akustyk

this is really emberassing. Sundin over Shanny...

yep... talk about HHOF offices being in Toronto and this being no how correlated with votes...

disgusting!

of those two I absolutely prefer Iginla and this is a total no-brainer.

Wings had 248 GF this season, 2nd best in the West. I fail to see an urgency to shop for a pure scorer as of now.

to me there are two priorities for Wings heading into the summer: 1. replacing older players with young who can put
similar production (or better if possible) 2. bringing someone to the organization who will fire up the core players and
make this team actually WANT to win. this actually is bigger than first point. this team could use more overall talent
and with so much cap space it actually is expected to fish a big name forward. but first and foremost it needs real hunger.
even Franzen still has it (see: IIHF WC 2012) but someone has to press the right buttons...

(..)  
But I wouldn't say he's good for the game.  Aside from locking the players out twice during his tenure and losing a season and a half of hockey, he also denied for years that clutching and grabbing was out of hand during the dead puck era.  It wasn't until the lockout and the competition committee's involvement that they made adjustments to the game to allow skill players to play without getting mugged.

(..) Bettman is a traditionalist in many ways. I'm sure that conversation already happened and Bettman wasn't having any of it. As far as fighting goes there are individuals and groups that are actively trying to eliminate it from the game but Bettman has consistently defended it on record.

are you sure Gary has so much say about the shape of the game?

I don't think the guy has (and even is supposed to) have much understanding of the game. He's a lawyer and needs management and diplomacy skills to get 30 GMs (and NHLPA, at least sometimes) on the same page and make sure the product is marketable (which, don't get me wrong, is not decided by a couple of die hard fans like us, but masses who watch TV and buy tickets and merchandise). nothing less but also nothing more.

there are people in the NHL offices who understand the game and various aspects surrounding it. Gary is not to replace them but only to make the organization deliver. hard cash that is.



look, my company also exists because it delivers excellent product and knowledge support, but it's (among others) me who provides the service. my boss doesn't understand the finer points of service, but he's excellent at selling it to clients.

I'll take anything that serves as distraction to Blackhawks and makes this franchise worse.
Kane being immature d*ck is nothing new, but I'll obviously take it. I only wish it got even worse in their locker room
and this moron kid pests the climate and sets bad example to the rest of this crappy team.

Sweden was playing really good in 1st but in 2nd Russians got under their skin and Swedes lost it totally. game was lost basically when it got tied 3-3, but I didn't expect such blowout.

Franzen needs to calm down. Yemelin really got the best of him. same goes for Landeskog who took even dumber penalty.

Fasth and Enroth are perfectly fine if the team in front of them stays focused. it was for the first 30 minutes.


PS. Eriksson still rocks. and Malkin is, skills aside, f* goon.

Well if the media didn't keep trying to get answers out of Torts that they want, so they can spin it on him, he would probably respect them back. Listen, the media tries to DESTROY and skew the words of Torts, they set him up for failure. They ask rhetorical stupid questions, so he answers with smart ass answers.

that's what media is and always was about. 29+ coaches in this league (and other major leagues as well) understand it and get over with dumb questions.

in nowadays economies you need media to sell your product. especially when the product is media based. and it's actually this intermediary (streaming, reporting) who holds the power in relation with content producer (league). period.

Come on man, don't act like Torts is the bad guy all the time. You would eventually get fed up with it too.

I don't. I was OK with him until recently, but just think he is pushing this too far now. for whatever reason.

Torts is honest I admire that and respect that. HE is the only coach who is not afraid to speak out.

I don't see why thats a bad thing. It is a team game, why would the head coach want to single an individual player out in a post-game presser to the public. Everyone wants to be up in arms because of his post-games right now and call him classless but you want him to put one of his players on blast infront of the public? If its one thing Torts absolutely kicks ass at, its sticking up for his players. He'll be blunt, damn well straight up say the performance was "the suck", but he wouldn't single out a players performance. He'll go tell you to talk to that player. Which Babcock will do the same thing in his pressers.

what I'm referring to is his
1. his total disdain to media people which is more than obvious the moment he enters the press room
2. it's done over and over again.
3. "I'm not going to answer question about single players" + "I'm not going to answer you questions about strategy" + "I'm not going into discussion of refs calls" = what exactly is Torts then going to answer? questions about his favorite apple pies? this is a god* press conference for media going to report about the game. Tortorella is simply not answering any hockey related questions.


I'm OK with sending a statement to media to get real and stop asking same things over and over again. I understand that he doesn't want to single out players etc. but the way this guy behaves is more like "f* off, I'm not going to answer you anything". and he keeps doing it. and this is sure as hell against league policy to work with the media for one. and most certainly simply not fair for those people who just want to write a note or article in their paper to generate interest in NHL hockey.

I don't like the wording "Original" in the sentence. let's keep original with 6 and if needed make something out for those 12, otherwise it'd be confusing which is in fact original.

I'm not offended, I'm actually tired of the megalomania of many O6 fans who think their team is 2nd coming of Jesus Christ and everything outside the O6 is just pretenders to produce decent hockey. if you look at playoff results from recent years - those other un-original 6 have as much if not more success. and many of newer franchises are doing more than good job, often in much worse economy.


mind you... I'd rather support Predators or Lightning with their solid job overall but limited history and fanbase, than Maple Laughs or Canadiens with their giant d* about their history and brutal product on the ice.

I could've sworn Zetterberg scored off that redirect against Denmark but IIHF says he has no goals and 4 assists.

the goal was credited to another player. after the goal Zetterberg evantook the puck and brought it to that player (#43), but I no longer know that name.

truth being said, Zatta is playing great, nevermind the scoresheets.

This is the consolation Cup for those who got eliminated or didn't make it to playoffs.  

not really. maybe from North American point of view it looks like this, but for European players this event, played almost always in Europe, is a big deal.
mind you... it's normal time for people here, we can watch the game without losing sleep, and for a big number of fans it's a chance to see home grown
talent. and for those players its a big chance to represent their country which at this side of the pond is still important.

in short: just because it is outside US/North America doesn't mean that it is worse...

good for them.

does the beer cause drinker to fall/dive at slightest push and whine to authorities? thought so...

Nashville is deeper but you never know in playoffs.
anyway, I'll be rooting for Preds. the franchise does so many things right, they play hard day in, day out, I'd like to see them reach WCF (at least) finally.

Other GMs are going to be bailed out one way or another by the NHL, much the same way certain automakers have, while those who worked hard to sustain a team will, in a way, have their work undone.

on the other hand, if you're a player or players agent about to sign a new contract, will you rather sign for a GM who is known to respect the agreements, even for less money, or chose someone who once counted on league bailout (subsequently stripping players from their incomes) and risk part of your future salary not being paid, thereby effectively lowering the real value of the contract?

it's not really a free lunch to GMs here, as they do risk their image and future abilities to sign/trade. thankfully!

So, do we need to build a more traditional engine with some hop up parts or is F1 performance the only way to a championship?

using car analogies: US car is usually much bigger than European car and there's by far much more space under the cap to do safe and easier handled assembly. for smaller cars, with less space under the cap, you need to compromise some serviced comfort and ease of error handling in order to have the thing perform good and fit under the space limitation. and I think it has more to do with space limitation that with certain alignment of parts that make up for the whole. it't not much different with other NHL teams.


speaking of car brands/makers - I honestly can't stand drivers of German cars. not all of them, but particulary Volkswagen and BMW drivers are pain in the * and I often wish I had a gun in my car to get rid of those cocky SOBs who thing they have the road all for themselves. can't comment about American car drivers, because we don't have many here - space is too precious (and fuel too costly), especially in Netherlands, to waste it with oversized and uneconomical tank-sized vehicles, when something like Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 206 or at most VW Golf is perfectly fine...

but Burke was supposed to be the best GM out there who only builds winning franchises....

I can't stand Burke and his love for flashlights. looks like he'll go down in the very best place to do so - Toronto. there won't be shortage of flashes and media attention when he's fired next season...


gotta say... loving every minute of this situation. this team has been atrocious for years - too bad to reach the playoffs, to proud to admin being bad and tank the season for a high draft pick. and I'm sure they won't pull a decent losing streak for the rest of 2011-12 but do their best to finish 9th.

Toronto Maple Laughs. epic fail written all over it.


plus: it's great fun to follow Toronto Sports Network how their tune changed from "this is the year" in the beginning of the season to the current doom and gloom.