The Leafs started of with an impressive win of 4 wins at the beginning of 2010-11 seasons. The team emerged with 8 points which was very impressive with a playoff spot of 37-34-11, 85 points. This made Coach Ron Wilson a very lucky man of the season. A few sign ups and sign offs were made during the offseason with an aim of creating a stronger team. The fans who have a lot of hope in the team a wait to see the new development that will propel their team to the next level which is winning.
Toronto Maples Leafs team seems to be starting off this season with a few absent players because of reasons that are beyond their control. The absence of two of their forwards Nazem Kadri, who has an injury after spraining his knee, and that of Clarke MacArthur who is not going to be taking part in the two opening games of the season because of being suspended. Rookie Matt Frattin will get an opportunity twice forward. The rookie managed to impressive with a record of two goals preseason.
The Toronto Maple Leafs team has managed to come up with a strategy to counter the losses that they will be experiencing this season of having a forward with fewer players. This they have managed by ensuring that they strengthen the defense team off season. The addition of rookie Jake Gardener proved to be a fantastic member of the team during the preseason. The team has also acquires New team player Cody Franson and John-Micheal Liles who will foster the team before James Reimer who will is responsible for manning the goal post. The presence of Captain Dion Phaneuf and that of a very able team Read the rest of this entry »
San Jose will be playing against New Jersey at the Prudential Center in a match where they are considered to be the underdogs. San Jose started well at the opening of the season where they beat Phoenix 6 – 3 which was followed by a triple losing streak. The Devils who are expected to win this match have had a triple winning streak after losing to Philadelphia in their opening match of the season. Though having the upper hand in terms of winning, they have not played for some time since their last match in Nashville.
The last time San Jose won in Garden State was over a decade ago, at the turn of the century, in the year 2000. Despite all this setbacks, they are counting on their wing player Martin Havlat who will be making his debut appearance in this match poised to raise temperatures on the ice field. He was bought in place of their injured player Dany Heatley during the summer trade period. Dany Heatley was transferred to Minnesota. He had suffered from a shoulder injury during the offseason which led to him missing four games.
Martin Havlat is expected to help the team win after scoring 62 points during the last season from 22 goals and a total of 40 assists when he was playing for the Wild. It is hoped that he will adjust quickly to his new team and teammates to help them win this match. This particular game will be of much importance to the San Jose captain as it will be his 1,000th game during his career. The thirty two year old captain will be joining his counterpart from the Sharks team in this achievement, who reached this milestone in the previous year.
Joe Thornton, the San Jose captain, has the highest career points in the NHL since his debut in 1997 of 1002. Other teams that San Jose will face during this part of the trip include Boston, Detroit, Nashville and the teams from New York. The devils will have the disadvantage of playing without their goal tender as he is also suffering from a shoulder injury. He will also miss two more games Read the rest of this entry »
Most hockey fans have probably forgotten that the Carolina Hurricanes have a Stanley Cup title. That’s right, if you open up your hockey history books, they won the first post-lockout Cup in 2006 beating the Edmonton Oilers in seven games. Yes, the fact that the Hurricanes have a Stanley Cup no doubt make fans in Toronto, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Ottawa and Minnesota sick.
It wasn’t one of those fluke Cups either, they were the second seed in the East and had a team with Rod Brind’Amour, Eric Staal, Mark Recchi, Ray Whitney and Cam Ward on it. That’s no chopped liver. And while only Eric Staal and Cam Ward remains from that Cup team, the Hurricanes are just two years removed from a trip to the Conference Finals. In other words: this is not a team to sleep on.
The Hurricanes are currently two points out of a playoff spot with 15 games remaining. Is it where they wanted to be where the season began: not really. They have the parts to be a fourth or fifth seed. With that said, though, they can be one of those dangerous 7th or 8th seeds in the playoffs, if they make it.
The Hurricanes haven’t had to hard of a time putting the puck in
With 13 games to go in the 2010-2011 NHL regular season, the Minnesota Wild is four points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The fans in Minnesota are wondering if the Wild will make the playoffs this season. A look at the standings and the team itself would indicate that the Minnesota Wild will not be making the playoffs this season.
The first strike against the Wild is that the two teams in front of them in the standings, the Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators, both have a game in hand over the Wild. That means if it came down to one final game to decide the last Western Conference playoff spot, the Minnesota Wild would not be part of it.
The biggest problem for the Minnesota Wild this season has been their offense. As the Wild enter the last 13 games of the season, it is coming off a stretch where it just lost two games in a row by shutout. The Wild have been outscored 8-0 in the last two games, and that is not winning you any hockey games in the NHL.
Only six of the regular starting forwards and defensemen for the Wild are positive in the plus/minus statistics. Considering that the Wild have one of the lowest goals against totals in the conference; that just adds weight to the argument that the team is not scoring goals.
Minnesota has only one line that can really score and that is the Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Kyle Brodziak and Martin Havlat line. The only
There are some teams out there that just come out of nowhere to make a deep run into the playoffs. You know, the kind of times that no one is talking about that you suddenly find playing in the Conference Finals. In the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, that team was the Montreal Canadiens.
The team that has won the most Stanley Cups, hasn’t been to one since winning it in 1993, and last year had to wait until the last day’s of the season to secure a playoff birth. What happened next was two seven game, come from behind series win’s against the heavily favored Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, before coming back to earth in the conference finals, losing in five games to the Flyers. The most impressive thing was that the Canadiens did it with a young time who weren’t expected to do much.
The good news this year for the Canadiens is that they will probably not have to wait til the last day of the season to get a playoff birth. With a nine point lead on the 9th place team and 15 games to play, the Canadiens have actually done quite well for themselves this season and may find themselves with a 5th or 6th seed when all is said and done. A low scoring team Read the rest of this entry »
After losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round of the playoffs for the second year in a row last year, the Vancouver Canucks have established themselves as one of the elite teams in the NHL. They are currently leading the entire league in points and are the number one seed in the Western Conference. The Canucks have a twelve point lead over their nearest competitor in the Northwest Division, the Colorado Avalanche.
In the off season, the team lost defenseman Willie Mitchell to free agency and snagged Dan Hamhuis as his replacement from the Nashville Predators. They brought in center Manny Malhotra to improve penalty killing and faceoff win percentage.
The Canucks are loaded with talent in all positions. Roberto Luongo is consistently one of the NHL’s best goaltenders, and is the top ten in all statistical categories Read the rest of this entry »
The Rangers have an incredible season so far and their own Mats Zuccarello is a new contributor to their success.
He has scored his first ever goal playing in NHL three minutes into overtime allowing his team to take the lead with 2-1 and win with Carolina Hurricanes last Wednesday.
The New York team missed playoffs last season this time tries to do not repeat the same failure and so far them jumped 8 points up just ahead of the Carolina in the Eastern Conference race. They are also only four points short to catching up with Philadelphia (No. 4) Read the rest of this entry »
The Nashville Predators are having some trouble selling tickets, they are not just having trouble finding a way to get into the playoffs. You want to make sure that the head coach of the Nashville Predators has a good promotional personality so they can end up getting things done and making sure people come to the games.
The current head coach of the Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz really does not have the kind of good personality in order to get this done. Barry wants to be able to concentrate on hockey, but if you can not bring big name free agents in you’re not going to win many hockey games. The Predators recently signed Marek Svatos. Svatos played on the right wing of the 2006 Slovakian Olympian team, so this proves that he is not just an average NHL player.
Jerred Smithson just got a two year contract extension and this shows the way that Barry Trotz believes is the best way to go about the business of building an NHL team. Stotz has been the only coach of the Nashville Predators in their history and you have to ask whether the team still buys into his message enough in order to make the playoffs.
Jazz had been in a skid on the attack prior to embarking on a 4 game away from home journey more than a week ago, however they come back to their home court victors of 3 in a row.
Utah will try to improve on energy when they attempt their 6th straight game against the Trail Blazers on Monday evening.
The Jazz (21 – 9) are Returning from a 3 – 1 away from home journey during which they put in 102.7 points during the last 3 contests following starting the trip having a 100 – 71 defeat to the Hornets on December 17th. Utah finished the trek by assembling a 112 – 107 victory at the Target Center vs. the T’Wolves on Wednesday.
Deron Williams got twenty-five points & 7 dishes as Al Jefferson put in twenty-three points, 9 boards & a personal best 7 rejected shots. Jefferson put in twelve of his squad’s forty-one 4th quarter points to assist the Jazz came back from a twelve point hole.
The win moved Coach Jerry Sloan in front of Pat Riley on the career victories list having 1,211. Just Don Nelson (1,335) & Lenny Wilkens (1,332) have more wins within NBA history.
Sacramento had been at ease dealing Kevin Martin to Houston the previous year due to the advancement of Tyreke Evans.
Recently, however, Houston seems to be receiving the far better side of the trade.
Returning off a high for the year forty point performances, Martin is going to attempt to assist Houston pick up their 6th consecutive on their home floor Tuesday evening when they encounter a Kings squad that might be not having the current rookie of the year.
Martin, an ex- Kings 1st round selection who had been leading them in scoring 3 times, had been part of a 3 club trade February 18th that dispatched Carl Landry to The Kings. Since the deal, Martin is putting in 22.2 points in 47 contests.
He put in thirty-two during the 1st half & completed having forty in Saturday’s 110 – 95 win against the Cavs. Martin’s performance in the opening twenty-four minutes had been the 3rd most within a 1/2 in club history.
Martin’s last high with The Rockets (9 – 14) had been 39 during a 117 – 107 win against Sacramento on April 12th during his 1st game in Sacramento since the trade.
Kings coach Paul Westphal wants Evans to make comparable efforts. troubled by an inflamed arch on his left foot, Evans is putting in 16.5 points, 3.6 less than Read the rest of this entry »
