Welcome to Snipe City, a weekly column looking at hockey from 36 Crazyfists singer, Alaska native and huge hockey fan Brock Lindow. 36 Crazyfists’ new album, Time & Trauma, is out now on Spinefarm Records. You can read about that here.
Prost from Switzerland my friends!!!
I thought about talking the Euro Elite Leagues in this week’s column but too much happened this past week in the world’s greatest league and its AHL affiliate that this weeks Snipe City had to focus on these two leagues.
Let’s start with a banger that was from the AHL. Fans in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on Saturday saw seven goals, four goaltenders and nearly 200 penalty minutes in a game that turned into mayhem late in the second period. The contest between the Hershey Bears and visiting Bridgeport Sound Tigers got out of hand with less than five minutes left in the second frame, and tempers really flared when Tigers winger Brett Gallant went after Bears winger Chris Brown as he was headed into the penalty box.
A quick rundown of the box score goes a little like this: Bridgeport’s Gallant, Justin Courtnall and goaltender Kevin Poulin all received fighting majors and game misconducts; Scott Mayfield got a fighting major and a game misconduct for leaving the bench; and Cam Reid received a roughing minor and ten-minute misconduct. Hershey’s Brown, Connor Carrick, and Kris Newbury got majors for fighting along with game misconducts; Steve Oleksy got a roughing minor and ten-minute misconduct; and Liam O’Brien received a game misconduct for being the third man into an altercation and an additional game misconduct for leaving the bench.
Suspensions are going to be levied this week an O’Brien, who left the bench to get involved in the melee, will likely get hit with the heaviest hand of them all. In the end, Hershey hobbled away with a 4-3 victory. The two teams meet again on March 29 in Bridgeport. This weekend Hockey Day in America was celebrated and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey Team reunited in Lake Placid, New York, on the 35th Anniversary of their historic win over the Soviet Union.
Members of the gold medal-winning team relived the “Miracle on Ice” by giving their perspectives of the historic victory. I’ve probably watched the movie Miracle nine million times and it chokes me up every time. The reunion also paid tribute to Bob Suter, who passed away at the age of 57 on September 9, 2014. Suter’s No. 20 jersey was raised to the rafters in his honor. US!!! USA!!! USA!!!
Before the gig last night in Munich, Germany, we got to watch our boys in orange and black continue their winning ways, as they grabbed another two points in a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals. Still plenty of work to do, but at least the playoffs are now within reach. Loving our new back up tender Rob Zepp, too. Go Flyers!
I’ve been hearing it from my boys who are from Minnesota, so I wanted to bring light to one of the most dangerous teams in hockey as of late—The Minnesota Wild. Not so long ago, The Minnesota Wild Were hearing loud boos from their home crowd during a slump that saw them win only twice during a 14-game stretch. These days, though, it’s “Doooooooob!!” reverberating throughout the Xcel Energy Center whenever the newly-acquired Devan Dubnyk stops a shot.
Dubnyk’s arrival continues to spark The Wild. He stopped 24 shots on last Saturday night to earn his 10th win in 13 games with his new team, leading Minnesota over Carolina 6-3. Thomas Vanek had two goals and an assist, and The Wild continued their recent surge by winning for the eighth time in nine games. Sunday’s game had a six-goal outburst in the third period, where The Wild won 6-2 against the Dallas Stars at Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota (31-21-7) has won three straight games and moved into the second wild-card position in the Western Conference for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Wild are 11-1-1 since the All-Star Break. The six-goal third period is a Wild record for one period.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/8bDUGRaV0cs[/youtube]
The fight of the week goes to Sidney Crosby and Alaskan hockey hero Brandon Dubinsky, as Crosby picked up his seventh NHL fighting major Thursday night. Dubinsky’s long been a thorn in Crosby’s side and things came to a head after Dubinsky finished a check on Crosby in the Columbus Blue Jackets end. Crosby went to the ice, holding Dubinsky, and the two became tangled. They dropped the gloves on the way up and started throwing punches. Dubinsky got in a few rights, as Crosby was wobbly. Crosby got in a good right of his own, before pulling Dubinsky to the ice.
Dubinsky had this to say about the tilt: “I just hit him in the corner. He was trying to pull me down and I was holding on to him. We both got up, he dropped his gloves and I dropped mine, obliged. He’s a competitor. We know how hard he plays. Any time you get a chance to make a tradeoff with one of the best in the world, I’ll take it. I’ll take him for five in the box.”
Well done, brother! Anytime someone hits Crosby in the beak, it brings a smile to my face. Winner goes to my AK brethren Dubinsky!
Some really cool interactive things are on the horizon for Snipe City and I hope to iron all the details out this week before the next column, but it’s gonna ramp up and I’m pretty excited about it. We have one week left of this Euro run and we will head home for a couple weeks off before the start of the next U.S./Canada run at the end of March.
Thanks to everyone who picked up our new album Time and Trauma this week.
Gonna go check out this Game of Thrones-sounding city called Winterthur in Switzerland today for our day off. I’ll see if there’s any shinny to be had… or better yet a sword fight in the city center!
Lace’em up for me this week—I’m jonesin’!
Keep your head up,
Brock
