Sporcle...

Anyone ever heard of Sporcle? It's a site that gives you blank slates and tells you to name stuff. For instance, it gives you a blank table with years listed and you have to name Pixar movies. You type them in, they go next to the year, and when you give up, you click "Give Up" and it tells you the answers.

Since I'm a stats nerd, the best part for me is seeing what percentage were picked.

There are also some cool NHL-related games. Check out...

http://www.sporcle.com/games/caldertrophy.php

Try to name every single Calder Trophy winner in NHL history. Well, since that is VERY tough, try doing the right column, which starts with 1984-85/Pittsburgh Penguins and ends with 2008-09/Columbus Blue Jackets. See if you can beat my score - 7 wrong from '84-'09. Kind of embarrassing when you realize which ones you got wrong.

Also a good one: http://www.sporcle.com/games/nhlteamptleaders.php - career points leaders for each team. Very cool, but good luck guessing who leads Columbus in lifetime points.

Also try: http://www.sporcle.com/games/nhlarenas.php - the name of every team's arena. As long as I stared at the page, I would NOT have guessed where the Flames play.

And my personal favorite: http://www.sporcle.com/games/sportscities.php - Name the 13 cities in America that have teams in all 4 pro sports. Sorry Bryan, MLS doesn't count. (I got 11 of 13. One of them was my fault; the other I blame the game.)
Let me know how you do and which you get wrong.

Zherdev Gone...

After Nik Zherdev was awarded a $3.9M, one-year contract by an arbitrator, Glen Sather had this to say.

"[He] will score as many goals in 2009-10 in a Rangers uniform as he did in April of 2009 in a Rangers uniform. None."

Okay, that is a fake quote. I admit it. But, true, no?

Imagine Zherdev's last goal as a Ranger wasn't in a late-March shootout loss to an atrocious Atlanta team. Imagine he scored in the stretch-drive to the playoffs. Imagine he at least registered an assist in 7 playoff games. What if he scored when Game 7 was tied 1-1? What if he popped one in with 6 minutes left in the 3rd period in that game, changing the outcome, and the Rangers went on the play the Bruins in Round 2?

I assume if any of those happened, Sather would've atleast given his award a 2nd thought. We can assume that once the award went above, say, $3.5M, Zherdev was history.

All those sites saying "sign & trade" since even before the arbitration hearing? Maybe it was a thought, but it was never feasible. Why would a team, any team, do that, when they can have him for just money a day or two later? Maybe so a different team won't sign him. But I can only see that if this is a Joe Sakic, a Jay Bouwmeester, even a Ryan Callahan. But is any team really that desperate for a sometimes-there-sometimes-not winger who scored 58 points last season?

In all honesty, all Zherdev is is a highly-touted winger from Russia who plays great 20 games out of the year. He has never scored more than 61 points in a season, and 58 represents his second best season ever.

For the record, I completely loved the deal when he came from Columbus. Fedor Tyutin was serviceable but never would live up to his potential. Christian Backman was a bum who I would've been happy if he was given away to a team. So you were saying we got rid of those 2 and got Dan Fritsche and Zherdev? Great.

However, he lost me down the stretch. No points in 7 playoff games, and he wants a raise? Get real. Maybe in non-Salary Cap world, but when better talent is available for cheaper or equal value, Zherdev is entirely expendable. Why waste almost $4M on him when you need someone to pass the puck to Marian Gaborik?

Sather is completely correct in walking away from this contract. Any other GM might be nuts to sign him for so much when he has shown so little. I mean, if Sather thought it was too high... after all, this is the man who thought a 31-year old Wade Redden was worthy of not only $6.5M/year, but a 6-year contract.

Update: 4:52 P.M.: Just my two cents on where I think Zherdev will land, if he does play in the NHL. I'd expect him to go to one of the 4 crappy Southern teams on a one-year deal: Atlanta, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, or Florida.

Playoff Bet Update, Third Round...

The $100 playoff bet that Bryan and I made is in full swing going into the Finals. I am ahead 10-8 with one round left.

To recap, you get a point for successfully picking the team who wins the series; another point if you guess it in the correct number of games; and another point if it is an upset win.

Since neither Pittsburgh or Detroit were underdogs, no "upset points" were given out. And since both me and Bryan had the same picks (Penguins and Blackhawks, both in 6), we received the same amount of points, obviously (one point).

He had 7 in round 1, 0 in round 2, and 1 in round 3. I had 6-3-1.

So, my pick for the Finals is Penguins in 6. In fact, in every single round this year, I have had "Penguins in 6" as my choice. I actually only picked Detroit to win once, in the 2nd round against Anaheim, although I knew they were going to beat Columbus in Round 1, but I wanted to get upset points if they lost.

Regardless, this should be a good series. Better than the 3rd round, no doubt, and even better than last year. Last year, the Penguins were good but definitely beatable - the Rangers could have beaten them, and since Montreal was out, there was no other strong team in the East.

That said, Game 5 of last year's series, the triple overtime game where Petr Sykora scored the game-winner, was one of the best, if not the best non-Rangers game I have ever seen.

I'm looking forward to this series. TiVo has been put on notice.

All Is Well On This Night

You could say tonight went pretty well for the New York hockey teams. But that doesn't even begin to describe it.

The Rangers didn't just win tonight. They got a piece of themselves back. Their win tonight, coupled with Florida's loss, gives the Rangers a two-point lead with two games left. In essence, all the Rangers need to do is win one more game. One more win gives the Rangers 93 points and 42 wins; while Florida can still get to 93 points, they cannot win more than 41 games. The Rangers also did themselves a tremendous favor by taking two points from Montreal, as they've given themselves at least a fighting chance of avoiding Boston in the first round.

As for the Islanders... well, it's hard to draw positives out of 9-0 losses. Really, it is. If you listen hard enough, you can almost hear the accusations of tanking from up in Toronto. That's what happens when you get outshot 57-12. It was so bad that Scott Gordon changed goalies; if my memory serves me correctly, the only other time he changed goalies mid-game was during the Black Friday debacle in Boston. In any event, zero points is zero points, and there are some who will be thrilled with this result. As for me, I'm a huge Ric Flair fan, so I was more than happy to hear this over and over again.

So, what do we make of tonight? The Islanders have virtually wrapped up the top seed in the Draft Lottery. Tampa Bay is out of the running. Colorado will certainly fall to San Jose tonight, but it doesn't really matter. Assuming an Avalanche loss tonight, they will have 66 points with three games left. They would have to lose every game in regulation and the Islanders would have to win all of their remaining games to miss out on 30th place. That's not going to happen. So rest easy, Islanders fans. As for the Rangers, their playoff picture is much clearer. Truth be told, if they're truly a playoff team, they should be able to beat Philadelphia in one of two games. At this point, they'd have to be considered the favorites to beat out Florida. The hope now is that the Rangers play well in their final two games not just to get into the playoffs, but to get on a roll so that they can enter the post-season with some momentum.

Having said all of that, we close this entry out by throwing our support behind the Phoenix Coyotes in their game against St. Louis tonight. As much as we love John Davidson and the work he's done in St. Louis, a regulation loss by the Blues clinches a playoff berth for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have never made the playoffs. The Blue Jackets fans deserve a shot to see their play in the post-season, and if they draw Calgary in the first round, anything is possible.

Nashville...

One of my favorite things in life - besides Americanized Mexican food, Internet pastimes not including this blog, and TV shows on DVD - is going to Ranger games outside of New York. I go to enough Ranger games at MSG (I have a half-season package) and I go to a few at the Coliseum every year (although this year I've only been to one, the January 13 2-1 win).

In 2006-07, I went to Boston. The Rangers killed them, 6-1, on a Monday night. Petr Prucha had 2 goals, and the Prucha-Jed Ortmeyer-Matt Cullen line all had 3 points. I also would have gone to both playoff games in Atlanta that year, but I owned a business at the time and couldn't just up and leave, although I was tempted to (and good seats were available in that hockey hotbed the day of both games).

In 2007-08, I planned a 3 in 4 Extravaganza. Three games, 4 nights. The Rangers were playing Wednesday in New Jersey, Thursday in Philadelphia, and Saturday in Pittsburgh. We ended up just going to the first 2, because Pittsburgh is 5 hours from Philadelphia and 7 from NY.

So me and 3 others went to the game in Jersey, which I believe was the 3rd at the Rock ever. Nice place, though it was unfinished then (I have since returned for a Metallica concert, and while the drinks are crazy expensive, it is a nice place... but $10 for a shot of Jameson is nuts). The Devils scored 35 seconds in, Nigel Dawes scored 50 seconds later, the crazy fans behind us shouted "Die, Scotty, Die!" the whole night, two of us moved to very nice seats to see Marc Staal score his first ever NHL goal, and the Rangers won 4-2.

Then, the next day, we went to Philadelphia. Prucha scored on a great shot to make it 3-2 in the 3rd, but the Flyers tied it and the Rangers won in a shootout on a Brendan Shanahan goal.

We didn't go to the Penguins game, but they won 4-3 in overtime on a Jason Strudwick goal. The weird thing about this game was that all 4 goals were by defensemen. Michal Rozsival scored 2 within 4 minutes (one shorthanded), Dan Girardi had one, and then Struds got the winner.

On Super Bowl Sunday, the day the Giants beat the Patriots, I was in Montreal for the NBC game - along with 35 other Ranger fans. The Habs were up 3-0, and then the Rangers scored 5 straight for the great win. I'm pretty sure you could hear the Ranger fans on TV that day. Ryan Hollweg got crushed by Alex Kovalev at one point, then boarded (of course) one of the Flying Kostitsyn Brothers (Sergei?) and got tossed from the game, and I think suspended.

Great city, that Montreal.

* * *

Point being, Thursday is a jumping off point for me. I haven't been to many games this season, for a few reasons. 1) The economy stinks, so if I'm supposed to work a day when I have a game, I sell the tickets to friends so I can work and make money. 2) The team has been mediocre, which I can watch, but for a while the team wasn't even likable, so I didn't want to spend the money (train, bar, food, tickets, etc.) to go.

Thursday, though, I'll be at the game, then I'll be at Sunday's game vs. Philly, then a game March 24th vs. Minnesota, and finally April 7 vs. Montreal.

Thursday's game is in Nashville, Tennessee, marking my 2nd foray into Music City, and first for a Predators game. We got very good seats, and I'm jazzed. Okay, to be honest, I'm not sure if the seats are good. It's a goofy system they have, with row A, then row AA somewhere. I think I'm in row CC, which is either 3rd row or like 14th row or something. Couldn't make sense of floor plans there, and I'm not an idiot either. Hockey hotbed, it is not.

Nashville is a great city though, and I'm very curious to how their fanbase is. I think they have a good core of fans, somewhere around 12,000 season subscribers, but they only sell a little over 13,000 tickets per game, so the city isn't rabid about the Predators. I do also hear people from Nashville calling the XM Home Ice channel (channel 204) once in a while.

They also have a good team who is hot. They've won 6th straight although they didn't get any help at the trade deadline.

Please answer the poll question on which jersey I should wear to the game.

If I'm lucky, I'll get to see Hugh Jessiman's first NHL game! (No, that's not true, he won't be there.)

* * *

By the way, 78 goals were scored in the NHL tonight! Not one of them was a shootout goal, either! The Islanders beat the Devils 7-3; Carolina won 9-3 over Tampa Bay; Columbus beat the Wings 8-2. Crazy night. There was also only one 1-goal game (LA over Minnesota, 4-3).

We Got Screwed!

The feel-good story of Wade Dubielewicz returning to the Islanders has come to a crashing halt. TSN reports that Dubie has been claimed off waivers by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Yes, the same Columbus Blue Jackets that have Steve Mason and his 1.81 GAA, not to mention Pascal Leclaire, who finished 7th in GAA last year.

When Zach texted me to pass along the bad news (he heard it on XM), I didn't believe it and I still don't believe it. Dubielewicz is a guy that 30 teams passed on last year and lost his starting job in the KHL, of all places. That he couldn't pass through waivers is a little surprising. Not that Dubie isn't a good goalie or anything, but most Islanders fans thought it was a sure thing. Not so. What's most surprising, though, is that the Blue Jackets claimed Dubie. They've had great goaltending for the past two seasons. Mason is a legit Vezina candidate, and Leclaire, coming off a breakout year, is due back at the end of the month. Does Columbus really need a third goalie? Are they attempting to trade Leclaire? Will they end up dumping Dubie once Leclaire returns? These are questions that will be answered over time. And it at least gives us hope that Dubie could become available in the future.

For now, though, Islanders fans have to be disappointed. In a season that has been an unmitigated disaster in every way, this was something to make the Islanders faithful happy. It just figures that even something as simple as bringing in a former backup goalie could get screwed up in a season such as this one.

Just a Thought...

This is just what I've been thinking for the past 24 hours. It's not something I read on a fake-rumor site or something I heard elsewhere, just me coming to a conclusion myself that I think would be interesting.

This week, Derrick Brassard, a rookie on Columbus who was having a great season, got injured in a fight and is out for the entire season. Now, I did hear that Columbus is going to be looking for a forward to replace him, because they think this might be the year that they actually make the playoffs.

My belief is that this forward might be a Ranger. Rangers GM Glen Sather doesn't vary his trading partners around a lot. Remember last season's trade deadline, when he made two moves? He traded with former Assistant GM Don Maloney, and former announcer John Davidson.

This year, he already traded with Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson. Maybe Sather has already put a call in to Howson letting him know which extra forwards are available.

The oft-scratched but entirely capable Petr Prucha would thrive in the midwest on a team that doesn't have a ton of veteran forwards to steal his ice time. Maybe Coach Ken Hitchcock would trust him enough to put him on the power play.

Or maybe it would be Dan Fritsche, a native Ohioan (first time I've ever used that word!), and former Blue Jacket himself who would love to get back in the lineup.

Just guessing here, but it would definitely make sense for Columbus to send a draft pick or two to New York to bolster their offense after the holiday roster freeze ends.