2010-2011 NHL Season Thread

[Thoronas]

Big surprise there. I'm going to try my hand at predicting the future now. Wade Redden will clear waivers and no one will take him. I'm a psychic!

[Sepukku]

PENS GAME TONIGHT AT CONSOL ENERGY CENTER :D

Fleury, Crosby, Malkin, and Tangradi all starting - no word on the D though, no Comrie.

Soooooooooooooooo pumped!

[Thoronas]

On the ferry to the island testing the wifi for tomorrows draft and it looks like the ferry wifi is full of fail. Doesn't provide streaming media which includes the draft app. Sucks because last years draft was fun but whatevs. Some good games tonight and tomorrow.

Cody Hodgson, Vancouver's big draft pick from 2 years ago is finally going to play a preseason game after damn near a year of ridiculous medical problems and media hand wringing about whether or not Vancouver squandered their 1st round draft pick. Looking forward to seeing him play tomorrow, although I'm not expecting much he could be on our third line this year.

[Callisto]

Whew, got our new modem set up and will be ready to roll tomorrow night. Just got back from the draft for the ESPN cash league that I'm doing with RL buddies, I got a reasonable team considering I couldn't log in until the 4th round and the first few were auto-picked, though my goalies are kinda suspect. Ended up with:

Crosby
Carter
Gaborik
Tavares
Lecavalier
Prospal
Simmonds
Gagner
Hejduk
Lidstrom
Hedman
Robidas
Suter
Ballard
Modano(utility)
Quick
Ellis

and a bench of:
Fleischmann
van Riemsdyk
Spacek
Turris
Jeff Schultz

[Ishido]

Wings' roster for tonight's game:

Jordan Owens-Valtteri Filppula-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Justin Abdelkader-Francis Pare
Jamie Tardif-Cory Emmerton-Jan Mursak
Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Aaron Downey


Brad Stuart-Jonathan Ericsson
Doug Janik-Brendan Smith
Jakub Kindl-Logan Pyett

Chris Osgood
Thomas McCollum

Looks like it will be the opposite of last night!

[Callisto]

lol, incoming Kane/Toews/Hossa line then

[Callisto]

Turco's 35 now, maybe in 3-4 more he'll be old enough to sign with the Wings!

[Ishido]

Pft the Wings homegrow their mediocre goalies, thank you very much.

[Palin]

Slight recap of tonight's games:

There were a bunch of games tonight, quite a few of them starting late, so here's a quick recap of the games that began before 9pm ET. We'll cover the rest Sunday morning.

Pittsburgh 3, Columbus 1

Plus: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin skated on the same line, which might not be a great idea for depth scoring but would surely be fun to watch. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 of 33 shots and the Penguins are 3-0 in games that don't matter at all. Oh and apparently Malkin got in a fight with Blue Jackets star Rick Nash.

Minus: Derick Brassard went 6-18 in the faceoff circle while Columbus went 18-41 overall. Oh, Nash and Malkin also got in a fight. If it was anything like Crosby's skirmishes, that could be a minus.

Buffalo 3, Toronto 1

Plus: The Sabres bombarded the preseason-weary Leafs (2-2-1) in their exhibition opener with 44 shots on goal. Ryan Miller stopped all of the paltry nine shots he saw in the game.

Minus: "The Curse of Cuthbert" continues as Mike Komisarek was on the ice for all three Sabres goals.

Ottawa 6, Montreal 2

Plus: Jason Spezza (two goals and one assist) and Nick Foligno (two goals) dominated the Habs. Bobby Butler provided one goal and one assist, too.

Minus: The Carey Price bandwagon hit another pothole, as the beleaguered face of the Habs franchise allowed six goals on 30 shots in this one. Is it time to panic yet?

NYR 5, NJ 4 (OT)

Plus: Mike del Zotto put up an impressive one goal, three assist performance including the overtime game-winner. The Rangers went a stunning 4-for-5 on the power play. Ilya Kovalchuk (one goal and one assist) and Zach Parise (three assists) kept their electric chemistry going.

Minus: Of course, the "ZIP" line hasn't really created many wins for the Devils just yet. Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Hedberg will not put this game on their personal highlight reels.

Florida 3, Boston 2 (SO)

Plus: New Bruins Tyler Seguin and Nathan Horton scored the goals.

Minus: The Panthers' 2010 top pick Erik Gudbranson went -2 in the game. The Bruins gave up a 2-0 lead and lost the game.

Carolina 1, Atlanta 0

Plus: Cam Ward earned a shutout, tossing aside all 32 shots while Chris Mason was solid going 28 for 29. Jeff Skinner strengthened his solid chance of making the team by scoring the game's only goal.

Minus: Sergei Samsonov's injury overshadowed all of this, although it looks like he's going to be OK.

Dallas 5, St. Louis 2

Plus: Brenden Morrow and Mike Ribeiro showed why they were once a strong pairing, with Morrow scoring twice and Ribeiro produced two assists.

Minus: Cam Janssen and Krys Barch fought, which might put their regular season fight/play date in jeopardy.

Chicago 4, Detroit 2

Plus: The announced crowd of 20,553 people set a new franchise record for preseason games in Chicago. Marian Hossa, Jack Skille and Duncan Keith all earned a goal and an assist.

Minus: Chris Osgood was in preseason (or maybe regular season?) form.

Washington 2, Nashville 1

Plus: Mike Green factored into both Capitals goals, scoring a goal and an assist.

Minus: Green once sported a faux hawk.

Philadelphia 3, Minnesota 2 (SO)

Plus: Nikolai Zherdev scored one real world goal and one shutout goal. Sergei Bobrovsky has a funny last name.

Minus: Oskars Bartulis playing 23 minutes in an NHL game seems crazy, even in a preseason game.

[Bregor]

Washington 2, Nashville 1

Plus: Mike Green factored into both Capitals goals, scoring a goal and an assist.

Minus: Green once sported a faux hawk.

Don't make me post the picture again.

In all seriousness, the best thing about the two preseason games has been our goaltending. All four guys in camp look sharp. It might make for some playing time controversy, but if both Varlamov and Neuvirth get 35-45 starts with Holtby running the show in Hershey, I'd be fine with that. As much as I liked Theodore and hate to see him unemployed this fall, I think we'll be better this season without him.

[Brill Weave]

Bregor, the Crosby/Ovie picture my boss made and entered into one of the Puck Daddy contests. That's all.
I still find it amusing as hell to see.

[Palin]

Last night's late games:

Calgary 5, Tampa Bay 4 (SO)

Plus: Ales Kotalik succeeded in acting like a useful player for once, scoring one goal and two assists in regulation before potting the shootout winner. T.J. Brodie scored two goals and has the kind of name you'd think would be used in "Role Models" while Mark Giordano produced three assists. The Lightning's big guns showed up big with Vincent Lecavalier (two goals), Martin St. Louis (three assists), Steven Stamkos (one goal, one assist) and Simon Gagne (one goal) all producing something.

Minus: Brodie didn't get a early SO chance even after scoring two goals. This game won't exactly heal those Ruslan Fedetenko-created Game 7 Stanley Cup finals wounds.

Vancouver 4, Anaheim 1

Plus: The Sedin twins put out identical efforts (one goal and one assist each), while the Canucks power play was an efficient two for four. Roberto Luongo had a nice game (fueled by his new style?), only allowing one out of 29 shots to go in.

Minus: With Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry getting the night off, the next best Ducks had a bad night; Teemu Selanne, Bobby Ryan, Saku Koivu and Lubomir Visnovsky combined for a -6 rating.

Phoenix 2, San Jose 1 (part I)

Plus: It was the Radim Vrbata show, with the only-comfortable-in-Phoenix forward scoring both goals on the power play. Newcomer Ray Whitney earned the first assist on both Vrbata goals. Both Thomas Griess (28 for 30 saves) and Ilya Bryzgalov (21 of 22 saves) acquitted themselves nicely last night.

Minus: I just typed "the Radim Vrbata show."

San Jose 3, Phoenix 1 (part II)

Plus: Both Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley put one goal and one assist each while Coyotes captain Shane Doan scored a power-play goal. Antti Niemi posted a solid game, stopping 18 out of 19 shots in just under two periods of play.

Minus: These split-scrimmage games will be obnoxious until NHL teams openly label one squad the "junior varsity." Insert any New York Islanders/Florida Panthers jokes here.

In other news, Leighton has a tweaked back (lolPhilly goaltenders), Streit from the Islanders a tweaked shoulder, and Harding is gonna be out the entire season with torn ACL. Sucks.

[Bregor]

Bregor, the Crosby/Ovie picture my boss made and entered into one of the Puck Daddy contests. That's all.
I still find it amusing as hell to see.

You gotta be shitting me, that was my favorite one from that contest. Well, maybe besides:

http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/ept_spor...fK_yCDL9CDuj2B

DRAFT TONIGHT! This three homer pick rule is going to kill me. Seriously, since my team has like six top 50 picks, can I get an extra one?

[Callisto]

lol I didn't even have an opportunity to make homer picks in my draft yesterday, the top-end Hawks were all gone instantly before I could even log in and get off auto-pick, I ended up with a lot of TB/LA players.

[Thoronas]

I look forward to seeing my team when I get home tonight. I just pray to god I get a decent goalie and not a bunch of useless dmen.

[Sepukku]

Pens started out slow last night but ended up beating the piss out of the Bluejackets in every sense of the word. Columbus had most of their starters, including Nash, Brassard, Filatov, and Mason. Only notable missing people were Umberger, Huselius, and Commodore.

(1) Columbus was like 0/7 on the PP.
(2) Mason looks really good this year again, despite the loss.

(3) 5 fights, all but 1 "won" by the Pens. Letang fought twice, beating the crap out of two no namers trying to make a name for themselves. 2nd one he dropped the guy to his knees and the dude rather than turtle and cover his head looked up at him and Letang dropped 3-4 punches squarely in his face execution style before the refs broke it up. Malkin and Nash fought with 3 minutes left and Malkin somehow won >_>

(4) Tangradi is huge - visibly bigger than everyone else on the ice. He is also very NHL ready.

(5) Pens new Umbrella PP looks better than any Pens PP in years. Amazing passes confusing the fuck out of the defense, 1 timers coming from everywhere, tons of shots.

(6) Simon Despres is spending 1 year, tops, in the AHL. He is a little inconsistent due to his amateur levelness, but when hes got himself mentally/emotionally collected and not nervous, he is the future of the Pens D. At one point took the puck in the Pens end and weaved in and out through the entire Columbus forecheck, up into the Columbus zone, and got an uncontested shot off from one of the faceoff circles. On defense, at one point after a turnover, they tried splitting the D by chipping the puck up to someone cheating up the ice and Depres coolly knocked it down out of midair and then effortlessly pokechecked it 3 feet behind the Columbus dude who picked it back up after his knockdown. Oh, and he can HIT.

(7) Consol Energy Center is fucking sick.

(8.) Tyler Kennedy is a fucking joke and should never be on an NHL team, ever. Most pens fans already know this, but he looked even more terrible than usual. Ran into his own teammate in the offensive zone, horrible defensively, at least 5 turnovers, tripping over his own feet, TERRIBLE.

[Sepukku]

OUR DRAFT IS TONIGHT: Who will be there, who won't?! 9:30 PM EST, try to be on BG+Yahoo by 9 PM EST

Will be there:
Sepukku

Won't be there:
Thoronas

etc.etc.

[Bregor]

Malkin and Nash fought with 3 minutes left and Malkin somehow won >_>

Saw that on YouTube, lol. My opinion of Rick Nash just went down a notch.

(5) Pens new Umbrella PP looks better than any Pens PP in years. Amazing passes confusing the fuck out of the defense, 1 timers coming from everywhere, tons of shots.

Can Malkin still just park on the right circle?

[vagus]

Doubt we'll ever seen the Sedin twins go back to back as picks ever again. Lol.

[Sepukku]

***Edit*** Man fuck BG's youtube tags not working. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqaWEH5cUok

Not only do you get to see Mad Malkin, you get treated to the colorful commentary of Bob Errey.

Bregor+Vagus, draft availability tonight?