He is back, and apparently is bugging his buddy Kariya to come back for another kick at the cat...Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
Teemu will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame eventually...we just have to get him to stay retired long enough!!!!
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He is back, and apparently is bugging his buddy Kariya to come back for another kick at the cat...Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
Teemu will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame eventually...we just have to get him to stay retired long enough!!!!
Selänne-Koivu-Kariya line could work pretty well, especially as second powerplay line :up:
Where do you think Antti Niemi will end up as Blackhawks are long gone now Mark ??
Come on, the guys are too old and Saku played really badly in the Olympics next to Teemu.Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
I have no idea, but there are enough teams needing a decent goalie. The thing is though, many don't believe Niemi is a top flight goaltender, but he wants to make the money. The whole culture of what goalies are worth to teams is changing. With the cap, some teams are thinking a great team with an ok goalie ( such as the Hawks ) is a winning formula. Detroit proved that over the years when Osgood won a cup for them. A good, but not great goalie. Great goalies demand max money and handcuff the GM in filling out the rest of the roster with the cap.Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
Niemi has to lower his expectations ( unfairly in my opinion...he has a Stanley Cup ring, he cannot be a bad goalie ) and find a team that needs an upgrade.
Right now, I haven't heard any sure bets for him...
They would be a 3rd line now.....I wouldn't put that many 35 plus guys on one line....I would spread them out..and use them sparingly....Quote:
Originally Posted by DexDexter
Olympics are different game than NHL games. I'm not sure if you followed last season how Teemu and Saku played, especially near playoffs ?? Surely they won't be Ducks' first fist but they can give an excellent alternative to powerplay.Quote:
Originally Posted by DexDexter
Ok, but to me they need a young, energetic skater next to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
ExactlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
Thank you Nick Lidstrom for giving the Wings one more year of yourself.
Congrats to Stevie Yzerman for taking the GM job in Tampa Bay[farm club team out of Fraser,Mi.],and Thanks and congats for little Mikey Madono coming home at last for what could [and should] be his last year as a pro player.I always wanted him and Stevie to play together for one season.I guess I'll have to settle for against each other in the olympics a few years back.
Another season is quickly upon us!
So how do you rate this season’s teams, players?
As always, I have the utmost respect and confidence in the Habs :D . The key to their success will be staying healthy, especially their defensemen. Their powerplay takes a nose dive every time Markov gets injured. Gill and Spacek are key on the blue line as well.
The loss of Halak pretty much confirms Price as their number one goalie. Can’t see Auld getting much ice time.
New Jersey looks promising what with the signing of Kovalchuk. It remains to be seen if his huge salary will result in goals. Their new coach will be under pressure to make the best of it. As with Carey, I’ll be interested to see just how much ice time Brodeur gets (this surely is his last season!).
In the West, look for the Sedin bothers to impress for the Knuckleheads. Luango will have to be solid, especially for what he’s being paid. The team will suffer a bit early in the season without Salo, but still, look for them to be on top of the Western conference by season’s end.
The Ducks: Although they picked up a solid defenseman, Mara, from the Habs, it certainly won’t compensate for the loss of Niedermayer. Yes, Selanne is back, for now, but I still don’t see this team topping the western standings.
Sleeper of the season: Colorado Avalanche, although Mueller could be used in the lineup sooner than later.
Ahh… don’t you just love armchair management :D
I'm going to see the friday game in Helsinki, I think it's Minnesota and...another NHL teal... don't remeber what. :D
Carolina. Sorry :p :Quote:
Originally Posted by janneppi
News Flash:------ Toronto Maple Leafs are in a first place tie.
The fact the season hasn't started may explain that.
They will be lucky to make the playoffs yet again.
Even the Toronto papers did not have them winning the Stanley Cup in Sept. as they usually do.
It occurs to me that the Leafs are now the only Original Six team not to have won the Cup since League Expansion.
That's your problem my friend. You don't see !!! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by schmenke
Ducks will be my first pick for any game ! Ducks is the new Habs :p
Well, schmenke, I guess it's always easy for a Habs fan to ignore the Caps and the Penguins, even if Stahl is out for a few months. Still not quite as rosy-tinted-glasses-wearing as the Leafs fans.
I agree the Canucks have a shot again in the West, but the Sharks will surely be the team to beat IMO.
Do HAVE to bring that up? Heck...is it not bad enough we had to suffer through 23 years of Ballard???Quote:
Originally Posted by edv
The Leafs just MIGHT make the playoffs. Unlike many other locals in the area, I am smart enough to realize that this team is rebuilding...but any time you have Giggy in net, you have a shot of winning a few games.
My final four, and I think I said this to Swoop in a private message will likely be Washington and Pittsburgh in the east, and Chicago and Vancouver still in the West.
Sorry Shark fans, I have given up picking your team, Calgary fans sound like Leaf fans did when they thought THEY had a shot and didn't, and Hab and Senator fans? OH good lord, get over it.....you are NOT that good either....
Montreal I saw as Team Smurf, save Hal Gill last year and I still see them as that. Small fast players that lose their way in the heavy going; and I fail to see how they got better when the guy who took them to the final 4 is in St. Louis. Ya dumped the WRONG goalie!
Sharks surely will be an interesting one to follow. The level of offence we all know and now they are relying on Niittymäki and Niemi as goalies.
What do you think about Oilers and the revolution of rookies ??
Nittymaki and Niemi could be great goalies, or wilt under the pressure. There is nothing in Nittymaki's past that says he is in the first rank of goalies but in the NHL, being just good can work if the team up front can do the job.Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
As for the Oilers, I think they are 2 or 3 years away providing they let the kids get better, and make some prudent trades of players who are not helping but are hurting them. Getting something for Sheldon Souray is priority one. Getting rid of Pisani and a few other under achieving players and getting something of value back would help.
That said, they have an interesting group of young players there now...and then added Taylor Hall....
Tonight it starts and Wild is playing against Hurricanes near me.... and I'm not there :mark:
Yep, totally agree. The team now effectively is a one-goalie team. At least they also dumped that useless Latendresse :s .Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
The Blues definitely got the better end of that deal. Along with Conklin, the team has a solid goalie lineup. Speaking of Blues, Brad Boyes had a miserable season last year. I always thought he was one of the league's underrated centres. In fact, with others like Backes and McDonald, they have quite a bit of depth to their team. Look for the Blues to be a surprise sleeper this season.
The Flames are an embarassement. The Sutters have to go. Re-signing Jokkinen and Tanguay (the Calgary Herald called this the C-quel :D ) is a sign that management doesn't have a clue what they're doing. They need to hire some fresh young energetic players who have drive an motivation. Only a handfull of the current players are under the age of 30. Dinosaurs like Iginla , Conroy, Langkow, etc have to go. Heck even newly acquired Brendan Morrison is 35!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
Another embarassement is Jay Boumeester who was signed a year ago for (I believe) a two year contract as an offensive defenseman, particularily to provide more offense on the PP. He scored 3 goals last year compared to his ~30 the previous season with Florida :mark: . He is the third highest paid Flames this season at $6.6M!!! Heck Iginla is paid $7M. Compare that to the $1.4M that Bourque is being paid and you know something is wrong with management. Bourque (and Kipper) kept that team from desending into the cellar last year.
The team will struggle to maintain a .500 record this season and will not make the playoffs.
<schmenke rant over :D >
Watching Wild vs. Hurricanes live on tv......
I just read an interview from OJ. Seems that this season is do-or-die for Jokinen even he himself said he has two years to show he is a player...
I don't know.. I never liked the guy but it seems he has learned to be humble. It's be interesting to see if Iginla-Tangue-Jokinen line works... I truly hope it will.
Iginla is one of the best players in the league, but for whatever reason his linemates usually don't succeed around him the way you would expect. Not sure why this is, since Jarome is the consummate team guy.Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
Jokinen just seems to be a guy who hasn't learned how to fit in. I don't know why this is, he has the talent....
As for Tanguay, I just think he was overrated from the word go.
Schmenke, my other team to cheer for in the NHL has always been the Flames, so it pains me to see them doing a Leaf thing and keeping guys that are overrated, or worse yet; resigning them.
I think the Flames have to clean house in management and trade for younger players some of the old dead wood for sure. That said, I think you keep Iginla. He has proven over and over again he isn't the problem there, and he is the face of the franchise to the community. The guy can lead but for whatever reason, they keep sticking him with head cases and do nothings for teammates. Boumeester is a complete enigma, he should have been the player he was in Florida and more and yet he isn't. Getting all those Leafs probably doesn't help, although I do think Ian White was a great pickup as he was underrated by many....
As for your sleeper team in the West being the Blues, hear hear...i think you might be right...especially if Halak starts settling that back end down by playing steady and reliable...
Bloody heck, after last night, I just may swap my tri-couleurs for the blue and orange of the second Alberta team! :eek: (...nah ;) ).
Seriously the Oilers looked sharp. A pretty goal from Eberle for his first and Khabubilin put up his usual wall. Won't be long before Taylor Hall nets his first career too.
As for the Flames... well, read my previous post :s
As for the Habs... I hope Price has some body armor in his closet; he's gonna need it if he wants to walk the streets of Montreal :mark:
Oilers were all over the ice last night !!! Flames looked too big, too slow, too pathetic. :eek:
Don't worry, you didn't miss too much. First period was pretty good, but especially third period wasn't that good play. And I hated the crowds.Quote:
Originally Posted by A.F.F.
But thing that really get's me is the price of the tickets, 100Eur for normal ticket, if I hadn't got the ticket for free, I'd be miffed at how expensive it is.
How about those Ducks, eh !!!
:mark:
I hear you Janneppi. The ticket prizes were the reason I wasn't there :down:
Detroit with a nice win v the Ducks, and a goal for Mike Modano.....
Pavel Datsuyk in a fight, twice....?????? What's going on???
Welcome Home Mikey:Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
Get ready for the new look WINGS.
If only a steady connection in net. As good as they are they seem wishy washy on some days.
Yeah....what still comes to that Wings game, it was still nice to see Modano at the speed. In the end he may not have so many years left to play. Then again the Datsuyk fight.. the one with Perry was kinda normal in my guess. We saw how Perry can be at the olympics and it really wasn´t the first time for him.
Ducks by the way down at the moment for my favourite team,the Blues :P . Very happy for that,even when somehow once again I think that a new goalie can´t save our team from falling a bit when the season progresses but a good start for the season is important and I really hope to see the Blues to get into playoffs. Lets go Blues!
Good job Minnesota over the Oilers last night. Two for Koivu and one for Miettinen :) .
The Flames are still waiting for the defense to show up for a game :s
Leafs lead the League at 3-0!
In other news, pigs were seen flying and Satan was seen buying a parka....
now 4-0 and I saw some red dude with a rather sulphuric smell trying on skates down at the Sport Chek...Quote:
Originally Posted by edv
That all said, I am going to just wait because I don't know if I can watch all this bacon flying around.....without getting hungry...
Clarke McArthur now leads the league in goals as of Saturday afternoon..
McArthur!???? WTF???
It's really fun to read differrent season previews, I've read three of them and in all of them they predicted Leafs via dolorosa from the very start of the season :D
Now what ?? They lead the whole frigging league ...
Rangers off to a bad start...eurgh.
Definitely surprised by Toronto. Another surprise has been Tim Thomas. I figured 2008-2009 was a career year and he'd never be at his peak, but now it looks like he's going to take the number one spot back from the highly-hyped Tuukka Rask. Nothing against Rask, he has a lot of talent, but his performance against the Flyers was less than inspiring and he's getting shown up by the guy they were trying to trade. Bruins have some spark this year, though. Even Ryder's playing well and Shawn Thornton's on pace to score 27 this year ;)
Still early in the season, and I imagine a lot of the standings to shake up (thanks, Captain Obvious), but it's certainly been interesting. I'm so glad hockey season's back. :)
Oh, I thought you meant Miroslav Satan....... ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by edv
Battle of the Finns last night in Nashville, but Kiprusoff came out on top. Good goal by Bourque :up: .
Rough night for Luango in Minnesota. What's up with Rypien? :s
Few interesting games today when we look the standings.. I also wonder will the Canucks finally find something to show against Chicago and will Buffalo also wake up a bit against Atlanta.
What comes to Rypien,specially as the NHL rules were tightened for this season for things against the fans, I expect him to get some games off for sure and some bonus too. The fans isn´t always the nicest ones but still you really should keep it calm.
Also as I predicted with my favs,the Blues.. them has already started to fall back a bit but still plays some tight games. Halak have been surprisingly good so far and has been saving even some points but in my mind the biggest problem is still the defense as even at earlier years. Sometimes its amazing how the opponent can roll the puck just infront of the goalie and use a dozen of rebounds to score.
One more to Bobby Hull Teemu :hot:
Looks like Brodeur remembered to take his Geritol last night. He looked impressive agains the Hab(less).