GoHabs007

Was totally pumped to turn on the WOW Guide tonight and find I suddenly have Versus HD. That came out of nowhere, just yesterday I looked on the WOW website and there was nothing about adding any HD channels in the coming weeks. I love WOW, the only cable provider in the area that has Versus on its regular package! Of course, it doesn't have NHL Network or Center Ice. Funny how I stumble across this site once again. Found it three years ago by searching for info about new uniforms and now I find it again searching for any info about WOW adding Versus HD. You guys are doing something right when it comes to getting your site on Google, haha!

But that's the point, if the NHL is on ESPN, they're gonna tell their on-air personalities to stop bashing the NHL so much, because it's bad for business. They joked about NASCAR on ESPN until it was announced NASCAR was coming back to ESPN, now it's all over the place and nobody is making fun of it. The NHL on ESPN would most assuredly decrease the jokes on ESPN about the NHL. This idea is a great one, Versus and ESPN teaming up on hockey like ESPN and TNT do for basketball. Versus would still show two games a week with ESPN picking up other games. They would advertise each other, creating more publicity. More homes would have access to NHL games. It's sad, but in order to surviv, a major sport pretty much has to align itself with ESPN if it wants decent national coverage. Versus' coverage is great and they care about the game, but it's simply not a widespread enough network for it to be the only national coverage for the sport. Let's see here, which is better treatment? Only having games on Versus or having games on Versus and ESPN. An idiotic statement from an offensive person.

Rebuilding? From what? They are simply building. The Habs have one of the top rated pool of prospects and a lot of them are very close to cracking the NHL, some already have. It's no real secret that this team is building for 2009, the 100th Anniversary of the club. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen written. How about you take a look at the Habs roster and tell me how many French-Canadian players are on it and then report back. I'll give you a hint: it will be easy for you to count them, since you'll only need one hand's worth of fingers to count.

Buying out Fedorov would be a dumb move for the Jackets. If they want to shed an overpriced vet, then dump Foote. Fedorov brings a lot more to the team that Foote does. I have no idea why Foote is wearing the C instead of Fedorov. It's obvious who means more to this team.

Somebody sounds like a whiny Leafs fan.

Wow, and people thought Montreal overpaid for Markov.

Not the first time it's been damaged and it won't be the last. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditions_an...p#Misadventures

The formula for a buyout is 2/3 of the cap hit split over two years. - Samsonov has 1 year with 3.525 million cap hit, so his buyout hit would have been 1,175,000 for the next two seasons - Cullimore has 1 year with a cap hit of 1.9 million, so his buyout hit will be 633,333.33 for the next two seasons. - Salmelainen has 1 year with a cap hit of 700,000, so his buyout would be 233,333.33 for the next two seasons. So even if the Habs buyout both players, the Habs still have 300,000 each season as opposed to buying out Samsonov themselves. Salmelainen will likely be a depth player, so they fill a roster spot with a cheap salary and save 541,666.67 in cap space, the difference between buying out Samsonov and buying out Cullimore.

You guys do realize that the first round is actually on Friday the 22nd...

Hmm, let's see. Last year the Ducks made the Cup finals. This year they won it. They're gonna have their core back, possibly minus Giguere and Selanne. Giguere won't be a huge loss, Bryzgalov is a good goalie and even won them their first few playoff games this year. When you've got two Norris candidates and a core of young guys like Getzlaf, Penner, and Perry, the Ducks will be a good team again next year. If I were a Wings fan, I'd be proud of the fact that only the eventual Cup winners were able to stop them. It's better to lose to a winner than a loser. It's why I rooted for Carolina and Tampa Bay when they won: they had to go through my team to do it. Did you watch any of the finals? They totally and completely outplayed the Sens. They wore them down physically with speed and toughness, then finished them off in the third when the Sens were too tired to do anything about it. To say they did not earn the Cup is preposterous. Not even Canadiens fans are this bitter, and they still hate Justin WIlliams for accidentally nearly blinding Koivu.

Ah, bitter or just don't care for him?

Before Bettman took over, the NHL was on the verge of matching the NBA. The NBA was hurting after the retirement of people like Bird, Magic, and Jordan (his first time). The NHL was expanding and doing very well. Bettman comes in and boom: lockout just over a year after he took the job. Things have gone down hill ever since. A Yahoo writer wrote a pretty funny article about it, joking that David Stern had Bettman take the job to ruin the NHL, haha. Doesn't seem so outrageous to a lot of fans. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=dw-bettman012907

Giguere deserved it in 2003, but not this year. He didn't put the team on his back this time, it was a real team effort. So many guys came up big for that team. So I think picking captain Nieds was a good choice. He's the captain of the team, and the team istelf truly was the MVP. No single player carried them. Plus, I think they could have won with either Bryz or Giggy in nets.

It was a good trade for both teams. Heatley needed a change of scenery and Ottawa needed a breath of fresh air after so many playoff failures. Heatley is a couple years younger, which is why Atlanta convinced them to send deVries in the deal.

So I was off by two seconds, sue me. He still easily could have flipped the puck high and wasted enough time. He could have shot it at more of an angle so it would deflect off the boards and slowly go into the corner. He could have wristed it slowly in a direction where there wouldn't be enough time to do anything with he. He could have done any number of things with it. He decided to shoot it directly at another player, which is totally unsportsmanlike. And those bonehead CBC announcers didn't even know what was going on. I'm starting to understand why so many of the Canadian people I know hate listening to HNIC. Yeah, it's not like Nieds is one of the best D-men of his era. The man is a perennial Norris candidate, winning it once, now has his fourth Cup and a Conn Smythe, and is a perennial All-Star. Amond active players, Lidstrom is probably the only D-man I'd take over Niedermeyer, not taking age into account.

We're saying that it was every bit as dirty a bit as what Pronger was suspended for doing. It was an elbow to the head. I'd go as far to say Neil's hit was dirtier. He was charging, elbowing, and intending to injure. Pronger wasn't going to hit McAmmond, but Dean went off to the side and Pronger reached out to try and make contact and happened to get him in the face.

Yeah, he was worried about icing with two seconds left on the clock.

He's a jerk and a racist, but he knows hockey and was very entertaining in his "toned down" US appearance.

I guess that isn't Neil's elbow crashing into MacDonald's head. That's the thing that bugs me about suspensions. Pronger only got suspended because McAmmond was injured. Neil's hit was much worse, but because MacDonald got right back up, nobody says anything about it. The intent should be punished before the result.

Calls have been bad both ways. Neither side has any reason to complain. Heck, the first Ottawa goal should never have happened. Emery was three feet out of his crease when Getzlaf skated by, and then Emery took a huge flop. Should have been called both ways and the Sens would not have had the PP they scored on.

Please, take him off our hands.

Dirty play no doubt about it. I can't think of any time I've ever seen anyone deliberately fire the puck at someone. It doesn't matter what the chances of injury were, that was nothing to do with how unsportsmanlike the play was. And then to top it off, he cheapshot a Duck with a punch to the face and wasn't penalized for it. The linesman was right there, there's no way he shouldn't have gone over to a ref and told him to give him two minutes for roughing. In the end, though, all he did was piss off Anaheim and made them come out with even more of a purpose in the third period. That was the dumbest part of it. What did he expect to gain by shooting the puck at Neids? And yes, it was deliberate. You can see him wind up to dump, then suddenly stop and look directly at Neids. And about the NBC coverage, I don't know what you guys are talking about. They called it fairly: a cheap play that has no place in hockey.

If Zherdev didn't have such a big ego, he could be one of the top players in the league. He just oozes with talent, but refuses to listen to anyone about anything. http://dispatch.com/dispatch/content/bluej...D1_JN6ALEA.html Some highlights from the article: - Quotes from other players were done without naming the players because nobody had anything good to say about him. - When coaches lecture him, he often just stares blankly at them and ignores them. - Has only one friend on the team, and makes no effort to bond with the rest of the team. - Has aspirations so low that he compares himself to Sergei Samsonov, a player with lots of skill who never made it big.

Even if Nashville does move, which is unlikely in the near future, Hamilton would never get the team. The Hamilton Bulldogs are currently in the Calder Cup finals, and have been averaging a pathetic 3,000 fans per game. Columbus' old ECHL team averaged nearly 5,000 during even the regular season, and this is hardly a great hockey city. I mean, Jody Shelley is the 2nd most popular player in the city.