stevkrause

how about?

I've been saying it for years, Bob Clarke should be the NHL commish - tons of front office experience and one of the most storied names in the NHL, has an undying love for the game and would definitely do whats best for the game. As a fun side note, last year I sent a copy of my resume to the NHL's offices in NY for a job as the commissioner with an intro page claiming how anyone who played the game automatically is more fit to be the commissioner than their current "leader"

I personally think this one is viewed as a gimme, kinda like with Stevie, it'll happen the opening day, the year after he retires...

oh man, that first guys must be ready to call his time in that league over... that's insane... here are a couple more for you all -

Friday: Columbus @ Buffalo Carolina @ Pittsburgh Colorado @ Chicago Los Angeles @ Vancouver Saturday: NY Rangers @ Boston Chicago @ Toronto Buffalo @ Montreal Florida @ Ottawa New Jersey @ NY Islanders Carolina @ Philadelphia Pittsburgh @ Washington Atlanta @ Tampa Bay Anaheim @ Dallas Minnesota @ St Louis Detroit @ Phoenix Edmonton @ Calgary Nashville @ San Jose Sunday: Vancouver @ Columbus Colorado @ Minnesota

If he would be willing, he really would be a perfect fit. Irregardless of the successor, we can ALL agree, a change is far overdo and pretty much ANYONE could do a better job than the joke of a commissioner we currently have... What exactly in politics is Dryden involved in nowadays? Maybe a nice hefty paycheck and just his overall love for the game could draw him in...

I would actually be all for Dryden... same reasons and yes, I'll conceed, more smarts

going forward does not mean abandoning all former aspects, also, the league is getting flat out dangerous and dirty and it needs to get to a place where players respect and police themselves as well... also, yet again, ONE person does not make all the decisions, it is a whole board of governors, however, the commissioner should represent the league and actually know what makes the game tick In 100% honesty, I think Yzerman would be an amazing commish in 10 years or so after he gets a real strong idea of the administrative side of the game...

He was also the GM who iced the squad from 1994 to 2002 and amassed a crap load of wins, not to mention a conference championship in 97 and an incredibly competitive team up until last year, you also can't blame the guy that players like Lindros and Primeau have eggshells as heads, which directly led to the departure of guys like Leclair.... also, don't forget that Eric Desjardins JUST retired... last year was an abortion of a year altogether for them and not much they could've done about it, also he is now president of operations and if you honestly think he didn't have anything to do with those trades or shifting since, you're out of your mind...

point. set. match... touche

and look where the Flyers are now, not to mention how well they did during the rest of his time there?!? to place the emphasis on one year out of 12 is down right ridiculous... based on?

He'll find his game, but I definitely think he should be paired with the likes of Chelios or Rafalski instead of Lilja... I still think the D corps should look like this: Lidstrom-Lilja Kronwall-Rafalski Ledba-Chelios

first off, we have a WEALTH of talent just waiting on D - Ericsson, Quincy, Kindl, Brenden Smith in 3 years (yes, I left Meech out on purpose) and we already have a damn solid blueline... Secondly, ALL things aside, with what's out there, what do YOU think looks better going into the playoffs - Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Holmstrom Hudler - Forsberg - Samuelsson Franzen - Filpulla - Draper Drake - Cleary - Maltby Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Lilja Chelious-Lebda Hasek Osgood OR Franzen - Datsyuk - Holmstrom Hudler - Zetterberg - Samuelsson Draper - Filpulla - Cleary Drake - Kopecky - Maltby Lidstrom-Rafalski Markov-Kronwall Chelios-Lebda Hasek Osgood I think the choice is obvious... especially considering cap space/length of deal each guy would want...

haha, ok, so my bias is a little obvious in the title...

ok, I wanted Markov back more than anyone, but this thread is ridiculous... we have not let up more than 3 goals in any game this year and our team GAA is 2.17, not to mention, we are a +5 as a whole for our defense and we are 4-1-1 Like others have said, if anything, we need to add another scoring threat up front The only thing I would like to see different, is to re-arrange the D combos, not in ALL situations, but obviously, Lidstrom and Rafalski are gonna see major minutes, so split them every other shift and put Lilja with Lidstrom and Kronwall with Rafalski, then on the 3rd go around, Lidstrom and Rafalski together Lilja had his best year as a D partner with Nick and I think their styles work well together, not to mention, I think Rafalski would be a HUGE benefit with Kronwall

groin tweak although I'd rather see Downey play than Ellis against Anaheim, strictly because of the physical aspect, it's absurd to say he's a better player, Ellis is faster and provides more intangibles, including a defensive lock, he's pretty much as solid of a defensive forward as they get... Downey did look solid tonight though, even without throwing the mitts.

he's already on the trip and with Anaheim tomorrow night, I'd really like to see him get another go and give Sammy another day off against such a physical team as Anaheim

simple answer, he would skate into the opponents end and shoot the puck out of play, making it a 4-4 with the delay of game

it's NHL fact, the lack of a painted helmet is what caused Hasek to go down with a groin injury and miss those 3 years, comes back to Detroit WITH a painted mask and BAM - healthy... look it up, sports science

I don't know why the NHL hasn't done this... You change the conferences to North and South, no preferential treatment, EVERYONE travels This way all teams have to equally travel and you get better Scheduling - North Conference: NorthWest Division: Vancouver Calgary Edmonton Minnesota Ottawa NorthCentral Division: Detroit Chicago Columbus Toronto Montreal NorthEast Division: NY Rangers NY Islanders New Jersey Buffalo Boston South Conference: SouthWest Division: San Jose Anaheim Los Angeles Phoenix Colorado SouthCentral Division: St Louis Pittsburgh Dallas Nashville Philadelphia SouthEast Division Atlanta Tampa Bay Florida Carolina Washinton Everyone plays an unbalanced schedule - 6 games against everyone in your division (24), 4 or 3 against everyone else in your conference -this is the unbalanced part (38), 2 (one home, one away) out of conference - for a total of 82 games a year Everyone travels, more original six matchups and EVERY city still gets to see all the other marquee teams for close to half of their season... I guess it just makes too much sense for Bettman... edited for geography purposes

AGREED 100% Until Bettman is axed, the league will suffer, I have been saying for years that Bobby Clark should be the new commissioner of the NHL, he has YEARS of front office experience with the Flyers and would do what is best for the league, plus, he has an old school connection to the game, which would be good for the game I'm not even saying long term contraction, and not a MASS of teams, but at least 2 teams (Phoenix/Nashville) need to be moved or axed... like I said in my first post, I think moved is the obvious solution, Nashville to Portland and Phoenix to Vegas... then, once the league is HEALTHY again, then consider expanding...

although your ideas are very fresh and interesting, I don't like the idea of expanding a league that should, IMHO, move a couple teams as it is and maybe even kill a couple off furthermore, hockey is already losing out to the other sports - make a format that is that hard to understand and it would just confuse "new" and old fans alike, most people don't like to think that much, haha

yes, you are actually right about that... did I forget my [joke][/joke] tag? the major would be accessed right away, since it's a major - guaranteeing 5 minutes of PP the delay of game and the double minor, since accessed to the same player, would be added - equaling 6 minutes then, since a team cannot have less than 3 skaters, the delay of game would not kick in until another penalty had expired (either the 5 minute major, or one of the minors before) so, yes, if these penalties were ever actually accessed in order, assuming NO goals were scored, it would be 7 minutes, with 6 of those being a 5-3

lets just go back to Campbell and Wales (but make it more like an AL/NL in MLB) too... with a throwback to the legends - EVERYONE TRAVELS!!! WALES CONFERENCE Adams Division Vancouver, Buffalo, San Jose, Toronto, NYI Patrick Division Atlanta, NYR, Philadelphia, Anaheim, Tampa Bay Morenz Division New Jersey, Dallas, Calgary, Washington, Boston CAMPBELL CONFERENCE Scmidt Division Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Columbus, Colorado, Florida Norris Division Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nashville, Edmonton Smyth Division Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, Phoenix, Carolina 5 games against division - 20 3 games against rest of conference - 30 2 games (home and away) against other conf - 30 Grand total of 80 Same playoff structure Side note - I know this would incur a lot of traveling expense and probably wouldn't fly, but I think it would be a cool throw back - Also note, I tried to keep the original divisions as much like the originally were, with some adjustments for new/moved teams and travel

I like your idea into breaking it up into 3, very interesting... but I don't like the game totals WESTERN CONFERENCE NorthWest Division Vancouver, San Jose, Edmonton, Calgary, Minnesota SouthWest Division Anaheim, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Colorado CENTRAL CONFERENCE NorthCentral Division Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa, Chicago, Buffalo SouthCentral Division Columbus, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis EASTERN CONFERENCE NorthEast Division Boston, Montreal, New Jersy, NYR, NYI SouthEast Division Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Washington 5 games against division - 20 4 games against rest of conference - 20 2 games (home and away) against rest of league - 40 for a grand total of 80 games (I think 82 is too long anyways) The for playoffs, each division gets an automatic seed and seed the other 10 based on pts - 1-16, 1 plays 16, etc, etc...