akustyk

Friday: New Jersey Washington Buffalo Boston Detroit Chicago Calgary Saturday: Philadelphia Minnesota Boston Montreal Ottawa New Jersey NY Rangers NY Islanders Dallas Detroit Vancouver San Jose Sunday: Columbus Anaheim Vancouver

ditto and I'm personally disgusted by the fact that the league hands Avery a 6 games suspension to cover up for its hurt image, but on the same time hands laughable 1 game suspensions to assholes like Pronger for hits in the head which are clearly aimed at injuring other players. or a number of 3 game suspension for delibarate boarding or clear head hunting. I'm usually Bettman's defender in this forum but this is a typical marketing BS. a typical catholic way of solving things: as long as everybody smiles and no harm for the image hass been done: wipe the things under the carpet. only when the image is hurt do a crusade to protect perception. those reoccuring nasty hits are this league's problem. not Avery who is idiot but at least wasn't trying to injure someone and cause health problems. the league with silent approval of Stars dressing room is trying to get rid of him and clean the image but he is but a small problem the NHL has right now. league officials are no god damned church to rule what player's words or actions are moral and what not. just let Elisha and/or Flames sue this idiot and that's it. what really is the problem for the game itself is Tootoos, Prongers, Ruutuus and similar crap. players who lack respect to other guys on the ice and who do the wreck during the games against hockey rules and risking other players health. my 0.02€

Minnesota Calgary Dallas Edmonton Saturday: Pittsburgh Washington Montreal NY Islanders Carolina Boston Detroit Tampa Bay Minnesota Phoenix San Jose Los Angeles Sunday: Washington Chicago NY Rangers Anaheim Colorado

I'm sick of this guy and his neverending parade of using loopholes in contracts or overtreading GM good habits while whining when someone else does it for good reason

no. I'm about thinking he will suck as much in Toronto as he did in Anaheim. the only difference is that now TSN staff will need to burn some sun tan and hide their brown noses from praising "NHL's best GM". and the great news is that Dan Cloutier is at this moment available in UFA market and the Leafs have plenty cap space to throw on him. now seriously... this might turn out to be a good deal for the Leafs for next 3 seasons but let's not get to far ahead. let's get back to evaluating Burke in say 5-6 years when he bails out from a mess in Toronto...

Friday Boston (but this has already started and it's 1:1. I'm picking Boston to win but I leave it for your consideration to count this in. am OK if not) Philadelphia (already started, it's 1:0 Philly who I'd pick anyway. if it can't count I'm 100% OK with null for me here) Minnesota Chicago Phoenix Washington Buffalo Atlanta NY Rangers Detroit San Jose Saturday: Edmonton Los Angeles Boston Philadelphia Montreal NY Islanders Washington Pittsburgh Nashville Colorado San Jose Vancouver Sunday: NY Rangers Atlanta Edmonton Anaheim

that's difficult to predict but there's number of factors which make me rather optimistic. I'm not expecting Wings to be shooting at cup every single season with level playing field in the NHL but I can see them being constantly on top for some time and making deep playoff runs once in a while. a lot of this depends on Wings ability to scout well and develop quality prospects. if we have this the team will have enough assets to make deals and bring players required to build a winning team. the other factor here is cup hunger which makes players pay bigger price for winning. this is not going to be equally big every single spring but Wings should have it strong enough frequently enough to be on roll when necessary. there are unpredictable factors like the evolution of game rules, CBA's, growth of KHL, Michigan economy etc. but I tend to think Holland is smart enough to deal with most of them. he sure did good job with post-lockout mess when he was basically caugh off-side with his old "buy the best, forget the draft" strategy. it didn't take him long to reshape his franchise for new NHL landscape

OK, I heard some chicks refering to Lilja as "hot (Swede)" so I get the point but in my understanding the Yahoo thing was about sports not glamour... seriously though... I don't get it. they got these rankings based on statistical things and I don't see Lilja doing anything very spectacular compared to all players in all 30 NHL teams. so they must have some really strange formulas for what is considered hot and what's not...

I don't think it's that easy. he may want to be a Red Wing but he may also be a well paid player on a team with good shot on a cup. and there's a number of such teams for seasons to come. there's many reasons for him not to accept Winged Wheel jersey for small money. and Holland won't give him $8M+ contract because that would put about $36M+ of Wings cap space in just 5 players (Nick, Zet, Dats, Rafalski and Hossa). see: http://nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=DET&season=0809 that would leave some $20M left for some 15 players. minus ~$3M for Cleary, Flip and Stuart who are already signed long-term it makes $11M for 12 players. even assuming we dress our prospects to fill the voids with little cash it'd give around $4M for another 6 players so there are $7M left for 6 players and some cushion to sign guys in case of injuries. that would be less that $1M per player which is below Lilja-money, so you get the picture about what quality of players (including goalies!!!) we would be able to dress. take $8M out of this equation and there's much better options for Holland to buy 3 quality lines instead of 1 über-line and so-so (at best) 3 lines. there really isn't a chance to keep Hossa here. and as much as I personally enjoy his game and skill set I'd rather see the Wings rolling 3 good lines instead of such 1 überline and then have little to show

in fact, neither is a number of languages I frequently have to use. so this kind of funny mistakes are perhaps not so common to worry but they do happen from time to time yeah, I got it

well... I personally love this kid and am pulling my fingers for him and Bruins to make it deep into the playoffs. the thing some people have against him can be seen on Komisarek video. like: you want to scrap - it's fine. you beat the guy - it's fine. but it's not fine if you go beyond that - it's over thus show the beaten guy some respect and don't wave to the crowd like that. I think he'll get over this quite soon. because other that this he's the big deal. someone you turn the Bruins game on for. and a guy who gives the team an identity and chemistry.

just another though: perhaps it's because Ovie's English is not good enough but we fortunately keep loving him for being a mean ass when necessary and never-ever doing an idiotic show called: "me and my coach cry about bad calls and about the league doesn't helping us". and... call me biased but I'd expect Ovechkin to tell the facts in such case instead of joining the whining party but yeah... I mostly agree with the part about Crosby being slammed because fans are fed up with the league selling him beyond good taste. and that he probably is maturing. I will however refrain from judging him before I see Penguins in playoffs and how they overcome difficulties with their own strength rather than call-ups for help.

I really hoped to see the Stars in WCF this year but this is getting even worse for them. first they get the Avery pest, then suck big time 20 games into the season and then lose Morrow who is a huge player when it comes to serious play... I hope they'll manage to fight some playoff spot ang get in good shape in April

that's BS. see: Jeff Finger or see: Edmonton Oilers

oh crap... does the league drop that low to call such hugs a fight? :hockeysmile:

I'm not quite sure this is that bad for Wings if you compare them to the rest of the league. all GM's tend to include expected economic trend into equation when signing players for long term contracts. most of them were pretty realistic and didn't sign players for huge money and super long deals to keep some freedom in case of economic falls. Wings have only Datsyuk, Flip and Cleary commited past 10/11. assuming the economy won't change much before that I'd say only Cleary is overpaid as Flip has potential to be a $4M+ player with current standards. and $6.5M for Pavel is a bargain. if anything, I'd say this fall is a gift for Holland in negotiations with Hank and Mule. because even player agents understand now that it won't be that easy to demand huge money. and they (player agents) are the very last people on Earth you'd expact to step off and be less greedy :hat: now if we take this as example... http://nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=PH...09&expand=y I would say I'm all smiles about this economy fall EDIT: pardon! we also have Rafalski at $6M and Stuart, Kronwall at $3.75M each through 11/12. I'm not sure about Rafalski but I like Stuart's and Kronwall's contracts even with salary cap staying put at current level.

Friday: Boston New Jersey Phoenix Buffalo Tampa Bay Anaheim Saturday: Pittsburgh Ottawa Buffalo Chicago Philadelphia Atlanta Montreal St Louis Dallas Calgary Los Angeles Washington Sunday: Nashville Tampa Bay

first 4 are pretty lame. and the Stortini thing looks like clear boarding to me. other than that... fine collection of hits. not to shabby for Brown but I like the Kositsyn's hit more.

that's the point and I would also add Sindy supporting his coach's baby whining all the way instead of being the man and calling the thing by its name. he chose to sell the same sour grapes to his teammates and have them buy excuse for loss. I'm personally not a Penguins basher nor have it against their whole team. it's just Therrien whom I can't stand and Crosby being overhyped and acting like a baby when he knows he can duck out rather than do big man's job. though, I really don't like AO take in Malkin's case. Malkin is babyish at times (thanks to the very same whiny coach) but he's a world class player who plays terrific hockey. I absolutely love Ovechkin and am even OK if he holds some personal vendetta against Malkin. but when it comes to national team... sorry guys but this is the moment when you can't restore to such crap. you're playing for your country and for millions fans on your home soil. this means much more than your personal feelings towards each other

I have to say he was one of hardest working, if not the hardest working Nashville player in playoffs when we last met them and their team was underinvested and decimated by injuries. goon as he is this is and always will be big in my book. that being said I hate this spoiled brat and always enjoy him taking smack. he doesn't deserve to be in this league

agreed. and I also happen to remember Beauchemin playing strong minutes against Wings in 2007 playoffs. he's not flashy but pretty sucessful and you didn't see Datsyuk taking the puck away of him with ease like from Scott *cough* All Star *cough* Niedermayer...

sucks for him. he's a decent D-man. hope he'll be fine and recover.

dito and I'm certainly expecting a lot of ass-licking from TSN which has already been brutally brown nosed when it came to Burke. and when he gets to GM canadian team... that's gonna be pain to watch... why can't someone just ban this whiny ******* from the NHL forever...

Lucic Ovie Sakic Kessel Luongo about in this order. Lucic is f* awesome. this is the kind of kid you just love to watch

are you blaming Kronwall for not being able to cover two guys when 3 other Wings player went for one of Bolts? get real, man...