The NHL's Fantasy All-Star Draft

These two GMs don't agree on much!

As a Canucks' fan, my girlfriend Emily and I, as a Bruins' fan, don't agree on too many things when it comes to the hockey world.  She loves her "Sedin-ary" and I personally don't have a whole lot of interest in either one.  Then again, while I hail the likes of Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic as Boston's blue-collar, she views them more as just Boston's underbelly.

So, we've decided to put our hockey prowess to the test against one another and do our own fantasy draft among this year's NHL All-Stars, much like the draft that will be conducted Thursday night in Ottawa.  We'll draft from scratch, as opposed to having a captains already in place, and we'll follow similar rules from there.

In last year's draft, each team had three captains, all goalies had to be drafted by the 10th round and all defensemen by the 15th.  We've adjusted that, since we're going from scratch, to be the 13th round and 18th round (respectively).

We agreed that each player will get three points for a goal, two for an assist and three bonus points for being named the MVP.  Goalies will get a point for a save and lose three points for a goal against.  We also divvied up rookies at the end and they'll get a bonus point if they win their element of the skills competition.

Hockey 101: Bad Body Checking

Marchand knew what he was doing;
Salo did not.  Both caused a problem. (AP)

Before we get too far away from the incident, I wanted to discuss Brad Marchand's clip ("low-bridge," as it's known in layman's terms to the average hockey player) on Sami Salo.  The hit occurred late in the second period of the Vancouver at Boston game on January 7.  Salo was injured on the play and suffered a concussion; Marchand was given a five-minute major, game misconduct and, later, suspended for five games.

A Canucks' fan would tell you that the reason Salo got hurt was because Marchand's play was dirty.  As a Bruins' fan, I'd say touche.  I'm not going to stand up for Marchand's hit, as I played defense, like Salo, and this type of play bugged me.  It's a dirty move and one that should be taken out of the game.  (And, through the severity of the suspension, Senior VP of Player Safety, Brendan Shanahan is taking a stand against that type of play.)

However, I used to have a soccer coach that told me: "Nobody's useless, everyone can always be used as a bad example."  Sure, it's clear what Marchand did wrong, but, ironically, Marchand took a similar "clip" from the Canucks' Mason Raymond in last year's Stanley Cup final.  He got up, skated away and Raymond wasn't so much as assessed a penalty.

Fire Extinguishers

Bruins Blow Out Flames 9-0

It was a rough night to be
a Calgary goaltender. (AP)

NESN postgame host Dale Arnold summed it up simply: "There's only one way to describe this game: domination."  Listeners of the nationally popular Puck Podcast are familiar with the term "boatrace."  It's used to define a game in which one team races away from another by at least five goals.  In the future, perhaps the podcast can just use this game for its definition.

The Boston Bruins scored 1:14 into the game and left the Calgary Flames idling in their wake from that point on.  The B's scored multiple goals in each period, scored on the power play, scored on the short hand, fired 42 shots, won 37 of 53 faceoffs, oh, yeah, and they didn't give up a goal either.

"I was impressed with the way we came out tonight," said Boston Head Coach Claude Julien.  "That was key to let them know that even though we played last night, we were ready to play."

It'd take too long to describe every score in the 9-0 Boston rout, but the second one stands out as the ultimate tone setter.  Milan Lucic bounced a cross ice pass off the skate of Olli Jokinen and it careened through the air and into the goal past a stunned Leland Irving at 3:17.  Irving had given up only seven goals in three starts so far this season, but ended up yielding six in just 24:16 before he was finally relieved of his duties.

Bruins Light Up Devils

Bergeron paced Boston with two goals. (Getty)

After the disappointment of missing the playoffs last year, the New Jersey Devils have made a commitment to make it back to the postseason in 2012.  Unfortunately, the long time Eastern Conference powerhouse had to contend with one of its new powerhouses in the form of the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

The Devils entered the night with a 9-3-1 record in their last 13 games, a stretch that saw them claw into the playoff picture.  The Bruins, on the other hand, had seen their seven-game winning streak snapped on New Year's Eve and were hoping to recover in the last leg of a three-game road trip.

Boston didn't do itself any favors early.  After a spirited fight between the B's Shawn Thornton and NJ's Cam Janssen, the Bruins' Johnny Boychuk was whistled for accidentally firing the puck out of play in his  own end.  While Tim Thomas made some good saves on the ensuing power play, the Devils' David Clarkson broke through to finish a 2-on-1 with an upstairs snipe to open up the scoring at 4:24.