2009-10 NHL Thread

[Ivaden]

Yeah I agree. I think we're pretty well off in the farm team too, we always have Caputi and Letestu to fall back on to at least fill a spot on the roster with competent players. Letestu looked more than ready for the NHL in the games he played in imo, and Caputi too. And then we have Tangradi waiting for us as well, he'll probably at least get some playing time at the beginning of next season. I want him on Malkin's wing, he's a Malone. We need a Malone. I miss Malone. Malone being gone is the only reason I'm still bitter towards Hossa lol.

[Brill Weave]

Malone is also having a career year in Tampa Bay right now. The Baby Pens have a few guys that are interesting but I'm not sure if they are going to be able to contribute enough to warrant them staying the NHL.

Letestu is one of them. He's looked good on the ice for the big club but I'm not 100% sure with his size he's going to be able to fill the roll of a third liner. The Pens already have Kennedy and Talbot in that role and both of them are a tad undersized. Adding a third smaller forward would do a lot to add to the team speed, but is going to take away some size. And Letestu has never been a physical player. Caputi on the other hand has good size and Tangradi is a behemoth. The only other guys I see being up sooner or later are going to be Dustin Jeffrey, Tim Wallace, and Ben Lovejoy. They've already played up here before and did a decent job. The rest of the Baby Pens are kind of an enigma right now.

[Thoronas]

Had some weird fans at GM place in Vancouver last night. Perfectly situated by the visitors penalty box. I think the Nashville players were kinda weirded out, I know I was.

[Furtwangler]

LOL i laughed way too hard at that.

[Ishido]

Awesome video, lol.

Picture related for the Wings' season:
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4026/teambus.jpg

[BadKarma]

4 games in a row yeahhhhhh

[Brill Weave]

GREEN MAN!!! The only way that would have been better is if it was Charlie Day in the outfit.

[Selamis]

So one of the guys that I follow on Twitter, that used to be a dj on a radio station out here in Chicago before he was fired made a post last night saying how he's new to following hockey but he's "pretty sure when you shut out the defending Stanley Cup Champions two games in a row that the Stanley Cup should get to be borrowed for a day." Someone instantly pointed out that the Penguins were the defending champs and made the guy feel stupid, I laughed.

On a side note, our Hawks announcers said after the win that this was the first time since 1971 that the Hawks have shut out Detroit in back to back games.

[Rhinox]

who was it? lol

[Brill Weave]

Someone who apparently has no business talking about sports in a public venue ever again.

[Selamis]

Alex Quigley from Q101 lol.

[Brill Weave]

Sounds like a homo.

[Ishido]

So one of the guys that I follow on Twitter, that used to be a dj on a radio station out here in Chicago before he was fired made a post last night saying how he's new to following hockey but he's "pretty sure when you shut out the defending Stanley Cup Champions two games in a row that the Stanley Cup should get to be borrowed for a day." Someone instantly pointed out that the Penguins were the defending champs and made the guy feel stupid, I laughed.

On a side note, our Hawks announcers said after the win that this was the first time since 1971 that the Hawks have shut out Detroit in back to back games.

Something something half of the roster on injured reserve.

Then again it won't be the first time Hawks fans start reaching to make themselves feel better.

[BadKarma]

Something something half of the roster on injured reserve.

Then again it won't be the first time Hawks fans start reaching to make themselves feel better.

Every team has had injuries, don't make that bullshit excuse. This has been the worst injury season the NHL has seen in a long while.

The Penguins have had injuries,the Devils have had injuries, the Bhawks were missing Marian Hossa for the first 2 months of the season. Injuries are injuries, you will get them, but they aren't a valid excuse.

[Ishido]

Every team has had injuries, don't make that bullshit excuse. This has been the worst injury season the NHL has seen in a long while.

The Penguins have had injuries,the Devils have had injuries, the Bhawks were missing Marian Hossa for the first 2 months of the season. Injuries are injuries, you will get them, but they aren't a valid excuse.

Fielding a team that is half NHL half AHL is different than missing Marian Hossa.

[Brill Weave]

Now I'm all for taking into consideration injuries etc. But let's be honest, playing without top players is part of being a great team.

Mark Eaton
Alex Goligoski
Sergei Gonchar
Tyler Kennedy
Chris Kunitz
Evgeni Malkin
Jay McKee
Brooks Orpik
Maxime Talbot

That's every member of the Penguins defensemen that's been injured at one point or another this season. Add on top of that two extremely important pluggers, a supposed first line winger, and the best player on the team. Yet the Pens are cruising with 51 points. Detroit is hanging in there but to use injuries as an excuse for subpar play is not the way to go.

[Callisto]

Hawks were playing 3 Ice Hogs and their backup goalie and still blanked them, lol. And we still have Burish and Bolland recovering and due back, they're only going to get better.

[Ishido]

It is impossible to play "up to standard" when you are playing a team basically consisting of players at the end of their career, rookies, and Pavel Datsyuk. Injuries aren't an excuse for the Wings poor play, it's the reason. Datsyuk and Bertuzzi are really the only guys who can score right now, since none of the rookies have found whatever that touch is that they need, so shutting them down or blocking whatever they do get goes a long way to shutting the Wings out. Don't get me wrong though, the Blackhawks are better than the Wings this year. That comes with the essentially $70 million roster they have, but the Wings were in a similar situation last year. With a full roster I would guess the average game goes something like 2-3 to 3-5 Wings to Blackhawks.

Missing 4/6 of your top 6 goes a long way to fucking up goalscoring, and therefore winning.

[Callisto]

At this point I'm worried that it'll be a moot point due to both teams getting knocked out by the Preds, lol. The upcoming home-and-home they have with them will be huge.

January in general will be pretty brutal on the Hawks, they have a span where they're away for 11 of 13 games.

[Sepukku]

Now I'm all for taking into consideration injuries etc. But let's be honest, playing without top players is part of being a great team.

Mark Eaton
Alex Goligoski
Sergei Gonchar
Tyler Kennedy
Chris Kunitz
Evgeni Malkin
Jay McKee
Brooks Orpik
Maxime Talbot

That's every member of the Penguins defensemen that's been injured at one point or another this season. Add on top of that two extremely important pluggers, a supposed first line winger, and the best player on the team. Yet the Pens are cruising with 51 points. Detroit is hanging in there but to use injuries as an excuse for subpar play is not the way to go.

Chris Kunitz dropping to Malkin's line last night made Bylsma look like a freaking genious.