toby91_ca

Smells like baseless Gretzky bashing to me. I think you really need to get your facts straight. The 3 year waiting period wasn't waived for Gretzky only and then a decision made to never do it again. Do you realize that Gretzky was the 10th player to have this 3 year waiting period waived? Here's a list of the players that have had the period waived prior to Gretzky: - Lemieux - Orr - Howe - Belliveau - Sawchuk - Kelly - Lindsay - Richard - Clapper After Gretzky, the NHL decided to no longer waive the 3 year waiting period and I have no problem with that approach. Messier had to wait his 3 years too.

Yzerman will be eligible next year (3 years after retiring).

I understand what you mean, some defensemen are overrated because of their offensive stats, but there are only 3 defensemen in the history of the game that have more points than him....it's probably difficult to ignore that fact.

24 goals and 57 pts in 53 playoff games.....

Both Malkin and Staal are under contract for another year, both are due to be RFA's after next season. I think Malkin will sign an extension this summer, not sure about Staal, but if he doesn't, not a big deal for the Pens. I think the Pens would love to sign Staal to an extension now as I suspect it may be more costly for them next year.

No one has ever "just been given a spot." Not playing in the AHL does not mean you were just given a spot, you earned it in training camp. Some guys demonstrate their readiness for the NHL in training camp, while others need more develop and head to the AHL first. For the record, of your list, Osgood and Fischer have spent time in the AHL.

I'm really not a fan of +/- stats in telling much of a story. Look at Gretzky's +/- stats, some years he was +100, pretty insane. Does that mean he was great defensively? Not saying Orr wasn't great defensively, but I just wouldn't assume it because of +/- stats. I wasn't watching hockey when Orr was playing (was born near the end of his career), so I can't really give an honest comment on him.

The Wings were one of the best teams in the league when Bowman took over.

Only 7 of their names on the cup though right?

They do not need to be playing for their salary to count against the cap, they simply need to be on the roster. That said, there is no way they will carry 9 d on the roster (well, imo anyway). With 9 d, that only leaves room on the 23 man roster for 12 f and 2 g. They could always sign 9 d and, in fact, have many more signed than that and simply play them most of the time in the AHL and call up when necessary....although waivers could create problems.

Well, the NHL already leaked the winner of the Hart (Ovechkin) based on the T-shirts that showed up on their site. I heard a suggestion that they had to be prepared for all possible outcomes, but that is complete BS since the voting was completed 2 months ago and the winner was known before the playoffs started. "Being prepared for anything" is simply a lame attempt to cover up their error.

That was actually a great effort by the ref. Had the ref not been in the appropriate position, the whistle gets blown way before the puck ends up in the net as they would have lost sight of it.

Ahh, I see what you are getting at now.

What's your point? Southern Ontario could support more than 1 team and probably more than 2. How close are NYI, NYR and NJ again?

It's quite simple, Basillie wants to bring a team from the US to Canada, the NHL (Bettman) wants to grow in the US, therefore, they want nothing to do with Basillie. Moving a team that is struggling to exist would only be good for the league. The current Canadian teams (6 out of 30 in the league) account for 30-40% of league revenues, putting another team in Canada seems to make good business sense.

What is the inconsistency?? I'm not O'Halloran's biggest fan, but I think you are reaching rather far on your rant here. The Wings have lost 6 games in the playoffs so far, O'Halloran has only been apart of 3 of those games. They have also won games he was been apart of in these playoffs. Looking at the 3 games they've lost with him involved, the Wings were called for 13 penalties, while the other team was called for 17. I know this doesn't tell the story of missed calls, but it is useful information when someone is trying to build some sort of conspiracy. For the record, I think a lot of teams' fans dislike O'Halloran.

No, I don't remember and I'm pretty sure this cannot be the case either. Linesmen can give their interpretations to the referres on certain plays, but they cannot make the penalty call on something like goaltender interference. However, a linesman can make a call when he sees something the ref did not when it comes to certains violations, see list below: (i)Major penalties (ii) Match penalties (iii) Misconduct penalties (iv) Game Misconduct penalties (v) Abuse of Officials (vi) Physical Abuse of Officials (vii) Unsportsmanlike Conduct (viii) Double-minor penalty when it is apparent that an injury has resulted from a high-stick that has gone undetected by the Referees

Being from Boston, I would have expected him to have a fairly high hockey IQ.

Would have been better if it was a referee and not a linesman though.

My comments were generally, not based on 1 game, 1 series or even one year, it's a common thing around here. I did see parts of the game last night. I saw the 1st period, start of the 2nd, then I had to leave, got back home in time for the 2nd and 3rd OT's.

I'm actually starting to get a little sick of the attitudes on this board to be quite honest. Now, to be fair, I'm not sure if it is the same people or not, but when the Wings were winning the first couple games, there were a lot of people on here completely calling out the Pens and the Pens fans about their whining about the refs, calling the fans pathetic, blah, blah, blah. What happens whent the Wings lose? The complaining on here gets downright disgusting and hard to read. It has been the same way for years now. I just have to hope it is not the same people complaining on both sides, otherwise we are really getting pathetic. I don't mind blowing off a little steam about missed calls or stupid calls here and there, but I leave that to the game and during the heat of the moment. Complaining about the refs after the game is done is just ridiculous. You have to put yourself in shoes of the fans of the other team, they have reason to complain about s***ty calls to. s*** happens, deal with it. I could see where you might spill over after the game about a bad call that cost the Wings the game....a really obvious bad call, but this doesn't happen very often at all and didn't happen last night. Sit back and realize that the refs have missed a lot of calls on both team and have a made a lot of questionable calls against both teams as well. It sucks, but it's been pretty even as far as I can tell and it normally is.

I haven't noticed any increase in people getting kicked out compared to prior years. The reason it is happening is quite simple: It is the SCF now, every face-off is so important, so the players are really getting aggresive and jump the gun a little too soon on a lot of draws, just the way it is. One thing I have noticed about the Wings faceoffs though and why they are so good. It isn't that their centremen are simply better than most of the competition, it's that they win a lot of draws as a team. I find most teams try and let their centreman do all the work. I find a lot of draws that are not won cleanly, Detroit comes away with the puck because the wingers are simply there before the opposing team. I've seen clips of the Pens practicing their draws and they just have two guys squaring off. I think this is a problem for them. If you want to be a strong face-off team, you need to practice draws with 5 guys on each side and teach the guys who are not centremen what to do.

Not really. I think there is a very good chance the Pens win game 6, for the following reasons: - they have some confidence again, winning in OT, with some adversity can only help - they are playing at home, where they have been close to unbeatable (save the last game there) - I won't be able to watch the first period or so (see below) So far in the series, the Wings have won every game that I have been able to sit down and watch and they have lost both games that I have had to miss portions of the games due to my own hockey game commitments. I have another game tomorrow night and should be home in time to at least see most of the 2nd period and the rest of the game threafter, but I will be missing at least the first period. Assuming the Pens win, anything can happen in game 7, but I like the Wings' chances. They will be playing at home, where they have been great and you have to imagine experience will give them a huge advantage in a pressure packed game 7 of the SCF.

Correct...and it's not known until that point who has won it. Whoever says during the game who has it locked up, it's just an educated guess, it isn't known. Not like the NFL.

Yes, backup goalies do not have to step on the ice to get credit for games played. No players to really. If you are on the game sheet and simply sit on the bench, then you get credit for a game played.