Hey, NHL season started where is the thread for it?

So how about the defending champs losing 4-0 to the Devils last night. I thought it was going to be a damn good game, turns out I was wrong. Carolina played horrible and Devils just kicked there ass in every possible way.

Panthers absolutly destroyed Bruins last night, which I wasn't expecting. 8-3. Ouch bad way to start a season.

Cancuks beat the Blue jackets 3-2 and was a the beast game I watched out of these three listed. Good hockey.

But the best game I saw last night was Kings Vs. Ducks. This game was fast paced, good plays, rough and I just loved watching it. Defiently one of the better games and looks like the Ducks are a pretty decent team this year. Ducks won 4-3.

I laughed when DiPietro gave in 6 goals over 2 periods (9.00 GAA) in his first game after signing a 15 year contract.

Then I cried when I remembered I had him in my pool.

It was a internal cry though. Very suitable for a manly man.

Hey Fred, how about the Habs/Leafs game? I'll give it to ya, we had no business winning that game at all. I think the solution to the Raycroft riddle is to shoot up high.

Leafs look pretty good though. Good speed, good passing and boy can that Peca shut down a teams top line. After Higgins-Koivu-Ryder (our top line) scored a total of 4G 4A in the season opener against Buffalo, Peca made it incredibly difficult for our top line to go to work again.

Went to the Thrashers game last night for the 6-0 routing of the Panthers. Good game. I was also at the season opener against TB, I was ****ed that we lost in the shootout. Kovalchuk can't get a goal in a shootout to save his life. However, if it is regular game play and he gets a one-on-one, he never misses. I don't get it.

We are now 1-0-1.

Blue Jackets are going to the playoffs this year.

What was it the Flyers vs. Rangers game that went to like 13th round of shootouts? It was crazy, i kept expecting them to score but by the 6th round, I was like someone go 5-hole and where did the goal go through? 5-0. I knew it. hehe

I like the Blue Jackets. They're what good drafting can do to teams. They have a good young team. I wouldnt be surprised if they made it to the playoffs.



Yup. If im not mistaken, there was only 1 goal scored in the 13th round (27 shooters) and I think the only goal scored was the last one, which was the winner.

Rangers/Capitals hold the record for 15 rounds. Thats when Malik did the thing between his legs.

Im glad the Avs managed to finally win a game after losing their first two in over time. Im also glad that Svatos and Wolski have started picking up a few points so early in the season, we really need to offence now that Tanguay went to Calgary.

gonna sticky this and make it official!!

If the Leafs don't suck this year it will be because Raycroft returns to his Calder year form.

I noted that Schafer (SJ) cleared waivers. I guess the Leafs won't be moving Tellqvist then as there doesn't seem to be a market for backup goaltenders right now.

The problem is they don't even want to clear him because they would like Pogge to get the majority of starts in the AHL. Meanwhile, he's taking a roster spot.

Oh well, there's always the ECHL.

The Avs have always had great drafts. Svatos was standing out during the playoffs a couple years back. I can remember a few games he came off the bench for some wicked slapshot goals right into the upper right corners. Wolski has always been pretty impressive in the minors, so I'm glad he's finally getting a chance to prove his NHL skills.

I've come to the conclusion that Yahoo doesn't know crap about hockey.

They have John Pohl 2nd on Toronto's depth chart at centre:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/tor/depthchart

He isn't particularly young, he isn't particularly good either. He was one of those players that were "on the bubble" during training camp.

Wade Belak isn't Toronto's #4 defenceman even with Kubina out. Tellqvist is not our backup. He's being shopped while J.S. Aubin will get the odd start.

Yay! Another hockey season started, GO CANUCKS!

Wow. Detroit 9 Phoenix 2, i would not like to be Coyotes fan right about now. Glad to see the islanders get their first win, too bad DiPietro wasn't in goal.

Wasn't Dunham in net?

Yeah he was.

The Leafs collapsed against New Jersey. They were up 6-3 in the third and then... lost.

A decade of Coyote ugly
Phoenix's 10 years of skating in the sands of futility
Oct. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
DAMIEN COX

For this season, Phoenix Coyotes are wearing large patches on the right shoulders of their jerseys with the slogan "Decade in the Desert" to commemorate the passage of time since they made the move south from Winnipeg.

Well, the Coyotes might want to pick it up a bit, or it's not hard to see that slogan being mocked and twisted around a bit.

How about "Disaster in the Desert," or perhaps, "Doomed in the Desert?"

Halfway through a four-game road trip that will take them to Nashville this weekend and then on to St. Louis, Wayne Gretzky's crew is off to a wobbly 1-3 start, including losses this week of 5-1 in Columbus followed by a 9-2 disgrace in Detroit on Wednesday night.

Ten years after leaving the great fans of Winnipeg crying in their beer, the Coyotes have failed to accomplish anything of note playing out of Arizona, either before Gretzky arrived as a part of a new ownership group partway through the 2000-01 season or since.

The Desert Dogs have missed the playoffs four times out of the past five years and lost in the first round the other season.

Yet a scan of the roster put together by Gretzky, now the head coach, and his long-time associate Mike Barnett, the GM since August 2001, reveals a team virtually bereft of the kind of eye-catching young talent usually accumulated by a losing club.

They do have hopes for Everett Silvertips centre Peter Mueller, the club's top pick from last summer's draft. In the '05 draft lottery, the Coyotes had the misfortune of drawing the 17th selection

They had the fifth pick of the '04 draft and used it to selected Blake Wheeler, a tall forward then with the Green Bay Gamblers of the U.S. junior league. It was a reach and, while Wheeler might yet pan out and is playing for the University of Minnesota, players like Ladislav Smid, Rostislav Olesz, Andrej Meszaros and Travis Zajac were taken later in the first round and are already in the NHL.

In the rich '03 draft, meanwhile, the Coyotes didn't pick until 77th. Their top pick from '02, defenceman Jakub Koreis, is beginning his third year in the AHL.

The year before that, they took speedy Fredrik Sjostrom 11th and he has developed into a serviceable checker. The next two picks, however, were defenceman Dan Hamhuis and forward Ales Hemsky.

Getting blasted by the Red Wings two nights ago would have been at least slightly acceptable if it had occurred with a Penguin-like horde of promising youngsters in the lineup.

Instead, there was 39-year-old Jeremy Roenick and 34-year-old Owen Nolan, both looking ancient. Neither has scored this season. While Roenick is supposed to be playing a defensive role, he's a team-worst minus-five.

Goalie Curtis Joseph, also 39, had a dreadful night in Motown and was lifted after two periods. So far this season, Joseph's save percentage is a worrisome .855.

Only seven players remain from the team that started last season and only three players drafted by the Coyotes née Jets over the past 11 years — Sjostrom, Shane Doan and defenceman Keith Yandle — played against the Wings.

Daniel Briere, along with Doan, was the best player the Coyotes drafted over that time, but Barnett dealt him to Buffalo at the 2003 trade deadline for Chris Gratton.

Without a cupboard of young talent, the Coyotes have tried to plug holes this season with nimble 31-year-old Swiss forward Patrick Fischer, 23-year-old former Anaheim prospect Joel Perrault and slow-footed enforcer Georges Laraque.

The Coyotes still have no true star, no prime gate attraction outside of the beleaguered man standing behind the bench.

Since finishing 11th overall in the 2001-02 season with a team built by former GM Bobby Smith and coached by Bob Francis, the Barnett-Gretzky Coyotes have finished 19th, 26th and 23rd. Even worse, the team seems to have no well-defined direction or promising future while skating in the ultra-competitive Pacific Division. Playing Anaheim and San Jose a combined 16 times this season is a daunting prospect.

At this rate and with Phoenix fans yet to fall in love with this team, they might not make another decade in the desert.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...4&t=TS_Home

ya, Dunham was in net and saved 46 of 50 shots!! He was on a roll that night.

This will be my second straight Saturday night visiting my mom.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that she gets CBC-HD...

Leafs versus Rangers.

I'm watching it right now. As a Rangers fan, I hate it, but that was a beautiful goal from Ponikarovsky. Fred, you must be thrilled.

Not at the moment, we lost (although we still got a point from the experience).

Big news from Philly, Clarke resigns and Hitchcock has been fired. Assistant head coach John Stevens takes over as the new head coach and assistant GM Paul Holmgren takes over as GM.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2634817

Its almost like the Flyers are giving up on this season already and its been only 8 games.

The rumour was they would either both stay or both go. I guess they both go.

It's about time. I think it's kinda unfair to Hitchcock. Clarke gave him a slow team with no goaltending. Hitchock himself is a pretty good coach IMO. Clarke built his team as if it were the 70's again. Though they did put some competitive teams out there, Clarke didn't adjust for the new NHL and gave Hitchock the same big, slow team Philly has had. Clarke for some reason doesn't believe goaltending is useful either! The biggest mistake had to be the Lindros deal though... wow.

On a brighter note, Montreal lights up Jose The-Odor for 8 goals!

Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I just hope the avs stick with Budaj, he is the only goalie we got who can win us a game at the moment.

Budaj is going to be a good goalie in the future, and he has The-Odor's sucking going in his favour. He will see a lot more games. I think the 'Lanche got payback last night. They lit up the Kings pretty good.

The Sabres lost last night to the Thrashers in the Shoot Out. Their winning streak ends at 10 games, which was 2 short of the NHL record.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=261028002

The Leafs majorly out-shot the Habs and dominated play for most of the game but allowed them to come back and tie the game. We were lucky to get a shootout win.

Watching the Leafs play is in no way relaxing.

Same with the Canucks this year!

So after a month of hockey, what does every one make of the season so far? What has been the biggest surprise of the season? And the biggest disappointment?

Even though i am an Avs fan i have been secretly rooting for the Thrashers, i would love to see them make the playoffs for the first time which i believe they will.

Speaking of the Avs im glad they are doing ok without Rob Blake and Alex Tanguay (so much for him adding some offence to the flames )

Still believe that?

Ottawa and Detroit are less dominant than I expected (or maybe just what I am used to). Sure, Ottawa dominated the Leafs pretty well last week but...

Pittsburgh has to be my biggest surprise. I'm surprised they didn't sent Jordan Staal back to junior.

The biggest disappoint has to be the defending Stanley Cup champions. I know they couldn't resign everyone but hey..

No, actually the biggest surprise has to be Philadelphia. What happened to them?

And.. now that I'm thinking of it.. With all the front office changes why didn't the New York Wang-nuts get off to a much worse start than they did?

The Calgary HITMEN have more offensive punch than the Flames, and I live in Calgary.

Kolzig already got pulled. He allowed 3 goals on the first give shots.


Ha. Brent Johnson goes in net and shuts down the rest of the game.

Washington comes back to score four straight goals to beat Ottawa 4-3.

Go figure.

Can you believe Ottawa lost tonight?! Dayumm

I'm stoked the Canucks won hehe... Red line goal FTW!

Raycroft was interviewed on the ice immediately after the win and the interviewer reminded him that this, his eight win, ties the total number of wins he had last year (a horrible season for him).

Raycroft replied: "Yeah, thanks for bringing that up."

Oh dear, the avs gave up 4 goals in the 2nd period and lost against LA 6-5. 3 guesses for who was in goal for most of the game.......Although i shouldn't be too hard on him, he has had a few good games recently.

Theo sucks man. I had to suffer with him in Montreal. For every amazing game he had, he countered it with 2 or 3 horrible ones. Theo can't handle pressure and is by far the most inconsistent goalie in the NHL.

Biggest surprise so far for me: Evgeni Malkin. I heard about how good he was, but I never thought he was THAT good. He reminds me of Lemieux with his big frame, stick handling and vision.

Can't say I'm surprised about much else. The Laffs are doing much better than I thought they would. I never thought Ottawa was going to go anywhere really. Alfredsson is the biggest joke in the NHL. The guy is a complete tool. But I never thought they'd be bottom 3 in the Eastern Conf.

Out west looks pretty much like I thought it would, except for Colombus doing worse than I though. The LA Kings are going to have an incredible team in a couple of years.

Source



Source


3 second round picks in next years draft for the avs? Sweet!

GAME TIME! Canes and Sabres. Maybe we can actually get it right this time *grabs tickets and runs out the door*

Huh? A second round pick for someone taken off waivers? What?

You read my mind, Fred... Although the name Parros sounds familiar for some reason.

I remember hearing a lot about Chistov before he was drafted. Shame he didn't come through.

I'm glad Detroit's doing better with Hasek between the pipes, too.

Meh, i'm not complaining.

Ken Hitchcock is the new Blue Jackets head coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2672815

Jackets and Flyers play each other this Friday.

that should be interesting. i remember when hitchcock coached in my hometown for the kalamazoo wings. we also had that female goalie
what was her name? meanot rheaome? something like that.

Gino Reda's Plus/Minus - Nov. 23

First, a plus to Buffalo Sabres forward Daniel Briere for bailing out the new guy.

Rookie Mike Ryan's NHL debut took a major dive last night when he fired the puck into his own net. But during the intermission, Briere promised Ryan they'd get it back for him and win the game. Briere then went out and scored the winner.

"He did deliver on his promise," said the 26-year-old Ryan. "I think I jumped about four feet off the ground on the bench when he scored.
...
http://www.tsn.ca/tsn_talent/columnists/gino_reda/

What! The Capitals-Leafs game tonight isn't on TV!!! Grrr. Okay, it isn't on FREE tv. Bloody LeafsTV.

Edit: As I type this, Wellwood just scored to make it 1-0.

Edit2: Now it's 2-0. Peca just scored.

Comcast in Detroit just picked up FSN HD, and tonight's game is on it. Love it!

Maple Leafs' White charged

Canadian Press
11/24/2006 1:54:32 PM

TORONTO (CP) - Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Ian White has been charged with driving while disqualified.

The 22-year-old rookie had his licence suspended for a year in September when he was convicted of impaired driving.

The Winnipeg native was stopped and charged Saturday with the latest infraction.

"He's recognized and readily admitted that he's made a mistake," Leafs GM John Ferguson said Friday. "He's committed to making sure of making better decisions going forward."

Calls to Toronto police were not immediately returned.

White had a goal and seven assists in 23 games this season heading into Friday night's match against the Washington Capitals.

He was selected by the Leafs in the sixth round (191st overall) of the 2002 NHL entry draft.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=185704&hubname=nhl