kipwinger

That's because it's Bartolo Colon and not CC Sabathia. A man who weighs the same as CC Sabathia (285 lbs) despite being 8 inches shorter.

As I understand it, the first season in the new arena will be the 2017-2018 season.

Who asked you to empathize with him? He didn't. Neither did anyone here. You're entirely fabricating a point that Glencross was never making, just so you can disagree with it. He was talking about his experience with topics (contract negotations and home town discounts) that affect every single player and organization in the industry. The point was never, "how can I make regular joes empathize with me more". And it shouldn't have been, because your empathy for Curtis Glencross means to him about as much as his empathy should mean to you. Zilch.

If I'm understanding the themes in this thread correctly, if you're wealthy you should shut up and enjoy it, and never ever talk about what you'd have done differently in life. Does that mean that if you're poor you should constantly talk about your past regrets and failures and pine for a change in fortunes? Or could we all just agree that regardless of the size of your bank account, you're entitled to talk about your life however the heck you want when someone asks you?

Leave it up to Helene St. James to be baffling stupid in her preview of Pulkkinen today. According to her, Pulkkinen didn't get any meaningful powerplay minutes (he had over 2:30 minutes per game) but he should also be utilized as a point man on the PP behind Green. Because you know, guys with his skillset always play on the point (cough...Ovechkin...cough Stamkos...cough, cough). How does this dummy have a job again? http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2015/08/29/detroit-red-wings-teemu-pulkkinen/71385228/

Brad Boyes is still unsigned as well. If I were Montreal I'd sign him. They could use the scoring.

Nope, he never played center when healthy. I think he did play center a bit in that first season when he was injured, but at no point last year did he center a line. It's too bad for Weiss that he had the injury he did. Skating seemed to set up the whole rest of his game, and after that injury he lost a step. He scored 25 points in 50 games last year in large part because he sees the ice well and is smart enough to know where to go to get scoring opportunities. But speed is what would take a smart veteran with good playmaking ability from a 25-30 point guy to the 60 point guy he used to be, and unfortunately for him he lost it.

Agreed. He's a good goalie, and he's obviously going to get much better. But anybody thinking that we've got an elite goalie on our hands already is setting themselves up for a lot of disappointment. Mrazek will probably be good, but not great, this season and then begin tearing it up next season (if he's ever going to tear it up at all). I fully expect Jimmy to play the majority of the games this season (barring injury) with Mrazek starting about 35. I absolutely don't believe he'll be named the number 1 goalie until the organization has seen what he can do with a regular NHL workload.

Once Pav is back, you've got Z, Tatar, Gus, Franzen, Abby, Jurco, Pulkkinen, and maybe Helm all competing for winger spots on the top three lines. I don't think Pulkkinen is necessarily the lowest on the depth chart, but he's at the lower end. So I don't think he'll get enough minutes to consistently score goals. I'm looking for around 15 from him this season, and about the same number of assists.

Short and simple debate to start another dreary, hockeyless, week. In order to win a Cup, is it more important to have a first rate center, or a first rate defenseman? Why? For discussion's sake, think about the centers for the 2011 Bruins, or the 2003 Devils. Conversely, think about the top defensemen for the 2009 Penguins or the 2004 Lightening.

Closest I can find to what you were saying is this...http://thehockeywriters.com/trade-talk-shopping-taylor-hall/ Which was Hall and Petry for Sheahan, Mantha, Pulkkinen, and Sproul. Not Sheahan, Sproul, and a 1st. It was also an entirely speculative piece written by a writer for the Kelowna Daily Courier. A periodical with about as much circulation as the Flint Journal. Not an "Oilers reporter". Edit: However, I'm not even really trying to blow your s*** up here. If the Oilers would trade Taylor Hall for Jimmy, Smith, Sproul, and a pick I'd make that trade too.

I legitimately don't ever remember hearing anything like this. Do you have a link or anything?

Aha, thanks for the info. Aha, thanks for the info.

One has to wonder why it took so long? Why didn't we have a guy like this before now? Holland's usually ahead of the curve. My knee jerk reaction is to assume that Babcock didn't care about it. But I don't know, and can't substantiate that at all. Just seems like the same old timey mentality that made him "not care about shootouts" might also apply here.

Safe bet indeed.

This is probably the only time I'm ever going to active back the NHLPA. Not because I care about the sanctity of the contract, or because I want to see the organization stymied. But because I can't bear to see the end of Richards' and Carter's epic bromance. C'mon Lombardi, lets put the band back together eh?

I don't really disagree. You've probably dug a little more into it then I have, but I saw an article about a year ago comparing his goal scoring to some of the all time greats and when adjusted for the era he was right in line with Bossy, Hull, and the like. So it's not too hard to believe.

He's pretty obviously the best Russian player. He's very close to being one of the best players in NHL history, period. He'll eventually win a Cup too, and when he does that will pretty much solidify it.

Because Cleary didn't score 22 points in 33 games last season. He scored 2 points in 17 games. Franzen scored 11 times the points in just under half the amount of games Cleary played. That's why it's reasonable to expect points from Franzen and not from Cleary. Obviously. Your insistence that Franzen is washed up, and that he's somehow comparable to Cleary is completely and totally absurd.

I've actually always liked Ovechkin, but I didn't know where else to put this... Dan Rosen ‏@drosennhl 53m53 minutes ago Ovechkin has 475 goals in 760 games. Fedorov had 483 goals in 1,248 games. Clearly different players, but 8 goals and 488 games is amazing.

That's definitely the point YOU are making. But several other people here have insinuated that the amount of punching is directly proportionate to the intensity or bitterness of the rivalry and lamented the future of rivalries because fighting is down. Which is crap. There are tons of REALLY intense rivalries that exist because of the game, and not because of the penalties.

Pretty soon rivalries will be based on the actually game being played. How lame. I can't think of a single good rivalry that doesn't involve punching. Except the Yankees vs. The Red Sox, Michigan vs. Ohio State, North Carolina vs. Duke, or Liverpool vs. Manchester United. Yep, obviously can't have bitter rivalries without fighting. You betcha.

Scoff all you want, but we already lost Andrej Nastrasil for nothing. When will the madness end?!?

So what about a guy like Jagr? Is he not a power forward? He doesn't fight, rarely hits, and he's highly skilled, but he's consistently lauded for his size, strength, and imposing physical play.

I stopped watching after the first four goals, since they were all scored in and around the crease. So here are four, off the bat.