UFA Forward Johnson Signs 1 Year Deal

The Penguins have announced Nick Johnson, who was on schedule to become an Unrestricted Free agent on July 1st, has signed a 1 year, two way deal worth $550,000 at the NHL level.

Well one down, a bunch more to go.  The Penguins now have 9 NHL caliber forwards on the roster for next year.  That definition honestly has to be stretched wide to cover Johnson who played only 4 games at the NHL level last season before having it ended by concussion.  The figure of $550,000 at the NHL level will add to the Craig Adams negotiations.  It has been widely speculated that Adams is looking for a raise and Johnson just signed for more than what Adams made last year.  

13K in 17 Minutes

The MTS Centre in Winnipeg, the soon to be home of the NHL’s Winnipeg franchise, seats 15,015 people when configured as a hockey venue.  When season tickets went on sale after 15 years of a city desperately waiting for NHL hockey’s return, it took 17 minutes to sell 13,000 of them.  True North Sports and Entertainment, the new owners of what was the Atlanta Thrashers, spent less than 72 hours on their season ticket campaign, met their goal, and guaranteed that 86.5% of tickets for next year are already sold.

To put that in perspective the Thrashers were 28th in attendance in 2010/11 with an average false amended inflated attendance of 13,469 or 72.6%.  Without a puck being dropped, Winnipeg has already topped Atlanta’s numbers season on season.  I won’t even get into how much I absolutely doubt the accuracy of that attendance figure for Atlanta.  Let’s just say the organization was buying its own tickets to make itself look better.  People who went to games there  said they usually saw less than 5,000 people in seats.  The television camera generally agreed with them.

NHL 12 Development Team Has A Brain Afterall

The very first encouraging piece of news regarding the changes being made to goalies came to my attention today.  One of the touted new features for NHL 12 is the ability for goalies to fight.  As soon as I read this in the original features release it sent off alarms bells.  Anyone who has played NHL 11/10/09 Online Team Play (OTP) mode knows that the ice sheet if full of immature idiot griefers hiding behind their internet gaming anonymiity to cause strife.  I was deathly afraid that every OTP game next year would turn into how quickly can two human goalies get to center ice to drop em?  Apparently the team at EA indeed has a brain despite not listening to many of our other concerns over the past three years regarding the need for fixes to the title.

Fresh off of a community event Jason aka TNA Equalizer has some good information on goalie play.  Two things in a very good post really stood out.  

More NHL 12 Goalie Stuff

So ever since the first blurbs about the upcoming NHL 12  feature additions hit the internet my EASHL club has scrambling to see if our concerns will be addressed and what the new changes might mean to the way we currently play the game.  My right winger brought some information to me that merits repeating.

Goalie V-H Technique – what does V-H stand for? Well I’m glad you asked.  It stands for vertical-horizontal.  It is a technique used by goalies similar to the hug post.  Goalie V-H is something you see many NHL goalies do throughout the game but something we’ve been missing in the title.  The purpose of this technique is to put goalies in better position for passes behind the goal line and also allows for them to more easily push off the post into butterfly.  How does this affect your goalie in NHL 12? From the goalie V-H, you will be able to make saves, poke check, and cover the puck.  You will also be able to push off the post from this stance and right into butterfly or into the desperation saves. 

Text From Pens Only Dumps Fuel on the Fire

The Penguins have a magnificent text message notification system for their fans, truly.  If you haven’t signed up for it you should.  Apart from being texted every final score you also get trade and signing notifications as well as other pertinent updates.  However receiving a update today meant one of a very few things was going on.  Either there was a signing or something was up within the organization.  There was no draft to update and free agency doesn’t begin for another 28 days.    This is what bliped up on my phone a short time ago:

PENS ALERT: Sidney Crosby met with Dr. Collins and is set to start his summer off-ice workout program. Read more:http://bit.ly/mdQMV6  Stop 2end

Campbell Stepping Down as Discipline Czar

Somewhere Joe Hallenbeck is dancing a jig.  The butt of every joke and the focus of every hockey fan’s ire with the total lack of consistency in NHL discipline is stepping down.  I caught it via Twitter moments ago that NHL VP Colin Campbell is relinquishing his role as Wheel of Morality spinner to Brendan Shanahan.  Campbell is not relinquishing his position as VP of Hockey Operations, just the role of lack of justice dealer.

The NHL seriously just put a bullseye on its back next year regarding discipline.  Will Shanny bring in a clear and understandable standard for discipline?  If he doesn’t his reputation will quickly go right down into the same cesspool where Campbell’s current is with the fans.