Notes Feb 7, 2006
- I forgot to post about the Thrashers Jersey Exchange Program - bring in a jersey of another team, get a Thrashers jersey. Replica for replica, authentic for authentic. Your choice of Atlanta sweater, home or third blue. Thanks to Costa Tsiokos for the reminder.
- The Ottawa Sun’s Erin Nicks is sick of Sidney. Eric McErlain says don’t hate the player for the hype. The Acid Queen says Alex Ovechkin should be the new poster boy for the NHL. They’re both right. My additions to their thoughts: There’s hype and there’s oversaturation. The Sidney Saturation blanketed the hardcore hockey fan and frankly I don’t think it was welcomed by many. AQ’s got it right that Ovechkin would have taken more heat the Sid the Kid for some of his actions - except from Don Cherry. He would definitely give it to Ovechkin, but as he’s already done it plenty to Crosby (“hot dog” and Crosby might be synonyms to Cherry), I’d say fair would be fair in this case. My guess is the better Ovechkin’s English gets, the more we’ll see of him. I’ll take a second guess and say that’s going to happen quickly too.
- Ovechkin, Staal and Kovalchuk are hockey’s easy “road to the south”. The NHL should be pushing these three everywhere. I can’t wait for the Southeast to be a powerhouse division in a few years. Increases in heart attacks across the border should be expected when it happens - and if you think the CHMM (Canadian Hockey Media Machine) dislikes southern teams now, just wait until they’re scoring at will against the Canadian Six.
- Georges Laraque actually fought last night. His dance partner was Todd Fedoruk and he had little trouble with the Fridge (video):
They talk while lined up for a faceoff and drop the gloves shortly after the puck is dropped. They square off and Fedoruk changes stances, from lefty to righty. Fedoruk moves in and grabs on awkwardly and throws a right and quickly moves to switch to the left. They exchange a couple of lefts, one knocking Fedoruk’s helmet off, and Fedoruk tries to switch back to the right. Fedoruk misses with a right and Laraque takes over throwing a series of hard lefts, a few connecting cleanly, until Fedoruk is driven down to the ice. The linesmen quickly move in to break it up.
Laraque only has five fights this season and Eric Godard was the only one to even test him. Fedoruk was the only other bigtime heavy Laraque fought (Darcy Hordichuk is game and entertaining, but not in the same heavyweight class). Fedoruk assisted on Corey Perry‘s goal and has a career-high 14 points in 49 games so far. He’s a good fighter as I’ve noted before, but isn’t consistent. Tonight it didn’t matter if he was having an off night or Laraque was having a good one, he simply lost.
I hope Laraque has a few more in him. Donald Brashear handled rookie Colton Orr easily over the weekend. Brash only has four bouts this season. Both Laraque and Brash are considered tops in the league, but they don’t even hit double digits in fighting majors combined at the moment. Hopefully they each reach the ten-mark by end of the season (somehow) and we can either settle some debate or have a really good one. Of course, if Eric Cairns can turn it up in Pittsburgh, he could toss his hat (or helmet, or fists for that matter) into the debate as well. Cairns’ low fighting major number (four) comes from an injury early on in the season and then a lack of playing time in Florida. When he did fight, he wasn’t quite as dominant as he was in New York. With his slow start he’d normally have no shot at being considered a top tier guy at this point in the season, but as fighting has dropped as it has and no one’s truly torn up the league, anything can still happen.
- The Olympics are coming and it seems like other countries care about it a hell of a lot more than Americans do. Just a casual observation, but one I thought I’d throw out there.
Comments:
The Southeast isn’t a powerhouse already? Carolina’s kicking butt this year, Tampa Bay looks to have plenty of life left in it, and Atlanta is lurching toward playoff calibre (guaranteed, per Don Waddell
. Florida and Washington are down, but both have been playoff teams in recent years, and Cup Finalists in the past decade.If you look beyond divisional constraints, there should be plenty to give Canadian snobs ulcers. Nashville is high-calibre, Dallas is a perennial contender, Arizona has been blessed by Gretzky, and the Southern Californian teams are well-established.
Frankly, I’m tired of the geographical brainlock “purists” like to cite. Decades ago, pro football fans scoffed at NFL teams succeeding in the South because of the competition from college ball. Trashing the presence of hockey in places where it doesn’t snow is just as dumb.
Posted by CT on Feb 07, 2006 at 07:23 PM
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