The hockey world suffered the loss of Steve Montador Sunday morning. The 35 year old was found unconscious in his Mississauga, Ontario home and was later pronounced dead. Police reported that there was no foul play suspected and his death was from natural causes. It was said that he fought depression as a result of a concussion he sustain while playing the game he loved.
Montador played 571 games in the NHL during his 10 year career. He played for six different teams from 2001-2012. The undrafted gritty defenseman began his NHL career with Calgary Flames from 2001(02)-2005(06). He was traded to the Florida Panthers in 2005(06)- 2007(08)
then to the Anaheim Ducks 2008(09), to the Boston Bruins 2008(09), to the
Buffalo Sabres 2009(10)-2010(11) and finally ended with the Chicago Blackhawks 2011(12).
The entire NHL community sent their thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.
Many teams held moments of silence in tribute to Montador before the start of their games. Steve Montador will be sorely missed. It is a great tragedy to lose someone at such a young age. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. Rest in peace Monty!
Hey everyone! Sorry I've been slacking again on being consistent.
Since the All-Star break the Bruins beat the Islanders 5-2, beat the Kings 3-1, lost to the Rangers 3-2, beat the Islanders again 2-1, and lost to the Canadiens last night 3-1. So far this season the Bruins have won 28 games, lost 18, and played 7 overtime games.
The New England Patriots recently showed everyone yet again that they are beasts. Some of the Patriots were at the Bruins/Islanders game for the puck drop and it wouldn't be complete without a Gronk spike.
Also guess who's back, back again..
The dorkiest of all dorks.
The Bruins play the Stars Tuesday at 7pm and I will be there six rows form the ice.
So this weekend in the NHL we had the pleasure of watching the all-stars of the league come together, draft their own teams, compete in ridiculous skill competitions, and now watch them play in the all-star game tonight. Here's a little recap of the weekend festivities.
Friday: NHL All-Star draft
The two captains, Jonathan Toews and Nick Foligno, were selected prior to this weekend. Toews had the help from his assistant captains, Ryan Getzlaf and Rick Nash, while Foligno was assisted by Patrick Kane and Drew Doughty. The highlights of the draft were definitely Ovi being Ovi and a surprise trade. Ovechkin went into the draft with big hopes...
...Only to be picked third to last by team Foligno to spoil his plans.
Ovi was brought utter comedy to the draft this year and fellow all-star gave us a hint as to why with this tweet the next day.
Ovi was still upset the next day.
Other than Ovi's antics, the only thing that stood out was the first ever NHL All-Star trade. The Seguin/Kessel saga continued when Team Foligno traded Tyler Seguin for Phil Kessel (fools)
Saturday: The Skills Competition
So with the teams chosen we moved onto the skills competition. The first challenge was fastest skater with Team Foligno sweeping the category 5-0. Tampa Bay's, Jonathan Drouin shined with the fastest time being 13.103 seconds. Ryan Johansen won the second event, the breakaway challenge, by catering to the hometown crowd. With his three shots he sported an Ohio State University football jersey, incorporated a young child in his second shot, and then with the help of his teammates broke out the flying V.
Needless to say he won the fan vote 44.3%. The third event was the accuracy shooting. The highlight of this event was watching Kane and Toews go head to head. Kane hit all four targets in the shortest amount of time 13. 529 seconds, beating fellow Blackhawk, Jonathan Toews, who completed the competition in 16.307 seconds.
Bros on bros on bros. I will never get over their bromance!
The fourth event was the challenge relay which included one timers, passing (mini nets), puck control relay, stick handling, and goalie goals. At the end of that Foligno's team lead 12-2. Event five was the hardest shot contest where no one came close to beating the five time champ Zdeno Chara until Shea Weber took his last shot. Weber won with a 108.5mph slapper. (Zdeno still holds the record with 108.8mph)
Last but not least was the three round timed shootout. (highlight gifs below)
The final tally was Team Toews:19 Team Foligno: 25
Sunday: The All-Star Game
If you blinked you could have missed a goal. Goals on goals on goals would be a quick recap of the game tonight. Team Toews beat Team Foligno 17-12 with help from just about everyone. Tavares and Vorachek both contributed hat tricks toward the 17 goals on Team Toews. Voracheck led the team with six points followed by Toews and Bergeron with five. Seguin set up Bergeron for a sweet tap in past Price and I had flashbacks to the good ole days.
I was just missing some nose face killah to complete the dream.
If the goals weren't enough for you, there was even a little scuffle to be had.
Good times had by all it seems. One day I'll make it to a NHL All-Star weekend, until then enjoy this gif of Jonathan Toews struggling to get on the bench.
The Bruins have two games until the All-Star break this weekend. Back to back and on the road, Boston faces the Dallas Stars on Tuesday and the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. The Bruins were riding a five game winning streak until they hit a speed bump that was the Columbus Blue Jackets. They fell to the Jackets Saturday 3-1 with the only Bruins goal coming from Carl Soderberg.
In other news, Brad Marchand was suspended two games for slew-footing Rangers' Derick Brassard on Thursday night.
I know Marchand is small and he has to get leverage somehow when going into hit guys, but I will not defend him here. I think this was a bit of a dirty play on his part and he should have just hit him without taking his legs out from under him. This is also not the first time he has been caught slew-footing. He was previously suspended in 2011 for slew-footing Matt Niskanen.
Oh Marshy, what are we going to do with you? #ShortPeopleProblems
The Bruins decided not to send Pastrnak down to the AHL which means he is with the team for the remainder of the season. Good thing because it seems this kid is the only thing sparking life into the Bruins at the moment.
The Bruins are rumored to be hosting the Montreal Canadiens in the 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium. "Familiar foe meet on uncommon ground."
Buy your tickets now folks, this game is going to be so hyped up the prices will skyrocket.
First off, sorry for being MIA lately, the holidays got the best of me and then I caught this horrible cold that's going around.
Anyway I am on the mend and it looks like the Bruins are too! I don't want to jinx anything but they are riding a three game wining streak over the Penguins, the Devils, and the Flyers. Their next game is at home on Tuesday versus the Tampa Bay Lightning and guess who's favorite blogger is going...
That's right, one of my good friends from Florida is coming to Boston and we're going to the game!
Some other exciting news, the NHL All-Star game is coming up on the 24th and they announced the roster.
They also announced the jersey designs.
Interesting choice to say the least. I'd love to hear your opinions on the roster what you guys think about the jerseys this year. Let me know!
On deck this week:
Tampa Bay Lightning (Tuesday-Home)
New York Rangers (Thursday-Home)
Columbus Blue Jackets (Saturday-Home)
Fun Facts:
-You can get live(ish) updates about my blog on my twitter here- Brain Freeze Twitter -Check out my pictures from the Bruins/Blackhawks game- Flickr Photos
