Week 6: Remembrance & Nicknames

REMEBRANCE

In different forms for 62 years, in different fonts and type sizes, the phrase has both whispered and hollered from the walls of Canadiens dressing rooms in the Forum and the Bell Centre: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch be yours to hold it high” Click on the image below if you want to read the whole story.

NICKNAMES?

Athletic writer Sean McIndoe says NHL nicknames were once glorious but are now broke. We’ve allowed the players to give each other nicknames like, Pricer (Carey Price), Petey (Elias Petterson), Matty (Auston Matthews) or Chucky (every Tkachuk) were, essentially, all they do is shorten their name with a “y” or “ie” or an “s” at the end. It’s time to get back to the great nicknames of old. Here is his plan to fix it:

#1. Stop accepting what we have now. Most modern hockey nicknames aren’t good nicknames because they’re not even real nicknames at all. If your last name is Jones and people call you Jonesy, you don’t have a nickname.

2. Stop asking the players what their nicknames are. Why are we doing that? Who cares what the players call each other? That’s not where great nicknames come from.  Do you think former Hab legend Georges Vezina’s teammates were calling him “The Chicoutimi Cucumber” when they played cards on the train? Of course not. They probably called him “Vezzy.” But we don’t know that, because nobody ever asked them, and rightly so. Some old-timey sportswriter came up with The Chicoutimi Cucumber, everyone else went “that’s awesome” and a nickname was born. Vezina himself didn’t get a say. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

Georges Vezina aka “The Chicoutimi Cucumber”

3. Remember what makes a good nickname. Start with the basics: Often, one word is all you need (Battleship. Tiger. Moose.) Rhyming can work too (Sid the Kid.) Alliteration is another option (Terrible Ted, Lucky Luc.) Places (The Finnish Flash.) Pop culture (Cujo, Felix the Cat, Super Mario.) Bring back the enforcers (The Grim Reaper. Knuckles. The Missing Link. Bomber. The Hammer.) Puns are great (Pickles, The Flower, Soupy, The Breadman.)

Daniel “Car Bomb” Carcillo

4. Accept that not all of these are going to be great, especially at first. “The Great One” is fine. It works well enough. But it’s not winning any Pulitzers. Same with “Mr. Hockey.” Not amazing, but not everyone can be “The Chicoutimi Cucumber,” you know?

5. Don’t force it. Not everyone needs a nickname. Some of the best players in hockey history never had them. Bobby Orr never really had one. Neither did Phil Esposito. I don’t think Martin Brodeur did either (unless we’re counting all the ones Sean Avery gave him.) The point is that a player without a nickname doesn’t represent some grand collective failing. That’s true of legendary superstars, and it’s certainly true of random depth guys. Sure, sometimes a third-liner or a backup goalie will end up with an all-time nickname – “Red Light Racicot” may never be topped. But let’s not go overboard. Two or three fun nicknames per team would be a good starting point, and then we can go from there.

Two of the best nicknames based on personality meet on the ice.

Kenny “The Rat” Linseman meets Pat “Little Ball of Hate” Verbeek back in the 80s. Love it that there’s no puck to be found. Now that’s interference!

SHRAPNEL

Enough with the fancy spin-a-rama lacrosse-style goals! Giroux gets it done Old School Style.

Giroux with the slapshot in the shootout pic.twitter.com/aQmpIZv9Vu

— Flintor (@TheFlintor) November 10, 2019

THE WEEK IN BULLETS

• Fulty had the big week with 43 points; T-Man brought up the rear with 23.
• 3-0 weeks? Haukster, Fulty, and Ren & Stimpy (yep, you read that right. The kids are arriving.)
• Haukster jumped up 4 spots to 2nd place
• R&S jumped up 4 places to 6th place
• POTW? Cale Makar CO from Team R&S with 9 points
• Goalie Jonathan Bernier DT (Team ORV) had 2 assists this week. That’s a better week than five other players from that team had this past week.
• Pick up for this week goes to Derko

STANDINGS

TEAM	G	W	L	T	PTS	TP	AVG	%	.	W	L	T	PWk
GoJo	18	14	3	1	29	191	31.8	0.806	T	2	1	0	30
Haukster	18	14	4	0	28	202	33.7	0.778	H	3	0	0	40
JBR	18	11	6	1	23	176	29.3	0.639	I	0	3	0	24
T-Man	18	11	7	0	22	191	31.8	0.611	S	0	3	0	23
Fult	18	10	8	0	20	189	31.5	0.556	.	3	0	0	43
r&s	18	10	8	0	20	179	29.8	0.556	W	3	0	0	41
Vinny	18	8	8	2	18	174	29.0	0.500	E	0	3	0	24
eZ	18	9	9	0	18	173	28.8	0.500	E	1	2	0	32
Stif	18	9	9	0	18	169	28.2	0.500	K	2	1	0	31
Cordy	18	7	10	1	15	187	31.2	0.417	.	2	1	0	36
Orv	18	5	12	1	11	152	25.3	0.306	.	2	1	0	29
Ertz	18	5	13	0	10	161	26.8	0.278	.	1	2	0	27
Rolphy	18	5	13	0	10	150	25.0	0.278	.	1	2	0	34
Derk	18	5	13	0	10	147	24.5	0.278	.	1	2	0	26

And you asked for it, so it’s back… THE AVERAGES

	F	T	C	D	G	E	H	V	Z	R	J	O	S	&
Forwards	1	3	12	3	6	11	2	9	9	14	5	7	12	7
Rook	3	11	5	14	6	1	6	2	12	6	6	13	6	4
Vet	10	3	5	11	6	2	7	7	7	12	1	3	14	13
D	12	5	1	11	4	14	3	9	2	8	13	10	7	5
Goalie	6	7	3	13	2	9	12	5	9	7	9	14	1	3
Tot	4	2	5	14	2	11	1	8	9	13	7	12	10	6

OVERTIME

CONGRATS to 42-year-old Zdeno Chara who played in his 1,500th career NHL regular-season game, becoming only the sixth defenceman and the 21st player to reach that milestone. You’ve come a long way from those PG days!

 

 

Week 16 – All Star Weekend

Starting off with some All-Star signs from the Trump protests…

Some All-Star moves with Jori Lehtera’s trick shot from the KHL All-Star game back a few years.

Throwback Thursday

From Haukster’s Arena back in the day. Two GM’s have since moved south, and one directionally-challenged GM moved further north. An archaeological dig on this site in the future will reveal that early man played hockey with wooden sticks held together with electrical tape.

THE WEEK IN BULLETS

• Even though it was a short one, Rolphy had a crazy week with 34 points
• He had more points (12) after Monday night than “somebody” did all week
• 3-0 weeks also went to T-Man, Erty, Haukster, & JBR
• Lots of movers as Haukster & T-Man each jumped up 2 spots
• Derko & JBR jumped up one spot
• Rolphy is on a 12-0 run, 17-1 in past 6 weeks
• T-Man is on an 11-1 run (and is now winning the Yakupov Derby)
• Pick-up is a lottery again this week. R&S have 123, Stif has 45, JBR has 6.
• A “6” was rolled so the pick-up for this week goes to JBR. Have until Feb 5th to make/trade the pick.
• Some trades of note:
  • Derko trades Kopitar LA and a 5th to Fulty for Rinne NS and Pavelski SJ
  • Rolphy trades his 4th in’17 (from T-man) to Gojo for E. Staal MN
  • Vinny trades his 5th in ’17 to Fulty for Luongo FL
• We just finished week 16; there are 24 weeks in the season, therefore we are at the two-thirds mark
• 5 more pick up weeks

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

It’s another goalie as Rolphy’s Andersen didn’t get scored on this week.

HOCKEY CARD OF THE WEEK

“Anybody got a better photo of Farrish or Toporowski? No? These will have to do.”

You’d think they could get a better pic of the guy, he did make it into 400+ NHL games. Now an Assistant Coach in Colorado.

Toporowski was drafted by the Sharks, but that’s as close as he got. 505 PIMS in Spokane back in 1991. Now a retirement advisor in Iowa. His son Luke went 9th overall in the WHL Bantam draft last May. He was selected by…. Spokane. Life is funny.

SHRAPNEL

Superbowl’s next weekend…

Tom’s ready.

yummy pic.twitter.com/6CxJjIX21A

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) January 23, 2017

Ben was not.

Babcock delivered answer of the night when asked if he thought all these back-to-backs were tough on his young players:

Not watching the all-star game since that’s 3 hours of your life you’ll never get back? Read this instead.

Paul Holmgren’s tribute to his brother

How Marleau’s 4-goal period compares to other rare feats

STANDINGS

TEAM	G	W	L	T	PTS	PWk	TP	AVG	%
C	48	40	8	0	80	17	540	33.8	0.833
R	48	37	9	2	76	34	526	32.9	0.792
D	48	33	15	0	66	18	490	30.6	0.688
F	48	30	16	2	62	16	495	30.9	0.646
V	48	27	20	1	55	16	460	28.8	0.573
T	48	24	22	2	50	24	446	27.9	0.521
H	48	24	22	2	50	27	442	27.6	0.521
G	48	22	23	3	47	16	438	27.4	0.490
Z	48	22	25	1	45	18	473	29.6	0.469
E	48	22	25	1	45	23	405	25.3	0.469
O	48	12	33	3	27	11	371	23.2	0.281
J	48	12	34	2	26	25	369	23.1	0.271
S	48	12	34	2	26	16	367	22.9	0.271
R&S	48	8	39	1	17	14	288	18.0	0.177

 

PARTING SHOT

Started with a trick shot, may as well end with one.

The ol’ fake-moving-the-ball-for-a-better-spot trick.

That’s it. And did you notice that the POTW picture wasn’t of Andersen but of Bernier and Reimer? If you did, you are either Rolphy or a savant.