NHL season 2007-2008

[Derwood]

Wow, the Penguins are on some kind of tear

[TruffleShuffle]

Wow, the Penguins are on some kind of tear

 

they'll slow down once the alien departs... the alien that has taken over the body of ty conklin and turned him from a mediocre AHL player to a brick wall.

[jaydee]

Wow, the Penguins are on some kind of tear

 

they'll slow down once the alien departs... the alien that has taken over the body of ty conklin and turned him from a mediocre AHL player to a brick wall.

 

he was never a mediocre AHL player, he was always at least a backup in the NHL

[jaydee]

If the Hart was awarded today, who would you give your vote to? I'd have to vote for Iginla with Luongo in second.

 

Oh and Patrick Sharp signed an extension 4/$15.6. http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=227546&hubname=

 

kovalchuk would win pretty easily IMO. without him his team would be probably the worst team in the league. one of the best goal scorers in history

[sneakypower]

24 round shootout in the Caps-Oilers game. What's more, the first 22 rounds were scoreless until Matt Bradley scored the go ahead goal.

[Drew Doughty]

24 round shootout in the Caps-Oilers game. What's more, the first 22 rounds were scoreless until Matt Bradley scored the go ahead goal.

 

12 rounds. 24 shooters.

 

hard to believe with all the handsy talent those two teams had, it went scoreless for that long. and it wasn't even garon in net for the Oilers.

[sneakypower]

12 rounds. 24 shooters.

I don't know what I was thinking. #-o

hard to believe with all the handsy talent those two teams had, it went scoreless for that long. and it wasn't even garon in net for the Oilers.

Sam Gagner and Hemsky especially. I always like watching the video of his first SO goal where he undresses Harding.

[ZFan38]

Anyone see Rick Nash's goal against Phoenix today? He skated in alone, undressed two defenders and just humiliated the goalie. The goal of the year so far, with 22 seconds left in a tie game no less.

[TruffleShuffle]

Anyone see Rick Nash's goal against Phoenix today? He skated in alone, undressed two defenders and just humiliated the goalie. The goal of the year so far, with 22 seconds left in a tie game no less.

 

just watched it on nhl.com... that was awesome.

[rickrolled]

Anyone see Rick Nash's goal against Phoenix today? He skated in alone, undressed two defenders and just humiliated the goalie. The goal of the year so far, with 22 seconds left in a tie game no less.

 

yeah just saw that on NHL.com, it was ridiculous. although I'd say Toews' goal was better. :)

[TruffleShuffle]

Anyone see Rick Nash's goal against Phoenix today? He skated in alone, undressed two defenders and just humiliated the goalie. The goal of the year so far, with 22 seconds left in a tie game no less.

 

yeah just saw that on NHL.com, it was ridiculous. although I'd say Toews' goal was better. :)

 

that's b/c you're a hawks fan. the nash goal was definitely the better of the two.

 

ovechkin's goal from a couple of years ago (i think) is the best i've seen in quite some time.

[YearofDaCubs]

Anyone see Rick Nash's goal against Phoenix today? He skated in alone, undressed two defenders and just humiliated the goalie. The goal of the year so far, with 22 seconds left in a tie game no less.

 

yeah just saw that on NHL.com, it was ridiculous. although I'd say Toews' goal was better. :)

 

that's b/c you're a hawks fan. the nash goal was definitely the better of the two.

 

ovechkin's goal from a couple of years ago (i think) is the best i've seen in quite some time.

Both are very similar but I will give an edge to Nash's goal.

[TruffleShuffle]

great weekend for the flyers, beat the islanders on saturday and then blew out ottawa 6-1 on sunday. scott hartnell couldn't score on a prostitute earlier this year, and now he's got something like 10 goals in the last 7 games. big game coming up on tuesday against the hated devils.

[TruffleShuffle]

buffalo doing a solid job of living up to their reputation as a bunch of whiny a-holes...

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/sabresnhl/story/256160.html

[sneakypower]

great weekend for the flyers, beat the islanders on saturday and then blew out ottawa 6-1 on sunday. scott hartnell couldn't score on a prostitute earlier this year, and now he's got something like 10 goals in the last 7 games. big game coming up on tuesday against the hated devils.

 

Right now they have the most offensive firepower of any team in the league. They're right at the top of goals/game and that's with missing Gagne and Lupul for long stretches. Add to that Scottie Upshall looks like he's starting to figure things out, I see them taking their division and probably the two spot in the East.

 

How do you feel about the Carter for Sundin rumors?

[TruffleShuffle]

great weekend for the flyers, beat the islanders on saturday and then blew out ottawa 6-1 on sunday. scott hartnell couldn't score on a prostitute earlier this year, and now he's got something like 10 goals in the last 7 games. big game coming up on tuesday against the hated devils.

 

Right now they have the most offensive firepower of any team in the league. They're right at the top of goals/game and that's with missing Gagne and Lupul for long stretches. Add to that Scottie Upshall looks like he's starting to figure things out, I see them taking their division and probably the two spot in the East.

 

How do you feel about the Carter for Sundin rumors?

 

this team doesn't have incredible top-end offensive talent (like lindros/leclair 10 years ago, or ovechkin, iginla or kovalchuk now) but they do have more depth than any flyers team i can remember. they've done a lot better at manufacturing home-grown talent (richards, carter, umberger, downie) and also have made some great trades:

 

-forsberg for upshall, ryan parent (future top 4 defenseman, playing in the AHL this year) and 1st round pick

-pitkanen and geoff sanderson for jason smith and lupul - this one i'm still deathly afraid that pitkanen turns into brian leetch, but there's no question that in the short term it makes us a lot better. smith is a good defensive defenseman and a good leader; lupul needed to get out of edmonton and was almost a PPG player before his injury)

-calder for kukkonen (unfortunately our coach is an idiot and keeps dressing inferior players like vandermeer, jones and hatcher while making kukkonen the healthy scratch)

-zhitnik for coburn (highway robbery, coburn is good and zhitnik hasn't done a thing in ATL)

 

if lupul gets healthy we can start rolling out the following lineup:

 

lupul - briere -gagne

hartnell - richards - downie

upshall - carter - knuble

kapanen - umberger - dowd/cote

 

which is pretty crazy, to have a player like umberger on the 4th line. i have to admit, i thought paul holmgren would be a bad choice as GM. he was not a very good coach and IIRC he had a drinking problem too. but he has made a whole lot of good trades and his most recent draft is already looking strong - james van riemsdyk was the leading scorer at the WJC, and a 6th round pick - a fat kid from st. louis - has gotten himself in shape and is 8th in scoring in the OHL this year, leading his team by more than 20 points. the future is bright.

 

 

anyway, sundin for carter... i'm torn on this. sundin is a great player, can play either #1 or #2 center, can kill penalties (though doesn't do it much), would be our best faceoff man, good leader too. but i'm not sure that we really need him that much. he's definitely a center, and what do you do with briere and richards? briere is clearly a top-line player, and richards has been the flyers' best player all year. at this stage of his career, carter is a better fit at 3rd line center.

 

plus, carter has been solid this year for us - he's on pace to score 30 goals this year and has played his best hockey over the past month. i'm not sure that sundin is a huge upgrade over carter; you're only getting him for a third of a season and then the playoffs.

 

the only reason that i'd consider it, and the flyers might as well, is that they have a salary cap crunch on the horizon. umberger and carter hit RFA after this season; upshall, lupul and downie hit it after next season. we've also got randy jones hitting RFA after this season and jim vandermeer and jason smith hit UFA. a lot of guys are tied up in long deals, and even though knuble and hatcher come off the books after next year, the flyers are not going to be able to retain all of the young talent that they've built up over the past year. my guess is that either umberger or carter will get signed to an offer sheet this offseason and be allowed to walk. either that or homer will pre-emptively trade one. i think carter is more likely to stay in town, but that's just a guess.

 

still, if you're dealing carter, i'd like to get more back than 1/3 of a season from mats sundin. the guy i'd really like to get from toronto is tomas kaberle, but toronto doesn't have much else to build around, and his $4.25M cap hit through 2010-11 is pretty team-friendly for a puck-moving defenseman of his caliber. if kaberle were coming to philly then i'd be willing to part with carter.

[sneakypower]

-pitkanen and geoff sanderson for jason smith and lupul - this one i'm still deathly afraid that pitkanen turns into brian leetch, but there's no question that in the short term it makes us a lot better. smith is a good defensive defenseman and a good leader; lupul needed to get out of edmonton and was almost a PPG player before his injury)

-zhitnik for coburn (highway robbery, coburn is good and zhitnik hasn't done a thing in ATL)

From what I remember, Pitkanen was a malcontent, which facilitated his departure. I think Coburn left a bad taste in fans mouths given that he was selected the pick before Dion Phaneuf and had struggles adjusting to the NHL game.

 

still, if you're dealing carter, i'd like to get more back than 1/3 of a season from mats sundin. the guy i'd really like to get from toronto is tomas kaberle, but toronto doesn't have much else to build around, and his $4.25M cap hit through 2010-11 is pretty team-friendly for a puck-moving defenseman of his caliber. if kaberle were coming to philly then i'd be willing to part with carter.

With Ferguson getting fired, hopefully for their sake the Leafs blow that team up. A firesale would be wise, they really have little to build around. I wonder if the Flyers want Blake instead of Sundin, he could sit in the locker room next to Downie, and they could be good pals...

[TruffleShuffle]

and predictably we completely melt down when we face the devils. incredible assortment of idiotic penalties in the offensive zone; devils go 5-5 on the power play (oh by the way their power play is 3rd from the basement) and are up 5-3 in the game. of course a-hole coach stevens keeps running jim vandermeer and randy jones out there because God forbid you play the smart Finn who knows where he's supposed to be on the ice.... nah instead let's keep throwing out canadians who run around like they have no idea what to do. and next game what's gonna happen? kukkonen will sit up in the press box again, watching vandermeer and jones eff up all night.

 

no way we're winning a thing under this moron. ken hitchcock knew how to coach; john stevens doesn't.

[NewUserName]

watching Anehiem is like watching the Charleston Cheifs

[Post Count Padder]

Yeah, I wore my Brodeur shirt today and flaunted it in front of my Flyer friends.

 

 

And I like the Ducks, but they do lay rather dirty. Parros, Pronger, Moen, Bertuzzi, etc beat the crap out of people. Though, Parros does have an awesome/ intimidating mustache:

 

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2007/0412/nhl_g_parros_412.jpg

[ZFan38]

What is wrong with Roberto Luongo? Seriously he has cost us the last two games and is looking shaky again tonight. Without him playing well, the Canucks are done.

[sneakypower]

And I like the Ducks, but they do lay rather dirty. Parros, Pronger, Moen, Bertuzzi, etc beat the crap out of people. Though, Parros does have an awesome/ intimidating mustache:

 

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2007/0412/nhl_g_parros_412.jpg

It's nice to see a team put up a little fight against the Wings for once. Bertuzzi body slamming Franzen, Pronger rearranging Cleary's face, 4 Ducks sitting in the penalty box together 5 minutes into the game, it's been a fun game. Charleston Chiefs is an apt comparison for today's game.

 

What is wrong with Roberto Luongo? Seriously he has cost us the last two games and is looking shaky again tonight. Without him playing well, the Canucks are done.

You know your offense is in dire straits if 2 goals does you in. Can the Sedins be cloned?

[ZFan38]

What is wrong with Roberto Luongo? Seriously he has cost us the last two games and is looking shaky again tonight. Without him playing well, the Canucks are done.

You know your offense is in dire straits if 2 goals does you in. Can the Sedins be cloned?

 

The offense has actually played well the last two games, with 40+ shots in both of them. They just need to finish the chances they are getting, like today they've hit 4 posts in the first two periods. Its pretty frustrating to watch.

[TruffleShuffle]

well, bush-league penguin george laraque (who admitted after the last flyers-pens game that he intentionally slid into the legs of our goalie martin biron) gave a clear premeditated check from behind against steve downie, who's lucky he doesn't have a broken neck. laraque is a great fighter and a good tough guy, unfortunately he's also a dirty player.

 

let's see if the nhl shows any consistency. laraque should get 5 games minimum. here's a guess that he gets 2 or 3.

 

here's the video:

[jaydee]

well, bush-league penguin george laraque (who admitted after the last flyers-pens game that he intentionally slid into the legs of our goalie martin biron) gave a clear premeditated check from behind against steve downie, who's lucky he doesn't have a broken neck. laraque is a great fighter and a good tough guy, unfortunately he's also a dirty player.

 

let's see if the nhl shows any consistency. laraque should get 5 games minimum. here's a guess that he gets 2 or 3.

 

here's the video:

 

he barely shoved downie it looks like. too bad downie couldn't really get a taste of his own medicine, but laraque was smart to hold up. maybe a 1 or 2 game suspension, downie definitely knew he was coming and put himself in that position while playing the puck. laraque definitely held up, if he went full out downie would be in the hospital.