Stanley Cup Standings

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is almost over. There are a few teams that are done their series games and there are a couple teams that are tied or on their final games. The Boston Bruins won all four of their games against the Montreal Canadians to win their series 4-0. The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals are tied in their series at 3-3, and Carolina and New Jersey are also tied at 3-3. Pittsburgh won their series 4-2 over Philadelphia. Anaheim is leading their series 3-2 over San Jose, and Chicago is also leading their series 3-2 over Calgary. Both Detroit  and Vancouver won their series 4-0. Detroit beat Washington, and Vancouver beat St. Louis.

Five Final Days

There only only five days left before the end of the post season for the NHL. The last game is on April 12, and there are a total of 34 games during those 5 days. This is going to be the most intense week for a lot of the NHL teams because they only have a couple days left to try and make the playoffs. In the Eastern Conference the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Pittsburgh Penguins are all for sure in the playoffs. In the Western Conference the San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, and Vancouver Canucks are for sure in the playoffs. There is also a lot of stress for the leading teams to become Division Champions. As of right now in the Eastern Divisions New Jersey is leading the Atlantic Division, Boston is leading the Northeast Division, and Washington is leading the Southeast Division. In the Western Divisions Detroit is leading the Central Division, Calgary is leading the Northwest Division, and San Jose is leading the Pacific Division.

The Start of Hockey

There is no clear answer on how the NHL started, however, it has been narrowed down to four different stories that all have to do with how it originated. One story is it started in Ireland as the sport of Hurley. Canadians played it on ice. This happened in Nova Scotia in the 1800's. It was called Ice Hurley for quite some time and then people started to call it ice hockey. The second story is some say the MicMac indians played a form of hockey in Nova Scotia when the Europeans arrived. The third story is it started in Windsor, Nova Scotia, there was a school called Kings View Academy. A teacher there supposedly took his students out to the pond behind their school and asked them to make up a sport. The game they played became hockey. The fourth and final story says that ice hockey was first played in 1885 by British soldiers stationed in Canada. Guards who were guarding the Parliament building in Canada used to sneak off to a nearby field and play ice hockey. Some say they started by whacking rocks with a stick to stay warm. We are not sure where hockey was actually started but it is now played in over 80 different countries around the world.

Naming the NHL's Number One Star

One of hockey's biggest traditions is naming the three stars at the end of each game, however, on nhl.com they have a "FAN POLL" where fans get to chose there number one favorite star each week. On Saturday 21, 2009 during Hockey Night in Canada there were eight players to chose from for the game's biggest star right now in the NHL. The eight nominees were, Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins), Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils), Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals), Nicklas Lidsrom (Detroit Red Wings), Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks), Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins), Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks), and Roberto Louongo (Vancouver Canucks). At the bottom of my blog there is a poll where you can vote for who you think should be named NHL's top star! Or you can go onto nhl.com and vote there for your favorite player.

Sean Avery's Suspension

Sean Avery is a Canadian professional hockey player born in North York, Ontario. He is 5'10, 195 pounds, shoots left handed, and he is a left winger. Sean Avery has been in the NHL since 1999 and he has played for 4 different teams. He started playing for the Detroit Red Wings in 1999 and he played with them till 2003. After Detroit he got drafted to the Los Angeles Kings and played with them from 2003-2007. In his 2003-2004 season with the Kings, Avery lead the NHL in penalty minutes with 261. On February 5, 2007 Sean Avery got traded to the New York Rangers, where he finished off the 2007-2008 season with them and scored 20 points in 27 games. Avery signed a four-year, 15.5 million contract with the Dallas Stars on July 2, 2008, however he only stayed with the Stars till December 2nd which is when he got kicked out of the league. During the morning skate before playing the Calgary Flames he approached the reporters in the dressing room and let them know that he was going to make a statement. Calgary's defenceman Dion Phaneuf is dating Avery's ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbery, and Los Angeles's forward Jarret Stoll is dating Avery's ex-girlfriend Rachel Hunter. The statement Avery said in the dressing room in Calgary was:

"I am going to say one thing. I am really happy to be back in Calgary. I love Canada. I just want to comment on how, it has become a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I do not know what that is about, but enjoy the game." 

Within hours, the NHL suspended him indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the league or the game of hockey."