toby91_ca

Are you being sarcastic when you suggest "classic" when it really only relates to the 90s? Hard to tell. Reason I ask is because laces were used by a lot of teams back in the 50s, 60s, use in the 90s was a throw back thing.

I'm sorry, but it gets tiresome when so many people automatically think the Wings' jerseys are the best just because we are fans of the team. Like anything else, we can try to say, no, honestly, I think they are the best, but as fans, it is impossible to be objective. I'm not a fan of the Sharks' jerseys either, but I'm not about to make fun of them because they are going to these, basically using practice jerseys. That makes no sense to me. If you don't like the jerseys, that's more about personal preference. If you are really concerned about them looking simply like practice jerseys, if you have a look at the Wings' jerseys, they are more similar to their practice jerseys than the Sharks. In fact, some might make the argument that the Wings' game jerseys are more "simple" than the practice jerseys. But that's okay because they are "classic" right?

Not sure if Bowman actually held the title of GM or not, but you are certainly correct in that he shared the GM duties with Jimmy D. Also agree with your sentiment that he hasn't run the show anywhere for a while. He's a consultant these days by title, but probably doesn't even do too much by way of consulting. I'd guess it's here and there.

Was listening to Peter Pocklington on the radio yesterday (Oilers former owner for those that didn't know), and he suggested that the gate revenue for the LA Kings didn't double the year after Gretzky arrived, didn't triple, didn't quadruple, wasn't 5X, but increase 6 fold.

I actually remember exactly where I was when I saw the press conference (11 years old, at a cottage in PEI)

I'm okay with your opinion that there was an overpayment, I think I might agree with that. However, if you are going to bring up Filppula, you must think he got overpaid even more. Filppula got a 5 year at $5M per. Joe got a 5 year at $6M per year. While you suggest the stats are fairly comparable (Joe's slightly better...), they really aren't. Joe's stats are significantly better.

Stevie could easily be there regardless of whether the Lightning is the visiting team or not. For example, when Wayne Gretzky had his jersey retired in Edmonton, Mark Messier was there and was still an active player at the time and his team was not the visiting team. If Messier can do it when still playing in the league, no reason why a GM can't.

I would not be surprised at all if total consussions actually decreased and it's just that the undetected concussions decreased that much more, which makes it appear as though concussions increased.....if you follow what I'm saying

Could be quite a different player after 35 though....it's really hit and miss at that point. Probably more the norm to be in signficant decline at that point though.

I'm not sure I'd say he could easily accumulate 1,000+ points, I think that might be a stretch. At the age of 33 (going into next season) he's at 672. I don't think his production is going to increase. Not sure how many more years he'll play either, but I doubt he plays out his full contract. By comparison, Yzerman had something like 1,400 or so points by age 33 and about 300 or so points post 33.

I don't like someone being able to simply retire (i.e. get out of "x" year contract) and go sign another contract with a team in another league. I guess if NJ was against that happening they could block it.

When rating players, you don't care about their personal stats, you only go by team stats?

Well, they probably would have gone there now, but couldn't because there are American teams in the CHL. I totally understand the approach....we don't want to develop other countries players only to then compete against them later. An extreme example might be where Team Canada loses against Team "x", but all the players from Team "x" are Canadian trained. It is strange that it would be goalie focused and not all players (but goalie position is the issue right now). Now, the flip side to that is that perhaps your Canadian players don't develop as well as they could because they aren't playing against the top competition possible.

If Malkin isn't signed to an extension in July/August, trade speculation will ramp up throughout next season. I don't see them getting to free agency with him. That much is up to Malkin though. If he wants to see what he's worth on the open market and wants to wait until free agency next year, no way he re-signs with PIT, they wouldn't be able to afford full market value if they want to keep other pieces together. I think they'll try hard to sign him in the next couple months and if that doesn't happen, look to trade late in next season (see Jordan Staal).

Should be no real rules...but I can't say for sure. Selanne and Kariya did sign for way below market value several years ago. Under a different CBA though. The biggest stubbling block would be NHLPA pressure if someone were to sign way below market value I'd think. I guess the NHL could choose not to approve such a contract as well, but not sure what grounds they'd have (also, it would go against their focus of keeping player costs down)

I have no problem with that line of thought, if the consequencies only impact the person making that decision. But that is clearly not the case here. If you thik about it, why is there are there speed limits? It's not really to protect the individual driver, it's to protect all the other innocent people in proximity of that driver. If you left it up to that driver to decide how fast he drove, the risk he would take on in driving way too fast is impacting a lot more individuals than just himself.

Consideration of any other angle beyond this is irrelevant. Edit....the biggest thing for me, which you haven't mentioned, is the risk of losing the player and the time and money invested in said player. Your argument related to cost and insurance, etc. is good, but for me, I'd be more concerned about losing franchise player that I thought I'd have for another 10-15 years.

I don't really mean much offense by this, but you are exhibiting a clear lack of understanding of all the factors at play here. Firstly, this doesn't happen if the Players Association didn't agree to it...they did. Secondly, if the players were to play for free and waive 100% liability of anyone involved (rink, team, league, etc.), then sure, no one would care, let the guy do what he wants. HOWEVER, that is not the case. The players are being paid very significant amounts of money, teams want to protect their investments and rightfully so. Someone might say they shouldn't care, they have insurance, but that just saves them a bit of money in the future should something happen....it doesn't give them the player back. Also, if everyone was wearing visors, I'm sure their insurance premiums would decrease. I'm sorry, but the extreme short-sighted views that grown men should be able to decide (it's their life) annoys me to no end.

No, you put the player on waivers and if no one claims him, he is then available to be bought out. Once a player is bought out, the team is done with him, so there would be no need for waivers....he becomes a free agent immediately.

It's not just you, but for me, it may just be that the length of the article extended way past my mental capacity to stay interested. I like to read things are a lot more concise.....get to the point, now let me move on to the next topic.

Dats doesn't sound much like a guy that's spent the last 10+ years in North America

It would be a lot quicker to identify the players that are not injured this time of year. Pretty unusual for any players to be completely healthy...especially the deeper you go in the playoffs.

Pretty bad. I think there were a coulple (no more than 2) in there that were legitimate non-dives and the ones with the goalies I guess you have to let go a bit because all goalies do it....some much worse than others though.

So, the ECF has bee set since Sunday, yet they don't start playing until Saturday? I get that you don't want to start until the WCSF is complete, but that will happen tonight. When will the WCF start? Sunday? Are we going to be without any hockey for a couple days? Makes no sense...I thought they would want to get games going and get through SCF as soon as possible. There's obviously no benefit to winning early any more either as it looks like teams that go to 7 will get plenty of rest and teams that finish quick will be out of game shape. That's less important though as both teams in the ECF will be in the same boat that way.

That's not the reason though...I understand scheduling plays into it, but not to delay that much. Just checked calendar of events at the Pens arena....nothing scheduled tonight, tomorrow or Friday. What I suspect is happening is that they are trying to get as many weekend games in as possible, so if they start Saturday, even if it only goes 4 or 5 games, you still cover 2 weekends.