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.

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!

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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?

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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.

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 17th Edition

Danny Boome 15/12/09

Did anyone see the Sabres coming in the rear view mirror? They just zoomed by everyone! Phoenix is finally sold, Russian legend Fetisov makes a comeback at 51! Chicago is now warmed up with drive and trick shots entertaining the crowd and the Leafs stomp over the Caps. It’s this week’s 5+Game!!

Vaaarrroooooom: Teams across the NHL are shaking their heads as they leave the ice, unsure as to what happened in the 60 minutes it took them to lose to the Buffalo Sabres. No one saw this coming. Coaches are double-checking their to do lists: Preparation check. Roster check. Tactics check. So why did Buffalo beat us? With four straight wins, the Sabres are currently sitting on top of the Northeast division and 8th overall in the league. If this hot streak continues, this unlikely contender will become a playoff candidate!

Just one of Sabres very impressive results this season

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Phoenix SOLD Finally: News came late Friday that the Ice Edge Holdings investment group agreed to buy the Phoenix Coyotes from the league for $140 million dollars, and that the sale will be voted on by the Board of Governors later this week. Some governors have said they’re skeptical that the group has the financial juice to put this purchase together. Others don’t care as long as they don’t have to continue to prop up a franchise that isn’t their own. All we know is that Gary Bettman is wiping the sweat from his brow and breathing a big sigh of relief. Now there’s only a 40% chance he’ll be pelted with garbage next time he meets with an owner.

Hull is a Blues Hero: The Blues are honoring Brett Hull for his recent induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, along with his “dream team” from a decade with the franchise that features Adam Oates, Wayne Gretzky, Brendan Shanahan, Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger. Hull became a star after St. Louis acquired him from the Calgary Flames in 1987. He scored 72, 86 and 70 goals in a three-season span starting in 1989-90 and was just as entertaining and colorful after games. “We had the Babe Ruth of hockey,” Shanahan said. “Every time Babe hit, he hit a home run. Every time Brett shot it, he scored a goal.” Those memories trump Hull’s sour ending in St. Louis in 1998. He’ll be honored in a pregame ceremony before Tuesday’s game against the Flames, and the Blues also plan to add a Hull statue outside the Scottrade Center to join likenesses of MacInnis and Bernie Federko.

Golden Brett

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Dusting off the Skates: Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov has served in the Russian parliament, was the first chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s athletes committee, is a member of the Kontinental Hockey League board of directors and is president of the KHL’s CSKA Moscow. Due to numerous injuries that have decimated the team’s roster, the former Detroit Red Wing and New Jersey Devil will lace on the skates Friday night when his team, CSKA, hosts SKA St. Petersburg. Fetisov, who played with the Devils for six seasons before joining the Red Wings and winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998, is 51 years old. He retired from hockey at the end of the 1997-98 season. When told that Fetisov would be suiting up for his team in the KHL, New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur grinned. “He’s such a competitor, even to this day,” Brodeur said. CSKA coach Sergei Nemchinov has turned to Fetisov in desperate need of a replacement for his injured defenseman Denis Kulyash. He’ll wear number 2 — the same number he wore when he won numerous titles with CSKA, a team he played with for 14 years (1975-89). CSKA currently is sixth in the KHL’s Western Conference with 52 points. SKA St. Petersburg is first in the West with 76 points.
If Fetisov does get into the game, he’ll become the second oldest player ever to play at the top level of a major league behind Gordie Howe who returned to the ice at the age of 52.

The comeback kid?

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Construction starts for Winter Classic: Ice guru Dan Craig preaches patience to every member of his hand-picked crew as it turns Fenway Park from a baseball cathedral to a hockey temple. Construction started on Thursday as the clock is ticking for the outdoor hockey extravaganza that will host the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2010 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day (1 p.m., NBC, CBC, RDS).

It’s Going to be Chilly!

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Game:

Game On: 17 days to the winter classic, 45 days to the Olympics, and 70 days to the playoffs! 2010 is going to be a hockey crazy year!

Who’s got game? Chicago Blackhawks Dustin Byfuglien. With the Blackhawks and visiting New York Rangers tied 1-1 in overtime, Byfuglien unleashed one of the best individual efforts for a goal I’ve seen this season.

What an Effort!

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Who’s not got game? TV commentator Don Cherry. Not only for his bad clothing choices, but also for his outdated opinions, especially when it comes to head shots. Cherry should take his dog Spike for a walk and stop wasting our time!

Game of the week: Toronto came from 2-0 behind to beat the Washington Capitals 6-3. They kept OV out of the game, letting him earn just two points. The Leafs are as hot as Nashville and Buffalo, with an impressive 5 wins in 7 games.

What game are you playing @? Check out Marion Hossa’s crazy goal at 5+Games’s video blog on www.dannyboome.tv. Unbelievable hand-eye coordination for a pat down, one-time swipe at the puck that left Tampa’s goalie saying “Oh no he didn’t!”

What a Goal!!!

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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 16th Edition

Danny Boome 08/12/09

After weeks of speculation Philly fire coach Stevens, Montreal gets bought out, The Blackhawk’s sign young guns to big extensions, OV is suspended for 2 games and LA gets the draft, all in this weeks 5+Game!!

Stevens gets the chop as Philly looks for a new direction: The Philadelphia Flyers replaced coach John Stevens with Peter Laviolette on Friday after the team was shut out in consecutive games.  Laviolette led the Carolina Hurricanes to their only Stanley Cup title in 2006. He was fired in December 2008 and was still under contract.

Laviolette, who also coached the New York Islanders for two seasons, was 167-130-30 in his four-plus seasons with Carolina. Stevens, who had come under scrutiny the past week, realized the Flyers were in serious trouble.”Yeah, there’s big-time concerns, of course there is,” Stevens said Thursday. “I mean, we’re losing hockey games.”

Philadelphia’s GM Paul Holmgren knew after the latest loss he needed to make a change and he told Stevens after Friday’s practice.

“It’s fair to say I probably caught him off guard a little bit,” Holmgren said.

Les Canadiens are sold to an old friend: With their 100th anniversary only days away, the Montreal Canadiens are under new ownership, led by a familiar name with city roots more than twice the team’s age. The Molson family won approval of their purchase of the storied franchise from the NHL board of governors Tuesday, becoming the fourth group of Molson’s to own the club since the 1950s.

Geoff Molson and brothers Andrew and Justin are the lead investors in a partnership group that reportedly paid $575 million for the Canadiens, the Bell Centre — the team’s 21,273-seat downtown arena — and the Gillett Entertainment Group, a concert promotion company. “We’re really proud to be here today as the new owners,” said Geoff Molson, who will be the chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re part of the seventh generation of the Molson family that has been in this city for 223 years. We’re young and we’re ambitious and we’re really looking forward to being part of this.”

Towes Kane and Keith all sign new deals: In the end it was Jonathan Towes, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith who wanted to share this experience with each other. Signing long-term deals on the same day not only ensures the Chicago Blackhawks will have a talented core for years, but also sends a message.

Keith signed for 13 years, $72 million — longer than any player in Blackhawks history. Toews and Kane re-signed for five years, at more than $6 million a season. General manager Stan Bowman finished the deals on the recent road trip, seeing the players respective agents, Final details were hammered out with the agents and at the same time the league was keeping a close eye on things to make sure everything fit under Collective Bargaining Agreement rules. The Hawks did not need to move a salary in order to announce these extensions, but that won’t be the case this off-season.

Contract Renewal Press Conference

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OV Suspended! The league’s two-time reigning MVP was not in the best of moods Wednesday as he discussed his first NHL suspension, levied because of his knee-to-knee hit on Tim Gleason in Washington’s win over Carolina two days earlier.

Ovechkin was ejected for kneeing Gleason, the second time in less than a week he had been thrown out of a game because of a dangerous hit. Even Ovechkin was thankful that he skated away with only a sore right knee. He’ll be docked $98,844.16 in salary for the suspension and is again the center of a debate over whether the best player in the world could wreck his career by playing such a physical game. “I’m not going to change anything,” Ovechkin said.

The hit< It kinds of reminds me of Gazza really bad tackle>

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The Interview After the suspension

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LA is first pick for the draft: The 2010 NHL draft will be held in Los Angeles June 25-26, marking the first time in its 46-year history that the event will be held in California.  The NHL announced Friday that the Los Angeles Kings will host the draft at Staples Center. NHL Central Scouting reported Plymouth Whalers center Tyler Seguin the top OHL prospect in preliminary rankings released by last month.

Game

Game On: Montreal Canadiens finally finished their 100^th Anniversary celebrations with a fantastic legends warm up, the crowed was surprised as the top 20 players of the last 40yrs came out for a skate!

Legends one and all!

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Who’s got game? Mike Cammalleri’s second-period hat trick powered Montreal to a 5-1 victory over the rival Boston Bruins in front of a sellout crowd. Eric Cole notched his sixth career hat trick as Carolina defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-3. Sometimes goaltenders need to win games for their teams and that’s exactly what Kiprusoff did tonight for the Flames as they beat San Jose 2-1.

Cammalleri’s Hat-trick

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Who’s not got game? The NHL has suspended Flyers forward Dan Carcillo four games for his role in a fight that earned him a whopping 19 penalty minutes and a game misconduct. Carcillo was tagged with 2 minutes for crosschecking, 2 minutes for instigation, 5 minutes for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct in Philadelphia’s 8-2 loss.

Ouch!! One punch and soooo long sucker!

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Game of the week: Hate to go on, but what a way to celebrate being 100 years old by beating your arch nemeses! Montreal 5- Boston 1!

What game are you playing @? NHL Commissionaire Gary Bettman is smoke screening the leagues problems by teasing folks about expansion plans in Canada, “What?” Only 3 months ago he said it wasn’t at all possible

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.

There can be nothing more stupid than these two incidents on Monday (30/11/09)  night.

Alex Ovechkin knee on knee hit on Carolina’s Tim Gleeson, could be very nasty for both and especially the Capitals!

Click here to view the embedded video.

In his frustration Kieth Ballard hits his own goalie in the head while smashing his stick on the goal!

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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 15th Edition

Danny Boome 01/12/09

Hossa charges back into the league, the Leafs may get a parade this season (but not the kind you’re thinking), yet another former all-star comes out of retirement to help Modo, officiating problems continue, and Nashville (yes, Nashville) are in the league’s top 10? All in this weeks 5+Game.

Hossa recharges Chicago: The highly anticipated debut of Marian Hossa was not a disappointment for the Blackhawks and their fans.  Their 7-2 rout of the San Jose Sharks included three consecutive shorthanded goals chasing Evgeni Nabokov after the second period.  Hossa scored twice and it was the second time in a week that Chicago scored seven goals in a game.  The question remains: is Hossa the missing link?

He’s Baaaack!

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Brian Burke Rainbow Warrior: The king of truculence and testosterone faces a new challenge as his son, Brendan Burke, who came out as a gay many to his father two years ago, has suddenly become the talk of the hockey world this week.  The story is buzz-worthy because it reignites the hot-button issue of gays in professional sports and because it’s instantly transformed Burke into a de facto gay icon.

From Damien Cox in the Toronto Star: “Burke believes there will be those who won’t embrace the family love inherent in his acceptance of his son’s orientation or of Brendan’s decision to go public with his sexuality. Burke remembered that when he was in California in November to vote in the U.S. presidential election – he voted for Barack Obama – he was aggressively confronted by anti-gay activists protesting a same-sex marriage proposition on the California ballot.

“I told them to (expletive) get lost,” said Burke, who also voted for the proposition. “But over the next two weeks, yeah, I expect to get some hate mail over today’s story. There is going to be a backlash. All I care about is if Brendan is prepared for it. It takes jam to do what he’s done.”  (See the full interview in John Buccigross’s ESPN.com column on Brendan Burke, some very interesting points)

Hot Topic.

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Modo gain yet another All-star! Another former NHL super star, Markus Naslund, has come out of retirement to play with childhood friend Peter Forsberg for hometown team Modo.  On Saturday, the pair teamed up in a 4-1 win over Rogle in the Swedish league.  Naslund set up Forsberg to make it 1-0 in the first period as the two former NHL All-Stars needed little time to get reacquainted on the ice.  “I felt quite all right,” Naslund said. “I haven’t really practiced since were eliminated from the playoffs [with the New York Rangers] last season, so it’s not that strange that I feel a bit tired.” Forsberg added an assist, and has seven goals and seven assists in seven games for Modo this season. The two plan to continue playing for the club for the rest of the season.  Forsberg said. “He looked really good considering he’s only been on ice for 10 days.”

Double standards or no standards? Since the start of the season we’ve seen bone-crunching hits and anomalous incidents that have made everyone sit up and take notice.  We’ve been forced to question the intent of players’ actions and the league’s “even hand of justice.”  Even more concerning is the perception that star players receive lighter penalties.  The NY Post summed it up, “It’s not that there’s a double standard when it comes to NHL supplementary discipline, it’s that there is no standard whatsoever. To wit: Georges Laraque sticks out his leg in a reflex reaction, injures Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall with a knee-on-knee, and receives a five-game suspension for an unintentional but reckless play. Curtis Glencross on the other hand, intentionally delivers a forearm to Chris Drury’s chin, thus concussing the Rangers center though he was nowhere near the puck, and receives a three-game suspension for his intentional and flagrant foul. Knee injury, five games; brain injury, three games.”

Heads Up, Just isn’t good enough!

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Game

Game On: Nashville has become the dark horse of the league.  While everyone has been focused on Colorado, Phoenix, NYI, Tampa and LA, the Predators have risen from obscurity to 9th in the league overall.

Who’s Got Game? Marian Hossa is back and looking every bit worth his controversial $40 million contract.  Sid Crosby is also back in fine form, scoring his second hat-trick of the season against NY Rangers.  Sid had a 5-point night with 3+2, capping a big week as he also got the OT winner and 3 assists in the Pen’s win over Florida.

Hot Shot!

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Who’s not got game? Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke has been suspended for two games, without pay, as the result of a deliberate check to the head area of New York Rangers forward Artem Anisimov.

Ouch!

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Game of the week: Seeing last season’s bottom team beat the defending Stanley Cup champions was a strange and fascinating sight.  In a game billed as the battle of Sid vs. the new Kid (John Tavares), JT showed what new blood can do, getting 1+1 in the 3-2 win!

JT Is the new kid on the block!

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What Game are you playing @? The league needs to get a grip on what punishment it serves for intentional injury hits.  Remember the infamous Todd Bertuzzi blindside punch that ended the career of Colorado Avalanche winger Steve Moore?  He was the last great villain and the game hasn’t made any changes since 2004!

The game some times brings the worst out in you.

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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.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

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!

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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.

Game

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.

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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.

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.

13th Edition: 5+Game

Danny Boome

The cold war between KHL & NHL thaws, Forbes releases the 2009 club rich list, old time hockey makes headlines in Florida, Peter Forsberg returns to the game and dangerous head shots are top of the GM’s list in Toronto – all in this week’s 5+Game!

Cold War Summit: The frost thawed between the KHL and NHL this week as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and KHL President Alexander Medvedev discussed the complicated and often bitter relationship between the two professional leagues.  The duo and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly met in Washington for the mini-summit and also found time to catch the Washington Capitals play the New York Islanders together.  Bettman said of the relationship “I think on a personal and professional level it’s open and cordial.  But we, for a variety of reasons, haven’t been able to come to common ground on some fundamental issues.” And on the issue of the KHL not being able to land a superstar player, “I think the best players in the world play and will continue to seek playing in the National Hockey League.  We wish the KHL good luck.  And I know they are going to work very hard to try and establish their league and bring it to the highest level that it can achieve.  But the final analysis is that the best players will continue to play in the NHL.”

The Rich List: Forbes released its list of NHL franchise values to the usual shock and awe.  The Toronto Maple Leafs ($470 mil), New York Rangers ($416 mil), Montreal Canadiens ($339 mil) and Detroit Red Wings ($337 mil) top the list while the Florida Panthers ($159 mil.), Nashville Predators ($156 mil.), New York Islanders ($149 mil.), Atlanta Thrashers ($143 mil.) and Phoenix Coyotes ($138 mil.) round out the bottom.  Just as interesting was the 2-year value change: of the 14 teams that lost value, 13 missed the playoffs and eight are worth less than $200 million.  The Islanders saw the biggest drop in value at 12% and generated the lowest revenue ($56 mil), which is either an argument for a new arena or a result of the New York market being oversaturated.

Old Time Hockey Legend Hits the Headlines: If you remember the good old days of the British Premier League (those of you from Romford Chelmsford Slough Invicta & Telford can only wish!), you may recall the infamous shenanigans of Solihull import and legend Brent Sapergia (ask Simmsey – he has stories).

Sapergia made headlines once again this week for his reaction to a call against his Louisiana IceGators, capturing the attention of US morning shows and YouTube viewers alike.  The one-time hockey hell raiser demonstrated his anger by throwing the entire contents of the bench at the referee and was subsequently relieved of his duties as head coach.  Sapergia said he couldn’t wrap his brain around the “indefinite” suspension by the Southern Professional Hockey League, because his stick-tossing tirade was the norm for enraged coaches and benign in comparison to other freak-outs.

Freeeeeking Out old time Hockey!

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Forsberg isn’t going anywhere, but do we care? Speculation surrounding Peter Forsberg’s return to the NHL has once again taken up valuable column inches.  After a bad ankle brought his stellar career to an end, this MVP of over 6 years ago has now signed for Modo in the Swedish elite league.  He resisted the KHL, so we know it’s not about the money – but why should we care if he comes back to the NHL?  In my opinion, there is far too much talent in the league to worry about this once great player.

Playing with Modo gives Pete the chance to do every day kinda stuff…..

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Head Shots: The topic of hits to the head was addressed yet again by the League’s 30 GMs at their quarterly meeting last Wednesday, but this time the tone seems to have changed.  A small committee will be formed to take a closer look at this issue before they meet again in March, and at that time, we could see a recommendation to the competition committee about a possible rule change.  “It was quite a bit different, some of the guys who have taken a strong position that it may take hitting out of the game have adjusted their views a little bit,” Carolina GM Jim Rutherford said. “If we continue down what was talked about today then we will see a change. It will be on the agenda of the next meeting and I think if we got the direction that it appeared we were going, you will see a change for next year.”

Birds seen and Bells Heard! Very very serious stuff when your not ready for it! This clip never gets boring!

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Game

Game On: Carolina brings their slide to a halt!  Buffalo wins 3 in a row and Philadelphia stops New Jersey’s 5-game road streak.

Who’s got game? Matt Moulson of the New York Islanders.  In 20 games, the 26-year-old winger is tied for the Islanders’ lead in goals with 8 and is second in points with 16 to Tavares’ 18.  Not bad for a guy who was cut from his junior hockey team and drafted higher by the National Lacrosse League than the NHL!

Matt Moulson “Beers it” what ever that mean? but great goal.

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Game of the Week: Atlanta’s 3-2 win over Edmonton!  Atlanta’s 4th win in a row over this worthy opponent was a perfect example of how far this team has come since last season.

What Game are you playing? Former NHL stars figure skating?!  The Battle of the Blades had me scratching my head.  Check out YouTube for clips of former Edmonton Oilers forward Craig Simpson, New Jersey Devils winger Stéphane Richer and Colorado Avalanche sweetheart Claude Lemieux competing to claim $100,000 for charity.

So Strange, just can’t get my head around it!

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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.

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.

12th Edition: 5+Game

Danny Boome

09/11/09

The Hurricanes are in the eye of the storm, hockey greats take their place in the Hall of Fame, rocky times are ahead for the NHLPA and the Blue Jackets and Swine Flu hit the East and West of the league – it can only be this week’s 5+GAME!

Hurricanes are getting blown away: The Carolina Hurricanes don’t even resemble the team that has played the last 5 seasons.  With little confidence and even less offense, a quick look at NHL stats paints an ugly picture for this veteran group expected to contend for the Eastern Conference title.  In addition to being 29th in points, the Canes are last in goals per game (2.08), penalty minutes per game (21.5) after leading the league in fewest minutes last season, second-period goals allowed (20), second lowest in face-off percentage and third lowest in the NHL in 5-on-5 scoring.  To make matters worse, star goal tender Cam Ward was hospitalized over the weekend after suffering a laceration to his left upper leg from the skate of Columbus forward Rick Nash.  Nash was passing through the crease during the first period of Carolina’s 3-2 loss to the Blue Jackets on Saturday night.  Ward was expected to return to Raleigh on Sunday, but will remain in Columbus through tonight to guard against infection.

OUCH!!!

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Hall of Fame Induction: This weekend saw the start of the 2009 Hall of Fame Inductions in Toronto, including hockey greats Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Lou Lamoriello, Luc Robitaille and Steve Yzerman.  Brett and Bobby Hull are the only father-and-son combination to play in the NHL and be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Father and Son double act

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NHLPA has to get it back on track: CBC Sports Elliotte Friedman made this insight into the ongoing turmoil of the NHLPA: “The NHLPA has disintegrated into an embarrassing and scary case of fratricidal warfare.  Embarrassing, because what you have now is one union brother against another.  Laughable, because the players have made it abundantly clear their only strength is on the ice.  Off it, they can’t make a decent, three-foot pass.  When a union is split into factions, it’s little more than putty in the owners’ hands.”

Blue Jackets are looking for a savior: Columbus Blue Jackets are entering a situation that is becoming increasingly familiar throughout the league.  They are the latest club experiencing financial difficulties with an ownership group looking to shed their responsibilities by either selling or taking bankruptcy.  Souring rental costs, high taxes and only breaking even with their profit share from the league, it looks that the Columbus franchise could face the same problems that Phoenix, Nashville and Tampa have in the past 18 months.  Watch closely as this develops – we could be sending another vote of no confidence to Gary Bettman’s business model.

H1N1 spreading through the league: At last count there were 7 players on the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames who have been struck down with the dreaded swine flu!  And that was just this week’s count – players from both the Boston Bruins and the New York Islanders have also been sidelined in recent weeks.

GAME

GAME ON: Two wins in a row and the Toronto Maple Leafs are off the bottom of the league!  Winning the battle of the basement against Carolina (3-2) and then steam rolling the Detroit Red Wings 5-1, the Leafs may be making a turn back on track.

WHOS GOT GAME: Columbus has won 3 of 3, Philadelphia 4 of 4 and New Jersey has very quietly won 5 of 5.  On form and dangerous, I would keep an eye on the Devils – yet another club proving you can’t judge a book by its cover.

WHOS NOT GOT GAME: Carolina is 0-6.  With Cam Ward out for 3-4 weeks and top goal scorer Eric Staal not producing, how will the Canes stop the slide?

LESS WOO , MORE WIN?

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GAME OF THE WEEK: Was San Jose’s 5-0 whopping of Pittsburgh the 2010 Stanley Cup Final preview or just a bad night for the Pens? One thing is for sure, the Sharks rose to the challenge!

WHAT GAME ARE YOU PLAYING @? What is with all of this team protection malarkey?  Why can’t a good clean hit go by without a fight?  The rules of the game used to be: head down = fair hit.  A good fair hit is now answered with an opposing player jumping you and it’s getting a little boring.  Also, how on earth did Sean Avery get a penalty for getting speared by a Vancouver player while sitting on the bench?  See things get out of control on this weeks video blog.

WHO WHAT WHERE…..LET ME AT’EM!! LET ME AT’EM!!!

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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.

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.

11th Edition: 5+Game

Danny Boome

02/11/09

Atlanta’s No Guts No Glory Goalie pull saves out of thin air! Who will be the first coach of the season to get the chop? Where have the Usual Suspects gone, 7 top scores no where near the top 10! Attendance woes may change through performance and Zombie Penalty taking turn Anaheim’s start to the season into a nightmare! It can only be this Weeks 5+Game!

No Guts No Glory: If Atlanta Thrashers Kari Lehtonen thought his gig as Atlanta’s number one goaltender was safe, he should think again.  Ondrej Pavelec had the game of his life making 50 saves in a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.  A handful of his 50 stops were showcased in this wild flurry near the end of a 3rd period that saw the Senators outshoot the Thrashers 25-3.  Just over a week ago, Pavelec was the butt of jokes after letting in a 190-foot shot against the Washington Capitals.  But this week that mistake was long forgotten.  In the 2nd period, Pavelec made an amazing save that showed real guts and commitment as he took an Alex Kovalev shot off his shoulder without a mask!

Sticking With It!

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Who could be the first to go? Less than 6 weeks into the season, the bush telegraph has already started rumbling about who could be the first coach to be fired this season.  Five names keep coming up: Peter DeBoer (Florida Panthers), John Stevens (Philadelphia Flyers), Randy Carlyle (Anaheim Ducks), Ron Wilson (Toronto Maple Leafs), and Rick Tocchet (Tampa Bay Lightning).  While there doesn’t appear to be a solid case for the termination of any one of the five in particular, one name keeps coming up when Huggy Bear and his hockey pool hold their weekly meetings – Philadelphia’s Randy Carlyle.  The Flyers are weighed down with inconsistency and underperforming talent.  If this team is to live up to its expectations, would new management be the key?

All Brawn but know Brains?

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Scoring Drought: There are only 3 goal scorers from last season’s Top 10 who are currently in the Top 10 for this season: Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley (notes).  Among the M.I.A. snipers: Jeff Carter (4 goals in nine games), Rick Nash (6 goals in 10 games), the injured Marian Hossa and Thomas Vanek, and Eric Staal, who continues his early season struggle with 3 goals and 1 assist in 10 games.

Poor attendance may change? 10,699 is the average attendance for the Phoenix Coyotes (via ESPN’s imperfect count) in five home games, despite the 17,532-padded gate for the bargain basement home opener.  Will this change as the ownership situation is settling and the team is playing its best hockey in 4 seasons?  Things could be looking up!  For the New York Islanders, their lowest attendance of 12,065 isn’t too far off their average attendance for the past five home games, after finishing last in the NHL in reported average draws (13,773) last season.  With the demise of the Lighthouse project causing fans to believe that they could be without a team in Long Island next season, but with the team performing and John Tavares developing nicely, the fans may keep the belief!

Keep Out of the Box! The Anaheim Ducks have been shorthanded 55 times in 10 games this season, third in the league behind the New York Rangers (59 in 12 games) and the Carolina Hurricanes (58 in 10 games).  The difference between the three teams? The Rangers have drawn 51 power plays, the Hurricanes have drawn 45 and the Ducks have a paltry 34 man advantages – the third fewest in the NHL.  So the undisciplined and embarrassing display against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night wasn’t an aberration.

GAME

GAME ON: Columbus Blue Jackets have started the season off as they left it – with a strong work ethic and underdog power forwards delivering play-off contender quality.  Rick Nash, R.J Umberger and company are not to be taken lightly.  Monday night’s OT win against Washington spells out one word: FEARLESS!

Bring IT!

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WHOS GOT GAME: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke’s plan to unlock Tomas Kaberle’s play-making ability has finally paid off.  For the week, Kaberle had 2 goals and 10 assists in four games – the most points by any player in a single week this season.  He leads all defensemen in scoring and is in the top 10 among all players with 17 points, while averaging just less than 24 minutes a night.

He’s The Man

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WHAT GAME ARE YOU PLAYING @? The Anaheim Ducks need to get it together – and quick!  Running around like a bunch of penalty-taking zombies is not how to make the play-offs.  An unnatural disaster is the only way to describe the Carolina Hurricanes – their 9-game losing streak doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.

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.