.

Cheap shots from Tootoo and Simon, a little fighting talk, the NCAA Hockey tournament, and Scott made a kid cry...

Lets start with a little nostalgia

It was on this day in 1994 that Wayne Gretzky scored NHL goal number 802 to pass Gordie Howe. The Kings that night were playing the Vancouver Canucks an Gretzky got his goal on a power play. If you are wondering who assisted on the goal it was Marty McSorley and Luc Robitaille. The big joke though that always comes up was. Luc was in the crease when Wayne scored. Also for note. The goaltender that game for Vancouver was Kirk McLean.

Wild and Crazy the Eastern Conference.

There are six teams that have a chance to make the playoffs. Only three of these teams will make it. These six teams are separated by only six points. Lets start with the hottest team the New York Rangers.

With the play of Henrik Lundqvist the Rangers have come out of the dark to look like they are on there way to the playoffs. Henrik is playing like a man possessed and he is leading his team. Not to mention the offense is finally there. Rangers currently have 83 points and sitting in 7th. Tampa Bay in 6th place and their biggest problem is goaltending.

Johan Homqvist is the current number 1 goaltender and has not been stellar. Of course what has been stellar is the offense for the Lightning. Lecavalier, St. Louis and Richards are offensive power houses. The offense will lead them to the playoffs.

Sitting in the final playoff spot as of right now in 8th place are the defending Stanley Cup Champions in the Carolina Hurricanes. Unlike last year with Ward and Gerber the Hurricanes goaltending as not been as strong. Also Eric Staal is not lighting the league up like he did last season. Those two factors have lead the Hurricanes into a tail spin towards the bottom of the playoff race.

Montreal is in 9th place and they have been winning with Jaroslav Halak in net. Halak who was called up from Hamilton when Cristobal Huet went down with an injury has saved Montreal. David Aebischer who they acquired last year for Jose Theodore was not getting the job done and Halak was. They still have a large hill to climb in Montreal. Currently they have 82 points.

With 81 points and sitting in 11th place are the New York Islanders. Rick Dipietro went down for a couple of games and so did the Isles. This is a make or break time for the Isles who have not looked as good as they had since Chris Simon's two handed slash at Ryan Hollweg. It also did not help them to lose back to back games against the Rangers. The ship is sinking quick and will they be able to get the water out.

Toronto is the final team in the equation and they are sitting in 11th with 80 points. Yet they are two points back of tying Carolina and Montreal with 82 points. Toronto is getting Tomas Kaberle back tonight after his run in with Cam Janssen. Adding Tomas back to the point will be huge. For Toronto the question is where will Andrew Raycroft lead them. His goaltending will be the key if Toronto makes it to the post season.

If I had to pick three teams I'd say right now: Tampa Bay, NY Rangers, NY Islanders.

Avs and Flames going toe to toe.

Colorado and Calgary are matching wins making the playoff race even more exciting. Colorado who I wrote off two weeks ago have had a miraculous come back. The goaltending from Peter Budaj has been amazing and Joe Sakic is leading the offense. Calgary is getting through with hard work. They pulled a tough overtime victory over Nashville to keep their lead. Colorado plays Edmonton again which is a likely two points.

Speaking of Edmonton. Still winless since trading Ryan Smyth. By far the worst team I've seen this year. Make note. I've watched the Kings all year and I still consider the Edmonton team of the last month to be the worst in the NHL.

College Hockey Tournament!

Screw those basketball playing fools! Here is the NCAA Hockey Tournament draws

http://www.uscho.com/ncaad1/

Now the Hockey tournament is only 16 teams compared to the 64 that play in the NCAA Mens and Womens basketball tournaments.

The top two seeds are the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Golden Gophers won the WCHA Tournament on a goal by Phoenix draft pick Blake Wheeler.



The Fighting Irish who are not known for their hockey players compared to their Football Quarterbacks won the CCHA against Michigan. Notre Dame is lead in goal by David Brown who is property of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Brown has been outstanding this year and is in the running for the Hobey Baker Trophy(Hockey's version of the Heisman). Now there are some great players in this tournament and a lot of future NHL players. Jack Johnson, John Toews and others are all playing in this tournament. Watch for when teams lose for Seniors and even under classmen who will leave early. Cory Schneider, Brian Boyle and many others are in their final year and will leave school when their teams bow out. Jack Johnson is rumored to be leaving Michigan and joining LA when the Wolverines face their untimely end.

That is all for today

SC

Well today is Wednesday and here are a couple of updates.

Dave is on Spring Break and is in Las Vegas. So we'll have to see what kind of condition he comes back in. Considering he was cheap enough that he decided to stay at a Motel 6. Come on! You need to at least stay at a crappy place on the strip. Just don't do what I had to do which was get stuck going to Denny's because you're friend is a moron and his cousin is even stupider than dirt. The man got lost looking for the spa and he was right in front of it. So with Dave drinking the days away it means one thing. No show until he comes back. Now the greatest thing is I have no clue when he comes back. I imagine it's no more then three days as more then three days in Vegas starts to wear on you. Or well you wear yourself out.

Tootoo gets five games.

Jordan Tootoo got only five games for his round house sucker punch on Stephane Robidas. It was disappointing to see him get such a little suspension. His first game back is against Dallas in a week or two. Wonder who finishes that tilt for Dallas. I think they'll call someone up because I believe Barnaby and Ott are still out of the line up. Should be a good tilt.

Belak finishes the play.

Wade Belak had a job last night to do against the New Jersey Devils. It was a simple job, take on Cam Janssen. This is of course the retaliation fight for the hit on Tomas Kaberle. It was a good tilt but no one really got the upper hand in my opinion. Remember when watching a hockey fight a lot of punches do not land. So when Belak is swinging watch the punches miss. It doesn't count if you smack the guy in the shoulder pad.



Calling 50

Coming into our final weeks of the season we have a couple of players looking at the 50 Goal Mark. The first one that should hit the mark is Lightning forward Vincent Lecavalier. Vinny is sitting first in the NHL with 49 goals. Vinny would be a first time member to this category. He is also only 3 points away from 100 on the season. There are four other players who have a chance. Teemu Selanne has 44 goals so he needs to find the back of the net six more times. Dany Heatley has 42 goals, Marian Hossa and Alexander Ovechkin both have 41. Time to start lighting the lamp if they want to hit 50.

That is all for now just a couple of notes.

If you're reading this from England send us an e-mail. Feedback@lthpodcast.com letting me know about the area in the O2 Arena vicinity. Hotels and so forth. Hell even good pubs. I want to know! Hit me up guys as I'm still planning this.

Thats it

SC

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I think we're going to do a show soon but not sure. Haven't talked to Dave in a while.

Well after the Chris Simon incident the last thing the NHL needed was the Jordan Tootoo sucker punch on Stephane Robidas. Tootoo who is starting to gain a reputation that may be worse then the Sean Avery reputation. So Saturday night he went and hit Mike Modano. It was a clean hit and it was a solid hit. Of course Dallas is not going to let their Star Player get hit at any time so Stephane stepped in but before he could Tootoo swung around with a round house punch which landed directly to Robidas jaw. Here is the video you can form your own opinion



Now in my opinion after the Simon incident Tootoo is going to get a heavy suspension. After hitting Modano in my opinion Tootoo needs to realize he has two options. Square up and or turtle. You're going to get hit as you hit Mike Modano do not throw a cheap shot because you cannot handle the up coming fight. There is no place for that in hockey.

Of course now the Pro-Tootoo people have to mention that Modano swung his stick. Making a mountain out of a mole hill. Suspend Mike for a game and it's over with. He swung it with one hand and at Tootoo's back. If you're going to complain about that then every slashing penalty in the NHL becomes a suspend able offense. In the end I think Tootoo's going to get it handed to him one day. He's a dirty player and one day he's going to get caught like McCarthy caught Claude Lemieux.

Avs Red Hot

The Avs keep winning and they are making the West race a lot closer than anyone thought they would. They are 4 points out now with 10 games to play. Calgary also has 10 games left. Calgary's magic number is 17 points. Now the 17 points is lost points by Colorado and points gained by Calgary. It will be an interesting race but to be honest. Calgary is getting into the playoffs.

Thats all for now

SC

Posting another blog today after one yesterday hope you enjoyed the lawn gnomes and here we go.

Mike Modano scores 500.

Modano found the back of the net for the 500th time in his NHL career last night against Philly. Modano became the 5th player this year to score his 500th goal this year. Selanne, Sundin, Recchi and Bondra are the other 4 to already hit the mark this year. Modano has scored all of his goals for the Stars franchise whether in Minnesota or Dallas. He becomes now only the 2nd American player to hit the magical mark. Barring a disastrous breakdown he will become the all-time leading goal scorer amongst American players. Joe Mullen is currently sitting at 502 goals and Modano may have that record by the end of the year. Now as much as I dislike Modano you have to give him credit for his skill all these years. Most interesting Mike Modano stat: He has never had a 100 point NHL Season. I Believe he is one of the very few 1,000 point scorers without having a 100 point season. In Modano's two best seasons he scored 93 points.

Now while watching the game what I considered the most interesting stat was mentioned by color commentator Darryl Reaugh. There are 39 NHL Players who have scored 500 goals or more in the NHL. Out of those 39 players 32 of them are Canadian which leaves only seven Non-Canadians. So I've already mentioned the two who are American, Mullen and Modano, which leaves five players. There is one Czech, a Slovak, two Fins and a Swede. The players that fit those countries is Jagr, Bondra, Kurri and Selanne, and Mats Sundin. I considered this one of the most intriguing stats that had been said. Now there are some Non-Canadians closing in on the mark. Jeremy Roenick is nine goals away from the mark. After that we drop down to Keith Tkachuk who has 470 and Sergei Fedorov who has 460 goals. After that the market is pretty bare for Non-Canadians and even for Canadians as the only one close is Gary Roberts and he is 74 goals away from 500.

If your asking yourself which NHL player was closest to 500 without getting 500 the answer is Glenn Anderson who finished his NHL Career with 498 goals.

For British Eyes Only

For those of you that read who are from London I'll give you a quick update on the trip I want to take. I'm waiting for the Kings to have their prices for packages to go over. If not I'll try to find a hotel and a flight with a friend. I really want to make it over so I plan on this. If any of our England fans read this please email me with insightful tips as I've never been to England. Or send me a message on AIM. Right now besides the games I want to do some sight seeing and catch an English Premier League game. So here is another part I need some help with is the EPL game. Judging by Mapquest I've come to believe the closest team is The Tottenham Hotspurs which looks to be about 10 minutes away. The question for England listeners is what other EPL teams are in the vicinity that I can go see. I am aware tickets may not be easy but I need to see one match.

Thanks for reading for today!

SC

So I've slacked in posting the picture of the lawn gnomes as they have been called. So without further ado here they are.









You can see the Blake in that third shot. Also you can kind of see the size of the damn things. They are huge really.

Penguins stay in Pittsburgh

Well the two sides finally decided not to dance around the subject and just get it done. This was like one of those cheesy love movies. You know they love each other and they will not go anywhere else. They test the waters and try new things and in the end they find love in each others arms. ::Tear:: Cue cheesy porn music.

The arena will be financed through the Penguins and revenue made from slot machines. Obviously this is important for the city of Pittsburgh and the Penguins. My belief is still shame on the City of Pittsburgh. They were able to get new arena's for the Steelers(Heinz Field) and Pirates(PNC Park) but they basically screwed the Penguins over for many years. The Penguins arena has been dilapidated for the better part of 10 years now. Not only that it was originally built for Opera. Also whoever buys the naming rights should make sure it's the Igloo. Pittsburgh 9th National Bank Igloo!

Chris Simon suspended 25 games.

This one was quite obvious that it was going to be a huge suspension. I happened to be watching the game live when it occurred and my first thought was Hollweg is dead. Of course he was not dead, thankfully, but I still think that he embellished the play. While it was a serious play for a cut on the chin he sure stayed down for a while. Maybe it's just me I've seen people take pucks to the face and get up quicker then Hollweg did.

Simon was given a 25 game suspension. There are 15 remaining Islanders games in the regular season so Simon will miss the next 10 Islanders games whether in the playoffs or at the start of the 07-08 season. It was a stupid play by Simon and he knows it of course but his emotions took the best of him at the moment. Personally when I saw it I said that it was a 15 game suspension. I still think 25 was a little bit much but it is still the right call by Gary Bettman.

NHL Draft Change

The general managers decided the draft is now decided by where teams finish in the playoffs. The 14 teams that do not make the playoffs still play by the same rules. The 16 teams that make the playoffs now are based by Division leaders and where they end up in the playoffs. It's complicated and until the playoffs are finished I have no damn clue how it really works. The article I read does not really do a good job of describing it. When I understand it I'll let you guys know.

That's all for now

SC

Scott's adventure at "Tip-a-King" and plenty of Trade Deadline talk

Wow it was a crazy last week with the trade deadline and after typing 3,000 words I had no will to post another blog. I really still do not but will have a couple of Words.

Edmonton struggles

Edmonton is 0-3 since trading Ryan Smyth and have a total of 2 goals each of which were scored by Fernando Pisani. They were shut out in back to back games and finally got two against Calgary in a 4-2 lose. I watched parts of the game last Tuesday night and saw how poorly Edmonton played. Smyth was everything to that team and without him they played flat uninspired hockey. It was actually quite sad to watch.

West Playoff race.

In the West everything is pretty much decided except where 1 to 8 will fall. We know the eight teams barring a magical comeback by the Colorado Avalanche. Personally I do not think they can do it.

East Playoff Race

There is a log jam down at the bottom of the division looking at the 7th and 8th spot. I think Atlanta will take the 6th spot and the Islanders with Ryan Smyth will get the 7th seed. I say the 8th seed goes to the Carolina Hurricanes. Without Huet the Canadiens are too iffy and losing Kaberle was a huge lose for the Leafs. Personally I do not like how the Rangers are playing so that is it with them. Boston is too much of a wild card. I have no clue what the hell will happen there. Florida maybe next year.

Janssen on Kaberle

I thought this was a dirty hit as it was unnecessary for Janssen to hit him. Kaberle is at fault as well as he should have not watched his pass. Sadly his head hit the boards which caused the injury and caused the suspension. In the NHL if the player is injured there is a better chance a player will be suspended.


Thats all for now

SC