The Official 2008-2009 NHL Thread

one angle the commentators never went with was guerin's little cup final story against the wings, which became hilarious now. maybe he can go to the caps and win with them against the wings later.

Crosby not being able to play to win his first cup must have been a dream come true combined with the worst nightmare of life. It's actually cruel that that happened.

lol i guess i didn't get it this year, that's an improvement.

I don't even like hockey. I just wanted to see how many people would cry over the comment.

Stupid.

True. I should've said "and all the players wanted to spite (Osgood, Hossa, Draper, Maltby, McCarty and anyone else who would've been getting their fifth ring) got spote."

Stupid.

~ There is a similarity between both the Steelers and Penguins championships this year... Wisenhunt leaves the Steelers for Arizona before the coaching selection was made and the Steelers win the Super Bowl over his new team... and you all know the Hossa story... similar and strange, indeed.

Wow, I just realized something:

Ty Conklin's last four seasons:
2005-2006 - Edmonton Oilers - Lost - Stanley cup final
2006-2007 - Buffalo Sabres - Lost - Conference finals
2007-2008 - Pittsburgh Penguins - Lost - Stanley cup final
2008-2009 - Detroit Red Wings - Lost - Stanley cup final

Cursed?

~ Both him and Hossa, yes.

Now, Zetterberg is also whining about Crosby supposedly not shaking hands quickly enough with the Red Wings.

Could he and Draper sound like bigger sore losers?

Have they both forgotten that their buddy and teammate Chris Chelios intentionally snubbed the Ducks in '07 and refused to go through the handshake line then, pretty much making them look like hypocrites?

Thankfully, Lidstrom was much more diplomatic about it.

It's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned.

It's understandable....I think he may have been preoccupied with the whole "HOLY SHIT I JUST WON THE STANLEY CUP AHHHHH" thing

That's what Lidstrom said. Basically, no offense intended and none taken (except by people who had nothing to do with it, of course.)

FWIW, Guerin missed most of the handshake line as well.

but guerin is fuckin awesome, cindy aint.

Nice.

~ Could some/many Detroit fans and players be any more whiners than the worst? Let's take a look at this in a logical manner dating back to last year when the Wings beat the Pens at the Igloo.

When the Penguins lost to the Wings last year it took over 3 times as long for the Wings to finish their celebrations and shake hands with the Pens. The Penguin players STAYED and didn't skate off the ice in record time for an issue like this to occur. Not only that, after the Pens shook hands they stayed and clapped and cheered their fans. Of course, the Penguin fans cheered the Wings during the celebration.

Now, let's turn to a few days ago.

When the Penguins beat the Wings and began to celebrate, the Wings quickly left the ice, didn't acknowledge their fans, which the fans booed the Pens, and then blamed Crosby for not shaking hands after what... about 30 seconds. Not only that, Crosby was mobbed by the U.S. media after the celebration.


Talk about a bunch of sore fucking losers. Losers.

JCP angers.

JCP is the worst kind of winner.

Sorry, but JCP is right. The Penguins did wait around for the Wings last year, while the Wings couldn't wait to get off the ice last Friday. Considering how some of them have whined about this, the Red Wings are coming across like the bully in school who is pissed that he got his ass kicked and is complaining that the weak kid he used to pick on that kicked his ass didn't offer him his hand to help him off the ground.

Oh Jesus Christ. Not some, 2 (2 /= some) said (not whined) that Crosby should have shaken hands with Lidstrom. That's all. I didn't think it was that big a deal and neither did Lidstrom or the rest of the Wings. The only people blowing it out of proportion are the pair of you.


The deeper issue here is that JCP isn't happy just winning, in his world everything has to be a morality struggle. The Penguins didn't beat the Red Wings, good triumphed over evil. Of course JCP latches on to anything he can to either concoct or inflate whatever "evidence" he finds to support that absurdity. This is no different from the Superbowl thread when after the Steelers won he came charging in here talking about how no one believed the Steelers would win and they had overcome all the odds to win. Neither of which was true. No gambling person in the country bet on the Cardinals, but don't tell that to JCP.

For the most part, the game is the game, the series the series. The Penguins beat the Red Wings. That's all. All of the Wings fans in here were the first to congratulate the Penguins on their victory. But to JCP that isn't good enough. In his world the NHL is like The Mighty Ducks 2, the Penguins were the Ducks and the Wings were the nefarious team Iceland. He needs to convince himself that his team won because they were the righteous team and they were destined to triumph over the "bad guys." This is the fiction in which he resides.

I've been having my fun needling Wings fans, so I'm glad this post wasn't directed at me. Deftly done, OOrd.

Also:

From May 28th. I told y'all.

that is so perfect, and true. This is how he seems to make everything out to be like.

I love you.

guys pens won the cup stfu

Where's Heatley going? Hopefully not drunk driving.

ba dum bump... tishhhhhhh

He submitted a list of teams he's interested in playing for, but he'd likely be content playing for anyone but Ottawa at this point. A lot of rumors have him going to a western Canadian team, but I haven't seen anything credible at this point.

The Sens GM says he's trying to send Heatley to one of his choice teams, but won't turn down a better offer somewhere else.

Heatley is due to receive a 4M bonus on July 1st and the Sens are trying desperately to move him before then.

maybe he was hoping to go to hamilton.

Would've been easier if Heatley hadn't been sabotaging them at every turn. Making the move public, noising the bonus thing about etc.

Also, Ister's joke was brilliant. Well-played sir.

Send Heatley to Toronto. lol.

Burkie already publicly said he doesn't want him.


Ovechkin wins the Lester B. Pearson award. No surprise here.

Datsyuk wins his little trophy (Selke). Again, no surprise. I lost respect for him this playoffs...not that I won't still repeatedly hurt myself trying to replicate his breakaway moves.

Steve Sullivan wins the Masterton. I'll have to check on this, but I think he's the first Nashville Predator to win an award. They showed a few shots of his wife, what a babe!

Datsyuk wins the Lady Byng as well. The one awesome trophy players are made fun of for winning the most.

Thomas and Fernandez win the Jennings trophy. Of course, we knew this one in advance.

Ethan Moreau wins the King Clancy. Sounds like he's an unsung (at least, before winning the trophy) class act.

Roberto Luongo wins the first ever 'Fan Fav' award. Uh...good for him?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the long standing tradition of crappy music at the NHL awards continues. A well-placed shot of a kid in a Coyotes jersey and goalie helmet. I'm not sure if he's a fan or one of their players. I'm assuming the latter since they're reaching deep into their prospect pool this year to save money and Coyotes' fans are about as common as Nickelback songs are original.

Tim Thomas wins the Vezina. It's about time this guy got some recognition.

Claude Julien wins the Jack Adams in a contest of guys who very much deserve and, at the same time, don't deserve the award. Julien and McClellan rocked the regular season, but lost to vastly inferior teams in the playoffs (Sharks in the first round, no less). Murray got a young team with its two best players out for the year into the playoffs only to get swept in round one. I would have given this to Murray though as he had far less to work with and far more adversity.

Jarome Iginla gets the Mark Messier Leadership Award. YES! Iginla has been one of the league's best players for years and I would consider him just a step below the big 3 in terms of skill. As a leader, he sticks up for his team to the point where he once chewed out Mike Keenan in front of the whole team for constantly trying to blame certain players when things went wrong.

Chara wins the Norris despite an underwhelming playoff performance. Then again, Mike Green wasn't exactly Conn-Smythe worthy. Lidstrom probably would have won if his house weren't already full of this things. That said, Chara is maybe the most complete defenseman in the NHL and the leader of his team. He deserves this.

Art Ross - Malkin, Maurice Richard - Ovechkin. Again, predetermined by stats.

Lifetime Achievement award goes to Jean Beliveau.

Hart Memorial Trophy - Alexander Ovechkin. All is right with the world. I would have been content if Malkin had won as well, but you can't argue with a guy whose WORST season to date (his rookie season) saw him score 46 goals - the same total scored by the 2nd place scorer behind Ovechkin (56) this year.

A quick glance at the playoff stats for this year revealed something shocking: Hart trophy candidate Pavel Datsyuk registered just 1 goal, 8 assists, and 9 points in 16 games this playoffs. That's the same stat line as Washington's playoff goat Mike Green scored in two fewer games.

good for you timmy, well deserved.

All of that playoff business is fine, but the voting is conducted at the end of the regular season so it's irrelevant. No shocks this year (although you omitted Mason deservedly winning the Calder).

I love the Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/rangers_win_stanley_cup_15?utm_source=a-section

lol

lol indeed. Rangers fans act like that championship is the greatest ever, but all it did what speak to how pitiful it was for their franchise to have gone that long without winning a Cup. And, yes, I have no room to talk, considering my team has never won a Cup, but if they did, we wouldn't be pounding our chests about it over a decade later, talking like it was some epic sports moment.

Well, the draft is coming up on the 26th and I assume we'll be starting the 2009-2010 thread with that. I'm going to try to predict the first round as best I can again this year (hopefully doing better than last year's epic fail). If anyone else wants to try their luck it would be neat to compare mock drafts.

I'll try to have mine ready on the eve of the draft.

I'm interested in what the Oilers try to pull off but most teams seem unwilling to deal (trading away a high draft who might make them look bad later) rather than helping their club now.

Not an exceptionally deep draft but Detroit is certain to find a late pick gem.

I do actually see a scenario under which Toronto (or any other team who may be interested) could acquire John Tavares. I highly doubt the Islanders will trade the first overall pick what with their gigantic draft party and all (15,000+ expected to attend).

If, however, the Islanders select Victor Hedman instead of John Tavares (I don't think this is very likely, but it's still a moderate possibility) then Tampa might deal the 2nd for defense. I'd rather not try to predict trades though since they're next to impossible with only a layperson's information.

expect the dumbest move from the islanders, that's how they work.

Could actually happen. The Toronto Sun (not the most reliable, but sometimes right) is claiming now that most GMs think the Isles will draft Victor Hedman 1st overall. Now, Hedman looks like he'll be one hell of a defenseman but this team needs a new arena NOW. Defensemen almost always take longer to develop than forwards and Hedman might not even play in the North America next season. Sure, Victor Hedman could be the next Nick Lidstrom by the time he's in his prime but the odds of him being effective enough to save the franchise in his first couple seasons are slim.

For every Drew Doughty, Luke Schenn, and Zach Bogosian who has an impact in the NHL at 18 there's an Eric Johnson (probably at least as good a prospect as Hedman in his draft year), Alex Pietrangelo, Karl Alzner, or Thomas Hickey who doesn't even play in the NHL right away.

ok i'm moving this to the new thread now. it's shiny and beautiful.