toby91_ca

I see no problem whatsoever with what Koivu did. In response to your problems: 1. Contact wasn't early, in fact, Kronwall got a light tap on Koivu with his stick (too light to call it a slash) 2. I'm not sure how you can use the principle point of contact argument here when he wasn't even looking in that direction 3. Maybe you right here, the ref was definately preoccupied with what was going on in front of the net, but even if he was following the puck, I think it would be highly unlikely that he would have called a penalty. The back ref probably saw it and didn't have a problem with it. Not sure who is responsible for what, I don't ref, but I would have though that the back ref would follow the puck and the ref down low would focus on the net area.

Is there video? I missed the game last night. Not that it matters whether it was an elbow or not in terms of whether we should worry about him.

Actully no. If the ball is red, the FACT is that the ball is red. If you take that FACT and form an opinion from a different perspective and say the ball is blue, I wouldn't call that an opinion, I'd call it simply being WRONG.

Torts is pretty much just as classless though.

He finished 6 in Norris voting. Doesn't support Eva's claim that he was second best, but does suggest he was pretty good. It also doesn't suggest he wasn't second best either. Just because voters picked someone else, it doesn't mean their pick was the better player. It's all subjective. Problem is that Eva tends to communicate personal opinions as if they were facts.

10 games in?

You're right, not sure why I thought he was already 31. I know you'd need to take more into account, I was just doing some quick research to see what the rest of the dmen in the league are getting paid. The reason I thought $4.75M was not a big steal (I do think it's fair, so I don't want to come off as saying he's overpaid) is because there aren't that many dmen getting paid much more than that. I saw a lot of comments from people thinking it was going to be $5-6M or comments like anything under $6M would be awesome. I really didn't understand comments like that because there are only 8 guys making $6M or more and 4 or 5 of those were stupid contracts that shouldn't have happened.

All of that is WAY TOO SUBJECTIVE. Also, some of your arguments are as to why Kronwall might be a better player than some others. As I already stated, being a better player doesn't necessarily mean you'll get paid more. If you are a defensemen that can score a ton, you may be a worse player than someone else, but you'll probably get big money just because you can score (right or wrong). In terms of Kronwall being better defensively than most....pretty subjective no?

Why do so many people think this deal is a "steal"? I didn't think that at all when I saw and I did a little more digging to see how it compares to the others. A lot of people have been saying they thought he'd get $5-6M, but I look at it as a guy that is signed through to the age of 39, he has had some injuries and he plays a style that tends to lead to injuries. I agree that he probably would have gotten more on the open market, but he wasn't signed in the open market. Here is a list of all of the dmen in the league that make $5M+ (a lot of the guys making that money were signed in the open market) Player, age at end of contract, average points over last 4 years. Visnovsky, 38, 46 Chara, 41, 47 Bouwmeester, 30, 33 - overpaid, was way overhyped, good player, but not to the level of hype Seabrook, 31, 34 Keith, 36, 48 Wisniewski, 33, 41 Lidstrom, 42, 60 Campbell, 36, 42 - everyone knows his deal was stupid Doughty, 29, 42 Markov, 35, 51 Weber, 26, 41 Gonchar, 39, 40 - Ottawa was desperate for a powerplay quarterback Timonen, 38, 41 Yandle, 29, 43 Rozival, 33, 28 Martin, 34, 25 - looks overpaid, but signed on open market when not a lot of good dmen were available Boyle, 37, 48 - everyone knows his deal was stupid Phaneuf, 29, 42 Green, 26, 57 Byfuglien, 30, 39 By comparison, Kronwall's contract ends at the age of 39 and he's averaged 36 pts. I know a lot of people will argue that some of the best defensemen don't score a lot of points, which is true, but when it comes to getting paid a lot of money, you tend to need that part of the game as well. So, based on that list, the only guys making more than $5M and signed to the age of 39 are Chara, Lidstrom and Gonchar. A lot of the players on the list were signed on the open market as well. Kronwall's salary should be a little lower because he wasn't a UFA and he signed a long-term deal to the age of 39...he had to take a bit of a discount to get that type of security. So, I think it is a pretty fair deal, still some risk, but I don't see it as this great steal like a lot of others.

I'm not jumping up and down about the contract, but I'm not thinking overpaid either. There are various reasons to think this: - a lot of people are saying he would get $6M on the open market, but would he? Would he get that over a 7 year deal? - he's not going to age gracefully like Lidstrom, I feel safe in saying that. He plays a lot more recless, so I'm not sure how he'll hold up over the 7 years. - the contract takes him to 39 I think, not 38, so the long contract should reduce the otherwise larger expected cap hit - the fact that he gets a limited NTC should also be factored into the cap hit I believe the real wildcard with this is where the cap will go in the future. If the cap keeps going up, long term deals will look really good, obviously, but if the cap stays the same, I do think there is some risk in this deal because I do worry about his durability a bit.

Interesting, that's normally what people say about old players. A lot of people think young guys can just keep going and going. I assume what you are suggesting is that they don't have the experience to know how to get through the rigors of an 82 game schedule, etc., which I think is definately a valid comment, but I also wouldn't discount their young legs either. They are on a hot streak, no doubt, I don't think that will last, but I also get the feeling that this team will be in the hunt for a playoff spot. Not saying they'll make it, just suggesting they won't be near the bottom of the league.

Anyone see/hear Bryzgalov's comments after the game....along the lines of "I have no confidence in myself, I can't stop the puck, I'm lost in the woods, I want to give the $51M back". Okay, I made up the last one, but the other comments, I don't think I've ever heard a player come out and say something like that.

Apart from the whole steel industry issue, the decline in population could aslo be due to people moving to the burbs. If you use Detroit as an example, the population in 1950 was almost 1.9 million, now it's about 700k, however, the population of the entire metro area has actually grown. Anyway, the reason for holding the draft in Pittsburgh has everything to do with the new arena....nothing else really. They'll likely get an allstar game there sometime soon as well.

Saw that on Sportscentre this morning. Apparently Nabokov could play the shootout because of fatigue....very, very strange. Anyone see the Mike Brown fight in the Leafs game? Pretty good one. The Sportscentre guy said he counted 15 punches thrown by Brown and about 17 of them landed.

Where did you get that?? Winnipeg was up 5-1 at one point and 6-2 at another point, then 6-3, 6-4, 6-5, 6-6, then Philly up 7-6.... Anyway, wonder when the last time a team scored 8 goals and lost.

Chances of him retiring before Lidstrom are lower than that I'd say. While Lids "could" play another 5 years, I highly doubt that would happen, I think this may be his last, but if not, definately next year. I don't think Z will play out his entire contract, but I also don't think he retires in the next 3 years. It's possible, but I wouldn't put the possibilty as high as 20%.

No, it's the draft, I wouldn't expect any news on realignment until later in December at the earliest.

I know it's Crosby, but this is pretty awesome. He was recently cleared for full contact in practice, but due to their schedule, the Pens haven't had a lot of practices with full contact so Crosby isn't getting enough at this point. http://i.imgur.com/8uc6W.gif Edit....I'm not sure how to get this to show here without having to click the link. Can anyone fill me in?

There is absolutely no way of knowing whether a guy would still have gotten hit in the eye even if he was wearing a visor.

Who knows? However, I'm sure there will be many jumping to that conclusion if he comes back and isn't playing that well right away....you know.....instead of simply chalking it up to him not playing a game for 10+ months.

What do you mean? In my experience, it is normally the coach that announces injuries. Edit....or are you wondering why every injury is "announced." In that case, my experience is that all injuries are announced as well, maybe you just don't always see it because it's not a headline article on TSN.ca or some other site. Normally what happens is the team will hold a practice and someone won't be skating and the coach will answer questions after practice and that is how injuries get "announced."

Really? ALL STATS AFTER 7 GAMES: 02/03 - 5pts (Rookie year) 03/04 - 6pts 05/06 - 9pts 06/07 - 3pts (ended the year with only 68 pts, worst since lockout, but more due to injury as he was above ppg) 07/08 - 13pts 08/09 - 8pts 09/10 - 7pts 10/11 - 10pts 11/12 - 2pts When I look at those stats, this year appears to be an anomoly, rather than the rule. He doesn't appear to be a notorious slow starter at all. That said, I'm not too worried, but I also think some people need to have realistic expectations. You can't expect the guy to score 40+ goals and 90+ or 100pts. Just because he's scored 40 goals and 90pts once in his career, doesn't mean he'll ever do it again. I think a ppg is closer to the ceiling than the floor for this guy and I think a lot of people may be putting a ppg as the floor and if he doesn't get there, then he's had an off year. Yes, 2pts in 7 games is nowhere near a ppg, but 7 games is far too small of a sample size. He could very well have terrible numbers by the end of the year, but I'm not ready to worry about that yet. Need to remember that he's only getting older and he isn't going to age like Lidstrom has.

Friday nights have never been a big night for hockey, there are rarely many games, it's always been that way. Saturday night is the big night for the NHL. It should be obvious why there are few games on Sunday. You'll see Sunday games increase in February or so....i.e. after the NFL season.

What does any of that have anything to do with concussion protocol whereby a player goes off ice for a few minutes and gets checked out before he goes back out?

What you are talking about is the risks that players take out there and you basically have to live with them, can't avoid the issue all together. But what Laich really doesn't like is the protocal about having to go get checked out and cleared before you go back out there if you take some sort of head shot. Beagle was knocked unconcious and had to be helped off the ice. I'm sorry, but why is there a problem with then having to go sit a few minutes and get cleared before heading back out there? Ingoring the players own stupidity and not caring whether he has a quality of life past the age of 40, ignoring potential impact on his kids, etc, I'll just take the blunt approach. If I'm the owner of the team and I have invested millions in this player and I have him under contract (guaranteed) over the next 5 years, I don't want my investment risk to be beyond what it inherently has to be.