25:19 week 5: Pressure, guilty thoughts, moving stories and more

Welcome to 25:19, a feature that will run every Monday for 19 (duh!) weeks. Every week I will make 5 (Nick) lists, with 5 (number of rings Nick will retire with) points on each list. Thus having 25 (DMac) points in total every week. The lists will be random hockey stuff, some rankings, other in random order. Some will be opinions, others humour. I will leave it to you judge what is what. Hopefully you will find it entertaining and/or provoking enough to leave your ideas on things I missed and what I did wrong in the comments.

1. Five players who need to perform this season
- Sam Gagner - Showed Oilers fans so much as a rookie and nothing since.
- Taylor Hall - Has to prove his worth as a first pick, by outplaying Tyler Seguin. Hall will be asked to carry a lot of production, with bad players around him. Seguin will be asked for less, with great players around him. Pressure is on Hall and odds are firmly stacked against him.
- Jiri Hudler - Bolting in the worst way possible to KHL for money and then coming back on his knees with some bad rumours around him. Needs to win us back over.
- Jonathan Ericsson - Needs to prove it was a sophomore slumb, not a rookie luckout.
- Ilya Kovalchuk - After all this mess, hype and attention, the guy has something to live up to, don't you say?

2. Five phrases I never wanna hear on an NHL broadcast again
- Driiiiive
- Edzo
- Monster
- And the Chicago Blackhawks are the Sta... nope.. can't get myself to write that.
- Lindström

3. Five things I look forward to this season
- Seeing the United Center half empty in March.
- The relocation of the Phoenix Coyotes (a guy can dream)
- Number 12
- The extinction of the species known as Hawks fans.
- Nick's 7th Lidström trophy

4. Five hockey thoughts I feel guilty about having
- Joe Sakic was a damn amazing hockey player.
- I still like Michael Nylander, even AFTER Chicago.
- I kinda like the Philadelphia Flyers (minus Pronger of course)
- I enjoy to see two guys fight like animals (but only if there is a reason for the fight)
- The joy of every other team losing, looking up to us and hating u... no wait a second, not guilty at all. Just proud.

5. Five hockey stories that move me to tears
- Darren McCarty - Gutsed his way into the NHL, got it all, fell to abuse, but came back for one final victory.
- The 98 cup win - The way the team gathered and fought for Vlad was true beauty.
- The Theo Fleury story - Think that guy battled a little to get to where he got?
- Mario's return - Yeah, I loved watching reruns of late 80s, early 90s Pens games as a kid, though I wasn't a Pens fan. I loved Mario, both his returns were amazing. Today's Mario can choke on a big fat cucumber though.
- The Sharks playoff history - Tears of laughter

Eye candy
Yes I know she is a shitty person, but wow...



For the Helmophiles out there