Congrats

Friday night during the X Games, Shaun White won gold for Men's Snowboard Superpipe. It was his 3rd straight gold in a row at X. Earlier in practice he did hit his head/jaw on the lip of the pipe. He came out of the crash with just a horrible messed up jaw. Later, staff showed him video of what happened, he was able to laugh it off and quoted that his hair still looked good. : ) I'm glad he was able to laugh it off and focus on the gold medal!

Today the Penguins had a rematch against the Red Wings and of course they came out on top! It ended up in a shoot out where Sid and Geno got the goals to win the game. Tangers was the first to take a shoot but ended up short of the goal.

Next Sunday they get to rematch against the Washington Capitals on NBC's game of the week. 

What's On Tap: Day 1 of Winter X

UPDATE;

Women's Snowboard Superpipe Quals; (in correct order)

1. Kelly Clark

2. Elena Hight

3. Hannah Teter

4. Ellery Hollingsworth

5. Gretchen Bleiler 

6. Querait Castellet 

7. Kaitylin Farrington

8. Claire Bidez

Here are the men who will be going to the finals in Ski Slopestyle (in correct order).

Men's Ski Slopestyle Quals;

1. Andreas Hatveit

2. Bobby Brown

3. Russ Henshaw

4. Sammy Carlson

5. Tom Wallisch

6. Phil Casabon

7. Jossi Wells

8. Matt Walker

Defending Champ TJ Schiller is out of the competition, ending up in 14th place. Finals take place on Saturday.

Here are the men who will be going to the finals in Snowmobile Freestyle (in correct order). Finals take place tonight on ESPN at 9pm.

Snowmobile Freestyle Quals;

1. Justin Hoyer

2. Joe Parsons

3. Levi Lavallee

4. Heath Frisby

5. Daniel Bodin

6. Sam Rogers

7. Caleb Moore

8. Colten Moore

Also in tonight's line up is Men's Snowboarding Superpipe Elimination with Shaun White.

I've Been Slacking

Since second semester has started I have been super busy with wayy too much and everything seems to be falling apart. But on a happier note, the 2010 Olympics are just exactly one month away! Shop.NHL.com has all your needs for your favorite country.

Starting this thursday beings the 2010 Winter X Games! I've been watching both summer and winter x games for about 7 years now, it could be more then that, can't remember that great. So on top of hockey the next week I will be talking about the X Games.

On a last note, the Cavs do not play tonight which means I get to watch Brass and the rest of the Blue Jackets take on the Nashville Predators at home.

News Around the NHL & AHL

Lake Erie Monsters Headlines:
Tomorrow, Friday January 22, fans will receive a Shaquille O'Neal bobblehead upon arrival the Q as the Monsters take on the Texas Stars.
     Talking about Shaq, tonight the Cavs take on the L.A. Lakers, let's cheer them on for a win!

Columbus Blue Jackets Headlines;
The Blue Jackets are set to face the Boston Bruins tonight in the Garden. As for other news, Tim Horton is bringing back the "Stinger donut," a specially-themed vanilla dip donut adorned with colorful sprinkles. The "Stinger donut" is now available in all central Ohio Tim Hortons stores thru the end of the Jackets current season.


Pittsburgh Penguins Headlines;
Tonight the Penguins take on their heated rival, the Washington Capitals for the first time this season. This is just one of those days that I wish I could live in the Burgh for just one night to see these two teams go at it.

 I wish  both the Penguins & the Jackets good luck in their games tonight!

Jackets in Philly

UPDATE: From CBJ Twitter:

CBJ assigns LW Alexandre Picard to Syracuse (AHL); activates LW Fredrik Modin off Injured Reserve.

Tonight the Jackets will face the Philadelphia Flyers at 7pm with coverage starting at 6:30 on FSOH.

Both teams are out of playoff contention but Philly is only 3 points out and have a chance to make playoffs while the Jackets are 10 points out.

Garon made 30 saves last night in the net which will put him in the net tonight, while Raffi Torres also had an impressive game last night.

Rusty Klesla has been out since December 1 with a groin injury and I'm waiting to see him back on the ice along with everyone else. He did practice once this past week so I'm glad to see some progress in the making. Fredrik Modin has missed the past six games with a foot injury while Fedor Tyutin has played a consecutive 132 games before sitting out with an undisclosed injury.

I liked seeing Brass on the first line last night and he sure came out with impressive energy. If he keeps it up, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him on the first and second line.

Along with players and staff in Philly tonight, so are some of the players' dads. I hope to find some pictures of the players and their dads during their game in Philly tonight. FROM CBJ TWITTER: CBJ at Wachovia Center. Player dads on the trip and all are in team meeting. Flyers on the ice.

News, News, News

UPDATE;
The Blue Jackets played very well tonight and came out with a lot of energy to pull of a victory of 4-2.

From CBJ Twitter: Look at the new addition to Derek Dorsett's jersey. I hope to hear more about this news sometime later tonight or later this week.

In other news, Fredrick Modin was put on the IR list while CBJ activate Marc Methot off of the IR list.

The Blue Jackets return to action tonight against the St. Louis Blues at Nationwide Arena at 7pm.

Game Day: A Look at Both Teams

UPDATE:

From CBJ Twitter:      RW Derek Dorsett off Injured Reserve. He is a player available for selection for tonight's game vs. STLBlues.

Tonight the Jackets play the St. Louis Blues, this is the second meeting out of six with this club. Last game against the Blues, the Jackets won 5-2.

From CBJ Twitter: CBJ AM skate lines - 20-18-61, 14-50-93, 17-26-11, 21/15-16-40, 8-22, 51-6, 36-23. Garon in net.

Injuries for the Jackets include Marc Methot (upper body), Derek Dorsett (hand), Rusty Klesla (groin) are on the IR list. Fredrick Modin which has an undisclosed injury and Kris Russell with a lower bod injury are day-to-day.

St. Louis is coming off a 4-3 win at L.A. on Saturday, snapping a seven-game losing streak. It was their first victory under new head coach Davis Payne, who replaced And Murray on Jan 2 after losing to the Vancouver Canucks.

Chris Mason is in the net for the Blues.

Lets just hope we can pull out another win, we could really use it in this race to the playoffs.

3- Game Wins

Last night's game was a high intense game with a very physical pace. Garon is doing wonders inside the net and made 26 saves, which amounted to his 16th career shutout. So for now all the talk about "fire Hitchcock" is over. Brassards' confidence has been sky rocketing and it defiantly showed in last night's game. He had a great pass to Torres for him to score a goal.

Post Game Quotes
Garon on the team's play: "I think we're playing with more confidence and we know where if we make a mistake we know someone else is going to cover up for us. Right now, like I said, confidence is a huge factor and I think we have it right now."
Garon on his play: "I'm feeling good, but like I said, guys are blocking lots of shots in front of me and taking care of the rebounds and all I have to do is the first save and thought I felt good. But I think as a group we felt great."

Along with a great win, it was Garon's 32nd birthday yesterday. Happy Belated Birthday Garon, Hope it was a good one!

The next game is in St. Louis against the Blues, Wednesday and it airs at 8pm on FSO.

Game Day

From twitter, Hitch: "Russell (lower body) and Modin (lower body) will not play tonight. Garon will start in net."

Well, this is one thing we don't need to happen, more injuries. Especially for Modin after just getting back into the lineup. I defiantly cannot wait to watch this game tonight and will have more updates coming if I hear something juicy.

Rumors, Rumors, Rumors

I was reading another Penguins blog and found out that there are rumors about Talbot and Fleury being hurt. For Max it would be his left shoulder that he just had surgery on over the summer & with Marc it's an upper body injury. But nothing is official yet with those two players, they are still playing in games.

Another rumor that i read about was surrounding the Penguins assistant coach, Tony Granato and the Blue Jackets. The Jackets might let go of Coach Ken Hitchcock after they come back home from their road trip. But GM Howson could be interested in with Granato. Granato signed a 2 year contract with the Pens but it does include an outclause if he does receive a head coach offer. Well, that road trip is over and the Jackets are now home in Columbus. Most of these things don't happen overnight, but sometimes it does, so I'm going to seat back and see what happens to Hitchcock. Personally, I want to see him gone, he's not helping our club anymore.

Isn't It About Time?

Right now I'm watching the Cavs game with my dad but when commercials are on he flips to the Jackets game just for me (what a nice daddy lol). And I feel like Rusty should be back in the line up already. I know on the Jackets site they said he'd be out 4-6 weeks but it seriously feels like it's been longer than that. I checked how long it actually has been, on December 1, CBJ announced he was going on the IR list. So that makes it about a month and a week or 5 weeks. Hopefully, we'll be hearing news about him &  he'll start practicing with the Jackets.

Jackets won their game last night verse the Edmonton Oilers and I'm happy to see that they were able to win again tonight verse the Calgary Flames. Maybe things are finally looking up for them?

Next game: Sunday back at Nationwide verse the Dallas Stars @ 7. As much as I hate the the Stars, they have become a team that I like to see the Jackets play. Both teams put 110% into the game & whenever they play it's always a good game, fight or no fight (but i'd rather see a fight or two).

Fire or Bust

A lot has been going on with the Jackets in the past few weeks, mostly worrying about all their loses. The talk around the league is what to do with this team. The question is, is whether or not to keep Coach Hitchcock or to fire him.

Is there a coincidence that after the St. Louis Blues and the Flyers played the Vancouver Canucks both teams coaches were fired and we are playing them tomorrow??

Some people are saying keep him, others are saying fire him. Some say that his coaching style needs to go. Filatov also comes up in this discussion. Filatov had said in interviews before leaving for Russia that Hitchcock treated him differently then the other players. With Filatov on the team their record was 11-8 and since he left the team's record has decreased to 4-20.

Hitchcock is always messing with the line changes, hoping to make players play better together but the players are just getting frustrated. Personally, I am just getting sick of seeing Hitchcock mess with the line changes. His coaching styles seem to be holding back the younger players.

Maybe both the players and the coaching staff need to find some common ground?

As a fan, it is frustrating to watch the games. Even tho I watch every game I can, I seem to get lost during the games when nothing exciting happens.

Well, I'll be looking forward to see what happens and I'll be keeping a close eye on this situation.