Author Topic: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe  (Read 184860 times)

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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #200 on: July 23, 2012, 05:32:52 PM »
If you've been paying attention to the rumor mill, it seems like Columbus got much better offers than that earlier in the process and then turned them down. Based on what I've read I know the Flyers made a higher quality offer than that. Apparently Howson was just holding out for two third-liners, a prospect and the twenty-somethingth pick.

I think where the Flyers rank in that division will depend a lot on what kind of play they get from Bryzgalov. He showed signs of brilliance in March, and then fell off again, perhaps due to a foot injury he sustained late in the season. If he can step up his game, which would be made easier by acquiring Weber, I think the Flyers could be better than the Rangers, because even with Nash the Rangers are no match for the Flyers (or Pens) in sheer firepower.

And yeah, the Islanders would finish with a much better record if they didn't have to play a third of their schedule against the other four teams in that loaded division.
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Offline Shaymin

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #201 on: July 23, 2012, 05:43:13 PM »
The winner in this is going to be whichever team picks up Alexander Semin. The Capitals really didn't play to his strengths last season, and if he doesn't stay in Russia after the lockout I can see him outproducing Nash and being more valuable than Weber over the terms of those deals.

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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #202 on: July 23, 2012, 05:48:10 PM »
I don't think he'd be better than Weber given the context. The Flyers have tons of scoring options, but they were light on defense. If they get Weber (especially if they don't have to give up Meszaros to do it), and already got Luke Schenn, they've addressed the major weak point on the team.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #203 on: July 23, 2012, 06:30:31 PM »
I was disappointed to find out Nash had gone to the Rangers.  Not because I care about the Jackets or because I hate the Rangers but simply because it's a boring end result.  The Rangers get EVERYBODY.  It isn't exciting or interesting to find out the Rangers landed a star.

The only chance for Columbus to ever turn around is to somehow get a good GM and coach and build a contender entirely through the draft.  They have too much of a loser culture to get free agents or successfully trade for anyone with a no-trade clause.  If no one wants to go to your team then homegrown draft picks are the only way to win because those players don't have much of a choice but to play for you for the first few years.  Then you hope you do well enough that those player want to stay when they become free agents and that you're enough of a contender that other players want to be on your team.  It can be done but they might as well be the Columbus Clippers at this point.

What's sad is the Ohio isn't like some sunbelt non-traditional market.  This is the sort of place where hockey could find any audience much easier than some place in Florida or Arizona.  Yet they continuously suck while the Predators are a good team constantly facing relocation rumours because they're based in Nashville.

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #204 on: July 23, 2012, 06:35:03 PM »
The Blue Jackets aren't like the Clippers. The Clippers are actually good. They've won the International League two years in a row.
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #205 on: July 24, 2012, 10:50:16 AM »
I rank the higher Rangers higher than the Flyers because the Flyers didn't beat the Rangers once last year despite their firepower. That said, the addition of Weber could make them a stronger team by strengthing their defense. (I'm not convinced the Schenn trade makes it stronger than before). But since there hasn't been too much upheaval for either team like last year for the Flyers, based on last season's play, I give the edge to the Rangers.

As for the rumor mill, I know the Red Wings were supposed to have made a better offer but I think Howson clearly wanted to send Nash out of the division and to the East. As for what other offers there were from Eastern teams, I can't recall anything of better significance. Generally, it was often a report of Howson wanting some really good player and the team balking at his asking price.

As for Semin, I definitely think he's worth taking a chance on. Last few years, the Caps have tried to move to a more defensive system which I think has limited his production. However, I do think he's a streaky player. But he might be better off on a team where he plays an auxillary role and is counted as one of the top got-to guys for goal production. I wonder if he would play for the Ducks where Boudreau is or if Boudreau would want to have him on his team again. He might make a good fit there.
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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #206 on: July 24, 2012, 06:37:31 PM »
Well now I think the Rangers are certainly better than the Flyers. ****.
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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #207 on: August 19, 2012, 12:24:30 AM »
In the midst of having a long conversation with a friend about hockey I came to a realization that I know at least one person here probably doesn't want to hear, and that's that the Toronto Maple Leafs are hockey's equivalent to the Cleveland Browns.
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Offline Shaymin

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #208 on: August 19, 2012, 08:00:36 AM »
Wouldn't that be the Jets, considering they lost their franchise for a time?

The Leafs would be more like the Cowboys - biggest money-maker in the league, but haven't been able to do anything in the postseason recently. Oh, and they get way more attention than their level of talent deserves.
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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #209 on: August 19, 2012, 12:56:12 PM »
I wasn't thinking of the relocation angle. I meant in the sense that despite perennial sucking they have some of the most devoted fans in the league, and that they haven't won a championship in the modern era of the sport, but they won a whole bunch of them before that.
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Offline Armak88

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #210 on: August 20, 2012, 12:13:03 AM »
I'm sad. The leafs make me sad.
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Offline Armak88

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #211 on: August 20, 2012, 02:52:01 AM »
I was really trying not to end up going on a Leafs rant. But I can't help myself. And now this is happening. The current Leafs team makes me depressed. I feel like I watch every other team get better. Every other team has hot prospects that are the future stars of the league or are signing free agents for absurd sums of money, but they are making serious strides toward building a better team. Toronto has a overwhelmingly terrible history of drafting players that go bust and in recent years haven't been willing to make moves to bring in big free agents. Even in the past when we did bring in free agents we usually overpaid for guys who were at the end of their career and ended up doing jack **** with the team. Historically, we have only really done well when we've had a top 5 goal tender to pull our ass out of the fire.

The Leafs have painted themselves into a corner, and MLSE doesn't really care too much because the corner is full of money. We don't have the cap space to bring in large contracts. Let that sink in for a minute, who the hell is taking up the entire salary cap when we have 1 top six forward on the team. Phaneuf is our highest paid player at 6mil a year (did you just through up a little? because I did) followed by Grabovski at something over 5mil. We take mediocre players, over pay them, and then ask them to over reach themselves and fill roles that they they are not cut out for. Surely this is a recipe for success. Now we're at a point where we're trying to pick up value trades and picks of guys who have been hurt or haven't gotten a chance to take that next step and just hoping that they pan out. There are at least three other teams in our conference that did not make the playoffs who made moves that make them contenders next year. The only reason I'm not on the fire Burke wagon is because I dread the idea of ANOTHER rebuild and ANOTHER 5 years of waiting for draft picks and not making the playoffs.

I know a lot of people say "haha the leafs suck they've sucked for a long time why bother with them?" but it wasn't always like this. I became a leaf fan when Wendel Clark beat the tar out of Marty McSorely in THE CONFERENCE FINALS. I was five years old, the leafs were good and I felt like Wendel was the personification of our team. We were probably one of the hardest teams to face in hockey at that time. I remember facing the flyers being the most physical games I've ever seen. But the leafs then weren't the biggest team, just tough, scrappy, a little dirty (you know Clark loved those elbows) but we could just grind out wins. We were the perfect underdog team and I loved every minute of it. Once Gilmour left the team I felt like we lost that. Nothing against Sundin but he never did it for me like Gilmour and Clark. I will always be a leafs fan, but this whole no playoff hockey thing has gotten under my skin and it doesn't look like that's going to change for some time.

oh look i'm back to depressed again.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #212 on: January 14, 2013, 07:05:37 PM »
So we're 5 days away from the season starting, and my avatar and title clearly show that I'm excited; how about everybody else?
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Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #213 on: January 15, 2013, 10:41:14 AM »
I've noticed that. I'm surprised you went with a Bryz quote also since your 3DS Mii message still says he sucks.

I'm slowly getting more and more excited for the start of the season. I decided to look at the schedule and see what games are coming up and, as much as I'd like to write hockey off and send a futile message to the sport, I'm most likely going to watch the first games of the season this Saturday of Pittsburgh and Anaheim.

Still sad they let Jordan Staal go. I've liked him from the first moment he started playing for the club and the impact he always had. I know Malkin obviously has the better point production than Staal but Staal always seemed to have more of an impact on big games due to his defensive prowess. I always loved seeing him on a penalty kill. He was very effective.

As for the Ducks, I don't know what to think about this team anymore. They've got some great players but others that just haven't been effective yet. We'll see if a fresh start changes anything. I do hope they make playoffs this year but more because I'm pretty sure this will be the last season for Selanne and I'd like to see his career end at least competing in the post season. If they can get to the second round of the playoffs, I'll consider this season a major success. I hate that Schultz never signed with the Ducks and went to the Oilers and I live in Edmonton. I hope the Ducks do better than Edmonton as well.

So yeah, the rivalries are starting to build up again in my mind.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #214 on: January 15, 2013, 11:34:25 AM »
I hope I still get to take my son to a Predator game...
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #215 on: January 15, 2013, 12:24:01 PM »
I haven't gotten excited yet.  I was really annoyed by the lockout so while I'm glad they didn't cancel the season, I'm not in a good enough mood to just act like nothing happened and, hooray, the Canucks are playing again.  Though I think part of it is uncertainty with my team.  Luongo is assumed to be on the trading block but nothing has happened yet.  At this point I don't really know exactly what team is going to take the ice in Vancouver.

Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #216 on: January 15, 2013, 12:30:44 PM »
I hope the players and owners think this labor dispute was worth the damage they did to the sport. Hockey was already a B-level sport in terms of popularity, and this dispute taking out more than half the season (not to mention the strike less than a decade ago that made the NHL the first major sports league to ever lose an entire season due to a strike) is gonna hurt it even more.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #217 on: January 15, 2013, 02:29:33 PM »
I like the conspiracy theory that Gary Bettman is a manchurian candidate of sorts.  The NHL asked the NBA to recommend someone for their commissioner and the NBA suggested Bettman, who was working for them at the time.  This is like Burger King asking McDonald's for hiring advice.  Why would you ever ask a competitor about something like that?  So NBA commissioner David Stern suggested his most incompetent lackey so that the NBA would pull ahead of the NHL in popularity.  Bettman isn't a willing participant either.  He's not trying to sabotage the NHL for the NBA, his incompetence is just such that by trying to do his job he's fucking things up.

So if you ever wonder why a league that is struggling for relevence in the United States would have a lockout over some pretty idiotic stuff immediately after the team from Los Fuckin' Angeles, the second biggest media market in the NHL, and the exact sort of market they want hockey to be cool it, wins the Cup, well there you go.

It's been almost 20 years since Bettman was hired and hockey is clearly in a much worse position now than it was then.  So I'm shocked that the NHL owners would still want to keep this guy around.  But then incompetence spreads throughout an organization if it becomes part of the workplace culture.  The idiot owners hire an idiot commish and then only let other idiots into their league.

For a while I was seriously worried that we wouldn't get a season at all.  If any league was going to lose two whole seasons in such a short amount of time it would have to be the NHL, right?  Who else would?

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #218 on: January 15, 2013, 03:11:05 PM »
I've noticed that. I'm surprised you went with a Bryz quote also since your 3DS Mii message still says he sucks.

I didn't realize it still said that. I really think this is going to be a (humongous) big year for Bryz. He's more accustomed to the demands and pressures of playing in Philly, and he's got a considerably stronger defensive corps in front of him. Also, with the amnesty clause in the new CBA, if he blows it this year the team can cancel the rest of his contract, so he's certainly got something to play for.

Also, the Penguins are fucking going down Saturday.


I hope the players and owners think this labor dispute was worth the damage they did to the sport. Hockey was already a B-level sport in terms of popularity, and this dispute taking out more than half the season (not to mention the strike less than a decade ago that made the NHL the first major sports league to ever lose an entire season due to a strike) is gonna hurt it even more.

First off, this and the previous work stoppage were lockouts, not strikes. The owners were the ones who put a stop to it, not the players. Second, there's no question this hurt the league. Die hards like me will come back, but they'd been making real gains in mainstream popularity over the last few years, and now they pretty much have to start that from scratch.


I like the conspiracy theory that Gary Bettman is a manchurian candidate of sorts.  The NHL asked the NBA to recommend someone for their commissioner and the NBA suggested Bettman, who was working for them at the time.  This is like Burger King asking McDonald's for hiring advice.  Why would you ever ask a competitor about something like that?  So NBA commissioner David Stern suggested his most incompetent lackey so that the NBA would pull ahead of the NHL in popularity.  Bettman isn't a willing participant either.  He's not trying to sabotage the NHL for the NBA, his incompetence is just such that by trying to do his job he's fucking things up.

So if you ever wonder why a league that is struggling for relevence in the United States would have a lockout over some pretty idiotic stuff immediately after the team from Los Fuckin' Angeles, the second biggest media market in the NHL, and the exact sort of market they want hockey to be cool it, wins the Cup, well there you go.

It's been almost 20 years since Bettman was hired and hockey is clearly in a much worse position now than it was then.  So I'm shocked that the NHL owners would still want to keep this guy around.  But then incompetence spreads throughout an organization if it becomes part of the workplace culture.  The idiot owners hire an idiot commish and then only let other idiots into their league.

For a while I was seriously worried that we wouldn't get a season at all.  If any league was going to lose two whole seasons in such a short amount of time it would have to be the NHL, right?  Who else would?

Bettman is really terrible, and I don't know why the owners put up with him. It also didn't help that Donald Fehr, the NHLPA director, was the guy in charge of the baseball players union during the 1994 strike, so this was a disaster waiting to happen. One of the terms of the CBA should have been that both of them be fired for letting this happen.
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Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #219 on: January 15, 2013, 03:17:01 PM »
The 2004 lockout happened because the players selfishly refused to accept a salary cap. It's ridiculous that NHL teams were spending a whopping 76% of their revenue on salaries (far more than any other sports league). The owners do share part of the blame, but the 2004 lockout was due to the players.
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Offline TrueNerd

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #220 on: January 19, 2013, 04:25:47 PM »
Based on the first period of the first game, I can only assume my Blackhawks will win every game 9-0 and do the same in the playoffs. It's gonna be great!

Offline Khushrenada

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #221 on: January 20, 2013, 03:55:46 AM »
So far, all is right in the NHL for me. Man, Selanne is incredible. And a quick salute to Jagr who also had a great first game. As I always have to tell people, Jagr is the player that made me a Penguins fan.
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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #222 on: January 20, 2013, 08:36:43 AM »
Season started out bad for me with a Senators win, but the Flyers loss/Leafs win/Canuck bombing made up for it.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #223 on: January 20, 2013, 10:34:21 AM »
I tried to watch the Hawk and Kings game online but only got through a bit before NBC stream started not working.  Wish they had a pulled out view that showed the whole ice.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Hockey Discussion
« Reply #224 on: January 20, 2013, 11:39:30 AM »
So far, all is right in the NHL for me. Man, Selanne is incredible. And a quick salute to Jagr who also had a great first game. As I always have to tell people, Jagr is the player that made me a Penguins fan.

That first game in Dallas for Jagr made me upset that Holmgren let him walk, but we'll see if he can continue like that.

As much as I hate losing to Pittsburgh, I thought the Flyers did pretty well rebounding after a pretty awful first 15 minutes. Bryzgalov looked good; those two goals weren't really his fault, and he looked really sharp most of the game. What really killed them is going 0 for 5 on the power play. I will say that Fleury looked really good, and it's too bad he couldn't have been in his postseason form.
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