Minor League Highlights March 29th 2013

Highlights from games March 29th 2013

Crosby Out

Well the good news is that the Penguins have won 15 straight games and are the first time in NHL history to go an entire month undefeated....now the bad news.  Sidney Crosby was hit in the face with a slap shot/pass
from his teammate, Brooks Orpik.
Sid left the game and was taken to the local hospital in Pittsburgh for oral surgery.  The team has not issued any further statements on the health of Crosby.

read more here at NHL.com

Jaromir Jagr - 1000th Career Assist

Friday night March 29th 2013 Jaromir Jagr recorded his 1,000 career assist in the NHL.  It came in the 3rd period against the Minnesota Wild as Jamie Benn scored in a 5-3 vicotry of the Dallas Stars.

This Week in the ECHL 03/29/2013

Top Ten Goals of the Week 03/29/2013

NCAA Mens Hockey Tournament 2013

click on the link below to get your printable brackets for the 2013 NCAA Men's Div I Hockey Tournament


CLICK HERE

Here the tournament seeding.   The Frozen Four will be at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA April 11th and the Final on April 13th 

East
1 - Quinnipiac
2 - Boston College
3 - Union (NY)
4 - Canisius

Northeast 
1 - Mass.-Lowell
2 - New Hampshire
3 - Denver
4 - Wisconsin

West
1 - Minnesota
2 - North Dakota
3 - Niagara
4 - Yale

Midwest
1 - Notre Dame
2 - Miami (OH)
3 - Minnesota State - Mankato
4 - St. Cloud State

Bench Clearing Brawl (Rockford vs Chicago 03/17/2013)

AHL Rockford IceHogs have a bench clearing brawl with the Chicago Wolves, from March 17th 2013

Happy Birthday Bobby Orr

I missed it yesterday but March 20th 2013 was the 65th birthday of the hockey legend Bobby Orr.

Here are just some of the feats accomplished by the Boston defenseman

First defenseman to score 30 goals in a season (1969-70)
First defenseman to score 40 goals in a season  (1974-75)
First player to record 100 assist in a season  (1970-71)
Only Defenseman to lead the league in scoring and the only defenseman to win the Art Ross trophy (2 times)
1969-70 and 1974-75

The only player to win the Norris Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Hart Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy in the same season (1969-70)
Winner of the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year 1967
Won the Hart Trophy as regular season league MVP 3 straight seasons (1970,71,72)
The First 2 time winner of the Conn Smythe trophy as Stanley Cup playoffs MVP (1970 and 1972)

Here are The Top Ten Bobby Orr Moments in the NHL

Eric Selleck Gets 2 Game Suspension

The Florida Panthers rookie Eric Selleck will serve a 2 game suspension for basically getting his butt whipped by Kevin Westgarth of Carolina

Watch this clip of the "Fight"....more like getting his ticket "punched" to head back to San Antonio.

Read the article, click here.

Patrick Kane's Spin O Rama 03/16/2013

Patrick Kane notches Chicago's 8th goal of the night against the Dallas Stars

March 16th 2013

Top Ten Goals of the Week 03/15/2013

Minor League Highlights 03/15/2013

Highlights from the Minor leagues March 15th 2013

This Week in the ECHL (03/15/2013)

NHL Approves Division Realignment for 2013-14 Season

courtesy of Sports Illustrated.com

By Allan Muir

Even Karl Rove could see this result coming.

As expected, the NHL’s Board of Governors voted–overwhelmingly, but not unanimously–today to approve a plan to realign the league’s 30 teams into four divisions in an effort to create more geographically stable groupings.

Despite earlier reports, it appears that the divisions have not yet been named (so Milan Lucic doesn’t have to worry about looking out his window at the Atlantic Ocean while playing in the Central Division).

In an afternoon conference call, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the names were still a couple weeks away. “We’re hoping to used the names that make it easiest for our fans to conjure up which teams are where,” he added.

Apparently Gary doesn’t just think hockey has the greatest fans in the world, but also the dumbest.

Until permanent names are assigned, here is how things have been laid out:

Division A: Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks.

Division B: Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets.

Division C: Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Division D: Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals join the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins.

While those new divisions make sense (for the most part, anyway), the transition won’t be entirely bump-free. The uneven size of the two conferences requires a creative approach to regular-season scheduling.

Here’s how it will play out in the Western Conference:

Within conference (division): 29 games
• 5 games vs. five teams (3 home/2 away vs. two teams, 2 home/3 away vs. three teams) AND 4 games vs. one team (2 home/2 away). Teams rotated on a yearly basis.
• 5 x 5 = 25 games
• 1 x 4 = 4 games

Within conference (Non-division): 21 games
• 3 games vs. each team (2 home/1 away vs. four teams, 1 home/2 away vs.
three teams). Teams are rotated on a yearly basis.
• 3 x 7 = 21 games

Non-conference: 32 games
• 2 games vs. each team (1 home/1 away)
• 2 x 16 = 32 games

(Exception: one team from each division plays one less game inside its division and one more game inside its conference but outside its division.)

The eight-team divisions make things a little more stable in the Eastern Conference.

Within conference (division): 30 games
• 5 games vs. two teams (3 home/2 away vs. one team, 2 home/3 away vs. one
team) AND 4 games vs. five teams (2 home/2 away). Teams are rotated on a yearly basis.
• 5 x 2 =10 games
• 4 x 5 = 20 games

Within conference (Non-division): 24 games
• 3 games vs. each team (2 home/1 away vs. four teams, 1 home/2 away vs.
four teams). Teams are rotated on a yearly basis.
• 3 x 8 = 24 games

Non-conference: 28 games
• 2 games vs. each team (1 home/1 away)
• 2 x 14 = 28 games

And that’s the beauty right there: every team plays a home-and-home with every team in the league, so fans will finally have at least one chance (barring injury) to see every player/team.

There’s also a new Stanley Cup playoff format that looks to the past in an effort to fire up divisional rivalries while addressing the inequities of the unbalanced conferences.

The top three finishers in each division are in. The remaining two spots will be awarded to the next two best point totals, who enter as wild cards. They’ll be seeded seventh and eighth and will play the second and first-place teams, respectively.

After that, it’s business as usual.

Interestingly, the league’s press release ends with this:

“The National Hockey League Players’ Association has given its consent to play under this new Alignment and Playoff System for a minimum of three seasons, through the 2015-16 NHL season.”

Which flies in the face of this from NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr:

“After discussions with the Executive Board, the NHLPA has given consent to realignment, to be re-evaluated following the 2014-15 season.”

Nothing’s ever easy with those two, is it?

Whenever it ends, odds are this realignment will be well received — for the most part. Nashville, Florida and Tampa Bay won’t be thrilled, but if you can keep 90 percent of the teams happy, it’s a winning formula.

Wayne Gretzky on The Dan Patrick Show

March 12th 2013 

Dan Patrick interviews "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky

NHL Scoring Leaders 03/11/2013

The Top 21 in the NHL is total points 

March 11th 2013

Courtesy of TheHockeyNetwork.com 

NHL Hightlights 03/08/2013 (The Streak Ends)

National Hockey League Highlights 

(w/Top Goals of the Week)

March 8th 2013

The Chicago Blackhawks' streak of 23 straight games with a point came to a crashing end last night as the Colorado Avalanche blew them out of the arena.

Minor League Highlights from March 8th 2013

M

Top 10 Chicago Blackhawks Plays of 2013

NHL Best of the Day (03/05/2013)

Highlighting the best plays of the day

 March 5th 2013

(courtesy Tubeface95)

Joel Quenneville on The Dan Patrick Show 03/06/2013

Chicago Blackhawks headcoach Joel Quenneville talks to Dan Patrick about his record breaking team

Top 10 Evgeni Malkin Plays (HD)

NHL Top 10 Goals (February 2013)

Minor League Highlights 03/02/2013

Highlights from around the hockey minor league games

 March 1st and 2nd 2013

NHL Standings (Current March 2nd 2013)

(courtesy of the Thehockeynetwork.com)