Busy NHL weekend

Well. Kind of. Depends on who you are.

There were some changes in the Southeastern division over the weekend.

The Hurricanes and the Capitals both got new head coaches.

I don't really care about the Crapitals.

But I was getting to know Paul Maurice. Now I have to start over with the coach.  Just slightly irritating at having to learn the idiosyncrasies of this new guy. But management has to know what  they're doing. (I hope.) Just looking at the stats, I can see why they let him go for a second time.

Au revoir Monsieur Maurice.

2012 ALL STAR VOTING

GO VOTE

Voting

2012 All Star fan ballot!

So.....

They announced the 2012 All-Star fan ballot!

This is a lot of excitement. And I meant to comment on this a few days ago, but I got lazy...and then busy. So you get it now. Deal.

Anyway. Excitement. I'm covered in it.

People getting my votes, conditions permitting:

Goaltenders:

• Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers 
• Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes 
• Ilya Bryzgalov, Philadelphia Flyers 
• Kari Lehtonen, Dallas Stars 
• Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins 

Defensemen:

• Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks 
• Kimmo Timonen, Philadelphia Flyers 
• Marc Staal, New York Rangers 
• Chris Pronger, Philadelphia Flyers 
• Brent Seabrook, Chicago Blackhawks 
• Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings 
• Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins (He's pretty. Leave me be!) 
• Mike Green, Washington Capitals (Also pretty.) 

Forwards:

• Danny Briere, Philadelphia Flyers 
• Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings 
• Matt Duchene, Colorado Avalanche 
• Brad Richards, New York Rangers 
• Marian Gaborik, New York Rangers 
• Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers 
• Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks 
• Jeff Skinner, Carolina Hurricanes 
• Marian Hossa, Chicago Blackhawks 
• Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes
• Jaromir Jagr, Philadelphia Flyers 
• Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks 
• Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings 
• Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks 

I think there's a limit on the number of people I can actually vote for. We'll see. If there is, the bold peeps are getting my vote. And if I can vote more than once, I'll probably throw in a couple votes for everyone else at some point.

I don't really remember the voting from last year and as that was my first time, I'm still a noob to all this. But I look forward to it. And all the speculation about who will go to which team. Who the captains will be. All that jazz and pizzazz.

And yes, I did screenshot the fan ballot list. Thank you for asking.

I have no clue what this is really supposed to be about. Just rambling....

I feel the need to say this, though I've probably already said it.

I love hockey. The sport. Not the men who play it.

That being said, I'm not blind and I'm completely hetero so I know some of the men are gorgeous.

Like Ben Eager. Loved him as a Blackhawk. Loved him more as Thrasher...then we went to San Jose and I was marginally aware of his existence. Now he's an Oiler. (I tried to spell the city but I couldn't and I'm too lazy to look. That's how much I pay attention to them.)

In my world, that's like he retired or got sent to the minors. Even though his team is doing pretty well.

A man can be as cute as he wants, but if he doesn't have marginal (tremendous) talent to overshadow his looks, I have to wonder why he's in the league.

I really don't know where this came from.

I think I'm still on a high from all the hockey wins tonight.

Rangers took the Habs 5-3. Had a 3-0 lead after the first but in what appears to be true Rangers fashion, they got stupid going into the second. Things stayed stupid but they got it back. Barely.

The Flyers just pwnd the Blue Jackets. 9-2. Part of me wanted to feel bad but then I saw the score sheet and was so happy about all the assists getting passed around and the fact that only one person had 2 goals out of 9. So...the love got passed around.

Red Wings took the Ducks 5-0. Me gusta. There's not much to say about that.

I've give an honorable mention to the Bruins for bulldozing the Leafs 7-0. And more to Tim Thomas for his funny Discover commercial.

LSU

Oh hockey...

So me and a friend were talking about sports to day. We discussed how much drama surrounds the players outside of the actual games.

I was just reminded of how much I love hockey and why I love hockey. The players tend to keep their disputes on the ice. They may not always speak highly of each other's actions but they usually have something nice to say about the rest of the guys in the league.

But every so often.....something like this comes up.

It's not really "drama" per se but it is off the ice and not friendly. Tortorella was, in my opinion, telling Thorton to stuff it. Which I think he had the right to do. As a couple commentators on NHL-Network said, he could have done without the jab at the lack of Lord Stanley in Thorton's achievement bank, but eh.

He defended his team. A team he was probably already peeved with. Thorton got some of that attitude.

No big.

In other news: Avery is back! Me gusta. He's "little." He's a prick. He's awesome.

Duncan Keith is day-to-day with an upper body injury. That's balls. (or pucks....)

The Flyers.... I'm enjoying Talbot. I know he's not the whole team, but I feel like he's meshing well. Claude Giroux is showin out and I love it! They're playing well.

I've officially adopted the Hurricanes as my division team. They've adopted GA as part of their market and I don't see that as a problem. The other options were TBL or the Preds. No and no.

I've been getting myself acquainted with the Canes and I have to say that I like what I see. I've already picked my players (Ponikarovsky, LaRose, Ward, Skinner, Stewart, Allen. In that order. The rest of the team is collectively in 7th place).

(FYI, in the Rangers/Ducks game....Rangers struck first! Woywitka....who then got in a fight.)

Anywho. I am enjoying the Canes. I think I'm going to like being part of their family.

I have to be honest. I don't pay attention to the Wings until playoff time. That's probably bad but meh.

So the list has been re-made. 1. Rangers. 2. Flyers/Canes 3. Blackhawks/Wings. It doesn't make sense. But....I don't really care. It's the order of games I watch. Well most nights. I've been favoring the Flyers and Canes because the Rangers are making me mad.

GO PACK!

And I think this is long enough. So until next time mes amies. Au revoir et à bientôt.