Friday, November 24, 2006

Northern Exposure, Southern Charm

- More news and notes from our neighbors to the North:

  • The Toronto Sun comes up with a game plan for the Leafs to beat the Caps tonight - shut down Ovechkin. How very...creative.
  • From the same source - the Leafs lucked out with Brashear out of the lineup and Olie respects Darcy Tucker...Olie, say it ain't so.
  • This just in, Ovechkin is becoming a more complete player. Oh, wait - that's old news.
  • The Globe and Mail heralds a new youth movement in the NHL, led by Ovechkin, Cry-Baby and Malkin.
- Just one more note about the fight-filled evening Wednesday night, and I promise I'll drop it...for now. JP posted a YouTube link over on Southeast Shootout featuring video of a brawl in last year's Toronto-Atlanta game. The Thrashers were down 6-1 in the middle of the third period when Hartley sent out Boulton and Exelby, two well-known heavies for Atlanta who did their job and initiated an all-out slugfest.

I thought that was interesting, so I did a little more digging and found the postgame recaps from the evening in question. In one of the articles, then-Leafs coach Pat Quinn (who I rarely agree with but I did this time) called out Hartley, accusing
the Thrashers of "cowardice'' and said Atlanta coach Bob Hartley "has a reputation of sending his guys out head hunting.'' Said Quinn, "That one kid Boulton took a run at one of our guys,'' Quinn said. "That's trying to hurt people and there should be no place in the game for that. This was a disgrace.''

So apparently Hartley only believes in fighting when a) his team is merely losing and b) his goons are in uniform. Notice how his tune changes when both Boulton and Exelby are on the shelf - suddenly the Caps are big bullies for deciding to fight back after having their heads taken off all game long.

Fascinating...

- I somehow missed this somewhat snarky remark after Wednesday night from former Cap Glen Metropolit - "Getting the game-winning goal in this building, it means a lot to me...[i]t proves that Washington lost a good player."


Scoring a goal from a funny bounce off the glass, albeit darn lucky, isn't what I would necessarily call good. Incidentally Metro, who used to be one of my favorite players during his tenure here, has 4 goals and 6 assists on the season, and 3 of his 4 goals have come in the last three games. He didn't play in the NHL at all last season and during his final year with the Caps he collected 2 goals and 3 assists in 23 games.

Yup, we sure miss those big 5 points...fare thee well, Metro - see you next month!

1 comment:

Robert L said...

Hartley used to coach the Cornwall Aces (Nords, Avs farm team)here in town. He has always been a late game gooner. He takes out his frustration via his players and is no stranger to tossing out a whole goon line on the last shift just to send "a message".

The message I got was he's a sore ass loser.

Metropolit's goal against the Habs last Saturday was as budious as a goal gets. Off Souray's hip, down off the shaft of his stick, three hops before trickling by Huet. A pissy way to lose a shutout!

Likewise - nice blog. If you notice that I haven't gotten around to linking it in the next few days, stop by and crack me upside the head to remind me! Be good.