Roberto Luongo’s 10 Greatest Games with the Florida Panthers

When Roberto Luongo left Florida for Vancouver in 2006, he left behind a body of work that no other goaltender in franchise history has been able to touch. Even though he’s been gone for eight seasons, he still holds most of the goaltending records for the Panthers. It was in Florida that Luongo first established himself as one of the NHL’s elite goaltenders. With Luongo’s return to Florida, it’s a good time to look back at some of his greatest games from his first run with the Florida Panthers. Here’s 10 of his greatest in no particular order…

1) First Win (November 25, 2000 vs Tampa Bay Lightning)
It took Luongo until his 11th game in a Panther uniform to get his first victory, a 21 save 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The lone goal Luongo surrendered in the game was to Martin St. Louis, who he will no longer have to worry about when the Panthers meet the Lightning. Pavel Bure and Denis Shvidki scored for the Panthers.

NHL Trade Deadline Survival Guide

Even though trades are more difficult to complete under the salary cap system, the NHL trade deadline keeps growing and growing in popularity. It’s become almost like a national holiday in Canada where people wait all morning in hopes that their team makes a deal. If you’re a fan of a Stanley Cup contender, you’re looking for that missing piece to put you over the top. If you’re a fan of a bubble team, you’re looking for a big move that turns you from pretender to contender. And if you’re a fan of a lottery team, you’re looking for trades that will help your club in the future. There’s so much excitement and promise leading up to the trade deadline but plenty of people get fooled by fake rumours or wind up yelling at their TV’s in frustration. Hopefully this guide will help you get the most out of trade deadline day!

The Essentials
These are the top end trade breakers who bring you the most reliable trade deadline coverage. If all you do is follow these five guys on Twitter, you’ll be well informed.

Bob McKenzie
Darren Dreger
Elliotte Friedman 
Pierre LeBrun
Nick Kypreos

Other Reliable Sources
Chris Johnston, James Mirtle, Aaron Ward, Craig Custance, Louis Jean, Renaud Lavoie

Tip: Local beat writers for teams are also pretty good follows during trade deadline time as they’re usually able to shoot down bogus rumours quickly.

Tools of the Trade

CapGeek – The number one source for contract and salary cap information. Utilize their trade machine to test out your own trade ideas.

Trade Tracker – Cut through all the noise and refresh the NHL’s official trade tracker so you don’t miss a completed deal.

Trade Reaction
Looking for some good takes on the trades or trade coverage? Stick with Greg Wyshynski and Down Goes Brown.

Programming
There are hours upon hours of trade deadline coverage available on TV and streaming online. Watch it all at your own risk! Our suggestion would be to tune in closer to the actual deadline.

TSN TradeCentre
Live on TSN, TSN.ca and TSN Radio
Wednesday at 8am et/5am pt

Sportsnet Hockey Central Special: Trade Deadline
Live on Sportsnet
Wednesday at 8am et/5am pt

NHL Network
NHL Tonight: 2014 Trade Deadline Day Recap 6:00 PM ET

PHOTOS: The NHL in Sochi

NHL players have arrived in Sochi and we’re collecting some of the best images of their Olympic journeys…

Picture day!

John Carlson visits the Olympic torch

The Torch! #sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/IMQbOljul3

— John Carlson (@JohnCarlson74) February 11, 2014

PK Subban and Carey Price make a new friend

Erik Karlsson and Team Sweden are ready to go

Practice day. Tomorrow it starts. So excited. #Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/QWbmJr8zpT

— Erik Karlsson (@ErikKarlsson65) February 11, 2014

Nice view

The view from my room @Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/JbXAPgYLd4

— Ryan Miller (@RyanMiller3039) February 11, 2014

Not a bad view… #wemadeit #Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/rGvZ3bmpCJ

— Kevin Shattenkirk (@shattdeuces) February 10, 2014

Ovechkin’s special Olympic skates

My skates,мои коньки!)) pic.twitter.com/aZaKwQpR4s

— Alex Ovechkin (@ovi8) February 10, 2014

Five great goals from the CHL Top Prospects Game

Every year the CHL (Canadian Hockey League) brings together some of the best NHL prospects for a Top Prospects game. Players from the WHL, QMJHL and OHL are divided into two teams – Team Cherry and Team Orr – and put on a show for the fans and a lot of the decision makers in hockey. Here are some of the top goals from the 2014 edition of the BMO Top Prospects Game!

Josh Ho-Sang bats the puck in!

The Windsor Spitfires forward shows off his hand-eye coordination by batting a puck in out of mid-air for a goal. Ho-Sang is currently ranked as the 18th best North American skater by NHL Central Scouting.

Jared McCann snipes the winner!

Josh Ho-Sang backs off the defense and leaves the puck for Jared McCann, who rips in what would turn out to be the winner. The Greyhounds center is the 11th ranked North American skater.

Nikolay Goldobin scores on the wrap around!

Goldobin takes the puck off a blocked shot, wheels around the net and sneaks the puck in past the goalie. The Sarnia winger is currently a top 3 scorer in the OHL and ranked #14 by NHL Central Scouring.

Top 10 Hockey Lists of 2013

The list is an oft-used format for bloggers because lists are popular and usually spark debate. There are so many creative lists that get put out during the year that we decided to take a trip around the hockey blogosphere and share some of the ones we enjoyed the most in 2013. Yes, it’s a list of lists! It was difficult to narrow it down to 10 but we feel like we’ve highlighted some of the talented writers who do their part in making hockey a little more enjoyable to follow.

1. Things More Disrespectful Than Tomas Hertl’s Goal (By Peter Hassett of Russian Machine Never Breaks, @russianmachine)

When San Jose Sharks rookie Tomas Hertl went between-the-legs to score his fourth goal of the game, it drew a lot of attention. The video of Hertl’s goal became a viral hit, Joe Thornton said he’d take out his (rooster) if he ever scored four goals, and several “old-timers” complained about the showboat nature of Hertl’s goal. One of them was Capitals head coach, Adam Oates, who claimed that Hertl was disrespecting the league. In response, a popular Caps blog, Russian Machine Never Breaks, came out with their list of Things More Disrespectful Than Tomas Hertl’s Goal…

Jay Mohr
The way Jay Mohr pronounces “Vezina” like it’s an Italian plumber in a video game
The NHL’s lukewarm treatment of Wayne Gretzky
The curious, persistent absence of an international Wayne Gretzky holiday
The hypocrisy of allowing players to fight, but mandating that they wear helmets

2. The 10 most spectacularly awkward U.S. Olympic glamour shots (By Harrison Mooney of Puck Daddy, @YahooPuckDaddy)

Photo day for hopeful U.S. Olympic team members provided plenty of fodder for Puck Daddy. The photo of Phil Kessel still pops up quite often on Twitter when Kessel does something noteworthy.

6 | Phil Kessel

“I know what you’re thinking: Can a guy with shimmery stars on his shoulders go H.A.M. on you? And the answer to that question is ‘Phil Kessel.'”

3. Saying Good-bye to the 10 Horrible People We Met During the NHL Lockout (By Sean McIndoe of Grantland, @DownGoesBrown)

2013 began with the end of the lockout and the return of NHL hockey. The hilarious DownGoesBrown described the ten types of horrible people that emerged during the lockout.

The Boycotter

The NHL could only lock out its players for the third time in 20 years because they assumed the fans would come back. But what if they didn’t come back … EVER? [Ominous thunder.] Or at least for the first few games or so. Or maybe just the first period. Look, we haven’t quite worked out the details yet.

The Boycotter thinks he is the NHL’s worst nightmare. And he’d have been right if only everyone would have just signed the petition or watched this YouTube video or liked that Facebook page and, oh, hey, by the way, any chance he could he get an RT?

4. Top ten hockey video game characters of all-time (By Michael Traeger for Puck Daddy, @PolemicLicense)

In honor of the 20th anniversary of NHL ’93, Michael Traeger wrote a guest post on Puck Daddy detailing the top hockey video game characters of all-time. Michael hit on a lot of the classic games from Blades of Steel to Mutant League Hockey in compiling this list.

6 | Lepuke – Mutant Hockey League (1994, EA Sports)

Any Top 10 list of the greatest pixelated hockey players would be remiss to not include at least one character from this criminally underrated EA Sports title.

From fans throwing Molotov cocktails onto the playing surface to your center falling through a hole in the ice and vanishing from play for long stretches of time (we’re looking at you, Scott Gomez), Mutant Hockey League delivers hilarity in monstrous proportions.

“Lepuke,” one of many monster pseudonyms of then-current NHL stars (in this particular case, Mario Lemieux), is the game’s best skeleton, with perfect player ratings in skating, speed, shot power, offense, defense, and passing.

Lepuke is as handy with a flail as he is with his hockey stick, and being teamed with the murderous defenseman “Oof” (Ulf Samuleson) certainly helps.

As a special bonus, the legendarily temperamental goalie of the “Pucksucker Pukes” (Tom Barrasso), is “Imma Spazzo.”

5. Systems Mess: The 10 most-blatant defensive meltdowns of 2013 (By Justin Bourne of Backhand Shelf, @jtbourne)

Throughout the year in his Systems Analyst blogs, Justin Bourne breaks down some of the most chaotic and cringeworthy plays to help show fans what was going on. To end the year, he went back and put together a list of his 10 most blatant defensive breakdowns. Informative and entertaining…

And finally, your grand prize winner for most hilarious defensive positioning of the year…

#1 The Leafs defend the hell out of the corner, forget about the net-front

Backhand Shelf Post: (If you can even call this a post…) Backhand Shelf’s shortest Systems Analyst post ever

The Main Culprit(s): Holzer, Liles, Grabovski, Kulemin

The “Oops”: OMGHOCKEYPUCKHOCKEYPUCKHOCKEYPUCK

The Lesson Learned: Don’t. Just…don’t.

6. Rubber Puckies? Alternative NHL Team Nicknames (By Joe Pelletier of Greatest Hockey Legends, @HockeyLegends)

Greatest Hockey Legends is a terrific site to pick up all sorts of hockey trivia. One of the most fun lists that Joe put out this year was alternative NHL team names. The Nashville Ice Tigers? The Long Island Ducks? The San Jose Rubber Puckies? If you think a team has a silly name, remember that it could have been a lot worse!

A name-the-team contest saw the fans choose the San Jose Blades. Team ownership was worried about the nickname Blades due to gang violence and they vetoed the vote and chose Sharks. Other runner-ups include Screaming Squids, Salty Dogs, Fog, Icebreakers, Red Woods and Rubber Puckies. Yes. Rubber Puckies.

7. this is a post about terrible nhl.com puns (By sheercomplusion on Tumblr)

NHL.com has become known for their obsessive use of puns in their headlines. This Tumblr user couldn’t take it anymore and compiled a list of the worst ones in one post.

GONE WITH THE WIND, REALLY? YOU ARE TRYING TOO HARD

8. Top 10 Hockey Action Figures (By Jameson Cooper at Panther Parkway, @JamesonCoop)

Pretty much every young hockey fan goes through an action figure phase. Panther Parkway took a look at some of the most memorable action figures..

4. Wildwing

Armed with the mask of Drake DuCaine, Wildwing led a cartoon crime fighting group based on the NHL’s Mighty Ducks. Although the show was short lived, it made us all wonder what the NHL would be like if goalies were able to have “puck shooter” arm attachments.

9. The 10 unlikeliest hockey references in pop culture history (By Allan Muir at SI.com, @almuirSI)

Did you know Ian Laperriere was in a movie? Or that Jonas Gustavsson was namedropped in an episode of Psych? Probably not. Allan Muir put together this fun list of unlikely hockey references in pop culture.

The Simpsons and Howe

This is hockey’s greatest pop culture moment, and it’s not even close. In a Season Three episode of “The Simpsons” entitled “Bart The Lover,” a photo of Mr. Hockey is cut from a book to service a prank on Mrs. Krabappel, prompting Bart to utter the immortal phrase, “Strap on your skates, Gordie. You’re going in.” The career stats (including WHA!) at episode’s end was a nice touch.

10. Eye On Hockey’s best GIFs from the 2013 regular season (By Adam Gretz at Eye On Hockey, @AGretz)

Relive some of the best gifs from the 2013 Regular Season with this piece from EyeOnHockey.

Mathieu Perrault is very excited

Washington Capitals forward Mathieu Perreault celebrates a shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres in a very unique way. We still have no idea what this is or what’s happening here, but his excitement is unmatched (until he did this a couple of weeks later).

Shnarped FAQ

We recently released a new version of Shnarped which includes the ability to track any player from Canadian major junior and US college hockey.

What is Shnarped?

Shnarped is a mobile app available on Apple and Android devices that delivers you hockey news, stats, and highlights about your favorite players.  In addition to those features, Shnarped gives you the ability to interact with hockey players from the NHL, AHL, ECHL, NCAA, OHL, QMJHL, WHL, and Central League.  Over 700 players are currently using the application.

Where does the name come from?

Shnarps is a card game played almost exclusively by pro hockey players on buses and planes during road trips. Before they have even downloaded the app, fans are let into the pro hockey world. This is a small example of the unique content that will give fans inside access into the game they love.

What is the News Feed?

One of the best features we implemented many months ago to Shnarped was the customized News Feed.  Add to a tracking list and your News Feed tab will be filled with game-by-game stats, news items, video highlights and interactions between players.

What other content can I find on Shnarped?

The What’s Hot section is a handpicked selection of the most interesting highlights and news items of the day.  If you’re looking for more information about a player, use the search function and find a loaded player profile with career stats, last 5 game numbers, tweets, and a feed going back months with their news, stats and highlights.

How do I interact with players?

The interaction on Shnarped is called a “pound” which is hockey’s equivalent to a fist bump.  Tap the fist icon to “send a pound” to any player you want.  You can leave it blank and use it as a “like” button or you can attach a message or an image to make it more personalized.  Verified players receive these messages and have the ability to respond.  You can still send messages to non-verified players and if they join the app, they’ll have access to them all.

Where do these pounds go?

All pounds you send go directly to the player’s “Pounds Received” tab, which acts as an inbox.  Pounds you send in response to an event are also displayed underneath that event.

What is does it mean when a player is verified?

Players with the Verified badge are guys we have confirmed as users of the app.  They get all your “pound” messages and can respond from their player account.

Why isn’t ___ verified yet?

Players need some encouragement to try new things.  We suggest bugging them on Twitter about it but be nice!

I’m a player, how do I get verified?

The quickest way is through Twitter.  Connect your twitter account in Edit Profile > Details and we’ll be able to manually complete the verification process.  It always helps to follow @Shnarped on Twitter and shoot us a message to give us a head’s up.  If you don’t have Twitter or you’re having an issue, contact verify@shnarped.com for more info.

What types of people are using Shnarped?

Players – Guys from all over the hockey world are using Shnarped to keep track of their buddies and ex-teammates as they get spread out on different pro teams.

Agents – Plenty of agents are on the app tracking current clients to easily keep up-to-date with their progress.  Agents also like to keep tabs on prospects.

Coaches & team executives – There are multiple reasons why coaches and executives are using Shnarped.  The ability to track players from non-NHL teams has been a valuable tool for executives looking for a quick hit of how players in their system are doing.  Coaches in the lower leagues like to keep up on how their former players are progressing.

Fans – The reasons that fans use Shnarped are too many to list and different for everyone.   Many  love the way stats and news are presented while many are using it for the player interaction.   Fantasy hockey players find it to be a great way to stay one step ahead of the competition.   For players in deeper leagues, our inclusion of non-NHL leagues makes Shnarped the number one option for mobile apps.

I’m having technical issues, what do I do?

Please don’t hesitate to email us at info@shnarped.com and we’ll address your issue ASAP.

When will you be on Blackberry or Windows Phone?  When will you add European leagues?

We’re working on all these things and we’ll let you know when they’re imminent.

Where do I get the latest news on Shnarped?

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.  Like us on Facebook.