They Can Score From Anywhere on the Ice

Currently the top 5 NHL’ers in Shooting Percentage are:

1. Ryan Malone 21%
2. Loui Eriksson 20.7%
3. Kyle Wellwood 19.8%
4. Joe Thornton 18.5%
5. Andrew Brunette and Bryan Little tied at 18.3%

Out of these guys, only 2 of the 6 are averaging slightly more than a lousy 2 shots on goal a game.  Why on earth would you as a coach, not being asking these guys to shoot more often???  Even the top 10 in shooting % doesn’t have a 3 shot per game guy listed!  A player who has had a career year like Loui Eriksson and his 36 goals should make the Dallas coaching staff to maybe stop and take him aside and say, “heyyyy Loui, shoot more ok. yer on a roll“.  Maybe that is why they are not making the playoffs this year.  Perhaps one of many reasons.  Look for some huge Stars’ Shakeups this post season.

Seriously though, all the top guys should be shooting more.  Only one of the top 10 has his season shots over 200 and that is Buffalo’s Thomas Vanek!  He’s actually missed 10 games!  Poor coaching is the only reason these guys aren’t 50 goal scorers this year.  If they had been told to shoot more, we’d have more than Ovechkin’s 55 goals to discuss and a race for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

PS: Congrats to the Columbus Blue Jackets for making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history!

CBJ vs. Sens Recrap

We sat down and watched the Ottawa Senators vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets last night.  OK, don’t ask us why.  We just did ok?

What a snoozer of a match!  Auld got the start for the Sens and was ok.  He didn’t play bad which we think is a good thing if you are a Sens Fan.  Auld needs to be the number One Goalie in Ottawa for his confidence’s sake but he also can’t play every night.  He’s never been the best goalie endurance wise so giving him 60-70% of the starts is the perfect way to go.  Lets hope Hartsburg keeps him fresh.  At the other end, Steve Mason made some key saves late but was otherwise untested in this 1-0 shutout.  His surprising 7th of the season.  Whether it was Ottawa’s sputtering offence or the Hitchock inspired defensive plan that made this game so boring is up for debate.  It took the Sens half the first period to muster a shot on net and the most exciting thing to happen was Chris Neil got sent off with a game match penalty for being the 3rd man in during a silly scrum.  The following PP resulted in what was the only goal of the night. Onwards to 2nite’s games that feature the Pens vs. Leafs and Minny vs. Nucks! We predict 4-3 Pens and 5-3 Minny. AV’s last game as coach? We’ll keep hoping!

A Sunday Thought

Just a quick Canucks post. The team has not been lights out since the arrival of Mats Sundin and now with the return of Roberto Luongo this week, the team had its worst game of the season. Not the kind of response you want to see from your club!  This has got to be the low point of the year for the Canucks and the turnaround has to come tonight vs. the Jackets or VERY quickly after the all star break or this season is lost. Woodpeck is officially concerned. Check out our recent posts at NOW PUBLIC!

Here’s what been we’ve been keen on lately around the ol’ laptop:

• NFLD soccer pitch gets hit hard.
• “The hills are alive” with the sound of Muesli in BC!
• The third annual Hockey Day in Minnesota ends with questions about officials!
• Who is Tim Leiweke?  Why is he trying to get the Islanders to move to KC?
• Money problems dogging Coyotes
• NHL teams up the Champions Hockey League?
• Family is all on the agenda in San Jose.  And also here at this tourney!  Good on ‘em!

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Even when its on your own advice. Almost 2 months ago we blogged about ridding your fantasy teams of injury prone Canucks D-man, Sami Salo. But of course we held onto him in one of our deeper leagues thinking that maybe, just maybe this guy could avoid the IR for just once in his career. This guy was our dark horse for numerous years and when healthy, sure helped us out of a lot statistical jams. Now out again with a tweaked groin, we finally pulled the plug on our guy on the team that was our final holdout. Dropping one of our favourite Canucks for an average at best Columbus Blue Jacket defenseman will hopefully not give us any nightmares. Man, we are still having second thoughts… Which got us thinking…

Its easy for us to sit here and write things like JP should trade the Doc or encourage Bryan to entertain offers on Bosh. Until it hits us personally, that is when we learn the true worth of what being a good manager is all about. Man it was tough to let go of Salo and this was just in a fantasy league! The pressures on the real life GM’s of the world must be enormous and for now, we’ll give them a break for a bit. Its a tough to make deals, essentially give up on a player being a part of “your” team. Especially if you’ve gotten to know them face2face and/or you were the one who brought them into “your” team in the first place.  Sami Freakin’ Salo was just a favourite player of ours.  We had no connection to the guy outside of liking his blast from the point and frequent PP time.

Oh, is that break over yet? Because….

Now this morning we learn that the Phoenix Suns swung a deal for Jason Richardson for essentially two second line/second rate players. Man, the Toronto Raptors shoulda, coulda, woulda …. ok, enough with the break for the GM’s! Back to giving them the biz! WHY ISN’T Jason Richardson a TORONTO RAPTOR???? He’s an A list player that we could have had on the cheap!  Why aren’t the Raptors attempting to lure a now upset Steve Nash to Toronto? Why isn’t this blog giving the GM’s a break?  Cuz, that break was about 100 words ago… its still time to put up or shut up for Toronto’s GM’s!  Its game time so WAKE UP!

We Snatched Victory out of the Jaws of Defeat

OMG!  So much to catch up on & read so here’s what we found curious:

• The Alex Burrows vs. Pierre-Marc Bouchard sparring from a Minny viewpoint.  Here’s the recap from the game on Saturday.  Nuthin’ happened between the two.  Pfft!
• Soccerlens.com was an interesting all-footie read if you don’t mind the ads that is…
• What???  The Columbus Blue Jackets are on a roll?  Find out why.
• Bryan Colangelo’s best/worst moves as the Raptors GM.  Read on and the article really heats up when it gets to the “worst” part.  Talk about venting!
• This past Thursday, the Vancouver Whitecaps and BC Pavilion Corporation made public a snapshot of how BC Place Stadium might be configured in order to best accommodate soccer events.
• MLS has a new trophy with a new name.  Too bad it snubs the previous namesake. 
• Congrats to Canadians Darus Suharto and Scott Montgomery at the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.  To make it that far is an achievement is the purest sense and of course worthwhile for all the ca$h!
• & finally this NWT man is rolling his way across Canada in 100 days to commemorate 100th anniversary of 5-pin bowling!  WTG!!!