34 replies to this topic

[PedroSpecialK]

It's getting better and better for the Habs.

Renaud P Lavoie ‏ @renhockey
SRC report that #canadiens Carey Price have a concussion. Can't be ruled out.

Yeesh

Also can't figure out why Lavoie's background is the B's winning the Cup... maybe he lost a bet?

edit:

Renaud P Lavoie‏ @renhockey
My understanding is Carey Price injury occured during practice last week and he's not 100 % since.

Edited by PedroSpecialK, 02 April 2012 - 02:54 PM.

[PedroSpecialK]

Charles Wang continues to embarrass himself and the Islanders.

Before every home game this season, the New York Islanders have commemorated their 40th anniversary in the National Hockey League by dimming the house lights and queuing up a nostalgic video.

For five minutes, the Nassau Coliseum scoreboard comes to life. It flickers through a montage of clips, set to stirring orchestral music, that recall the one thing this struggling franchise still has in abundance: a rich history of great moments made possible by great hockey players.

But anyone remotely familiar with the team's history will ask the same question after watching this video: What happened to one of the most famous Islanders of all, Pat LaFontaine?

LaFontaine, arguably the Islanders' best and most popular player in the late 1980s and early 1990s, remains one of their most significant figures. Yet the video is one of several instances when the Islanders seem intent to pretend he doesn't exist—they've left him out of their Hall of Fame and once neglected to mention his presence at a charity bike ride. It's one of the rare instances in sports history where a professional team has taken pains to whitewash a player from its history.

[PedroSpecialK]

Danny Briere would be a great fit on Les Habitants.

“Look, everybody knows that (they) put the line that was on the ice, on the ice with a minute left in a game that was out of hand,” Briere said. “Everybody knows the intent, what the intent was. Was it a bad hit? No. It was a clean hit....

But obviously, you knew what he was doing. He was obviously trying to hurt me. We all know that.”

[cshea]

The Flyers need to shut up. I love Lavi, but I have no idea why he had the skill guys on the ice with less than a minute to go in a blowout. You put the goons on the ice to wind down the clock and prevent stuff like this from happening. Every other coach in the league does that, I figured Lavi understood this.

At any rate, fingers are crossed that that series is played on the days the B's are off.

[Spaulding Smails]

Haha shut up Danny, if he was trying to hurt you he would have blindsided you not pray that he gets a chance at a clean hit.

[ForceAtHome]

The Flyers need to shut up. I love Lavi, but I have no idea why he had the skill guys on the ice with less than a minute to go in a blowout. You put the goons on the ice to wind down the clock and prevent stuff like this from happening. Every other coach in the league does that, I figured Lavi understood this.

At any rate, fingers are crossed that that series is played on the days the B's are off.

It's possible he didn't want to put the goons on the ice because doing that would almost surely lead to some kind of melee a la Rangers/Devils at the beginning of their game a week or two ago. I don't watch the Flyers enough to know how they handle things like that, but I'd imagine throwing Rinaldo et al. out there at the end of the game is just asking for the gloves to drop.

[PedroSpecialK]

Agreed but he could have easily tossed Talbot's line out there. 3 goal game, ENG just scored, and he throws top 6ers out there? No win proposal if you ask me.

Lavi and the Flyers come off pretty poorly here. The whining after the fact is weak for what's supposed to be a tough team - and they won the game.

Edited by PedroSpecialK, 03 April 2012 - 01:24 PM.

[cshea]

It's possible he didn't want to put the goons on the ice because doing that would almost surely lead to some kind of melee a la Rangers/Devils at the beginning of their game a week or two ago. I don't watch the Flyers enough to know how they handle things like that, but I'd imagine throwing Rinaldo et al. out there at the end of the game is just asking for the gloves to drop.

He could stick Rinaldo out there with orders not to fight.

I guess my point is that this could've easily been avoided if Laviolette yanked Briere off the ice. A lot of teams use the 4th line to close out games blowouts, and there's hardly ever any brawls like the one in Pittsburgh. Hell, Julien runs the clock out on games with Campbell, Thornton and McQuaid all on the ice. In my opinion, Bylsma didn't send his goons out there to start trouble, he sent them out there to bleed the clock and not risk a late injury to one of his skill guys. Vitale saw an opening where he could cleanly lay Briere out, and he took it. This doen't happen if Rinaldo or Talbot are on the ice in place of Briere.

Edit: The only other recent last minute brawl I can think of is the B's/ from last year. There was a lot of built up animosity, but the main spark was Ference hauling down Plekanec in a 3 goal game with 45 seconds left. Similar situation where a skill guy takes is stupidly on the ice, takes a semi-cheapshot, and thinks get out of hand.

Edited by cshea, 03 April 2012 - 01:48 PM.

[Greg29fan]

Bylsma didn't send any "goons" out there other than maybe Arron Asham. Vitale is not a goon, Craig Adams is not a goon - that's a line that takes regular shifts as our fourth line. Laviolette had Simmonds and Schenn (who certainly had no problem cross checking Crosby in kidneys a couple minutes before that) out there, why in the heck did he have a guy like Briere out there?

The game's 60 minutes, we play the Flyers again this week and probably in the playoffs. I hope anybody playing for Pittsburgh who has a shot at a clean hit to inflict some damage on them takes the opportunity to do it, and vice-versa for the Flyers, that's what you're supposed to do this time of year.

Edited by Greg29fan, 03 April 2012 - 01:47 PM.

[cshea]

I was using the term "goons" loosely In place of saying "fighters." They provide other skills, but the bottom line was all of the players on the ice for Pittsbugh could fight.

[The Four Peters]

I agree that the Flyer's come off poorly here, it's no different than the B's putting out the Campbell - Thornton - Paille line in the closing minutes, which they do all the time as people have mentioned. On top of that, it was a perfectly clean hit. I don't see any fault with what the Penguins did here, the Flyers look stupid by complaining about it after the fact.

Hartnell is still awesome though. God I would love him on the Bruins.

[Spaulding Smails]

I agree that the Flyer's come off poorly here, it's no different than the B's putting out the Campbell - Thornton - Paille line in the closing minutes, which they do all the time as people have mentioned. On top of that, it was a perfectly clean hit. I don't see any fault with what the Penguins did here, the Flyers look stupid by complaining about it after the fact.

Hartnell is still awesome though. God I would love him on the Bruins.

I'm sure it didn't pain you to see Briere get smoked either.

Agreed, Hartnell has won me over the past couple years.

[MiracleOfO2704]

So generally, HFboards is useless, but my guilty pleasure is their Business of Hockey forum, and it went boom last night.

Basically, Mayor Elaine Scruggs of Glendale is telling the NHL to pound sand when they come looking for another $25M to manage Jobing.com Arena/cover the Coyotes' losses, and the in-fighting in the city council is telling. One poster even did his own transcript of the latest council meeting and the mayor's meltdown:

http://hfboards.hock...9&postcount=298

So...Allez, les Nordiques?

[PedroSpecialK]

Wow... the bitchslap from Norma Alvarez... "Yah...well... you voted yes" on the $25m for the second year

Daly and Bettman continue to play these clowns. They are completely overmatched, and the NHL has bilked them out of $20m in escrow (with $5m more committed) that they'll likely only get back if the team is moved. In-credible.

Mayor Elaine Scruggs: What happened is we voted here 5-2 to put, to put aside $25 million knowing that we only had $20 million not $25 million. The document that created the mechanism to do that never came to us.

This is unbelievable to me. They gave the NHL $20m with a commitment to $25m sight unseen because Bill Daly said they were close to a deal.

After reading the whole thing, it appears Norma Alvarez is the only person there interested in doing her job as being a representative in the best interests of her constituents. The rest of them... yikes.

edit: in the actual thread, the amount of people who feel sorry for Glendale is staggering. Glendale, just like every city people like Jeff Loria/Bettman/Daly has dealt with, got caught up in the allure of sports and were dumb enough to fall for the 90th percentile projections of "revitalization" and "growth" presented to them by team/league reps. The whole thing reads like a city council meeting from Tom Goes to the Mayor.

Edited by PedroSpecialK, 04 April 2012 - 09:46 AM.

[timlinin8th]

Wow... the bitchslap from Norma Alvarez... "Yah...well... you voted yes" on the $25m for the second year

Daly and Bettman continue to play these clowns. They are completely overmatched, and the NHL has bilked them out of $20m in escrow (with $5m more committed) that they'll likely only get back if the team is moved. In-credible.

[/font][/color]
edit: in the actual thread, the amount of people who feel sorry for Glendale is staggering.

I only feel bad for Glendale because after reading that transcript, its pretty apparent that their city council is woefully inadequate. There are quite a few 'well, duh' moments in there, things that the mayor keeps saying 'I didn't know' (escrow, agreeing to $25M when they didn't have it) that are points you would obviously want to know the fine print on before coming to any agreements. She's either lying about not knowing, or if she truly didn't know, incompetent.

[MiracleOfO2704]

Judging from what we've seen over the last 3 years or so, I'm going incompetent. Bettman made a cold, shrewd decision to tell Glendale "$25M for losses disguised as an arena management fee or we walk," and Scruggs and Co. bit. At this time, the only relocation option for the Coyotes would be back to Winnipeg, and I suspect the league knew Atlanta was in more trouble than the public knew. At this point, either the NHL puts the Coyotes back in Manitoba and sweats what Atlanta does next or quietly operate out of Glendale until they get another owner.

The forgotten men in this are Jim Balsille and Redfield Baum. Balsille would have owned a Hamilton team in an old arena with his cell phone empire crumbling right now, and Baum warned the Glendale Council that one in the hand is truly worth two in the bush, yet created the NHL's stewardship of the Coyotes.

[kenneycb]

Kreider agrees with the Rangers. He'll also be practicing with them and, in doing so, will burn the first year on his ELC.

http://aol.sportingn...rs-carl-hagelin

[TheShynessClinic]

For those of you who don't want to watch the Red Sux (LOLZ SEE WHAT I DID THURR?) the NHL draft lottery is on right now.

[TheShynessClinic]

And the Leafs don't move up. Hahahahahaha.

[kenneycb]

Brian Burke looks homicidal.

Edit: Was that Garth Snow? Fantastic mustache.

Edited by kenneycb, 10 April 2012 - 07:18 PM.

[TheShynessClinic]

5 - Maple Leafs
4 - Islanders
3 - Montreal
2 - Columbus
1 - Edmonton

Wow. Edmonton gets Yakupov. If they ever get a goalie and some defense, they'll be ridiculous.

Edited by TheShynessClinic, 10 April 2012 - 07:19 PM.

[kenneycb]

Looks like Columbus is going to end up with another moody Russian. Let's see how that works out.

[PedroSpecialK]

If Howson cares about his job at all he'll draft Murray and leave the enigmatic Russian Grigorenko to the enigmatic Québécois Canadiens

[SoxFanInCali]

Jesus, 3 years in a row for Edmonton.

[burstnbloom]

Jesus, 3 years in a row for Edmonton.

The "penguin" model of rebuilding.

[mikeford]

Edmonton should trade that pick for defensemen.

I'm sure they could get quite a haul for Yakupov.

[Greg29fan]

The "penguin" model of rebuilding.

Hey, even Bettman didn't give us three straight #1's.

[MiracleOfO2704]

Hey, even Bettman didn't give us three straight #1's.

To be fair, Edmonton "earned" the first two.

[FL4WL3SS]

Jesus, 3 years in a row for Edmonton.

What a crock of shit - a team shouldn't be allowed to win it more than 2 years in a row. Isn't the objective to get better?

[TheShynessClinic]

What a crock of shit - a team shouldn't be allowed to win it more than 2 years in a row. Isn't the objective to get better?

Their place in the standings didn't improve, but as a team - they did.

Edmonton went from a -76 differential (worst in the league) to a -27 differential (tied for 23rd). There were 6 teams with a worse differential than them (Toronto, Columbus, Islanders, Minnesota, Carolina, and Tampa Bay), and one team tied with them(Anaheim). They're a young team, with little leadership. They lost a LOT of close games.

Edited by TheShynessClinic, 11 April 2012 - 08:52 AM.

[ForceAtHome]

Kreider agrees with the Rangers. He'll also be practicing with them and, in doing so, will burn the first year on his ELC.

http://aol.sportingn...rs-carl-hagelin

Another BC standout (and Maine-native), Brian Dumoulin, signed his ELC with the Hurricanes. He will report to the AHL to finish the season. At just 20-years-old, he's one of the youngest guys you'll see come out of college with 3 or more years of experience under his belt. There are freshmen D1 players older than he is.

Edited by ForceAtHome, 11 April 2012 - 05:01 PM.

[kenneycb]

Between him and Faulk, the Hurricanes could potentially have the foundation of a very strong D core. I personally believe Doumolin will pan out as he's been one of the best defensemen in the nation since he stepped on campus at BC and he has size and puck-moving skills but nothing's ever a certainty.

[Fred not Lynn]

Brent Sutter out in Calgary. http://sports.nation...e-to-part-ways/

[czar]

Glendale to cut programs, raise taxes, layoff 52 employees to close budget shortfall.

I for one, am shocked (SHOCKED I SAY) at the continuing Coyote developments.

[MiracleOfO2704]

Glendale to cut programs, raise taxes, layoff 52 employees to close budget shortfall.

I for one, am shocked (SHOCKED I SAY) at the continuing Coyote developments.

I feel like Ned Braden. I don't believe a word of this Jamison purchase shit. Consider that the Scruggs budget still gives the Coyotes owner(s) ~$20M a year to run Jobing.com, and you know there are enough Tea Partiers down there to put the kibosh on that budget getting passed. Best thing for the city is to let the Coyotes move north, hire some mid-level arena management team, and just consider yourself lucky you're out from under this albatross.