toby91_ca

Yikes!! Anyone see the photos? For some reason I can't cut and paste things in there...I think things are messed up as I can't use the "quote" function either. Anyway, attendance posted at about 7,000, but by the photos....looked even less than that.

Not sure why Miami moving would increase Tampa's popularity. I doubt you'd see people that used to go to Miami games flock to Tampa to see hockey there instead. Miami vs. Tampa is like Detroit vs. Toronto. They are close geographically.....but not that close.

I'm not complaining too much about the Getzlaf goal, I'm more upset with Kronwall than the refs. I know if the reverse happened and the refs called a penalty on Detroit, I'd be complaining a bit....one hand reach with the stick, barely makes contact...no call as far as I'm concerned, but would still complain about it because it's against Detroit...that's the bias. The other thing to consider is the goal Detroit shouldn't have gotten earlier when Franzen failed to clear the zone (unless I'm missing something) - clear offside on the Glendening goal...shouldn't have been 2-2 at that point anyway.

#1 Pronger wouldn't be able to suspend anyone...that is not his role...Quintal makes those decisions...all Pronger and other members of the department would be doing is reviewing incidents and offering opinions. #2 Pronger would clearly have no input on anything to do with the Flyers.

Funny thing....Wings were offside on that one. Don't want to accuse Franzen of being lazy, but he didn't come very close to getting out of the zone after the puck went the other way. He was gliding towards the line, puck came back, he stopped and turned before he got to the line....puck comes in...goal!

You know, Shanahan wasn't the cleanest player in the world either.

Interesting that Holland has so much power here. Maybe it's changed over the years, but I would have thought that the coach is the guy that ultimately picks the roster and the GM would source the players. Obviously both would have input on both processes, but in this case, looks like it's almost like Holland brings the players to camp and selects the 23 that will be on the roster and then Babcock is free to choose the 20 that dress every night. I'm sure Babcock has more influence than that though....no way he'd stick around if he didn't.

One of the dumbest things I've ever read:

You are correct, but it would be very tough to operate with just 12 forwards.

This probably isn't the best example of a hit to use to complain about not having someone to back up teammates and deter hits against the star players. This was a normal play that you see several times a game. I think part of the probably was Dats stretching out his arm and reaching around to try and get the puck, leaving the shoulder at the wrong angle to take impact. In terms of "payback" for clean hits on star players....I really don't have much of a problem with it to be honest...to a point of course. Hitting is part of the game, but you still want your star players to avoid as many hits as you can and if you have the other team think twice before even laying a clean hit....then that's good. If you look back at the 80s, Gretzky had to deal with a lot of hooks and holds, but not hits. He barely got touched.

I was half thinking this must be a joke before I clicked on the thread....but based on past experience, I couldn't really be sure.

I think it is a little too simplistic to look at Bowman getting Yzerman to focus on defense and that resulting in a drop in Yzerman's offensive production. My honest opinion is that I don't think his production was impacted too significantly from his attention to the defensive end. A lot of people might say that if you play great defense, it will give you more time with the puck to play offense. I think Yzerman played in a unique era within the history of the game. A good part of his prime was during the highest scoring era in league history and his increased age came during the lowest scoring era in league history....which made his drop in production look more significant.

In terms of the diving rule, I'm assuming there wouldn't need to be an actual call from a ref on it (I'm actually about 95% confident on that). On the public shaming side, I'm not so sure as I don't know if the incidents will be made public. Luongo's thoughts on the shootout:

They are really stretching at trying to create offense with some of the changes (e.g. having the faceoff staying in the zone almost all the time). Same with diving to poke a puck away that results in a trip as well....looks to want to create offense by awarding PP time even if the puck is hit first. That said, I wonder how often this will be called, for some reason, I'm thinking that the offensive player normally gets tripped by the stick, not the arm, shoulder of the defender. In that case, there will be no change if the puck is hit first. In terms of being suspended for interference....it's not as bad as that might sound. My guess is that this would be for those instances where a player is absolutely destroyed by a hit that would otherwise be legal except he is nowhere near the puck, isn't looking, etc. You really can't call that anything other than interference. My guess is that there will be very few game misconduct penalties for interference. I think the diving fines are pretty silly. Is that really a deterrent? On your 8th offense you still just pay $5K. I think diving is a tough problem to cure because there are 2 different reasons for diving. 1 - players will dive when no real infraction occurs just to get calls....this type of diving will be hard to get rid of....then again, I really don't think many players partake in this. 2 - players dive when refs don't call hooking and holding. It's my pet peeve when I play too....since I have better balance and don't fall down, there is no penalty even though a defender is holding me back.....what does it take to get a call? Falling down....so that's what players end up doing...the way you get rid of that is to actually call penalties when you see them...problem there is that it might cause more of the #1 type diving.

Interesting that you shortened your stick to improve your shooting ability and you find your stickhandling took a bit of a hit. I think the opposite is what really should be expected. My guess is that your stickhandling has been hurt because you simply have a different feel now and need to get used to it. The general rule most people live by is that shorter sticks are better for stickhandling, but longer sticks are better for shooting (of course it wouldn't be true for a stick that goes way over your head, but as long as you are able to perform that same motion, you should get more power with a longer stick...simple physics). I've pretty much used a very short stick for my whole life (comes to my chin before I put on skates) and stickhandling is definitely high on my list of strengths. That said, I've been at the higher end for shooting for most of the teams I've played on, but that doesn't mean I couldn't be shooting harder with a longer stick...I probably would....but honestly never ventured off the standard length that I've used forever. It's somewhat similar to golfing as well. I've got a friend that is 6'5" and he'd always used the off the shelf clubs that are standard length. He eventually got custom clubs (longer) and he was actually pretty shocked at how much it improved his ball striking.

Ha....I don't think I read far enough to see "Dave"

"Pinning the hopes" might have been a strong phrase to use, but it was more aimed at what I consider a bit of an overreaction to the potential non-healthy status of a 42 year old player that isn't even currently on the roster.

I have no doubt that Babcock and Holland chat now and then about potential player moves and Babcock provides input, etc. However, beyond that, I have no idea how much influence Babcock actually has on the players that make it to the team at the end of the day. He may have a lot of influence, he may have very little. The fact of the matter is, no one on this site knows how much or how little influence he has either (unless you or someone you are close with is part of the GM's office). Same could be said about final roster. Typically the GM brings in the players and then it's the coaches job to pick the final roster from that overall group of players and then also make call up decisions when needed, etc. The GM is obviously going to have some input in that process, but again, how little or how much is likely not known by most.

Looks like he get the roster mostly correct, but I'd have some critiques: - I probably wouldn't have McCarty on there (I think he there due to recent sentimentality and length of time with team) - Not sure I'd have Larionov there either (he only played with the Wings as a 35+ year old...he was a good player and career accomplishments would have him higher on my list...on the fence with him for all-time team though - haven't spent much time thinking about a replacement though) - Fedorov - he spelled his name wrong about 3 or 4 times and has him at Wing. He does note his great defensive play as a reason he's on the team, which then doesn't make sense to slot him in at Wing and take that all around part of the game away. I also didn't like that he suggested Datsyuk is the better overall player since it isn't all that close in my mind, but won't start that argument again as I think we've been down that road at least a couple times.

If we are pinning the hopes of the season on a 42 year old, then I think there are bigger problems to deal with other than whether said 42 year is healthy or not.

Yeah no story here. Players tend to train during the off-season in different places quite a bit. Some time will be spent training in their hometown, they'll usually travel to spend time with specific trainers as well, perhaps some time in the city of the team they play for as well. Quite common....then when camp opens, they'll all get back to their teams....right around now, you'll start seeing the informal skates happening and the number of players attending gradually increases until everyone is there right before camp opens.

$1.2B wouldn't be fore more than what MLSE sold for. I believe MLSE sold for $1.4B and that $1.4B was for a 75% stake in MLSE, 25% is still owned by Tannenbaum.

I think it is a pretty regular thing (training in Vail, Colorado this time of year) for several players like Crosby, Duschene, MacKinnon, Stamkos, E. Johnson, Cleary as well..in the past. I know Crosby is/was there during this time as it was made pretty public (Ottawa paper reported he was arrested in Ottawa....which was quickly retracted as he was in Colorado at the time).

I don't see Jurco and Mantha as overhyped at all. Normally that isn't a comment you can make until after they either live up to the hype or do not, but I'm suggesting they aren't overhyped simply because I really don't hear much about them at all outside of this site. That's not to suggest I don't see or hear anything, but not to the extent that I would typically see from a player that is being "hyped". On this site....yeah, probably overhyped...but that's normal and happens year after year after year. I'm assuming it is no different on any other discussion board.

Definitely not classifying him as a budding star yet, I need to see him compete against pros first. Heck, I wasn't even classifying Crosby as a star coming out of junior....he dominated from day 1 in junior as a 16 year old and looked like a sure bet, but he was on the small side and I certainly wondered how he'd make in in the NHL playing against men. It's different here though, I figured he'd be a pretty good player regardless, I just wasn't ready to suggest he was a lock at being a STAR in the NHL.