toby91_ca

Read about this over the weekend, pretty crazy stuff, but pretty believable considering both Pocklington's and Ballard's involvement.

I haven't heard anything about him being out for the season. I thought he was day to day.

I don't think this guy gets nearly enough credit. I think people need to start acknowledging that part of Ovechkin's production can be attributed to this guy, sure it may be more the other way around, but there is no doubt Ovechkin benefits from this guy. Anyone that watches that team play knows how good this guy is. All the talk I've heard so far this year is how Ovechkin has been tearing it up and is on pace for 300pts or something.....haven't heard a peep about Backstrom.....guess what, he's the leading scorer on that team right now. It won't end up that way, but that doesn't mean he's not a special player as well.

I haven't seen the film, but I don't have a big problem with someone wanting to get paid fairly. If you don't stick up for yourself and ask to get paid what you should be getting paid, then you won't get paid. If you are the best, you should get paid like you are the best. I think most people feel that's okay in the real world, but with athletes, it's frowned upon. I can understand a little more in these days thinking that way (i.e. you are making $8 million, but someone else is making $8.5 million, therefore you want more), but it was different back then. Gretzky never even made $1 million with Edmonton.

Yes, this was public news back in the summer, not sure if it was any earlier than the link I'm attaching though (end of August). I'm assuming he attending training camp, I haven't been bothered enough to try and figure out if he is now reffing or not. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=288758

They were included

I think a lot of people miss this point when dismissing some of his feats as being due to the high scoring 80s. Yes, scoring was definately high during his era, but he outscored his competition by a crazy margin....look at some of the years I've picked out: 1981 - Gretzky - 164 pts, #2 - 135 pts, diff = 29 pts (Gretzky's 2nd year in the league) 1982 - Gretzky - 212 pts, #2 - 147 pts, diff = 65 pts 1983 - Gretzky - 196 pts, #2 - 124 pts, diff = 72 pts 1984 - Gretzky - 205 pts, #2 - 126 pts, diff = 79 pts 1985 - Gretzky - 208 pts, #2 - 135 pts, diff = 73 pts 1986 - Gretzky - 215 pts, #2 - 141 pts, diff = 74 pts 1987 - Gretzky - 183 pts, #2 - 108 pts, diff = 75 pts 1990 - Gretzky - 142 pts, #2 - 129 pts, diff = 13 pts (Gretzky missed some games) 1991 - Gretzky - 163 pts, #2 - 131 pts, diff = 32 pts Think about it.....the guy outscored the competition by at least 65 pts for 6 straight years.

Robinson's best was +120, Orr's best was +124 (record), but Robinson is by the far the all-time leader: Robinson +730 Orr +597 Bourque +528 Gretzky +518 Clarke +506

Ignoring all other sports, for me, Flyers fans are easily the most annoying.

Perhaps, but there are plenty of people in and around the game the serve that purpose. I think far too many people have a false impression as to how much of the game is actually controlled by Bettman.

Maybe you need to clarify what you mean by "prototypical bruiser defenceman" because based on my assumption, I don't think that the case at all. I would use that to define someone that goes out and punishes guys on a regular basis, hits everything in sight, etc. Fighting could be in there as well, but not necessarily. I'm assuming you are referring to him as a hitter, solely, which is fine, but I don't classify him anywhere near being a guy that goes out and hits everything that moves. I mean, sure, he'll through a fancy open ice hit every now and then, but there are way more guys in this league that throw way more hits on a regular basis.

You're lucky I'm not the spelling police or I'd be all over that.....oh damn, I guess I did the same thing....had to though....sorry, all in fun

Pretend I'm an owner.....convice me why he would make the league better....for me. The commish, since the 1940's, has been a lawyer. Now one might argue that needs to change, but I suspect you would have a very difficult time convincing the owners. Even if you don't think you need a lawyer, I think you might want someone with a little more qualifications.

I think you need to think about this a little further. Well, maybe it's just me, but I think this makes zero sense (currently anyway). The owners/board of governors would have to be complete idiots.

If you are talking about actually heading up the NHLPA or being commissioner of the league itself (i.e. Bettman's job) since that was suggested as well, not sure either have anywhere near the qualifications necessary.

I watched the 2nd and 3rd periods of this game and agree that the Pens didn't seem prepared to play, they didn't appear to be even trying. Perhaps it is because of tonight's game with the Flyers. My initial thought last night was that they simply overlooked Phoenix (played them only a handful of times over the past 5 years and Phoenix's rep isn't great, although, people forget that they were a decent team last year) - but I wasn't aware that the Pens were playing the Flyers tonight. Not to take anything away from Phoenix though, they looked like a pretty good team last night.

I think there are two questions here: 1 - do you think he's has a case (actual wrong doing here?) 2 - do you think he can win? My thoughts: 1 - no one really knows here, but from my perspective, and what I've heard from others, the guy simply wasn't a good referee, at all. The strange thing I suppose is why he stuck around so long. Think about this, did anyone ever hear of this guys name until now? If you think about the best referees over the past 10-20 years, this guy would not come up on anyone's list. 2 - assuming he has a legit case, I do think it will be next to impossible for him to prove it. I'd be interested in Marouelli's thoughts on why he wasn't given playoff assignment last year and whether he agrees with the arguments put forth by Warren's camp as it relates to this. That said, I'm sure he'd support Warren since his plans were to speak on his behalf.

You should ask Mr. Howe, I'm sure he'd fill you in on how much Gretzky has done for the game.

I think was somewhere around 1990 or 1991 that Wayne, while playing for Team Canada, got hit from behind into the boards by Gary Suter. After that, Wayne was never the same player. He was still great, but not the same player he used to be.

Wayne Gretzky is still the most recognizable hockey player in the US and he retired a little over 10 years ago, if he had gone to Detroit, I'm not sure if that would be the case had he gone to Detroit, but it could have been. By most recognizable I mean, if you ask a non-hockey fan down south to name a hockey player, Gretzky is more often than not the name that they will think of (this isn't my own opinion, this is based on recent data that I had about and read about).

Just because a goalie has a winning record, doesn't mean goaltending isn't a problem. I think it is pretty safe to say the goaltending was a problem for much of last year....even though it did not translate to much in terms of wins and losses. It's also safe to say that goaltending has been a problem thus far this year, not the only problem for sure, but a problem and it has translated to losses. However, we're only 2 games in, far too small a sample size to get too excited, so to answer the actual question, "yes" I will be surprised if they don't make the playoffs and I will also be surprised if they are not challenging for the top few spots in the conference.

Yes, and Yzerman didn't play on many of those teams. Yzerman played a few games in the 1984 Canada Cup, but his role was so small, I don't even remember being part of that team. Other than that, the only Canada teams he played on other than World Championships, which most guys like to avoid (i.e. you might play if you miss the playoffs....Gretzky never played on any of those) was the 1996 World Cup and the 1998 Olympics. Gretzky was retired by the time the 2002 Olympics rolled around. Say what you want about Gretzky and not wanting him on the team because you don't like him and wouldn't want him influencing Yzerman......Yzerman definately has a lot of respect for the guy and they work together quite a bit with Hockey Canada these days.

It's comments like this that just further the whole "the league favors the Pens BS." The complaining on here about the Pens and Crosby is vastly more annoying than seeing Crosby and the Pens in so many ads. If you want to just look at the numbers, the Wings had more power play opportunities in the finals last year. Now, you can argue that they should have had even more, but that's a much more subjective argument and where bias would come in. In terms of total penalty minutes, the Wings were the 2nd lowest in the entire league last year, while the Pens were right around the middle of the pack. The Wings were + 26 (26 more power plays for than against), the Pens were +13. People can piss and moan all they want (which really gets tiresome), but the numbers don't really back up the claims.

They are trying to justify terminition "with cause" to avoid having to pay him based on the remainder of his contract.

I don't think one can assume that there will be significant cap space considering the fact that the cap may go down, who knows by how much, but the Cdn dollar has been strong recently, so that will help. Assuming the cap doesn't go down by much, they may appear to have a lot of room available, but you also have to consider that they need to fill up a roster as well and they will be starting with 7 forwards and 4 defenseman who are currently on this year's roster, so they'd need another 6 forwards and 3 defensemen likely. This also doesn't factor in Lidstrom coming back. I'm assuming he'll be back, but there's no guarantee and if he comes back, I'm sure he'll sign for much less than the current salary, but it will still be fairly hefty (not in the $2 million range), so you may be left with $1 and less per player to fill those holes.