2008/2009 Hockey Thread v2.0

[Reddaye]

The defensive coverage for Toronto has been horrible. I don't want to watch the game anymore because they just can't play defence tonight. They are just chasing people and losing every race for the puck against a team that just finished a long road trip.

I was going to watch the replay on the NHL Network tomorrow...but by the sounds of that I won't bother.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

TSN's hyping of the trade deadline now makes it impossible for the actual day to live up to expectations.

...that said, I'll still be watching on March 4. And perhaps liveblogging.

[Plubby]

I think Colorado should be barging down the door of Boston trying to trade for EITHER of those goaltenders. And shopping their forward depth for some better freaking defensemen. It's great that Salei, Liles and Leo can shoot but none of them play D to my expectations.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Credence Plubby Revival

[Toe]

I think Colorado should be barging down the door of Boston trying to trade for EITHER of those goaltenders. And shopping their forward depth for some better freaking defensemen. It's great that Salei, Liles and Leo can shoot but none of them play D to my expectations.

I bet a decent offer would see Finger go to Colorado.

[Plubby]

We can't have him back yet. Raycroft fills this seasons' quota of "curing horrendous fuckups by the management of Canadian teams"

[Toe]

We can't have him back yet. Raycroft fills this seasons' quota of "curing horrendous fuckups by the management of Canadian teams"

You didn't help us at all with Raycroft. We bought him out. You guys signed him as a free agent.

[Plubby]

So? You took a capable goalie, rendered him unable to catch a cold let alone a puck, and now we're trying to fix him

Also, I find it amazing that every single team in the Western Conference could conceivably make the playoffs. St. Louis, in 15th is only six points back.

[Reddaye]

“Oh well, screw it. It’s time to go on to the next one.”

I didn't see the game but that's supposedly what Pogge said after the loss last night. That makes me so happy to hear, that he's not letting the losses get to him. Judging from the highlights last night he made some nice saves, and played well overall. I don't remember seeing any shots from far out going in this time, or him dropping into the butterfly too early.

Even stopped the break away this time. Pogge may not be the next Patrick Roy, but I think he'll turn out nicely.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Drifter_2000

[Toe]

Montreal / Toronto tonight. It should be fun with all the trouble Grabovski is causing.

[Enter Blue Guy]

The guy to watch out for is Tank #41. All of a sudden Kulemin is throwing his weight around and I love it. Actually now he is trying to hit everything, maybe he should calm down a bit. I never realized how solid he was built until recently. All his stats pages says he's 183. Fucking lies! If I'm betting on somebody coming out of nowhere to have Garbo's back tonight, I'll throw one out there and say Kulemin.

I know the ass-reaming of a practice Ron gave the team after the Buffalo game was probably enough of a message to step up tonight, but I really hope he at least touches base on their need to be mean out there if they don't want to look like chumps. Again. For love of God, boys, play with some pride tonight.

Edited February 7, 2009 by Enter Blue Guy

[Clawson]

I think Sister Sergei would soil himself at the mere thought of the Kulio Train coming at him.

[Clawson]

LUUUUUUUUUUUUUKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKE

:D

[Reddaye]

Some wins just feel so good.

Price looked like he was half asleep out there sometimes. On the other hand Toskala had probably his best game all season.

I loves it.

[Clawson]

I'm glad we got the two points and all but something needs to be done about the constant Montreal hit from behinds.

[Reddaye]

I'm glad we got the two points and all but something needs to be done about the constant Montreal hit from behinds.

For sure, especially right about the hits from behind. The hit on Van Ryn happened a good foot or so before he was in at the boards, just got shoved in. Hopefully he's alright, the poor bugger is having a tough season.

Then you've got Laraque skating around trying to decapitate everybody. He goes through two guys before they finally decide to make the call.

[Clawson]

They didn't give 5 on the Van Ryn hit because he got up from it.

[Toe]

Montreal just played a poor game in front of Carey Price. He wasn't on his game, but his defence looked really poor. Montreal may be in some trouble here.

On our end, Schenn scoring is awesome. He deserved to get one in after playing so well this season. Kulemin's sniping it over the glove of Price was great too. This was the opposite of the Buffalo game. The Leafs outskated the Canadiens and forced them to make mistakes.

How many penalty minutes were there in the game?

[Reddaye]

Looking at the box scores and figuring it up there was a total of 68 penalty minutes from both teams combined. Thirteen of the penalties were in the second period alone. Wild stuff.

If you want details:

http://espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=290207010

EDIT: Fun little quote from Brad May during a post game interview...

“Carbonneau put Georges out there… sent Georges out there, and he actually thought we were going to back down,” May contended. “I know all about that guy, and I’m talking about their coach. You know what? It’s not going to happen. It’s been 19 years [in the NHL] Guy… keep sending them out.”

Good old May. Better to see him fighting than Schenn needing to step up every time.

Edited February 8, 2009 by Drifter_2000

[Enter Blue Guy]

I've seen a lot of hockey this year, no team in the East has their elbows up and takes runs from behind like the Habs did last night. That was ridiculous. Everybody has something to say about fighting this season, but I'll say the more disturbing trend is how often guys are hitting from behind, especially since a lot of times it isn't a result of a guy turning away from a hit. What's even worse is how easily it can go unpenalized. It will probably take a serious injury or worse inside the NHL for the league to seriously shift their attention to the nature of some of these hits.

Great game for the Buds, though. Besides some stupid penalties of course, but when Luke Schenn scores his first NHL goal as part of a winning effort in Montreal, you really can't complain about anything the Leafs did wrong last night. It helps that they did a lot right too. Brad May forces Laraque to burn a fight that had no affect on the game, then he sets up the screen for Luke's goal. Toskala had one of his best games, though the Habs looked so off the mark last night they could have lost a game of tee ball to a group of 7 year olds. And Jason Blake is still in Superman mode, taking over the team points lead last night.

And I was pretty happy Mats picked three points last night too. I still love the guy and a three point night out of a Leaf jersey is just fine with me. Maybe ending the game as a minus player helped me enjoy it a little more.

Edited February 8, 2009 by Enter Blue Guy

[Toe]

How the hell did I get to third in our fantasy league?