Sunday, February 28, 2010

Olympic Contest Winner!

With the Olympics over and done with, it's time to tally up the points to see who was the winner of the contest!

E Daniel Clark: 11 Points
Leafies: 12 Points
Skinnyfish: 13 Points
Rich: 16 Points
Sleza: 17 Points
Kessticle: 17 Points
Will: 19 Points
Shield: 23 Points
MykeNose: 23 Points
Gooner4Ever: 24 Points
Space Weed: 24 Points
Fleet Fox: 25 Points

Congrats to Fleet Fox for owning the podium!
Shoot me an email at dennis0430 at gmail dot com to claim your prize

Thankfully, no tie-breaker was needed.

What I learned from the contest
  • Joe Thornton is in true playoff form, scoring 2 points in 7 games
  • The top 2 scorers were Marian Hossa and Pavol Demitra and nobody picked them. No respect for the Slovaks!
  • The only goose-egg pick was Lidstrom who didn't register a point in 4 games
  • Niklas Hagman is the highest scoring Finn. Now you can't say he's never done anything for the Finns, sleza!
  • Remember that offensive dynamo team from Russia? They only had one player in the top 30...
  • Canadians led the way with 13 players in the top 30, followed by Slovakia with 6 then the US with 4.
  • I LOOOVE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLD!!!1

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Olympics Contest Reminder

Just a reminder that there's a week left until the Olympics so that means only a week left until the Olympics contest. Leave your entries in the comments! Here are the rules once again.
------------------------------OLYMPICS CONTEST------------------------------
Now for a new contest. With the Olympics coming up, I figured an Olympics themed one would make most sense. To keep it quick and simple, list 3 forwards and 2 defencemen playing in the Olympics. Person with the most points wins.

To avoid having Malkin, Crosby and Ovechkin as everybody's 3 forwards, they are void from the contest. Everybody else is fair game. For a tie-breaker, state who you think will lead the Olympics in points along with how many goals and assists they get. Remember to leave your name rather than anonymous along with some way I can contact you in case you win.

Winner gets this Tomas Kaberle autograph.


Monday, February 1, 2010

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Ladies and gentlemen, the Burke era is officially here. There was no holding back, he came out guns blazing. These are the type of deals that us Leafs fans have only heard of...the deals we were expecting last trade deadline and this past draft. While we came away disappointed on both those occasions, he really made our heads turn with this one.

Like everybody else, I was completely caught off guard by the news of these deals. I stayed up until the morning watching Federer do his thing so I was still in bed when the trades went down. It was around 11:30. I feel a slight vibration (get your mind out of the gutter, you perv) and my eyes slowly opened. I just got a text message from my buddy and it read "Brian Burke is a genius!" I sprung out of bed and turned on my computer. Twitter was blowing up with activity. Who did we get? Who is gone? A day later and I can finally wrap my head around this. Sure, there's a lot of good in these two deals but like with most things, there's some bad and some ugly too.

The Good
  • Elisha Cuthbert - One of the key components to this trade. The one edge Ottawa has had on us was the celebrity girlfriend factor. This pretty much gives us the upper hand in the battle of Ontario.
  • Getting a competent goalie - Our biggest weakness this season has been our goaltending by far. With Giguere, we get a goalie that has taken his team to the Stanley Cup finals twice and came away with some hardware both times...even when he lost the series! Giguere's performance in the 2003 playoffs was one of the most clutch performances I have ever seen by a goalie. While it would be delusional to expect that same goaltender from the past, he is still miles above Toskala and at this very moment, probably a better choice than The Monster too.
  • The Kids Get to Play! - We lost a goalie (if you can call him that), a defenceman and four forwards. In return we got back a goalie, a defenceman and only one forward. That opens up three forwards spots! Come on down, Hanson and Stalberg!...unfortunately Wallin will probably be filling in that last spot.

  • Draft Schmaft - We essentially gave up two first round picks for Kessel and Phaneuf. Two players with star potential under the age of 25? I don't think too many GMs would shake their head at that

  • #1 Centre - We are giving Matt Stajan the chance to flourish into a #1 centre that we all knew he would someday be...with Calgary! /snickers

  • WE GOT SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR JASON BLAKE AND VESA TOSKALA!!! I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME
The Bad
  • Moustachulence - Losing this epic moustache

  • High Risk - At $6.5M per season, Phaneuf is definitely a big risk. I know we all have our fingers crossed that he will not be the second coming of Bryan McCabe. Here's hoping that a change of scenery is what he needs to go back to his Norris candidate form.

  • More Defence? - With almost $23M invested in our d (not including Finger's terrible contract), it will be an embarrassment if we don't improve next season. The top four of Kaberle, Phaneuf, Beauchemin and Komisarek does make me giddy...but of course I said the same thing earlier this season but with Schenn instead of Phaneuf.

  • Hope - Okay, this is normally a good thing but not when you thought everybody else was giving up on this team and you wanted to get good tickets for cheap! With this new found hope, fans will be filling the seats to see Phaneuf in action. Thanks, Burke!
  • Piritta Hannula -Or Niklas Hagman's wife as you probably know her. Sure, we get Elisha Cuthbert but I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan of Hagman's wife. Especially since she's not tainted by Sean Avery. Oh, Piritta. You will be missed.
The Ugly

DION PHANEUF
DA DAAAAAAA DA-DA-DA
DION PHANEUF
DA DA-DA DA

There is no denying that Dion Phaneuf is one of the ugliest human beings on this planet

One of these things do not belong in this picture
Motivation for ugly dudes. Get good in hockey. This is what $6.5M a year can nab you


The Muskoka Fiveheads
Dion's forehead compared with four other notoriously gargantuan foreheads.
Only Christina Ricci has him beat!


Inspired by words from our very own WAC
"He looks two steps behind on an evolution chart."
Looks like she nailed it