My Son sing - Mon fils chante - Uptown Funk - (Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars)

@maitrefun
My website : http://hockeylnhnhl.blogspot.ca/
Download ringtone : http://hockeylnhnhl.blogspot.ca/p/download-section-all-my-ringtones.html
My facebook : https://www.facebook.com/philippe.charbonneau
My Twitter : https://twitter.com/Maitrefun
My vine account : https://vine.co/u/1054854177169268736

Still scoring after all these years, Ovechkin gets 50th goal

source : salon.com

Alex Ovechkin is 29, and his hair is flecked with gray nowadays. His coaches and linemates keep changing, as have the ways opponents try to stop him.

After 10 years in the NHL, one thing that stays the same about the guy known as Alex the Great: He can get the puck in the net.

Putting his name in the company of such past hockey superstars as Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux, Ovechkin is now one of only six players with at least a half-dozen 50-goal seasons.

The Russian wing reached that milestone for the sixth time Tuesday night by scoring in the first period of the Washington Capitals’ 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

“We’re sort of immune to it now, really,” Capitals defenseman Mike Green said with a chuckle. “We don’t expect it, but it’s amazing how he does it every year. It’s one of the most difficult things to do, and he seems to find a way to accomplish that, season after season.”

As the rookie of the year in 2005-06, Ovechkin scored 52 goals. He had a career-best 65 two seasons later, followed by 56, then 50. After three seasons in a row with fewer than 40 goals, he regained his touch a year ago with 51.

“Much different than my first year. They give more attention to where we are. They put the best guys, best defensive line, against us,” Ovechkin said. “Obviously, if you have two or three shots on net, you have to score one.”

On Tuesday, he had four shots, and his goal was the 472nd of his career, pulling even with Peter Bondra for the most by a Capitals player. Later against Carolina, Ovechkin recorded his 419th career assist, passing Michal Pivonka for No. 2 in franchise history, three behind current teammate Nicklas Backstrom.

Ovechkin and Backstrom have spent much of their time in the league as linemates, but with the season heading into its final two weeks, first-year Capitals coach Barry Trotz shook things up last weekend, separating his two best offensive threats.

How did that work out? In two games alongside Evgeny Kuznetsov and Joel Ward, Ovechkin has three goals and one assist.

Trotz also moved Ovechkin moved back to left wing, his primary position for most of his career. A year ago under previous coach Adam Oates, though, Ovechkin played mostly on the right side.

When Oates became the fourth coach to depart the Capitals during Ovechkin’s tenure, whispers resurfaced about whether the player was too tough to deal with. Trotz heard that talk — and says now it was unfounded.

---

---

“It’s way better than expectations coming in. All the things that people were telling me were false and untrue. It’s been a joy to work with Alex and be a part of the same group that he’s with,” Trotz said.

“It’s been really enlightening to me, and I’m trying to make it enlightening to everybody else that this is a good hockey player that can do some special things.”

Only Gretzky and Bossy, with nine 50-goal seasons each, have reached the half-century mark more often than Ovechkin. Lemieux, Marcel Dionne and Guy Lafleur had six apiece.

“I mean, the potential there to put up staggering numbers, all-time numbers, is incredible. He’s almost at 500 before he’s 30 years old,” Capitals forward Brooks Laich said. “And his game has changed, too. Even defenses have changed. He’s done it on the left side; he’s done it on the right side. … He’s a treat to play beside.”

The Best Defense(man) is Good Offense

source : hockey.dobbersports.com

This week the Eastern Edge takes a closer look at seven Eastern Conference defensemen who are putting up offensive numbers this post season

It's been said that defense wins championships. I've been a firm believer that this applies to fantasy hockey as well, but obviously with a slightly different angle. For leagues that require a certain number of defensemen, finding players that can provide steady production from the back end are invaluable.

This week, I'll take a look at seven Eastern Conference defensemen that are putting up some very good numbers in the playoffs so far, six of which had more points than Sidney Crosby heading into last night's game. Then I'll look into my crystal ball to forecast whether their production will carry over to next season.

Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  27

Contract Status:  Signed through 2021-22

2014-15 Cap Hit:  $7,250,000

Last Sunday's three point game by Letang is exactly why you can't sell low on this guy. Even after suffering a stroke at such a young age, he has the home run potential that very few fantasy players can provide. When he's on the ice, he's often making highlight-reel plays, both offensively and defensively.

Over the last four seasons, Letang has averaged 51 games and 38 points, which includes the lockout shortened season. In those four seasons, he has scored at a 61 point pace. For those leagues that use NHL cap hits, next season is the first of his 8-year $58-million dollar extension that sees his annual cap hit go from $3.5M to $7.25M. If you own Letang, don't expect him to play a full season, but know that if he does manage that feat, he will richly reward his owner.

One final thing to keep in mind with Letang, in addition to his penchant for finding the injured reserve list, is that with his cap hit going up significantly and the Pens organization seemingly endless supply of offensive defensemen, could we see the team dangle their defensive weapon in the off-season? I don't think they deal Letang, but weirder things have happened. If he does leave Pittsburgh, take 5-10 points off his potential point total.

Matt Niskanen, Pittsburgh Penguins

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  27

Contract Status:  Unrestricted Free Agent

2013-14 Cap Hit:  $2,300,000

Boy did Matt Niskanen ever pick a great time to have a career season; he recorded 46 points, eclipsing the 35 points he had in the 2008-09 season. He is set to become an Unrestricted Free Agent on Canada Day and he's only 27-years-old. With the NHL salary cap about to rise from $64.3M to somewhere around $70M per team, some organization is going to grossly overpay for Niskanen's services. Seriously, who isn't willing to pay through the nose for a puck moving defenseman in his prime?

While Niskanen did take advantage of lengthy Letang and Paul Martin absences to man the point on the power play, he did have the fifth most even-strength points (31) amongst NHL defenders. He has eight points in nine playoff games so far this year.

He's a good fit on this team. If he does sign for big bucks and leaves Pittsburgh, his point production should only take a slight hit to about 40 points with his new team, giving him every opportunity to show that it was money well spent. He won't produce much more than he did this season for the Pens, even if he signs a sweetheart deal to stay with the team because Letang and Martin will eat into some of his power play minutes.

P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  25

Contract Status:  Restricted Free Agent

2013-14 Cap Hit:  $2,875,000

With only two of their top six defensemen under contract for next season, the Canadiens are going to have a lot of work to do this summer. The most important being P.K. Subban. After playing hardball in contract negotiations two years ago, essentially telling the young buck to prove himself, the ball is squarely in Montreal's court. Subban has more than proven himself since signing that contract in winning the Norris trophy as the league's top defenseman and leading all NHL defensemen in scoring with 91 points over 121 regular season games.

He is doing nothing to lower his bargaining power in these playoffs, registering nine points in six games. While I don't see Montreal letting Subban go, if they don't get him under contract by July 1st, wouldn't one team be willing to come in with a desperate offer sheet, forcing Montreal to make a very difficult choice? My money says that he signs with the Habs, but not for max term, maybe something like four or five years. That way, he can have a shot at unrestricted free agent status when he is around 30-years-old.

Torey Krug, Boston Bruins

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  23

Contract Status:  Restricted Free Agent

2013-14 Cap Hit:  $916,667

Fun-sized defender made a splash in last year's playoffs when he recorded four goals in his first five games. Krug logged an impressive 14 goals and 40 points in his rookie NHL campaign and is having a very good playoff run this year again with seven points in as many games.

What might we see from Krug next year? Looking back at his season, he struggled during the months of December and March, recording seven points over 27 games. In the other months combined, he scored at a 52-point pace, recording 33 points in 52 contests. With more experience, he will smooth out those peaks and valleys and 50 points is going to be the standard going forward.

Dougie Hamilton, Boston Bruins

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  21

Contract Status:  Signed through Next Season

2014-15 Cap Hit:  $894,167

The surging sophomore has six points in his last five playoff games. His ice time looks like it is all over the place as shown in the table below:

	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4*	Game 5	Game 1*	Game 2
Hamilton	17:23	14:15	16:03	24:07	14:15	26:11	15:06

*Overtime Games

Outside of those overtime games, Hamilton is clearly receiving bottom pairing minutes, which is fine while he is learning to play with the big boys, but he is also showing us an offensive side. His upside is as huge as he is tall; over his last two seasons of junior hockey, Hamilton recorded 113 points in 82 games.

In his rookie campaign last year, he recorded 16 points in 42 games. This year, he had 25 points in 64 games, which works out to virtually the same points-per game ratio. However, when you break it down in a little more detail, in his opening 28 games, he had seven points. In his next 29 games, he scored 18 points, a 51 point pace. He's still growing and learning, but he's going to be a legitimate option on the Bruins backend for many years to come.

Jack Johnson, Columbus Blue Jackets

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  27

Contract Status:  Signed through 2017-18

2013-14 Cap Hit:  $4,357,143

JJ is often vilified for his frequent forays into the offensive zone, leaving his defensive partner and goaltender hanging out to dry. He (and his fantasy owners) endured a sub-par season points-wise, recording 33 points in 82 games. Johnson started the year with only five points in his first 27 games, then scored at a 42-point pace the rest of the way.

During the regular season, Johnson led Columbus in ice time and it was amplified in the post season, where he logged the most minutes on all special teams and averaged nearly five minutes more overall ice time per game than the next Blue Jacket. Those even-strength and penalty-kill minutes were played against the Pens top talent and yet Johnson finished the playoffs with a respectable minus-1 rating and seven points in six games. He lives for the post season as his 19 points in 18 NHL career playoff games attest.

Over his last four seasons, Johnson has missed only six games and averaged 38 points if we pro-rate the lockout campaign. It's reasonable to expect him to challenge 40 points next season as the team will be hungrier and more experienced. It's safe to say that his minus-20 days are over.

Paul Martin, Pittsburg Penguins

Age at Start of 2014-15 Season:  33

Contract Status:  Signed through Next Season

2014-15 Cap Hit:  $5,000,000

Perhaps we should have seen this post season production (eight points in nine games) coming, based on last year's 11 points in 15 playoff games. A broken leg and serious hand injury caused Martin to miss over half of this regular season. In the 39 games he did play, he registered only 15 points, a 32 point pace over a full season. In last year's lockout shortened campaign, Martin scored at a 55 point pace, recording 23 points in 34 games.

The 33-year-old has a career high of 37 points, but did find himself on the Pens power play for essentially three minutes per game, the sixth most on the team. What can we expect next year? While he's not getting any younger, at 34 years of age, he doesn't yet need a walker to get around. He'll score between 30-35 points and miss a bushel full of games.

Habs : A good soldier

Source : Canadiens.nhl.com

Yannick Weber may have seen limited action for the Canadiens in 2012-13, but at 24 years of age, the Swiss star isn’t prepared to write it off as a lost season.

Having suited up for just six games during the lockout-shortened campaign, the smooth-skating rearguard believes that taking a glass-half full approach to his situation will be beneficial for his career in the long-run.

“It’s not [an] ideal [scenario]. Definitely not,” stated Weber, who has played 115 games since making his NHL debut with the Habs in 2008-09. “I’m still young. I’ve still got a lot to learn, so this past season was more mentally [tough] than it was on the ice. Maybe in a few years I’ll see that it was good to go through a season like this; that it might have been mentally beneficial for me.”


Making 54 fewer appearances this year than he did in 2011-12, however, was at times frustrating for the 2010 Olympian, who spent the better part of the 48-game schedule watching from the pressbox. After finishing with the third-highest point total among Canadiens defensemen a year ago, Weber registered two assists and a minus-1 differential while logging 13:45 of ice time per game in just a half-dozen appearances for Michel Therrien’s squad.

“It certainly wasn’t easy. It was a bit of a bizarre season, too, with the lockout,” confided Weber, who missed eight games after suffering a knee injury on March 7 in Carolina. “We had eight defensemen on the team who were healthy [for the better part of the year]. We had a ton of wins to start the season, so it was really hard at the start to have a chance to play. We didn’t have a chance to have a real training camp and there were no exhibition games, so it was hard to have a real opportunity to be in the top six. For me, it was all about having a lot of patience, waiting for my chance, working hard and staying positive.”

That was easier said than done for Weber, who saw the likes of rookies Jarred Tinordi, Greg Pateryn and Nathan Beaulieu called up from Hamilton and given breaks ahead of him on the Canadiens’ back end. Nevertheless, the young veteran is quick to point out that being passed over for less-seasoned defensemen shouldn’t be interpreted as a lack of faith in his abilities.

“I’ve had good discussions with Marc [Bergevin] and Michel [Therrien]. They both said that they were proud of me, that I’ve worked hard and was a professional during the season,” shared Weber, who Therrien inserted in the lineup on four occasions down the stretch in late April. “They said that they know I’m capable of playing here and that I’m an NHL defenseman. They said they still have a lot of confidence in me. It was good to have a discussion like that. Now, I’ll go into the summer and work hard for next season.

“Being a healthy scratch again and again isn’t easy,” continued the former AHL standout, who considered the possibility of heading to Hamilton for conditioning purposes, but ultimately decided against it. “But all season long, the coaches and my teammates all supported me and they were good with me. It’s good to know they’re happy to have me here.”

Already focusing on the start of a full-length NHL season next fall, the pending restricted free agent is hoping not to be a casualty of the numbers game once again. Looking to force his coach and general manager’s hands when camp rolls around this year, Weber has all the motivation he needs to make the most of his offseason workouts and return to Montreal in fine form.

“For everyone, it’s the same thing. It’s summertime and no one will be playing for four months. In September, when training camp starts, it’s the same thing for everyone,” affirmed Weber on the subject of having an opportunity to compete for a spot on the Habs blue line on an even playing field.

“I’ll come here ready, and it will be a little different than [this year] because we’ll have exhibition games and a proper training camp. I will have a different opportunity than this past season.”

Habs : Blue Line is looking good

Source : Montrealgazette.com

Hockey people love to say that you can never have too many defencemen.

That’s one reason why Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin should be applauded for giving veteran Francis Bouillon a one-year contract extension on Wednesday worth $1.5 million.

Head coach Michel Therrien is smiling because he has another player he knows and trusts for next season. And Bergevin is smiling because the deal provides him with some flexibility.

With the signing, the Canadiens have committed $57.4 million to 19 players for next season, and that number will go down when they exercise their second amnesty buyout to shed Tomas Kaberle and his $4.25-million cap hit.

The Canadiens have a full complement of experienced NHL defenceman and Bergevin will have the wherewithal — about $11 million — to go after a free-agent forward and/or fill in few holes up front and secure a backup goaltender.

There had been speculation the Canadiens were hoping to add some size on defence at the April 3 trade deadline, but that plan may have been put on the back burner over the past two weeks as the team auditioned Greg Pateryn and Jarred Tinordi. Neither one looked out of place and developing talent in-house is a major plus.

Signing Bouillon gives Bergevin some options. He doesn’t have to rush Tinordi, Pateryn or Nathan Beaulieu. If any of them do prove ready to play, the GM is in a position to deal some of the incumbents. And the depth in the minors — the Canadiens also have Darren Dietz, Morgan Ellis, Dalton Thrower, Swede Magnus Nygren and Pateryn’s University of Michigan defence partner Mac Bennett — will be important for the 2014-15 season. Josh Gorges is the only defenceman in the current top six who is signed beyond next season.

Tinordi, who was drafted in the first round (22nd overall) in 2010, could be the keystone in the Canadiens’ defence of the future. He’s a towering presence at 6-foot-6 and there’s plenty of room for him to fill out. He weighs 205 pounds and his father, former National Hockey League defenceman Mark Tinordi, told TSN Radio 690 this week that he believes Jarred can bulk up to 240 pounds without losing any of his foot speed.

Tinordi was a project when the Canadiens drafted him. He grew up in Maryland and, while he said the minor hockey programs there were good, he didn’t think of following in his father’s skates until he was 15.

“I moved to Ann Arbor to play with the U.S. national development program and I started looking at hockey differently,” Tinordi said. “It was a good experience. It was tough leaving home, but the family I billeted with were great.”

Before the Canadiens made him a first-round pick, Tinordi was headed to Notre Dame, but changed his plans and joined the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The move provided him lots of ice time, some pro-style coaching from brothers Dale and Mark Hunter and an opportunity to learn how to fight.

That last item wasn’t always for the best. Tinordi missed a chunk of games in his second season in London after suffering an eye injury in a fight with Erie’s Johnny McGuire.

Tinordi’s hockey education continued this season with the Hamilton Bulldogs. While the Bulldogs are facing an uphill battle to make the American Hockey League playoffs, head coach Sylvain

Lefebvre and assistant Donald Dufresne have achieved the organization’s No. 1 goal, which has to do with development.

Tinordi, Pateryn and the other young defencemen have benefitted because Lefebvre and Dufresne played defence in the NHL. And the Bulldogs play the same style as the parent club, which means the adjustment to the NHL has been nearly seamless for the youngsters.

Lefebvre noted that the Bulldogs faced a challenge this season with five rookies on defence.

“Guys like Tinordi come in and they have to get used to the faster pace and bigger opponents,” Lefebvre said. “But these guys have worked hard. Pateryn had a good start and was our best defenceman. Then he broke his elbow, but he came back and picked up where he left off. Tinordi skates well for a big man and we’ve used him in every situation. I’m not surprised they’ve played well in Montreal.”