Sucks for the sport, but not for the teams chasing the Penguins. Then again, the Penguins beat the Canadiens last night so maybe they can hold on for a month and some change. But any viewership the All-Star game was going to see, just got significantly lower. That's a shame. And why the hell isn't the game on NBC?

As for the Bruins, they swept the home and home yesterday beating the Rangers 3-1. They're now seventh in the conference and four points behind the Penguins. Our next game is against the Canadiens though in Montreal, so I expect them to stay with 53 points. They just can't beat Montreal for some reason.

It's about time Boston beat the Habs, since it's been a while. Besides, I'm a little concerned about the Habs after their terrible showing against the Pens (really, I don't think the Pens even played that well; Montreal just played terribly). Plus, the Bruins are playing well right now. Wouldn't be surprised to see them play a great game and win.

It's a pity they're in the same division as my Habs because I really do like the team - I don't make fun of them like I do teams like Toronto. And I especially like their coach right now - I hope they keep him around.

Peace,
Mike

The Pens/Capitals game is kinda crazy. I can't watch it, unfortunately, but I'm monitoring the real time updates from NHL.com. Not even halfway through the game and it's 4-4, and neither team has more than 13 shots-on-goal.

annnnnnnd bye bye John Ferguson, Jr.

You could see this one coming. Leafs = Knicks of the NHL.

A bunch of all-star replacements were announced today...

Malkin for Crosby (expected and fitting)
Tim Thomas for Brodeur (deserved)
Corey Perry for Zetterberg (definitely a big step down)
Mike Ribeiro for Stastny (eh... somewhat deserved)
Scott Niedermayer for Zubov (WTF)

Niedermayer DOES NOT deserve a spot. He basically sits out half the season and gets to play in the ASG? Fuck.

DAMNIT ZETTERBERG!!!

STPO GETTING HURT!!!

Still concerned?

lol. I didn't expect the Habs to really bury the Bruins like they did. I am very happy.

Their overwhelming domination over the Bruins is really inexplicable to me. I mean, the Habs are a good team right now and are playing well and doing great in the standings. But I don't know why the Bruins are the ONE team that the Habs do so incredibly good against. I mean, the Bruins are doing pretty darn well this season, too.

Peace,
Mike

Did I miss the skills competition? I figured it would still be on and there's some sort of deer hunting show occupying my TV screen.

No, it's tomorrow night.

This bodes well for the potential viewership....

I figured it out after watching...........something (I actually forget which is the sad part) and was just too lazy to post. I listened to my local sports station and they said that the All-Star game was tomorrow so I figured the skills competition was tonight.

Yeah, the ratings for this should be gangbusters.

Anyone watch tonight? I caught the last 15 minutes or so when I remembered it came on. Why NBC isn't covering this and the game tomorrow (I guess it's because of their powerhouse primetime Saturday night lineup) is just nuts. They might've got the number of viewers up to one million.

And what the hell is the NHL thinking in agreeing to a 3-year contract with Versus? They should've begged and pleaded to ESPN to take them back.

I watched it. It was alright. The judged shootout thing kinda flopped. I think they need to take the goalies out for that. It's also really awkward watching the player interviews, as most of the players either can't speak English or can't form a cohesive sentence. The youngstars game was fun, but that's about it.

Must remind myself that the game is on at six. Must remind myself that the game is on at six. Must remind myself that the game is on at six.

This is one thing I've always hated about All-Star games. Whenever the road team scores, the music still goes off like if the home team scored. It's not a big complaint but I've always found it to be fucking annoying. The same thing happens during the Super Bowl, but at least that's a little more justified since it's supposed to be on a level playing field.

It was a pretty good game, got exciting at the end there, which is incredible for an all-star game. And how did Nash not get MVP?

They need to put the game in a northern city next year. And the year after. And the year after. Etc.

Well it's in Montreal next year, so that should be a big hit with hockey fans.

Apparently, Canadiens didn't get their hockey on, as much as they did last year.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20080130 ... _ratings_2

Still bad in America. As if the NHL didn't have a good enough reason before to move back to ESPN. Morons. On the bright side, 300,000 more people did watch this year.

Well, last year was the first all-star game in three years, so the numbers for Canadians were probably inflated a bit. It was also, by and large, a failure, which probably led to less of us watching this year. As for Americans, well.... it was on a Sunday without football. That's enough to get 300,000 more viewers. Of course, it's still a hockey game, so that's enough to only get 800,000 people total.

And just like that, the Habs are only 1 point away from LEADING the Eastern CONFERENCE. And this was the team that everyone, experts and so on said was supposed to be 12th, 13th or even last in the conference this season.

Peace,
Mike

Solid win tonight for the Bruins. It wasn't looking too good for most of the game when Buffalo got two crap goals at the end of both the first and second periods, but the Bruins really showed up for the third. Tonight's third period was easily the best third period I've seen from a Bruins team in quite sometime. Although they had to win it eventually in a shootout, they scored twice and held the Sabres to one shot in third.

With the win, they jump up to 7th in the Conference and are now one point ahead of the 8th place Rangers and three ahead of the 9th place Sabres.

This is going to be a very interesting and exciting couple of months of hockey. In the West, first place and the President's trophy is pretty much a lock with the Red Wings. But eight point seperate 4th place and 11th place. In the East, it's almost identical except that first in the conference is still up for grabs. Ten points seperate 1st from 8th. Should be a good couple of months.

Somehow Detroit lost to Toronto today. Not sure how that happened.

I just love that the Red Wings are running away with the regular season crown, cuz you know they're gonna coast into the playoffs and get knocked out in the first or second round. It's happened pretty much every year since 2002, when they last won the Cup.

So... the Wings got ROBBED of a win today. On a bullshit interference call on their tying goal.

I kinda wanted to ring someones neck.

I actually feel like they play better WITHOUT Crosby. I think they use him as a crutch sometimes - not that they wouldn't or shouldn't want Crosby back, but some players fill their potential with Crosby gone, and it's nice to see.

I'm very disappointed with my Habs right now. I guess it's that time of year again for them to falter, fall to 8th in the conference, and then blow it at the end of the season and miss the playoffs altogether again.

Peace,
Mike