The Official 2008-2009 NHL Thread

By the way, I am assuming that you guys all heard that Barry Melrose got fired in Tampa right? lolololol

I can't say that I am surprised except that I thought it would probably take more like 30 games for them to can him if it didn't turn around. I still think they will be good (or at least respectable) once their scorers start picking it up.

I wonder what Melrose will do now, because ESPN already got a new analyst to fill Barry's shoes.

Obviously the focus has shifted to players like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Holmstrom etc., but the team's style is still embedded in the lessons of the veterans. I am very eager to see what will happen when the last of those hardliners is gone and the inevitable drift sets in. Detroit is long overdue to suck.

Forget about the Wings for a moment, let's look at the Sharks. Will this be the year they can finally take their shit into the playoffs and really make a push towards the cup? They're fucking owning shit so far this season.

Veterans and coaching (preparation and motivation). The Oilers have good talent, but they seem to ignore McTavish. They play well in the big games but give away easy points. Detroit never has this problem - talent plus execution. Detroit is still the class of the league.

The Oilers have a habit of building teams predicated on fire and vigour. This strategy leads to them upsetting higher-seeded teams most years (ask Dallas, Colorado and Detroit) but only occasionally results in a deep run. Detroit have a system based upon excellence of execution, which generates consistency if not the kind of drive that wins cups year in and year out. As a fan oriented towards success I'd obviously ask for the Wings model, but there's no way I could love Wings-style teams like I could the Oil.

And that's beside the point, I know. I think Detroit will be good as long as they have steady hands to guide the ship. Their players buy into a system, which is awesome, but that system will last only as long as a culture of being team players is espoused in the dressing room. When their old timers are gone, it'll fall to players like Datsyuk (who can't speak English) to lead the team. It'll be then that things get interesting.

MINNESOTA WILD ALL THE WAY

Wooo Flyers win 2-1 over the Canadiens! Nice to see Upshall get a goal, he works his ass off every game. Also, Kovalev and Higgins can go choke on a dick.

Upshall is my favorite Flyer!

Leafs (and particularly Toskala) were so brutal tonight.

holy crap patzor, that was the most boring game ever

That's cause they couldn't actually play with all the fucking penalties. GG going 0/10 on the PP

Yeah powerplay sucks right now for the Habs, but at least they won the game. Did you see how much penalties both team had tonight? Fucking nice way to kill the game.

Toskala needs to sit for a while. He should be playing MUCH better than he is.

Why do all my teams suck

Blues always find a way to blow leads, that first goal by the Canadiens was so weird and dumb.

Yeah I think so too. A benching would give him more motivation to improve. Did you see Cujo step in his place? He made some big saves. He definitely needs to see more action.

Yeah, CuJo may be old, but he can still make some stops. I think he can play at least as well as Toskala has been.

Flyers remain dominant over the Thrashers, winning their twelfth straight against them. Great goals by Gagne and Knuble, but they gave them too many chances in the second and third period.

haha yeah that was kind of disappointing. the stupid refs called so many penalties, there was hardly any 5 on 5 time. the blues spent 1/3 of the game on the pk for crying out loud. i hope mcdonald's injury isn't too severe, but it looked really really bad so i am not too enthusiastic about it. also i hope that guy that got hit in the neck is okay, that had to hurt terribly.

the ice quality had to be just terrible for that game, there were more bouncing passes than i had seen in any game all year. it stuck me as somewhat odd too considering the significantly colder weather as of late.

fuuuuuuuck

broken leg, as i expected.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/hockey-guy/hockey-guy/2008/11/life-without-andy-mcdonald/

we officially have the worst luck in the nhl this season

Damn, poor blues

And yeah, Bouillon (the guy who got the puck in the neck) is fine. No serious injury.

ill trade you a puck to the neck for a broken leg...

I think you'll be waiting an awful long time for that to happen. Detroit scouts, drafts, and develops way to well to suck any time in the foreseeable future. They're stacked in every department and the winning environment enables them to sign star players at discount rates (Hossa at 7.5M).

This is what the 'new NHL' comes down to. The NHL can put a cap on team salaries, but they can't cap how much teams spend on scouts, coaches, specialists, etc. Good franchises like Detroit have been investing their profits in these areas for years and it pays off in a huge way.

What surprises me the most is how well they're doing early on. Most Sharks fans expected a slow start given the new coach and new system. This was true to some extent with the powerplay but even that hasn't been too bad (in fact, they're 6th in the NHL now).

Right now, San Jose has 3 of the NHL's top 15 scorers, 7 of the top 45, and 4 of the top 30 highest scoring defensemen. Plus they've been winning despite Nabokov struggling/getting hurt.

Detroit is, without doubt, the best in the areas you've mentioned, but in the 'new NHL' when a team falls apart, they really fall apart. Looking at St. Louis. They went to the playoffs 27 years in a row and haven't made it since. Philly was the class of the East for over a decade, and then they ended up DFL in the league. The Ottawa Senators are starting to turn into a similar disaster.

Keep faith, the Wings will someday suck. Their fans will look up, crying for help, and I'll whisper "Ha."

I can't wait for that.

I sure hope so.

Ottawa never had the solid system Detroit has though. Bear in mind, before the lockout the Sens couldn't even pay their own players let alone set up a development network to ensure future success.

It's not that I don't think Detroit will ever be bad, it's just that I don't see it happening any time soon with the system they have.

I've always been a Detroit fan, but even I'm getting tired of their success. The NHL needs a new dynamic other than the Red Wings dominating every year.

are you fuckin kiddin me? we have 7 top players including a hall of fame goalie out, i think we take the cake this season.

we also lost the two players we got in the off season to help the team.


anyway, i was at the blues arena just a minute ago, pretty nice place, but this city is DEAD. no life whatsoever downtown, maybe it's an outskirts kinda place.

People are probably too cold to be out bustlin' around the city. It seems like the arena is maybe a few blocks from where most people normally are anyway.

there was jackshit by the arena, all there is i could find there was union station, but even that was deserted.

You were probably just in the wrong areas, the downtown section near the arena is pretty dead but if you walked several blocks towards washington street, that whole section is normally crazy late into the morning. The city has been in a transition though, it used to be a typical thriving metropolitan city but everyone moved out of the city towards the suburbs and it really fell apart for years. Recently there has been a new shift where young people are living in the newly built apartments and lofts and that has been really exciting, but the money has been dwindling for those projects over the past few years due to the economy.

As for the injury thing, obviously NJ is in a similar boat but don't act like its a completely different story or something. Right off the bat the blues lost our cornerstone defenseman Erik Johnson for the entire season, then during training camp we lost around 5 more players to injuries, some younger guys, and others depth guys like dan hinote (nothing crucial but losing too many of these players has a big impact). At the beginning of the season we lost alex pietrangelo to that illegal hit in toronto, lost lee stempniak for a while, patrik berglund for a few games. Finally we were getting used to those injuries and still playing fairly well. Next our backup goalie Chris Mason has to have an emergency appendectomy and is out for two weeks. Just after that, Palin comes to town and Legace trips over the carpet putting him out for a few weeks. We are now without any of our 'starting' goalies and bring up Ben Bishop. He plays great in his first 'full' game but gets injured in the 3rd period and hasn't been back since. Around the same time, we lose DJ King, one of our top energy players, for the whole season from an upper body injury. Later on, Paul Kariya (our top point getter at that time) gets a lower body injury and hasnt been back since. Also, TJ Oshie who was starting to really play well gets a high ankle sprain and will be out until mid to late december. Even after all of this we had a good game against chicago and things were looking up a bit. Then we play the canadiens and we get dealt the death blow of losing Andy Mcdonald (by far the best player all season for the blues) to a broken leg for at least 2-3 months.

We might not have lost brodeur but you can't possibly think that NJ is in a whole different league of injuries.

^Yeah, fuck injuries.

Great 3-0 win for the Flyers tonight, a 40-save shutout for Biron.

lol You're so bitter.


So long as the Wings have Ken Holland, they will be good. The man is a genius.

The best part was the awful feed on CN8.

Yeah, the camera work was pretty bad. It seemed very sluggish and couldn't keep up with the play at times.

Woo Blues! I was at that game about 10 rows back. Awesome game, even though the Ducks' goal with .9 seconds left was complete bullshit.

Awesome win for the Flyers over the Coyotes, Jeff Carter tied the game 3-3 with about a minute left in the 3rd. Mike Richards wins it in OT. Four wins in a row.

Awesome shot in OT for Richards, and Carter is a beast.

Sounds like watching an Oshawa Generals game.

I enjoyed the Patrick Roy tribute tonight, and the subsequent game was very good, although it's a pity it went Boston's way. Still, aside from Kovalev and Markov the Habs played much better than have been over the last coupla weeks.

I am so sick of being a Toronto sports fan. First Vince Carter beats the Raptors all by himself, then the Leafs fall apart, losing a game they should have won. I miss the early 90s.

GO FLAMES GO
GO FLAMES GO

2-2 against Detroit.

9:51 left in the 3rd.

Woo, Blues won their 2nd in a row, holy crap. They're now 3-0-1 in their last 4, which is awesome considering how devastating the injuries have been.

lol

Looking at the division and conference standings it seems that this year is going to be tight until the end for most teams - good for the fans!. I think the schedule change is a good thing.

5-2 isn't even close. I sure wish Hossa had taken the Oiler's offer - Conklin was an Oiler reject too .