Blind refs, blinder judges

Former NHL player Jere Karalahti, who's nowadays making money in Germany, was given a year and 8 months suspended sentence for financing drug deal.

Now, if someone could've proved that he really intentionally gave money for drug business, he should've been sent to jail. But as far as I know, he just knew "wrong" persons, was in wrong place and had loaned money from the same wrong persons. I don't about others but if I owned money for motorbike club, I would pay that back pretty damn fast.

He's crazy and has make some serious mistakes, but when he left HIFK, the team lost its collective balls. And after things like that, I'm not holding my breath waiting for him to come back to "SM--liiga".
I fucking hate this country.

And he was so gold in national team.

And the truth comes from Sweden

Spelar vi som vi vet att vi kan, efter vårt system och våra riktlinjer och dessutom har lite tur så kan vi gå långt. Men vi får se, vi måste ta oss förbi första rundan först.*
- Nicklas Bäckström

Bäckström version 2009, mognare och säkrare :)

*If we play like we know we can, under our system and our rules and have a bit of lucky in addition then we can go long/deep. But we will see, we have to first pass the first round.

Ok, he didn't actually say anything new, but somehow it seems like old truths like that are often forgotten. Or at least teams fail to play by them.

The good thing is that Capitals (at least one of them... ) obviously know that they have to play pretty much perfectly to win. If they can tranform that into the game, they'll be hard to beat.

While everyone have focused on Ovechkin, Bäckström has put up some impressive numbers leading the "blue/gold" (Swedish) points league and being 10th in whole NHL above players like Hossa (who, by the way, is behind Slava Kozlov), St. Louis, Zetterberg and Heatley. When the interviewer mentioned the stats, Bäckström's answer was the one and only right one: "I couldn't have imagine that, mostly because I don't think about things like that during the season - I'm not that kind of person. " And then added with laugh "But it's nice when someone reminds me about it."

(Picture and the quotations from gd.se)

In Swedish hockey partys, clothes are optional

"Foppa was naked - Sudden fell from table"

The. Best. Tittle. Ever.
In so many ways...

Sundin was so impressed from what he saw that he fell? Or was he just too drunk? And why Foppa and some other dudes didn't have any clothes on? So many questions, so little answers...

Anyways, apparentally this happened after 1998 Worlds final where they kicked Finland's ass. Yes, this info increased the level of my suffering.

Here's something about that. In Swedish. But it does include a picture of dude with nothing but few hockey sticks

The story, video and picture from hockeybladet.se

Ovie time vs. Poni ride

So the Capitals will travel all the way to the mother country of hockey (though, we all know it was invented in Europe...) to the tanking city of Toronto. The best outcome for all would be Capitals win since Caps do not wanna start a losing streak and the Leafs do not wanna screw their draft position. At least the fans don't. That's what matters.

Funny fact I haven't noticed: Bäkström (the Swede one) is 4th in assists. Also funny, Niklas Lidström has more assists than any Finnish forward Mikko Koivu excluded. Sigh.

Poni ride!

Since I still luv the Caps..

Thrashers are obviously trying to end their season with style and make Habs life even more miserable tonight in Montreal.

Oh well, whatever, nevermind

Teh stick not so hot anymoar...

Ok, so Atlanta won.
Columbus won.
Even Ottawa won.
Well, they played against Islanders but nevertheless they won.
Capitals? Not so much.

Load up on guns and bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
The game never happened

My beloved team has obviously decided to tank after securing the playoff spot. Smart, isn't it?

Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello

Oh right, the game. 4-1, Carolina won, cancel the parade and so on.

I'm sorta in love with the dude in this vid...

I almost forgot... Leafs are doing the tank wrong (they should ask Caps some help) and beat the Habs. Poni time!

Drop it like it's hot...

So everyone has already seen this but I need a video to make this post look longer...



Here's the thing, Ovechkin is not my favourite player. He's not even my favourite Capitals player. But he is one of the best players in the world and brings back the sexy fun into the NHL. I don't believe he did that celebration to disrespect Tampa. And even if he did so what? Even the owners of Lightning are disrespecting the team with those idiotic player signs they've made... Anyways, anyone who feels offended by that hot stick thing needs to chill. Or get some fucking sense of humour. We only live once, don't waste your time by bitching about a freaking goal celebration.

This is how you do it right

Now something more important... Russian music award show with Sergey and Dima.



There were other clips but this is pure gold...

How to draw a line between clean and dirty hit?

In Allsvenskan (the second highest league in Sweden) Leksands defenseman Antti Jussi Niemi was sent not so gently way to the boards last night game against Rögle. Mathias Tjärnqvist checked him to back and Niemi then hit the board and lost his consciousness for a moment. He did regain consciousness but couldn't leave the ice by himself, as the picture below shows.

Tjärnqvist didn't get penalty for this even though the ref pretty much stood next to them when the hit happened and says that it was a clean hit. It looked like a hit from behind to me, but is it really right to tackle someone so hard you have to know he's gonna get hurt, even if the hit is "clean"?


By now it's clear that Niemi suffered a concussion and has several fracture in his face. Since he has suffered many concussions before, this might end his career as a pro hockey player.

Obviously a penalty wouldn't help Niemi but at least it would've given a signal that it is not ok to injure players (especially in the head) on purpose. Those hits have been problem also in America but not much has been done to fix this.

I find that clean hits are part of hockey but I also find that injuring opponents definitely is not. You can hit hard but make sure "the victim" is not in position to fly to the boards head first. Otherwise, you should at least get a penalty for trying to injure opponent, no matter whether the his was clean or not. And even if it was "clean" wouldn't it be "dirty" since it was ment to hurt opponent?

And if someone claims that Tjärnqvist couldn't know that Niemi would end up in the boards head first, please watch the video



(Pictures and info from hs.fi, info also from hockeyexpressen.se)

This is how we rock in Finland...

Well, technically in Sweden, but the dude is Finnish. It's soooo count.

Meet Timrå defenseman Mikko Lehtinen. He was playing playoffs game against HV 71, trying to clean the puck in the overtime when something weird happened. As the picture above shows, the blade of his skate came off. This led to HV goal and the win tied the serie to 3-3. With a win Timrå would've secured their place in top 4 and HV players would be planning their holidays...

D'oh...

Zigazig ha

I was totally looking for picture of Fedorov to add this post and I got this...
You rock me all night long

Capitals 2 - Predators 1 (OT)

Tell a friend to tell a friend
Capitals back at it again
Like this

See, winning ain't so hard... I prefer regular time wins but two points are two points so I shouldn't complain.

Blowing up like dynamite,
Blowing up like dynamite,
Blowing up like dynamite,
dah dah dah dynamite!

The game didn't start too well Nashville scoring the first goal after 50 seconds of playing. Luckily Theodore was able to pull himself together and said politely no to Predators who tried to score. Bäckström tied the game in the 2nd and Fedorov scored the game winning. Viktor Kozlov assisted both goals.

You might have ammo, you might spark
but you don't send a boy to do a dirty man's job
So I put on my shades, put on my alligator,
pack my shit, kiss my kids, see you later

The penalty summary is quite hilarious. 6 fighting majors, 3 for each team. Though, those fights didn't end p well for Capitals since Brashear was unable to return, Bradley suffered also from some gamages but was able to play. But those fights showed that they're there to play and ready do what ever it takes to win.

Rolling in the scene lika a disco dream
everything's smooth, if you know what I mean
Zooming the babes, you know they start screamin'
I haven't got nothing but I'm gonna lift the ceiling

Even though he didn't score, Semin had once again solid game with assist to the game winning goal, 8 shots on goal, four takaeways and zero penalties.

Atlanta 3 - Colorado 0

I have only one thing to say. WHY YOU COULDN'T PLAY ALL THE GAMES LIKE THAT? Me thinks is little too late for starting winning streaks. Though it's probably nicer to start summer holiday after winning games...

Islanders 2 - Leafs 3

You know, I think winning is not good idea if you're trying to tank... Goals for Mr. Pineapple hater, Poni and some other dude. Gerber is doing relatively good job fighting for NHL goalie status.

Bruins 0 - Blue Jackets 2

Shutout for Mason, goal for Nash, life is good...

Oilers 3 - Canadiens 4

2 goals for Koivu when Habs played first time after firing Carbo. And Oilers lost... I might be laughing.

Football

Champions league

(This is so not how it was supposed to go edition)

Chelsea 2 - Juventus 2
( Chelsea 3 - Juventus 2)

Chelsea got their ticket to quarterfinals with 2-2 tie after winning the first match 1-0. Life sucks and so on. In Del Piero we trust.

Real Madrid 0 - Liverpool 4

No comments, I'm busy with finding my Stoli bottle. Bye bye to Real. I hope Liverpool will get their collective ass kicked so hard they won't be able to sit for years. And the blind ref.

Hey baby give me a spanking...

Well, HIFK totally got spanked by TPS and so not in a good way. After two miserable games the "Beasts" (lazy translation) can start to book their holidays and TPS continue the search for their lost glory.
I have few suggestion to make sure that this kind of early holiday doens't happen again anytime soon. First of all, Ruutu back to HIFK, please? And Karalahti too. Pretty please? I don't know how much more sucking I can take...

Penguins 4 - Capitals 3 (SO)
- The return of the suckfest

Okey, the quality of the feed I was watching really wasn't that great but neither was Capitals game so it was just proper. But for what I was able to see, it looked like once again Semin and Fedorov were the only ones to play at the level they should. Semin has 6 games scoring and no stupid penalties streak and yet Capitals have lost 4 of their last 6 games, 4 in a row.

Bäckström also continued his streak with stupid penalties ending up opponent's scoring. Well done. At least Crosby didn't get a chance to pull a 5 year old girl imitation after own goal by Nicklas.

Despite the brutal start and Pens' 3-1 lead after two period, the Capitals start the 3rd period the way they should've played the entire game and scored 2 goals in less than a minute. Though, the Penguins weren't playing that stunning so that might explains the two goals. After that quick start pretty much nothing happened and it went through scoringless overtime to the skill competition. Sadly, Crosby was the only one to score and Penguins won. And I lost my faith in justice.

Calgary 2 - Atlanta 5

See? Even Atlanta can win and they're already elimated from the playoffs. Maybe they just want to leave with style. Or maybe they should've play like that all the season and be in the playoffs...

Anyways, Lehtinen won the battle of Finnish goalies, Kovalchuk kept being awesome and Tobias Enström scoed a goal somewhere during his sick 25:16 minutes of ice time.

Other game notes

• Anaheim lost to Minnesota, no points for Finns and Bäckström saved 36/38.
• Islanders continued their winning streak with the victory over Phoenix.
• Both Antropov and Chara got 1+1 when Rangers beat Bruins.

Whip...

Cool board of the week, how can it be edition

SERIOUSLY UNCOOL
(Aka Jeremy Clarkson does not approve. At all.)

• Capitals losing streak. Seriously, the hell? You have almost sure place in the playoffs, so you can take it easy and chill? Hakuna matata to you too boyz...
  
• HIFK is trying to get out of the playoffs too. I really would like to rock the red, but my teams in red definitely don't rock at the moment..
• Trade deadline. Everything shitty happened. Sigh.
  
• World baseball classic. I'm still not quite sure what the hell it is, but it should be cancelled anyway. I want hockey, not some stupid sport with stupid rules and stupid players in stupid jerseys. It's stupid.
  

UNCOOL

• Anaheim is also trying to stay out of the playoffs. I don't approve.
• Leafs totally blowing their tank by winning.
• Toskalo out due to a surgery.
  

COOL

• Leafs winning. PLAYOFFS! Or not. One of the two.
• Pens are winning too. And without Crosby. I'm not laughing. Seriously.
  
• Safin beat some Romanian dude in Davis cup match.
• Nadal beat Tipsarevic in Davis Cup match. Tennis rules so much.
• Kopitar is still sorta playing like he should.
• ManU and Chelsea beat some crappy teams on their way to get closer to FA Cup. I think
• Thrashers are winning too. Stop laughing, they just kicked some "Canadien" party ass.
• Sean Bergenheim hat trick
  

SUB ZERO

• In Freddie we trust...

How can it be?

Tainted love

This is not a dream
IT'S A FUCKING NIGHTMARE

Darth Gerber 2 - Semin 1

Sometimes I feel I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me

So, Capitals are trying to stay as number one in Southeast and as high as possible in East and Toronto is trying to tank to get good draft pick. I have a feeling that last night's game didn't go like it was supposed to go...

The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
I've lost my lights
I toss and turn I can't sleep at night

Where's the panic button? No seriously, they've lost their last 3 games. That kinda like sucks, don't you think? Semin has played his best games and rest of the team does nothing? Trés bien. Trés fucking bien.
Actually, Fedorov has played well too. But really, he's too awesome to suck.

Take my tears and that's not nearly all

I'm sure there were other and better games somewhere but I just don't care anymore.

Freddie time!

Trade recap with Freddie

I would really like to write about Capitals but since they did absolutely nothing I have to write about other teams.

Really, they think they're gonna fight for Stanley cup with one NHL goalie and the current defense? Book your golf trips boyz, you're gonna have long holiday...
I'm not saying that Theodore is bad, but the truth is that if he gets injured or otherwise sick during the playoffs, we will have either Varlamov or Neuvirth in the net. Both are solid goalies but they both have only played couple games in NHL. Somehow, I don't feel comfortable to put in the net in conference final...

Before this goes too sad, Freddie time!!

I feel much better now.

So, the trades. Toronto send Nik Antropov to the Rangers. Seriously, I think part of my heart died when that came public. I understand players are traded and stuff but there're like 20 teams in NHL that I don't hate and the just had to send him to one of those I really hate. I has very sad.


Olli Jokinen was traded from Phoenix to Calgary, which just happens to be on my "I hate" list. Fuck. And to make things even worse, Flames are actually going to be in playoffs. If they have success there, Jokinen won't play in the Worlds. My life is seriously shattered.

Shit, he's going to Seattle? I need more Freddie time to recover from previous Freddie time...

Better.

This is not a trade but it will do. Vesa Toskala's season is over and his going to surgery. This is very weird since he has just had his best fucking month. You're really telling me that he has played his best games injured? In that case, no surgery and Vesa to Worlds.

For the Arsenal haters...

Also worth to mention, Satan has been sent to minors. And my heart died little more.

Ain't that kick in the head?

When the game is on TV
Blood rushes trough my veins
The thought of Stanley Cup
Is driving me insane

Is it too late to jump on KHL bandwagon?

Carolina 5 - Washington 2

Really bad that if Capitals keep playing like this, it's more likely that I'll be celebrating World championship instead of Stanley Cup... Oh well, one can't get everything.

So, once again they lost to a team which is fighting for a playoff place. Well done. I watched the highlights and haven't stop crying since. I'm pretty sure there are not too many team which have managed to give 2 penalty shots to the opponent in following games. And while we're talking about stupid things, how about 2 shorthanded goals scored by Canes? Are you freaking kidding me??

Surprisingly the Caps did score two goals somewhere between ignoring the defense part of the game and leaving rookie goalie to survive by himself. Semin's goal was great and his pass for Fedorov's goal was siply brilliant. Too bad that there are no style points in hockey and all this end up with zero points for Capitals.

Other, equally sucking games

• With 4-3 loss, Atlanta became the second Southeast victim for the Kitties in few days
  
• Crosby-less Penguins marched over Tampa 3-1. This just proves that Sid is totally useless
• LA 4 - Columbus 5. Goal for Kopitar and 2 assists for Nash
• Devils beat Leafs 3-2 in ovetime despite the fact that Toskala finally manage to keep his legs closed. Sigh

Because hotties make everything better

Sometimes a perfect picture's not so perfect

And sometimes a team full of firepower fail to show up.

My passion is pain
I do dirt to bury shame
I'm victimized an instituion's no solution

That might explain why I'm stuck with losers...

Kitties 6 - Crapitals 2

• I feel so sorry for Theodore. True, he didn't have A game night but he did save the penalty shot and at least one of the goals wasn't his fault since one of the Capitals stood right in front of him. How the hell he's supposed to see the damn puck?
• If you score the first goal, the idea is like to keep the lead...
• PK in the first period didn't actually even exist.
• Neuvirth had solid game
• People keep bitching about Semin's penalties (zero last night) and yet Mr. Bäckström is the one who's been witnessing the winning goals in the box...
• The game wouldn't be the same without the traditional puck over glass penalty
• In the end of the game Panthers goalie Anderson decided to pull Tommy Salo impression and let Ovechkin to score.
  
  
  
  

Elsewhere in the wild wild west

• At least Pens kicked Star's collective ass 4-1 without the whiny captain. Malkin 1+2 and Satan 1 goal
• ManU beat Tottenham in the Carling Cup final

Shirts are like sooo overrated...