18th Edition: 5+Game

5+Game with Danny Boome 04 /01/10

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 18th Edition

04/01/10

Danny Boome

The Winter Classic is a true battle, a bad bar bill gives the Oilers a New Year’s hangover, the Blues start 2010 with a new coach, Olympic rosters finalized and a freak accident leaves a junior linesman hospitalized! Happy New Year! It’s 5+Game!

New Year’s Hangover: An $18,000 restaurant bill caused a New Year’s Day dispute between the Edmonton Oilers and Maurizio Terrigno, owner of Osteria de Medici, an Italian restaurant in Calgary.  When they received the bill, Oiler’s players were surprised at the whopping total and demanded a discount on their $8000 bar tab, which included copious tequila shooters, fine wines, and $500 magnums of champagne.  They were apparently expecting to be charged for bottles of liquor, rather than for each shooter.  The Oilers claim the restaurant adjusted the bill; they left $12,000 and “a generous tip of about $1,800.”  Terrigno plans to donate the money to an Italian earthquake relief fund, which is just the sort of “it’s not about the money” move someone waging a public PR war over money usually makes. Me thinks I smell a Flames fan trying to stir the pot!?

Winter Classic: 2010 started with a bang as Boston and Philadelphia butted heads in the Winter Classic held at the hallowed Fenway Park.  The now annual outdoor spectacular was the grittiest game in three years, as the first fight in Winter Classic history between Flyers Dan Carcillo and the Bruins Shawn Thornton at 12:01 of the first period set the tone. The game had a great pace but not much action until the final 15 minutes.  The Flyers were sitting tight on a one goal lead until a dodgy tripping call on Kimmo Timonen put the Bruins on the power play with 3:52 to go in the game.  Mark Recchi leveled it 1:34 later to force overtime and Marco Sturm scored to lock up a 2-1 victory.  A great day for Boston in Boston, and the first time a home team won the Winter Classic.

Home Win, and what a great way to do it!

Murray gets the job blues: The St. Louis Blues fired Coach Andy Murray Saturday morning.  Davis Payne, of the Blues’ AHL affiliate Peoria Rivermen, takes over on an interim basis, beginning Saturday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.  Team president John Davidson Blues cited Payne’s nine winning seasons in the minors, including an ECHL championship in 2006. “Davis is very knowledgeable of the players in our organization and we feel he is the best candidate to coach our team,” he said in a statement.  Allow me to translate: Davis Payne is 39, Andy Murray is 58, and the Blues have 14 players under the age of 30 on their team. They needed a new messenger.

Olympics rosters: The rosters and groups for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are now complete, with the first games beginning on February 16th.  You can view all the squads on www.dannyboome.tv/5+Game:

Group A  Canada, United States, Switzerland, Norway

Group B  Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia

Group C  Sweden, Finland, Belarus, Germany

Linesman Injured: A 25-year-old hockey linesman was gravely injured when his neck was cut by a skate during a Junior C game on Tuesday.  The incident took place in the third period of a game between the New Hamburg Firebirds and host Woodstock Renegades.  The linesman, Kevin Brown, was initially reported to be in stable condition, but Renegades owner Bill McLeod said he was told Brown is “not doing so well now.”
Later Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the London Health Sciences Centre said Brown was in critical condition.

Brown was slashed while trying to break up a fight between two players late in the game.  According to the North Bay (Ont.) Nugget newspaper, Woodstock’s Craig Thomson, who had just scored to tie the game 4-4, got into a fight with New Hamburg’s Reid Oliver behind the Firebirds’ net after the goal and subsequent celebration.  The two traded punches until Thomson threw Oliver to the ice. Oliver’s right leg was lifted through the air – “almost like a cartwheel motion,” McLeod said, and his skate cut Brown’s throat under his chin on the right side of his face.  According to the report, Brown, not realizing he had been gravely injured, continued to break up the fight as he bled profusely.

Game

Game On: A 10-game home winning streak for the Phoenix Coyotes and a franchise record? Are we really going to see this team pull the “Major League” trick and defiantly contend for a title?

Who’s got game? Boston Bruins Tim Thomas had a New Year’s Day to remember! Two points, 24 saves, and confirmation that he would indeed be headed to Vancouver to represent his country in the Olympics, “This will go down as one of the most memorable days of my life and my career,” said Thomas, who has also played in six World Championships.

Tim "THE TANK" Thomas

Who’s not got game: Team USA will be in need of a miracle at the Olympics.  They’re a strong gritty squad, but I’m not sure that will be enough to fend off powerhouse countries with far superior fire power.

Game of the week: The Winter Classic was great, but the WJHC game between USA & Canada was amazing!! (3-4 in SO)

Shoot Out! Will the final be the same?

What game are you playing @? Surprise additions to Olympic rosters! Former NHL superstar Jaromir Jagr made the Czech Republic’s squad, comeback kid Peter Forsberg was included in Sweden’s team, and 40-year-old Sergei Fedorov, one of nine players from the KHL, was selected for Russia’s team.

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.