2008/2009 Hockey Thread v2.0

[SeanDMan]

Delauriers and Dubnyk being your 1a, 1b is much better than Garon and Roloson. Much, much better.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Right now? No. In three years, yes. Roloson will be retired. Garon, it's hard to say. Right now, in my opinion the best thing to do for Edmonton is to split time between Garon and Deslauriers and let Dubnyk continue developing in Springfield. Unfortunately I don't have a solution when it comes to Roloson.

[Plubby]

Deslauriers' save on Naslund in the shootout was amazing.

..that's all I have to contribute

[The Sultan of Swank]

Campbell also opened a can of worms by suggesting that Van Ryn should have done more to protect himself.

"While it is my determination that Kostopoulos did not deliver a check to an unsuspecting opponent, his actions

So they suspended Kosto not really for the hit, but more the result of the hit. Bullshit. I hate that with the NHL it's a matter of result not the action. If Van Ryn wasn't injured, Kosto could have not been suspended? I think that's a little strange.

Also I can't wait for the next Habs/Leafs game. I think we have our new Tucker.

[Plubby]

You thugs dont need a Tucker.

..you know, I should really listen to the Habs broadcast so I don't continue receiving this biased opinion.

[The Sultan of Swank]

?

I didn't disagree with the hit or the suspension, I disagreed with the fact that once again it was the result and not the intent that was reprimanded, Campbell even said that Van Ryn should have better protected himself, but because Van Ryn broke his face on the play, that was a big factor in the decision. I think that's bullshit.

And sure we need a new Tucker to hate on, Sundin, McCabe and Tucker are all gone. We've got no one for Koivu to yell at, our rookies to stand up to or anyone to hit about 19 times a game. Grabs can become that with all his comments and whatnot(no matter if they actually did make me laugh or not ).

The papers here have been saying that Sergei who used to be good friends with Grabs was saying that he has a long memory, so hopefully the next game that these two teams play, Grabs will go (Sergei forgets that he's about as tall as a kid in grade 9, but still wants to fight and hit like a big boy.) Should be fun to see some Belorussians slaps hands at each other.

[Clawson]

If one of the Sisters drops the gloves I'll be shocked. There has been an incident in the past two games where the Leafs have wanted them but they cower.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Sergei's dropped before, against guys much bigger than him... I'll defend the both of them, they're so awesome to watch.

[Clawson]

Oh, so Sergei is the one thats gone beyond the training bra.

In all seriousness, it was Andrei that the Leafs went after for cheapshots and he refused to do anything.

[Gabriel]

On the Oilers front...

Deslauriers was signed to a 1-way contract because they believe he's ready to play in the NHL and that he's a potential number one guy in the future. If they can't move Roloson, then splitting the game time between he and Deslauriers is probably the best thing they could do to develop the kid. Garon would be much easier to move, and there are a lot of teams who could use a goalie right now. Atlanta is looking to unload Lehtonen, so a Pavelec/Garon combo would be cool... LA could always upgrade over Labarbera, who is good enough for about 35-40 games a season, but shouldn't be a number one... New Jersey is in dire need if they want to do anything this season... that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are probably more teams in the market for a netminder.

On the topic of the Kostopoulos hit... I think Mark Messier summed it up perfectly. He said something along the lines of how it's great that the NHL is cracking down on hits from behind, but because they are doing that, guys are making their plays under the assumption that the opposition won't hit them from behind, which makes them think less about their own safety, and has a lot of guys going into the boards with their backs to their opponent because they feel they should be safe.

Van Ryn made the correct play, instead of the safe play, and he should be commended for that. Kostopoulos made the correct play, but went in a little too hard. You have to think though, if he lets up, he might be giving Van Ryn a free pass, and that's going to get him into trouble with his coach.

It's a tough situation to be in, but I have the utmost respect for Kostopoulos, who recognized what he did, and accepted the reprocussions.

[Clawson]

It's a tough situation to be in, but I have the utmost respect for Kostopoulos, who recognized what he did, and accepted the reprocussions.

Honestly, I'm so close to trading for Kostopoulos in my NHL 09 game because he accepts it when he fucks up and faces the music. Probably one of the players I admire the most in the NHL today.

[Evil Chase K]

Wow. The Pens/Red Wings game was absolutely amazing.

Jordan Staal has been getting ripped since the halfway point of last season by Pens fans and man did he show up. Must be because it's 11/11.

Hat trick for Staal, then he steals the puck from Datsyuk in OT and gets the assist on the game winner from Ruslan Fedotenko.

7-6 Pens win in OT. Come back from being down 2 goals to cut the lead to 1. Then the Wings score, then the Pens tie it up with less than a minute left in the game. Then the Fedotenko game winner.

Wow. Amazing game.

[The Sultan of Swank]

So Montreal embarssed Ottawa tonight.

Ottawa had one thing going for them tonight. Alex Auld. He made a few monster saves, just spectacular in nets. He got no help tonight and a mere mortal between the pipes and it's a 7-0 rout.

Montreal was flying all game, they never gave Ottawa a chance. Higgins gets the hat trick, his first and third goals comming on break aways(the first a partial, the second one was full out beauty).

The Kovalev line was back to weaving it's magic, I think Chris Neil is still looking for his pants after Pleks turned him inside out in the first.

There is one thing I feel needs to be addressed.

Jarko Ruutu

Seriously, why did Ottawa think it was a good idea to bring him into their organization? He was an embarassment tonight. He headhunts on Lapierre clearly seeking him out and throwing an elbow at his head. He ends up fighting with the much smaller (but suprisingly mega-strong) Bouillon, then later on starts slashing and hacking away at of all people Georges Laraque. Now really, I mean really, if you're going to fuck around with anyone in the league, don't pick Big Georges. But he was slashing at him and Komisarek and Dandenault. Then refuses to drop the gloves, then gets a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike behaviour and then starts saluting the crowd with a big dumb fucking smile on his face. Yeah, smile buddy, your team got shut out and destroyed.

As bad as Montreal played on Saturday is how Ottawa played tonight. These were not the Senators.

[Clawson]

Yeah, those were the Senators.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I know the Sens are having a rough year, but I don't think that Montreal should have bent them over and raped them. I think Ottawa controlled the flow of the game for about 95 seconds.

[Toe]

I like Alex Auld a lot. I think he could be a decent starter in the NHL if given the chance. Too bad Ottawa has just an awful defence for the most part.

I am with Basha. I do think Koustopoulos needed to be punished, I think he was punished more for the injuries he caused then the hit itself.

[Gabriel]

In my eyes, Alex Auld is a solid backup goaltender, or a good half for a two-man unit. Martin Gerber is in the same boat. Neither man is a number one goalie... but if they split the games, they could be a very formidable tandem... under the assumption that Gerber can fix whatever it is that's messing with him this season.

Too many teams think they absolutely have to have a number one goalie... but like someone said a while back, goalies are like parking spaces. The good ones are taken, and the rest are handicapped.

If you don't have a legit number one guy, there's nothing wrong in having a two man system. It's worked for teams before, and it's a good way to give a guy a chance to shine if all he's done prior is be a backup.

Calgary and Toronto had a heck of a game tonight. Both teams played well, but the Flames played their best game of the year, and the Leafs didn't play as well as they have been of late. Still, not bad, but they've had much better efforts in the last couple weeks. That crazy goal at the end of the game to make it 4-3 scared me pretty bad, but it was funny as hell. Clean faceoff win, off of Phaneuf and past Kiprusoff.

People give Grabovski a hard time, but he's really brought his game up this season. He's using his size and playing a much more physical game than he did last year, and he's buying into Ron Wilson's game.

Jason Blake was benched again, and I honestly believe that Cliff Fletcher has to have his name on a piece of paper with "GET RID OF HIM" somewhere on his desk. You shouldn't have to bench a guy to get a good game out of him when he comes back, and then have him settle back into being happy with just being out there. He seems almost afraid to play the type of physical grinding hockey that Ron Wilson wants out of his forwards, and at $3.5 million, or whatever he's making, he's far too expensive to be sitting on the bench. At this point, if Cliff can get a grinder like a Dominic Moore from some team and maybe a late draft pick, he should do it.

Also, they really missed John Mitchell tonight.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I've been saying that Grabs is a good player for a few years now. I was discussing with Clawson last night about how Montreal dropped the ball with him and no they really didn't. This was a small, fast, talented forward who 3 years ago wasn't as developped but still wanted the kind of minutes he's getting in Toronto. He was a bad fit in the Montreal dressing room as he was a complainer and very tempermental with coaches and management. Gainey knows his locker room, that's why we traded off Grabovski we didn't think he wasn't talented, I mean there's posts last season and the year before with me talking about how great he's going to be and then Toe, Clawson and Be ragging me for Homerism and calling him a nothing player... Looks like I was right. But the reason we got rid of Grabs is the same reason we ditched Ribeiro, they weren't happy with us, we weren't happy with them, we've got a deep talent pool so it won't kill us to trade him.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Burke steps down from Anaheim. Leafs fans are officially on the edge of their collective seat. And why not, if he signs there, Toronto has their first competant manager(no offence) in a looooooonnnnng time. This could be their Gainey, just better.

Ruutu gets two games for his hit to Lapierre's head.

Now here's what I don't understand. Kostopoulus didn't intend to injure, everyone agrees that when you slow the take down you can see that Van Ryn has his shoulder out to Kosto when he commits, but turns, Kosto really doesn't have much choice with all the speed he brought in with him. Regardless a hit from behind occurs, it was an illegal hit with zero intent but some result.

Ruutu deliberately targets a player's head with his elbow. Both are illegal when it comes to hitting. Under the new CBA its an illegal hit if contact is only made with the head, and if contact with the head is made with an elbow. It was a deliberate intent to injure a player. Ruutu gets only 2 games because Lapierre didn't get injured. Had he suffered a concussion or a broken nose, Maybe Ruutu gets 5 gams, but I'd be dreaming if I ever thought that the NHL could get their disciplinairy act together.

Kosto should have been suspended for the hit, not the result. Ruutu should have been suspended for the intent. No result, no real punishment. I think what Kosto got was fair, but what Ruutu did was far worse.

[Gabriel]

Cliff Fletcher's done such a good job with the Leafs, that it would almost be a shame to see him step down so that Brian Burke could come in.

That said though... Burke loves to build a Championship team, and I think his proactive approach to getting things done, and his history in the game, should be just what the Leafs need.