#69
Biscuits and Breezers
Welcome back to another blog of Biscuits and Breezers! In this blog we will be talking about the NHL Scouting Combine, Gregory Campbell breaking his leg, and Duncan Keith's suspension. Starting off with Campbell. During game 3 of the Eastern Finals, Gregory Campbell of Boston suffered a broken right fibula due to blocking a wicked slap shot from the Russian Beast Evgeni Malkin. Even though Boston went on to unfortunately sweep Pittsburgh, I have to give enormous credit to this guy. He stayed out on the ice and finished a more than a minute long shift before going back to the bench to the team physicians. He knew he was in a shooting lane, Geno was going to score on Rask, and he had to do something about it. He sacrificed his own being for the team and ultimately for the cup. This is proof of enormous amounts of dedication and drive to succeed. In the end the Bruins went on to win the game 2-1 in double overtime. I was watching the game at the time and I couldn't believe the Bruins. Their game was attack, attack, attack, don't release, and defend. They were a completely different team than they were during the regular season. It has been 21 years but Jaromir Jagr is finally back in the Stanley Cup finals. Not to be too critical but I think that since he is getting closer to the end of his NHL career, he deserves to win at least one more cup. He works extremely hard on every shift and almost never gets the recognition he should. He came to Pittsburgh as a hated hero and he left almost as a traitor. You have to do what you have to do for your team no matter the circumstances. They are your family. Even though I really didn't want the outcome of this series I have to congratulate the Bruins on their sweep. Good luck in the Stanley Cup Finals! I still wish my Pens could have gone on to win! Maybe next year boys! The Chicago Blackhawks have beaten the current cup champions, the L.A. Kings, to move onto the Stanley Cup Finals. It will be a Chicago vs. Boston final, very interesting. Bet no one could have thought of this outcome! Lets see what happens now. Everything is up in the air!
Every year before the NHL Draft, there is a scouting combine to take a deeper look at the prospects and get the in depth measurements instead of just the stats. There such stations as body fat percentage, V02 bike, power test, stamina test, number of reps , vertical jump, balance, weight toss, and many more. Now at the 2013 NHL Combine in Toronto, there were many surprises that arose, both good and bad. Held at the Toronto International Centre, players were put to the test to show the NHL and it's teams why they should be chosen and be given their first official NHL jersey with their name stuck on the back. The first day was for the North American skaters and the second was for the Europeans. I would like to share the results with you all so let's get the show on the road! Tyler Lewington of the Medicine Hat Tigers recorded the most push ups with 42, coming in front of Rimouski Oceanic's Jan Kostalek having 37, and then (United States National Team Development Program) USNTDP's John Hayden and Portland Winterhawks' Nicolas Petan with 36. Lewingtion finished first again on the strength measurement at 341.0 lbs. He was followed closely by Linkoping's Viktor Crus Rydberg at 307.0 pounds. Crus Rydberg then pulled to first in the pull strength test at 344.0 lbs followed by Nizhnekamsk's center Bogdan Yakimov at 311.0 lbs. Rimouski's Samuel Morin had the highest peak power output on the Wingate Ergometer bike with 15.8 watts per kilogram of body weight. Seattle Thunderbirds' Shea Theodore also had 15.8 watts. The next runner up was Portland Winterhawks defenseman Oliver Bjorkstand with 14.9 watts. The next test was the V02 Max test. Everett Silvertips Mirco Mueller lasted longest at 14:30. Owen Sound Attack defenseman Chris Bigras also has 14:30. Quebec Remparts forwards and skilled Finn Rasmus Ristolainen clocked in at 14:00. London Knights forward Bo Horvat and Ottawa 67's center Monahan also clocked in at 14:00. Adam Tambellini of the Surrey Eagles had the lowest body fat percentage of 5.0. Halifax Mooseheads Jonathan Drouin had 5.4% body fat and his team mate Nathan MacKinnon had 7.6% body fat. The longest wingspan was obtained by Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks and Victoriaville Tigres defenseman Jonathan Ismael-Diaby at 81 inches. London Knights defenseman Nikita Zadorov had a 80.5 wingspan. The longest throw of the 4 km medicine ball came from Saginaw Spirit forward Nick Moutrey at 246 inches. USNTDP forward right wing Michael McCarron threw 241 inches and Bratislava center Marko Dano tossed 232 inches. Hopefully we will see some of these guys get drafted in the 1st round in New Jersey later on this June. Good luck boys! You can find the top tens of these events and more at http://www.nhl.com/ice/blogpost.htm?id=18183!
Last but not least we have Duncan Keith. You you all probably know him from his current career with the Chicago Blackhawks. More recently people have been knowing him from the slash he gave to L.A. Kings Jeff Carter's face. During Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, Keith was reaching down for a dropped glove when Carter decided to whack it out of the way or even to intentionally hit Keith's hand. Before this event occurred, both of these players had gotten up in each other's face almost breaking out in a fist fight to where Duncan Keith had already thrown his gloves off. Going back to retrieve the lost mitt both of these enforcers thought it would be a good idea to rough each other up a little bit more. This resulted in a 20 stitch cut and dental damage to Jeff Carter and a 1 game suspension, double minor penalty for Duncan Keith. After trying to pick up the mitt and getting it knock away, Duncan purposely threw the blade of his stick up to Carter's face and just ripped a large gash into the right side. Here is a video for you all from YouTube so you can see what happened! Keith is a repeat offender of the high sticking penalty so this really isn't all that out of his league but it definitely was one of the ones that caused the most injury. Everyone knows as well as I do that absolutely nothing gets passed the eyes of Brendan Shanahan. I think that it could just have been a five minute major or a game misconduct. Not a game suspension.
Every year before the NHL Draft, there is a scouting combine to take a deeper look at the prospects and get the in depth measurements instead of just the stats. There such stations as body fat percentage, V02 bike, power test, stamina test, number of reps , vertical jump, balance, weight toss, and many more. Now at the 2013 NHL Combine in Toronto, there were many surprises that arose, both good and bad. Held at the Toronto International Centre, players were put to the test to show the NHL and it's teams why they should be chosen and be given their first official NHL jersey with their name stuck on the back. The first day was for the North American skaters and the second was for the Europeans. I would like to share the results with you all so let's get the show on the road! Tyler Lewington of the Medicine Hat Tigers recorded the most push ups with 42, coming in front of Rimouski Oceanic's Jan Kostalek having 37, and then (United States National Team Development Program) USNTDP's John Hayden and Portland Winterhawks' Nicolas Petan with 36. Lewingtion finished first again on the strength measurement at 341.0 lbs. He was followed closely by Linkoping's Viktor Crus Rydberg at 307.0 pounds. Crus Rydberg then pulled to first in the pull strength test at 344.0 lbs followed by Nizhnekamsk's center Bogdan Yakimov at 311.0 lbs. Rimouski's Samuel Morin had the highest peak power output on the Wingate Ergometer bike with 15.8 watts per kilogram of body weight. Seattle Thunderbirds' Shea Theodore also had 15.8 watts. The next runner up was Portland Winterhawks defenseman Oliver Bjorkstand with 14.9 watts. The next test was the V02 Max test. Everett Silvertips Mirco Mueller lasted longest at 14:30. Owen Sound Attack defenseman Chris Bigras also has 14:30. Quebec Remparts forwards and skilled Finn Rasmus Ristolainen clocked in at 14:00. London Knights forward Bo Horvat and Ottawa 67's center Monahan also clocked in at 14:00. Adam Tambellini of the Surrey Eagles had the lowest body fat percentage of 5.0. Halifax Mooseheads Jonathan Drouin had 5.4% body fat and his team mate Nathan MacKinnon had 7.6% body fat. The longest wingspan was obtained by Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks and Victoriaville Tigres defenseman Jonathan Ismael-Diaby at 81 inches. London Knights defenseman Nikita Zadorov had a 80.5 wingspan. The longest throw of the 4 km medicine ball came from Saginaw Spirit forward Nick Moutrey at 246 inches. USNTDP forward right wing Michael McCarron threw 241 inches and Bratislava center Marko Dano tossed 232 inches. Hopefully we will see some of these guys get drafted in the 1st round in New Jersey later on this June. Good luck boys! You can find the top tens of these events and more at http://www.nhl.com/ice/blogpost.htm?id=18183!
Last but not least we have Duncan Keith. You you all probably know him from his current career with the Chicago Blackhawks. More recently people have been knowing him from the slash he gave to L.A. Kings Jeff Carter's face. During Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals, Keith was reaching down for a dropped glove when Carter decided to whack it out of the way or even to intentionally hit Keith's hand. Before this event occurred, both of these players had gotten up in each other's face almost breaking out in a fist fight to where Duncan Keith had already thrown his gloves off. Going back to retrieve the lost mitt both of these enforcers thought it would be a good idea to rough each other up a little bit more. This resulted in a 20 stitch cut and dental damage to Jeff Carter and a 1 game suspension, double minor penalty for Duncan Keith. After trying to pick up the mitt and getting it knock away, Duncan purposely threw the blade of his stick up to Carter's face and just ripped a large gash into the right side. Here is a video for you all from YouTube so you can see what happened! Keith is a repeat offender of the high sticking penalty so this really isn't all that out of his league but it definitely was one of the ones that caused the most injury. Everyone knows as well as I do that absolutely nothing gets passed the eyes of Brendan Shanahan. I think that it could just have been a five minute major or a game misconduct. Not a game suspension.
Now for the "Players of Today"! For the Junior pick we have Helena Bighorns forward Parker Olson. For the Prospects pick we have London Knights defenseman Nikita Zadorov. For the European pick we have Malmo Allsvenskan left/right wing Andre Burakovsky.
Parker is 6 ft 2 in, 160 lbs, and is from New Richmond, Wisconsin, USA. In the 2012-2013 season, Parker had 27 goals in 47 games played, 32 assists, 59 TPs, a +/- of 63, 8 PIMs, 5 power play goals, 10 power play assists, 1 short handed goal, and 3 game winning goals. Where to start with Parker. This guy is amazing. I mean just look at his plus/minus. You can take a look at his total points as well but that still doesn't justify what an amazing player he truly is. I love to watch this guy come out on the ice because you always know something exciting will happen. Olson is a terrific goal scorer who always puts it deep with style and class. He can do it any way too. Backhanded, shorthanded, a blue liner, pocket, top cheese, etc. It doesn't really matter. The only constants here are that it will be done and there will be some sort of hockey swag involved. Keeping track of Helena's games as usual, sometimes during games all the score box will say is his name. He is definitely a play maker and loved not only on the ice but in the locker room as well. If I was a coach looking at Parker, it would definitely be a mistake not to add him to my roster. He doesn't make all the physical moves necessarily but on occasion he will produce a really nice, clean, hard check. This guy is definitely precise and to the point with his game and that's how it should be. You are going very far my friend. Good luck Parker with Helena and your future hockey career!
Nikita is 6 ft 5 in, 229 lbs, and is from Moskva, Russia. In the 2012-2013 season, Nikita had 6 goals in 63 games played, 19 assists, 25 TPs, 54 PIMs, and a +/- of 33. Zadorov is expected to go 11th overall in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft to the Philadelphia Flyers. I think that if he does indeed got to the Flyers, they both would benefit from it. Philly needs more help on their blue line and Nikita gets drafted on to a fierce team that he could learn to thrive in. It is as plain and simple as that. He is definitely a huge defenseman and capable of doing huge things. If he plays his cards right he will be signed right away and shipped off to summer training camp. His checks are enormous and his shot is almost unstoppable. When he is able to get a clear enough spot from the blue line, he just rips it. You could compare him to Shea Weber of Nashville or Brent Seabrook of Chicago. He just plays a massive game that is fit for NHL standards. Silky mitts and quick skates makes this guy a complete package. I wouldn't be surprised if he was drafted earlier than expected. Good luck Nikita with the Knights, the draft, and your future hockey career!
Andre is 6 ft 1 in, 179 lbs, and was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, but is a Swedish hockey player. In the 2012-2013 season, Andre had 4 goals in 43 games played, 7 assists, 11 TPs, 8 PIMs, and has a +/- of -2. He is expected to go 16th overall in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft to the Buffalo Sabres. Andre is one of those players you wouldn't expect these big things to happen from. He is sort of the element of surprise to most teams. He is definitely a sneak attack player so to speak. Burakovsky likes to slip through and get the puck and leave but yet he can check like a much larger guy. He has such sick hands and amazingly fast speed that he doesn't have to be that big bulky player. I like how this guy plays because it definitely more strategy to him than the physical aspects. I think that he could help Buffalo out quite a bit because they are in a deficit of goal scorers and if he can use his strategy out on the NHL ice, he can make thing happen with the veterans and the other rookies. Curiosity makes me want to follow this guy just a little bit more! Good luck with Malmo, the draft, and your future hockey career!
Thanks for reading another blog of Biscuits and Breezers! Every episode will be filled with updated hockey news, player reviews, and so much more! Until next time remember, don't get your breezers in a bunch because hockey is always around the corner. Remember, it's always a great day for hockey and it's a lifestyle not just a sport!
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