Ice Hockey’s Winter Classic

Once confined to dark and dingy arenas or frozen ponds, ice hockey and more specifically the National Hockey League (NHL) has discovered a new mainstream venue to display its brand of physically action and graceful and play. Beginning last season with a classic match-up of two of the original six teams – the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Redwings — the leagued launch the Winter Classic, a regular season game played outdoors in one of North America’s legendary sports venues. Keeping in the spirit of “home ice,” last year’s game took place at Wrigley Field, with both teams marching out across the covered infield to take the ice. 

This season’s match-up featured another clash of two arch rivals as the Washington Capitals traveled to Pittsburgh’s Heinz field to battle the Penguins. Beyond the thrill of players and fans who enjoyed this rare moment of outdoor hockey, the addition of an HBO Sports documentary, chronicling both teams’ road to the Winter Classic, created a unusually excitement around the regular season match-up. While neither teams’ playoff destiny would be determined by the game and no one would leave the ice hoisting hockey’s legendary Stanley Cup, every one at the stadium or watching the telecast that day in January felt an incredible sense of exhilaration. 

In just two seasons, the NHL’s mid-season event, has gone for another game of professional hockey, to a highly anticipated sporting event. This large national stage has in turned helped the sport once again reach out to new fans.

Bauer Hockey invests on new facility

One of the largest ice hockey manufacturing companies, Bauer Hockey, Inc. recently doubled the size of their office by starting construction of their brand new global home base. The company’s global HQ will thus be relocating from its current office in Greenland, N.H. to Exeter which is nearby. Bauer’s new office building will be located at 100 Dornan Drive, and is twice the size of the company’s current office. With the increased office space, the company expects to expand its product volume to meet increasing demand for its high quality ice hockey equipment.

Also relocating operations are Bauer’s global support teams, administrative staff, and its executive management group, along with global departments. The new building will also be housing the company’s sales and marketing departments all under one roof. The company, meanwhile, is retaining its existing office in Mississauga, Ontario where its Canadian sales and marketing teams are based. Bauer will also be maintaining its highly reputable Research, Design and Development Center in St. Jerome, Quebec, as well as its remote European offices in Germany and Sweden.

Bauer Hockey Chief Executive Officer and President Kevin Davis says that it is an exciting time for the company. Their new building shall stand for the high quality standards that their products are recognized for. Davis adds that their new facility shall feature technological upgrades apart from the increased working space that should enable their business to expand comfortably. Of the 262,000 square feet of new office space, around 56,835 had been leased.

Ducks Wins in the 10th Round of the NHL

EDMONTON, Alberta – Ducks rival Nikolai Khabibulin makes waves as he stops Anaheim over and over again in every shootout, as their team mate Cam Fowler watches them closely. But once he got the unexpected opportunity to score, he did it with all hopes of winning the game.

Cam Fowler scored with the said opportunity and led his team to win (3-2) versus Khabibulin’s Edmonton Oilers in period three of their game in round 10 of the NHL. The game was won by Fowler shooting a simple field goal instead of his usual fancy moves.

The just-turned 19 rookie defenseman made history in his 24^th game in the league. During the interview held after the game, Fowler stated “I wanted to shoot”. He also added: “I didn’t want to risk putting a move on because Khabibulin had already made some really nice saves on guys that have way better moves than me. I thought my best chance was to go in and pick a spot. Luckily it found the back of the net.”

Before the unexpected field goal of Fowler, the Ducks had all the possible opportunities to score and win the game. But throughout the shootout of every round, Khabibulin was there to stop them. In the first round of the game, Joffrey Lupul scored for the Ducks, which was eventually answered by Edmonton’s top draft pick of the year Taylor Hall.

Everything was even because of the 30 stops made by Kahbibulin, save for the field goal scored by Cam Fowler.

Ponikarovsky heads to L.A.

Alexei Ponikarovsky signed a $3 million deal with the Los Angeles Kings today. However, the Kings will not be jumping for joy over this as the Ukrainian was more or less the second or third choice.

The first choice for the Kings was of course Ilya Kovalchuk. The problem for the team was that Kovalchuk was not willing to settle for any old paycheck. Since Dean Lombardi, the Kings’ General Manager, had decide that he was not going to pay exorbitant salaries to any player, Kovalchuk eventually went off to the New Jersey Devils. The contract with the Devils is an NHL record setter; Kovalchuk is set stay with the Devils for 17 years and will be paid $102 million in that period.

However, a quick investigation by the NHL has concluded that the contract has circumvented the imposed salary caps and therefore has been deemed null and void. Kovalchuk has immediately returned to negotiations with the Devils as the team seems to be his first choice.

Lombardi’s decision to go with Ponikarovsky is not bad in retrospect. The Ukrainian has scored more than 20 goals in the last five seasons and has the potential to give the Kings some bit in their attack. The decision is also solid in the sense that Lombardi wants to spend his resources on getting back homegrown talent who have been signed up by rival teams. But if the Devil’s deal with Kovalchuk does fall through, there is a strong possibility that Lombardi will make a bid for the forward.

How to Perform a Successful Ice Hockey Stop

Ice hockey is one of the most popular sports in the West, participated by over 1 million registered players from different countries. One of the best moves you can do that will surely put you in the line of professional ice hockey players is to do an ice hockey stop. Not only does mastering the fast and hard hockey stop make you look and feel great about yourself, it also is a type of a defensive move when you are on play, especially when you plan on spraying some ice to your opponents.Learning how to make a hockey stop can be a very tricky skating fundamental, which is why it is recommended to learn the move one step at a time. The first step in learning the hockey stop is for you to feel your skates slide on the ice in a sideways manner.

For you to be able to do this successfully, you can hold on to the board at the bench of the players where no glass will get in your way. Curve your knees; push one side of the skate away from your body while you keep the most of your body weight on your other foot.Once you are in position, you can now push your skates for it to make a hard stop. With a lot of practice, you can eventually do the hockey stop without holding on to anything. Learning the moves in ice hockey is one effective way for you to win the game. All you need is patience and determination, and in no time, you will be playing like one of the professionals.