Sabres know they aren't paying the price. posted by Sabres Fan

The Sabres faced a Minnesota Wild team on Thursday that had won two of 14 games. Buffalo proceeded to lose 7-0 for their worst loss ever in this building.

Philadelphia comes to town with three losses in four games and has not scored a goal in two games. Yes, in the last two games the Sabres have outscored the Flyers 1-0!

Overall the Flyers have 10 more points than Buffalo and scored 44 more goals.

Before the shutout string, captain Claude Giroux had five points in four games. Giroux has 48 points in 44 games.

Also before the streak, Mark Streit had assists in 15 out of 19 games.

Rob Zepp has been in goal the past three games going 1-1-0 with a 1.90 goals against and a .917 save percentage. Zepp is 33 years old and was a fourth round pick of Carolina Hurricanes in 2001. This is first stint in the NHL after stops in Lehigh Valley, Berlin, SaiPa Lappeenranta, the Florida Everblades and Lowell.

Buffalo had been doing very well at home, but have lost four straight here to fall to 10-12-2 overall.

Buffalo has just seven goals in eight games. Ted Nolan said on Friday that the players are wondering why they aren’t scoring goals. He said it’s because they don’t pay the price. Matt Ellis is a player that pays the price every shift and he said, “We 100 percent have to pay the price. One thing I’ve noticed is we do a lot on the outside. In order to score goals in this league you have to get to the gritty areas in front of the net and you do, you have to pay the price if you want to score goals.”

Anaheim Ducks Justin Pogge and a Conditional Fourth-Round Pick to Carolina for Aaron Ward posted by Jeff Ponder

Pogge could have counted how many days he lived in Anaheim before being traded again.

After being acquired over the summer from Toronto, Pogge did not even see action with the Ducks before being dealt at the deadline.  It was pretty clear that the Ducks would want Pogge for next season to battle for the backup job with prospect Timo Pielmeier after trading J.S. Giguere to Toronto just a few weeks ago.  Vesa Toskala was acquired in the trade, but his contract will be up at the end of the season and was unlikely to re-sign with Anaheim.  Pogge's .920 save percentage with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL this season shows how impressive he truly can be.

The veteran Ward has spent five of the past nine seasons with the Hurricanes, but has been shown the door.  The Carolina team sits in second to last place in the Eastern Conference and is looking to unload some of the veterans.  Ward's -17 this season ranked him just ahead of teammate Rod Brind'Amour for the team's last place spot.  But he has proven in the past (especially in Carolina's 2006 Stanley Cup run when playing against the top lines), that he can play hard against any opponent.

It is hard to pick a clear-cut winner of this trade, but the slight edge will have to go to Carolina.  While Ward will help the Ducks' push to the playoffs this season, Pogge will be a restricted free-agent at the end of the season and may be able to be signed for a relatively cheap contract.  With backup Manny Legace on the way out of Carolina, Pogge may be the backup tContinue reading "Anaheim Ducks Justin Pogge and a ..."

Hurricanes Re-Sign Erik Cole to 2-Year, $5.8 Million Contract posted by Jeff Ponder

Erik Cole has been brought back to the only team he has ever really wanted to know.

Cole was traded one year ago today from Carolina for Edmonton's Jani Pitkanen.  The trade saw Pitkanen play solid defense for the Hurricanes, but things did not go so well for the Oilers' end of the bargain.  Cole registered just 16 goals in 63 games with Edmonton, before being traded back to Carolina for Patrick O'Sullivan as part of a three-way deal with Los Angeles.  Cole added two more goals with Carolina in 17 games, but the real story was the resurgence of Canes' captain Eric Staal with Cole on his line.

Staal caught a lot of attention with his lackluster play during the season, but Cole helped rejuvenate Staal's numbers.  In the playoffs, Staal became one of the NHL elite once again, lighting the lamp 10 times and recording 15 points in eighteen playoff games.  The reuniting of these two players sparked the team, and was a major contributor to the team's run to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Cole may not be putting up the numbers that he was intended to, but he plays a big part in the success of his friend and captain.  That is reason enough to bring him back for two more years.Continue reading "Hurricanes Re-Sign Erik Cole to 2-Year, ..."

NHL Playoffs Rock On! First the East posted by Joshua Tarkoff

Welcome everyone to my first post here on the hockey blogs! I know I am a Floridian, but hockey certainly runs through my veins. Today, I will first be talking about the Eastern Conference. And...how about them Bruins! They look like the team they were when the season started. I was a bit concerned about them in the middle of the season, I mean after all they lost to the Panthers and the Lightning in one road trip. I did not think they were contenders when the playoffs started, but I am starting to rethink that now. Their power play gives me nightmares. Bruins in sweep, I say.

The biggest surprise series so far has to be Caps-Rangers. Just like the Bruins, I was not much of a believer in the Rangers, but after taking the first 2 in Washington, they may just have a chance. I must say that the Washington fans are tough, I watched them lose to my Panthers in March and the team started booing after just giving up 2 goals...rough crowd! Things do not look good if Ovie gets going though. Maybe it was because he was caught watching the Rangers practice the other day ( http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?id=4083635). Lol, that Ovie. Whatever his off the ice antics, I firmly believe he is the best player we have in the game right now. I had the privilege of watching him twice this year and I was astounded at how good he is. Caps in 7.

And NJ is quietly doing their thing without much fanfare. While I am not too much of a Devils fan, it is tough to go against Brodeur and company. They may not be pretty, but they do have a solid playoff system going there. I was thinking upset by the Canes at first as they finished the regular season so strong, but I can't go against Brodeur quite yet. Devils in 6.

Now's the time for the NHL & the Carolina Hurricanes posted by Karl Menches

With the NHL, that’s National Hockey League, season well underway now might be an appropriate time to give the league and its’ games a few props.  Growing up in central North Carolina in the seventies and eighties with the closest ice rink 90 long miles away, I really did not know much about hockey other than knowing it was played on ice with some sort of stick.  Of course for most people my generation that all changed with the now very familiar and publicized performance of Team USA at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics.  Still the magnitude, or should I say miracle, of that event did not pay long lasting dividends for future interest in the sport in southern states. 

Before proceeding with this argument, full disclosure is necessary; I do have a child that plays hockey so some bias might be detected. 

Football, both college and the NFL, is dominant in the south.  It always has been and always will be.  Football and basketball discussions and highlights dominate the local airwaves now more than ever before and I’m not suggesting that hockey will ever replace football or basketball as a main topic for discussion.  However, I do think that sports fans in the south should give hockey a sporting chance.  The first outlet and least expensive is obviously television.  Television coverage can provide the uneducated fan a basic knowledge of the sport and a somewhat minor explanation of the rules.  Of course it took me a few years after my daughter was playing to figure out the difference between icing and off sides.  Another problem with television coverage is actually finding NHL games on cable or satellite channels.  Currently the NHL is featured on the channel VS (Versus) and is sprinkled amongst other various fox sports channels.  The NHL needs to make whatever concessions are required to get the sport back on ESPN so that the league can continue to expand interest in the non hockey regions. 

Inbound link contest winner announced! posted by Earn Money Blogging

A big thanks to everyone who participated in the "Inbound Link Contest".  We have a winner!  A big congratulations go out to Marija.  Thank you for all your hard work on this.  While we had a lot of people participate, Marija was able to win with only 4 links!  So it wouldn't have taken a lot to win this contest!  We'll be having another contest soon so stay tuned.

The whole purpose of this contest was to get our bloggers networking with other webmasters and to start to build up their inbound links which will help their traffic.  Even a few links can help you with the search engines as they will see you as more of an authority on your topic the more inbound links you have.

To learn more about marketing your blog check out this post: http://www.nbabasketballonline.com/sports_content-rev_share_faq.html#my_faq_2971

Marija's blog can be found here.  If you're a Knicks fan, check it out: http://www.newyorkknicksnews.com/marijak

The original post announcing the contest can be found here: http://www.nbabasketballonline.com/bloggers/weblog/2984.html

And if you're not already signed up with Google AdSense and making money from your blog, check out our Revenue Share FAQ page: http://www.nbabasketballonline.com/sports_content-rev_share_faq.html

Inbound link contest - Win $100! posted by Earn Money Blogging

To try and motivate our bloggers to get inbound links we're going to have a contest to see which blogger can get the most inbound links to their blog. The contest begins now and ends July 31st, 2008. To be entered in to the contest all you have to do is go out and get as many websites to link to your blog as you can and at the end of the month send us an email listing all those links. All links must be active from August 1st through August 7th when we'll be judging the entries - a winner will be announced on August 7th. All entry emails must be received by Midnight on July 31st, 2008. You can email them to sportsfan@nbabasketballonline.com

We're going to impose some restrictions on the types of links you can get so please see below for the full list of links that do NOT count.

To get started simply go to Google and find other websites and blog that are about the sports and teams that you write about. Email the website owner and ask them for a link by explaining that you think your blog would be a good resource for their readers. Or offer to write a guest post for them with your by-line and URL at the bottom of the article. Or offer to exchange links with them by writing a quick write up of their site and a reciprocal link back to them. Some webmasters will be happy to add you to their blog roll even if you don't give them a link back (which is ideal) but some may want you to link back to them - you can easily do this with a quick blog entry on your blog about their website.

To learn more about inbound links and marketing your blog in general check out this post:

Florida Panthers- Too little Too late posted by Brent Blaze

http://wizbangsports.com/2008/04/florida_panthers_too_little_to.

My favorite hockey team did something last night they seldom do. Beat Carolina in Carolina.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist and the Florida Panthers beat Carolina 4-3 on Friday night to prevent the Hurricanes from clinching the Southeast Division.

Radek Dvorak added a goal and an assist, and Jay Bouwmeester and Steve Montador also scored for the Panthers, who snapped a 13-game losing streak on Carolina's home ice and won here for the first time since 2002.

Eric Staal, Sergei Samsonov and Trevor Letowski each scored for the Hurricanes, who would have clinched the division with a victory and outshot Florida 46-17 while committing no penalties to the Panthers' nine.

Instead for Carolina, it will be a long weekend of scoreboard watching. Washington would clinch the division title by beating Florida on Saturday night. The division goes to the Hurricanes with a Capitals loss.

Tomas Vokoun stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced in the first period before leaving with back spasms and giving way to Craig Anderson, who finished the game and made 26 saves for the Panthers. Cam Ward made 13 saves in his 20th straight start for Carolina before he was pulled for an extra attacker with about 1 1/2 minutes left.

Samsonov had pulled Carolina within one goal by scoring on the power play midway through the third period, taking a feed from Ray Whitney and one-timing it high and past Anderson's glove side to make it 4-3. But Anderson was impenetrable after that, making flashy save after flashy save to seal Florida's first victory in Raleigh since a 2-0 win on Dec. 6, 2002.

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