5+Game with Danny Boome 23 /11/09
5+ Game with Danny Boome is the new Article and Blog for Powerplay magazine. The article will cover the 5 main events of the week – games, trades, players, coaches – and anything else that affects the NHL community.
5+Game 14th Edition
Danny Boome 23/11/09
Phoenix’s strange spending; Ducks blogger gets some stick, referees foul up big! Steve Stemkos is the real deal and as the first quarter of the season passes, trade talks start! All in the weeks 5+Game!
No wonder they’re bankrupt: The Phoenix Coyotes lost $5 million in October alone, and the Globe & Mail offers some fun financial facts: “The court filings also revealed that the club had some unusual expenditures in October. It spent $3,500 on Hockey Hall of Fame ‘induction tickets’, $970 on the Boy Scouts of America ‘scout night patches’, and $332.67 on ‘tattoos’ from California Tattoos Inc. New head coach Dave Tippett, who took over after Wayne Gretzky quit, received $31,000 in October.”
Pro Skateboarder gets some stick from the crowd : Mike Vallely is a pro skater and a celebrity fan for the Anaheim Ducks who had done some blogging for them in the past. According to the OC Register, police said ‘Mike V.’ was arrested and cited for fighting in public for his part in the wild fan brawl over Scott Niedermayer’s stick. The “little girl” Niedermayer referred to in his awkward post game interview on Fox Sports was in fact Vallely’s daughter, and Vallely became physically involved when another fan attempted to snatch the stick after Niedermayer tossed it to her over the glass. Duck Blog confirmed those details and that Vallely, 39, had been arrested, though police said, “none of the parties involved wished to press charges.”
Referees Blow! What does “intent to blow” mean? Detroit and Toronto found out that it was a rule last week when it cost them both games. Intent to blow means “I wanted to blow my whistle, but didn’t.” On Wednesday night, this rule stole a goal from the Detroit Red Wings and had the NHL publicly acknowledging the failures in its officiating system. Thursday night brought another controversial moment in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 6-5 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
According to NHL VP Mike Murphy, there have only been about 6 of these incidents since the start of the season. Murphy said the league would look into this procedure for correcting an ill-advised stoppage of play by a referee. Let’s hope they do. Players play to the whistle – it’s not their fault if the ref has a brain fart!
Living up to the Hype! Steve Stamkos is having a breakout season for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 2008 number one pick continued his streak as his 15th goal of the season in overtime gave the Lightning a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. Currently tied for fourth in the NHL in goals scored with Jarome Iginla(notes), Stamkos, along with Ryan Malone(notes), is carrying the Lightning’s offensive load as Vincent Lecavalier(notes) and Martin St. Louis(notes) struggle with a combined nine goals. Stamkos had a slow start when he joined last season, but came out strong in the second half finishing with 23 goals and 46 points in 79 games. This season he’s on track to surpass that!
Trade talk: Reports out of Toronto this past weekend suggest the Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks might be talking trade. Leafs GM Brian Burke admitted Friday he has some irons in the fire regarding possible trade scenarios but he wouldn’t say with whom or which players he might shop. The Blackhawks need to dump some salary if they wish to officially re-sign pending restricted free agents Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith to extensions, as their new salaries starting next season could push the ‘Hawks to nearly $60 million in payroll. That would violate the league’s “tagging” rule, which says no team can commit more to next season’s payroll than the current season’s salary cap, which is $56.8 million for 2009-10.
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Game on: The word on the street is that the Finnish could be the dark horses to win the Olympic gold medal. I can’t see it myself, but Russia is like the Dutch football tea – so much talent can they play together? The Swedes have a lot of youth and Canada will be a finely tuned bone-crunching goal-scoring machine. But has everyone forgotten about the Czech Republic?
Who’s got game? Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley are an unstoppable duo, ripping apart Philadelphia over the weekend with Heatley’s 3rd hat trick of the season! Heatley also went to the top of the goal scorers with 18 and big Joe hit the top spot in assists with 25. Not bad work for their first 25 games together.
Who’s not got game? Montreal Canadiens forward Georges Laraque had a hearing Monday morning to discuss supplementary discipline following his collision with Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Laraque and Kronwall hit knee-to-knee, and Kronwall is expected to miss about a month after an MRI on Sunday showed a sprained medial collateral ligament in Kronwall’s left knee (the same knee he had surgically repaired in 2005).
Game of the Week: Toronto’s 2-1 (SO) win over Washington was a true testament of change for the club. Jason Blake and Francois Beauchemin did a stellar job keeping OV out of the game.
What game are you playing @? Sean Avery managed to leave 20,000 confused and slightly embarrassed for him at last Tuesday’s Rangers-Caps game. Avery just launched his own blog and clothing line and when his t-shirts were advertised on the jumbotron, there was an outburst of laughter from the crowd and the Caps bench. You can’t blame the guy for trying, but perhaps he’s trying a little too hard. Check out http://www.seanavery.com/home
Check out this week’s Video Clips and News in the 5+Game Blog on www.dannyboome.tv
The information statistics and subject matter of articles is sourced from the official NHL web site NHL.com and it’s archives. The Hockey News.com, Yahoo Sports.com and ESPN.com. Research and quotations can at times come from other independent associated press.
