Fantasy Hockey, '07-'08

[Paelos]

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?

[cmlancas]

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?

[Paelos]

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?

[HaemishM]

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.

[naum]

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.

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)

[Strazos]

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.

[Azaroth]

Oh, Christ.

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

[Strazos]

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.

[Azaroth]

What?

[Strazos]

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

[Azaroth]

Where's that broom at.

[Strazos]

Up in the press box with half the defensive corps. 

[El Gallo]

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!

[Phildo]

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

[Phildo]

Where's that broom at.

Quick, find it!

[Azaroth]

[Azaroth]

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.

[Strazos]

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

[Azaroth]

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.

[Phildo]

Jordan Staal = Captain Clutch?

[Paelos]

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

[Azaroth]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

You mean he isn't?

[Azaroth]

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.

[cmlancas]

I was sad to see Prospal sent over there. 

[Strazos]

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?

[Azaroth]

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.

[Strazos]

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.

[Azaroth]

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.

[naum]

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).

[Azaroth]

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.

[naum]

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?

[Azaroth]

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.

[Strazos]

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?

[Ravandor]

And on the VS coverage, it's atrocious.