theman19

I suppose the argument becomes are other people picking with you. If i had to select one player for one season to win the cup, Lidstrom is my first pick. That may sound like being a homer, but when the GM of your team says he's going to retire when lids retires, (i hope he's joking btw) there's some weight to that.

how quickly people forget, Mario, leaving the game because of injury, then coming back,....jagr being a flake, the entire pens team almost being sold and move to seattle (although i believe that was in the 00') The pens were no where near the dominate team they started the decade as in 99.

Yeah i had a friend who's a pens fan who's done the same to me. My argument was always you can't win the 91 92 cup,...come close in 93 but get upset and then do NOTHING (other than a fluke playoff run in 96). It's like the 80's argument for the islanders vs. oilers. The islanders started the 80's the oilers finished. But during that time the oilers were always a good team. Ditto for the red wings, the penguins had some lean years in the later 90's (hell they had some lean years until they drafted crosby) so that gives them the edge.

In my mind it's the wings, because it's a decade thing and the devils didn't do anything after 03. We began the decade strong and finished it fairly strong as well. Plus the 02' wings are probably the best team of the decade to boot, if not one of the best teams of the expansion era period.

curse of the former wings prospects continues. He, like Quincey had one really good year and a so-so year before just flat out sucking. I hope he can pick his game up for the avs but Somehow I doubt it.

look, it's not he wasn't good enough to crack the line up. He's a player with a ton of potential and carolina was paying him next to nothing. They just didn't have a top six role to place him in. So instead he gets waived, goes to the wild and scores in his first game back. I guess what I was wondering, is why not keep him in the system if your carolina. They've routinely put guys like jussi jokinen and samsanov on the 4th line this season why not him? They're a classy org. they probably just wanted to give him a chance to succeed.

O'sullivan on waivers today, could be traded according to numerous sources. This really surprises me, I mean O'sullivan is the only player in the NHL born in North Carolina (winston salem to be exact). I figured they (canes) would keep him around just for that. He was a 20-20 guy just two seasons ago. Man did his career nose dive in a hurry

I've heard this before, that he had some serious issues growing up. I know he wasn't trained in N.C., his father was a minor leaguer in for the Winston Salem Ice Hogs (ECHL I believe) hence why he was here in the first place. The canes always wanted him but there was a lot of talk wither he would play for them ever, given that I believe he has a restraining order against his father (who lives outside Raleigh if you believe the rumors). Still when he was interviewed after the canes picked him up (and this could have been just standard vanilla hockey talk) he seemed excited to play in Carolina. Ultimately, I wish him the very best with whatever team he plays for. I just wish a guy who was born 20 mins from where I was born (I too made the trip to Michigan as a youth, hence why I'm a wings fan) could have made it for the home team. If he's ever able to put some of his demons to rest he'll be a star somewhere.

When he was brought here he wasn't quite at the point of suck. But you're not really intrested in listening to anything I have to say on the subject even though i'm willing to bet you've never even seen the RBC center, let alone know the first thing about the fans of the team in question,....... Look dude, when I tell you canes fans were excited to see him play because he was a born in nc, it's true, it's not like I made it for my health. Also, he didn't "suck" the canes just didn't give him a chance (as evident by the fact he scored for the wild tonite) Jeff SKinner stole his job basically. Must people nitpick every freaking thing someone says? I could go back and pull up the interview from the draft and show the ducks gm talking about they where proud to draft a local boy, but honestly i'm not justifying that post with that much effort. Obviously that wasn't the whole story, but it was at least a small part of it. Just a basic example, at least try to be subjective and ad something to the discussion without being a sarcastic know it all.

I was watching old games that came with a documentary I got about the transfer of the whalers to the hurricanes. (It was five bucks guys, give me a break). One of the games it showed was the 01 playoff series between Carolina and New Jersey where Scott Stevens effectively destroyed the canes and ruined the career of shane willis, a player at that time who was considered a rising star. The hit in question: but i mean this is a very small snap shot in the career of a guy who ruined a lot of other people's careers. I know a lot of my philly buddies growing up told me till they were blue that if he hadn't clocked lindros, Lindros would have been a much more dominate player for much longer. My point is, guys like Stevens, who hit to injure are suddenly and for no reason being penalized for it big time. I've heard all my life how stevens was an incredible D man, and "it was a travesty that he never won a norris". Well from my view if he was planted in todays nhl he'd be suspended every 10 or so games, good or bad. Are guys like Stevens a thing of the past?

The same reason the ducks drafted that kid who grew up playing in southern California at the draft this year. Hometown boys sell tickets, and O'sullivan is the only NC hometown boy in the nhl, quite possibly for quite a while. If you lived in North Carolina this would make more sense to you. Youth Hockey programs in NC are developing but still very raw. A player born and trained in North Carolina, playing for the hometown team gives youth organizations something to point too.

I think Minnesota is a perfect fit for him. He needs top nine min. and he wasn't getting them in carolina.

yes he did, lots of people from that generation of players made their living hitting that way. My observation is with the NHL on the warpath about those particular breed of hits, are we seeing the end of players who play the game with that edge. When a guy comes barreling through the neutral zone with his head down, in 20 years will he have to worry about getting blindsided. If not, that's a damn shame. I get player saftey, but why not change the equipment instead of the way you hit someone. A lot of older ex players have advocated for the return of padded shoulder pads, vs the hard plastic road warrior ones we have now. I can see their point, 30 years ago when you hit a guy on the chin with your shoulder you hit him with your shoulder and what amounted to a big pillow. Now you hit him with this hard plastic disk, that adds a lot more force and impact to an already high impact situation.

thank you, someone who answered my post subjectively rather than criticizing it's context because they think I'm insulting scott stevens. It's not about Scott, put any name you want in there,....hell eddie shore if you want. Point is, as T. Low said, what was once the mark of a true tough as nails D man, is now a "dirty hit". The evolution of from that has about as much to do with goalie masks as cooperalls did with hockey fashion Konnan. You can say they're both due to player safety but you're examples are about changes in equipment for the players benefit. We're talking about a complete change in the way the game is played.

My second favorite team is the canes as I live in Raleigh. I honor all original six franchises. Most teams I'm neutral on. The only teams i really hate are Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Colorado, Nashville. A few teams like NJ or Dallas I kinda dislike, but don't hate like the above 4

Not at all. But I think you're doing my post a disservice by acting like i'm pigeon holeing the man into something he's not. When people think of scott stevens they think of one of three things, The hit on lindros The hit on kariya The hit on some other player that sticks out. *(for wings fans its the hit on kozlov) That's just the way it is, i'm not judging the man, he's among the best open ice hitters in nhl history. What I am saying is that with the league doing what they are doing, a player like Steven's career would have been heavily effected. Yes he'd still be a great D man, but would he be a hall of famer? Would he be held in the super high regard he is now if he played under the current "hit to the head witch-hunt" probably not. Let's make no mistake, I'm not damning the man at all, I hold him in great regard. I'm also not damning the NHL, it's just the evolution of the game. I'm just curious why now? Why after 100 years is it suddenly important to go after the guys who make their living by ending people's careers and will it effect the next generation of nhl D men.

There is no where near the level of douchbaggery around Raleigh when the canes play the wings. I'm not talking about pens fans at the rbc center to watch the game. I'm talking the entire week of the game there are crosby shirts, crosby jerseys, pens hats, hoddies the whole nine yards. When the wings play the canes, there are wings fans at the arena, but they don't run around the city of Raleigh chanting lets go pens before a game. To their credit, they have nothing on sabers fans.

I live in Raleigh, and the canes are the 2nd team I follow closely. We despise the penguins here in Raleigh about as much as i'm sure they do in Detroit. Makes me sick, every time there's a pens game the little pittsburgh transplants come out of the woodwork. Anyway, the call was beyond weak. The News and Record beat guy (who does a good job of cover hockey btw) inquired the league about it who said basically "Toronto's sole job was to determine if the puck had crossed the line, which it did." They claimed they had no sound in Toronto (bull s***,....as the numerous "intent to blow" penalties have bitten us) so they only cared about if it went in. Here's my thing though......we've had about 12 of these goals go the other way,...I.E. the whistle blows (or doesn't lol) and the ref says the play was dead. The replay very CLEARLY shows the whistle go off long before the puck goes in, yet it's a penguins goal? At some point, people are going to wake up. All around the league everyone calls red wings fans "tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist" because of the 09 playoffs. But how many teams does s*** like this have to happen to when pitts is involved before someone discovers an email or something letting us all know something we've all secretly believed for years; the NHL has favorites and the calls go towards those favorites. I only saw the actual replay not the game in time before. Look at Crosby,...jabbering away at the refs. Now I know that's what captains do, but then,.....the ref who's hearing all this motions to him like,..."ok okay, we're going to give it to you, calm down". Any other player in the NHL the ref doesn't even give them the time of day and asks the player to step away. Shessh guys,...at least act like he doesn't have your ear 90% of the time.

the 52' red wings would beg to differ. a perfect 8-0 in the playoffs

dude I could watch your signature gif all day. Who the heck is that?

The other day there was an article on puckdaddy where Adam Lambert, one of their guys who has a serious hate-on for the wings bitched for a good half an article about how homerific Mickey Redmond is. Homer or not, I really appreciate how intelligent and hockey smart our announce team at FSD is. I watch a ton of games online and some of these guys are total jokes when it comes to knowledge about other teams. I'm watching the ducks/sharks game (I was bored)when the ducks announce crew steps to this segment about the next ducks game which is about the islanders. After talking about John Tavares for a while and showing footage of him being drafted first overall, one of the guys goes; "So Tavares and the islanders here next game" His partner goes "How about that dubinsky he's got X amount of points in X games,....so the ducks will need to watch out for both Him and Tavares next game" or something to that effect. Now I know mistakes happen, Dubinsky plays for the rangers not the islanders, they're both new york teams,...I get it. I guess i'm spoiled, I just don't see Mick or Cal making that kind of mistake. This isn't the first mistake i've heard listening to opposing teams broadcast crew. What have you guys heard that made you go; "you're payed to watch hockey and you said that?"

Jeezzz I was in the military when that game took place, i've never seen that footage. That was some of the dirtiest hockey i've ever seen. Did any blues get suspended for that?

yeah well, like my original post says, at least our guy knows what teams guys play for.

I must say, I'm pretty surprised that the rookie everyone's talking about so early in the season is a guy who was drafted out of the top five. The canes are my second favorite team (I live in raleigh) and I remember cursing at the screen when the canes passed not one, but two supposed "franchise" D men (one being the ISS 3rd rated fowler) to draft Skinner. Skinner, you'll recall had his draft stock explode, but honestly I didn't think he'd be anything more than a developing prospect at this point. For once, i'm really glad i'm not a GM, cause this kid is the really freaking deal. Go watch the highlights of the Carolina/EDM game,....look at the plays he sets up, if you'd tell me to watch that and ask If I thought that was a rookie doing that, I'd say you were crazy. It's like the kid has an identity crisis, one game he's pure snipe, the next he's making incredible veteran moves (drew a penalty late in the third against new york, then set up the gwg on the pp) then another game he's setting up his teammates for tap in goals. I haven't seen a single game yet I haven't noticed this kid. It makes me all very jealous the wings can't buy a pick that high (Karma for dats, homer ect) To the point, did anyone think a Carolina Hurricanes Draft pick would be totally outclassing Taylor Hall right now?

That goal he scored on the oilers last night really should squash anyone with half a brain who thinks he gets lucky. One of carolina's D men passed the puck a little too far out for skinner to actually take it in and get a shot off, so he just poke-checked it,....i.e. deflected it,...right over Bulin's left shoulder. Stuff like that looks effortless so that's maybe why people think that. But when you're setting up beautiful pass plays on the pp and are routinely at this point giving your teammates open nets, it becomes a moot point.