Showing posts with label NHL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHL. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2009

The captain post....for other teams

There has been a lot of talk about captains for the Wild, so I thought I'd post about other captains in the league and my thoughts on them.

Anaheim-Special Nieds (Scott Niedermayer) he's a very good player, even with his half season vacation. He lost a step, but that just put him only 1-2 steps ahead of everyone else instead of miles. I think he's been a pretty good leader for them, especially since they had kind of a circus for a while. I try to hate him, but in the end I fail.

Atlanta-Ilya Kovalchuk...all I know about him is that he has a horrible sweet tooth and had to have most of his teeth pulled when he came to the US from Russia.

Boston-Zdeno Chara is probably a great captain, because everyone is too scared to cross him. They just do whatever he says so he doesn't eat their children.

Buffalo-Craig Rivet, again, don't know enough about him to pass judgement. Sorry slug fans.

Calgary-Jarome Iginla- as much as I love to hate him, I have respect for him. Mostly because people have been comparing him to Joe Sakic.

Carolina-Rod Brind'Amour-kill me now. Better yet, kill him.

Chicago-Jonathan Toews-I don't think I really have to say what my thoughts are on him, even though he played for the Sioux. (barf)

Colorado-Adam Foote-I was unaware they had named another captain, but Foote will get the job done...just not as well as Joe Sakic.

Columbus-Rick Nash-well he must be doing something right...they sort of made the playoffs.

Dallas-Brendan Morrow-meh, as long as it's not Alvin the chipmunk, I don't actually care.

Detroit-Nicklas Lidstrom-he's not what he used to be, but he's still pretty good. He's now slightly less robotic than he used to be, and he's done a pretty good job filling Steve Yzerman's shoes.

Edmonton-Ethan Moreau-I have to admit, I don't know if this is the best choice, but I don't know who I'd name in his place. He's even more fragile than I am, and that's saying something. Hopefully something goes right this season for the Oilers, and maybe he'll show off his leadership under a new coach.

Florida-no captain...Bouwmeester maybe? McCabe would not be a good choice I feel. As Buddha pointed out to me, Bouwmeester went to Calgary. Clearly he will not be captain of the Panthers. In that case, I have no idea.

LA-Dustin Brown-from what I gather he's pretty young, but so is the whole team, so whatever, right? I like the Kings, so I hope he does a good job.

Minnesota-I think we all know what's going on here. If you want to read about it, my fellow Wild bloggers have pretty much all written something. We all know that Mikko Koivu is the captain of our hearts, so wearing the C is just a minor detail.

Montreal-I'm not sure what's going on here, but I imagine it's not very fun to be the captain of the Habs. So much pressure it's insane. I'm sure something will be worked out before the season starts.

Nashville-Jason Arnott-personally I think he looks like kind of a douche, but I think the Preds should not exist, so that's fine.

New Jersey-Brendan Shanahan-I'm surprised that JL would replace Langenbrunner, but I've been hearing here there and yonder that Shanny is the new captain. That's cool by me, he's a good leader, and it may be his last season. Nice way to end his time?

New York Islanders-No captain at the moment, they better hope the team doesn't take a page out of Vancouver's book, otherwise the team will not have a captain on the ice 99% of the time.

New York Rangers-Chris Drury-he's kind of a wuss, but then when you look at the rest of the team, he suddenly seems a bit tougher. Hasn't been the same since he left 20 Cent's hometown.

Ottawa-Daniel Alfredsson-he makes a really ugly woman, but other than that, he's alright. Not my favorite, but I largely ignore the fact that the Sens exist.

Philly-Mike Richards-from what I hear, many people approve of his being captain. Seems like he has a couple of good alternates, too.

Phoenix-Shane Doan-I don't like him at all, but apparently he's a great leader. I wouldn't follow him if my life depended on it.

Pittsburgh-Cindy Sidney Crosby-ok, I lied. I dislike Crosby more than I dislike Doan. The only place I'd follow him is to a cliff...then I'd shove him off.

San Jose-what a mess. I'm guessing Thornton won't get it....

St. Louis-Eric Brewer-I think he's a fine leader for the young team. I have a lot of respect for him, and I hope they do well.

Tampa Bay-Vincent Lecavalier- I think Vinny's a great player, but I'm not sure what kind of a leader he is. He could be Wayne Gretzky and that team would still have struggles, so I'll reserve judgement on his leadership abilities round two. (He had the C when he was first in the league)

Toronto-another storied franchise without a captain. Sad.

Vancouver-Luongo. I don't think this is a good idea. I mean there's a reason they made the rule that goalies can't be the captain, and I think it's a good rule.

Washington-Chris Clark-who now? I'm sure he's lovely, but I have no idea who he is.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Around the NHL

Since nothing is happening on the Wild front his week due to having so much time off, I'm having to resort to all those TSN headlines that are in my inbox every day.

1.) Mark Messier is quite possible the douchiest (sp?) looking person I've ever seen.

2.) Go Kings! Way to school the Stars, highly exciting game at the end I hear.

3.) Goilers! Nothing like a Battle of Alberta for the late game, but I find I like it much better when the Oilers win. Now if only they didn't have to spoil it all by having Theo Fleury as the guest on After Hours...

4.) Someone in the Leafs organization is going to get fired very soon, and I strongly suspect JFJ is in the hot seat.

5.) Scott Niedermayer is skating again. The way I see it, there are three possibilities: A.) He misses hockey because he loves the game and wants to keep playing. B.) He really enjoys playing mind games with people. C.) His wife is driving him nuts and he wants to play again so he can go on road trips and get away.

6.) Don Cherry ripped into Sean Avery! It was on this past Saturday's Coach's Corner. I just went hunting for it on You Tube.

7.) HHOF inductions are tomorrow. Congratulations to the four inductees Messier (it kills me to say that), Francis, MacInnis (probably my fave of the four), and Stevens. TSN has tons of stuff about all of these guys, videos, articles, polls, and the like.


8.) Speaking of douchey people, JR got his 500th goal.

9.) Lindros FINALLY announced his retirement.

10.) Joe Sakic continues to prove Margee right that he's still got it. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=222563&hubname=nhl

Week preview: Since I probably won't have time to write up a game preview for each of the games this upcoming week, I will write a few thoughts on each now. We play our entire division on the road in one week, and then we'll be finishing up with the Avs at home.

Wild Vs. Avs: They have stolen our division crown, but we are only one point behind them. Backstrom being able to play tonight will be key. He is a beast in net for us against the Avs. Unfortunately it sounds like he tweaked his groin again. Hopefully he's just lazy and was using it as an excuse to get out of practice or something. This is a team I find it really hard to hate, in fact, I almost sort of like them a little bit. What is it with me and finding things to like about division rivals?

The remaining three teams we will be playing this week are out of the playoffs as of now. Dude, what happened to our division?

Tuesday-Wild vs. Flames: We destroyed them a week and some change ago, and I'm looking for a repeat performance. The Flames have been fairly horrible lately, a fact that makes me a little bit giddy. Neener neener. That's what you guys get for hiring Iron Mike.

Thursday-Wild vs. Oilers: This game depends on whether or not they can stay out of the box. They were hurting last night when they had Staios AND Stoll in the box at the same time. Their defence is still looking thin missing Souray and now Greene. They need Roli/Garon/the stickboy to really be solid in net for them to give the struggling defence a chance. I'm liking what Gagner has been bringing.

Friday-Wild vs. Canucks: They were supposed to win in regulation last night so we'd be tied with the Avs, not behind them. The Canucks are not living up to expectations at the moment at 11th in the conference. Ouch, but I'll take it. It's a back to back game, so it will be a battle of the scraggly haired goalies with too much grease in their hair, unless Lemaire decides to play Harding against the Oilers and Backstrom against the Canucks, but Backstrom absolutely destroys the Oilers in a way that must be heartwarming to the Avs.