Ryan's Blog

This is my Surrealism art. I got to go crazy and draw anything I wanted, but with a little rules like including animals, buildings, and plants. So it was fun because I got to draw things like angry birds, mad elephants, and talking trees.

The Blackhawks are ready to come back home at the Inited Centre as they have their season high six game triad trip. Marcus Kruger and Jonathan Toews each scored 66 seconds apart in the second period, leading the Blackhawks to remain as the only NHL team undefeated in regulation by beating the Nashville Predators 3-0 last night. 

Patrick Kane also added a goal in the third as the Blackhawks blanked the Preds with their fourth straight win and improved to 10-0-2 and 8-0-2 on the road. Now the Blackhawks finally get to play just their third game at home Tuesday night against Anaheim starting their seven game home stand. Coach Queeneville said they don’t want to change anything with his goalie Corey Crawford got Chicago’s first shut out of the season and Crawford’s sixth of his career making just 17 saves. His Teammates blocked 14 shots while Crawford had a 21 minute span where he didn’t even get a single shot.

Nashville will be back home as well to start a 4 game home stand with the Predators getting their 17th consecutive sold out crowd. The Blackhawks shouldn’t change a thing and if they keep up this pace they’ll be as dominate as their run for the cup in 2010. 

The Leafs all worked together with James van Riemsdyk scoring twice, and James Reimer stopped 28 shots leading the Toronto Maple Leafs past the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Wednesday night. Clarke MacArthur, Mikhail Grabovski and Tyler Bozak also scored for the Maple Leafs, but unfortunately for the Leafs, they lost winger Joffrey Lupul to an upper body injury half way through the second period. Lupul suffered a fractured forearm after a shot from teammate Dion Phaneuf, Lupul did not return. Nikolai Kulemin added three assists as Toronto spoiled Pittsburgh’s home opener.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored their first goals of the season for Pittsburgh, but the Penguins struggled with Toronto’s speed and failed to play with the kind of discipline they had in their opening weekend wins over Philadelphia and the New York Rangers. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 19 shots for the Penguins but Pittsburgh couldn’t get off to a 3-0 start again making this their 18th year in a row without a 3-0 start.

Since NHL 13 came out I have been really interested in the Hockey Ultimate Team Game Mode.  Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) is a game mode where players can build their ultimate hockey team by collecting and winning players and training items to make the best possible team. You get to select your favorite team when first starting and this will help choose the apprerience for your HUT Team this year. Rather than having to win the home and away jerseys of your favorite NHL team they’ll be in your Free Starter Pack.

The Free Starter Pack will not only include the uniforms of your favorite NHL team, but will also have a few players from that team to give you someone to build your HUT team around.The rest of your team will be filled with players from other NHL teams, the CHL and other leagues in the game.Building your lines with your player cards isn’t as simple as just putting the highest ranked players first.  Chemistry can affect how well your players perform with their teammates.Chemistry is affected by whether or not players are in their regular positions and if they’re playing with players from the same team or same leagues as they are from. 

I have really started liking this game mode and is a sweet way to play NHL 13. To get a good team is about how good you can be a general manager and how you manage your team!

The Philadelphia Flyers have named Claude Giroux the 19th captain in team history.General manager Paul Holmgren announced the great news Tuesday night. The Flyers have also said that beside Giroux Kimmo Timonen will serve as assoicate captain, and Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere will be the alternate captains. Giroux has just now taken over defensemen’s Chris Pronger’s spot as team captain. This is because Pronger hasn’t played since November 19th, 2011 and is still out with suffering from lingering effects of multiple concussions.

Giroux will enter his fifth season with the Flyers, he put up 28 goals and 93 points last season, the most by a Flyer since the good old days when Eric Lindros had 93 in 1998-99. The Flyers drafted Giroux in the first round of the 2006 NHL entry draft and in his 285 career games Giroux has had 78 goals and 165 assists for 243 points. This is a great call for the Flyers and I think Giroux will have another great season and will lead the Flyers strongly and will be dedicated to his position as the Flyers 19th captain in team history.

Tom Brady is one of the best playoff QB’s and seems like every year he is going for the championship. Once again he gets another chance to lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl after getting his record 17th playoff victory leading New England to it’s 41-28 victory over Houston on Sunday.

Next team the Patriots have to defeat is Baltimore, which stunned the Football world with an upset win over the top-seeded Denver Broncos in double overtime Saturday. Shane Vereenn scored three times as New England beat Houston for the second time in a month. All though Patriots got the win Brady had to work extra hard because he was missing key players, including Rob Gronkowski, who broke his left arm and is now out for the rest of the playoffs.However, he got the usual performance out his players from guys like Wes Welker, his favourite target. Welker is the AFC’s top receiver with 118 catches this season. He got six catches in the first half for 120 yards, that was including a 47 yarder, and he finished with eight for 131.

In the end it was Brady’s 41st post-season TD pass, behind only Brett Favre (44) and his idol growing up Montana (45). The Patriots had an amazing game and deserved to beat the Texans and I hope the Patriots can go all the way because once again the Pats are my favourite team! Go Patriots Go!

The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired general manager Brian Burke and replacing him will be Dave Nonis taking over as the new GM and senior vice president. Burke will still be with the organization as a senior advisor. It was surprising to all and shocking news to lots of people that after a 113-day lockout, the Maple Leafs would just fire Burke now. People were very shocked, mostly the players like Joffrey Lupul said he was also shocked to hear the news and players could’nt believe it.

Burke had been the Maple Leafs’ president and general manager since November 29, 2008. The Leafs hadn’t made the playoffs in every season with him in charge and this season are coming off a 13th-place finish in the Eastern Conference. He made some big trade being in charge in Toronto. One of his most biggest trades was getting Dion Phaneuf in a seven-player deal with Calgary in 2010. One of his most debatable trades was in 2009 when he made a deal with the Bruins, when he got Phil Kessel for two first-round draft picks and a second-round selection. The Bruins used the picks to get forward Tyler Seguin, Dougie Hamilton and Jared Knight.

Brian Burke has had a long career and will leave the Leafs with a 129-135-42. He has made a lot of mistakes while he was in charge, but he surrely made a name for himself.

Steve Nash has just made his name as one of the best point guards of all time. The Canadian native got his 10,000th career assist but couldn’t help in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 125-112 loss to the Houston Rockets. Nash got the milestone to Jamison on a pick-and-roll late in the first half. He’s only the fifth player to get the record, the only other players who have are John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Mark Jackson, and Magic Johnson. Nash now has a total of 10,005 assists in  his 17-year NBA career, his first season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Besides this amazing milestone Nash couldn’t help the Lakers get the win over the Rockets because James Harden led them to their fifth straight win dominating the Lakers in every attribute. Nash was a great addition to the Lakers, but with Bryant, Nash, and Howard they don’t have a lot of chemistry and it isn’t working out in the end for the Lakers.

Bauer has stepped up their game with the new totalone hockey gloves. These gloves were made from the inside to the outside. The TotalOne glove is the next generation of anatomical performance and style. The newest Supreme glove is designed with segmentation that follows major tendons, this allows the glove to get more flex with the natural movement of the hand. Premium protection is unparalleled with the combination of XRD Poron foam Bauer also put in Max-Sorb technology.

The totalone glove has great durability and has a nuback palm making this a true evolution of hockey gloves. I personally love this glove, but do not have them I own the One80′s, but I know people who love these gloves and they say they purified great protection and last longer than other gloves.