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The Everything NHL Thread

I love how the Sabres get their asses kicked by the Islanders, then turn around and beat the Bruins and Penguins, both division leaders. Lost a close one last night to the Habs, good game on both sides but we got out-muscled.
 
The Wings dropped one to the bruins too, it was kinda sad. Just a lot of pucks were not bouncing the way I think they should have, but the Wings defensive zone play was pretty bad too. Bruins with 11 goals over 2 games though, kinda impressive.
 
In fantasy news, have we discussed anything on roster locks or something as far as playoffs go because streaming now is whatever, i guess, but in the playoffs I think it would be some major bullshit to lose a week because of a streamed in player.
 
yeah streaming is broken

take my league for example:

1. PENS 87 56-17-7 .744 119 5-4-1 1 151
2. The Boston B's 44-27-9 .606 97 5-3-2 10 8
3. Équipe Québec 41-29-10 .575 92 4-5-1 7 126

(Last number = moves so far)

Position 1 & 3 are streaming, the rest aren't. I'm Équipe Québec and I do it with some restrictions. That still allows me to maintain a top position. The guy in first does it with no restriction and so far he hasn't come close to lose a week (he started the year with back to back 10-0 and 9-0 wins). I just lost to him this week, I only got 4 points because my goalies did surprisingly good, I lost all skaters stats but +/-.

But I am not in a position to complain, unlike everybody else in my league.

=)
 
Psycho, we can't really "Stream" in the standard sense since we only have 5 moves a week.

Do you have an issue with these 5 moves as well?
 
If those 5 moves don't give an advantage, why are you using a majority of yours each week? I tied zerowing in goals this week thanks to a streamed player.. that would be pretty lame come playoffs.

My only concern with eliminating moves for the playoffs would be injuries.
 
I think we should do what we did(or at least talked about doing?) last year where Jackal locked rosters for everyone but Vin during the playoffs but theoretically if something had happened we could have discussed it. I'm definitely going to be campaigning(and by that I mean it's going to happen) for 50 moves tops - it was obvious this was inflating records last year(and I don't just mean Vineon, and I'll admit I was the worst offender last year for those of us playing under normal rules) and it's doing it again this year, and fifty moves is _plenty_ for normal play. I think Aldaron is the only real suspect this year(and he is doing it every. single. week. so it's hardly discreet) but it's not like you can really change the rules in the middle of the game, just have to adapt next year. It's not like people aren't noticing it.

It's pretty major cheese either way, though.



In Tofu's fantasy blog news I think this will be the last week for a while where my mean position is as high as it is between my leagues, having injury trouble all around(although not nearly as much in my publics as the infirmary that is my smogon team) that's going to hurt me in the short term. In one of my publics there's absolutely no way I'm going to beat the top team in the playoffs barring something silly happening, since he had a pretty good draft to begin with and then drafted/FAed a bunch of Sharks players due to being a Sharks fan and kind of got lucky... going to need to carefully maneuver into 2, 4, or 5 come playoff time if I can to try to at least delay the matchup and hope someone gets lucky with the Sharks having a bad week.

I am ok with my performance to the quarter mark in 08-09 but injuries have been frustrating... all the teams started on different weeks so point percentage is the useful stat, but for reference:

1. SILVER SNAKES 27-7-6 .750 60 8-1-1
1. WHALERS ON THE MOON 41-28-3 .590 85
4. Longshot 41-30-9 .569 91

I have the number 2 waiver in smogon and with team Longshot so I'm hoping I actually get to use that in at least one of the two leagues.
 
Aldaron said:
Psycho, we can't really "Stream" in the standard sense since we only have 5 moves a week.

Do you have an issue with these 5 moves as well?
Click to expand...
No, I am perfectly okay with a 5 move limit per week, however, I think its ridiculous when 2 or 3 of yours are being used on the last day for some pretty, or at least what I would consider, obvious reasons. You cant stream to the point where you are playing every position every day but have you looked at your roster?
 
Also I bothered to look it up and apparently last year we didn't actually end up locking rosters for the playoffs, but instead were working on the honor system.



lol
 
The NHL has suspended Dallas Stars' forward Sean Avery indefinitely, pending a hearing with the league, and he will not be playing in tonight's game against the Calgary Flames.

Avery is being suspended for disparaging remarks he made this morning in reference to Calgary player Dion Phaneuf and Phaneuf's girl friend Elisha Cuthbert, who previously had a relationship with Avery.

"I am really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada," Avery said on camera this morning in Calgary. "I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. Enjoy the game tonight."
Click to expand...

Amazing.
 
What the fuck kind of retarded suspension is that

Do they honestly think the chirping on the ice is any different from that? Avery is an instigator. He is instigating. He is doing his job, I don't care where he is doing it. As much as I hate Avery that is an incredibly fucking ridiculous suspension. The NHL gives players who hit from behind into the boards like 2 games, 1 for the Pronger hit on Holmstrom's head in the playoffs two years ago, and I believe only a couple for him fucking stomping someone's leg with his skate, but Avery will probably end up with at least a week for talking shit?

The NHL's management never fails to boggle my mind, I don't think you could find such a collection of idiots anywhere else.


EDIT: Also lol my roster is getting even more ridiculous and is wading quickly into the realm of "you can't be fucking serious," I have 8 players who "should" be playing tonight and only 3 of them are actually going to play. Avery is suspended(but that's a fucking stupid suspension so I will stand with him on this one), Semin has mysterious upper bodyitis for no apparent reason, Green is hurt, Zubov is injured again, and Horton got cut up and has missed like three in a row, this all on top of just getting Nabokov back last week and just recently having Gomez come back from an ailment, all added to the fact Rolston has been wasting my IR slot all year.


Seriously give me a fucking break.
 
Teifu said:
What the fuck kind of retarded suspension is that

Do they honestly think the chirping on the ice is any different from that? Avery is an instigator. He is instigating. He is doing his job, I don't care where he is doing it. As much as I hate Avery that is an incredibly fucking ridiculous suspension. The NHL gives players who hit from behind into the boards like 2 games, 1 for the Pronger hit on Holmstrom's head in the playoffs two years ago, and I believe only a couple for him fucking stomping someone's leg with his skate, but Avery will probably end up with at least a week for talking shit?

The NHL's management never fails to boggle my mind, I don't think you could find such a collection of idiots anywhere else.
Click to expand...

Here are the reasons I like the Avery suspension:

1. He's a piece of shit, and everyone knows it. He's a blemish on the face of the NHL, if he even so much as farted in the wrong direction he was going to get suspended.
2. Both his coach AND GM agree with the suspension:
"Maybe they decided that this one crossed the line further than all the others," said Stars co-general manager Brett Hull, who played with Avery in Detroit several years ago and was the front man for signing him this summer. "More than anything, he's let his teammates down. That's the worst part of it. It's basically a fundamental -- you don't embarrass the team and you carry yourself with class and good character. I've told him before, there's more to the game than just lacing up the skates. There are things you have to be accountable for."

Stars coach Dave Tippett agreed.

"I think everyone in our room believes there is an integrity that has to go along with the game, respect for the game and respect for your opponents and Sean crossed that line," Tippett told reporters in Calgary prior to the game. "I think the words, the words and disrespect for an opponent like that is something ... there's lots of trash talking that goes on on the ice. But then to announce something like that for everybody to hear, to me that crosses the line and the League -- and our ownership felt that, too."
Click to expand...

3. I don't agree with other suspensions being so light, so don't get that impression. I think Randy Jones shouldn't have played hockey again until Bergeron came back, and I think Bertuzzi shouldn't play until Steve Moore's neck heals (so, maybe never). Even though talking shit isn't the same thing as assaulting a man, it has absolutely no place in the NHL and undermines everything the league has been trying to accomplish. Avery's shenanigans have gone on long enough.
 
Like I said in irc, a suspension for Avery is a bit excessive. A fine would be perfectly fine, sure we live in a world of political correctness, but "sloppy seconds?" I've heard worse on TV than that and the FCC doesn't give a shit, yet the NHL suspends someone indefinitely, seriously. Had Avery said "Yeah I stuck my penis in that bitch before, I hope he enjoys the all the cum I left behind, motherfucker," then yes maybe some sort of suspension. But what Avery said wasn't even offensive, just a quip about how he is an incredible ladies' man, and getting into the opponent's head. He's probably going to be forced to apologize because players can take hits to the head, but you can't use words to get inside one.
 
No man, those words were more directed at the women than the guys. It was mysogynistic and classless and has no place in the NHL.
 
It was intended to piss off a player on the other team who isn't known for being terribly mentally tough to begin with. He's known as someone who hits a lot more than he actually defends, and this aggravation would only have made at worse - and as it was he basically did nothing, Avery or no Avery, in that game. It's not something I think should be encouraged since it hurts the marketable of a decisively difficult to market game outside of Canada, but a suspension - especially since it's already guaranteed to be at least a pair of games and I would be surprised if it is less than 5 or 10 - is pretty ridiculous considering how hesitant the NHL is the throw out suspensions. If the league had a history of more harsh penalties this wouldn't annoy me as much but it's incredibly inconsistent with what the NHL has done in the past. I don't really know any fan who's supported the short suspensions in the past, but the fact is that is the precedent that exists, not the fantasy land should-have suspension lengths we'd like there to have been.

I suspect anyone but Avery and maybe Pronger would be getting a lot more support from the general hockey community about this, don't allow the fact you don't like him to inflate what he did.



In less interesting news since this gets brought up about once a month on IRC I though I would post a link to some TV viewership ratings I saw on a Caps blog I read for injuries and such:

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire...ap-nhl-teams-on-ratings-power-play/#more-5222

It's probably not as good of an indicator as ticket sales but I think there'll still be people here who find it interesting. I didn't find anything too surprising here other than San Jose and Washington, since neither of them are in very good markets even with both of them playing well so far. Both of them have really good broadcast teams, at least!
 
I laugh whenever I hear this,

I don't think NHL's "villains" hurt the marketability of the NHL outside Canada at all. In fact, I am convinced it helps it, it gets it a certain niche following in even southern cities. No it certainly isn't the reason (or even a reason) the NHL isn't mainstream. People also love to hate certain players.

Same applies to fights in the NHL. There's a reason they weren't and won't be removed. Would the NHL be taken more seriously without them? I love hearing some people say it would, I don't believe this one bit. Nobody waits on the sideline for the fights to be outlawed to watch hockey.
 
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