SB Nation User Blog: article1

Your Star Wars joke here

article1 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:36:15 -0000

Your Star Wars joke here

The Marlies in Scotland: Marlies 1-3 Diet Habs

article1 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:08:33 -0000

Editor's Note: Our dapper Scottish correspondent article1 graces us with his final update on the Ice Hockey's Homecoming Tournament game. A special thanks to him for keeping us aprised of the baby Leafs travails overseas.

In between watching YouTube clips of that save, I found time to head down to Murrayfield and take in the last game of the Marlies trip across the pond. Unfortunately, they were beaten pretty comfortably by the Hamilton Bulldogs.

I like Reimer's mask. I hoped it was a Marlies version of The Monster's, but the other side is a mirror image of this. Reimer did pretty well, considering. He couldn't really do much about the goals he gave up and wasn't given the best support by the guys in front of him.

The goal the Marlies scored came after Giliati won the puck and fed Dale Mitchell who fired a shot from the hashmarks that went 5-hole to make it 2-1. The Marlies best line tonight was Mitchell - Stefano Giliati - Mikhail Stefanovich. They showed a bit of jump, some speed and flashes of ability.

And Giliati's a truculent little bastard.

Giliati got tripped on a faceoff and responded by punching this guy in the face. They took offsetting penalties and then had a fight as soon as they stepped back on the ice. Somewhere, someplace, Brian Burke smiled.

The story of this game were the penalties. Phil Oreskovic, Mitchell and Alex Berry all took offsetting roughing penalties within the first ten minutes. That was pugnacious, truculent and cool. It got worse after that.

Trailing 1-0 in the first, Juraj Mikus took a weird boarding penalty. I say weird because the other guy didn't go into the boards on the hit. Part-way through that penalty, Robert Slaney high-sticked someone and took a double minor. At the start of the second - with 1.30 left on Slaney's second penalty - Oreskovic was whistled for cross-checking. The Bulldogs scored with 1 second left on the 5-on-3. All in all, the Marlies spent about six-and-a-half minutes short-handed.

Toronto also didn't see any power-play time after mid-way through the fist. They had a minute of 5-on-3 and did nothing with it. Over three minutes of PP time without registering a shot. And then took lots of penalties. Disappointing.

MOAR TRUCULENSE, PLZ. KTHXBAI.

See. I said Oreskovic suits the hobo beard.

Slaney didn't show anything this weekend in the offensive zone despite playing on what I assume was the top line. He seems solid defensively, though. Played well on the PK. Just as well, really.

Remember these faces - half of them are going to be injury call-ups on Friday morning.

The Marlies in Scotland: Marlies 6-1 Locals

article1 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:29:19 -0000

Editor's Note: Our sauntering Scottish correspondent article1 returns with more pictures and a recap of the Toronto Marlies encounter with the Edinburgh Capitals.

I think this is what most people expected. The Marlies were obviously a better team from the moment they stepped on the ice for the warm-up. Both the Marlies and the Bulldogs were clearly bigger, stronger and better skaters than the two British teams they played against this afternoon. The Diet Habs won 7-0 against the Belfast Giants, meaning they'll be playing the Marlies again tomorrow after they put 6 past the Edinburgh Capitals.

So while the game may have been nothing more than a run-out for them. There are some things that do need work. The Marlies power play has been poor through two games. They went 0-4 on Thursday night and 0-lots today. The Marlies drew penalities regularly throughout the game - the players were so much stronger and faster than the Capitals that eventually the Capitals players would commit hooking and holding penalties just to keep them back. The trouble is, the power-play doesn't really get pucks on net. It spends too much time trying to walk in on goal instead of trying to set up a one-timer from the point. They failed to score 5-on-3, too. Just like the big club does.

Ben Ondrus continued to wear the 'C', nobody has an 'A' on their jersey. Phil Oreskovic - who I'd have thought would be wearing an 'A' - is a man far larger than I had imagined. He's also grown his hair out and is rocking a hobo beard. I have to say it's not a bad look for him at all. Far from it.

Mikhail Stefanovich continues to play poorly. He seemed to get a bit more into it in the third, wristed a shot off the post and had another decent-ish chance. He looks frustrated - he banged his stick off the boards at the end of one shift. I could see him going back to junior as an overager.

Erickson started in net. Looked alright. The Capitals were able to get some decent chances against him - a couple of breakways, one of which Simon Lambert scored from. It wasn't a great shot, but squeezed between his arm and body. I'm pretty sure he's the spare wheel. Reimer will stay with them and platoon with whoever's sent down.

Andre Deveaux is another gentleman of considerable height and weight. He also had a goal and 2 assists, which is probably the best line of his professional career. To commemorate the event, here's your souvenir Marlies goal summary:

1. Alex Berry from Oreskovic. Slap shot from the point that was deflected over the goalie's shoulder.

2. Deveaux from Ryan Hamilton and Oreskovic. Brutal line change from the Capitals. Oreskovic snapped a long pass to Hamilton on the Capitals blue line, springing a 2-on-0 break. Deveaux has the easiest goal in the history of hockey.

3. Ondrus from Hamilton. An Edinburgh turnover at the blue line, Hamilton played Ondrus in who lifted a nice wrist shot top shelf from just above the hash marks.

4. Alex Foster from Deveaux and Hamilton. 3-on-1 break. Some nice one-touch passing gave Foster a tap-in while the sole Capitals defenceman got lost in the headlights.

5. Foster from Deveaux and Joe Ryan. Drop pass from Deveaux (bet you never thought you'd hear that) give Foster the time and space to put his own rebound away.

6. Dale Mitchell from... Well, they gave out assists on this, but they probably shouldn't have. Mitchell picked up the puck after a face-off in the Marlies zone, blew through the neutral zone, between the defencemen and turned it into a breakaway. A mixture of superior talent, ability and the result of the Marlies rolling four lines of forwards and the Capitals three.

More bad photos tomorrow!

Milan Lucic destroys Chris Neil. Attaboy, Milan.

article1 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:47:44 -0000

Milan Lucic destroys Chris Neil. Attaboy, Milan.

The Marlies in Scotland: Marlies 0-1 Diet Habs

article1 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:29:00 -0000

Editor's Note: Our roving Scottish correspondent article1 was at the Marlies-Bulldogs game in Scotland and gives us a first-hand account of the game.

Reimer was far and away The Marlies' best player. Good awareness of where the puck was, made a couple of nice kick saves and looked solid in the butterfly. He couldn't do anything about the goal he gave up. I dunno about his ability at the NHL level, but he looked capable of doing a job at the Ricoh.

Q: Hey Mikhail! How does it feel to be in Scotland?

A: I am little nervous, actually. My father, he major in Red Army. Very important man. In charge of attack codes in event there nuclear war. He say it not good idea to be here Tuesday afternoon. I very much hope plane home not delayed.

(I may have made some of that up.)

Stefanovich looked a bit lost. Didn't impact the game at all. Obviously, there's not much positive to say about the forwards when you lose a game 1-0 where the goalie's your best player and Andre Devaux gets tons of power play time. Dale Mitchell missed an open net in the second on a nice pass, but other than that there wasn't much in the way of good goal-scoring chances for the Marlies.

I'm pretty sure the squad was just numbered 1-35. There wasn't a number higher than Reimer's 34 out there.

We have Zambonis in Scotland. They just don't work properly. So hockey players end up milling around with the locals while water gets swept off the ice.

How do you say 'You should have kept your head up, you idiot' in French?

The Marlies spent the last 2 minutes on the power play - a full minute of which was 6-on-4 and got absolutely nothing going. They probably could have had this many players on the ice for all the difference it would have made.

I thought they were a bit slow in taking Reimer off, which seemed in keeping with the conservative coaching all night. They kept the same line combinations all night, there wasn't a specialised power play unit and the team as a whole took long shifts. It might be jsut cos it's their first game as a single squad, but it seemed odd to me, considering how difficult they found it to generate offence. Their best shots came from the blue line, they got hammered on faceoffs - which led to us being badly outshot - and there were a few bad turnovers at the Toronto blue line. One of which led to a period of sustained pressure capped with the goal.

Phil Oreskovic didn't play and Ben Ondrus wore the 'C'.

This is about as close as we got to an outbreak of truculence. Anytime it looked like something was in danger of threatening to maybe start, the linesmen stepped in and stopped it escalating into being interesting. It got rather tedious.

I have no photos of the Bulldogs because, frankly, who cares? I'm led to believe that they're affiliated to the Canadiens, but the only people that I know have played for them are Mikhail Grabovski and Mike Komisarek. So I choose to believe that they're either a lost part of the Leafs organisation; or they used to be the Phoenix Coyotes.

Also, sorry about the blurry photos. I hope to have better on Saturday.

Francois Allaire Rocks

article1 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:05:42 -0000

Francois Allaire Rocks

"François has two basic elements to his system," said Burke, who refers to Allaire as being – simply – the best. "It’s a battery of drills that do two things: make a goalie position conscious at all times, so they never lose their net. It also incorporates a high-level of work, so your goaltenders are in shape.

"His theory is that the butterfly goalie does not make saves; he blocks shots. So your job is to get into position to present the most surface area to the shooter and let the puck hit you and then, hopefully, control the rebound."

From The Globe and Mail

Chatty Cathy - Generation Kill Edition

article1 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:05:50 -0000

Chatty Cathy - Generation Kill Edition

Chatty Cathy 15-6-09

article1 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:18:32 -0000

Chatty Cathy 15-6-09

The I'm drunk, sleepy and won't post in this thread edition

Habs Eulogy on PPP

article1 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:56:07 -0000

Habs Eulogy on PPP

I thought I'd come across the way and give Odin a big thumbs up for his genius use of photoshop.

You've made my day.

Cox Tries His Hand At The Fake Twitter Craze

article1 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:12:41 -0000

Cox Tries His Hand At The Fake Twitter Craze

Wow.

Firstly, it's just painfully unfunny. On top of that, even though he's writing it for ESPN he still gets his digs in at the Leafs.

And he doesn't even credit DGB for giving him the idea!