Jake's Take: The NHL All Star Weekend

As you may have read on our FAQ, Jacob Niehl, is my brother and the designer of our kick ass banner. Jake is also going start to occasionally write articles for us, the first of which being his reflections and musings on the NHL All Star game.

Make the jump to read Jake's take...

2011 NHL All-Star Game Recap

The much anticipated NHL All Star Game has come and passed earning generally positive reviews.

The game began with an awkward opening ceremony featuring baby Lemieux, baby Gretzky, and two other babies on the ice throwing sticks to pick teams.

"Woah! Rod Brind'amour!"

"No way Ron Francis!"

Classic lines.

Make the jump...

NHL All-Star Skills Competition

Usually the Skills Competition is the most entertaining part of all star weekend, assuming that the game is just goal after goal with little to no defense to be found. This years competition was pretty entertaining. Also everything was sponsored.


Make the jump for our breakdown of the action...

The Wonderful World of a Sedin v. Sedin All-Star Game

Earlier tonight the NHL held its much publicized All-Star Fantasy Draft. One of the results of the drafted teams was the separation of the Sedin twins, as Daniel was picked by Team Staal and Henrik by Team Lidstrom, pitting the two brothers against each other for the first time in their careers. So fortunately viewers won't have to deal with the issue of properly identifying which brother is which.

This isn't even fair, their mother can't even tell them apart.

Which is really the best thing for this game.

Make the jump.

2011 All-Star Fantasy Draft

The time has come for the actual All-Star Fantasy Draft.  Team Staal feat. Ryan Kesler and Mike Green square off vs. Team Lidstrom feat. Patrick Kane and Martin St. Louis.  Team Staal won the coin toss which was represented by a puck and thus the draft was under way.

-Goalies need drafted by the 10th round.
-Defenseman need drafted by the 15th round.

Semin and Moulson Receive New Contracts

Yesterday, the Washington Capitals made a move to retain one of their star scorers Alexander Semin.  Both parties agreed to a 1 year extension on Semin's contract that will retain him through next season.  The contract was for $6.7 million dollars.

All Star Mock Draft Showdown Extravaganza

As everyone is well aware the All-Star break is right around the corner. SO, because we were so excited and overwhelmed with anticipation for how the draft would turn out, it was decided that there would be no more waiting and we would just do one for ourselves....

yaayyyy...

So for whatever reason it ended up being Evan and myself, plotted against the Lone and Fearless Adam. Adam got pretty screwed actually because not only was he on his own but we did two coin tosses, (One for pick of captain and one for first pick) and he lost both. Although it was only a small, meaningless victory for the Evan Quinn combo because Adam's tough luck had little to no effect on his expert drafting strategies.

We followed the same rules for the draft.
Goalies by 10 and Defense by 15.
Shit got real.
This is what we ended up with.

Last Day Before All-Star Break Odds and Ends

Just one day before heading into the All-Star break the All-Star game replacements have been announced, a certain scoring legend turns 50, and oh yeah, there are 18 teams in action tonight.  

All-Star Replacements:

The remaining of the All-Star replacements have been named.  They will take part in the draft on Friday, the Super Skills Competition Saturday, and the actual game on Sunday. 

The Replacements for the game are as follows:

-Paul Stastny (replacing Sidney Crosby)

-Jeff Skinner (replacing Evgeni Malkin)

-Keith Yandle (replacing Tobias Enstrom)

-Martin Havlat (replacing Ales Hemsky)

-Danny Briere (replacing Jarome Iginla)

The Replacements for the Super Skills Competition are as follows:

-P.K. Subban (replacing Jordan Eberle)

-Jamie McBain (replacing Jeff Skinner)

To avoid confusion, Skinner was originally selected to take part in the skills competition because he was a rookie, but after some consideration he was chosen to replace Malkin in the actual game. 

Multiple Injuries Plague The All-Star Rosters. [Updated]

It has finally been confirmed that Sidney Crosby will yet again miss the NHL All-Star Game on January 30th.  Crosby has missed the past 9 games with a concussion he sustained January 5th courtesy of a hit from Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman. He was previously injured during the Winter Classic after a David Steckel hit.  Crosby was voted a starter by the fans.

All-Star Alternate Captains Announced

     With the January 30th All-Star Game quickly approaching,  Team Staal's and Team Lidstrom's rosters have tripled with the announcement that Ryan Kesler, Mike Green, Patrick Kane, and Martin St. Louis will represent their respective teams as alternate captains.  Kesler and Green will be paired with Staal, while Kane and St. Louis will be put with Lidstrom. 

With that being said, lets take a look at our 2011 NHL All-Star Captains, and their Alternates:

Team Staal

F- Eric Staal (Captain)

-Born: October 29, 1984 (26 years old).

-2nd overall pick in the 2003 NHL Draft (behind Marc-Andre Fleury)
-Captain of the Carolina Hurricanes.
-47 games played.
-22 goals and 25 assists for 47 points.
-Was an All-Star in 2003 (Youngstars Game), 2007, 2008, and 2009.
-2007 All-Star MVP.
-Won Stanley Cup in 2005-06
-Olympic Gold Medalist in 2010

Nabokov Goes To The Islanders [UPDATE: Shit Hits the Fan]

Earlier this morning it was confirmed that goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who was signed by the Red Wings for dirt cheap but had to go through waivers, was indeed claimed off of waivers by the New York Islanders.

Lookin' good?

On one hand this is great for Nabby, as he gets to make a respectable comeback to the NHL. On the other hand however, one can safely say he won't be participating in the playoffs this year as he will remain with the Islanders for the remainder of the season. His contract includes a no trade clause, which to be broken would require Nabokov agreeing to go through waivers again, so a trade is out of the picture.

But how does this effect the Islanders goaltending?


Make the Jump...

NHL Recap 1/21

It's a fairly quiet night in the NHL (only 4 games) so i figured I'd try my hand at a nightly update segment.  We'll start off in Buffalo:

2 Nathan Gerbe scores twice in 5 seconds but thats just about all Buffalo had going for them.  Miller gets pulled after giving up 2 goals on 10 shots.

5 Michael Grabner scores 2 and Kyle Okposo gets his first point of the season in his second game back. DiPietro was out sick so instead 2 rooks combine to stop 36 of 38 shots. Solid game from NY.

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You're Doing It Peter!

As I sit at my Macbook, fondly watching videos of Matthew Barnaby and reminiscing on the pre-lockout NHL, I received an ESPN NHL Update...

Peter Forsberg is practicing with the Avalanche.

Clink.

Oh no.

I shat a brick.

(Make the jump)

Back from the USSR? [UPDATED]

Vacation's over, give Stalin his hat back.

Earlier today TSN (Bob McKenzie/Darren Dreger) reported that the Red Wings are close to a deal with veteran goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov, the noted ex-Shark, recently terminated his contract with the KHL for whatever reason. I don't really care why he did it. I like Nabby, and it'll be nice to see him back in the NHL, but his signing should raise some relevant questions for the Red Wings organization and the NHL as a whole to some extent.

More after the jump...

Welcome... From Quinn

Hello, my name is Quinn. I am an eighteen year old film student at Point Park University, an attention deprived middle child and a hopeless romantic. Because of those three depressing attributes, and with much inspiration from Adam and Evan, I have turned to the various aspects of hockey for joy and solace in the past few months. This has just added to my love for the game and to my appreciation for the small inklings of hilarity that can be found between players, coaches and broadcasting staff.

To be continued.....

Though I and my counterparts have never before blogged I believe we share a common goal to ultimately provided you, the lovely general public, with articles that will be filled with clever witticisms and packed full of information. In my case, I will undergo intense amounts of research to provide you with the most accurate and heartfelt account that I can give.



With much excitement and brewing anticipation we've hit the ground running…skating?… running.

Leave me alone.

Know Your Blogger: Adam

My name is Adam. Never have I ever blogged before, nor am I a NHL expert, but I'd like to think I can write about stuff on the internet. I mean, its not like there's any credentials needed to be a writer.

...or senses.

I've been a huge hockey fan my entire life, in addition to being a Pens fan. Big difference between being a hockey fan and a Pens fan, but that's for another post or something.

I guess all that's left to do is actually write about hockey on this blog, seeing as we haven't done that yet. What jokes we are, two posts and a half-assed Helen Keller joke.

It's only uphill from here.

A Brief Introduction

Hello, my name is Evan and I am the co-founder of "From Ducks to Nucks".  I am going to begin starting to regularly update this blog with the help of co-founder Adam.  We both attend Point Park University located in downtown Pittsburgh and have been avid sports fans for as long as we can remember. 


From a blogging point of view, we will be mainly covering the NHL and the Pittsburgh Penguins.  I will most likely take a more serious approach while Adam will provide insightful analysis with a touch of witty sarcasm.  


With that being said,  you can expect a regularly updated blog featuring information from the NHL starting today.

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