The J.T. Stally Blog

The NHL's Fantasy All-Star Draft

2012-01-24T11:40:00.001-05:00

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.

With this point system in mind, remember that we're drafting based on the production we expect to see in the All Star Game, not necessarily based solely on best player. Since Vancouver drafted before Boston in this past summer's draft, Emily got first pick.

(Sorry for the hack-job formatting, but Blogger doesn't have a table feature and tabbing doesn't work either.)

Bold denotes a goalie.
Italic denotes a defenseman.

Round - Emily - - Jonathan

1 - Steven Stamkos - - Jonathan Toews*
2 - Claude Giroux - - Evgeni Malkin
3 - Henrik Sedin - - Pavel Datsyuk
4 - Shea Weber - - Logan Couture
5 - Corey Perry - - Henrik Lundqvist
6 - Jonathan Quick - - Zdeno Chara
7 - Alex Edler - - Marian Gaborik
8 - Patrick Kane - - Tyler Seguin
9 - Brian Elliott - - Alex Ovechkin*
10 - Dustin Byfuglien* - - Keith Yandle
11 - Jimmy Howard - - Brian Campbell
12 - Ryan Suter - - Tim Thomas
13 - Marian Hossa - - Carey Price
14 - Dan Girardi - - Daniel Sedin
15 - John Tavares - - Erik Karlsson
16 - Dion Phaneuf - - Jamie Benn
17 - Jarome Iginla - - Kimmo Timonen
18 - Daniel Alfredsson - - Dennis Wideman
19 - Phil Kessel - - Jason Spezza
20 - Joffrey Lupul - - Jason Pominville
21 - Mikko Koivu* - - Milan Michalek

Rookies

Cody Hodgson - - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins*
Sean Couturier - - Gabriel Landeskog
Adam Larsson* - - Craig Smith
Ryan Johansen - - Colin Greening
Matt Read - - Adam Henrique*
Luke Adam - - Justin Faulk

* Injury Replacements (after draft)
Toews will be replaced by Scott Hartnell.
Ovechkin will be replaced by James Neal.
Byfuglien will be replaced by Kris Letang.
Koivu will be replaced by Jordan Eberle.
Nugent-Hopkins will be replaced by (Dartmouth's own) Nick Johnson.
Larsson will be replaced by Raphael Diaz.
Henrique will be replaced by Carl Hagelin.

Whose team do you think will win the competition?

Hockey 101: Bad Body Checking

2012-01-19T23:31:00.000-05:00

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.

So, let's use Salo as a bad example. He tends to go on injured reserve with the regularity of a pastor going to church, and he should hold some accountability for his involvement. Yes, Marchand's move was what ultimately caused the injury, but Salo put himself in a compromising position by taking a poor approach to the body check. His technique, or lack thereof, provides a slew of "do not's" for a coach looking to teach body checking to aspiring young hockey players.

(The best replay is the slow motion, low angle at 2:10.)

The first and biggest mistake Sami Salo makes is that he sacrifices his body's balance by transferring all his weight off his skates and to his upper-body and straightening his legs. As most players tend to do, he goes in looking for a shoulder-to-shoulder hit. However, instead of keeping his body in a compact and crouched position, like a snake, he's already extended his body before impact, and thus couldn't adjust to any changes.

Look again at the Raymond hit on Marchand. Sure, Brad is a smaller player than Sami, but he also still has his legs bent and thus has his weight evenly distributed upon impact. Salo gave up control of his body long before the hit, so it's not a big surprise that he toppled over in such an ugly heap when Marchand crouched.

The second problem, which goes hand-in-hand with the first, is that Salo aims his check at the point of contact. He's not known as much a big hitter and that's apparent by this approach. My college hockey coach once told me that I aimed my hits at the point of contact and that I instead needed to aim it two feet past the player I was trying to hit. Again, this goes back to the first explanation that Salo still should have been crouched, looking to explode on the hit, and not already strung out at the time he made contact with Marchand.

Lastly, Salo goes backside first over the Bruins' player. Which leads to the question, how did he get his backside pointing at Marchand in the first place? Well, shortly before contact he turns his body to the side. Hitting in hockey and football are quite similar in that you need to face the person you're hitting and lead with your shoulder to make the best and cleanest impact.

Salo had nothing to gain by turning to the side. The worst case scenario for him is what happened in that he no longer can see the hit and thus can't account for any changes. Had Salo remained facing Marchand, his knee cap likely would have stuck into the bend of Marchand's torso and he wouldn't have fallen like he did.

Even if Marchand hadn't clipped him, there's nothing to be accomplished. Because the aggressor is no longer looking at the impact, hits from the side tend to cause the most injuries and most of the game's dirty elbows tend to happen when a player turns his body and engages another from the side. In fact, the only ugly elbow I can think of that occurred straight on was Kyle McLaren's vicious hit on Richard Zednik in the 2002 playoffs (and it takes a noticeable lack of brain cells to play hockey like McLaren did).

All in all, the lesson to teach to the kids on body checking:
-maintain control of your body by keeping your knees bent until contact is made
-always stay facing your target and drive your shoulder into his mid-section to deliver a strong and clean check
-upon impact, release your body like a spring and focus on aiming your trajectory through the hit, not at the point of initial contact

Lastly, of course, since he still looks like a youngster, Marchand should now be able to share with the class:
-don't low-bridge and/or turtle on an aggressor (or "clip," for the technical guru likes exotic and/or football terms)
-like the aggressor, if you sense that an impact is coming, you should keep your knees bent, your shoulders level and explode into the aggressor's body on impact to negate his momentum

Fire Extinguishers

2012-01-05T22:49:00.005-05:00

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.

After scoring three goals in the first 8:49 of the game, the Bruins came out strong in the second to make sure the game was out of reach. They scored goals at 1:19, 2:06 and 4:15 to bring on the goalie change for a Calgary team that had hoped to give usual starter Miikka Kiprusoff the night off.

However, with the Vancouver Canucks coming up on Saturday, Boston knew it couldn't slow down and create any bad habits. Even with a 7-0 lead, the B's came out in the third looking to finish it off strong. Patrice Bergeron stuffed one on Kiprusoff at 5:49 and Daniel Paille popped in a shorthanded breakaway at 8:43 to close out the scoring.

"We did the little things well tonight," Paille said after the win. "By the end of the game, it didn't seem like they were battling as hard and we were capitalizing on our chances."

"We've been stressing all season long to play 60 minutes," Julien said of his team's tenacity. "We went out there strong in the third period, and I like our team's killer instinct."

On the other side of the ice, goalie Tuukka Rask continued to make a case for being the league's top goalie, even though he's not even regarded as his team's top goalie. Rask posted his third shutout in four starts (and he gave up just one goal in the fourth game). Rask and Tim Thomas have combined to backstop the league's stingiest defense, while the explosive offense tops the league in scoring. The gaudy +69 goal differential means that there isn't a single active player on the Bruins' roster with a negative plus/minus.

Boston won't be able to savor the victory for long, however. Last year, Vancouver put up similarly dominant statistics and the 'Nucks have gotten back to playing their game by going 19-6-2 since Nov. 6. The game will be the rematch from last year's Stanley Cup final and is also shaping up to be a battle between two of the league's best teams.

"Obviously, it'll be an exciting game," said Paille. "It'll be nice and energized. Both teams have something to prove from last season."

The coach saw it a little differently. "A lot of people are seeing it as a big rematch," said Julien. "At the end of the day, we won the Cup and are the champs, but we don't need to go in there with anything more than understanding it was a rivalry in the Cup Finals. It'll be a great game."

The puck drops at 1 p.m. (ET) at the TD Garden in what has become one of the most highly anticipated games of the season. Despite it's phenomenal play, Boston's 53 points still puts the team one behind the red hot Rangers, while Vancouver's similar 53 points top the Western Conference (also by a single point).

Bruins Light Up Devils

2012-01-04T22:41:00.001-05:00

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.

But, true to the weather in Newark, New Jersey cooled off quickly after that. Boston's Andrew Ference got open and fired a shot off the skate of teammate Gregory Campbell (who received credit for the goal) to tie the game at 8:15. The Devils' Henrik Tallinder was whistled for the same delay of game penalty as Boychuk, and, in similar fashion, the Bruins capitalized for a 2-1 lead. David Krejci found Nathan Horton on the far side of the net and Horton clanked it off the post and in from close range to put the Bruins up at 13:17.

Assistant captain Patrice Bergeron extended the lead to 3-1 at 4:02 of the second period when he scored on a clean breakaway. The goal came just six seconds after a Bruins' penalty expired, on which Daniel Paille nearly countered the New Jersey PP for a goal. While Bergeron's goal didn't add to the total, the Devils have given up a horrific 12 shorthanded goals this season (the next closest to that in the NHL is a mere five) and put up another poor showing in that area.

The third period sent fans heading out to beat Jersey Turnpike traffic, as the Bruins opened up the game with goals from Bergeron, Krejci and Thornton to walk away with a 6-1 laugher. New Jersey's Martin Brodeur might be the greatest goalie of all-time, but he's clearly in the twilight of his career. At the age of 39, he's well on his way to the worst statistical season of his career and giving up six goals on 27 shots against Boston didn't do anything to curb that.

Across the way, however, it was a good bounce back night for Thomas, who gave up a season-high four goals in Dallas on Dec. 31. The whole Bruins team seemed focused to getting back on track after the loss and controlled the game by dominating faceoffs won to the tune of 30-12. In all phases of the game, it's clear that Boston has firmly overtaken New Jersey in terms of Eastern Conference stature.

"We wanted to get refocused," said assistant captain Chris Kelly. "Obviously, the game in Dallas wasn't our best, so we were trying to rebound from that [and did]."

The Bruins won't have much time to relish the lopsided win, however, as they host the Calgary Flames at 7 p.m. (ET) Thursday night. The Flames have floundered to 41 points and desperately need to pull two from Boston to keep pace in the Western Conference. Boston, on the other hand, has an impressive 51 and trails the Conference-leading Rangers by a single point.

As far as the Devils, they remain stuck with 44 points and precariously perched in the East's eighth spot. They'll stay home to host the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. (ET) on Friday night. Florida has been playing some great hockey, but will be on the second leg of a back-to-back after playing the afore mentioned Rangers on Thursday.

Bruins Hab It Their Way

2011-12-19T23:21:00.001-05:00

Ex-Hab Pouliot has found a home in Boston. (Getty)

Tonight's game featured polar opposites. The Eastern Conference Boston Bruins entered the night with just two (regulation) losses since they were beat by the evening's opponent, the Montreal Canadiens, on Oct. 29. The Canadiens, on the other hand, sat last in the Northeast Division with 33 points and had just fired their coach for one that didn't speak any French (never something that appeals to the Quebecois fan base).

But, once the puck dropped, it didn't matter. It was just Boston vs. Montreal, arguably the most historic rivalry in hockey (the evening's game actually tied the two teams with Detroit-Chicago for most games played against one another in NHL history). The Canadiens might have been struggling, but they always seem to give the B's issues. Their small, skating style doesn't mesh well with the Big, Bad Bruins mentality in Beantown. Carey Price's goaltending has also been known to give the Bruins fits in the past.

Boston started the game off early with ex-Canadien Benoit Pouliot finishing a goal on a great offensive zone faceoff win by Rich Peverley. Peverley pushed it past Petteri Nokelainen on the puck drop and shoveled it to the front of the goal, where Pouliot jammed it home for the ice breaker at 12:13.

The fourth overall pick in the 2005 draft by Minnesota, Pouliot played for Monteral the past two seasons before moving south to Boston. Jack Edwards once described him last season as "the biggest waste of talent in the NHL," but he's found his role in Boston and let his former team see it with that goal.

However, the Canadiens wouldn't let Boston sit on the lead for long. After a peculiar no-call for a hook on Patrice Bergeron (that would even itself out when Bergeron wasn't called for one on Max Pacioretty in the third period), the Habs attacked on an out-of-position Bruins team. The B's got back to close down the first opportunity, but Michael Cammalleri had a nifty backhand pass through traffic to Bruins-killer Tomas Plekanec on the far side of the net. Plekanec fired it into the open goal at 13:26 for his third goal and fourth point in four games against Boston this season.

Boston assistant captain Andrew Ference stepped up to help break the deadlock early in the second. He picked off a lazy P.K. Subban breakout attempt and drove past Subban below the goal line. He tried to center the puck to David Krejci and the puck was directed off Krejci's stopping skate and in at 2:42 of the second. The play, rightfully, went to Toronto for review to see if Krejci had kicked the puck in. It was determined that he made no kicking motion, so the Bruins took the 2-1 lead.

The relatively clean game saw an exchange in penalties the rest of the period, but the score went unchanged. Boston's Nathan Horton was whistled for a hook at 3:50, and Montreal failed to register a shot on the ensuing advantage. The Habs' Josh Gorges went off for interference at 11:24. Zdeno Chara rang the post early in the power play, but the Canadiens flashed the league's second-best penalty kill to limit the chances the rest of the way. They also killed off a four-minute minor to end the period, when Louis Leblanc got an unlucky high-sticking double-minor that drew blood on an inadvertent play.

Strong goaltending was the secret sauce in the third for Boston's Tim Thomas (who made 16 saves in the third) and Montreal's Price (who made 10). Boston killed off the game's final penalty for a Zach Hamill cross-check at 5:44 and then looked for insurance.

Marchand had just enough control
to net the game-winner. (Getty)

With the game going back and forth, the Canadiens had a costly turnover that sat on the defensive blue line. Tyler Seguin picked it up for Boston and quickly fed Brad Marchand in all alone on Price. Marchand lost some control of the puck, but managed to flip a backhanded, off-angle shot past Carey Price, who was caught out of the net after coming out to cut off the angle.

"I got lucky," Marchand said of the ultimate game-winner. "I lost the puck and just happened to get it by him."

The game seemed to be in hand with the goal at 14:14 of the third, but the pesky Canadiens never go away. With Price headed to the bench for the extra skater, the Bruins saw their breakout attempt kick off a Canadien skate. David Desharnais ended up with the puck on the opposite side of the slot and fired it toward the goal, where it redirected off Erik Cole's skate and into the net at 18:46. Like with Krejci's goal, the score went under review, and, like with the previous call, it was upheld.

The Bruins were suddenly back on their heels for the final minute of the game, but Thomas stood strong, as always. The B's defenders made several strong attempts to clear the puck and stifle the Canadiens 6-on-5 advantage, en route to the 3-2 victory.

"It was a typical Montreal-Boston matchup," said Boston Coach Claude Julien. "A very close game and we got ourselves a good goal late in the third."

Despite the disparity in the standings, the game was evenly matched as expected. Montreal ended up using its late flurry to outshoot Boston 35-31 on the evening, but it was the Bruins that lit the scoreboard where it counted.

"It wasn't the prettiest game on our part," said captain Zdeno Chara. "But, we found a way to score one more goal than they did and that's all that counts."

"They battled hard," assistant captain Patrice Bergeron said of the Canadiens. "It's a good team with a lot of speed and a lot of skill."

The Bruins now sit alone a top the Eastern Conference, with the Flyers' game at Colorado still pending for the evening. They are now 19-2-1 since suffering back-to-back losses to Montreal to close out October at 3-7-0.

Looking forward, they have just one game in the next eight days, but it's not a Holiday Break, by any means! The upstart Florida Panthers roll into town on Friday night for a 7:00 p.m. game. The Panthers are one of the only two teams to beat Boston in regulation since that October swoon, when they shut out the B's at the TD Garden on Dec. 8. Florida leads the Southeast Division with 42 points and will look to gain ground in the East on the Conference-leading Bruins.

"We're really happy with how it's going, but we can't be satisfied," said Bergeron. "We gotta make sure we finish on a good note [before Christmas] against Florida."

Montreal will get no relief as it tries to get the season back on track. It heads to Chicago on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. game against the Western Conference leader.

BRUINS TICKER: Boston at Ottawa

2011-12-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

Thomas hopes to keep up his
success against Ottawa. (Getty)

Tonight, the Bruins head to Ottawa for their second game of a back-to-back. Last night, they shut out Los Angeles and enter tonight's game with a record of 19-9-1, and their 39 points are good for second in the Eastern Conference and tops in the Northeast Division.

Ottawa has struggled to the worst record in that same division. At 14-13-4, their 32 points are by no means poor. However, they're -13 in goal differential and haven't been on a roll since the Bruins snapped their six-game winning streak on Nov. 1. Boston played the better game in that one and took away a 5-3 win.

Here are a few early game notes on this one. Tim Thomas' six shutouts against the Sens are the most against any team and Boston is 9-1-0 in its last 10 games in Ottawa. Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson has four goals and 10 assists in his last

Starting Goaltenders
Boston - Tim Thomas (13-5-0, 1.92 GAA, 0.938 SV%)
Ottawa - Craig Anderson (13-10-2, 3.365 GAA, 0.898 SV%)

Tonight's blog is a little different from my usual live blog format. The live blog I tend to pick out some significant moments and paint a general picture of the action. Tonight, I'm going with a ticker to describe any big plays or chances.

First Period

19:22 - Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson woke up Tim Thomas and the Boston defense. He got a pass from the side boards and redirected from the far side, requiring Thomas to slide across for the save.

16:08 - Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson rips on from the top of the circle that ends up in Thomas' grill. Ottawa has the momentum early.

14:05 - Ottawa's Colin Greening rips one from the mid-slot that Thomas directs just wide. He had a great look on that one!

12:55 - A Daniel Paille turnover for Boston in the neutral zone gives Ottawa another chance, but Thomas waffle boards away the shot.

11:50 - After a Boston turnover at its own blue line, Karlsson gets a good shot in the mid-slot. Four Ottawa players crash the goal, but Thomas locks it up.

11:46 - FIRST TV TIMEOUT - It's all Ottawa early. Boston looks like a team that flew from Beantown last night and had to go through customs in the wee hours of the morning!

8:30 - SECOND TV TIMEOUT - Mainly back and forth with a decent shot from Boston's Patrice Bergeron. Shots are 9-2 Ottawa and the ice feels tilted in their direction, even if they aren't getting great scoring chances.

8:14 - FIIIIIIGHT! Boston's Milan Lucic and Ottawa's Matt Carkner go at it. Several good blows early, but it ended up dying down a little and neither guy lost his footing. Carkner tried to dish out a hit on Lucic in Boston's O-zone and the two ended up going from there.

8:06 - Jack Edwards talks on NESN about Benoit Pouliot's high draft status and how maybe he's never played with players as good as Chris Kelley and Rich Peverley. Keep in mind this was the same guy about which he said last year, when he was a Canadien, he was "the biggest waste of talent in the NHL."

7:50 - GOAL BOSTON! Rich Peverley does a good job picking up the puck in the neutral zone and cutting to the high slot. He fired a quick low wrister inside the left post past Craig Anderson. (Boston leads 1-0.)

5:20 - A few chances by the Bruins. Adam McQuaid tries to wrist one from the point to the front of the net. It kicked out to Peverley, but his shot went over the net.

4:40 - Alfredsson puts a nice turn around shot at Thomas, but the goalie gets his shoulder up for the saave.

4:20 - Alf, again! This time from the top of the right circle and Thomas had to stick out his pad for the save.

3:46 - FINAL TV TIMEOUT - Boston seems to more or less evened it out. At no point have they really controlled the play, but they struck first for the 1-0 lead. They should be happy to have that lead with the way they started.

2:30 - Boston' Zach Hamill with a good in close shot on Anderson, but the goalie slides across for the stop. Good positioning for the young guy.

1:07 - A good offensive play by Boston. McQuaid keeps it in, Nathan Horton kicks it out of his skates and centers it to David Krejci. Anderson makes the save on Krejci.

0:42 - Lucic picks off the puck in the high defensive zone and goes in 2-on-1, but dishes a poor pass to Horton and the rush breaks down.

0:05 - Edwards makes his second plea of the period for the B's Bergeron to be in Selke consideration this year after another good defensive play.

END OF 1ST PERIOD - Ottawa put on the guns early as Boston came out of the gate slow, which many expected might happen since they got in so late last night. Once the B's got their feet under them, they got a goal and seemed to pull the momentum away. Tim Thomas played very well throughout the period until his team got comfortable.

PERIOD NOTES - Boston is 6-1-0 this season when leading after the first period. It's 9-2-0 when scoring in the first. Shots were 13-6 Ottawa.

Goal scorer Rich Peverley after the period: "I don't think we were playing at the pace we need to be at. If we keep playing a high speed and keeping the shifts short, we need to do it. We turned the puck over a lot in the first ten minutes and that had a lot to do with us not moving our feet."

Second Period

19:08 - Boston's Horton jumps on a rebound in traffic to the side of the net, but his backhand hits the apron.

17:58 -Zack Smith has a chance for Ottawa on a quick break, but he gets worked off the angle and can't cut it to the front to get a shot off.

17:40 - Chris Neil goes in on a breakaway on Thomas, but "Timmy" stands strong for Boston. The Bruins defense fell asleep a few times on the shift!

15:37 - GOAL OTTAWA! Alfredsson and Jason Spezza go on a fast break after Lucic's slap shot rebound bounced out into the neutral zone. Alf just stayed on side and fed the puck to Spezza. Spezza took it toward the goal line and then passed across the mid slot to Alfredsson, who wristed the puck quickly into the net before Thomas could slide across. The Sens captain has been the team's best player early. (Score tied 1-1.)

14:29 - PENALTY Boston. Dennis Seidenberg got into the back of Alfredsson (again!) and was called for interference. Boston has a strong (fourth best) power play; Ottawa's PP is mediocre (13th best).

13:43 - Boston's Brad Marchand forced some suspect handling by Anderson, causing a turnover and feeding Bergeron for the shorthanded one-time. Anderson made the save.

12:28 - FIRST TV TIMEOUT - This is still Ottawa's game. In the early going of the period, they had a few breakaway-like chances, scored on a counterattack and drew a penalty. This is going to be a tough one for Boston team that looks about a half of a step behind.

Zdeno Chara update from NESN - He looked good in the morning skate, moving back and forth. He suffered a knee sprain on Saturday against Columbus and has missed the last two games.

11:00 - Ottawa's Kaspars Daugavins goes for the stuff from behind the net. Thomas stuffed it but the puck sat that dangerously and was never tied up.

10:40 - A Boston turnover results with Daugavins in the slot with the puck, but he can't control is for a point blank chance.

10:25 - Boston had a little flurry with Kelly, Pouliot and Tyler Seguin with a few good looks at the net. Anderson stood strong for Ottawa.

9:50 - SECOND TV TIMEOUT - Boston will need to try to build on the flurry with which it played the last shift. It was one of the few times all night the B's have sustained pressure.

9:13 - Anderson scampers out his goal to poke the puck out of danger from a free skating Daniel Paille of Boston.

8:00 - Lucic with a big collision as Brian Lee pinches in for the hit. Lucic gets the better end of the hit.

6:13 - GOAL BOSTON! Former Senator Chris Kelly stands on the doorstep and chips a rebound over Anderson for the goal. The classic Johnny Boychuk blast set that rebound up. (Bruins lead 2-1.)

5:04 - FINAL TV TIMEOUT - If Boston wins tonight, it's going to be due to a gritty and tough effort. They're not playing pretty, but they're leading right now.

2:43 - A "hot rebound," as Edwards described it, kicked out from behind the Boston goal. Thomas is stuck on the other side, but the puck won't like flat for Ottawa's Bobby Butler.

2:15 - Boston's Adam McQuaid gets beat by Nick Foligno on the pinch and sticks out the leg. Foligno went down quick with the knee-to-knee contact. Ottawa's Jared Cowen was quick to engage McQuaid for a fight and he olbiged, but the linesman unfortunately go in the way. On a play like that, it's always best to let the players settle it then instead of letting bad blood stew.

2:15 - PENALTY Boston. McQuaid gets taken off for five minutes and a game. Foligno gets helped off the ice.

1:25 - Foligno fights his way back up the tunnel to the bench with the intent of getting back on the ice.

0:48 - The whistles blows in Boston's end after Thomas stood up on teh five minute penalty kill. Foligno returns to the ice for the power play.

0:19 - PENALTY Ottawa. Zenon Konopka crashes into Thomas on his way through the slot and is whistled for goaltender inference.

0:00 Senators Zack Smith fires a shot well after the horn sounds and the Bruins make sure to let him know that it wasn't appreciated.

END OF 2ND PERIOD - I was just thinking how clean the game had been with just one harmless interference penalty, but it got going in the final segment of the second period. Between Adam McQuaid's major, Konopka knocking into Thomas and Smith firing at Thomas after the whistle, the teams seem on edge. As I said at the time, it's too bad the fight wasn't allowed to take place after McQuaid's hit. It was more of an accident than a cheap shot, but Ottawa saw it's player laying on the ice. If the fight had gone off, it wouldn't have built up the late period emotion.

Game Notes: Bruins haven't lost yet this season when leading after two periods (13-0-0). Shots Ottawa 14-13 in the period, 27-19 overall.

Goal score Chris Kelly after the period: "We can be a bit better in our own end. I thought we got better as time goes on, but there's still room to improve."

"There's no need for that," Kelly said of Smith's shot after the horn. "And, he knows that."

Third Period

15:19 - Alfredsson gets a good pass through the neutral zone to Spezza. Spezza's shot gets knocked away by Thomas' blocker.

15:06 - GOAL BOSTON! Patrice Bergeron picked up a poor turnover by Ottawa on an attempted neutral zone regroup. He takes it in for the breakaway and stalls in front of the crease before stuffing it in past a sprawled Anderson. (Boston leads 3-1.)

14:31 - Boston's Shawn Thornton tries to wrap it around with the backhand, but Anderson stuffs it.

14:10 - GOAL BOSTON! Andrew Ference gives a nice breakout to Thornton, who finds Paille at the far blue for the breakaway. Paille puts it between Anderson's legs. It's the 11th time this season that Boston has scored two goals in a minute. (Boston leads 4-1.)

13:04 - FIRST TV TIMEOUT - It was slow going in a ping-pong type back-and-forth with neither team having time to set up. Then, Boston got two breakaways in 56 seconds and opened up what had been a game that Ottawa looked poised to take control of at some point.

8:12 - Thomas had a weird turnover for Boston in his own end. He ended up close to the no-touch area for the goalies and backed up awkwardly toward his own goal with Daugavins picking it up and backhanding it frantically toward the goal. It cruised harmlessly over into the far corner.

7:17 - SECOND TV TIMEOUT - At this point, to quote Edwards, the Senators look like they've "lost the wind in their sails." Boston looks tired and content to rag it around for the last 10 minutes of the game for to sit on the three goal lead. Ottawa played well early, but doesn't look like they have a comeback.

7:17 - PENALTY Boston. Nathan Horton went for high sticking as the TV timeout was taken. It'll give the Sens one last gasp to get back in it, and likely kill any momentum if they can't generate anything.

5:45 - After a good Ottawa flurry on the power play, Boston's Krejci and Paille carry the puck into the offensive end and chip around to take significant time off the shorthand.

5:17 - Ottawa took three shots on the powerplay, but the Bruins killed it and have now killed 26 of their last 27 penalties.

4:05 - GOAL OTTAWA! The Senators moved the puck around well with a good give-and-go at the point between Jason Spezza and Chris Phillips. Spezza snipes it from the top of the circle to give the Ottawa faithful some hope. (Boston leads 4-2.)

3:57 - Boston ices it immediately to end up back on their heels after the goal.

3:37 - PENALTY Boston. Brad Marchand with a mental lapse as he backhands it out of play in his own end, resulting in a delay of game penalty.

3:37 - FINAL TV TIMEOUT - It's not over yet! Ottawa has a power play and a goal puts them right back in the middle of this one.

3:03 - Thomas slides across for a great save on an open Erik Karlsson, who had crept down to the far face off dot.

2:35 - After a minute-long push from the Senators, Boston finally clears the zone. Although, the puck only made it to about the red line.

1:04 - GOAL BOSTON! After a good offensive session for Ottawa, the puck gets wrapped around the boards and out and Paille goes off to the races with a 2-on-1 for Boston. Paille winds up for a slapper and blows it by Anderson, who did very little help his team's cause on the evening. (Boston leads 5-2.)

END OF GAME - Ottawa seemed to get some life with a later goal, but Tim Thomas stood strong in net for Boston, as he had all game. The Senators fired 22 shots to Boston's 10 and held a 49-29 advantage in the game.

Recap

While Thomas played well for Boston, the same can't be said for his counter part at the other end of the ice in Craig Anderson. I own Anderson in my fantasy hockey league. He tends to be a disaster on many occasions and didn't play well tonight. Ottawa hung him out to dry on the goals in the third, but he didn't come up with any saves when the Sens needed him.

It certainly wasn't a game tape that Boston will watch at the end of the year as one of their best, but they did what they needed to do to pull out a gritty win in a back-to-back night that crossed country lines. It was a classic Bruins game that revolved around great goaltending and strong defense, with Thomas making 47 saves on the evening.

The offense was uncharacteristically dull, but they played games in recent weeks with a far better output and much less results. Any time a team scores five goals, it's tough to criticize the offense, even if the goaltending of Craig Anderson isn't the league's strongest.

"We realized that we were lucky to up 2-1 the way we played in the first two periods," two-goal scorer Paille said after the game. "We had great goalie with Timmy again tonight. We were smarter on certain plays and knew when to take a chance."

"The one thing that i know is we're going through a rough patch right now and still winning hockey games," Head Coach Claude Julien said of the effort. "That fist period was a tough one to watch. We gotta find ways to get our emotion back into the games here. As the season goes, we'll have ups and down and it's good to see us win these games."

Boston improves 9-2-0 in Northeast Division and jumps into a tie for the conference with Philadelphia at 41 points. The deadlock couldn't come at a better time as the Bruins will head to Philly on Saturday for a 1 p.m. (ET) tilt. The Flyers do have a trip to Montreal tomorrow, but the game will certainly be a chance to reaffirm their presence among the league's elite.

"We're going to watch theme play tomorrow and see what it's all about," Julien said of Saturday's game plan. "We gotta play a lot better than we did tonight, if we want to beat a team like Philadelphia. As i said, if we get to playing more emotional, the commitment will follow."

For the Seantors, their struggles continue and weren't able to grab any ground in the division, where they currently in last just a point behind Buffalo and Montreal. It won't get any easier as a similar Beast of the East will come calling on Friday, in the form of the Pittsburgh Penguins, at 7:30 p.m. (ET).

B's Win Wacky Game

2011-12-10T23:26:00.001-05:00

The ridiculous color of Sanford's pads were
par for the course in a crazy game. (Getty)

It was a full moon tonight and the wackiness associated with it was in full force in Columbus.

Boston's Joe Corvo, who hadn't scored in 27 games this season, put the puck in the net twice (including the game-winner). Milan Lucic served four minor penalties and registered three assists. David Krejci and the Blue Jackets' Samuel Pahlsson took penalties before the puck dropped (following a goal). And, Columbus' Derek Dorsett hurt his leg, while getting called for a horrible penalty.

The Blue Jackets entered the evening as the worst team in hockey, and, while the Bruins said they knew they couldn't take them lightly, they didn't walk that walk early on. Rick Nash got behind the defense and surprised Boston's Tim Thomas with a wrister to open the scoring at 5:46.

After Milan Lucic took his first of two (ill-advised) cross-checking penalties, Columbus' other big name forward, Jeff Carter, made it hurt by lifting one over an awkwardly sprawled Thomas at 11:09. However, Thomas redeemed himself at 17:10, while the Bruins killed off a Lucic (again) double-minor. His glove came out of nowhere to shut down Vaclav Prospal and turn the tide of the game.

A minute later, Corvo got off the schneid in his season long goal-scoring slump with a blast from the point at 18:26. Then, Lucic found Horton in the high slot, and his snipe tied it up just 45 seconds later. With the momentum headed into the intermission, Boston emerged to pop in a powerplay goal with a Zdeno Chara drive just 0:58 into the second.

The game then went back and forth with the two teams trading penalty after penalty for a total of four minors a piece in the second. The refs made a mind-boggling decision to whistle Dorsett for goaltender interference at 13:03. He drove at the net (with the puck) and tripped over Thomas' outstretched stick trying to score. He fell awkwardly and appeared to suffer a severe leg or ankle injury. Somehow, he was whistled for the penalty as he lay injured on the ice.

After a half-hearted power play for Boston (not even the B's seemed to think there was a reason for being on the power play), the Jackets' R.J. Umberger came down in a one-on-one. Dennis Seidenberg took a decent angle to wear him off the angle, but Umberger's shot found its way past Thomas to tie the game at three. B's Head Coach Claude Julien made a rare move after the second to pull a struggling Thomas and replace him with Tuukka Rask.

"It was just a decision I made," Julien said of the move. "Timmy's as consistent a goalie as we've ever had, but he just didn't look comfortable in net tonight. Tuukka was ready to go and that was great."

The move seemed to refocus Boston, who finally stayed out of the penalty box in the third and took advantage of both of the Blue Jackets' trips to the sin bin. Corvo stepped into the high circle and ripped the eventual game winner past goalie Curtis Sanford at 6:44.

"It was definitely a huge load lifted off my shoulders," Corvo said of his successful night. "It's nice to get a couple goals, especially when they mean something."

With time running down, Columbus' Fedor Tyutin took a hook at 18:26, which killed a comeback chance and led to Chris Kelly capping the scoring for the 5-3 win. The victory snaps a two-game losing streak and the five goals on 29 shots was far better than the one they'd managed on 80 in those two losses.

"It was super important," said Corvo of the win. "You don't want to lose three games in a row. We were set on coming in here and ending that streak. We just battled the whole time and came through."

For Columbus, it was a tenacious effort and they found a way to keep Boston on their toes, as it definitely wasn't a smooth 60-minute win for the Bruins. They took several unnecessary penalties and didn't get the best goaltending, but they found a way to pick up two points. The ability to win a game like this is what has made Boston successful over the past few seasons.

"It wasn't necessarily a pretty win, but we got it done," said Julien after the game. "It was our fifth game in eight days and we looked tired mentally out there, but we found a way to win and that was important."

Boston heads back home to host Los Angeles on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. (ET). Its biggest question surrounds captain Zdeno Chara, who left with an apparent knee injury in the second period and didn't return. Coach Julien didn't know after the game how serious the injury was. Chara has missed just 12 games in a six-year stint with Boston.

For a disappointed Blue Jackets team, they'll have to try to regroup as they host the other 2011 Stanley Cup finalist on Tuesday, when Vancouver comes in for a 7:00 p.m. (ET) faceoff.

Panthers Clank Bruins

2011-12-08T21:27:00.001-05:00

Theodore played well and got help
from his best friend, the post. (AP)

It takes three things to be good in the NHL: skill, heart and luck. After a 15-game point streak, the Bruins have learned that over the course of the last two games. For every lucky bounce they might have had during the streak, they've haven't gotten a single one lately.

Two nights after firing 40 shots against Winnipeg and only finding the net once, it was deja vu for Boston on Thursday, as it hosted the surprisingly-strong Florida Panthers. The B's again fired 40 shots, but none found its way past Jose Theodore, who churned fans' stomachs by reminding them of the performances he used to put up as a Canadiens' goalie in the playoffs.

However, while the 40 shots and the play of Theodore can't be overlooked, the post was a true hero tonight for the Panthers. Three times in the first 10 minutes and once midway through the second, Boston clanked the iron past Theodore, but each time just a portion of an inch separated them from a lead.

While the Bruins maintained control of the game throughout, Tim Thomas held up his end in net for Boston with 28 saves. He stayed sharp, especially early in the game, when he he saw little rubber. However, he left a juicy rebound from on Shawn Matthias slap shot on the doorstep and Tomas Kopecky chipped it in the net to break Boston's heart with just 2:32 left in a scoreless game.

"We had our opportunities, especially at the beginning of the game," Thomas said afterward. "Sometimes those don't go in and your going to have to do something special. It seemed to me they were waiting and playing opportunistic to try to score and that's kind of what they did."

Kris Versteeg later capped it with an empty netter to give Florida the 2-0 win. Yet, the final score is far from reflective of the effort Boston put forth tonight. The Bruins played very well for a team that got shutout. They drew four power plays, while taking just one (non-fighting) penalty. They also weren't afraid to show Florida their "Big, Bad Bruins" mentality.

The Panthers' Krystofer Barch ran over Daniel Paille for a charging penalty just 2:17 into the game. Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell both dropped the gloves to go with him. It was the enforcer, Thornton, that stepped up to send Barch a message that hits like those aren't tolerated in Boston.

"When you really look at our team, you go down the line up and we have enough guys to stick up for each other," said assistant captain Andrew Ference, after the game. "We're proud of the style of hockey we've played the past few years and reaching back into history." Paille, unfortunately, would not return and looked wobbly on the ice after the hit. There was no update after the game from Bruins' Head Coach Claude Julien, aside from that he was taken out for a "precautionary measure."

Later, in the second period, Boston's Johnny Boychuk laid a good hit on Mike Santorelli at the red line. While the play wasn't dirty nor penalized, Florida's Jack Skille took offense to it and got in Boychuk's face. Not known as a frequent fighter, the B's defenseman immediately engaged with Skille and got the better end of the brawl.

Despite playing their tough, relentless style, it just wasn't Boston's night to win. "When you hit four or five posts, there's a little luck involved," said Julien. "But, when you look at it, I don't think we drove the net like we would have liked. They played a hard fought road game, waiting for us to make a mistake and pouncing on it." (Pun intended, Coach?)

The loss now drops the Bruins behind the Panthers in the Eastern Confernce standings. Florida's come out of nowhere this season, and its 36 points now place it with the second highest total in the East. Boston has now lost two straight after the 15-game point streak, but still leads the Northeast Division with 35 points.

"You gotta keep your head on your shoulders and be mature enough to know, if you played well or not," Ference said about the team's mentality. "By no means was tonight great, but it was ok. We gave ourselves a chance to win but didn't."

The Bruins will have to bounce back on Saturday when they head to Columbus to take on the league's bottom-feeding Blue Jackets. Despite having the lowest point total in the NHL, the Jackets have been playing better hockey lately and forced the Bruins to a home shootout win on Nov. 17. The game will face off at 7 p.m. (ET).

Meanwhile, the Panthers will be challenged to keep up their torrid pace with the second leg of back-to-back road games on Friday night. They'll head to Buffalo for a 7:30 p.m. (ET) start against a Sabres team that had tonight off.

Roger Penske's Message

2011-12-07T15:29:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Roger Penske delivered the message
that respect is a requirement. (Getty)

Roger Penske's message was clear and decisive. It brought down the hammer on a long-time driver and set a moral standard that is far too often neglected in sports.

Kurt Busch had driven for Penske since 2006, and the former Sprint Cup champion made three Chases behind the wheel for Penske's team. However, after Busch melted down late in the season and was fined by NASCAR for his antics, Penske made a move that made the most sense for his organization.

He parted ways with Kurt Busch.

To be fair, the decision stated that the two parties separated ways on mutual terms, but I have a hard time believing it wasn't something that was spearheaded by Penske's side. Perhaps Busch was disgruntled and looking for a way out, but no matter what line of work you're in, you're probably not going to just up and quit without a contingency plan (as is Busch's case).

The decision leaves questions about who might fill the ride at a Penske team that already fielded only two cars.

It also leaves questions about where Busch will end up, as most of the big moves (Kasey Kahne to Hendrick Motosporrts, Clint Bowyer to Michael Waltrip Racing) have already taken place.

The area where there's no question is what Roger Penske and his race team believes in. There is a demand for a level of respect, and Busch didn't have that. This wasn't just one incident from the former driver of the No. 22. It was a series of incidents that didn't represent the organization well.

Keep in mind that another one of Penske's drivers, INDYCAR star Will Power, flipped the double-bird to race control during a race here at NHMS in August. That was an isolated incident where the usually jovial Power lost his cool. He still drives for Penkse. Busch does not.

Today's sports world is so public that everything a driver says or does shapes his public image. Throughout the year, Busch was heard yelling over the radio at crew chief Steve Addington and his team that he didn't like his car, even as he was racing well. He was also overheard responding to Penske on the radio with the condescending term "dude."

Really!? Since when has NASCAR been racing at Waikiki, Kurt?

As the Chase approached, he locked horns with Jimmie Johnson. After getting into an argument with one NASCAR beat writer over his comments on Johnson, he engaged her after the press conference to rip up the transcript she showed him of his quote.

The biggest meltdown came in the season's final race at Homestead-Miami. After his car malfunctioned early and headed to garage, he found himself blocked from his stall by Michelle Obama's SUV convoy. While I do believe Busch that he wasn't flipping off anyone in particular, he give the universal symbol to the cars to get out of the way. Then, while he waited for his car to be fixed, he started cursing at ESPN's Jerry Punch before an interview, a tirade that was caught by a fan on camera and distributed across the internet. He was fined $50,000 by NASCAR for his actions and his sponsor, Shell-Pennzoil, was not happy in the least.

As if that wasn't enough, crew chief Addington got the heck out of Dodge, literally and figuratively, as soon as he could when he was offered the same position with Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart.

We've all seen Stewart a lot lately. He's very competitive and very demanding, albeit usually in a respectful manner. The fact Addington would so quickly shoulder the responsibility of defending a Cup amidst questions if he was good enough to be a championship crew chief says a lot about his relationship (or lack thereof) with Busch.

Penske was quick to say that enough was enough. It's a refreshing mentality in today's sports world.

Too often, athletes are given chance after chance to prove themselves after character failure. NFL players Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress' extended trips to prison seem to be a rarity among sports figures, and even after they were released, they were immediately employed. These kinds of thing doesn't happen in the real world, nor in Penske's world.

Here at NHMS, I wouldn't walk around berating my co-workers, so the rest of the office could hear me yelling down the hall. If I disagreed with our Exec. VP/GM, Jerry Gappens, on an opinion, I wouldn't end a conversation with "whatever, dude." I wouldn't walk out on to Route-106 and give the fans a one-finger salute for visiting. And, I wouldn't start swearing at a media member trying to cover one of our events.

I'm sure you can think of similar situations in your workplace as well, and I'm sure you can agree that it's unprofessional and disrespectful to act in such a manner at any time. That's what Penske saw and that's why he acted.

Kurt Busch learned the lesson that us "normal" people already know. You shouldn't ever take your job for granted, and you should be appreciative and respectful for every day that you get to go do something you enjoy. Busch didn't show this and now he's floundering around, hoping that someone will pick him up for a full-time ride in 2012.

Without naming names, as I'm sure you can fill some in for me, there are other drivers out there that should learn from this lesson before the same happens to them. In today's entitled-athlete world, there are many drivers that don't seem to give enough respect to the team, the competition, the media or the fans.

It's a privilege, not a right to be in as great of a position as these NASCAR drivers. Roger Penske reminded Kurt Busch of that and I hope the rest of the owners keep his actions in mind when dealing with chronic misbehavior.

The moral lesson is that fostering a positive image and showing respect for one's position is far more important than the success and accomplishment of that person. That's something we all should remember, especially this holiday time of year, when we're fortunate enough to be able to put food on our table and a roof over our head.

Thomas Freezes Penguins

2011-12-05T21:23:00.001-05:00

Thomas stifled Crosby
and Co. for the win. (AP)

With points in its last 14 games (13-0-1), Boston entered tonight playing like the best team in the Eastern Conference. With 36 points, the standings listed Pittsburgh as the best team in the East. An on-ice battle was needed to determine which team actually should hold the title of top-dog.

The Bruins started off the game with a fire that has come to be expected from the tenacious bunch. They outshot the Penguins 11-6 in the first period and also drew two penalties (to one Pittsburgh power play). Alas, Marc Andre Fleury held the fort for the Penguins and Tim Thomas responded for the Bruins to keep the game scoreless.

Pittsburgh would put on the pressure in the second with 17 shots to Boston's eight, but it was the B's that put up numbers where it counted. In a scrappy effort, Gregory Campbell would slam home his own rebound to notch the game's first goal at 2:57. Seconds later, Brad Marchand dropped the glove with the Penguins' Matt Niskanen, who was looking to spark the lethargic Pens.

The shot total might suggest Niskanen accomplished his mission, the score would say otherwise. Benoit Pouliot sniped a perfect upper corner shot, which he's quickly coming close to trademarking, to give the B's the two-goal advantage at 7:18.

The rest of the period proved to be a slug fest with Boston taking three penalties (including a full two-minute 5-on-3 disadvantage) and the Penguins taking two before the horn sounded (or techincally one, and one whistled at the 20:00 mark). Boston utilized the man-advantage that started the third. Patrice Bergeron found young star Tyler Seguin on a two-on-one during the power play and Seguin finished on the far side past Fleury.

Trailing 3-0, the Penguins refused to give up, but so did the Bruins goalie, Thomas. Matt Cooke finished a two-on-one with Joe Vitale at 10:54, after Boston's Dennis Seidenberg's dump-in attempt took a weird bounce. Vitale then got into Thomas' grill seconds later causing a strong reaction from the Bruins and resulting in a brawl between Vitale and the B's Campbell.

The Penguins flocked the offensive zone the rest of the way, but reigning Vezina-winner Thomas held up his end of the bargain and more. Pittsburgh finished with a tally of 46 shots (23 in the third alone), but found the twine behind Thomas just once on the night.

"I think we did a good job," said Thomas, who has now won a career-best 10 consecutive games. "Going into the third period up 2-0, we had to get the next one and we did."

The Bruins came ready to win and took the momentum early. They scored the game's first three goals to take control and played their game from there, but the Penguins proved why they are also a top team in the conference. They refused to go away or be blown out and definitely challenged Thomas to make him beat them. "Timmy" was up to the task, but any time a team fires more than 20 shots in the final frame, it's a sign they're bringing it for the win.

"We just thought they were a really good team that we had to play against," Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien said of the game plan. "I thought we played a really solid game and did well on the penalty kill. Five-on-five, we did a great job scoring goals."

Pittsburgh still sits a point in front of Boston, despite the B's 3-1 victory. However, Boston has three games in hand on the conference-leading Pens. The two will face three more times this season with the next meeting coming in Boston on Sat., Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. (ET).

Boston will head to Winnipeg for the second leg of a back-to-back tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. (ET). It will be the team's first visit to the city since the Jets returned to the NHL this offseason. The Manitoba team is currently a middling 11-11-4. Pittsburgh won't play again until Thursday, when it heads across the state to Philadelphia for a 7 p.m. (ET) game.

Bruins Outshoot Leafs for Historic Month

2011-11-30T21:45:00.001-05:00

Pouliot (left) has a knack for providing
the Bruins with a timely spark. (Getty)

The Boston Bruins headed to Toronto with the Northeast Division's top spot on the line. The Bruins had plucked the Maple Leafs in their first two meeting of the season (6-2, 7-0), and Toronto was focused on getting up for this huge divisional game.

That effort was apparent early from both teams. Boston's Adam McQuaid and Toronto's Matt Frattin had a big collision high in the B's offensive zone in which both guys ended up on the ice. Shortly after, the high energy Leafs cashed in with the game's first goal.

Mikhail Grabovski finished off an odd-man rush on the power play at 7:29, after Clarke MacArthur found him with a cross-ice feed to the low slot. Yet, despite launching 16 shots in the first, the Maple Leafs weren't able to shake the Bruins, who topped that total with 17. On a power play of their own, the B's Tyler Seguin found Milan Lucic open on the far side of the goal to tie the game at 15:08.

Boston had outplayed Toronto later in the games during the past two meetings and was looking for a similar edge headed into the second. It got that when Nathan Horton fed the puck to David Krejci in front of the net and he jammed it home to break his nine-game goalless skid at 3:33.

"We had a good night, tonight," said Krejci in an interview with NESN after the game. "The team is winning and we're having fun in the [locker] room. Tonight, the luck was on our side."

But, the luck wouldn't stay with them for long, as the Maple Leafs would respond in the back-and-forth battle at 7:00 of the second. Top scorers Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul teamed up to finish a 2-on-1 with Lupul tallying the goal. The two ranked first and second in the NHL in points (Kessel entered the night with 31, Lupul with 29), but had yet to register so much as a point against the B's in the first two meetings.

The Bruins' Zdeno Chara had been a key to shutting down Kessel and Lupul through two-plus games, but he had a lapse in the neutral zone when he let Kessel by for the 2-on-1 goal. He did what any great captain would do in response: scored a goal! Chara trailed a break-in at 15:30 and buried his wrister past netminder Jonas Gustavsson after Krejci found him open in the high slot.

Boston carried that momentum into the third. Jake Gardiner was hauled off to the box for Toronto at 0:59 for tripping Nathan Horton. While the Leafs statistically got credit for a penalty kill, newly-found high-energy man Benoit Pouliot would score just four seconds after it expired (before Gardiner could get back in play). He picked up Joe Corvo's toss from behind the Leafs' net and blasted it in the upstairs corner for the 4-2 lead.

Toronto's never-say-die attitude shone late. Frattin ripped one from the corner goal line and managed to ricochet the puck off the inside of Boston goalie Tim Thomas' skate to bring it within one at 6:00. But, that was as close as the Leafs would come to evening it up with the soon-to-be division-leading Bruins.

Krejci wheeled out from behind the net at 15:21 and found the stick of Lucic at the top of crease, where "Louch" plowed home an insurance goal. Then, Brad Marchand cued up the fat lady at 19:08, when he flipped a backhanded shot toward an empty net to seal the game at 6-3.

The win put Boston (15-7-1) a point in front of Toronto (14-9-2) for the lead in the Northeast Division. It also capped a historic month in which the Bruins registered a point in every single game (12-0-1). It was the first time that feat had been accomplished by the B's since Jan. 1969. Their 25 points was also the highest in a single month by the club since March 1978.

"It's a pretty good feeling," said Krejci, whose three points paced Boston's evening. "It was a good month for us, but it doesn't stop there. We have a lot of hockey in front of us, and hopefully we can keep it going."

Head Coach Claude Julien echoed the thoughts of his first line center. "It was a good November," Julien told NESN after the game. "We accomplished what we needed to accomplish to get ourselves back to where we feel like we belong...We set an objective to have a certain number of points by Thanksgiving and we certainly surpassedthat. I don't think anyone thought after October, we'd be in a position right now to be fighting for the top of the conference."

Boston's 31 points puts them just one behind the conference-leading Penguins, who the Bruins will visit on Monday. However, before they can focus on the conference lead, they'll have to defend the division lead. This Maple Leafs team nearly matched Boston shot for shot (the B's finished the night with an offensive 40-37 advantage) and goal for goal, and they're sick of getting kicked around. They'll head to Boston's TD Garden on Saturday for the second leg of a home-and-home.

The Bruins are 3-0-0 against the Leafs this season, but Toronto has to feel confident after tonight's performance. Julien knows that Boston needs to tighten up a defense that the Maple Leafs exploited for much of the evening. "We didn't have the prettiest game, but we're finding ways to win," he said. "Defensively, we didn't play well. We need find ways to tighten up and get on the pucks faster."

The B's defense will again need to slow down the explosive league leaders, like Kessel and Lupul. If they can do that on Saturday, they will seize firm control of the division. Then, and only then, may they set their sights on the conference, as they travel to Pittsburgh early next week.

The Best Runner-Up

2011-11-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Two is a lonely number in NASCAR. (Getty)

The tiebreaker for the 2011 Sprint Cup champion was the number of race wins. Naturally, for Carl Edwards and his seven second-place results, he finished the tiebreaker in second.

While champion Tony Stewart amounted five wins in the Chase, he also only came away with nine top-fives and 19 top-10s (just over half, for those of you non-math majors) in 36 races.

Edwards, meanwhile, amassed 19 top-fives (again, over half of the races) and 26 top-10s. Those numbers haven't been matched by anyone since Edwards went 19 and 27 in 2008. Care to guess where he finished that year?

Second.

He said on ESPN after the Homestead-Miami finale that he told his wife the night before if he didn't win, he'd try to be the best runner-up the sport has ever had. Ironically, that seems to be the direction Carl has headed with his career.

He won nine races in the 2008 and finished second in the standings. This year, he won just one and also finished second.

This year alone, he finished second at the Daytona 500, Bristol's Jeff Byrd 500, Darlington's Showtime Southern 500, and Richmond's Wonderful Pistachio's 500. He then finished second consecutively at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami to close out the season in...second place.

He finished second on big tracks, little tracks, tight tracks, wide tracks and even newly-configured tracks (like Phoenix).

He also finished third in four other races, including the road course of Infineon Raceway. Of course, he picked up a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but his single win is little consolation for a guy that's seemingly gotten used to taking home consolation prizes.

Aside from the results on the track, Carl Edwards proved he was a good fit for the role by his demeanor. I've always believed that the measure of a man (and woman of course) isn't how he handles his finest hour, it's how he handles his lowest hour. It's easy enough to hold your head up and shake hands with your competitors after you've won, but it's much harder to stomach your pride and do the same after they've ripped your heart out.

Winning is easy. Losing is not.

Defeat is something we all have to face at some point in our lives. For me, it was junior year of high school, when I played hockey for the Hanover (N.H.).

Playing in the semi-finals against Manchester Memorial, we gave up a breakaway in overtime. Their player went in and shot the puck off the post, it fluttered across the goal line to the other post and came to rest outside the net, where our goalie covered it up. After 30 seconds, an irresponsible ref decided (inexplicably) it had gone in the goal and Memorial had won the game.

Video shows it didn't go in. All the Memorial parents and fans standing behind the goal can be seen waving no goal. The "goal scorer" can be seen taking his stick out the air in disappointment as soon as he realized his shot hadn't gone in. The other ref can even be seen wandering over to the faceoff dot under the presumption that he was going to drop the puck for play to continue. It was not a goal.

Instead of getting angry and yelling at the refs, our coach, Dick Dodds, told us to line up and shake the other team's hands. Afterward, as we tried to cope with the consequences in the locker room, he told us he'd never been prouder of the way a team handled adversity on the ice (he's coached at Hanover since the 1980s) and that sometimes things just don't go your way.

That was the day I learned to lose.

I saw a similar resolve from Carl Edwards as the Chase came to an end. While Stewart threw verbal darts at him, his mother and just about anyone else he could think of in the No. 99 camp, Edwards remained level-headed.

"Cousin" Carl was the first to greet Stewart after the No. 14 beat him in Texas and, again, was one of the first in the procession after Stewart again edged him out at Homestead to take the championship two weeks later. Before he discussed being the best runner-up he could, he said on ESPN that Stewart did a great job and flat out beat him for the championship.

In today's garage with drivers saying this at a reporter or saying that about a competitor, I can't think of anyone else that would have shown the humility Edwards did. It's unique to see that sort of respect after losing the championship in such heart-breaking fashion to someone, especially after his opponent had been so vocal toward him.

It's easy for us tongue-and-cheek pundits to joke that he's so good at it because he's so used to it. It's a lot harder when you're actually the one finishing as such. It's frustrating, it's disappointing and it's flat out angering.

Think of all the animosity Red Sox fans used to hurl at the Yankees before 2004. It was years of pent-up disgruntlement for continuously playing second fiddle to the hated rival. After two dominating seasons (2008 and 2011), it would have been easy for Edwards to start quacking like the sponsor on his car, but he didn't.

Hopefully, we can all take away a lesson from Carl Edwards in learning to remain classy in the face of defeat. Hopefully, for his sake, it won't be a feeling he has to fight through again anytime soon.

BRUINS LIVE: Red Wings at Boston

2011-11-25T13:28:00.001-05:00

Just an editor's note that since I did this live, it wasn't proofread. Please excuse any errors and I'll remove this message once it's all good.

Howard has been one of the NHL's best goalies. (Getty)

Today, the Boston Bruins host the Detroit Red Wings in a nationally televised day game on NBC. It should be a great game between two quality teams that rekindles the nostalgia of the Original-6.

The Bruins enter the game on a 10-game winning streak. They are also the defending Cup champion, which is somewhat of a role reversal between these historic rivals. Boston started off the year in terrible fashion, but has finally recovered and gotten back to playing the tough, blue-collar hockey that won them the Cup last year. They enter the game at 13-7-0 and are tied in first in the Northeast Division with Toronto. The B's also lead the league (by an amazing 12) with a +27 goal differential.

Detroit's been streaky this season. They started 5-0, then went 0-5-1, then won four, lost two and won three. At 12-7-1, they trail Chicago by just two points in the Central Division and their +12 goal differential, second best in the Western Conference.

Expect to see a relatively clean game with some good hits, but mainly good skating and hard work. Both these teams are good and you don't get good by being lazy or making stupid decisions.

Starting Goaltenders

Detroit - Jimmy Howard (12-7-1, 1.92 GAA, 0.927 SV%)
Boston - Tuukka Rask (3-3-0, 2.32 GAA, 0.919 SV%)

1st Period

The two teams started setting the table for the game with a good back and forth. There weren't any golden scoring chances, with the exception of Detroit's Valtteri Filppula going in on a breakaway at about 4:10. However, he roofed his chance over the goal and the teams were back what looked like a Sunday game of tennis, volleying back and forth.

At 8:46, the Red Wings Jonathan Ericsson was called for interference. Detroit opened the penalty kill with a good amount of pressure and the Bruins didn't get comfortable until late in the man-advantage. They almost cashed in late when Nathan Horton picked up a Zdeno Chara on the side of the crease. But, Wings goalie Jimmy Howard laid out his glove to stop the puck and keep the game scoreless.

Boston used the late surge power play surge to garner a few more chances. But, it was Detroit that would score first. After Boston's Johnny Boychuk threw a dangerous shot at the net, the Red Wings countered on a odd-man rush. Filppula had a nice give and go with Henrik Zetterberg. Filppula tipped the return pass into the goal at the top of the crease.

It was Detroit's first shot in eight and half minutes and gained back the momentum Boston seemed to have been taking. B's Head Coach Claude Julien spoke with NBC in an in-game interview. "They're a team that's pretty skilled," he said of the goal. "Any time you give them a 3-on-2, they'll take advantage of it."

The stereotypically speedy Red Wings got in a rhythm after that and seemed to have a step on the Bruins during the second half of the period. Jiri Hudler took a hook for Detroit at 17:34, but an aggressive PK kept Boston from setting up too much.

The Bruins still closed out with a noticeable 13-6 advantage in shots. They definitely skated with a Red Wings team they usually haven't kept up with, but the Red Wings took advantage of their chance and locked down Boston close to their own net. The B's will need to get some better looks at Howard to win the game.

2nd Period

The second frame started out with a flurry. Detroit's Jimmy Howard tried to play the puck behind the net, but it was intercepted in the corner by Nathan Horton, who passed it in front to Daniel Paille. Paille slid it under Howard, who was diving back to the front to tie the game at 4:05.

Datsyuk showed Boston why he's an elite player. (Getty)

The glory was short lived for Boston. On the following shift, defenseman Johnny Boychuk took a big check from Pavel Datsyuk in the offensive corner. Detroit countered while he was still out of position and it was that Datsyuk ended up attacking the net alone from the faceoff dot after a dish from Todd Bertuzzi. David Krejci tried to slow Datsyuk as Boychuk was still struggling to get back in position, but Datsyuk's hands were too good as he walked right into the front of the goal to stuff one past Tuukka Rask.

Despite the goal, Boston continued to hold its own against the quick Wings. Detroit Head Coach Mike Babcock talked to NBC about the need to slow Boston's tenacity in the offensive zone. "They're really aggressive on the forecheck," he said. "We've got to get back faster and execute better in our own end."

Coming out of the second TV timeout of the period, there were a flurry of penalties. Boston's Rich Peverley was called for a slash at 11:38. For lack of a better description, he essentially sack-tapped Jonathan Ericsson from behind, bringing out some saracasm from the NBC broadcast team.

Tomas Holmstrom wiped that out with an interference penalty at 12:21. Dennis Seidenberg, who had drawn that call, set up Nathan Horton nicely moments later, but Horton couldn't get good wood on the puck as it slid across the slot and his shot flopped wide.

However, he who giveth taketh away and Seidenberg's stick snapped on an ensuing slap shot, which led to Detroit going the other way. David Krejci tried to slow down Brad Stuart, but got too much stick on his gloves and was whistled for a hook.

Detroit's potent power play dominated once the first two penalties wiped out and nearly scored late. Holmstrom took it from the goal line to the front of the net, where Rask stuffed it. In the ensuing scrum, the puck popped out to Valtteri Filppula but his shot over the pad stack of Rask appeared to hit a skate and sailed over the crossbar from close range.

The 2-1 score held the rest of the period and Detroit went to the locker room having outshot Boston 12-10 in the closely contested period. This game can still easily go either way, but Boston has still struggled to get Howard out of his element. The only goal came on a careless play of his behind the net and they haven't found a way to crack him otherwise.

Boston is 2-5-0 this season, when trailing after the second period. They'll need some resiliency against a strong Detroit team.

3rd Period

Boston's Dennis Seidenberg had a great chance at about 3:30. Jimmy Howard had his back turned and Seidenberg, crashing the net, managed to chip to puck. It would have found the upper part of the net but grazed Howard's back and crept harmlessly over the goal post. However, as was the case in the second period, the defenseman's great chance somehow translated into a penalty on the Detroit breakout.

Seidenberg stepped up for a hit on Cory Emmerton in the neutral zone. In an awkward angle, he caught the Red Wings' forward from the side. Emmerton went down and Seidenberg went to the box for kneeing at 3:38. Detroit dominated the power play, but couldn't crack Tuukka Rask and Boston defense.

The Bruins got even not long after. Henrik Zetterberg made a rare mistake when he turned the puck over in his own end after Niklas Kronwall had given him a breakout pass in front of their own net. Patrice Bergeron picked up Zetterberg's mishandled puck at the face off dot and fired a quick wrister under Howard's arm for the the typing goal.

Thorton provided the B's with a familiar spark. (Getty)

Boston's fourth line got some great play from Shawn Thornton and company shortly after to get the Boston crowd buzzing. The B's generated several chances from the high-energy line but couldn't find the net behind Howard. They headed into the middle TV timeout of the period with all the momentum, but didn't have a lead to show for it.

Detroit matched the Bruins tempo coming out of the break. Daniel Cleary rang a post on the far side of Rask at about 12:15. In a sign of the momentum of the period, it was just the Red Wings second scoring chance of the period, according to NBC's broadcast. However, it symbolized that Detroit wasn't going to lay down and the teams played up-tempo (and scoreles) through to the game's final TV timeout.

The Bruins came out with some fire to try to win the game in regulation. The linesmen decided to have a say in Boston's dominance when they inexplicably waved off an icing with about two and half minutes left, and Detroit was able to get their edge back. Pavel Datsyuk missed a great chance in the mid-slot shortly after and Zdeno Chara knocked his helmet off in the corner seconds later, but the teams kept fighting until the final buzzer. Even without his helmet, Datsyuk could be seen challenging the much taller Chara with a body check.

Boston controlled the pace of the period, scoring the only goal and winning the shot battle 18-10.

Overtime

What a great overtime! There's a reason why these are two of the most talented teams in the league and that was on full display in the extra session. Each team had a few good chances. Henrik Zetterberg was double-teamed in the corner when he picked up the put out of the tie up and fed Todd Bertuzzi for a great shot that went wide.

The Bruins had there best chances late. Dennis Seidenberg picked off an errant toss up the boards and attacked at speed for a shot. Gregory Campbell won a clean faceoff with 11 seconds left to Zdeno Chara, who had a great rip but it went wide and time expired. Boston finished the overtime with two shots to Detroit's one.

It was an all-around fantastic game to watch. Anyone that thinks a shootout is exciting doesn't know how to watch hockey well enough. It's too bad neither of these teams could have won in team fashion. Heck! It was even enough that a tie might have been a fitting, even if not satisfying finish.

Shootout

Tyler Seguin of Boston attacked with speed and fired on the forehand but Jimmy Howard got a piece with the glove to redirect it over the crossbar.

Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit delayed with a backhand fake and quickly pulled it back and shot on the forehand for the goal.

Rich Peverley came in a little slow to his forehand looked for a shot, pulled it to the middle of the ice and shot into Howard's pads.

Jiri Hudler went straight at the goal and deked to the backhand but Tuukka Rask gloved it.

Nathan Horton took a similar straight on approach and roofed a shot for the goal on Howard.

Todd Bertuzzi went in well to his backhand side, opened up for the backhand and pulled it back to the forehand for the game-winning shootout goal.

Recap

It was too bad Boston lost, but it was a great game to watch. The two teams looks like kin of the same mother. Detroit is known for its skating, Boston is known for its physicality, but both teams work hard and rarely take stupid penalties.

That was seen today. Most of the penalties that were taken were simply a result of the opponent working hard. There was a lot of skating and, contrary to Boston's recent game against Columbus (when neither team managed 30 shots in regulation), shots and chances were abundant. Boston finished with 43 shots (41 regulation) and Detroit with 31 (30 regulation).

Both goalies played very well and Jimmy Howard was the man of the match in net for Detroit. His 41 saves stood up for the Detroit win and kept a pesky and persistent Boston team from taking control, despite dominant first and third periods.

On the Boston side, Dennis Seidenberg was very impressive for Boston. He seemed to be a force on both sides of the puck and had some bad luck that led to his penalty and David Krejci's penalty (Krejci took a hook on a Detroit odd-man rush after Seidenberg snapped his stick).

The Bruins ten-game winning streak came to an end with the shootout loss, but they rightfully earned a point today. As I said, this one might have been better suited finishing in a tie (if the NHL still did those), so that would have been a single point for Boston as well.

For the first time this season, Boston will face a back-to-back when the newly returned Winnipeg Jets come to town at 7:00 p.m. ET tomorrow. The Jets are a mediocre 8-9-4 and are 26th in goals against at 3.24. It will be a good opportunity for Boston to restart the offense after Howard shut it off today.

Detroit now paces Chicago in the Central Division. The two are tied with 27 points, but the Wings have a game in hand (the Blackhawks play Anaheim later tonight). They'll head home where they take on Nashville Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. ET, as well.

Determination Wins a Championship

2011-11-22T11:01:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Stewart combined will with
skill to win the Cup (Getty)

There comes a time in any championship run in any sport where skill becomes irrelevant.

The talent you've worked your life to perfect takes care of itself. Your mental state turns into an sub-concious where you react with the decisions you've been engrained to make. Your surroundings fall away into a peculiar, white static, like something in a virtual reality, that you simply tune out.

You're totally focused on the task at hand: winning. You only see a trophy in front of you and you're locked in, determined to claim it.

We saw this performance from newly crowned NASCAR champion Tony Stewart this past weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Stewart fell to the back of the pack twice due to car issues, lost ground as Carl Edwards racked up laps led and waited through a red-flag rain delay for over an hour.

None of it mattered.

Once he got going, Stewart darted through traffic like an ambulance during rush hour. He was routinely seen dropping out of the double-file herd as the cars entered turn 1 off restarts. The strategy worked in making up a few spots each time, so he tried it on the race's final restart and blew to the front of the pack.

True to form, in the most exciting Chase since NASCAR adopted the format in 2004, Carl Edwards made quick work of the cars between him and Stewart to grab the second spot and put the pedal down to chase after "Smoke." But, it was too late. Call it dust, call it smoke, either way that was all the No. 99 would see of Tony as the laps counted down.

Stewart was a man on a mission from the day he unloaded the No. 14 for the start of the Chase at Chicagoland two months ago. He wasn't going to give up the lead and the championship now that he was finally in the position he'd worked so hard to achieve.

Edwards said it best afterward that he'd given all he had and Tony flat out beat him. Stewart had made up his mind he was going to win a championship and nothing was going to get in the way of that.

His team put together what will go down as one of the all-time great Chase performances, as he won a record five of ten Chase races. The only thing that kept him from running away with the Cup was the consistency of Edwards, who finished with seven top-fives, including three second-place finishes, in that time.

There's an old, win-one-for-the-Gipper adage that will beats skill. It's a nice underdog motto, but I contend that the skill with the most will wins championships. That's what we saw from Stewart.

Edwards and the No. 99 Aflac team put a great car out on the track all Chase, and all season, for that matter. His seven second-place finishes were just two less than Stewart's nine top-fives on the season. But, for all his skill, all his focus and all his hard work, Edwards just didn't have that "it" factor that carried the No. 14 of Stewart-Hass Racing to a championship.

Stewart said for quite some time that he was going to go out on top this season. At the end of the Chase, it was that resolve that ultimately led him to achieving his goal. He put all the distractions out of mind and focused on the only thing that mattered: winning. That determination made Stewart the 2011 Sprint Cup champion.

Bruins Dust Off Jackets

2011-11-17T21:46:00.001-05:00

Boston got all it could handle against
Columbus. The B's Shawn Thornton
fights the Jackets' Jared Boll. (AP)

Ehh. Let's just start the game recap that way and be glad it doesn't say, "Eww."

The Columbus Blue Jackets entered tonight's game with an ugly 3-13-1 record and were 0-7-0 on the road. The Boston Bruins, on the other hand, had won six straight and were back in the Eastern Conference with a 9-7-0 record. This had all the makings of a let-down game for the B's and it turned into that for much of the game. Luckily for the Bruins, they were able to get their duck boats in a row by the end of the game to pull out two points and avoid watching the winning streak get run over by the C-bus.

Boston Head Coach Claude Julien knew it had the potential to be a tough game for his team. "It played the way we thought it might for them," he said after his team finished grinding out a 2-1 shootout win. "I wish it was better. They were without a doubt the more determined team, but luckily we found a way to win. We looked tired and our sticks were light at times. We made some soft plays out there."

It was the perfect ugly game for the Blue Jackets to steal in Boston for their first road win of the season. The play seemed to pinball back and forth with no real sense of a rhythm. In regulation, Columbus took 27 shots, while Boston launched only 22. It's usually surprising when neither team manages 30 shots (in 60 minutes), so it was obviously a game that lacked many scoring chances. There were also only three regulation power plays. The man advantage tends to be a momentum changer, and there weren't many of those opportunities tonight.

True to the pong-like nature of the game, both goals were scored on funny bounces. The Blue Jackets' Nikita Nikitin (who must be a distant cousin of William Williams) fired a rising wrister from the point. Derek MacKenzie redirected it down out of the air and it bounced past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask for the power play goal at 2:49 of the second.

Boston responded with a similar looking pinball just a minute and a half later. Adam McQuaid picked up a puck that trickled out to the left point and threw it toward the net. Rich Peverley was on the doorstep for the Bruins to cause traffic and the puck ended up bouncing awkwardly off Columbus goaltender Curtis Sanford's arm and into the goal.

"Overall, we had our spurts where we were ok, but we didn't come with the game we were hoping to tonight," said McQuaid after the game. "At the end of the day, getting the two points was big, but probably not that way we wanted to get them."

The deadlock lasted for the remaining thirty-five minutes of regulation and went to overtime. Boston started pressing late and looked more and more to be taking control of the game. With about 40 seconds left in regulation, Blue Jackets' defenseman James Wisniewski snapped his stick and Boston countered on a fast break. The puck ended up flying high into the air and rolled in tantalizing fashion across the goal mouth but didn't go in.

In overtime, the Bruins went on the power play after another odd play. Brad Marchand blew a wheel but got up to find a mishandled puck at the offensive blue line, went in on a breakaway and was slashed to put Boston up a man. The foursome of Tyler Seguin, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci generated two minutes of opportunities with Chara even ringing a pipe. However, in just his second game of the season (due to injury), and first start, Sanford stood strong for Columbus and the penalty was killed off.

Roles were reversed late when Andrew Ference got a boarding penalty with just under a minute left to put Boston down a man. The Blue Jackets dominated the 4-on-3 like Boston had, but Rask and the B's defense stood tough to send the game into the arbitrary coin flip of a shootout.

After Seguin and Rick Nash traded misses for the two teams, Peverley scored for Boston, Mark Letestu finished for Colubmus and Krejci attacked with speed for a goal that brought the shootout down to the final shot. Antoine Vermette tried to take Rask to his left, but Tuukka stuck out a pad to pull out the game for Boston and bring out broadcaster Jack Edwards' favorite sign off: "Two U's, two K's, two points!"

After staring 0-3-0, Rask has now won three straight and goal scorer McQuaid was happy the team was playing better in front of him. "Even in those games we lost, he played well and we didn't give him much help," said McQuaid after the game. "He came up big tonight and made some big saves. We're glad we could get two points for him."

Boston is now up to 10-7-0, and the 20 points puts them smack in the middle of the division and the conference. They're +19 goal differential ranks first in the NHL, but after a slow start, they still have ground to make up until the standings recognize them as an elite team. "It's unfortuante we put ourselves in the position we did," said McQuaid about the early season struggles. "But, as well as we've done lately, we're trying to climb into a playoff position. In a way, we've put it behind us, but at the same time, we look at the standings and are still trying to get back in the position we want to be in."

Boston will have to get up for another game against a cellar dweller on Saturday. They'll head to Long Island to take on the Islanders, who currently sit last in the Eastern Conference with 13 points (even with a win tonight). The Bruins blew the shutters off the Isles on Nov. 7 with a 6-2 win and will have to do the same Saturday. They were lucky to beat Columbus tonight and shouldn't take another chance in giving a hungry dog a sniff of potential victory.

Homestretch at Homestead

2011-11-17T16:03:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Perhaps Edwards will win again to avoid
the awkwardness of two burnouts. (Getty)

This is it! The final week of the season.

The final time I'll dig through NASCAR's statistical advance, scrounge through NASCAR.com and check out Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR stats in hopes of calculating a winning formula.

This weekend's all about Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart, but that doesn't mean there won't be 41 other cars on the track for the Ford 400.

Kasey Kahne reminded us that there's more than just two cars out there when he broke a long winless slump at Phoenix last weekend. Sure, Stewart led the most laps and Edwards looked good until a slow pit stop landed him behind Kahne late. But, there are still plenty of good drivers out there that could steal some thunder this weekend.

Let's hope, for the sake of excitement, that either Edwards or Stewart pulls out the win. The reality is that if one of those two wins the race, he'll win the championship, regardless of the other's finish. That makes for a fitting symmetry for the final race.

There's nothing more awkward than watching someone, like David Ragan, for example, win the race and burnout in celebration of an 18th-place finish in the standings, while Edwards or Stewart are trying to keep the spotlight shined on themselves for the Cup trophy.

Yet, it's not an unreasonable scenario to expect that we'll see someone celebrating a championship, while another simply celebrates a race win. From a fantasy NASCAR perspective, you'll also need more than just the No. 14 or the No. 99 to seal up the championship this weekend. You'll be paying attention to all your drivers out there.

*In case you're new to this segment, check out my first fantasy post on how the system works.

Strategy: NASCAR only visits Homestead once a year and it's always to close out the season. By this point in the season, most drivers know what they have under them. There aren't many unknowns, so that breeds consistency over the years at Homestead. A good crew chief can use the book he has from Homestead to make the adjustments he sees fit on a setup that has been refined for success over the course of the season. In a concise sentence: go with the drivers that usually perform well here.

A-List

Start

#14 Tony Stewart - "Smoke" has five straight top-10s and is racing for a championship. He's always worth considering these days, especially since you probably have starts left after his slow early season.

#29 Kevin Harvick - Harvick has an average finish of 7.9 at Homestead thanks to five top-fives and eight top-10s in 10 starts.

#99 Carl Edwards - With the championship on the line, Edwards is on one of his best tracks. He has two wins and six top-10s in seven starts. He averages a finish of 5.7 and has the best driver rating at 117.5. For what it's worth, I think he'll win this race and the championship.

Park

#18 Kyle Busch - How bad has it gotten for Busch? He's in last among Chase drivers and NASCAR's statistical advance inadvertently left him off a chart of Chasers this week. Who knows? Maybe it wasn't inadvertent.

B-List

Start

#4 Kasey Kahne - Have you seen how this kid's been racing lately? He's finished sixth or better in six of the last seven races!

#33 Clint Bowyer - Bowyer has six top-10s in nine Chase races. He's not a stand out at Homestead, but his average finish here is right on par with his career average, so he doesn't raise any red flags either.

#43 AJ Allmendinger - 'Dinger has the most average fantasy points on the B-List, thanks to two top-10s in three starts. It's a small sample size, but he's there if you don't have many other options.

#56 Martin Truex Jr. - Truex Jr. has the second best driver rating of anyone (including the A-List) at Homestead with a 107.4. He's a great option since you probably haven't zeroed out his starts.

Park

#83 Brian Vickers - I think we all liked Vickers and were pulling for his comeback after the medical issues in 2010. However, I'm sick of him wrecking everyone else out of the race and I have to assume that the field feels the same way. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him end up in the wall this weekend.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. - He's never, ever had a top-10 here in 11 starts. He has an average finish of a terrible 24.2 and that only includes a single DNF that would have dragged that number down.

C-List

Start

#6 David Ragan - Ragan gets the nod over Paul Menard because he has one top-10 to Menard's best finish of 17 at Homestead. Honestly, you should have used up enough allocations on both that you only have one left to start...at best.

#21 Trevor Bayne - Let me clarify, here's who I think you start if you have allocations left: Ragan, Menard, Regan Smith. However, if you've used all of them up, then Bayne's as good of an option as any of the remaining drivers, and I have to assume you have a start left for the No. 21.

Park

#36 Geoffrey Bodine - This is a joke pick, sort of (I mean he seems to end up in the wall each week). Honestly, though, if you're in a situation where you have allocations left on more than one driver between Ragan, Menard or Regan Smith and you're looking for my advice: my advice would be to have used those allocations earlier in the year.

My Preliminary Roster

A - EDWARDS (1), Stewart (8)
B - KESELOWSKI (1), TRUEX JR. (6), Bowyer (1), Newman (1)
C - SMITH (1), Bayne (8)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

Drivers with zero allocations remaining: Earnhardt Jr. (B), Kahne (B), Menard (C), Ragan (C).

NASCAR's Game 7

2011-11-15T16:15:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Both Edwards (right) and Stewart (left) will
take the Cup by winning the race (Getty).

In most sports, Game 7 is the pinnacle of competition. The winner-take-all, loser-goes-home-empty-handed crux that defines the thin line between glory and gut-wrenching disappointment.

Auto racing doesn't really have that. It doesn't have a sudden death goal, a buzzer beating shot or a game-winning field goal. At least, it doesn't usually have something like that. That's changed this year.

This weekend's race at Homestead will be Game 7 for the Sprint Cup Series. Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart will go head-to-head in an elimination round.

Picture this: With five laps to go, Brian Vickers wrecks Andy Lally to bring out a caution.

Why Lally? Let's be honest, he's one of the few drivers Vickers hasn't wrecked in the past few weeks, so you have to assume it's coming. But I digress; that's beside the point.

The picture I'm trying to paint is one where Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart have raced hard for 265 laps as they lineup in the front row, side-by-side for a green-white-checkered finish. If that scenario ensues, it will literally be the equivalent to an overtime finish. Who ever crosses the finish line first takes the championship!

In any given weekend, the difference between the first and second is a few bonus, a couple thousand dollars and significant bragging rights for the next year. This week, it's much more.

There's only one scenario where current points leader Edwards can guarantee the 2011 championship. He must win the race. If Edwards leads 266 of 267 laps and gets passed by Stewart coming out of turn 4 for the checkered flag, Stewart wins the championship.

Edwards might have a three-point lead, but, in the above scenario, Stewart would get 47 points and Edwards 44. By virtue of having four wins to Edwards' one, Stewart will win a tiebreaker if the two were to end up dead-locked, and Stewart can do no worse than tie if he wins the race. Thus, both drivers control their fate!

Sure, there are still 41 other cars on the track, 42 if you want to count Vickers as a double-wide wrecking ball, so maybe someone else will win. However, the two drivers have proven they both deserve to be here by putting together two great top-three finishes in the past two races.

Stewart has won four times in nine Chase races. While Edwards has yet to pick up a Chase W, he's finished in the top-five in six of the nine. There's no reason to believe the two won't be in top form and in front of the pack come the late stages of Homestead on Sunday afternoon.

If, and let's hope when, that happens, it'll be like the clock running down on Game 7. The two drivers will both have control of their own championship destiny. All they'll need to do is win!

This is it NASCAR fans. Our win-or-go-home, all-or-nothing, single elimination, Game 7-style final is here!

May the best competitor win.

BRUINS LIVE: Edmonton at Boston

2011-11-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

Nugent-Hopkins (93) and Hall are two young
players leading the Oilers charge. (Getty)

Tonight's game features the team with the third-best point total in the league against one tied with the 26th.

Ok. That's conceivable since the Bruins won the Cup last year and the Oilers have been a perennial doormat. However, it's Edmonton that comes into tonight's game with 20 points at 9-3-2, while Boston is just 6-7-0 for 12 points.

While Boston is still near the bottom of the NHL, the fact they only trail the lofty Oilers by eight points shows they've at least gotten back in it. They've now won three straight and seem to have their stride back.

On the other hand, Edmonton has been in stride since day one. They've gotten some unexpected great goaltending out of 38-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin, while 25-year-old second year, and future in the crease, Devan Dubnyk has played well also. The Oilers are just 24th in offense, but first in defense with a 1.5 GAA.

The key tonight for Boston will be out hitting Edmonton and rattling starting goalie Dubnyk early. In general, the Eastern Conference tends to be more rough-and-tumble, while the West is more skating. The Oilers have a lot of young forwards, including the last two overall draft picks, and the key will be for Boston to bring their "Big, Bad Bruins" mentality and enforce their game.

STARTING GOALTENDERS

Edmonton - Devan Dubnyk (2-3-0, 2.19 GAA, 0.930 SV%)
Boston - Tuukka Rask (1-3-0, 2.53 GAA, 0.910 SV%)

1st Period

Edmonton veteran Ryan Smyth announced the Oilers presence early by rattling the pipe on a fast break during the game's first shift, but the post proved why it's called the "goalie's best friend" as it turned the puck away for Tuukka Rask. Boston gained momentum after the early lapse with the fourth line of Benoit Pouliot, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton turning up the energy. The first line followed suit with Milan Lucic feeding it from the boards to Nathan Horton in the slot for a great chance. Then, Horton found David Krejci cross ice at the far blue line to send him in on a fast break. Neither chance was converted, but the Bruins had six scoring chances to the Oilers zero just five minutes in.

Brad Marchand attacked a double team with speed at about 6:20 and the puck got left behind for Tyler Seguin, who flashed the great vision he's seen all year to feed Adam McQuaid on the far side of the net for a one-time tip. Again, Dubnyk showed why the Oilers have been the most stout team in the league defensively, as he slid across to deny "Quaider." The game went to its first commercial with the Bruins controlling play.

It came out in the same fashion. The first line controlled an offensive shift by holding on the puck for 43 straight seconds in the O-zone. When Horton back handed a dump from the side board to the corner, Krejci took it from there and proved why he's considered a play-making center. He fed it across ice to the point to an open Johnny Boychuk, who let out a classic Boychuk bomb that exploded through traffic and into the net at 7:11.

Boston kept it going less than two minutes later. AHL call up Zach Hamill intercepted an errant back handed pass from Edmonton's Ben Eager and quickly found Jordan Caron in the slot, who knocked the puck in off of Dubnyk at 8:55. Trailing 2-0, the Oilers immediately called timeout to refocus.

Veteran Smyth led the Oilers with two scores. (Getty)

It worked. Ryan Smyth immediately fed Shawn Horcoff in the center just seconds after play restarted and Rask had to make a great save. Edmonton kept the pressure on and it was Smyth who eventually tallied the first goal at 12:02. Smyth and Ales Hemsky strong-armed Boychuk behind the goal for the puck. Hemsky fed it to the point, where Theo Peckham fired a shot that was redirected in by Smyth, who had cut to the front of the goal.

Then, the Oilers, as NESN's Jack Edwards said, "took a page out of the Bruins book" by scoring only 29 seconds later (something the B's had been doing a lot recently). Rookie sensation Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (this year's number one overall pick) fired a pass from his own end across the ice to the far blue, where Taylor Hall (last year's number one overall pick) attacked two-on-two. Nugent-Hopkins followed the play up and Boston was slow on the backcheck when Milan Lucic let "Nuge" go and Hall found him open in the slot for the tying goal.

The rest of the period proved uneventful. McQuaid sent a nice pass to Hamill at about 13:20 to catch Edmonton on a line change, but Hamill wasn't able to get a great shot off. The Oilers rattled it around in near the goal when Eric Belanger blasted one from the top of the circle, but Rask scooped it up. Edmonton's Peckham took the only penalty of the period at 18:17, but the Oilers sport the league's fourth best penalty kill and the Bruins never set much up.

After the period, Boychuk emphasized the need to key in on the Oilers' young wheels and slow down the rush. "Especially in the offensive zone there, they have very good forwards that are speedy," he said. "You have to be used to your surroundings out there."

2nd Period

The last 17 seconds of the Bruins' power play wasted away, but Tyler Seguin's speed got them another one soon after. Jeff Petry hooked Seguin on a fast break into the offensive end and Boston set up for a power play. After several good looks, Seguin passed it from the mid-boards to the center point, where Joe Corvo snapped a quick wrister at the goal. Brad Marchand made a nice play to redirect the shot down and it bounced past Dubnyk for a PP tally at 3:50.

Seguin again continued to, as Edwards described it, "sizzle" when he went in on the attack for a goal at 6:24. His initial shot seemed to ring a post, but took a quirky bounce when Oilers' defenseman Tom Gilbert tried to clear and it riccocheted off Corey Potter's skate, then stick (I think, maybe it was the other skate) and skipped into the top of the goal. Seguin got credit and was crashing on Gilbert's clear anyway.

Nathan Horton had a nice chance in the mid slot at 9:10 with Milan Lucic in front, but couldn't find the goal. Then, Johnny Boychuk looked to send a message to Oilers' star Taylor Hall, but Hall was hooked by Shawn Thornton as the hit unfolded. Boychuk couldn't get a good piece and Thornton went to the box at 9:29.

The Oilers brought the house on the power play to create several chances. The Bruins were hamstrung when Adam McQuaid lost his stick and Gregory Campbell gave him his own, which was far shorter and the opposite curve, and left Campbell without one for the the duration of the shorthand. The B's killed it off, but couldn't clear and Thornton finally iced the puck. With his guys tired, Head Coach Claude Julien called a timeout at 11:49 and Boston weathered the storm.

There were a few fast breaks after that with Edmonton's Ales Hemsky dancing through Zdeno Chara and the Boston defense for a chance at about 4:45. The Bruins went the other way a minute later with its first line but the Oilers defense stood strong against the Boston speedsters.   It stood pat again when Jordan Eberle was called for an interference penalty at 16:48. It was a pretty easy call since he hit Patrice Bergeron, who didn't have the puck, into the referee that made the call! Boston generated some chances, but couldn't find the back of the net.

The B's closed out the period with a solid shift from the third line of Chris Kelly, Jordan Caron and Zach Hamill. Adam McQuaid followed up on of their break-in by stepping into a slap shot at the high slot, but couldn't get it through.   The 4-2 score held up as the team's headed to the locker room.

With Boston holding the Oilers in check, Brad Marchand spoke after the period about the need to keep forcing Edmonton to work for their chances. "We just gotta get the pucks down deep in their end and limit their opportunities," he told NESN's Naoko Funayama.

3rd Period

The teams swapped penalties, as Boston brought the pressure early. Edmonton's Corey Potter got a stick high on Zach Hamill as he crashed the net and the two ended up in a heap on top of goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Potter ended up with a two-minute minor for the high stick at just 1:04. However, Dennis Seidenberg negated the man-advantage a minute later when his stick got caught in an Oiler jersey for a hook.

After the Bruins quick start, Edmonton slowly tilted the ice and went on the man-advantage again at 6:15 when Gregory Campbell headed to the box for a hook on Eric Belanger. The Oilers didn't score, but moved the puck well on the power play. The Bruins problems were also compounded when it was announced coming out of the TV commercial to start the power play that assistant captain and tough-nosed defenseman Andrew Ference had left the game with an undisclosed injury and would not return (Claude Julien said after the game that he left in the second period with a lower body injury).

Edmonton again went on the power play when Patrice Bergeron was called for a high stick at 13:25. "Bergie" went off complaining that he got his stick under Jordan Eberle's and his own stick got him in the head. The replay showed he was right, but it was Boston's third consecutive "stick" penalty of the period. Regardless of the call, it was evident by those types of penalties that Boston wasn't keeping up with Edmonton anymore.

The power play proved to be a disaster. My mom called during this power play and didn't have the game on.   She was happy to hear Boston was winning, but I wasn't happy as I watched the Oilers dominate the advantage to get back in the game. As Bergeron's penalty ticked down, Ales Hemsky fed it from the corner across the front of the goal to Eric Belanger on the far side. Belanger dished it back across to Ryan Smyth, who shoveled it home on the back side of the crease for his second goal of the night.

Corvo played particularly well for Boston. (Getty)

With the Bruins starting to unravel, Cam Barker took an ill-advised penalty at 16:56 when he interfered with Tyler Seguin. It killed Edmonton's momentum and gave Boston the chance to search for an insurance goal. They got just that when they passed it around the offensive end and the puck ended up on the stick of Joe Corvo, who had slid down the right boards. Corvo continued what had been a great game for him by firing a pass across the goal mouth and Milan Lucic redirected it into the open side of the net for a 5-3 lead at 17:13 to register Corvo's third assist of the evening. It was the first game all season that the Oilers yielded five goals (or more...).

Brad Marchand hit the proverbial nail in the coffin at 17:57. He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and walked in on the left side and sniped a shot into the attic of Dubnyk. The 6-3 score closed out the game. The Bruins' Chris Kelly entered his name on the game sheet with a late holding penalty at 18:42, but it was all over by the time that power play started.

Recap

At the start of the year, Boston had to have figured that a stretch against Toronto, Ottawa, the Islanders and Edmonton would yield strong results. Well, most of those teams have been better than expected and the Bruins have been worse, but they closed out all four games for eight points. The results have gotten them back to .500 at 7-7-0 and back into the conference with 14 points.

Boston has now scored 24 goals in four November games (all wins). They scored just 22 in 10 October games and have more points this month (eight) than all of last month (six).

Marchand paced Boston with two goals. (AP)

"We're winning battles and working hard," Tyler Seguin said in the locker room after the game. "We're playing a full 60 [minutes]. Right now, the main thing is consistency and that's what we're doing."

While the offense has been on fire, the Bruins have also gotten back to form. I was raised on the theory that the team that scores its fourth goal first, wins the game (and in about two-thirds of games, one team scores four goals and the other does not). If you don't believe it, look at this season: nine of Boston's 14 games have had one team score at least four, while the other team's scored less. In a 1-4-0 closing to October, Boston gave up four goals in three of five games (all losses). In the 4-0-0 start to November, they haven't yielded more than three.

"Guys have done a really good job in these past games of the winning streak," said Tuukka Rask after the game. "Guys battled hard and blocked shots and took care of rebounds that meant a lot today."

This evening's game was the closet of the four this month. The Bruins showed a few lapses from time-to-time. They let Edmonton crawl back from a 2-0 deficit midway through the first period and again left the door open when they unraveled in the third. However, they recovered each time and showed a resiliency and determination that simply wasn't there in October.

"Tonight was one of those games we started really well," said Coach Claude Julien. "Then, we started turning the puck over high in our offensive zone and they found a way to score on those. We have some areas to improve, but I'm glad we found a way to win."

Tonight's W said a lot about the B's. After winning the Cup in June, this team seemed to have lost the edge that got them there. They no longer showed the work ethic required for a blue collar team like themselves to succeed. That's changed since the calendar flipped to November. They've gotten back to playing Bruins hockey and it's showed by their success on the scoresheets.

Boston will have a big challenge on Saturday as it hosts the Buffalo Sabres at 7 p.m. (EST). Like Boston, Buffalo is playing well with three straight wins and a 9-5-0 record entering a Friday game with Ottawa. The two teams were expected to compete for the Northeast Division this season and with Boston back in the fold, this game could be a crucial early-season measuring stick.

Things won't get any easier for the Oilers as they'll go on the road to Detroit tomorrow night for a 7:30 p.m. (EST) puck drop. This isn't the same old Edmonton team, though. They were in it throughout tonight and the Bruins recognized that. "You can definitely see the potential of those guys," Rask said. "They're really good skaters and good stick handlers. You gotta keep an eye on them when they're out there, and we did a good job of that tonight."

A Mile Full of Questions

2011-11-09T09:42:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. talk during
last month's test at Phoenix. (Getty)

By now you've probably heard that Phoenix International Raceway underwent a huge face lift this summer.

Only in Arizona is the weather warm enough that you can space races so far apart to undertake these changes during the season! The raceway changed some of the banking, reshaped the backstretch to more of a dog leg and laid down new pavement on the aging track.

All of these will make this race the Chase's biggest wild card outside of Talladega.

Most of the drivers are approaching the track as if it's one they've never raced on before, and, in some ways, that's a fair thought. The reshaped dog leg changes the overall configuration of the track, so drivers will have to modify their vision of the track. Imagine if you moved the bed in your room. Sure, it's the same room and the same bed, but you'll have to walk to a different spot before you can lie down.

That dog leg, along with the added banking, are also expected to make the one-mile oval run a little faster than it has in the past. The higher speeds could potentially be an issue due to the repaving. In an early October test session, drivers said that the new surface didn't have a second racing groove and that cars tended to get up in the wall if they fell out of the first groove.

PIR has worked hard in the month since then to lay down more rubber and try to get the surface ready for a race. However, we won't know until Sunday how the track ends up racing. In fact, we won't really know too much of anything about what to expect until the Kobalt Tools 500 goes green on 3 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.

There aren't really many other tracks to which to compare it. NHMS and Dover are each one-mile, but NHMS is flatter, Dover is more banked and both are more paperclipped than Phoenix's new tri-oval look. The best comparison in terms of shape and banking might be Richmond, but that's only 0.75-miles around.

It makes it very hard for prognosticators like myself to figure out what's going to happen, but my fantasy NASCAR team is ranked in the 98th percentile on Yahoo! right now (Toot! Toot! That's me sounding my own horn). Hopefully, we can work together to figure out a successful strategy for the late season fantasy roster on this mystery course.

*In case you're new to this segment, check out my first fantasy post on how the system works.

Strategy: Since we don't have any stats to go on for the "new" Phoenix, the old ones should give some insight into what to expect. As I said, Richmond could also be used for some rough comparisons, but the big thing to keep in mind is how the drivers are doing right now. Sometimes, we, and I'm referring to myself, lose track of that concept when I start analyzing stats from a specific track.

A-List

Start

#14 Tony Stewart - He's won four of the last eight races and is right in the thick of a championship battle. Why doubt him now?

#48 JImmie Johnson - Before the repaving, "Five-Time" (we can't call him that much longer) dominated Phoenix. He averaged an insane 4.8 finish! You'd need to do a lot of reconfiguring to knock that back down to normal.

#99 Carl Edwards - Edwards' 2011 success was sparked when he snapped a long winless drought in the Phoenix Chase race a year ago. He's been consistent on any configuration throughout the year with a top-five in half of the races (17 of 34), so there's no reason to expect he won't put up a solid finish on Sunday.

Park

#18 Kyle Busch - Of course! Parking Kyle seems to be trendy these days, so I just wanted to get on board. In all honesty, he's not half bad at Phoenix, but he always tends to fade as the sun starts setting early in autumn and that's been true to form throughout this year's Chase.

B-List

Start

#4 Kasey Kahne - It's interesting. His teammate Brian Vickers doesn't have a ride next year and seems to be racing without a care in the world. Kahne, on the other hand, looks like a guy fighting for a job, even though he's locked in with Hendrick Motorsports for 2012. He has four top-fives in the last six starts.

#31 Jeff Burton - He led late at Texas last week, but lost out on a Hail Mary of a fuel mileage gamble (when you run out with five laps left, you definitely weren't as close as you thought). The final results scored him in 27th, but it was the third straight week the team showed signs of life. He has two wins at Phoenix in his career, so he's an option if you're out of allocations on your best B-Listers.

#39 Ryan Newman - Newman doesn't have the best history at this track, but he does have three consecutive top-fives at PIR. It'd be an understatement to say he hasn't been in his best stretch of the year, but he does seem to like the mile ovals. If you have some starts left on him, you might as well consider using them.

#56 Martin Truex Jr. - At this point, there's no need to save starts for top drivers. However, if you've flat out drained the top drivers, then he's a good option. He's posted three straight top-10s and seems to be consistent enough from week-to-week to roll out there. Given, it's a consistent mediocrity, but it could be worse!

Park

#2 Brad Keselowski - This is going to be one of those do as I say, not as I do moments. I have two Keselowski starts left and I feel obligated to use both of them. However, he's faded recently and never done better than 15th at Phoenix, so if you only have one start left, save it for next week.

#20 Joey Logano - His troubles continued when his engine blew up last weekend and it's now been 13 races since Logano finished in the top-10. Even if you've taxed your top B-Listers, he's not an option.

C-List

Start

#6 David Ragan - I said last week that Ragan needed to get back on track before I recommended him, and he posted a 12th. You can't take his starts to the bank, so you better use 'em if you got 'em.

#27 Paul Menard - He's only finished worse than 20th once since the Chase started, so he's the most consistent of the C-List. I'd recommend using him over Ragan, if you have that luxury (I don't).

Park

#78 Regan Smith - MInd you, if you don't have any Ragan or Menard starts left then don't hesitate on the No. 78, but he's fallen off. His upside is the only thing that makes him better than most of the other C-Listers, like David Gilliland, Casey Mears or Dave Blaney, that do more than start-and-park but don't contend often for the lead. Smith's better than them, but more or less an afterthought at this point.

My Preliminary Roster

A - EDWARDS (2), Johnson (1)
B - BOWYER (2), KESELOWSKI (2), Newman (1), Truex Jr. (6)
C - RAGAN (1), Smith (1)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

Drivers with zero allocations remaining: Earnhardt Jr. (B), Kahne (B), Menard (C).

Living Up to the Hype

2011-11-08T15:14:00.000-05:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Stewart (left) and Edwards are shoulder-to-
shoulder with two races left. (NASCAR.com)

Could we ask anything more from the Chase for the Sprint Cup!?

Well, Junior fans would probably say a race win, but aside from that, we're getting our money's worth this autumn!

Texas Motor Speedway spent all last week building up the Carl Edwards vs. Tony Stewart duel and the two competitors delivered the promise on Sunday. Stewart dominated the race, but Edwards crossed the finish line right behind him for second.

The win helped Stewart close the eight point gap to three, but Edwards' relentlessness made it so "Smoke" couldn't pass him in the standings. The result leaves the two neck-in-neck with two races to go.

Stewart has won a very impressive four wins in the Chase, while Edwards hasn't registered a win since the third race of the season. However, it's Edwards consistency that has made him an elite driver all season. "Cousin Carl" leads the field this season with 17 top-fives (half of the season's races) and 24 top-10s.

Many Stewart fans are scratching their head that their favorite driver could win half of the Chase races and still not lead the points. Some are clamoring for more points for Chase victories, but it's worth remembering that few fans of the No. 14 were griping about wins when he didn't have any entering the Chase. Heck, even Tony was sheepish about his position at that time; that's changed as his team has started putting him in a position to win each week and he's done the rest for them in dominating fashion.

While Stewart fans contemplate that dilemma, other fans still holding onto the traditional school of thought don't even support the Chase format! Those fans should be perched high on top the Carl Edwards bandwagon, if they aren't already. He'd more or less have this thing wrapped up if there wasn't any resetting at the Chase.

Let's all come together and agree on a few things, though.

What we saw last weekend in Texas was amazing. Usually, with 43 cars on the track, the hype between just two of them is overblown. That wasn't the case last week. Both drivers came to the track intent on putting up great finishes and both did exactly that. They even traded places on a few of the final restarts before Stewart pulled away for the win in the waning laps.

Furthermore, what we expect to see at Phoenix and Homestead is similarly exciting. Perhaps it's because I grew up with the traditional "stick and ball" sports (as they describe them), but I love seeing the season come down to the final events. This kind of close duel is what makes this sport fun.

Put it this way: would you prefer that Edwards and Stewart be separated by three points right now or would you prefer that Jimmie Johnson be up by about 75 points and well on his way to number six?

That's nothing against Jimmie. I'll be the first to tell you that I thought his streak of five straight was a phenomenal run and something for which I didn't think enough fans gave him credit. However, the idea that one of these two will dethrone "Five-Time," but that none of us have any idea which, gives us all a reason to tune in for the final two races.

Like Bruins fans last June, this is the reason we've paid attention all season! We want this part of the year to be fun. The excitement and anticipation is what guarantees you'll be paying attention to every pit stop and every lead change.

I also have to give a lot of credit to NASCAR for revamping the points system. Whether or not that had any affect on the current situation can be debated. Personally, I think it's more just a coincidence and that drivers were just as likely to be close or spread apart in either system. However, they've made it so much easier for fans to understand, especially the casual ones that are trying to figure it out.

I know I've found it very easy to describe to my parents, who are slowly coming around on NASCAR. It's so simple to tell them that you get 43 points on down to one, based on your finish, and then you get three points for a win, one for a lap led and one more for the most laps led; that's all!

It also makes it easy for all of us sitting on the couch that have long given up on doing long division or calculating for x in our heads. It's simple addition and/or subtraction, so we can easily play along at home without waiting for ESPN to put up a graphic to tell us what's up.

Personally, I'm excited (in case you can't tell).

I had the chance to race Tony Stewart in go-karts at an NHMS event in late August and we welcomed him into Victory Lane a month later. I admire Stewart's success as a team owner with his two cars making five of a total six Chase appearances since he gained ownership in 2009. The addition of Danica Patrick for 2012 didn't hurt the team's reputation, either! He's one of the most popular names in the sport and would serve as a prominent champion for NASCAR.

On the other hand, I tagged along lobstering with Carl Edwards shortly before the SYLVANIA 300. He's very charismatic and participates regularly on ESPN, as well as appearing in mainstream ads for companies like Subway. He was the driver that I first started to associate with when I began following the sport, thanks to his rise to prominence and his competitive attitude combined with his, well, cousin-like personality. He has a pilot's license and lives in Missouri, as opposed to North Carolina like most drivers, and he seems to serve as an ambassador to the non-traditional fans that could help expand the sport's reach.

Either way, NASCAR is in a position to crown a very suitable new champion.

And us fans? Well, we better put ourselves in a position on the couch because we're probably not going to know who that champion is until the race winner (probably one of these two) crosses the finish line at Homestead a week from Sunday.

Sit tight! This is going to be fun.

BRUINS LIVE: Islanders at Boston

2011-11-07T19:07:00.000-05:00

Grabner is one of the young players
that has the Isles looking up. (Getty)

It's the Battle of the Basement tonight in Boston. The Bruins have vastly underachieved in the early going and their 5-7-0 record gives them just 10 points, tied for last in the Eastern Conference. Tonight, the 4-5-2 Islanders are in town and thus serve as the team currently tied in last with those 10 points.

The good news for the B's is that they've played much better in solid 5-3 and 7-0 wins over Ottawa and Toronto (respectively). They've stopped the bleeding, but tonight's game is definitely one they need to win if they want to continue clawing their way back into relevancy.

The Islanders haven't been good in a long time, but this year they were supposed to at least contend for a playoff spot. They have a lot of young talent along with a few experienced veterans that are expected to gel to make this team dangerous. They haven't been that so far, but the season is young and they should be spurred by Saturday's 5-3 upset of the elite Washington Capitals.

The key for the Bruins will be slowing down the young forwards of the Isles, like Michael Grabner and John Tavares. New York has a revolving door at goaltender, but all three have been relatively solid, so it won't be easy for the offense. The B's will need to give a little support to starting goalie Tuukka Rask, who hasn't played particularly well early on.

Starting Goaltenders

New York: Evgeni Nabokov (1-2-0, 2.23 GAA, 0.927 SV%)
Boston: Tuukka Rask (0-3-0, 2.71 GAA, 0.906 SV%)

1st Period

The Bruins started off quick. Jordan Caron took part in a solid forecheck and dumped the puck to the front of the net, where it got stuck in the legs of Islanders' goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Benoit Pouliot crashed the net and poked it in for his first goal in the black and gold at just 1:32.

In the need for a spark, Matt Martin challenged the Bruins' Adam McQuaid to a fight off the ensuing faceoff. McQuaid used his size advantage to get the better of the brawl between the two heavyweights. However, it was mission accomplished on the ice for the Isles as they began to take some control of the game.

Boston's first line continued its struggles and Milan Lucic made a poor backwards pass in the offensive zone that was picked off and went the other way for New York. Lucic again made a mistake and left Steve Staios open on the right point once the Isles set up. Staios made a shot/pass to Matt Moulson, who got some separation in the slot and redirected the shot for the game-tying goal at 5:52.

The Bruins evened the momentum in the next few minutes of a back and forth game. Pouliot had a nice steal at the defensive blue for a fast break the other way at about 7:40. Tyler Seguin showed some patience in the offensive corner to find Joe Corvo for a dangerous drive from the point a minute later. At about 10:30, teh Bruins' Daniel Paille stepped in front of a Brian Rolston wrister in the mid-slot for a nice block. However, it wasn't until Travis Hamonic was whistled for cross-checking at 12:11 that the Bruins truly regained control. That was also the first TV commercial break in the fast moving game!

The Bruins flashed a dominant power-play that cashed in at 13:38. Zdeno Chara ripped a blast from the point and Nathan Horton grabbed the rebound at the faceoff dot before cutting to the slot to rifle the puck into the goal.

Just like against Toronto on Saturday, goals came in pairs for the Bruins as they tallied another one just 29 seconds later. Brad Marchand flipped the puck out of a tie-up in the corner to Patrice Bergeron who was skating behind the net. "Bergie" made a great look over the shoulder to find Seguin, who was cutting far post for the finish that chased Nabokov at 14:07.

While he wasn't at fault on all the goals, Nabokov's night was done as he was replaced by Al Montoya. Again, the attempted momentum shift worked out for the Islanders, that and a Chris Kelly slashing penalty at 14:35 that gave the Isles an advantage. While they didn't get any great scoring chances, they were able to fire several long-range shots to at least get the air back in their sails.

Michael Grabner made a heck of a play in the late going to knock an airborne puck down and keep it in the offensive zone. John Tavares picked up the rolling puck, cut across the high slot and dropped a pretty pass back to Grabner, who sniped the upper corner at 18:36 to bring New York back within one.

The period ended at that score. The Bruins had eight point scorers and a 15-8 shot advantage, but the late Islanders goal changed the complexion. Pouliot said after the period that Boston had to play smart hockey to slow New York down. "They put the puck at the net all the time," he said. "We gotta keep playing the same way and try to create power plays out there."

2nd Period

The second period started off much like a majority of the first. It featured a lot of skating and not too many whistles, but New York slowly seemed to be taking control. That was compounded by a Milan Lucic penalty for roughing, a bad call, at 5:32, so the Islanders were able to keep the Bruins on their heels for two more minutes. Luckily, the TV timeout came right after that was done and Claude Julien went with the Bruins best line in the form of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin.

Seguin had a pretty give-and-go with Bergeron to get the puck with an open net in front of him, but by the time he corralled it with his skates, he was off the angle and the puck hit the side of the net. Seconds later, Bergeron gave a nice flip to Marchand, who split the defense for a quick break and nearly scored when the puck was flipped up in the air off Al Montoya. They had another great shift the following time on the ice as Marchand gave a nice feed to Seguin on the far side, but he again just missed the net on the one-time tap.

The Islanders created chances soon after, with Josh Bailey cutting through the slot and shooting wide. Then, Mark Streit controlled the puck nicely from the point to go around the back of the net to feed Matt Martin in front. Martin whiffed on the puck, but when Boston again had some sloppy play in their own end, Zdeno Chara ended up taking a hooking penalty.

Boston used a strong penalty kill to slow down the Isles attack. When Chara came out of the box, they almost completely reversed the game. He intercepted a puck at the offensive blue line and found Marchand on the far side for a good shot on Montoya. With about two minutes left, Nathan Horton and David Krejci generated two quick chances. Horton fed one to Krejci cutting through the slot, but Montoya stopped the tip. Krejci ended up with the puck in front seconds later but couldn't flip it past Montoya's glove.

The two teams continued to go back and forth but goalies Tuukka Rask for Boston and Montoya for New York turned the period into a goaltender's duel with the 3-2 score holding up throughout the frame. The shots ended at 15-12 in Boston's favor, a reflection of both the back-and-forth game and the goaltending prowess. At the period's end, Montoya had saved all 19 shots he'd faced on the night.

Emerging star Tyler Seguin spoke with NESN after the period about the success he's found with his relatively new line mates. "We're doing very well so far," he said. "It's all about chemistry. I'm just trying to find my spot on their line and be useful for them." He went on to talk about the need for the team to stay consistent. "We have to stay consistent and win every battle this [third] period," he said. "We got a play a full 60. That's what we've done the last two games and what we have to do tonight."

3rd Period

The Bruins' Daniel Paille suffered an ugly shot to the head from Steve Staios at 3:09. Staios' shot got high immediately and got Paille in the face. The good news is that, while the Bruins winger was bleeding, he wears a visor. He might need some of mom's old need and thread, but shouldn't be out with a long-term issue of any sort.

While not his fault, the Bruins made sure to make Staios pay the ultimate price a minute later. Milan Lucic muscled him away from the puck in the neutral zone to get into attack mode and fed the puck across to a wide open Nathan Horton. "Hortie" drove the net and froze Al Montoya with a shoulder-fake-shot and then slid the puck back to Lucic, who again outmuscled Staios. The defenseman was on him like white on rice, but Lucic plowed home the puck past the faked out Montoya for the 4-2 lead at 4:34.

NESN broadcaster Jack Edwards said 49 seconds later, "It's like a heartbeat with this team. Ba-boom, ba-boom!" That was because it was yet another set of paired goals for the Bruins. This time it was Horton that got a goal for himself. Joe Corvo took a cross ice feed from Dennis Seidenberg and fired a shot from the point. Montoya stopped the blast, but couldn't do anything about Horton, who put the biscuit in the basket by sliding it back under the sprawled goaltender.

That was about it for the action. Tyler Seguin again almost scored one from Brad Marchand, but "Marchie" fed him a little too far in front and he couldn't quite get the tip toward the goal. Lucic went to the box for his second penalty of the game for tripping at 13:05 and the Islanders put the pressure on, but Tuukka Rask played a great final 40 minutes to hold New York to two goals.

In a desperate attempt to climb back in, the Islanders pulled Montoya with a good four minutes left, but after New York failed to score early, Boston took advantage. David Krejci broke down the left flank and flipped the puck into the empty net from an off angle to cap the scoring at 17:12. The Bruins took a dominant 6-2 win to the locker room.

Final

The Islanders weren't a bad team, they just weren't as good as the Bruins. The game featured an impressive back and forth battle and Boston seemed to be about a half of a step better than New York. The B's won the majority of one-on-one battles and seemed to get open in high-scoring areas, while they locked down the Isles for the most part in the same spots to keep the pressure off Tuukka Rask.

The Bruins continued their trend of doubling down with two goals in a minute. They did it against Ottawa to break open a 3-3 game on Thursday, they did it three times against Toronto on Saturday to rout the Maple Leafs, and twice tonight they used that to open up the game to 3-1 and 5-2. It sounds obvious, but a team will win a lot of games when it has ability to step on a team when it's down.

Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien said, "Our team knows the next shift after a goal is very important, whether you got scored on or you got a goal. We're responding very well to that situation right now."

The game was especially important to winger Nathan Horton, who registered three points on the night (two goals and an assist). He recently said he hadn't felt right since returning from a concussion he suffered in the Stanley Cup Finals, but looked back to his old self tonight. "I definitely felt a lot better tonight,' he said. "Of course, you feel better when things go your way. It's been a little tough, but that's what makes you stronger."

The Bruins now sit at 6-7-0 and have won all three games in November in impressive fashion. They're finally starting to look like the team that Bostonians watched raise the Cup last June. "Like last year, we have four lines that can play," Horton said. "Every other night a different line steps up. That's what you need to do. You need to get everyone contributing to get on a roll."

While Julien wasn't satisfied with the early defensive lapses, he was impressed with the game. "Offensively, we did a good job getting pucks in deep and forechecking," he said. "It's great to see our guys working hard at both ends of the ice, and we're starting to come around into form."

Boston stays home for a rare game against Edmonton at 7:00 p.m. (EST) on Thursday. It'll be a meeting between the first two overall picks in the 2010 draft: the Oilers' Taylor Hall (first overall) and the Bruins' Tyler Seguin (second overall), both of whom are playing well right now. Like many recent opponents, the Oilers are playing better than expected to start the year with a very impressive 8-3-2 record. Boston will need to be ready to go. It's won three in a row but is still looking up at a .500 record.

The Islanders, meanwhile, head west to take on a Northwest opponent as well. They'll be in Colorado at 9:00 p.m. (EST) on Thursday. The Avs shutout the B's 1-0 earlier in the year but have slipped in their last three and sit at 7-6-1.

Stakes Raised in Texas

2011-11-02T14:50:00.000-04:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Stewart used last weekend's win to
announce his Chase presence. (Getty)

Yesterday, Texas Motor Speedway sent out an email likening the matchup between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart to a heavyweight boxing fight.

Myself? I prefer to stick to the stereotypical poker reference to Texas Hold 'Em, as we prepare for the AAA Texas 500.

At this point, it's down to a small Final Table. Kevin Harvick might have a few chips left, maybe even Brad Keselowski, but the system should blind them out of it soon and leave a heads-up match between Edwards and Stewart.

Like in poker, the two drivers have risen to the top through vastly different tactics. Edwards, who currently leads by eight points, has gone the conservative route. He's been up near the top much of the Chase (and most of the season) and hasn't seen a need to take a chance and risk toppling his stack.

Edwards has just one win to his credit, the third race of the season, and has preached consistency over domination. He's the kind of guy that if he joined your poker game at home, he'd be satisfied cleaning up $5 here, $5 there, instead of going all-in for the big $50 hand.

The approach has gotten some criticism, as many people think he's zapping the excitement, but keep in mind that he won nine races in 2008, but no championship. His focus now is winning that title. His current approach seems to be working, even if it isn't bringing the crowd to its feet.

Tony Stewart, on the other hand, is the aggressive player that's willing to call everything under the sun, bluff you out of a hand and pillage your stack when you believe he has nothing. After limping into the Chase, he's playing with house money, and he knows it!

He won the first two races of the Chase to build himself up from a short stack to a powerful force that can strong-arm opponents. However, his luck leveled him off with a 25th and 15th to drop him to seventh in points. Since then, he's posted three top-10s, including his third Chase win in the most recent race.

Whereas Edwards is sitting quietly, Stewart is the talker at the table. He's let Edwards know that he better not sleep too much and that he's coming for him. It's the perfect dichotomy of personalities and bound to keep us focused and guessing on who will win right down to Homestead's checkered flag.

Will it be the calm and collected Cousin, Carl Edwards? Or, will it be the aggressive and fiery Smoke that's Tony Stewart?

And, relevant to us averages Joe's trying to turn into a digital Joe Gibbs, who should we put in our fantasy field for the weekend?

*In case you're new to this segment, check out my first fantasy post on how the system works.

Strategy: Texas Motor Speedway is your stereotypical cookie-cutter, intermediate track. It's a 1.5-mile oval with high banking in the turns (up to 24 degrees). In many cases, these tracks are very easy to predict, as they tend to race the same, but TMS doesn't have too many high driver ratings, which makes it hard to pinpoint a favorite. Also, keep in mind this time of year where drivers are in the standings and how that will affect their approach.

A-List

Start

#14 Tony Stewart - Smoke will be pushing for another win. He's close enough to Edwards with three races left that he doesn't need to visit Victory Lane, but he's not going to waste time sitting around in the back. You can expect to see him at the front, looking for bonus points for laps led and hoping that he can register at least a top-five finish. Could he be too aggressive? Sure. But, if its a risk he's willing to take for a championship, it's one a fantasy owner can take as well.

#17 Matt Kenseth - Kenseth took a nose dive last week from second in the standings to fifth. His 31st-place finish dropped him 36 points back and reminds us of the adage: "You can't win the Chase in a week, but you sure can lose it." He should have a bounce back race this weekend, though. His 105.2 driver rating and 9.0 average finish top the field at Texas and he has two wins and 12 top-10s in 18 starts.

#99 Carl Edwards - Edwards will need to continue to focus on consistency this weekend. He has three wins in 13 starts at Texas, but has just two other top-10s in those and three DNFs. I expect he'll make sure to fill up his belly at what has been a feast or famine track for him.

Park

#18 Kyle Busch - Rowdy always seems to struggle in the Chase. A big part is that he just doesn't have any of his best tracks in the final 10 races. His five top-10s in 13 starts is a familiar, uninspiring stat for most of these Chase tracks.

B-List

Start

#31 Jeff Burton - It seems odd to give any sort of recommendation for Burton, but he has two top-10s in the last two races after registering just one (on a road course, no less) in the first 31. If you're struggling for someone to play, he offers some sort of upside.

#33 Clint Bowyer - Bowyer's 92.4 driver rating at Texas puts him second on the B-List. He has six top-10s in 11 Texas starts, including a second earlier this year.

#56 Martin Truex Jr. - Truex is still sticking around as that second-tier B-Lister you'll start if you run out of the top-tier. He has two consecutive top-10s this year and races well at Texas. In 12 career starts at the track, he has five top-10s. He also has three DNFs, which means if he doesn't suffer from bad luck, he usually finishes well.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Junior tops the B-List in driver rating at Texas with a 93.1. That doesn't make him an obvious choice, but if you saved your No. 88 allocations for the Chase and now can't figure out if you'll ever use one, this track presents a positive outlook.

Park

#5 Mark Martin - Over the last 11 races at Texas, Martin tops the B-List in average fantasy points. However, he's had much better seasons and has a current streak of three consecutive races with a finish of 20th or worse.

#83 Brian Vickers - Not that most people would plan on starting Vickers, but keep in mind that just because you've started hearing his name this week, it isn't a good thing. He was involved in several wrecks last week and you can bet that with him out of it and many others out of it, someone's going to make solid contact with the No. 83 this weekend.

C-List

Start

#27 Paul Menard - Menard has put up the best C-List stats since the Chase started. Last week's 24th-place finish was the only time in seven races he finished outside the top-20.

#78 Regan Smith - Smith is still one of the only C-List options outside of Menard or David Ragan, so if you need to use him, do so before moving on down the list.

Park

#6 David Ragan - Ragan's been down recently. I wouldn't recommend him over Menard this week and will hope he gets some momentum back before I use my final allocation on him.

My Preliminary Roster

A - EDWARDS (3), Stewart (8)
B - BOWYER (2), KESELOWSKI (3), Kahne (1), Truex Jr. (6)
C - MENARD (1), Smith (1)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

BRUINS LIVE: Ottawa at Boston

2011-11-01T19:10:00.001-04:00

Despite a 6-2-0 record, Craig Anderson
has been letting a lot of shots by him. (AP)

Time for another live blog tonight as I'll be catching up on my Bruins and hoping to see them pick up that elusive win. Lucky for me, I've been busy the last week and a half and haven't seen Boston play since they beat Toronto. The bad news, though, they haven't won since that game 12 days ago.

Tonight, Ottawa comes into town. The Senators started the season at 1-5, but have won six straight and enter the evening at 7-5-0. However, the last five wins are all by just one goal, so they haven't been blowing teams out. They also have the worst goals against average in the league, which the Bruins will need to take advantage of if they are to snap their three game losing streak.

Boston has looked subpar overall, as they've struggled to a 3-7-0 record to start their title defense. While not up to last year's lofty standards, the goaltending has been relatively solid; the offense has been atrocious. It ranks 26th in goals scored entering tonight and sophomore stud Tyler Seguin leads across the board with four goals, six assists and ten points. He needs some help from the more experienced players as they'll look to pepper Craig Anderson in goal tonight. He's 6-2-0 but has a 3.66 GAA.

The key for the Bruins will be getting to Anderson early as he tends to be streaky. They'll also need to play smart hockey as Ottawa currently leads the NHL with a 31.0% conversion rate on the power play. Then again, the Sens are also 29th in penalty kill at 71.9%.

Starting goaltenders
Ottawa - Craig Anderson (6-2-0, 3.66 GAA, 0.881 SV%)
Boston - Tim Thomas (3-4-0, 2.14 GAA, 0.929 SV%)

1st Period

The Bruins got to challenge the Sens penalty kill early as Sergei Gonchar took a hooking penalty at 1:46. Rich Peverley had a chance on the goal line doorstep early in the man-advantage but missed the side of the net. The power play set up a few more times, but never got any other good chances.

Ottawa's David Rundblad woke up Tim Thomas shortly after the game went back to 5-on-5 when he rang a crossbar. Then, Peverley drove for a few good shots, but it was the Senators that drew first blood on the same shift. They came down on a fast break and took a shot of Thomas' blocker that fluttered into the air. The puck bounced appeared to hit off defensemen Adam McQuaid on the way down and slid into the goal as everyone crashed the crease. Nick Foligno was credited with the goal for Ottawa at 5:19.

Konopka (left) and Thornton
set the tone early. (Getty)

Shawn Thornton and Senators' enforcer Zenon Konopka didn't wait to long to restore some order. The two squared off on the ensuing center ice faceoff for a great back-and-forth set of blows between two heavyweights.

The immediate effect seemed to get Boston going as Patrice Bergeron had a great breakout that ended in a Brad Marchand breakaway. Former B's "defenseman" Gonchar reminded everyone about his lack of knowledge for his own end by taking his second penalty (a hooking minor on Marchand) in the first 5:31 of the game.

Tyler Seguin had a great chance midway through the power play but just missed the top of the net. The muscle of the Bruins got flexed moments later at 7:12 for the power play goal. Zdeno Chara blasted one from the center-point and Milan Lucic picked up the rebound patiently on the doorstep to backhand it over a sprawled Anderson for the goal.

The lead was short lived however as another weird bounce off the back of B's defenseman Joe Corvo ended up sitting in front of the goal. Foligno picked it up in front and made a cute behind the back drop to Stephane De Costa who finished it into the open net to put the Sens up 2-1 even before TV took its first timeout. The Bruins' Gregory Campell took a penalty going into the timeout, but a strong PK by Bergeron lead to more B's opportunities than Sens.

The game calmed down noticeably after the early flurry. David Krejci jumped in on a quick break with 6:30 remaining, but couldn't get a good handle and it was nothing doing for Boston. Tyler Seguin threw some great moves on Erik Karlsson to gain the blue line, just inside four minutes left but wasn't greedy enough. He should have fired in the lane he developed, but tried to shovel a pass to the other side of the slot and the fast break died.

There weren't any more goals or penalties after the Campbell minor at 7:40, and Boston dominated the final 10 minutes. They fired 17 shots to the Senators nine on the period, but, as usual, the B's saw the bounces go against them and trailed 2-1 after the first frame.

Milan Lucic caught up with NESN after the period: "The main thing right now is we gotta stick with it and stick with the game plan. That's what's going to get us out of this slump and get us back in this game. We just gotta keep getting shots at the net."

2nd Period

Rich Peverley again brought the pace for the Bruins. Just over two minutes into the period, the Bruins had a flurry on net, led by #49, but weren't able to find anything that challenged Craig Anderson. The B's speedy forward looks like he plans on scoring this evening.

At 4:21, one of the other emotional leaders, Patrice Bergeron, did score. Brad Marchand fired a cross ice break out to Tyler Seguin, who attacked the offense 3-on-2 at speed. Marchand made a nice run at the far post, which left Bergeron uncovered in the mid-slot for the high percentage shot and game-tying goal.

Anderson continued to shake a minute later. Dennis Seidenberg rifled a shot from the point and Krejci just couldn't get a handle on a juicy rebound in front. They got another chance moments later, thanks to a poor pass by David Rundblad, who also looked bad chasing Marchand and pirouetting to a slide on the Bergeron goal. The puck deflected off a forward to Chris Kelly all alone in front, but he couldn't finish. The Bruins continued to bring the pressure and Seguin drew a penalty on Jason Spezza with his wheels to give the B's a powerplay.

Boston was able to set up the powerplay, but Ottawa used a successful kill to change momentum. Coming back to 5-on-5, the Sens top line illustrated why Tim Thomas was last year's Vezina winner, as he made several quality saves to keep the game knotted at two. In a span of just a couple minutes, the Sens launched five consecutive shots to put Boston on its heels.

Nathan Horton took a boarding penalty for Boston at 11:32. The Bruins didn't let the Senators get too comfortable, but Zdeno Chara made a horrible Sergei Gonchar-esque turnover to, of all people, Gonchar, by dumping the puck out to him at the wide open point. Gregory Campbell sold out his body to block the Gonchar's blast to preserve the tie, and Boston killed another penalty against Ottawa's potent power play.

The Bruins gave a special thanks to the family of Steven Gutowski during the final TV timeout. Gutowski, from Plymouth, Mass., was killed in action in Afghanistan in Sept. at the age of 24. He had purchased tickets to tonight's game for his father and sister, who both had recent birthdays. Thanks to Steven and his family for proudly serving our country.

Coming out of the timeout, the Bruins went on fire during a powerplay. They came out firing and, despite not converting the power play, continued to pressure Ottawa. With two minutes left, Peverley rounded the net and fed Kelly, who blasted a one-timer from the top of the slot. The slapper had eyes and found the upstairs corner to give Boston the 3-2 lead.

The B's continued to wheel through the end of the period and drew yet another Senator penalty. Chris Neil made his second trip to the box in a six-minute span at 19:14. Boston didn't set up the power play as the clock expired, but it was another dominant period with Boston outshooting Ottawa 16-7 and finally translating their 33-16 shot advantage into success on the scoresheet.

The assistant captain and goal score, Bergeron told NESN after the period: "I think the work ethic is the biggest key tonight. We put the puck in deep and didn't make any mistakes. That's been the game plan all year and it's getting executed." However, he was hesitant to get too excited. "We need a 60-minute effort tonight," he added before heading to the locker room.

3rd Period

The two teams chased each other around for the first few minutes, but then Ottawa seemed to gain the upper edge. They had a good opportunity and crash on the net at about 4:30 and seconds later broke through Boston's defense.

Twenty-year-old defenseman Jared Cowen bounced one from the point that ricocheted off a Bruin skate and skipped past a screen in front of Tim Thomas into the side of the net to tie the game 3-3 at 5:04. It was another ugly bounce for Boston, but one they need to recover from quickly. Ottawa has a recent history of solid third periods.

Boychuk's goal gave Boston
the lead it needed to win. (AP)

Boston did fire back immediately. After a few pinballing shots, Johnny Boychuk got the puck at the point and lasered a shot through similar traffic that Thomas had seen at the other end. The shot gave Boston the lead at 6:41.

Thirty-seven seconds later, Daniel Paille went in on a breakaway on a feed from Shawn Thornton and trickled one through Craig Anderson's legs to give Boston a 5-3 lead. The goal was significant for the B's as it proved to be a goal scorer's goal out of the team's fourth line. The team now has points out of 13 different players on the evening.

The Senators had the opportunity later in the period when Brad Marchand took an ill-advised holding the stick penalty in the offensive end at 12:03. The Sens had some shots go through on Thomas, but the penalty kill again stood strong and kept Ottawa from generating any great scoring chances. Things did get hairy early in the kill, when Rich Peverley snapped his stick across Jason Spezza's to create a defacto 5-on-3, but Thomas froze the puck quickly to prevent any damage.

Ottawa's Milan Michalek had a good break when the puck bounced errantly off Boychuk's skate at Boston's defensive blue line. But, Boychuk high-tailed it back to cut down the angle and sprawled on his stomach to swat the puck away and squash the chance. NESN play-by-play broadcaster Jack Edwards described it best. "Guilt is a powerful motivating force," he said with a chuckle.

After a fracas in front of the net in which Ottawa's Zack Smith got cleaned out, things got heated. Boston's Gregory Campbell stepped up on the following faceoff to give Smith the fight he wanted. Smith got the better of the fisticuffs, as might have been expected, but, per usual, Campbell showed he's not afraid to go with a tough opponent.

That fight took place at 2:42 and Ottawa decided to take a risk and pull Anderson early for a sixth attacker. As expected, the Sens took control and Boston got some defensive help from Tyler Seguin, who collapsed with Thomas stuck on one side to break up a chance on the far, open side of the net. The refs seemed ready to let the game run down, letting a blatant Spezza trip on Marchand go as he gained the offensive zone toward the empty net. However, it finally got to be too much and Spezza went off for hold while Chris Neil accompanied him for his third penalty of the night with just 12 seconds left.

Final

The Bruins won the game 5-3, but it was a much more dominant performance than the score dictated. Ottawa didn't have too many great chances and used some favorable bounces to stay in the game until Boston scored 37 seconds apart midway through the third to take a permanent lead.

"Nothing is easy for us right now," Head Coach Claude Julien said after the game. "We dug ourselves a hole with a few unlucky breaks, but we stuck to the gameplan and overcame them."

Boston outshot the Senators 41-26 and controlled the pace of play. NESN analysts Dave Arnold and Barry Pederson agreed it was the Bruins best 60-minute effort of the season. It also showed some needed resilience, not only to snap the three-game losing streak and snap Ottawa's six-game winner, but it was just the second game of the season in which the Bruins came from behind to win it.

Fourth-liners Paille and Thornton
(22) got in on the scoring. (Getty)

After the game, Daniel Paille spoke to the analysts about the areas the team improved tonight and how the defense sets the offense. "The first 10 games we struggled defensively," he said. "We just wanted to correct that throughout this game. We wanted to do that tonight and we did. Now, we just need to stay consistent with that throughout the year."

Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin really stood out for Boston tonight. I mentioned early in the second that Peverley was gunning for a goal and he had a great set up on Chris Kelly's finish, Boston's third goal. Seguin flashed his speed at both ends, and, while he still tried to be too cute with some passes, he made a great feed on Bergeron's goal, the second for the B's.

"Overall, we've had more production and better play from a lot of guys we're looking for," Julien said. "Contributions from everyone is how we've survived and how we've done well," he referenced to last year's success.

On the flip side, Ottawa's Nick Foligno had a stand out game with points on all three goals. His goal might have been a farce, as it bounced off Adam McQuaid, but there was no questioning his nifty drop pass to a wide-open Stephane Da Costa for the Senators second goal.

Boston has three days off before heading to Toronto to take on the current division leader on Saturday night at 7 p.m. They man-handled the Maple Leafs 6-2 earlier in the season, but the Leafs are 5-0-1 at home so far this year. The Senators will also stay in the division as they'll host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night.

Hibernating "The Magic Mile"

2011-11-01T14:25:00.000-04:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Snow covers the infield and hill on the backstretch.

What a nice day today! It's warm, the snow's melting, you can see some green poking through the ground; it's spring, right!? When's FANtasy Drive?

Ugh.

Nope. Unfortunately, that opinion falls somewhere between delusional and denial. We just got an early, pre-Halloween snowstorm before the late autumn warmth restored order to the season today.

Still, the first snow is always a sad day at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It's the end of the season and it fittingly came just in time to close out the year.

Sure, the big crowds that packed the stands for major race weekends have long since migrated south to Alabama, Virginia and, now, Texas. But, the race season lingers on through most of October at NHMS in the form of local series, clubs and driving schools. However, as we begin November, even those have packed up.

This past Sunday was the last scheduled day of on-track activity. The local Loudon Road Race Series wrapped up its race season in mid-October. The garage doors are closed. Victory Lane is empty. The scoreboard is off. And, 93,521 bleacher seats sit quietly hoping that someone will come take a seat.

Yet, those stands know that they'll have to bear the weight of snow before they bear the weight of a Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart fan.

It's time to tuck the Speedway in for the winter, New Hampshire! Many of you already got the power knocked out and had to start the wood fires to combat the snow. We're on the cusp of winter right now, but I don't want to get you too down-and-out heading into the holiday season.

Let's look at the positives.

First of all, so long as the power is restored, you have three Sundays left to sit comfortably in your heated home and watch Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart battle down to the wire for the Sprint Cup.

Then, you have Thanksgiving and the holidays. Keep in mind that good things come in small packages and that envelope that fell to the bottom of the pile of presents could well be the one you want to open: tickets to next year's LENOX Industrial Tools 301 (July 15) or SYLVANIA 300 (Sept. 23)!

After New Year's, most of you will be busy snowmobiling, hitting the slopes or skating, I know I'll be getting plenty of hockey in! By the time, you come back in for some hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies, it's about time for what's turned into a month of Daytona.

We also have good news here at NHMS. With FANtasy Drive traditionally scheduled for the Saturday of Easter weekend, we'll be opening our doors back up to you the fans on Sat., April 7, far earlier than last year's April 23 date!

How's that for a top-speed race through winter!?

Don't despair we'll have as much of a racing void here at NHMS as any of you. We already miss that we can't walk outside on the any given day and hear the roar of an engine or hum of a motorcycle. But, the season is cyclical and we can't start up next year until we're done laying this one to rest for the winter.

Winter might be on the way, but the 2012 race season will shoo it out of the way in far less time than we think.

Halloween Power Rankings: Scary Changes

2011-10-31T19:11:00.000-04:00

First-overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
leads the upstart Oilers in points. (Getty)

I waited until about a month of hockey to start putting together what I intend to be a bi-weekly (perhaps weekly, once the season gets more defined) power rankings. I figured it was tough to determine which 2-0-1 team was better than a 2-1-0 team, and even now I'm struggling.

This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Let's take, for instance, my Boston Bruins. On paper, they're the 29th best team in the league, but can you really power rank the defending champs there just because they've had a slow start? Then, there's 7-2-2 Edmonton. I need to give them some credit, but do we really see them as a top-10 team in the long run?

The idea of power rankings is they're supposed to be some sort of fusion between how the team is playing currently and where it'll end up at the end of the year. I also try to account for my preseason rank to some degree, as it might account for a team playing too well or too poorly to continue.

There's no real formula for this and, aside from the top-10 or so and bottom two or three, it's very open to interpretation on how the teams should be ranked. Hopefully my explanation will shed some light on why the teams are ranked where they are.

30. Columbus Blue Jackets (2-9-1, 5 pts; preseason: 25)
- In defense of the front office, it tried to make a few splashes by adding Jeff Carter and James Wisniewski. However, I was critical about those being the keys to success and my concerns are being validated. The Jackets desperately need some goaltending more than anything.

29. Winnipeg Jets (3-6-1, 7 pts; preseason: 27)
- The Jets are back in Winnipeg, but we're beginning to remember that they never really did much winning there. This is another team that lacks goaltending; that's not an easy midseason fix.

28. New York Islanders (3-4-2, 8 pts; preseason: 19)
- I was optimistic before the season started that the Isles would take big strides this year. So far, that's yet to happen and they've quickly fallen to a familiar spot in the Atlantic Division's basement.

27. Ottawa Senators (7-5-0, 14 pts; preseason: 29)
- Despite a six-game winning streak, I'm hesitant to give up my opinion that they're one of the lesser teams in the league. The flip side of that streak was a 1-5 start and their 3.91 GAA is by far the worst in the NHL. They've also served 67 more penalty minutes than their opponents, another dubious league-high.

26. Carolina Hurricanes (4-4-3, 11 pts; preseason: 16)
- The Canes looked pretty darn good against the Bruins, but so has most everyone else so far. They're negative seven in goal differential, which is third-worst in the league and speaks to a potential long-term problem.

25. Calgary Flames (4-4-1, 9 pts; preseason: 18)
- I was just lukewarm on the Flames entering the season and they haven't really given off any heat to encourage me to think they'll be a contender.

24. St. Louis Blues (5-6-0, 10 pts; preseason: 22)
- Similar to the Flames, I haven't really heard enough music out of St. Louis to make me believe they'll start playing a better tune. (Ok, the imagery was cute the first time, but is it too much?)

23. Minnesota Wild (4-3-3, 11 pts; preseason: 20)
- The Wild are averaging a league-worst 1.90 goals per game. Their record speaks well to the job they're doing defensively and it's always easier to fix offensive problems than defensive, but I'm not optimistic the defense will be this good the rest of the way either.

22. Florida Panthers (6-4-0, 12 pts; preseason: 30)
- Perhaps I'm just holding a grudge against the Panthers for no reason. They're above .500, they're goal differential is +1 and they're 4-3 on the road. I can't find anything really wrong with them, I just don't expect them to keep it up. After all, they've already started making dumb moves by trading the young David Booth to Vancouver for a few veterans that will have little impact.

21. Anaheim Ducks (5-5-1, 11 pts; preseason: 13)
- The Ducks offense is atrocious. It averages just 1.91 goals/game, just one-hundredth better than the league-worst Wild. They're doing well enough in the standings, and I expect they'll get in a groove, but they're down until then.

20. New Jersey Devils (4-4-1, 9 pts; preseason: 15)
- I said before the season that the Devils needed Martin Brodeur to produce for one more season. He admitted yesterday he doesn't think his shoulder will ever be at 100%, so it's either a hobbled Brodeur or Johan Hedberg. That's not a recipe for a playoff run.

The Bruins fallen from
grace quickly. (Getty)

19. Boston Bruins (3-7-0, 6 pts; preseason: 6)
- The Bruins have looked bad and it's made worse that they're 2-5 at home. The offense has let them down, but the goaltending has been there for the most part. I expect some turnaround in goal scoring, but this is looking much like the team two years ago that had the worst offense in the league and was carried by its goaltenders.

18. Tampa Bay Lightning (5-4-2, 12 pts; preseason: 12)
- I didn't buy Dwayne Roloson being able to hold up the team for the whole season and Mathieu Garon has more or less supplanted him as the team's starting goalie. I don't like that thought any more than Roloson.

17. Montreal Canadiens (4-5-2, 10 pts; preseason: 17)
- Yep! They haven't moved from their preseason ranking. They had the good fortune of kicking the Bruins while they were down, but other than that still look like a team that will be right on the cusp of mediocrity (and a possible postseason berth) for the length of the season.

16. Phoenix Coyotes (5-3-2, 12 pts; preseason: 28)
- For the third straight year, the Yotes are proving that no matter how bad they look on paper, they can still contend in the super-competitive Pacific Division.

15. Toronto Maple Leafs (7-3-1, 15 pts; preseason: 21)
- The city of Toronto is excited! Me? I'm a little more conservative. The Leafs are 5-0-1 at home but just 2-3-0 on the road and have scored just one more goal than they've given up despite the record. I don't think they'll last, especially if they continue to give up 3.18 goals per game (fifth-worst in the league).

14. Nashville Predators (5-4-1, 11 pts; preseason: 14)
- The Preds ranking hasn't moved since preseason, which is an unexciting par-for-the-course for this team. They're not going to excite you, but they're a quality team and will continue to play a consistent, defensive brand of hockey that wins more games than it loses.

13. Edmonton Oilers (7-2-2, 16 pts; preseason: 26)
- I can't possibly put a team that's played this well any lower, but at the same time, I'm tempering expectations. They're 6-1-1 at home and have played just three roads games. They're also getting ridiculous goaltending play from a 38-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin, which is unlikely to last. For what it's worth, I continue to own current back up goalie Devan Dubnyk in my fantasy league with the expectation he'll get the nod soon on down the line.

12. Dallas Stars (8-3-0, 16 pts; preseason: 24)
- To be honest, I thought the loss of Brad Richards would really hurt this team. However, I was willing to acknowledge that with a good young core of players, like team points leader Jamie Benn and goal leader Loui Eriksson, they could be better than expected. So far, they've been just that!

The Avs have done most of their
damage on the road. (Getty)

11. Colorado Avalanche (7-4-0, 14 pts; preseason: 23)
- What's more impressive than the Avs turnaround from last season is that they're 6-1-0 on the road! That doesn't bode well for the home crowd that's seen them go just 1-3-0 but does prove they're mentally tough.

10. New York Rangers (3-3-3, 9 pts; preseason: 11)
- The Rangers started off in Europe and then continued on the road for a total of seven games away from Madison Square Garden. Now, they've blown two third period leads in their first two home games, but they're not in bad shape after such a long road trip.

9. Philadelphia Flyers (6-4-1, 13 pts; preseason: 10)
- Ok, so a 9-8 loss to Winnipeg really skews the numbers, but I'm not willing to totally overlook the fact they have the third-worst goals against average in the NHL. They blew up the core of their team to spend money for a goaltender, a move I disagreed with, and I expect better numbers out of the defense as a result.

8. Buffalo Sabres (6-4-0, 12 pts; preseason: 5)
- They're learning quickly that just because you spend to the cap limit doesn't mean you're the best team in the league. However, they have an impressive +7 in goal differential, even though they haven't won a single game by more than three points. That shows a consistency to be a good team, as three of the four losses have been by just one goal.

7. Detroit Red Wings (5-4-0, 10 pts; preseason: 7)
- The Red Wings started 5-0-0 before an ugly 7-1 loss to Washington. They've now lost four straight including that derailment, but it's the Red Wings; they'll be fine!

6. Los Angeles Kings (6-3-2, 9 pts; preseason: 9)
- The Kings are rounding into the team we expected they could be. Anze Kopitar already has 14 points in 11 games and Jonathan Quick is posting a phenomenal 1.52 GAA between the pipes.

5. Vancouver Canucks (5-5-1, 11 pts; preseason: 2)
- The Canucks have been an early season disappointment, but they haven't looked nearly as Finals hungover as Boston. They're only a hop, skip and a jump from getting back to where they want to be and it's hard to imagine they'll stay down much longer.

4. San Jose Sharks (6-3-0, 12 pts; preseason: 3)
- The Sharks are an impressive 5-1 on the road and playing good hockey in general. Not much more to say, they're as good as expected.

3. Pittsburgh Penguins (8-3-2, 18 pts; preseason: 8)
- The Pens have the most points in the league, but they've also played the most games. However, they haven't played any of those games with Sidney Crosby. While they'd certainly love to get "The Kid" (do we still call him that?) back, it's scary how well they're doing without him.

2. Chicago Blackhawks (6-2-2, 14 pts; preseason: 4)
- Whatever was wrong in last year's ugly title defense, the Hawks have fixed it. They're back to being one of the best teams in the NHL.

G Tomas Vokoun has the
Caps thumping their chests. (AP)

1. Washington Capitals (7-2-0, 14 pts; preseason: 1)
- The Caps ripped off seven straight wins to remain as the final unbeaten in the NHL. They lead the league with a 3.78 goals per game average and, after a rocky start, Tomas Vokoun has his GAA down to 2.15.

The Crystal Ball Final Standings

Eastern Conference
*1. Washington
*2. Pittsburgh
*3. Buffalo
4. Philadelphia
5. New York-R
6. Boston
7. Tampa Bay
8. Toronto
--
9. Montreal
10. New Jersey
11. Carolina
12. New York-I
13. Florida
14. Ottawa
15. Winnipeg

Western Conference
*1. Chicago
*2. San Jose
*3. Vancouver
4. Los Angeles
5. Detroit
6. Nashville
7. Dallas
8. Anaheim
--
9. Colorado
10. Minnesota
11. Edmonton
12. Phoenix
13. Calgary
14. St. Louis
15. Columbus

Stanley Cup Final
Washington over San Jose

BRUINS LIVE: Toronto at Boston

2011-10-20T20:08:00.004-04:00

Bruins fans don't miss Phil Kessel (left)
but he's been good this season. (AP)

I certainly won't guarantee making the live blog a regular thing, but if I'm sitting around the apartment watching the entire game, I'd like to share my thoughts. Tonight the surprising 4-0-1 Toronto Maple Leafs are headed on the road to take on the disappointing 2-4 Boston Bruins.

This game is important for both teams. The Maple Leafs played last night and have yet to play on the road this season. They've been impressive early, but are they for real? A win tonight would go a long way to prove that. Since they're on the second leg of a back-to-backer, Jonas Gustavsson will be between the pipes.

The Bruins are struggling to score goals and the defending champs are just 1-3 in their home building. It's early, but they can't continue to give points away. Boston needs to win home games like this one. The big matchup will be a struggling offense (just 11 goals in six games) against Gustavsson.

After each period, I'll provide my thoughts and weigh in on the action.

1st period

The Bruins started off quickly. David Krejci had a breakaway opportunity in the first minute of the game. It was a good sign for Boston as Krejci (who tied for the team lead in points last season) had missed the last three games with a core injury. Boston's Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with fellow heavyweight Colton Orr at 1:54. Both fighters got some solid punches in and the crowd seemed to rally behind the early gesture. "That was huge," Nathan Horton said after the period. "That got us up."

Despite a much-needed quick start for the B's, it was the Maple Leafs that struck first when Nazem Kadri fed David Steckel from the corner. Steckel shot one in the high slot against the grain off the outstretched pad of Tim Thomas for the game's first goal. But, the Bruins would register the majority of shots after that (at one point, the broadcast said 10 in a row for the B's and that was before the second power play started).

Benoit Pouliot played a big role in the first period for Boston, taking one penalty but drawing two. The Bruins would cash in on both power plays from those calls. David Krejci won a clean faceoff to Andrew Ference, who fed Zdeno Chara for the one-time. The initial shot was saved, but finisher Nathan Horton did what he did best to clean up the garbage and tally the goal at 10:32. On the following powerplay, it was Ference again feeding Chara's appetite, and the big guy blasted one from the mid-circle to put the Bruins up 2-1 at 16:05.

Boston registered its first five-on-five goal at 17:49. Milan Lucic busted down the right side and flipped the puck in front for Chris Kelly. Kelly was a man on a mission in double coverage (plus a goalie) on the top of the crease. His first shot was stuffed but he toughed it out, Boston style, to put away his own rebound from a similar close range. The Bruins finished the period with 18 shots to the Maple Leafs seven and the momentum of the period mimicked that stat line.

The Bruins needed the quick tempo after struggling early in several games lately. Horton said to NESN's Naoko Funayama after the period, "We're back to playing the way we can. When we're moving our feet and strong on the puck, we're tough to play against."

It's also worth noting that NESN color man Andy Brickley was discussing the maturation of Toronto's Mikhail Grabovski and mused he didn't see the same out of play-by-play commentator Jack Edwards, who responded, "I'm Peter Pan with a microphone!"

2nd Period

The second period had as much to offer as the first, minus the goals. No one scored, but it wasn't for a lack of opportunity. For once, I'm not calling for Asst. Coach Doug Houda's head (I've been told he runs the special teams) as the Bruins actually appear to have a competent power play. Rich Peverley was wide open on the far side but was shut down on a great scoring chance during an early power play. On that same PP, Thomas had a beautiful pass to Tyler Seguin at the offensive blue but it was ruled offside for a Bruin changing on the far side of the ice.

Minutes later, Chara took an unlucky trip as his stick hit Grabovski's skates while he was already struggling for balance. The ensuing shorthand nearly resulted in a goal as Brad Marchand went in on a beautiful breakaway where he flipped the puck over a defenseman's stick and went around his far side to pick it up for a shot. When the play went the other way, the Maple Leafs' Grabovski was called for holding Patrice Bergeron's stick heading into the offensive zone at 6:33. He served two minutes, but Andrew Ference delivered his own message with a great hit on Grabovski, who was still handling the puck as he committed the penalty and got rocked to the ice by a Ference shoulder.

The four-on-four turned into a four-on-three for the Leafs when Johnny Boychuck was whistled for a hook just 17 seconds later. The teams exchanged scoring changes: Toronto's Joffrey Lupul rang a pipe. Kelly fed Peverley from the corner after Gustavsson got out of position chasing a puck into the goalie's no-zone. Peverley couldn't finish the feed as the goalie slid back across for the save.

Krejci made a few poor plays for Boston. One when Grabovski got out of the box and he had flipped an errant pass out of the zone from the offensive corner. The pass served as a breakaway pass for the Toronto forward, but Thomas made a huge save. Late in the period, he also turned it over unpressured at the defensive blue line and the Leafs' Matt Frattin took it in quickly and drew a hooking penalty on Joe Corvo as he headed to the net with speed.

Chara continued his booming slap shot for the Bruins to generate chances. Peverley fed him with about 6:45 left for a blast on the power play. The rebound bounced around dangerously but wasn't pounced on. He also nearly set up a score on another cannon about a minute and a half later. Seguin was camped out in front and couldn't get a good enough piece of the rebound, flipping it into Gustavsson's gut.

Toronto closed out the period with a flurry. Tyler Bozak, who's impressed all game, pulled a nice spin move to set up a chance with just less than a minute left, and Thomas came up big for Boston when he got a pad on a Steckel shot in front with 20 seconds left.

The shots finished at an even 11-11, which mimicked the even back and forth trade of scoring chances. With the Bruins in control on the scoreboard after two periods, assistant captain Andrew Ference said the team needed to keep playing its game, "The consistency in this game is night and day compared to other ones. The difference is we're using our team play to make our selves better individually. We're back to doing what we need to do best. It's nothing flashy and has been successful every time we do that."

3rd Period

Boston started off the period strong and kept the peddle to the metal. Bergeron let off a slapper in the high slot for the first chance just 45 seconds in. Then, Seguin broke it out of his own end, worked a give-and-go with Milan Lucic, skated through a Dion Phaneuf hook and crossed it to Lucic, who finished the Bruins fourth goal of the night at 2:08.

That goal looked like it deflated the Leafs' comeback hopes and they struggled afterward. Daniel Paille broke in clean for a breakaway after Toronto couldn't touch up for a delayed penalty two and half minutes in. Gustavsson made an impressive stand, but it would be his last stand before the flood gates broke.

Bergeron went end-to-end on a give-and-go to wrist in Boston number five from the mid slot. Lucic and Seguin teamed up moments later. "Louch" took the puck the length of the ice into the left corner and fed Seguin in the slot for the Bruins sixth goal. The boat race was on and Seguin's third point of the night brought down the rain of the "Thank you, Kessel!" chants.

But, the five-goal lead didn't last as Grabovski sniped one in the mid slot for Toronto on a feed from Jake Gardiner at 12:32. Credit to the Maple Leafs for sticking around for 60 minutes. Bozak flashed some heart by getting, as Jack Edwards described it, "candlepinned" by a Boychuk blast with 2:15 left in a 6-2 game. However, heart couldn't dig them out of the hole and the crowd came to a standing ovation for the hometown team's solid 60 minutes.

Final Score

Thornton's early fight set the
"Big, Bad Bruins" tone early. (Getty)

The Bruins needed this win. They showed up early ready to go and simply outplayed an undermatched Toronto team. Aside from the back-up goaltending, the Maple Leafs didn't look terrible, they just couldn't match up with the depth and seemed affected by playing on back-to-back nights. The Bruins pulled away with three goals in third, all of which were generated from full ice breaks on which Toronto just didn't have the speed to keep up.

Head Coach Claude Julien switched up the lines and the change in scenery paid dividends. Lucic and Seguin looked like a great combo and each accounted for three points. Chara and Ference also accounted for three points a piece and played a big role in shutting down Toronto's Phil Kessel, who led the league in scoring coming in and had a 15-game point streak (which started March 19th against Boston) snapped.

The Bruins got help tonight from the return of Krejci. He went -1 with no points and a few poor turnovers, but went 11 for 16 in the faceoff circle and should get back up speed quickly. Steven Kampfer saw his first action on defense. He wasn't noticed too often, but stepped in for a nice one-time midway through the third and finished with a solid +2 for the young, developing blueliner. Kelly also showed why he's earned the part-time "A" on the jersey. He scored a gritty goal and made a great defensive play to pick up a Toronto forward's stick on the back check midway through the third and deny a scoring chance.

All in all, this game was a big step for the Bruins. The scorers like Lucic, Horton, Bergeron and Seguin all popped in goals, while Thornton's early fight set the "Big, Bad Bruins" tone that the B's finally flashed late in a bad loss to Carolina on Tuesday.

Boston will have no time to rest on its laurels as a similarly struggling favorite comes to town in the form of the San Jose Sharks. The 1-3 Western Conference powerhouse plays New Jersey tomorrow before heading into Boston at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.

NHL Preview and Opening Rankings

2011-10-12T22:38:00.000-04:00


This could be the year Ovechkin takes the Caps to the next level.

A special thanks to the Puck Podcast for keeping me up-to-date on the going's on in the hockey world throughout the offseason. For anyone looking for a full and objective dose of NHL coverage, I highly recommend tuning into them.

I might be well-served to check out Sports Illustrated's preview on the NHL, but I find that hockey's usually an after-thought to them and I pay enough attention (I hope) to formulate an idea of what's going on in the NHL, so let's start with the opening Power Rankings and then I'll give a season prediction.

The season did start almost a week ago, but I'll try to let the early games influence me as little as possible. Here are the initial power rankings.

30. Florida Panthers - This poor team has been headed down a nowhere road for a while and the loss of goaltender Tomas Vokoun won't do them any favors.

29. Ottawa Seantors - The Senators have some young talent here and there, but it hasn't developed yet and some of the vets like Daniel Alfredsson are well past their prime.

28. Phoenix Coyotes - The Yotes have overachieved with two playoff appearances. The inability to replace goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov brings them one year closer to a move for the franchise.

27. Winnipeg Jets - Speaking of moves, the fans will be very excited about this team, but that doesn't mean the product will be there on the ice. It's still the Thrashers team that missed the playoffs by a healthy margin last year.

26. Edmonton Oilers - I think the Oilers will take a step forward this year, which means they won't be the laughing stock of the league. However, they'll still have some growth and development pains.

25. Columbus Blue Jackets - The overpayment of defenseman James Wisniewski is evident right away as he'll be suspended the first eight games due to a dirty hit.

24. Dallas Stars - Dallas really needed to move its star Brad Richards last year at the trade deadline. They might be better than this, but won't contend for the playoffs.

23. Colorado Avalanche - If Seymon Varlamov can stay healthy in goal, this team should show some improvement. That's a big "if" though, as he's only started 48 games the last two seasons despite being viewed as a starter both years.

22. St. Louis Blues - The Blues always tend to fly somewhat under the radar. In large part, they're never good enough to make the playoffs, but not usually bad enough to get laughed at either. I expect much of the same this year.

21. Toronto Maple Leafs - The Leafs came on strong late, and, if they can put that success together over the course of a full season, they might actually be a playoff contender.

20. Minnesota Wild - There was a lot of action in Minnesota this offseason, so there's plenty of reason to believe they'll be improved. I'm taking a cautious approach though and will go with a "show me, don't tell me" mentality for now.

19. New York Islanders - The Isles closed the season strong and might finally be back to relevance in New York's media market.

18. Calgary Flames - Miikka Kiprusoff and Jarome Iginla have been staples of this team for years, but, at some point, they need to find some younger talent to start emerging.

17. Montreal Canadiens - They played the rival card to perfection against Boston last season to push them to seven games, but that can't overshadow they were a mediocre team that lost a lot on the blue line in the offseason.

16. Carolina Hurricans - Jeff Skinner was awarded the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2010-11. Combine him was a great captain in Eric Staal and a solid goaltender in Cam Ward and this team is dangerous.

15. New Jersey Devils - How much does Martin Brodeur have left in the tank? The return of Zach Parise will be very helpful, but the fate of the Devils is on Brodeur's back as usual.

14. Nashville Predators - No offense? No problem! Pekka Rinne was a top goaltender last year (and my nomination for the Hart [MVP] Trophy) and Shea Weber just got a huge contract extension he'll want to fulfill.

13. Anaheim Ducks - The Ducks have a great group of forwards that includes 2010-11 Maurice Richard Trophy (most goals) winner Corey Perry. A healthy Jonas Hiller between the pipes is the difference maker for them.

12. Tampa Bay Lightning - Like the Devils, I'm not sure the goaltender, Dwayne Roloson, has enough left in the tank. Other than a goaltending deficiency, this is an elite team.

11. New York Rangers - The addition of Brad Richards could prove to be exactly what this team needs to make a playoff run.

10. Philadelphia Flyers - I'm not sure getting rid of the captain and assistant captain was a winning solution, but I also think that with the addition of goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov and a saturation of talent, they won't get worse.

9. Los Angeles Kings - The Kings should be a legitimate contender through and through. This should be the year that their young players come of age and the addition of Mike Richards should add a dangerous dynamic.

8. Pittsburgh Penguins - Much of the team's success hinges on Sidney Crosby, if he can come back in a few weeks as anticipated, they're better than this. If he doesn't, they're worse. Let's call this the purgatory medium for the Penguins fate.

7. Detroit Red Wings - I just don't know if the Red Wings are elite anymore. They're still a very good team, but "elite" is a stretch at this point.

6. Boston Bruins - The Bruins come back basically in tact. As weird as it sounds, the biggest question might be in net, as Tuukka Rask will likely push Tim Thomas for the spot Rask lost near the start last season.

5. Buffalo Sabres - With the money being pumped into this team, the city's starting believe it has its best contender in over a decade.

4. Chicago Blackhawks - I'm not sure any of us know what happened to the 2010 champion during last season, but I'm going to assume this young squad has learned its lesson.

3. San Jose Sharks - The addition of Brent Burns at defense will only bulk up this team's hefty depth.

2. Vancouver Canucks - The talent's there, they proved that last season, but is the desire? They let the Bruins knock them around last year in the Finals. After that disappointment, they'll have to get the fire back that got them to the Finals, as opposed to the one that was extinguished in June.

1. Washington Capitals - I think that a great goaltender like Tomas Vokoun might have been the missing piece. They've been an elite team the past few seasons, and it's time they found something to show for it.

Season Predictions

Eastern Conference

*1. Washington 116
*2. Buffalo 107
*3. Pittsburgh 102
4. Boston 103
5. Philadelphia 100
6. New York-R 98
7. Tampa Bay 96
8. New Jersey 94
--
9. Carolina 92
10. Montreal 90
11. New York-I 87
12. Toronto 86
13. Winnipeg 74
14. Ottawa 73
15. Florida 71

Western Conference

*1. Vancouver 113
*2. San Jose 111
*3. Chicago 108
4. Detroit 102
5. Los Angeles 101
6. Anaheim 96
7. Nashville 95
8. Calgary 89
--
9. Minnesota 87
10. St. Louis 84
11. Colorado 81
12. Dallas 80
13. Columbus 79
14. Edmonton 76
15. Phoenix 74

Playoffs

1. Washington over 8. New Jersey - 6 games
2. Buffalo over 7. Tampa Bay - 6 games
6. New York-R over 3. Pittsburgh - 7 games
4. Boston over 5. Philadelphia - 7 games
--
1. Vancouver over 8. Calgary - 4 games
2. San Jose over 7. Nashville - 5 games
6. Anaheim over 3. Chicago - 7 gmes
5. Los Angeles over 4. Detroit - 6 games

Washington over New York-R - 7 games
Boston over Buffalo - 7 games
--
Vancouver over Anaheim - 5 games
San Jose over Los Angeles - 7 games

Washington over Boston - 6 games
San Jose over Vancouver - 7 games

Stanley Cup Prediction

Washington over San Jose - 7 games

All In For Vegas

2011-10-11T16:33:00.000-04:00

As originally written for NHMS.com's Granite Stripe blog

Will Power needs a win this weekend, if he plans on
taking the IndyCar championship. (IndyCar Media)

With so much energy going toward NASCAR's Chase, it's time to temporarily divert our focus toward the final race of the IZOD IndyCar Series and what poses to be a great race for the championship.

In recent years, the IndyCar championship has been in Homestead much like NASCAR, and, much like NASCAR, the same driver has dominated the series of late. That's Dario Franchitti.

This year, however, the final race will be hosted by Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and only time will tell if a change in venue will mark a changing of the guard.

Franchitti appeared to be running away with the championship when the series rolled into NHMS for the MoveThatBlock.com INDY 225 on August 14th. He led second-place Will Power by 62 points and had the fastest car all weekend at "The Magic Mile." That was, until Takuma Sato strayed from his lane on a Lap 118 restart and took Franchitti into the wall.

The wreck left the door open for Power, and what happened next New Hampshire fans won't soon forget. Power was taken out on a late restart when Danica Patrick couldn't get traction and slid across the field. Seeing his opportunity go down the tubes, Power stormed off the track, engaged with INDYCAR officials, flipped a double-bird to Race Director Brian Barnhart in the control booth and headed off in a fit of rage.

A few minutes later, INDYCAR reverted the running order to before the wreck, restoring Power to his fifth-place position and allowing him to gain 15 points on the wrecked Franchitti.

After that, Power cranked out back-to-back wins at Infineon and Baltimore and a second in Japan to jump Franchitti by 11 points. He couldn't hold that momentum, however.

After starting on the pole on Oct. 2 in Kentucky and leading 48 laps, he slipped all the way to 19th to finish as the last car on the lead lap. Meanwhile, Franchitti dominated much of the race with 143 laps led to finish second. Franchitti's 42 points ran over Power's 13 and Dario is now back in front by 18 points.

That means that Power would need to claim the race-maximum 53 points and see Franchitti take the 35 of a third-place finish for the two to tie in the standings. If Power won the race with the minimum possible 50 points, Franchitti would need to finish with the 32 points of fourth to create the tie. If the standings did result in a tie, Power would get the championship based on series wins (he currently has six on the season to Franchitti's four).

The scenarios will make for an interesting race at Las Vegas. Mathematically, Franchitti could still put up a very respectable finish and lose the championship if Power can win the race. It's not quite the same as NASCAR in that fewer cars stand a realistic chance at winning the race, but it's no less significant when it comes to trying to dethrone a champion.

Like Jimmie Johnson in the Chase, Franchitti has not and will not cave. He's won three of the last four championships (and didn't race in the series in 2008). It will take someone deserving of being a champion to top him and we'll get the chance this Sunday (3 p.m. on ABC) to see if anyone has the will power to do so.

Buying the Bruins

2011-06-01T20:11:00.002-04:00

Since I first started following hockey, shortly after 1990 season, the Boston Bruins have left you me feeling a sense of disappointment. The Red Sox, Patriots, even the Celtics, whom I follow as closely, have all shown me a championship.

The Bruins have not.

It's finally sinking in that for the first time since 1990, and the first time in my memory, the Bruins are headed to the Stanley Cup.

However, they have a large task in front of them in taking on the Presidents' Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks. Truth be told, I think most people, myself included, are proud of the Bruins for making it this far. But, Boston's come this far. Why not go all the way?

Sure, the Canucks are the favorite, but as faceoff nears, I can't help but notice a feeling of excitement...and a feeling of confidence.

The Bruins can win the Stanley Cup this year. Here are the three things they'll need to do win and three things they'll need to avoid.

To win the Bruins must...shut down the Sedin twins.

It's not impossible. Nashville locked down the Sedins with two defensemen similar to Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg. If those two redwood-sized trees can contain the Sedins, the Bruins have the depth down to the fourth line to outplay Vancover in lines two through four.

To win the Bruins must...rattle goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Luongo has a stat line that mimics that of Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas. However, Thomas seems to have the ability to put a poor game behind him; Luongo does not. If Luongo gets in a grove early, the Bruins will be in trouble. However, Boston should be willing to sacrifice a shootout in Game 1 to get to Luongo. If tonight's game ends up in a 6-5 blitzkrieg, Thomas can bounce back in Game 2, Luongo might not.

To win the Bruins must...earn a split in the opening trip to Vancouver.

That sounds sort of obvious. However, the Bruins have been a great road team and have less pressure on them than the highly-touted Canucks, especially in western Canada. Boston hasn't shown the ability to deal with too much pressure at home and returning down 2-0 could be a disaster. If Boston can come home even, they'll be in a position to make it a long series and grind it out against the speedier Canucks.

To win the Bruins most not...led Ryan Kesler take control.

Nashville shut down the Sedins, sure, but Kesler took control for the Vancouver offense. The responsibility of shutting down the American will fall on the shoulders of Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference. Despite all the talk about all the top liners, this matchup might determine teh winner.

To win the Bruins must not...get outplayed on even-strength.

Boston won't win the special teams. Let's toss that out the window right now. They'll have to keep it as close as possible on the special teams and utilize their strength five-on-five team to win. The Canucks have some notable players struggling on plus-minus in the playoffs, which means they haven't been great on even strength.

To win the Bruins must not...lose their composure.

I love the whole "Big, Bad Bruins" mentality, but Boston needs to harness that beast. As I said, the Bruins won't win the special teams battle, so they'll need to make sure they don't dig a deep hole with stupid or costly (or both) penalities. Boston showed how well they can play in a penalty-less Game 7 against Tampa Bay. They need to play like that as opposed the Game 6 team that gave up three goals to the Lightning's power play and suffered the loss in an otherwise strong 5-4 battle.

The Bruins will win because...they'll take Game 1 in Vancouver and send doubt into the Vacouver locker room and city. Boston's tough defensemen will hold the fort against the Canucks attack and Thomas will outperform Luongo. Boston wins Games 1, 3 ,5, and 6; Bruins in 6.

Conference Finals Predictions

2011-05-14T19:18:00.000-04:00

The last time the Bruins made the conference finals was 1992. I wasn't in school and there definitely was no such thing as a "blog." Well, I've finished school and have a job of my own, and a blog of my owe. Although you can tell by the briefness of this post that the two don't mix well.

After 19 years, the Bruins are finally back in the Conference Finals. Personally, I think they can go even farther.

Here are my quick picks for the conference finals.

Boston Bruins over Tampa Bay Lightning in 7 games - Don't take Tampa Bay lightly or you'll end up swept like the Capitals. The Lightning has been playing well but Boston has a physical and goaltending advantage - two big keys to postseason success.

San Jose Sharks over Vancouver Canucks in 6 games - If San Jose can grab one of two in Vancouver, they'll be in business. The Canucks recovered after a scary first round to the team that won the Presidents' Trophy. However, I think the Sharks are the team to wreak havoc on Roberto Luongo and oust the Canucks.

Stanley Cup:

Sharks over Bruins in 6 - The Sharks can match Boston physically and are a much faster team. That should carry San Jose to its first Cup.

Fantasy FedEx'd

2011-05-11T16:27:00.001-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

Think about it: you could "fed-ex" a package through UPS, but you would never "UPS" a package through FedEx, would you!?

As a dominant company, FedEx has struggled from time-to-time to maintain its copyright because their name has become so synonymous with shipping that it has turned into a verb. In the eyes of United States Patent and Trademark Office, a company can lose its copyright if the brand becomes more than a name.

Shout, among others, fights the same struggle to maintain its brand. Like "FedExing" a package has become a common reference for overnighting a package (no matter the company), people Shout out stains on their clothing no matter the cleanser.

And, there's a reason for this: FedEx (and Shout) are the leading brand among their competition.

Funny story...

This past fall (before I worked for NHMS), there was an issue at my former job with the direct deposit of my check. Being the end of the month, I had rent and car insurance due and couldn't wait for the check to be sent via snail mail. So, the company sent it overnight...via UPS.

That weekend, I happened to be visiting the University of Southern California for Homecoming, so I had the UPS package sent to my old fraternity house, where I was staying. It never arrived.

According to UPS records, the package wasn't delivered because an apartment number wasn't specified. It was a fraternity house with a central mail system, there was no apartment and had the driver taken 30-seconds to get out of the truck I would have received the package as expected.

Strike 1.

After explaining this to UPS Customer Service, I had the package re-routed back to my house in northern California, since I would be gone by the time it was set to be re-delivered. By tracking the package online, I saw that it was delivered on Tuesday as expected, only it was delivered to a Zappos shoe store...in Louisville, Kentucky!

It you read my post yesterday on the compatibility of racing, you'll know that I've never even been to Kentucky.

Strike 2.

The following day, as expected, my checking account over drafted (fortunately, payroll reimbursed me for the penalty). The check finally ended up at my permanent address in New Hampshire about three weeks later (by that time, I'd had it re-issued and deposited).

Strike 3.

In talking with our third-party payroll company to get the check re-issued, I posed an obvious question: "how about this time we try FedEx?"

Needless to say, I'm one of the people who will be excited to see the FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks this Sunday in Dover, DE.

(I probably look like a schmuck for discussing FedEx instead of the struggles of autism and the importance of using this race to create awareness. So, let this serve as a token of my full support for the race's name to help the general public learn about the condition and its affects.)

Here's a look at who you can expect to deliver in a timely fashion this coming weekend on your fantasy team.

*In case you're new to this segment, check out my first fantasy post on how the system works.

A-List

Start

#14 Tony Stewart - Stewart is listed first because I go by numerical order; the below two options are better choices. However, he's definitely worth considering. He has two wins and 15 top-10s in 24 starts in Dover.

#48 Jimmie Johnson - There aren't that many tracks that Johnson doesn't tear up, but this one in particular stands out as one of his more dominant tracks. He's won one-third (six of 18) starts here and, over the last six years, he has the best driver rating among all drivers.

#99 Carl Edwards - Not only has Edwards been the best driver this season, but an average finish of 7.7 here and nine top-10s in 13 starts has him clamoring for the start this week.

Park

#22 Kurt Busch - Busch has five DNFs to just seven top-10s here and average finish of an unimpressive 18.9. Couple that with the fact that he clearly hasn't been happy with his car lately and there's not much reason to roll him out this week.

B-List

Start

#4 Kasey Kahne - Kahne is hot right now with two consecutive top-fives. He hasn't raced particularly well at Dover in the past (a 22.9 average finish is well down from an 18.3 career), but I'm not positive he's going to remain this hot the rest of the season. It's best to consider getting him out there before he cools off.

#5 Mark Martin - Martin has four wins and an average finish of 12.5 here. Considering the shallow pool of the B-list this week, he's a reliable option that won't waste an allocation for a top B-lister.

#39 Ryan Newman - You're probably quickly using up your allocations on Newman, but, as I mentioned last week, there's enough depth in the B-group that you need to start him when he races his best tracks. He's won here three times with 11 top-10s in 18 starts, and he has four poles to boot.

#43 A.J. Allmendinger - Like Kahne, Allmendinger might be a reach, but he's quietly sitting in 11th in the Cup standings right now and when you consider who I suggest parking, he's one of the best remaining options.

Park

#33 Clint Bowyer - Don't force yourself to start Bowyer. You'll get him out there nine times this season! He has just three top-10s in ten starts at Dover and has never recorded a top-five.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. - He does have a win here, but he also only has seven top-10s in 22 starts. If you're starting him this week, don't ask for my blessing.

C-List

Start

#27 Paul Menard - This would be a good time to use an allocation on the C-group's top driver. He finishes an average of almost four spots better than his career average (20.4 compared to 24.1) and clearly looks to be the best option this week.

#47 Bobby Labonte - This isn't a campaign for Labonte week, but he finishes slightly better here than elsewhere on average, so he's not a bad choice if you're taxing Menard too quickly.

Park

#78 Regan Smith - Wow that sounds like a slap in the face to last week's winner, but it's not intended. Admittedly, Smith is having the best season of his young career, but I place him here knowing a lot of people will try to jump on his bandwagon. Well, plenty of people jumped on Trevor Bayne's bandwagon when he won in Daytona, none profited. You'll get a lot of starts out of Smith as the season wears on. When you do, start him for the right reasons, not just because you see the bandwagon pulling away without you.

My preliminary roster

A - EDWARDS (7), Johnson (6)
B - MARTIN (6), NEWMAN (4), Allmendinger (9), Kahne (7)
C - MENARD (7), Labonte (7)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

My Old Kentucky Home

2011-05-10T15:06:00.004-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

This is a real stretch for a title.

For those of you that read my original blog post when we first started the Granite Stripe blog, you know that New Hampshire is my original home.

I've also never even been to Kentucky, save the Cincinnati airport, which lies just across the border from Ohio.

However, when it comes to my interest in racing. It all started with horse racing, and you can't discuss that without referencing the Kentucky Derby.

To the average attentionally inept American, horse racing is much easier to follow than auto racing. It's about two minutes of action as opposed to two-plus hours, and there's more money exchanging hands on perfectas and trifectas and whatever-fectas to make a Friday night at the MGM Grand look slow.

Meanwhile, it carries an elegance that juxtaposes the come-as-you-are mentality of the NASCAR fan base.
At the Kentucky Derby, women wear large hats and lengthy dresses that remind television viewers of another era.

In NASCAR, women wear race caps and sleeveless t-shirts that remind television viewers its probably about 100 degrees at that track.

At the Kentucky Derby, the infield is lined with grass and roses.

In NASCAR, the infield is lined with campers and car parts.

At the Kentucky Derby, horses are trained for over a year with the expectation of running just over a mile.
In NASCAR, a pit crew changes four tires in less than 15 seconds with the expectation of running well over a hundred miles.

Horse racing is easier for people to understand. There are no tire changes or gas strategy or obligatory chassis adjustments. It's the simplicity of a man riding a horse, an occurrence that dates back to long before anyone had dreamed up an automobile.

However, for all their differences in culture and style, horse racing and auto racing have the most important thing in common: racing.

I tended to watch the Kentucky Derby growing up. Yet, similar to auto racing, my real interest for horse racing began when I attended an event in southern California. In this case, it was a race day at Santa Anita Park.

The event lasted the entire day with a total of ten races, and I entertained myself by placing minimum $2 bets on races.

Note that this is the part where I disclaim that I don't support gambling.

Note number two, this the part where I disclaim that if you don't have a vested interest you're going to find yourself in a noticeable minority when it comes to your lack of excitement. (You'll be the only person not yelling something like "Come on Three! Come on Three! Come on!" like a character in Sesame Street.)
My interest for racing was born!

That interest eventually led to my focus in motorsports. The concept was still the same.

The beauty of racing is that every result is determined in finite rank order. Unlike other sports, where anyone but the champion and runner-up tend to be loosely stratified into groups, in racing, you know who finished first, second, fifth, tenth and last.

Furthermore, the concept is straight forward and appealing: whomever goes the fastest wins! That's it.
Saturday's events proved that both types of racing hold a great amount of excitement.

As is standard during the Derby, fans stood around televisions and yelled at the horses on the screen as Animal Kingdom, a 20-1 long shot, raced through an impressive group of contenders in the final few furlongs to win the race.

Later that evening, it was a similar long shot, Regan Smith, who held off Carl Edwards and the rest of the field during a green-white-checkered finish to claim his first Cup win.

So, whether you enjoy the roses of the Churchill Downs infield or the aluminum of the NASCAR bleachers, just remember: you're a racing fan!

Fantasy Darlings of South Carolina

2011-05-04T14:16:00.003-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

When I first started giving you my fantasy NASCAR advice, I explained that I wasn't an expert, just a guy that followed the sport. However, after last week's performance, I might have raised the bar higher than I can jump.

I'm one of those guys that tends to tell you, "I told you so," (because that's what New Englanders do!) and this past weekend was a big boost for my already enlarged ego.

For Richmond, I suggested that you roster Juan Pablo Montoya in case he qualified well (he started on the pole), but recommended you not start him (he finished 29th).

I nominated Kyle Busch as the best option in the A-list (he won) and said that Denny Hamlin (second) and Jimmie Johnson (eighth) were among others worth considering, while Matt Kenseth (21st) should be avoided.
In the C-group, my recommendation was David Ragan, who finished fourth. Although, it's worth pointing out that Ragan and Paul Menard are the only two C-listers currently putting any value into the fantasy engines.

Great! You're thinking. This guy had a good week, and even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again.

To you I say, err, well, touche!

When it comes to fantasy NASCAR, I tend to follow embody the career of Kasey Kahne. I prove time and again that I'm capable of being a top contender, but there's a certain inconsistency (whether its under my control or not) that keeps me out of the elite.

Well, it's showtime for me this week. It's time to prove that I didn't just have a lucky week and that I actually have an idea of what I'm doing.

And, not so coincidentally (since I set up the pun), it's also showtime for the Sprint Cup, as the drivers roll into Darlington, SC, for the Showtime Southern 500 on Saturday night.

Here are some of the Darlington darlings, if you will, and some of the duds in the fantasy world.

*In case you're new to this segment, check out my first fantasy post on how the system works.

A-List

Start

#24 Jeff Gordon - I'm sure Gordon fans are itching to roll the 24 off the hauler. He won in Phoenix near the beginning of the season, but, all in all, it has been a disastrous season. Gordon currently sits in 16th place right now. However, he's won an impressive seven races here, so, like Hamlin was last week, this could be a risk/reward opportunity to get a lot of points out of a driver that most people will have in the garage.

#48 - Jimmie Johnson - Johnson has two wins and nine top-10s in twelve starts here with an average finish of an impressive 9.3. While he notoriously moseys along in the pre-Chase portion of the season, this year, he's already in top form and sits in second in the standings. It's tracks like these for which you save Johnson's precious allocations.

#99 Carl Edwards - It's hard to go against Edwards right now. He's the points leader and has five top-fives and seven top-10s in the first nine races of the season. He's worth considering every week.

Park

#29 Kevin Harvick - Harvick has an ugly 19.1 average finishing position here, more than four spots worse than his career average of 15.0. He also seems to have cooled off a little since back-to-back wins a month ago.

B-List

Start

#4 Kasey Kahne - Kahne finished third last week and his average finish at Darlington is 15.9, well up from an 18.3 career finish. Like the hybrid sedan you just bought, he might not be the most glamorous car out there, but you can still fit the whole family in the car and save enough money for a vacation. In non-metaphorical terms: he should do well enough this week to allow you to save the quickly dwindling B-list allocations of your top drivers.

#5 Mark Martin - Martin is similar to Kahne. In Martin's case, his best years are behind him, so it's hard to transcribe all of his stats, but, in 44 starts, he has two wins and 26 top-10s. For the amount of races he's run, his average finish of 12.1 is noticeably better than his career of 13.4.

#39 Ryan Newman - Newman's numbers approach those of Jimmie Johnson, as he's tallied six top-fives and eight top-10s in twelve starts. The only thing that could get you here would be the amount of allocations you have remaining (or Juan Pablo Montoya), but keep in mind that you're better starting him now and getting 88 points than you are saving him for a 78-point start later on. Unlike the C-group that we'll get to shortly, there are at least enough solid options in the B-group that you shouldn't sacrifice points to maintain allocations.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. - His 15.2 average finish here is stronger than his 16.9 career, and the consensus is that he's gotta win one soon! Personally, I'm not a fan of starting someone every week just so you can say you were on the bandwagon when he won, but I'm not going to wing my wireless mouse at you if you do.

Park

#33 Clint Bowyer - After last week, Bowyer climbed into the the top spot among B-list drivers, but he has an average finish of 23.2 here. In the five races he started, he only has one top-10, and even that was a fall to ninth place after starting on the pole.

C-List

Start

#6 David Ragan - Ragan has three top-10s in his last four starts. His fourth race in that span was a wreck at Talladega, and let's be honest, wrecks happen at Talladega! That said, you need to be careful in how quickly you wear out his allocations, as he's one of the few good options you're going to have throughout the season.

#47 Bobby Labonte - Starting Labonte will never excite you, but you need to do the math: you can only start Ragan and Paul Menard in 18 of 36 races, which means you'll need to find 18 starts from other C-list drivers. Labonte's average finish here of 15.9 is far better than a career of 18.6 and over the course of his long career, that's worth noting. Excepting an accident last year, he's finished within in a window of 17-22 from 2005-09. This wouldn't be a bad week to start someone other than the 6 of Ragan or 27 of Menard, since Labonte presents a dependable option.

Park

#27 Paul Menard - Menard's career average finish of 24.1 is probably dragged down a few decimals by the 28.0 average here. Last year was his best finish; it was 20th. Save the C-list's top driver for a different track.

My preliminary roster

A - JOHNSON (7), Edwards (7)
B - KAHNE (8), NEWMAN (5), Martin (6), Montoya (7)
C - LABONTE (8), Ragan (5)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

Go Granny, Go!

2011-05-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

At this point, you've probably heard the story.

If not, maybe you should move to Eugene, OR, Ottumwa, IA, or Salt Lake City, UT. (Actually, scratch that, don't move to SLC...don't even think about it!)

All three of those media markets and dozens of others across the nation carried the story of Rachel Gilbert's 100th birthday in somewhere seemingly as distant and podunk to most Americans as any of those: Loudon, NH.

Last Tuesday, in anticipation of her centennial on April 28th, Gilbert visited "The Magic Mile" here in Loudon.

She stands at less than five feet and you have to listen closely to pick up her soft voice, but she has a personality that will fill up a room and a story that crossed the country.

Gilbert arrived at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway excited by the chance to get an inside look at a sport she's followed for over half her life. Her family had told her she'd be back on July 17 to take in the LENOX Industrial Tools 301, a prospect that already had her giddy. What happened once she arrived was beyond her wildest dreams.

After a brief meet-and-greet with general manager Jerry Gappens, Gilbert accompanied Gappens outside and climbed in the passenger's seat of the NHMS pace car. Gappens and Gilbert headed out on the track with the lights flashing for Rachel's first chance to see how her favorite driver, Carl Edwards, takes in races.

The rest of the gang, including two daughters and two granddaughters, as well as several of her friends from her assisted living home, headed over to the Granite Stripe to cheer Gilbert on as she took her laps around the track.

After a few laps to warm up the track, Gappens stopped the car on the Stripe and told Gilbert to slide around to the driver's seat because it was her turn to drive! She hadn't driven a car in five years and that soon became apparent: as her family spoke to her in the driver's seat, Gilbert inadvertently put her foot on the gas while in park and the engine started to rev. She was ready to go!

They say that things you do instinctively are like "riding a bike," but, in Rachel's case, it's like driving a car. She quickly got her touch back and topped the car out near 55 mph during several laps around "The Magic Mile." Members of the media, as well as both daughters and granddaughters and her son-in-law, to whom she asks all her racing questions, all got to ride in the back seat, while the rest of us snapped pictures and filmed video from a pursuing Toyota Tundra.

Once she was all done, everyone gathered for cake and some "ho-hum" presents, which included suite tickets and pit passes for the LENOX Industrial Tools 301, a visit to the driver's meeting, a NHMS jacket and LENOX hat, and, direct from Roush Fenway Racing, an autographed Carl Edwards shirt!

While that concluded the festivities for the day, the story of Rachel Gilbert was just getting rolling.

Having worked in the media, I knew this was a nice fluff story that you'd tend to see in the C-block of a newscast, the "Big Finish" in Pardon the Interruption, or "The Point After" in Sports Illustrated. Here, at the Speedway, we knew we'd get local coverage and were optimistic we could garner some attention throughout Boston's media. If the story left New England, we'd be ecstatic.

Anytime "New Hampshire Motor Speedway" is referenced on TV, I get an email so I can view and/or share the clip. In this case, I began regretting that I had set my notifications to hourly. By the time I arrived Wednesday morning, I already had nine notifications.

The first emails were as expected WMUR in Manchester and NECN in Boston had both been on the scene, so we knew they'd have the story. However, I then saw a hit from Toldeo, OH, then Colorado Springs, CO. That's when the story really took off, the next thing I knew it was on the air in Oklahoma City, OK, Cincinnati, OH, Iowa City, IA, Wichita, KS, and Little Rock, AR.

By the end of the morning, Gilbert's story had spread to the West Coast in Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Diego. At 12:11 pm, she'd made it completely to the farthest regions of the United States: Honolulu, HI, mentioned her.

Sometimes, you realize when you're going to make big news. Everyone knew when the Red Sox came back against the Yankees in 2004 that history had been made; everyone knows that Jimmie Johnson's streak of five straight Sprint Cup championships is a historic feat.

However, sometimes you just don't anticipate the media swell that's headed your way. Ask Trevor Bayne who drove his own truck to Daytona in February with the expectation he'd just drive it back afterward.

In our case, we hadn't anticipated just how far this great-grandmother's story would travel. CNN's Morning Buzz picked it up, as did the Oprah Winfrey Network, and there are even rumors that Jay Leno is interested in connecting with Rachel about her experience.

Personally, I'm a Conan O'Brien guy, but you go granny, go!

Regardless of whether her story made it to Honolulu or was just a feel good blurb mentioned in the "Local" section of a nearby newspaper, it was a pleasure to have Rachel Gilbert and her family and friends attend the track last Tuesday.

Congratulations on the centennial Rachel! We look forward to seeing you back here for the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 on July 17.

Only the Tough Survive: Round Two

2011-04-28T21:12:00.001-04:00

In a sport often known for its toughness, it's no wonder the Montreal Canadiens couldn't stick around more than a round.

I'm worn out after a long Game 7 which I attended in Boston, but, for the sake of fairness. I wanted to at least get the picks up before the games started

Here are the quick picks:

Vancouver over Nashville in 6
Detroit over San Jose in 7

Washington over Tampa Bay in 5
Boston over Philadelphia in 6
--
Vancouver over Detroit in 6
Washington over Boston in 6
--
Washington over Vancouver in 6

Honoring the Troops, Crowning Virginia

2011-04-27T11:02:00.002-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

According to the race's name, Crown Royal will present the "Crown Royal presents the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400" this weekend in Richmond, VA.

Now, the first question most people probably ask is: "Who the heck are Matthew and Daniel Hansen?"

The second is: "Am I not enough of a NASCAR buff to recognize those names and am I going to look like a dope if I voice my first question?"

Of course, being the marketing minded person I am, my first question was: "Is Crown Royal really so cheap it can't splurge for a title sponsorship?" (Generally, a sponsor pays less to be a "presenting sponsor" as opposed to a "title sponsor." You can see this in college bowl games: "Tostitos Fiesta Bowl" vs. "Rose Bowl presented by Vizio." As I think about it, I'm pretty sure that since "Crown Royal" is listed first it is in fact a "title sponsor," but the whole "presents" thing makes them look about as cheap as that purple "go anywhere" bag they sell with their product.)

Anyway, I digress.

More importantly to you: who the heck are Matthew and Daniel Hansen!?

Each year, Crown Royal hosts a "Your Name Here" contest, where it strives to find the average, unsung American hero after whom to name the race.

Now, before you and I start throwing our names into the system and receiving a life time supply of Crown Royal spam emails, let me point out that all five finalists in this year's contest were military associated.

That's fair. I'm not sure that driving across the country a few times and maintaining a blog make me an average American hero. I'm pretty sure it just makes me an average American, period.

Matthew and Daniel Hansen were twin brothers and joined the Marines in 2002. Matthew served three tours in Iraq. Daniel was selected to be a guard for George W. Bush in 2004, but was later killed in action in Afghanistan. Upon winning the award, Matthew honored the memory of his brother by putting his name on the race.

Memorial Day is still about five weeks away, but, as you watch the race this weekend, please take a minute to honor the life of Daniel Hansen as well and thank our troops for their service.

--

With the name of the Crown Royal presents the Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400 figured out, let's start trying to figure out who to put behind the wheel of the fantasy team this week.

*In case you're new to this segment, check out my first fantasy post on how the system works.

A-List

Start

#11 Denny Hamlin - Growing up only about 20 miles away from Richmond, Hamlin has always raced well at his "home" track. He has five top-fives in ten career starts and has won two of the last three at this venue, including last fall. However, and this is a big "however," he's the worst driver in the A-List so far this year. I'd tread carefully before you wheel him out there, but you can't completely ignore his success here.

#18 Kyle Busch - Always a crowd favorite (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, chuckle), the younger Busch has been dominant at this track recently. The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas have swept this track the last two seasons. Busch has taken the spring races; Hamlin the fall. It's spring time!

#48 Jimmie Johnson - Before the Toyotas bought him out, Johnson owned Richmond. He won three of four races in 2007+08. His 16.9 average finish here is cause for concern, but I'd have him at least on the "Bench" and ready to "Start" if he rolls off the hauler quickly.

Park

#17 Matt Kenseth - Ironic that Crown Royal shouldn't expect to present the Crown Royal car in Victory Lane, no? Kenseth might be racing better now than he has in recent years, but he hasn't registered a top-10 in eight races at Richmond (a tenth place finish in the spring of 2007).

B-List

Start

#33 Clint Bowyer - Five top-10s in ten career starts. Average finish of 9.8. Only one of 10 finishes worse than 12th. Start 'em!

#39 Ryan Newman - Similar to Bowyer, he has a solid track record here. He has 11 top-10s in 18 starts, including five top-fives. Two discardable finishes in the 30s over 18 races lower his average finish to 11.4, but again, those are outliers.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Junior is racing better right now than he has in about five years. Not to burst anyone's bubble out there in "Junior Nation," but, from an objective point of view, when a normally middle-of-the-pack finisher goes on a run, it's best to start him on that hot streak. That's not to say Junior isn't here to stay, but wouldn't you hate to have all his allocations saved up for a mid-summer regression? Oh, yeah, and he also has three career wins on this track!

The Field - You have to nominate four drivers, but aside from those three, no one is jumping off the page. Remember you get points for qualifying, so you could add the 42 (below), since he does have a pole this year. Mark Martin might also be worth considering, as he has an average finish at Richmond that is 1.2 higher than his overall, long career. However, you probably aren't going to want to stray from starting any of the three best options.

Park

#42 Juan Pablo Montoya - In his defense, he has top-10s in his three of his last four races here. But, that's it. In his five other finishes, he's only finished as high as 19th and has an average finish of 21.4. I think after a disappointing 2010 season, Montoya is back, and I also think that you'll want to save his allocations for a track at which he has more success. Again, you could put him on the bench and hope he nabs a qualifying bonus, but I wouldn't suggest starting him.

C-List

Start

#6 David Ragan - Ragan was swept into an early crash last week, which was exactly why I recommended you avoid using him at a superspeedway. However, before that, he'd posted two consecutive top-10s and the Roush Fenway Racing Fords seem to be strong right now.

#27 Paul Menard - Menard's never had a top-10 here, but he's also never driven as well as he is now. Fellow Granite Stripe blogger Travis Barrett commented two weeks ago that he's not sure Menard will keep it up all year. While I do think he'll routinely be the best C-List option available, I'll go back to what I said about the 88 (above): if a typically middling driver is on a hot streak, it's best to use allocations before he cools off.

Park

It's worth noting that aside from four or five options, the whole C-List should be parked, since it's mainly a "start-and-park" squad. I'll try to pick a "Park" each week that some might actually consider starting, but since the list is short, I might seem to pick on the same guys. Remember, when it comes to the C-List: any mention is a good mention.

#21 Trevor Bayne - There's no question that this kid's got a lot of potential, and if David Ragan doesn't continue to improve, Bayne could be behind the wheel of a Roush Fenway car soon. However, the Daytona honeymoon is over. He's on an underfunded team and his only real value comes at the superspeedways when he can team up with someone for a good finish, while also saving precious allocations for the few top C-List drivers. This track is 0.75-miles around; it is absolutely not a superspeedway.

My preliminary roster

A - KYLE BUSCH (7), Johnson (7)
B - BOWYER (8), EARNHARDT JR. (6), Newman (5), Montoya (7)
C - RAGAN (6), Menard (7)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

Qualified for the Office

2011-04-26T16:11:00.003-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

Before we get into the article, let's just take a minute to enjoy the photo to the left.

In this photo, you see Joey Logano celebrating the Coors Light "21 Means 21" pole in the Nationwide Series last weekend.

Coincidentally, Logano's car is not 21, it's just short at number 20. And, also, coincidentally, his car number matches his current age: 20.

Which makes it very ironic that, Logano is portrayed as a spokesman for the drinking age of 21 despite the fact that he, himself, won't turn 21 until May 24th.

Chuckle at that a second, then we'll move on to the article.

--

This past Saturday, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted the second FANtasy Drive. (Technically, it wasn't the second "annual," because apparently you can't use the word "annual" until you have it for a third year; supporting my dad's argument that "first annual" is as much of an oxymoron as "jumbo shrimp.") During this event, any fans that had purchased tickets to a major event were allowed to drive their own cars for three laps around "The Magic Mile."

The marketing slogan for the track this year has been: "It's Your Track New England," and nothing proved that more than Saturday's event. On April 24th, you'd be expecting a warm day around 65-70 degrees and pray that the spring showers hold off. But, it's New England!

Early in the week, it became obvious those prayers wouldn't be answered. At one point on Wednesday or Thursday, weather.com said that the chance of precipitation for Saturday was 100%. (In fact, I got excited on Friday to find it had just dropped to 90%.) Then, it got worse. Sometime on Friday a small snowflake appeared and the weather read "Rain/Snow." (Remember: this is your track!)

For once (unfortunately), the weatherman got it right. As I headed out to the track to get some photos and video around 9:15, I had to use my winter hat as a cover for the camera so that it didn't get snowed on. However, with the track wet enough to hold off any accumulation and weather savvy drivers of New England behind the wheels, NHMS kept the cars circling well into the afternoon.

I was scheduled to get behind the wheel of the pace car in the mid afternoon. However, as the line started to dissipate and the weather finally got the better of the impressive hundreds of hardy fans, I realized my time would be short lived.

I quickly ran from the infield to the staging area outside the tunnel and hopped in the car with Account Executive Jason Potter. Priority number one: get photos and video to share with you, the fans. This, obviously, I was doing from the passenger seat as Jason drove.

As the pace car leading our visitors, we started out a good clip, but had to slow it down. As I mentioned, we had a lot of hardy fans, and one was even towing a large trailer behind his truck and seemed to have trouble getting up to speed (no surprise), so we backed it off a little so he could stay with the pack.

After the three laps, we pulled back outside the tunnel to pick up our next group. Only, there was no one waiting and security had begun breaking down. I realized that I might have missed my chance to get behind the wheel.

In the initiation process of every job, there are three main rights of passage: the first day, the day you feel you belong, and the day you prove you can do your job even with garbage hitting the fan.

In the restaurant business, you feel you belong when you work your first Friday; you prove you can do your job through adversity when you still land a strong tip despite having a table wait 30 minutes only to deliver an incorrect order.

In the football video business, you feel you belong when you first get bumped by a player as he runs out of bounds; you prove you can do your job when the 49ers decide to host a press conference an hour from the team's facility and you successfully set up the live feed for the team's website, which everyone and their father is watching.

At New Hampshire Motor Speedway, you feel you belong when you've driven a lap around the track.

So, while my final stage of initiation probably won't come until this summer during the first NASCAR weekend when each arm and leg is being pulled in a different direction from my head, I didn't want to miss a lap on Saturday that would qualify my status as an employee of NHMS.

Knowing that this would be the blog post for the week, I had Jason slide over to the passenger seat and climbed in behind the wheel and we headed up to the front of the track to take a victory lap without any cars in tow. We got clearance from the security guard at the gate to take an employee lap and I pulled out on the road course and hit the oval coming out of turn 4.

The first time you look all the way down the front stretch and its just you and the car (...and Jason...and the video camera), it's pretty exciting. Your first instinct is to step on it and see how fast you can go before you get to turn 1.

You understand the mentality that the pole sitter must have on a hot summer afternoon when the pace car falls off and the green flag starts waving as you barrel down the front stretch in front of 100,000 cheering fans.

However, this wasn't summer and this wasn't a stock car. There was a transmitter inside, which, I'm pretty sure, gave my speed back to the control room. So, I kept it locked at a pace speed of 55-60, and not wanting to abuse the privilege I did a complete lap and then pulled off before turn one and headed back outside the tunnel.

For the fans that attended FANtasy Drive, they can commiserate. It feels so liberating, but yet so restrictive.

The wild side of you wants to open it up to 120 and see how it handles in the turns. The logical side says that its wet and slippery and it's not even my car.

Still, it was an enjoyable victory lap and I'd like to thank all the fans that joined in the experience on Saturday. For those that missed it, fear not; the attendees are already clamoring for a third annual next year (Yay! We can use that term in 2012.)

But, before any of us Joe the Plumbers get back on the track, we'll get a far better experience; the NASCAR and INDYCAR series will fulfill the second part of the fantasy: get it up to 120 (or, in INDYCAR's case, the cars are expected to top 200 mph!)

Not so coincidentally, those weekends will also close out phase three of my initiation as an employee at NHMS, but, at least, I got phase two done this past weekend!

I'm Not Sorry for Watching NASCAR

2011-04-19T10:25:00.001-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

"Are you watching auto racing?"

It's a question I've had to deal with since I first became a racing fan in 2009. (The answer is a 'well, of course-toned,' "yeah!")

"Wow! A bunch of cars turning left!"

A typical retort from the uneducated mathlete. (Perhaps you should try calculating the centripetal force heading into turn 2 maybe that would make you more appreciative.)

"It doesn't even qualify as a sport."

Also, another ignorant comment from someone that hasn't watched a lap in their life.

Let's see:

Does it involve a team? Can you change four tires in less than 15 seconds because if it takes any longer you'll be fired? No!? Then, yes, it involves a team!

Does it require hand-eye coordination? Can you tailgate someone to within a few inches while driving 180 mph? No!? Then, yes, it requires hand-eye.

Does it involve a lot of running? No. Does baseball? No. And, for what it's worth, I'd take Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick in an athletic competition over David Ortiz, C.C. Sabathia, Prince Fielder, and Pablo Sandoval any day! Mute point.

Bottom line: if cricket and badminton qualify as sports, auto racing is definitely a sport.)

So, to answer the initial question: yes, I'm watching NASCAR, and the only thing I'm apologizing to you for is that you haven't been fortunate enough to see the light.

--

I first started following NASCAR three years ago when I was a senior in college at USC.

As an aspiring sports journalist, I understood that auto racing was a way of life in some parts of the country. If I walked into a sports journalist interview in Alabama or Tennessee, I needed to know something about the sport (little did I realize it would lead me back to my home state of New Hampshire).

Simply put: for me to be successful in the business, I needed to ditch the stereotype that it was 40 cars turning left (plus, J.J. Yeley, Michael McDowell, and Dave Blaney already parked in the garage).

About the same time, I had a woman that worked for NASCAR's public relations department come into a class and talk about how she got hooked on the sport when she first went to a race. Daytona was just a few weeks away, and following that would be the Auto Club 500 in nearby Fontana, Calif.

I decided after that class that I'd sign up for fantasy auto racing. I'm an avid fantasy sports player (as you learned last week), and I've always found that playing a fantasy sport helps keep me in the loop with what's going on, because, at the very least, I'll at least check the results and see how my guys did.

At the same time, I also talked with one of my close friends, Rob, who was a mechanical engineer at USC, and worked for Formula SAE (a college program where students build a race car). Rob said he'd definitely be down to go to the Auto Club and we found tickets for $35.

Not knowing much about auto racing, I didn't realize that third row seats by the finish line weren't nearly as good as I thought they were. We couldn't see over the infield, and we could only see the cars between turns 4 and 1, but it didn't matter.

On Lap 3, Jimmie Johnson led the race and blew by us at a recorded speed of 183 mph.

Wow! That was awesome!

Since then, I've been an advocate for the sport. I took one of my friends, Josh, to the SYLVANIA 300 in Sept. 2009. At the time, he said: "I don't know anything about it. But, what the heck? I'll spend the $80 for a ticket because it'll probably be the only time I go to a race."

...When we left, he asked: "when's the next race?"

To answer his question: the next race was the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 in June 2010. At this point, it was Josh and two of my friends named Chris; one was my closest friend since the first grade, and he'd been to a race before, so he was all for it; the other, Josh and I had to twist his arm (and both legs) before he finally agreed. I'm still not sure if he was that sold on the race, or if we sold him more on the pre-race barbeque we'd be having (he loves to grill). Either way, it worked.

...When we left, he asked: "when's the next race?"

--

There's just something different about auto racing. It's bigger' it's faster, and it has an irreplaceable thrill.

Sure, I love attending Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox. I first went there on Opening Day in 1990 when I was three and my dad caught me a foul ball pitched by Roger Clemens. I was sold!

I love attending the Garden to watch the Bruins. The first game I attended was a Bruins-Canadiens game in the early 90s. At the time, I liked both teams. I soon found out nobody liked Montreal and five minutes into the game Cam Neely smacked some guy through the glass right in front of me and proceeded to beat him to a pulp. I was sold!

And, while I can't describe my first NASCAR race as a "childhood" memory, I still remember it as vividly as the others: the time Jimmie Johnson blew by at 183 mph. I was sold!

So, I'm sorry if you don't follow auto racing, but I'm not sorry for watching NASCAR.

Talladega Fantasy: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

2011-04-13T14:15:00.005-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

Of course, right!?

I had to make some stereotypical reference to that stereotype-fulfilling movie!

Although, while some NASCAR purists might have felt it made a mockery of the sport, it did a lot to bring auto racing into the living rooms of Americans. Plus, it was Carl Edwards that, two years ago in this race, suffered a horrific crash on the last lap and legged it out on foot to the finish line, à la Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard.

However, like in the movie when Bobby and Girard were disqualified for leaving their cars and Cal Naughton Jr. was awarded the race, if you're prepping this weekend's fantasy team, you're probably more concerned with who will cross the finish line first...by vehicle!

Since this is the first time I've done a fantasy preview, let me give a quick overview of how it works. I play Fantasy Auto Racing on Yahoo! so all references to specific rules will reflect that format.

In Yahoo!, drivers are separated into an A-list, B-list and C-list. Most of the Cup contenders tend to be A-listers, but there are always some B-list bargains. The C-list is comprised mainly of start-and-parks, save a few ringers. The caveat, however, is that each driver is only allowed to make nine starts in a season.

There are 36 races, so I can't just roll Paul Menard out as my C-lister each week.

I pick two A-list, four B-list, and two C-list drivers, and start one A, two Bs and a C, while the other four selections are simply on the "bench." Similar in setup to Cup Standings, points are awarded based on finish and bonus points are given out for "Laps Led" to all active drivers (although the bench can pick up qualifying bonuses).

This is my third season playing Fantasy Auto Racing. I have a strong memory and a certain affinity for stats, which is probably why I play things like Fantasy Auto Racing (and Golf) in the first place. However, it also lends into my knowledge for whom to start on specific tracks. I will always glance at Yahoo!'s "Preview" for confirmation, but, in my third campaign, I usually tend to be on the same page as the "Preview" already.
Ok, now that we got the nitty-gritty out of the way, let's actually take a look at my Talladega picks. I'll give some options for drivers to "start" and some drivers that you should certainly "park."

Talladega strategy: The superspeedways (Daytona and Talladega) have the reputation of having "The Big One." While the new two-car drafting system might change the pack mentality that eats cars like a vending machine eats your quarters, it's still best to be wary of field-clearing pile ups. For this reason, I avoid all of the marquee options that I expect to start nine times this year, because I'd hate to waste an allocation on one of the few races that I can't anticipate a top 10-15 finish.

A-List

Start

#14 Tony Stewart - Stewart hasn't looked that good lately, but I view him as one of the best pure drivers on the circuit. In the case of a restrictor plate race, where cars speeds are regulated, I'm always looking to give the nod to a great driver, since his skill and smarts could be what determines success, as opposed to the hardware under the hood of the car.

#17 Matt Kenseth - He's been racing really well this year and after his win in Texas last week, he's due for a hot streak. It's unlikely most people have started Kenseth very much and also unlikely you'll use all nine of his starts. He's a good choice this week.

#29 Kevin Harvick - The 29 was racing well until a 20th in Texas last week. Even so, there are some weeks that just don't go a driver's way and for Harvick, those seem to be few and far between. Assuming you haven't used him too much already, this would be a good time to roll out one of the stronger cars in early 2011.

Park

#48 Jimmie Johnson - Jimmie posts an average finish of 17.2 at Talladega and 17.9 on superspeedways; that's a far cry from his 11.7 career average finish. Figure that, along with that you'll want to give him nine starts, and you won't want to waste one this week.

B-List

Start

#1 Jamie McMurray - After he took Talladega in the fall of 2009 and Daytona in the spring of 2010, I've been riding the McMurray bandwagon at superspeedways. He seems to perform well at the most prominent tracks (he also won the Brickyard last year), and there's just no way anyone in their right mind is going to end up starting him nine times.

#2 Brad Keselowski - He's won here and finished in the top-10 in three of four tries. Like McMurray, he's not the strongest driver in the group and could be worth a shot based on his past success in Alabama.

#42 Juan Pablo Montoya - Montoya is noticeably stronger at 'Dega, where he finishes an average of 14.8, compared to a 19.4 career. He needs to be on your team this week.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Junior finishes an average of nearly two spots better at Talladega than he does overall. He's been much better so far this spring than in recent years, and most people believe it's only a matter of time before he makes an overdue trip to Victory Lane. This is the best chance he'll have.

Park

#39 Ryan Newman - Newman has been the best B-list driver so far, so similar to Jimmie Johnson, save him for another day, you'll need the allocations. He doesn't have a history of racing well here and is best left in the garage.

#43 AJ Allmendinger - Don't even consider him. Allmendinger has finished 30th or worse in four out of five goes (the fifth was a 19th place finish).

C-List

Start

#21 Trevor Bayne - Bayne's quickly fallen back in line after his upstart win at Daytona in February. However, he proved he can race a superspeedway and can race in the two-car draft system. In a C group that lacks too much depth, he's worth the risk this week.

#47 Bobby Labonte - While he hasn't been overwhelming this season, Labonte's only had one stinker (38th in California) and consistency goes a long way in the C group. He also finished fourth in Daytona, proving he's been around long enough that he can adapt to whatever the race strategy dictates.

#78 Regan Smith - Be wary of Smith, as he's posted four 30th or worse finishes in the first seven races. However, he did finish seventh at Daytona. He's a high-risk play, but if you're using up Labonte allocations too quickly and aren't feeling Bayne, the 78 is worth consideration.
Park

#6 David Ragan - Ragan is quickly emerging the vice president in this group to Paul Menard (below). He's the only C-driver (other than Menard) in the top-20 of the standings. The 6 could have won Daytona if it weren't for a restart penalty and has two consecutive top-10 finishes, but you know my strategy at Talladega: save your best drivers for a non-restrictor plate race.

#27 Paul Menard - No way, no how should you start Menard this week. He's the only driver in the C-list with much of a shot at the Chase and his nine allocations are a guarantee to get used up. Don't burn one this weekend!

My preliminary roster (subject to change, based on qualifying)

A - HARVICK (9), Kenseth (9)
B - EARNHARDT JR. (7), McMURRAY (8), Keselowski (9), Montoya (8)
C - BAYNE (9), Labonte (8)
*Number in parenthesis are allocations remaining.

--
Lastly, while we're on the subject of "Fantasy," be sure to circle April 23rd on your calendars for the FANtasy Drive Open House. Gates open at 9 am and admission is free, plus anyone that purchases a ticket to any of the major events (NASCAR or IndyCar) will get a chance to drive their car on the track. How cool is that!?

NHL Playoff Capsules

2011-04-13T01:14:00.000-04:00

The 2011 NHL playoffs faceoff on Wednesday night.

For me, I've gotten into the whole "ranking" part of things this season, so here's a different layout for the playoff predictions. I'll list each first round matchup in rank order of which pairings will be the most compelling from an "NHL" fan standpoint (we'll start with the best!).

East - 3. Boston Bruins (46-25-11, 103 pts) vs 6. Montreal Canadiens (44-30-8, 96 pts)

Overview: Do we really need to spend much time talking about this one!? This is the longest standing rivalry in the NHL and dates back to the Bruins' formation in 1924. Anyone that wants to argue there's a more bitter rivalry in the NHL right now, obviously, doesn't pay attention to the NHL enough to read this blog. In early February, Boston took an 8-6 brawl-fest in Beantown; in early March, the B's Zdeno Chara obliterated Max Pacioretty, bringing out calls to the "Waaah-mbulance" in Montreal; and, in a highly anticipated game, Boston squashed the Habs 7-0, just over two weeks later. Despite the negative connotations here toward "Les Habitants," they took four of six this season. The rivalry continues...

Prediction: Carey Price was a rock in net for the Canadiens this season, but, in the final two games at the Boston Garden, he gave up 13 goals to the Bruins in just 104 minutes. Statistical anomaly? Maybe. But, the 7-0 drubbing said a lot about the state of the two teams: Boston looks fired up, Montreal looks weary. Perhaps I'm over-confident in Boston, but I think the Price is wrong for Montreal. Bruins in 5.

East - 1. Washington Capitals (48-23-11, 107 pts) vs 8. New York Rangers (44-33-5, 93 pts)

Overview: WashingtonCaps.com Senior Writer Mike Vogel said a few weeks ago he thought the Rangers were the most dangerous undercard in the East. Last season, he said that about the Montreal Canadiens, shortly before they ousted the Caps. Washington is a much more consistent team, but the Rangers aren't a whole lot worse, just far less consistent. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist led the league in shutouts this year and presents a dangerous opponent for a Capitals team that struggled offensively.

Prediction: The Capitals were embarrassed last year by a far inferior Canadiens team. However, they cakewalked that season and had already lost their edge come playoffs. This year, they faced far more adversity in the early going and were forced to play hard late to overtake Philadelphia in the East. I think Washington has what it takes to avoid the upset, but it will be a grueling series. Capitals in 7.

West - 4. Anaheim Ducks (47-30-5, 99 pts) vs 5. Nashville Predators (44-27-10, 99 pts)

Overview: You, there! The one napping in the back! Wake up because you're not going to want to miss this. Trust me, when you look at some of the matchups like Boston-Montreal or Washington-New York, I'm sure the cities of Anaheim and Nashville don't exactly scream excitement, but this will be a very interesting matchup. Anaheim boasts an underrated offense, led by the Richard Trophy winning Corey Perry (50 goals), while Nashville provides the league's third stiffest defense and my choice for the Hart Trophy in goalie Pekka Rinne.

Prediction: I'm prediciting seven games, that's for sure. The winner will be a toss up, but I'm going to take the better-rounded Ducks, especially since Game 7 would be on their pond. That doesn't mean Rinne can't dominate this series, however. My advice: tune into this one, it'll be better than you think. Ducks in 7.

West - 3. Detroit Red Wings (47-25-10, 104 pts) vs 6. Phoenix Coyotes (43-26-13, 99 pts)

Overview: I've been the first to disregard "that team from Arizona" this season, but don't overlook the Coyotes. Phoenix might have had a better regular season last year, but they're more battle tested in the uber-competitive West, and they have another year of experience. It took everything Detroit had to pull away from the Yotes in a first-round matchup last spring, and only a 6-1 obliteration in Game 7 got the Wings into the next round.

Prediction: Pavel Datsyuk was injury-hampered the second half of the year and Henrik Zetterberg will miss the start of the playoffs for Detroit. Datsyuk appears healthy and ready to go, but the health of those two will be the difference between a presumptive date with the Sharks (see below) in two weeks or a tee time in some PGA Pro-Am, if you get what I'm saying. I'm going to give the Coyotes the nod I never have (and if they screw me over, I'm deporting them to Winnipeg!). Coyotes in 7.

West - 1. Vancouver Canucks (54-19-9, 117 pts) vs 8. Chicago Blackhawks (44-29-9, 97 pts)

Overview: Ugh, really!? The Vancouver Canucks put up a fantastic season and pull an upset-special in the defending champion Blackhawks? Dallas couldn't win the last day to steal the eight-seed? The Anze Kopitar-less Los Angeles Kings couldn't slip in one of ten shootout wins? Anyone of Anaheim, Nashville, or Phoenix couldn't drop an extra game here or there and finish with 97 instead of 99? Needless to say, this is a poor draw for the Presidents' Trophy winning Canucks.

Prediction: Sure, Vancouver got unlucky, but let's not forget why Chicago is lucky to be here. The Blackhawks weren't particularly good this season, and, while they had their moments, they weren't the team that won last year's Stanley Cup. Canucks in 5.

East - 2. Philadelphia Flyers (47-23-12, 106 pts) vs 7. Buffalo Sabres (43-29-10, 96 pts)

Overview: The Flyers were the team to beat in the East for much of the season, but they stumbled at 7-8-6 starting February 26th, fell from first in the conference, and nearly slipped farther. You can pin it on the loss of captain Chris Pronger, who hasn't played since March 8th, if you're a short-sighted fan, but that's just an excuse. Their best hockey appears to be behind and them, and that's not good news when you look across the ice at the Sabres. Buffalo finished at 8-1-1 to storm into the playoffs. They aren't too flashy, but they have skill in numbers at forward and a fantastic goaltender in 2010 Vezina winner, Ryan Miller.

Prediction: While I'd hate to discard the second-seeded Flyers, this matchup has upset written all over it. Miller will be the key for Buffalo; if he can keep a potent Flyers offense off the board, the Sabres can will off the upset. Sabres in 6.

East - 4. Pittsburgh Penguins (49-25-8, 106 pts) vs 5. Tampa Bay Lightning (46-25-11, 103 pts)

Overview: It's too bad that it doesn't look like Sidney Crosby will be back for Pittsburgh in time for this series. This would have been a great opportunity for the NHL to break away from the Crosby-Ovechkin redundancy, and, instead, hype Lightning star Steven Stamkos. However, Pittsburgh has been without Crosby (and Evgeni Malkin) for long enough that they've learned to do without and have still played very well. Tampa Bay has done a similar thing, but, in their case, they've learned to play without much of a goalie!

Prediction: This particular Penguins squad has been here many times. Yet, the Lightning still have some hold overs from the 2004 Stanley Cup in mainstays Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, who have stuck in Florida through the rebuilding, but it's been awhile since Tampa Bay has been considered a contender. With or without Crosby, the Penguins experience make them the favorites. Penguins in 6.

West - 2. San Jose Sharks (48-25-9, 105 pts) vs 7. Los Angeles Kings (46-30-6, 98 pts)

Overview: A few months ago, this pairing would make me salivate. However, the Kings have the worst offense in the playoffs, and the loss of Anze Kopitar to an ankle injury will only compound those issues. Once a drag-'em-out looking series, this one could be one of the less competitive first round matchups.

Prediction: If that less than inspiring overview didn't give away which way I was leaning, perhaps you should read it again. The Sharks have played great hockey since the All-Star Break and, for once, are peaking at the right time. Sharks in 5.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

1. Washington over 7. Buffalo (5 games)
3. Boston over 4. Pittsburgh (6 games)
--
1. Vancouver over 6. Phoenix (5 games)
2. San Jose over 4. Anaheim (7 games)

1. Washington over 3. Boston (7 games)
--
2. San Jose over 1. Vancouver (6 games)

E. Washington over W. San Jose (6 games)

Granite State of Mind

2011-04-12T14:40:00.000-04:00

As written for The Granite Stripe blog

I'm sure you've heard the entire laundry list of complaints against New Hampshire:

- Nothing happens here.

- Nobody lives here.

- It's too cold.

- It's too snowy.

...That list goes on...

If you have children, they spend a lot of time telling you how they're going to go somewhere warmer or some place where more things happen and never look back. I was one of those kids.

I grew up in Hanover, NH, and, after getting accepted at the University of Southern California (in Los Angeles), I couldn't have gone farther away for school, save San Diego or Hawaii. After USC, I continued living out my West Cost dream this past fall with a season-long position as a Digital Media Producer with the San Francisco 49ers.

However, they always say you don't know what you had 'til it's gone, and as much as I enjoyed that far away, fantasy land, I just couldn't get over the fact that I was missing something.

So, at age 24, it was time to pack my life into my 1996 Honda Accord and head back to where I belong: the Granite State.

I'm Jonathan Stallsmith, I'm the new Web Services Specialist at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and I'm proud that my cell phone has a 603 area code!

As we get The Granite Stripe underway, it will be my job to help keep you entertained during the mid-week lull in the racing schedule. Travis Barrett (from Green-White-Checker) will be providing most of the weekend coverage to keep you updated on the local circuits. However, I'll be taking a broader approach to racing: Tuesdays I will try to provide a column; Wednesdays I'll give some insight on my Fantasy Auto Racing choices.

Next week, I'll explain my foray into NASCAR and the racing world, but, for right now, let's just leave it at that I'm a "common racing fan." I know enough about racing to provide an educated opinion, but I wouldn't go as far as to qualify myself as an "expert." Hopefully, that will come in time.

As I mentioned before, I was raised in Hanover and attended the local high school. Growing up (and to this day), I'm an avid hockey player and helped Hanover hang two Division 1 State Championship banners on the ice in 2003 and 2005. I also played soccer through high school, and dabbled around in baseball, tennis, and track. I never played football but love watching it; I detest basketball (especially the Lakers!).

In August of 2005, I headed to USC. The school attracted me for a number of reasons: its fantastic sports program, top of the line journalism school, club hockey team, and, of course, the sunshine. While I take as much pride in being a Trojan as anyone could in their alma mater, I couldn't stand Los Angeles. I'm a country boy at heart, and there were too many people, too many lights, too much crime, but not enough real sports fans.

After graduating in 2009, I briefly relocated back east, waiting tables on Martha's Vineyard that summer before heading home to job search and bartending to keep the bank account alive. I was offered a season-long position with the San Francisco 49ers in June of 2010 and quickly darted back west to see if Northern California could hold my attention longer than Southern.

It didn't.

The Bay Area is certainly a "prettier" place to live than "So-Cal," but that's all relative when you consider I grew up in the beautiful state of New Hampshire. Ultimately, the area was still over-populated to the point it lacked an identity, everything cost a little more than it should have, and the sports fans were still a lackluster and/or unappreciative bunch (although I will credit San Jose with having a much better hockey fan base for its Sharks than would be reasonable for a small city in California).

I've come to the realization that New England is my home and, as Lynyrd Skynyrd sings, "Well, there just ain't no place like home."

It's nice to be back, New England!

It's nice (well, not that nice, but sorta nice) to hear everyone else booing Daisuke Matsuzaka's third-inning exit as loudly as I was last night.

It's nice that I'll be able to hit the lakes for some hardcore battle tubing this summer and lace up the skates on that same surface next winter (although, goodness, let's not rush that! We've got a great 2011 race season still to come here at "The Magic Mile").

It's just nice to be home.

I look forward to connecting with all of New England's race fans throughout the season and am excited to start sharing my personality and musings on "The Granite Stripe." If, for some odd reason, you just can't get enough of my rambling, please feel free to check out my personal blog: The J.T. Stally Blog, where I talk most everything else sports (except for the Lakers, of course).

NHL Season Review: Hart of the Predator

2011-04-11T22:36:00.000-04:00

The Hart Memorial Trophy, as defined on NHL.com, is "an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team."

Vancouver Canucks left wing Daniel Sedin won the Art Ross Trophy by leading the league with 104 points. He scored 41 goals and set up 63, helping the Canucks to a Presidents' Trophy-winning 117 points.

Anaheim Ducks right wing Corey Perry won the Maurice Richard Trophy by leading the league with 50 goals, while compiling 48 assists (his 98 points ranked third in the NHL).

Both are strong candidates for the Hart Memorial Trophy and likely finalists. However, if you removed either from their respective teams, it's likely that both of those teams would still be playoff contenders. If you removed Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne from the Predators, they would not be.

Few people are giving Rinne the credit he deserves, and, admittedly, he's a long shot to even make it as a finalist. Compounded that some writers have a certain (unfair) adversity to awarding the MVP to a goaltender, and, sadly, the league's most valuable player isn't even being considered for the award.

By definition, the Hart should go to the player most valuable to his team, and, in my mind, that would be defined as the player most irreplaceable on his respective club. In the case of this season, that would be Rinne on the Predators.

Rinne missed eight games in December due to injury, but his 33 wins were still only five behind league leaders Roberto Luongo and Carey Price. His .930 save percentage was second and his 2.12 was third. While those don't jump off the page as making him the league's best goaltender, they do symbolize that Rinne is among the elite. And, few of the teams with elite goaltenders relied as much on their backstopper as the Predators.

Nashville tied for twenty-first in goals scored at 2.60 and eleventh in the Western Conference, yet, they finished the regular season with an impressive 99 points, tied for fourth in the West. How did that happen!? Obviously, the defense and the goaltending powered the team.

The Preds finished third in goals against at 2.32. A statistic they needed to make the playoffs, when you consider that despite the fantastic goaltending, their +0.28 average goal differential was good for just ninth in the NHL. (The two teams that finished better in goals against: Vancouver and Boston, posted average goal differentials of 0.95 and 0.67, respectively).

It might be thinking a little bit outside the box, but I've always believed that there's a significant difference between being the "best" player and the "most valuable" player. The Art Ross, Maurice Richard, even the Vezina (for goaltenders) can be awarded based on the best statistical dominance. The Hart Memorial should not.

To repeat it a third time, the Hart should go to the player most valuable to his team.

That was Pekka Rinne.

--

At the end, I'll take a look at the rest of the major awards, but, first, here are the final NHL Power Rankings. Since they're the year end ranking, they'll be a combination of how the teams played throughout the season, as well as how well they finished and how they performed based on preseason expectations. (Like the Hart, there's no specific formula.)

30. Colorado Avalanche (30-44-8, 68 pts) - A young playoff team a year ago, the Avs were expected to get better. They weren't. They were awful. Colorado gave up a horrible 3.50 goals/game, 287 total (the highest since Philadelphia yielded 297 in 2006-07); Atlanta was second worst...at 3.20, 0.30 less. Ugly!

29. Edmonton Oilers (25-45-12, 62 pts) - The Oilers will finish with the league's worst record for the second straight year, but the emergence of Taylor Hall (before he got hurt) and several other rookies (like Jordan Eberle) at least leads to the belief that brighter days might be on the way in central Alberta.

28. Florida Panthers (30-40-12, 72 pts) - I want to know what idiot in Florida decided that a good part of the rebuilding process was waiving rookie Michael Grabner before the season started. Grabner led all rookies with 34 goals this season an Islanders uniform, and also won the Fastest Skater competition at the All-Star Game. Another head scrathing decision in head scratching city to have a hockey team.

27. Ottawa Senators (32-40-10, 74 pts) - The Sens imploded midseason, sufffering an 11-game losing streak. However, after bottoming out on that streak with a 5-2 loss in Calgary on February 9, they went 15-10-2 to give them hope heading into next season.

26. Atlanta Thrashers (34-36-12, 80 pts) - Atlanta was in playoff contention for a while, but it had a mediocre offense (20th in scoring) and atrocious defense (29th in goals against). There was a lot of chatter about Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian on the blue line preseason: as much of a monster as he was in the O-zone, Byfuglien wasn't good in the defensive end; Bogosian wasn't good anywhere.

25. Columbus Blue Jackets (34-35-13, 81 pts) - The Jackets were 24th in goals scored and 26th in goals against. That should say all you need to know about Columbus: it was well below average.

24. New York Islanders (30-39-13, 73 pts) - The long time laughing stock of the NHL made a further mockery of the sport with an ugly display of violence against Pittsburgh in February. However, that game seemed to bring the Isles closer together. Including that game on February 11th, New York went 11-4-5 through a win on March 22nd, before stumbling to a 1-6-1 finish. Even so, a young team saw the emergence of players like John Tavares and Michael Grabner and can no longer be considered the punch-line of every NHL joke.

23. Minnesota Wild (39-35-8, 86 pts) - The Wild collapsed, as many expected they might, down the stretch. The struggled with just 2.48 goals/game (26th in the league) and didn't have the defense or goaltending to make that stand up (2.78 GA/game was a middling T-13th).

22. St. Louis Blues (38-33-11, 87 pts) - Once a playoff mainstay (the Blues made the playoffs 25 consecutive years from 1979-2004), St. Louis has been just the opposite since the lockout. They've made the playoffs just once in the six post-lockout years (2008-09, when they were swept in the first round) and gave up on a recent first-overall draft pick midseason in Erik Johnson.

21. Toronto Maple Leafs (37-34-11, 85 pts) - The Maple Leafs put together a completely competent season, which is a step in the right direction for the organization. GM Brian Burke changed his strategy this year, giving up on the notion that he can win now and instead focusing on a more logical rebuilding process. It seems to be working.

20. New Jersey Devils (37-39-5, 79 pts) - "It was the best times, it was the worst of times." Or, maybe the opposite. The Devils were the most putrid team in the league for most of the 2010 portion, then, on December 23, Head Coach John MacLean was fired from the helm of the 9-22-2 team and Jacques Lemaire came into to replace him. The math says the Devils went 28-17-3 after Lemaire's hire, but logic says they finished 14 points short of the preseason expectation for a playoff berth (for the first time since 1997).

19. Carolina Hurricanes (40-31-11, 91 pts) - The Canes had their playoff destiny in their hands...and they squandered it. Not a surprise. Carolina was one of the most universally mediocre teams in the league. They finish 12th in goals for and T-21st in goals against, despite the best efforts of goaltender Cam Ward, who led the league in saves with 2,191 and games played at 74, and whose .923 save percentage (T-6th) was a far more supportive statistic than the goals against.

18. Calgary Flames (41-29-12, 94 pts) - The Flames finish just three points out of the playoffs, and with a goal differential of +13. All in all, it was a respectable season, but aside from a blistering stretch around the All-Star Break, when the Flames went 11-1-2, they just didn't string enough winning streaks together to be a contender.

17. Dallas Stars (42-29-11, 95 pts) - Dallas put together a heck of a run at the playoffs this season, considering it was expected to be a preseason dud. Management stood tough at the deadline and held on to star Brad Richards, who is due to be a free agent this summer, and falling short on the final night hurts badly for this struggling organization. It was certainly a bounce back season in the "Big D," but a differential of -6 confirms questions about the defense, and, especially, the goaltending.

16. Montreal Canadiens (44-30-8, 96 pts) - The Canadiens are tied with the Predators as having the 14th best offense in the playoffs. They averaged just 2.60 goals/game. On the other side, however, the controversial move of relying on formerly-inconsistent Carey Price as the cornerstone goaltender paid dividends, but Price will need to stand on his head (like Jaroslav Halak did last year), if this team is going to make a playoff run.

15. Buffalo Sabres (43-29-10, 96 pts) - The Sabres closed strong, going 8-1-1 in the final 10 games of the season to lock up a playoff spot, jump the Rangers, and nearly overtake Montreal. They aren't a team anyone will want to face in the playoffs, but they also regressed in most aspects from what now appears to have been an overachieving 2009-10 campaign.

14. Chicago Blackhawks (44-29-9, 97 pts) - The Hawks were a huge disappointment this season. Entering as the defending Stanley Cup champion, the young nucleus was expected to be a perennial force. They certainly had moments of brilliance, but squandering their playoff destiny with a middling 5-4-1 finish and backing in to the eighth-seed on a Dallas loss wasn't impressive at all.

13. New York Rangers (44-33-5, 93 pts) - I can't seem to make up my mind on this team; neither can they! When they're on, they can be one of the best teams in the league, but they're dreadfully inconsistent and nearly fumbled away what most had assumed was a playoff lock. It's hard to get too excited about a team that just sneaks into the final spot in the playoffs (except for maybe Chicago).

12. Los Angeles Kings (46-30-6, 98 pts) - The Kings started strong, but slumped midseason before bouncing back to recover their playoff spot. I'd have them in my Top 10, if star forward Anze Kopitar wasn't out for the long haul with a broken ankle; that hurts this team a lot.

11. Phoenix Coyotes (43-26-13, 99 pts) - As great as their "overcoming adversity" story has been, I still have trouble fully buying into the Coyotes. They ranked 14th in both goals for and 12th in goals against and Shane Doan led the team with just 60 points, but they've been a valid contender all year (it doesn't help they pulled Detroit again, though).

10. Nashville Predators (44-27-11, 99 pts) - The Preds played great hockey down the stretch and are an impressive +25 in goal differential thanks to a stifling defense that ranks third in the league in goals against, which, as stated before, is backstopped by my vote for the Hart Trophy: goaltender Pekka Rinne.

9. Anaheim Ducks (47-30-5, 99 pts) - The Ducks are dangerous. They seemed float along on the surface of the playoffs for most of the season, but just recently have taken flight. Corey Perry turned into an electric goal scorer down the stretch, and the recovery of Ryan Getzlaf from a stomach churning "nasal sinus fracture" makes the Ducks a legitimate contender. As is the case in many seasons, I feel like, come April, the Ducks still have their best hockey in front of them.

8. Tampa Bay Lightning (46-25-11, 103 pts) - The Lightning couldn't hold off a stronger Washington Capitals team, but they seem to have found some balance to a strong offense. Goaltender Dwayne Roloson isn't fantastic, but he at least provides some much needed stability in the net.

7. Philadelphia Flyers (47-23-12, 106 pts) - The Flyers might be the Atlantic Division champion, but they stumbled at 3-4-3 in the last ten, gave away the conference to Washington, and almost slipped past either Pittsburgh or Boston. They're best hockey seems to be behind them.

6. Pittsburgh Penguins (49-25-8, 106) - The Pens could be without Sidney Crosby for the playoffs, but they'll definitely be without Matt Cooke for the first round, so you have to take the good with the bad. The Penguins went 8-2 with Cooke out of the lineup, so perhaps they can just leave him in the press box for the rest of the run (no one else will complain). The biggest alarm, however: the Penguins are tied with the Kings for most shootout wins. News flash: there are no shootouts in the playoffs.

5. Boston Bruins (46-25-11, 103 pts) - The Bruins can be considered the statistical best team in the Eastern Conference. They are second in the NHL (first in the East) in goals against at 2.30 and fifth in the NHL (second in the East) in goals scored at 2.98. That combines to make them second in goal differential in the NHL at +51 (Vancouver leads at +77).

4. Detroit Red Wings (47-25-10, 104 pts) - The Red Wings haven't looked that good lately, but they did put the clamps down on Chicago to close the season. Pavel Datsyuk is finally healthy, and, if Henrik Zetterberg can get back from a day-to-day ankle injury, this team is still the Detroit Red Wings.

3. San Jose Sharks (48-25-9, 105 pts) - The Sharks might not have had a Presidents' Trophy caliber season, but they had a darn good season nonetheless, and what's more important is that they're playing their best hockey in April, not October.

2. Washington Capitals (48-23-11, 107 pts) - "Helloooo Washington!" Somewhere in the last month or two, the Caps went from good to great. This team is far better than last year's Presidents' winner because it plays much better defense. They finished first in the East and should be viewed as such.

1. Vancouver Canucks (54-19-9, 117) - I could point out all the things that make the Canucks great: Roberto Luongo in the net, the Sedin brothers posting robust point totals, the defense that overcame injuries to just about everyone to help the team post the league's fewest goals against, a Presidents' Trophy...Let's leave at this: they led the league in goals scored and goal against and registered 10 points more than the closest competitor. #Powerhouse

Playoffs

For playoff predictions, please check back Tuesday night.

Awards

Vezina Trophy (top goaltender)

Winner - Tim Thomas, Boston (35-11-9, 2.00 GAA, .938 SV%) - Statistically, he was clearly the league's best goalie. If he doesn't win the Vezina, something's wrong.

2. Pekka Rinne, Nashville (33-22-9, 2.13 GAA, .930 SV%) - In my mind, he was the "most valuable" player in the league, but as I said, there's a difference between "most valuable" and "best." He was great, but he wasn't the best in terms of sheer goaltending.

3. Roberto Luongo, Vancouver (38-15-7, 2.12 GAA, .928 SV%) - He backstopped the league's most dominant team and his numbers show that.

Honorable Mentions - Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers; Antti Niemi, San Jose Sharks

James Norris Memorial Trophy (top defenseman)

Winner - Lubomir Visnovsky, Anaheim - I don't like this guy and never have, but I have a hard time arguing with a defenseman who put up 68 points and posted a +18 in the process. My knock was always that he didn't play good defense, but he put that notion to rest this season.

2. Keith Yandle, Phoenix - With 59 points and a +12 rating, you need not look much farther than Yandle to figure out why the Coyotes are headed to the postseason.

3. Shea Weber, Nashville - At the age of 25, Weber will be a mainstay in the Norris discussions for years to come. His 48 points and +7 rating don't stack up to Visnovsky or Yandle, but he certainly was a huge part of Nashville's success.

Honorable Mention: Christian Ehrhoff, Vancouver Canucks; Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins

Calder Memorial Trophy (top rookie)

Winner - Jeff Skinner, Carolina Hurricanes - Skinner led all rookies in points with 63 (seven more than second place Logan Couture, below) and posted a balanced 31 goals and 32 assists. He was the only rookie to be named to the All Star Team, and, at the ripe, old age of 18, he's going to be star in this league!

2. Logan Couture, San Jose Sharks - Couture was a Calder favorite for much of the season and finished with an impressive 56 points. There was a time midseason when it seemed like he scored almost every game, and he finished with 32 goals.

3. Michael Grabner, New York Islanders - As mentioned in the Panthers power ranking, Florida cut this kid. He then only went on to lead all rookies with 34 goals and totaled 52 points and +13 on an Islanders team that finished with a goal differential of -35. Also worth noting, he finished second in the NHL with six shorthanded goals.

Honorable Mention: John Carlson, Washington Capitals; Taylor Hall, Edmonton Oilers

Jack Adams Award (top coach)

Winner - Alain Vigneault, Vancouver Canucks - Everyone always wants to look for the most overachieving team or the team that overcame the most adversity, but why is there a bias against the league's best team!? If you want to talk about adversity, take a look at the midseason when this team lost almost all of its defensemen. Also, go ahead and compare the Canucks lines with those of the league's other best teams, they don't have any more depth than anyone else! However, this team was by far the league's best, so let's give Vigneault the credit he deserves!

2. Barry Trotz, Nashville Predators - I can't harp enough on the job that the Nashville Predators have done to be a strong contender in a highly competitive Western Conference, despite an inferior roster. Trotz will definitely get some consideration for the award.

3. Dave Tippett, Phoenix Coyotes - Perhaps I have a bias against giving him the Jack Adams for the second consecutive season (no one has won back-to-backs since Red Wings' coach Jacques Demers in 1987 + 88), but he definitely deserves some mention. For the second straight year, he got a lot more out of a less-than-average roster in Phoenix and is playoff bound.

Honorable Mentions: Claude Julien, Boston Bruins; Jacques Lemaire, New Jersey Devils

Other Major Awards

These ones are rather discretionary, so they're tougher to pass easy judgment on, but worth noting:

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (best sportsmanship and most gentlemanly player)

Frank J. Selke Trophy (best defensive forward)

Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy (most perseverance and dedication to the game of hockey)

Ted Lindsay Award (most outstanding player)

King Clancy Memorial Award (humanitarian award for best leadership on and off the ice)

Capitals-Canes Game Book

2011-03-29T19:58:00.008-04:00

Tonight, I have the opportunity to take in the Capitals-Hurricanes game from the press box at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. It will be the first, and, hopefully not the last, opportunity to take in an NHL game from a first-person, media perspective.

The Capitals will be looking to close on the Flyers for the Eastern Conference lead. Washington trails Philadelphia by just two points entering the night. However, the game will be more significant for Carolina. The Hurricanes are falling off the playoff pace. They currently sit in ninth place, five points south of eighth place Buffalo, who will play simultaneously in Toronto.

I'll document the game from a notebook perspective, providing facts and thoughts about the flow of the game. I'll update the "live" blog at the end of each period and cap it off (no pun intended) at the end of the game with a brief summary.

First period

The Capitals controlled the pace of play early on and nearly scored in the first minute of the game, after Nicklas Backstrom pick pocketed the Hurricanes Erik Cole high in the offensive zone. The play ended up behind the net, and Mike Knuble had a wide open chance on the door step. Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason sold out to get his stick in the way of the puck before Knuble could get wood on it. After a lengthy back and forth, the team's exchanged a few penalties.

Carolina's Bryan Allen and Washington's Jason Arnott traded paint and were hauled off together and, shortly thereafter, the Caps Brooks Laich was called for an offensive zone interference penalty. Carolina lost the first three face offs of the ensuing 4-on-3 man advantage before finally winning an offensive zone draw on the fourth attempt and putting a 40-second onslaught on the Washington net, but the defense held tough.

Then, it was Washington's turn to take their chance on the power play. They continued their success in the faceoff circle to take control of the advantage but couldn't convert on penalties to Chad LaRose (11:39 in) and Erik Cole (14:34). Alexander Semin struggled on the first powerplay. He had a back pass that ended up as a dump for Carolina, snuck in a risky roughing attempt on the ensuing breakout, and later whiffed on a wrister in the high slot that resulted in a Canes' clear.

Carolina gained momentum from the kills to control play late, and Semyon Varlamov had a great save on a Cole breakaway with less than three minutes left. A minute later, John Hannan was whistled for an interference on the backcheck of a 2-on-2, even though John Erskine had slowed the puck carrying Tuomo Ruutu on the front end of the play. Per usual, Washington's dominant penalty kill stood strong, holding Carolina off the board (five seconds remained on the call, entering the second).

Washington outshot Carolina 16-11 in the first, and while the scoring chances weren't as abundant as the shots suggest; the Capitals did control the pace of play to that extent.

Second Period

The Capitals got in penalty trouble early. After killing off the final five seconds of the penalty to start the period, Backstrom was whistled for a hook at 1:06. The Hurricanes cashed in a well-executed power play when Ruutu sent the puck around behind the net to Joe Corvo on the right side below the goal line. Corvo found Jussi Jokinen open in front and Jokinen buried a one-touch for the 1-0 Carolina lead at 2:29.

John Erskine was whistled seconds later for a rough, but the Capitals kill returned to form as Carolina couldn't even set anything up. Alexander Ovechkin built some momentum with some great feeds at about the six minute marks on two separate scoring chances for the Capitals. Although the Capitals had been whistled for five penalties (four kills), they were spared when Karl Alzner accidentally caught Canes captain Eric Staal in the face with a high stick that busted Staal's forehead open. Staal rightfully complained for a four-minute call, but the sides stayed even at five as Staal headed to the garage for repairs.

Things got interesting after Jamie McBain was whistled for a Hurricanes slash at 11:03. Brandon Sutter broke on a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Patrick Dwyer, but Varlamov stuffed Dwyer on the far post. Seconds later, LaRose took off on another shorthanded breakaway and Dennis Wideman was called for hooking from behind, a penalty shot. But, Varlamov was again up to the task, stuffing LaRose and inciting an outburst of "Var-ly! Var-ly! Var-ly!" from the crowd. Soon after, the Caps dodged a bullet as Cole rang a crossbar to keep the score at 1-1.

The Capitals suffered a scare at 15:04 as Ruutu ran over a stumbling Wideman, although the play wasn't that dirty as Ruutu had engaged for the hit before Wideman lost his balance. Wideman hobbled off the ice and his return is questionable. Ovechkin was quick to jump to his teammate's defense, but Ruutu wouldn't drop the gloves. The captain continued to target Ruutu the rest of the period, landing a few message sending hits.

Although struggling as a scapegoat on a few power plays, Semin stepped up his five-on-five game with a good give-and-go with Brooks Laich, where Semin drove from the left circle and sniped Cam Ward's near side attic at 14:18. Washington took the lead at 17:35 when Semin again made a good play to tap the puck forward to Marcus Johansson, who deked Cam Ward to give the Caps a 2-1 lead headed into the second intermission. John Carlson also got an assist on the goal.

Third Period

With their playoff lives in the balance and Buffalo facing a regulation loss, the Hurricanes looked to deadlock the game early and close ground on the postseason. Jeff Skinner picked up the puck in the defensive end and took a line that's best described as "lazy" up the ice, zig zagging as he went, he finally ended up below the left faceoff dot, where he let loose an off angle shot that surprised Varlamov and bounced into the net to knot the game at two just 1:46 into the third.

The period flew by from there with the Capitals launching just seven shots to Carolina's mere six. Varlamov came up with a good save on Eric Staal, who returned for the third period after the cut to his face had, presumably, been stitched up. Derek Joslin launched a shot from the point and the puck bounced to a wide open Staal on the right door step, but Varlamov slid over to stonewall Staal at 9:20. Not to be left out of the party, Ward returned the favor four minutes later when Laich gave a nice feed across the slot to Semin on the fast break, and he slid across to stop the Semin backhand attempt.

Minutes later, Semin flashed both brilliance and a lack of discipline, when he gave a great individual effort to cut across the slot for a scoring chance with 3:30 left, but eleven seconds later he was called for a lazy hook on Skinner in the neutral zone. Washington's defense hung strong during the late game penalty kill to send the game to overtime tied at 2-2.

Overtime

The extra session was dominated by the Capitals who fired five shots compared to the bagel-hungry Hurricanes, who seemed ok trying to take their second crucial point from a shootout. Ovechkin had several good chances for the Caps including a nifty deke on an over-committed Ruutu at 1:40; he closed the overtime by breaking Ward's goalie stick with a high slot wrister with 10 seconds remaining, after a well-executed 1-2-3 with Backstrom in the neutral zone. However, Ward stood strong as he's had to do much of the season for Carolina. He surpassed 2,000 season saves during the game and now sits at 2,006, which leads the NHL (Montreal's Carey Price is second, a long way back, at 1,844).

Shootout

As has become the usual, the hype in the shootout was short lived. Skinner led off by attacking the mid slot and blowing a forehand by Varlamov. Ovechkin was stopped, and Jokinen and Backstrom exchanged slow motion misses. Ruutu took home the two points for the Hurricanes when he went from right to center before deking back to the right side on the backhand for the goal on Varlamov, who had committed to the left.

The final score: Carolina 3, Washington 2, shootout, despite a notable 40-26 shot advantage for the Capitals. Of note, the Caps' Wideman did not return to the ice after he was dinged by Ruutu in the second, and Washington played the rest of the game with a five-man rotation on the blue line.

Washington Head Coach Bruce Boudreau was not impressed by the team's performance saying, "At times, it was a very lackluster game. If you don't play with emotion, it's tough."

The loss drops Washington three points off the pace for the Eastern Conference's top spot, after the Flyers rung out the Pittsburgh Penguins with four unanswered goals in a 5-2 road win. The Capitals will have a tough time catching Philly, they sit at 99 points with five games remaining, while the Flyers lead the conference with 102 and have a game in hand on Washington with six remaining.

Meanwhile, the Canes upgraded their playoff storm warning significantly. Buffalo fell 4-3 in regulation to Toronto, and Carolina now trails the Sabres by just three; both teams have six games remaining. The crucial tilt in the race for eighth comes Sunday when Buffalo visits Carolina. Each team has two games before that, including a Sabres' trip to Washington on Saturday.

NHL Power Rankings (Mar. 7)

2011-03-07T05:04:00.002-05:00

It's crunch time folks! There are five weeks left in the regular season and it's go time for the playoffs.

While most teams are trying to push for the playoffs or fight for seeding, it's also an important time even for those that appear locked into the playoffs. In the last week, some teams like the San Jose Sharks (goalie Antti Niemi, pictured left) and the Boston Bruins have been really hot, while teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings are in the midst of uncharacteristic losing streaks.

The season-long Stanley Cup favorite Vancouver Canucks are in a seven-point lead for the Presidents' Trophy, but even they appear a little more vulnerable than a few weeks (or months) ago.

Here's how the recent play has affected the overall outlook of the NHL as (some) teams prepare for the postseason.

30 (29) Ottawa Senators (22-34-9, 53 pts) - The Sens officially have the fewest points in the league, so this is no longer just a symbolic placement based on their poor play.

29 (30) Edmonton Oilers (23-35-8, 54 pts) - They traded star forward Dustin Penner, stud rookie Taylor Hall is out for the year after suffering a high ankle sprain in his first career fight, but the team's won three in a row! Go figure, they're obviously used to overcoming adversity at this point.

28 (28) Colorado Avalanche (26-31-8, 60 pts) - The Avs have lost five in a row; it's not getting any better.

27 (26) Florida Panthers (26-31-9, 61 pts) - Florida went 0-2-2 this week, but, for better or for worse, Miami didn't notice since the Heat put up a similarly dismal week.

26 (27) New York Islanders (25-32-10, 60 pts) - I still think the NHL should just ban that no-talent thug Trevor Gillies for life, but I can't help but notice that while most of the NHL's basement keeps getting colder, the Islanders have finally started to crank out a little heat.

25 (24) St. Louis Blues (28-28-9, 65 pts) - This week's definition: "blues" plural noun - a feeling of depression or deep unhappiness. St. Louis lost all three in the last week in regulation and are just 3-7-0 in their last ten, they're definitely feeling the blues.

24 (25) Atlanta Thrashers (27-28-11, 65 pts) - Atlanta is seven points out of the playoffs, last week it was just four; it's been going the wrong way for about two months now.

23 (22) Columbus Blue Jackets (31-26-7, 69 pts) - Last week, I mentioned the Blue Jackets were still within firing distance of the playoffs (four points back). This week, they picked up just one of six points. The battle's over boys!

22 (23) Toronto Maple Leafs (29-28-9, 67 pts) - The Maple Leafs are definitely putting together a respectable second half, but they're not playing well enough to sneak into the postseason.

21 (21) Carolina Hurricanes (31-26-9, 71 pts) - Standing, err, strong (?) at 21st for the third straight week. They're still right there in the hunt, but they're just not that impressive.

20 (16) Minnesota Wild (34-25-7, 75 pts) - Minnesota is the Carolina of the West. No one knows too much about them and they haven't been overly impressive in anything, but they're just a point out of the postseason, so you can't right them off.

19 (18) Anaheim Ducks (35-26-5, 75 pts) - What's the big deal about the acquisition of goalie Dan Ellis!? Sure, he's a better injury replacement for Jonas Hiller than the shooter tutor that was Curtis McElhinney (19 GA on 86 shots in four consecutive regulation losses before being traded), but, barring a solid 2007-08 year, Ellis has never posted a SV% better than 0.909 or a GAA better than 2.69. That's mediocre at best, and the Ducks can't ride that in such a tight playoff race.

18 (20) Buffalo Sabres (32-25-8, 72 pts) - The "Sabes" picked up seven of eight points this week and control their destiny in the East.

17 (15) Nashville Predators (33-24-9, 75 pts) - As impressive as they were for much of the season, it looks like the Preds are slowly losing their teeth in the West.

16 (17) Dallas Stars (35-23-7, 77 pts) - Dallas is in the middle of a four-game road trip to all four division opponents, a significant trip considering the depth of the Pacific Division. The Stars pulled out an impressive win against the Sharks on Saturday (and have five of six points on the trip), but it won't mean anything if they can't dispatch the Kings the same way on Monday (story of the chase in the West).

15 (12) Phoenix Coyotes (34-23-10, 78 pts) - The Yotes are positioning themselves for the postseason, but I have trouble seeing them faring too well once they get there.

14 (19) New Jersey Devils (30-31-4, 64 pts) - New Jersey is definitely the hardest team to rank fairly. The Devils are 14-1-1 since the start of February, but they were just so bad for so long. If they make the playoffs, they could be the most dangerous team there, but the challenge will be closing that ground.

13 (13) Calgary Flames (35-24-9, 79 pts) - The Flames went 3-1-0 this past week and are quietly solidifying their spot in the West.

12 (14) New York Rangers (35-29-4, 74 pts) - One of the most frustratingly inconsistent teams in the league, the Rangers have shown their muscle with a 7-0 win over Philadelphia Sunday and a 6-0 win over Washington on February 25th, however, sandwiched in between, they went 1-3 with three straight home losses to Tampa Bay, Buffalo, and Minnesota. Again, consistently inconsistent!

11 (7) Tampa Bay Lightning (37-21-7, 81 pts) - And...just when I conceded the division to the Lightning, they go 0-3-0 and reaffirm why I had been campaigning for Washington as the division champion.

10 (11) Montreal Canadiens (36-23-7, 79 pts) - With four straight wins the Habs have gone from "probably won't catch the Bruins" to "hanging around in the division." Even though they didn't close much ground on Boston (who's been playing great), the perception is there that Montreal is a contender.

9 (6) Los Angeles Kings (36-25-4, 76 pts) - They're precariously holding the last spot in the West, but have a game in hand on those directly behind them and are definitely one of the better teams in the NHL.

8 (8) Pittsburgh Penguins (38-21-8, 84 pts) - Despite all the alarms going off, the Penguins are just two points from tying the Flyers for the East's penthouse.

7 (10) Chicago Blackhawks (37-23-6, 80 pts) - "The champ is here. The champ is here! The champ is here." Ladies and gentleman, the heavyweight champion of the hockey world has arrived; the Blackhawks have won eight straight.

6 (9) Washington Capitals (36-20-10, 82 pts) - Two weeks ago, I lost my steadfast faith in Chicago; last week, it was Washington. Both teams have responded to prove me wrong; the Capitals are on a four-game tear.

5 (2) Philadelphia Flyers (40-19-6, 86 pts) - The presumptive runaway winner of the East have fallen back to the pack with a four-game losing skid, that included a 7-0 drubbing from the Rangers on Sunday. Boston is two points back in the conference, and Pittsburgh is also just two points away from dropping the Flyers to the four seed (although the Pens have played two more).

4 (5) Boston Bruins (38-19-8, 84 pts) - This isn't a homer pick from a Bruins fan. In fact, I hate getting too optimistic about the B's because they always let you down as soon as you fully buy into what they're selling. That said, they've taken 15 of 16 points in their last eight games and are playing as well as any team in the East right now.

3 (3) Detroit Red Wings (39-19-8, 86 pts) - The Wings have lost three straight, but every team hits a small slump. All three were on the road and they've pulled two OTL points out of those losses.

2 (1) Vancouver Canucks (42-16-9, 93 pts) - They're still the top team statistically, but, while they're not getting worse, they're also not getting better. Check the top of the blog; Scotty Bowman said it best: "If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today."

1 (2) San Jose Sharks (38-22-6, 82 pts) - For once, the Sharks are getting better as the season reaches its crucial point. San Jose had won eight straight before a loss Saturday and Antti Niemi has turned into an ironman in goal. I'll officially go on record as saying I think the Sharks will win the Cup this June (then again, I felt the same way about the Caps last January, and they didn't make it out of the first round).

PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS

Eastern Conference

1. Boston Bruins
2. Washington Capitals
3. Philadelphia Flyers
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Montreal Canadiens
6. Tampa Bay Lightning
7. New York Rangers
8. Buffalo Sabres
--
9. New Jersey Devils
10. Carolina Hurricanes
11. Toronto Maple Leafs
12. Atlanta Thrashers
13. New York Islanders
14. Florida Panthers
15. Ottawa Senators

Western Conference

1. Vancouver Canucks*
2. San Jose Sharks
3. Detroit Red Wings
4. Chicago Blackhawks
5. Calgary Flames
6. Los Angeles Kings
7. Phoenix Coyotes
8. Dallas Stars
--
9. Minnesota Wild
10. Nashville Predators
11. Anaheim Ducks
12. Columbus Blue Jackets
13. St. Louis Blues
14. Colorado Avalanche
15. Edmonton Oilers

* - Presidents' Trophy

RANKING NOTES

-There's a winner in every game, so I believe that every game has a loser. Thus, if a team is 30-30-7, I don't view them as .500. I view them as seven games under 500, since they've technically won only 30 of 67 games.
-The rankings are a combination of both the team's overall season record as well as how well they are playing right now, but that combination varies based on a team-to-team basis and my overall perception of the team.

NHL Power Rankings (Feb. 28)

2011-02-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

Monday (3 PM ET) is the NHL Trade Deadline. Several teams have already been very active as some have fixed major needs, while others have chosen to pack it in and build for the future.

I weighed in on my thoughts on the Boston Bruins recent trading, they're move bumps them up in the Power Rankings, while other teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Anaheim could still use a significant move to try to jump back up into the elite.

I expect that most of the deals that are going to take place have, but there's always a few big names that switch hands minutes before the trading bell rings. All that will be decided on Monday, but here's a look at the strength of the team's as we enter Monday's deadline.

30 (30) Edmonton Oilers (20-35-8, 48 pts) - They'd be better off in the East, where there is a larger contingent of "below average" teams.

29 (29) Ottawa Senators (21-32-9, 51 pts) - After an abysmal losing streak, they've managed to steady the ship, but that doesn't mean there's much wind to take them anywhere.

28 (27) Colorado Avalanche (26-30-7, 59 pts) - Avalanche: noun - detached from a mountain slope and sliding or falling suddenly downward...nuff said.

27 (28) New York Islanders (23-32-8, 54 pts) - They're 6-3-1 in their last 10, and while I lost all respect for them after the Pittsburgh debacle, I can't help but acknowledge that they at least look like they belong out there every night.

26 (25) Florida Panthers (26-29-7, 59 pts) - A few weeks ago, they were at least sticking around an even +/-, now they've fallen to -12 in goal differential and have fallen well out of the playoff picture.

25 (23) Atlanta Thrashers (26-26-11, 63 pts) - They're only four points out of the playoffs, but let's be honest, they're eleven games under .500, 2-6-2 in their last 10, and just aren't very good right now.

24 (24) St. Louis Blues (28-25-9, 65 pts) - While it might seem like a lack of faith to trade the first overall pick in the 2006 draft (Erik Johnson), Johnson hadn't progressed and the Blues got the better end of the deal with the Avs by acquiring Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk.

23 (26) Toronto Maple Leafs (27-27-9, 63 pts) - The Maple Leafs were active at the trade deadline, and although they were a stereotypical seller, they've actually started playing better since the deals. If they can keep improving, you have to figure the league's most faithful crowd will get behind them for a possible playoff push.

22 (22) Columbus Blue Jackets (31-24-6, 68 pts) - Not many people are giving them a chance, and there are a lot of teams between them and the playoffs in the jumbled West, but they're only four points out and are 7-2-1 in their last ten.

21 (21) Carolina Hurricanes (29-25-9, 67 pts) - If captain Eric Staal is out for long, this team is done, but for right now, they're hanging in the playoffs like a chad on a Florida ballot.

20 (18) Buffalo Sabres (29-25-7, 65 pts) - They went just 2-3-1 in a six-game homestand, not a good way to word a playoff statement.

19 (20) New Jersey Devils (27-31-4, 58 pts) - The Devils went 11-1-1 in February. They seem to close three points on the final spot every time I write a new Power Ranking (about once a week), so, at this pace, they could finish about six points in. You have to expect they'll fall off that pace, but they could definitely close nine points in the final 20 games.

18 (10) Anaheim Ducks (33-25-5, 71 pts) - I was high on this team a week ago, but goalie Jonas Hiller has returned to the IR with a mysterious "dizziness." Weird head injuries are never a good thing for your most crucial player.

17 (17) Dallas Stars (33-23-6, 72 pts) - Like Staal in Carolina, Dallas can't afford to play very long without Brad Richards (concussion).

16 (19) Minnesota Wild (33-23-6, 72 pts) - They're one of four teams tied for the final two playoff spots, and while they don't look as strong as some, they're sticking in there in a tough conference.

15 (11) Nashville Predators (32-23-8, 72 pts) - As good as Pekka Rinne has been in the net, the Preds lack of an offense is starting to catch up with them.

14 (15) New York Rangers (33-27-4, 70 pts) - The Rangers have a solid goal differential, suggesting they're better than they've shown, but it's a little late in the season to expect that to make a big difference now.

13 (14) Calgary Flames (32-23-9, 73 pts) - The Flames aren't as hot as they were, but they've leveled off at a pretty high temperature.

12 (13) Phoenix Coyotes (33-21-10, 76 pts) - The only way to avoid falling back in the pack is to keep winning. They've doing pretty well with that lately (7-2-1 in the last ten).

11 (12) Montreal Canadiens (33-23-7, 73 pts) - They're going to make the playoffs, that's a given, but they continue to lose ground on Boston in the Northeast Division.

10 (16) Chicago Blackhawks (33-23-6, 72 pts) - Figures! After a lot of patience, I finally hit the panic button on the defending champs, and they promptly reel off a four-game winning streak.

9 (5) Washington Capitals (33-20-10, 76 pts) - Mike Green hasn't been healthy much of the season, but either that's finally caught up with the team or they just can't find a rhythm. They're good, but they aren't the team that won the Presidents' Trophy last year.

8 (7) Pittsburgh Penguins (37-21-6, 80 pts) - Like the similarly high-profile Capitals, the Pens are reluctantly slipping out of the league's elite.

7 (8) Tampa Bay Lightning (37-18-7, 81 pts) - That defense (or lack thereof) won't hold up in the playoffs, but they're opening up their Southeast lead on Washington.

6 (9) Los Angeles Kings (35-23-4, 74 pts) - After a tough couple months, the kings have returned!

5 (6) Boston Bruins (36-19-7, 79 pts) - The B's have won five straight, all on the road(!), including a win in Vancouver.

4 (4) San Jose Sharks (36-21-6, 78 pts) - The Sharks have won six straight and are back to being an unquestionable elite team.

3 (2) Detroit Red Wings (38-18-6, 82 pts) - They're comfortably settled into the number two seed in the West.

2 (3) Philadelphia Flyers (40-16-6, 86 pts) - The Flyers are the only team with at least 40 wins.

1 (1) Vancouver Canucks (39-15-9, 87 pts) - They're just 5-5 in their last ten and the fear is they might have peaked too early, but let's not give up on them just yet!

PLAYOFF PROJECTIONS

Eastern Conference

1. Philadelphia Flyers*
2. Boston Bruins
3. Tampa Bay Lightning
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Washington Capitals
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. New York Rangers
8. New Jersey Devils
--
9. Buffalo Sabres
10. Carolina Hurricanes
11. Toronto Maple Leafs
12. Atlanta Thrashers
13. Florida Panthers
14. New York Islanders
15. Ottawa Senators

Western Conference

1. Vancouver Canucks
2. Detroit Red Wings
3. San Jose Sharks
4. Los Angeles Kings
5. Chicago Blackhawks
6. Calgary Flames
7. Phoenix Coyotes
8. Nashville Predators
--
9. Minnesota Wild
10. Anaheim Ducks
11. Dallas Stars
12. Columbus Blue Jackets
13. St. Louis Blues
14. Colorado Avalanche
15. Edmonton Oilers

* - Presidents' Trophy

RANKING NOTES

-There's a winner in every game, so I believe that every game has a loser. Thus, if a team is 30-30-7, I don't view them as .500. I view them as seven games under 500, since they've technically won only 30 of 67 games.
-The rankings are a combination of both the team's overall season record as well as how well they are playing right now, but that combination varies based on a team-to-team basis and my overall perception of the team.

The Day Dale Died

2011-02-20T23:45:00.001-05:00

Dale Earnhardt died February 18, 2001.

In a recent tribute to the 10th anniversary of Number 3's death, ESPN compiled a series of memories from its staff on where they were when they learned Earnhardt was dead. The article likened the news to that of 9/11, JFK's assassination, and, for those that have been around long enough, FDR's address of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

For those that don't follow sports, it might seem silly that the death of an athlete can be compared to the assassination of a President. For those that do follow sports, you know otherwise. My memory proves that.

On September 11, 2001, I remember overhearing Rick Harbaugh (yes, he's related to Jim and John) telling Tyler Harvey, whose locker was near mine, that someone had flown a plane into one of the Twin Towers. Harbaugh was a prankster of sorts, so I thought he was kidding around and went outside to enjoy the sunny weather. Minutes later, Jamie Pridgen walked out to the bench I was sitting on near the gazebo in front of my high school and told me that one of the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed.

In 2001, I was still your average ignorant sports tradionalist that thought NASCAR consisted mainly of turning left. Yet, like September 11th later that year, I remember exactly where I was when I heard Dale Earnhardt had died in a crash.

My grandma, "Oma," had been diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2000, a fight she would eventually lose moments after the ball dropped on 2002. She lived only two miles from me, but instead of seeking help at the local hospital, she elected to get treated in Boston, which was about two hours from my home.

On Sunday, February 18, 2001, my family and I went to my uncle Kurt's apartment in northern Massachusetts to visit Oma, who was staying with Kurt while she received treatment.

It was late afternoon, and the winter sun was starting to fade, especially since there were so many trees around the apartment. I was sitting in the small living room watching some sporting event on TV. My other uncle, Erik, who lived a few towns over, had just arrived. Erik was the only racing fan in the bunch and I think he'd been watching the race somewhere before he came over.

His phone rang.

It was a friend of his.

Dale Earnhardt was dead.

Erik immediately turned the TV over to a sports news channel and I saw the replay of the crash for the first time, as well as the news on his death. Over the next several minutes, Erik received a few more calls, all from friends asking if he'd heard the news.

As I said, I didn't follow racing at the time, and I had only sat down and watched the better part of a race once in my life, a few years earlier. Coincidentally, Earnhardt won that race.

I might not have been a race fan, but I understood the significance of Earnhardt's death. I knew that he had been the best driver on the circuit for the last decade or more, and while I didn't know the history of the sport that well, I assumed he was one of the best ever.

Bill France Jr. said it simply after the news broke: "NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever."

It's been 10 years now since Earnhardt's fatal crash, but fans still cling to his memory like they do with any iconic figure, hoping maybe someday he'll just walk back into the garage and fire up the Goodwrench 3 for one more victory lap. Most of his fans have put their hope in the ride of his son, Dale Earnhardt Junior, who was just feet in front of his father before the fatal wreck on the final lap of the race.

During today's race, everyone, Earnhardt fan or not, held up three fingers during Lap 3 in his memory. Sports Center and other media outlets showed specials on him all week. When it comes to remembering Earnhardt's legacy, some things will never change.

But, others things will.

Today's Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne, was a day shy of his tenth birthday when Earnhardt died (he turned 20 yesterday). And, while some might always view Earnhardt as the greatest of all time, Jimmie Johnson has won five straight titles (a feat Earnhardt never accomplished) and is closing in on the record Earnhardt shares with Richard Petty of seven overall Cup titles.

Sadly, Johnson never raced against Earnhardt in the Cup; his Cup career didn't start until the end of the 2001 season.

NASCAR has changed in the last ten years. The rules have changed. The Chase has been instituted. Many of the big name drivers have been replaced with a new crop, like Johnson, Denny Hamlin, or Carl Edwards.

However, the memory of Dale Earnhardt will always live on.

I'll always remember the day Dale died.