Penguins odds on favorite for Stanley Cup in 2013

bodog.net has given the penguins 7:1 odds of winning the Stanley Cup next year and they have given the Canucks 12:1.  With this past years performance down the stretch and in the first round this is not much of a surprise that the Canucks have been fairly good odds,  However I am not so sure about the Penguins we will have to wait and see what happens on and before July 1st.

Mike Gillis has a lot to do this off season to get the team set for next year.  Tomorrow I will discuss the reasoning for decreasing Raymond's salary for next year.

LA Kings v. New Jersey Devils 2012 Stanley Cup

I am big fan of Hockey, always have been always will be. That being said the playoffs this year have been very disappointing, after the Canucks where so "easily" dispatched by the Kings I have only watched a few games but they all seem very much the same.  Trap the neutral zone with three player and wait for the other team to make a mistake.  As this is just my opinion but it makes for some pretty boring playoff hockey.  I think back to a game between the Flyers and the Lighting which shows the 1-3-1 formation that the Kings have been using all  Playoffs and the Devils used up till the finals.  I think that their needs to be a change.  I understand that the Canucks have used the same formation,  with a few minor changes such as the forward in the zone will press the player with the puck no matter where he is in his zone to get him to move it, also the three in the neutral zone will be between the opponents blue line and the red line and the back player will be right at the blue line not back talking to his goal tender.  If you watch the clip of the Lighting and Flyers you will see how most other teams in the league play the system.Flyers vs. Lighting trap pause follow the link for a video of the game that shows the system in action as I would like to see changed.

The rule should be a change to the delay of game rule,  any team not trying to gain control of the puck for longer than 3 seconds while not on a line change or on a penalty will be subject to a bench minor of 2 minutes or fine to the coach of $5,000 and to the team of $250,000 (this can be decided by the league after the game has been played).  This would make this stop and fast.

I will be trying to post daily from now on so stay tuned.

Game 2 Canucks vs Kings 2012 playoffs

What the HELL was that?

The team played well but the Kings just played their game better.  The Kings PK was in a word amazing,  high intensity quick to the puck and overall a will to win.  With 2 short handed goals it was quite the display.  The overall play of the Canucks was good and at times excellent just without the finish.  The players that stood out for me where Raymond, Higgins and Booth,  these three have really elevated their games.  I did not include Kesler in the list even though he was outstanding he has always elevated his game when he needs to.  The only player that I really did not notice elevate his game so far is Henrik Sedin.

That is one thing about this season the Canucks have been much better team on the road.  I am not hitting the panic button yet, however I will not be doing any more polls until next year.

Now for the officiating I am not sure what was going on there was bad calls on both sides.  No call on Richards for the snow shower on Louongo in the first (I understand that it was not the same Ref's as game one but there needs to be more congruence between officials).  This is the same all around the league. No offside call on the Flyers ending in a goal.

While watching Sportsnet  before the playoffs started the overall consensus was that it would be the Canucks and Penguins in the final.  At this point in time both teams are down 2 games to none.

No panic yet here, I still BELIEVE.

Bitz out for 2 games and Weber fined.

Alright so Bitz is out,  it was not a good hit and should not have happened and he will have to do the time, fine. However Weber purposefully rammed Zetterbergs head into the glass twice and gets a $2500 fine, um I am not so sure about that.  He should have had at least a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. Please note that I am not disputing that there should not have been a suspension I believe that it should possibly have been 3 games but in the playoffs the standard has been set.

So each of them had an interview today to discuss the hits,  Bitz apologized for the hit.  On the other hand Weber made some noise about it being the speed of the game. So what now? The more a player gets paid the different the treatment will become? A hit to the head should be equal no matter who does the hit. period.

Shanahan has done a good job so far since taking over, it is going to take a lot of work to get rid of the double standard that plagued Campbell.

Next up game 2.