The Vancouver Canucks

Ray Emery (I didn’t realize he attended the Hasek School of stickhandling) turns it over to Matt Cooke.

The rest is history, Pens 4, Hawks 2.

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from Yvonne Zacharias of the Vancouver Sun,

For many NHL players, it’s over so quickly.

The cheering fades, the fat pay cheques stop coming and the last poker game is played on the back of the bus. So many nights on the road become a faded memory of a glory time when they were hockey heroes and super stars.

Now, they are just ordinary Joes, trying to figure out how to survive in a world that is foreign to them. After being coddled and cajoled for so many years, suddenly they are on their own. The fairy tale has come to a crashing halt.

For Tyson Nash, who spent most of his professional hockey-playing career with the St. Louis Blues and the Phoenix Coyotes, retirement from the game he loved was the hardest thing he ever had to deal with.

And he was one of the lucky ones. He had a hockey-related job waiting in the wings for him as a colour commentator for the Coyotes.

continued

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Eric Nystrom received five for boarding and a game.

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DALLAS, Sept. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/—AT&T issued the following statement to update its customers that NHL Network could be removed from the AT&T U-verse TV lineup tonight:

We have tried to reach a fair, long-term deal with NHL Network in order to continue delivering this channel to U-verse TV U450 and Sports Tier customers. Unfortunately, it appears that as of midnight EST, Oct. 1, NHL Network will no longer be available on U-verse TV because we will no longer have an acceptable agreement to carry the channel. We are always open to considering a fair and detailed proposal from NHL Network.

U-verse TV customers can continue to watch their home team and other teams play on NBC, Versus or on their area’s local regional sports network. These networks are delivering over 100 games this season, which is more televised live NHL hockey games than ever before.

U-verse TV customers can get more information at att.com/fighting4you.

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from Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

They are the Tiger Woods of hockey.

No, we are not talking about text messaging or personal “indiscretions,” but about overanalysis both from within and without. Tiger Woods only has to rebuild his swing every now and then; most modern goaltenders have to reinvent themselves constantly.

It has never been easy being a hockey goaltender. Fitness expert Lloyd Percival once estimated that an NHL goaltender entering a playoff game is dealing with a stress load the average person might encounter a couple of times in an entire life. Hall of famer Bill Durnan shed 17 pounds one game and retired early to escape the pressure.

It’s bad enough what roils inside you, but then add on the changes to the game itself that dramatically affect the position.

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Sorry for those of you who were unable to connect to KK in the last hour or so.

This from my hosting service…

Clients in our data center may be experiencing latency with on and off connections to their websites. Our senior server administrators are investigating the issue and will post more when information is made available.

Hopefully these issues are done with.

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VanCanucks: Shanahan suspends Jacques for starting a fight with Mike Duco. Watch the video: bit.ly/q16zXI

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While his teammates have trained all month in preparation for the season – Ryan Kesler, fresh off of hip-labrum surgery – has spent his time recovering, Keslurking himself, improving his twitter skills and having a nice time. It’s actually been a pretty hilarious month for the Canucks ace-in-the-hole two-way dynamo, from agreeing to pose naked for ESPN’s “The Body Issue” (how ironic is that name, I can’t get over it) to challenging a Berserker to a Twitter duel, Kesler has been a god-send for hockey bloggers everywhere.

Recently, he’s been about town and everyone on my facebook seems to have a Kesler picture, accompanied by an amusing story. Consider my friend Lindsay who attended the Kyprios concert at Joe’s Apartment on Granville Street yesterday, where Kesler appeared on stage with the rapper (see the image above, courtesy @smash11).

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VanCanucks: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the #Canucks new LOV line (Lapierre, Oreskovich & Volpatti): http://t.co/S6zHvETe @patersonjeff

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from Darren Dreger of TSN,

Aside from the few decisions remaining, Toronto is keenly interested in adding another top forward.

The Leafs lack experience up front and are in the market for a player with some size and a track record of making an impact.

The Leafs are willing to sacrifice two younger guys to make this deal happen, but see nothing imminent and predict such a player won’t spring free until at least November when teams have had a chance to assess their talent, or have stumbled out of the gate.

more plus Shanahan and the fighting issue…

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