haroldsnepsts

Z having a terrible time with the puck there. I don't know if the ice is that awful or he's just a little off his game so far.

kind of a weak call. I guess he was a little overzealous with the crosschecks, but none of them were really that hard. Still, I'll take it.

Didn't they put him on waivers after the Islanders claimed Nabokov? If you've got a goaltender like Nabokov who you claimed legally to play under contract for your team, I don't see why you'd claim a goalie like Mike Smith.

so you think the centers and defensemen will be the ones scoring for Detroit?

Honestly this makes his Nabby signing look like a smart move to me. We all knew Dipietro would be out with an injury, though I didn't even expect it to be so soon and in such idiotic fashion. So he currently has a solid goaltender in Nabokov signed at a bargain price. Don't forget Nabby's agent said he'd play anywhere. To me, Snow doesn't look like a fool at all in this case.

Well, on the bright side, he's only under contract for what, 8 and half more seasons?

Weird. It could be something as serious as drugs, as someone had mentioned, or a heart condition, or as simple as not being properly hydrated. Scary though.

Emery is definitely Hextall caliber crazy. He can handle himself in a fight, but I still think his teammates should've been all over Peters when he started fighting Emery. A second fight, and in goaltender equipment. Not exactly an even match.

The one time the guy actually stops something...

Yeah, why could the Isles possibly need a goaltender?

I haven't been able to watch the game, but how the hall are we tied 5-5 with the Sens right now? I see the break didn't do anything to shore up the defensive game.

Well in particular I meant if he thought he would be starting for the Red Wings in the playoffs. He would've had to clear waivers (extremely unlikely) and outplay Howard enough to convince Babs to start him in the playoffs (also unlikely. Babcock tends to have his horse and stick with it until painfully obvious it's not working). So a more realistic assessment of his situation could be sitting on the bench for the Red Wings, or being a starting goaltender for the Isles. It seems much more possible to outplay Dipietro in NY than Howard in Detroit, assuming Dipietro even stays healthy.

To me it's the other way around. There's no question it was a suckerpunch. He punched Prust in the face when he wasn't even looking. What's to decide? As for collapsing like he's been shot, it could've been a dive, it could've been that he got his bell rung. Either way Prust should be a bit embarrassed.

As far as cheapshots go, that wasn't brutal, but it's still a suckerpunch. It looks like a dive, but honestly I'd cut Prust some slack. It wasn't that hard but he took an unexpected punch right on the button. It's possible his collapse was real. Of course, it would also kind of mean he has a glass jaw.

Exactly. I think he jumped reflexively, which made it a lot worse. And 2 minutes for not being man enough to take a clean hit. Love it. It's a penalty they need to hand out more often. I'm confused. Everybody on the ice didn't immediately jump Vladdy and start throwing cheapshots. And Lemieux didn't either. But I thought people always have done that after clean hits in hockey?

It's easy to point out and harder to fix, but the last couple seasons they seem to get outnumbered down low around their own net. It's been way too easy for opponents to camp out around the net and slam home rebounds or redirect shots. They need to make that area a hard place to play in. I understand that it's harder to clear the crease in the new NHL, but I'd rather they take some penalties crosschecking players into next week instead of standing there watching them whack at the puck in the crease.

I guess we'll have to wait and see who's career he ends first, his own from drinking (or whatever drug he's doing), or another players with one of his cheapshots.

Apparently one person in the hockey world did. Honestly the Islanders goaltending situation seemed to get dire right around the time Holland signed Nabby, so the whole possibility fell in Snow's lap. But I seriously can't blame him for claiming a good and inexpensive goaltender when all his current ones are terrible or injured or both. This was a worst case possibility for Nabokov, and unfortunately for him, it happened. Still, he's a fool if he thought he'd be starting for the Wings this season and/or the playoffs. He would've had to clear 27 teams on the waiver wire and then clearly outplay Howard for the starting job. Those are two pretty substantial obstacles. I'm not sure he actually knew that. Nabby's agent said he'd play anywhere.

Like I said, I understand Nabby not wanting to play there, but this isn't Snow just doing this to screw him over. Their goaltending situation is bad. They basically have Dipietro who is a china doll, a shaky minor leaguer, and a young prospect. They don't want to throw the prospect and have him get shelled on a crappy team. Dipietro will very likely get injured again in some way, and there is still almost a half a season left to play. No, they're not going to make the playoffs, but as GM I get that he wants to at least ice a competitive team so the fans that do come have something to watch. Holland likely made this move because of Osgood's injury and Jimmy's less than stellar play. So he picks up a solid goalie at bargain basement prices. That's pretty much the same reasons Snow claimed him, minus the playoff situation. Roloson was a salary dump, but by claiming Nabby Snow just replaced him with a comparable goaltender but significantly cheaper. And unless Jimmy started sucking, he's the starting goaltender here in Detroit, but Nabokov sounds almost as if he expected to be the starter. He'd very likely be riding the pine here come playoff time. Sucks for Nabokov, but Snow is doing this for reasons other than to screw with his career, and it's allowed in the rules.

Agreed about Salei. At 36 years old and with that back injury last year, I don't really expect him to get better or play more physical than he is right now. I haven't actually seen Carkner play very much so I don't know much about him, other than he's got great size and won't hesitate to drop the gloves. EDIT: and Capgeek has Carkner signed through 2012.

Pretty much this. Salei is a good value for his contract, a solid bottom pairing guy. I just wish he played with more edge.

Actually Eva's analogy is a lot closer than the other ones being thrown around here. Nabokov signed a contract with an NHL franchise under the current CBA. The thing you guys are overlooking is that no matter what his intent was, Nabokov knew going into it how the waivers rule worked. Nearly everyone in the hockey world knew he had little to no chance to actually clear waivers and go to the Wings. You guys act as if this possibility was a total surprise to him. A more accurate analogy would be if an employee signed a contract to work for one of the best Little Caesar's franchises, but knew that before he could, all the struggling franchises had an option to pick up his contract and have him work there first. One of the crappiest franchises decided to use that option, so the employee decided not to honor his contract. I'm not saying I don't understand why he doesn't want to play for the Islanders, but he had to know this was a very real possibility when he signed.

it's funny how the intensity always winds up more and more towards the end, because even as much as they're screwing around in the All Star Game, these guys hate to lose even here.

Jackman isn't bad, but he definitely hasn't been as good as you'd expect when you look at the list of other Calder winners. I don't really care that he won it over Z though. Zetterberg has already won a Cup and a Conn Smythe - two things Jackman may never achieve in his career. To me, in the list of trophies and awards, the Calder doesn't mean a whole lot.

Why would he need to trade anything for Nabokov next year? He'll be a free agent. EDIT: ah, forgot about "tolling" his contract. I really don't know much about how that all works.