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.

Round 1 Game 1 Canucks vs. Kings 2012

Well tonight is the night that we have all been looking forward to since July of last year.  The real season begins tonight.

Louongo will start tonight which is great he has proven himself in the first round of the playoffs to be a tremendous goal tender.   The slate is clean and we will see what the team is really made of.

The whole team is ready for the challenge and we should see what the next level of play will be like this playoff series.  The kings are no pushover team with Quick in net and a good defensive core as well as some size up front.  With Richards possible for tonight's game this could be good or bad for the kings as he has not played in a while and could be a little off.

As for the Canucks with arguably the best defensive core in the league and the possibly the deepest and most balanced forward lines, this should be a great series.

I for one BELIEVE!!!

update:  with only 2 votes on the poll Louongo wins!!! 100% of the vote.

Review:
Well that was painful, with all the penalties in the first and second periods with all of them crossing over the line.  With two, five on threes the score could have easily been much worse.  This was only the first game of the series and there is a lot of hockey left to play.  I still believe.

2012 Playoffs

I always find it interesting that the teams are compared on past playoff experience even as far back as 1996or even 2001 as none of this has any bearing on what will happen in these playoffs so why do we talk or even read about it.  Well it is interesting and we hope that it has some bearing on this year.  So what is of note this year?

• 5 teams have one the Presidents Trophy two years in a row (since it was introduced in 1985/86)
• of those 5 teams 4 have gone on to win the Stanley cup in the second year.
• the Canucks have met the Kings 4 times in the playoffs
• out of the 4 times twice the winner has gone on the Stanley Cup Finals 

So what?  Well we will hope that both of these will be hold true the odds are on the side of the Canucks.

More to come...

Cody Hodgson

Sorry to see you go, but this will be a great move for you no real depth at center for the Sabres = more ice time for you.  Good Luck