2008/2009 Hockey Thread v2.0

[Cactus Drags]

Why did the NHL highlight machine go from being so good last year in terms of content (hits/goals/close calls/controversies - and you could choose whether to watch hits or goals) and video quality, to being so horrible this year? Poor quality, unrelaible streams, half-arsed highlights. And this comes despite the thing being relaunched as nhl.tv. I know they want people to stump up for the likes of GameCentre, but I don't have the opportunity to do so, so help me out! Take a page from nfl.com's book, their highlights are top notch. Quality could be better I guess, but otherwise it's ace.

[Toe]

So sad to hear about Cherepanov's death. You always hate to hear about these situations, and it is made even worse by how young he was.

[Plubby]

Agreed. A heart attack at 19 is tragic.

[IAceI]

Graaargh. Was 2-1 to the Flyers and they were reviewing a possible goal - that clearly wasn't, so wasn't given - but then I went to bed. My stream started to feck up a tad but would have came back if I waited a bit - but I needed sleep. Was awesome, I just had the stream on full screen, positioned the PC monitor nicely and grabbed a bean bag seat and chilled out.

Kostitsyn mauled Richards, took the puck and scored a peach from the blue line. But later on Komisarek got absolutely cleaned out onto the back boards, he was about 3 foot away from it and just went flying into them. It was like the special effects from an episode of Heroes, brutal.

5-3 win though, sweet bit of revenge I guess after the play offs. We must have picked up a bit as we only really looked threatening on the power play early on but we survived about a minute 20 of 5 on 3 with ease. We clearly were playing better with less men on the ice (4 on 4 we looked gooood), just moving the puck around sweetly with so much ease and little effort. Nice mix of finesse play but with good amount of hard hitting when the play turned a little ugly at the end of the first, Coburn looking for a bit of a fight.

My coverage was a tad biased towards Philly. Then again I was watching a Philadelphia channel I assume because they were promoting chat programs about the Eagles, Flyers, Sixers etc. so... yeah. But they made it out like Lapierre got lamped in his fight when he just sorta slipped and Downey just collapsed on him. Was a meh fight but even though they didn't really win, it gave them a bit of momentum in the second.

Well, early days but 2-1 - you can't complain I guess. Big win over our fierce rivals and a two goal win over the team that beat us in the play offs last year.

[The Sultan of Swank]

The game against Philly was pretty exciting to watch. I found the first two periods really lacked any flow from either team with the exception of Carter and Richards tearing our team apart. Philly deserved the 2-1 lead after 40. In the third Montreal just exploded out of the gate and the entire game picked up immensely. It was a lot of fun back and forth action, but Philly trying to trade rushes with Montreal only showed that you can't do that against the Habs. Montreal put 4 goals up in 1 period again to take the 5-3 win. I'll take it. It also makes us undefeated in regulation against the Flyers in the last 8 games. (7-0-1). It also felt good knowing that Biron wasn't outplaying anyone last night.

Also, Price made another one of his Jesus Price Superstar saves.

Wednesday should also be pretty intense, home opener against the Bruins. They'll probably have the same mindset that Montreal had going into last nights game, and they also haven't beaten Montreal in the regular season in like 11 tries or something like that.

Finally, Cherapanov's death is pretty tragic. Poor Guy.

Also Be's dumb. And Clawson if you want to see what a dirty hit is, or what a hit from beind is, because apparently Montreal throws so many of them. Check out Hollweg's hit, the one he got 5 min and a game for and is now suspended for 3 games for... yeah, the refs sorta call it when it happens.

Edited October 14, 2008 by The Sultan of Swank

[Evil Chase K]

I'm hoping the Pens get back on track tonight against the hated Philthydelphia Flyers. I should be in Mellon Arena for the game tonight but since I have class all day today and tomorrow and live 2 1/2 hours away I had to give them up. I hope I don't miss out on anything too epic.

Anyway, I watched the video of Cherapanov's teammates carrying him off the bench. What a terrible sight. It's a shame they didn't have a stretcher or something, and the fact that the ambulance had just left and had to be called back makes it even worse. Terrible news.

[alldaws1]

"You can't beat us!" *clap-clap clap-clap-clap*

The Rangers are awesome >_>

I'm surprised how well Aaron Voros has done so far, seems to be filling the gap left by Sean Avery pretty damn well.

[Clawson]

Also Be's dumb. And Clawson if you want to see what a dirty hit is, or what a hit from beind is, because apparently Montreal throws so many of them. Check out Hollweg's hit, the one he got 5 min and a game for and is now suspended for 3 games for... yeah, the refs sorta call it when it happens.

Yes because I've come in here bitching that it wasn't a hit from behind.

At least I can acknowledge when my team has done something wrong. You're still whining that Komi didn't hit somebody from behind when numerous people in here have challenged you on that and they aren't even Leafs fans.

[TGWL]

Anyway, I watched the video of Cherapanov's teammates carrying him off the bench. What a terrible sight. It's a shame they didn't have a stretcher or something, and the fact that the ambulance had just left and had to be called back makes it even worse. Terrible news.

Where did you find the video?

[IAceI]

youtube?

I've seen it, it's a bit... meh. You don't see much for the first 30 seconds then they just sort of pick him up, you just see his legs and they shuffle out with him. Pretty grim to watch, big applause as they begin to take him away though.

All the while cheesy rock music is blasting out over the speakers.

[Evil Chase K]

Anyway, I watched the video of Cherapanov's teammates carrying him off the bench. What a terrible sight. It's a shame they didn't have a stretcher or something, and the fact that the ambulance had just left and had to be called back makes it even worse. Terrible news.

Where did you find the video?

If you can't find it on YouTube it was on thepensblog.com in the post about Cherapanov's passing. As IAceI said, there's really nothing to it other than Jagr and the rest of the team standing over him and then carrying him off the bench but when you take into consideration that the kid died it's a bit heavy to digest.

[The Sultan of Swank]

IT was also shown on TSN. not sure if .ca has the video up though.

[Toe]

Hey Budaj...learn to catch the freakin' puck! He just whiffed on a catch and hand wrapped a goal for Bertuzzi.

[Toe]

NHL on TSN was great last year. Playing the HNIC theme at every single opportunity does not make it better. The music they had before was great. How much money did they spend to get the HNIC song?

[Plubby]

I've only ever liked Budaj to the extent that "I have faith in him" - but even that's starting to waver. Bring up Bacashiua!

[Toe]

I've only ever liked Budaj to the extent that "I have faith in him" - but even that's starting to waver. Bring up Bacashiua!

Budaj is okay. He has really benefited from the team around him being good. A few years ago I thought he was going to become a good #1 goaltender for the Avs, but it is still too soon to judge him I guess.

And what is with Kiprusoff? He is off to a slow start too.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

NHL on TSN was great last year. Playing the HNIC theme at every single opportunity does not make it better. The music they had before was great. How much money did they spend to get the HNIC song?

They played the old music at every single opportunity last year too.

[Gabriel]

I've only ever liked Budaj to the extent that "I have faith in him" - but even that's starting to waver. Bring up Bacashiua!

Budaj is okay. He has really benefited from the team around him being good. A few years ago I thought he was going to become a good #1 goaltender for the Avs, but it is still too soon to judge him I guess.

And what is with Kiprusoff? He is off to a slow start too.

Kipper is always a slow starter. Last year was his worst year, and if you take a look at the numbers, he still had a pretty damn good season. Just not as good as he has had before.

I thought he looked really good to start the game, then had a little bit of a rattling... then the third period came, and he looked great. He let the one goal in, but it was a freak bounce that was really just a chance goal. He didn't let that one rattle him though, and he hung tough to pick up the win.

This happens every year. He starts slowly, and we see glimmers of the goalie he can be... then just out of the blue somewhere, he'll find his groove. I'm not really worried about it.

EDIT: As shaky as he's been the first three games, I should also point out that our defensive zone coverage has been, for the most part, shit. The 15 goals over 3 games really shouldn't all be on Miika, because at least 10 of them were things that a tighter defensive unit could have stopped from going in.

Edited October 15, 2008 by Gabriel

[Plubby]

The Flames radio disagrees a bit with you, Gabe. Even though it was definetely really lucky, apparently that fourth goal of Colorado's was a shocker for Kipprusoff...he didn't get behind it properly, and it did really rattle him (at least in the immediate aftermath) because he was really scrambly in the next few rushes.

He got his game back though, and Calgary came away with a much deserved win. Just goes to show how momentum-based hockey is. Even though we started the third strong off of the powerplay, we can only score a fluke goal in that third period. Tthe hard work Calgary did through the first 40 gave them strong momentum, and they pushed two through and it saw them home.

It sounds like our D and goaltending is pretty poor to start the season, we allowed a bunch of shots in this game, but Budaj is allowing a lot of goals even on not many shots like against Boston. I was a bit worried for Sakic, but he seems golden still, and Stastny keeps racking up assists. I like what i've seen from and heard about Tucker, and im scared as fuck for any game that Raycroft plays. It's certainly not going to be a boring season for my fellow Avs fans.

[Toe]

NHL on TSN was great last year. Playing the HNIC theme at every single opportunity does not make it better. The music they had before was great. How much money did they spend to get the HNIC song?

They played the old music at every single opportunity last year too.

But it wasn't annoying with the old music. It is with the HNIC theme.