Let's Get Down To The Nitty Gritty
by Deb Beckers

You don't have enough talent to win on talent alone. ~ Herb Brooks


2006 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductions

Builders

Harley Hotchkiss – An Officer of the Order of Canada he was an owner of the Calgary Flames before, during and after their Stanley Cup win in 1989. He brought the Flames to Calgary from Atlanta. THAT’s how I know that Bettman doesn’t get at HHOF vote.

Herb Brooks – Otherwise known as the person who helped ignite hockey fever in the USA. It was pretty much promptly extinguished, notwithstanding the Disneyfication of the 1980 Olympic Hockey gold metal team. The native Minnesotan was a tough coach (at every level he coached at) and was respected across the league. His induction is posthumous (single car accident in Aug 2003).

Players

dickduff.jpgDick Duff – A hockey prodigy from Kirkland Lake Ontario, landing a full time slot with the Toronto Maple Leaf when he was 19 (1955). He was part of the team rebuilding and was integral to the Leafs 1962 Stanley Cup win (over Chicago). He was traded to the Rangers and then to the Canadiens where he was part of four more Stanley Cup Champion teams.

Patrick Roy – First off *I* thought he was still playing, but he retired in 2003. It’s a testament to his contributions as a goalie to the game of hockey that he not only be considered in his first eligible year, but that he’d be chosen as an inductee. Love him or hate him there is no denying that he was the first of his breed of brash, trash talkin’, goal stoppin’ puck targets that Québec has become famous for.

Congratulations to all of this year's inductees.


You're playing worse every day and right now you're playing like the middle of next week
~ Herb Brooks (1980 USA Olympic Team Coach and 2006 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee)


So let’s get down to the nitty gritty...

The week that was...

Damn Ducks at Calgary (Fri)
Spanking the Ducks at 3-0. It was a beautiful sight, brought a tear to my eye... Kiprusoff is getting hot in goal and the ones you look to to score are actually scoring (It’s amazing what happens if you actually shoot AT the net – Bruins take note.

buffalo.jpgFlorida at Buffalo (Fri), Buffalo at Philly (Sat)
Buffalo beat Florida in OT on a lucky shot that the goalie didn’t even see. They played like crap for two and a half periods and THEN started to wake up. On Saturday they won in OT again, against PHILLY. AGAINST FEKKING PHILLY.

It’s starting to happen folks. They are getting cocky and lazy. If they don’t smarten the FEK up they are going to end up in the basement, with the Flyers and Coyotes.

Ottawa at Pittsburg (Fri) , Ottawa at Boston (Sat)
Sure Ottawa has had a slow start, but they’ve made some line changes, sent down a goalie and are really really trying. Surely Santa will bring them a win? Maybe before Christmas? Maybe Santa will bring Hossa back, you know Moo? The #1 points leader in the league? The one you traded away...

Thank Santa or whoever for Friday’s beating of the Pens (6-3). Heatly is starting to step up and lead the team. I just wish that Alfie (captain) would get his act together and LEAD. His skating skill and speed seem to be a bit off lately.

I had such high hopes for the Boston game, but they lost. Ottawa that is (4-3). They scored early in the third but Bergeron’s late goal sealed their fate. Boston looked good in this game, their passes were actually connecting (with the right players) and their goaltending was solid. See HOPE!

Montréal at Toronto (Sat)
YAWN. 5-1 Toronto. Their best start in quite a while. Notice though how they seem to play a hell of a lot better without their injured captain on the ice? I’ll admit that I was worried when Raycroft (goalie) pulled his groin in a bad way (I offered to help him ice it, but calls to Maple Leaf headquarters go unanswered). But the back-up has been doing just fine thank you.

I hate to say it but the Leafs might just be fun to watch (for awhile, until they fek everything up).

wild.jpg Minnesota at LA (Sat), Minnesota at Phoenix (Tues)
Coming off a 3-1 loss to the Sharks the Wild bounced back with a win (3-2) against the very hard to defeat LA Kings. *snort* What an awful game, on BOTH sides. I can’t even describe the horror of all the fekked up plays and missed opportunities. I expected more from Minnesota.

And then... Had a respectable loss against the Damn Ducks (3-2). They almost rallied in the third. It was an exciting game to watch.

And then... Gave up a TWO GOAL lead and get beaten (4-3) by the Coyotes, a team that is currently helping Philly furnish the basement (I’m guessing they’re a top). They also lost two key players to injury, D Carney to a concussion and enforcer Boogaard (which, by the way is the most awesome name ever) who hurt himself (with help from Phoenix’s Laraque) when he fell down and went boom.

Kinda like this entire five game road trip.

Ottawa at Buffalo (Wed)
4-2 for Ottawa. What did I tell you?!?!?!? Some, (okay me) would tell you that the Sens are due, that they’ve been working hard and they were due. Whatever. That may be true but Buffalo is not stepping up their game. NEWS FLASH – Hey Buffalo! The other teams have figured you out, you may want to start switching it up a bit, try playing HOCKEY instead of what ever the hell you were trying to play. You are no longer the big cat toying with the wee mousies, you’re going to actually have to show up and play.


This Weekend’s Games... (the ones I’m going to watch)

Friday

Ottawa at New Jersey
Ottawa is running hot and cold as are the Devils. They’re pretty evenly matched skills wise, but with their surprise win over Buffalo last week I’ll have to give the advantage to Ottawa.

penguins02.jpgPittsburg at Buffalo
If I didn’t have Jr. A (GO COUGARS) hockey tonight I’d BE at this game. Just to see if I’m missing something about The Golden Child (Crosby) that doesn’t show up on TV, like an aura.

Buffalo have been Slackey McSlackertons lately, so I’m going to pick Pittsburg – just because no one else will do it willingly.

Detroit at Calgary
I know I should root for the Canadian team, but I love Detroit. Even though they traded my Shanny to the Rangers (where he’s doing VERY well). Detroit has been doing really well thus far (although they really haven’t been the standouts they could be). Calgary is off to a VERY slow start, but is starting to gain some momentum. Slight advantage: Detroit.

Saturday

Phoenix at LA - How bad is THIS game gonna be? I’m taping it so that I can enjoy the badness anytime I want. I’m not even going to choose a winner because with a game like this? Everyone wins but the players.

New Jersey at Toronto - Toronto. Damn it. Toronto. What a season so far and Mats is not going to be in the lineup so I’m going to HAVE to pick Toronto. I don’t like the Devils anyway.

Buffalo at Ottawa - OOOOOOOOOOOOOH, Rematch! This one could get nasty (or as nasty as the beige Senators can get without Chara)

flyersmiss.jpgPhilly at San Jose – The Sharks will take this, no doubt in my mind. The real question though is whether or not Forsberg will have another meltdown.

Sunday

It’s Grey Cup 2006!!!! The BC Lions vs. the Montréal Alouettes. In Winterpeg!


Canadian Football babies. I’m mostly just ecstatic that Toronto (Argonauts) didn’t make it to the cup. But Go MONTRÉAL GO!!!!!


For the record, CANADIAN FOOTBALL KICKS AMERICAN FOOTBALL ARSE. In my “humble” opinion. We play a three down game (quicker game), larger playing field, an extra player, no fair catch rule; we can move (offensive backfield players, except the QB) in any direction as long as it’s behind the line of scrimmage and many more. To me it’s just more fun to watch. Oh yeah, and OUR BALLS ARE BIGGER.

And also – there are some hockey games that I don’t care about.


Deb is currently undefeated, she’s not sure who the challenger is, but she assures us she is undefeated.


Archives

Comments

Good to see Roy get in. I hated him when he was on the Habs but I switched to liking him when he was on the Avs with Ray Bourque.

The B's won again last night! WOW!

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one day the world will agree how to say "Roy"

is it like:

"Wah"
"Ruah"

or "Roy" said like it is spelt.

And for the record, I still think the Mighty Ducks have a cool name

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Roooooooooooooah

Stop making fun of me for saying it RIGHT.

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weirdo

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Rwah.

Like you're giving him a kiss. LOL.

Don't get me started about the fekking ducks. I mean it.

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but they are so cute!

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I've always pronounced Roy the way it's spelled, just to be aggrivating.

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i do the same thing, ernie. specially when i'm on the east coast or canada.

they seem to get annoyed when you ask them who "ruah" is and you say, "oh. you mean roy, right?"

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My boss (at a past job) was from Texas. I had to sit down with him (before a meeting with our Montreal office) and phonetically go through any french names.

He could never get over the "BUT WHY is it pronounced like that?" and "HOW IN THE HELL do you get that from that."

My favourites were Gauthier (gouch-eh) and Cote (Coat-eh). He NEVER got them right...

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see dude. If he wore a ten gallon hat in the montreal office, I'll bet he could say anything he wanted.

Canadians fear cowboy hats like they do Wilford Brimley.

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Your so called "Brimley" doesn't scare me.

We have "grapes" who also pronounces it WRONG.

Fear the plaid.

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Don Cherry does NOTHING wrong.

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we have slim goodbody

not sure how he says it

or if we even want him for that matter

but we have him none the less

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WTF does Slim Goodbody have to do with hockey? Why did you post that?

I just want you to know that every time I see a pic of him, my libido drops to zero for about three days.

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WTF does Slim Goodbody have to do with hockey?

someone, obviously, has a little history of hockey to be a-learning

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I see your Slim Goodbody *shudder* (WHY?!?!?!) and I raise you Bill Shatner

Bill Trumps EVERYTHING.

Undefeated.

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Michele - It's true Grapes can do no wrong. Also he's a really nice guy. Mostly.

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Nothing to do with hockey, but his word was gospel. And I have it on good authority he said

ROOOOOOOOOOAH.

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I've actually stopped watching so much hockey since the new "Kiss and Make Up" rule was put in place

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Happy Trees! Does it make me less cool or more cool if I own him on DVD? Oh Bob, how you are missed...

Turtle - THAT is my favourite hickey hockey picture EVER. *sigh* oh the slash fic that is going through my head right now...

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Speaking of having nothing to do with hockey:

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See how I managed to keep on topic there?

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I know nothing about hockey, I mean nothing. But I do know:

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