Last night here in bucolic, sort of, Bristow, VA I watched my first game of the 2010 - 2011 season on NHL Network, if you watched NHL Network last night - you know that would have been the Maple Leafs vs the Flyers, played at John Labbatt Centre in London, Ontario, the home of the OHL's London Knights, Dale Hunter's team. So the game was played in London and technically the Flyers were the home team, though clearly most of the fans present seemed to be rooting for the Maple Leafs. As it was a pre-season game, and the Capitals were not involved I confess to channel surfing at times and not giving the game my full, undivided attention. However, it was interesting and fun to start getting into the whole hockey frenzy, and if nothing else I now clearly know I have only until October 31st to sign up for the NHL Center Ice package and reap the full benefits of the available discount. The feed was the Maple Leafs feed and another thing I'm absolutely positive of is the Maple Leafs broadcast team has a total man-crush on Kris Versteeg. Almost as big a one as the woman in this picture with him in the limo does/did...
The game ended in a tie and then went through overtime and into a shoot-out, it took 10 rounds of the shootout to decide the contest when finally Colby Armstrong of the Leafs got the final shootout score past Flyers' goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. What made the game interesting to me is that a fair number of guys on both sides who will likely be on their opening night rosters played, but it sure seemed like the majority of the ice time went to the prospects and trying to see if they fit on their respective teams and who with. It's worth noting that all four goaltenders played well, IMO. For the Flyers Brian Boucher started the game and went nearly two periods before Bobrovksy came in to finish things up. For the Maple Leafs Jonas "Monster" Gustavsson started and then Toronto Marlies starter James Reimer came in and finished out the game for the Maple Leafs. It's worth noting that the four goaltenders who played in last night's game combined salary cap hit is around $3.35M, just a little more than 1/2 (50%) that of JS Giguere's $6M hit will be. Given the current trends around the league and the fairly rich crop of available goaltending talent in the world today, it sure seems like similar to the residential housing market, it will be a long time before the market for Goaltenders again becomes a "seller's market." Last night's goals during regulation were scored by:
In Caps Nation yesterday the two news items to note seem to be:
A) HBO will have a series featuring the Caps and the Penguins leading up to the Winter Classic"... and
B) Trevor Bruess, Josh Godfrey, Boyd Kane, Johann Kroll, Joel Rechlicz, Dustin Stevenson and Dylan Yeo have been assigned to Hershey, no real shockers there.
In less notable news, Andrew Gordon is now lobbying on line for Marcus Johansson's nickname to be "MoJo". And I was beginning to wonder if Twitter wasn't just a useless time-waster, now I know it's definitely good for somethings...
This Russian interview with C-Bo (Chris Bourque) is something I find a little humorous, what do you think? In six games his ATOI is under 8:00, yep he's getting A LOT more playing experience in the KHL, his decision had everything to do with "taking a step up" and nothing to do with money, sure, that's exactly what I've been thinking since he opted to go to Russia.
Well now it's almost time to start getting pshy'ed to listen to the Caps - Preds game tomorrow night in Nashville. I'm ready to see some live hockey and I just wonder who the lineups will be ... oh wait it won't be on TV...Of course first I have to finish lunch - LOL, as Sheldon would type into his smart phone...
LETS GO CAPS!!!
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