The Boston Bruins vs. the Salary Cap

The Boston Bruins vs. the Salary Cap 

Earlier on in the season, a scant six months ago or the day Henrik Lundqvist got his ass paid, I wrote about the potential struggle the New York Rangers management may face in the off season with pending free agents that need re-signing, and space becoming limited as a small amount of players would take over half the cap space. Then, a few days later, Rogers Communications made their monster $5bn deal for exclusive English language NHL game broadcasts in Canada to be shown on their SportsNet network. Making my whole New York Rangers vs. the Salary Cap post utterly and completely irrelevant. Thanks, Rogers. Thanks, Bettman.

PODCAST - December 17th Edition

Between The Pipes - December 17th Edition

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First of all we'd like to apologise if any of our technical difficulties effect the quality of this weeks podcast.

In this edition Nick, Ross and Junaid go over the weeks headlines, including Shawn Thornton appealing his suspension, Stamkos skating a month after breaking his leg. We also give our picks for goals and saves of the week, and make our prediction league picks for this week. In "Four Teams" we talk about Boston, LA & Tampa Bay.

Saves of the week

Nick's pick - Josh Harding - Minnesota Wild vs Anaheim Ducks



Ross' pick - Kevin Poulin - New York Islanders vs Phoenix Coyotes



Junaid's pick - Martin Jones - Los Angeles Kings vs Montreal Canadiens



Goals of the week

Nick's pick - Matt Duchene - Colorado Avalanche vs Winnipeg Jets



Ross' pick - Benoit Pouliot (shootout goal) - New York Rangers vs Calgary Flames



Junaid's pick - Alex Ovechkin - Washington Capitals vs Philadelphia Flyers



Prediction League

TABLE

Nick - 14/18
Ross - 12/18
Junaid - 7/18

This weeks games/picks:
Nashville @ Tampa Bay
San Jose @ Los Angeles
NY Islanders @ NY Rangers
Detroit @ Toronto
Washington @ Carolina
Winnipeg @ Edmonton


Nick: NSH, LA, NYR, TOR, WSH, EDM
Ross: TB, LA, NYR, TOR, WSH, EDM
Junaid: TB, SJ, NYR, TOR, WSH, WPG



NEXT WEEK....... We are ACTUALLY doing our NHL themed 12 Days of Christmas. After neglecting it last week and our technical difficulties this week.



Email us any questions you'd like us to answer at betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.com and we will answer them during recording. Also you can direct anything our way on twitter, @NickVarney90, @j_hussain & @MasonCooper4.

Podcast - December 10th Edition

Podcast - December 10th Edition

Between The Pipes - December 10th Edition

LISTEN HERE


Or subscribe on iTunes!!!

In this edition Nick, Ross and Junaid go over the weeks headlines, including the Orpik/Neal/Thornton incidents in Boston and the salary cap projections from the Board of Governors meetings. We also give our picks for goals and saves of the week, and make our prediction league picks for this week. In "Four Teams" we talk about Carolina, Minnesota, NY Islanders and Vancouver. Ross gives us his "Things that happened since the Red Wings last missed the playoffs" stat.

Saves of the week

Note: Junaid's pick wasn't on NHL.com or youtube. Another save from the same goalie and same game has been put in it's place.

Nick's pick - Jonas Gustavsson - Detroit Red Wings vs New Jersey Devils



Ross' pick - Craig Anderson - Ottawa Senators vs Philadelphia Flyers



Junaid's pick - James Reimer - Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ottawa Senators



Goals of the week

Nick's pick - James Neal - Pittsburgh Penguins vs Boston Bruins



Ross' pick - Rick Nash - New York Rangers vs Buffalo Sabres



Junaid's pick - Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders



Prediction League

TABLE

Nick - 10/18
Ross - 10/18
Junaid - 5/18

This weeks games/picks:

Tampa Bay @ Washington
Columbus @ NY Rangers
Minnesota @ San Jose
Pittsburgh @ Detroit
Boston @ Vancouver
Los Angeles @ Chicago

Nick: WSH, NYR, SJ, PIT, BOS, CHI
Ross: TB, NYR, SJ, DET, VAN, LA
Junaid: WSH, NYR, SJ, DET, BOS, LA



THINGS THAT HAPPENED SINCE DETROIT LAST MISSED THE PLAYOFFS
by Ross Chaplin

The 1st Gulf War didn't start until after the last time Detroit missed the playoffs.


NEXT WEEK....... We are ACTUALLY doing our NHL themed 12 Days of Christmas. Email or tweet us any suggestions. Our email address and twitter handles are below.

Email us any questions you'd like us to answer at betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.com and we will answer them during recording. Also you can direct anything our way on twitter, @NickVarney90, @j_hussain & @MasonCooper4.

Bruins vs. Penguins: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Last night in Boston, two of the Eastern conference's elite went head to head, in what was as usual a feisty affair between the Pens and B's.

The game, unfortunately, was marred by a few nasty moments. Moments the majority of hockey fans felt sick watching. I'm talking about James Neal putting his knee into the head of Brad Marchand, and the Shawn Thornton "assault" on Brooks Orpik.

Let's set the scene. First we have what I believe was the incident that got Thornton's back up. At the twelve second mark of the 1st period Orpik lays a clean hit on Loui Eriksson, clean in the sense it was a shoulder to the chest. The only questionable part of the hit is, was Eriksson able to make a play on the puck before he was hit? It looks like he didn't, and judging on the speed and direction of the puck it could be called as interference on Orpik as at no point does Eriksson control the puck. The last player in possession prior to the hit was Patrice Bergeron. Now, Eriksson missed a lot of time this season with a concussion. On this hit he ended up hitting the ice with his head, struggled to get to the bench, and has another concussion (according to several reports). So, about five minutes later when Thornton, the Bruins enforcer, is on the ice at the same time as Orpik, he decides that Orpik should be held accountable and should not get away. He tries to engage in a fight and Orpik flat out refuses. Leading to a 2-minute roughing penalty on Thornton.

Next we move to later on, still in the 1st period, around five minutes after the roughing penalty, Thornton is coming off the bench for a line change when Pittsburgh winger James Neal skates through a prone Brad Marchand. Kneeing him in the head and shakes him up. He then proceeds to get to the bench to escape any Bruin retribution. The play is whistled for a penalty on Neal. Thornton, who didn't see the play, turns around and sees a teammate stricken. He then sees Orpik and another opportunity to make him pay for what he did to Eriksson. He slewfoots Orpik, who is already engaged with Gregory Campbell, then throws a couple punches in Orpik's face. Soft punches, but enough to knock Orpik out for a couple of seconds.

This is the video on NHL.com. It focuses more on the Thornton/Orpik incident but you see Neal knee Marchand at the start.

One common opinion I've seen brandished around about Thornton is that what he did was predetermined. Now, hold on a second. Isn't what Neal did worse than Thornton? The Bruins pay Thornton and expect the enforcer aspect of his game when it is needed. Neal's knee on Marchand was completely unprovoked, aside from the usual chirping that goes on in a hockey game. He skates in a straight line fom the "X" of the Xfinity sponsor board, makes no attempt to avoid contact, and runs away like a pussy.

 

I'm not condoning what Thornton did. It's a common part of hockey. Team mate gets hit. The enforcer wants to punish the hitter. In my opinion, Orpik was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The first incident with the roughing penalty should've been the end of it. The worst part about what Neal did is that he makes his getaway rather quickly. Well, I would too considering Zdeno Chara was on the ice behind Neal and most likely saw the whole thing.

 

Eriksson picked up a concussion. Marchand's status isn't known yet. Orpik was released from hospital and flew home on the Penguins team plane.

 

Thornton now has an in person with the NHL Department of Player Safety. Neal will just have a phone hearing.

 

The way I see it both incidents are as bad as each other. The only difference is the appearance of the stretcher. The fabled stretcher, making hockey injuries look worse than they are since the dawn of time.


You can email your opinion to betweenthepipespodcast@hotmail.co.uk and you can also tweet me @NickVarney90

Stars - best of Friday 29th November

Stars is our daily look at the previous night's action in the NHL and who stood out amongst the rest.

FIRST STAR

 

Brent Burns - SAN JOSE SHARKS vs St Louis Blues

Burns picked up his first career NHL hat trick in the 6-3 win over the Blues. He also picked up an assist on Tomas Hertl's late empty netter.




SECOND STAR

 

Braden Holtby - WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs Montreal Canadiens

Holtby had a surprise start at the Verizon Center when Michal Neuvirth hurt himself pre-game. He saved 35 shots in the 3-2 shootout win.




THIRD STAR

Darren Helm - DETROIT RED WINGS vs New York Islanders

Darren scored the opening two goals in the 5-0 demolition of the New York Islanders. Ending the Wings losing streak against the Isles.



Honourable Mentions

Mikhail Grabovski had a goal, an assist and the shootout winner in the Caps-Habs game.......



Tomas Plekanec also had a goal and an assist but his miss in the shootout gave the winner point to the Caps......



The man mountain that is Zdeno Chara got himself a Gordie Howe hat trick. He fought with Brian Boyle, assisted on Brad Marchand's goal, and then scored the game winner in the Bruins 3-2 win against the New York Rangers......

 

Rick Nash also scored in that game. It was easy on the eye......

The Night Ahead - Wednesday 27th November 2013

In "The Night Ahead" we take a look at a selection (well, five) of the upcoming games for the evening (early hours here in the UK) and add a preview and opinion on the match ups.

Twice this week we have had a night of very little games to a night of many many games.

BOSTON BRUINS @ DETROIT RED WINGS

Detroit have won two of the last three, after losing seven in a row, giving them eight losses in ten. Boston have won eight of their last ten. But, Detroit only find themselves as the Atlantic's 4th seed, only 5 points behind the division leading Bruins.

Carl Soderberg, Reilly Smith and Torey Krug continued their great form, I mentioned here, on Monday night in the B's 4-3 OT win over the Penguins.

The usual guys are doing it for Detroit right now, Nyquist, Zetterberg, Franzen, and the magic man, Pavel Datsyuk have all been picking up goals and assists. But there seems to be something missing.

The Bruins are my pick.


TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS @ PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Toronto have navigated a difficult November admirably despite being with Bozak, Bolland and Kadri out for periods. Although with all two of the three in the team they got thumped 6-0 at home to Columbus on Monday.

After dismantling Anaheim and Washington before narrowly dispatching the Islanders, the Penguins have lost two in a row against Montreal and Boston.

Both teams have issues at the moment and I'm picking Pittsburgh.


ST LOUIS BLUES @ COLORADO AVALANCHE

Two of the best go head to head. Alex Steen, David Backes, T.J. Oshie and Alex Pietrangelo go against Matt Duchene, Paul Stastny, Gabriel Landeskog and Nate MacKinnon.

The Blues are on a four game winning run, 8-1-1 in the last ten. Colorado are 6-4-0, on a three game win streak.

I've got the Blues.


PHOENIX COYOTES @ MINNESOTA WILD

Phoenix are enjoying life under new ownership, and steady management leads to steady performances on the ice. Currently 14-6-4 on the year and 5-3-2 in the last ten. It's not surprising that the foundation for this form starts with Mike Smith in net and impressive defenseman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The scoring leaders for the team are Vrbata, Doan, Hanzal and Ribeiro. 

The Wild are very quietly going about their business recently. Whilst other teams in the West get all the headlines, Minnesota have found themselves in a lower seeding position but have pulled away from the teams behind them. Josh Harding has a .939 SV%, and Parise, Koivu and Pominville lead the way offensively. The Wild young players have emerged as great talents too. The quartet of Brodin, Coyle, Granlund and Niederreiter accounting for 40 points.

I'm taking Minnesota.


LOS ANGELES KINGS @ SAN JOSE SHARKS

LA come into this game having won five of the last seven. The only defeats coming in OT to Colorado and New Jersey. The injury to Jonathan Quick hasn't been the hinderance many thought it would be. Ben Scrivens has stepped in and has a .947 SV% in 12 games.

San Jose aren't doing too shabby either. They've won six of the last seven. The defeat coming at the hands of Chicago with a score of 5-1. Along with the big names, players like Vlasic, Wingels and Demers have really impressed me. Combining for 10 goals and 27 assists.

I like San Jose in this game.


Tonight's picks: Boston, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Minnesota, San Jose.