On Nationalism In The NHL.

Aside from the 14 goals scored, the 12 fighting majors and 182 penalty minutes served in the recent Habs-Bruins gong show there was one moment that really stuck-out to me.

In the heat of all the fighting and goal scoring, Bruins fans rallied a "USA, USA," chant.

After some close research there are 15 Canadians and just three Americans playing for the Boston Bruins this year. The Bruins top points leader is a Canadian (Patrice Bergeron of Quebec) and their captain Zdeno Chara is Slovakian.

There are six Americans playing for the Habs including captain Brian Gionta.

I'm not sure if the Bruins fans realise these statistics but perhaps after reading this blog they might think twice about their proud nationalism.

There's more to this specific history between these two teams though.

Going back to the NHL play-offs in 2004 the Montreal Canadiens' fans "boo-ed" the American national anthem at the Bell Centre and the Boston fans replied at the TD Garden with cheers during the Canadian anthem. Don Cherry of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada had this to say...



What happened to the "class?"

Or perhaps it isn't about class in this case at all, I would argue it's a case of ignorance.

Come on Bruins' fans, open your eyes and look closer at your roster before you disrespect your fellow countrymen!

There was another separate case in TD Garden earlier this year in a regular season game between the Bruins and the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.



A little background on the situation. Phil Kessel (former Bruin) was traded to the Leafs for two first-round draft picks in 2011 and 2012. The Bruins ended up getting the 2nd over-all pick in 2011 and drafted highly-touted, Tyler Seguin.

Kessel scored 36 goals for the Bruins in 2009 before his trade to Leafs Land (he was the odd man out after the Bruins' GM had to sign other quality players to contracts) and recorded 60 points in that same year.

I fail to see how Kessel's name should be in this particular chant. He played remarkably well for the team, why disrespect him? Should it not have been "Thank-you Burke"? (Brain Burke, Leafs GM) What did Kessel have to do with being the odd man out or being traded for two first-round picks?

Call me biased, but after chants like these two examples, I have to wonder what type of beer these fans are drinking to make them come-up with these thoughtless chants.

I think Mike Komisarek says it best in this video.



Unfortunately I could not edit the last sentence in the video.

On Peter Forsberg.

Barring a brief work visa issue, Peter Forsberg of Sweden will be back for another round with the Colorado Avalanche to give his NHL career one last legitimate shot.

For US$1 million, the Avalanche can't really go wrong with this play-off push acquisition. The 37-year-old will bring a new buzz to the Colorado fan-base and if he can finish the regular season healthy and if there is a post-season for the Avalanche then who wouldn't want Foppa's services?

According to nhl.com Forsberg has 171 points in 151 play-off appearances and has a plus-54 rating- not to mention he also owns two Stanley Cup rings and is also a former recipient of both of the prestigious Art Ross and Hart trophies.

This is all sounds like the signing was a no-brainer for Colorado but the down-side is that Forsberg has been in-and-out of the NHL because of injuries to his feet, ankles and groin.

I don't blame Foppa for giving it one last shot and I commend him for playing for a meager $1 million (sad as that makes me to write out) but I have strong intuitions that his come-back will be short-lived once more.

Players often force themselves to believe their injuries are gone when in reality they are in no position to play at 100 percent.

I truly believe Forsberg is eying this opportunity with his glass half-full but as I said before, I don't blame him. The Avalanche is his go-to team, the people of Colorado love him there and the Avalanche are within reach of the eighth play-off spot.

I will put a positive spin on his return though in thinking that he may be able to find some chemistry with struggling teammate, Chris Stewart.

Stewart has been lacking since returning from his own injury and perhaps being put on a line with Forsberg may re-ignite the brilliant start to the season that Stewart had for the Avalanche.

I hope Forsberg's return on Wednesday in Minnesota (assuming his work visa is in order) ends well but if my intuitions are accurate then a million dollars will just be an after-thought next year for Colorado.

On 15-Year Contracts in the NHL.

I read a headline on nhl.com today and immediately rolled my eyes.

"DiPietro Out 4-6 Weeks."

A little history on Rick DiPietro- an injury plagued New York Islanders goaltender.

Back in September 2006, DiPietro signed an eye-opening NHL contract with the Islanders worth 67.5 million dollars and more notably the contract length: 15-years.

He earns 4.5 million each year until 2021, but those figures are not the real reason my eyes roll every time I see his name in the headlines.

My eyes roll to the back of my skull because of the amount of injury time lost since he signed this outrageous contract with the Islanders.

Of the six years DiPietro has played since signing the monster deal with the Islanders the Winthrop, Mich. native has played just 163 games.

The average No.1 goaltender will play about 60-70 games per season so let's do the math.

Six seasons times 65 games (Average amount of NHL games a No.1 goalie should play) is 390 games.

390 games subtracted from 163 games (DiPietro's total games played) is 227 games.

He has missed an insurmountable number of games due to injuries but who is to blame for the unearned salary cap hit each season?

The Islanders GM Garth Snow, that's who.

Snow offered a goalie who had a respectable 30 wins but a meager 3.02 GAA in the previous season- 15 years... quite the brain scratcher.

I don't want to harp and pick on DiPietro but when a player is earning disgusting amounts of money each year for a decade and a half to rehab and cheer-lead a team that continues to dwell in the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and loses revenue each year because the fans are giving up on the team... it annoys me.

Let's just hope the ridiculous unearned contracts of the DiPietro's and the Kovalchuk's of the league become just a black mark in NHL history and not a trend in the future.

On Groundhogs.

So Wiarton Willie tells us we will have an early spring in 2011 but the weather outside tells me differently.

Punxsutawney Phil with official groundhog handlers.

Sure we aren't having the "Snowmaggedon" the weatherman predicted for most parts of Ontario but it's still blistering outside today and I, for one, hope the little fur-ball's prediction is right.

According to a study by the gaurdian.co.uk the groundhog has been wrong a lot more then he has been right.

The study took the majority of the predictions from all of the weather predicting groundhogs and then "calculated the mean average snowfall for a February in North America using data from the last 10 years, then we subtracted this average from the snow-cover for the particular year," the gaurdian article says. "This gives us an indication of the severity of the winter for that year relative to the other years. The conclusion of our little study is that the groundhogs have only predicted the length of winter correctly three times in the last 10 years."

Check out the full study here.