Videos Before Bedtime!!

Beer me....we got videos.....and well here is our nightly dose to send you off to bed. Enjoy!!



NHL Cool In Vancouver spot




NHL 10 tips and tricks....




Pens tribute.....




Classic highway robbery by Brodeur.



Good night everyone!!!!

Free Agent Spotlight: Steve Sullivan

Ryan today goes to a guy that is one of my favorites. Let's see where he thinks Sully will end up.....

STEVE SULLIVAN

Height: 5’9”
Weight: 173
Shoots: Right
Age: 34

2008/09 Salary: $3.2 million
Projected 09/10 Salary: $3.25-3.75

2008/09 Stats: 41 GP, 11 G, 21 A, +2

Possible Suitors:
1. Nashville
2. Washington
3. Pittsburgh
4. New Jersey
5. Vancouver

Favorite: Nashville
Dark horse destination: New Jersey

This year’s Masterton Trophy winner persevered through 2 years of back injuries that halted his hockey career. But he came back with the Preds midway through this season, and got better each night on the ice. ‘Sully’ racked up 32 points in 41 games, but only had 2 points in his first 9 games… proving his strong finish. And he was incredibly valuable once again for Nashville, almost leading them to a 5th consecutive playoff appearance.

As for his future with the Preds, it looks a bit cloudy right now. He and his wife LOVE the Music City, and there’s a mutual interest with the club to re-sign. The thing he may think about is this: can he win in the near future with the Preds… meaning a deep playoff run?? There’s a chance this could be his last contract given his back situation. So he could opt to sign with a team that could win a Cup in the immediate future. In the end, though, I see ‘Sully’ stickin’ around in Nashville with an incentive-laden deal.

Current Prediction:
Nashville Predators (2 yrs, $6 mil + incentives/bonuses)

Will the Bruins host the Flyers in the next Winter Classic?

For quite a while now, reliable sources have indicated that the next Winter Classic is likely to be held at Fenway Park in Boston on January 1, 2010.

But here is another twist. Rumors are flying as to whom the Boston Bruins would host in the third such outdoor game in the United States in as many years and the fourth overall in league history.

Here are two sources that are giving us a firm indication that it will be the Philadelphia Flyers.

Anthony J. SanFilippo of the Delaware County Daily Times reported yesterday:

I made a couple phone calls and exchanged a couple emails and I can now confirm that speculation is true.

The Flyers will square off with the Bruins on January 1, 2010 at Fenway Park.

It's an interesting story how it came to be that the Flyers were picked for this event.

The NHL was pushing the Washington Capitals. They wanted to market Alex Ovechkin.

NBC, the network broadcasting the game, said no dice.

They were concerned with the poor ratings the Caps' produced in the playoffs in an opening round series against the New York Rangers - the #1 U.S. market for the NHL.

So, they told the NHL to skip Washington and give them the Flyers... a more certain brand to market.

The NHL was stubborn for a while... mostly because the Flyers were more interested in a January 1 date with Pittsburgh than Boston.

However, the NHL assured the Flyers that a future Flyers-Penguins outdoor game could still happen in a couple years.

The Flyers were satisfied and agreed to play.

The NHL then confirmed for NBC that the Flyers would in fact play.

No official announcement has come from the league or the Flyers, but sources have confirmed to me that this is the case.

Jeff Howe of Metro reported hours ago:

The other game will feature the Boston College men's hockey team, but final details are still being worked out regarding the timing of the game. A separate source, who also requested anonymity because an official announcement has not yet been made, indicated Boston University is talking with Fenway Sports Group about the possibility of playing at Fenway.

BU coach Jack Parker told Metro during the Frozen Four in April he was hoping the Terriers would be invited to play in the Winter Classic when rumors first started swirling about Boston hosting the event. Boston College and Boston University have been trying to schedule a game at Fenway Park for a few years.

BU, BC and Fenway Sports Group all declined comment for this story. Official word regarding the Winter Classic is expected to come from the NHL next month.

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres in the inaugural Winter Classic in 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The 2009 edition was held at Wrigley Field with the Detroit Red Wings defeating the Chicago Blackhawks.

So until the game and the two participating teams are confirmed by the National Hockey League with the upcoming official announcement, let the chatter begin as to whether it will definitely be the Flyers playing the Bruins. If it holds true, than this would be a good matchup to watch.

KHL Update: League Structure For 2009-10 Season

A big thanks to Shawn for keeping us updated during the long offseason....

KHL Board of Directors Announce League Structure for 2009-2010 Season

At a recent meeting of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Board of Directors in Moscow, the KHL adopted a number of resolutions to the League rules for the 2009-2010 season.

Among the resolutions:

·

Due to the fact that the Khimik hockey club was not able to repay debts on time for salaries to players and coaches, and has not provided adequate assurances of funding for the 2009-2010 season, the team will not participate in the forthcoming season. Subsequently, the KHL Board of Directors approved the admission of Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg to compete in KHL beginning with the 2009-2010 season.

·

In the future, the KHL will be organized on a geographical basis with two conferences, each consisting of two divisions of six teams. Conferences and divisions will be formed as follows:

Western Conference

Division Tarasov: Dinamo Moscow, CSKA, Spartak, SKA, Dinamo Riga, Dinamo Minsk

Kharlamov Division: Lokomotiv, Atlant, Torpedo, Severstal, HC MVD, Vityaz

Eastern Conference

Chernyshev Division: Ak Bars, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Tractor, Lada, Neftekhimik, Avtomobilist

Division Bobrova: Avangard, Salavat Yulaev, Barys, Sibir, Amur, Metallurg Novokuznetsk

·

The season will be held in two phases. In the regular season, each team will play two home and two road games against opponents from its own division (20 games in total), and one home and one road game against all other teams (36 games). Total number of regular season games for each team will be 56.

·

The team which accumulates the most points during the regular season will be declared the KHL regular championship winner. The Champion of Russia, as well as silver and bronze medalists of the KHL tournament, will be determined by the Gagarin Cup playoff outcome, regardless of what country these teams represent. One of the conference final series losing teams, which has collected more points in the regular season than the other conference final loser, will win the bronze medal.

·

Teams ranked from 1^st to 8^th in their respective conferences at the end of the regular season qualify for the Gagarin Cup playoffs. First two positions in each conference will be occupied by the divisions winners. The latter final regular season positions will be granted according to the teams’ total points, in decreasing order of performance.

·

In the second phase of the KHL season (Gagarin Cup playoffs), 16 teams (eight teams from each conference) will participate in a playoff tournament to determine the winner of the Gagarin Cup.

·

The Gagarin Cup playoffs will feature four rounds – conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, and then the Cup championship series. Conference quarterfinal and semifinal series will be best-of-five games, while conference finals and Gagarin Cup finals will be best-of-seven games.

·

KHL clubs who do not qualify for the Gagarin Cup will play in a separate tournament to determine placement in the 2010 KHL Junior Draft.

·

The KHL regular season schedule for the 2009-2010 season should be finalized and approved by June 30, 2009.

·

In order to improve financial discipline amongst KHL clubs, the Board of Directors has decided on sanctions against clubs for exceeding the established salary cap. Any clubs found to be guilty of violating the cap will be fined 300% of the amount exceeding the amount over the cap limit.

·

For the 2009-2010 season, it was determined the salary pool for each team is to be no more than 620,000,000 rubles (US$19.8 million) and no less than 200,000,000 rubles (US$6.4 million). Each club is entitled to designate one hockey player’s salary as being exempt from the salary cap.

·

The minimum wage for player contracts for the 2009-2010 season is 300,000 rubles (US$9,500) for players on the main club and 80,000 rubles ($2,500) for players on the youth club.

·

The number of players on KHL team rosters for the 2009-2010 season has been set at 25 for the main team and 25 for the youth team. Additionally, the Club will have an opportunity to use up to 5 players from the “Higher league”.

·

A limit on the number of international players has been set at 5 per team, regardless of their positions, but only one foreign goaltender can be signed by a team. Limitations on the number of games that can be played by a foreign goalie, are not installed.

·

Player transactions can be made throughout the season until 24.00 (Moscow time) on 31 January 2010.

·

For a season game the team can dress no more than 22 players, including 18 skaters, two goalies and two young skaters (Russian citizens, born not earlier than January 1, 1990.

·

The major club has the right to dress unlimited number of players from its junior team.

·

The KHL Board of Directors also adopted a number of requirements for venues hosting KHL games. In particular, in all arenas special protective PVC lining will be installed on boards of the hockey rink. In addition, hockey arenas need to be equipped with tunnels (fixed or sliding), through which the players and referees can enter and exit the rink, as well as advanced video surveillance systems to effectively detect and identify violators of public order.

·

There have been provisions for health care of the KHL players. Mandatory comprehensive medical examination hockey (before the application for the club team) in an amount and manner approved by the Medical Regulations of the League has been installed. Clubs are recommended to use the methods of functional testing of players developed by the KHL Medical Centre. In addition, in KHL clubs are subject to an organized system of doping control that is in accordance with the WADA Code.

·

Several changes in KHL in-game activity have been approved. In particular, 50 per cent of the regular KHL games will be officiated by the two referees and two linesmen. In the play-offs such four-man officiating units will work at all games.

·

The goal crease configuration will be changed.

·

KHL will adopt the video goal judge at its games. These judges will be appointed from among the most experienced and reputable local referees after they pass a special training program.

·

Finally, the the KHL Board of Directors adopted changes to the rules for overtime games in the Gagarin Cup playoffs. Next season all overtimes in the playoffs will be sudden-death. The teams will play 5-on-5 during these overtimes.

For more information about the KHL, please visit www.khl.ru.

Show Outline For Tonight.

That is right everyone....this is CNN....NO....this is the outline for tonight's show complete with splashdown pool. The Program will be on at 8pm ET on Blog Talk Radio...do note this...not 10:30pm ET. I cannot emphasize that enough. Here is what will be going down.......

The Program

---

-- Intros

-- Say Hello To Our Panel Of Sorts

-- 2009 NHL Draft Preview

• Who do we think is going #1?
• Historical perspective (Isles deja vu?)
  
• First round selections....trades?
• Late round surprises
• Debate over who is the best player in the draft.
• How many trades will happen?
• Rumors on players.....

-- Break time and pay the bills time!

-- Blog and podcast news

-- Preview of Friday's Draft Show

-- A special tribute to the 1995 New Jersey Devils

-- Defend Your Fandom

-- Rapid Fire (Questions, comments, and more)


The honest to goodness thing is here we have the feeling that two hours may not be enough but we are going to try to cram it all in there! That is the fun part and the challenge of this special midweek show. By Friday, you will be wishing for Free Agency talk but until then....its 95% draft with a sprinkling of FA news. I hope everyone can listen on in to this podcast...it should be a fun ride!


Sincerely,

Chris Wassel

Director Of The Program

So Many Busts....So Little Time!

There have been more surefire prospects that have gone belly up than I can count. We often joke about these but believe me there are some colossal busts that just rival the imagination and confound the soul. Hey we should start with the two biggest and then maybe work our way down to some busts from the last decade. Its only fair.....right???? Right!


Colossal Busts That Will Stand Test Of Time

That is right these are the two most obvious busts that everyone knows about. These are both #1 picks and these are their stories.

---

Daigle in front. Yashin (rear).

Alexandre Daigle (1993 Ottawa first overall pick)

For Ottawa, this is the one pick that may still haunt them to this day. Actually it probably does. What is worse for Ottawa is that Chris Pronger and Paul Kariya were right behind Mr. Daigle (well 2nd and 4th respectively). Daigle was the natural pick but wow did it turn out so spectacularly bad. A #1 pick who tore up the Q back when the Q was a good junior league. Daigle's career high in points was 51 (set three different times). Daigle had a career mired in injury, poor play, then a retribution of sorts before more injury and ultimately a move to Europe which was probably the best move.

The reality is Daigle just had too much expectations too soon. Ottawa was a god awful team then and really Daigle was just not ready to be thrust into the NHL limelight. Lots of players are not and believe me there is one that is a bigger bust than Alexandre Daigle. They called him Bagel Daigle (pronounced bagel dagel) for a reason. He just was not that good....not even close.

What is worse is he was traded for cash once. Imagine a #1 pick being traded for cash. His partying lifestyle mainly because of the crazy entry level deal he got paved the way for a rookie salary cap. The drugs, the booze, the women, and his innate desire not to actually have hunger to play the game led to a perfect storm of well crappy play.

---

What Stefan will always be remembered for.

Patrik Stefan (1999 Atlanta #1 overall pick)

Yes Stefan may not have torn it up in the juniors and minors quite like Alexandre Daigle but in some ways Patrik Stefan was as much or more of a bust than Daigle. His 188 points in 455 games was beyond abysmal. Stefan in theory was supposed to be part of one of the deepest drafts in NHL history but it just did not turn out that way. 1999 was littered with busts but only Stefan could take the cake as he was the #1 overall pick.

Did I mention this was the Thrashers first pick in their entire existence? Some think that may have something to do with this pick. Perhaps it did but Stefan was riddled with concussion after concussion and injury after injury. He was not only fragile but everyone knew it. Weirdly enough the next year the Thrashers did much better and drafted Dany Heatley and well you know what happened there. It is amazing that Don Waddell still has a job just after drafting Stefan alone....strange but true!

In retrospect, these two may be unfairly labeled. Oh wait who am I kidding...they are not. Only maybe Stefan gets saved a bit because he did have at least a desire to play the game unlike Alexandre Daigle who realized he could make some serious coin. One sure thing in common is both were extreme busts so much so that they will be talked about until the end of time.

---

So it is time to take a look and list some of the #1 busts from say the last decade. Hey not every one of these guys can be hits you know. Our list of #1 overall busts (Post-Daigle) is a short list but note a pattern.

1995 - Bryan Berard (New York Islanders)

2000 - Rick DiPietro (New York Islanders)

Note the weird similarities. Both had world of potential and both flashed it. However they had injuries that kept them from being at their best. Berard was his eye and DiPietro (hip, knee). Everyone knows who drafted these two and needless to say a better job could have been done. That is established. I do have the feeling DiPietro will come back this year and give one last go of it. He may even have a bit of a rebirth before the injuries come back and bite him much like it happened to Berard.

Really there was much promise in Berard....just kind of a shame that too many hopes were put on him. Though many more have been placed on DiPietro....some will say that DiPietro did it to himself moreso than Berard who was never quite the same. At least out of the two....Berard can take solace that he more than likely will have a better career and legacy. Though being an Isles #1 draft pick in the last 10-15 years has not been a fun ride especially for the last two overall #1's.

What will happen this year? I guess you have to tune in on Friday Night to find out. Good luck Garth Snow...the heat is on!

This Day In Playoff History (6/24)

Yes this is the last day and really I could not think of a more fitting moment in this run to end it than the one about to be presented. Names were not changed to protect the innocent and this still ranks as my longest bender. Just ask family members if you want proof. There was a celebration truly unlike any other.

SHOW ME VIDEOS...then the moment.



Game 4 Intro




Simply the Cup Winning Goal!




The final 180 seconds and then JOY...much JOY!



Now the moment.....

June 24, 1995

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Neal Broten and Shawn Chambers each scored twice as the Devils won 5-2, to sweep the Red Wings in four games to win the 1995 Stanley Cup Championship (for the first time in franchise history). Claude Lemieux was the Conn Smythe trophy winner.