edicius

I totally concur. It's dirty dishwater.

JP Barry: Yeah, LGW is right...Sundin still doesn't know what the @#$% he's doing. Okay, so he didn't say that...but he may as well have. The fact that he's "not even close" to making a decision keeps moving him that much closer to Needavacation™ territory. As it stands right now, he's on the same level as Selanne.

I love how Frei almost didn't put Therrien among the "proven" because of his whining.

When I run into cases like that, I try and see which entries have ingredients listed and if all else fails, I tend to lean toward logging the higher calorie entry. Sometimes, it could be the difference between me being 300 calories under for a day or 300 OVER for a day. A lot of it is just intelligent guessing when it comes down to it, but in that sense, TDP is teaching you to pay attention to your food. Good lord, what kind of cereal are you eating?! I have a bowl of bran flakes (about 3/4 - 1 cup) with 3/4 cup of 1% milk and that comes to about 170 - 190 calories. If you're eating sugary cereal, though...I totally get that. It's delicious, dammit. And if you're using whole or 2% milk, I can totally understand that too. It's hard to get away from that milk-type comfort zone. Took me years to get used to 1% after drinking whole milk for eons back home. I've now also decided to remove sugar from my morning coffee (unless I have Sweet N' Low, Equal or Splenda handy) and now I can have a 12 oz. cup with 3 tbsp of fat-free half and half for only...*drum roll*...30 calories. And you wouldn't believe how happy I was when I found out that a tall nonfat caffe latte at Starbucks is only 100 calories. I have a new drink! (though it didn't help that I ate a 390 calorie piece of 'reduced fat' banana chocolate chip coffee cake with it ). Currently sitting at about 218.5 lbs and would absolutely love to be below 200 by Christmas. I've plateaued a little right now, but I think it's possible.

And then when he walks at the end of the season, Pittsburgh fans will feel slighted once again. I don't see the organization doing that again.

Eh, I'm not so sure. The Habs will make it into the playoffs with Sundin, I'm certain of that, but...wait a second, all the teams in the East suck. You're probably not too far off. :lol

Ahh, my bad. So, yeah, pretty much any surefire contenders for the Cup don't have the money for him...and anybody that does have the money is either not a playoff contender or isn't a postseason threat. Sundin's better off retiring or going to Sweden than wasting a year with someone like Vancouver or Montreal.

Detroit has less than a million left under the cap. San Jose has just shy of $1.4M. Dallas is at about $1.7M. Doubt any of those three will contend for Sundin's services (and Detroit's not even interested according to Sundin's agent).

Good for Hank, making an honest woman of her.

Admittedly, that bothers me sometimes too. I'll be half paying attention to the game, then I'll hear Daniels start yelling and think there's some big scoring chance going on...meanwhile, the puck's being batted around in the neutral zone. When I listen to NHL Radio on XM, I hear a LOT of that in other cities too. Seems more prevalent on the radio. Especially in Pittsburgh. "Malkin to CROSBY WITH THE PUCK OMG OMG OMG CROSBY WITH THE PUCK AND HE GOES OFFSIDE!!!" Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration, but still...

Ha, that bit from the Vancouver Sun sounds EXACTLY like what Scotty Needavacation™ was doing. "His deadline to decide is July 1st. We're not going to have a repeat of last year." July 1st rolls around... "Deadline? What deadline? There's no deadline. He can take all the time he wants. We never set a deadline."

The unfortunate part of it all is that, for the money he's apparently looking for (despite having cash in the bank), there don't seem to be any sure-fire Cup contenders that can afford him now. Fringe competitors and teams that may or may not make the postseason, sure. A list of teams that could realistically afford Sundin right now: Minnesota, St. Louis, Florida, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Carolina, Columbus, Buffalo, Vancouver, Colorado, New York Islanders, Nashville, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Out of all those teams, Montreal is probably the best bet, but that's not saying much.

Can't stand Weber and Crisp. Annoying beyond belief. Ahlers and Hayward in Anaheim bother me as well, constantly making excuses for the goonery of their players. Hard to believe that Ahlers used to do Vipers games. Love Jim Hughson on Rogers Sportsnet, though I was introduced to him through the EA NHL games. Gotta love the way he says Filppula's name. Ken and Mickey go without saying. I don't think the Sharks' play-by-play guys - Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda - are too bad either. Pretty fair in their assessments of the game.

I love it every year when his advancing age takes center stage, but as much as I love Cheli...he really should retire. Retire and take a position within the organization. Maybe in PR.

Well, today's the day...and nothing on TSN yet. Wonder if he'll call a press conference to say that he hasn't decided yet, à la Scotty Needavacation™.

My best wishes to your son for a speedy recovery.

I was rather pleased to read that. I get the feeling that whatever team does end up signing him (if he doesn't retire) is going to be sorely disappointed.

This is huge news. Surprised that it's not getting more press.

Give it time. Burke will complain about it, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with him. I haven't seen his face on TSN in about a week, so he's overdue.

Take a good look everyone...THIS is how two people have an intelligent and civilized internet debate. I'll definitely give you the whole confidence angle with Stevens in front of Brodeur. We even saw that this past season - when a team plays in front of a goaltender that they have confidence in, they play more smoothly and effectively. When there's a lack of confidence in that goaltender, the D can have a tendency to do too much, overcompensate and then make mistakes they wouldn't ordinarily make if they truly trusted their tender to make the big save. Just look at the whole situation we had with Hasek. The boys just didn't play with confidence in front of him. I think that's one edge that Brodeur will always have - his players will continue to play with confidence in front of him, just as the Avs always did in front of Roy. Note how Brodeur and Roy aren't/weren't injury-prone. That instills a lot of confidence right there, on top of natural talent. That confidence can make an average goaltender look great (Giguere) or, on the flip side, a lack of confidence in front can make a great goaltender collapse (Hasek). No matter what I may think, whether he's overrated, underrated or in between, Marty's going down as one of the greats of this generation between the pipes, alongside Hasek and Roy. The question is, will he get out when the getting's good...or will he go out on a sour note, age having caught up to him?

Better?

Read my post again, we're kind of actually on the same page in some ways. This is the way things are usually seen: Devils = great defense Playing behind great defense, Brodeur = great Red Wings = great defense Playing behind great defense, Osgood = average/lucky Therefore, if Osgood is average/lucky, Brodeur can't be great and is therefore overrated. People have always claimed that Red Wings goaltenders (namely Ozzie) have benefited from the team in front of them and that on any other team, they'd fail (meanwhile, Ozzie disproved that with both the Isles and Blues and still doesn't get credit). EDIT: Meanwhile, take someone like Legace who excelled on the Wings (in the regular season, at least) and has totally tanked elsewhere. He's someone who genuinely benefited from playing behind a great defensive system and played way over his head, only to be exposed in St. Louis. However, it's still possible for me to consider Brodeur overrated while not considering Ozzie average/lucky. This is how: Both goaltenders benefit from the system played in front of them. However, Osgood has been able to prove that he doesn't need that defensive system in front of him to play well - case in point, his tenures in St. Louis and New York (where he took teams into the postseason that had no business being there). Brodeur, meanwhile, has always played for the Devils and their defensive minded system, so there's never been that "other team" perspective for him. His stats as a whole hold up thus far, but as the defensive system in New Jersey gets gutted for less and less skilled defensemen, Marty's much more prone to having "average" games where he very, very rarely had them before. Take this past postseason as an example - Marty was completely and totally ordinary throughout the entire series and the Devils never had a chance. The shame of that is that the Rangers offense wasn't even clicking that much more than the Devils (16 goals against for the Devils, 12 for the Rangers), but a lot of the goals scored were goals that Martin Brodeur should have saved in his sleep (and we can't blame it all on Sean Avery ). The fact that Marty gave up 16 goals in 5 games against THAT Rangers team, though, it makes one wonder. So while two goaltenders on different teams can benefit from defensive systems in front of them, it IS possible for one of the goaltenders to benefit MORE from that system, if that makes any sense. I think that Brodeur benefits more than Osgood does...but, like all opinions, mileage may vary. (Did any of that make sense? I'm tired and I need to go to bed. )

This is me at least 10lbs lighter than my last pic... ...yeah, I totally don't see it yet. EDIT: Wow, I look pissed off or something, don't I? I think that's just my normal look though.

Smartarse.

I remember reading that article as well. However, even saying that the NHL is 4th in US sports rankings is far too generous. I would guess that things like NCAA football and basketball, golf, or NASCAR (if one is so inclined to consider that a sport) are ahead of the NHL.