Not Hockey Related Whatsoever

My daughter is the troublemaker in the green hat. Sometimes it's best to remember what's really important - like your family and their happiness. These might be the dog days of summer for hockey, but for anyone with a family - especially young children - they should be the best days of your life. Hope everyone is having a great summer.

How Many Sutters Can a Sutter Brother Hire if a Sutter Brother Could Hire Sutters?

So Darryl Sutter just made it official yesterday and hired his brother Brent to coach the Calgary Flames - apparently, Brent is a better coach than Darryl, but the elder brother remains in the top four worldwide.

Let's take a look at the Sutters now employed in the Flames organiztion:

Darryl Sutter - GM









Brent Sutter - Head Coach


Duane Sutter - Director of Player Personell


Ron Sutter - Pro Scout


Brett Sutter - Minor League Player


Juan Sutter (pronounced Huh-wan) - Team Massuese


Juanita Sutter - Team "Massuese" (happy endings specialist)


Jimbo Sutter - Concession Condiment Replenishment Specialist


Billy and Bobby Sutter - Sutter Farm Liasons

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Burke

So, Brian Burke has weighed in on the Dany Heatly trade request - he doesn't like it.

From TSN:

In a phone interview with Deb Placey and Billy Jaffe on NHL Live! broadcast on the NHL network, Burke stated that the Leafs had no interest in the two-time 50 goal scorer, largely because of the way he has chosen to handle his trade request.

"We're not going to be in on that," Burke stated. "He's a good player but I have certain guidelines on how players ask for trades."

While Burke stated that he has no problem with players requesting a trade, he was unhappy with Heatley's decision to go public with his request, thus making Senators' general manager Bryan Murray's chances of moving the sniper extremely difficult.

"For a player to pop off and say he wants out or leak it (to the media), in my mind you are now no longer interested in your team. If you've done that you've handicapped them, you've handcuffed your GM."

Chis Pronger was not available for comment.

Missed the Hall of Fame by "That Much"

This is Chris Osgood losing his net on Maxime Talbot seconds before the Penguins Cup winning goal was scored on Friday night. He's overplaying Talbot to the stick side based on scouting reports that Talbot likes to shoot high over the blocker. He just overplayed the overplay - and Talbot has a clear view of about 12 square feet of net. Now if the shot was going blocker side, even2 or 3 feet wide of the blocker side, Osgood is making that stop:o) But Talbot, even though Malkin thinks "His hands not so good", ain't no beer leaguer - he see's that much net - he's hitting it - preference to the other side or not. So Osgood, for that split second, loses his net, loses the cup, and quite possibly, loses the Hall of Fame.

For the record, I think Osgood is deserving of a Hall nod. He is the most under-rated goalie of his generation. Sure, the guy has played on some great teams in Detroit, but he's also played a few seasons on some not so great New York Islanders and St. Louis teams. Osgood has now played 16 NHL seasons and has never, never, had a losing record. He had 23 wins and 8 losses in his rookie year, unfortunately for him, Brodeur had 27 wins (and 11 losses) and won the Calder (I believe Jason Arnott was 2nd in rookie voting that year, Osgood 3rd....but i can't find that info anywhere). In 1996, he finished with an incredible record of 39w, 6L, 5T and was robbed of the Vezina Trophy by the Net Detective Jim Carrey's 35W, 24L, 9T record. He's got three Stanley Cups, 2 as a starter. He's one of only 2 goalies to win Cups as the starter 10 years apart - Terry Sawchuck is the other. He's 4th in career playoff wins, 10th in the regular season. Of course stats alone don't neceessarily translate into the Hall of Fame. I'm not even sure what the standards for goalies are? Look at Harry Lumley and Eddie Giacomin's stats and wonder what got them there. Esposito is in the Hall with 400+ wins and no Cups - does that mean Ed Belfour(1 cup - thanks Bruce) and Curtis Joseph (zero) should be as well? Who knows? There's not a ton of Goalies in the Hall so I guess you really have to be a standout to be elected. And there's a few goalies in recent history with similar stats to Osgood that aren't in the Hall. Tom Barasso and Mike Vernon both had stellar careers and similar wins totals to Osgoods current 389. Both have 2 Cups. But both have about 60 more losses on their records than Osgood. Andy Moog and Martin Brodeur* are the only 2 other goalies I can think of that have 3 cups and aren't in the Hall of Fame (*yet). But Andy Moogs Cups (save for the first one) came largely from the bench - even in 1984, he only got into 7 games. Moogs regular season totals are very similar to Osgood's - the only thing that seperates them are those 2 Cups Osgood won as a starter. There are no goalies that have won 4 or more Cups that aren't in the Hall. So if Osgood makes that save on Talbot, if he doesn't step one foot too far to the right, and the Wings come back to win that game - does that make Chris Osgood a Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender? If not, why not? Because he played for the powerhouse Wings? Well, Chris Osgood took over for Bob Essensa when he faltered in Detroit. He did the same thing in the playoffs some 15 years later when Domic Hasek couldn't carry the load for the talented Wings. In between, Curtis Joseph couldn't get it done for Detroit in the playoffs. Billy Smith is a HOFer - did he not have the luxury of playing for a powerhouse team? He's got some stinker years on his resume too - Osgood doesn't. How about my all time favorite player Grant Fuhr? Any doubt his wins weren't bouyed a little by playing for the 80's Oilers? Ken Drydens teams weren't half bad either. Patrick Roy? Not a lot of teams out there that had the talent level of Sakic, Forsberg and company. Take a look at every goaltending stat and Osgood lands in the discussion in every one. The Hall of Fame should be part of that discussion as well.

Great Moments in Marketing

From "SavetheCoyotes.com",





Gotta love the empty arena in the background....Genius!

Mom.....What's a First Line Centre?

Is it a guy who scores 53 points and outscores the oppositions best by 10 goals, or is it a guy who scores 85 points but gives up more than he gets (save for pretty goals and pretty girls?)

I'm confused.

Probability Taken Personally

There is a theory in the blogospehere that pucks hitting goalposts are just unlucky. Everything in the game of hockey can be explained by mathematics and statistical analysis, but goalposts, well they're just the hockey gods spittin' in your eye. Some of the arguments for this theory can be found here and here. I don't buy it. Basically, what I understand from these articles, is that teams success or lack thereof correlates well to the number of posts the team hits. Those teams that hit a tonne of posts are unlucky - you can expect them to turn things around. Those that have a lot of posts hit behind they're goalie - well, don't bet the farm on them. It's a ridiculous argument and some of the sharpest writers on the net subscribe to it wholeheartedly. L. Ron Hubbard must be involved somehow. Can you take one element of the game and contribute it to luck? Yet ignore that every goal for or against in every game would not be suject to luck as well? How many goals are scored on tipped shots? How many go in off defenders sticks or skates? Might there be a few that don't really end up where the shooter was intending? They count anyway right? Has a goalie ever had a shot hit him that he didn't see? Has a linesman ever gotten involved in a play? Take 1000 darts and throw them at triple 20. Are the ones that bounce off the wire the only shots where luck was invloved? How about 1000 three foot puts? The ones that miss the hole are misses, but the ones that rim out are bad luck? Or could it be that rimming out means you missed the cup by hair wider than the radius of the ball? A hair you say....wow, that's some shitty luck.
There's a very good reason why posts aren't counted as shots on goal - they missed the net. There is litterally a hair width difference between a puck nicking the post or going wide. That same hair could mean the difference between the puck hitting the post and going in, or hitting both posts and staying out. How does one have more impact on a game than the other?
The NHL records goalposts in it's game logs and that has allowed data to be mined out and tabulated. I think it's unfortunate. I'd like to see how many teams miss the net by millimeters. Is there a significant difference in the amount of luck involved relative to the shot that hits the post? How about lucky goals? Has a team ever hit the post and scored a lucky goal in the same game, and do they negate each other?
Anyone see Chuck Kobasew's goal against Cam Ward last night? Patrice Bergeron's pass missed the defenders skate by an inch, Kobasew flubbed what looked like an attempt to tip the puck over Ward, the puck hit the heel of his stick and slid in along the ice nicking the post on the way in.....goal - no luck accounted for. That puck hits the post and all of a sudden, there's a luck event, let's tabulate it. Ridiculous.