The NHL Shop is on point

H/T to @Lesliehockeyy, who went to the NHL Shop online to purchase a Dan Girardi All-Star jersey, and found a whole new way his underrated-ness comes through. So I went to check it out for myself (click for full screenshot):



Fantastic work, guys!

Boston Tea Partier

This is awesome, you guys! This is seriously awesome. You see, I was concerned about having to root against the Bruins, hanging out here at the top of the East, because I kinda like the Bruins. But now, it turns out star goalie Tim Thomas, previously known to us only as a yogi, is also a total dickwad, you guys! This is great news! It's hard to root against a dude who doesn't get his break as the starter until age 32, then puts on a show against an Olympic Gold Medal-winner to win the Cup at 37. But it's easy to root against a total dickwad!

In case you haven't heard, President Obama invited the Bruins to the White House, to congratulate them for winning the Stanley Cup. (To summarize: not only are they so good at a game that they get to play it for a living, they are so good at it that the fucking President invites them over to hang out, just because they're so good at it.) Tim Thomas, apparently one to thoroughly examine the mouths of even those horses he is given as gifts, chose not to go. Let me take you through my thought process, as it slowly, over the last 24 hours or so, went through all the levels on which that's shitty.

In which a friend and I discuss some hockey teams

Him: Man, we were right about the Bruins. We were right about the Wild. We're about to be right about Florida.
Me: It's so easy to be right!
Him: Yeah.
Me: Here's who else we're right about: Ottawa. Ottawa is bullshit.
Him: Yeah. Who is more bullshit: Ottawa or NJ? Ottawa is +2. NJ is -3, and they're 8-1 in shootouts.
Me: Ooh, that's a good question.

"Scoring Woes"

Hey, look, people are talking about the Rangers' scoring woes today. Most of them say things like "Marian Gaborik needs to start scoring again"; "The power play is horrible"; and "It's all Olivia Munn's fault." Of course, all three of these things are true. But here's my take.

Concerned?

I read this short piece by my good friends over at Free Tank Carter the other day. First of all, it's entirely correct. Pens fans who are panicking about being in 9th right now (don't get me wrong, they are a pleasure to behold) are fools. In addition to everything FTC says (all teams are streaky, the Pens get lots of shots on net, Kris Letang is a beast (even though I'm not immediately inclined to put a ton of stock in Point Shares per game)), the Pens have a season goal differential of +12, behind only the Rangers, Bruins, and Flyers in the East (each of which is frequently some sportswriter's flavor-of-the-week team-to-beat). People calling for Bylsma's head are idiots, recently-fired NHL coaches, or jealous of his fashion sense and erstwhile mustache.

But it got me thinking: should other teams that are panicking chill out? Should some teams maybe start to panic? What about the Rangers?