The Eurpoean Trophy kicks off today, continues Friday, and really picks up the pace early next week.
Participating teams represent seven different countries. Many of them have won relatively recent championships in their respective leagues. And some are Europes oldest teams (a look at the teams page will verify this).
I imagine that one of the Euro streaming sites will provide coverage to those interested in hockey in August
On August 4, 1921, a goal scorer by the name of Joseph Henri Maurice "The Rocket" Richard was born. "The Rocket" is also the name of trophy that is awarded to the winner of the goal scoring title, so what a better day to talk about goal scoring than today. At this moment I'm currently taking a Hockey GM and Scouting, so I will share with you my knowledge on what makes a goal scorer so great.
Accuracy: If you want to be a goal scorer in this league, it is a really nice skill to have to be able to be able to make the right choice as to where to shoot, and also being about to hit the target. He needs to be able to have his hands in good positioning, and with his eyes on the target at hand. He's also going to have know whether he's going to use a wrist shot, or snap shot. Being able to anticipate the goaltender's movement within a fraction of a second. Being able to predict the goalies movement, all critical.
Continuing my experiment with trying to become a fan of another team, I am partially motivated to choose a team that is different from Detroit. I listed the following qualities for choosing Detroit in my previous post: a rich history, good management and ownership, winning culture, and class. I provided two requirements for my new team previously: first, that it be a team without much recent success, and second, that it be a newer team.
We are now 42 games away from the first preseason game of the year, and there is still plenty of key free agents looking for a new team. Yet, there is little to no noise. Here are my top 5 UFAs still available and which team(s) would be best fit.
I had never been much of one for sports as a child. I was small and uncoordinated, and tired easily compared to other kids. My parents quickly gave up on bringing me to play baseball as I just could not hit the ball. Along with and perhaps because of my lack of interest in playing sports, I also did not watch any sports.
Because of this, the idea of watching sports and particularly being a fan of a team or athlete was alien to me. I could not understand what the players on television had to do with me. Why should an athlete's success at a sport, which has no inherent value, influence my emotions? For every athlete that wins, there is at least one other who loses, and there was usually no reason for me to cheer on one over the other.
All the same, in 2009 I decided that watching sports would make me a more well rounded person. Sports are something you can talk to almost any male about, even when you meet him for the first time. But unlike most, I had the unique opportunity to shop around and choose which sport I wanted to watch. Most of us become interested in a sport because it's the sport we played or continue to play, and that sport is often the sport our father played. I am not one for getting into something that will take a significant amount of my time without research, and so I did my studying.
It has only been a few weeks since the CHL announced the ban on European goalie. At the time I was in Finland instructing and learning how to instruct in their system. Since then a few articles have surfaced discussing the Swedish system of developing goaltenders. The Finns view the Swedes as the country most likely to overtake them as the leading developer of goaltenders.
What is the Swedish Recipe for goaltending development.? The two links below will reveal their secret ingredients.
In a world filled with Footballers being arrested, LeBron addressing his haters, and other HOT news stories, this ad in today's Boston Globe deserves as much attention.
I'm a long time KuklasKorner reader/follower, but I've never contributed before via a blog or even message (not really sure why).
Regardless, every year, I love putting together mock drafts. With the draft being on Sunday, I thought you all might enjoy my crack at guessing who will be taken where. Whenever I do a mockdraft, I consult team needs, drafting tendencines (CHL over European leagues, Canadian players only in the first round, etc.), as well as best player available (I consult ISS, Central Scouting, Bob McKenzie and other ratings). Feel free to comment and point out where I'm wrong or need work in my selections :)
1. Colorado – C Nate MacKinnon
Everyone, including myself was convinced Colorado would opt to take Denver native Seth Jones with this pick. However, after a recent announcement from the Avalanche, they seem to be going in a different direction. The likely choice for the Avalanche with the #1 pick therefore is Nate MacKinnon. MacKinnon has game-breaking speed, an excellent shot, great passing ability and vision. He is a player the Avalanche will be able to build around, a franchise player that will be the face of the Avalanche for years to come.
- The Caps were thinking what exactly trading for Erat? Brooks Laich's "tenure and term" is insanity too.
- I don't believe Philly and Vancouver have any choice but to amnesty Bryzgalov and Luongo. Maybe they'll trade them and their new teams will amnesty them after next year. Unless there's some rule against that.
- I thought I was listening to Chicago radio with all the people picking Chicago over Detroit. It was Detroit radio, though. I'm sure everyone picked the Ducks over the Wings in 2002 too, right? I picked Detroit in 6 immediately after this match-up became official. Frankly I was more worried about Chicago's 2009 team.
Ovie yesterday astutely noted that the ice at MSG is bad. That's pretty obvious and yet never discussed.
The Rangers clearly have a big advantage on the perennial slush vs. the visitors. Does the NHL actually regulate ice conditions? What are the tolerances? Do they allow for slushy conditions.
Granted, the venue in question is a center of many activities that tend to raise the temps, but this should not be an excuse for allowing the ice to deteriorate during an NHL game.
There definitely should be huge fines for failing to meet a minimum that is conducive to player health and parity. Does anyone know if this regulated and, if so, how?
A continent away, Europe's season ending championship is taking place, with teams sourced by the 17th through 30th best teams from the NHL.
One player who is not from an NHL team is gathering some attention, this entry from the NYT Slap Shot Blog discusses John Gibson at the 2013 IIHF World Championships.
It is rare for the United States to use a teenage goalie at the International Ice Hockey Federation world championships, and John Gibson’s performance in his tournament debut was of rare quality.
Gibson, a 19-year-old from Pittsburgh, made 31 saves to backstop the Americans to a 4-1 win over Finland on Wednesday. The Finns are co-hosting the tournament with Sweden this year, but he was unfazed by the boisterous, flag-waving crowd of 12,484 at Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena.
At 19, it is hard to tell how much seasoning he will need before the Anahiem Ducks have a goaltending logjam.
As the eyes of the hockey world rivet themselves to the SC playoffs, a void in the world of amateur coaching has occurred. Two weeks after Yale captured the NCAA D-1 title, former long time Yale coach Tim Taylor lost his battle with cancer. While not an NHL coach, the name should be familiar to anyone who is a part of USA Hockey, particularly those who live in and follow the sport in North Eastern USA.
Although not a major league hockey city, Houston has supported a professional team since the 60's. It appears that this year's Calder Cup Playoff will end that run.
The story further describes the situation, and within that story is a link recounting hockey memories in the U.S.'s fourth most populated city.
In 2006, Rick DiPietro was poised to become the next great American goaltender. Just six years (and countless injuries) later, his fifteen-year contract has become a sterling example of the type of contract the NHL now forbids. Aside from absurd duration, under the previous collective bargaining agreement (CBA), teams could also aggressively structure these multi-year deals to circumvent the salary cap.
A player’s cap hit is calculated by dividing the entire value of the contract by the number of years it covers, and soon after the cap was installed in 2005, crafty GMs quickly realized a loophole by front-loading these contracts. In 2009, Marian Hossa penned a twelve year deal that pays nearly eight million yearly for the first half of the deal, before precipitously dropping to just one million over the last four years. Hossa will be forty-two and likely retired when the contract ends. Yet despite receiving almost eight million dollars annually for most of the contract, the cap hit will be fixed at a modest 5.3million/year.
Under the new Memo of Understanding, however, teams can sign players to a maximum of seven years, and a player’s salary cannot fluctuate more than thirty-five percent from year to year. The closing of this loophole is a welcome provision of the recent agreement. Albatross contracts like those inked by DiPietro are now a ghost of the past; meanwhile the integrity of the salary cap is also restored. Instead of front-loaded contracts being instrumental in creating winning teams, rosters will more accurately represent present value, allowing for a greater balance of elite players across the league. With hockey still attempting to gain a foothold in the United States, more competitive teams can only serve to broaden the fan base and create fans in non-traditional hockey markets.
But this commercial combines two of my favorite things, Hockey and the Muppets. In a twist of irony, some of Sports Center's best commercials are hockey based.
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