Real solid game by the Dominator after last game's botched ending. Finally, the whole team played well, points spread around to many. Holmstrom is just a machine, I'm glad he's alright.
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Real solid game by the Dominator after last game's botched ending. Finally, the whole team played well, points spread around to many. Holmstrom is just a machine, I'm glad he's alright.
Why is there a question mark at the end of this thread??
Cause I didn't know if there were any rules about "Official". Like maybe a Mod would shut it down... or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Snakespy
Sports topics didn't really seem relevant to me to be put in the video games category either.
That's it really.
I expected Buff just to roll over and die last night. They came out with gusto jumping out to a 3-0 lead... which they then just about blow.
I think that Buff will still lose the series... but I wonder if they will at least make it respectable?
And it will be interesting to see how Anaheim does tonight without Pronger. Det has an opportunity to take a strangle hold on the series.
And after I talk about Det winning games based off nothing but special teams, they go on to score 5 even strength goals... LOL!
Shows what I know...
It says "General Games Forum" ;) weve been through this before in the NFL thread tooQuote:
Originally Posted by Spank_Me_Hard
Well Pronger was suspended 1 game for the hit from behind on Holmstrom. He probably should have gotten the initial penalty during the game.
I didn't see the hit; did he smash him into the boards?
yeah it was pretty bad. Holstrom was already being he by Rob Niedermeyer and Pronger comes in from behind and checks him into the boards and it looked like he got an elbow up too.
When I first saw it at regular speed, I didn't think it looked too bad. It certainly wasn't as blatant as Claude Lemieux boarding Kris Draper into the boards headfirst.Quote:
Originally Posted by JDC
But upon replay that was slowed, it looked pretty bad. I can see the suspension. His head got rammed into the boards pretty good.
But I also don't know that Pronger intended it. I think that it was getting caught up in the game, and that it happened so fast. And maybe even that Pronger is such a tall guy to begin with. And he also had Niedermyer's momentum pushing Holmstrom into the boards as well.
I have never really considered Pronger a dirty player.
At least they didn't go overboard with the suspension. One game seems right for a serious boarding without clear intent to injure.
Based on everything I have seen to this point in each series. I still stick by what I said before; Ott vs. Det for the cup and Ott in 6. Anaheim barely won their last game and they look a lot like the sharks did in their series.
Buff is almost certainly out. I don't know how many teams have come back in a series being down 3-0. Even 3-1 is only like 20 in NHL history.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nabby
Detroit-Anaheim is too hard to say. Detroit only won their first game because Anaheim scored on themselves... twice. Anaheim could have just as easily won that game too. The 5-0 blowout was the only lopsided game... and teams have a habit of bouncing back from those types of embarrasments.
I say Ottawa and Anaheim.
It does happen though, NJ did it to philly in...2002 or 2003? After being up 3-1 I couldn't believe it.:oQuote:
Originally Posted by Spank_Me_Hard
Yea... it happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by r'aggro
I saw my Oilers lose out to the Kings back in like 1990 after being up 3-1.
It is pretty rare though.
I think that coming back from 3-0 has only happened like once in NHL history.
And down go the sabres.
Ottawa just looks like "the team" right now; can't wait for the Cup finals.
Ottawa is looking like a team of destiny this year... Neither NJ nor Buff were laughing matters... both were very good teams.
Ducks were lucky to get the win today. Got outplayed in every way possible. The bad news for Detroit is... teams rarely follow up one bad game with another...
Detroit will have their hands full in Anaheim with the smell of blood in the water...
Hey don't the Oilers pick like 6th this year? What do you think they will do with it?
There's a lot of speculation about which teams will trade the high picks for proven guys. At #2 overall I think Philly will take vanReimsdyk or Voracek, but who knows. There are guys out there I can see the flyers trading the pick for; they might be in the Brad Richards sweepstakes also.
They do have a nice pick... compliments of their complete collapse after the Ryan Smyth trade.Quote:
Originally Posted by r'aggro
I don't think that the Oilers are as bad as their season indicated. That trade utterly destroyed any chemistry and confidence that the Oilers had. They were actually competing for a playoff spot when the trade occured.
Ryan Smyth has made mention that he may re-sign with Edmonton this summer. If that is to happen, Kevin Lowe may come out of this looking like a genius (two top prospects plus one more 1st round pick I think). Rumour is that the Oilers and Smyth were very close in an agreement when the trade was made... who knows... maybe they'll be able to sign him for the same.
That being said, they do have some needs. They never replaced Pronger with a top offensive defenseman (and then traded their only prospect in this area... Marc Andre Bergeron to the NYI's). I was hoping that before the season started that they would have swung a trade for Gonchar out of Pittsburg (who I thought was unhappy there). They never replaced Mike Peca... every team needs a specialist defensive forward I think. And Roloston is not the goalie of the future... they need a young stud with potential.
But what the Oilers do have is plenty of depth at forward with great potential. And they have a pretty deep farm system from all those years of being a farm team for the NHL and having to trade away their star players (even deeper now with the NYI aquisitions). And after having traded Pronger, and then Smyth, they have room under the cap to play. I will be interested to see who they pickup in the offseason. Any contracts that they have to do this season with existing players should put the team in a position of advantage as nobody had a good season (hard to get a raise when your numbers sucked).
I wouldn't mind seeing Edmonton try to move up to the top pick to get a stud. I don't know the name, but there is a guy out of Ontrario juniors who apparently broke Wayne Gretzky's records for goals scored in a junior career... impressive... no small feat. I can't help but think that a talent like that is about as close to a sure thing as exists in the NHL. Doesn't hurt anybody to get a young player with Sydney Crosby, Ilya Kovalchuk, Rick Nash, or Alexander Ovechkin potential.
Didn't Brad Richards (TB) sign a huge multi year contract jsut a season or two ago? I thought that him, St. Louis, and Lecavlier all did...
There is talk that Drury's contract will double from 3 to 6 million a year this offseason. While I really like him (as I did Smyth), I think that this is WAY too much for him.
Wow, that would be amazing for Lowe to get Ryan Smyth back after a short term rental. I know Smyth seemed devastated at the prospect of leaving the Oilers when he was traded.
It's funny you mentioned a lack of an elite goaltending prospect for you team, because almost every team needs one. I think Boston, the Habs and NYR are some of the only teams that are set in that area. (Rask, Price, Montoya).
Brad Richards did indeed sign only two years ago, for the max amount @ a duration I can't recall right now. But being so top heavy is killing TB; so they could be desparate to free up cap space by trading Richards. They have to do it by July 1, or his no-trade clause kicks in but they will do something; him, Vinny and St. Louis take up so much of the teams overall salary cap.
Personally, I want V Lecavalier more than anyone. This offseason will feature a lot of huge offers for players who aren't worth such overpayments frankly, (like Drury and Gomez) but Vinny would be worth every penny.
Looks like Anaheim is looking to upset me. They won the last game 2-1 and are now up 3-2 in the series. I'm thinking this is going to come down to game 7 in Detroit; that would be awesome. I still think Detroit will come out on top though. We'll see, I already won some money for the Buffalo series from my roommate :).
He was. Fans from Edmonton were calling for Lowe's head when the trade was made. Don't get me wrong... Ryan Smyth is one of my favorite players in the NHL... but I think that he is not rumoured to be worth the 5.5 million that he is asking. Looking around the league, there are much better players than Ryan Smyth (from a pure talent perspective... nobody questions his heart) for that rate. Ryan Smyth is like 31 years old... he is at his peak and will not likely stay this way for long. This was a career year for him. Other than this year, he was more a 28-33 goal scorer per year... every year. Not superstar status. This was his best season since his sophmore season where he scored 39 goals. I certainly would not expect a year like he had last year for every year from now on... his history just does not indicate that.Quote:
Wow, that would be amazing for Lowe to get Ryan Smyth back after a short term rental. I know Smyth seemed devastated at the prospect of leaving the Oilers when he was traded.
So Lowe didn't end up overpaying for him (though that would have made the fans happy) and in the new era of the cap that is huge. Lowe ended up getting two first class prospects, and a future 1st rounder to boot. Who knows... Edmonton could end up trading that pick and their 6th overall to move up to the top spot and grab that kid who broke Gretzky's record. They have that flexibility. AND Edmonton may end up getting Smyth back to boot.
The NYI's are my favorite team out east... but one thing that I know from following them is that they make THE worst personel decisions ever. If I was a GM, I'd be on the phone 24/7 with them seeing what I could steal from them.
Chara and Spezza for Yashin (who they are stuck with now at max pay for like the next ten years... horrible underachiever), Conolly (and Pyatt in Vancouver... another prospect) to Buffalo (who I think is a superstar in the making) for Peca (no longer with them). Luongo and Jokinen to Florida (and sign an unproven DiPeitro to a Yashin type contract).
You look at a lot of young stars in the league... a lot of them were in the NYI's organization at the start. It's ridiculous to think of how they'd been had they simply held on to what they had!
Edmonton may have arse raped the NYI's on that deal. If Smyth resigns with Edmonton, it will be sheer genius. If he doesn't, I think Edmonton will have still done well on the deal (providing that SOMEONE that they got turns out).
That is true... there are simply not enough superstar goalies to go around. It seems like to me that when Roy retired, and Belfour and Joseph turned mortal... that there wasn't any good young goalies who stepped up.Quote:
It's funny you mentioned a lack of an elite goaltending prospect for you team, because almost every team needs one. I think Boston, the Habs and NYR are some of the only teams that are set in that area. (Rask, Price, Montoya).
So yea... I think that your right... every team is looking for a young stud goalie.
For years, I PRAYED that Edmonton would swing a trade for Luongo. When he was with Florida and had no team in front of him, he was leading the league in save percentage (the one goalie stat that to me means the most) almost every year. With the lack of talent in front of him and the amount of rubber he was seeing, this was very impressive to me. That and when he was drafted all the scouts were saying... "This is the new Patrick Roy... guaranteed".
Unfortunately, everybody knows about him now with his exploits against Dalls this playoffs... he is no lonmger an unknown commodity. If Vancouver has half a brain in their head, they will never give him up.
I agree. I knew that this would come back to kill them. In the era of free agency, you just can't afford to have too many guys like that on your team. It really hurt's your depth. You don't get very far in the playoffs like that as you have to use a minimum of three lines.Quote:
But being so top heavy is killing TB; so they could be desparate to free up cap space by trading Richards.
That is one of the things that I liked about Edmonton... no overpaid superstar lines... just four pretty good solid lines rolling at you every shift. I felt like Buffalo this playoffs was the same way... didn't work out for them in the end though.
Yea... it'll be interesting to see who overpays for what.Quote:
This offseason will feature a lot of huge offers for players who aren't worth such overpayments frankly, (like Drury and Gomez) but Vinny would be worth every penny.
And yea... while Drury and Gomez are good players (more in the Edmonton type mold)... neither are superstars like Lecavalier.
I was also looking at the contracts around the time that Smyth got traded (wanted to see what 5.5 mill could get you these days).
It was funny to see who I thought was underpaid, and who I thought was overpayed.
The worst overpayment in my opinion was Sergei Federov... 6+ million per year. His stats didn't back that pay up.
(though Yashin would have to be right up there with him... I think that if I was the Islanders, I'd cut him and limit the damages)
I think the Isles would still be on the hook for a huge portion of Yashin's salary or they would have cut him by now--I think? Their GM's have been crazy, so you never know.
I heard a wacky rumor today, too. It stated that Philly GM Paul Holmgren is being advised to extend an offer sheet to Thomas Vanek, which would force Buffalo to match in order to retain his services. The extra salary would hamstring efforts to keep Drury and Briere. With these kind of transactions, if the guys current team chooses not to match, then Vanek would go to Philly while the Flyers would forfeit several draft picks to the Sabres. For a player like Vanek the picks would be a first, second, and third rounder--well worth it, imo.
Seems like dirty tactics, but that's the business. Philly tried this last year, offering Ryan Kessler a sheet that Vancouver matched. The guy who is supposedly advising Holmgren to do this is Don Luce, who used to scout for Buffalo. Either he really wants Briere for the Flyers, or wants to take a stab at prying away Vanek.
You guys do know that a Senator/Ducks game will kill the NHL, Ottowa doesnt even have Nielson Ratings, and no one really watches the ducks.
the NHL NEEEEEEDS the wings to make it in, badly because if the do at least hockey town will watch the game, if not hockey town will be tuning into the pistons
Actually that won't help either. Ticket prices in D have gotten so out of control almost no-one can afford to go. It's teh playoffs in Hockeytown, and you can still see some empty seats @ the Joe.:eek:
It will look bad for the sport when the national tv audience notices.