Central Scouting has finalized their rankings for 2012.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Mikhail Grigorenko is no longer in the top 2 for North American skaters. Ryan Murray slots in at #2. Also possibly surprising is that Alex Galchenyuk is hanging in at #4 for North American skaters. This is a kid that I really, really like. I’ve seen some of his work, and he is an incredible player that could possibly disappear off radars because he missed nearly the whole year due to injury. The thing I like about him is he has a hell of a shot, but also is a physical player. He also plays center too. So really, this is the power forward up the middle that we might have been looking for.

I think many Oilers fans will be licking their chops at the idea of drafting Ryan Murray. Myself, I just don’t know. It sounds like he’s pretty good, but I also think it will take time before he’s really good enough to make a difference here. I could be way off base with my thoughts though.

Anyways, here are the rankings: Continue reading '2012 CSS Final Draft Rankings'»

This one went out with a big fart noise for the Oilers, but Steve Stamkos netted his 60th last night, so it ended on a high note for him. He received several cheers, despite being in front of the Winnipeg home crowd (classy). That’s a pretty amazing feat, to say the least.

Your playoff matches are set, and here they are:

Eastern Conference

New York Rangers (1) vs. Ottawa Senators (8)
Boston Bruins (2) vs. Washington Capitals (7)
Florida Panthers (3) vs. New Jersey Devils (6)
Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (5)

Western Conference

Vancouver Canucks (1) vs. Los Angeles Kings (8)
St. Louis Blues (2) vs. San Jose Sharks (7)
Phoenix Coyotes (3) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (6)
Nashville Predators (4) vs. Detroit Red Wings (5)

The draft lotto goes on Tuesday, April 10th at 6:00PM MST.

Here are the odds for winning the lottery: Continue reading 'NHL 2011-12 Regular season… in the books.'»

Well, at least it was a Calgary Flames fan that did this.

These guys don’t even know bad. Try watching some of the hockey we’ve watched here for several years up until quite recently.

Credit to Vygur on the Forum for pointing this out there.

Duncan Keith elbows Daniel Sedin in the chops. I won’t lie, I take a bit of sick pleasure in that.. but it will definitely result in a Shanabanning.

Also, Shane Doan got 3 games for this Elbow on Jamie Benn

That sets a bit of precedence for this Keith elbow.

In response to a topic on the forum, I figured I’d write up a long repost that is both a defense of Tom Gilbert, as well as support of Nick Schultz. I personally think the trade is a bit of a wash. But this is a 10-game in review of Tom Gilbert and Nick Schultz with their respective teams… mostly by the numbers.

So first off a disclaimer: I’m not a big “stats guy”. So I definitely take any numbers with a grain of salt, but I do use them from time to time.. this will be one of those times. Oh, also… while their is some “fact” in the form of statistics in here, like any of my posts there is a lot of opinion.

Anyways, Gilbert’s offensive numbers in Minnesota have been.. well, offensive. But I think his other numbers have been good. They are working this horse pretty hard there too. At least as much as we did here, at his most used times.

He’s averaged 24:39 per game in Minny (with even 31.5 minutes in one game!). Part of that, he’s gotten decent PP time, for sure, and should be making better use of that. However, he’s also eaten up a lot of PK time too (he even had as much as 6 minutes in one game). He’s averaged 2 minutes and 4 seconds per game on the PK (although it looks like he’s either put in a lot of PK minutes a game, or hardly any if any).

Of the 36 goals the Wild have allowed since acquiring Gilbert, he’s been on the ice for 11 of them, including 1 empty netter. That’s a little over 30% of the Continue reading 'Gilbert vs. Schultz, 10 games in…'»