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The Everything NHL Thread
- Thread starter Jackal
- Start date
Who?
I don't think they'll be a cup contender, the Blackhawks. They're not going to be average, though.
kovalchuk is a devil it's official
edit: Kovalchuk's mother tells Pavel Lysenkov of Sovetsky Sport that Kovalchuk's deal with is for 17 years. This is unconfirmed by the Devils or Kovalchuk's camp.
rofl if that's true.. 17 years wow
edit2: gagne traded to tampa for matt walker and a 4th round pick. great move by yzerman.
edit: Kovalchuk's mother tells Pavel Lysenkov of Sovetsky Sport that Kovalchuk's deal with is for 17 years. This is unconfirmed by the Devils or Kovalchuk's camp.
rofl if that's true.. 17 years wow
edit2: gagne traded to tampa for matt walker and a 4th round pick. great move by yzerman.
Cup? I'd be surprised if the Hawks were legitimate contenders for the _division_ next year.
Surprised to see Kovalchuk in NJ. I'm curious if they play the lines a little differently this time with a whole year to work him in - perhaps move one of him and Parise to the right side to avoid having the most expensive second line LW in the league. I'm not sure I'd put 'em together at even strength, though... something like Parise/Zajac/Langenbrunner, Kovalchuk/Arnott/Clarkson would work except, wait, Elias is a C/LW, too! I swear this is the team with the most mismatched positional set-up I've seen in my life, they're gonna end up with a stick boy on RW. Elias seems like the most logical shift(in the Clarkson spot) to the top two lines as is, and that still leaves Rolston getting what, 5m a year, to do basically nothing on line 3. At least he's able to play all three positions up front well...
Love the Gagne trade by Yzerman, though I'm sketchy about putting the three frenchies together. I hate taking St Louis from Stamkos because somebody has to give him the puck, but if they could add some reasonable passing forward to go Malone/Stamkos/X Gagne/Lecavalier/St Louis things would be very interesting. Would let them movie Downie down to line 3 once they resign him. If they could get that passer(who wouldn't even need to be an elite player, really), a decent line 3C, and and a fourth top 4 D to fit with Ohlund/Kubina/Hedman I'd say this is a playoff team, especially in that division. Love what Yzerman has done so far, new additions are great and he's done good work relative to cap space so far.
Edit: speaking of defenseman the devils sure do have a terrible blue line, they're going to wish they'd retained martin when no one can move the puck to their 10 top 2 line forwards. Maybe they'll petition to drop the trapezoid so Brodeur can handle the breakout passes?
Surprised to see Kovalchuk in NJ. I'm curious if they play the lines a little differently this time with a whole year to work him in - perhaps move one of him and Parise to the right side to avoid having the most expensive second line LW in the league. I'm not sure I'd put 'em together at even strength, though... something like Parise/Zajac/Langenbrunner, Kovalchuk/Arnott/Clarkson would work except, wait, Elias is a C/LW, too! I swear this is the team with the most mismatched positional set-up I've seen in my life, they're gonna end up with a stick boy on RW. Elias seems like the most logical shift(in the Clarkson spot) to the top two lines as is, and that still leaves Rolston getting what, 5m a year, to do basically nothing on line 3. At least he's able to play all three positions up front well...
Love the Gagne trade by Yzerman, though I'm sketchy about putting the three frenchies together. I hate taking St Louis from Stamkos because somebody has to give him the puck, but if they could add some reasonable passing forward to go Malone/Stamkos/X Gagne/Lecavalier/St Louis things would be very interesting. Would let them movie Downie down to line 3 once they resign him. If they could get that passer(who wouldn't even need to be an elite player, really), a decent line 3C, and and a fourth top 4 D to fit with Ohlund/Kubina/Hedman I'd say this is a playoff team, especially in that division. Love what Yzerman has done so far, new additions are great and he's done good work relative to cap space so far.
Edit: speaking of defenseman the devils sure do have a terrible blue line, they're going to wish they'd retained martin when no one can move the puck to their 10 top 2 line forwards. Maybe they'll petition to drop the trapezoid so Brodeur can handle the breakout passes?
A 17 year deal is smart. It severely reduces the cap hit for the devils.
They lost a few guys who were made much better playing with Toews and Hossa and the rest of them, who will be replaced by a bunch of talented prospects who will also thrive under the core of the team. The defense remains as one of the best in the league. The goaltending will be the same as last year, average and helped immensely by the defense.
hth
One of the top euro players out there, typical Brian Burke type player.
Also Vin will probably cheer for TB now, that team is too french.
As opposed to a local team that should be but isn't. Fuck the "Habs". They've done very little to keep me as a fan.
I'm all about the Bolts this season.
I already loved the team but Yzerman, Gagné and new coach Boucher are all new reasons to root for them... and they have a good year coming.
So I'm about to jump ship from Atlanta, which team to move on to: Columbus or TB? :D
pussy
Yeah, it's not an Over-35 contract otherwise(as the otherwise equally exploitative Pronger extension is) - if Hossa, Luongo, DiPietro, etc. retire after 35 their deals vanish, which obviously is a big part of why this is silly.
I really dislike this league voiding, though. It is not any worse than Hossa's contract and as usual shows the league favoring some organizations over others - if they wanted to "draw a line in the sand" it should have been Luongo or at the very least Hossa, acting now after allowing the others to slide through is weak. I think they should have just waited for the CBA renewal at this point... I take exception to trying to enforce rules that don't exist and have been proven not to be implied.
I really dislike this league voiding, though. It is not any worse than Hossa's contract and as usual shows the league favoring some organizations over others - if they wanted to "draw a line in the sand" it should have been Luongo or at the very least Hossa, acting now after allowing the others to slide through is weak. I think they should have just waited for the CBA renewal at this point... I take exception to trying to enforce rules that don't exist and have been proven not to be implied.
The Hossa contract was pretty bad and probably should have been voided, but the Kovy contract is way worse. He's getting 5 years at league minimum for fucks sake
If he wants to play for peanuts at the end of his career (which he won't), let him sign that deal then, not now.
and rightly so. That deal was outrageous. As if he would play til he was 44 making 550 000. It's totally going around the salary cap. I think this should be allowed under the conditions that if the player retires (which he so would) the team must continue paying the cap hit (in this case, 6 mil) til the contract time runs out.
NHL 11 stuff from the livechat today, just cut excerpts that were EASHL relevant:
RedshirtEA:
There will be both fatigue and injuries in EASHL. The injuries are all playable and have a fairly short effect -- less than half a period.
NateHL:
mid to late august for the demo!
NateHL:
passing is now based on how far you hold the trigger and release, instead of the press.
[Comment From ColinColin: ]
Are we still forced to watch the 3 stars after an EASHL game, or can it be skipped by anyone?
NateHL:
anyone can skip through it this year. we heard the communities feedback on that one and made sure to put that into action this year.
RedshirtEA:
It'll be harder to score with a wraparound.
EASPORTSNHL:
There are different face-off formations you can select before face-offs
RedshirtEA:
The fatigue effect in EASHL is different than the regular game because you are still on the ice the whole time. You recover energy much quicker -- but I'll say more about this later when we talk about one of the other changes..
RedshirtEA:
Yes, the size and strength of players matter much more in the hitting now.
EASPORTSNHL:
It's all determined by the weight of the player, the velocity of the hit, and where the player is hit. Very much based on positioning and speed.
RedshirtEA:
Yes, the ability of a player to receive the pass cleanly depends on all the sorts of things you'd expect, like how hard it is, his skill, the quality of the pass, whether the player can see the puck, if it is on his forehand of backhand, etc. When he doesn't get it cleanly it will other miss completely or glance off.
RedshirtEA:
You can't get away with interference off the face-off any more.
EASPORTSNHL:
Yes, there are rolling pucks.
EASPORTSNHL:
Ok, the new Gameplay Feature is a feature we are calling the Hustle Button. I will let Redshirt explain how it works
RedshirtEA:
Ok... first what it is NOT....
It is NOT sprint or speed burst like NHL06 (and earlier).
RedshirtEA:
It is on L3, and it gives you an increase to acceleration and a small increase in speed.
RedshirtEA:
The point of it is to create a range in speed so that players aren't always going 100% speed. It lowers your fatigue more quickly than normal skating and you can't turn as sharply.
RedshirtEA:
t is also something defenders now have to counter the speed/acceleration boost given by the push puck.
RedshirtEA:
Three in a row gets you to the max speed and it'll drop off slowly from there. You can maintain the top speed by clicking at a moderate rate. When you are getting a boost you will fatigue faster and turn less quickly.
EASPORTSNHL:
With the hustle feature, there is risk-reward in that you will get fatigued the more you use it.
RedshirtEA:
Hustle will work in EASHL too because there is fatigue there. This is tied to the endurance attribute so that will end up being pretty important.
RedshirtEA:
I'm sure there will be lots questions and speculation about hustle. I'll be on the forums or write a blog post to explain it a bit better.
RedshirtEA:
There will be both fatigue and injuries in EASHL. The injuries are all playable and have a fairly short effect -- less than half a period.
NateHL:
mid to late august for the demo!
NateHL:
passing is now based on how far you hold the trigger and release, instead of the press.
[Comment From ColinColin: ]
Are we still forced to watch the 3 stars after an EASHL game, or can it be skipped by anyone?
NateHL:
anyone can skip through it this year. we heard the communities feedback on that one and made sure to put that into action this year.
RedshirtEA:
It'll be harder to score with a wraparound.
EASPORTSNHL:
There are different face-off formations you can select before face-offs
RedshirtEA:
The fatigue effect in EASHL is different than the regular game because you are still on the ice the whole time. You recover energy much quicker -- but I'll say more about this later when we talk about one of the other changes..
RedshirtEA:
Yes, the size and strength of players matter much more in the hitting now.
EASPORTSNHL:
It's all determined by the weight of the player, the velocity of the hit, and where the player is hit. Very much based on positioning and speed.
RedshirtEA:
Yes, the ability of a player to receive the pass cleanly depends on all the sorts of things you'd expect, like how hard it is, his skill, the quality of the pass, whether the player can see the puck, if it is on his forehand of backhand, etc. When he doesn't get it cleanly it will other miss completely or glance off.
RedshirtEA:
You can't get away with interference off the face-off any more.
EASPORTSNHL:
Yes, there are rolling pucks.
EASPORTSNHL:
Ok, the new Gameplay Feature is a feature we are calling the Hustle Button. I will let Redshirt explain how it works
RedshirtEA:
Ok... first what it is NOT....
It is NOT sprint or speed burst like NHL06 (and earlier).
RedshirtEA:
It is on L3, and it gives you an increase to acceleration and a small increase in speed.
RedshirtEA:
The point of it is to create a range in speed so that players aren't always going 100% speed. It lowers your fatigue more quickly than normal skating and you can't turn as sharply.
RedshirtEA:
t is also something defenders now have to counter the speed/acceleration boost given by the push puck.
RedshirtEA:
Three in a row gets you to the max speed and it'll drop off slowly from there. You can maintain the top speed by clicking at a moderate rate. When you are getting a boost you will fatigue faster and turn less quickly.
EASPORTSNHL:
With the hustle feature, there is risk-reward in that you will get fatigued the more you use it.
RedshirtEA:
Hustle will work in EASHL too because there is fatigue there. This is tied to the endurance attribute so that will end up being pretty important.
RedshirtEA:
I'm sure there will be lots questions and speculation about hustle. I'll be on the forums or write a blog post to explain it a bit better.
Regarding the wraparounds and faceoff interference, they only just fixed that? I deal with it way back in NHL 06.
I hope the arenas and goal horns are realistic. heck, better commentating would win me over... actually i might just go 2k11, since my only option is "NHL Slapshot" (honestly? it's supposed to be like NHL 11, why not call it as it is?) from what i heard, 2k11 is making neat improvements, and it helps that the Wii installment of 2k10 was seen as the best version of the game.
on another note... i would also like to remake my request to start a new thread for the new season, which kinda went unnoticed.
on another note... i would also like to remake my request to start a new thread for the new season, which kinda went unnoticed.
So Turco will probably be coming to the Hawks if Niemi gets awarded a big contract in arbitration. The contract will be announced today I think so we'll see how that goes.
have fun with that... gonna hate it when it's Detroit's turn to clear shop... Instead of a salary c(r)ap, why not just a cap on how much you can pay a player and how long you can sign him for (like 10 years max). so instead of the league mindset to stop teams from "buying" the stanley cup, you give each team a legitimate shot at signing players, and you don't have to dismantle teams to get them.
Edit: Them mysterious sources that seem to always be right are saying that Niemi is gonna get $2.75 Million. From the sounds of the comments, it looks like the hacks (AKA Squawks) are sayin' good bye to Niemi and Good Buy to Turco??? although someone said they could get rid of Kopecky and keep niemi... In any case, the chum in san jose that need refs to win are probably picking up a new goalie.