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Shrapnel – 1/8/12

Happy Sunday!

It’s no day of rest for the Jackets, who will be back in action tonight in Anaheim, but we’ve still got a few tidbits for you before we let yesterday afternoon’s shutout victory go.

Speaking of which, enjoy recaps from Puck-Rakers, Jackets Report, LTL, Strait-Jackets, DBJ, and some national takes (mostly condemning the Kings) from Backhand Shelf and PHT.

By the by, the gent who wrote the BSH piece is a guy named Chris Lund. His bio says he’s a Web Editor at the Score and a writer at The Hockey News, among other places. I bring this up because another piece he wrote yesterday caught my eye for the absolutely wrong reasons: “Is Nashville Becoming A Hockey Town?

Look, I will be the first to say that as an organization, I feel a bilious hate for the Predators. I enjoyed nothing more than seeing the Canucks demolish them in last year’s playoffs. But having seen the community grow in Nashville ever since the threat of losing the team after the lockout, I have tremendous respect for the Nashville fanbase. It should have been abundantly clear for the past six years that Nashville is a hockey town, and that it is one of, if not the best, success stories of the “sun belt expansions”. There is a strong, passionate, and engaged fanbase, and deciding to finally write a rather backhanded compliment of an article that spends about 1/2 of the piece trying to explain to Canadian fans that they really do play some hockey in the US is disrespectful to the town. Stop acting like Nashville is a sudden miracle. Stop acting like it’s a surprise that fans in a “southern” state can love this game.

Don’t call it a comeback, they’ve been here for years.

OK, rant off. Back to the business at hand.

The news of last night’s rejection of Realignment by the NHLPA continues to resonate, with reports from The Dispatch, reactions from Greg over at DBJ, commentary from Larry Brooks at the NY Post, more details on the NHLPA’s rejection (anyone shocked that the two player reps who voted in favor of the plan were Columbus and Detroit?), and an argument that bringing up “travel concerns” at this point is pretty silly. If you missed last night’s HNIC Satellite Hotstove, it’s also worth a few minutes of your time.

Around the NHL, we had 13 games, but three stand out for all the right reasons: First, check out Shane Doan recording his first NHL hat trick in over 1,100 career NHL games with a perfect buzzer beater. About an hour later, Jarome Iginla finally put home Goal #500 – and he managed to do it at home in Calgary for what turned out to be the GWG.Props to the linesman for picking up the puck, skating over to the Calgary bench, and waiting for the celebratins to end before handing it over to the Flames captain. That’s how an official is supposed to handle a historically significant puck. Steven Miller should take notes.

Finally, we had a recap of the Stanley Cup Finals as the Canucks took on the Bruins on a perfect Boston afternoon, and though the chippy affair seemed to play into Boston’s preferred style of game early, it would be the Canucks who walked away with a 4-3 victory thanks to their power play shredding Tim Thomas.

(Also, don’t be surprised if Brad Marchand finds himself in hot water over a dirty hit on Sami Salo.)

Back home, Crimespree Hockey looks at the Jackets and the trade deadline, while Andy at CBJ Blog discusses trade values and the challenges / options in potentially trading Jeff Carter.

Finally, not exactly hockey but worth paying attention to – a nice look at Worthington Cylinders and the Worthington Industries empire courtest of the Dispatch.