2006/2007 Hockey Season Thread

[Toe]

Toronto gets a really good team effort and gets the win. Andrew Raycroft has been really solid in 3 of his last 4 starts, and the special teams was just excellent.

[SeanDMan]

Ryan Kesler is done for the season.

As if the Canucks weren't already low on centres.

[Toe]

I just read on TSN.ca that Todd Bertuzzi is really leaning towards not resigning with Florida and that he wants to go to the Maple Leafs.

No thanks, Bert.

[CKN]

I just read on TSN.ca that Todd Bertuzzi is really leaning towards not resigning with Florida and that he wants to go to the Maple Leafs.

No thanks, Bert.

[Toe]

I may sound a little dumb, but I would rather see the team keep Darcy Tucker and then pick up a forward or two to give the team some depth, instead of picking up a player who has seemingly past his prime and could be an injury problem waiting to happen.

[SeanDMan]

I just read on TSN.ca that Todd Bertuzzi is really leaning towards not resigning with Florida and that he wants to go to the Maple Leafs.

No thanks, Bert.

The funny part is that I can see this happen.

I'll go so far as to say it's likely, even. I mean, an old, often injured former superstar with attitude issues and an inability to play at the NHL level now. It sounds like the the closest thing you can get to having Eric Lindros back!

[Clawson]

OMGZ DA REFS WERE FUCK TONIGHT BECAUSE TORONTO HAD 3 POWERPLAY GOALS SO THEY MADE MONTREAL LOSE THE GAME.

Around campus that is all I've heard from Montreal fans. I think they fail to realize Montreal's only goal was on the powerplay. It's starting to give me a hangover before I've even gone to bed.

[NobBe Nobbs]

OMGZ DA REFS WERE FUCK TONIGHT BECAUSE TORONTO HAD 3 POWERPLAY GOALS SO THEY MADE MONTREAL LOSE THE GAME.

Around campus that is all I've heard from Montreal fans. I think they fail to realize Montreal's only goal was on the powerplay. It's starting to give me a hangover before I've even gone to bed.

[Clawson]

One more goal and we'll have only spent a million on each one.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I stopped watching after the third goal. The first, well it was just a nice shot, can't take that away from Toronto. The second one they scored, you know the one that Stajan tipped, and even CBC was able to prove that he tipped it into the net and his stick was clearly over the crossbar. No, the goal judges subscribe to the Magic Bullet(not the awesome chopping and dicing machine) theory because apparently a point shot can be taken, be going over the net, then, in mid air mind you, change from going up, to down like a knuckleball that would make most Major League pitchers jealous and go into the net. I'm sorry, but it was so fucking obvious, RDS was flipping out over the fact that they called it a goal, I know that the goal judge doesn't have the same angles as the networks do, but it was so fucking obvious. RDS has two clear shots of Stajan's stick touching the puck about 4-6 inches over the crossbar.

After Toronto scored their third goal I just turned it off. The penalty on that was a boarding call on Souray, I mean even when the completly biased CBC announce team is questioning the call, you know it was a bad call. I think one of them asked what the penalty was going to be for on Souray because you can't give a penalty to someone for being too strong.

At 3-1 with the breaks Montreal were getting(or not getting) it just wasn't going to happen for the Habs. When you have two goals scored against you, one a definate no-goal and the other off a bad penalty call to put you down 3-1 in another team's building, f'get about it. Montreal only scores on the PP anyways, so they'd have needed another 6 to catch up with the way Raycroft was playing.

Yes, so despite my greivances with the ineptitude of the goal judge and one call which ultimately tipped the scales for Toronto, if Raycroft had played like he did oh say 20 games ago, this would have been an easy one to get back into, or just run away with from the start, but he's had a few quality starts going into the break and now comming out of it. Also, even though the Souray penalty was absurd(I mean come one, the guy he touched with his forearm practically threw himself into the boards) Toronto took advantage of the Powerplay chances they got and that was the big difference(despite the fact that one powerplay goal now shows that NHL players can take a slapshot sinker, and another came from a terrible call)

[The Sultan of Swank]

I dunno if this was posted yet but;

MONTREAL (AP) - Gump Worsley, the Hall of Fame goalie who didn't wear a mask until the final season of his 21-year NHL career, has died. He was 77.

Worsley, who died at his home in Beloeil, had a heart attack Monday, The Montreal Gazette said Saturday night.

Born Lorne John Worsley in Montreal in 1929, he was tagged with the "Gump" moniker as a child because his hair stuck up like Andy Gump, the comic strip character.

The five-foot-seven Worsley began his NHL career in 1952-53, winning the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year with the New York Rangers. He helped his hometown Montreal Canadiens win four Stanley Cup titles in a five-year span and finished his career with the Minnesota North Stars in 1973-74 - playing only his final six games with a mask.

"He was a terrific goaltender," former North Stars teammate Lou Nanne said. "If I could pick any goalie to win a big game, it would be Gump."

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980, Worsley was 335-352-150 with a 2.88 goals-against average and 43 shutouts in 861 regular-season games. In the playoffs, he was 40-26 with a 2.78 GAA and five shutouts.

"He was one of the first real characters in the NHL," Nanne said. "He had a lot of personality and really showed the human side of the game. He didn't look like an athlete and smoked like a chimney between periods, but he was terrific when he put the pads on."

Acquired by Montreal from the Rangers in a 1963 trade that sent fellow Hall of Fame goalie Jacques Plante to New York, Worsley won 29 of 36 playoff games in helping lead the Canadiens to Stanley Cup titles in 1965, '66, '68 and '69.

Worsley won the Vezina Trophy in 1966 and 1968 as the NHL's top goalie, was a first-team all-star in 1968 and played in the all-star game in 1961, '62, '65 and '72. He holds the NHL record for career losses.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Yeah, I just saw it on the CBS site. Really sad.

[Toe]

I think the reason Montreal lost the game was their ineptitude on special teams. Toronto went to the penalty box over and over again in the last two periods, and Montreal should have been able to at least get back into the game. With so many offensive weapons and the leagues second best powerplay, I would have expected them to get at least a second goal.

I don't know if it was something Toronto did on the penalty kill or if it was just the bounces, but I was expecting the Habs to come back with all of those powerplays.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Montreal needs a change of pace I reckon. There needs to be a trade, they've all gone so stale. I think that ditching Kovalev or Samsanov would be a good idea.

[Toe]

I don't think Samsonov has much value in a trade right now. He has seemingly been useless this season.

[The Sultan of Swank]

yeah, but I've heard rumors of Forsberg comming to Montreal for Sammy, and 2 prospects. I'd personally hate the deal, but the point is that he adds in a multi-player deal. And Gainey, shit he could work miracles with deals.

[SeanDMan]

They would need to be very good prospects.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I heard any combination of Kostistyn, Grabovski or Chipchura. In any case, it'd be a terrible deal for Montreal.

[IAceI]

Remember when Johnson and Bonk were an awesome PK duo.

What happened there?

[The Sultan of Swank]

They've seemingly lost their razzle dazzle from the beginning of the season, all of them have. There needs to be a shake-up I reckon. And Koivu also needs to put the fear of god in the hearts of his teammates.