Mad Max's Moves

Most people really hate the shootout. Like stepping in a puddle, getting stuck in an elevator, or having to sit through an episode of Two and a Half Men level of hate. But there's no denying that Maxim Lapierre's shootout goal to give the Montreal Canadiens a 5-4 win over the Senators on Saturday night was pretty interesting.

Lapierre started off slow, going at what could best be described as the pace of tortoise, but then became the haire and sped up and put it past Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott for the win.

I was watching this game live and I literally threw my drink at the tv when Laps started out slow like that. I even started to reach for my car keys to make the four hour drive to Ottawa and knock some sense into him. Lord know at that pace I would have gotten there well before he even reached the net.

Here's video of the innovative shootout goal.

And here's ESPN's recap of the goal. Check out what they call Lapierre. I didn't know he happened to change his last name. How did I miss that? I guess I'm just not as up on things as a major international sports network.

Highlights-a-Plenty

The Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars put on quite a show Monday night, with the Stars surprisingly winning 5-4 in overtime. Ooooooooh-vahtime! Sorry, I just like saying it like that.

The game featured quite a few highlight reel saves and goals. Too many in fact for me to talk about them seperately. If I did pinpoint each and everyone of them, I'd be here all day. And I have a manicure/pedicure appointment to go to. It's ok to pamper yourself, it doesn't make you any less of a man. Right?...

Here are the highlights from the game...

Lights Out Lang

During Wednesday night's Canadiens vs. Rangers game, Habs veteran Robert Lang scored a beauty of a goal which might be a goal of the year candidate but I'm not entirely sure. It could be a candidate but there have been so many more spectcular goals which would easily beat it. So why just nominate it for the sake of being nominated. That's like when actors say it's just an honour to be nominated for an award. It's a complete lie.

More about the goal, Lang takes the puck in over the Blueshirts' blueline and then dekes the pants off Rangers d-man Marc Staal. [ed. note: His pants actually stayed on. It's just a saying.] Lang then puts the puck past Henrik Lundqvist top shelf - or 'Roof Daddy' as Pierre McGuire would say - for his second goal of the game. Lang would later go on to score on an empty net late in the third for his second career hat trick.

You know what's amazing about this goal? That Lang is 39 years old and is still able to pull off moves like this. When I'm 39, I bet I'm going to be so stiff and out of shape that getting out of a chair too fast will make me sore. Who am I kidding? I'm only 24 and I'm already kind of like that.

Five Alive!

As you may know by now, Canada's drive for five is complete with a 5-1 victory over Sweden on Monday night. The win gives the Canadian juniors it's fifth straight gold medal, which ties the country's record of five consecutive titles in this tournament set between 1993 and 1997. Canada's 15th gold at the world juniors also tied Russia/Soviet Union for the all-time lead. Take that you former Commies!

There was immense pressure on this team to win a fifth gold medal and do it on home ice. But the majority of Canadian players were making their first and only appearance in the world juniors and they just wanted their gold medal.

"Coach always stressed this was our story," said John Tavares who was tied for the tournament lead wiith eight goals. "It's obviously special to be a part of the fifth, but it was never about tying the record. It was just getting a gold for everyone and winning on home ice for all these Canadians."

Goaltending had been a question mark all through out the tournament but it was not at all an issue on Monday. As Dustin Tokarski of the Spokane Chiefs rose to the occassion, only allowing one goal on 40 shots, and backstopping Team Canada to the gold.

"Tokarski was very good tonight and I was happy to see that because there was some question in the other games," Head coach Pat Quinn said. "But tonight he was one of the keys ... because he made some key saves when he had to have them."

Each of the last three years, it looked like the run of gold could be over. There was a semifinal shootout win versus the U.S. in 2007, an overtime win against the Sweden last year and another narrow 6-5 shootout victory against Russia in this year's semifinal.

Canada was only five seconds away from playing for bronze versus Russia when Jordan Eberle tied the game.

"It's the heart and our passion for the game of hockey," said Tavares. "No matter is what is thrown at us, or what people say, or the adversity we face we learn how to deal with it and we become so close as a team. We really learn how to be strong as 22 guys playing as one."

Check out the video highlights below, complete with Swedish goalie Jacob Markstrom's soccer-like diving all over the ice, and singing of "O, Canada." As James Duthie said during the broadcast on TSN, "The original lyrics of 'O, Canada' never contained the word 'woooo!', but tonight it fits."

[Source]

Tokarski Saves

Team Canada beat the US 7-4 on New Year's Eve in one of the most exciting and memorable World Junior games I can ever remember seeing. Which isn't saying much because I have a terrible memory. That's what happens when your parents frequently drop you on your head when you're a baby.

The game had everything. Goals, hits, cheap shots by Team USA while Canada was celebrating in front of their bench, and also some big saves. The biggest save of all coming from Canadian netminder Dustin Tokarski late in the second period.

With American player Colin Wilson all alone in front and holding the puck for what seemed like forever, or 48 seconds at the very least, Tokarski played the waiting game to perfection and made one of the most brilliant saves of the year by absolutely stoning Wilson with the glove.

"The guy was left open in front," explained Tokarksi. "I went down and just played it like I should. He made a good move and I was just out of position. I dove at it, battled, and just made the save."

The save is pretty great but analyst Pierre McGuire's reaction is even better. Most people hate McGuire because of this type of over the top excitement. To be honest I like him because any commentator that screams at the top of his lungs and can make nasally play-by-play man Gord Miller shut up for a few seconds is fine with me.

Kazakhstan Is Not Good At Hockey

According to the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America, or Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which I assume is a correct portrayal of Kazakhstan, there are a few things that Kazakhs are good at. Ping pong, disco dance, and being the number one exporter of potassium.

Not included in that list is hockey. And we saw the reason why during an embarassing 15-0 defeat at the hands of Team Canada on Sunday. That loss coming just a day after being steamrolled 8-0 by Germany.

It was not a pretty game to watch. Canada outshot the Kazakhs 69-11, and you could have fielded a team from the people watching in the stands and it would have possibly went better. Maybe a bantam or peewee team would have even had better luck. Even if Canada didn't dress a goalie, benched Chet Pickard and played the whole game with an empty net, they still would have won.

For those of you who enjoy watching people suffer, here are the highlights (maybe lowlights is the proper word) from the game.

Terrific Toews

As you regular readers know, there's never any posting here on The Power Play on the weekend. That's because I'm usually busy with other things like espionage, assasinations, and romancing international super models.

But as fun as all that stuff is, it does mean that I sometimes miss some pretty awesome stuff that happens in the world of hockey. More awesome than the international super model part? Well no, but you know what I'm talking about.

Well a pretty amazing thing happened on Saturday during the Chicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings game and I thought I needed to bring it to your attention in case you missed it on one of those sports highlights shows or the 9,428 other hockey blogs on the interweb.

Basically what happened is Hawks captain Jonathan Toews pulled off some pretty sweet moves and deked around Dan Cleary of the Wings to score what might be the goal of the year.

All I can say is that I hope nobody shot the puck at around Cleary's midsection the rest of the game, because Toews absolutely deked him out of his jock.

Kovy's Sweet Move

Sunday's game between the Montreal Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues went into a shootout, and it was in that shootout where one of the most talented men in the game showed off his skills.

It was all up to Alex Kovalev. He was the last shooter for the Habs and all he had to do was put the puck past Manny Legace to give Montreal a much needed win. Kovy showed off a pretty sweet back-hand move and found the back of the net, and Habs fans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. After admiring the sweet deke by Kovalev of course.

It seemed like he took forever to do something with the puck, and ultimately his patience outlasted Legacy's. That's why I could never be an NHL goalie. As soon as Kovalev would have been inside the blue line I would have been down one the ice. But that really has more to do with the fact that I'm not a good skater, and less to do with my strategy for facing Alex Kovalev in a shootout.

The Price is Right

In a pre-season game against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, Canadiens goalie Carey Price made what many are calling the save of the year before the year even started. Well mostly that's what TSN analyst Pierre McGuire said about the save when he got all giddy like a little girl.

The way Price turns around and bats the puck out of the air could mean that if this whole goalie thing doesn't work out, he could have a career as a baseball slugger. Watch out Manny Ramirez!

Check out the video below of one of the most amazing saves you'll ever see.

A Night to Remember in Hockeyville

For the residents of Roberval Quebec, it was truly a night to remember as the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens came into town to do battle in front of newly crowned Hockeyville.

The whole town shut down for the day as this was a once in a lifetime moment. Something that everyone in the village of just over 11,000 will remember for the rest of their lives and tell their grandkids about.

The people of Roberval spent months preparing for Kraft Hockeyville 2008, trying to show every hockey fan in Canada that they deserved those 2,198,665 votes the small town received some six months ago in the CBC contest. But the more than $300,000 went towards improving Benoit Levesque Arena (capacity 1200) was all worth it once the NHL came to town.

It was worth every penny and every sacrifice. Three years ago, such a contest didn’t even exist. Three years ago, the idea that the Montreal Canadiens could play a game in such an atmosphere would have secured you a one way trip to the crazy house.

Fast forward to Tuesday night, when everyone in Robervale came together to witness the once in a lifetime event. Fathers held their sons and pointed out some of today’s brightest stars. Youppi! and Sabretooth walked around the arena to deliver high-fives to children who thought they’d never see their favorite mascots in the flesh. After all, Montreal is about six hours south of here. Yes, Roberval is that far north.

Even if Montreal had lost (the Canadiens didn’t disappoint their rabid fans with a 3-2 victory), Roberval still won.

“This is better than Christmas!” one woman in the crowd said.

Here are the highlights from the very special game. They're in french though so you'll have to make up your own commentary. I even do that for english highlights but that's because I like to hear the sound of my own voice.

[Source]