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.

Notable Quotable of the Day

''You try to trust your best guys. It's those guys that cost us the game.''

- Senators coach Craig Hartsburg blaming Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza for the Sens' 6-4 loss to the Bruins, after they made two bonehead plays/giveaways that led to goals.

Mmmmm Fingers

Just when you thought hockey couldn't get any violenter, (is that a word?) along comes Jarkko Ruutu of the Ottawa Senators.

Tuesday night during the Sens vs. Sabres game, Ruutu and Sabres tough guy Andrew Peters were roughing it up along the boards when Ruutu reached a whole new level of craziness.

As Andrew Peters was giving the Sens goon a face wash with his glove, Ruutu proceeded to bite down hard on Peters' glove. So hard that Peters could feel it through the glove and was in a considerable amount of pain.

After the game when asked about the biting incident, Peters seemed just as surprised as I would have been in the same situation. Except I would've used a lot more swear words.

"I've never experienced that before," said Peters, "I've been in a few altercations before, and I've never had anyone bite me before. I didn't even know that happened, for real."

This is a pretty bizarre situation, and here's the thing. I know times have been tough for the Ottawa Senators as of late, what with only winning two games in their last ten. But are they so bad that head coach Craig Hartsburg is with holding food from the team and Ruutu was just so hungry and couldn't take it anymore so all of a sudden Andrew Peters started to look especially delicious? Because if that's the case, then I think we have an even bigger issue on our hands. (Pun intended)

Check out the video of the incident and post game reactions from seemingly everybody. I'm even pretty sure I saw Barack Obama in there somewhere. Which is surprising because you'd think he has bigger things to deal with these days.

Obvious Disciplinary Update (3:27pm): Ruutu has been suspended for two games. I guess you could say the NHL has bit back! Oooooh, burn!

Third Jersey Round Up

Over the weekend while I was busy sobbing like a baby during the Patrick Roy ceremony, and while you were busy searching Craigslist for local hook-ups, a whole slew of NHL teams released their third jerseys. I'm really not thrilled with the fact that they're mostly all black. No that's not me being racist, I do support Barack Obama after all. Changing topics, let's take a closer look at the third jerseys...

San Jose Sharks - Not too much of a departure from their current home jerseys, but now the Shark has a tail! And they've got drawstrings and shoulder patches! Where can I drop $120 for these?

Los Angeles Kings - This is one of the rare occassions where I like the black jerseys. Mostly because there's no purple on them and these harken back to the Kings jerseys from the 90's. I only wish they would've went 100% with the retro look and brought back the old logo, or Wayne Gretzky. Or maybe a Wayne Gretzky logo!












Tampa Bay Lightning - Words as a logo? Words as a logo?! So now I have to read when I watch hockey? That is not cool with me Tampa Bay. Not cool at all! Also can I start calling them the Tampa Bay Bolts? Dangerously close to the Indianapolis Colts if you ask me. Colts or Bolts, which team is which? I hope I don't confuse Peyton Manning for Vincent Lecavalier. The French Canadian guy is the quarterback right? Damn! It's started already.
























Phoenix Coyotes - These duds challenge Atlanta and Philly's third sweaters for worst in the league. Where did they get that logo? Off the side of a Greyhound bus? And as if these sweaters weren't bad enough, they went with red helmets and pants to add to the overall hideousness.
























Ottawa Senators - See my Tampa Bay notes from above in regards to not wanting to read a logo. Though I do like the stripes on the sleeves. They're mesmerizing. But that also might be due to the hallucenagetic drugs.
















Boston Bruins - Black jerseys have been in Boston for as long as baked beans, clam chowder, and jumping on the Patriots bandwagon when they're winning. i.e. Forever. So I'm fine with the colour, and I also like the crest on the chest. Though I think by featuring a bear on their logo, the Boston Bruins have made themselves a powerful enemy in Stephen Colbert.

Ruu-Two

Ottawa Senators goon Jarkko Ruutu has been suspended for two games as a result of elbowing Canadiens forward Maxim Lapierre during Tuesday night's game.

Ruutu was assessed a two-minute minor penalty for charging, as well as a five-minute major for fighting Francis Bouillon right after the dirty elbow.

Ruutu will miss a home-and-home series against the New York Islanders on November 13 and 15, and will forfeit $13,978.50 in pay.

Okay, so I know this might get some flack but how does Ruutu only get two games for this when Habs tough guy Tom Kostopoulos got three games for a well meaning clean hit on Mike Van Ryn? With Ruutu here's a guy who is a repeat offender who went right after Lapierre and delivered a nasty elbow right to the head. I don't get it. Did the league feel like they had to make an example of Kostopoulos because it was a high profile game between the Habs and the Leafs? Either way, something doesn't smell right. And no it's not me, I remembered to shower today.

Here's video of the elbowing incident and the resulting fight. Judge for yourself, Judgy McJudgerson...

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May The Force Be With You

You can count Martin Gerber of the Ottawa Senators among the list of goalies who will be sporting a new mask this season.

Gerber is apparently looking to capitalize off his nickname Darth Gerber as his new mask's design is of Darth Vader from Star Wars.

Does anybody else smell a lawsuit from George Lucas coming?

I would critique this mask or say something bad, but I'm worried Gerber might use the force against me and perhaps choke me doing that Darth Vader trick where he pinches his fingers together. Or he could at the very least challenge me to a lightsaber fight and then tell me he's my father.

Reebok Is Puntastic!

Next weekend the NHL will opening up their season with four games in Europe. Two in Sweden featuring the Pens and Sens (that rhymes!), the other in the Czech Republic featuring the Lightning and Rangers. (Considerably less rhymier)

To capitalize on the event, the NHL Shop has just released two shirts from Reebok as seen above.

Yes those are 100% real. I didn't make them up. And they'll cost you $26.99 plus shipping for them.

I mean I joke about how lame they are but secretly I wish I could dish out edgy puns like that. Because it's that sort of cheesy punnery that I aspire to here on The Power Play. I think I need to hire some of the RBK designers to start writing here.

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