NHL 2007-2008 Season!

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The Flyers need to play with that physical edge, but the players they have need to learn to do so within the confines of the rules for them to be of benefit to the Flyers.

Also, Triactus, you were close, it was 3-2, but for the leafs, and no OT involved...

 

Haha, Iwas at my sister in law for a family supper and I got back in the middle of the third period. It was 2-2, so I was thinking that 3-2 in overtime was going to be plausible! Alas, close, yet so far away..

What do you think of the leafs' team this year? Do you think the team has improved from last season? I think Mark Bell was a good addition, but he has to actually play to see if he's going to help the team.

I think that Gainey could have done more to boost the Habs' team. Granted he tried to get Brière (it was down to Montréal and Phily for him, but he ultimatly chose Phily even though the habs had offered him more money) and Smyth (whom Montréal had also offered more money than Colorado). But there is a lot of risky players you can sign at a low salary but lots of bonuses. Offer Lindros 400 000$ plus performance bonuses. Lindros is a very risky choice because he's always injured, but let's face it, when he plays, he practically does at least 1 point per game. Anson Carter is another risky player that could be beneficial. Anyways, the habs have been playing great this year. They're 4th in the east. I just hope that they won't crash and burn in the winter like last year...

Actually, their bad streak started december 23rd. A quirky fact : the habs have lost every single game on decembre 23rd since something like 1946.... that's really funny!

 

The Leafs have too many players on no trade clauses (not that I'd trade some of them), and not enough room to develop younger players. I like the youth they have (Tlusty, Strahlman, Gamache), but they aren't there yet.

The Injuries and suspensions have taken their toll, as Wellwood, Tucker, McCabe and Colliaccovo are all out (Wellwood to be back against Ottawa Tuesday), and Mark Bell's suspension (also returning Tuesday against Ottawa), they haven't had their full roster. This is the loss of three top nine forwards and 2 top six defensemen. I am impressed with the way that guys like Pohl and White have stepped up the depth chart, and liked what I've seen from Strahlman, Gamache and Tlusty. I have my doubts about the playoffs, and believe that JFJ should be fired, but the future looks better (as long as they don't mess it up by giving up the key guys for aging vets who are past their prime).

That's freaky about the Canadians on Dec 23...

 

One thing that is somewhat encouraging for the Leafs is that the Marlies actually seem to be pretty good this year. I can't say that I have followed them that closely but when your farm team is doing well it has to give you at least some hope for the future. Of course knowing the Leafs they will probably trade away all of their good prospects for some old has-beens at the trade deadline in a futile attempt to make the playoffs.

 

Last I heard, the only loss the marlies have had was in a shootout. And they're getting Strahlman and Gamache back, likely Tlusty too...

 

Time to bring this one back to the lime light.

The Leafs beat the rival Ottawa Senators 3-0. Both Raycroft and Toscala have looked good (as long as you forget the game against Boston), getting 6 points in 5 games. They could make the playoffs and a first round with the Senators after all...

But this time the Leafs played solid defence, juggled the lines a bit, and they looked like they had some chemistry...

 

Mattias Ohlund received a 4-game suspension for a slash that broke Mikko Koivu's leg. Thus he'll miss the rematch when Vancouver plays in Minnesota this week. I hope the threats that their tough guy made to hurt the Canuck's star players does not boil over. Makes me kind of hope that the coach benches that guy just to avoid the issue altogether; I'm sure neither side wants another Todd Bertuzzi incident.

 

A broken leg makes the suspension justified then. At first it looked like something to get his attention that got more than he bargained for. I guess the slash was worse than it looked.

Meanwhile, I'm convinced that the Leafs need to fire the ownership, Gm and Coaching staff. Yet another blown lead, a 4 million dollar player that is not producing, and is having his input on the problem ignored by the coach, and a team at the cap with a couple guys that really need to be somewhere else, but they can't be traded because of the high salary and in some cases, no Trade clauses...

 

Teams with fired coaches this season seem to be doing well on the rebound. Just look at Atlanta, Washington and Dallas.

 

Dallas actually fired their GM. So as long as Ferguson or Maurice get the axe, then the season might turn around...

 

Luongo's shutout streak ended at 3 games, spanning 212 minutes. Fun while it lasted. Must be frustrating for him that the Canucks offense couldn't bail him out of a loss just because he let in 2 goals in a game. You can't expect a shutout every game.

 

Wow, Wade Belak actually managed to score a goal. If the Leafs keep playing like this they might actually manage to make the playoffs.

 

Figures, the first game I totally miss all year, and Belak pots one...

 

Hey Gnarf's got an avatar now! Nice!

Now to make this post not completely spam... Sidney Crosby is finally coming to western Canada! What do you think of the NHL going back to the old scheduling next year? I like it! Vancouver playing against Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal is sooo much more exciting to watch that playing Colorado and Minnesota 8 times a year. Say what you want about the development of those rivalries, but nothing beats the all-Canadian matchups.

 

I prefer the old schedule format over what we currently have but I would go even further and have every team play at least one home and one away game against every other team.

Division rivalries are nice but they get watered down if you play too often. I would much rather see all of the teams a couple of times than see yet another game against the division rivals.

The travel time argument is kind of silly really. I regularly travel for business and the lions share of the travel time in going anywhere in North America is the time to get to the airport, get checked in, wait for the flight, collect your baggage, catch a taxi to your hotel etc. The difference in actual flight time really isn't that significant.

 

I think there's a home and home with every team in the other conference for next year, and reduces conference and division games. It still promotes division rivalries without making you sick of them--unless you're beating them handily...

 

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=344955&page=NewsPage&service=page

 

But that's still not a homa and home with every team from the other conference. Sure there may not be the demand to see Florida, but they want to see Crosby, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, etc. in every city...

 

At worse you'll have to wait a year to see a particular team, instead of 3 years with the current schedule. It's still an improvement. I wonder what if they rotated between schedules regularly, maybe on a 3-year cycle or something, so everybody is happy for at least once in a while.

 

The media here is having some fun at the Leaf's demise. The good news is, they'll get a high draft pick.

3 Wings and 2 Flames in the starting lineup for the West all-stars... how's that for variety. I'm surprised Dion Phaneuf got voted into the all-star starting lineup in the West. I guess Chris Pronger gets booed too much by fans nowaday.