Nobody does it better, makes me feel sad for the rest.  Nobody does it half as good as you, baby, you’re the best.  -Carly Simon

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Just a quick one.  Quick like a hockey stick one.  Martin Brodeur already holds the record for most regular season wins.  Martin Brodeur already holds the record for most shutouts, regular season and playoffs combined.  Martin Brodeur already holds the record for most 40-win seasons.  Face it, Martin Brodeur already hold the record for a lot of things.  Add another one to the list.  The active list at least.  Last night, Satan’s Wallpaper made 34 saves in his 3-2 win over the Bruins.  Hooray Martin Brodeur!  But as special as that was, that has nothing to do with this post.  What does have to do with this post is this:   He also was credited with an assist on New Jersey’s second goal.           

Yup, that’s it.  That was Brodeur’s third assist of this season and the 34th in regular-season play during his NHL career.  Yowza!  That’s the highest assist total, by far, for any active goaltender. By Far, Marty Turco is second with 22.  It also ties Ed Belfour for sixth-most all-time among NHL goaltenders. He’ll be first before you know it.

Brodeur is the best puck-handling goaltender of all time.  It’s like having a third defenseman out there.  Like having Ray Bourque as your third defenseman out there.  Brodeur just dominates the ice.  He is the best goalie the free world has ever seen.

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies. Six two and Even!

Peace out homies. Six two wnd even!

It’s a miracle.  A miracle.  A true blue spectacle, a miracle come true.  The miracle, the true blue spectacle, the miracle is you!  -Barry Manilow

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  What a game, what a game!  Yesterday, I said things like, “I’ma watch the Washington Capitals lay down the hurt.”  Yesterday, I said things like, “The Stars don’t stand a chance.”  Yesterday, I was like Fonzie.  I was wrrrr.   I was wrrrrr.  I was wrrrrr.  Yesterday, I wrong.  Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.  Yesterday the Dallas Stars troubles seemed so far away.  Yesterday, the  Dallas Stars won their first game since the Olympic break because Marty Turco may have played the greatest regular-season game of his career.  But Marty Turco wasn’t the only story of this game.  There was quite a bit of weird and wild stuff going on.       

Hey Rocky, Watch Me Pull A Rabbit Out Of My Hat

Last night the Dallas Stars pulled a rabbit out their hats all right.  Pulled a rabbit out of their hats beating the Capitals, in Washington, 4-3, via a shootout after going into the third period trailing, 2-0, and having been outshot, 42-16.  Follow all that?  Good. 

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not

Now follow this:  Since the NHL began recording shots on goal more than 50 years ago, only two other teams won a game in which they were losing at the end of the second period and had given up at least 40 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes.  Like Ripley’s, those two other teams both won, 4-3, on the road in overtime.  The Oilers on March 17, 1993 against the Rangers in New York (trailed, 3-1, and outshot, 45-23, through two periods) and the Predators on Nov. 11, 2008 at San Jose (trailed, 2-1, and outshot, 43-18, through two periods).  How about that?

Stars Win Despite Trailing By 2 Goals At The End Of 2 Periods

What makes this Dallas win even more amazing is, notwithstanding the Capitals’ 52-26 advantage in shots on goal, the Stars accomplished something that hasn’t been done in quite some time against the Capitals in Washington.  The Stars won despite trailing by two goals at the end of two periods.  Know this Hockey Krishnas:  The Caps had won their last 66 home games when leading by two-or-more goals heading into the third period.  The Caps are tied with the Wild for the longest current streak in the NHL.  The last time the Capitals suffered such a loss, whether in regulation, overtime or shootouts, had been more than eight years ago – on Nov. 8, 2001 vs. Carolina.  Yowza!

Alexander Ovechkin

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, the greatest player in hockey today, Sidney Crosby be damned, Alex Ovechkin, had 10 shots on goal in Monday night’s loss to Dallas.  Big deal you say?  Who cares you say?  I say, that marks his 33rd double-digit shots-on-goal tally since he entered the league in 2005-06.  I say, the next-highest total number of 10-plus-shot games since that time is Eric Staal, with seven.  Yes, you read that right.  Seven!  In fact, Ovechkin has more such games over that span than the next seven NHL players combined!  It still was not enough to beat the Stars

Neither were Ovechkin’s two goals.   Last night was just the second time that El Ocho has scored at least twice on home ice, only to see the Caps lose the game.  The Caps are now 22-2 in those games, with both losses coming in shootouts. 

One To Build On

So with all of that, the Stars are still sees four points behind eighth-place Detroit.  They still have a lot of work to do.  But this win, in that building, against that team, is one to build on.

Public Spectacle

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

(VS 7PM ET)  I’m sorry hoop heads, I just can’t do Championship Week.  If there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing, Championship Week is it.  Wake me when the Madness starts.  Until then, I’ma gonna watch me some hockey.  I’ma watch me some onesided, lopsided, landslided, Jekyll and Hyded hockey.  I’ma watch the Washington Capitals lay down the hurt.  The Capitals lead the NHL in scoring.  The next closest team is 50 goals back.  Yowza!  They have the top power play in the league and are tops in the league in shooting percentage.  Sweet sassy molassy!  The Stars don’t stand a chance.  Dallas has allowed 17 goals in the last three games while Washington has scored three or more in 23 of the last 24.  And to make matters worse, Jose Theodore is on a 12-0-2 roll himself and will probably be between the pipes.  Get your popcorn ready!

Peace out homies!  Six Two and Even!

Come and dance on on our floor.  Take a step that is new.  We’ve a loveable space that needs your face, three’s company too.  -Three’s Company

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Nicklas Lidstrom has played fourteen seasons in the NHL, all for the Detroit Red Wings.  In those 14 seasons, he has has won four Stanley Cups.  In those 14 seasons, he has been voted into ten NHL All-Star Games.  And in those 14 seasons, he has won six James Norris Memorial Trophies as the league’s best defenseman.  There’s a reason for that.  Nicklas Lidstrom is good.  He’s very good.  So good in fact, Sporting News selected Lidström as the NHL Player of the Decade.          

Now he’s done something else.  Now he’s done something completely different.  Now he’s done something only a select few before him have been able to accomplish.  The few, the proud, the passing defensemen.  Last night, Nicklas Lidstrom recorded the 800th regular-season assist of his NHL career in the Red Wings’ win over the Predators.  800 assists!  By a defenseman yet!  Yowza!  Yowza!  Yowza!  

You should know, that makes Lidstrom just the sixth defenseman ever in NHL history to record 800 or more assists.  You should know he now joins the likes of Ray Bourque (1169).  You should know, he now joins the likes of Paul Coffey (1135).  He joins the likes of Al MacInnis (934), Larry Murphy (929) and Phil Housley (894).  He joins likes the likes of those cats there.  Top cats. 

Nicklas Lidstom, he’s the boss, he’s a pip, he’s the championship.  He’s the most tip top, Top Cat!

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies. Six two and Even!

You got it…what it takes.  Go get it…where you want it?  Come get it…get involved.  ‘Cause the brothers in the street are willing to work it out.  -Public Enemy

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Harmon Killebrew once said, “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’  ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply.  ‘We’re raising boys.’”  Well, Mr. and Mrs. Sedin raised men.  Raised ice men.  The ice men cometh.    

The ice men comethed last night all right. The 29-year-old ice men, who have played together since they first started skating back in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, comethed with three assists each in the Canucks’ 6-3 win over the Red Wings.  Hooray ice men!  That’s the second time that both Sedin twins recorded an assist hat trick in the same game.  Not as cool as a Gordie Howe hat trick, but cool just the same. 

This is pretty cool too.  The last pair of brothers other than the Sedins to each notch three assists in the same game was Quebec’s Peter and Marian Stastny against Pittsburgh back in 1982.  Not for nothing, last season, the Sedins became the first pair of brothers to have regular hat tricks for the same team in the same season since the Stasny’s did it for the Quebec Nordiques in 1983.  Now that’s cool. 

This offseason, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis did all he could do to re-sign Daniel and Henrik Sedin.  He logged countless frequent-flyer miles flying to the twins’ home in Sweden to negotiate in person.  It paid off.  The brothers signed matching five-year deals to stay with the only NHL team for which they ever played.  In return, they are now giving the Canucks fans everywhere a reason to believe.  A reason to believe Vancouver can seriously contend for a Stanley Cup.  The Canucks’ 39 wins and 80 points keep them atop the Smythe Division, but remember folks, follow the bouncing ball:  It don’t mean a thing, if you ain’t got them rings.  Doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-aaaah!

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

I know it sounds crazy but it fits perfect.  Peter perfect picked a perfect Peter.  Honey dripper.  Sucker sipper.  Big dipper.  Sucker dripper.  -Flavor Flav

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Rookie rookie, who gets the cookie?  Who’s the big winner here tonight at the casino?  Huh?  Justin, that’s who.  Justin’s the big winner.  Justin wins.  Justin won last night.  Carolina Hurricanes goalie, Justin Peters, beat Toronto last night for his third career win in three career games in the NHL.  Yowza!  Three is a magic number.  Yes it is.  It’s a magic number.  Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity, you get three as a magic number. 

This is the magical part.  The magically delicious part.  Only four other active goaltenders started and won each of their first three NHL games.  Only Jaroslav Halak, Kari Lehtonen, Steve Mason and Antero Niittymaki.  Not bad.  Neither is this.  In his three games, Peters  sports a 1.34 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage.  Pretty gaudy numbers if you ask me.  Even if you don’t ask.  I’m still gonna tell you.  So don’t ask.  See if I care.

Even if you don’t ask, I’m also still gonna tell you Peters is a big butterfly goalie who possesses excellent agility and instincts in the net.  He’s a good skater and is strong playing the puck on shoot-ins.  A real competitor.  A real go getter in front of the netter.  He plays consistently well and always gives his team a chance to win.  And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  Winning?  Of course it is.

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

Peace out homies. Six two and even!

People ringing up, making offers for my life.  But I just wanna stay in the garage all night.  We’re a garage band.  We come from garageland.  -The Clash

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  I’m not gonna go into detail here about yesterday’s game.  I’n not gonna go into detail here how Sid the Kid, the Next One, blessed be he, the flag bearer for the new generation of Canadian superstars, got the winner winner chicken dinner in overtime.  I’m not gonna quote JFK and write something like:  Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Canadians.  The torch has been passed from Rocket Richard to Orr to Gretzky to Lemieux to Sidney Crosby.  Nope.  Not gonna do it.  Not at this juncture.  Instead, I’m merely gonna share with you a fun little stat.        

Roberto Luongo did not play his best game yesterday.  With 25 seconds left in regulation, he nearly had defeat snatched from the jaws victory.  But, like my main Derek Sandersen always says, “If I play badly I’ll pick a fight in the third, just to get into a fight.  I’ll break a guy’s leg to win, I don’t care.  Afterward I say, ‘Yeah all right I played badly, but I won the fight so who gives a damn.”  With the help of Sidney Crosby, Roberto Luongo won the fight yesterday.  So who gives a damn?

Roberto Luongo wins a lot of fights.  He especially wins a lot of fights at General Motors Place.  That’s the Garage to you.  For those of you at home who only watch olympic hockey, you might know it as Canada Hockey Place.  You know, the place where Luongo won his fight yesterday afternoon.  Luongo has won 87 regular-season NHL games at the GM Place since joining the Canucks back in 2006.  That’s a lot of wins.  The only goalie with as many wins in one building as Luongo at the Garage is Miikka Kiprusoff who has posted 89 victories at the Pengrowth Saddledome.  But you saw what Kiprusoff did.  He’s no Roberto Luongo.  Luongo’s got prospects.  He’s bona fide.  What are you?

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

You better offer some resistence.  You better give up on my insistence.  Ba-ba-banana, this ain’t Havana.  Do you like bananas, ba-ba-bananas.  This ain’t Havana.  -The Ramones

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  I’ll make this quick.  I’ll speak loudly and hit you with a brick.  No time for the carrot, so it’s the stick.  Lickety-split.  Mike Lupika got this one right.  Mike Lupika said, “If the U.S. wins this game, in Canada and against Canada, it will be a real good upset and an even better story.  It’s just no miracle.”  You can say that again Mike.  It’s nothing against this young US team.  In fact there are a lot of similarities.  Both this team and that team revolve(d) around speed, defense, and hot goaltending.  But Senator, I served with the Miracle on Ice.  I knew the Miracle on Ice.  The Miracle on Ice was a friend of mine.  Senator, you’re no Miracle on Ice.         

You have to understand, this is not a knock on this year’s hockey team.  This is a sign of the times.  Things are very different now.  At least, for me they are.  In 1980, in Boston, hockey was king.  King I tell you.  “A” number one.  Top of the list.  The city was still not that far removed from the Bobby Orr era.  An era that had kids from Dorchester to Dedham skating in their yellow and black Rally Pro Bobby Orr Skates.  An era of which Jack O’Callahan himself said, “When Bobby Orr came to Boston, and the Bruins were competing after having so many down years … he lit New England up, drove a lot of people into hockey.”  Correction Jackie boy.  He drove all of us into hockey.

So there was that.  And there was this.  Russia was the enemy.  The en-ah-me.  Enemy with a capital E that rhymes with C that stands for commie bastards.  This is a team that in the not so distant past was known as the Red Army.  A team that featured legends.  A team that featured names like Vladislav Tretiak.  Names like Alexander Maltsev.  Names like Vladimir Petrov, Vasili Vasiliev, and Valeri Kharlamov.  Names that had struck fear in the heart of men, nevermind boys, which, no matter how good, was what our team was.  Boys.

The day of the 1980 game is one of those “Where were you?” days.  John F. Kennedy days.  John Lennon days.  Space Shuttle Columbia days.  Only good.  I’ll tell you where I was.  I was down my friend Ronny Manning’s basement.  I was playing strat-O-matic baseball and waiting.  Anticipating.  Gyrating with excitement.  The game was on tape delay.  My friends and I made sure we didn’t know what happened until we saw for it for ousrelves.  So we played strat-O-matic and we waited.  Like Larry David at the handicapped bathroom, we waited.  We waited and we finally saw team USA fall behind 2-1.  Then we saw Ricky Manning, Ronny’s older brother walk into the room.  Then we heard Ricky say, “Why you watching this?  We win.  4-3.”  I never forgave Ricky for that.  I never will.  But I will always remember it.  This game?  I’m not so sure.

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!