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The Devils: Now That’s a Story Worth Writing

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

When the New Jersey Devils woke up, the team was dead last in the National Hockey League with a record of 10-29-2. Nobody could really understand how a team that was a perennial playoff contender and the Stanley Cup champions in 2003, could have fallen on such hard times.

Well, many people blamed president and GM Lou Lamoriello for hiring John MacLean as head coach and even more blamed Lamoriello for giving Ilya Kovalchuk $100 million over 15 years, but no matter where the media pointed its fingers, it was ultimately at the boss.

Not any more. Saturday night, the Devils drilled the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1. It was the third time in 12 days the Devils have beaten the Hurricanes to move from 16 points back of the eighth-place ‘Canes to 10. With 23 games left, the race is on.

“It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?” Devils forward Brian Rolston, told the Newark Star-Ledger. “This is fun.”

It’s also fun to watch.

Since Lamoriello fired MacLean, the Devils have turned around a lost season. With 65-year-old Jacques Lemaire behind the bench (for the third time), the Devils have gone 15-1-2 in their last 18 games. They’ve won seven straight games and improved to 25-30-4 . They’ve moved out of last place, past the Islanders and Ottawa and into 13th in the East. They still have to pass over four teams to get to Carolina, but the Devils are now only three points out of 11th and six points out of ninth.

“At 10 points out, I’m not sure if the Hurricanes are worried about us,” Rolston told the Star-Ledger. “I think they’re looking at Atlanta and other teams closer than us. That’s fine with us.”

That might be true to a point, but I doubt the ‘Canes are ignoring the Devils completely. When you beat a team three times in 12 days, the loser takes notice.

Still, the architect of the turnaround, the outspoken and entertaining Lemaire, still won’t publicly admit that his team has a hope.

“Look at the standings,” he said Saturday night. “Come on.”

Jacques, we are looking at the standings. The Devils now have only three fewer wins than the Hurricanes. The only teams they have to pass to start nipping at Carolina’s heels are Toronto, Florida, Atlanta and Buffalo, none of which would scare the average Devils’ team over the past decade. With Rolston, Dainius Zubrus, Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias and Travis Zajac playing their best hockey of the year, the Devils are now a legitimate playoff threat. And no matter how you look at it, this turnaround is all about Lemaire.

MacLean was fired two days before Christmas. At the time, to get to 88 points (the average number for an eighth-place finish in the East), the Devils had to go 35-14-0 over the final 49 games. They went 9-22-2 under MacLean. They have gone 16-8-2 under Lemaire (yes, they started 1-7-0 under Jolly Jacques) so there isn’t much room for error. After the slow start under Lemaire, all the experts said the 2010-11 season was over. Those experts might still be right, but Jacques’ Devils aren’t going down without a fight.

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The Playoffs Are Coming. It’s Manitoba’s Best Year Ever.

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

This was a big week around the National Hockey League.

Jonathan Toews and the Chicago Blackhawks clinched a playoff berth, Travis Zajac continued to have the best year of his career as he leads the New Jersey Devils into the post-season and Barry Trotz, the head coach of the Nashville Predators, keeps the Preds winning even though they don’t have enough personnel or enough star personnel to be as good as they are.

Some notes from a week in the hockey trenches observing the brilliance of the Manitoba kids in the NHL…

1) This is as good a time as any to praise the Finnish Flash, Teemu Selanne. Last Sunday night, Selanne scored his 600th career goal to become only the 18th player in history to reach the 600-goal plateau.

Congratulations to a great guy, a guy who scored his first 147 with the Winnipeg Jets.

2) When he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg-born Alexander Steen appeared to be spinning his wheels, going nowhere fast. Now, as a member of the St. Louis, Steen is having a career year.

Through 60 games, Steen has 21 goals and 21 assists and is a plus-five on a minus team. He’s the Blues third leading scorer and is tied for the team lead in goals even though he’s played 10 and 11 fewer games than the two players ahead of him.

After struggling in Toronto and often being a healthy scratch, he has become a big time offensive player in St. Louis. At 26, he is developing into one of the two or three best players on the Blues.

3) If there was one player who could have played on Canada’s Olympic team and didn’t, it was Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos. Now, as the season winds down and Tampa misses the playoffs, Stamkos, who was a great friend of 92-CITI-FM and the old Cosmo Show, has a chance to show how good he really is.

Heading into the weekend, Stamkos was tied with Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin for the NHL goal-scoring lead with 45. Could Steven Stamkos win the Rocket Richard Trophy? You bet he could.

4) The Calgary Flames, and the red-hot Nigel Dawes of Winnipeg, have an uphill battle to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, but we will know by this coming Sunday whether the Flames have what it takes to reach the post-season.

The Flames started a five-games-in-seven-days stretch with a 4-3 loss at Minnesota on Sunday. They beat the Anaheim Ducks in Calgary on Tuesday night, but lost a big game to the Islanders, 3-2, on Thursday night. They play at Boston on Saturday and at Washington on Sunday and if they don’t win both of them, they’ll be pretty much done.

5) Manitoba’s top young players have had rock solid seasons in 2009-2010.

Winnipeg-born Duncan Keith, a Chicago Blackhawks defenseman, has 13 goals and 52 assists for 65 points, 31st overall in the NHL and second among defensemen. He’s also a plus-18.

New Jersey rightwinger/centre Travis Zajac has 23 goals and 38 assists for 61 points, 34th in scoring in the NHL. He’s also a plus-16.

Winnipeg-born Patrick Sharp (plus-22) of the Blackhawks has 22 goals and 39 assists and is also 34th in NHL scoring.

Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews, the captain of the Blackhawks, has 22 goals and 37 assists for 59 points and is a plus-20. He’s 43rd in scoring.

Winkler’s Dustin Penner has 27 goals and 28 assists and is a plus-5 on a very minus Edmonton Oilers team.

Meanwhile, Alexander Steen of Winnipeg and Eric Fehr of Winkler each have 21 goals while Nigel Dawes of Winnipeg has 13.

This might be Manitoba’s best year ever in the NHL.

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Things to Consider With Three Weeks to Go.

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. — While the general managers and the league’s other tall foreheads try to come to terms with illegal checks to the head (sorry, boys, but the rulebook is full of rules that would get headshots out of the game), the rest of the NHL is just playing hockey.

So with about three weeks to play before the Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us, let’s take a look at the league from a Winnipeg perspective:

1) Although he says he has not completely made up his mind, it appears that after 18 seasons, former Winnipeg Jets captain Keith Tkachuk is nearing the end of his brilliant career.

Saying his future in St. Louis is now, Tkachuk wouldn’t admit whether or not he was retiring at the end of the season, but he did say, “I often think about this being the end.” No doubt, the Hall of Fame awaits.

2) Remember when the San Jose Sharks had a very comfortable 12-point lead in the Pacific Division? Well, not anymore. That’s because the Phoenix Coyotes have won seven straight and have moved to within three points (at the beginning of the weekend) of the heavily favored and quite talented division leaders.

The 44-22-5 Coyotes have all but assured themselves of a spot in the post-season for the first time since 2002. Now, however, they are closing in on home ice advantage in the West. This should be a great finish.

3) By now, it has to be official. There is no better coach in the NHL than Dauphin’s Barry Trotz (OK, maybe Dave Tippett in Phoenix, but nobody else). Trotz, the only coach the Nashville Predators have ever had, has the no-name, star-less Predators in seventh place five points ahead up on eight-place Detroit (at the start of the weekend).

That shouldn’t happen. The Preds just don’t have the personnel. But Trotz has made them a playoff contender – they beat L.A. on the road this week and have won four straight — and that says more about his brilliance than anything else.

4) Calling it “a retaliatory hit to the head,” the National Hockey League suspended Anaheim Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski for eight games without pay for that terrible hit to the face and head of Brent Seabrook on Wednesday night.

Wisniewski definitely gave Seabrook a cheap shot, but an eight-game suspension after giving Alexander Ovechkin only two? The NHL justice department is completely nonsensical.

5) The Montreal Canadiens have looked very good at times this season. They’ve had two four-game winning streaks. But not until the Olympic break, have the Habs put together so many outstanding games in succession. In fact, with six straight wins heading into the weekend, Montreal has moved into the playoff driver’s seat in the East.

After Tuesday night’s game, a 3-1 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Habs moved past Philly and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference (later in the week they fell back into seventh). The Bruins are eighth with 74 points, four points back, while ninth-place Atlanta and the Rangers are seven points back. With only 12 to play, the red-hot Habs are in control of their own playoff destiny.

6) Perhaps no one has noticed, but Winnipeg’s Travis Zajac is having a season to remember. Zajac, the 24-year-old rightwinger out of the University of North Dakota has moved into the Top 35 in NHL scoring with 21 goals and 38 assists.

Perhaps more importantly, the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder, is a terrific plus-14. By the time the next Olympics roll around, he’ll be one of the best players in the game, if he isn’t already.

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More Hockey Talk As The NHL GMs Meet in Florida

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There were nine NHL games on Tuesday night in the NHL, five more on Wednesday and 10 more on Thursday night. After 14 days at the Olympics, the NHL has a lot of catching up to do. It will be difficult to keep up.

In the meantime, from new rules regarding hits to the head, possible new shootout rules and a lawsuit against the former owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, this is just about the busiest March of the decade.

Let’s look a little deeper inside the NHL…

1) On Sunday, the 92-CITI-Sports Machine was in St. Paul, Minn., to watch the suddenly strong Calgary Flames drill the Minnesota Wild 5-2. So what suddenly changed in Calgary?

Simple, as we told you on Sunday, Flames head coach Brent Sutter put Jarome Iginla on a line with Rene Bourque And Matt Stajan and on Sunday, the line combined for 10 points as Iginla had his 10th career hat-trick.

Not bad, for only the second game together and they were pretty darn good on Tuesday night in their third game together. Bourque and Iginla each scored once and added an assist and the Flames won (4-2)  a rare one in Detroit.

2) If there was one team that would frighten me if I were the San Jose Sharks or Chicago Blackhawks, it would be the Detroit Red Wings.

The Wings have been banged up all season long. For months, they had at least three of their best players out of the lineup. They were half a hockey team for much of the season. But now they’re healthy, the playoffs are beckoning and if Jimmy Howard gets the job done, the Wings could be the sleeper of the playoffs.

But first, they have to play better than they did against Calgary on Tuesday night.

3) This weekend while I was in St. Paul, a number of hockey experts watched the newly formed Iginla-Stajan-Bourque line and wondered aloud which line was the best in the game today.

A couple suggested Alexander Ovechkin-Alexander Semin and anyone on the other side, but the consensus seemed to be that the best line in the NHL was New Jersey’s No. 1 line of Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner and Winnipeg’s own Travis Zajac.

If nothing else, it’s one of the few lines in the NHL that has been together for most of the season and it provide salmost all of New Jersey’s scoring.

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A Big Night For Our Local Jocks Out in the Wide World of Pro Sports.

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I’m off to Tampa tomorrow. Hockey, football, Disney, my daughter, all the things that make Florida great. When you live and work in Winnipeg, MB., it’s October and the snow is on its way, heading off to sporting events where it’s 40 degrees C. is better than a morning on the Tom & Joe Show on 92-CITI-FM — and that’s about as much fun as a human being should be allowed to have.

Speaking of Tom & Joe, we had Chicago Bears defensive tackle Israel Idonije on this morning talking about his fund raising raffle for both the Bisons and Sister McNamara School. What Izzy still does to raise money for the right causes in Winnipeg is way past commendable, but he does it and we love him for it.

This past week, Idonije was tremendous in a 48-24 Bears win over Detroit. He had a tackle and a forced fumble and then, on Monday, went out and had arthroscopic surgery on a minor knee injury. Interestingly, one of our local bird-cage liners carried the headline “Idonije Could Be Out For The Season.” The story came from AP, so you can’t blame the fishwrap, but come on, it was minor arthro. Think before just blindly running an AP story on a local guy who isn’t as injured as the Associated Press (which doesn’t know him and didn’t know the injury) tried to make him out to be.

“I’m doing great, heading off to work, I’ll be ready to go in the Atlanta game,” Idonije said. “It wasn’t a big deal. Just a little clean up. I’m fine.”

Look, the Bears might hold him out an extra week, but he says he’ll be ready to go Sunday night, Oct. 18 against the Falcons. The reason he had the procedure this past week was because the Bears are on their bye-week. Have people suddenly become stupid?

But hey, Izzy is just another extremely talented Manitoba kid caught up in the nasty and high-paying world of big-time pro sports — which might not be as nasty or as messed up as the media types who follow it.

In fact, Thursday was a great day for Manitobans and folks with close ties to the province. Let’s review:

1) In Los Angeles, former Winnipeg Goldeyes reliever, George Sherrill, pitched another scoreless inning against the Cards and earned the win in a 3-2 Dodgers victory. The Dodgers lead the series 2-0 and Sherrill has been almost flawless in two appearances.

2) The Calgary Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in a shootout. Winnipeg’s Nigel Dawes scored his first goal of the year for the Flames and also added a goal in the shootout. Finally, Dawes is getting a chance to play on a scoring line in the NHL. The Flames might have the best $750,000-a-year player in the game. By the way, former Jets goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin, was the best player on the ice for the Oilers

3) The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in a shootout in Tampa. Winnipeg’s Travis Zajac scored his second goal of the season and added an assist. His goal came at the 19:59 mark of the third period and sent the game into overtime.

4) Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia 5-4, but Portage LaPrairie’s Arron Asham finally got a chance to play and gave the Flyers 11 solid minutes.

5) The Anaheim Ducks massacred the Boston Bruins 6-1 as former Winnipeg Jet Teemu Selanne scored twice, 82 seconds apart, in the second period. Head coach Randy Carlyle’s Ducks (Carlyle is a former Jets defenceman and Manitoba Moose head coach) blasted the Bruins right in downtown Boston.

6) Detroit beat Chicago 3-2, but Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks captain, played 26 minutes. There is pretty serious talk now that with three of their biggest stars in the final years of their respective contracts, the Blackhawks might be forced to make a trade to free up some salary cap space for next season. Toews, Patrick Kane and Winnipeg-born Duncan Keith can become restricted free agents next summer, however the Blackhawks intend to keep all three. If a deal is done, it won’t be done until next year’s draft and yes, defenceman Cam Barker from Winnipeg (he has a $3,25 million per year salary) appears to be the most likely player who would be involved in a deal.

7) Atlanta beat St. Louis 4-2 but once again former Winnipeg Jets leftwinger-centre, Keith Tkachuk, had a terrific game. Tkachuk had a goal and an assist ad now, at 37, has three goals and three assists in the Blues’ first three games.
icon cool A Big Night For Our Local Jocks Out in the Wide World of Pro Sports. And the Nashville Predators beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2. Jordin Tootoo from Chruchill and Colin Wilson, the son of Winnipeg’s Carey Wilson, were scratched with injuries Thursday night, but Neepawa’s Triston Grant got a chance to play and did a good job in 11 minutes of action.

In a week in which Todd McCullough, the former NBA star from Winnipeg’s Shaftesbury High School, was inducted, with the first class, into the Manitoba High School Athleltic Association Hall of Fame, it was a pretty great for Manitoba’s athletes.

Keep coming back here for regular updates. Unlike AP, we’ll make an effort to get it right.

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Three more little things bouncing around among my gray cells…

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

After a wonderful weekend of sports brilliance and silliness, I had a few little things banging around in my noggin. Here goes…

1) Two of the world’s greatest athletes rose to the occasion on Sunday. (Fact is, it was quite a day for Nike and Gillette. Their two most prominent spokesmen were both big winners.)

At Wimbledon, Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick, in a marathon, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 to win his record 15th Grand Slam title and the sixth Wimbledon championship of his career.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods, made birdie at 16 to go 13-under and win his own tournament, the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C. It was his third win of the year, the 68th of his career and moved him to the top of both the money list and the FedEx Cup standings.

I don’t think there is any doubt. We are now watching the two most remarkable individual-sport athletes in the history of, well, individual sport.

2) The National Hockey League’s free-agent frenzy continues and there were a number of local (Manitoba) moves this weekend.

Neepawa’s “Sherriff” Shane Hnidy signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Minnesota Wild; Winnipeg’s Tyler Arnason signed a two-way deal with the New York Rangers; Jason Krog left the Manitoba Moose and signed a two-year deal with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers; Jason Jaffray left the Manitoba Moose and signed a two-year deal with the Calgary Flames; and of the 20 players who selected salary arbitration, two were Winnipeggers, Nigel Dawes will go to arbitration with Phoenix while Travis Zajac will go to arbitration with New Jersey.

Throw in Colton Orr’s four-year $4 million deal to beat people up on behalf of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Cam Barker’s semi-legal RFA offer from the Chicago Blackhasks and it was quite a week for our local hockey stars.

3) It’s Week 2 in the Canadian Football League and it starts on Thursday with Edmonton at Montreal. 

On Friday, Calgary plays right here in Winnipeg — it’s the 2009 home opener — while Hamilton is at B.C.

On Saturday, Saskatchewan plays at Toronto. All four games are, of course, on TSN.

Meanwhile, over in Bomberland, 1,000-yard receiver Derick Armstrong, who refused to play in last Thursday’s game, did not practice Sunday or Monday and was apparently being shopped to other CFL teams. He’s probably finished as a Blue Bomber and a whole load of fans are righteously pissed at head coach Mike Kelly (even though Armstrong refused to play when called upon last Thursday and in a  team game, that’s just about as selfish as it gets).

Win or lose, it’s going to be a very, very interesting football season in Winnipeg in 2009.

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Rangers steal home ice, Gomez terrorizes his former team

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

nigeldawes Rangers steal home ice, Gomez terrorizes his former teamAs the first round of the playoffs progresses, we’ll try to take a close look at, at least, one game each night.

On the opening evening of the 2008 post-season, last night, we spent most of our time watching three Manitoba kids – Travis Zajac and Arron Asham of the New Jersey Devils and Nigel Dawes of the New York Rangers – as they faced each other in that beautiful new building in Newark, New Jersey.

Now back on Sunday night, we picked the Rangers to win this series in seven games and, as it turned out, we picked the Rangers for every reason the Blueshirts won last night’s game – they have more pure scorers and those scorers came through, and Henrik Lundqvist outduelled Martin Brodeur.

Fact is, if the Rangers are to win this series, what happened last night has to happen three more times.

In the first period, the Devils did a great forechecking job and, for the most part, had territorial control, but there was just a sense that the Rangers would ultimately win this game simply because New Jersey had a couple of great breakaway chances and couldn’t finish.

No finish, no win. Especially in the playoffs when good chances usually are quite dear.

In the second period, Brendan Shanahan opened the scoring for the Rangers and the Devils answered 12 ½ minutes later. That goal seemed to spark New Jersey, but the third period was all New York, thanks in no small way to a huge gaffe by Brodeur.

Then again, it was really more than a gaffe. He should have smothered the puck, but instead, handed it to Ryan Callahan who was alone in front. It was a shorthanded goal and a complete screw up by a guy who doesn’t screw up very often.

After the goal, you could see New Jersey sag. When your leader, your superstar, screws up, it can be more costly, psychologically, than anyone knows.

New York added a goal by Sean Avery at 17:07 and then Lloyd Dawes young son scored his first playoff goal, thanks to a classy pass from Shanahan.

In the end, Scott Gomez had three assists against his former team and played a whale of a hockey game while Shanahan, Martin Straka and Jaromir Jagr were solid and the Rangers’ did a nice job of keeping the Devils off balance – at least, after that shaky first period.

Still, this game was a lot closer than a 4-1 score might indicate. Both teams had 27 shots at the opposing goaltender (Dawes’ empty netter gave the Rangers 28 shots, officially), the Devils had more hits (34-27), the Rangers won more faceoffs (31-25) and New Jersey, which ultimately DID have territorial control missed more shots (15-7).

But while Gomez put three points on the scoresheet and received most of the kudos from the TSN broadcast crew, the real stars were Lundqvist and the Rangers’ backcheckers. New York players blocked 16 shots and when you toss in New Jersey’s 15 misses and the four posts they hit, it becomes apparent that New Jersey had plenty of chances to put this game away and couldn’t get the job done.

After Game 1, I still think this is going to be a long series.

However, if the Devils don’t bear down around the Rangers’ net, New York might put this one away quickly. See the highlights on YouTube below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OEJGCAfgSc]

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Here’s to our local Manitoba boys in the Stanley Cup playoffs!

Posted on April 8, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

TylerArnason Heres to our local Manitoba boys in the Stanley Cup playoffs!If you’re a casual, or even regular, visitor to www.rivercitysports.com, you might not know – or care (we certainly understand that) – that River City Sports is a proud Winnipeg company.

OK, so we’re not particularly proud of the fact that Winnipeg gave up its beloved NHL franchise, but some things are out of our hands.

The fact remains, that here at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, we’re deeply proud of the hockey players who learned their craft in this province and we’re especially proud of the 14 players and one head coach who will participate in this spring’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

As the first round opens on Wednesday, April 9, we want to wish the best of luck to…

• Shane Hnidy of Neepawa, a defenceman with the Boston Bruins.
• Dustin Boyd of Winnipeg, a forward with the Calgary Flames.

Dustin Boyd Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOKa10TNVQY&feature=related

• Tyler Arnason of Winnipeg (OK, so he was born in Oklahoma City, OK., when his dad, Chuck, played in the Central League, but he and his family are Winnipeggers) a forward with the Colorado Avalanche.
• Cody McLeod of Binscarth, a forward with the Colorado Avalanche.
• Derek Meech of Winnipeg, a defenceman with the Detroit Red Wings.
• Jordin Tootoo from Churchill, via Nunavut, via the Brandon Wheat Kings who lives in Winnipeg and is a forward with the Nashville Predators.
• Barry Trotz of Dauphin, head coach of the Nashville Predators.
• Travis Zajac of Winnipeg, a forward with the New Jersey Devils.

Travis Zajac Goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WJm5Ru-MQ

ArronAsham Heres to our local Manitoba boys in the Stanley Cup playoffs!• Arron Asham of Portage, a forward with the New Jersey Devils.
• Bryce Salvador of Brandon, a defenceman with the New Jersey Devils.
• Nigel Dawes of Winnipeg, a forward with the New York Rangers.

Nigel Dawes goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7hDFSdsfM&NR=1

• Colton Orr of Winnipeg, a forward with the New York Rangers and a recent winner of the Players’ Player Award in New York.

Orr-Cote Fight
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tS8EaB9SSzU

• Riley Cote of Winnipeg, a forward with the Philadelphia Flyers.
• Jody Shelley of Thompson, a forward with the San Jose Sharks.
• Eric Fehr of Winkler, a forward with the Washington Capitals.

It wasn’t that long ago when there weren’t 14 players and a coach from Manitoba in the entire NHL. However, thanks to the wonderful programs run by Hockey Canada, Hockey Manitoba and the National Coaching Certification Program, the NHL is now loaded with Manitobans and we get to watch 14 of them play on the most important stage in the game – the Stanley Cup tournament.

If you happen to be in Manitoba this week, don’t forget to join two hockey dads, Lloyd Dawes and Doug Orr for their big parties at Boston Pizza. On Wednesday night, for the opener of the Rangers-Devils series, they’ll be at the Boston Pizza on McPhillips and on Friday night for Game 2, they’ll be at the Boston Pizza in St. Vital.

Manitoba has some great hockey memories and many more to come. Remember Teemu Selanne’s rookie goal record in Winnipeg? Watch it below and get excited all over again.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vtk6yVqDy3Q]
 

It’s Cup Time, it’s Winnipeg and while we don’t have the Jets to cheer for anymore – even though former Jets’ Teemu Selanne (Anaheim), Randy Carlyle (Anaheim’s head coach), Aaron Ward (Boston, the Jets No. 1 pick in 1991), Kris Draper (Detroit), Dallas Drake (Detroit), Paul MacLean (Detroit’s assistant coach) and Stu Barnes (Dallas) are all in this year’s playoffs – we do have plenty of local guys on the Road to the Stanley Cup.

Let’s party!
 

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