Tag: Hockey

This Joe Pavelski Tip (In) Drill is Fascinating to Watch

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This is like when you sit courtside or moderately close to the court at a basketball game; the athletes are impossible to appreciate on TV. Not until you see the size, speed, and skill up close do you realize just how good these guys really are. With that being said, I’ve never given hockey tip-in goals the credit they probably deserve. Always kind of seemed like hey just get your stick up there and maybe you’ll get a lucky deflection. Well, it sure seems like Pavelski knows what the hell he’s doing here and it’s truly mesmerizing to watch.

Fire Flames Jersey Alert: Baby Bruins Are Going Back to the Future

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A lot of Back to the Future content here on The 300s lately, but have you seen these jerseys? My goodness. I gasped when Big Z tipped me off to these bad boys. *This* is how you do a minor league jersey promo.

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Bravo Providence Bruins, bravo.

Brock McGinn Should Get the Key to the City After Willing the Hurricanes to Game 7 Win

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Playoff hockey really is bananas. Brock McGinn single handedly saved the Hurricanes seasons when the Caps were just bombarding them with shots. Saving your team’s season would be enough for most men, but Brock McGinn ain’t most men. He pulled a Happy Gilmore and figured why wait?

Uhh I’ll just beat em now.

Get this man the key to the city!

An Emotional Hockey Moment for Your Friday

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Normally not a “sad stuff” blog but always good to do a bit of reflection.

Hockey man. Those who haven’t put the skates on just can’t quite understand why a moment like this is intense as it is. Why the passion for this game gets to this level for players, former players, fans, coaches, and of course, the mythical “hockey parent”. The game-play itself comes with a thrill that is second to none (no combination of Rugby, clumsy forays into various martial arts, or blacktop hooping have come even close for yours truly), the lows feel like the lowest parts of your life even if you’re in the second grade, and the highs feel like you’re in a packed arena hoisting the cup, even if you’re in a small rink in Hingham in front of 40 some odd, tired spectators.

So I get this kid. I get why it meant the world to him to meet Carey Price. I get why it was his mother’s last pursuit to make it happen.

Cheers to Carey price. Cheers to hockey.

(P.S: I still hate the Canadiens.)

Seattle Just Got an NHL Franchise

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We all knew the day was coming to get the NHL to 32 teams. Vegas joined the league last year in what wound up being the most successful run by an expansion franchise in their inaugural season ever. Seattle will begin play in the 2021-2022 season, the same year my Islanders get their new arena in Belmont. Seattle’s arena situation is a bit different though. They would be playing in a newly renovated KeyArena, which is going under a $700 million overall. When construction is finished, the rink will seat 17,400 for hockey and 18,600 for basketball (pending they’re able to convince the NBA to bring home the Sonics).

Bringing the NHL to a total of 32 teams comes with some obvious changes. First of all, it would require a bit of realignment in the pacific division. The Western Conference currently sits at eight teams in the Pacific with seven in the Central, and if you’ve recently seen where Seattle lines up on a map, you’ll know that they’d have to be placed in the Pacific for this to make any sense. This will require movement from one of the existing Pacific teams, which most experts are pinning on the Arizona Coyotes to make the jump to the Central.

The expansion of a Seattle franchise also will require another expansion draft, a process that seemingly worked out very well for the Vegas Golden Knights last time around. All teams will be able to protect a certain combination of players like in the previous Vegas expansion draft. Bill Daly has confirmed June 2021 for Seattle’s draft. All I can say is if the Seattle franchise can select half as decent as the Golden Knights did, we’ll be in for a competitive team right off the bat.

Finally, the team will need to settle on a name. The Seattle Metropolitans is one I keep seeing thrown around, based on the history the name has with the city.

Over 100 years ago, the Seattle Metropolitans were the first American franchise to ever win the Stanley Cup, before the NHL was even formed. Some are pushing to reinstate that name for the incoming team, but as a lifelong New York Mets fan team, I do not wish that bad juju on anyone.

The Bruins Got Smoked Last Night But Marchand Beat The Bag Out of Someone

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Boston.com – ...the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals opened their title defense with a 7-0 thrashing of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.

After watching the franchise’s first Stanley Cup banner ascend to the rafters, T.J. Oshie opened the scoring just 24 seconds in, and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the first of his two goals 1 1/2 minutes later to get the rout off to a fast start


Optimistic Joey B here with the first Bruins take of the year. I’m not going to sugar coat things too much. Getting shellacked 7-0 including 2 goals in the first minute of the fucking game is not a great look. To the defending champs, in my opinion, is an even worse one. This is the preeminent team to beat in the National Hockey League and we get blanked. Hopefully this is just a “wake the fuck up” game and the B’s can get their engines revved moving forward. Last note before I move on: I didn’t see much of it so I don’t know how many goals against Zdeno Chara’s corpse was on the ice for but let’s hope this can’t be easily pinned on him or there will be calls for his head pretty soon. (Editor’s Note: That is a strong to quite strong take on the 7 footer.)

To the positives and my headline, Brad Marchand beat the shit out of someone. Now, you can view this is kind of like when the season starts in baseball and a player strikes out four times but you are able to say, objectively, they had “good at bats”. Took some good cuts. Didn’t chase a couple you might have expected them to. Made the pitcher work. So, although we did indeed get big brothered by the defending champs, at least we had Noseface doing Noseface things and bloodying some guy up. It’s a reason to stay optimistic and a sign good things lay ahead for our squad.

Not all hope is lost my friends. Boston has kept the Bruins, so Bruins will keep Boston.

-Joey B.

P.S: Deadspin’s headline was something like “Brad Marchand Is Back To Being a Prick” and it made me SQUEAL with joy. Sorry for partying, Deadspin.

Bruins Practice Cancelled Because All Their Equipment Got Stuck in Customs IN CHINA

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If you’re a normal person and you don’t pay attention to preseason hockey then I totally get it; I envy you in fact. However, I couldn’t let the day pass without addressing this story. So just to catch everyone up to speed, the Bruins are currently in China as they’re playing exhibition games against Calgary on Sept. 15 in Shenzhen and Sept. 19 in Beijing.

The bad news? All their equipment got stuck in customs so they had to cancel practice.

Can’t make that up.

The good news? Puck drops Saturday night at 2:30 AM! So when you’re coming back from the bar blind drunk you’ll be able to flip on NHL Network and watch the black and gold til the wee hours. Then they also play on the 19th at 7:30 am so you can have some Bruins with your bacon and eggs that morning.

Hopefully nobody steals any sunglasses though because I don’t think DT45 can get any more Americans out of Chinese prison for shoplifting. That….Trump…..card has already been played. I’ll see myself out.

Bruins Trade Adam McQuaid to the Rangers for Old Friend and Former Bruin Steven Kampfer

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NHL.com – Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced today, September 11, that the team has traded defenseman Adam McQuaid to the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Steven Kampfer, a 2019 fourth-round draft pick and a 2019 conditional seventh-round draft pick.

It’s sad to see Adam McQuaid go as he was always a guy ready to drop the gloves and do the dirty work for the Bruins. He was a brawler that I wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley. However, the Bruins have had a redundancy in the D-pairings for a couple of years now as Kevan Miller is essentially the same player.

So it looks like the B’s were trying to make their D-core a little more dynamic. Enter old friend and former Bruin Steven Kampfer. He actually played on Boston’s Stanley Cup winning team back in 2010-11 when he chipped in with 5 goals and 5 assists.

Kampfer is gonna need a new Bruins number as #47 obviously belongs to Torey Krug. Unless the Bruins trade him as well, which Tony Mazz has said on 98.5 he is convinced they will do this offseason.

Now obviously Kampfer isn’t exactly an elite offensive threat, having registered 10 goals and 16 assists for 26 points in 166 career games. Maybe he’s a bit more skilled defensively than McQuad. Or maybe it’s just the draft picks the Bruins coveted. Perhaps they can dump Kampfer easier than they could McQuaid and make room for the young guys. The Bruins are stocked with young defensemen who are chomping at the bit.  Guys like Jakub Zboril (1st round, 2015), Urho Vaakanainen (1st round, 2017), and Jeremy Lauzon (2nd round, 2015). Some fans are more excited for than others.

Joe Haggerty broke down the top prospects of the B’s and here are a few excerpts on those three guys from Haggs.

“It may be that Zboril ends up being trade bait for the Black and Gold given his talent, his standing as a prospect and the questions they may still have about him as an eventual finished product at the NHL level. Still, the talent is undeniable with Zboril and that’s the most important thing with these prospects.”

“Vaakanainen has the kinds of defensive tools that could make him an NHL player for a long, long time. Vaakanainen is excellent in the defensive zone, solid on the penalty kill and shows a good stick and good instincts in breaking up plays, and combines excellent skating and smart, smooth first passes into good plays out of his own end. All of that adds up to a nice stay-at-home partner to younger puck-moving D-men like Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy, and somebody that should be a solid contributor for a long time.”

“There is very clearly some raw elements to [Lauzon’s] game that need to be further developed at the AHL level. Lauzon posted five goals and 14 points in 13 games during the junior hockey playoffs to finish things off on a good note, and leave the Bruins with an idea of what they might see when he’s ready to go at the NHL level.”

Some of those guys have failed to live up to their draft billing thus far, but it’s probably time for the Bruins to find out one way or another if these young kids will sink or swim.  Whether they can play at the NHL level consistently remains to be seen, but if theres one thing we’ve seen in recent years with the Bruins is that they needed to even out their roster with younger (and cheaper) players as they’ve rebounded from a non-playoff team back into a Stanley Cup contender once again.