Tonight's game was a gem. I enjoyed it as much as I've ever enjoyed watching a game. Talent, desire, desperation and meanness all in the name of the quest for Stanley.
Category: Play-offs
Great First Rounds
As the play-offs for big boys begin, one has to wonder who will be the underdog that surprises this year. The first round of the NHL play-offs is one of the great carnivals of team sport. There's always some team that shouldn't, but does, which is often against a team that should have but doesn't. …
1980’s Washington Caps – They Couldn’t Win In The Playoff
When I think of really good teams that just couldn't win in the play-offs, the Washington Caps of the '80's come to mind. They had some great teams, and finished very high in the standings many years. I think they actually were tops in the league once or twice. They had some great players - …
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Great Play-off Games
It was St. Anne's vs. Northminster sometime in the late 70's or early 80's. I think we were Bantams but maybe major Pee-Wees. They were a good team all year but we were better. Coaches Ed and Brian made sure we knew it. For a team that was just a bunch of house league …
OFSSA – The First Time
33 years ago today, my St. Pete's team headed off to OFSSA in Toronto. I was a grade 10 and played very little that year. We had a core of very strong older players where our best five on the ice were as good as the same best five from any team in the tournament. …
The One That Got Away
The one that got away is a metaphor for many things in our world today. I really like to fish and have had a few good ones literally get away on me. My son caught a big bass one night when he was only 8 or 9 only to have it get away beside the …
Getting Ready for Play-Offs
It's a very long time since I've experienced the sensation of preparing for play-off's as a kid. February makes me think of play-off's in those years. As a kid, we had great play-off formats in house league. These varied across the years but there were several years where we played two out of three …
Leaf Coach Criteria
I had to chuckle at Brian Burke's comment in an interview I saw yesterday on why Dallas Eakins wasn't considered the big job. Burke said "Eakins has never coached a playoff game in the AHL". After 5+ years of seeing Leaf players heading to the golf course at the end of the 82 game …
Quick, pull the goalie….NO WAIT!!!
As 2009 comes to a close, most Canadian sports fans would tell you that the biggest tactical sporting blunder of the year, and perhaps of all time, was made during this year's Grey Cup game where the Saskatchewan Rough Riders' vaunted 13th man actually turned out to be the grim reaper. However, only a few …
Don’t Let Them Shoot!
It looked like he had an egg underneath the skin on the side of his neck, I thought as I looked down at our fallen goalie as he lay writhing in the goal crease. Not good, not good at all. The “he” in question was one of the two goalies on our high school hockey …
Rink Tales 