There was a lot of attention paid to Colton Orr in January. Did he deserve a place on the Leafs 23-man roster? Was there room for someone like him? Someone who wasn’t able to prove himself at the NHL level last season? Someone who had sat out for the majority of the 2010-11 season recovering from a concussion suffered in a battle gone wrong?
Indeed, following the 2011 fight with George Parros which ended with him landing face first on the ice underneath his opponent, he had sat out for 244 days before starting the 2011-12 season. He had been cleared by doctors, he was ready to go. But he didn’t get too much of a chance to prove it at the NHL level before being sent down to the Toronto Marlies and coach Dallas Eakins.
“Even though it was probably a great disappointment for him to be sent to the American League, it was almost a necessary thing to happen for him because it let us basically pull down that reset button for 10 seconds and this hockey player restarted himself and a new guy popped out,” Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins told TSN.” (tsn.ca)
Indeed, Orr’s reset button was flipped and by the start of training camp this past January he looked like an entirely different hockey player.
As the regular season winds down and playoff dreams are on the verge of coming true, pausing to recognize one of the biggest milestones at the start of any player’s NHL career seems like a fine idea. So far this season, 86 rookies have hit the twine behind goaltenders across the league, each with their own story to tell about the goal they scored, and each with a smile as big as the moon when they realized the puck was in the net.
The stars aligned for Dallas Stars forward Alex Chiasson when he scored his first goal in his second NHL game on April 5 against the Anaheim Ducks. It was the beginning of a five game scoring streak that saw him rack up a total of 7 points in his first six games, concluding with the game winning goal in the April 13 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks. Not only was it a fantastic personal feat, but it set a new franchise record for the Stars.
This fight…. what can really be said about this fight from February 2007? The escalation is absolutely magnificent. Bad blood leads to one fight. Which leads to a goalie fight between Ray Emery and Martin Biron. Which leads to Emery fighting with Andrew Peters.
And then… oh then, the coaches nearly get into it! Enough chatter, just watch.
Tuesday night saw the Tampa Bay Lightning host the Buffalo Sabres in a big Eastern Conference match up. Big in that both teams are trying to climb their way into the playoff picture with a few short weeks left in the season. As can be expected when playing a team with Steve Ott and Patrick Kaleta in their line up, it was a rather physical game.
What may be surprising is there was only one fight in the game. No matter how hard the Sabres tried to get Radko Gudas to drop the gloves.
Who loves you enough to bring you two Friday fights for the price of one? That’s right. Aerys NHL delivers.
The best part of these bouts may be the slow, simmering build up to the show downs. Patrick Kaleta goes down faster than free beer at a frat party. The officials try to keep the two sides apart. Especially when Colton Orr arrives.
Frazer McLaren and John Scott pair off immediately after the face off. Orr goes in search of Kaleta and they drop ‘em too. Tandem fights! Glorious!
Score thought it could contain the mullet but Upper Deck has wisdom.
Picture it: June 16, 1990. BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia was buzzing with anticipation as the 1990 NHL Entry Draft kicked off. Who would go when? Would the top prospects indeed be drafted in order? Would there be any surprises? Utter atrocities?
Enter The Hair. But was Jaromir Jagr’s mullet really an atrocity? From a fashion standpoint in 1990, well, not so much. And his being drafted 5th overall? That really wasn’t cause for shock and awe either, just case in point as to why NHL Central Scouting needed to include European players in their rankings.
But wow, whoever was behind one of the cameras that day taking portraits of the newly drafted players clearly had a single goal in mind: To make the rookies look like rookies. They succeeded at gold star level and in the process took massive liberties with a number of things, most notably Jagr’s sassy Czech fashion sense. Just where was his hair? His glorious mullet? Now you see it, now you don’t? If they had the opportunity, they likely would have made him wear socks and sandals, too. For all we know, they did.
Shawn Thornton gets to do what a lot of hockey fans want to do to Patrick Kaleta. (Photo: slidingsideways/flickr)
There are certain players who when their name is mentioned invoke the response “oh what did he do this time?”. Patrick Kaleta is one of those players. (No seriously…why should Shark, Blackhawks, or Penguins writers care about a Rangers-Sabres game?)
One of the cool things about featuring a different player each week is getting to go a little bit deeper. Everyone knows that guys the likes of Henrik Lundqvist are easy on the eyes. It doesn’t end there, though. There is plenty of beauty no matter where you look.
This week’s Hawt Trophy winner may not be a household name, but we hope you enjoy meeting him. Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to present Alexander Sulzer of the Buffalo Sabres.
Intermission Report is the home for all the news and happenings around the NHL and the rest of the North American hockey world.
We also bring you updates on the teams that aren't represented on the site yet. (See the list under "Write For Us.")
Aerys NHL @
Write for Us
We're looking for writers for:
Buffalo Sabres
Calgary Flames
Carolina Hurricanes
Chicago Blackhawks
Columbus Blue Jackets
Detroit Red Wings
Edmonton Oilers
Florida Panthers
Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota Wild
Ottawa Senators
Phoenix Coyotes
San Jose Sharks
Tampa Bay Lightning
Toronto Maple Leafs
Vancouver Canucks
Washington Capitals
Winnipeg Jets
Indeed, following the 2011 fight with George Parros which ended with him landing face first on the ice underneath his opponent, he had sat out for 244 days before starting the 2011-12 season. He had been cleared by doctors, he was ready to go. But he didn’t get too much of a chance to prove it at the NHL level before being sent down to the Toronto Marlies and coach Dallas Eakins.
