Ovi’s Stick Trick

Alex Ovechkin had himself quite a weekend at the All Star Game. He scored the first goal in the All Star Game and wrote himself in the books as the first player to cause a penalty shot. And during the skills competition the night before, Ovi won his third straight breakaway challenge.

Ovi finishes his breakaway challenge with his last shot with some flair, and a goal. Check out how he uses the wrong end of the stick to show off a bit and have some fun as he scores here on the Penguins Marc-Andre Fleury. Hopefully, he’ll break out this move during a real shootout in a regular season game sometime soon.

Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals’ star, came up with a few nifty moves to win hockey’s equivalent of the slam dunk contest—most notably, flipping his stick and bringing the puck in with the knob before flipping it back and beating a sprawled-out Marc-Andre Fleury of Pittsburgh.

“I just came up with that,” said Ovechkin, who received 38.5 percent of the fan voting via text messaging. Fellow Team Staal member P.K. Subban(notes) of Montreal had 21.3 percent. [via]

Alex Ovechkin Creates First Penalty Shot During All Star Game

You gotta love the goofy smile on Alex Ovechkin after his interesting defensive tactic creates the first ever penalty shot in the All Star game. It’s hard to believe there hasn’t been one before but if you’re going to be the first player to go down on the books as creating the situation at least make it interesting.

Ovechkin, who was on Team Staal, is clearly beat on the play by Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene and instead of catching up to the speeding player Ovi just tosses his stick in the general direction. The move was good for a laugh but the ref still called him for the penalty shot.

In the end it didn’t matter as Duchene and Team Lidstrom missed his penalty shot but won the game 11-10 in a wild game.

Wow! Chara Beats Own Hardest Shot Record At 105.9 MPH

The Boston Bruins are just loaded with talent and you have to look no further than Zdeno Chara to see someone having a career year in the NHL. The Bruins roll into the NHL All Star weekend with a nice lead at the top of the Northeast Division and Chara is one of the reasons why.

The 6’9″ wall that is Chara is a +22 on the team and single-handedly beat the Hurricanes a few weeks back. Chara entered the All Star Skills Competition holding the record for the fasted slap shot and is the defending champion for the last three years. With a year like this you just felt that Big Z would come back with another win and he did with a blistering 105.9 MPH slap shot. I feel sorry for any goalie trying to stop that bullet.

Members of the Nashville Predators tried to take the title away from Z but failed after Chara made this monster shot:

Goalies Race During All Star Skills Competition

Personally I always thought a game hit epic levels when the goalies fought. It doesn’t happen often and when it does it’s the highlight of the game.

The NHL All Star Game is set to kick off in Raleigh, North Carolina, and as tradition features a skill competitions the night before the game. We get to see the players bring their special abilities like shooting accuracy and speed as well as skating competitions.

An added bonus to the skills competition was when two goalies raced each other. Cam Ward of the hometown Hurricanes and red-hot Tim Thomas from Boston squared off against each other. Pads and all.

The race didn’t set any land speed records as Ward edged out Thomas thanks to Tim tumbling over in the corner. Thankfully he had the pads on.

Prepubescent Ref

OK, who let Gary Bettman’s little boy on the ice? This ref during the Hurricanes/Islanders match sounds like he’s a pubescent 14 year old and going on 15. His voice crackles like he’s hitting manhood and the crowd can’t help but let out a laugh. It doesn’t help he grabs his crotch as his voice breaks up.

Thankfully the Ref was at a Isles game so not too many people were there to see his moment.

Celebrate Like It Is 1994!

The Kamloops Blazers know how to celebrate a big win. They do it NHL 94 style.

For those of you unfamiliar, it’s just the best hockey video game ever. NHL 94 kept me busy through the college years trying to perfect my one-timer and I remember it fondly… even if they did take out fighting.

A Very Still Kevin Bieksa

Kevin Bieksa sits in the penalty box and waits patiently to get out. In the time he’s in the box, Bieksa doesn’t move….like a statue.

He’s just kinda sitting there, staring out at the ice. Maybe pondering revenge on the ref or thinking about a poem he read earlier. Wake up! Are you rebooting?

“Kevin still hasnt moved”

Happy Birthday. Wayne Gretzky Turns 50!

Wayne Gretzky is not the only one feeling old.  The best player ever to skate in the NHL turns 50 years old today and I feel just as old because I remember when he was just a kid making his way up with the Oilers.   That scrawny little punk, who always kept his back jersey tucked into his pants, flew across the ice and made scoring look easy.

It’s hard to believe the “Great One” is now Over The Hill. It seems like yesterday that he was traded to L.A.  Sorry Edmonton.  Hate to bring that up. No other player defined a sport more than Gretzky and over the years it was easy to forget how great he really was.

For now, Gretzky is enjoying the role of proud father — he and Janet have five children — while living in Los Angeles. But regardless of whether he has an official role with the NHL or a team, he’ll always be the face of hockey to millions. And he’ll always be “The Great One.”

“As dominant as he was on the ice, Wayne was an even-better ambassador for our game and our League wherever he went,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “He amazed the fans on the ice and connected with them off it, an ultimate combination of elegance, skill and class. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, the National Hockey League sends him its congratulations, its appreciation and its thanks.”

As for the Great One himself, he says the years have flown by.

“It feels like yesterday that I was tying up my skates sitting in a locker room at an All-Star Game next to Gordie Howe,” Gretzky told NHL Live! on Tuesday, one day before turning 50. “I was 17 and Gordie Howe was 50 at that time. I remember looking at him and thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, 50 years old?’ and here it is years later. My grandmother used to always say, ‘Time flies when you’re having fun and life is good.’ I feel fortunate that life has been pretty good to me and I had the privilege of playing in the NHL and the game seems to be getting better every year.” [via NHL.com]

Phaneuf’s Enough! Dion Phaneuf Destroys Tuomo Ruutu

The Leafs Dion Phaneuf lines Ruutu up and gets a huge, clean hit on Ruute with no fights afterward. The hit is awesome but I’m more stunned that no big brawl occurred following.

Phaneuf bulldozed Carolina’s Tuomo Ruutu with an open-ice hit in the first minute of play to set the tone for the game. Turns out that Ruutu gave Phaneuf a bit of a shoulder to start the game and this was Dion’s way of paying him back. Ouch!

Nashville Predators Get Luckiest Save of the Year

The only way this save could be better is if it were happening during the Stanley Cup Finals. Except for that, this video has it all. Shorthanded. OT. Goalie loses his stick. But that’s OK because the stick is the reason there’s no goal.

The Nashville Predators got lucky. There’s no way around that. Goalie Pekka Rinne is holding off an Edmonton power play and loses his stick. The Oilers Shawn Horcoff beats Rinne easily but the puck richochets off Rinne’s fallen stick which is parked on the red line. It looks like it might have crossed the line but after further review (we’re getting those a lot lately) the officals rule it a ‘no-goal.’

The lucky Predators would then go on to win the game in a shootout but no matter what this is the highlight of the game. Maybe of the year.

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