2007/2008 Hockey Thread

[Clawson]

Man, the skills comp was a fucking waste. The shootout challenge was a nice load of bullshit especially. Glad I was wasted for it.

But hey, Kabs goes 4 for 4 proving that Leaf not named Mats is good at something. Now please just shoot the fucking puck during a game Kabby.

[Cactus Drags]

I hate how they "fancied up" the skills competition. It makes it too convuluted and shit for me to really care about. Sure, I'll be watching, but I'll probably be drunk and only half paying attention. The competition from the pre-Lockout days was perfectly fine. Maybe some new events should have been added, but they don't need to be complicated as high fuck.

The All-Star Game... ugh... probably drunk again and half paying attention. The best players from each conference aren't represented anymore. It's more of a popularity contest than it is a showcasing of the game's best players.

They need to go back to making it the best players from each conference... and to add incentive for them to actually go out and play like the game matters... why not have the winning conference win home ice advantage for the Stanley Cup Finals?

Baseball incorporates that idea into their All-Star game, and it makes it seem a lot more important than the NHL's.

no, no, no. That is a fucking awful idea. The teams should actually earn home ice/field. The All-Star game should never have regular season implications.

[Gabriel]

There are craploads of people complaining about how the all-star game is meaningless. Not just fans either. People who have power in the sport.

They tried the North America Vs The World concept to revitalize it, but that failed.

Also... isn't there a rule about how every team needs to be represented at the All-Star game? I'm pretty sure there is one...

How many times has a team gone to the Finals without having an All-Star or two on their roster?

Another concept I really like, is the idea of having the team who won the Stanley Cup the previous year, facing a team consisting of players from the other 29 teams. You could make it extra special by reuniting the roster that won the cup... so for instance, this year, the Ducks team would have seen Dustin Penner and Ilya Bryzgalov back in Anaheim uniforms at the All-Star game to play against the NHL All-Stars.

Then you can auction off the game worn sweaters for charity, and not only do you have a fun game, but you've got lots of money being generated for good purposes.

[Cactus Drags]

Do you ever have a good idea? Or do you just chuck whatever you can up there in the hopes that someone at least humours you?

People complain that the quality of the game sucks. Nothing new, it's the same in American football, baseball and basketball. There is no real way to make it more exciting unless you make it more meaningful, and the only real way to do that is to make it have an impact on the regular season, which is just illogical. And wouldn't you be really pissed off if your team's star player gets shelved due to an injury he sustained playing harder at an all star game just to win home ice for his conference at the finals he can't help his team get to anymore because he fucked his ankle up?

It's bad enough that the All-Star Game happens in the middle of the bloody season (at least the NFL gets something right with theirs coming at the end of the year). Just leave it be.

And there's clearly no rule about every team being represented, as there will be no Avalanche players at the game tonight.

Edited January 27, 2008 by Dragsy 7-0

[alldaws1]

Another concept I really like, is the idea of having the team who won the Stanley Cup the previous year, facing a team consisting of players from the other 29 teams. You could make it extra special by reuniting the roster that won the cup... so for instance, this year, the Ducks team would have seen Dustin Penner and Ilya Bryzgalov back in Anaheim uniforms at the All-Star game to play against the NHL All-Stars.

That's just a bad idea. You'd have loads of complaints from the players and fans of the champions that they basically have to play an extra game while everyone else has a long weekend of rest.

[Gabriel]

Again though, just ideas.

Perhaps an end of the season thing would be best. Take a couple weeks off after the finals and have it then... or make it part of the Stanely Cup festivities, and have the 28 teams not in the Final represented in an East Vs West matchup?

The All-Star weekend needs to be fixed somehow.

The skills competition, while I enjoyed most of it, is just ridiculous now. Far too convoluted and up its' own ass. I don't think anyone in attendance in Atlanta knew what was going on half the time. Seems like the players and officials were in the same boat too.

[Plubby]

I believe Stastny was picked but is injured.

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah, so was Sakic, still no Avs playing. And at a rough count, I noted ten different teams on the Western roster.

[Gabriel]

I checked the rosters... the only team not represented on the West was Colorado, and that's because of injuries.

I didn't check the East though.

EDIT: Alyssa Milano is a fucking babe.

Edited January 28, 2008 by Gabriel Havok

[Clawson]

East had somebody from everyone.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I'd like to believe that the month of February will decide the rest of the season for Montreal. Montreal has 33 games remaining in the season, they will play 14 games in 28 nights in February, that is a ton of hockey. We finish January where we've played 7-2-1 so far this month with 2 games against a recently very good and very hungry Washington team. They beat us last time at the Bell comming from behind to win a 5-4 OT thriller on the backs of their young Russians and nothing less than a complete effort from the Habs will merit the wins.

February will decide the season in my eyes for a few reasons. First, almost half the games we have left to play are played in this month, and the games we play are mostly against Playoff teams, we play the Rangers and Senators twice each, and we haven't beaten either team this year. New York has just ravaged us, and Ottawa has produced some of the most exciting games of the year, unfortunately we don't win them. We've also got two games against a very good Philadelphia team and one against the Pens, both teams always produce very hard games for the Habs to win. Then there's Atlanta and Florida. Both teams just give the Habs incredible amounts of trouble when we play them. Like how we give Boston a hard time, they give us a hard time. The remaining 4 games are against the Isles, Leafs, Blue Jackets and Sabres. If Montreal doesn't win at least 3 of those games, it's going to cause problems later on.

The good about all this is that Montreal started off the year playing .500 or so hockey in October, and then had a bad November where nothing clicked, December brought us back to .500 and the usual nay saying from everywhere that this is where Montreal falls and the other teams overtake the Habs. But from December 27th which is around where the collapse happens(and a mini-one had occured as the Habs had dropped 3 of 4) until Tonight the Habs have played their best hockey that I can remember them playing in the last few years. They have gone 9-2-2 in that stretch and they have played only one bad game in it. A 4-1 loss to the Rangers which is widely considered to be our worst game of the season. They have gotten scoring from all over, all four lines are contributing goals, assists, grip and strong defensive play. They've been probably one of the fastest teams in the East and one of the best passing teams in the league and everyone is simply gelling. Resulting in an amazing 20 of out 26 possible points in their last 13 games. This is a team that is playing for keeps and are currently only 6 points back of the Ottawa Senators for the Conference lead.

The bad. Nobody believes that Montreal is for real. Everyone picked them to be a bottom dwelling team this year and it's not happening, so it's gotta happen soon right? Well there is some merit to that statement. As well has Montreal has played in the last month, Philly and Pittsburgh have kept pace or amazingly played even better. Out of the 16 games I mentioned that are comming up, 12 of them are against teams that generally beat the Habs. There is still a lot of hockey to play and this could be the Habs peaking early rather than comming together later in the season. Injuries, cold streaks and trades could ruin the team. What happens if the Kovalev-Plekanec-Kostitsyn line just goes cold for 10 games, they're a huge production line for us. As many points as we're behind the conference lead is the same amount down to 9th place.

Now what I like is that the good certainly out weighs the bad. The good right now is our team is playing exactly as I would expect it to. Montreal isn't going to rattle off 8 or 9 wins in a row like Ottawa or Pittsburgh, but playing .650 hockey is what I could expect from a team with such amounts of young already proven talent (Komisarek, Markov, Higgins), young talented players (A. Kostitsyn, S. Kostitsyn, Plekanec, Latendresse, Georges, O'Byrne) and veteran leaders enjoying a great season (Kovalev and Hamrlik). Our goaltending is solid but could be better and we're a playoff ready team. I would expect at least the semi-finals from the Habs and not making the conference finals would be disappointing if we continue to play as we have since late december down the stretch. A Stanley Cup team this is not, but we're far better than the 10th place losers of yesteryear.

Obviously so much is up in the air with a third of the season left to play, we still have O'Byrne comming back from injury, we've almost got a Big 3 defence going with Markov, Komisarek and to a weaker extent Hammer all having phenominal seasons so there's a lot that could happen. What's important is to keep the intensity up, we still have 6 games against the Sens, that's 24 points right there. If Ottawa shuts out the Habs on the season, we're fucked. If Montreal somehow manages to win 4 or even 5 of those 6 games, they might even overtake the Sens for first in the conference.

49 games into the season, I would call Montreal a playoff team, and not the 8th place sweeps team of the last 10 years. This is a team that right now is playing for keeps and would be a failure if they fell from 4th or 5th. If and when they do so, as there is so much hockey left to play, I will stand by the statement that if the Habs fall, it wasn't a lack of talent or big names, it was a lack of effort, because clearly in the past month they've cared about playing well and it has translated into 9 wins in 13 games.

[Cactus Drags]

Colorado's facked, like 12 of 18 games in February are on the road, and no Smyth or Sakic till March. Gay.

[Clawson]

I smell a push for 9th for us because it happens every bloody year that people go down with injuries so the team finally decides to try.

[Ananas]

For the record (even though I don't like the idea myself), the Stanley Cup Champions vs. NHL All Stars format was actually used for the first 20 or so seasons they played such a game. Of course back then there were only 5 other teams and with the talent so concentrated back then 1 team going up against everyone else's all-stars might not be such a mismatch. But when one team only constitutes 1/30th of the league's players, it could be safely assumed that it would be a one-sided thumping if they tried to return to that format.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Two solutions to solve the problem:

1) Play the game outdoors, every year. That will be your only outdoor game.

2) Abolish the game, but get 40 willing players to take part in an "All-Star Tour" each summer.

[Gabriel]

Two solutions to solve the problem:

1) Play the game outdoors, every year. That will be your only outdoor game.

2) Abolish the game, but get 40 willing players to take part in an "All-Star Tour" each summer.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

All-Star tournament would be stupid, there's no way the all-star game will ever be anything more than the novelty of seeing the best players against each other.

So do something like that Primus Worldstars tour from the lockout season - hit up a few arenas in NA and a few in Europe, and don't force people to play every game if they don't want to.

[Gabriel]

Actually, you know what... if they want games through Europe, that's how they should do them.

They should play an All-Star tour... start it in a designated NHL city... then go oversees for a few games, come back, and finish it in the city that won the Cup.

Then you have some time off and the players who played in the All-Star tour could skip out on some or all of the exhibition games. With less exhibition games starting next year, having your star players sit out would let teams gauge their youngsters better than they could with just one game or whatever.

[Plubby]

seeing the best players against each other.

This just sounds like a regular game to me :ohwell2: I guess you dont have to see the bad players too.

[Gabriel]

Emery showed up late to another practice. Not just late, but after everyone had already hit the ice and started.

TSN.ca has an article up where Bryan Murray blatantly says that he's been shopping Emery around, but there aren't any takers.

If he wasn't such a douchebag, I'd feel bad for Ray Emery.