The NHL’s two biggest stars, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, are also the league’s two biggest rivals. Their hatred has boiled over to the rest of their teammates on overrated teams that choked against the Canadians the Pens and Caps. And much like an enforcer who steps in to fight for his star, Pittsburgh forward Max Talbot recently spoke trash about Ovechkin to keep his star out of the headlines.

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Max Talbot began a war of words with Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin on Tuesday while Talbot was promoting the upcoming 2011 NHL Winter Classic between the Pens and Caps at Heinz Field on New Year’s Day.

“The first time I met him, actually, when I met him off the ice,” Talbot told The X. “You hear a lot of stories about a guy, but sometimes they’re not true. You hear of guys who are not good guys, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, okay, I’ll give the guy a shot.’ The first time I met him, let’s say he didn’t give the best impression to me, so better reason to hate him even more.”

“I was actually at the NHL Awards last summer with (Evgeni) Malkin, and we brought the Stanley Cup over there after the season,” Talbot told The X. “Malkin knew Ovechkin, and introduced me to him, and the first impression wasn’t great. I’m not really gonna say what happened, but I’m like, ‘Ok, this guy is a real (expletive deleted) (the ‘expletive’ is douche — ED).’ ” –TSN

So he met Ovechkin, thinking he was a douche, and decided to label him a douche after meeting him once? What’s not to like about Alex? Sure, he’s Russian, and by definition a Communist, but at least he’s not Canadian. Say what you will about the tenets of Communism, at least it’s an ethos, dude. Read the rest of this entry »

The Montreal Canadiens snuck into the Stanley Cup Playoffs as an 8-seed in the East, edging out the New York Rangers by a single point in the standings. They pulled off a sizable upset in the first round as they knocked out the 1-seed Washington Capitals in seven games. They drew the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round and managed to force that series to a seventh game as well. The Canadiens won again, 5-2.

“They did a lot of good things that good teams need to do to win,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “Unfortunately for us, we didn’t do that.”

Pittsburgh did little right on Wednesday night — and the Canadiens played perhaps their best game of the playoffs.

Montreal took a 4-0 lead in the game’s first 26 minutes, chasing goalie Marc-Andre Fleury by scoring on four of just 13 shots. After that, the visiting team did what it has all series, limiting Pittsburgh’s high-powered offense with a suffocating plan in the defensive zone and relying on the brilliance of goalie Jaroslav Halak. –NHL.com

Oh, and we had some riots–in Montreal (did we mention this game was in Pittsburgh?) Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins destroying Boston’s Marc Savard. Video’s after the jump, but obviously people took issue with a guy elbowing another guy in the head while he wasn’t looking. So what is he supposed to do? Not hit him? Wait for him to look? This is what happens when you take fighting out of pro hockey. Instead of sending a couple of Bruins over to rearrange Matt Cooke’s face, you end up with a bunch of people aggrandizing after the fact about what a dirty hit it was after the game. Bitching and moaning is bad for hockey, not only does it sully the image of the game, but it dissolves the concept of immediate consequences. Yeah, hits to the head are bad, but punches to the head of a guy that just hit someone in the head restore balance to the universe. Thanks, “Röbert.” Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the third of three fights between players of the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins in their game last night. This one, between Daniel Carcillo (Flyers, in white) and Craig Adams is easily the best. You can tell that Carcillo won’t be satisfied until her tears Adams’ head from his neck and throws it into the stands as a souvenir for a happy youngster. Try finding one of those on eBay! But honestly, I don’t think I’m a fan of this move that Carcillo does at the end. Adams is already on his way down, and then it’s Carcillo trying to put dude’s head through the ice. That’s just not sporting. Seriously, why not just hide a beer bottle in the net and hit him with that? Maybe your parents can hold his arms back while you just wail away. That’s a -1 for you, Daniel. You’re cleaning the With Leather blackboard erasers after class, Mister. –HockeyFights.com. Check out fights 1 and 2.

So we tried. We really, really tried to bring some semblance of hockey coverage here that was, if not entertaining, at least offensive to the casual reader. We had some fights, some sweet goals, we made fun of Martin Brodeur banging his sister-in-law. Apparently, making fun of people is totally cool with you guys. Unless they’re dead, and then everyone’s all, “Show some RESPECT.” This baffles me. But that’s a conversation for another day.

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in a fantastic Game 7 on Friday night. Evgeni Malkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy, which goes to the playoff MVP. And yeah, despite suffering a knee injury in the second period, S*d the B*tch hoisted the cup at center ice in Joe Louis Arena. As if the people of Detroit didn’t have enough to be depressed about.

One of the more fun (if overdone) storylines was that of Marian Hossa, who, for the second straight year, found himself on the losing end of a Stanley Cup Final. But the Game 7 telecast itself was a ratings winner, at one point drawing over an estimated 9 million viewers. We fully take credit for the gain in hockey’s popularity. My kids are embroidering a baseball cap to commemorate the turnaround as we speak. What’s 9,000,000 in Roman numerals?

The Pittsburgh Penguins did not go quietly into the night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup FINAL (no S, I guess because that way the word is bilingual or somesuch). The Pens held serve in their last home game of the season, beating the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1.

“I thought [Pittsburgh] were better than us, though, at the start of the game; probably, for the first almost 32 minutes,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “They won more races and more battles, had more play, were on top of us more, and they kept us to the outside.

[By the third period], Detroit was fighting an uphill battle. Jordan Staal had given Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the second period. Then Tyler Kennedy scored a solo-effort goal in the sixth minute of the third period.

Game 7 will be played Friday [*pumps fist*] in Detriot [*recants fist pump*]. If you’ve gone all year without watching Sidney Crosby pick up a garbage goal just outside the crease or whine about the officiating, this would be your last chance to do so. Yeah, those aren’t really good selling points, are they…