Sidney Crosby Channels Gordie Howe

Sidney Crosby hit another milestone in his young yet illustrious career as he scored his first Gordie How hat trick.

In the Pens 5-4 victory over the Bruins tonight, Sid the Kid dropped the mitts with Andrew Ference and looked good while doing so.

He immediately knocked off the helmet and tried to jersey him. Of course with the fight straps that didn't work so well so he decided to let 'em fly. He got in about 3 good shots that I could spot before Ference wrestled him down. Ference walked away with blood coming from his skull and Crosby looked no worse for wear.

But hey, he's from Canada and all Canadians know how to fight on skates, eh.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth

The Calgary Sun has an excellent article up where they polled NHL players on various questions such as "Who is the smartest player?" and "Who is the most overrated?"

It's well worth the read. Of course for myself as an Avalanche fan I got particular joy out of Sakic being #2 on the smartest list and Phaneuf being #3 on the overrated list.

Sure, Bertuzzi was #1 but did we really need a poll for that?

Glenn Healy Mocks Kari Lehtonen Ad Nauseam

So I get home after a long day of work and notice that the Leafs are playing the Thrashers on TSN. I enjoy watching the Leafs get beat as much as anybody so I figured I'd tune in and hope for the best. Unfortunately it was already 2-0 for the Leafs at that point but hey, it's Friday and I'm tired so I'll keep watching.

The third period starts and I hear Glenn Healy call Kari Lehtonen "Kari Let-it-in". And I think "Ok, I guess he gave up a stinker." Well, when they finally showed the replays it turns out he has let in 2 stinkers.

One was a giveaway behind the net and the other was a shot from nearly below the goal line. Clearly goals you don't want to give up in a game. And remember, I'm an Avalanche fan so I feel their pain.

During the replays, Healy again referred to Lehtonen as "Let-it-in" where he clearly enunciates each separate word to ensure you know he's making a joke. A lame, juvenile joke.

At the end of the replays though, Healy shows a clip where Ilya Kovalchuk tosses his hands up in frustration at the second softie. He then proceeds to berate Kovalchuk for not giving his goaltender a break because it's not like Kovalchuk has never made a mistake.

Talk about jumping from foot-to-foot to suit your needs, you grandiose ass. Now anyone who watches TSN knows that Healy is a vehement defender of goaltenders in any situation. And if anyone knows about goaltenders making mistakes, it's got to be Healy.

Which makes it all the more baffling that he'll continuously call a goaltender by a childish, demeaning nickname live and on the air. Does TSN not have better standards than this? I thought the "real media" was above cat-calls and juvenile mocking.

Oh, and Toronto just scored twice to make it 4-0. I'm changing channels.

Flyers Deal Timonen to Stars

A tricky headline by the folks over at TSN nearly had me eating my own words. Just as I was thinking about how few trades there were going to be this year based on who the rumoured targets are, I saw the headline on TSN:
Flyers Trade D Timonen to Dallas

It was the fourth article meaning it was relegated to the right side as just a headling with no blurb. And for a Timonen trade, that seemed a bit odd. Sure, it didn't involve any Canadian teams but a deal like this should be more important than the Leafs being ready for a game, right?

And on a sidenote, when has a team ever said "Damn man, we're not ready for this team at all. Stake the farm against us, we're gonna lose."??

Anyways, in this case, it was Jussi Timonen who was a fifth round pick by the Flyers in 2001. So on finding that out, I think it can fall even farther down the TSN article list. But kudos to them for drawing more page views by not giving away that it wasn't Kimmo Timonen.