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NHL’s Staal brothers arrested in Minn. after bachelor party

Carolina Hurricanes star Eric Staal and his brother, Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins, were arrested for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process at Eric Staal’s bachelor party at a Minnesota resort.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said the brothers were among 14 arrested last weekend after authorities received several complaints about “screaming, yelling and playing loud music” at the resort in northeastern Minnesota, about two hours from the Staals’ hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The sheriff said the group was warned multiple times before finally being ordered to leave the Lutsen Resort and Sea Villas in Lutsen, at which point the men gathered on a nearby highway and “began harassing motorists.” That’s when authorities arrested the group, around 4 a.m. Saturday.

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Penguins Pushing Fleury To Improve With Signings

Marc Andre Fleury made strides last year in his quest to prove himself as an NHL caliber goalie. Judging how successful he will be based on last year’s performance is pretty hard considering that he faced more shots than he probably should have due to mental lapses by a defense that while much maligned was still better than it’s critics claim.

However Fleury is by no means the Penguins goalie of the future. Yes, he made progress last year. But he still has a long road to travel. His potential is undeniable. The question is will be make the journey.

In recent years the Penguins have changed net minders almost as often as Imelda Marcos changed her shoes. They have tried several different “shooting stars” between the pipes looking for “the one”. By signing Ty Conklin (G) the Penguins are letting Fleury know that he must continue to make strides this season.

Conklin is an unproven talent. He’s been with three teams in his short NHL career: Edmonton, Columbus and Buffalo. Last year he had an unimpressive .892 GAA in five games with Buffalo and a .871 GAA with Columbus in 11 contests. Overall in 76 NHL games Conklin is a little better with a 30-24-7 record, .900 save percentage and a 2.65 GAA.

With Thibault heading to the Sabres this season, Conklin will be needed to back up the young goalie the Penguins hope will become the phenom they are touting him as. And with the Penguins also signing Boston University MVP John Curry as well as bringing in Notre Dame product, and 2004 draft pick, Dave Brown who will be looking to make a splash in Wilkes-Barre this season, Fleury will have the hounds on his tail if he fails to continue to improve.

J.J. Jackson is the owner of and writer for A Great Day For Hockey, a fan site dedicated to news, opinions and comments on the Pittsburgh Penguins and is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts.

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Former Canucks F Lupul dies

Former Vancouver Canucks forward Gary Lupul died on Wednesday. He was 48.

Lupul played in 293 games for the Canucks between 1979-86, recording 70 goals, 75 assists and 243 penalty minutes. He also appeared in 25 playoff contests with the team, registering four tallies and 11 points.

Lupul had been working for the Canucks as an amateur scout.

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Lightning sign D Lukowich

The Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday signed free agent defenseman Brad Lukowich to a three-year contract.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It is a homecoming of sorts for the 30-year-old, who played two seasons for the Lightning and was with the team when they captured the Stanley Cup in 2003-04.

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Wayne Gretzky - The Great One

What discussion of the great game of ice hockey does not begin and end with Wayne Gretzky? You may or may not be a fan of the Great One, but you can no easier deny his dominance and the impact he had on the game than you can convince Rosie O’Donnell that subtle is better.

Growing up as a huge NBA enthusiast (my tenure as a fan began when I was about 8-10 years old with Julius Erving and ended with the retirement of Sir Charles Barkley), I was no Chicago Bulls fan, but once Michael Jordan entered the scene, you just knew you were seeing something special.

And like Gretzky (indeed perhaps the only viable similarity to Gretzky), whether you loved him or hated him, you certainly had to grant the man his place in sports history.

Over the years, many have been tempted to compare the likes of Wayne Gretzky’s dominance in the sport of ice hockey to Michael Jordan’s own personal statistical stranglehold on professional basketball. Still others are tempted to compare Tiger Wood’s dominance in professional golf to the statistical marvel of the Great One.

Any such comparisons are done in vain.

Yes, each of the aforementioned superstars dominated (or is dominating) their respective sport. But no one did it with the sheer inescapable magnitude of Wayne Gretzky over his twenty year career in professional ice hockey.

To put Gretzky’s feats in perspective, if Michael Jordan were to match the Great One’s single-season scoring record—statistically speaking—he would have had to average over 70 points per game.

Gretzky started playing Junior B hockey at 14 years old, winning a challenge to existing Canadian amateur hockey rules. That first season, he won rookie of the year, totaling 60 points in 28 games.

As many well know, over his career in the NHL, Gretzky had more assists (1,963) than second place on the all-time POINTS list (Mark Messier with 1,887).

His record of 2,857 points will never be surpassed.

All said, Wayne Gretzky holds:

40 regular season records

15 playoff records

6 All-Star records

He won 4 Stanley Cups (Oilers), garnered 9 MVP awards, and was the leading scorer in the NHL 10 different seasons.

Not only is he the only player to ever tally more than 200 points in a single season, he accomplished the feat four times. He scored over 100 points in a season 13 consecutive times, with a total of 15. He also turned 50 hat tricks.

Arguably there has never been a player with such a natural sense of puck flow, ice position, and the ability to create time and space. It was said the Great One had eyes in the back of his head.

In one game, he scored on the drop of the face-off puck twice, against the same goalie.

His greatest attribute, perhaps, was not exemplified by his grace with a stick and puck but rather his presence without them. No dominant force was ever so humble. Rick Reilly, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, once proclaimed the biggest challenge of interviewing Wayne Gretzky was getting him to say anything about himself.

Whether you loved him or hated him, to deny him his place in history is impossible. He was an ambassador for the sport, and reinforced the notion that hockey could be (and is) a game of grace, skill, and honor.

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Robert Guthrie is a freelance writer who spends most of his spare time chauffeuring a 15 year-old ice hockey player who can’t yet drive himself. He lives in the beautiful mountains of Colorado with his wife, son, and two enigmatic blue healer mixes.

http://home-ice.blogspot.com

http://denver.yourhub.com/~manilowswardrobe

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