MacK_Attack

Good luck this weekend, folks.

Yep. Giguere. Anyways, Lebda is out 10-14 days. Not too bad.

Lebda looks to be out long-term with a shoulder injury.

Released from his PTO.

Kaberle

I would disagree only because the Leafs aren't a team who is going to be counting every dollar so that they have cap space to be a buyer at the deadline.

There seems to be a concentrated effort to ice really bad squads for the first week of exhibition games. All three squads are weak because they're filled with AHL/ECHL/CHL players. Don't know if it was because they went with the big guns right off the bat last year and the team won a bunch of games and they got too high, but they seem like they are just throwing the first five games away. I don't really care if they do or don't, exhibition games are so bloody meaningless. I don't know what exactly the strategy is, but I've heard it's because they "want to see what they have" in the system.

They have the training camp roster split up into three teams. They're just rotating the first five games, since they play five days in a row.

Meh. Minor league lineup. All but 3, maybe 4 or 5 forwards will be with the Marlies.

He's the number 7 defenseman based on depth, but he'll get to play because injuries are unavoidable. And when Lebda plays, he'll be on the 2nd powerplay unit, likely. $1.45 million really isn't a big deal anymore...it's well under the league average salary.

Well....you really only need three or four defencemen for the power play. So Kaberle and Gunnarsson can move the puck and set things up and Phaneuf and Beauchemin can shoot. Of the six regular defencemen, Schenn & Komisarek are the only two who probably can't be counted on for some offense. Schenn did show some offensive ability later in the year, but certainly not to the level where you would expect it to continue. Not sure you can write off their blueline as not being one of the better ones without them having played a game yet. I think they should be pretty good on the back-end. $7.35 million in goaltending is no big deal because $6 million of it is Giguere's expiring contract. Sure beats Toskala.

Kaberle? Gunnarsson is no slouch with the puck, either. Oh, and Lebda will dress for the Leafs tonight against Ottawa.

I don't think it will be too bad because I don't think he's going to play very much.

The biggest thing that would make you suspect Brind'Amour (other than his sheer size) is how quickly his game fell off once steroid testing came in.

Those sources have jumped the gun. He's still alive, for now.

Phil Housley - Toronto Pierre Pilote - Toronto Luc Robitaille - Pittsburgh Brad Park - Detroit Gerry Cheevers - Toronto Tom Barrasso - Toronto Miikka Kiprusoff - San Jose Mike Palmateer - Washington Tomas Vokoun - Montreal Markus Naslund - Pittsburgh Bernie Geoffrion - NY Rangers Iginla never actually played for the Stars, other than exhibition games.

How about Darryl Sittler in Detroit?

Anybody remember Grant Fuhr in Toronto?

Tony Esposito - Montreal Jacques Plante - Boston Bernie Parent - Toronto Terry Sawchuk - Los Angeles Johnny Bower - NY Rangers

Borje Salming - Detroit Guy Lafleur - NY Rangers/Quebec Bobby Orr - Chicago Bobby Hull - Hartford Dave Keon - Hartford Denis Savard - Tampa Bay Peter Stastny - St. Louis

To be announced today at 2:30

Now, I don't want to be throwing around accusations that I can't back-up, but that was right around they time they brought in....steroid....testing....

They are most definitely the best in the world.

The problem isn't the refs. The problem is that the NHL is always changing what they want called and I think it has taken an toll on the refs. I read one of the biggest bargaining issues is the refs concerns over the "standard" and how they are evaluated, as well as job security. Refs are human, they're going to make mistakes, but they at least need a clear idea of what the priorities are as far as rule crackdowns are.