Hockey on HB-izzO

“NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2010 – HBO Sports’ groundbreaking “24/7” reality franchise, which has captured 12 Sports Emmy® Awards, will join forces with the National Hockey League to take viewers inside one of the NHL’s great rivalries, between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, for 24/7 PENGUINS/CAPITALS: ROAD TO THE NHL WINTER CLASSIC, an innovative four-episode, all-access reality series, it was announced today by Ross Greenburg, president, HBO Sports and John Collins, chief operating officer for the NHL”

You can read the rest here …..but none of that shit is important anyway.

Here’s what I’m hoping for on with this epic 4 series …

–         Shit is RAW.

I’m not trying to see players filtered down. Most of you probably watched, read about or heard about this year’s HBO series Hard Knocks with the New York Jets (or the million boxing 24/7’s). Now, do I care about the Jets? No. Did I like the show? Yes…. It was funny, raw, vulgar and uncut. The Jets caught fire for stupid shit like cussing, and being “wild” but it’s FOOTBALL. Like Football, Hockey is a violent, aggressive sport played by violent and aggressive men. Am I saying that hockey players are the same as football players? Not at all… but in both of these sports, there are super sized, grown ass men trying to take each other’s heads off…. Who gives a damn if they cuss, spit, fart, yell or slap a reporter in the face? They make their living putting orthodontist’s children through college. 

–         Ovie only gets minimal, off ice, air time.

Why?  Because it’s a curse.

–         Crosby gets ton of off ice, air time.

Why? Because it’s a curse

–         Hockey rating’s go up (higher).

Apparently, last year’s Stanley Cup ratings were the highest they’ve been in years which is awesome. I’ll give credit to an absolutely fantastic winter games….up until the shitastic ending.

  I don’t care about NFL guy* that hates hockey and soccer and I’m not trying to win that douche rocket over… but I do care about the fans (I’m guilty) from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s that lost their love for hockey. This is gonna be a huge boost for the NHL as long as it’s dramatic and exciting. If it’s good, it will re-ignite the flame and turn passive fans into Nasty Nate Jrs, and draw in new young and old fans in the process…even if they decide to become Pittsburgh fans (along with the Cowboys, Lakers, Redsox, Tarheels, and Florida Gaytors).

–         A win.

I’ll be there. Go CAPS

-T-rex

*I f’n love football.

Re: Max Talbot

Much has been said about Talbot’s comments about Alex Ovechkin in the last few days. Ovechkin said he read them and added “there is nothing to reply. A person can say all he wants. The ice will show everything.” – Puck Daddy

That pretty much sums it up. Christmas comes a little early this year folks. Only 153 more days.

– L.A.

ESPN Players Poll

Straight out of the “Tell us something we don’t know” file, Alex Ovechkin was named the best player in the NHL by 64% of players polled. That figure jumps up to 73% of players who picked either Crosby or Ovechkin, which should serve as a further reminder to Pittsburgh fans everywhere that Crosby can’t hold Ovechkin’s jock. Here are the results:

BEST PLAYER:
1. Alex Ovechkin, Washington: 64 percent
2. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh: 24 percent
T3. Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh; Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit: 4 percent
T5. Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit; Joe Thornton, San Jose: 2 percent

Other funny/interesting notes

-“Who has the hottest spouse?” which goes to Mike Fisher, who’s currently dating Carrie Underwood. Surprisingly, Sidney Crosby received some votes, due to his romantic link with Evgeni Malkin.*

-Bruce Boudreau was tied in 2nd place with Pittsburgh coach Dany Bylsma for smartest coach (with 16% a piece, behind Mike Babcock)

-The Verizon Center received 8% of the vote (T4th) for the “Worst Ice” honor. Give these guys some good ice (hopefully now that Ted Leonsis will own the Verizon Center), and you may see a boost in production.

-Chris Pronger checked in atop the “Dirtiest player” leaderboard with 22% Sean Avery coming in 2nd with 12% wasn’t a big surprise, but Ovechkin tying for 3rd “for his grabbing and hitting from behind” certainly elicited a “wtf?” reaction.

-Derek Boogard was voted as the best fighter in the league. Matt Bradley was inexplicably absent.

-Kerry Fraser was voted as the best referee, while Stephane Auger took home the “Worst Referee” title. An unnamed Eastern Conference center had this to say about Auger (aka Bert): “He’s terrible at everything. Nobody likes him.”

-The Capitals received only 14% of the vote when the players were asked “Who will win the Stanley Cup this year?” Behind Chicago (32%), Pittsburgh, and San Jose (both with 16%). The Penguins don’t have a win in 10 games against the Caps and Devils this year, but continue to be overrated by almost everybody, based on some “you have to beat the champions”, and “they just know how to win” fairy dust nonsense. They’ll be bounced in the 2nd round this year, bank on it.

*That may or may not have happened

-Nasty Nate

CAPS 7, Panthers 3

I’m going to apologize for the long layoff in between posts. Many locksmiths have been out “on business” or “away for the weekend,” whichever you prefer to believe. However, after a tiny break – we’re back, and on a night where your Washington Capitals completed the season sweep of the Florida Panthers (without the NHL’s best player). I love watching what this team can do without their number one star – everyone steps it up a notch and puts all other 29 teams on notice that we are very dangerous no matter who is on or off the ice. Overall, a very blue-collar victory where the entire team worked hard. What else did I observe tonight? Glad you asked…

• Shaone Morrisonn and Tyler Sloan, of all people, sent a message early with two huge hits in the opening minutes of the first stanza. We were there to not only to come away with the W, but send a message: we can win without Him.
• Jason Chimera’s goal was a hell of a play – just charging past the defense straight to the net as he’s rewarded by having a shot at the freakin’ ocean. A Knuble-esque effort there. As Nasty Nate says – “[Chimera’s]  my boy.”
• Brooks Laich had an outstanding game, stepping up in 8’s absence. “He was all over the place.” One helper, two goals, led the team with 8 shots on net. He was damn close to a hat-trick as well, except for Tomas Vokoun’s nutty save late in the 1st period.
• Speaking of Vokoun – I just kept thinking of this after the CAPS’ 5th goal tonight. In 4 games against the CAPS, Vokoun has lost on all occasions, giving up 17 goals (4 on the powerplay, and one of the shorthanded variety).
• And while we’re on the subject of goaltenders – Theo did a solid job in net tonight. Aside from the blast from Reinprecht where he had a clear view of the shot, I enjoyed what I saw from Mr. Theodore. After failing to get the puck out of our zone no one picked Kreps up on his rebound goal, and Florida’s third goal was also a result of a turnover deep in our defensive zone.
• Eric Fehr.
• Prettiest goal of the night, when nearly all seemed to come as a result of a rebound – Brendan Morrison. Vokoun’s effort to stop that dangle is summarized here.
• I enjoyed seeing Ovi up in the press box enjoying the game during the telecast. Reminded me that he is human after all. I just hope somebody got him some nachos and a Coke (no diet).
• Stick tap the penalty kill tonight at 100%.
• One final note I just heard – Barry Melrose on ESPN: “Let’s get the rest of the league playing like Alex Ovechkin.” He went on to say the roughness of the sport is what makes it great, and how he fears sissies will once be able to enter the game. Amen to that, friend.

– L.A.

The Legend-Ted Leonsis

I was fortunate enough to catch most of Lunch with a Legend today on ESPN 980’s the Sports Fix featuring Ted Leonsis.  The host, Kevin Sheehan, boldly came right at Mr. Leonsis and asked the important question “Will the Capitals win the Stanley Cup this year?”  Mr. Leonsis responded with the politically correct answer “I hope”.  He continued to say that he respects the process of the season and Stanley Cup playoffs and believes that he and GMGM have put together a team that can compete now and for years to come. Later in the interview he showed a little more fire in stating “We want to win NOW!” and referenced the trade deadline additions as proof of that.

Also mentioned during the trade deadline additions was the Capitals plan.  That plan being; to keep the core of young players on the team while continuing to develop prospects in Hershey and making key additions of role players in the offseason and throughout the season.  The deadline proved this by obtaining what was needed for the stretch run while only giving up Brian Pothier from the roster, prospect Oskar Osala and a few minor draft picks.  Mr. Leonsis also spoke about John Carlson, a topic Nasty Nate covered on March 8th.  He seemed real pleased, as I think many are, with Carlson’s play and would’nt be surprised to see him have significant ice time in the playoffs.

The 2010 Olympics were discussed as well as the controversy over the 2014 Olympics in Russia.  FYI Ted’s rooting order was for the US to win Gold and if they could’nt then for Russia to take it.  Mr. Leonsis greatest pleasure seemed to be that all of his players made it home without any injuries.  The negative aspect he spoke of was the total amount of time players were “absent” from the team.  He estimated the absence totaling a month; whether it was the mental break players took  prior to the Olympics, the 16 days they were gone, or the rust once they came back.

As for 2014, Mr. Leonsis seemed hesitant as to whether NHL players would be going back.  He spoke of the above mentioned month affect it has on the NHL season and the amount of guranteed contract money (estimated $150 million for the Capitals) being sent to Vancouver this year.  As we all know, the Olympics in Russia mean a lot to Ovechkin and he has stated that no one will keep him from playing in them.  Ted Leonsis has spoken with Ovie about this and quoted Ovie as saying “They would stop wars for these games, I think we can take off 15 days.”  He continued to say that he has Ovechkin’s back and that the NHL is a players league and if they want to go, we will do it.  I could’nt agree more with this and I hope NHL players are allowed to go and provide us with the best hockey out there.

Another thing discussed was Ted Leonsis’ book The Business of Happiness, which is currently the number 4 bestseller according to the Washington Post.  I was in and out during this discussion but basically the theme seemed to be that you should be happy and success will follow rather than being successful, making a ton of money, and then expecting happiness.  Sounds like a logical concept to me.  Overall it was a great 2 hour interview and I wish I could have heard the entire thing without constant interruption from co-workers.

-Smash