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“Quiet Ice is a phrase used to characterize a sliver of playing surface goal-scorers love to find because it’s unguarded by opposing players and can be used to rip off a good, quick shot. It is not, as some had understandably assumed, a reference to any place where Sean Avery isn’t.” (Source, the Hockey News) from the Quiet Ice . . . I hear a lot of player assessments — negative and positive — that frankly baffle me. Now, I know I have a memory more sieve-like than most, but sometimes it seems our hockey media “experts” are worse off than I. The Oversung TheyRead More →

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Prepare yourself: There will be no mention of Erik Karlsson beyond this point. There are concerns in Teal Town and with good reason — some higher on the national radar and some that have escaped notice. First, the high-profile issues. Martin Jones Jones’ best season with the Sharks thus far was his first. His playoff performance this past season was unremarkable and his preseason was sieve-like, although the team as a whole was out of sync. I have to imagine he set a record by giving up 4 short-handed goals to the same team during a preseason, in two separate games against the Knights — threeRead More →

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Because the Hart Trophy only has three spots available, competition is pretty fierce. As a result, only Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Sergei Bobrovsky got the nod this year. Across the league, there are plenty of names that could have been featured. Today we are looking at players from the Pacific division who deserve to be their team’s Hart Trophy nominee. Make sure to check out Mike Laybourne’s picks for Atlantic Hart Trophy Nominees as well. Anaheim Ducks: Ryan Getzlaf Embed from Getty Images Where would the Ducks be without their leader? Getzlaf once again was the glue that held the franchise together. While he was behindRead More →

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Since the 2004-5 lockout the James Norris Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s best defenseman, has been won 6 different players. These players are Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson, Duncan Keith, P.K. Subban, Nicklas Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara. Of these winners, every single player made the playoffs the year that they won. For all but three years the winner was in the top 2 in points for defenseman. The exceptions are Doughty was 10th in 2015-16, Chara was 13th in 2008-09 and Lidstrom was 5th in 2006-07. Looking ahead to 2016-17, as much as it’d be nice to put the best shut down D on thisRead More →