The big controversy yesterday in the hockey world was Sharks captain Joe Thornton’s reaction to media in Vancouver trying to stir up trouble over Tomas Hertl’s four goal game. When Thornton overheard Patrick Marleau being asked about it, he responded with an all-time classic shutdown.
Montreal Canadiens News and Analysis
- Michel Therrien juggled his centres during yesterday’s win in Edmonton. Therrien placed Lars Eller (16:54 EV TOI) with Daniel Briere (15:20 EV TOI) and Max Pacioretty (15:49 EV TOI), Tomas Plekanec (13:19 EV TOI) with Alex Galchenyunk (12:25 EV TOI) and Brendan Gallagher (11:14 EV TOI), and David Desharnais (13:40 EV TOI) with Rene Bourque (13:04 EV TOI) and Brian Gionta (14:09 EV TOI).
- According to Christopher Boucher’s research, Andrei Markov has been Montreal’s best defenseman, by a considerable margin, through the first three games of the season. The General has the highest offensive-touch success rate among defensmen as well as the highest takeaway to turnover ratio. He’s also been the most successful blueliner when it comes to removing puck possession from the opposition.
- Diane Bibaud dreamed an uncommon dream as a little girl and realized it as an adult. When she was eight, she told her parents that “one day she would be the Canadiens’ organist” and she’s held that position since 1987. Rock on, Diane.
General News and Analysis
- According to Sean “Down Goes Brown” McIndoe, Mario Lemieux beats out Maurice Richard, Nicklas Lidstrom, Steve Yzerman, and Jean Beliveau as the best NHLer to spend his entire career with a single team. Placing Lemieux (winner of 3 Hart, 3 Rocket Richard and 6 Art Ross trophies) first overall meshes well with Scott Reynolds’ major awards tracking, although Stan Mikita (winner of 2 Hart and 4 Art Ross trophies) should probably place higher than 9th on McIndoe’s list.
- There’s a new stats blog in town. Extra Skater, which combines Behind the Net-inspired team and player tracking with Time on Ice-inspired live game stats, has introduced individual game tracking to their site. Check out individual game “fancy stats” using the following URL structure: http://www.extraskater.com/game/year-month-day-away team name-home team name. (i.e. http://www.extraskater.com/game/2013-10-09-canadiens-flames).
- Alex Semin, the first player dinged on the jersey tuck rule (albeit in the preseason), was somehow given a penalty after getting checked in the face by Alex Ovechkin. Confirmation bias be damned, Semin gets a bum rap!
- Dr. Charles Tator discussed concussions, particularly symptom recognition and on-ice safety tips for youth, with Rob Pizzo and Cassie Campbell-Pascal of Hockey Night in Canada Radio. Check it out here.
- In honour of their 20th season, the Anaheim Ducks will don the Disney era jerseys for an upcoming retro night. Jonas Hiller seems to dig the Disney theme, adding Wild Wing, who was featured on the bizarre Mighty Ducks animated series, to his throwback mask.
- The Mayo Clinic held their second ever conference on concussions in hockey and again, like in 2010, called for a ban on fighting at the professional and junior levels. It remains to be seen whether this call will gain more traction than the first one.
