The NHL Thread 09-10 Season

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Fucking Oilers are missing half of their first two lines and they're doing better than when everyone was healthy. God I miss the Oil's glory days.

OHHHHHHHHHHHH PAT QUINN'S GONNA BE AWESOME, FUCK CRAIG MCTAVISH, HE'S THE WORST EVER!

I just want to punch all the people that seemed to think the blame was soley McTavish's.
 
Cam Ward was back in the net for Carolina last night. Gave up 3 goals, but still looked pretty good all things considered. Still didn't stop a 4-2 loss. Freaking Brodeur, we would have faced better if they just put a brick wall up against the net.
 
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Chazwozel

I'll tell you Billy Guerin is probably the greatest mid-season deadline purchase in NHL history though. He really stuck it out.
from http://twitter.com/evgeninabokov
# I is feeling most bad for whomever team get Billy Guerin. We have Guerin problem two years back. Lucky, Ehrhoff kill him with slapshot! 2:37 PM Mar 2nd from web
[/QUOTE]
That's not the real Evgeni Nabokov, and the Sharks suck dick regardless of who they blame for sucking dick.
 
of course it isn't the real one, and the Sharks are like the Buffalo Bills of the late 80s and early 90s, with the exception of making it to the Finals.
 
The Blackhawks are fun to watch this year, win or lose. Mostly win, though.

Never before has the death of an owner been such a good thing for a franchise.
 
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Chazwozel

The Blackhawks are fun to watch this year, win or lose. Mostly win, though.

Never before has the death of an owner been such a good thing for a franchise.

I am going to laugh if the Blackhawks get to the Stanley Cup finals, only to lose and trade off the bad luck charm that is Marian Hossa.
 
The Blackhawks are fun to watch this year, win or lose. Mostly win, though.

Never before has the death of an owner been such a good thing for a franchise.

I am going to laugh if the Blackhawks get to the Stanley Cup finals, only to lose and trade off the bad luck charm that is Marian Hossa.[/QUOTE]

If that happens I hope someone is able to film the exact moment he realizes it and makes his "it's all happening again!" face.
 
oh look the red wings won another game because of a hired gun free agent they could sign only because they are the detroit red wings
Bertuzzi? He's a shadow of a echo of a shell of the player he once was, anyone could have signed him this year.

And the more I see of Ovechin, the more and more he convinces me that he is a terrible hockey player.
 
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Chazwozel

oh look the red wings won another game because of a hired gun free agent they could sign only because they are the detroit red wings
Bertuzzi? He's a shadow of a echo of a shell of the player he once was, anyone could have signed him this year.

And the more I see of Ovechin, the more and more he convinces me that he is a terrible hockey player.[/QUOTE]

Ovechin's thought process:

I skate fast to net.

I pretend to almost crash goalie.

I score. I hot shit.

His game isn't at all about finesse, it's about having a laser precision cannon slapshot, which is why I fucking hate how Versus and NBC cover Caps vs. Pens games and ALWAYS compare Crosby to Ovechin. They have completely (and I mean completely) different styles of play.
 
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Qonas

Yes, Crosby is a whiny bitch while Ovechkin is the best in the game right now.

Also it's awesome how the Red Wings are somehow the Yankees, when there's a salary cap. Also where did Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson go again? I somehow forgot. Clearly it must be to the throwing money around, buy everyone up Yankee Wings!
 
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Chazwozel

Yes, Crosby is a whiny bitch while Ovechkin is the best in the game right now.

Also it's awesome how the Red Wings are somehow the Yankees, when there's a salary cap. Also where did Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson go again? I somehow forgot. Clearly it must be to the throwing money around, buy everyone up Yankee Wings!
Well there are team rivalries and then there are the Red Wings. Everyone but Red Wings fans hate the Red Wings.

There's a salary cap, but all the loser free agents try to squeeze out a Stanley Cup with the Dead Wings.

Grape Ape is hardly the best in the game. If anything I'd rank John Traveres and Mike Richards as the top contenders with Crosby.
 
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Qonas

And Hossa being the proverbial bad luck charm for his team is ridiculously, ridiculously annoying.



So Chuck. Chaz. What you're telling me is that, in a SALARY CAP LEAGUE, there is a team that acts like the Yankees? That poaches the best and brightest from every team to win championship after championship? And that team is the Red Wings?

Why, of course!!! It makes so much sense!! After all, the Red Wings have won the most Stanley Cups of any team in NHL history!!! And their payroll is absolutely ginormous and towers over the second-highest spending team!!!! They don't draft and develop players at all, they just wait for a player to be good on another team and then sign them in free agency!!!!














Yeah, no. This is a blue collar team for a blue collar town. Detroit is almost unique among sports towns, equalled only by Pittsburgh and Green Bay and Seattle (regarding basketball). Their sports teams reflect the character of their citizens. Detroit is not rich. Detroit is not glamorous. Detroit is not master of anything, or dominating over anyone. Any marginal success the city or its citizens achieve, they get through their own hard work and perserverance. Yet you want to throw all these Yankee qualities on to the signature Detroit team? You want to claim Detroit spends money like water? That Detroit poaches everyone else? That in doing so, Detroit dominates championships and makes things uneven in the league?

HARDLY. Look at the facts and the stats. Montreal has hoisted the Cup the most, not Detroit. The NHL has entered a salary cap era, meaning NO TEAM can outspend another. And the star players for Detroit are not poached, high-priced free agents; they are DRAFTED or picked-up-after-being-cut developmental players who have come up through the Red Wing developmental system: Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Holmstrom, Kronwall, Cleary, Franzen, and so on. NONE of them are your Johnny Damons or A-Rods. Oh, wait, the amazing Todd Bertuzzi!!!!!! Who after scoring 4 goals in two games, has a total of 6 goals for the season!! Signed for a paltry one-year contract and if he's your glitzy free agency signing, obviously your team has no pretenses toward Hollywood.

So, Red Wings equalling the Yankees? Not even. Get over yourselves and your perception of this team.
 
The Red Wings are like the Yankees in that veteran/experienced players sign with them in the hopes of winning championships. The Yankees have the advantage of being able to offer top level players obscene amounts of money with the chance at a championship, the Red Wings lure players with reputation. The Red Wings don't spend loads to bring in players, the players are willing to take pay cuts to play for them. I say that shows more about the character of hockey players. Baseball does have a luxury tax, the Yankees (and Red Sox) bring in enough revenue they can afford to pay the fines. According to wikipedia, the Detroit Tigers and LA Angels are the only other teams to pay the luxury tax.
 
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Qonas

The Red Wings are like the Yankees in that veteran/experienced players sign with them in the hopes of winning championships. The Yankees have the advantage of being able to offer top level players obscene amounts of money with the chance at a championship, the Red Wings lure players with reputation. The Red Wings don't spend loads to bring in players, the players are willing to take pay cuts to play for them. I say that shows more about the character of hockey players. Baseball does have a luxury tax, the Yankees (and Red Sox) bring in enough revenue they can afford to pay the fines. According to wikipedia, the Detroit Tigers and LA Angels are the only other teams to pay the luxury tax.
Now, these are arguments that make some kind of sense. Meaning, they aren't generic neanderthal "hurrrf-a-durffff Wings = Yankees BOOOO" nonsense.

1) Can't argue the veteran players signing for less based on reputation. That's in fact one of the reasons that Kenny Holland is looked at as one of the best general managers of all of sports; he's able to negotiate that kind of thing, where 95% of other teams aren't. The question after this, however, becomes just how good are those veteran players? Hossa racked up the points during the regular season, but where was he during the Stanley Cup Finals last year when the Wings needed him? And lets not talk about the Bertuzzi thing; he may have score 4 goals in 2 games back-to-back, but he's still Todd friggin' Bertuzzi. Now Rafalski, Stuart, decent veteran free agent signings. But they aren't blockbuster Yankee-esque signings.

2) The Tigers have paid over on the luxury tax, yes, but poorly. This reflects upon the character of Mike Illitch, the owner, and the fans of the city of Detroit. Lemme explain.

We, in Detroit? We have nothing. The auto industry has crashed and burned; that was the one bright spot we HAD. Outside of it, the city is an urban cesspool of crime, underperforming public schools, and corruption. And as the city of Detroit goes, the state of Michigan goes. So everyone, regardless of geographical location within the state, is affected by the malaise and underperformance of the city. All we have is our sports. We obsess about them, probably way too much. Nonetheless that emotion, that feeling is still present. We've vaccinated ourselves against the Lions, thanks to near-centuries of frustration, but not so with the other sports. We count upon the Red Wings, the Tigers, Michigan Wolverines football, and Michigan State basketball. Most of all those Red Wings, as we are Hockeytown. We're an Original Six city, a founding city of North American hockey. Our general mood rises and falls as the fortunes of the Red Wings rise and fall. Second to that, however, is our Detroit Tigers. Mike Illitch owns them both. And where he has found success with the Red Wings, he has seen nothing but failure with the Tigers. You may count 2006 as a success, considering the Tigers made the playoffs, but look at their performance in that series. It was ABYSMAL. But Illitch? He, as much as any other blue collar Detroiter, wants to see championships in Detroit. He has the money, so he was willing to play the game in baseball in order to create a contending team. For that one year, he had the formula. But his general manager failed him. It wasn't spending the money that was the issue; it was giving the money to the wrong players. An 18 million dollar option to Magglio Ordonez, long-term big-money contracts to Brandon Inge, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and Dontrelle Willis. All of those contracts haunt the Tigers. So now? The Tigers are an utter shell of their former selves. They have had to trade their star developmental player, Curtis Granderson, as well as two of their three big free agent signings (Placido Polanco, Edwin Jackson) to the haves. Rendering the Tigers once again a have-not team.

Keep in mind the money spending was a new thing. Bolstered by the Red Wings' success, Illitch thought the same could happen for our Tigers. It didn't thanks to a less than intelligent general manager. But the reason money was spent wasn't out of arrogance, or a sense of entitlement. It was to bring some kind of accolades, of hope, of pride to a city that has literally nothing else to hang its hat upon. And that is why no Detroit team can ever be compared to those New York Yankees.
 
I know it's a salary cap league, I'm referring to the whole great players signing there JUST because they're the Red Wings. MOST of my hate is irrational rage/little brother syndrome/jealousy. Also, there's a sizable amount of people from Detroit in middle TN because a couple auto plants from up there moved into the area. So a good 10-20% of the crowd are Red Wings fans, which pisses me off.
 
I like to think that All-American, blue collar, Detroit-ians are pinning their hopes of sports success on Russians and Swedes.
 
A

Armadillo

Today in Ottawa, the Minnesota Wild's equipment van got into an accident and caught fire, destroying most if not all of the team's equipment: skates, pads, helmets, sticks, and so on. Assistant equipment managers are flying back to Minnesota in an attempt to get enough backup gear for Saturday night's game against the Senators.

They're going to have to break in all-new gear in the middle of the season. That fucking sucks. At least nobody was hurt.
 
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