Drew Doughty

i don't think he will. you don't sign an offer sheet knowing you could very well be stuck in the city you're already in. he may get traded, simply b/c nashville may struggle to pay the enormous contract. i don't think he'll weasel his way out a la carter or nash though.

Brodeur was not good this year and was bad for like half the playoffs. He was actively bad last year and was one of the main reasons the Devils missed the playoffs. If anyone backs up the truck for him, they're probably an idiot.

Wideman is awful and no one should actively want him. Even as a backup plan. One of Bouwmeester or Giordano has to be available now. They have so much money tied up in awful or aging players. What a trainwreck that organization is. They'll fight valiantly for 8th spot, wind up in 10th, and have another mediocre first rounder. They're still two years ago from being completely awful and I don't see a way out for them in either direction. Feaster flatly refuses to make long term moves. I think everyone realizes how ridiculous this signing is and it won't have too much of an effect on the market. Wideman also has a full NMC. Horrendous.

All joking aside, I really don't understand how being a drunk 22 year old is "really bad". Millions of people act that way every day. Where are these stories about other 22 year olds that are so public and visible? So the fact that he's a public figure makes it "really bad" when millions of non-public figures do the same stuff and never get called out on it? It's a PR problem, not a real life issue. It's not good when those people do it either. If one of my friends punched a cabbie and went around barhopping, passing out in bars, acted like a sexist douchebag, choked women, etc, I would be pretty disappointed in him. There's no point in mitigating this stuff. It's not a good character trait whether the person is famous or not. I think it's safe to say that if any employer thinks you need help with a potentially very serious problem, it's worth noting. And no, millions of people don't do what Kane did every day. The ones that do are scum.

All joking aside, I really don't understand how being a drunk 22 year old is "really bad". Millions of people act that way every day. Where are these stories about other 22 year olds that are so public and visible? There were rumors and stuff about Carter and Richards, but aside from a picture here and there, there wasn't a lot of stuff to go on. I've seen pictures of Malkin and Giroux too, but most of it was way more tame than the outlandish stuff that was talked about with Kane. Most 22 year olds don't wind up in either of the peculiar situations Kane has landed himself in. The Blackhawks even think Kane needs help, which I think is the most telling thing. Then again, I guess the Flyers did the whole disastrous 'dry island' thing that basically led eventually to the Kings winning the Stanley Cup so whatever.

Yeah this is a bummer. Trying to plan a trip to the 'Peg for a Saturday game early in the year. But I doubt those first few weeks will be played. I would be stunned if they don't resolve it, Don Fehr and all. Critically important for both sides to get it done. Can't have another labor dispute already. I'm not listening to a rapist :lol: Suddenly Kaner's antics don't look so bad... Well, they still do. Doughty's allegedly done something according to one person that the police are finding 'serious credibility issues' with and Kaner was spotted by, what, 10+ people doing stupid stuff? And he kind of has that reputation? They're both bad, although obviously rape would be pretty much not comparable to whatever dumb drunk crap Kane was doing. At the same time, I have little doubt that Doughty is basically a scumbag. Pretty sure him and Simmonds were our Richards and Carter before we actually had Richards and Carter. So I'll be changing my name soon (as much as I love Drew on the ice, I tend to lean toward 'where there's smoke there's fire'). And I still sincerely doubt the NHL will have another lockout SO SOON. We all remember the labor talks in baseball where it basically went down to the last day during the season and they FINALLY resolved it, right? I could see that happening here. Both sides know what's at stake. Even if it turns into a big stupid game of chicken, they have worked too hard to overcome the last work stoppage to have another one 7 years later.

Yeah this is a bummer. Trying to plan a trip to the 'Peg for a Saturday game early in the year. But I doubt those first few weeks will be played. I would be stunned if they don't resolve it, Don Fehr and all. Critically important for both sides to get it done. Can't have another labor dispute already.

That's pretty amazing. For some reason I thought another 8 seed had won the Cup. The second fact is false. No. 6 Calgary defeated the top three teams in 03-04 before losing to No. 1 Tampa Bay in the Stanley Cup Final that year. A team also coached by Darryl Sutter. What a human being.

nailed it

the kings hit 3 posts and missed empty nets. in the regular season they'd just pour shots into brodeur's logo from beyond the dots. i'm terrified, but they played well last night. could've easily won 1-0 at minimum and with any puck luck at all they could've buried NJ. was their best effort of the series.

Isn't that just how free agency works in every sport. Theo wooed Schilling over Thanksgiving. NFL owners and coaches fly their jets to their targets home base at midnight. THE DECISION. probably, but i could see why any gm in any sport would be afraid of free agency/dealing with it. i don't know about the NFL, but NHL also moves so much faster in free agency than baseball. if you get caught up on a star on day one like richards and he doesn't sign early on, chances are you could miss out on all of your secondary targets. if you give up a 4th round pick (pretty meaningless) for the shot at signing a guy and find out you don't have a shot, at least you know by july 1st and you can just go for other targets.

my guess would be because there simply aren't a lot of great free agents available and that the teams in search of those actual good players want a better crack at them. kind of have a lot of teams on the verge, i think. NYI and EDM could be on the verge of the playoffs. WSH, CHI, SJS, DET on the verge of being real contenders again (or needing something to STAY a contender). i think the richards saga last year and the kovalchuk saga a year before could scare teams from FA. i remember the richards show sounding like a complete cluster****. all these teams flying out to NY to his agent's office to pitch him and stuff...just sounded so absurd to me. the kings put together a big video with all the famous LA icons telling Richards how great the fans are and the kind of company he could join if he brought a championship to LA. hilarious stuff. the kovalchuk stuff was pretty well documented, i think. it was even more ridiculous. i would be terrified of free agency if i was a GM in the NHL right now. it gets to be such a distraction where you say, "well we can't sign [player] because we're waiting to see what [other player] does." for instance, the kings ended up settling for alexei ponikarovsky instead of kovalchuk. oopsie. you look at the kings' success as well...no free agent signings there. only willie mitchell and rob scuderi were free agent pickups. lower key guys. free agency is great for role players, it's awful if you need a star.

If you count points, they qualified for the playoffs and then dismantled everyone.

I don't think that one's on Brodeur...Carter just dominated the whole play. Skates in the zone, blows around the defender, throws the puck at the net, fields the rebound, skates around more guys, and fires a wrister through a screen against the flow. He has one of the best releases in the game, it's a really, really hard save to make. Also Carter is amazing the Kings are my heroes I love life etc What really sucks for NJ is that they clearly outplayed us. They didn't dominate, but they were better than us. They disrupted our breakout, they mitigated our forecheck, they controlled most of the game...and they lost. That sucks.

It was miserably humid, and hot the last few days but it's perfect weather here today and I believe it's going to be nice the next couple days, which should help. But yes, Radiohead is there. Yeah, that's what I read...some people said they had never or very rarely been in a building that warm. HOPEFULLY the nicer weather helps the ice in game 4. That was among the worst ice I've seen in the NHL in the entire time I've watched. It was also remarkably bad in game 4 of the Phoenix series when I was there. That was the stretch that they had like 3 basketball games and 2 hockey games over the course of 3 days at Staples.

anze kopitar is the greatest human of all time after a few years of being a merely great two way player (merely) (lol) he is now a game breaker too. the progression he's made in the last 4 months is pretty phenomenal. sure hope the ice is better in game 2. don't have high hopes since i believe radiohead has concerts in the prudential center each of the next two nights. also anyone that bought into the stupid belief that drew doughty wasn't awesome must be pretty mystified by his continued amazing play (both ends of the ice) in this playoff run. he has been absolutely spectacular. except for his goofy meltdown in OT of game 5 against phoenix, hard to have any gripe with his play almost literally from the time game 1 of the vancouver series started. the only average game he had all playoffs long was game 4 against vancouver, and he still was okay. he did go backwards a bit (really, not that much), but he was still pretty awesome the last two years.

could be, but i mean...it takes a special group of idiots to be haunted as badly as they are by the playoffs. they turned chelsea dagger into a thing more than the blackhawks themselves did. kesler, burrows, bieksa, lapierre, luongo...these guys all have meltdowns. they all do dumb stuff. seems like more of a character issue that would've come out one way or another, and the blackhawks just happened to be there (repeatedly) when it manifested.

i think detroit was a better matchup both of the last two years than the san jose team that went in their place. the 4-1 series was not that lopsided. in fact, detroit won the only lopsided game. the games went 4-3, 4-3, 4-3 in SJ's favor, 7-1 in DET's favor, then 2-1 in SJ's favor. they won that series with a negative goal differential, which is a perfectly san jose thing to do. a detroit/chicago series would've been great. come on, they were one year and one marian hossa removed from trouncing the hawks easily. it would've at the very least been a closer series than the poop performance san jose put out there. doesn't the theory go something like...if you win games by blowouts and lose the close ones, it tends to even out in the end? the 5 game sample was too small to let things actually even out. that's the only thing that really could've gone differently, i guess. they were a better team that faced a pair of teams with post-season demons and a decent nashville team. the kings faced a team with post-season demons, a team with no playoff experience, and phoenix. the devils faced florida, a philly team that can't play defense or find goaltending, and a nyr team that underachieved all playoffs and was very obviously tired. that's how it goes. you get skilled enough to catch the breaks. if boston scores the OT winner against washington, NJ gets NYR in round 2 and that probably goes entirely differently. it takes an awful lot of luck to get deep in the playoffs.

chicago was a very good team, but i am pretty sure, looking back, that they had a significantly easier road than a lot of teams. san jose chokes in the playoffs every year (last year they lost two games to a team that didn't have a real #1 or #2 center and didn't have an offense even when they DID have a #1 center, then finally got roasted in the conference finals again). vancouver didn't have the headcase/mental midget thing down cold, but they were on their way and it all started that year when they just melted down. it's the same roster now, nothing changed. it's the same dumb players doing the same dumb things. chicago played exceptionally well anyway, but i don't know if they ever got a chance to show how good that team really was. i'm not saying they don't deserve the cup, but it was a really easy road in hindsight. the kings have followed a similar pattern this year, it's not really something to complain about. they've played well, but the teams they've played have pretty obvious flaws and were missing players (or, in phoenix's case, just not that good). i just get the feeling that both teams in the finals kind of lucked out in their matchups. i'm not sure there are better teams sitting at home, but just feels like both teams caught their matchups at the right time as much as anything. for the kings, i mean, if they don't blow one of the last to vs SJ and wind up in 7th, they catch the blues with halak and probably never have to deal with an unhealthy pietrangelo. that could've changed the whole western conference landscape. i guess the ultimate point is that it takes a lot of luck to get to the finals, and skill just puts you in a better position to get lucky.

The Devils at this point in time are a far superior squad to the Rangers who apparently forgot how to play offense when the playoffs rolled around. Rangers were never a very good possession team though. Not very surprising. Devils kind of remind me of 2010 Hawks in their march to the Cup Finals...I never got the sense the Hawks faced a real threat. They got Nashville, who is always just kinda there in the playoffs (and weren't especially good that season), Vancouver and their mental breakdowns, and the Sharks who suck at some point in every post season. Devils drew a team that was in their seeding by default and not actually that good, a team that couldn't play defense, and then a team that was both tired and incapable of offense. That said, I'm sure there are similar arguments to be made for the Kings (mentally broken Canucks + no DSedin for 3 games, Blues without Halak/half of Pietrangelo, and...Phoenix). I think this will be a pretty entertaining final, though. Devils have gotten a lot of production from their bottom line and it will be interesting to see if their offense keeps up when that fades and their stars (most notably Kovalchuk who is obviously playing hurt and Parise who has not been spectacular in recent times) are forced to produce a bit more. I think Henrique has actually been their most effective all around skater. They've also randomly got a bunch of offense from Bryce Salvador which isn't really logical but whatever. Hard to say the Devils are more threatening than the Canucks or Blues on paper, but that's why they play the games.

To be fair, the fourteen fans or whatever they have probably really ARE the best in the league. They have to cheer for a bunch of scumbags and they do it vigorously! Let's recap: Doan puts Trevor Lewis face first into the dasher (admittedly not a super dirty play but still, he got ejected, he has a history of this junk) and bloodies his nose, Martin Hanzal tries to break Dustin Brown's spine, Mike Smith tries to amputate Dustin Brown's leg below the kneecap, and then the same Mike Smith tries to saw Richards in half after the series is over...and they're going to whine about missed calls??? Help me, I can't breathe. Oh, right, that's not even where it ended: Doan and Yandle immediately go to the ref to either whine about a missed that wasn't a penalty after the game and series are both over, banging their sticks and generally lookin' thuggish. Mike Smith comes over with his stick half cocked as if he wanted to cut off a piece to take home to cook for dinner, but decides that merely complaining loudly would be enough. Then the same Mike Smith, before going to the handshake line, throws his stick toward the refs. Oh, right, and Martin Hanzal ALSO went over to the ref to whine either about a hit that wasn't a penalty or about a hand pass that never happened. But the refs won that one for LA. Certainly wasn't a team coming unraveled from the core on out. Wasn't their most productive players disappearing for more than half the series. Wasn't their leadership core doing dumb things to cost them both man games and man advantages in game. It was the refs. Good call, guys. Perfect ending for a perfectly scummy team. Additional note: Shane Doan and Mike Smith annoyed the refs so much that they got game misconducts after the series ended. Outstanding.

The Kings are definitely in their heads and doing a great job of keeping their composure. Just drawing power play after power play. The crowd was pretty Kings friendly as well. Getting pantsed at home and being cheered for it has to be especially demoralizing. Yeah that was awesome. The Kings are always a team that gets visiting fans to come in droves to Staples, but rarely do it to anyone out of Anaheim. Seeing and hearing the thousands of fans make it to Phoenix and making themselves heard was pretty great for a Kings fan. The script for the first two games has been pretty much the same for the first three series. Win a close game (on the scoreboard, anyway, we wrecked Phoenix in game 1), then completely demoralize the home team on their ice, get them off their game (something I sincerely doubted would happen in this series yet here we are), and get them making a parade to the box. At least St. Louis didn't turn into a bunch of goons when we handed it to them in game 2 of that series. That said, I don't think they'll continue to play undisciplined, immature hockey in game 3. At least we can score a couple of power play goals if we get, like, hours of 5 on 3 time.

You should love Gagne and Hextall and they will both get rings should the Kings win

Boy I sure am glad Mike Smith and Shane Doan are veering toward being hated by the general NHL fan population. Doan, especially, is scum. He's a dirty player that people like because he's a good ol' Canadian boy that plays captain on a team that no one watches. Not because he actually has heart or leadership. He's just scum. His hit wasn't suspendable, but he's really just scum. Hanzal should be done for the series (2 games suspension, then). Morris had a filthy knee on Scuderi too. Just a gutless showing late in the game by Phoenix. Which is hilarious, because the Kings have probably broken them. Can't believe a team I cheer for has gone on the road and gone up 2-0 three straight times. That's some insanity right there.

sergio mitre turned in a random gem against halladay too, going even further back.