Stanley Cup Finals Preview: Devils v.s Kings

The Stanley Cup Finasls are set. It will be Zack Parise's New Jersey Devils against Jonathon Quick and the Los Angeles Kings. Game one is Wednesday in New Jersey. Both the Devils and Kings are coming off a relatively short conference final series. This is a very interesting final. The most exciting matchup is the two goaltenders. Future Hall Of Famer Martin Brodeur against young upstart Jonathon Quick. I personally think that as of 2011-12, the Kings have the advantage in this one. Defenseman is also interesting. The Kings have Drew Doughty leading them while The Devils are weak on Defense. Advantage Kings. Forwards are aplenty as well. NJ has Zack Parise, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Patrick Elias to go against Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, and Jeff Carter. Advantage Devils. In conclusion, I'm going with LA in seven.

Devils defeat Rangers, will play Kings in the stanley cup fina

The New Jersey Devils won a thrilling game six to knock out the top seeded New York Rangers. This hard fought entertaining series ended in two strange games. In game five the Devils got an early 3-0 lead but New York tied it 3-3. Then with three minutes left, the Devils Ryan Carter scored. New Jersey then won game six off an OT goal from Adam Henrique. The Stanley Cup Final begins Wednesday.

Kings defeat Coyotes, advance to Stanley Cup Final

The eighth seeded Los Angeles Kings are headed to the Stanley Cup Final. The Kings survived an intense game five. The Kings scored late in the first OT to knock out the first seeded Coyotes. The Kings got that goal from Dustin Penner. In OT a questoinable hit by Dustin Brown caused Phoenix captain Shane Doan to go ballistic at the ref. A few minutes earlier, LA defenseman Drew Doughty give his stick a hard time, smashing it everywhere in sight due to a penalty. The Kings will await the winner of the Rangers, Devils series. New Jersey currently leads 3-2. LA did not touch the Clarence Campbell Bowl. They did touch it last time they made a finals appearence. They lost to the Canadiens in five games. The Kings became the second eighth seeded team to beat the first, second, and third seeded teams, beating Vancouver, St Louis, and Phoenix. The first time this happened was the 2004 Calgary Flames. They lost to Tampa Bay in seven games.

Canucks fans, management, being disrespectful and ungrateful to Roberto Luongo

They used to chant Lou, now they chant boo. Roberto Luongo has been the face of the Vancouver Canucks for six years. He got them to the playoffs for five of those six. He led them to a point where they were a win away, from the franchise's first stanley cup. Since then it all went downhill for them. Younger backup Cory Schneider started to play more games, although Schneider maintaned that Luongo was the starter. Now Luongo has been told he will be traded. After two President's Trophies, and a birth in the Cup Final, this is how it will end for possibly the greatest Canuck goalie of all time? Plain and simple, the fans and management are ungrateful. Many say Luongo was the reason Vancouver lost the finals to the Boston Bruins. But people don't realize that Vancouver wouldn't be in that final without him. Luongo was stellar in the Canucks victories, recording two shutouts in three games. But that is all tosed away. Luongo was asked to give the list of teams. Luongo gave the list of teams. Now, he has to wait. A disrespectful gesture from a disrespectful franchise. Unbelievable.

Future is unclear for the Blue Jackets and Rick Nash

Despite scoring 30 goals, things were not good in 2011-12 for Rick Nash or the Columbus Blue Jackets. In the off season they aquired James Wisniewski from Montreal and Jeff Carter from Philadelphia. Many had them in the playoffs. But Carter failed to develop chemisry with anyone and was traded to the LA Kings for okay defenseman Jack Johnson, where he is a key member of their playoff run. Antoinne Vermette was traded to Phoenix. Rumors were floating around of a possible Nash deal. But he wasn't traded and it was later discovered that he asked for a trade. The Jackets finished last in the NHL with less than 60 points. It still wasn't enough to land the first overall draft pick. It is rumored a deal could take place in the entry draft in Pittsburgh. Here are some of the potential destinations. An unlikely scenario is the New York Rangers. The Rangers would have to give up Ryan Mcdonaugh or Michael Del Zotto, or even Dan Girardi, something they don`t want to do. A more likely scenario is a swap with the sharks involving Joe Pavelski. The Sharks had an extremely dissapointing season and Nash could help them a lot. A longshot would be the LA Kings. The Kings were active in trying to get Nash at the deadline but ultimately settled on Jeff Carter. Although it appears to have worked out for them. Plus with big contracts to Carter and Mike Richards, I really don`t see this happening. Another option is the Nashville Predators. It would certainly help keep Shea Weber and Ryan Suter in Nashville. No names have popped up but I feel that Martin Erat would have to be involved. Another option is Toronto. Nash was born in Ontario so he would be happy to play for the Leafs. This would likely result in Toronto breaking up the duo of Joffrey Lupul and Phil Kessel. But it would be worth it. Another option is Montreal. Remember, the Habs have the number three overall pick in the draft this year. Columbus has the number two pick. I think Columbus would like the idea of back to back top five picks. It would help them build towards a likely Nash-less future. Speculation says it`s either the pick or Tomas Plekanec. The last one is the Canucks. Roberto Luongo is on the market. But the Jackets are not on his list. It`s a longshot but the deal could include Cory Schneider while the Canucks keep Luongo. But that is highly unlikely. No matter what happens, it should be an interesting draft day for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Wayne Gretzky should coach Oilers

Think about it. The greatest Oiler of all time, coaching a prospect loaded team with a bright future ahead. Wayne Gretzky's time with the Oilers ended in one of the most bizarre trades in sports history. The Oilers sent him to the Kings for cash. The Oilers fans still haven't forgiven him for that and with good reason. If you don't believe me go play an Oiler trivia game and see how many accomplishment answers are Wayne Gretzky. Many Oiler fans would be delighted at the thought of Wayne Gretzky coaching. Some say after his Phoenix debacle that he would be a lousy coach. But the Coyotes had a horrible roster, the team was broke, and they were on the verge of relocating. Imagine the wonders having Wayne around would do for guys like Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. Scary.

Russia wins gold at IIHF World Hockey Champioinship, Czech Republic claims bronze

Russia took the gold medal at the 2012 IIHF World Hockey Championship. They won 6-2 over the slovaks. Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin was named tournament MVP. Russia had goals by Alexander Semin [Semin actually had two], Alexander perezhogen, Evgeni Malkin, Alexei Tereshshenko, and Pavel Datsyuk. Both Slovakian goals were by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara. The czech republic claimed Bronze with a 3-2 win over Finland. The czech's claimed it off goals from Petr Prucha, Jiri Novotny, and David Krejci. Finland recieved goals from Jussi Jokkinen, and Mika Pyorala. Russia went undefeated throughout the Tournament.

Alexander Ovechkin: Still a superstar

Many have criticized Alexander Ovechkin in the past 2 years. But most of it is unfair.With him and the caps finishing seventh in the east. Many have written him off. But the reality is that ovechkin is the least of the Capitals problems. The problem is the other caps have become absolute duds. Remember Nicklas Backstrom. He had 14 goals in 2011-12. What about alexander Semin. The ''superstar'' that the Caps plan on letting go during Free agency. 21 goals. What about prized free agent signing Joel Ward, 6 goals. There has also been some bad luck. Such as defenseman Mike Green missing most of the season with injury. Or is it that big contract given to backup Tomas Vokoun? Their is two things that has caused the Caps downfall. One is that Ted Leonsis is a complete moron. If you don't believe me, go to NBA.com and look at how the Leonsis owned Washington Wizards did in 2011-12. Number two you have to look back at the 2009-10 NHL season. The capitals behind 50 goals from Ovechkin and high scoring from Semin, Backstrom and Green, won the presidents trophy. The Caps headed into the playoffs as the number one seed and perennial cup favourite. In the first round they played the eight seeded Montreal Canadiens. Most had the capitals making easy work of the habs. I mean, who did they have. Mike Cammalleri? Brian Gionta? Andrei Markov? And who was their goalie? Some guy named Jaroslav Halak? The caps jumped out to a 3-1 series lead. But behind spectacular play by Cammalleri and Halak, the Habs forced a game seven. The Habs would dominate the capitals in game seven, winning 4-2. As we know the habs made it to the conference final that year, only to bow out at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers. My point being that the Caps failures are not the fault of Ovechkin. Nobody took the loss to Montreal harder than Ovechkin who had his worst season ever in 2010-11. But unlike his ''superstar'' teammates. Ovechkin came back in 2011-12 with something to prove. He did, scoring close to 40 goals. With Semin likely out of the picture, it will be interseting to see what the caps do this offseason. But with a committed Ovechkin and Green, expect a back to form Caps this upcoming 2012-13 NHL season.

Canada shows their not alone with poor performance at world championship.

One would figure with all these upsets going on in the NHL playoffs canada would have a fairly good team in the IIHF world hockey championship. On paper they do look very good. With names like Tavares Getzlaf, Perry, and Keith, and Cam Ward in goal, one would figure they would at least be in the semi finals. But no. Bounced by the rival russians in the quarter final. We need to face facts that Canada does not produce the majority of stars anymore. Yes we do have sidney crosby, the best player in the world, but russia has a close second in Alexander Ovechkin. Plus players like the Swedish sedins and the Russian Pavel datsyuk  Carey Price is the best goalie in the world. But he is about the only star canadian goalie. There is also american's Jimmy howard and Ryan miller, swedish goalie Henrik lundqvist. The swiss Jonas hiller. Tim Thomas is also American. We are not alone anymore. I find that people still have a hard time coming to grips with that. I thought this was well established after russia gave canada a run for it's money in the 1972 summit series. But all the people I know and talk to seem to think that every time we lose it's a fluke. That we are the only talent and that everyone who isn't canadien is a bad hockey player. It's really quite sad. Not to mention Russia blowing us out for the majority of the thrilling world junior semi-fnal. I hope we can soon come to grips with the fact that we are not alone atop the hockey world. Don't get me wrong, we are still among the best. What I am pointing out is that the key word there is among. Other countries like sweden and russia and even switzerland and the czech republic are their too. We are a nation that needs to come to grips with that.