The 2010 playoffs are well underway, and I haven’t missed a game yet. My new setup allows me to watch both TSN and CBC at the same time. I had a similar setup last year, but it looks pretty pathetic now that I’ve added a 50″ plasma this year.

I also want to give a quick shout out the the HabsCast guys, who are back on the air. Check out their playoff preview episode. I hope the Habs make a run in the playoffs so those guys will have material to make podcasts about.

…Go Habs Go!!!……

2010 Playoff setup:

2009 Playoff setup:

Stompin’ Tom’s “The Good Old Hockey Game” is probably one of the most well know hockey songs. I was pretty disappointed that he didn’t play in the closing ceremonies.

Blackwater Crude has slightly modified the song to include the story of the 2010 gold medal winning squad.

…check out the vid below..

Last week, the mighty Canadian Hockey team (not “Ice Hockey” as Amuricans call it, but just Hockey) triumphed over the US and ended the miracle. Many Canadians tuned in to watch the game and their viewing habits appeared in Edmonton’s water consumption.

…that’s a lot of toilets flushing during intermission…

[via patspapers.com]

I’m in the middle of exams right now, 3 down 2 to go, so these posts are lacking text these days. Hopefully some picture will suffice. I just thought that I should share my hockey playoff viewing setup. I have one tv set to CBC and the other to TSN.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a habs fan. I don’t really talk about hockey that much here, as it is not the primary purpose of this blog. Actually, I still haven’t figured out what the main purpose of this blog is.  Nonetheless, the playoffs are only 1 regular season game away, and my mind is on hockey quite a bit these days.

I am definitely not as confident about my habs as I was a year ago. This season has been quite the roller coaster ride, with more lows than highs. I am hoping that the adversity that we’ve face in the regular season will pay off in the playoffs. We have been looking fairly good recently, especially due to the new top line of Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay. The only thing I am really concerned about is the loss of Markov. The only good thing about losing him is that our top scorer won’t be a defenceman anymore.

Anyways, the point of this post was to showcase a music video about the habs. Annakin Slayd released a song about this time last year, and has just put together video for it. The samples from Journey are pretty catchy…check it out..

[via The Fellowhip of Hockey Blog]

There must be some geniuses over at York University. They just published a study that showed that body checking is the leading cause of injury in youth hockey. TSN has the story here.

Nineteen of the 20 studies we looked at this time showed an increased risk of injuries when bodychecking was permitted and some of these injuries were very serious. -Alison Macpherson, a professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York

Are you kidding me? Did they really need a study to show that?

Also in the news: crashes are the leading cause of motor vehicle related injuries.

As a Canadian, I am happy that I finally have an excuse to blog about hockey. Since the beginning of the game, I can think of several technologies that advanced the game. Synthetic goalie equipment, composite sticks and that awful glowing puck(non-advancing technology) come to mind.

Heated skates might be the next big thing. Reuters has posted an article about this new technology.

[they] cut down on friction and allow players to move faster and save energy.

[a] resistor heats the blade to 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit), or just above freezing point, and thickens the film of water between ice and blade that acts as a lubricant and makes skating possible.

tests showed the blades cut friction between blade and ice by 50 percent.

I will not be convinced that these will have an impact on the game until I see the official results of their testing. I am not even sure if the NHL will legalize these if they do work out to be beneficial. The data on the Thermablade website, like most product pages, are not backed up by statistics and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence.

Here is the Thermablade product page.