Puck Soup: Production at both ends

In this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- So Artemi Panarin apparently pooped his pants
- Lots of trade deadline talk
- I come up with my annual deadline odds, and Greg and Ryan place their bets
- An interview with Scott Hartnell
- Oh good, more Carolina Hurricanes celebration talk
- The Blues and Blackhawks are making the playoffs
- Ryan and I take the "Oscars vs. Cups" quiz
- And lots more...

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The slow descent into madness that is the Columbus Blue Jackets' winning streak

Tonight, the Columbus Blue Jackets will try to make NHL history. With a win in Washington, they’ll tie the 1992–93 Penguins for the longest win streak the league has ever seen. It would be their seventeenth straight win, a stretch that dates all the way back to November.

Nothing in that opening paragraph makes any sense.

Really, go find a time machine and travel back to October and show that paragraph to the first hockey fan you find. They’ll have you committed. We’ve been trying to figure all this out for weeks without much success, but we know this much: This win streak isn’t just one of the best stories of the season—it’s one of the most unexpected stories of the last decade or two.

So how did we get here? How did a team that nobody thought was much of a threat to even make the playoffs suddenly wind up in the same conversation as Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr‘s mini-dynasty? How did a team that looked like a disaster early on manage to do something that the late-’70s Canadiens and mid-’80s Oilers never came close to?

The only way to make any sense of it is to relive it. So today, let's go back through the Blue Jackets' last 16 games and try to figure out what happened.

Game 1: Lightning at Blue Jackets (November 29)

Setting the scene: Tampa comes to town one point up on Columbus in the hunt for one of the East's lower playoff spots. The Blue Jackets are overachieving at 11-5-4, but they've lost three of their last four to drop to fourth in the Metro. They're one point up on New Jersey.

What happened: The Blue Jackets dominate, outshooting the Lightning 38–27 and pumping five goals past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Final score: Columbus 5, Tampa Bay 1

Notable moment: Josh Anderson's third point of the night is an assist on a Scott Hartnell goal that makes it 4–0 and seals the easy win.

Postgame quote: "It's fun to be around this team now in this locker room. I'm enjoying every moment." – Sergei Bobrovsky. May want to pace yourself a bit there, Sergei.

What NHL fans were thinking: "Oh cool, the Predators won tonight. I bet those guys are ready to go on a run."

Game 2: Blue Jackets at Avalanche (December 1)

Setting the scene: The Blue Jackets get a rematch against a team that had beaten them the week before.

What happened: Columbus blows a 2–0 first-period lead, but gets a goal by Boone Jenner midway through the third to eke out a road win.

Final score: Columbus 3, Colorado 2

Notable moment: Blake Comeau scores what looks like the tying goal with two minutes left, but it's waved off after a replay review.

Postgame quote: "A lot of crazy things are going to happen during the year, as far as winning and losing." – John Tortorella. He wasn't wrong.

What NHL fans were thinking: "Huh. I guess Tortorella might not be the first coach fired this year after all."

Game 3: Blue Jackets at Coyotes (December 3)

Setting the scene: Columbus continues its tour through the bottom of the Western standings with a trip to Arizona.

What happened: The Blue Jackets thoroughly dominate with 60 shots on goal, but Mike Smith nearly steals one. He makes a franchise-record 58 saves, but the Blue Jackets get the win in the shootout.

Final score: Columbus 3, Arizona 2 (SO)

Notable moment: The Blue Jackets get a 90-second 5-on-3 in the third period but can't score, which is basically like seeing Superman struggle to open a jar.

Postgame quote: "I thought we stopped shooting the puck (in the second period)." – Tortorella. "I must have missed that part," replied Smith, probably.

What NHL fans were thinking: "Wow, 60 shots? That's impressive. But let's see them do it against someone other than the Coyotes. Who's their next game against?"

Game 4: Coyotes at Blue Jackets (December 5)

Setting the scene: In a rematch, the Blue Jackets return home in search of the franchise's 500th win.

What happened: Sam Gagner has two goals and four points to erase an early Coyotes' lead, and the Blue Jackets cruise to an easy victory.

Final score: Columbus 4, Arizona 1

Notable moment: The Coyotes challenge the third Blue Jackets' goal for goalie interference, but it's allowed to stand after review.

Postgame quote: "We were a little sluggish early." – Gagner. He's either referring to the first period, or the franchise's first decade.

What NHL fans were thinking: "Wait, why are the Coyotes and Blue Jackets playing a home-and-home? Everything OK, NHL schedule-maker? Anything you want to tell us?"

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet

A look through the NHL's injury report

"I haven't seen one of those since I've worked here."
"What, a strained MCL?"
"No, a save."

Maple Leafs' goalie James Reimer was hurt in last night's win over the Flyers. And while early reports are that the injury may not be serious, it does seem to fit an early pattern. Thanks to an unusual offseason and shortened training camp, we were told to expect injuries to play a big role in the season. So far, it looks like the experts were right.

Here's a look at some of the big names that have found themselves on the injured list in the season's first few weeks.

Miikka Kiprusoff - The veteran suffered an injury to his MCL that has team doctors concerned about the possibility that his knee will have to be rebuilt, since nobody in the Flames front office seems to know what that word means.

Joffrey Lupul - Has spent his time recuperating from a broken arm by fielding texts from various NHL goalies asking "Hit by a Dion Phaneuf slapshot? Weird, what's that like?"

Ryan Murray - The second overall pick will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury that certainly has nothing to do with this crowbar I'm holding right now, says the smirking league employee in charge of making sure Blue Jackets fans will never be happy ever.

Scott Hartnell - Will miss two months with a broken foot that was diagnosed by team doctors when they noticed he was falling down slightly less often than usual.

Read the rest of this post...

A look at the NHL's all-star snubs

The NHL unveiled the full list if participants for the upcoming All-Star game on Thursday. And now that we know the names of all 42 players who've earned a trip to Ottawa in two weeks, we should take a moment to recognize them for their success.

We should, but we won't. Because while talking about the players who made the roster is nice, the real fun for hockey fans comes in complaining about the ones who were left off. So it's no surprise that the annual debate over which players were snubbed has already begun.

Here are some of the players who fans may have been hoping to see on All-Star Weekend who didn't quite make the final cut.

Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit - The 41-year-old Red Wing veteran apparently asked the league not to include him, which is a shame because at this current age and rate of performance this was our last chance to see him play in an all-star game until next season and the six more after that.

James Neal, Pittsburgh - The Penguins winger has recently been carrying the team, literally, since all the other players on the roster are currently too injured to move on their own.

Nicklas Backstrom, Washington - Teammate Alexander Ovechkin criticized Backstrom's absence to local media, adding that it was almost as if his spot had been given to a far less-deserving player solely for marketing reasons before furrowing his brow and then trailing off awkwardly.

Kris Versteeg, Florida - It was unfortunate that there wasn't room to include Versteeg since it would have been fun to see him reunited with his recent former teammates, every other player in the league.

Read the rest of this post...

Other Daniel Carcillo lies

"Flyer fans will react rationally to this post
in the comment section. Ha, lied again!"

Tonight's game two of the Flyers/Bruins series included a controversial first period play that saw Daniel Carcillo flop to the ice clutching his head after a Steve Begin hit to his shoulder. Combined with his attempt to draw a high-sticking penalty against the Devils in the first round after being struck in the hand, Carcillo is quickly earning a reputation as one of the league's most notorious fakers.

Now Carcillo is certainly not the league's only diver, and some might argue that he's simply doing his job -- trying to gain an advantage for his team through any means possible. But sadly, these two incidents haven't happened in isolation. League sources have told me that this is actually part of a pattern of habitual dishonesty on Carcillo's part.

A quick review of recent incidents seems to support that. Here are just ten more recent examples of Daniel Carcillo's lies.

• Has described his facial hair as a "child molestor's moustache", when it's actually more of a "child molestor's van dyke".
  
  
• Has been heard referring to the Philadelphia Flyers as "a tough but honorable team with a reputation for playing the game the right way", when in fact that was only true up until March 4, 2009.
  
  
• Upon hearing "Free to Be" during a pre-game warmup in Toronto this year, referred to it as "not the worst song I've ever heard".
  
  
• Told officials that he had been bitten by Marc Savard during a first period scrum tonight; in actuality, Savard has been taking all his meals through a straw since early March.
  
  
• Told the Hockey News his favorite movie was Old School; is actually Fritz Lang's 1922 silent classic Dr. Mabuse der Spieler.
  
  
• Was once overheard describing the Potvin/Hextall fight as "a draw".
  
  
• During a poker game on a team flight, once bet out like he had hit his flush on the river when he totally hadn't.
  
  
• Swore to Scott Hartnell that he had no idea why Jeff Carter's toothbrush kept turning up in his bathroom.
  
  
• During the last few months of the Flyers season, frequently pretended he knew what that backup goalie's name was.
  
  
• When asked tonight by reporters if the Flyers can still win their series against the Bruins, replied "yes".