Ice Hockey - Men's Olympic Team

The other day, I made had a Facebook status about who I wanted to win gold for Men's Ice Hockey at the Olympics.

Post by Jeffery Francis.

I was surprised that one of my friends asked me to explain myself.  So Here I am.  An attempt to try and explain my reasoning for the above statement.

For me, for as long as I can remember, it has always been about The Toronto Maple Leafs.  Watching games, browsing stats, talking about the Leafs with friends and family, and collecting memorabilia.  SO my reasoning may not come as a surprise to you.

Why NOT Canada:

1.  Sidney Crosby.  Is he great for hockey?  Ya, he sure is.  Find me a girl on twitter that isn't in love with this guy.  For me?  Awful!  There isn't a guy in hockey I dislike more!  I can't cheer for this whiner, who cries to the ref after every shift.

2. P.K. Subban.  He is also great for hockey.  He has a swagger about him that not a lot of other players have.  He has a great shot, and can skate really well, as well as his great 1st pass.  For me?  How can I, the biggest die hard of the Leafs, cheer for a Norris Trophy winning Defenseman from the arch rival Montreal Canadiens?  Not happening!

3. Carey Price.  He is what everyone classifies as a franchise goalie.  A guy you can build a team around.  He may not have a ton of playoff experience, but he makes the game look effortless.  Again, how can I cheer for the starting goalie of the Montreal Canadiens?  Makes the game look effortless?  He really just looks like he doesn't want to be there.  He doesn't look like he has that killer instinct that you need as a goalie.  He doesn't seem like a good pressure goalie.


Ok, so if NOT Canada, than WHO?

Team USA has 2 of the Leafs top players on their roster.  This makes the obvious choice on who I would be cheering for. They are Kessel and JVR.  These two guys are lights out in Toronto.  I want them to carry some success back to Toronto, and push it to the playoffs.  For me, it would be great, if JVR set up Kessel, on the "Golden Goal" in overtime, against Carey Price.  I would be super happy about that.   If I can't have that, then yes, Go Russia!

I have watched Canada win 2 of the last 3 Olympic gold medals.  If this was a 60 year drought, different story.  But they won on home soil just 4 years ago. Isn't that enough? Let's not be greedy.  In fact, that "Golden Goal" heard around the world was the moment I decided, that I will be cheering for Team USA next time.... Stupid Sidney Crosby, ruining everything for me...

With all this said, would I be upset if Canada won?  Nope.  I'd be happy with that.  But for me, when it comes to International Men's Ice Hockey, its the name on the back, not the crest on the front.  All other sports/events, Go! Canada Go! 

Getting To Know Your Peterborough Pete's: Part I

The Ontario Hockey League season got underway tonight, and I am sure business will pick up for the Canadian Hockey League now that the National Hockey League is locking out their players.

We said we would be covering The Peterborough Pete's while the NHL is dormant.  This is the first post in a series where I will be introducing you to the 2012-2013 Pete's.  I'm going to go over some things such as what Pete's are currently drafted by NHL teams, where the players come from (home country) where they played last year, how much experience they have in the CHL as well as some other interesting statistics.

I'll start with where the Pete's come from.  Below is a graph that shows the make up of what countries they are from.  On the graph is 2 numbers.  **The 1st number is the amount of Pete's from that country, and the second number is the percentage of the team that that country makes up.**

You can see that most of them are Canadian, with a couple Americans, and a couple from Europe.

Next I want to point out how much experience the Pete's players have.  I have broken it down into positions.(Forward, Defense, and Goalie) **Numbers on the chart equals average amount of seasons**.

Not a big difference in experience between positions, but the goalies do have the most experience when averaged out per position

Lastly, I'm going to show you how many rookies there are, how many are returning and how many were brought in from another team. **1st number is the amount of players and the second number is the percentage of the team**

The data shows that 67% of the team is returning from last year.  Also, they are relying on some rookies to fill the void of some of the leaving players.  The dressing room is going to look very familiar to a lot of these guys, and hopefully that helps them on the ice.  

That being said, the Pete's didn't do very well last season, I am not expecting them to be making much noise this year either, but there are some young guys on this team that will want to prove them selves in the OHL and anything can happen if other teams lose chemistry, or have some injured players.

Look for Part II early next week in our series of Getting To Know Your Peterborough Pete's.