03/04/12 - Studs & Duds

[metaldude26]

Apparently Bruins netminder Tim Thomas does not agree with the politics of the New York Rangers since he refused to show up for the game at MSG on Sunday afternoon, allowing four goals on just 17 shots in the loss.

Bruins rookie, Lane MacDermid made his NHL debut fighting Mike Rupp on his first NHL shift, which is the goon equivalent of scoring a goal on your first NHL shift. What was really great for MacDermid was that he spent as much time in the penalty box as he did on the ice.

Jordan Caron led the charge for the Bruins with a goal and an assist despite playing just 11:15 with just six seconds of power play time. Caron was hardly offended though. The coach took him out to dinner after the game and tipped the waiter six cents. It’s hard to feel shortchanged after that sort of injustice.

Is it safe to say the Islanders have no clue who their goaltender is? Anders Nilsson is one of five different starters the team has deployed this season. Nilsson registered a shutout in the Islanders 1-0 win over the Devils on Sunday, which is great considering the geniuses over at the NHL scheduling office have the team playing the Devils two more times in a row this week. That’s right, three straight games against the Devils. I’d have joked that this was a three game series with the Islanders fighting for their soul but Mike Millbury traded that away years ago.

After taking a 2-0 first period lead the Senators decided that they would take advantage of the nice weather and go golfing. Erik Karlsson performed very despite four penalty strokes, shooting a minus-two. That tied him with Milan Michalek and Colin Greening. Jason Spezza was the big winner however finishing at three under par, despite his taking two penalty strokes.

The Panthers, to their credit, continued to play hockey, rallying to win the game 4-2.

The Dallas Stars scratched out a big road win in Calgary on Sunday evening, winning 3-2 in the shootout, pushing them to seventh in the West and into a tie with Phoenix for first in the Pacific Division, which at this point is looking like a hotdog eating contest. Yes there will be a winner but in the end they are all losers. And yes if you are scoring at home the Sharks have choked and are begging for a Heimlich.

The Flyers-Capitals matchup on Sunday was supposed to be a brilliant showcase of offensive talent, instead it was a HUMANGAS letdown as the teams combined for one goal scored by Eric Wellwood, who is about as fantasy relevant as Rosie O’Donnell. You really have to hand it to the referees though. I mean, to go on skating after choking on your whistle for the entire game is just damn impressive.

Since acquiring supposed offensive defenseman, Tom Gilbert, the Minnesota Wild have lost four in a row, while being shutout for the third time in that stretch on Sunday evening. They have also gone 0/13 on the power play since the acquisition. Please allow me to clarify this misconception with a game of word association.

Gilbert is to offensive defenseman as tomato is to vegetable.

Time to wrap your minds around the fact that he just isn’t an offensive defenseman. I mean, sometimes when it looks like a rock and acts like a rock it’s actually a hunk of shit.

You just know the stretch run has begun when you look over the box scores and see some of the absolute pluggers teams have called up. We touched on MacDermid earlier. Here are some of the other fillers that skated on Sunday:

Ryan Garbutt – Stars – 8:22
Rob Klinkhammer – Senators – 13:34
Bryan Bollig – Blackhawks – 5:05
Cory Emmerton – Red Wings – 6:23
Jay Beagle – Capitals – 10:20
Matt Kassian – Wild – 4:23
Ed Jovanovski – Panthers – 13:20

This is great for those guys but for fans attending games and poolies looking for numbers having to see these plugs in the lineup instead of the superstars we all want to see is just depressing, especially when you cheer for a team in the midst of a playoff race.

Remember to cast your votes in the opening round of the Richard Bracket in the Cage Match Tournament. Please follow the links provided in the article.

[STONE.]

Apparently Bruins netminder Tim Thomas does not agree with the politics of the New York Rangers since he refused to show up for the game at MSG on Sunday afternoon, allowing four goals on just 17 shots in the loss.

Now that's funny. Seriously. Just good stuff.