HNIC Wrap-Up ~ 1/23/10 (A Week Late!). . .

Week late again - I hope this is not becoming a trend...I apologize. Not trying to leave NHTP a desolate place as much as I have recently. Maybe I'll be able to catch up on life once the Olympics start. Oh..right...I'll still be watching hockey. ;) Anyway...

Last Week on HNIC:

Before Cassie Campbell asked Tortorella about it, the guys at HNIC had a good laugh about the Brooks/Tortorella clip from the post-game from Thursdays game versus Philly.

Their comments:

Milbury: "I'm going to score that Tortorella/Brooks thing a draw; I mean Larry Brooks hung right in there. He can be abrasive as all get out, but Tortorella went right after him. What can a coach do, you have to address it, get it out in the open once in a while when you think you've been mishandled by the media, and then you gotta move on which he has."

...

Hrudey: "I'm sure this will surprise a lot of people too. I'm actually going to brag about Sean Avery. Here's a guy that I've been awfully critical of for a long, long time now but you have to hand it to him." [He goes on to talk about how impressed he was with this play versus the Flyers.]

"There's not shame to me in losing a fight. It's battling for your teammates...Aaron Voros and the rest of the teammates were awfully proud of Sean Avery. I've gotta tell you, when he plays like that, and he doesn't yap off, I like him."

Milbury: "Where were the rest of the Rangers in that game? After the Carcillo incident with Gaborik, there should have been an immediate response. There was none. Avery was one of the few that showed up to got it done."


You know how much I hate it when I agree with Milbury but...



After Hours:

I actually got to catch After Hours live last Saturday, so I had some Twitter comments about it, but how fun was it to have Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews BOTH on After Hours? Loved it! I want more teammate pair interviews; they are almost always fantastic.

The good thing about doing this a week late, you get to see it yourself, as a kind stranger has posted on Youtube. First are Parts 1 and 2 for Patrick Kane and 3rd one is both Kane and Toews. Enjoy!

Part 1 - Kane

Part 2 - Kane





You know, as much as people may have changed their thoughts (understandably) about Kane during the last year, I still think two things:

1) He is pretty well-spoken. He has gotten better surely as he's been in the league a few years, and he's being asked to speak much more often. I enjoy listening to him, especially when he throws in some reminders of how young he really is, ie, "pretty girls walking up and down the street." He is what he is and I enjoy him. Time will tell just exactly what type of person he truly is, but if you can separate the two, and sometimes you have to, I still love him as a player and love to watch him grow as such.

2) He is a first class talent. He is one of those guys, perhaps, you want to cheer for because he is one of the smaller guys. He scores some amazing goals. And he is someone, as an American, we can cheer for in national tournaments hopefully for years and years to come. And, as much as I do not root for players for where they are from (at least not intentionally), it is wonderful to see a guy that will hopefully join guys like Modano, Richter, Leetch, Tkachuk, Hull, Chelios, etc, in the glory of American national competition. We'll see how he does in just a few short weeks in his first Olympic appearance in Vancouver.

The extra (although somewhat dated) stuff. . .

Alright, so there are a few things I’ve been delaying in blogging about. Either because I’ve been busy (which is true) or because I guess I was trying really hard to forget about them (which I guess I won’t try to deny). Here’s the random conglomeration one, because the other one turned from a paragraph into a giant book about #93. So. . .

-Mike Millbury being tapped to do Hockey Night in Canada. Really? Having to watch him on NBC (which I only watched during the playoffs or when the Rangers were on, for the most part) attacking people left and right wasn’t enough? Watching him with the Islanders wasn’t enough? Having him breathe the same air as me. . .okay. Okay. I’m done. But I really do not like the guy. Maybe he’s a nice guy. Maybe. But he strikes me as a moron. A smug, pompous moron. A moron who’d rather bash someone. A moron who’d rather talk loudly to try to make a point rather than think clearly and really make one that matters. Let’s just say he’s just not for me. Now maybe some people like him. That may be. Maybe Canada will love him. But as a fan who really for the first time this past year avidly took advantage of watching HNIC, it makes me want to puke. Just what role is he going to have? A Don Cherry like one? Please do not tell me they will have him on with Ron MacLean. Or mess up the tandem of Scott Oake and Kelly Hrudey on After Hours (not that I really think they would). But honestly, if they mess with what I like about HNIC, I’m going to be very, very disappointed. You already lost a long honored and highly respected theme song. What’s next? Seriously. I might have to get a l…li….life on Saturday nights – you know, go out and not watch hockey. And that is just unacceptable for me, because I happen to believe that watching hockey on Saturday night is very much a life and one that I very much enjoy. Oh and if he’s replacing PJ Stock. . .I am going to be livid. I’m still laughing about the “t-he” comment from last March. Hilarious stuff.

-Now, I know, I know, the Summer of Sundin still rages on. Or is losing steam? If the Rangers still weren’t rumored to be one of the teams still in it, I’ll admit I would have given up paying attention a long time ago. And I must apologize because this is horribly dated now because I must have listened to that segment on Vancouver’s Team 1040 more than three weeks ago? But it was still funny how the people and businesses of Vancouver took to trying to bribe Mats to come to town. Cars! Free pizza for life! These are just some of the things that people were using to lure the great #13 to Canuckville. See below in an article from Vancouver’s The Province for more details and offers. Very funny:

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=6bbcc025-f02e-42f5-8a59-c9fa094c32fc

Now who said $20 million can’t buy everything? :)