haroldsnepsts

That's really too bad. Cooke's cheapshot was basically a career ending injury, it's just that with brain injuries you can't always tell at that moment.

Crosby. And as the saying goes, it's not even close.

So when Holland takes a chance on a very low percentage move to sign someone like Nabby realizing he almost certainly won't clear waivers at that price, it's a great move. But when Snow (and Wang) picks up Nabby at a bargain basement price because at the moment he has virtually no starting goaltender other than the china doll Dipietro, he's a d-bag? Don't get me wrong, overall I think Wang has made a ton of idiotic moves, but the thing is, Nabby knew this was a possibility when he signed the contract. When we heard the price, pretty much everyone here knew he wouldn't clear waivers. You don't think he and his agent knew that too? With this move, they essentially replaced Roloson at a much cheaper price. It sucks for Nabby to get picked up by a crap team like the Islanders, but thems the rules. As for Wangs comments, it's all just public relations, which he's not very good at. If I were him I would basically say, "He signed a contract and knew the rules. We're willing to pay this guy good money to play in the NHL. Do you know how many players would kill for that chance? Let's not lose perspective here." And yes tanking will get you a better draft pick, but we're only halfway through the season and you have to at least pretend to field a competitive team and sell some tickets. If Dipietro got hurt again, my understanding is they basically would have to start a questionable minor league goalie or make their young prospect start all these games for this awful Islanders team, which isn't exactly good goalie development.

I understand that, but at the same time, unless Nabby has a terrible agent and doesn't understand the waiver rules himself, he had to know it would be a very real possibility he would get picked up by a bottom feeder like the Isles.

What's he going to do exactly, threaten to sign him to the Isles for 15 years?

Is there a source saying she waited ten days to complain and call the cops? In the couple articles I've seen, the woman claims she went to police right after the incident. The reality is, we have no idea what really happened at this point, but people are being rather quick to judge both Komisarek and this woman.

Kopecky with yet another garbage goal. the hockey gods are definitely on his side.

"Kane coming back to pick it up..." that's not a phrase you hear announcers say very often.

Funny how easily a guy as strong on his skates as Hossa can suddenly get knocked down like that.

Word is that Nabby won't report. Bob McKenzie's twitter

gotta get that shot deep Raf! you're the only one back.

wow. couple big crosschecks on salei before the goal. And one after the goal.

wow. nice dive. EDIT: meh, on the replay he did get him with the skate. Still seemed to go down pretty easy though.

I have a special kind of hatred for kopecky. Not just because of how crappy he was here, but I can't think of a recent player who's been given so much opportunity for so little reason. his friendship with Hossa has paid off for sure.

That was my first reaction, but some Isles fans are making some sense. Roloson was a salary dump. Dipietro is made of glass, their one backup is apparenly barely minor-league caliber, and the kid they want to develop into a starter is just too green to throw into starting on this s***ty of a team right now. At that price, Nabby makes sense. And honestly if it wasn't the Isles, it was going to be someone else. As I said on hfboards, if you're pissed at the isles and you want to make yourself feel a little better, go look at their cap numbers, specifically under "buyout" and "dipietro." It's good for a chuckle.

Hopefully not true. I don't get why the Isles would want him this season, even at bargain basement prices. It's not like Nabokov is going to get them the 20 points they need to make up in the standings to even be in the playoff race.

I didn't get a chance to watch this game and just saw the highlights, but I'd just like to say this. Darren Helm finished on one of his high speed breaks! that's the way you do it kid! Let's hope he keeps it up because it makes him really scary for other teams to have out there 4 on 4 and shorthanded. As for Ericsson kissing Helm, when you're a 6'4" 200+ lb hockey player, you can pull something like that off.

That's a terrible call. To be clear, we're not talking about a high speed deflection off a slapshot here. The puck was lofting up in the air and he took a baseball swing at it. It's pretty easy to tell it was a high stick. On the replay you can see an angle where you're watching Hanzal from behind and his stick looks like it never even goes below crossbar height during the whole time he swings at the puck. I don't know about a conspiracy, but I do have to agree with Terry Murray when he wonders why they even have video replay. Though even beyond the replay it's ridiculous that the ref standing right there on the redline blew the call too.

I thought they said he came back to the states for family reasons? As for Niedermayer, he didn't do anything that was shady in terms of the CBA, he just sort of put his team in a bind by not deciding for so long.

Anyone have educated guesses as to who would be most likely to take Nabokov off waivers? All I can think is that Holland is willing to roll the dice on this one. But he must be fairly certain he wouldn't get picked up somewhere that would really hurt the Wings.

I am really curious about this move. Holland must have some plan, I just can't figure out what it is, because he really can't expect Nabby to clear 27 teams at that price.

I can't speak to the 70s, but as for the 80s, no there wasn't. I'm sorry, but there just wasn't. I've been watching hockey pretty seriously since the early to mid 80s on. Games would get chippy, there would be full line brawls, there were plenty of elbows and fights, but that is not the same thing as what happens now. If a player threw a clean hit, the entire team on the ice did not immediately go jump the guy in the middle of the play. Once in a great while, maybe. But now it's become accepted practice. And if it was a star player that got hit, one of the enforcers on the team would go after him either during that shift or later in the game. Or that team would often start taking runs at the other teams star players. But that's not the same thing. They would intimidate you from hitting guys because of the enforcers, not because the entire team would cheapshot you at once. I understand protecting a star player, that's why Yzerman had Probert and Gallant on his wing, but it's gotten f-ing ridiculous. It's bad for the game, and it should be heavily penalized. I love hockey because it's a fast, athletic, tough sport. But jumping guys after clean hits makes it like hockey players are china dolls. Like a player is such a puss that he can't handle being hit, so his whole team has to protect him. People ***** and moan about the new NHL and how they're trying to take hitting out of the game, but jumping guys after clean hits is doing the exact same thing. Imagine in football after someone got crushed catching a pass, if every player on the offense started trying to fight the defensive back who made the hit. It's idiotic.

This. But why let the facts get in the way of obsessing about a guy we're all sick of hearing about?

Agreed. Stevie managed to avoid most of those hits, but he also had Joey and Bob making people think hard if they really wanted to take a run at him.

Yeah, but it used to be just probert going after the guy, and sometimes not even during the same play. Not to mention if a guy got rocked for having his head down, that was a lot less likely to warrant a response because every player, especially a star player, should know better. But every Oiler on the ice started jumping guys, and one edmonton player coldcocked a guy from behind. Crap like that needs to stop and be heavy penalized. Hockey has not always been this way. Yes, there were always scrums and even line brawls, but it took a lot more than one clean hit to start them.