaining this year.

Hard to say who is really better, will make for an interesting Cup Final. The West guys will think the rink got bigger and the East guys will be like - are there 7 skaters out there??

And the Canucks have hit rock bottom

in other injury news, this one from the swiss league.


(don't watch it) Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

and yes, holy crap those jerseys/stickers look awful

That incident in the Swiss league was horrible and exactly why Katela should have gotten a significantly longer suspension.

Richards was literally inches away from potentially the same fate.

eff eddy

First I've heard of this. Miller has been wearing custom warwick masks since his college days. No problem with impact protection there. Glenn Heally went on a retarded rant about the mask and nobody in the goalie community who knows gear agreed he had a slight clue about what he was talking about. Heally was a CWD anyways (combo wearing dork -- helmet+HM30 cage). Richter's career ended on a slapper wearing a Pro's Choice, but it was because he turned his head where the modern goalie mask is designed to deflect the impact around the shell with a shot being taken at the front. Also there was rumor the trainer messed with some of the padding in the mask prior to that happening which gave him a poor fit.

The thing about goalie masks in the pros is that they're all custom and all done on small scale production. The pro mask makers are almost all guys working solo using a bigger brand name on the mask (Vaughn masks aren't made in the Vaughn factory, bauer etc). I wear a custom Dillon (same brand Craig Anderson, Curtis Sanford, and a few others wear) and they're made in a small body shop in Richmond, VA. All masks you see labeled Vaughn are made by a guy named Dom Malerba whose masks are referred to as Pro's Choice (http://progoaliemask.com/pcmask/). I'm going on a tangent here, but one of the biggest mask making icons of the 90's was Ed Cubberly who still makes his masks out of his basement in NJ and also made the mask for Hannibal in Silence of the Lambs (http://edcubberly.com/). He made the masks that had the "C" on the ear holes. Those were iconic on all the big named pros during the 90's. Wow none of that had to do with the quote but I like talking goalie gear.

So, Philly... still want a d-man? this game has turned sour fast. You can't even pile on Bryz for those three... two passes in front and one d-man simply getting stripped of the puck on a breakout. You guys need D something fierce.

RIP Stompin' Tom!

so the 2010 Hobey Baker winner has retired. I suppose it's not unexpected given the injury he received, but it's still a shame.

A true loss.

Re: VANs goalie situation is totally untenable. These guys are at each others throats (10)
http://video.tsn.ca/?dl=pipe42/latest/1/0/884953/clip/0#pipe42/latest

NYR hitting the skids again, losing 3 of 4. They're strong in their own zone and defensively, strong along the boards in the offensive zone, not strong in front unless Callahan is there, and strong in goal .... and then Gaborik fumbles a penalty shot. Their scorers have not been finishing at all, and even chances are fairly hard to come by.

It's frustrating after controlling a lot of the play a team like Winnipeg will get a small rush up the other end and then have a shot bounce off their player and into the net.

Has Torts worn out his welcome? There's no way a team with that much talent one season removed from an ECF appearance does this poorly. I don't follow the team at all so take this with a grain of salt but I sincerely don't believe the Nash trade could've made that team that much worse.

i don't think it's a Torts thing. He's been there for a few years and the players all know what to expect. A few key players just aren't clicking where they need to, and the big one is Gaborik who only has 8 goals this year (61st in the league) after coming off a 41 goal campaign last year. I know he had shoulder surgery after the playoffs so maybe he's still feeling it, but his fumble on the penalty shot kind of sums up his season. Richards had a bad start, got injuried, picked it up for 2 or 3 games, and has now gone dormant again. McDonagh seems off too, his Leech-like puck movement isn't really there like it was last season. And of course we lost our best defensemen and we don't know when he'll be back. Nash and Callahan are the bright spots and can make loads happen with just a little bit of room (which brings up my point below).

Last night, the Rangers had some really solid chances in periods 1 and 2, and carried most of the play. A lucky bounce got them behind, and then Winnipeg basically kept 5 people back at all times to preserve the lead. No room at all, and the Rangers weren't aggressive enough to draw penalties. We need more presence in front of their net too.

I don't see it as a "well we lost Prust, Dubi, Anisimov, and Fedotenko, so now we're a shell of the team we were" argument either. The biggest loss, IMO, was Prust, but he became really expensive and only averaged something like 12 mins. of ice time a game for NYR. We picked up a lot of grit players too with Pyatt, Asham (granted, Asham has been out for a while with a back injury), Powe, and Halie. The biggest problem is not grit or size or speed, it's finishing. Right now, shots are going wide, or hitting the post, or rebounds are being deflected, etc. It's not like NYR have hit hot goalies, they're just not finishing. And now they get to enter a hot Pens team on a 2 game skid. Not ideal.

exhibit A: the game in Pittsburgh. 12 mins. left in the game and the Pens are well on their way to a shutout.