kidish

I don't know how May would fit in with Detroit in the regular season, but he'd be an excellent addition to any team. And I would think Detroit might like a player of his ilk out there with them.

Ducks, Flyers, Leafs = league leaders in fights. Of the three, I actually think Toronto will have the most fighting majors assessed all season.

This will be awesome...after ******* November. Stupid injury. Here's a blurb from TSN: Although it's not completed, sources say the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are putting the finishing touches on a trade that will deliver Phil Kessel to the Leafs. Toronto is awaiting the final call to confirm the deal while the Bruins are believed to be wrapping up all internal discussions before signing off.

Fair enough! But when all we're seeing is this repeated over and over again, I'm inclined to believe it:

When have hockey players ever "respected the hit," Doc? Hitting is legal, and there are legal hits and illegal hits. Then there are hits that teams take exception to, legal or no. This was one of them. This generates a fight every time. I've never seen this league you talk about, where "real men" look at the kid on the stretcher and go, "oh that's too bad, but it was a good hit. We should applaud Phaneuf for making such a hit. Too bad for that kid though." Besides which, in this instance, it wasn't a "good" hit.

The NHL announced that Morency is suspended for leaving the bench to charge Phaneuf. Ok, it got one right. The NHL has made no announcement on any actions for or against Phaneuf. Well...typical. Sometimes I absolutely hate the league itself.

This sums up exactly the sentiment most fans share today:

Exactly, and the big hits will happen in preseason as well as postseason. But to see this kid getting tripped up and then moving completely out of position for it? He wasn't making a routine hit, he was zeroed in on laying out that player specifically. Head-hunting is NOT the same as going 100% all the time.

Kelly's firing had nothing to do with money -- his entire tenure was marked by players unhappiness over revenues. He didn't cause that situation, however. In fact, Penny, the f***** who the players decided to keep on as interim moron, is the counsel who worked with the NHL coming out of the lockout to set the current stuff up. Any mention of money in Kelly's firing is misdirection and speculation, pure and simple. The gist of what every other media outlet (other than Fox ******* Sports) have reported is that it was the minutes reading allegation and the fact that certain players (such as the Lindros/Buzzy camp and their followers) felt Kelly was too soft to go to battle with the NHL in two years. edit: another funny thing to consider, if money was such a big deal, why'd the players vote to allow Buzzy to make $150,000 for 3-5 hours of work a week? Pretty nuts. The players don't know s*** about economics.

Kelly is the one who told everyone that he read the minutes. Additionally, he was first informed that he may want to read the minutes from several players who were concerned that the meeting was a break of the player constitution -- and it was. Kelly read the minutes, and saw that the meeting was the players arbitrarily deciding to give Penny a five-year extension, which is illegal for them to do without Kelly present. Kelly read the minutes to ensure the players weren't taken for a ride (they obviously were) and then told everyone he did so. Nobody, including Buzzy, would have known had he not said so. Chelios didn't want Kelly to be fired from the beginning, but as one of the senior players present, he became the unofficial spokesman for the cause. He couldn't likely say, "we all voted, and I disagreed, but there you have it." He had to present a "company" face and say they were all in it together -- pretty normal. He's only gone on the record for being somewhat against this since other stars have come forward to call this a bulls*** move.

The hit was clean. Anaheim defenseman Wiz (f*** spelling it out) had a similar clean hit in their game last night that resulted in the same action -- but no injury, and at least he dropped the gloves. Big hits in preseason are expected from the young guys, the folk fighting for roster spots. But this one was real ******* unnecessary. Sure, it was clean, and as a player you never miss a chance to ring the bell of a rookie -- gotta teach 'em to play with their heads up. But this one was too much. Bad form. Hope someone kicks the s*** out of Phaneuf. (He's had it coming for a couple years since he loves him some elbowing to the face.)

I doubt this one. http://www.canada.com/Chelios+wants+Kelly+...3593/story.html

Iginla IS Calgary's best offensive player, no doubt there. Conversely, Getzlaf is Anaheim's best offensive player too. Even more so than what I've watched of Calgary, the entire Anaheim offense runs through Getzlaf. I discount Corey Perry as a viable threat, since his entire career has been spent getting feeds from Getzlaf. Getz even made someone like Kunitz a contributor, so again I see this as Getz's skill and not Perry's. Selanne only played with Getzlaf on the power play -- and no doubt, he was a finisher there. But he was completely useless in every situation for them the rest of the year. Pronger's offense was terrible the past two seasons. Now I'll give you Niedermayer. But if we start throwing in defenses and goalies, then you can't exactly say Iginla is sitting alone either.

I don't personally have it, nor have I, but I recall someone from another board saying it was a pretty cool thing. Since they are still feeds, excess traffic can still bog down the stream -- I remember the free preview stuff the NHL did last year, and those nights were understandably slow. Also, the same blackout rules that go for TV apply for GameCenter, so it still isn't a guarantee that you'll get to see every game. But on the plus side, I hear the live stats the site keeps and allows access to during games is pretty nifty if you're into that sort of thing. I'd say it's for you if you want to watch as much hockey as possible no matter your market, and even then only if you have a PC setup that makes any kind of NHL package worthless. If you're just in it for Detroit games, maybe you could find another (cheaper) option?

Pretty much all last season. Iginla had far more help than Getzlaf did. (Bobby Ryan came on board in Anaheim late and didn't play with Getzlaf until the last third of the season.) Getzlaf was Anaheim's fortunes. I don't feel the same way with Iginla, even though I put him above Getz too. He's no doubt a more complete player at this moment, but I think Getz will be better real soon. Oh, and Getzlaf is my vote now, unless he's finally up there.

I vote Iginla over Getz in this round. I'm a big Getz fan, but if I were choosing between them, I'd list Iggy right now. That being said, I'd choose Getz to build a team around over Iggy.

I think the deal with Blake was pretty fair. At the same time, his game has fallen off significantly from how he played earlier in his career. He's just showing his years, so it probably isn't the greatest thing for San Jose's blueline if he's the number-two guy.

This is the truth of it. What I keep in mind too is that Heatley puts up insane numbers...in the Eastern Conference. The play in the East encourages more stand-out stars. The West seems more about the team game. So will Heatley still stand-out in the West? Not to mention playing teams like Calgary, Vancouver, Detroit, and Anaheim more frequently... Teams like Detroit and Anaheim won't just wear the top line down, they will silence them. (Last season, Anaheim's top line silenced and broke up every top line San Jose tried to counter with. And when Ottawa went to the Finals a bit ago, Anaheim's shut-down line completely erased Heatley and Spezza -- which I still think is more formidible than Heatley and Thornton.) Ottawa got some depth, San Jose got some scoring -- but I don't think it is an obvious slam-dunk by San Jose at all. The Pacific stands to have more fight this year, so the Sharks running away with the Presidents is less likely too.

You did call it. I think this move will hurt San Jose more than help it. But it will be interesting to watch. Actually, this makes the first game between San Jose and Anaheim -- the first for both I believe -- far more interesting. Thornton and Heatley on a line matched up against Getzlaf, Perry, and possibly Ryan? Anaheim coach Carlyle already found that matching his top against anyone else's tops was a good move -- you folks remember that -- and I have to think that matchup will be slick.

I can't see it happening to the good of San Jose, that's for sure. I have to believe DW in this case: not happening. I don't see it that way. If he's added, I'd actually put more weight on an Anaheim team that their GM seemed to carefully craft this summer than this team who'd be losing one of their biggest underappreciated assets.

The sweaters both Detriot and Chicago did up last season have been the best thus far.

Hitch is a pretty good coach. But this would be more intimidating if he had a Flyers organization instead of a Blue Jackets one to work with. Although he has turned the Blue Jackets into something worth at least watching... Detroit-Chicago and Detroit-Anaheim games this year are going to be the good ones though. And any team against Philly, just because they are going to be great to watch.

Don't know about historically in general, but in recent years: Sundin, Selanne, Kariya, and definitely Crosby. Gretzky had the best one though, in my mind.

The U.S. was tired of the original agreement with Canadian-based charters being broken. So it changed the rules. It isn't like the U.S. just decided to be arbitrary about the entire thing...like, you know, everything else the government does.

Sid the ******* Kid. (I hate that nickname.)