AAANNDDD WWEEE'RRREEEE BAAAAAAAACK! The puck dropped over in Europe at 12 Noon, Eastern with a game between Minnesota and Carolina, with Caroline winning 4-3. Guillame Latandresse scored the first goal of this NHL season. Thank fucking god hockey's back, you fucking hosers. Just wait til tomorrow night when the ZIP Line fucks shit up. (Zajac, Ilya, Parise)
Cannot wait to watch every single Oilers game this year. Playoffs would be nice, but so would another top three draft pick next year. Either way, there should be some exciting hockey in Edmonton this year. And Eberle's goal last night - my god.
Can't wait to see how Modano goes with the Wings. Hopefully Howard doesn't have any second year blues either.
Goddamn that goal by Eberle was nice. I managed to have Brule thrown in as a spare spare part to me in a trade in my dynasty league this summer, so that was a nice PP goal. Someone immediately offered me Byfuglien for him... no thanks. Though, as an Oilers fan I have a question for you. When watching the game on Center Ice last night, why did it look like I was watching a pixelated internet video that was blown up too much? Like a clip on Tosh 2.0 or some shit.
There's not really a better goal that someone could ask for with their first career NHL goal, that's for sure. Now if my dear old Senators can get some goaltending tonight then maybe they'll stand a chance against Buffalo....though I somehow doubt it.
I well-known as the only Buffalo Sabres fans probably within a 60 mile radius of where I stand. If Miller doesn't take the Vezina this year I will be in awe. I STILL want a cup, and I think my team can still do it, but FUCK stop choking against shittier teams in the playoffs, assholes!!!!
First regular season in a Wings uniform and Modano scores. Pav and The Mule as well, good start to the season.
Amen. Also, the game Saturday against the Rangers may have been the worst in Tyler Myers' short career. I get slipping and falling was a fluke and he probably shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place, but he looked tentative a lot during that game. Let's hope that was just home opener jitters. The rest of the team sure looked like that was the case. I guess it's not too early to toss out a few predictions, no? Suuuure, it's an 82 game season and if your preseason hunches are altered by now, your predictions were never going to be much in the first place. East: Division winners: Atlantic - Pittsburgh (revved up from getting embarassed in their last playoff game and I trust their Russian more than the Devils' Russian) Northeast - Boston (great moves in the offseason) Southeast - Washington (duh) The rest: Philly, Buffalo, NY Rangers, Carolina, Tampa or MTL West: Div winners: Central - Detroit Northwest - Vancouver (almost too much hype, but it does feel like they're peaking) Pacific - the Shawks (by default) The rest: LA, Chicago, Calgary, Nashville, Phoenix or Colorado or Anaheim (the West is deeper than the East so an extra team) I'm also happy that Versus is expanding hockey coverage. I decided to hold off on Center Ice because I really only watched it in the beginning of the week and if I have the highlight game from Monday and Tuesday and all Sabres games, that's enough for me. Maybe this can be a step closer to ESPN? Oh, who am I kidding? We're gonna have to wait for the dreaded NFL lockout for that to happen.
I think I speak for all Devils fans when I say that this year is making me sick. The thing is, everyone is blaming the Devils signing Kovalchuk for them being over the cap this year. Yes, that SPECIFIC contract is what put them over the cap, however... Brian Rolston - 5.062mil for a guy whose upside is now 25-25-50. Unconscionably bad. Patrik Elias - 6mil for your 3rd best LW Danius Zubrus - 3.4 mil for a 3rd liner Henrik Tallinder - Just this summer, 3.375 mil for a 4th D-man who can't hold the puck in the offensive zone EVER Anton Volchenkov - 4.25 for a really good shutdown D-man. Very comperable to Orpik whose cap hit it 3.75. The difference of one min salary body who could have played a 4th line role last night. Kovalchuk's contract is actually a really good cap hit for us, assuming he actually starts to play at some point this season, he's not looking particularly dynamic so far...
Only have one thing to say about Kovalchuk. Overrated. To add to the predictions, watch for the Blues to make a huge improvement in the West. They'll be the Kings of this year with all their young players maturing and aquiring Halak between the pipes. What were Montreal thinking getting rid of him for Price.
Yup, three games into the season it's time to declare him overrated. He's on track for 0g? What a goddamn bum.
I know its early but I don't think he was worth the fuss, the distraction he caused and what he has cost the Devils in penalties alone he would want to have a fantastic year to make up for it.
As a Devils fan I have to disagree. The issue is, Kovalchuk didn't cause any of that. It was Gary Bettman and the Devils themselves, the money Kovalchuk wanted was being offered by a team he wanted to play for, so he took it. As far as him needing a fantastic year to make up for it... The Devils were a team going nowhere. Let's take a look at some recent cup winners. Detroit - Datsyuk and Zetterberg Pittsburgh - Malkin and Staal Chicago - Toews and Kane (and Hossa for Christ's sake) This is not the NHL of the late 90s early 2000's. This has become a superstar league, and you need superstar talent if you want to win. With a full year of Parise and Kovalchuk playing together plus a second line that features a reunion of 2/3 of the best line in the NHL from 2000-2002 (look at the stats of Elias, Arnott and Sykora that season) The Devils have set themselves up very very well. They NEED a player like Kovalchuk, he and Parise open up the ice for one another. Watching the first period of that game last night, you got a glimpse of what the Devils can do this season. At first glance, holding the Sabres to one shot seems like a solid defensive effort, but really it was ALL offense. Once this team gels enough to sustain a 60 minute effort, and once the kids on D (Fraser, Urbom and Taormina - who is a stud in the making) get some experience, this is going to be a VERY good team.
Jacques Martin is absolutely the wrong man to be coaching the Montreal Canadiens Spoiler unless you're a Bruins fan On the plus side it's nice to see Price make 43 saves.
Did seem a little odd to mention Stall before Crosby. Not happy about it but the Stars are looking very good at the moment. 4 on the trot and they didn't even win 3 in a row at all last season. Franzen is injured again damnit.
Yea. I agree with ya. If you don't have those superstars you're in dire straits. More importantly, it seems like you need the home-grown superstar too. What do all those players you named have in common? They're all superstars, but they're also franchise players. They're not the likes of Kovalchuck and Hossa (I know you mentioned him, I didn't think he was a big factor though) who whore themselves out for the greatest dollar. I don't know if that's more because teams that keep their talent are managed better and thus a better team, or because keeping that kind of talent is just all the difference.
I liked that he didn't include Crosby. Fuck him. ...He's definitely better than Stall though... I didn't hear what happened to Franzen, just that he didn't come back last night. Did they release anything yet?