11/21/11 Studs & Duds

[pharling]

Lets see....what happened tonight of any significance.....Hmmmmm

Studs
1. The most obvious choice I have had yet. The triumphant return of Sidney Crosby! Sid finally comes back in a statement performance scoring four points (two goals and two assists) leading Pittsburgh to a 5-o win over the poor New York Islanders. Right now Phil Kessel knows just how Pat Lafontaine felt when Mario Lemieux came back!
And there are 28 other teams saying aw crap!

2. Three point night players. There were six of them.
Stephen Weiss and Alex Ponikarovsky each had two goals and an assist. Chad LaRose and Kris Versteeg each had a goal and two assists. While Pascal Dupuis and Viny Prospal each had three assists.

3. The Bruins have officially come out from hibernation. In just 16 days Boston has gone from worst to first in their division. Winning nine straight games by virtue of a potent offense scoring an average of over five goals a game. Boston only needed one goal tonight as Thomas picked up his second straight shut-out.

Honorable mentions to
Marc-Andre Fleury who picked up the shutout in Pittsburgh's win tonight.
Dallas Stars snap a five-game losing streak.
Washington snaps a four game losing streak and Boudreau earns his 200th win as a coach
Columbus is still last over all in NHL but picked up second straight win.

Duds

1. Trial by fire
You are a rookie goalie, you get called up in injury relief and your first ever game in the NHL is the return after 10 months by Sidney Crosby.
Welcome to the NHL Anders Nilsson!!!
Please explain to me why this poor kid was in the net while Rick DiPietro was on the bench.

2. The $6.7 Million scratch
Yes Alex Semin was a healthy scratch tonight. The Washington Capitals hit rock bottom Saturday night in Toronto loosing 7-1 and coach Boudreau feeling like his job is on the line and had nothing to loose benched Semin. It worked, the Caps picked up a much needed win. This begs the question, does Semin remain out longer? If so could he soon be traded??

3. I know it's a day late but I have to say, Alex Burrows is a filthy puke. Opening the bench door deliberately while a opposing player is being checked into it is a dirty, gutless, despicable, thing to do.
I am ashamed to have a person like that playing hockey and representing such an amazing game. He is an embarrassment to his peers.
Hockey players are amazing, kind, generous, honest people.
I am ashamed to have him on a Canadian team, and that he is Canadian.
A classic Ken Hitchcock quote in reference to Martin Havlat applies to Burrows I think. Hitch said "One day someone is gonna feed that guy his lunch".
I for one can't wait for that day to come for Burrows.
Douche.

Dishonorable mention to Crosby's mustache.
I am afraid to ask how long he has been working on that dirty Sanchez on his upper lip.

[mounD]

Crosby's Mustache for President!

[keytolife]

Small correction Stephen Weiss had one goal, Kris Versteeg had two.

[NYR9394]

Although I understand why, I think you should have at least acknowledged Malkin's performance. He was dominant with the puck out there. I'm ridiculously excited that Sid is going to be taking alot of pressure off of him from here on out.


Also seems to be over a certain body situation from the beginning of the year. (I will not speak of it directly for fear of jinxing it)

[pharling]

UPDATE

Just found this addition to dishonorable mentions. A fight erupted in the stands in Montreal last night. Too bad for Montreal that the all the toughness is in the stands, not on the ice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Nh5TtIpug