“I Might Just Be A Hockey Fan In California” is a feature that is posted every Saturday here at the View From My Seats. There are plenty of things going on in the hockey world (and even the sports world); and you know everyone has an opinion. This is a place for some quick hits of the week that was.
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I might just be a hockey fan in California, but:
- Were the Rangers really that dependent on Marian Gaborik? Or was it Chris Drury? Either way…
- For fans in places like Carolina, Columbus, Phoenix, and San Jose: Remember, just about EVERYONE struggles when they start in Europe. The key is to shake off the slow start as soon as possible.
- On Thursday night, officials were NOT reviewing Matt Moulson’s game-winning goal for 10 minutes. Actually, they reviewed it for about 90 seconds and spent the rest of the time debating if you could actually fit an entire hockey puck in his eyebrow (singular).
- Has anyone seen the NHL mentioned on ESPN when they weren’t talking about Rick Rypien?
- You know what’s awesome? The Boston Bruins goaltending situation.
- Continuing a trend from last season, the Nashville Predators have been absolutely awful on the power play. Can you imagine how dangerous they’d be if they started scoring with the extra man? Maybe the West should start worrying about yet another team in the Central.
- $5 million and a little security? Should we be surprised that Alexei Kovalev looks completely disinterested this season?
- Right now, the top three teams in the Eastern Conference are the New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Tampa Bay Lightning. Really.
- What’s the silver lining for the Canucks in the middle of the Rick Rypien incident? At least people aren’t talking about how they’ve lost four out of five.
- It seems like just yesterday when the Oilers wanted at least a 2nd line guy for Sheldon Souray. Now? They’ve mismanaged the situation so badly that he’s almost untradeable.
- I’ve said over and over that I’m a fan of hockey in Phoenix. I happily defend them whenever people say hockey doesn’t belong there. But after making the playoffs last season, the attendance for their game on Thursday was atrocious. It was only one game—but if winning cures all (like I repeatedly argue), then there should be more than 147 fans there. And for the record, I hate writing this.
- It’s not just the Coyotes that have had attendance problems. Both Columbus and Atlanta have also set record lows in the early going—and this isn’t a new problem. But then again, let’s find out how the NHL is doing on Social Media sites in Denmark talking about how healthy the league is right now. That way we can ignore the most fundamental measure of interest in the game: butts in the seats.
Tim Thomas has been great. And so has his mask...
- There are a ton of arguments for and against the Kings signing Kovalchuk in the offseason, but 1 of 22 isn’t exactly the way they wanted to start on the power play. If they want to be successful this year, they may need to invest money/prospects into a sniper to help turn those numbers around.
- I can honestly say that I’ve never really liked Aerosmith. Bruins fans will understand why.
- Niclas Bergfors has gone from Calder Trophy finalist (and one of the bigger pieces in an Ilya Kovalchuk trade) to a healthy scratch in three of the last four games. Do the Atlanta Thrashers have that much depth?
- I keep waiting for Nikita Filatov to blossom into the superstar player that most people thought he’d be when he was drafted in 2008. Gone are the “Ken Hitchcock system” excuses, now it’s all about him developing. But sooner or later, he’ll have to mix in some other qualities besides the potential to score goals if he wants to be successful.
- Gary Bettman is a pompous little person that needs to be fired for the good of the game.
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Click here for our archive of past editions of our “I Might Just Be A Hockey Fan In California” feature.
Matt Reitz is the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com and former NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports. When he’s not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he’s usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It’s a never-ending job.
