daniel1

Datsyuk for the penalty shot!!

Yep, Mac asked him twice to throw down just there but Horidblechuck declined due to the fact he might actually get hit during the fight. It's a little different for him than pushing around Sammy and Huddles where he KNOWS they won't smack him around if the gloves come off.... who am I kidding; Sammy has his gloves welded on before each period, lol.

Yes Sammy is performing "wonderfully", lol. So far he's at 100%. He's taken 17 shots and hit the center of the goalie's chest 17 times! He's perfect shooter who never misses his target, which someone must have told him is the colorful badge adorning the goalie's pectoral area. He is capable of creating at times though as he can stick handle with the best of them right up until he makes one too many moves and loses it. He's gotta either dish it off to an OPEN teammate or just dump the damn thing in the corner. I would love for him to score 2 tonight and make me eat this post... I would literally print it off, salt it up, and swallow it down. C'mon Sammy, I know you read these threads!!

Aflac! That GDT is just so purrrty to look at; thank you for taking the time to make it look so nice. I was baffled at the "logo hunter" reference until I couldn't find Sammy's name; then I put it all together and had a good out loud chuckle at the office. He seems to want to hit the goalie dead center doesn't he? I wonder if he's thinking rebound or offensive end faceoff, or if he simply can't pick a corner. Regardless, his "talent" would be more suited to playing with McCarty and Drake who will crash the net and stand up to people for him too.

Well after reading some of the previous posters on here I was expecting to see Tootoo in a black hood swinging a large ax at Draper's back in the center of the town square, lol. After watching the replay a few times though I even give Toots a tiny bit of credit for appearing to avoid putting any weight on Draper's back with his foot as he realizes his skate is right on top of Draper's back. In this case both players went down, Toots gets up before Drapes and tries to get back into the play where he appears to try and step over Draper and just doesn't quite make it. It's not as though Toots is standing over him and deliberately "Simon-Stomps" on him. No need for a review here; let's put our homer glasses back in their case until tonight's game starts!

Commercial break wasn't long enough, lol. Well now we got a game that's for sure. We need to put some more shots on Ellis, he's been getting off easy this game so far.

OH MY CORY NICK SARICH KRONWAL!!!! what a hit....

No it's not something that has ever been tried intentionally; mostly due to the fact that most players don't wanna face 100mph slap shots coming at their necks and heads unless they ARE a goalie, lol. There's a big difference between going down to block a shot with your shin pads and standing there like a pylon while the other team can simply fire away till they either injure all your players or sneak one through yur five-hole (yikes!). I was just looking for an example of something that could be used as a tactic due to it not being specified as "illegal" according to the NHL rulebook.

I just watched the replay and at first I was confused about what the hell he was trying to do. He looked like an ass jumping around in front of Marty, but then I realized it was Avery and since he's an ass already it wasn't that surprising. If this was basketball then we would say "good defense, way to get a hand in the shooter's face", but this isn't the NBA. I know there's no "rule" preventing it in the NHL, and i'm not sure if there should be either. What would happen if all 4 defenders on the ice simply lined up in front of the net during a pp? Their bodies and the goalies in front of the net would make it impossible to get a puck through. Again it's not in the rule book that they can't do it so why don't they? Well, other than the fact that they don't have the padding (not to say they couldn't wear extra), it comes down to tradition. Tradition says that the way to kill a penalty is to "play the box" keep the other team on the outside and clear the crease to let your goalie see the puck. Just because it's something that teams don't do doesn't mean that it wouldn't work. Before Bobby Orr came along, defensemen didn't carry the puck or rush up ice with it very much either. Avery may have (unknowingly) hit upon something different that teams might want to try on the pp. Rather than putting your back to the goalie why not try to face him and block his line of sight? Our gut reaction to this is that because it was Avery who did it then it was a cheap, classless, illegal act. But was it? Again, other sports allow this type of play; basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, and even water polo all allow defenders to try and screen the other player's line of sight by getting their body and hands in their face. Avery simply tried to block Marty's line of sight, not unlike what Homer does but Avery did it FACING the goalie and clearly had no interest in tipping or redirecting the puck whatsoever. His screening Marty might be secondary to pissing him off in this strategy, but if the puck goes in the net, then it's effective. If Avery hits him, or interferes with Marty then it's a penalty for sure. If he just tries to block his view then why not allow it? It may not prove to be all that effective over time, if the goalie can ignore the screener and look around him then really the guy doing the screening isn't very effective as he can't see the play, tip the puck, redirect the puck, or even move with the play as well as if his back was to the goalie. Bottom line: I don't think it's illegal, but I don't think it would be as effective as screening with your back to the goalie. Is Avery "crossing the line" by doing that? No, what he did was unusual, innovative and annoying but if Franz or Homer had did it we wouldn't be as outraged. Will the league do something to prevent it? I doubt it as other than it being annoying and irritating, it doesn't break any rules that I can see. I'm very interested in what other LGW'ers have to say about it though...

If anything, we want to make sure our 4th line isn't a defensive liability heading into Nashville seeing as how Trotz has last change and would surely take advantage of any defensively weak line we would put out. Playing Downey with Mac would definitely make our 4th line pretty weak against a top offensive line. I think keeping Z with Dats gives us our best chance to score regardless of who Nashville puts out against them so I see no reason to split them up. It might be a different story if they had a real strong shut-down line like Paulson/Niederwhiner/Moen, but for the most part I haven't seen any one of Nashville's lines do a great job of shutting anyone down. I really like Franzen's play on that second line though but Cleary and Flip need to step it up a notch and produce on the road.

Trade him to the Islanders for Trent Hunter. Or better yet just for a pick as the odds of us finding a very good player with a 3rd round pick are way better than anyone already at the NHL level turning into a very good players. Our D is going to be "interesting" over the next couple of seasons with Meech, Quincey, Ericsson, Kindl and Pyett all knocking on the door and established vets like Cheli, Lilja, Lebda and Stuart already on the team. If we do resign Stuart, and I think we should, then for sure we have to trade a couple other guys away. Does Cheli play until he's 50? There's no arguing that he's still effective now, but at some point we have to think about developing our younger D too. My suggestion would be to resign Stuart for 3mil/3yrs, this solidifies our top 4 for the next couple seasons till we see what the younger D are going to turn into at the NHL level. We trade Lebda and Quincey for picks/prospects. We let Lilja go as Stuart is a better player and can replace the physical presence Lilja brought. That leaves us with a top 6 of Lids/Rafi, Kronner/Stuart, Meech/Cheli which allows us to bring Ericsson in right from training camp and have him swing between Cheli's 6th spot and the 7 D (not dressed) spot. Then we have Kindl, and Pyett to bring up when the injuries hit so we get a look at them. Although if we did keep Lilja for 1mil/1yr it wouldn't be the end of the world as he kills penalties well and can fill in when the injury bug hits and he's cheap too. We have to open some room up for other guys though, so Lebda and Quincey should probably be dealt or simply signed to 2 way contracts so that they can be kept down in GR until they're needed. Having too much D though is a nice problem to have and perhaps we can deal from that strength to acquire a legit 2nd line center? Who wouldn't pull the trigger on a Lebda, Quincey and Pyett for Oli Jokinen deal this summer? That would still leave us very well off at D and give us a second line center to play with Franzen and Filppula. Cleary fills in well for 1st and 2nd liners but having him on the 3rd line really give us some balance down there with Draper, Sammy, Hudler and maybe Mac if we give him another 1yr deal next year.

Yee Haw! Stick that in your banjo and play it hillbillys!

Foreskin has always been productive WHEN he's been in the lineup. When he can't play near the top of his game he has often sat out for long stretches of time, even the whole season if he feels he needs to "get healthy". How many other players have perservered through injuries and laid it on the line knowing their team needed them out there? I know of one fella who nearly played an entire playoff series on one good leg in the playoffs... hint, his last name starts with a Y. Forsberg also has the distinction of leading in that statistical catagory while still in his prime. Lemieux would have the lead if not for his later years when he wasn't producing at a pace anywhere near his prime before injuries and cancer limited his production. Likewise for Gretzky, had he stayed in Edmonton and produced at a pace anywhere near what he did when he was an Oiler he would have the pts/game lead easily. Had Gretzky not gone to LA, St. Louis, and NY where his stats declined greatly from his Oiler days then I believe he would be the all time pts/game leader. Forsberg has also had the benefit of ALWAYS having had great players on his line and team. I could rack up a few points with Sakic on my line too, lol. The Fantastic Flopper might be the best ever at protecting the puck while cycling deep and circling the net though; I've yet to see anyone do that as well as he did it back in the Av's Cup winning seasons. His patience and vision in the offensive end while fighting off one or two D was simply amazing to watch. I'll always hate him (along with Roy, Deadmarsh, Foote, Claude, etc) because of what happened during the Wings/Avs rivalry but I do respect Foreskin and Sakic for their talent on the ice.

Yee... Haw... chaw on that hillbillys!!

Rafi on in our end in the last seconds? Not if i was coaching...

yep, not a stellar game by him so far... 3 giveaways (2 on one shift) in our end so far, he's been beat wide twice this game and he just crossed up Lids on the pp at the blue line. He's gotta pick up the mental game a bit the rest of the way.

WTF! Put it in the net boys! Looked like Sammy had an open net on the backhand and went BEHIND the net instead? Is he scared to score or what?

Franzen is looking good on the PP; a little luck there and we woulda had one for sure.

My foot print is still eerily visible over my screen, lol. They did have the decency (TSN) to switch the feed for hockey game to the alternate channel, which I hope everyone gets (?). Maybe cable subscribers don't but Bell/Star Choice users should all get it so even though it doesn't say it on the guide, the game is now on the TSN alternate feed. They did miss a lot of the first period though until some fan in Toronto stormed the TSN headquarters wearing a vintage Lee Norwood Wings jersey and brandishing a garden hoe. (jk) I'm sure they were inundated with calls/emails though, cause I sent three email myself, lol.

Thanx for posting, link works great. I had to watch first 10min of the game from it until TSN got their heads out of their asses and covered switched to the game on their alternate station. For some ridiculous non-Canadian reason, they were covering GOLF on their main channel. Golf... in April... when the Stanley Cup Playoffs are on... I know they're all still crying cause their darling Leafs didn't make the playoffs over there in Toronto, but seriously, golf?

From Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; bring home the Cup boys!

There aren't that many players we'll see hanging from the rafters anytime soon. Those I think we will see include but are not limited to: Rod BrindAmour Joe Sakic Mike Modano Nick Lidstrom Martin Brodeur Daniel Alfredsson-iffy Mats Sundin Trevor Linden I'm willing to bet that my rather small list will be closer to the actual number we'll see over the next decade. I agree with most of your list except for Alfredsson and Brind'amour. Allfy hasn't done anything yet really, he's a good player but I think he either needs to win a few individual awards or lead them to some playoff success. Rod the bod has had a nice career, but it's been with a few different teams (St. Louis, Philly, Carolina) so I'm not so sure who would retire it? He has played 8 (and counting?) season with Carolina though and they did win a Cup during his Captaincy so I guess they would be the most likely to retire his jersey. The Stars should retire Modano's jersey after his loyalty and dedication to that franchise but any team that "strips" their leader of the C the way the Stars did has to be labeled as unpredictable when it comes to recognizing the accomplishments of their own players. Brodeur - no question about it; I completely forgot about him in my earlier post. Even if he leaves Jersey at the end of his career, he's backstopped them to 3 Cups and been an ultimate team guy. Heck Canada should even consider retiring his jersey from International play with all that he's done for us over the years, as opposed to "other" goalies who were too busy/tired/non-patriotic to play for Canada. (Put that in your pipe and smoke it Patty "I train my goalie-son with UFC tapes" Roy)

I would hope the Avs retire Sakic's 19; he is/was classy all the way and did a lot for that organization. It would also be nice if the Canucks retired Linden's 16; he was a great leader for them for a lot of years but didn't rack up the awards/Cups that some might say are required for a jersey retirement. If Iginla retires with the Flames (not for a while i hope) I'm sure they will retire his jersey as he just became the all time franchise leader in points and will end up retiring with just about every team record by the time he's finished. I'm equally sure the Leaf-blowers will retire Sundin's jersey just so they can have a lengthy ceremony on Hockey Night In Canada that everyone in the country is forced to watch as CBC doesn't even know Canada HAS other teams in the NHL. The leafs will all pat themselves on the back for Mat's splendid career and Harry Neale will mourn the loss of his lover and will be forever at a loss for words as he'll have no one with whom he can shove his tongue up their ass and wiggle it on a weekly basis. Some other random thoughts as I ponder the significance of having someone's jersey retired: The Avs will retire Steve Moore's jersey in return for Moore not including them in his lawsuit along with Bergoonzi, Crawford, the Canucks organization, the other 11 players on the ice at the time, the guys who sold beer during the game, Bergoonzi's agent, Bergoonzi's maid, Bergoonzi's dog walker and that old homeless guy outside the Canuck's arena who was heard yelling "GET MOORE" right before the game. The Ducks will retire Scott Neiderwhiner's jersey - but only part time - it can be worn from September to January but must then be placed in the rafters for the rest of the season. The Oilers will retire Dustin Penner's jersey - not based on his performance or credentials, but simply as another way for Lowe to remind Burke that he "stole" Penner from them forever! MUUUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! The Flyers will reconsider and retire Lindross' 88; not to honor Lindross in any way, shape, or form but simply in the hopes that Bob "lbs are BETTER than talent" Clarke will make good on his promise of "OVER MY DEAD BODY" that was heard at the Flyers board meeting held to discuss Lindross' jersey retirement ceremony. The Wings will retire Chelios' jersey in 2012... then Cheli will rip it down 4 months later, un-retire it and play 4 more years!

For the other Canadians out there in LGW land; TSN just announced that they would be carrying the 1st game of the Wings/Preds series on Thursday and NBC has the 2nd one on Saturday. Here's hoping TSN picks up all the remaining games of our series as the Canadian version of Versus does not show hockey here in Canada and we are "prohibited" by law from obtaining a satellite dish capable of getting FSN Detroit due to God knows why lol. We can get Center Ice up here though and hopefully they'll cover some post-season play; I pay enough for the damn package, it's the least they can do!

If Stuart can't shoot (broken finger), I would rather see Meech in for Downey or Mac so he can man the point on the second PP unit with Kronwall. It's either that or we give Cheli that PP time he's been clamoring for, lol.