Drew Doughty

roloson is pretty bad at this point. he's had some nice runs but he's old now.

not really. all of the referees miss calls in all of the leagues. hockey is the hardest game to call just because of the speed of the game.

Yep. a good majority of the NHL dives or embellishes to some extent (although crosby can be worse than others at times). do you hate pretty much every player in the NHL? Sadly, I have never seen Kane dive. Just because you dive, doesn't mean you're a bad player... but I hate how if you're a "phenom" diving is never called. Crosby has been called for diving a few times. It's not a call that's made often period, it doesn't matter if it's Crosby or not. I've even seen bad diving calls called against Crosby because of his reputation. So this "referees protect Crosby" stuff is nonsense. Not talking about the non-calls... I am talking about the fake calls for him giving the KC Penguins ANOTHER power play. ? pittsburgh was 4th in the NHL in PP Opps last year but in general they're a very fast team that would naturally draw calls (like say...montreal or detroit, who were both ahead of pit in PP opps). i watched probably about 20 pens games in the regular season last year and didn't notice crosby's diving giving the penguins some huge boost. the refs don't like crosby either. he whines all the time, usually about nothing worth whining about. he doesn't get any breaks with the refs.

Yep. a good majority of the NHL dives or embellishes to some extent (although crosby can be worse than others at times). do you hate pretty much every player in the NHL? Sadly, I have never seen Kane dive. Just because you dive, doesn't mean you're a bad player... but I hate how if you're a "phenom" diving is never called. Crosby has been called for diving a few times. It's not a call that's made often period, it doesn't matter if it's Crosby or not. I've even seen bad diving calls called against Crosby because of his reputation. So this "referees protect Crosby" stuff is nonsense.

two strict pbp guys would be weird. i can't see Len or Pat doing color commentary either.

Yep. a good majority of the NHL dives or embellishes to some extent (although crosby can be worse than others at times). do you hate pretty much every player in the NHL?

crosby is not protected by the refs. he does dive, but so do a lot of guys.

Pat Kane > Sidney Crosby /facepalm Kane doesn't dive and isn't protected by the refs. after he facepalm'd i was really, really hoping you would just saying "lol i was joking but seriously kane is good", but now i'm confused. you don't really think this do you?

Wings/Rangers on Yahoo. 2-0 Wings already.

Sutcliffe is awful. how can anyone stand him?

i don't think much of Nashville at all; they'll have good play from their D men as always but shaky goaltending and an impossible time putting the puck in the net. that's not even to mention the distraction of the Radulov debacle the Oilers, Coyotes and Kings are the teams i'm most interested in seeing this year for the development of their younger players, aside from NY of course i don't like nashville either, but i thought they would be horrid last year and they ended up in the playoffs. so much like the islanders with ted nolan (what a stupid firing), i'm not counting them out.

Zeus actually looks like the player i was expecting when we signed him a year ago. he was good defensively last year, but he's added some offense and speed back into his game now that he's a year removed from the knee injury. good game for him tonight.

Anyone see the fight when the Caps guy fell to the ground then tried to get back up and the Pens player busted his nose and there was blood all over the ice? bissonnette destroyed him right off the hop, i had no idea how bradley kept going, let alone got back up after they went down.

I strongly disagree with this. I think the talent is there for them to make the playoffs in the West. They are not a top team though. In the West? I really think they should be a top 4 team in the conference. the wings, sharks, and stars (despite turco's cold start) are clearly the class of the conference. after that you have anaheim and calgary. finally you have vancouver, edmonton, phoenix, chicago, and maybe nashville in the same boat. i don't think they're definitively a top 4 team in the conference, i'm not even convinced they're a playoff team yet. this is a team that missed the playoffs last year, and they made one upgrade in campbell. i like huet and he's a safer bet than khabi, but khabi was actually decent last year. the step up to huet isn't huge. a lot of their success is predicated on the development of their young players (and the health of their veterans). while it's likely that this will happen, it's not set in stone and they're certainly not the 4th best team in the west atm.

The Caps really can control a game. They absolutely dominated the Pens in the 3rd and came back to win. If they get even average goaltending from theodore this year, they're going to run away with the southeast.

Tallon won't be here if the team doesn't improve quickly. I am surprise Tallon wasn't fired first, only because he's the one that signed two average goalies to above average contracts, traded a solid 2nd line centre and had to send down a young talented DMan to "clear cap" to fit Huet and Habby into the salary cap. The Hawks are still an immensely talented team, but it was Tallon he put the Hawks behind, not Savard. Look Savard isn't a great caoch, but for the org to "scapegoat" a Hawks legend like they just did reminds alot of the olds days of Wirtz/Pulford. If the Hawks don' turned it around then Tallon will be gone. When the Hawks signed Khabi he was not average. Hadn't he just won the Stanley Cup and had a great season? Huet was one of the best goalies last year wasn't he? Both goalies were good for a short period of time. There's no ways around it both signings were bad. huet has been very good for the last 2 years. i don't see how that's a bad signing (the only argument is that you already have a 5m+ goalie, but if he's not good enough you have to do something else). khabi had a good playoff run in 03-04, but he's always been known as an underachiever.

Caps/Pens is being streamed on Yahoo.

a lot of my avs fans friends hated joel quenneville. strange timing on the firing.

how many teams? at any rate i'd say you need a legit #1 goalie. i like bryz but he's still a question mark and legace is playing for a bad team.

Nine. The Whalers moved. Awesome. I'm a dope. Even better, they moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes, who you also named.

also, the capitals DOMINATED the canucks tonight. holy cow that was a clinic.

I know the Canes traded away Jack Johnson and my impression at the time was that we got ripped, but I know next to nothing about hockey? How did that trade end up for the Canes? Johnson is still slated to be an all-star. they got Eric Belanger, a good 3rd liner but they traded him away, and Tim Gleason -- 2nd pairing guy -- in return. they also dumped the contract of Oleg Tverdovsky. Really not a bad deal for them, but they could've gotten more for Johnson.

wow, what a tremendous fluke and a horrible tragedy.

*sigh* sounds like jack johnson is going to be out for up to 3 months. no word on the actual injury, my guess is dislocated shoulder now that i remember the play it happened on. i guess we'll get to see how ready doughty is for the big time pretty quickly. the kings claimed Kyle Quincey off waivers... i know we have at least one red wings fan here, remember anything about him?

The defenseman is the one who starts the charge up the ice, as you put it. He needs to know where his forwards are going to be. Of course their roles are different. But I don't think it's a stretch at all to describe the relationship of all five players as having something to do with "chemistry." breakouts are largely set plays, it's something you practice everday, and it's usually a system created by the coaching staff. the "chemistry" between a dman and a forward is almost non-existent. there are set plays in the offensive zone, but it's mostly a free-flow between the forwards (because you can't predict how a defense will react when things actually start happening in the offensive zone, whereas if you watch enough tape, you can see how a defense protects against a breakout). brian campbell is an offensive dman, but he's still a dman. he's going to pinch more often than most, but that doesn't make him any less of a dman. it should also be noted that he's not going to be on the ice with toews and kane on every shift at even strength. bleh, tried to find shift charts for this year but they're not available. i hate that nhl.com took them off their website. Breakouts are often set plays, but much of the time they aren't and you have to adapt to where the puck is when you're trying to clear it. i think there's a difference in what we're thinking about here. when i'm thinking breakout, i think your team has clear control of the puck and has a chance to set themselves up. there is something to be said for a guy like campbell and his ability to move the puck up ice (he's clearly one of the best in the game at it, up there with a guy like visnovsky -- well pre 07-08 visnovsky at least -- or zubov at his abiltiy to get the puck up ice), but i'm not sure how much of that is chemistry vs. just being able to see the ice really well. generally (again, not always), forwards go up the ice in the same fashion every time and it's more the defenseman being able to read the play well rather than knowing his teammates. one thing campbell has benefited from is playing with very, very good offensive players (sabres with drury and briere and vanek and pominville and the sharks with thornton at the end of last year), so he knows where good offensive players are supposed to be. that's going to make a guy like kane or toews or havlat look even better if he can apply it. and i think the campbell move is an alright move...it's really good in the short term and it's okay in the long term. i guess some of it comes down to which direction the cap moves (and most people think it's coming down soon), but the 'hawks have a very solid defenseman for a while if nothing changes in his game.