NHL 2007-2008 Season!

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Training Camps are open, the Leafs play their first Exhibition game tomorrow night in Edmonton!

I can't wait!

I for one think the Leafs will do better this year. Jason Blake will improve the offence, scoring some key goals, and when he gets off his suspension, Mark Bell will also contribute offennsively. Another crucial year of development for Carlo Colliaccovo, Ian White, Alexander Steen and Kyle Wellwood will make them better players than they were last year. The team is finally beginning to understand what Nik Antropov brings to the ice. Vesa Toskala will secure the Number one job, and the presence of Clemenson will make Raycroft available for the right deal.

It's very possible that they could make the palyoffs...

 

I would have to say that for all the reasons you mentioned the Leafs are a slightly better team than they were last year. Normally I wouldn't get all that excited about that but I think that the other teams in their division are not as strong as they were last year which should make things interesting. All in all I think the Leafs have a solid shot at making the playoffs this year although I don't think they have the defence or goaltending to win the cup.

 

Well, Pogge looked good in net tonight in the exhibition game against Edmonton. Ponikarovsky got a beautiful goal in the first period, and I see him really stepping up.

Right now I see two lines for Opening Night:

Sundin-Blake-Antropov
Wellwood-Tucker-Ponikarovsky.

Then there's Stajan and Gamache who played well together (Steen likely the third on that line)

I liked seeing Belak with Ondrus and Newbury together. That was a harsh forecheck...

 

Vancouver has been buzzing about hockey again too. I guess people here think we can seriously contend with Luongo in net. I hope more that a second line of consistent scoring materializes in Naslund and Morrison.

Sami Salo out for a month already, after one exhibition game

 

Yeah and I just read that Anson Carter left the Toronto-Edmonton game with a concussion. I am guessing that pretty much kills his hopes of getting a contract. Oh well, sooner or later someone will give him another chance.

 

I'm really likeing this guy Gamache. He stood up one of the Phoenix guys at the Leafs Blue line at the end of the second period. He also assisted on Steen's goal.

Blake got the tying goal. That Line with him, Sundin and Antropov looks really good too.

 

Penguins will be good again. How can they not be.

 

The line with Tucker and Ponikarovsky doesn't seem to be gelling. They've tried Wellwood, Steen and Pohl at centre, but they don't seem to be getting the results that Paul Maurice wants...

 

Over two weeks and nothing?

I guess that JSBB and I are the only ones who seem to care, and we're both Leaf's fans...

The Leafs beat the Montreal Canadians tonight in overtime, bringing their record to 1-1-1 for the season. They'ce looked good all three games, but they didn't get the results the first two games. If the results will eventually come, then I think that Paul Maurice may well guide this team into the Playoffs and make someone's life miserable for 4 to 7 games in April...

 

Good to welcome back Hockey Night in Canada in CBC Results today couldn't have been any better for the Canadian teams - they all got at least one point.

I think my super early picks for the Stanley Cup finalists are San Jose in the west and Ottawa in the east. Both have looked very strong so far, with deep lineups. Anaheim and Buffalo seem to be slipping early on, rather disappointing.

 

I blame the Sabres management for that slip up. They could have signed Drury and Briere long term and got Vanek cheaper had they been willing to negotiate during the season. But instead they lost the first two and are overpaying for the third.

AS for the Ducks, Neidemayer and Selane are hard to replace. Burke seems to be more interested in jabbering at Kevin Lowe over the Dustin Penner deal, and maybe should pay more attention to his own team...

 

Oilers are surprising the young players (Cogliano, Ganger and Gilbert) are playing well. I hope they keep it up all season.

The Penguins I haven't been able to watch yet. They seemed to struggle in both games and just escaped Anaheim because they capitalized on a worn out teams mistakes.

 

Yeah, Edmonton will be in feast or famine mode as we see what the kids will do over the season.

Pittsburgh caught another break as Crosby didn't break his foot blocking a shot.

Toronto's big off season free agent signing, Jason Blake has just been diagnosed with a rare but treatable form of Lukemia. He believes himself able to play through this however. The big question is what are the side effects of this medication...

 

How bad is it when your goalie was your best player in a 7-1 loss?

The Leaf's defence has looked absolutely pathetic so far this year. Blake and Tucker have been a big fat zero so far. Sundin has been playing well but he can only do so much. Besides Sundin I guess Stajan and Steen are the only silver lining so far. McCabe just seems to play worse every time I see him.

It looks like Maurice is going to be putting the Sundin Antropov Ponikarovsky line back together again for the starting line-up instead of switching to it midgame and teaming Blake up with Stajan and Steen. So much for Blake being the great scoring winger that Sundin has always needed. It is almost a shame that the Leaf didn't unload Tucker around the trade deadline last year when he actually had some value.

Oh well, at least the people in Ottawa have reason to be happy. Having two quality number one goalies sure beats having two second stringers.

 

I (and many of my friends) used to watch hockey a lot. I was really into it. I had a favorite team (Penguins) and everything. During that time, the U.S. referred to the sports scene as "The Big Four". Football was #1, Baseball #2, Basketball #3, and Hockey closing fast at #4.

Then the strike happened, and it seems like Americans largely forgot about hockey. The thing is now you NEVER see a hockey game on TV. It used to be that hockey was shown an major national television networks - FOX, CBS, etc. Failing that, there were always a couple of games per week televised on ESPN. ESPN is a cable network, but it is really a basic cable station, and any cable package includes it. So the games were readily available to see for just about everyone.

Last year the playoffs were broadcast on OLN (which I'm told stands for "outdoor life network"). wtf? Needless to say, the big four in the U.S. are down to three. OLN is hardly what anyone would call a basic cable station. In fact, unless you have an ultra-delux cable package that gives you 200+ channels, you probably DON'T get OLN.

So there are now only two ways you can see hockey games in the U.S. (I mean on TV - you can obviously see hockey if you go to a game). Some local affiliates will carry hockey games of the local team. I live near Baltimore, and Baltimore doesn't have a NHL team, so that's out for me. The other is to buy the NHL package (which I think is now called "Center Ice") which shows somewhere around 30-40 hockey games per week. That's great and all, but it also will set you back about $150 for the package, and with a new baby that's costing me a fortune... well... I don't like hockey quite that much.

I guess what I'm saying is that the reason there aren't many Americans in this thread is not because we don't like hockey - it's that we can't see hockey. And that ticks me off, because it wasn't long ago that you could find a game on almost any given night. Sorry for the rant - but I've been stewing over this for the past couple of years. I mean when you can't even watch the PLAYOFFS something is wrong.

 

That really sucks Aldeth.

I always liked the lesser interest in hockey that you find in the U.S. because it allows me to see hockey games there for relatively cheap. Buying $10 Blackhawk tickets and then sneaking down to ice level has become almost a tradition for our Chicago audits.

I always figured that with the silly number of sports channels that exist these days that someone would be airing hockey.

 

Just to update on Aldeth's post. Now a lot of people think that UFC/ other mixed martial arts leagues are the #4.

[ October 11, 2007, 02:48: Message edited by: The Great Snook ]

 

The only channel that I know of that shows hockey in the US is VS.

 

Or Poker at #4, that has gotten really popular since the strike year. I thought hockey's biggest competition was basketball because the seasons clash. Football is still there, but they only play once a week on certain days right? Baseball plays every day, but only from April to October or so. What else can they show on a Wednesday night in the middle of December besides hockey? Probably basketball, UFC or poker.

Toskala is better than what you've seen so far. Last year, he competed with Evgeni Nabokov for the starting job in San Jose. He got traded because San Jose didn't want two number one goalies eating up cap space. I think he's just the victim of bad defensive so far, and maybe also from pressure after being traded.

 

It gets worse in Leaf Land. Alexei Ponikarovsky was injured in practice today after colliding along the boards with Chad Kilger. It sounded bad from what I heard on the Toronto Sport's radio station...

Tomorrow when I go to feed the cats, I'll be putting on the hard hat. I would not be surprised if some blogs are claiming that the sky is falling...