NHL goes to OLN

[HaemishM]

And since we're talking about hockey, it's time for fantasy hockey again!

[Shockeye]

I guess I should start reading this thread.

[Azaroth]

I wonder if I should enter and rock all your socks.

[Shockeye]

I wonder if I should enter and rock all your socks.

You can -try-.

[Azaroth]

Did you modify those pointsgivings yourself, Haemish? It's not too bad.

[Azaroth]

I wonder if I should enter and rock all your socks.

You can -try-.

Hey, I'm good at what I do :)

[Azaroth]

Although my risk-takery would likely be my downfall.

[Strazos]

It's always confused me as to how Haemish can like hockey, seeing as he lives in fucking Mississippi....

Do they even have Ice Rinks in that state, anywhere?

[Paelos]

It's always confused me as to how Haemish can like hockey, seeing as he lives in fucking Mississippi....

Do they even have Ice Rinks in that state, anywhere?

I don't think Mississippi has a single pro sports team or an international airport.

/cue the banjo

[Strazos]

I wouldn't expect there would be mroe than 1 or 2 mid-Western international airports. Geography dictates that not many countries can send flights there directly.

O'Hare is a bunch of cheaters. I can't see any of those flights being non-stop from their origins. Though I guess technically it still counts, as it can take arrivals with foreign origins, even if it takes 2 or 3 legs to get there.

[Azaroth]

I mostly prescribe to the idea that anyone who isn't a god damn moron can see that hockey is a fucking awesome sport. That's actually seen it with an open mind, anyway. I mean, where I live is LARGELY influenced by American sports like Football and Basketball, even NASCAR. In the REST of the world, Soccer is the biggest thing ever. I've watched all with an open mind (except motor sports, which I think are totally fucking retarded), and I've still come out thinking hockey is far superior.

[HaemishM]

I love me some hockey. I can even tolerate socceer, much more so than NBA or NCAA basketball. Basketball just hasn't been worth watching since Magic, Bird and Michael all retired. LeBron's about the only thing worth watching. Hockey, though, is just awesome. The violence of football, the manic pace of socceer, and the subtlety and strategy of baseball once you learn how to interpret the action on the ice. It's my #3 favorite sport behind football and baseball (which kind of tie for my favorite depending on the time of year).

It's funny you mention hockey. Up until about a year ago, we had a team in Jackson (the capital). But it was largely sponsored by Worldcomm back in the day, so when their shit hit the fan, the team didn't really have enough support to stay here. There is still a team on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Sea Wolves, and I've unfortunately not been to see a game at either team's arena. I've either never had the money, or kept forgetting it was there.

As for pro sports, no we don't have any MAJOR pro sports. But Jackson was for years home to a New York Mets Double-A team, which became an Astros Double-A team before going independent. This is the first year of the new Atlanta Braves Double-A affiliate, the Mississippi Braves. For some reason, they chose to locate this team in Pearl, a suburb of Jackson just south. Pearl is well-known in this state as the most trailer-trashy, white trash redneck burg in the world, and directly across from the center field fence is a line of shitty shit shit shit trailers.

This post brought to you by the Mississippi Department of Tourism.

[WayAbvPar]

Pearl is well-known in this state as the most trailer-trashy, white trash redneck burg in the world, and directly across from the center field fence is a line of shitty shit shit shit trailers.

Sounds like a good place for an F5.

[HaemishM]

If ever there was one.

[NiX]

Actually, I expected more. There are 15 matchups on opening day. I'd rather see these games played that day over the Rangers/Flyers.

1) Stars v. Kings
2) Wings v. Blues
3) Coyotes v. Canucks
4) Avalanche v. Oilers
5) Senators v. Leafs
6) Bruins v. Canadiens

Any of those are better hockey matchups in my book.

Time to plan getting drunk and enjoying a good fucking hockey night in canada rivalry.

[naum]

My Penguins are going to be exciting to watch this season. Mario + Crosby + Palfy + Gonchar + Recchi, oh my. And bringing in Thibault even though Fleury is being groomed to be the future goalie. Hopefully, one gets in a good groove. Tarnstrom, Jackman, and Gonchar can move the puck around and are goal scorers too, with new rule changes should make for a competitive squad (or at least one that puts some goals in).

Roenick is over hyped, and what I hear from the inside is he jaked it in 2003-2004 season, though Bobby Clarke has soured on many a player no matter whether true or not. I always liked Zhamnov, a shame he never developed to what he could have potentially, he still is a gifted skater and prone to offensive outbursts. Forsberg, if healthy,  can still be MVP quality, but all those ailments and injuries may have put a damper on his star.

In Tampa, Burke takes Khabibulin goalie spot, just like he did in Phoenix. This time, he's older and has to win a Stanley Cup to match Khabby.

We're going to discover once again that great players make poor GMs, and less than average coaches, as Coyotes go down the tubes. Or maybe Cujo has a good season in him before he coughs up another playoff disappointment.

[WayAbvPar]

Pearl is well-known in this state as the most trailer-trashy, white trash redneck burg in the world, and directly across from the center field fence is a line of shitty shit shit shit trailers.

Sounds like a good place for an F5.

This is kind of creeping me out in light of Katrina's path. I had no idea I had these sort of powers.

[Shockeye]

Hockey enforcers might become NHL rarity

By Scott Burnside
Special to ESPN.com

Reigning NHL penalty-minutes leader Sean Avery has some advice for his colleagues in the he-man, tough-guy club: Get some wheels or take a seat.

"I think now if you can't skate, you can't play. That's what it comes down to," Avery said after an informal workout with some of his Los Angeles Kings teammates and other players on the West Coast.

"Do you need a Georges Laraque on your team? I don't think so," said the lean, 5-foot-10, 185-pound Avery, who topped all NHLers in 2003-04 with 261 penalty minutes. "You're going to have to have guys who can do something other than get on the ice for five or six minutes a night and bear hug guys."

With NHL training camps less than three weeks away, players and managers are in a state of flux over what exactly the new hockey dawn will bring.

Playing under a salary cap for the first time and with the promise of an obstruction crackdown and a more wide-open style of play, many managers have abandoned the old template for team-building. Gone is the so-called "ghost roster" that included at least one forward line devoted to pluggers, muckers and pure fighters and at least two hulking defensemen. Instead, many GMs are focusing on skill, speed and hockey smarts throughout their lineups.

"You're still going to need toughness. But if you can find players with toughness who can play, that's a very, very valuable commodity," said Detroit GM Ken Holland, whose Red Wings have been the model for combining grit and skill with the likes of Darren McCarty, Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper and Brendan Shanahan.

Given the dramatic redistribution of talent, all but a handful of the league's 30 teams will enter the 2005-06 campaign with a legitimate shot at making the playoffs. Managers are asking themselves whether they can afford to spend even the league minimum of $450,000 on a player whose contributions are limited to five or six minutes a night, a large portion of which will be spent trying to batter an opponent senseless.

"I don't have the luxury of carrying that kind of guy," said Tampa Bay GM Jay Feaster, who has had his hands full trying to return the core of his Cup-winning team under the $39 million salary cap.

But if there is hesitation on the part of GMs to completely abandon the notion of intimidation through physical presence, it's because they are wary that the game won't be as open as they've been led to believe and they'll find they're overmatched physically later in the season or in the playoffs.

The assumption by most GMs and coaches is that early on in the season, games will be chock-full of power plays as the new zero-tolerance on obstruction is employed by on-ice officials.

As the weeks and months pass, the plan is that the game still will be called tightly but players will internalize the new rules and the game will open up.

But that has been the theory in the past.

"I think we're just guessing right now," Holland said.

"We'll find out really by Christmas what the trend is," added Boston GM Mike O'Connell, who fears the openness may just lead to a renewed focus on defensive styles. Nonetheless, O'Connell has built a Boston team three lines deep with offensive capability and better-than-average mobility along the blue line.

The rule changes and salary cap aren't the only catalysts to widespread changes in team building. The NHL is notoriously faddish and teams are quick to adopt trends, as witnessed by the move to mimic the trap and the left-wing lock popularized by the Red Wings in the late 1990s. Thus, the Tampa Bay Lightning's run to the 2004 Stanley Cup using a speed-oriented attack has hastened a move away from traditional role players, including the pure fighter.

"Your depth on your hockey club was always role playing, checking players, tough guys. I think if you look at teams' rosters right now, there are three or four teams that have changed the depth on their team," Philadelphia Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said at the recent Canadian Olympic orientation camp in British Columbia. "Their depth is skill now. So they've added skilled depth to the back end of their lineup, which I think is necessary.

"I know our club was really focused on that with the changes we made to our roster," Hitchcock added. "Our depth is more on the skilled side than it was on the role-playing side."

Although he didn't set out to become a trendsetter, Feaster says if the movement toward the Lightning's style of hockey helps to eliminate the "dinosaurs" -- the guys who can only fight or haul down other players -- then so be it.

"You can't just have some 'specialist' that doesn't do anything more," Feaster said.

Feaster can point to his own lineup, which includes forward Chris Dingman, who led the team with a modest 140 penalty minutes, and bruising Nolan Pratt on defense; a lineup that has seen players make significant adjustments to be able to play under coach John Tortorella.

Feaster also points to his offseason signing of veteran forward Rob DiMaio, who is only 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, but can handle himself in tough situations, as a trend in finding players who can fill part of the traditional fighter's role as well as kill penalties and provide some offensive spark.

Hitchcock thinks intelligence, rather than speed, is the sole ingredient at the heart of these systemic changes.

"It's not so much skating but to me hockey sense, transition. I don't think you have to be fast to play this way. But if you're slow thinking, if you're slow thinking defensively, you're going to be in trouble and if you're slow thinking offensively, you're going to be in big trouble. You have to have people whose hockey sense and anticipation is going to have to be good. If you're not able to read turnovers and you're not able to read people behind you, if you have tunnel vision, you're going to have a very difficult time playing with the way the game is now."

Still, for those imagining a hockey Shangri-La with players dropping their gloves only to shake hands at the end of a game, don't hold your breath.

Krzysztof Oliwa rolled up 247 penalty minutes while playing less than five minutes a night in Calgary. Francis Lessard chipped in one goal and 181 penalty minutes while playing 4:28 a night in Atlanta. Andre Roy, formerly with the Lightning, is now in Pittsburgh ostensibly to protect Sidney Crosby.

The fact that players like these still have jobs is an indication teams aren't ready to completely forsake the notion of toughness as a deterrent.

"I would say it's not going away by any stretch," Blue Jackets GM Doug MacLean said.

Jody Shelley, the NHL's penalty-minute leader in 2002-03, has been working out with high-performance athletes in Columbus, Ohio, in the hopes of improving his foot speed.

MacLean will look to Shelley to provide a physical presence on the forecheck for a revamped Blue Jackets team that expects to be in the middle of its first playoff run this season.

Said Shelley: "You can't just be one-dimensional. I think that goes pretty much for all the guys in my role. It's definitely something I've been thinking about. What it amounts to -- who knows?"

Scott Burnside is a freelance writer based in Atlanta and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.

[WayAbvPar]

That makes me a sad panda. I enjoyed the unwritten rule that if you cheapshotted a smaller player (especially the other team's star), there was going to be a price to pay later in the game.

 

[Yegolev]

My "hockey Shangri-La" is filled with goons.  You definitely don't need guys who do nothing but bear-hug.  Get some knuckles in some eyes too.  Nobody ever learned a Valuable Lesson from a bear hug.

[Strazos]

I still insist the NHL should have scrapped the Instigator rule.

[WayAbvPar]

I still insist the NHL should have scrapped the Instigator rule.

Preach on, brotha.

[Strazos]

'And the Lord on high uttered down to me, "Let there be Fisticuffs!" And it was so."

[Bunk]

Cliffy Ronning, a BC boy, was on our local Sports Radio yesterday basically offering his services to the Canucks for the league minimum. The guys almost 40, but pre-salary cap almost anyone would jump to have a guy with that experience for a measly $450k. Now, he's not even sure the team will take a look at him.

[Azaroth]

I'd take Cliff Ronning for third or fourth line duty any day. Unfortunately it'd more than likely be fourth, seeing as we have a stable of young talent, some of which you'd want to give time on the third.

[Paelos]

We'll see if the changes are really what hockey fans wanted. They asked for it, and they got it, but now we'll see if we were right. It's going to be a pretty-boy sport for a while with Swedes/Russians/Chezchs flying down the ice.

[Bunk]

Nonnis was in the paper this morning basically saying that the only way they can afford to signe Cooke and Ruutu is if they don't carry a full 23 man roster. That likely means that there really is no room for Ronning, even at minimum salary.

[El Gallo]

My magic 8-ball tells me that there will be some skilled play for the first month of the season, but by playoff time it will be the same clutch-and-grab shitfest it has been for the past 10 years.  Just like every time they said they would cut down on clutching and grabbing "and we really, really mean it this time!"

[Azaroth]

I think the hope is that, seeing the position the league is in, there is some very hardcore pressure coming down from the top on the referees. No matter how shittacular their record for keeping this crap in control for more than a month has been in recent years, the hope is that with all of the rule changes and everything else that's going on, there will truly be a concentrated effort to stay on the fucking ball this time.

I don't, mind you, see it lasting into the playoffs to any degree. I don't have much faith in it lasting the season, of course, but I keep my chin up and smile simply because it HAS to this time or they're forever fucked.

[HaemishM]

I'd take Cliff Ronning for third or fourth line duty any day. Unfortunately it'd more than likely be fourth, seeing as we have a stable of young talent, some of which you'd want to give time on the third.

You damn right. His play with the Wild the last few years has been very important to the team. He's the kind of guy that can score when you need it, and toss a great assist to speedsters like Gaborik at just the right time. He's no All-Star, but he makes your All-Stars better.

[naum]

Even if the refs revert back to letting the clutch & grab, the removal of red line for offsides passes is going to make for more open hockey. Line changes, especially in 2nd period, where your bench is on opponent side of ice) should be interesting things to watch (hard to see on TV usually, but at the arena, I always watch the "on the fly" changes). Forwards can perch up and take a long pass and I'm curious on how pro teams will handle defensive assignments and how they will differ from what I see in collegiate/amateur levels.

Of course, defenseman can just paddle the puck off the boards back and forth too, but if they enforced intentional offsides call more often, that would put the kobosh on that.

Buffalo v. New Jersey (or insert any other $NeutralZoneTrapStrategyPlayingTeam games were dull dump + slag fests, where action pretty much consisted of dump, chase, dump chase, dump, chase, change sequences with an occasional transition causing scoring opportunity.

[kaid]

Actually there are a number of airports in the midwest that are "international" aka they have direct flights to canada. Heheh even our little air port in Green Bay is an international airport due to a once a week flight to and from canada.


kaid

[Azaroth]

Don't get me wrong. As much as I'd like to watch hockey without a redline, I just don't think it's going to work out as well as I, or anyone else, is hoping it will.

The removal of the redline allows people to cherry pick and take a long pass for a breakaway. Defensive teams will still be defensive teams with defensive coaches, and shutting this down is simple. Leave your defensemen back so you can't be caught with your pants around your ankles. You think they're just going to allow people to take breakaways all of the time? Shit no, you'll find five on three in the defensive zone, or at best, five on four - and defensemen back out of the play. Not firing shots, not creating offense, not keeping the puck in the zone. Ever watched Sweden vs. Switzerland or anything else like that in international play? Probably not - but I promise you, IT'S FUCKING TERRIBLE HOCKEY.

[naum]

Shit no, you'll find five on three in the defensive zone, or at best, five on four - and defensemen back out of the play. Not firing shots, not creating offense, not keeping the puck in the zone. Ever watched Sweden vs. Switzerland or anything else like that in international play? Probably not - but I promise you, IT'S FUCKING TERRIBLE HOCKEY.

Might be so, we'll have to see… …I do think the college game is more exciting to watch than NHL, much more skating and offensive play…

Of course, the League could go really radical, and go to four skaters (like they do in OT) full game, and implement inline hockey offsides rules — center line is only offsides line, but a player is permitted to skate the puck into the zone and teammates already in the offensive zone are OK then. Then we'd be seeing the average goals per game doubled…

[Bunk]

Might be so, we'll have to see… …I do think the college game is more exciting to watch than NHL, much more skating and offensive play…

Of course, the League could go really radical, and go to four skaters (like they do in OT) full game, and implement inline hockey offsides rules — center line is only offsides line, but a player is permitted to skate the puck into the zone and teammates already in the offensive zone are OK then. Then we'd be seeing the average goals per game doubled…

*Pumps his Shotgun*

{Southern Drawl} You best be shuttin up bout them harebrained ideas there boy. Startin ta piss me off.

Seriously, I liked the inline rules for what it was when we had an inline team up here - but that's inline hockey, and that's a different game. Ice Hockey is played on ice with six skaters a side, and that's how it should be.