Andrew Cogliano Contract Extension!

On January 4th, it was announced that the Anaheim Ducks signed forward Andrew Cogliano to a 4 year contract extension, believed to be worth $12 million.

What a fantastic signing this is for the Ducks! And damn, did they every get a steal of a deal!

Let's discuss why.

Congrats to the WJC 2014 Champions!

Big congratulations goes out to Finland for winning the 2014 World Junior Championships! 

Finland defeated the home team Sweden in 3-2 in overtime! That was quite the game.

And of course congratulations to Sweden who won Silver!

And congratulations to Russia on Bronze! And their inability to count to five.

And meh, to Canada on their second straight fourth place finish.

The American Olympic Mens' Hockey Roster Drama



Thanks, NHL.com for the roster chart!

With the announcement of Team USA’s roster at the end of the Winter Classic, social media absolutely blew up with the omissions from the roster. Granted, some of the omissions were mind-boggling. The six most notable players missing from the 25 man roster are (in no particular order):

• Bobby Ryan
• Kyle Okposo
• Keith Yandle
• Jack Johnson
• Ben Bishop
• Cory Schneider

Those are some big names missing on that list, and apparently lots of people felt that way.

WJC 2014 Semifinals: Game 2 - Canada vs Finland

This game was arguably the game that Canada had to play their best in, and it was the game that they played their worst in. Canada came into this game just expecting to beat Finland, and in theory they should have. Part of that cockiness may have been the result of the fact that Canada has beat Finland every year for the last 13 years, or that Finland may not have been the best team in the tournament, or that Finland doesn’t have the same “star power” that Canada does. Whatever it was that caused the Canadians’ over confidence, it was that over confidence that caused Canada’s demise. Finland outplayed Canada and deserved the 5-1 win that they got.

WJC 2014 Semifinals: Game 1

Sweden vs Russia - there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this would not turn out to be a great game. Sweden looked virtually untouchable in the round-robin and Russia was a great team – like always – that looked nearly as difficult to beat. It was bound to be a hell of a game. And it was.

Matched up against each other, the size of each team’s roster was evident but that certainly made for an interesting game. Both teams were moving astonishingly fast in the first period, although Sweden did not appear to be playing the same game that they played in the rest of the tournament. Despite the final score of 2-1 in Sweden’s favor, it was clear that Sweden did not actually deserve to win that game nearly as much as Russia did. Russia was playing with all they could; Sweden was not. Sweden just got lucky, when it really boils down to it. Sweden’s goalie – Dansk – absolutely saved their asses for most of the game, but the one goal he did let in was very weak. It was highly amusing. That’s basically the game in a nutshell, if you didn’t see it, this isn’t what I want to talk about; there are much more interesting things to note in this game.

WJC 2014 - The Rest of the Teams and What`s Next

Now that the World Junior's round-robin is completed, there's the quarterfinals, semi-finals, medal rounds and relegation to look forward to.

The puck drops tomorrow morning for quarterfinals, can't you just feel the excitement for it? I sure can. I'm absolutely stoked.
The first game of the day is USA vs Russia.
Next up, Finland vs Czech Republic.
Then, Canada vs Switzerland.
And finally, Slovakia vs Sweden to wrap it all up.
It's going to be a hell of a day.

Canada appears to have gotten the easier route to the medals, hopefully. The winner of Canada-Switzerland faces off with the winner of Finland-Czech Republic. I'm predicting either Canada or Czech Republic out of this one, obviously hoping for Canada.

The other grouping, wow, that's going to be a fight to make it out. The winner of USA-Russia faces off against the winner of Slovakia-Sweden in the semis. That is going to be brutal. I see either Russia or Sweden coming out on top, and have no idea who I hope wins it.

As for the other countries...

• Sweden
  The host country has looked absolutely untouchable. I mean, they lead their group at 12 points and it was clear no one else would win that group. Aside from having home ice advantage, the team has looked good, as per usual. They are skilled and just look worrisome to play against. If Canada can't win this tournament, I hope Sweden does. 
• Russia
  I actually haven't seen a whole lot the Russian games so far, but from what I've seen and read, they are a scary team like usual. They look like they are ready for any game and ready to win it. They have the usual Russian swagger in their game, and they have the skill to back it up. That doesn't bode well for USA in the quarterfinals. 
• USA
  The American's roster this year is BIG. They are a good team, and were undefeated up until the Canadian game. They're good, but they aren't amazingly good. Being in the grouping that they are, it is highly unlikely that they will come out on top, but who really knows considering all the upsets that have happened already. 
• Czech Republic
  The Czech team looked good, as usual too. Similar to the Americans, they are good, not amazingly good, but undeniably good. The Czechs are the guys that Canada should be wary of going into the next rounds. 
• Finland
  Finland looks decent this year. Much like the Czechs and the Americans, they've been good but not amazing. What was most telling about their game was the shootout against the Swiss team. That was the most boring shootout to ever occur. The lack of creativity and variety and moves that they showed is applicable to their game as a whole, and that should worry the Finnish players. We will see what happens though. 
• Switzerland
  The Swiss team is one that you kind of can't help but root for a little bit. They usually manage to get into a decent grouping, and they are clearly the underdogs almost every year. I know for me, I can't help but hope that they do fairly well. This year, they did fairly well by avoiding relegation. All it takes is one game to change it around though, and as much as I hope it doesn't happen against Canada, anything can happen in the World Juniors.

Best of luck to all the teams in the tournament!

WJC 2014 - Team Canada

I believe it was Ray Ferraro who made the comment, but the best description of the World Juniors play that has ever been said, was... 

"You never see the same play twice... the coaches haven't had the time to coach the creativity out of the players yet." 

That's exactly what Team Canada has shown so far, whether it has been effective or not varies by player. 

So, let's talk about three things that they need to fix and then some discussion about each player, shall we?

WJC 2014 - Team Canada's Round Robin

It's that time of year again, time for all of us to follow a bunch of teenage boys playing hockey at sometimes ungodly hours and cheer them on with all of our heart, because it's our national pride on the line. The IIHF World Juniors are here.
Canada came into the 2014 World Juniors carrying the big question of how it was going to go. They didn't have the greatest pre-tournament games, their roster wasn't quite as stellar as it could have been, and then there's the last three years - in 2013, Canada didn't medal even with the leading scorer of the tournament on their team, way back in 2012 they finished with Bronze, and in 2011 they finished with a silver. You can see a pattern here, right? So there were some genuine concerns for Canadians.

Now, the round-robin portion of the tournament is over and Canada is looking a little bit better than most of us expected they would be.

So let's talk about some key - or interesting - moments from the games and then some other key things to note about Team Canada.

Oilers Trade Logic

This is about as "BOLD" as it gets for MacT, and this was a while ago....

Craig MacTavish walked into his role with the Oilers with the ballsy statement that he was going to be making some "bold" moves to better the team. Someone needs to buy Craig a dictionary, highlight the definitions of bold and better and then go throw it at his head.

To recap, BOLD has gotten the Oilers:

• Andrew Ference
• David Perron (in getting rid of Paajarvi) 
• Boyd Gordon
• Luke Gazdic
• Jason LaBarbera
• Denis Grebeshkov
• Richard Bachman
• Ryan Hamilton
• Will Acton
• Jesse Joensuu
• Philip Larsen

Now don't get me wrong, there are some good acquisitions there, whether or not they were through trade or straight up signing, but "BOLD" is certainly not the word that should be used to describe those moves. At all.
Then tonight, November 8, happened. And I have a feeling I will be editing this post by the time I post it to include another move by the Oilers, but let's just talk about what has happened already.

Read on for:
Move 1: Smid Trade
Move 2: Bryzgalov Signing

Billy Talent, Hockey and Dallas Eakins

Here`s something you may not know about me (unless you actually know me in real life, in which case, STOP READING this and talk hockey with me in person), but one of my favorite bands is Billy Talent. I enjoy a whole lot of bands, but the guys in Billy Talent are my favorite, on a more personal level. I have had the honor of meeting them a couple times and they are perfect, amazing, sweet guys. But I digress, let`s get back to hockey. Friday night, Billy Talent was playing at the Halloween Howler in Edmonton. I was there, for obvious reasons. All four of the guys - Aaron, Ben, Ian and Jon - are HUGE hockey fans.
The band`s guys come out to set up the stage just prior to their set. I was watching the guy that was setting out the water bottles and beer bottles, and because I was on the Jon side of the stage, I saw his infamous Budweiser rocking a Toronto Maple Leafs holder-thing. String of curses came flying out of my mouth then.

Fast forward to about half way through the set, and cut me some slack here, there is no way I can direct quote this thanks to how long ago this was and the state I was in. Between songs, Ben asks the crowd "Are you all drunk enough for me to talk hockey, or should I wait?"
Then came the best part of Ben's whole hockey speech. To paraphrase what he said as accurately as I can remember... "The Toronto Maple Leafs are where they are because of Dallas Eakins. Give him time and it will work out." That was also the end of that, and back to songs they went.

That one quote was the perfect set up for what I wanted to talk about with Dallas Eakins.
So read on.

And I also just want to say, incase you don't read on, that I don't hate the Leafs by any means, or their fans. Some of my favorite people are Leafs fans, and I respect the people of Toronto and their team and their fans
Mixed reactions from the pit. Ben went right ahead. He started going on about how since they all are from Toronto and  they love the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, yell that out to a crowd of drunk and rowdy Edmontonians. Goes real well. Lots of boos, lots of explicit phrases, lots of thumbs down and lots of middle fingers up. I'm guilty of it too, I was right up front flipping him off. What can I say. Ben starts talking about how they have always had a soft spot for Edmonton and whatnot. That quickly turned into Ben talking about how the Leafs are 1st in the East (which at the time they were), so yeah, yeah, plan the parade, whatever.