Hockey, We Will Certainly Miss Thee

Last night’s game five in Anaheim was the last game of the 2006-07 season, hockey’s version of icing on the cake if you will, and it would be a shame to let the year pass without bidding adieu to the season that was.

To recap, here are some of the most talked about stories from 2006-07.

• Anaheim didn’t like being mighty. They would rather just be Ducks.
• The Islanders signed Rick DiPietro to an unbelievable 15-year deal. (9/12/06)
• The Sabres unveiled some new duds. (9/16/06)
• Stevie Y took up residence in the Red Wings’ front office as Vice President. (9/25/06)
• Mario Lemieux’s number was retired (again) and Jim Balsillie agreed to purchase the Penguins. (10/5/06)
• Brendan Shanahan scored his 600th career goal. (10/5/06)
• Colby Armstrong lit up Trevor Letowski. Yikes. (10/14/16)
• Colorado’s sellout streak finally ended. (10/17/06)
• Scientists are still trying to figure out what Ryan Getzlaf did. (10/22/06)
• Evgeni Malkin absolutely smoked the Devils. (10/24/06)
• The Sabres got off to their best start in franchise history, winning their first 10 games. (10/26/06)
• Patrick Marleau got absolutely jacked up. (11/7/06)
• Later, the Ducks decided to not lose for the first 16 games of the season. (11/10/06)
• Buffalo set an NHL record by winning their first 10 road games of the season. (11/13/06)
• Jaromir Jagr scored his 600th career goal. (11/16/07)
• We found out that Atlanta and Washington do not appreciate each other. (11/22/06)
• Ken Hitchcock took over behind the bench in Columbus. (11/22/06)
• Sidney Crosby > the New York Rangers. (12/7/06)
• Boston’s Phil Kessel was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He would return to the ice a month later. (12/11/06)
• Tomas Vanek had a heck of a year, including making Cristobal Huet look downright silly. (12/12/06)
• Balsillie withdrew his bid to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. (12/15/06)
• Scott Nichol got suspended for going ape shit on Jaroslav Spacek. (12/21/07)
• Christmas was over and so were the niceties, as Donald Brashear and Andrew Peters proved. (12/26/06)
• The Red Wings had to order a lot of extra Yzerman jerseys. (1/2/07)
• Patrick Stefan is probably still wishing that he hit the empty net. (1/4/07)
• Marty St. Louis proves that you don’t actually have to be facing the goaltender to score on a penalty shot. (1/7/07)
• Chicago is probably still mad about this goal. (1/14/07)
• That was a heck of a fight, eh? (1/26/07)
• ‘O, Canada’ was sung in an aboriginal language for the first time at a major sporting event. (2/3/07)
• Sid the Kid never ceased to amaze us. (2/7/07)
• Ronald Petrovicky showed that he is a dangerous man. (2/11/07)
• This proved that Henrik Zetterberg has eyes in the back of his head. (2/14/07)
• Peter Forsberg became a Predator. (2/15/07)
• Joe Sakic became the third player this year to score his 600th career goal. (2/15/07)
• After two years, the All-Star game decided that it finally wanted to come out and play. The ‘Vote for Rory’ campaign came up short, and Rory Fitzpatrick was not at the All-Star Game. Conspiracy? (2/24/07)
• Keith Tkachuk became a Thrasher. (2/25/07)
• Buffalo and Ottawa had a little bit of a disagreement. (2/27/07)
• Trade Deadline Day: Bill Guerin became a Shark, Todd Bertiuzzi hit the motor city and Ryan Smyth was traded to Long Island. The Oilers never recovered and even lost on Mark Messier Day. (2/27/07, 2/28/07)
• Chris Simon decided that he had enough of Ryan Hollweg. (3/8/07)
• The world started rotating again upon hearing the news that the Penguins would stay in Pittsburgh. (3/14/07)
• Jordin Tootoo proved that he does not like the Dallas Stars. (3/17/07)
• Mike Modano became the highest scoring American born player in NHL history. (3/18/07)
• You just hate to see a guy go down like this. (3/21/07)
• Atlanta clinched their first playoff berth in franchise history thanks to the New York Rangers 7-2 win over Toronto.
• Marty Brodeur set the record for most wins in a season. (4/6/07)
• For the first time ever, both defending conference champions missed the playoffs. (4/8/07)
• Sorry, Toronto. (4/8/07)
• Montreal led the league in attendance for the 4th straight season. (4/8/07)
• The Devils finally sold out a home game. It turned out to be a dandy, too. (4/28/07)
• The Canucks and Stars wanted to see if they could stay up all night. (5/12/07)
• NBC reminded us that it hates hockey fans. (5/19/07)
• Jim Balsillie bought the Predators, and rumors continute to swirl about a potential move to Canada. (5/24/07)
• Brian Leetch bid adieu. (5/24/07)
• Did you know: Snoop Dogg loves hockey. (5/31/07)
• Chris Pronger got suspended for his hit on Tomas Holmstrom, and his hit on Dean McAmmond. (5/15/07, 6/2/07)
• Don Cherry made an appearance on American television. (6/4/07)
• Long Island divorced Alexei Yashin and said good riddance goodbye to Mike Milbury. (6/6/07 and 5/29/07)
• And finally, the Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup. (6/6/07)

Chances are that I missed something. Heck, I probably left out some pretty important events. Feel free to let me know what else you think should be included either by email or in the comments, as I will continue to update this post. _uacct = “UA-1868762-1”;
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