Canaan's thread of NPR chaos.

[Idoit40fans]

Holy crap i cant believe hes still on his elc. Seems like hes been around forever.

[columbia]

I just watched that ESPN program on the Soviet team. The part about Uncle Lou and Fetisov passing notes in a bugged Russian hotel room was most excellent.

[Avyran]

Mike Colligan posted up another article today in which he predicted where top targets will go at the trade deadline. A few highlights...

Antoine Vermette (Arizona) to Montreal: Vermette is probably the top trade chip in play that’s likely to be moved over the next two weeks. Montreal has a great chance of coming out of the Eastern Conference this year. Vermette fits their style of play and would be a huge boost. He won’t come cheap though.

Montreal with Vermette would scare me even more than they currently do. That would be a very strong group of forwards.

Jaromir Jagr (New Jersey) to Washington

The reaction here'd be priceless.

Ryan O’Reilly (Colorado) to Calgary: This one has been a long time coming. O’Reilly and the Avalanche haven’t seen eye to eye on contract negotiations for years but Colorado has held onto O’Reilly for as long as possible. Time to move on. O’Reilly is headed to unrestricted free agency after next season and carries a $5 million cap hit courtesy of an offer sheet from…the Calgary Flames. Former Flames GM Jay Feaster initiated the offer sheet but new Flames GM Brad Treliving believes in building through the middle too. O’Reilly is his type of player.

Interesting (& left-field) suggestion. Never would have thought of this, but Calgary probably has the players to offer in return for him.

Mike Green (Washington) to San Jose: I could be convinced that the Capitals are better off keeping Green and losing him for nothing as a free agent this summer. I think he’d be more valuable to another team right now though. Green is playing on Washington’s third pair — not a knock on his play but simply a result of the team’s greater depth on the back end this season.
Jeff Petry (Edmonton) to Pittsburgh: The Penguins need to upgrade their defense for the playoffs as well. Although Petry doesn’t play as big as his 6-3 frame might suggest, he’d be a great fit in coach Mike Johnston’s fast-paced system and would round out Pittsburgh’s top four.

He seems to be all-in for the Petry to PIT rumors. As for the Green to SJ... no idea why they would do this. This is the only suggestion of the 16 that I just don't get.

(Edit: For FPF, he just tweeted that he forgot Tlusty, and guesses he'll go to WPG.)

[shmenguin]

was there any discussion anywhere of the 30 for 30 doc about the 1980 soviet team? a few takeaways...

1) the way those guys skated and moved the puck looked like modern hockey. i've never really seen the highlights from those games - other than the USA stuff. it was awesome.

2) what a bunch of gentlemen those soviets were. it's kind of sad when you lose a good narrative to fact. there was nothing villainous about them. the canadians were the only bad guys in hockey at that point.

3) speaking of which...bobby clarke. what a piece of s***

4) didn't know the fetisov story at all. really interesting.

overall, definitely worth a watch. loved it.

[dodint]

Awesome. Have it on the DVR but haven't dove in yet. Thanks.

[shafnutz05]

It's kind of crazy that Beezer has been out of hockey for going on 13 years. As a kid growing up knowing about him, you just kind of naturally thought he'd be around a while, but he retired the year after I graduated high school. Definitely one of those players where you think, "Wow, he's THAT old?"

[PensFanInDC]

Mario owned him too.

[Avyran]

From Reddit: Backstrom & Ovechkin are kinda good. They lead the league in...

Points: 63(Backstrom)
Goals: 38(Ovechkin)
Assists: 45(Backstrom)
Powerplay Points: 27(Backstrom)
Powerplay Goals: 17(Ovechkin)
Power Play Assists: 24(Backstrom)
Game Winning Goals: 8(Ovechkin)
Shot Block Attempts: 156(Ovechkin)
Shots on Goal: 291(Ovechkin)
Missed Shots: 144(Ovechkin)

[meow]

Backstrom's offensive wizardry is underrated.

[count2infinity]

Someone took this:

Spoiler:

and this:

Spoiler:

and made this:

Spoiler:

I love the internet...

[dodint]

hah. This is, for sure, what Al Gore had in mind when he invented the thing.

[Avyran]

Oh hey, another injury for the Isles. Grabovski placed on the IR with (lo & behold) another concussion in the NHL.

This will be a really interesting couple weeks for the Isles. They're already playing without Okposo & other injuries like Cizikas.

[pcm]

Speaking of the internet, NHL.com released its new stats platform today... too bad it doesn't include a capgeek clone.

[Avyran]

& speaking of the NHL, Bettman doesn't feel the fans care much about salaries.

Wouldn’t there be a market for a subscription-based site with NHL player salaries and team cap numbers, too?

Bettman doesn’t believe that market extends beyond the reporters seeking that information for stories; and that fans care less about what happens in the GM’s office than they are about what happens in the rink.

“I don’t think it’s a resource we need to provide because I’m not sure fans are as focused on what players make as they are about their performance on the ice,” he said.

Of course, the other issue is whether the NHL, the NHLPA and teams want that information made public. (As Bob McKenzie notes, they already have an internal site set up that blows away the functionality of even Cap Geek.)

[mikey287]

Does any other NA sports league source their own player salary information in such a way...?

[columbia]

(As Bob McKenzie notes, they already have an internal site set up that blows away the functionality of even Cap Geek.)

Of course they do, which is why I'm always amused with the "he's great with the cap!" proclamations.
They have a piece of software to handle everything....

[Lt. Dish]

Oh hey, another injury for the Isles. Grabovski placed on the IR with (lo & behold) another concussion in the NHL.

This will be a really interesting couple weeks for the Isles. They're already playing without Okposo & other injuries like Cizikas.

And they're still winning. Can't stand it.

They're getting good secondary scoring. Hell, Matt Martin has 7 goals.

[mikey287]

It's just like Calgary, which is roughly who they play like...they play fast, attack with four and five all the time, even with lower-end guys...not that the team isn't pretty decent all-around, but they're getting a lot of "bonus" offense at the cost of some risks on the back-end...

Remember the power play goal we gave up to Ovechkin on Tuesday? Bennett couldn't secure the pill, Letang began to join that rush on the wide side and it ended up not working out? That's what a good amount of Isles rushes look like...in fact, you look at that Travis Hamonic goal today, similar deal...Nick Leddy always joins the play, because he's one of the best skaters in the league and figures he can track back if things go bad...

Meanwhile Leddy is out there for a goal against, Backstrom to Niskanen...I believe that means Nicklas Backstrom is the league-leader in scoring...about time he gets some credit now, I hope...he's been about the league's most underrated players for a while now...

[Avyran]

It's almost like the Capitals also have two of the best players in the league (not a snarky comment meant toward any of you guys).

This is going to be a really interesting playoff push. The Caps seem to be peaking atm, whereas the Isles seem to be slowly starting to fall off. Wonder if they can get it back when Okposo/Grabovski/etc come back. The Pens, obviously, are the slumping team, but so are the Bruins. In the west, Anaheim & Chicago are slumping as well. Minnesota & LA are pushing hard for one spot while San Jose seems to be slumping their way out of the playoffs.

The parity of this league is really impressive.

[SolidSnake]

The Isles are 7-3 in the past 10 games and have maintained their play all season .........

[Avyran]

The Isles have beat the Sabres, Oilers, & Maple Leafs for 3 of those 7 wins. They lost to the Bruins, Rangers, & Panthers. They only beat those previously mentioned teams by 1 goal, as well as the Flyers in a shootout.

They're not playing as well as they were earlier. I'm not saying they're slumping. I'm saying they aren't playing as well as they were earlier.

[columbia]

At least they're winning.

[meow]

D'oh

[columbia]

That gif doesn't load, so...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A_maSE5LH0[/youtube]

[dodint]

Weird, loaded for me then and still does: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;