Miller and Anderson Making Pitch for Team USA Starting Job posted by Jeff Ponder

Tim Thomas has been the heavy favorite for the starting goaltender position for Team USA in 2010 for quite some time.  But Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller is turning some heads with his strong play to start the 2009-10 campaign.

Heading into the United States Olympic Hockey Camp in July, reigning Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas was the clear cut number one guy to lead the USA Men's Ice Hockey Team to a Gold Medal.  But his play suffered early, as his Bruins currently sit at 11th in the Eastern Conference with a 6-7-2 record.  The troublesome stat that may worry Team USA officials is that in his first three games Thomas suffered twelve goals against, also posting a dismal .870 save percentage in that span.  It is just the first three games, but the Olympics are a short two weeks where teams can play up to 8 games in about 11 days.  The Olympic committee will have worries if Thomas cannot handle the pressure of jumping right into a situation on the ice.

While Thomas has still played well enough, Ryan Miller has outplayed his counterpart to the fullest extent of the word.

Miller is currently leading the league in save percentage (.941%), second in GAA (1.69), and tied for second in shutouts.  It is no mistake that Miller and the Sabres are 3rd in the Eastern Conference with a remarkable 9-2-1 record.  The East Lansing, Michigan native has enjoyed one of the best starts of his career, after witnessing his team miss the playoffs in 2009.

"That's who he is. He's a battler and the backbone of our team," Buffalo captain Craig Rivet said about Miller after a hard-fought win against the Maple Leafs on October 30th. "We played against a feisty team that wanted a win, and he stood on his head a couple times to help us out. He was the main reason we got the win."
Continue reading "Miller and Anderson Making Pitch ..."

Goaltender Options for the Flyers - Part 2 posted by Kevin Christmann

Part 2 of this series will include Restricted Free Agent options as well as possible acquisitions via trade.

In Part 1 of this series I covered some of the more realistic Unrestricted Free Agent options for the Flyers in their quest to acquire a starting goaltender. In addition to the Unrestricted Free Agent options, there are several viable Restricted Free Agent options. The benefit of restricted free agents is that they are all young…that is, after all, why they are restricted free agents. They are often times coming off their entry level contracts, and just haven’t played enough seasons to be eligible for unrestricted free agency. The bad part about restricted free agency is that, depending on how much the player is signed for, the team is required to pay some sort of draft pick compensation.

The compensation thresholds are dependent upon the salary cap ceiling for that respective season. Since we don’t know what the salary cap will be set at for next season, the compensation thresholds have not been set either.

Last year’s compensation was as follows:

-at or below $863,812 = no compensation

-$863,813 to $1,307,812 = One 3rd round pick

-$1,307,813 to $2,615,625 = One 2nd round pick

-$2,615,626 to $3,923,437 = One 1st round pick, one 3rd round pick

-$3,923,438 to $5,231,249 = One 1st round pick, one 2nd round pick, one 3rd round pick

-$5,231,250 to $6,539,062 = Two 1st round picks, one 2nd round pick, one 3rd round pick

-$6,539,063 or above = Four 1st round picks

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:

Canadiens crush Bruins' spirits posted by Bill Koch

The fact that the Boston Bruins are about to be eliminated from the NHL postseason by the Montreal Canadiens is sickening enough.
Watching the Bruins be relegated to visitors' status in their home building, however, is just one more reminder of what a complete and utter debacle hockey has become on Causeway Street.
Montreal fans swarmed the TD Banknorth Garden for Tuesday night's pivotal Game 4, a match-up that Boston desperately needed to win to avoid falling behind 3-1 in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarterfinal. I didn't think that the eighth-seeded Bruins stood any chance against the top-seeded Canadiens when the pairings were announced, what with that 11-game losing streak against Montreal and all, but to see Boston be humiliated on home ice by thousands of traveling Canadiens fans was the last straw.
These games between the two Original Six rivals were as much a blood feud as the current Red Sox-Yankees struggle back in the old Adams Division days. The Buffalo Sabres, Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Failures Whalers were supporting acts to the main stage that pitted the Bruins and the Canadiens against each other seemingly every season. My earliest hockey memories as a kid were watching Ray Bourque, Cam Neely and the rest of the Boston legends face off against Patrick Roy, Chris Chelios and Montreal's bunch of divers and frauds. And there was absolutely no way that any Montreal fan would have been able to find a seat in the old Boston Garden, a building that was as great a home-ice advantage as any arena in the NHL.
Continue reading "Canadiens crush Bruins' spirits"

Los Angeles Kings @ Detroit Red Wings (Game Recap 12/19/2007) posted by Matthew R. Hastings

Different Game, Same Story for the Los Angeles Kings.  On Tuesday against Colorado the Kings took a bad early and it set the tone for the rest of the game, well against the Red Wings it was no different!  Jason LaBarbera was looking to build off that performance he gave Monday night against the Avalanche, but in this game he would get no help.

Cammalerri took holding penalty just 22 seconds into the 1st period, and just like that the Red Wings are up 1-0 less than one minute into the game!  The Red Wings got another goal from Hudler toward the midway of period one.  With a 2-0 deficit, the Kings were in another hole early.  Detroit forward Franzen was called for a holding penalty with two minutes left in the 1st period.  The Kings, Dustin Brown then cashed in on the golden opportunity to get them back in the game by netting a Power-play goal. 

The Kings came out for the 2nd period and shocked the Red Wings, by not only scoring 15 seconds into the period but tying the game as well.  The people in the Hockeytown thought they were going to be in for a game, but then the Red Wings woke back up with some help from the Kings. Three minutes after tying the game Zetterberg flipped the puck towards Kings goalie Labarbera when defense-man Tom Preissing deflected the puck with his hand confusing goalie Jason LaBarbera, Thomas Holmstrom was then able to poke the puck into the goal to give the Red Wings the lead right back at 3-2. 

After that it was no looking back as the Red Wings poured it on.  The Red Wings got 3rd Period goals from Cleary, Franzen, and Filppula to cap of the win.  The game that was once tied 2-2, was quickly changed by four straight goals from four different Red Wings.  Future Hall of Fame goalie Domink Hasek was sharp enough for the Red Wings stopping 18 of 20 shots.  Once again bad penalties and mistakes cost the Kings.  The Red Wings showed why they have been an elite team for the last 10 years.  All the players on the team know their role and they combine it into the system to work.  They also get good goal-tending, make teams pay for the mistakes made, and they capitalize on the Power-play.   

The trade is done... the waiver wire work has begun. posted by Roland Lesterlin

I woke up this morning with a sense of joy.  Jarome Iginla managed to produce a wonderful 4 point night, including a game winner.  As any fantasy hockey enthusiast will surely attest, a hat trick is a wonderful thing.  A hat trick that includes a powerplay goal and a game winning goal is even better; throw in 9 shots on goal and a couple of PIMS and the dream night is complete. 

As we approach the 30 game mark of the season, it is time to let the sleeping dogs lie.  If you have underperformers on your fantasy team, now is the time to cut bait and find new fertile fishing grounds.  It is better to have a hot player that gets you a few points then drop him and find the next hot commodity then to hang onto a massive underperformer.  It is true that I continue to hold my breath on Maxim Afinogenov, but that is because he has finally started to put up points. 

Here are some hot players to consider: 

Sean Avery:  One of the leagues best agitators is returning to the Blue shirts line-up.  New York wins with this guy in the line-up.  He will get plenty of PIMS, shots and even powerplay time.  What more could you want from your 2nd or 3rd string LW?

Mike Fischer:  This guy can flat out play the game.  If he was on a team that didn’t boast some of the highest scoring professionals in the game today, he would get a lot more respect.  He’s feeling it right now and his ice-time is increasing.  Ride him while he’s hot, which might be for a little longer than you’d expect. 

Sabres re-sign forward Ellis to 1-year contract

The Buffalo Sabres have re-signed unrestricted free agentforward Matt Ellis to a one-year contract. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for NHL

Sabres re-sign F Ellis to 1-year deal (AP)

The Buffalo Sabres have re-signed unrestricted free agent forward Matt Ellis to a one-year contract. A gritty fourth-line player, Ellis rejoins the team for a third season after setting career-highs with 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) and 72 games played last year. The signing was announced by the team as Ellis celebrated his 29th birthday on Tuesday. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

F MacArthur signs 1-year deal with Leafs (AP)

Forward Clarke MacArthur has signed a one-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team announced the deal with the unrestricted free agent Saturday. MacArthur had 16 goals and 19 assists last season between the Buffalo Sabres and Atlanta Thrashers, who acquired him on March 3 in exchange for draft picks. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Sabres re-sign Mancari to one-year deal

The Buffalo Sabres have re-signed forward Mark Mancari to aone-year contract. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for NHL

Sabres re-sign Mark Mancari

The Buffalo Sabres have re-signed forward Mark Mancari to aone-year contract. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for NHL