f13.net

Any interest in this? I could possibly learn how to start a league and whatnot.

Haemish usually handles the league commish stuff. I'm sure he'll see this thread soon.

Of course, I am in for a third year.

In.

League setup with the same settings as last year's league.

Bat Country (http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/batcountry)
ID: 24984 (or Bat Country)
Password: grind

Roster Positions: C, LW, RW, F, F, D, D, D, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, IR, IR, IR 
Stat Categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, FW, W, L, GA, SV, SHO 
Stat Modifiers: G (5), A (3), +/- (1), PIM (.1), PPP (2), SHP (3), GWG (1), FW (.1), W (4), L (-3), GA (-1), SV (.5), SHO (5) 

Live draft set for Sat., Sept. 22nd at 5 pm CDT (6 pm EDT, 3 pm PDT)

Let me know if you want to adjust the stat categories from last year or not.

Registered.

You had to set the draft on the day of my company golf tournament...

I'm in, either way.

I say bump saves back up to 5. I forget why it was even taken down to 4 pts in the first place.

Either way, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, especially since I had some of the winningest goalies in the league last year, but they weren't at the top of the listings.

Personally, I liked it when it was a full point per save.  Kolzig was a top five goalie at the time!

In.

Please adjust the scoring so goalies don't score 5x as much as everyone else. Last year was a mess.

In.

I plan on keeping my excellent theme of Fantasy mediocrity for the rest of year!

I've made changes to the goalie stat modifiers.

G (5), A (3), +/- (1), PIM (.1), PPP (2), SHP (3), GWG (1), FW (.1), W (5), L (-2), GA (-1), SV (.275), SHO (5)

Wins are now worth 5 points, losses are -2 and saves are .275. I did a few changes, and saw that the top goal scorer was worth around 600 points for the season, and so jiggered it so that the top goalie was worth around 600 as well. I want a goalie to be as important as the top scorer. I see in last year's league, the goalie was worth almost twice what the top scorer was.

Cool- that should make it much better. Gracias.

I prefer H2H, but I was sad not participating last year, so this year I'll be IN.

I am wondering how you came up with each save being worth .275 points....sort of an odd number, yes?

I'm just happy actual Wins are worth more again. Do you know how much I hated having goalies on my team who won tons of games, but were outscored by guys who lost more, won less, but garnered more points through saves?

The .275 was an approximation. I tried .25, the best goalies were worth about 550 points, I tried .3 and the best were well over 660 points, so I went right down the middle and that gave me the number I wanted.

It still means Marty Brodeur and Roberto Luongo were the #1 and #2 in the league respectively, they just weren't worth over 1000 points each.

In.

Name subject to change.

Draft tomorrow! Don't forget to pre-rank your players (although the Yahoo preranks aren't as bad as they are for football). I have 150 guys ranked; hopefully I will remember to be online for the draft.

I don't need to pre-rank if I show up for the draft, right?

I like to do it anyway so  can set the draft screen for my rankings instead of Yahoo's. Makes live drafting a bit smoother. Also saves me in case I totally space and forget the draft  :-D

Draft in 20 minutes, not that I have a clue what I'm doing.  :-P

I think I did pretty good, but my hockey knowledge has slipped since the strike. I think my goalie corps is rock solid, which means Marty or Nick is due to blow out a knee or something.

Well, missed the draft which was unavoidable.  Only got me two goalies and two centers... I'm doomed.

My goalies suck. I have Khabibulin and Biron.


Biron is a god damned backup for Christ's sake.


Frickin' autodraft.

Dammit, I completely forgot about this. I'm afraid to go look at my team.

....And my #1 defenseman suffered a "freak accident" and is now out for 3-4 weeks.


What the fuck.

Considering I had to autodraft AND I picked last, I don't hate my team. Glad I got Miikka- one of the very few Flames I don't loathe.

GO FLAMES

FIFY.

FIFY RIGHT BACK. Goddamn Canucks.

Fuck the Calgary Flamers,  Iginla is huge douche! Go 'Nucks!  :-D

Ugh, Iginla. I would probably love him if he played for Vancouver, but as it stands I want to see Bieksa pound his little chipmunk face into mush.

You know, I can see you hating Phaneuf, or Tanguay, or almost any other Flame, but not Iginla. The guy is class act all the way.

Don't even get me started on Phaneuf.

GO BOLTS!

Both your teams can suck it! Remember game six? NO GOAL!   :heartbreak:

<3

How the hell can you play hockey somewhere with no naturally occurring ice?? I can't be a fan until Martin Saint Louis learns to pronounce his name the God-fearin' North American way  :-D

Can we start calling Martin Brodeur "Mar'in Broder" while we're at it? :evil:

Yeah, I remember those old Espy Awards.

So, I've never played one of these leagues.  Is it basically ideal to check the matchups each day to make sure your roster spots get the most games played, up to the 100 limit?  You'd want to sub in some guys when your mains had a night they don't play in order to get up to that maximum of 100, correct?  I'd think this would be most important for goalies, since most wont start more than 65-70 games, so you'd want to work in a backup to max out the games /played for those slots.

It's all about goalies and centers.

From the last two years, if you have a choice between starting a mediocre guy against a good team,  and leaving the spot open, you may want to leave it open. This will let you play more games with your better players.

Most people just sub people into the slots every day, and by the end of the season, you can't start any forwards because they've maxed out on games played.

Yeah, I'm confused how this works too. I have a bunch of good centers and my goalies are trash.

My team was autodrafted and I'm assuming I got the first pick becuase my team consists of:

--Syd the Kid---+
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |
                     |_________ everyone else.

You had second pick. I took Heatley first.

Ah, ok. To be honest, I'm pretty happy with what the AI gave me, other than my goalies.

Has anyone else tried to place a player in IR yet?  It keeps forgetting my changes when I try.

Doesn't work for me either.

You have to switch to classic interface to do it properly. Switch to classic, put player on IR, accept changes.

VOILA!

Did Brodeur have a lobotomy done in the offseason, or is NJ that bad this year?  1 and 3 so far... bleh.

No, by watching him last year I could've told you he wasn't going to sparkle this year. Just age, I think. Plus he was always insulated by strong, extremely defensive Devils teams... and when they don't play well infront of him, he gets exposed a little. Especially nowadays.

No Rafalski = oops

Kind of a shame, because they have good puck control in the offensive zone...but get sniped at quickly on the defensive end.

Also, watching 4-0 shutouts in person is fun. :-D

Went to the Flames/Sharks game last night and it was the worst fucking game I've seen in a very long time. 20-17 were the shots, SJ had 1 shot in the 3rd (which they scored on). Terrible, terrible game.

By the way, in your faces for grabbing Kane right before all of you tried to pick him up.

That's my payback for Tim Thomas getting snagged while I procrastinated on who to drop. Turns out ANYONE was a good fucking choice.

How is Afinogenov the biggest goat on my team?  Has anyone here seen a Buffalo game yet?  Can you tell me what the hell's wrong with him?  I don't want to dump the guy, but... damn.

He's Russian.

You never know if they're going to actually play or not.

They haven't played that many games yet, and the Roy/Vanek/ Max line is seeing the best checking lines so far, and just isn't jelling yet.  Buffalo has some major problems so far this year, just not putting out the effort needed to win.  Ryan Miller looks average.  I think it started with Lindy Ruff refusing to name a captain, and letting the players rotate voting for them each month.  Jochen Hect is their current captain, and he works hard and plays tough, but I don't think he's the right person for the job.

Afinogenov scores a goal = 1st place!

I'm SO pissed that I hesitated on parting with Elias in order to grab Gerber. Then did the same again with Tim Thomas.

Then dropped Elias because he blows this season.

I love Detroit.  Hooray.

Play Hasek plz.

Me picking up Gerber on the waiver wire has been a godsend. Turco has been very ordinary this year, but with Gerber and Backstrom, I'm getting the mad points.

I picked up Holmqvist on the waiver wire because people apparently think the Lightning blow.


Actually, half my team is TB players and we're pretty darn competitive. :inluv:

I hate you.

Give me Gerber. He's mine because I thought of picking him up first.

Also, that was an interesting trade.

So, um, can I have Luongo back now?  Please? =)

Heh. I knew he would get back to form eventually. I traded for him in another league about the same time. I just wish Miikka Kiprusoff would do the same thing; I have him in mulitiple leagues and he is killing me. It is nice to see the Flames struggling though; maybe next year I will draft Iginla and Phaneuf too and see if I can get the team bus to crash or something.

My team has been a dud. I hardly even have the heart to log in anymore.

Especially my goaltenders; wtf Giguere?

Losing Niedermeyer, Penner, and Selanne gutted Anaheim. And I couldn't be happier about it; I love watching that gap-toothed fuck Pronger lose.

I think they expected Perry, Getzlaf, etc to be better able to shoulder the load and sort of be bigger stars this year.

I mean, they're good players... but losing those three players, with the parity in the NHL these days... just too much for any team, I think. Couple that with Stanley Cup Hangover and meh.

And hey what the fuck is up with putting Bryzgalov on waivers?

I mean, I'm sure there's some valid salary cap reason but.. wow.

The Bryzgalov thing is why Brian Burke is leading the charge to change the trading rules to allow teams to eat some salary. They couldn't find a deal to trade him (the salaries have to match), so they ended up having to release him, and a division opponent grabbed him. Doh. As for Anaheim, I am surprised Andy McDonald hasn't been better. He really looked like he was coming of age during the playoffs last season.

It's time to bring Gordon Bombay out of retirement.

He was also centreing Teemu Selanne last year.

As a side note, anyone remember my comment about Mark Recchi primed for a terrible year this year during our Yahoo draft? Yeah, he was just put on waivers.

Yeah, not rocket science, but there are still retards on messageboards going "THE LEAFS SHOULD PICK HIM UP, 68 PTS LAST YEAR, RECCHI STILL HAS MORE TO GIVE". Meanwhile, if you base your opinion of a player entirely on point totals from last season, you should be able to figure out why you don't have a job as a GM of an NHL team. Never mind he went without a goal for the last 20 games, and looked almost as terrible as he did this year - producing JACK on a line with Sidney fucking Crosby.

Anyone wanna buy a goalie?

PS: Does being 10th on the waiver priority list when Niedermeyer came up count as being TOTALLY screwed or just royally screwed?

Damnit, I held onto him for a couple weeks, then get antsy thinking he'll wait till after the new year to come back, so I dropped him.

Ok, I was wondering why the Hell he got dropped.

Thanks!

Don't worry- if there is any justice in this world, he will tear a groin muscle in his first game.

I'm sure Craig Rivet will still be a FA at that point, so I'll be no worse off than I am now  :awesome_for_real:

This means Schneider's going to lose power play time.  Dammit.

We're talking about Scott, right?

The one I drafted, and dropped?

Yessir

Actually, he'll probably move to another team via waivers. I think he's making 5.5m this year and 5.6 next?

You can't trade a player making that much money unless they're a bonafide superstar. And THEN someone has to have the cap room.

Schneider is, well, like.. uh, not worth that much.

So I wouldn't be surprised to see him go on waivers in a week or two, depending on how long Burke is willing to hold out on trying to make a trade with people lowballing him because they know he's forced to make a move to clear cap space (and tagging space).

Like, that or the Leafs will just trade every player in their system under the age of 28 for him and Todd Marchant.

They did say something on espn about the Ducks being willing to move any defenseman except for Pronger to make room for Neidermeyer.  I agree, that probably means goodbye to Schneider who was brought in specifically to replace Neidermeyer.  I suppose I'd be more worried for my team if he wasn't a defender, but he's still been particularly productive for me, so I'm not too pleased with this.

He'll probably be on the first powerplay unit anywhere he ends up. What YOU have to worry about is the possibility that he DOESN'T get traded.

Feck.

Anyone watch/watching Vancouver and Pittsburgh tonight?

Hella nice game. And Phildo, you REALLY should have held onto Luongo. He looks damn nice. Pittsburgh had them 18-8 on shots at one point, and Luongo is really holding the fort.

Man, that was serious. Watch the highlights of that game on TV if you get the chance.

Dammit, don't remind me.  I miss having Datsyuk too, but oh well.  Ward's been good to me this week.

I really need to shell out the cash for some sort of hockey broadcast.  I only have basic cable, so I don't get anything at all.

What was that trade again? I remember disliking it for one side at the time. Not to, you know, horn in on a deal.

By the way, I shell out for Centre Ice every year. Pisses me off with the blackouts sometimes (especially because I am simultaneously in Leafs/Sens/AND Habs regions somehow), but worth every penny.

Center Ice is  a godsend. I am out of the area for all teams (Canucks are 200 miles away), so I rarely get blacked out. If the Canucks could ever learn to score a goddamned shootout goal they would be dangerous. Poor Luongo stands on his head all night and still loses. Grrrrr.

Shrug. Flip Naslund at the trade deadline, imo. Some people might still be stuck with delusions of 3-4 years ago if they're trying to make a Cup run or whatever.

I mean, look at what people got for stuff like.. Guerin.. Zhitnik... etc last year at the deadline.

Problem with that is that Naslund makes $6M+. With the restrictions on trading dollar for dollar, it just about impossible to get anything approaching market value. Also, why the fuck would they trade a scorer (even a diminished one) when they need goals, and are 3rd in the league in points? They can make a playoff run with Naslund, fail eventually, then use all that nice cap space (his deal expires this year) to bring in some younger scorers. Hell, bring him back at $2.5M.

Well yeah I mean, since his contract is in its last year, and at the deadline you'd only be on the hook for about 1/3rd of his salary, that's what makes him a little easier to move. People are looking for a rental. You get some solid prospects back in return from a dumbass team like Toronto.

If you're always worried about this year the most, your chances next year never improve that much. Again, cough, Toronto.

So, um, is today just a bad day for people, or has nearly everyone stopped paying attention to their rosters?  There are a bunch of guys with useful skaters sitting on their bench tonight. =(

I hope they've stopped paying attention!

For in that SPLIT SECOND that they let their guard down I WILL STRIKE AND CLAIM THE MASSIVE PRIZE FOR WINNI...

oh wait

...Says the man with 5 goalies, 1 of whom is inactive, and only 1 reserve skater?  Let's talk balance here.

You're right brb dropping Miller and Lehtonen for Sean Avery and Mark Recchi.

Heh, smartass.  Recchi MIGHT actually pick it up now.  Maybe.

I've watched him play the last two seasons.

Trust me. It's over for Mark Recchi.

Unless he was INTENTIONALLY two steps behind EVERY puck EVERY time it came near him. Unless he could possibly have the foresight to spite the Penguins organization by missing empty nets on ridiculous setups from Crosby at LEAST twice a night, every night. Unless bringing 0 physical presence, 0 forecheck, 0 backcheck, and 0 touch around the net is something he can shake by drinking the Atlanta tap water - I fucking doubt it.

He got waived by a team where he couldn't crack a roster spot over a bunch of guys who should be in the AHL. He also demanded a Top 6 forward spot when he absolutely did not deserve one anymore. Gary Roberts is still around because he's willing to crash and bang on the third line. His hands are GONE, but he tries to provide some grit. Recchis hands were gone a year ago, along with his speed. See, being a short ass player and being in the NHL has a lot to do with making up for that with other qualities. Especially speed. But when you're short, have no reach, and have NO speed - watching the puck constantly sail three feet in front of your short old slow ass every game is fucking pathetic.


In short, dont' fucking bet on it.

Now I feel bad, like Mark Recchi is going to read this shit or something.

Uh, sorry dude... you had a good run. Keep your chin up and shit, bro.

None of players work, so...

Yeah, I haven't had the heart to log in lately.

All that defensive depth and they decide to give away... Andy McDonald?  Let the Todd Bertuzzi era begin!

I suppose I understand the move if they intend to attempt a repeat this year. Since Niedermeyer is more than likely gone after this season, I suppose they might be (or might as well). This is the kind of move that, if there's no Stanley Cup, fans of the team go "uhhhhhhhhhhh" for a long time, though.

I also wonder how I'd feel if I were Doug Weight. The guy gets traded every year, then resigns with the team in the offseason.... only to get shipped out again.

The first thing that came to mind was "Yeah, but he always pulls his weight."  Then I punched myself in the kidney very, very hard.

(http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/103/hockeypwncv3.jpg)
Come on, guys!

 :awesome_for_real:

Theoretically, I could come back later and pick up points when most people are out of games for key positions late in the season.

I was real close for a week or so there, and the next time I looked, I was almost 200 points behind. I think it was my goalies.

Gerber's definitely hurting you right now.  But what the hell can you do about that?  Ottawa could turn it around tomorrow and use him as the true #1 again.

Cough... I could flip you Emery so you can play the goalie that's in net on any given night...

Wow, Bunk had a monster night even WITH over 20 points wasted on his bench.

Also, I still want Luongo back.  God dammit.

Gaborik is fucking nuts when he's healthy.

Gaborik is the MAN!

Is there any place that will actually tell you before hand which goalie is likely to be starting on any given game? I've tried to find that info on numerous occasions and it's just not readily available that I can see.

http://goaliepost.com/

You're the man now, dog.

Went to the last two Penguins home games.  It's good to be around for some wins =)

The Penguins are great to watch when they actually try.

I went to game one of the playoffs last year.

Cough. Yeah not so fun to watch.

I was at game five.  I agree, sir.

Outdoor game tomorrow at 1 PM Eastern.  Stupid NHL, they should have scheduled this on a weekend not featuring so many bowl games, and when half the country is still in bed from their late night carousing.

Game seemed like a success to me. Was good to watch on TV, even though the snow was really fucking shit up and the ice was bad.

Even though I'm a Penguins fan though, I'll admit... Pittsburgh kind of ruined the entire thing by winning, heh. But they tried to give it to Buffalo with that penalty in OT. If you get a powerplay in OT and you dont' score, you fail and deserve to lose.

Spectacle of it was fun. I didn't realize that CBC was also broadcasting it until one of the NBC guys mentioned he talked to Greg Millen...I switched over immediately. Canadian broadcast >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. American broadcast, although I enjoyed the Slapshot montage that Costas showed.

The outdoor game was a fun game. I wish Pittsburgh hadn't worn those blue unis though? Were those just for this game, or are they one of the normal kits? I like the black, that blue was just too... baby blue.

I loved those blue uniforms. So much so in fact that I'm probably going to snap one up if I can.

Unfortunately they were just a one time thing for that game. A throwback jersey, like the Sabres were wearing. But I imagine they'll become an alternate jersey now so they can sell more of them.

OMG Crosby out until playoffs (if the Penguins can make it there without him..).

Finally, the hockey gods gave him something to Really cry about. :drill:

Cryers fan?

I never even thought to pick up Selanne when I saw he was coming back (or for the weeks before when it was obvious).

And I'm in desperate need of replacing a few of my players who have been dogging it lately.

IMO, there should be money on this next year. Or maybe for a playoff pool.

Gambling makes things FUN.

Still not a fan of the scoring system. If we use something more mainstream (like the Yahoo default), I would be interested in a small wager.

Malkin is my new Santa Claus.

But he's on my team, so...

You like milk moustaches and want to sit on his lap while he gives you a "present"?

You know what?  It wouldn't be gay if it was with Malkin.  He's transcendent.

Being a Penguins fan, I've certainly wanted to make love to him several times.

So who all would be interested in a big boy playoff pool?

We can do it any way we like, as long as everyone agrees imo.

I'm down.

As long as it isn't cripplingly expensive, I am in.

Hey, I'm interested in unloading Anze Kopitar for a top-tier defenseman.  Now accepting offers =)

Kris Letang. Final offer.

(Pray Whitney gets hurt? .... I think all Pens fans do...)


 :-)

Okay, what does everyone think a good buy in would be?

I routinely pay around $30 to get into internet pools with 25,000 people, so I'm fully willing to go higher than that for much improved odds of winning.

$50? $100? I have no idea what people would consider fair and reasonable. You guys have to tell me. I'm in for whatever, so I have to be told what other people are willing to do.

How is the pot divided? Winner take all? 70/20/10? Percentage to charity (I know we're not high rollers giving charity thousands here, but it's always nice)?

We should get something sorted soon and get the show on the road.

I'm more or less broke right now.  So if it's more than 20-30, I can't really do it.  Even though I'm definitely going to win and take all your $$$ =)

$25 seems like a fair mark that doesn't exclude anyone.

Do we want to go with a winner take all, or provide prizes for second and third so we don't run into what we have right now in the Yahoo pool with people giving up because first is a pipe dream?

I'm not sure what use there is putting money toward charity if there's like five of us doing this, but I have no problem picking a charity and putting 10% toward it on principle.

I don't want to make all of the decisions here, though. This should more or less be a community thing, so it doesnt' look so bad when I take all of your monies.

Hossa!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT WANT.

Hossa will not resign in Pittsburgh in the offseason. He is looking for 9m + per. We can't afford him anyway, seeing as we have to pay Malkin that much too. He's not going to be looking to sign for a discount, so dont' even worry about that scenario.

We just gave up:

Armstrong
Christensen
Esposito
1st rounder

For the pleasure of having an underachieving playoff performer for 2 months. He's not even a fucking RHS, which we needed badly.

Not to mention the chemistry hit that our team takes by shipping out Armstrong.

Esposito was ranked #1 in his draft year up until around January.

You're probably right, but right now we have fucking Hossa and no one else got him, so I'm trying to remain positive about it.

Lol, PIT just boned themselves a bit.

Overall, from the standpoint of being a PHL fan, I liked how the deadline played out. Some teams certainly fucked themselves up.

Especially MTL, lawl.

Well, we're certainly dangerous as fuck for the rest of THIS year.

It's next year >>>>>> that I'm worried about.

How come nobody is talking about Brad Richards being traded.  :drill:

Probably for the best. I want to see how he performs without St. Louis and Lecavalier.

Still, he was a nice guy.


Edit: And Vaclav Prospal? What the fuck? I thought he had a no-trade clause because his permanent home is in Tampa Bay. What a douche Feaster is.

I don't understand the Pit trade. You have two of the best young players in the league, and you mortgage your future for 1 year? Does not compute.


I have discovered a as yet unknown super power of mine. I traded Matt Cooke in NHL 08 on Tuesday night, and Wednesday he went away for reals. God he is useless. I haven't decided who to voodoo next. Maybe Jeff Cowan.

ESPN's analysts seem to think this was a good move for Pittsburgh. They can't ALL be dumb, can they?

Grats to Tampa for doing what had to be done.

Hehe, Sergei Fedorov.

Federov appears to be the new guy to sign for too much money before trading away.

Fedorov is one of the newest big name superstars to get old and suck.

As far as Pittsburgh's move, it could be good. Depends. But it'd have to

A) Turn into a DEEP playoff run, or a cup
B) Turn into Hossa resigning, and then somehow fitting Malkin in too (uh.. k, whatever... some people seem convinced it's possible, but it looks genuinely mathematically impossible, so the Hossa thing doesn't make a god damn lick of sense to me. Maybe if the cap goes up by 10m or something).

If getting rid of Armstrong doesn't hurt team chemistry much (I think it will, he's the one piece that'd harm chemistry the most by his removal that isn't named Malkin or Crosby), Christensen doesn't develop into anything more than he is right now (he probably will, he's got fantastic hands and one of the best shots in the league), Esposito is a total flop (He was, at one time, ranked #1 in his draft year) and the first round pick we gave up turns into nothing (It's a deep draft year, this is unlikely).... then maybe what they gave up isn't a big deal. Those are a LOT of ifs though, I think is the point people are trying to make. Way too many.

Especially for one guy. Especially for one guy who will very, very likely just be a rental for a month or two.

On top of that, Armstrong is making something like 1.2. We need decent quality working parts that are signed for salaries like that if we want to sign Malkin and a high quality winger. When you go down our roster and look at all of the 2.5m and 3m contracts that we have, things just don't add up for the future. Armstrong at 1.2 is a deal, and the kind of deal Pittsburgh needs to stay under the cap long term.

Nevermind, leggo my Ovechkin.

You have 5 remaining games at RW and C, but 42 left at F so you don't necessarily need to dump your LWs yet, just have to be more careful how you use them.  Below your roster, click on Maximum Games.  Sucks that you lost out on that huge night, even though it helps me win =)

Actually, I do still need to trade for D. So, you know, browse around. Just not Ovechkin or Malkin anymore.

Trade deadline is supposedly today, fgts. Trade up. I need D.

Exciting Leafs/Flyers game.

TOO BAD ABOUT THE NON-CALL IN OT.

Also, god damn fucking Randy Jones. Personally responsible for TWO goals by the Leafs.

How about them Flyers?

End of this season is gonna be nuts. Calgary plays Columbus tonight, then the next 9 games are against NW division foes, including 3 against Vancouver. The playoffs start tonight imo.

GO WILD! Finally got to watch a Wild game tonight, against Colorado. They still play some stifling D. Their whole division is all within like 7 points of each other and with the exception of one game against San Jose, the Wild play nothing but divisional games. This will be a damn good finish.

F the Wild.

REALLY F the Flames.

(http://static.flickr.com/41/79679791_eafe6b5f38_o.gif)

Haha Jarkko Ruutu > Your tolerance for bullshit.

I could watch that gif all day.  :awesome_for_real:

(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y279/stinelli/ha.gif)

Poor Dion

(http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e184/gillr4/whammo.gif)

Friend of mine in the Calgary Police says that Phaneuf has a couple of restraining orders on him by girls he's creeped out at bars.

Haha, that's fucked up.

That doesn't surprise me in the least. He shows all signs of being a grade A douchebag. Give him a few years, he will be Chris Pronger with a worse nose but better teeth. All the ill-informed fans will laud him, while anyone who ever had to play against him will know he is a cheapshotting coward.

Iginla >> Minnesota Wild.

WOOOO

 :mob:

Don't worry- the Wild got completely outplayed Friday night and won anyway, so they split for the weekend.

WTF is Montreal doing in 1st place?

April Fools?

That Phaneuf looked awfully silly blowing a shot of Luongo's right shoulder eh?

Thank you Alex Burrows!

If you say so...

Are you saying Luongo is gay?

Good season, everybody!  So who's got playoff predictions?  I like that all 8 matchups are .500 against each other from the regular season.

I predict that I won't care now that the Canucks have utterly and completely shit the bed.

At least I have the Mariners When's football season starting?

West Ham plays Portsmouth tomorrow night?

Predictions that will all turn out wrong:

EAST
Montreal vs. Boston: This one could be over quick.
Pittsburg vs. Ottawa: My hope for a completely collapse by the Sens and they actually miss the playoffs didn't happen, so I'll go for the first round exit.
Washington vs. Philly: Only worry about this one is that Washington is just happy to be there.
New Jersey vs. New York Rangers: Rangers are somewhat hot right now, and I had to pick an upset somewhere in the east. Though, this wouldn't be much of upset imo

WEST
Detroit vs. Nashville: Detroit waits until the 2nd round to collapse.
San Jose vs. Calgary: yeah yeah yeah, I don't think my Flames can get through the first round. Waaay to inconsistent. They had a good record against the Sharks this year (3-1), but they played them mostly before they got REALLY hot.
Minnesote vs. Colorado: Tempted to take the Avs, but the Wild are due.
Anaheim vs. Dallas: Stars are in biiig trouble.

The only sure things I really see is that the Canadiens will beat the Bruins and Anaheim will beat the Stars. Pretty sure Detroit will take out Nashville, and Pittsburg can take out Ottawa. The rest could go either way, and should be decent series.

How the hell did Washington and Nashville get in the playoffs?

My predictions sure to be wrong:

Montreal
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
New Jersey
Detroit
San Jose
WILD BABY!
Anaheim

Canucks. CHOKED.

Montreal in 5
Ottawa in 7
Washington in 6
New York in 5

Detroit in 5
San Jose in 5
Colorado in 6 (if Forsberg's pussy doesn't hurt too badly)
Dallas in 7

Montreal over Boston — I still scratch my head over how Montreal finished #1 in conference. I think Cinderella turns into a pumpkin, but not before dispensing with Boston, though I love watching Chara play…

Pittsburgh over Ottawa — Pens got punked by Sens in playoffs last year, but this year, Pens hungrier, not content to just be there, have 2+ bonafide scoring lines and meanwhile, Sens coasted into playoffs…

Washington over Philadelphia — going to be a 7 game affair, but Washington has too much for Flyers

Detroit over Nashville — Goaltending is going to be an issue for Red Wings in this SC tourney, but they should be able to dispense with Nashville rather effortlessly…

San Jose over Calgary — closest matchup in opening round IMV, Kiprusoff might be able to steal for Flames, but SJ will prove too tough

Minnesota over Colorado — because the Wild are the better coached team

Anaheim over Dallas — Pronger might still be a tad rusty from his suspension, but other Ducks got plenty of rest during first half of season, and seem to be rounding into top form, I look for them to repeat as champions this SC

Are both of you surprised?  :oh_i_see:

Hey, how'd Tampa do?

You went there, didn't you. Like you're not a TB fan, you traitorous bastard!

Just wait until next year.  :drill:

Go go Steve Stamkos?

Nobody will say it, but the most mediocre first overall in... ten years?

Okay, nine. Patrick Stefan? As I look at that draft though, you have to forgive Atlanta... that was kind of a hilariously shitty draft.

but, but but... that's when the Canucks got the Sisters!

IMO Washington doesn't have enough vs PHL. Sure, they have Ovechkin. His presence cannot be overstated, BUT....weak defense, questionable goaltending, and lack of depth beyond him. Don't give me a spiel about Huet's record in the past 12....Southeast division = lulz. Basement dwelling TB and ATL and FLA, and a faltering CAR....Washing getting in was practically a gimme.

Flyers should be fine if they decide to play defense.

And I really hope PIT get slapped about by Ottawa; what they did in the finale was disgraceful. Is little Crosby that scared of the Flyers? It's not like they get called for half the shit they pull.

Let's go Pens!  In your face, Strazos!   :drill:

Makes me lewl when fans of the dirtiest team in the league constantly blame the refs when they lose. Yeah, you guys end up in the penalty box for nothing every single game. And they refs are ALWAYS in favour of the opposing team. Because they have crybaby Crosby! Or that commie Ovechkin! Jagr is a pussy, refs protect him! Our clowns like Hartnell and Downey aren't allowed to headhunt NEARLY enough!

Philly fans are good for regular lulz. I'm not sure if I like them better than Leafs fans, but it's a close heat. If only because Leafs fans have the advantage of pure stupid on their side.
 
As far as Washington, their division IS a complete fucking joke. Great for Ovechkin's point total and all, but I'd like to see how many he'd get if he played in Thornton's, Iginla's, or Malkin's divisions. WSH definitely wouldn't be in the playoffs, that's for sure.

Good start for Pens! Let's see if they can carry that into Game #2 and beyond… …they got a SC caliber squad, but I wonder if Fleury if SC caliber goalie…

Take back what I said about Zdeno Chara — he looked like a lumbering dolt against Habs… …dude, you're 7 foot monster, no opposing forward should be able get anywhere near crease or not have to pay with bonecrushing hit when gaining puck past goal line… …even if it means taking a call or two… …inflicting some pain will make those zippy forwards have to always tilt their heads to see where you're at… …it's playoff time…

Detroit obliterates Nashville, outshooting them 40-20… …might be 4 game sweep…

Didn't get to see Dallas waste Anaheim, which is a big shock to me, nor did I catch much of tonight's Calgary v. San Jose, where Sharks evened up series…

I love NHL channel, though… …it's about time, it only took them until 2007-2008 to get where the NFL & NBA have been for nearly a decade…

Dallas got all 4 goals on the powerplay, and Calgary took 7 penalties in a row in the 2nd, and were outshot something like 23-3 in that period.  :awesome_for_real: Plus, Nabokov made two UNREAL glovehand saves. On the last one he robbed Nolan so bad that even the announcers were saying 'SCORES!' until they realize the puck was actually in Nabokov's hand.
Score should have been about 5-2 for the Sharks, but both Goalies were awesome. I'll take the split in San Jose though :)

Montreal made Boston look as bad as I thought they were, same with the Pens against the Sens. Gary Roberts > Ottawa Senators.

It's good to see Roberts back.  I was at the game where he went down and from the way it looked I thought it might have been career-ending.

Dude, have you seen that injury in slow motion? It's fucking nasty...

Good thing that's not what I said. Do I really need to bring up specifics, such as when Crosby crumpled over when Smith leaned his stick on Crosby's? Or Gonchar blatently buttending Hartnell? Or anything Ruutu does? Or Crosby taking fully-gloved swings at people, and not getting called? Or that little shit Orpik, not wanting to defend himself after yet Another "questionable" play?

Oh, and they still completely threw that game.

Haha, if I were you I'd worry about Washington. Looks like your boys might be exiting stage left in the first round.

And of course they threw that game... who wants to play a team of no talent goons in the first round when someone else can take care of them?

(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk305/smwigmore/309125.gif)

Ow.  :uhrr:

For reals.  Hell of a check.  I caught a bit of the av's game last night and it made me remember why I love playoff hockey.  So, after a 3-4 year hiatus of hockey watching, I'm hoping the Avs (I'm an unfortunate CO. sports fan, we always lose in the end) series goes to game 6 so I can catch it on my big screen this weekend.

Also, lol @ forsburg. 

That check is the reason the Flames are up 2-1. They were dead in the water at that point of the game and the fans were completely out of it. With one hit, and the fact that San Jose ended up with the penalty afterwards, lead to the big comeback.

Yeah, he took a nice little tackle in the first period, then got facewashed. Made even more awesome by the fact that the Wild won.

GO WILD!

You guys see Avery get 'creative' in front of the goal.  Cracked me the fuck up.

First team in the second round: Penguins.

I'm actually hoping that...




... K just had to go back and look at MrHats avatar again for a second..

.. I'm actually hoping that Boston beats Montreal at this point because of the way they got totally jobbed by the Refs in game two. I've never seen anything like that. They were on a constant penalty kill in a tied game from 10 minutes left in the third, all the way until they lost in overtime. Including two 5 on 3s. I was watching that wondering how much mafia money was on the game. Quite lame.

I loved the Nashville win the other night and hope they win their series, too. Detroit is boring, anyway. I also hope Washington loses. I'm so fucking sick of the way everyone constantly jerks off over Ovechkin.

Nonis out as GM of the Canucks. Wow. I thought they would give him one more year, especially since he A) finally had some expiring contracts and thus some salary cap to work with, and B) was in the middle of negotiating the Brunnstrom deal. Missing the playoffs 2 out of 3 years in a Canadian city is absolutely death, however, so it is not surprising- who wants to be the Leafs West?  :drill:

I really hope the new GM shitcans Vigneault. His style of hockey is unbelievably boring to watch. Dump and chase, neutral zone trap, and hope like hell your world class goalie never has an off night, since your style robs the team of any scoring chances or flourish.

Look.. you play a defensive system and your entire top six is out the whole fucking season. You're going to lose.

Firing Nonis was ridiculous. And if you saw any of the press conference, it was clear that Aquilini just didn't like him.

Canucks were a playoff team had they remained even relatively healthy. Not Nonis's fault that Naslund is ass these days, either. You've got a great goalie, pretty good defense when healthy... Bruunstrom coming along, and cap room.

Seems like a pretty decent situation to me.

Yeah, I don't get firing Nonis either. There had to be some personality conflicts in there somewhere.

I don't think another soft Swede is going to help the Canucks any. They need a center who can win some faceoffs and score, and a couple of wingers, at least one of who can beat the shit out of 99.99% of the league. They got pushed around WAY too much this year. All the injuries didn't help, but they were totally at Luongo's mercy all year. If he was hot, they had a shot. If he was average or worse, they were sunk.

I haven't see the press conference, but everything I have heard about it makes it sound like the owner is a raving douchebag. Great. Now they ARE the Leafs West.

Ovechkin's dive was pretty sad....WSH as a whole is getting really frustrated, even as the refs are giving them a bit of help;

No call on drilling Timonen after the play? Seriously?

How many super rich guys from super rich families have you seen that aren't raving douchebags?

Got tickets to the Flames game last night. Chanting and cheering started a bit before they took the ice for the warm-up and didn't really stop until the second period where the Flames went to shit. Getting outshot 32-10 at home is NOT how you win a playoff game, even if they lucked out and came close. It was too bad, since the first period was pretty good and the crowd was still really into it, but a really bad 2nd took almost all the life out of it.

Still pretty darn awesome to look out and see nothing but red. My voice is shot today and my ears are still ringing.

Damn dude, that's awesome.  How much those tickets cost you? I could never find any playoff tickets in Denver.  Fuckers are sold out constantly.

They were pretty cheap ($40), because they were in the nosebleeds waaay up top. Rush seating too, so you have to be there about 2 hrs before gametime. You have to go to Sportchek and enter a draw to have the opportunity to buy 2 of the 900 tickets released. My Dad entered while he was waiting for my Mom to get out of the dentist and they called him on Monday :) Haven't been to a game with the old man since the late 80's.

Bad seats, amazing atmosphere. The diehards are usually the crew up top where we sat and they were going nuts for a good chunk of the game.

Not that TB is in the playoffs this year, but tickets down here are near impossible to get.  :uhrr:

Not looking hard enough, since they only average 94% ticket sales. :p

I meant for playoff games. It's easy to get good regular season tickets for reasonable prices.  :drill:

I imagine playoff tickets for TB this season ARE actually impossible to find  :grin:

I turned off the SJ-CLG game after Phaneuf scored the go ahead goal. I missed all the fun  :x

Only way I get tickets to playoff games here is if someone with seasons tickets offers them to me, or apparently if my Dad "wins" the chance to purchase them.

Way: you only needed to watch the last 5 minutes of the game to make you happy.

Thank you for that, Azaroth.  Thank you very much.

That cannot possibly be Crosby's mustache....right?

If it is...lol.

Wasn't really a good idea to post that muriel up of losing Pens shaking Sens hands from last years series…

Heatly, Spezza combined, 4 games, 0 goals, 2 assists…

The Thenators Thuck!

Thuck the Thenators?

Yeah, I really missed that pick badly. In my defense, I didn't realize Alfredsson was hurt when I made it. But it was still a bad call.

Red Wings v. Predators has gotten interesting, tied 2-2 and be it not for 30 (2 goals in each of the Pred wins scored within a span of 15 seconds) seconds in the 4 games, Detroit should be up 4-0…

Who would ever predict that Al (or whatever his first name is) Ellis would be outplaying Olympic Gold Medal / Stanley Cup Champion goalie Hasek…

The West is all ridiculously competitve. Calgary vs. SJ 2-2, Detroit vs. Nashville 2-2, Colorado vs. Minnesota 2-2, Dallas vs. Anaheim 2-1 and that could easily go 2-2 next game.

All the series in the East could very well be over in 5 games.

IIRC, CO MINN have been going OT every game except the last one too.

Yup, first three games were 3-2 in OT.

The west is gonna beat itself up.

Hoooooly Shit, I just saw the Sens opening video for game 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi5nCd1ZVrw

Without looking, I am guessing that is the shirtless gladiator? Serious clownshoes. I can't believe that was done in a Canadian city. I could see it in Nashville or (especially) Columbus, but Ottawa?

That Spartan looked a bit...soft. :oh_i_see:

So did the Sens.  :drill:

But yeah, I had to change the channel when that was on. I mean, I was laughing but... wow, embarrassing.

At least he had that mask on. He'll only take it from his friends, family, and colleagues for the rest of his life instead of every stranger on the street.

I missed the beginning of that game but had heard that they had a terrible intro. I didn't realize how terrible it was. From the bad fitting helmet, to the script written inside his shield and the audio cutting out so that it sounds like he says 'WE SHALL.... SURRENDER' it was so full of  :awesome_for_real: that I'm still laughing.

OMFG. Epic Fail Guy. Love the way his helmet bounced up and down on his head when he tried to emote emphaticism.

Lulz.

2 Game 7's tomorrow night… …Caps seem to have Philly number now but anything can happen in game 7…

All Pennsylvania enmity aside, I would just like to see the Caps make the second round this year.

Mleh, I admit that WSH/PIT would be more interesting, but I'm so terribly fucking sick of hearing everyone in hockey sloppily suck on AO's balls.

Well, you can't argue with his stats.  Even if they were inflated somewhat by his division.

Apparently taking 7 games to beat a team that barely made the playoffs, is enough of a cause for Montrealers to riot.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=235439&lid=sublink09&lpos=topRelated_main

Stupid. Stupidstupidstupid. I don't expect any rioting in Calgary until about the 3 round ;)

You mean when San Jose is looking to beat Detroit and advance to the cup finals?

WTFNO

Aw, I was only kidding.  Or was I?  We'll find out in a few hours!

His stats were good. But he did play in the worst division in the league, in one of the few years we'll have this system that matches teams against their own division rivals *8* times each. Eight games against Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta.

So yeah, his stats are probably inflated. But that's not my problem. I'm just sick and fucking tired of the sloppy ball washing.

I didn't even like it when they were all doing it with Crosby. But everyone hates Crosby now, and his mature interviews are "boring" and "bad for the game" whereas Carey Price is "oh wow so mature what a kid omg", etc. When Crosby looks at the ref, he's a "whiner". When AO does it, he's "a warrior" somehow, etc.

The point is that when you really pour the gay love on for a player, it gets fucking old and people get sick of it. And I'm REALLY sick of the "Ovechkin: Jesus On Ice?" shit already. Pierre McGuire is currently making me sick to my stomach watching this game seven.

He's pretty fast and he shoots a lot. K. That's great, he's really good. But man fuck... I just want to watch a hockey game without feeling like the announcers write the guy mash notes.

Although, I think part of my problem is living in Canada. I'm exposed to about a hundred times the hockey coverage as people in the States are.

Nice to see this game going to overtime. Pretty good watchin'.

Well, that was pretty fucking cheesetastic.

What a gay penalty in OT. And that non-goal? Yeah.. not a goal.

Washington 2, Philadelphia 1. Sorry. And I wanted Philly to win.

Wish I hadn't been in class for most of it.  I couldn't decide who I wanted to win less.   :oh_i_see:

Nothing cheesetastic about it. It was Clearly a careless trip. I'm sick of this "Oh it's OT = NO PENALTIES" bullshit.

The calls were very uneven in this series, for both teams. They even missed a puck going into the netting. They also missed a huge stick-slash that had been called every time in the previous 6 games.


And on AO....He's a great player, but it was painful to see him starting to dive to try to draw penalties.

Well, technically it was a penalty. However, there were several trips, hooks, and such infractions earlier in the OT. For both teams. None of which were being called.

Consistency in refereeing would be kind of nice.

Flames are so going out. I'm getting the impression that someone doesn't know how to flood ice cause there's a lot of bouncing pucks and falling players.

 :cry:

Same old story though, I've been watching them tank game 7s since 2004 against the Lightning. 3 years. 3 coaches. 3 first round exits. Sadly (for me anyways) they're not going to get better next year.

On Phil v. Wash: sorry, but I wanted to punch out the commentators on Vs. that said that ref made right call on no goaltender interference. While the league may technically chime in on how defensive guy went into goalie, it was OFFENSIVE MAN THAT THREW HIM INTO GOALIE… …if that's legit, then every team should be adopting that unique "run a goalie" strategy… …yeah, there were lots of botched calls in the game, but it's no news NHL officials suck — whether it be Don "have another donut" Koharski, Bill "wondertard" McCreary, Kerry "rotten" Fraser, Paul "jizzbag" Devorski, etc.… …I used to think it was more the league's fault for not specifying consistent guidelines, but maybe not so much, though they still keep these incompetent sorts instead of refreshing with better ones… …granted, hockey officiating is more difficult than other sports, but I see no indication that adding a ref and now having 4 officials on ice is any better than even 1 official…

On Calgary v. SJ: WTF, what happened to the real Flames and who were those imposters playing in their sweaters last night? Keenan taking fire for another one of goaltender swaps, but hey, when you're getting pounded and outshot by 4-1 margin, you got to shake things up somehow… …/gratz to Sharks though as I thought Flames were going to send them to tee time dates…

NHL reffing is a complete joke, news at 11?

How did Mick McGeough not make that list? He is worse than all of them, except maybe Koharski. Thankfully he is retiring.

I thought he retired already… …yes, they're all bad, including the ones I didn't mention like Shick, LaRue, etc.…

Actually, that non-goalie interference call was the correct call. WSH player had the puck, and Thoresen decked him with a clean hit. He happened to go into the goalie. Heads-up play, whether he meant to do it like that or not.

It's definitely not the first time I've seen it this season, but it may have been the best example of the tactic.

That's bullshit and if an opposing skater did that to my side, I'd be throwing him down… …goalie in the crease should always be respected…

2nd round starts tonight:

Pit over NYR — going gets rougher for Pens and Rangers are solid squad, but I think Pens have more depth

Phi over Mon — would love to see Pit v. Phi conference final, though here, this series is a tossup and will go to game 7, just like Phi v. Was did

Det over Col —  Red Wings prevail again

Dal over SJ — Turco makes it to conference championship

I went 4-3 on 1st round picks (somehow I ignored NYR - NJ series)

6-2, if we aren't counting wrong games count as a loss.


This round-

Pittsburgh in 6
Montreal in 6
Colorado in 7
San Jose in 5

Pitt in 6
Mont in 5
Colo in 7
Dal in 6

Mark these down, kids. If you have money, place your bets.

Pit vs. NYR - Pittsburgh struggles against Lundqvist. Rangers win. Yes, I'm a Penguins fan.

MON vs. PHI - Montreal powerplay dominates. Montreal wins.

DET vs. COL - Detroit. Chokers, but just too good for an old, low-seeded Colorado team.

Dallas vs. San Jose - Dallas. San Jose has a team, but they'll choke. Dallas powerplay will be strong.



Get your money out, I WILL be correct at 75% or higher.

Next round (that I probably won't watch because my team choked on it)

Pitt
Montreal
Detroit
San Jose - Come on, Dallas just can't win, can they?

PLEASE TO HIRE COMPETENT REFS PLZKTHX.

Seriously? Open ice hits are now illegal, while deflections from above the crossbars are goals? lul


It's not the first time it's happened this year, or the first time such a play resulted in a goal.

However, it's the first time it's happened in the playoffs this year.

Seeing as Drury deflected one in from above his shoulder tonight that stood as a goal, I'm guessing that the rule was changed.

No, it's still the crossbar rule. It didn't get changed.

What the fuck are the playoffs like? I've just been ignoring them considering TB is out of it, but goddamn.

Enjoying the Eastern Conference matchups (though I am Pens fan) much more, even Phi-Mon was an exciting game #1.

Game #1 of Det-Col wasn't bad either but I didn't get to see very much of SJ-Dal last night, and somehow the styles those 2 teams play just don't enthuse me enough to view…

Yeah, I don't find the Western Conference is always that fantastic to watch.

Take THAT, Montreal. :drill:

Congrats to Philly fans. I honestly would have never picked them to win that series.

I'm still going to be 75%, though.

Edit: Oh, nevermind. Actually my picks really sucked. I forgot that I picked the Rangers. San Jose is also coming back a bit, so I could potentially fall as low as 25%. Oops.

I just feel sorry for anyone that had to suffer through VS coverage. I was looking for highlights, and the "official" ones, even on the PHL website, all use the VS coverage.

They were fucking terrible.

The NHL made a gigantic error moving away from ESPN over money. They should have swallowed their pride and taken the financial hit to get themselves back into the public eye after a massively crippling strike.

They obviously just don't get it, as they've renewed the contract through the 2010-11 season.


Well, at least my local coverage is great. Can someone please explain to the VS crew that it's generally a good idea to do such things as not rambling instead of doing play-by-play, show replays of penalties and such, and not slap giant marquees along the bottom of the screen that cover up actual play?

Fucking amateurs.

That shit drives me fucking nuts.

Pretty much all sports coverage from the US on all sports that I've seen does this ENTIRELY too much, and it pisses me right the fuck off. It's even worse when ESPN breaks into their MLS coverage every 30 minutes to do a Sportscenter update about sports that are not soccer. I have ESPNNews for that, fuckfaces.

And yes, VS coverage is just atrocious, playoffs or not. The NHL made a huge mistake not sucking ESPN's cock when it came back from the strike.

FOX is the worst of this crap, and they've got a baseball stranglehold now on the weekends/playoffs. It's almost unbearable to watch anything they do for sports now.

Fox Soccer Channel is decent, but yes, all the rest of the Fox shit sucks monkey teats.

Fuck, now I'm definitely going to have to fly back to Pittsburgh to see a game.  Watching the Flyers lose on TV is much less amusing!

Flyers/Pens series should be kickass, I was hoping those two teams would meet up. I'm looking forward to watching that series. It's just as nasty as Calgary vs. Edmonton used to be.

Pretty meh about Detroit/Dallas.

I'm pretty excited about watching both series.

That SJ/Dallas game last night was pretty sweet to watch too. Only game I've ever seen longer than that was the PIT/PHI game that went to five overtimes.

Where Samuelson scored from the blue line?

A Dallas Detroit series is like taking a laxative. You know it has to be done, but you really just don't want to be there when the show is on.

Now the Philly/Pit series should be good, if for nothing other than to see the two fanbases try to immolate the other fanbase with their minds.

Are you selling the Dallas / Detroit series as sucking because you know Detroit will stomp them, or for some other reason?

As a Dallas fan, I'm wary because the Red Wings are so good, but after watching Turco play all those overtimes, he might be able to hold this thing together.

I'm looking forward to Detroit and Dallas.

I've had Dallas picked for the cup since mid-season (before they got hot, then cold, then hot again).

Dallas is a boring team to watch. Detroit is boring because they are always always always on TV in my market. I could care less about either team.

Yeah those 4 OT games against SJ were a real snooze. WTF gets you off in hockey, man? Decapitations?

I think he means style of hockey.

But I'm with you, P. Do we need an xHL where people slice each other up with hockey sticks?

Do you smell what Laraque is cooking?

I mean style. I've always seen Dallas as a grinding style of team. And yes, I realize I root for the Wild, which is a grindy team, but at least the Wild have Gaborik when he's playing worth a damn to inject some flare. Dallas just bores me as a team. Detroit... it's Detroit, I really hate the amount of attention they get.

Oh oh, I went 4-0 on 2nd round picks!

For the conference finals:

Pit over Phi - picking more with my heart here, as I think Philly isn't given far enough credit, and (a) they match up well against Pens, (b) have pwned them in all previous playoff matchups (just like Pit pwns Rangers), (c) Phi shut down multi-scoring line of Montreal, (d) Phi has more finishers and more healthy F than Rangers who will make the Pens pay for neutral zone mishaps that seem to plague all Pen D (and Malkin) except for Hal Gill. Orpik and Scuderi make me cringe every time I see them around the puck. And losing Maxine Talbot is a big loss for Pens, he a high energy player that can hit, PK, score, etc.… …I think it will be exciting series and go full 7 games

Det over Dal - toward end of SJ series, Dal was really outplayed badly, but Turco willed them to victory. He's going to have carry that effort for another series and I think his teammates arn't going to pick it up. OTOH, Franzen is on fire, giving Det huge multiple scoring line attack, but goaltending is a question still with them, and I don't think Osgood has been challenged sufficiently yet. Still, Det prevails in 5 or 6 games.

I think, for PHL, this series really hinges on the performance of Biron first, with Timonen a close second.

Biron is going to need to make a Lot of nice saves to give PHL a shot, and Timonen (along with Coburn) are REALLY going to have their hands full playing shutdown defense.

I'm waiting for someone to lay a good, legal hit on Crosby, and have it followed up by a terrible call by the refs....like, a bad roughing call for an open-ice hit.

Oh, Christ.

Rangers fans started blaming losses on refs and cooking up conspiracy theories prior to the beginning of the series, too.

I'm not talking about conspiracy. I'm talking about bad refereeing. It's happened to multiple teams. An easy example would be a boarding call in which the person "boarded" never actually, you know, hit the boards. Or if the person hit is standing up less than a foot from the glass.

plz 2 lern hockey rulz. Also, physics.

What?

That's what we've said a number of times while watching the playoffs this year.

Where's that broom at.

Up in the press box with half the defensive corps.  :oh_i_see:

WTF is the NHL playoff thread doing in Fantasy Sports? I never read this forum except to beg for spin-off fantasy football leagues because I missed the deadline because I never read this forum except to beg for spin-off fantasy football leagues. Also, to complain when my fantasy football team gets wtfpwn3d.

Anyway, LETS GO PENS!

Most of the biggest NHL fans on the board were in the fantasy league, so no one bothered making a new thread for it?

Quick, find it!

(http://www.susanburghart.com/myspace/pensbroom.jpg)

It's entirely possible that I've never seen a worse job of refereeing a game in my life.

And I've watched a lot of NHL games. So that's saying something.

Which call are you objecting to? The terrible hold called on Gonchar, which was irrelevant due to the immediate trip following it?

You mean the 10/10 Briere dive? Let's not even get into non-calls.

The phantom hold on Gonchar that was called was bullshit, yes. So was the phantom call on Orpik for getting three crosschecks in the back, the blatant missed interference on the goal, or whatever else you want to pick.

Try being slightly objective. Just say something like "Heh, now you know how WE'VE felt all series with the massive conspiracy against us!" like the rest of the Flyers fans I've seen comment on it.

Jordan Staal = Captain Clutch?

If Staal is the only one scoring for the Pens, they aren't going to make it in a game.

The reffing was a complete fucking joke, but... it's the NHL. It shouldn't have surprised me.

The real problem is actually the above post. Malkin and Crosby just didn't show up -- and neither did most of the rest of the team. For most of the game, anyway. I think they though the series was over and the Flyers were just going to roll over and die or something.

Now Timmonen and Coburn are back. Maybe they should clear Gagne, too. We all know how caring, compassionate, and exceptionally professional those Flyers team doctors are. If it were up to them, Eric Lindros would literally be a corpse right now.

Let's hope they aren't fucking up really bad on this Timmonen call.

You mean he isn't?

ZING!

Poor Eric may forget which flavour of soup he's eating once in a while, but he had a punctured lung half full of blood, nearly dead in the bottom of a shower when the team doctors told his roommate to put him on the team flight to Philadelphia the next morning.

Instead, he was taken to hospital where the doctor said that if he'd waited and got on that flight, he'd have certainly died.

Then there's the concussion shit.

But I meant actually dead. Oh, and he was stripped of the captaincy for criticizing team doctors afterward.

Philly always manages to show such class.

I was sad to see Prospal sent over there.  :?

Now you're going off the deep end. Way to be totally irrelevant.

The punctured lung? Seriously? You're gong to bring that piece of history up? He didn't even take a particularly viscious hit, and played the rest of the game. I'm not a doctor, and neither are you, so who are you to second-guess? It was a freak accident.

I mean, for fucks' sake, it's not even the same team you're talking about. Try to stay on point, eh?

Timmonen has a blood clot in his leg. I think it's very relevant to bring up the history of the team doctors when they're clearing him to play with that.

Look, I let you off the hook with all of the "hockey rulz, psysikss, lern 2 whatever" shit. I'm trying to be very nice to you here. Don't push too far, and stop taking shit about your favourite hockey team personally.

Oh, I'm not taking it personally, I just vigorously disagree with most of what you say. That's all.

I actually think the calls have been much more consistent than they were in the MTL series. Still not all that great, but MTL was embarrassing. I never said anything about conspiracy.

Anyway, what else....Briere's goal certainly wasn't interference. He has the right to go for that puck, which was not covered, and he didn't straight-up bowl the goalie over. Also, much less than that has been called this post-season, and much worse has been let go.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the Orpik thing, as VS has such shitty shit shit coverage.

Well, that the reffing has sucked balls all playoffs is something I think everyone can disagree on.. regardless of team colours.

And yes, VS is the absolute fucking worst of all time.

Some notes, mainly on Pit v. Phi series, though give Dallas props for fighting, and if they win back in Dallas, makes for an exciting game 7:

1. Refs are even more awful this series, though it has not favored one team (well, maybe as inconsistent officiating, it may be argued, favors against the likes of Malkin & Crosby…) — absolutely retarded that in game 2 they called a couple penalties for high sticking/hooking that literally could be called every 3 seconds. Then, in the 2nd period, they the put the whistles away and even a stick to the face or elbow to the head was a no-call.

2. Phi looked inspired in game 4 yet Pens almost managed to steal it despite Malkin & Crosby not looking very interested, and Staal almost singlehandedly line carried the Pens to victory.

3. Jordan Staal is an amazing player already. I forgot he's only 19 years old. His offensive stats suffered this year but that's cause he's been on grind line duty and PK specialist. The Pens can't let him go, but they may not be able to keep Malone and him along with Crosby, Malkin and Hossa (who I thought was their rent a player, and knocked him for subpar clutch playoff performance, but I eat crow on that as he's stepped up in Cup play, and defensively is shining also).

4. Malkin is Leo-Messi amazing with the puck but he gives up too many neutral zone turnovers and Flyers have guys (namely Richards but certainly not limited to him) that will make him pay dearly for it.

5. Fleury needs to step it up. He's let some soft goals in even though he's been spectacular in spurts. At this stage, all Cup goalies got to have their A game every night.

6. Maxine Talbot is my favorite Pen after the top guys. He's such an energy player, but he not 100%.

7. The VS. coverage blows, the announcers (one is the Caps regular announcer and the other delights every time Crosby + Malkin are hit) suck and are not so biased in their anti-Pens (at the end of game #4, Darren ? kept blathering about how it's "far from over"… …WTF?… …maybe if they win game #5 in Pit can he say that…). I could handle that if it weren't for the inane cut-ins and bottom screen banner popovers that hide game action. In the studio, Engbloom is OK but the announcer and Keith Jones have to go. Because you played doesn't mean you're qualified to be a TV "expert". DirecTV did good this year with NHL channel and option for your choice of home/visitor announcement, but for the love of Gates , can you please let me get the Canadian coverage once the playoffs get to this stage. And on my HD setup (it seems DirecTV has upgraded HD again and I need a new receiver though mine is only little over 2+ years old) no HD for Vs anymore (they used to pop HD on 94-95). NBC not much better, but at least it HD.

8. Funny that Detroit, with 2 goalies that have Cup credentials, may have Achilles heel at that roster spot. Osgood played excellent since taking over in the crease, but I've never been optimistic over teams that did the goalie shuffle in the SC playoffs. #2 is always looking over shoulder when his game dips a tad, and I'm sure some nerdy internet hockey stat dweeb can tell me it's been done before, but I always seem to recall #1 riding the whole 16 (maybe Carolina a few years back, but I thought the switch happened before the SC playoffs started).

Huge long ass post can be shortened to:

You can keep Malone and sign another winger at around $5m, or you can have Hossa. It's also necessary to get rid of players like Whitney, Sydor, Gill, Conklin, etc.

1. Would rather have Malone than Hossa.

2. Let Gonchar go and keep Whitney, Gonchar better now, but Whitney has more future upside. Or maybe they swing a deal to get another young puck handling D man.

3. Can't let go of Gill, he is the best blueliner (D minded) they have.

4. Hungry backup goalies are plentiful.

5. Sydor is still a Penguin?

Probably true about Malone vs. Hossa. ONLY because Malone is two wingers. Malone and another for 4-5m.

However, Malone has been a 20 goal man his whole career without Malkin and Sykora. We're about to pay a 20 goal man$3-4 million. That's ridiculous, frankly. He might even get more from stupid organizations like Toronto and such.

Ultimately, it's potentially smarter to keep Hossa.. because if you look at the UFA wingers this year, Hossa is truly the cream of the crop. The rest are trash.

Do not let Gonchar go instead of Whitney. Gonchar is a top 5 NHL defenseman. Whitney blows. Hard. Cocks. His defensive game is ATROCIOUS, and his offensive game isn't THAT great. He's the WORST defenseman on the team, hands down. To the point where he was moved to wing instead of benched this season, purely because he makes too much money to sit. MOVE HIM AND HIS RIDICULOUS SALARY WHILE HE HAS SOME VALUE. Another season like this one and he's worth NOTHING. But other teams are still over rating him right now. You could get a quality return.

Gonchar is older, but Letang will take over for him as the powerplay quarterback in a few years.

Gill is nothing. He's overpaid, he's slow, he's not that good. He's decent.. but that's situational. Ask a Toronto fan if Hal Gill is anyone's best defensive defenseman. Pittsburgh has specific systems in place to cover up for his lack of speed. He gets paid TOO MUCH for what he's worth. He's one of Toronto's many bad contracts.

I think Malone had a deathwish at the end of game 4. I'm not sure what he was thinking.

Also, agree that they cannot let Gonchar good. He's...alright, defensively, but he does far too much for that team moving the puck and on the PP to just let go.

And yeah, Whitney blows. Hard.

And on the VS coverage, it's atrocious. I like Keith Jones enough (or at least he doesn't annoy me), but I'm probably a bit biased. I cannot believe they swapped Bill Clemente to local Comcast coverage. I mean, it's great for the PHL telecast, but he's sorely missed in national coverage. Also, they do not have any good play-by-play/color teams. Besides Engblom and arguably Jones, their entire team is terrible. Both the announcers and the tech/studio crew. I mean, FFS, they MISSED a 5 on 3 PP in the MTL series. As in, they didn't realize there was a 5 on 3 PP occurring, and were surprised to see guys coming out of the box. How do you miss that?

(http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd114/Ravandor/towelie.jpg)

Yeah, Whitney has had a tough season. Sometimes it takes a few years for young D men to blossom. He's had a setback but he's got potential, still.

Before the playoffs, would argue with you about Gonchar — but he's really made me a believer, but I would not put him in top 5 defensemen… …he's 1-2 blueliner for certain, but there are lots of top line puck carriers D that I'd rather have…

Inside rumor mill has it that Malone might be headed to Arizona.

Y, I understand that Gill is slow as molasses. However, he fits Pens well as they need a guy like him to stand up and handle PK duties. Though I've been surprised at Orpik's play, whom I had written off as a bum…

Letang? Maybe.

But I will have to concede that they'll have to be smart on how they allocate salaries to those other than Malkin, Crosby…

An Open Letter to Vs.
http://www.postgameheroes.com/?p=2329

 :drill:

 :heart:

(http://Yeah, Whitney has had a tough season. Sometimes it takes a few years for young D men to blossom. He's had a setback but he's got potential, still.)

Whitney is a certified purse-swinging pussy and always has been. He got hot with the backdoor pass from Crosby at the second half of last season and racked up a bunch of goals before it stopped working. Suddenly he was an elite young defenseman.

Except the motherfucker can't play defense. He's also getting paid 4.5 million a season, which we can't fucking afford.

No salary cap? Kewl, sup Whits.

Salary cap = cu dude.



That being said...


WOOT STANLEY CUP FINALS.

Oh, and Gonchar is absolutely top 5. You just have to watch him. He's elite defensively, and has been for quite some time now (although, for most of his career... not so much). On top of that, he's the highest scoring defenseman since 2000, and consistently 1 or 2 in defeseman scoring each season. He's a beast.

Philly got nothing to hang their heads about… …from 30th to one series away… …and they have a nucleus of a squad that's going to be good (the entire division is going to be murder) for a few years, though I don't think Biron is Cup quality goalie…

Yeah, he certainly had a drop in the PIT series. Though, I really don't think you can underestimate the loss of your top defensive pair for practically the whole series.

And that letter? You could have fooled me; I thought they were more on the Pens side, if anything. I guess they're just THAT terrible.

Also, how many pages ago did I harp on "manpower advantage"? FFS they're terrible.

Hatcher and Smith were solid, problem was that facing 3 bonafide (perahaps 3.5 even) scoring lines means, especially when in visitor barn, matchup exploits on #5-#6 D-pair…

Which is fine when you you're going with: Timmonen-Coburn, Hatcher-Jones, Smith-Modry/Kukkonen

Kind of a problem when your pairings look more like Hatcher-Jones, Smith-Parent, Kukkonen-Modry.

No wonder they got taken apart.

Pittsburgh vs. Detroit.

Should be a great series. Probably the best two teams in the league, heaps and heaps of offensive talent on the ice.

Pittsburgh hasn't seen a team as strong as Detroit yet, not by far. Detroit hasn't seen a team with as much offensive depth as Pittsburgh.

Smart money is probably on Detroit, but I got burned the one time I bet against the Penguins so far.

Should be fun to watch. I am leaning toward Pittsburgh in 7, but really could go either way.

Pit in 6. Sorry Wings, but you are the kings of the choke.

I still think the Pens D isn't up to snuff, so I'm leaning DET. I really wish there was a way for neither team to win.  :oh_i_see:

Wings sweep the Pens in 4.

Because the gnashing of teeth would be awesome.

Wings in 7, because Western Conference >> Eastern Conference.

PIT in 6

Will be close series, difference is going to be 3rd / 4th lines assuming PIT D can hold up. DET can match firepower and goaltending, but their 3rd and 4th lines guys are like all over 35. For Gates sake, McCarty and Draper still get significant chunks of ice time. Granted, they still perform well, but I'll take Maxine Talbot and Jordan Staal over them any day...

The Detroit D is vastly better than the Pittsburg D, and that'll make a huge difference imo

Either way, it should be a pretty good final.

Should be, but Detroit is the favourite hands down. I dont' think anyone is going to dispute that.

The Pens (especially Malkin) are really going to have to cut down on those lateral passes just after crossing the blue line. It's gotten predictable, I though giving up the solo breakaway and the shortie would wisen him up but it hasn't. The Wings skilled blueliners will make those kind of turnovers hurt real bad.  Either carry it in or dump and chase.

I'd take Hossa over Malone + mid-tier winger any day. Though I don't know that they could keep Hossa and lock up the other key players long-term and still have enough to field a decent overall team even if Malone was let go.

Hopefully, the time off has given Sidney a little explosiveness back, but that's pretty dubious given the kind of injury.

Detroit has best D unit in league - they are solid, especially #1-4 would be #1 on just about any other team, though Chelios has been looking more like a 46 year old this season…

Quickly! More HGH!

I know, hence my discomfort at the thought of 5 Pens skating speedily to the offensive blue like as Malkin makes a no-look drop pass right to one of those Detroit D-man with a head of steam and nobody but Fleury between him and a calamari bath. 

Paaaaaaaaathetic.

My friend who I was supposed to watch the game with called me and told me his satellite TV doesn't get reception in the rain.  He lives in Orlando.

So I didn't watch it, but the box score is embarrassing.

Eh, it was closer than boxscore would indicate… …the difference in the game, before the late 2 goal flurry after the affair was already decided, were two unassisted goals by Samuelsson that put them up 2-0 (goals 3 and 4 came with just a few minutes left, #4 with 12 seconds I think…), both the result of brain dead Pen acts  — one by not getting puck deep enough for line change and the other a Fleury/Malkin giveaway. Still Pens had chances and Crosby clanged the post on one and there were other missed opportunities...

That said, Pens need to make some adjustments… …I think they were taken aback by how aggressive Detroit is playing them — they skate right to the puck. And I didn't realize (even from watching previous series) how physical they are, despite being outsized. It somewhat pushes the envelope — fists to the back and the pushing with the gloves… …but it's quite evident it's a speedier and much more capable D unit they're facing. Pens seemed to stand around a lot and a few plays they are watching instead of skating… …it will be a short series if that is not corrected pronto…

…and it looks like Fleury rattled as he should have stopped goals #3 and #4, though he's being tested at a higher level than the previous 3 series.

Osgood played good but I think the Pens can have his number.

Multiple Pen scoring lines are going to give Red Wings problems. Pens have to finish chances they get, and they wasted the 1st period tonight…

Oh and Letang sucks…

Penguins were dominated start to finish man. End of story.

But I saw this coming, so I wasn't terribly surprised. Just frustrated.

The Western conference teams have to play a more physical style, that does tend to straddle the line between clean and dirty.

Maybe that  :awesome_for_real: faceplant to start the game rattled Fleury 

Fuck, Fluery was one of the only Penguins to even show up.

Well, it doesn't help when Epic Fail Guy suits up on every line for the Penguins.

Except Fleury.

The Pens, last game, couldn't have beaten anyone. Sloppy, sloppy game.

They've gotten lazy and fat.

If they want to beat Detroit, they're going to have to scratch and claw like they've never been forced to in these playoffs.

That being said.. they're not beating Detroit.

Fuck, Therrien has already panicked and juggled the lines all up. One bad loss after all of that success, lines totally shaken up. Stop with the fucking panic. Make REAL adjustments that inspire confidence in your abilities as a coach, not panic adjustments like line shakeups. You know, maybe notice that Detroit was coached to counter your breakout after the first period and maybe alter something about your cookie cutter plays and systems instead of getting horribly fucking outcoached?

Although putting Roberts back in is probably a good idea. He should have been in there game one to light a fucking fire.l Because the Pens had none. Crosby looked like he wanted it at times, but that's about it.

They're down 1-0, not 3-0… …even as badly as they were outplayed, they had chances and could have won game #1…

Roberts should be in the lineup. In fact, I'd drop another forward and activate Sydor for fresher D wheels. Double line duty for Malkin, Hossa, Crosby in spurts to compensate for odd F slot out.

Where is Sykora? He's been virtually invisible. And Ruutu needs to step it up and refrain from boneheadedness.

Fleury played well in game #1 until goals #3 and #4 which he should have nabbed. And #2 was due to his misplaying the puck. But I don't think he makes that mistake again this series (at least I hope not).

I thought Crosby looked good until he got crushed in the second. I really didn't see him skating with the same flare that he usually does. Anyone else notice that?

Crosby hasn't really looked the same since the injury. He looks alright, but high ankle sprains bother guys for years.

Seriously, what was the rationale of not having Roberts in the first game? That fucker can dig and dig like no tomorrow!

So that's two shutouts in two games?  Fuck.

It's fscking embarrassing. Complete. Domination.

The whole team played poor with possible exception of Kennedy who really skated all night.

Malkin has pulled a Houdini.

Though you can't fault goalie when you can't score a goal, Fleury let some soft goals in. Of course, of wouldn't have mattered since the Pens can't score.

And just as soon as it looked like they were getting it together, they sabotaged the effort with stupid penalties and cheap shots to a guy (Franzen) who hasn't been a factor and is just getting back from getting his bell rung. And for Gates sake, if you're going to run a goalie, go all out on it, and not some chicken shit shove.

Question isn't whether they bounce back, at this point — it's if the Penguins can even tally a goal in the series.

Give the Red Wings a lot of credit. They're showing how they're at a much higher level than the Pens…

Well, the constant holding and interference by the Wings (and Osgood's diving, cough) is certainly playing a role in how ridiculously effective they've been at totally smothering the Penguin's offense.. fact is, they're just the better team. I'd be awfully surprised to see this series go five games. Especially if interference isn't going to be called (which it often simply isn't in the finals, I realize that).

Here ya go:



Yep. That about sums it up.

This cheered me up a little. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ9kx-U_ka8&feature=related)

I watched every game of the Dallas v. Detroit series, and every match between Philly and Pitt.

I had no doubt in my mind Detroit would destroy them due to the fact that everything Detroit does is just so much better than everyone else. They have more solid goaltending, better passing, more zone control, and harder hitting defense. I picked a 4-0 sweep as a joke, but it might just come to pass. I think more likely that the Pens will split the home half of the series and lose the 5th game back in Detroit.

I've got money on Pittsburgh tonight. Also parlaying on a couple of scoring lines. Crosby gets more than Datsyuk and Malkin gets more than Zetterberg. I'll be making my money back tenfold if so.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO PENGUINS!

I'm incredibly surprised that Detroit isn't more of a favourite on the sports betting sites, however. Which means smart money is REALLY on Detroit tonight. So there's the tip if any of you guys want to make some money. Detroit. Under. I knew god damn well to take that bet on the first two games. I'd be rolling in the hot hot winnings now.

Red Wings are making Pens look like a JV team out there.

Wings and Pistons = Only good thing about living in Michigan

Slayerik has just convinced me that the Pens will pull this out at the last minute.  I'm invoking the rule of D3.

Yep.  Muthafuggin' awesome.

You live in Michigan, Slayerik?

I'd agree about the Wings but not so much about the Pistons.

Pens win, Pens win.

Detroit shits themselves if we take the next one.

Pens almost gave it up though, Wings charged hard in 3rd, after getting up 3-1 Pens went complacent, and ref whistle swallowing worked in their favor for a change (though they missed calls early on that should have went in Pens favor).

Line matchups a big factor in this series as game #3 made a sharp contrast to #1 and #2 — getting Crosby out against different line than Zetterburg / Datsyuk line. Zetterburg/Datsyuk line logged some serious ice minutes, thought it would hurt them in 3rd, but didn't seem to factor in… …I revise my previous assessment on Brooks Orpik, he's played outstanding.

Malkin showed up!

I liked the Sydor for Letang swap. Letang has struggled in series and even with Sydor sitting entire playoffs, he's a veteran and is well rested at this point, plus I'm sure skating against Sid and Geno in practice has kept him nimble. He woudn't crack Wings #1-4 setup (hell, #1-6 either), but he can move the puck and puck possession is tonic Pens need.

Scuderi, you got abused by Franzen —  NEVER NEVER give up inside, ride him outside… …come on, you learned this in pee wee hockey…

Gill took some calls, but I think it's worth it to clear the crease, by any means necessary. Thus far, their PK unit (even without him when he's in the box) has been effective.

Fleury let 2 in he should have stopped, but OTOH, he made some spectacular saves on a couple others. And was tested late and prevailed.

Would not be surprised if Red Wings make adjustments and slaughter Pens 5-0 in game #4. OR if Pens win another though I doubt their victory margin is more than a pair of goals (or 3 with empty netter).

When Crosby tallied first, you could sense hockey life being infused into Pens and a friendly crowd got stirred up — it could have easily been coffin time if they went down quick and onset of jeering to nullify home ice…

The Gill stuff was certainly worth it.

And hey, Holmstrom is out now. We dont' have to watch his diving anymore.

Of course my favourite dive of the game was actually a half dive. Did anyone see Osgood throw himself backward when Roberts skated by him, only to think better of the blatant faggotry and catch himself before he went all the way down?

First goal in game #4 is going to be huge.

Fuck. (http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=239196&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main)

God that just sucks in about 10000 different ways.

Yeah, I saw that. Sucks ass.

Erm, don't they usually ban such activities in contracts nowadays?

I wondered that myself, but I guess not. Was pretty much just an office wide moment of shock yesterday. Kinda makes me feel bad over how much I ragged on the kid's play.

Apparently, he just bought a bike a couple days ago.

I would bet money that they do. Didn't stop Kellen Winslow Jr, or Jay Williams, or Ben Roethlisberger. Kids think they are invincible.

I read this on ESPN.com today here (http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=3413241):


 :oh_i_see:

This guy is a fucking tool. Scott Burnside obviously hasn't watched Pittsburgh hockey, or knows very much about the team other than what he reads.

Doesn't anyone still remember a player who played through more pain than anyone else in hockey at that time and still managed to excel at the game daily?

Fuck. ESPN writers get worse and worse. Fuck Barry Melrose and this tool Scott Burnside.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I'm kind of curious as to why in the New NHL the team who plays most like the Old NHL is always the one who seems to win the Cup.

Whatever. Congrats Detroit.

You have to go to war to win the Cup.

Well, Detroit didn't have to.

But then again, our entire second line didn't bother showing up for the finals.

Reporter dude miffed over being snubbed on interview requests.

As to game #4, it was a painful one for Pens fans to endure. I don't know if I can take any more, but it likely will be last game of season Monday night.

Pens started good, got goal and had pretty good period despite Detroit tying it up.

After that, it was downhill as Wings were a defensive machine that reduced the little offensive spurts Pens could dribble together into a void of nil. The 5 on 3 was particularly embarrassing, and after that, you could wish, but the verdict was already pronounced. Let me summarize that I've never seen a 5 on 3 shorthanded goal and the Wings came oh so close to netting one.

Granted, it may not have made a difference, but refs call some penalties for show but let a whole bunch of obstruction go on. And the Cleary shooting the stick was an unbelievable missed call — it shocks me that that wasn't called — it was a blatant, intentional act and he should have been whistled for it.

If there's an upside, it's that the Pens were in the entire game, and a couple of lucky bounces, they still could have won, despite being outplayed in periods 2 & 3. The goals Fleury let in he should have had, though the one it looked like he may have been screened out by Gonchar.

Criticism has been squared upon Malkin, but his linemates haven't exactly helped the effort — Sykora has been awful in the series and Malone, while skating hard in spurts, looks like his season was battered out a month ago. And I have no idea why Ruutu is even in the lineup — he's played stupid with the puck (costing them key goal in game #1), and seems always to be a stride to three strides behind, stuck in slow motion. He's not intimidating anybody and is serving only as an object for humor. I would much rather have Laraque in the lineup.

It's been a great season, hopefully they can shed the dead weight and cost inefficient roster pieces and add the needed parts for a run next season.

It's been brutal. But for whatever reason, the Red Wings have figured out how NHL games are refereed. And it's not that hard to figure out.

1. It's the Finals. Most of the obstruction will be let go.
2. "You can't call it all." -- If all you ever do is hook and hold, they're not going to call 40 penalties a period.
3. Even when they do call you, they'll just call an even up penalty on the other team a few minutes later. So essentially it doesn't matter, and you can do whatever you want.

Disagree with that. They call it early and skaters know the bounds, game will be played thusly… …and a few games in the playoffs were actually officiated in that manner. If it's close, it shouldn't be called. But we've seen for years how ticky tack stuff gets called and yet the clutching and grabbing is ignored.

Even with obstruction not being called, that Cleary shooting the broken stick was glaring non-call. Sure some NHL rules nerd can quote why it wasn't, but I don't buy it as does anybody that's ever played the game…

Wow, that's one of the best Stanley Cup Final Games I've ever seen. Three OT's and then Gonchar actually has the balls to tell the announcer he's going to score the winning goal before he does it on the powerplay.

Pure awesome. I can't wait for Game 6.

Was Sykora that called the goal.  Gonchar played his first OT shift and got an assist on the goal, though, after being injured in the second period and playing a tiny bit of the third.  Glad I moved back to DC where you can watch the games on regular TV!

Ah yes, Sykora, it was still pure win!

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Don't know if it was one of the best "quality" games ever (game #3 was much better), but in terms of seesawing and gutting it up, yes it was good.

Pens jump out to 2-0 lead and then enter "coast mode". Red Wings dominate from second period on, and were a little over 30 seconds from hoisting, fondling and quaffing from Lord Stanley's cup but Maxine Talbot delayed those plans. And Marc Andre Fleury tucked the Pens fate in his left pad and glove hand. An errant stick, a resulting power play and Sykora, who hadn't had a shot all game (and hadn't scored in like a month) boasts to on-ice NBC color commentator McGuire he's going to nab the game winner, then promptly takes a two minute penalty, a needless  one, at that, deep in the other team's end. Guess he meant next period, and he delivered after Gonchar, sitting for an entire game (the 2nd game of almost 2 full time games) was totally gunshy about firing the puck…

Anything can happen in OT, all it takes is one knuckleball puck or crazy carom even if you're outplayed. As OT periods dragged on, Pens started getting it together, like they had 2 hours earlier…

Big win.

Game 6 in Pittsburgh may still be last game, despite the emotion and momentum. Though who knows? I remember few years back they were down 3-1 to Capitals in series and won a 4 or 5 OT game (seeing eye goal by another Petr, Nedved) and they went on to win series (eventually losing to Florida in conference finals, for which Brian Smolinski losing a faceoff and standing watching opposing center (R. Nidermayer, I believe) waltz in with puck and fire it past Barasso for the difference, was forever indelibly etched into my hockey viewing experience). Then there was the big 4 OT game with Philly they lost and with it a 2-0 series lead went poof (Primeau with the game winner), and Phil advanced.

Could have been 4-0 or 5-0 at one point, though. Penguins missed and got stopped on a lot of chances. Few posts, too.

Detroit dominated that fucking OT, though. Badly.

Fucking quality win and a quality game to watch, though.

It was 5 OTs for the PIT/PHL game, btw.

I THINK it's still the longest game in the modern era.

Totally pumped for this game, but scared by what happened to Dallas in just about the same situation.

It's nerve wracking but figure it's last game (or game 1 of last two games) for the season.

Anything can happen.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was blowout either way or if it went to another multi-OT deal again…

Comic how the local paper beat jocks were sticking a fork in Pens and now they're all jazzed for a "miracle on ice"…

Pens are young team and who knows if the Mo can catapult them into Cup victory. Red Wings are still going to be a machine and it ain't going to be any easier for them Wednesday night.

Someone is going to be a hero (or a goat).

I will be glued to the TV.

P.S. All the teams in the chart here, except Chicago in 1931, went on to win SC Final. Of course, every scenario is a unique snowflake, but certainly gives hope to Pens fans!

(http://img.skitch.com/20080604-18b22hfakfmyx9h9heayp2f8a6.png)

The thing is that I guarantee the Pens are more emotionally exhausted after that last game.

Detroit was out there, looking to score a goal to win the Stanley Cup. They had everything to gain and nothing to lose, and you could see it in them. The Penguins just plain had everything to lose.

Penguins were outplayed in 5 of the 6 periods in game 5. Fluery gave them more life than they deserved. I give both teams points for heart though, was a helluva game. I am pissed though that Detroit was 30 secs from the Stanley Cup win at home and blew it.

I just can't see the Penguins raising to that level the next game (or 2 if necessary).

And ya, I'm from Flint, Michigan.

I don't know what the NHL considers the modern era (baseball considers it 1900+), but it's the 3rd longest overtime game in Stanley Cup history.

The two longest games were both in the 1930s, and they were both 0-0 ties before finally being decided in the 6th OT.

Oddly enough, the Dallas Stars have been in 5 of the longest 20 OT games ever, more than any other team.

Yeah, the 30's don't really count; generally, it's more like post-expansion era.

Detroit wins again. Nobody is surprised.

/gratz to the Wings.

And to Pens for great run.

As to game #6, Detroit again smothered Pens, but Pens still had chances to win and Fleury, unlike his stellar play in game #5, let a few soft ones in. No way he nabs first one, but the other two just trickled through his pads and the 3rd he butted in himself…

Lots of hitting which is good, but inconsistent officiating plagued the contest as it did all series long. A ticky tag stick to the thigh pads merits a call but elbows to the head and blatant interference takedowns not whistled? Funny how the on-ice commentator dude sees it all whereas the refs miss 'em.
Still, it wouldn't have mattered, even acknowledging that 1st PP goal was on what had to be weakest call of series.

Hope Pens can make another run next Cup.

No hockey until next year (though Calder Cup is still going, Chicago Wolves lead WBS Baby Pens 3-0… …game 3 was on NHL network at same time  NBC carried Cup final). Friday night is game #4…

Good series.

I was talking to a friend about this last week- I compare this series to the one in 1983 (?) between NYI and the Oilers. The Islanders were the class of the league, and the Oilers were a supremely talented very young team. The Islanders got by them in '83 due to experience (or inexperience on the Oilers' part). The next season, the Oilers were ready, and won 4 out of the next 5 Cups or something.

If Pittsburgh can keep the core of this team together, watch out. They have been THIS close to winning it, and now have a much better idea of what it takes.

I still say that wasn't the last game in this series had we had Malkin going the entire time.

On an unrelated note, I found this and feel it's VERY amusing:

(http://azaroth.org/Golf-Canucks.jpg)

Disclaimer being that I have nothing against the Canucks, quite like the city of Vancouver, the team, and the West Coast in general.

But that's god damn funny and everyone knows it.

Saved and sent to the too many Canucks fans I know.

Seen it before, considered somewhat of a classic.

This is totally fucked (http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=569477).

I seriously get goosebumps whenever I hear it, and it even makes me a bit teary-eyed sometimes.

Next week they will announce that Hank Williams Jr. is going to come piss all over everyone's HNIC nostalgia with a hip new theme.

(http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Hank-Williams-Jr.jpg)

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HOCKEY!

/VADER NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :drill:

So Crosby had a torn groin and banged up ribs.

Malkin had the flu at the end of the Rangers series and through the first two games of the Finals.

Meh, I'll tell ya what. First of all, I'd had a few injuries in my time. I've never had a BAD groin, but holy fuck. And frankly, double holy fuck with anything to do with the ribs. Breaking or cracking them is actually the least of your worries, as long as they don't pierce a motherfucking lung or something like that. Rib injuries are a motherfucker at best, and totally debilitating at worst. I couldn't get out of bed for a week the last time I fucked my ribs up, and it's NEVER healed properly.

As far as the flu, meh. There's the flu and then there's the MOTHERFUCKING FLU COCKSUCK. I'm guessing that since Malkin's lasted for like two weeks, it'd be the second of those two options. And I've had that also. In all complete seriousness, I could barely walk up a flight of stars when it was over and I lost like thirty pounds. I wasn't playing fucking ice hockey, that's for sure.

So good work, fellas. I still say that had Crosby and Malkin been firing on all cylinders, that'd be a seven game series. Not because Pittsburgh was the better team, but because those two make magic shit happen when they're healthy.

As far as the HNIC song.. whatever. It's just bargaining tactics. The song will be back.

The 'what injuries did you play through?' list at the end of the playoffs is always  :ye_gods: I consider myself to have a high pain threshold, but some of the stuff those guys play through is insane.

Yeah, and Timonen either could barely stand on his foot, or couldn't feel it. Smith had 2 separated shoulders. Hatcher was draining his knee daily. Coburn almost lost an eye (he should really wear a shield, but not sure it would have helped with the angle).

Playoff injuries are almost amusing to look over at the end of the year. I can't think of another sport where the players play through stuff even close to what hockey players put up with.

I enjoyed Malone's puck to the face in game 5.  Nice shiner from that one.

That was fucked up. I HATE when they're skating off the ice and blood is draining in a constant line from their fucking face.

I think he got those from taking so many swings at Crosby.

And Crosby hurt his groin from diving too much, and hurt his ribs from crying too much.

Stop. We can play this all day.

Haha, those were pretty good.

It's really all I was doing - playing with you.

Hey guys, I've got a hockey jones.

Can we go back and start that series over?

Hell, I'll even go back and start the conference finals over to appease our resident Flyers fan. They were okay too. I enjoyed Montreal/Philly too.

Although I think the playoffs would have been genuinely much more entertaining had the Red Wings continued to play Hasek when they were in mid-choke against the Predators in the first round. They dominated the West even worse than the Pens dominated the East.

And they have that team together for years to come. Phear it, mofos.

QFT. The Wings upgraded from their Russian theory of 10 years ago to the far superior Scandinavian attack. Go Swedes!

It's been purchased by TSN/CTV which is basically our version of ESPN. Expect TSN to take national NHL rights from CBC within the next few years, and that will be the end of Hockey Night in Canada.

Super lame.

Also, TSN is owned by ESPN.

If I'm not mistaken, CBC has the rights up until 2012.

Uh.

Huet and Greene for ~5.5m each?

Uh.

Uhm.

Hell, that's even more surprising than Malone getting 4.5 over 7 years. We all KNEW Malone was going to get massively overpaid by someone.

We bitched that Gillis wasn't making a splash. So he offers Sundin $10 mil per year...  :ye_gods:

Please tell me you are joking. The last thing the Canucks need is another soft Swede. At this rate I am seriously considering giving up my Center Ice package this year. I am not interested in watching a repeat of last year's debacle.

Rumour has it that Hossa is being offered max (11.3).

Campbell got 7.1 or 7.5, I forget.

REDDEN just fucking got 6.5 for 6 years.

I mean........... what the fuck is going on.

There was a lockout... why?

Holy shit, I need to chill on the coffee.

Fuck this, you know what. I bet this is a cock match.

The Russians started offering people crazy huge contracts. NHL owners got all butthurt and are deciding to throw around insane dough on mediocre players in some ridiculous rich man's pissing match.

There can be absolutely no other explanation. These UFA signings have been the fucking absolute height of stupidity. Complete insanity. TV analysts are swearing and laughing on the air when they announce them. It's a joke.

Look, offering 12.5 to Malkin was craziness on the part of the Russians. Someone wanted to make a statement, and didn't care about losing money. But for 11.3 to be offered to HOSSA, and more would have been offered except for the fact that 11.3 is the absolute max that CAN be offered... I mean, fuck. At least Malkin was a Hart Trophy candidate.

So unless every GM and owner in the league recently submitted to a forcible ear fucking that damaged their fucking medula oblongotas, this has to be a fucking game of ye olde cashpeen. My roll is bigger than yours, fuckers!

What a joke. the lockout apparently was just to get Goodenow out of the NHLPA, since nothing else has really come of it. The owners 'won' and now they're fucking each other over hard.

Mike fucking Commodore got almost a 4mil/yr contract for the next 5 years. COME ON.

Bleh. NHL is just joining NFL, NBA, and MLB (and international soccer clubs) in excessive and extravagant player salaries.

I reckon their financial books weren't as bad as they let on or magical new fountains of revenue are gushing fat profits.

I beileve the salary cap goes up to 57M (from 50M) and minimum (which is good I think to ensure competitiveness) is 34M. For one skater to take up ~20% of that, he better be MVP caliber. I don't think Hossa worth that though I'd shell it out for Malkin or Crosby.

UPDATE: just as I completed this post - breaking story - Hossa goes to Red Wings for 7.4M (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08184)

Ancient Chinese Secret:

Sign contract in Detroit for one year to win yourself a cup, then sign the most ridiculous deal offered on July 1 the year after. Play for Columbus (actually, Boston) for the rest of your career at 10 or 11 per.

FIFY

If the Canucks don't fucking bring some goddamned scoring in, I am driving to GM Place and setting the fucker on fire.

I had figured that was already understood by all concerned.

Bust your balls, get your glory, have a great, memorable season in Detroit. Then retire on your feet as you coast to a fat paycheck for the next 8 years or so.

Pretty gay to jet to Detroit from Pittsburgh, though.

Did the Leafs just get Cujo back?

Are they trying to appeal to my sense of nostalgia?

Yes.

They're tanking the next few years on purpose, but are also attempting to appeal to every delusional Leafs fan they can. I've already seen people talking about how they're going to make the playoffs this year, etc.

These are the same people who aren't switched on enough to realize the strategic value of tanking a few seasons right now, though. So obviously it's calculated, and obviously it's smart. It's faggotry through and through, however - and the same reason they've made a few crappy signings (which they had to overpay for, since nobody wants to come to a team that's obviously going to be awful for many years and ripped on by a savage media every single day), and the same reason they're talking about resigning Sundin. I assume they have plenty of confidence that putting Sundin on the ice with an AHL team will still net them the first overall pick, while simultaneously giving really dumb fans something to tune in for.

In defence of the Leafs, signing Joseph was the one thing that they have done right. He was perfect as a 15-20 game backup, the price is right, and his whole family stayed in Ontario. It was a good fit all around imo.

Flames haven't done much but move Tanguay, who wanted out anyway, and get Camalleri, who is happy to be going to Calgary. If he can stay healthy, that's a decent pick-up imo. Some of the fat has been trimmed off the team. Huselius can be good in spurts, but good luck keeping him motivated in Columbus now that he's getting almost 5 mil/yr for the next 4 years!  :awesome_for_real:

I like Cujo, but I thought he was done with us. There's usually only so much sane players can take from the Leafs.


I'll Believe the tanking plan when I see them dead last or near it at the end of this season. Leafs have a habit of failing to even LOSE properly.

Flames sign Bertuzzi (http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=242732&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main)

I actually kind of like this deal. They basically replaced Owen Nolan, who signed with the Wild for a couple years, with Bertuzzi. Yeah, he comes with his baggage, but he's younger and cheaper than Nolan, plus the 1 year deal makes it a lot easier to swallow if it doesn't work out.

The Flyers sign Arron Asham? Really? :oh_i_see:

They have more moves to make, as they are over the cap by a healthy margin currently...Unfortunately, I think Mike Knuble is going to be first up on the chopping block.

Whatever. Some teams have had it a bit rough this offseason. I mean, the Penguins lost our entire fourth line and half of the third, plus Malone, Hossa and almost Orpik, but... fuck, I feel sorry for the Canucks.

Who the hell are they going to put on the ice? They had no offense to begin with...

You know what, fuck that. They should trade the Sedins, Luongo and their best D-men for like 8 first rounders, then make a run for Tavares and tank out the next 3-5 seasons with the Leafs. Then you come out guns blazing and it's all worth it. I'm a Pens fan - I know.

Seeing Bertuzzi as a Flame is going to be excruciating. Especially when they are kicking the shit out of the woeful Canucks. They are going to be SO boring to watch. AGAIN this year.

And if you think Luongo isn't bolting at the end of his contract, you're deluding yourself. Trade him, rebuild.

Luongo + Defensive System can only get you so far every year. Start over before you're left with Sanford + Defensive System in 2010.

I'm not bailing out hope yet. There's still a few things that have to come about. Demitra is still a reasonable possibility (I'm not holding my breath waiting for Sundin).

Assuming they sign Demitra, I look at it like this:

Demitra replaces Naslund, Wellwood replaces Morrison.

We add Bernier, who gives us a right handed shot with at least some scoring touch to play with the Sedins (something we've been missing for a while).


Major improvement? No, not really. Thing is though, the Canucks missed the playoffs last year by what, a couple games? Lets not forget, that was after a year  in which our top 4 deffensemen missed 60% of the season. We had games where we were playing Bourdon (who was no where near ready for the NHL yet, RIP), McIver (a thug with barely AHL talent), Miller (42 years old?), and Weaver (career number 6 d-man) all in the same game!

One of the big problems the Canucks face is just the simple fact that a good number of teams in the West got better. Chicago and Edmonton (ugh) have made some really nice moves. Detroit didn't do anything but get better, Calgary might not be as bad off as I originally feared and if they stay health, might actually improve on last year, LA is still gonna suck, the Wild and Avalanche ALWAYS seem to be in the mix, no matter what happens. I think the Wild got a bit worse, but with the system they play they can plug in players pretty easily. Avalanche could be in a bit of trouble, but if they stay healthy this year I wouldn't count them out. Dallas easily got better and San Jose will still be very tough. Nashville played a bit over their heads last year imo, but without a move hanging over their heads, they may even make a better show of it this year. Phoenix looks like they might have gotten better, but not good enough and Columbus and St Louis won't make the playoffs either.

I was pretty meh about this upcoming season for some reason, but there's a lot of change going on that will make it pretty good imo

Unless Bernier and Demitra each score 40 goals, they are dead. They couldn't put the puck in the net to save their lives last year, even with Naslund's 25. Luongo should be a bit better now that his kid has been born, and the defense might be able to stay healthy. They could win a couple more games, but they are doing it UGLY. 2-1 hockey is dreadful.

Without Bernier and Demitra, you guys were cellar dwellers.

But it's just Bernier and Demitra.

Should have really held on to Naslund and Morrison. At that point, you might have had something. Especially if you could reel in Sundin.

I think you're all going to be real disappointed with another mediocre season. Why sign guys just to bring yourselves back up to sub-par?

Gillis has no vision.

And this all comes from someone who likes Vancouver, and roots for the Canucks by the way.

As a Wild fan, I can tell you not to expect much from Demitra. He was injured both years he was in Minnesota, and while not bad, he certainly didn't put them over the top. Expect lots of downtime for him, as he'll be a year older.

Just watching him skate faster than the goddamned plugs they have on the team now will be worth the bother of signing him. When he sprains his vagina, he can sit on the shelf with the other 10 Canucks who get hurt every year.

Naslund was never going to resign here. You don't ask the guy who has been the team captain for six years to resign at half his salary, because he sucked last year. He doesn't like Vineault's system, he wasn't going to stick around. Morrison I always liked, but his production has been down significantly. Wellwood should be able to fill in just fine for him.

As for Gillis, it doesn't seem so much a lack of vision, as much as he's being treated like the new guy by the other GMs. On top of that, free Agents don't really want to come to Vancouver because of the travel. Remeber, Nonis wasn't able to land any significant free agents here either.

I'm not going in with any huge expectations right now, especially with free agency still pending, but I'm not going to jump on the gloom and doom bandwagon either.

I do honestly feel that we have a potential breakout line that no one is expecting with Kessler and Burrows. They are both solid two way players with great speed. Two years ago they had 16 and 9 points respectively. Last year that improved to 37 and 31, playing as the third line and with no powerplay time. There was a reason Clarke offered 2.5 a year to Kessler.

Naslund has said he wanted to retire as a Canuck. Gillis never even offered him a contract. Tough for him to stay that way.

My advice is slice your expectations of Wellwood.

The Maple Leafs waived him, remember.

The Maple Leafs.


And besides, who the hell WANTS to play in a defensive system?

Get rid of the coach, FFS. Re-sign Naslund, grab Demitra, then kidnap Sundin's daughter (seriously, if he won't come for $10m per at age 37... what?). NOW you're on to something.

Well, they just signed Demitra at least.

So- is he going to play with the Sedins, or on a mighty mite 2nd line of Raymond Wellwood Demitra? God they need another center that can score. Did Mo officially sign elsewhere? I can't remember.

The first season or two with Wellwood, he had a lot of 'spark'. Would make plays out of nothing. Then he got injured and was just never the same. It's almost like he's scared to play anymore. I'm sure the wonderful Leaf Media Machine really helped him too  :awesome_for_real:

Morrison signed in Anaheim.

If I had to guess, I figure they'll start the season with Bernier playing with the Sedins. Gives you a second line of Demitra, Wellwood, and probably Taylor Pyatt? I'll guess at a third line of Kesler, Burrows, and Mason Raymond. Leaves a fourth line of Pettinger, Johnson, and either Cowan or Hordichuck. Of course all of that goes out the window when they sign Sundin.

 :awesome_for_real:

Ah crap, that's right. Tuz to the Flames and Mo to the Ducks. I am not sure I hate two teams more.

Raymond might make that third line even more annoying...lot of speed at least. Hordichuk better get all Cowan's minutes; he was beyond useless last year.

I don't want Sundin here. He is old and fragile, and doesn't help the team get better in the long run. Rather see them win the Tavares sweepstakes.

Seriously. I balked at the talk last season of the Flyers trading Carter for Sundin. That would have been a monumental error in judgment.

O, that would have been like trading Sergei Zubov for Kevin Hatcher…

I don't want to say it, but the the local sports radio guy is hinting at "reliable sources I can't name" indicating that the chance of Sundin signing in Vancouver is actually quite high. I can't decide how to feel about it. We do need a legit scorer, but I keep having Messier flashbacks.  :ye_gods:

I am soooo loving the Canucks trainwreck of an offseason.

The Blues 'payback' signing of Bernier was great too. Don't piss of JD! From the media reports here, Gillis is pissing off a lot of GMs right now which is making it harder for him to get deals done.

I am guessing as a former agent he has had adversarial relationships with many of them anyway.

As for the Sundin rumors, I am not too worried if the info came from 1040...I have heard nothing but bad things about their reliability.

But... Dave Pratt is so awesome. I never miss his hardcore right wing look at celebrity birthdays and the BC Lions.

I am tempted to tune in some day via the web (if that is possible) and see how fast my blood pressure spikes. I will definitely turn it on if/when I am in the area. I am thinking about hitting Vancouver for a game sometime this season- not actually GM Place, but just a fun sports bar where I can commiserate with my fellow suffering fans. Unfortunately my wife is due about 3 weeks into the season, so that might prove all but impossible.

Don't be mean. Big Fat David Pratt is all I have to listen to...

Check out Drive This... on Sirius.

Shit is great.

Also, if you get The Score, it's also on there. 3-5? Or 3-6pm?

Weekdays, anyway.

If you tune in to Sports Talk radio or TV at ALL, honestly, check it out.

Basically, it's a roundtable consisting of an ADD-riddled, redheaded alcoholic compulsive gambler who talks about gambling and the MILF he fucked last night when he went to the bar, a super hot chick (in that "smart, just a tiny bit nerdy, and that makes me even hotter" style), and a really stellar host who also likes to opine on various conspiracy theories and the best way to go about burying gold in the back yard.

All in all, fucking entertaining. Especially if you're used to listening to Pratt or fucking McCown. I switch those fuckers on at night to put me to sleep. Seriously.

Actually saw that on the score for the first time recently. Looked interesting.

I discovered it last winter, grinding motes of fire in Shadowmoon Valley.

Eventually I just kept putting it on, and I was hooked.

I'm Detroit.

I'm in your rosters as you speak looking for great, talented, cupless veterans.

Back to back championships could be a real possibility for this team. So much talent.

Uh, who is going to beat that team, exactly?

Detroit demolished the West.

Pittsburgh demolished the East.

Then Detroit demolished Pittsburgh.

And now they're much improved.

OIC then. GG.

In case you missed it (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=14091.0). This has potential to be HUGE.

Can I play as Detroit?

No. You have to play as the Leafs :awesome_for_real:

Well, I quit then.

Of course, I'd then fail at quitting and get a shitty mid-teens draft pick.

You'd really be getting into the role of the team then.

I'll be nice for a second though.

Managing to pick up Luke Schenn in the draft was very, very good. But their entire future pretty much hinges of failing successfully this year and getting John Tavares. Then sucking a few more years and going 1, 2, 1 etc like Pittsburgh (or more recently Chicago) did.

This is why, when there's talk of the Leafs trying to resign Sundin, I can only be glad I'm not a Leafs fan.

Sundin + shitty team has been about good enough to get them 11th place or so over the last several years. The talk of signing Sundin can ONLY be a complete charade to appease the masses who understand nothing about hockey. If they're serious, well.  :uhrr:

I hit quote instead of modify.

I think this qualifies me. Where do I sign up to play as the Leafs.

You formed words. You're automatically disqualified.

This is going be awesome, except for the fact that we'll never agree what team we'll all play on.

If we are discussing NHL 09, I am assuming we can create a team/colors like in 08 with our online personas. Maybe we can have a contest as to the best looking sweaters and best name.

OMG YES

I dunno why I was thinking we would have to pick a NHL team.

So when does registration for the new fantasy season start?

I would guess around the end of September/Early October.

 :cry2:

My advice would just be to watch the development of your prospects (So far your stable consists of: Luke Schenn) and cheer every time your team loses for the next 3-4 years.

You'll feel a lot better about it when you look back and see 1, 2, 2, 1 on your past four draft pick lotteries. A LOT better.

If there is one thing I have confidence in, with regards to the Leafs, it is their ability to fuck it all up for no logical reason.  :awesome_for_real:

I think it's about time someone set this up again?  I'm in another Yahoo league that's drafting next weekend.

Gogogo.

Haemish!  Wake up and recreate the league!

Did I do that last year? I forgot.

League setup. New thread incoming.