Putting on the Foil: March 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/27/11

LA Kings

LA Kings throwback jerseys this season have been just great and look much better than the black they have worn since the 90s started.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Stat of the Day

Only 3 players in NHL history of have won the Vezina Trophy (for Best Goaltender) and the Hart Trophy (league MVP) in the same season.

Jacque Plante - Montreal 1961-62

Dominik Hasek (2 times) - Detroit 1996-97 & 1997-98

Jose Theodore - Montreal 2001-02

NHL Plays of the Night 3/26/11

Friday, March 25, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/24/11

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ron Tugnutt 70 saves in one game

20 Years ago this week

NHL Plays of the Night 3/22/11

Monday, March 21, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/20/11

Headlines for 03/21/2011

Malhotra out for the rest of the season and playoffs

Ovechkin out for at least 10 days

Penguins Matt Cooke to out rest of season and first round of playoffs for elbow to the head of Rangers Ryan McDonagh.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/18/11

Thursday, March 17, 2011

NHL Current League Leaders

The current NHL leaders

Points

Daniel Sedin (Van) - 92 points (38G,54A)

Assist

Henrik Sedin (Van) - 68

Goals

Steven Stamkos (TB) - 43

Plus/Minus

Toni Lydman (Ana) - +30

Goaltenders

Wins

Jimmy Howard (Det) - 34

Goals Against (minimum 40 games played)

Tim Thomas (Bos) - 2.03

Save Percentage (minimum 40 games played)

Tim Thomas (Bos) - .938

The Hockey News: THN.com Top 10: THN.com Top 10: Biggest NHL draft busts

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

NHL Suspends Danny Heatley

The NHL suspended Danny Heatley for 2 games after his elbow hit to Steve Ott

NHL Plays of the Night 3/15/11

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/14/11

Monday, March 14, 2011

40 Years Ago (1970-71 NHL Season)

40 years ago the NHL was in its 54th season. The 1970-71 season would see the debut of the Vancouver Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres and both would be in the Eastern Division. This season saw the Detroit Red Wings suffer the worst defeat in franchise history by being shut out 13-0 by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Also that season the rookie Sabres had the Calder Trophy winner for Rookie of the Year, Gilbert Perrault, who broke the rookie goal scoring mark of 35 by scoring 38 goals.
A bright spot for the last place Red Wings was Gordie Howe being the first player to reach 1,000 career assist, and it was in a 5-3 win against Boston.

The Chicago Black Hawks had been moved to the newly reorganized Western Division and promptly manhandled that division and won going away 107 points. St Louis was second with 87.   In the Eastern Division the defending Stanley Cup champions, Boston Bruins, finished atop that division with 121 points and the NY Rangers in 2nd with 109.

Boston ruled the scoring ranks with Phil Esposito winning the Art Ross Trophy with 152 points, but he was chased by 7 teammates in the top ten scoring race.   Bobby Orr was 2nd, John Bucyk 3rd, Ken Hodge 4th, Wayne Cashman 7th, John McKenzie 8th and Fred Stanfield 10th.

With all that firepower the Bruins fell victim to a hot goaltender in Montreal's Ken Dryden in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, losing 4 games to 3.   Montreal moved on to down the Minnesota North Stars in the 2nd round 4-2 which put them in the Finals against the Chicago Black Hawks.
The Black Hawks had opened the playoffs with a drubbing of the Philadelphia Flyers 4-0 and then a 4-3 series win over the New York Rangers.

The Finals were a hotly contested 7 games series with the Canadiens fighting back to get a 3-2 game seven win at Chicago.   This would be the last road team to win a game 7 before the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins did it against the Detroit Red Wings. The only other team and first team to accomplish this was the 1945 Toronto Maples, who won game 7 in Detroit.

Ken Dryden would win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP, Bobby Orr would win his 2nd of 3 straight Hart Trophies as league MVP and also his 4th of 8 straight Norris Trophies as the NHL's top defenseman.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/11/11

Friday, March 11, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/10/11

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Stat of the Day

The Top Ten Goal Scorers for the Hartford Whalers (NHL Years)

1 - Ron Francis - 264
2 - Kevin Dineen - 235
3 - Blaine Stoughton - 219
4 - Pat Verbeek - 192
5 - Geoff Sanderson - 189
6 - Sylvain Turgeon - 178
7 - Ray Ferraro - 157
8 - Andrew Cassels - 97
9 - Ray Neufeld - 95
10 - Dean Evanson - 87

Montreal police being investigation of Chara Pacioretty hit

Montreal police being investigation of Chara Pacioretty hit - NHL - SI.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

NHL Plays of the Night 3/8/11

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

50 Years Ago

50 Years ago the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings met in the 1961 Stanley Cup Finals. The first time since 1950 that 2 US based teams met for the Cup, and this would be the last Stanley Cup win for the Black Hawks for 49 seasons.

The 1960-61 season was the year that Gordie Howe became the first player to have 1000 career regular season points, it would be 7 more seasons before Jean Beliveau would reach the same plateau.

The regular season ended with the Montreal Canadiens on top again with 92 points and the Black Hawks 3rd with 75 points. These 2 teams would meet in the semi finals for the Cup with Chicago winning 4 games to 2. The other semi final saw the Detroit Red Wings take out the Maple Leafs 4-1 and setting the all US Stanley Cup final.

This was the first appearance in the finals for Chicago since 1944 and the were loaded with talent with Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, Al Arbour, Pierre Pilote, Ab McDonald and in goal Glen Hall.

The teams traded wins in the first 6 games with the home team winning each one then in game 7 the Black Hawks stunned the home team Wings with a 5-1 victory and their first Stanley Cup since 1938.