NHL 2012-2013: A hooligans game played by hooligans

Alright, this is a smidge douchy, but I can agree with the sentiment:

It's time!

Anyone can run a good streaming service if they only have like 10 viewers.

Average attendance for MLS beat the NHL last season. Just saying.

As for that the CBC commentators just observed that this is the 348th straight sold out home crowd for the Habs tonight.

So I'd been running around all day and had actually forgotten hockey started tonight, until I turned the TV on a few minutes ago and was browsing the guide and saw Rangers v Bruins on NHL Network. At 4PM. (I'm PST)

And then my brain exploded. OMG REAL HOCKEY TODAY RIGHT NOW WOOOOOOO

And now they're just finishing the anthem. Drop the puck, baby!

Edit: And 19 seconds in, Hagelin takes an interference penalty and Boston has a PP. DAMMIT HAGELIN

2 minors against the Habs in the first 4 minutes of play.

EDIT fuck, Toronto goal. Gotta see if RDI or someone is streaming, between the commentary and the chat I'm getting a Leaf-fan overdose.

EDIT2: Annnnd a second Toronto goal on a bullshit (in context) unsportsmanlike

God I missed this.

Pens/Flyers was a great game. And now, on to Tivo-delayed Bruins/Rangers!

Hockey hockey hockey hockey.

Pens and Flyers looked like a battle to see who would be the least shitty. (Spoiler: It was Pens)

Avs on now and up 1 over Minnesota, hell yeah.

There have been 20 minutes worth of penalties in this TBL/Caps game!

What the hell Charter Minnesota. No CBC? How am I supposed to get my Hockey Night in Canada fix, and watch the Canucks??? Arg! Guess the Wild and Colorado game will have to do. Hockey!!!!! I've missed you!

That... could have gone better.

I'll just be over at the Canucks forums amusing myself as they all overreact. I'm guessing 20 threads by morning calling for Schneider to be traded.

And Don Cherry still can't figure out how to properly pronounce Luongo.

Aw yiss!

God damn the Wild top line (Parise-Koivu-Heatley) looks goooooooooooood, better than anything we've had since the aggregate half-season that Gaborik was healthy for us and had anything north of mediocre to skate with.

Flyers, ugh.

I'm away and wasn't able to watch shit. Stupid dvr software wouldn't let me record the game. Oh well, Islanders are a preseason game anyway. Real opener on Tuesday.

I don't know who it is, probably a Canadian Idol contestant or something, but someone is butchering the shit out of the national anthems before the Edmonton - San Jose game right now.

edit: Oh yeah, and if you haven't seen it already, this is awesome:

Jesus San Jose is kicking the shit out of Edmonton. First period is ending with the Sharks up 6 to 1.

Edmonton fans are booing them off the ice.

Yeah, I'm thinking I probably won't pay $50 to watch more of this. Just a series of defensive breakdowns leaving guys wide open to pick their spot. And if I had to guess, I'd say the book on Dubnyk is to shoot high.

Yakupov's goal was pretty, though. It looked like a mirror image of one of his goals against Canada at the World Juniors.

Why is there no YouTube video of the horrible national anthem, I want to hear

Starts 6:50 in Inigima.

Whoa, hockey started? Did ESPN decide not to cover it? I watch Sportscenter every now and then and they never mention hockey. I wonder if we still have a channel here that gets all the Kings games.

ESPN covers hockey?

I feel like they have in the past. But maybe that was only because they had the tv rights. Now they suddenly love soccer.

I have to look on Versus or something? I hope I have that channel.

Edit: Oh, NBC Sports Net?

Edit2: And we do still have Fox Sports West showing Kings games. Yay.

Also: this is so adorable

Thanks. I was expecting that to be a trainwreck, SA made it sound like she was well and truly horrible. That wasn't great but it wasn't terrible or anything.

They didn't even cover hockey when they had the rights to it, or so I've heard!

If you are in the Kings' territory, I believe you are looking for them on Fox Sports West. Games are carried nationally on NBC and NBC Sports Network (which used to be Versus.)

I thought they had pretty decent coverage back in the day. For a time it seemed like there was a game every night on ESPN2. And, living in Dallas at the time, it was the only way I ever saw non-Stars games.

NHL 2Night was a pretty decent show, as well. Buccigross and Melrose were a good tandem (even though Melrose can be a moron sometimes).

Ah well . . . those times are long gone.

Here we see the Oilers employing their zone break-out strategy as instructed by Coach Bombay:

Is that.... the flying V?!?!?

Incredible Avalanche game tonight. Brilliant goals and an absolutely monster stop by Varlamov that will definitely make the highlight reel.

Alright, Nail Yakupov is going to be fun to watch.

And for the haters (and there seemed to be a few in Canadian press with bent noses about it)

Hey everyone thanks 4 remembering me tonight. Great celly by Yak! Just got 150 tweets after the goal. Love the raw emotion of scoring big G

— Theo Fleury (@TheoFleury14) January 25, 2013

The difference between Fleury and Yakupov doing the same goal celebration is that Theo's goal was an overtime winner during a game in which his team could have been eliminated from the playoffs by his team's arch rival. Yakupov's celebration was over-the-top for a game-tying (not even winning) goal during the fourth game of the regular season against a team in which the Oilers don't even have a storied rivalry.

Eh, kid's 19. And no it wasn't that big of a goal in the grand scheme of things but it's not hard to see a last-few-seconds game-tying-goal turning his head a bit.

I think the fact that they had tied the game a minute earlier and then had it taken away probably factored in. But whatever, I think it's great when players show a little excitement, even in the regular season. This isn't like Terrell Owens kneeling on the star or anything. Next time he should pull his jersey over his face like a soccer player.

But if Fleury himself thinks it's fine, I think it doesn't matter. :)