I concur on the shootout. A terrible way to decide a game. Athletes–especially professional athletes–should decide the game by playing the game. A shooting contest is not the game. Play the game, until someone wins and someone loses. Or, be content with a tie. Either way, don’t resort to a gimmick.
I thought that one saving grace of the shootout would be to get rid of the point for an overtime loss, because there is no longer any incentive to play for the tie in overtime. But NOOOOOO, we have to have them both :rolleyes:
Heh, sorry 'bout that. You should’ve known better though. Yzerman go out like clutching his eye? Forget about it! 
Not A Tame Lion, don’t worry too much about San Jose. They’ll get past the loss of Rathje and be one of the few teams left mostly intact after the layoff. That will give them an advantage over the teams adding new players left and right. You also can’t rule out a team with Nabakov in the net.
I also wonder if the addition of all of these players is going to have as big an impact on teams as the teams think. The loss of certain players will be more of an impact than the gain of others. It is nice to see teams like Chicago and Boston spending money though.
And of course noone wants to lose the point for overtime. :rolleyes: That way everyone’s a winner when the game ties. :dubious: I don’t like the shootout either. I’m not sold on the trapezoidal region where the goalies can play the puck. I don’t like the automatic suspension for a fight in the last five minutes, but I blame Bertuzzi for that.
This is probably the best sports FA period ever! It’s like a fantasy draft where small as well as big teams are making splashes, Forsberg to Philly, Holik to Atlanta, Niedermeyer to Anahiem (ouch, still hurts saying that), Allison to Toronto, Kariya to Nashville, Foote to Columbus.
As for my team, I have a feeling the Devils will be VERY hard hit in trying to replace Scotty Niedermeyer. We’ll groom Rafalski for the role, but he just isn’t as good. And while Malakov and McGillis are decent, eh… Lou doesn’t usually go for the big names, but a splash signing would be nice right about now.
Go Buffalo Sabres! (oh wait, they’re gonna suck again this year…)
Boston has been doing their best to underwhelm. Going into and coming out of the lockout, they were basically in the best position of everyone - they anticipated what happened, they planned generally for that scenario, and they emerged with basically the whole salary cap to work with. They led the fan base to believe that when the big talent started flying around that no one could afford, we’d be adding it here to go with what we had and to make a run at the cup while everyone else was still just trying to clear out salaries.
Well, so far, we’ve resigned Glen Murray for four years, we have the 83-year-old Leetch for a year, we have Zhamnov, and if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to talk Samsonov and Big Joe into staying here for the long term. We missed out on Forsberg, Modano, Pronger, and all sorts of other good talent that can actually play in the playoffs (who cares if Forsberg misses 20-40 games, as long as he’s there to give his point and a half a game and his winning attitude when the playoffs come around - he’s a BARGAIN at the price Philly is paying him). We came into the situation in the best position, and we’re going to come out of it with another team that can lead the league in points and then get upset in the first round by a hot goalie. We have lost Gonchar, Nylander, LaPointe, and other key players (when Montreal upset us in the playoffs the last time they actually played them, Nylander was the best Bruins player in that series). So basically business as usual, unless the kids (Bergeron, Boynton, Raycroft, others) do even better than expected (and oh are the expectations high after the debuts of those three) and everything else falls into place.
On the other hand, on WEEI the last couple of days (the insanely popular New England sports-talk-radio station), with the World Champion Red Sox in first place, the World Champion Patriots starting training camp, and the Celtics trading away Antoine Walker… the majority of the callers have been wanting to talk about the Bruins and the general NHL signings. This whole thing is generating a buzz that’s almost hard to believe, given that the league was given up for dead after missing the season.
And Osgood is back with the wings
Yeah, he is far from the best goalie in the NHL, but he’s a Red Wing damnit. That’s all that matters.
He’s also a bargain. His last season with St. Louis was an aberration. They hung him out to dry half the time and a team with Jackman, Pronger, and MacInnis should not be doing that to a goalie.
I am definitely more excited about the new season.
One of the players who played for us in the ECHL has signed a one year contract with Tampa Bay. I’ll be keeping a little closer eye on the NHL this year than I have before, but I still love minor league hockey.
Oh yeah!!!
My AHL team moved to Peoria this offseason… much anger at the formerly beloved ranks of minor league hockey :mad:
Are there any Capitals fans out there?
I mean, by Og, they’re going to be awful this year. According to tsn.ca, they’ve only spent 7.9 million so far plus 5 undisclosed contracts. Big pickups so far?
Miroslav Zalesak
Ben Clymer
Chris Clark
Anyone have any insight into what the Caps are doing?
I’m just checking out to see who could prevent the Leafs from finishing last.
Come on down and watch SPHL hockey with us! We took the Championship the first season of the league so we’ll be raising the banner October 21st.
I sure would like a Tampa Bay road trip this year…
Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I don’t think that the Leafs are going to be a contender this year, but I still expect them to be in the running for a playoff spot, and I’m a huge Sens fan. There are still too many bad teams in the East for the Leafs to drop out yet, as long as Belfour has a half-decent year.
Well, I’m counting on Belfour breaking down halfway through the year and the Leafs having to rely on Tellqvist. Maybe he continued his improvement in Sweden during the lockout but he doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me.
But still, Carolina, Buffalo, New York (Rangers) and Washington will still be worse than the Leafs this year. At my most optimistic right now, with the way the team looks, I can’t see them being anything higher than a 7 or 8. So it just a bit of hyperbole on my part.
As a Sens fan, how concerned are you with Hasek and his age and injury problems? Is Emery going to be the backup? I thought it was a bad move to let Prusek leave. He got $625,000 from Columbus, I feel that he could’ve stayed in Ottawa for that amount.
Our goaltending will make or break our season. If Hasek can hold up, I think that we’re the Cup favourites. If Hasek can’t do it, we will flame out in the first round, again.
As for Emery vs. Prusek, they’ve both got potential but neither has accomplished much. They don’t seem to have any kind of consistency. We let Prusek go because Muckler is very high on Emery, but it was only a couple years ago that we traded Jani Hurme away because Muckler thought Prusek was going to be the next Hasek. At least Hurme was reliable(before he ran into those back problems with Atlanta, that is).
Anticipating next years draft. Then they’ll be anticipating the year afters draft. Repeat for a few more years.
If you really want to be positive (positive bordering on delusional), they are saving their money for next year when players like Lecavalier and Thornton become unrestricted free agents.
Bordering on delusional? I think that’s way past and you should probably be looking for a shrink. There is absolutely no way that I can see any player of the level of Thornton or Lecavalier going to the Caps, who have absolutely no chance of winning anything substantial any time soon.
Excluding the number one pick, of course.
You do realize that the penguins and the blackhawks have signed free agents right? I’ve got three reasons why a player would go to the Caps.
1)$
2)$$
3)$$$
With Thornton I can give a fourth reason. From everything I’ve heard he is tired of Boston. I think if he does sign this year, it will be for one year so he can be a free agent next year. That means next year he will go to whoever has the cash.
I really don’t think it will happen, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.
And Hell Kariya has signed with Nashville. Obviously money is a big factor and most FAs see things as a new-ish beginning.
Easy with the Penguin bashing!