From the AHL desk...

Last night, the Albany River Rats ('Canes) v. Philly Phantoms (Flyers) game went into 5 overtimes. 5


Supposedly a game that started at 7 PM ended at 12:39 AM, 5 hours later when Ryan Potulny of the Phantoms (and ex-Bear Grant's little brother)scored the game winner. The Rat goalie Michael Leighton saved 98 of 101 Philly shots during the game (they think both are AHL records)while the Phantom goalie had to deal with a slightly more reasonable 67 shots (65 of which were saved.)

With this win, Philly's up 3-2 in the series. And everyone involved in the game never EVER wants to do this again. (AHL full article here)

My question is how many FANS were still in the building when the game finally ended, as the exodus from Giant Center for the first OT is always pretty significant. I can't imagine more than 1 or 2 hundred actually stuck around. I'd also LOVE to see video of the end of it, because I can't believe anyone can skate for 5 hours and not just be completely wiped by 12:30 in the morning. Wow. The next game in this series is gonna su-uuuuck for those two teams. Luckily for them, it's not until Saturday. (although watching them try to play a back-to back tonight would have been hi-LARIOUS methinks.)

Tonight, however, the Bears try to re-live the Caps' playoff claw-back, as they are currently 1-3 in the series against the Baby Penguins. Any crazy thoughts of winning you want to direct their way at, oh, 7PMish would be good.

Think about these guys:

and then we've got scoring and NOT scoring covered.
Also at THTM

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Weekly Topic (I'm a sheep!)

This is rather a loaded question for me, because I’ve got ties to two separate NHL teams at this point, both in the playoffs, and my two NHL teams’ AHL teams are currently playing each other for their Calder Cup run. Basically, I spend a lot of time cringing no matter what happens.


But, if I could put all that ulcer-inducing Pens/Caps/Babypens/Bears orgying aside for a moment, I’d have to say that since the beginning of the series, I’ve been keeping about half an eye on the Boston Bruins (although I did choose Montreal to win the series).Currently, they’re fighting back 2-3 against the Habs, so who knows if I’ll get to watch them much longer, but I have to say, their group of little scrappy Czech rookies (Sobotka and Krejci) have sort of warmed the cockles of my heart during the beginning of playoffs.

Player-wise, the specific non-Cap-non-Pens people currently on my radar for playoffs?
Tootoo, who I waver back and forth between liking and wanting to punch.
Biron, the only Flyer I can stand, probably because he’s the only one I’ve never seen pull Flyerish crap (sorry, Nadine!).
Turco, mostly because he’s my car’s namesake and because he’s really a fantastic goalie.

And in the AHL? I’d say I’m watching the Syracuse Crunch, but I’d be lying. I do know they have Brassard and Brule playing for them right now, and I’ve been sort of passively interested in Emo!Brule since he was pegged as the guy in Sid’s shadow for that draft year, and I always feel for the players who do the called up, sent back, called up game. No, I’m really just focused on the Bears. And barring that, on the BabyPens. That's one of the few good things about having ties to two, even if they do play each other from the getgo.... SOMEONE's gotta move on, right?

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Once in a while, you gotta SQUEE.

Not only did the Bears managed to clinch a playoff spot yesterday AND have a line brawl involving my favorite backup goalie......

I got Andrew Gordon to sign my jersey. And managed to keep my eyes open in the picture. :-)

He also says he's going for the Mike-Green-As-A-Bear-Originated Playoff Mohawk as of next week, which just amuses me to no end.

(And video of said Line Brawl where you get Cheezer(Daren Machesney, the goalie) in Triumphant Agitator mode...)


Sadly, I didn't get any Stalkercam 8000 pictures of it, as it was down the glass in the corner on the same side I was on, but you can bet I was screaming and yelling and jumping up and down and teaching the kid next to me all sorts of words he didn't need to know until he got to middle school.

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Will Wheels Sign?

Blake Wheeler is still a Coyotes prospect. He hasn't decided what to do with his career yet. With all the talent pouring into the desert lately I really don't think it should be this much of a 'thang'.

AZCentral Article



I don’t think its as simple as Wheels not wanting to come to Phoenix. The kid was still in high school when drafted, he is a prelockout draftee so he has lots more to consider.

If he returns to school he will be the captain of the squad and have his degree at the end as well as another full year to equalize his age and the chance of success.

If he goes pro with the Yotes he will seriously be fighting a whooole bunch of talent for a spot on a team that doesn’t have a whole lot more room for more rookies (ratio of rookies to vets has to be maintained for success). He is also most likely lookin at offers from DMGM of the new rookie max plus bonuses which is not as much as he could get elsewhere.

If he goes pro and doesn’t sign with the Yotes some other team would likely pick him up and since he would be UFA (prelockout rules/CBA) he could command more $$$ from another team. I don’t think he is limited to going back into the draft pool.

The good news is that either way he decides … the Yotes win!

If he doesn’t come to us, we get a 2nd round, 5th or so place pick to add to our other 6 picks in the first 3 rounds! So then we can trade a pick or two to move up in the draft without really impacting our cupboard stocking.

Or we could use a few picks to grab something sweet from another team in an off season trade, again without really impacting our ability to get some more talent for the future.

WIN WIN!

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Spring time == hockey galore

Oh, yes, it's that time of year... playoffs are underway and the scent of Game 7s fills the air....

No, I'm not talking the NHL. Definitely not yet. In fact, I almost don't wanna look until the dust settles and I know who we're playing first.

Who else is following some of the other leagues doing interesting things right now? Who else needs stuff to do? (Yes, Connie, I'm looking at you!)

In the CHL, playoff time is in full bloom. In a lot of ways, the path to the Memorial Cup is even more gruelling than the trip to the Stanley Cup finals. We're talking a full four rounds of playoffs, plus a tournament afterwards between the three league champions, and the host (who maybe has the easiest time of it, since, well, they don't actually have to win a lot to be there).

WHL-wise, the Calgary Hitmen are playing a spirited series* (I'll ignore the last two periods of game 2, ok guys? It's really my fault I tuned in to the radio feed, to begin with) against the Moose Jaw Warriors. Better yet, most games are out of the Saddledome, tickets are cheap, and there's lots of seats to be had.

*(Yes, that's playoff-speak for "We are kicking butt")

I think what really excites me is the potential for the next round to be against Swift Current...

I'm serious! I have a good chunk of family who lived in Swift Current for the longest time, and the rivalry is intense. Trash will be talked.

In the OHL, I am told some teams have already advanced to the second round. Congrats to the Belleville Bulls. Um. I have nothing, about other teams that might have made it already.

In the QMJHL, well... most of us know what`s going on there...

What else is there? CIS Men's hockey just finished up (sigh, the rival U of A Golden Bears picked up the championship)... How's NCAA going? AHL? (I wouldn't know. Our farm team in Quad Cities this year was less than stellar, though there were some good individual performances.)

So many choices... so little time to procrastinate with...

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DOUBLE FIST PUMP OF GREATNESS

I know I don't post much over here because I know most of the world could give less than a rat's hindquarters about the AHL, but this merits some internet-wide yelling.

Andrew Gordon is made of awesome. (and also the AHL player of the week)

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the Bears/my life, Gordon has scored two hat tricks with me in attendance wearing his jersey. In my book, the kid could sneeze puppydogs and rainbows and not be more awesome than he already is. Mark it, if he doesn't make the Caps outright next year, he's gonna be the first callup from Hershey when they break a winger. And you can quote me on that.

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A Bad Case of the Dingies

Dear Bears,

Step it the heck back up. Eric Fehr was not this whole team in the last 10 games. Andrew Gordon, thank you for trying to make up for the rest of the heartlessness out there last night by getting your second hat trick of the season. You can have a puppy treat. Deano, thank you for stepping up when Louie Robitaille chickened out. You can have half a puppy treat. When you remember you're wearing the C and it's your job to motivate the guys out of whatever the heck funk they think they're in, you can have the other half. Joe Motzko....augggghhhhh *throws hands up in despair.*

Love, Teka.

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WHL, NHL, AHL, QHL, XHL, WTF-HL...

Having spent as much of my vacation on hockey as humanly possible, I will say this. There's a reason the Portland Winterhawks are the bottom of the barrel in the WHL. Boy howdy, and I thought I had gotten used to an AHL level of play.

Every time I watch an NHL game, I'm stupidly excited by how many passes actually connect solidly, as in the AHL the tendency is to get it almost there and have it take a wierd bounce or be completely missed right at the last second. In the WHL, really, I was getting excited when a pass got within five feet of someone in the same uniform, which is kind of a sad commentary on the state of my home team.

Of course, you can't really take it out too hard on the guys. The Winterhawks are a major junior team, after all. These are still high school-age dudes, and they are still technically in a training league. The only one I found myself consistently abusing during the course of the game was the goalie, who neglected to finish his butterfly slide across the net and let Seattle dingle one in off his toe. And don't get me started on him being on approach vector for the blueline a couple of times. I don't care what the hell his name really is is (Mucha,) he's always going to be "GoddammitBabyConks!" to me after that game.

Not that the Hawks always sucked, either. Back in the day when they had Hershey defector Jakub Klepis and Reading Royal goalie Curtis Darling, they were the Western playoff champions, and five years prior to that they swept the Memorial Cup awards entirely. It's just lately they've become an axis of suck, from what I can tell. Which is sad, as Oregon needs all the hockey it can get and they're not helping prove my claim that we could support and love an NHL team if we got one. Even if they do call us Hawkeytown

And just to drive home that Oregon as Non-Hockey-State bit? Two bookstores down (one being a chain, the other being the big indie bookstore here) I can't find a copy of any of The Hockey News's big issues on a newsstand. The horror! How will I live without Sid's pillowesque lips for the entire plane ride home?

Ah... erm... anyway.

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