2008/2009 Hockey Thread v2.0

[Plubby]

Oh, Tosky lost?

Raycroft just stopped 43 for his sixth straight. Go Avs!

[Toe]

It's the way it goes in Leafland. A player comes here and can't deal with the constant media pressure or just fucking hates the city. Leaves and actually does well. McCabe is another example. He has already scored more goals then he did last season.

[Reddaye]

Well I ended up catching the "highlights" of the final sixteen or so minutes during NHL On The Fly and I didn't miss too much. They were saying Grabovski may end up getting suspended for shoving the linesmen during his tantrum last night. I can understand getting frustrated but he's gotta control himself a bit better than that, being a professional and all. In the end maybe a two day suspension or something might help him put things into perspective.

Overall it's like everyone else has said: the Leafs played horribly. Toskala seemed to be having a hard time moving quickly around in the paint and got caught WAY out of position more than once. Seems like I'm saying that every time he plays but it was especially bad tonight. Perhaps he's still a bit hurt? Perhaps his positioning just plain sucks? Questions...questions...

Ian White made a terrible line change during, I think, Montreal's first PP which kind of fucked things up. Although his kick ass dive across the goal to stop that goal was most excellent. Schenn followed that up with a great little play to keep the puck from getting chopped in. Maybe we'd of been better off if Schenn and White had played in net. >_>

Another thing that pissed me off was after Moore missed the wide open net (hey..these things happen) he just sort of casually skates over to the bench for the change, banging his stick off the ice in frustration. All the while the Habs are tearing down the ice like bats out of hell and score. A bit more hustle by Moore might have helped prevent that...but maybe not.

Finally; Bouillon needs to learn to take his helmet off if he's going to fight. Not only did it prevent May from mashing him up real good ( ), but if he's not careful he'll end up picking the visor out of his nose.

Like I said before....Brad May was the highlight for me. Considering we only gave a conditional sixth round pick for him; I'm happy he's aboard. He seems like he's anxious to play for the Leafs and he went out and did his job very well. Fuck knows he seems to be the only one in the team playing with any real passion lately.

EDIT: Something interesting I just read on Maple Leaf Hot Stove...

Confusion across the Barilkosphere as to the respective no-trade clause situations of Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle has been unending, mostly because, of the characteristics that describe the professional sports media in this city, informative or useful are not chief among them.

So I contacted Cliff Fletcher and Brian Burke. Wow, imagine that.

I’ve managed to confirm the following: Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle both have windows of NTC exemption this summer, providing the Maple Leafs miss the playoffs. The windows open come the June Entry Draft and extend until August 15th. This may explain Burke’s intimation that he will not approach either Pavel Kubina or Tomas Kaberle about waiving, he may not ultimately have to. However, I speculate that Burke will still aware Tomas Kaberle or Pavel Kubina of an available deal should one arise as a way of simply “presenting an option.” Based on today’s report on TSN, it seems Kaberle wouldn’t stand in the way of a potential deal.

Tomas Kaberle can be traded as of the Entry Draft to any NHL club. Pavel Kubina has a list of pre-specified teams which unfortunately I couldn’t discover the identities of.

I also managed to confirm with Brian Burke that the Leafs’ conditional sixth rounder involved in yesterday’s trade will only change hands if he re-signs Brad May before or on July 1st.

Edited January 9, 2009 by Drifter_2000

[Plubby]

Oh man, if you aren't a Leafs fan, you'll want to watch the Avs/Hawks highlights, Raycroft made two absolutely MIRACULOUS saves.

[Clawson]

Grabovski got three games but he also said this gem:

"I think he is not Belarussian now, he is French because I never fight with Belarussian guys," Grabovski said. "I don't know why he wants to fight with me. If he wants to fight, we'll go in the street and every minute of every day I'll wait for him and we'll fight."

"He's not smart, because the older Kostitsyn, Andrei, he never fights with me and he never will fight because he plays hockey, he plays the game," he said. "I think it's stupid."

Then Sergei manages to sound like a whiny two year old:

"He talks too much in the Russian papers about me and my brother," Kostitsyn said of his elder brother and teammate Andrei.

Waaahhhh....Grabs stole my toys.

Edited January 9, 2009 by Clawson

[The Sultan of Swank]

I like how grabs'. Mouthing off is a gem omgodZors he called him french buuuuurrrnnnn but sergei essentially explaining part of the bad blood is whining and crying...

In any case classon and I aren't going to agree, I call grabs a bitch cause of his conduct throughout the game. Clawson will defend him and call the kostitsyns the sisters.... Which means with 4 points between them last night toronto got beat by little girls.

It's hard to argue with clawson because he and I both defend our teams emotionally so this should probably end or we take a day to settle... Either way I'm not surprised if he says my response is avoiding his... Which was peltetty much the same thing he said earlier... I agreed that if kostitsyn came from the bench than he deserves what he gets, I was arguing that grabs acted like an emotional child throughout the game and that's why he's a disgrace. The league seems to agree having suspended him

[Toe]

3 games for Grabovski. More talk about Kubina and Kaberle being traded. I think this team is now ready to start REALLY losing.

[Clawson]

I didn't say anywhere that Grabs wasn't being a bitch Basha. I was just saying you're Pot.Kettle.Blacking Grabs when Kostityn also got two ten minute misconducts.

And the suspension is just for the little shove he gave the official after the official knocked him over.

Edited January 9, 2009 by Clawson

[IAceI]

Sergei didn't sound like a whiny two year old at all. He's more than likely been asked and if you ask me, replied pretty much in the best way he could. He kept it short and didn't get drawn into a petty argument or "call out" to fight him in the streets or whatever.

If I was in his position I would have said exactly the same I'd imagine.

On the match, I've seen the goals... it took quite a while but I did finally get through them all, including some highlights such as Moore missing the empty net. Two things I picked up on... Kostopolous seems to be the sacrificial punching bag, half the times I see him he's scrapping and then ends up on his backside.

Second thing is... why didn't they tie Toskala to the goalposts to stop him going walkabouts repeatedly?

And despite being a Hab, I did laugh when Schenn just launched Plekanec out from in front of the goal, then trapped the puck with his leg. It was pretty funny, but probably only because we won comfortably. Had we lost 2-1 - you can imagine I would be bouncing right about now.

And oh my God. I made a post about hockey and am a Habs fan, what a rookie mistake.

[The Sultan of Swank]

If toronto still wants Higgins, I'll take Kaberle. I'd love him on my team. He was the only really solid player I thought last night... I mean Toskala played like crap, the offense wasn't helping out much for the D and yeah, that's a big burden for him to take on. The only knock against him is how ghostly pale he is, yet how dark his hair is haha. It creeps me out.

[Toe]

If toronto still wants Higgins, I'll take Kaberle. I'd love him on my team. He was the only really solid player I thought last night... I mean Toskala played like crap, the offense wasn't helping out much for the D and yeah, that's a big burden for him to take on. The only knock against him is how ghostly pale he is, yet how dark his hair is haha. It creeps me out.

Does Gainey think he needs Kaberle enough to dump his first round pick?

[Gabriel]

If toronto still wants Higgins, I'll take Kaberle. I'd love him on my team. He was the only really solid player I thought last night... I mean Toskala played like crap, the offense wasn't helping out much for the D and yeah, that's a big burden for him to take on. The only knock against him is how ghostly pale he is, yet how dark his hair is haha. It creeps me out.

Does Gainey think he needs Kaberle enough to dump his first round pick?

If I'm Bob Gainey, I'm looking at me team and thinking "There's only one issue we really need to address before we can reclaim dominance in the East... and it's that we need someone to kick our Powerplay in the ass."

Tomas Kaberle is that guy. I'm thinking that a first rounder and a minor leaguer, maybe even a 3rd or 4th line roster player... I think that's a logical, realistic, and acceptable trade.

Montreal can go all the way in the Eastern Conference... they can... but not without producing on the PP. Kaberle is a calculated risk that could really push them over the top.

[Toe]

To me, I think they need a bomber on the blueline for the powerplay. Markov is the passer and has a good shot, but they need someone with a heavy shot like Streit and Souray did.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Well exactly half of Kaberle's points in his career have come on the powerplay. I think he could do a pretty good job. Also, it would cost less than going after a guy like Jay Bouwmeester, and there's like 15 teams after him. Kaberle will generate interest, but will cost less, and cost less to re-sign.

[Plubby]

You can have Ruslan Salei, but you'd have to pay through the nose for him

Edited January 10, 2009 by Plubby

[Toe]

I am getting pretty psyched for the trade deadline for the Leafs. Should be entertaining. I hope we come out of it with at least 2 first round draft picks in tow.

[Toe]

The KHL is weird.

So this is a league that is supposed to compete with the NHL, and this kind of stuff goes on their. Hmmmmm.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

They're trying to compete with Ballard firing Roger Neilson and telling him he could have his job back if he wore a paper bag over his head, surely?

[Only In Dreams]

Shanahan sign's with Devils.

[Reddaye]

Watching Jeff Carter score tonight made me hate Kaberle just a little bit.