Puck Previews: Salivating over Flames/Preds; prank call fun
Greg Wyshynski | November 30, 2009
Here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.
Preview: Calgary Flames at Nashville Predators, 8 p.m. EST. The Flames have just one regulation loss in 13 road games this season, while the Predators are on an 8-1-0 roll at home. But the X-factor here could be Calgary’s peculiar dominance over the Predators at [Name Pending] Arena, winning three of the last four there and averaging five goals per victory. It’s Pekka Rinne(notes) vs. Miikka "Dribbles" Kiprusoff.
Preview: Buffalo Sabres at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7 p.m. EST. Your Versus game of the night (don’t they know the Leafs play in Canada?). From Sabre Noise: "The magic number the Sabres have to continue thinking about tonight is 6. Six times in a row they have been victorious in Toronto, Six times they have beaten the Toronto Maple Leafs. Only six times the Leafs have won this year. Sounds like it could be a six goal night from the way I am seeing it!"
Plus, they play with six men on the ice, have six retired numbers (besides Gretzky) and currently don’t have a player who wears No. 6! This is like an awful Jim Carrey movie come to life! The one with the numbers, not "Yes Man."
Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers, 7 p.m. EST. There’s an assumption that the frustrated Rangers are out for blood in this game, after getting embarrassed by the Pens over the weekend and seeing Matt Cooke’(notes) earn a two-game suspension for taking liberties with Double-A. Don’t let us down, various goons and pests of Madison Square Garden.
Check out previews and updated scores for all of today’s games on the Y! Sports NHL scores and scheds page.
Evening Reading
• Puck Buddy Ruthe sent over this audio clip: "Zenon Konopka went on the Fisher and Boy morning radio show on 97X and had them crank call teammate Stephane Veilleux(notes). Listen to that here, and notice how quickly Veilleux tries to convince the crank callers not to report Konopka to the Lightning concerning the made-up incident about which they are talking." Quality stuff; gotta love when he puts over Zenon Konopka(notes) as being as big as "Marty and Vinny." [TampaBay.com .mp3]
• Minnesota Wild official Web site contributor Todd Smith presents reasons why Wild fans hate various NHL teams: "The Sedin twins are creepy and play the game like rod-hockey figures." [Wild]
• Hey, here’s a handy way for Patrice Bergeron(notes) not to keep getting injured: Don’t play him on the PK. [CSNNE]
• The Penguins’ Stanley Cup plaque was unveiled at NHL HQ. [NHL]
• Adam Gretz explores the Jacques Lemaire Effect, in which a bald, tanned gentlemen with an affinity for chewing gum comes to your team and makes their defense better. [FanHouse]
• George Parros(notes) starts a clothing line for charity. All this means for us is the potential for a Parros/Avery throwdown sometime during Fashion Week. Who takes it? Whose couture reigns supreme?! [ESPN]
• Jon Quick(notes) is playing well in his spiffy new pads. [Kings Insider]
• Good to see the NCAA is rife with awful whistle-related blown calls, too. [WCHB]
• Ten players who need to shoot the puck more. No. 10 is sort of a weird choice, though, considering he’ll be shot with more pain killers than shooting pucks this season. Ovechkin, sadly, didn’t make the list. [Die By The Blade]
Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: Lambert managed to cheese off a few people with What We Learned this morning (and we’ve corrected a goof about the Habs he made — thanks to those who alerted us to it). Specifically, his comments about Ken Holland "letting Marian Hossa walk away" didn’t sit well with Detroit Red Wings fans. Mandingo’s rant on the matter deserves another platform:
There are so many things wrong with this, I wouldn’t even know where to begin correcting it.
Technically, the words form sentences – which in turn form a paragraph – but literallly nothing in this is factually correct, including the Wings’ position in the Western Conference standings.
It’s actually pretty impressive. It’s not easy to be this wrong. You really have to work at it. It takes a lot of determination and sheer will. So kudos on that, I guess.
Whoa.
Bold Prediction: Since the Thrashers’ goaltending is getting some national recognition today, Johan Hedberg(notes) will naturally be pulled against the Panthers’ onslaught.
