#topcheese

Come one, Come all to a sports blog that actually discusses hockey!

At some point in over the next week, I'll give a rundown of all thirty teams in the National Hockey League, but tonight's post is all about today.

For all you godless heathens out there who don't worship Lord Stanley and have no idea where playoff beards came from, today was Hockey Day in Canada, and this afternoon, 'Murrca came on strong. That's right, the Red White and Blueshirts waltzed right into Canada's capital and beat those syrup chugging moose riders at their own game. Now I could wax poetic over Ranger Rick being back to his usual Nashty self, or Zuccarello going "top cheese" to bury the final dagger in Anderson's fat face, but this afternoon wasn't about Nash OR the Norwegian Hobbit, or even Brad "ODB" Richards' thirteenth goal of the season. Today was about Derek Stepan. Despite quietly producing all season, Rangers fans have been down on the first line center. Although no rational human being expected Stepan to continue producing the way he did last year (burying 20% of your shots taken is impossible to maintain), he was expected to be more of a two way threat than he has been this year, especially playing with two behemoths with hands softer than a newborn's ass. Today, he displayed the vision, touch, poise, and offensive awareness he displayed all last season, and embarrassed the Senators in the process. Three of the Rangers' four goals had Stepan's fingerprints all over them, while the last one was all Zuccarello, making Craig Anderson look like a clown.

Speaking of feisty midget bastards undressing grown men, Marty St. Louis had a hat trick in the first period of Tampa's game against San Jose. His first period, combined with his fourth goal of the day in the second, was sadly not enough to overcome the San Jose Sharks as Joe Pavelski responded with a hatter of his own and Ben Bishop is apparently easier than Tara Reid, or whoever is between the pipes in Philly these days. 

Yeah. Philly is losing to the Islanders as we speak. What a bunch of jabronies. Looks like Crosby's inbred cousin is beating the league's most famous ginger. I wonder if there will be a brawl after the final whistle. 

Spoiler Alert: They'll brawl. It's Philly. They brawl during practice.

That's about it from your friendly neighborhood hockey writer tonight. Next time we'll be discussing why Toronto hates Kadri so much.

-Bluebeard