NHL Discussion Thread

Instead of having a whole bunch of little NHL oriented threads going I thought it would be more convienient to have it in one place. I'll start:

Tonights Scores

Tampa Bay Lightning 1
New York Rangers 6

New York Islanders 3
Florida Panthers 0

Detroit Red Wings 4
Montreal Canadiens 2

Philadelphia Flyers 1
New Jersey Devils 1

Columbus Blue Jackets 0
Dallas Stars 4

Calgary Flames 2
Edmonton Oilers 3

Colorado Avalanche 3
Vancouver Canucks 4

Phoenix Coyotes 1
Anaheim Might Ducks 1

Pittsburgh Penguins 2
San Jose Sharks 3

My Rant: Calgary (my team) played very, very poorly tonight. They were losing all the battles on the boards and couldn't clear the defensive zone. On the bright side, Don Hay made the right decision to pull Vernon after the first 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. However, I may have yanked him after the second goal. Braithwaite played extremely well in relief, allowing no goals. Calgary cranked it up in the last 3 minutes scoring two goals and almost tying up the game. Hopefully, the fact that they didn't play well at all for the first 57 minutes and had a great final 3 minutes (including a PP goal) and lost by only one goal may spur them on to have a great game against Minnesota on Saturday.

Feel free to post your thoughts about this game, any other game or anything hockey related.

See last post.

 

This topic shall die a quick death like most hockey threads.

On a lighter note, we beat the best team in the NHL tonight. Ed Jovanovski was great.

 

I'll try to keep it going, I'll try to post the results of every game every night. Well turn these JCers into hockey fans yet.

 

Go Wings!

 

I'm a Habs fan living in Toronto, which used to be fun. My boys used to always be superior to the once-hapless Leafs. Now the tables are turned and I'm surrounded by hostile Leaf fans. AAAAACKKK!

Of course, I'm not too worried. The Leafs are the Chicago Cubs of hockey. They may have good teams once in a while, but they eventually blow it and never make the finals. All the sellout crowds in the world can't help them apparently. Heh heh heh heh...

Bite me, Leaf fans! We shall rise again and fulfill our "At least one Cup per decade" destiny. Bet on that.

33 years and counting... Ho-hum....

 

You should get along well with Major Mannon. He is a Hamiltonian Hab fan that goes to school near Toronto.

Thank Jebus Turgeon is all right. He scared the crap out of me the other night. That would have made 3 years in a row with a serious injury.

 

The Penguins will have no success this year because of one thing. They can't win a face-off. If you don't get the puck, you can't score goals. It's simple really.

 

Go Rangers!

 

The Pens are coming to Vancouver on Friday. Hope it's a decent game (the Canucks may be hung over).

 

Well, the Sharks taught them who was in charge. Damphousse won every face off and I think Pens won one in the entire game, after the game winning goal had been scored. (alot of good a face off does for you with 12 seconds left in the game)

Aubin was great, but if the face offs don't turn around, they're gonna lose a lot of games. I expect the Canucks should be able to trounce them too....

 

I'm mad at the Devils.
I wanted them to blow at the Flyers like they've been to all teams at home!

DarthNut,
the nuttiest guy around.

 

The hallmark of a bad team is that they often play well against good teams and suck against bad ones. A good team has to have a killer instinct. Dunno re the Canucks; we'll see. Are the Pens playing it open? I like to see lots of end-to-end action.

 

Go Blues! They've got Scott Young who seems to be a good player so far. Also go Red wings! My two favorite teams even though they play each other all the time.

 

Let me start this response in typical fan fashion...


LET'S GO RED WINGS!!!!

OK, now that that's out of the way...what is the deal with the Southeast division? The last 2 years only one team has made the playoffs (the division winner), and this season, they're all under .500. Are all 5 teams THAT bad?

Martin Lapointe is on pace for 50 goals this year. His previous best is 16. Who lit a fire under his arse? Everyone should write him in on the all-star ballot...

I feel sorry for Ron Tugnutt. He is an awesome goalie, and he's stuck on the Columbus roster. When contract negotiations come around, his stats won't bear out just how good he really is...

Patrick Roy broke Terry Sawchuk's career win record, but it won't stand for too long. Martin Brodeur has 249 wins in only 8 seasons, and is only 28. Chris Osgood has 200 in that span, and will be 28 later this month. Both are getting at least 30 a year. Do the math...

Jeremy Roenick said in an interview about Mike Keenen's hiring in Boston that he would play for Keenen in an instant. Roenick, who grew up in the Boston area, is an unrestricted free agent after this season...

OK, that's it for now...

 

Just remember, Roy has more than a few seasons left in him. He's not the greatest goalie of all time, but he's way up there. (top 5? discuss)

Top 5 (no order)

Terry Sawchuk
Patrick Roy
Jacques Plante
Ken Dryden
Georges Vezina

Yeah, I know your list is better than mine.

 

I don't debate Roy's talent...he is the best goalie of his era, as well as my second favorite hockey player of all time (see the sig for #1). But there are guys from the new generation that will catch and pass him...

 

Osgood and Brodeur have to remain on winning teams their whole careers, like Roy has. Chances are Brodeur will, but the Wings are going to have to start infusing young talent in or they are going to have to rebuild from scratch in a couple years. Personally, I don't think anyone will catch Roy. I wouldn't be surprised if he got up to around 550.

We're now in November. That means Phoenix has another good month ahead of them before they start their annual nosedive. And the Blues have another 5.

 

Happy Fun Maul is absolutly right. Roy will get a good number of more wins under his belt before he turns his skates in. His record will be very hard to beat.

 

but it will be passed, and perhaps even by someone like Brodeur.



Zaz, the Pens are a European team, so yes they are pretty open. But, I must admit that their defense is MUCH better than I would have expected this year. They were even standing the Sharks up at the Blue Line a bit.

One of the fun things about the Pens this year is the way they are approaching special teams. Jagr is out there killing penalties now, trying to create offensive opportunities on the short hand. And on the Power Play, I've seen them put 4 or five forwards out on the line. So yeah, they're pretty open. They've still got amazing passing skills and any team with Jagr is a potential offensive threat.

 

I still don't think he will be passed. Too many variables. Injuries. Teams going in the crapper.

Yeah, the Pens are open. But, didn't Jagr come out and say basically that "we suck?" And I think that was before the NJ game. Aubin can play well, but their defense isn't getting any better. At the blue line or from the forwards.

 

You know I've watched four games so far this season. Their defense actually has looked pretty good in the games I've seen. The biggest problem I see them overcoming is that they can't win a face off. In the Sharks game they won maybe two the entire game. YOu can't win games like that.

 

I'm a little but biased here but because Roy was my favourite player growing up but I doubt anyone will break his record for a while. The only current player that I think has a chance is Brodeur but he has to stay healthy and stay on a good team. I can't see Osgood doing it, for one thing I don't think he's very good and the Wings are going downhill.

 

Heh, I guess you didn't see the New Jersey game. I think it's bad when your star player says that your team sucks.

Major, you just repeated everything I said. Stop stealing my material.

 

Osgood is a decent goalie. But he's on the downslope (IMHO) of his career. He'll be a journeyman goalie within two or three years.

Brodeur is definitely the best goalie of the current crop and the has the best chance of taking out Roy, but it will stake him another 8-10 years before we'll know if he's close.

 

That's not true, the first sentence was all mine.

HFM, are you in the fantasy league this year?