Claude, the Horror show and the 4th Hanson | West Coast Rink Rants

Lemieux's return

For being 43 years old and taking a 5 1/2 year break from NHL action, Claude Lemieux did not look too bad last night.

He rode on the 4^th line, skated twelve shifts and saw 7:08 of ice time.

Lemieux's highlight's included three shots on goal, some nice forechecking in Vancouver's zone that resulted in a good scoring opportunity for linemate Jody Shelley and a big hit on Canuck's enforcer Darcy Hordichuk early in the first period.

While I was not surprised at the way he pasted Hordichuk, I was impressed that of all the guys on the opposing bench he chose Hordi as the first guy to run.

That's Pepe for you.

Overrall, there were no shades of awkwardness and he looked good in the Sharks system of play.

So far, so good, for the Cup contenders on the Lemieux experiment.

#8* Ivanans vs #7* Boogaard

In a relatively light night of fisticuffs, earth shaking heavy's Derek Boogaard of Minnesota bumped into Raitis Ivanans of Los Angeles out in Minnesota.

Both these guys have been fairly inactive this year and it was good to see them hone their craft against one another.

These two have had it out twice before the big league and once in the AHL (can't find the clip!!!) and seem have an exciting rivalry brewing.

The Lost Hanson brother!

One other item of note from the Kings is the opportunity of some ice time for rookie tough guy Kevin Wesgarth.

Wesgarth got recalled last Wednesday from Kings AHL affiliate the Manchester Monarchs.

He has yet to get in actual regular season fight, but he did drop the mitts five times in the preseason and earned impressive wins over Scott Parker and George Parros.

Now what I'm thinking is The Kings are trying to showcase Wesgarth's talent and trade him to a team who needs a legit heavyweight.

Attention Brian Burke!!!!

Come on Burke, the man went to Princeton just like your last teams chief tough guy Parros.

Snag him, he was meant to play for you.

-MB

Boogaard vs. Ivanans-Last Night

Boogaard vs. Ivanans- 10-25-06

Boogaard vs. Ivanans- 3-24-07

Wesgarth vs. Lessard

Wesgarth vs. MacIntyre

*ranking @ informativesports.com

Comments (2) Add A Comment

January 23, 2009 08:55 AM ET

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It should be Claude the punk returns. He's not good for hockey and never has been. When he got his but handed to him by McCarty everyone said it was cheap. Well, what goes around (Draper hit) comes around and it's too bad he didn't have to go through the surgery Draper did. Look up useless individual in the dictionary and you'll find Lemieux.

Cavs

Total Comments (43)

January 23, 2009 06:08 PM ET

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 08:55 AM ET 01.23 by Cavs

It should be Claude the punk returns. He's not good for hockey and never has been. When he got his but handed to him by McCarty everyone said it was cheap. Well, what goes around (Draper hit) comes around and it's too bad he didn't have to go through the surgery Draper did. Look up useless individual in the dictionary and you'll find Lemieux.

Or you could like up a list of Conn Smythe winners and find Pepe there as well.
Draper is over it, you should be too.