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The Everything NHL Thread

Well, I'd really like you to just give him to me...

The main problem is that I don't have scoring power to give you (nor do I think you need it, personally) and anything involving me giving up Ryan Miller puts me in a very precarious situation because Dominik Hasek isn't really a full goalie.. he's only half of one since he gets roughly just over half the starts. And if he gets injured again, which is likely, I'm in an even rougher spot.

A possible solution potentially would be giving up Khabibulin and a guy like Martin Straka or something along those lines..
 
NHL08 is a fantastic game

ALSO: i finally dropped marleau

this means he will start to heat up tomorrow.
 
I agree, NHL08 is excellent. Also Hasek may not be that great, I am thinking he will get lots of wins, but he rarely gets shots on goal so his save percentage is sort of low, at least as of this part in the season, .895!M :(

EDIT: And he picks up Hasek for a shutout!!
 
all star game is basically the Red Wings vs the Crosbies.

where is kovalchuk and ovechkin i dont wanna watch alfie :(
 
posting to express love for NHL 08(even if the game does begin to get more than a little unrealistic on Superstar to give the computer an edge), if nothing else it finally has very good online play this year although I enjoy how the > 2 person game works about as often as the Kings get shutouts

or win games




But the other reason I posted was to whine about the all-star picks! For those of you who aren't aware the fan vote determines the starters(not the roster), and this is what the fans came up with:

East: Crosby, Lecavalier, Alfredsson, Markov, Chara, Brodeur
West: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Iginla, Lidstrom, Phaneuf, Luongo

Except looking at what they came up with, I don't think I'd change much. I don't like seeing so many Red Wings if I pretend I'm not a Wings fan for a moment, although I'm not sure who I would replace(obviously Lidstrom stays, Thornton over a forward maybe), but the one big gripe I have that Jackal touched on already: how the hell is Alfredsson on over Ovechkin. I don't mean to knock on Alfredsson because he is definitely all-star calibur but he is not Alexander Ovechkin, considering the type of production he's put up with the complete lack of assistance, especially since his RW and Captain(Chris Clark) has been out basically all year and his center has been shuffled around a lot(with some injuries being a factor there too). Ilya Kovalchuk is another option that IMO would have been much better in that last forward slot - he's been leading the league in goals basically all year and has been close in points, with a lot less support since he doesn't play with Hossa at even strength. Not to knock any of those guys but its a lot easier for players on lines like Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom and Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson to put up big numbers than it is for people like those two who have so much less support, and since all-star voting is supposed to be based on individual prowess(that and popularity...) I don't like seeing those two excluded from the batch of starts, not that they'll have any trouble getting on the roster.

The only other thing I'd really like to see is Osgood get a goalie spot. While Hasek has been a lot better lately him ending up third in votes disgusts when Osgood has been much better for us this year... 19-2-1 from Osgood has to count for something, and 1.68 gaa/.932 S% isn't exactly shabby either. Hoping for Broduer-Lundqvist-Miller and Luongo-Kiprusoff-Osgood but not holding my breath since the goalie choices never fail to annoy me.
 
Markov doesn't belong there.

but montreal has a huge voting fanbase and it appears Detroit does as well.

this shows that fan votes will advantage bigger hockey markets, obviously.
 
I don't know if I agree with that(the Markov point, there's no question NYR/Det/the Canadian teams in general's fanbases make this exercise foolish), he's been sort of iffy lately but throughout most of the first 30 games or so he was one of the best defensemen in the NHL, both statistically and in practice from the habs games I saw. I was pretty impressed by him(to the point I traded for him at one point in fantasy) when I saw him, I don't think he's as good as say Tobias Enstrom who's also really stood out this year(but does not belong in the all-star game) but I don't really know who you'd put in over him... as far as voting the closest were Brian Campbell, Tomas Kaberle(lol Toronto defenseman), and Kimmo Timonen, none of which I personally think belong in over him. I think if he was in the West he wouldn't have gotten in over the plethora of good defenseman (Lidstrom, Pronger, Niedermayer, Phaneuf, Rafalski, Zubov would all be better picks) but the East is kinda weak in that department, I guess.
 
Isn't it strange how that works? How the West is so much stronger defensively than the East? I think that owes completely to the styles of hockey that are played in each conference, which any shmuck would notice are VASTLY dissimilar. The West is much grittier, so guys like Pronger and Phaneuf get lots of attention, but in the East, we don't have guys like that. We have the finesse side of the coin.
 
DM said:
Isn't it strange how that works? How the West is so much stronger defensively than the East? I think that owes completely to the styles of hockey that are played in each conference, which any shmuck would notice are VASTLY dissimilar. The West is much grittier, so guys like Pronger and Phaneuf get lots of attention, but in the East, we don't have guys like that. We have the finesse side of the coin.
Click to expand...

Yep, the Red Wings sure do lack finesse!

In general, though, I do agree.
 
Didn't it used to be that the East was the gritty conference and the West was where the finesse was?

When did that change?
 
as a franchise we've had some sort of hardon for old goalies but evidently Osgood is some kind of all-star so hopefully he can be good for a few more years !



Realistically I think Hasek will retire after this year and we'll move Howard up and have Osgood split time with him for his first few years, no point in signing a big name guy to do that, Osgood will be adequate the next few years if we need him to play in important games and Howard, assuming he is as good as we seem to think he is, will get broken into the starting job before Osgood hangs up the skates.


EDIT: On the topic of contracts...


yahoo said:
Alex Ovechkin agreed to a $124 million, 13-year contract extension Thursday with the Washington Capitals, working out the details himself in negotiations with owner Ted Leonsis and general manager George McPhee.
Click to expand...


"lol"


Outside of probably dooming me to be a Caps fan until I am 33, that is a fucking monster contract. I kinda worry about it as a fan - that's almost 10 million against the cap per year - because he eats up about 13% of the Cap's Cap room(tee hee) on his own. It kinda endangers the team into having a problem like Tampa has or Ottawa will soon have where if they sign say, Nicklas Backstrom to another long deal(and they should and will) to give him a long term setup man, they're going to have a majority of their cap room invested on one line. I think if I were building a team around one player I would rather do it on Sidney Crosby than Alex Ovechkin, because as much as I love the latter the leadership/passing/defense just isn't there.

I'm curious what the player's association will think about this though, they tend to a bitch a lot about deals longer than about seven years.


EDIT2: Also the guy who used to own the Predators bought the Wild, I'm not sure what I think about that yet.
 
I think a 13 year contract with one of the worse teams in the NHL probably wasn't Ovechkin's best decision. On the other hand, I respect him for sticking with his team! What does a guy spend 124 million on though?

I think I have an idea, 6 beers before every game for 13 years...

Edit: Then again, he could have signed a 13 year old contract for my favorite and also the single worst team in the NHL!!
 
Guess it's save to get me a Caps jersey sometime (if i run into a cheap Ovechkin one that is) damn @ that contract. It's what I expected though, just hope AO moved to some other franchise, I just don't see the caps getting anywhere soon (not even in 13 years).

At moments like this it's good there is a salary cap though, imagine some rich billionaire buying an all star team with all contracts like this, wouldnt be cool for the competition, but the salaries the real NHL stars get, it's just overdoing it. It's just way too much.

Nice for the Washington fans their star isnt going anywhere though
 
Imagine some rich billionaire...(oh you mean Mike Illitch?)...buying an All-Star team..(Oh you mean the Red Wings?)

I remember when he bought like a thousand players it seemed like and then they won or something! Also Little Caesars carried Stanley Cup Replica rings, I think I have like...6 somewhere!

Needless to say yeah, I am still kind of...baffled at why Ovechkin would stay in Washington unless he knows something we don't. I just hope for his sake Washington gets a couple more players and maybe a few draft picks to improve around him!
 
Just like my Sabres to be down 2-0 to the fucking Senators before ROARING back and tying it, sending it to OT. OT was wide open, both teams having tons of opportunities, before finally losing in a SO.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm fucking SICK of shootouts. The novelty has long since worn off.
 
I think the shootout is a good addition to the regular season! It keeps fans on the edge of their seats and I secretly hope for shootouts a lot to see dangles and such. I think, in general, it is good for the promotion of the game but as far as when it counts, like playoffs, games shouldn't be decided by shootouts, but by continuous OT.
 
My NHL would have

icing being called during PK
allow goals scored with the skates.
a different individual scoring system, eliminating the 2nd assist or having the goal scored (and 1st assist) worth more points than the 2nd assist.
none of this 5 minutes 4v4 OT bullcrap, just a regular 5v5 5 minutes followed by
a 5 men shootout

and shootouts in the playoffs, after a full 20 of OT

Yes I am a fan of shootouts, if they are good for the regular season, they are good in a 4 of 7 serie. But after a full 20 minutes period of OT. A serie is not decided by one match anyway so comparisons with soccer or the olympics are weak. Multiple OTs is just a terrible format; hockey gets intensively defensive in playoffs overtime, players are tired, refs suddenly seem to vanish, many fans leave after one OT period. It also works against getting good tv deals.

I'd even bring back Fox's laser puck.
 
Haha, the laser puck was excellent! I enjoyed the red and blue strips of whatever it left behind! I always liked slapshots for that matter alone. Al McInnis winds up and lets a blue laser go!
 
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