toby91_ca

There should not be a rhyme or reason?

So, I watched the WSH/ATL game last night and if someone told me going into it that 11 goals would be scored, but none would be scored by either Ovechkin or Kovalchuk, I would have said they were lying. In fact, the only point between the two was an assist for Kovalchuk. Not sure how to assess WSH at this piont, part of me is saying that their goaltending just stuck it up and they didn't play that bad, but if their goaltending is always this bad then they are toast. One thing is for sure, they do have some offensive weapons beyond Ovechkin and they will get some goals. Keeping it out of their net will be the problem.

Was anyone at the game last night? It's hard to tell from watching on TV, but from my impression, I don't remember (in recent years anyway) there ever being that many fans from the opposing team at the game. Seemed to me like there were tons of Leaf fans there.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see what the big deal is with what Iginla did in '07. It's not like he cross checked a guy to the head and it wasn't much of a cross check either anyway. This is hockey after all. The thing is, I think he does get a little too hot headed sometimes and if you take a run at him, he's coming back looking for you to do some damage. I don't have a huge problem with that, usually it's some other guy that goes and does that for your star player. Take the Pens vs Sens game last weekend. I can't remember the players other than a Pens player running over Alfie...it was a good clean hit...and then a Sens player comes and runs over the Pens player (completely after the play). The Sens guy took a penalty for it, but that announcers were just praising the guy so much for doing that. I think Jarome needs to stick to playing hockey and being physical, but leave all the other stuff out, however, I don't fault him too much for stuff like that, there is a hell of a lot of guys in the league that do far, far worse things. (anyone ever heard of Gordie Howe?)

Back in the 80's?

It's a good thing I was laying back, relaxing when I read this, otherwise, I might have fell down. Is there anything at all that this guy says even close to being accurate?? He is a writer with the Edmonton Journal. I think every now and then, a writer comes out with stuff like this and it reminds you that just because people are writing for newspapers, etc., it doesn't necessarily mean they know more than you do.

They probably haven't even worked on it yet. Powerplay is the last thing most teams work on the preseason adn their preseason has been very short compared to other teams who still have a week left. That said, they probably will struggle a bit. I'm not a big Gonchar fan at all, but there is no question he is one of the best blueliners when it comes to PP.

He negotiated the contract with Detroit to allow him to only have to play the first 2 periods of each game and skip the 3rd. This is why he accepted less money than what he could have gotten elsewhere

My initial reaction as well. If you are a sports writer in Canada, you must have at least an intermediate hockey knowledge. I don't think this guy is actually "from" Canada though, I think he is European. But he should still know more about two European players. He's followed a lot of Satan's career (before NHL) and during his time with the Oilers, etc. Obviously, he's got a bit of bias happening here. No one can truly be this stupid.

On paper yes, but chemistry is important as well....no need to look any further than Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

To be honest, I see Crosby working pretty hard in both ends, it's not for lack of effort, I'm confident he'll improve. Also, everytime I watch their games, whoever the TV guys are (today's case, MacLean, Hrudey and Milbury) they all say he needs to be out there on the PK. I've wondered why he wasn't out there more. I figured last year he wasn't due to his injury and it looks like they'll be sending him out there more based on today's game (along with Malkin) we'll see. I watched most of the game today, but I didn't see the interview, I'm disappointed now because they eluded to it being quite revealing...what did that mean? That said, I'm not surprised he said his shot. He said defense and faceoffs last year. I've seen people criticize him for not shooting more. Maybe he'll work on shooting more than improving his shot. He certainly doesn't have an overpowering shot, but it's good enough to score some goals.

His new linemates haven't looked that good, so he had to go to Scuderi (first goal in 95 games)

You most certainly could argue with that. I think you need to recognize that both of these guys took years in the NHL to develop into the players they are today (both offensively and defensively). They've both had their strongest offensive years at the same time as their strongest defensive years. I don't want to get in an argument of what could happen offensively if you ignore defensive responsibilities, but you can certainly argue both sides of that one. In terms of players coming into the league defensively responsible, there's no question about that. Crosby has been defensively responsible since day one, but you'd have to be blind not to see that he has improved in that area each year and there's no reason to think he won't improve more with maturity and PK experience. Ovechkin isn't quite as defensively responsible yet, but he's no liability either. I think that's simply the difference between a centre and a winger. Some players enter the league more advanced in the defensive area, but those players are normally the lesser skilled guys who wouldn't be in the league if it weren't for their defensive play. I don't think there are many players out there that haven't improved defensively with years of experience in the league. I can think of a few that were absolutely horrid defensively early in their careers, but have improved with experience. Some guys never do however.

I guess I heard right, that ice looks horrid.

I heard the ice the Pens and Sens will be playing on is absolutely terrible. I think that rink was just being built, I'm not sure why, I just think I remember reading that. Not sure about the rink for the NYR vs. TB game. Edit: I looked it up, the arena in Sweden is not new, 25 years old actually. I wonder if I just happened to see something about modifications being made for the NHL games or what....or I could just be imagining it all.

I don't think Stamkos is going to be as good as quick as Crosby and Ovechkin were, or probably ever for that matter. I really think this year will be an interesting year in terms of whether anyone really distances themselves. We'll see how Zetterberg and Datsyuk do and I'm thinking that we may see more of Ovechkin and Crosby on the PK and perhaps starting to establish themselves as all around players. It's a bit unfair at this point to compare those two to Zetterberg and Datsyuk in terms of maturity and two-way ability, etc. I think that will come with time and Datsyuk and Zetterberg weren't even in the league at Crosby's age (perhaps just starting at Ovechkin's age). I've noticed that Crosby and Ovechkin have been getting some pretty signficant PK time during the pre-season (both have SH goals I think), but I wonder if that is just preseason or if we'll actually see it carryover to the regular season.

For me, he's one of the most frustrating players I can think of. The guy has lots of skill, that is obvious, but he seems like the worst team player in the league. I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head. He also seems to make really bad decisions (there were many times already in this game where he just refused to make the simple play).

Well, there aren't many guys on the team that have been around that long. They don't have a single player on the roster that was with the team before the lockout.

So, I found this comment interesting: TSN article So, if he wasn't going to Toronto at the end of the year, or simply just wanted to deny it like everyone else would do, why wouldn't he just say "why would there be a conflict?" Instead of suggesting there is no conflict because someone else is doing the negotiating with Toronto?

I don't disagree with the opinion of Ovechkin being in the top 3 in scoring this year and every year (depending what you mean by every year), but I wouldn't say an opinion that he doesn't finish top 3 would be crazy. He's got a better chance at finishing near the top in goals than he does for points, so I wouldn't be totally surprised if he finished lower than 3 (averall, he finished 13th the year before last).

If you include the Conn Smythe, Gretzky won 4 in 1985 and had the Richard existed then, he would have won that too for #5.

Well, that's the rumour, but normally you see peopel deny this type of thing over and over.

My point wasn't to suggest all the experts are right, I was just pointing out that many, many experts share a similar opinion, so I see this as singling out Cherry because he's Cherry.

Not my comments, Don's. I probably relayed them on a little out of context, but from what I remember reading, I didn't take it as bashing.

Let's just say I'm older than Datsyuk, but younger than Sammy (should be a small enough window). I'm old enough to have watched him for his entire career. I know his game changed significantly, but I'm just going against the grain a little bit and taking the view that his offensive stats did not suffer as much due to his focus on defense as a lot of others might think. I think the other factors played a larger role, that's all. I guess the problem is, I shared a view that focusing on offense alone and not at all on defense would make you better suited for scoring more pts, but I just haven't seen a lot of evidence of that. I certainly haven't seen a lot of evidence of players producing lower pt totals in Detroit than elsewhere based on my previous comments. I'm suggested I'm right, it's just a view I have that hasn't really been shown to be completely wrong (in my mind). I could be completely wrong and someone could pull all the stats together to prove it, but I just haven't seen it. To be honest, I think it's only speculation for the most part, some of it makes sense, I just haven't seen it actually unfold in practice. Edit: the one thing that came to mind that may be accurate between only focusing on offense and no defense and being able to produce more pts because of that is a player that cherry picks every game....maybe in that situation it makes sense, but to be honest, I don't see that happening all that often in the NHL. I know certain players have been accused of it (I won't name names) but I don't think it's that big of a deal. Edit again: I could throw another thought out there as well for interest sake. You could take the point of view of this: the better defense you play, the more likely you are to have the puck heading in the offensive direction vs. sucking on defense and having the puck in your end the whole time.