Nick Russ here to report on the events of hockey. Normally in the world of sports a visit to your championship is good in terms of job security as a coach. Even if you lose your championship they want you back to finally get the final push. Apparently in hockey this is not the case. The Pittsburgh Penguins who are the current defending Eastern conference champs fired coach Michel Therrien. Pittsburgh despite its talent with Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin the Penguins find themselves struggling at 4th in the Atlantic. They sit on the outside looking in, if the season ended now Pitt would miss the playoffs. The Penguins have gone 4-4-2 in their last 10 games. Some of those wins came against the Rangers and San Jose yet they dropped games against Toronto. Firing their coach has come off as a drastic move as we are now about two months away from the playoffs. Pittsburgh has Montreal tonight and rival Philadelphia on Saturday.
One of the hottest teams on the ice right now has to be the Washington Capitals. Winning seven of their last ten against teams like New Jersey and the Rangers and twice against division contending Florida. Powered by Alexander Ovechkin and the defensive efforts of Mike Green, Washington is starting to stake its claim as one of the best in the East. Washington has some true tests down the road for them with a still dangerous Pittsburgh followed by the Flyers. The last of their home game stretch ends with Atlanta before visiting Boston to wrap up the month.
Out west Detroit continues with their impressive season. They kicked off February with a 6 game winning streak. However they had a hick up with games against Columbus and a shoot out with dismal Colorado. Detroit keeps winning yet the teams they are beating are not exactly blue chip caliber. Some of their wins came at the expense of Nashville, St. Louis, Minnesota, and Phoenix all but Minnesota are bellow 500. and most are at or near the bottom of their divisions. The only real threat on the radar for Detroit is San Jose next week but they can't take it easy with their opponents due to the fact that Chicago has kept up with Detroit.
That'll do it for this time hockey fans!
Image courtesy of Haraz N. Ghanbari
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