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 19th Edition
011/01/10
Danny Boome
Team USA announces their Olympic Captain, CUJO hangs it up, KHL is disgrace again! USA wins gold @ WJHC, and Luke Skywalker try’s to assisit the Canucks! All in the weeks 5+Game
Team USA name Langenbrunner captain: Jamie Langenbrunner of the New Jersey Devils will be named captain of Team USA for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, according to the New Jersey-based Bergen Record. The official announcement will be made Monday afternoon. Langenbrunner, 34, is a 15-year NHL veteran who has served as the Devils captain for the past three seasons. He is a two-time Stanley Cup winner and first competed for the U.S. in the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano. “To be on the team is an honor, but if it were to happen (being named captain) it would definitely add to that,” said Langenbrunner, who would neither confirm nor deny the report. “I don’t think it’s anything I ever dreamed of as a kid or anything like that but it’s definitely something, if bestowed on me, I would take very seriously and be very honored to do.” According to the Record, Zach Parise of the Devils and Chris Drury of the New York Rangers will be named alternate captain.
CUJO hangs it up: Curtis Joseph, fourth all-time in wins by a goaltender, will announce his retirement at a news conference Tuesday at the Air Canada Center in Toronto, a source told ESPN.com. The 42-year-old Joseph played last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, backing up Vesa Toskala. Joseph’s 454 career regular-season victories trail only Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour. Joseph played 958 regular season games over 19 NHL seasons with St. Louis, Edmonton, Toronto, Detroit, Phoenix and Calgary. He also appeared in 133 playoff games, reaching the conference finals twice with Toronto in 1999 and 2002.
Luke Skywalker tries to help the Canucks: Calgary Flames coach Brent Sutter is upset security couldn’t locate a laser pointer being used to distract goalie Miikka Kiprusoff during Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks.”It’s ridiculous,” Sutter said. “We could see it shining on his mask the whole night. It was brought to the attention of the refs and security, and it’s hard to believe that can go on for 60 minutes in a hockey game and it’s not located.” Kiprusoff made 19 saves and stopped one of three shots in the shootout. He received medical treatment after the game, and wasn’t immediately available to the media.
KHL dishes out punches and fines: Saturday’s game between Vityaz and Avangard in Chekhov had to be stopped after 3:39 when both squads jumped on the ice to exchange punches. Officials subsequently cancelled the contest because the teams did not have enough players left to continue the game. It was the first time a Russian hockey game has been called off due to a mass brawl. Vityaz were fined four million rubles ($133,300) and warned they would be thrown out of the league if there were a similar incident while Siberian team Avangard escaped with a one million ruble fine. The league also fined four players, Canadians Darsy Verot and Brandon Sugden from Vityaz and Avangard’s Russian pair Alexander Svitov and Dmitry Vlasenkov, 150,000 rubles each. In addition, seven players — Vlasenkov and six from Vityaz, including both Verot and Sugden — received one-game suspensions and each club was awarded a 5-0 defeat. Saturday’s incident was another heavy blow to the image of the fledgling league, formed last season with teams from Russia and other former Soviet republics of Belarus, Latvia and Kazakhstan.
USA stops Canada’s gold ambitions! My apologies to those of you upset with my spoiler of the WJHC result between USA and Canada last Tuesday. I couldn’t contain my excitement over USA’s 6-5 win, leaking the score on both Facebook and Twitter before many of you could get to your Sky+ to watch it the next day. It was a fantastic tournament that generated a lot of interest in New York’s hockey community!
Game
Game On: The recent “fire Ken Hitchcock” chatter has been quieted following the Blue Jackets’ three-game winning streak thanks to netminder Mathiew Garon’s heroics. Garon has given the team a much needed boost in its first three-game win streak since mid-November. Prior to this, the Jackets had lost 21 of 24 games.
Who’s got game: Sean Avery was certainly geared up to face his old team. The Rangers agitator stuck it to the Dallas Stars by scoring a goal and assisting on three others in New York’s 5-2 win. Avery didn’t make many friends in Big D after a short spell last season and rubbed it in by responding to a question about what was different about tonight’s game with, “I was getting paid by two teams”.
Gooooal
Who’s not game: Antti Niemi didn’t face many shots and of the 11 that Anaheim threw at him on Sunday, two made it to the back of the net. The loss gives Chicago its first two-game losing streak since November.
Game of the week: Completing their suspended game from Friday night, the Lightning finished off the Devils 4-2 as Steve Stamkos continued his terrific sophomore season with two goals and an assist. His first goal shut the lights off in Newark on Friday and his second put an end to the possibility of a New Jersey comeback in the third period.
What game are you playing @? Toronto has allowed the first goal in 32 of their 45 games.
