2009-10 NHL Thread

[Oxyminus]

the Islanders are in town to play the flyguys tonight. brendan witt just got hit by a car downtown. lmao, philly will do anything to try to win

I read about that earlier, and got a good laugh at it.

Never thought I'd see the day when I'd admire anything about any Fishstick...These are dark days in Rangerland =(

[Sepukku]

Thats true - its what we all grew up with, having been around since the late 1960's - and me personally, its the only place I've seen NHL hockey. My grandfather helped put in the asbestos & other insulation when it was built. But whats dearest to me about it is that its shaped like its nickname, the Igloo. Its just too fitting for a hockey team, for the Penguins. I can't imagine a flat roof over a rink. I just can't. The new arena is like triangle shaped, its just weird.

[Abraxas]

where the fuck did this civility come from!?!?

[Oxyminus]

Civility? Fuck off!!!

I'm just losing enthusiasm with this season. Rangers are swimming in mediocrity. Don't look to be a playoff team, not a legit contender even if they get in, and they won't finish low enough to get a high draft pick.

It was great to see them hustle all night on Sunday against Detroit, but fuck moral victories. How can you go 0/2 on the PP in the 3rd, at home, in a tie game?!?! Love the effort, lack of results is fucking killing me.

The one upshot is I completely expect a move to be going down -- soon.

[Selamis]

Civility? Fuck off!!!

I'm just losing enthusiasm with this season. Rangers are swimming in mediocrity. Don't look to be a playoff team, not a legit contender even if they get in, and they won't finish low enough to get a high draft pick.

It was great to see them hustle all night on Sunday against Detroit, but fuck moral victories. How can you go 0/2 on the PP in the 3rd, at home, in a tie game?!?! Love the effort, lack of results is fucking killing me.

The one upshot is I completely expect a move to be going down -- soon.

Detroit's usually pretty good at killing penalties cuz they swarm the puck and keep it on the perimeter...though I haven't seen much of them this year so I dunno how well they're doing. As for losing enthusiasm for the season, welcome to being a Hawks fan from about 1999 through 2006. Back then we were always out of the playoffs by January and it just made it so hard to care to watch the road games. Always starting hopefull and ending in disappointment, much like my fellow Cubs fans. (lolbaseball)

[Ishido]

Detroit's usually pretty good at killing penalties cuz they swarm the puck and keep it on the perimeter...though I haven't seen much of them this year so I dunno how well they're doing. As for losing enthusiasm for the season, welcome to being a Hawks fan from about 1999 through 2006. Back then we were always out of the playoffs by January and it just made it so hard to care to watch the road games. Always starting hopefull and ending in disappointment, much like my fellow Cubs fans. (lolbaseball)

Detroit is dead last in PK on the road this year, and close last overall.

[Ratatapa]

Yo found this old video from when the caps were shitty with olaf kolzig! and peter bondra!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZdW8...layer_embedded

[Ratatapa]

Oh and this is for palin (think he is the Stars fan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO3cW...eature=related

shame on you! old but still

[Oxyminus]

Detroit's usually pretty good at killing penalties cuz they swarm the puck and keep it on the perimeter...though I haven't seen much of them this year so I dunno how well they're doing. As for losing enthusiasm for the season, welcome to being a Hawks fan from about 1999 through 2006. Back then we were always out of the playoffs by January and it just made it so hard to care to watch the road games. Always starting hopefull and ending in disappointment, much like my fellow Cubs fans. (lolbaseball)

It has much more to do with the fact that the Rangers' PP (amongst everything else) has fallen apart since the first two weeks of the season. They've got 2-3 guys who will even attempt to carry the puck over the blueline w/o dumping it in. They have very little movement, and aren't winning battles low, nor getting to rebounds. It's looking like the Rangers PP of the Jagr era. As of Sunday it was ranked 10th best in the league, which is inflated by their white-hot start.

The major difference b/w the Hawks of 99-06 was you guys sucked, you just fucking sucked. You got high draft picks, and knew the season was a wash basically when it started. The Rangers were entering rebuild-mode right before the lockout happened. Then POOF they realized they had one of the brightest young goalies in the league, and Jagr looked like he was having a renaissance, and instead of focusing on the rebuild, they went into WIN NOW mode.

The problem is they made awful contracts to Drury, Gomez, and later Redden. And to a lesser extent, Roszival. They're tied up to their neck in salary, and the talent level is just too low. The young guys are developing, but it's going to take time. Even some of the young guys they're building around don't look like they're having much improvement anymore, and don't have the potential to be elite talents. The guys who might be (Grachev, Kreider, Stepan, Werek) are still a few years off. For now, they're too good to end up being a lottery team (barely), but they'll just miss the playoffs or not make much noise if they get in.

Being mediocre is different than being truly shitty and rebuilding.

I just read this on a board I frequent, courtesy of Larry Brooks:

Oct 17th, the Rangers were 7-1. Since they have been 7-13-1. The only worse team during that stretch has been Carolina, who has been 4-13-4.

29th in the league if you took off the first two weeks of the season?

I knew it was bad, didn't know it was THAT BAD.

[BadKarma]

I hope everyone on the Rangers breaks something, so we lose like 19 of 20. And wind up with like the number 1 or 2 pick overall. Seasons already done for the blueshirts.

[Ratatapa]

Season is not over for anyone, dumb stuff is dumb but look at the leafs, they might still be 2nd to last, but they playing well latly and getting up in the rankings slowly

[Oxyminus]

I'm not saying the season is over, that's what kills me.

The two schools of thought were that Tortorella's style was going to bring out the best from Callahan, Dubinsky, Avery, Drury, and the new guys Higgins, Kotalik, and Lisin. I don't even include Gaborik cause he's a fucking monster right now. The feeling was even if the talent level didn't really go up, these guys would play better in that system, and the younger guys would progress. They'd still be an offense mostly by committee, but they'd be able to rely on production from enough sources.

The other school of thought was they just don't have the talent to play that sort of system, and they'd be exposed, and struggle to score goals because the talent isn't there.

The first two weeks, EVERYTHING went right. EVERYONE was scoring. At that point Gaborik was getting his points, but they were usually when games had already been decided (notable exception being him scoring 2 in the 3rd period against AO and the Caps to rob the game). Now...Nobody is scoring. I'm not sure if it's that teams have figured their system out, or what.

For me, the two hallmarks that lead to this team falling apart:

Taking Voros off the 4th line when Avery got healthy. I don't give a rats ass about Voros...but Voros/Boyle/Brashear was a good 4th line that was big, got the puck deep, and fucking kept it there. This could have also been a byproduct of the entire team flying...but that line set a good pace, and everyone else had a defined role. Since then, this shit of messing with Lisin, Paranteau, Byers, and other guys on the 4th line has been nonsense.

The other big one was putting Valiquette in net AT HOME against San Jose. I don't buy Tortorella's logic on that one. Okay, it was an out of conference game. Sure he managed to shoutout Anaheim a few games earlier, but it was also an out of conference game against one of the most potent offensives in the league. That was just a bad decision. It was a Monday game, and the next game on the schedule was Thursday, also at home against the Devils. That's two full days in between games, and while Lundqvist needs his rest (not for that particular game, but with him playing the Olympics, he's gonna be gassed down the stretch) before a NJ game you know he's playing in, I rather he be playing, and stay sharp.

This also reminds me...Even with Lundqvists sub-par season, he's been better lately, and is still the reason most nights that they even have a sniff at wins. If he's too drained post-olympics, they're fucked.

I don't even expect to be in contention by that point. I'm just curious to see what the fallout will be. I like Tortorella as a coach, he brings a lot to the team. But the team, the players just aren't working out.

[Ratatapa]

lol higgins

lol

Thx for taking that one off our hands

[Oxyminus]

lol higgins

lol

Thx for taking that one off our hands

Thanks for taking Gomez off our hands.

Regardless of what becomes of Higgins, it freed up space to sign Gaborik.

[Ratatapa]

Gomez playing better then higgins thats for sure

but yeah he costed us alot :O


And mark this day because i think that it will be the last time i say this but

Hal gil played an awsome defense game today :O

This is as strange as mark eaton getting first star

[Oxyminus]

Gomez playing better then higgins thats for sure

but yeah he costed us alot :O

Higgins' numbers have been shit, but he's hustling.

But again, I see the trade not as

Gomez for Higgins

but

Gomez for space to sign Gaborik

Gomez:

26GP - 3G, 11A

Gaborik:

27GP - 21G, 17A

and for good measure

Higgns:

28GP - 3G, 6A

Gomez has a whopping 5 more assists than Higgins, he's not playing that much better

[Brill Weave]

The one upshot is I completely expect a move to be going down -- soon.

Gaborik to Detroit for Ville Leino, draft picks, and a wheel of munster cheese.

[BadKarma]

Gaborik to Detroit for Ville Leino, draft picks, and a wheel of munster cheese.

I expect something more along the lines of:

Rosival being sent down to Hartford for his career to die and free up cap space. (Cant do it with Redden cuz of no movement clause).

And trading young talent (Grachev, Sanguinetti, etc) to Chicago for Patrick Sharp.

[Brill Weave]

Yeah too bad Chicago's salary cap situation is ridiculous. Otherwise you could send them one high priced overrated defensman to skate with their existing high priced overrated defenseman. And this is why the Rangers are never a serious contender imo. Trading away the future to try and win now now now.

[Sepukku]

If the Kings had the goaltending to make a legitimate cup run, I could see them taking Gaborik off your hands for some draft picks, as they do have the cap space I believe, but alas.

It would be a mutually beneficial deal too, the Rangers young guns would get more ice time and experience all of March/April and the orginization would get a few draft picks, and the Kings could finally give their young stars a chance to taste and shine in the postseason. Gaborik with Kopitar? Sick, they're two of the fastest players in the league.