Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Puck Headlines: Hawks, Pens rule All-Star vote; more Bieber fever

Here are your Puck Headlines: a glorious collection of news and views collected from the greatest blogosphere in sports and the few, the proud, the mainstream hockey media

• Justin Bieber is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, but when he's in Atlanta he rocks it with the Thrashers and their Ice Girls OMG. Dude, he's totally cheating on the Flyers. What a player ... [Thrashers TV]

• Your NHL All-Star Game fan balloting winners: Sidney Crosby (635,509 total votes) and Jonathan Toews (407,676), Evgeni Malkin (376,887) Kris Letang (write-in candidate, 477,960), Duncan Keith (382,162) and Marc-Andre Fleury (426,305). The final ballot results reveal that Steven Stamkos missed the top three by nearly 70,000 votes, while Nicklas Lidstrom missed out by around 86,000. Carey Price was about 55,000 behind Fleury. [NHL]

• Former New Jersey Devils center John Madden on the Devils' plight this season as they face Madden's Minnesota Wild tonight: "It's kind of inconceivable (with) that team on paper they had at the beginning of the season," Madden said. "Obviously, organizations have ups and downs, but they're really had a hard go of it. I actually really haven't gotten a chance to see many games, but it's got to be tough with the expectations they had." [Fire & Ice]

• More traditional media plagiarism of a hockey blog? [Backyard Hockey]

• Duncan Keith on Dustin Byfuglien being a Norris candidate: "In Atlanta, he's allowed to play wherever and go where he wants and play however he wants to play. ... He's jumping up in the rush. That experience at forward helped him, too, with his offensive ability. Now he's back on D .  .  . [and] he's thinking like a forward a lot of the times, but he's playing defense." [Sun Times]

• Why the Vancouver Canucks may just be the best team in the NHL. [The Province]

Rick Nash gets benched in Columbus. [Puck-Rakers]

Really interesting takedown of the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo for "selling out" with an exhibit featuring 40 years of Buffalo Sabres sports photos: "This stuff isn’t art. Questioned about the exhibition by the Buffalo News, Albright director Grachos didn’t try to defend it as such. So why is it in an art museum?" [Tyler Green]

• Did you pick up a copy of the NHL's "Offical" Gameday Guide for the Winter Classic? [Bleacher Report]

• "Can the Winter Classic bring NHL success in the U.S.?" Oh, totally, because the other 81 games are outdoors on a national holiday too. Wait, what? [Slam Sports]

• Which Washington Capitals player was guilty for bringing DJ Pauly D's "Beat Dat Beat" into the locker room after victories, as seen on "24/7"? A Dan Steinberg investigation. [Capitals Insider]

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo and Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom have been named the NHL 'Three Stars' for the month of December. Sidney had 24 points in 13 games for the Pens in December. [NHL]

New York Rangers forward Ruslan Fedotenko thought he suffered a broken hand and then realized he wasn't a licensed physician. [NYDN]

Michael Leighton officially cleared waivers this morning and has been re-assigned to the Adirondack Phantoms (AHL). Second year of that contract scared off any waiver claims. [Philly Daily News]

• Should the Nashville Predators be buyers or sellers at the deadline? [On the Forecheck]

• Are the Chicago Blackhawks a playoff team? ESPN's Pierre LeBrun and Scott Burnside debate it, with LeBrun saying: "The Hawks will make the playoffs, I guarantee you that. Toews himself almost predicted as much to Chicago media after last night's game. ‘It's crazy to think we're the type of team that's not going to be there at the end of the year,' ... ‘That's ridiculous. We want to stay healthy, and we hope things keep getting better from here on [out]. ... We'd all be pretty disappointed at the end of the year -- knowing what we have in this locker room -- if we can't accomplish our goal of doing that.'" [ESPN]

• The 30 things Matt Reitz can't wait to see in 2011 in the NHL. [View From My Seats]

• The latest NHL Guardian has been revealed, for the Carolina Hurricanes. Who have apparently inspired some kind of wind ninja.

• Tauntr offers its own version of NHL superheroes. The Jersey one is a coffee-spitter-outer. [Tauntr]

• Per Kevin Allen of USA Today, Phoenix's Petr Prucha cleared re-entry waivers. Jed Ortmeyer (Minnesota) and J.D. Watt (Calgary) are on waivers today. [Allen]

• Good bit by Kent Wilson on the role of the enforcer: "Despite their various faults, goons are easy guys to like and their existence is therefore easy to rationalize. Even if they don't really help a team win." [Houses of the Hockey]

• Former San Jose Sharks defenseman Pat MacLeod has become a children's author, penning a "humorous story about a young boy who encounters a dragon at his campfire." The dragon is defeated when former teammate Link Gaetz snaps it in half with his mouth. [Sharks]

• Finally, a mini-doc from a show called "Playing the Field" that followed the Los Angeles Kings on the road to face the Boston Bruins.

Oskars Bartulis Nolan Baumgartner Francois Beauchemin Shawn Belle

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