Here's one I didn't see coming:
Ultra-defensive Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire has come out swinging against the goaltenders of the NHL and their (still) gargantuan equipment:
"Now you look at the goalie, they look like they are going to war,” Lemaire said. "The game has changed because of the goaltender equipment. It's not because the guy is tall. Ken Dryden was 6-foot-3. He was a big guy. But when you looked at him, he looked like that lamp stand over there -- thin. That's how he looked (to opponents)." ...
"It's not for protection," Lemaire said. "It's to stop the puck. If it's for protection, they can get a lot smaller. Ever hear of Kevlar? Stops bullets. Let's go to the police station and get them vests. They'll all be OK."
- NHL.Com
Go to the police station and get them vests? Amazing.
Every blogger or fan sort of has their own personal pet peeve that they keep on about incessantly and mine has always been the ridiculous goalie equipment and the snails pace that the league is going at to change it.
According to Kay Whitmore, the league's goalie supervisor, it now looks like the NHL is about to make a bigger step next year in that they will judge the legality of equipment based on the individual goalie's size and not league-wide maximums.
"There will be more changes next year with more proportional fittings for protection only. We have to get back to the beginning of what equipment was for in the first place."
***
Not sure how many heard it in Ottawa but "trivia expert" Liam MacGuire was on the afternoon call-in show and called Marian Hossa a "hockey prostitute" for signing with Detroit instead of Pittsburgh.
If Hossa was a "prostitute", why would he have only accepted a one-year deal in Detroit instead of the other major offers that were on the table? I guess you could call it a one-night stand but...come on Liam.
That was brutal.
Macguire also managed to call Andrei Kostitsyn something that sounded like "Kozeenittsen" (obviously on purpose), belittled Zdeno Chara for not fighting Georges Laraque the other night (after Milan Lucic turned him down) and said that he doesn't like the Red Wings.
Anti-Euro bias perhaps?
Anyone who has had the distinction of listening to the trivia whiz when he makes his infrequent visits to the booth knows that he's more of a Euro-baiter than Don Cherry. Yet Cherry somehow manages to entertain while MacGuire just sounds like a redneck with an ugly disposition.
It's too bad because he's great at telling stories about old-time hockey. But I guess they didn't have many Euro's then.
5 comments:
The combination of Maguire and York today was down right hazardous! Im pretty sure I heard Maguire refer to someone as a "retard" and he mentioned his love of boozing many, many, many times. York is enough of a meathead on a day to day basis with his slip ups and narcissistic comments that you think the Team 1200 would have nixed the idea of teaming these two up...
I agree with the Hossa comment. If Hossa is so "hungry" for a Stanley Cup, why didnt he take a bit of a pay cut and stayed with Ottawa.
He wanted the big money and got b*tch slapped with a sign-&-trade.
Then last year he goes to Pittsburgh and instead of being up front with them, he gives them the impression that he'll re-sign. Crosby even took him aside and asked him to stay and he apparently said he would. Then come July 1st he's a goner!
I don't think that the Team 1200, Ottawa Sun, or Ottawa Citizen do a very good job of covering the Sens in this city. Liam's commentary is par for the course.
No insight, no constructive critisism. Player bashing is the norm. The only exception is Garry Galley. I find that he's pretty good.
Black Aces and Sens Army do a good job of picking up the slack.
Kudos goes to Jeffery Simpson at the globeandmail.com for his article "Capital Collapse", this morning. This is the first article by an Ottawa writer, in the main stream media, that provides some real insight into the Sens woes. He points the finger at management. I agree with his conclusion.
Hossa didn't have to "take less" to stay with Ottawa, in the same way that players do now - there wasn't a salary cap then, and the argument could be made that Hossa was worth as much as he wanted.
And he never said anything more to Pittsburgh than that he would consider them as a team to play for beyond the few games and playoffs that he did. No promises to anyone.
For the first time in his career he actually got a chance to choose what team and what style he wanted to play, and he liked the way Detroit played hockey. He has also commented how much he can learn from some of the experienced players on the roster, and Kopecky is a hometown friend of his and lobbied him to come to the Wings.
He has said himself he had a difficult choice between Detroit and Pittsburgh, and he thought Detroit might be a little bit closer because they lost fewer players than the Penguins. If he was truly a "hockey prostitute," he would have gone for the rumoured 9-year, $81 million contract from Edmonton.
anon @ 7:34pm
Well said. Hossa has lived up to all his contractual obligations. He exercised his rights as a free agent. No problem there.
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