Penner gets a lot of flack, but he sure scores some important goals. Photo by Linda Hamilton

If you read anything I write over on Get Higher, you’ll see in today’s post that I officially claim the award for worst blogger this week. Unfortunately, life takes over sometimes. So here, I’ll talk about briefly the Kings last three games (all wins) and then move on to discuss their chances in the second round.

» Continue reading “Kings Advance To Second Round”

He da man.

After a few months of stacking small piles of hockey cards all over my apartment, I finally had the chance to spend some time to properly organizing overthinking my card binder. Rather than coming up with a specific plan or actually putting any cards into the binder, I decided to look at Marty Turco cards on eBay because TurcoMania still runs wild in my heart.

It was then that I stumbled upon the “You Da Man” Marty Turco card pictured above. I had somehow forgotten about the 60 card Sidelines subset that made its appearance in the 2009-10 Upper Deck Be a Player Signature Series set. When the set was released, Sidelines cards weren’t anything new for hockey card fans or collectors with or without a sense of humour.

The 1992-93 Pinnacle Sidelines Subset (which I will get to at some point) was very informative. How would I have ever known that Luke Richardson was a rocket builder? And other cards popped up here and there with news about what players were doing off the ice, many of them related to the sport of golf.

Let’s relax, unwind and take some time to enjoy a few of the anecdotes and guffaw inducing moments brought to you by a handful of the 2009-10 UD BAP Sidelines cards.

» Continue reading “Hump Day Hockey Cards: You Da Man, Marty Turco”

Featuring the Minnesota Wild, because… well, look at them.

Alexis is out today, dying of the plague, so I’m subbing in for her.

Today is the last HDHC before Christmas, so we’re going with a change of format here this week. Here now is the classic Christmas carol, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”… in hockey card form.

» Continue reading “Hump Day Hockey Cards: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

This week’s award goes to an All American Boy who plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets: Jack Johnson. If his nickname is to be believed, that’s Jack MFing Johnson to you.

Johnson made headlines last season as being part of the trade that sent Jeff Carter to the Los Angeles Kings. Some may be bitter about losing out on a Stanley Cup Champion, but Johnson is appreciative of where he is and the opportunity he has there. Now that’s hawt.

» Continue reading “The Hawt Trophy: Jack Johnson”

Will we get to see this next season? (Photo: Sheila Dee/Flickr)

Well, it appears the NHL has clarified their first Collective Bargaining proposal. Basically, it’s been stated that things like medical care, training camps, injuries and roster moves are issues that both sides don’t have much of a difference in opinion on.

I guess that could be considered good news, right? » Continue reading “CB Eh?: NHL Labor Talks”

After 45 years of futility, a new team will be inscribed on the Cup. The Los Angeles Kings completed their improbable journey tonight, winning over the New Jersey Devils and hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time ever.

Unfortunately, this game probably won’t be remembered so much for the Kings finally finishing off an amazing, historical run — but for Steve Bernier delivering this hit on Rob Scuderi.

The resulting five-minute power play from this disturbing hit resulted in three goals for the Kings. Gee, maybe now that a terrible boarding has resulted in a team losing the Stanley Cup, maybe players will stop doing it.

Jeff Carter scored the second goal in the five-minute power play and then increased the lead to 4-0 early in the second period. Adam Henrique then put the Devils on the board with 1:13 left in the second. Two quick goals later in the third, and the Kings were up 6-1, which would be the final score.

Not surprisingly, Jonathan Quick was named the Conn Smythe winner as MVP of the playoffs.

Congratulations to Captain Dustin Brown and the rest of the Kings! Now maybe the Los Angeles sports media will finally get your names and logos right.

For all of your Los Angeles Kings needs, please visit The Kings and I here on Aerys Sports!

In just a few days from now, the Los Angeles Kings and the New Jersey Devils will play for the most coveted trophy in hockey, the Stanley Cup.

We are in for an entertaining series because we have two caliber goalies involved in the finals. Brodeur, who is at the end of his career, and Quick, who could break the records that Brodeur holds with the talent he’s shown so far.

The reason why I’m pointing out the goalies and the numbers is because as a pitcher I stress the earn run average that goes on record for every pitcher in baseball and with the goalies its about the goals against average.

Steven Stamkos scored 60 goals but the tampa bay lightning missed the playoffs. Why? Because the Lightning had given up the most goals against with 281. the lightning finished over 500 but they still had a worse goals against number than the columbus blue jackets who only won 29 games to the lightning’s 38 wins. these numbers make me cringe as a fan because of my pitcher instinct about ERA numbers.

With that, I will breakdown the numbers between Jonathan Quick and Martin Brodeur.
Quick has a goals against average of 1.54 with a save percentage of .946 and 12 wins during the playoffs and they are all the best among goalies during the playoffs but on the other side is future hall of famer martin Brodeur who basically has every goalie record there is.

Brodeur’s numbers is similar to Quick’s during the playoffs with a goals against average of 2.04, save percentage of .923 and he also have 12 wins but Brodeur has been doing this type of thing for the devils since 1993.

What it all comes down to it is this: Jonathan Quick’s numbers vs. Martin brodeur’s experience. Which will win out?

Add in guys like Zach Parise, Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias and Adam Henrique for the devils and Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Dustin Penner and Mike Richards for the kings, this will be one fun finale for the NHL this year. We can only hope that we will have one next year and not head for a lockout with the CBA coming up for negotiations this summer.

See you next game... we hope (c/o flickr.com/bridgetds)

I turned the game off when Jeff Carter got his Natty Hatty, which is a shame, because it seems like I missed a lot of truculence mere seconds later. In the end it didn’t matter, because Jonny Quick and the monarchy pretty much coasted to their 7th straight playoff win.

The Yotes didn’t look great right from the start. The Kings’ first shot came in about 5 seconds and it was only through the grace of Mike Smith that they didn’t score until 13:15. They were outplayed in every area except goaltending, and one man can only do so much. (Frankly, I think Quickster suffered from the same problem as Holtby did in game 1 against the Rangers: that is, he didn’t face enough shots to keep focused. He did not, however, let Derek Morris’ center ice slapshot fool him again. In fact, the Coyotes’ new strategy seems to be “shoot mostly junk at Quick and hope it takes him by surprise,” which is, umm, creative.)

As usual, the Kings’ PP was bland, but when you’re given a thousand of them, as well as considerable time 5-on-3, something is bound to happen. And that something is 2 Jeff Carter PPG. Look, I know the Coyotes were being fairly dirty*, but I can’t help feeling that Gary Bettman is also licking his chops over the prospect of an LA-NYC finals…
» Continue reading “Coyotes Down 2-0 Heading To Los Angeles”

Hey Blue Jacket fans! Don’t know what to do with that Jeff Carter jersey you bought? How about you bring it in to the team shop and have it changed from Carter to Johnson?

In the ultimate ‘F YOU’ to Jeff Carter, who famously moped and pouted in Columbus until he was traded to the LA Kings before the trade  deadline, the Columbus Blue Jackets Twitter account tweeted this out for all to see

Columbus acquired defenseman Jack Johnson in the trade.

What makes this all funnier? Tonight, the Blue Jackets take on the LA Kings at home. Can’t wait to see what kind of welcome Carter gets!

The Blue Jackets may be tanking and tanking hard, but their Twitter account brings it every single time.