Happy 78th to Mr. Gordie Howe.

In my opinion, Mr. Hockey is the second best player to ever lace em up. Right behind Robert Gordon Orr, who also had a birthday recently, and right in front of #99. He also has the most Canadian first name of all time. The man’s totals tell it all:

• 1767 GP
• 801 G
• 1049 A
• 1850 PTS
• 1685 PIM

What a career! Happy Birthday to #9 from GoonBlog! Where do we send the shirt, Gordie?

No, not on the ice you silly goose - on my TV. That’s right boys, Goonblog is watching in style. As of 8:30 EST there is a 42" HD Plasma in Goonblog HQ. Currently, MOL is enjoying a bit of the OC in HD, but I am gearing up for a take over soon. The first thing I watched was my DVR Recording of Colton Orr and Eric Godard from earlier this year. Almost brought tears to my eyes.

Speaking of Orrsie, did anyone catch his two fights last night? I was watching the Bruins suck in Buffalo, so I missed them both. From what I heard Orr Killed Godard in his first tilt, and got jumped by Erksine in the second fight, and really couldn’t do anything with him. I have zero on tap for the weekend, so there should be surfing aplenty at the Goonblog HQ all weekend long. Come on by for a brew….don’t cost nothing.

Who knew Buffalo’s diving Team was so good? I am disgusted. In the New NHL nothing can be done about the crap that was being pulled by the Sabres last night. In the Old NHL, the two tough guys would have duked it out. In this new era, the Sabres made a mockery of hockey, and I am sick about it.

So whaddaya think of the new logo, buddies? Chris, Hammer and I are pleased as punch, and I’d like to thank Mike the designer for a top-notch job. I’ll be adding Mike’s business information to our template soon for anyone who’d like to utilize his services.

Right now we just wanted to get ourselves a proper brand and to give things a little bit of a facelift around here. Eventually we’ll be offering shirts, toques, mugs and other assorted crap available for purchase - as we’ve actually had several requests for schwag. I’ve set up an arrangement with a printing company here in Boston to keep the prices as low as possible. We don’t really intend to do more than cover the production costs - we want y’all to rock the Goon colors very affordably.

Please give us your thoughts, and we’ll be giving away our first batch of T-shirts via a contest of some sort within the next month. Enjoy the rest of the season, kids.

Thanks for the stats on Max, Hammer. He should wear number 8 from now on. It got me thinking about whom the top guys in the AHL are, and since I don’t actually do anything productive at work, here are the stats as of the middle of March. Out West it looks like this:

Darryl Bootland, Grand Rapids 282. Boots also has 43 Points.

Brandon Prust, Omaha 217. Very tough rookie. Good skater.

Rocky Thompson, Peoria 209. Great Afro. Once saw some nice teeth marks he got in a fight.

Zack Storini, Milwaukee 208. Since I have nothing to add, I will tell you the Goonsquad will be in the Garden Saturday against the Sabres.

Brandon Sugden, Syracuse 186. "Sugar" has been hurt some this year. I wish Cuse would come to Lowell more….or at all….

Peter Vandermeer, Hamilton 183. Seriously, how many Vandermeers’ are there? 86?

Bill Kinkel, Houston 181. Wanted to see the Aeros when they were up here. Um…I drink…..so I forgot….

Billy Tibbetts, Chicago 178. Inmate 34526 has managed to keep it together in the A all year. Frankly, I am fucking shocked.

Sheldon Brookbank, Milwaukee 168. With a first name like Sheldon, I would imagine you’d have to be tough.

Kris Newbury, Toronto 163. 5 more minutes to catch up to "Shell"

In the East:

Dennis Bonvie, Wilkes/Barre 301. Shocking. I am not sure the entire Lowell Roster has 301 PIMS.

Josh Gratton, Philadelphia 265. Haven’t seen much of him. Probably because there is nothing for him to do in Lowell. Notice a pattern?

Louis Robitaille, Hershey 254. I was impressed with his play when he was in Lowell last week. Kid can play a little, and is a real shit disturber. I like it.

Lance Ward, Binghamton 239. Hey, Lance! You tell Brad Norton I owe him one.

David Clarkson, Albany 233. If the rumors are true about Albany coming to Lowell next year, I hope this kid is part of the package.

Daniel Carcillo, Wilkes/Barre 232. Lots of shit disturbers in WB eh?

Martin Grenier, Hartford 215. Always looks like he is one second from totally flipping out. Wanted no part of Jesse Boulerice during his one game in the A, so Marty was running Cody McLeod all game.

Shane O’Brien, Portland 205. Baby face kid a real shit disturber. One of my favorite Pirates.

Wade Skolney, Philadelphia 197. Not sure if he played during Philly’s game against Lowell.

Jan Platil, Binghamton 184. Hey, Jan. Tell Lance to tell Norton I owe him one!

Check out Max Hood, he is the son of a very good friend of ours. 80 points and 54 PIM, a true Goon in training. Keep up the good work!

Old time hockey for a bit up North last night eh? Domi and Boston’s Dan LaCoutre had a very one sided fight. Domi gave him so many lefts, Lac was begging for a right. Everytime LaCoutre would get his balance; Tie was there to knock him back with another left. You could see the look on Lac’s face when he was going to the box that he wasn’t pleased with the outcome of the scrap at all.

Later in the game Travis Green came in to stick up for a Teammate, and wound up in a scrap with Toronto’s Ben Ondrus. The scrap also looked a little one sided for the Leaf. I always like a good scrap in defense of a mate, and I applaud Travis for doing something.

Doghouse of the night goes to Hal Gill, per usual, and Nick Boynton. Gill can’t get it through his fucking head that cross checks to the back are not allowed in the new NHL. Boynton has been undisciplined as of late, and should have known better than to lose his cool like he did. You simply can not give the best 5 on 3 team in the NHL an opportunity to come back like they did, and 44 should know that. The bell tolls for thee Boston. Give the Bruins the standing 8 on making the Spring Dance.

I feel like Stinger in Top Gun right now. I have to give Maverick, and Goose their dream shot to go to Top Gun. I gotta send those two clowns to Miramar.

I have to give Hal Gill props on his scrap Saturday night against Eric Godard. Gill started the fight, and I feel he beat Godard fair and square. I saw Hal Gill get in a fight, and he actually threw a punch. Fucking incredible if you ask me. It looked like near the middle of the bout Gill was going to resort to his old habits, as he tried to get his head as far away from Godard as he could. Nope. Gill battled back from being off balance and landed a bomb to Godard’s head. Really good scrap.

I was very impressed by the fight. NESN had LaCoutre miked for their Ice Shavings feature, and he agreed. Lac could be heard saying, "Good fight. Good fight by Hal." a couple of times. I love that behind the scenes stuff. I have said many times in this space hockey players are some of the funniest people on Earth, and Ice Shavings does a great job capturing their personalities. Make no mistake, Gill is still the worst player in the NHL, but he took on one of the toughest customers in the game, and beat him.

MOL and I went to the Garden today to pick up tickets for next Saturday’s tilt against the Hurricanes. I called Dave on the way in and woke him up for the noontime meal. We went over to The Fours for a spot of lunch. Tasty place by the way. I suggest the chowder, and the Doug Flutie Sandwich. Good times. During lunch we discussed some ideas for a logo for Goonblog, with the idea to have some shirts made. (Stay tuned for more.)

The guy across the bar looked very familiar to MOL, and I. Dave, in his defense, could not see due to a post. Dining across the bar was none other than Mr. Hannu Toivonen. It looked like he was enjoying a nice Club Sangy, and a Bud Light. I guess he’s not playing tonight eh? If he is, I guess they will have an excuse for losing?

That’s about all that’s going on. If you have NHL Center Ice, I suggest flipping to the Sharks Game in progress. 4 Ejections so far and it’s just now past halfway. Did you know the Preds had the most fighting majors the last time the NHL played? Neither did I.

I just got back from row 15 Loge at the Garden (many thanks to Lynch for sharing his awesome Christmas present with me) where the Canadiens smited the Bruins 2-0. It was a decent game with the Boston actually spending more time on the offensive than Montreal, but to no avail. Perhaps the Samsonov trade was hanging heavy on the hearts of the players. Regardless - I won’t rehash details you can read elsewhere, as the real point of interest tonight was the uncharacteristic thuggery of a Mr. Hal Gill.

Was he lamenting the loss of his old friend and acting out? Perhaps: ”We came in the league together and we grew up a lot together, but it’s the nature of the business. For whatever reason, whether it’s money, or whatever the direction the team is going, he wasn’t in the plan. That’s the way it goes…" Whatever the reasons, Hal had a crosshecking and holding penalty before the game was half over, and with 3:47 left in the second period Boston and Montreal engaged in a 10-player kerfuffle which resulted in multiple game misconducts. The action took place a good distance from my great seats, but I was able to get a few choice fracas snaps.

After a few scuffles cleared in the Canadiens’ zone, Hal Gill and Craig Rivet each received fighting majors, while Nick Boynton picked up a double-minor for spearing and a game misconduct. "We weren’t playing very well," said Boynton. "I was trying to spark the team a little bit and get something going. There’s no place for that in this league anymore. It is what it is." Tell us about it. Well meant, the mess resulted in little more than a fifteen minute pause in the play.

Gill was in the dog house most of the night, and although we give him a lot of crap here on GB, the "giraffe-on-skates" is not afraid to get physical when need be. Frequent commentor Greg ran into him in the North End Wednesday night. He was carrying his daughter to Ray Borque’s restaurant, and is apparently a very pleasant guy. I am going to have to rethink all the negativity. Chris? Hammer? You with me?

I love this picture. It’s like watching the pistol smoke clear at the OK Corral while Wyatt Earp argues with an official in the background. Or something like that. Chris and I have 2 more Bruins games to hit over the next two weeks, as we’re trying to get our fill before season’s end. Hopefully we’ll have a good content spike before the crickets start chirping. I am not looking forward to fucking baseball.