sibiriak

As things stand now, poor 4th place Detroit would face Nashville in the first round, while the mighty St.Louis would have to play the Sharks. You know, I think I prefer this to being in 1st. (The Sharks have 2 games in hand on Dallas and are very likely two make up the 2 pts they need.)

Russian sports paper "Sport-Express" reports that the Rangers offered Dubinski+Cryder(sp?)+1st rd pick for Nash. That doesn't look too exorbitant to me.

Was it Beulleiux (sp?) who stopped skating? He seems to behave like a man who heard a whistle, there was a penalty being called on him. And after he realizes that the whistle hasn't blown, he has no chance to get back into play.

I think you exaggerate about seeing "quit" in some Canadian players. I didn't see any in that 3rd period! I bet Vasilevsky starts in the final. He was spectacular this whole toutney and the goals weren't his fault, the defense in front of him crumbled. He might have had a chance on Gormley's blue-line wrister, but he was screened pretty well. The rest were deflections, tip-ins, rebounds etc.

Whatever his relationship with the Russiaqn hockey powers now is, he must be to old to play this year? Is that sour grapes that I hear? There was only one occurrence of such, and the Russian player was pushed a bit by a Canadian D-man so he was off balance and couldn't avoid the goalie, though he tried. Watch the replay of that goal again, I think it was Russia's 3rd or 4th. And it was a Canadian player who slid into Wedgewood on the other goal. Rossiya, vpered!

Actually, that was a poor translation of a Russian idiom. A better way to put it is: "I would go to battle alongside him any day".

Nazarov is a newcomer to "Vityaz". But Zhamnov has been their GM for years, and he kept importing AHL goons. So the blame here is on Zhamnov, not Nazarov. When Nazarov coached "Traktor" last year, they didn't do anything like that, but instead were a rather interesting looking team, young and with low payroll, but enjoyable to watch.

I'm trying to recall an instance where someone got beat up by an enforcer for something he did in the game, and I draw a blank. Could you give me an example? But I remember quite well Cooke and Tootoo antics, and how they never concede to fight anyone bigger then them. So I'm not convinced that fighting deters anything. It does please many fans, but as for being functional...

For a guy who didn't grow up in North America, would someone please explain a few things about hockey fighting to me? I don't have any objection against fighting in hockey, but except for being entertaining and traditional, I don't see any useful function for it. The way I see it, a cheap shot artist (like Cooke, Casparaitis) can always avoid being beat up by turtling (and does if the odds are unfavorable). So as a deterrent, I don't see fighting working. Or if an agitator A(very) does something bad, and as a result heavyweight from the other team challenges an enforcer from A(very)'s team, then how is A(very) punished? He is not the one with the black eye. Or if the two heavyweights line up for a faceoff and drop'em right away, what's that but a sideshow? I understand when a spontaneous fight, especially by a scorer/team leader who doesn't normally fight, can change the momentum of the game, but that situation does not arise often, and the existing rules can deal with such adequately. So my question is, what do we want fighting in hockey for, and why would heavy suspensions for fighting be bad?

Several Russian papers report that "Lokomotiv" captain Ivan Tkachenko has donated 10 mil. roubles (over $300,000) to help children with cancer over last few years. He didn't want anyone, even his family, to know about it. The last 500,000r. he transferred from that plane 15 minutes prior to takeoff... What a heartbreak.

Too bad Bertuzzi never took out that player liability insurance. He'd sleep easier now.

Isn't that how a justice system supposed to work? If you miss a stop sign and hit someone with your car and seriously injure them, wouldn't you "be paying out of (your) own pocket for likely the rest of (your) life for a one time lapse of judgement"? It seems that Moore claims that Bertuzzi's hit caused him a brain injury that not only ended his hockey carreer, but also jeopardized his post-hockey carreer in finance, that Moore's Harvard degree could lead to. That's part of the $40 mil lifetime earnings figure. Also I'm sure pain and suffering and legal expenses figure prominently. Bertuzzi already pled guilty to this in the criminal case. So it is now proper for the civil court to decide how much compensation is fair. Moore's attorneys would be negligent if they didn't try to open the bidding as high as possible.

I understand your concern, but we are comparing a 2nd overall pick and a 291st overall pick. 4 more years of development seems about right in this case. And Pronger turned 21 a week into his 3rd season Not to nitpick, but when correcting my math, you should make sure of your own. This of course doesn't negate your argument.

Ericsson has played 4 years in North America. Year 5 hasn't started yet. In that span he played 2 more or less full seasons in the NHL. He was drafted 291st (LAST overall) and he was a forward then. His last season stats: 74GP 3G 12A 15Pts 8+/- 87PIM 89SOG Not bad for a 3rd pair D. Do you know what Pronger's (2nd overall pick) 3rd NHL season stats were? 78GP 7G 18A 25Pts -18+/- 110PIM 138SOG So it took Pronger - a surefire top pick - more than 3 years to learn to be an NHL defenseman. (And that would have been his 7th year playing pro or quasipro hockey in North America, counting juniors.) So cut Ericsson some slack. You can't teach size, but it appears that Detroit's management believe they can teach Ericsson everything else he needs to know, and fairly quickly.

In Russia, hockey is not a bisness at all. It is rather a social service that large companies and/or local governments finance in order to please the masses and win popularity and reduce social discontent. If say, an oil oligarch wants to do business in Tatarstan (that has significant oil resreves), he WILL be asked to financially support Ak Bars or Neftekhimik KHL teams from that region. And the richer the region is, and the more hockey ambitions the local governor has, the more financing the team gets. And while your point about players contracts not being guaranteed is valid, in this case the whole business has now the personal attention of the President of Russia, so the hockey management better follow through. It s political now. Also, one should make a distinction between Federation of Hockey of Russia (FHR) under Tretiak, that is in charge of national teams, and the KHL under A. Medvedev and Fetisov that runs the top hockey league. They are distinct entities who are often at odds. I don't trust the FHR as they tend to do business in the old Soviet way and are very corrupt and non-transparent as it comes to money and other things. KHL is trying to run a league as close as possible (in Russia ) to the professional standards set by the NHL. It is an uphill battle, but at least they are trying.

I'd say the chances of Lokomotiv playing next year are very good. New players will be wearing red and green next year, the club infrastructure (including a modern 10 yr old arena) is still there, the owner (National Railroad Co.) is rich, and its not like the team was a profit center before, its revenue usually covered no more than a third of the expense anyway. The KHL promised to take over the payroll for the new players, so Lokomotiv can continue paying the salaries of the fallen to their families. The Russian president got personally involved in this and there's no way the team folds now. And KHL brass is way, way more trustworthy and professional than is standard for sports management in Russia. Fetisov is playing a leading role. Do you not trust him either?

I must be missing something. TSN article said that the Kings were willing to take just the 7th-round pick for Smyth, but the Oilers had insisted on including Fraser "to shed salary". Also, apparently the Kings were going to buy out Brule if they got him, but that fell through because you can't buy out an injured player. So basically, the Kings are willing to pay money just so the Oilers take Smyth off their hands? Why?

I know that this will have no effect, just like the million other times this has been mentioned, but Fedorov was making LESS in Anaheim than he was offered in Detroit. IIRC, he was offered 10 mil. per year in Detroit, and he made * mil. in Anaheim. If you hate the guy, at least get the reasons for your hate straight.

VAN/BOS: 4-2

VAN/SJS: 4-2 BOS/TBL: 4-3

C'mon now, the names on paper don't win hockey games. Zetterberg and Franzen are obviously playing hurt, which leaves the Wings with basically one scoring line, Rafalski is pass his prime by quite a while, , so is Draper, Ericsson is not playing nearly as well as he did last year. Filppula is not really a top scoring line center. Datsyuk is the only one that has success, but he needs help. On the other side of the red line you have an up-coming talented hungry team, and their veterans, even Thornton, are finally playing up to their potential. Their coach knows our team inside and out. They beat us last year, and got even better. We didn't get significantly better since last year. Why is it a surprise in any way, that we are losing again?

WAS/TBL: 4-2 PHI/BOS: 4-3 VAN/NSH: 4-2 SJS/DET: 4-2

VAN/CHI: 4-2 SJS/LAK: 4-1 DET/PHX: 4-3 ANA/NSH: 4-2 WAS/NYR: 4-2 PHI/BUF: 4-2 BOS/MTL: 4-3 PIT/TBL: 4-3 WC Champion:SJS EC Champion:WAS SCF Champion:SJS

I agree 100%. The caps got fleeced on that deal. A very serviceable 3rd liner AND a 2 rounder for an old, washed up UFA??? With Backstrom out, the Caps must be really desperate for a half-way decent 2nd line center. Unfortunately for them, Arnott isn't that player anymore.

That's the risk I'm quite willing to take