On The Eve of the New Season: North of the Border Editio

sweetcell wrote:
has anyone heard from smackie?  i'm worrying about him, haven't heard a peep since the anaheim meltdown…

He was logged in the other night afterwards. I assumed the "goodbye cruel world" post just didn't go through.

3 of the last 4 seasons his Ducks have made the playoffs they've lost game 7's. That's about as brutal as it comes.

Price out for ECF. Takes a lot of air out of that series.

well, eff.

i cheered myself up after game 1 by saying "well, at least things can't get worse."

the rangers ran circles around the Habs, again.  lundqvist was ridiculous.  this series is over.  dammit.

sweetcell wrote:
the rangers ran circles around the Habs, again.  lundqvist was ridiculous.  this series is over.  dammit.

Sadly, I concur. Price being out is a game over scenario.

I hope Subban makes it to FA this off-season. I could see him becoming the first (post-cap) $10 mil/year d-man.

trotz

hutch wrote:
trotz

Brilliant hire! Caps have been leaderless for a decade and this is a game changer.

Much applause!!

What is up with this bullcrap "pull the goalie with five minutes to go" thing so many teams are doing? The pile of human garbage who coaches the Avs got this to work once and now it's de rigeuer no matter how many times it fails.

it often fails, however it rarely fails as spectacularly as it did tonight for the Rangers.  effin hell, that took like, what, 4 seconds?

but it matters not.  Rangers are going to end the series on Thursday, unfortunately.

Julian, wrote:
Lets put in some predictions so we can all look foolish in two weeks! One thing to keep in mind is there's no reseeding every round so its a more traditional bracket.

First Round
Bruins over Wings in 7
Habs over Tampa in 6

Pittsburg over Columbus in 5
Rangers over Flyers in 7

Avs over Wild in 5
Chicago over St Louis in 6

Ducks over Stars in 5
Kings over Sharks in 7

Divisional Finals
Habs over Bruins in 7
Rangers over Pens in 6

Blackhawks over Avs in 5
Kings over Ducks in 7

Conference Finals
Habs over Rangers in 5
Kings over Blackhawks in 6

Cup Finals
Kings over Habs in 5

13 of 15 series predicted correctly, including the champion (and getting 3 of their 4 series lengths correct too). Not too shabby.

/Shameless self-promotion.

Kesler to Smackies ducks for sbisa, bonino, and ducks first rounder.

Wings drafted Dylan Larkin outta UofM. I will be drinking G&Ts long into the night to celebrate.

So our claim to fame…two broken noses.  Can't say any other of the 15 can say that?

Sidehatch wrote:
So our claim to fame…two broken noses.  Can't say any other of the 15 can say that?

Is this soccer related material in the NHL thread? This will not stand.

I spent the weekend with Kings fans, which didn't help my attitude towards hockey. 

Both of the deals the Ducks made over the weekend however, were clearly aimed at one thing - depth to take on the Kings.  I like the win now attitude.

The Kesler trade was a stone-cold steal but Kesler kinda crippled Vancouver's bargaining position when he went from 6 teams he was willing to waive NTC for to 3, then eventually to 2.

Julian, wrote:

Sidehatch wrote:
So our claim to fame…two broken noses.  Can't say any other of the 15 can say that?

Is this soccer related material in the NHL thread? This will not stand.

My bad…didn't realize that north of the border mean NHL.  I imagine every team has 2-3 broken noses every night

Spezza to stars pending trade call

Looks like Ryan miller to Vancouver


This is quietly one of the best UFA crops in several years.

Ducks sign Stoner, who quickly moves into the top 3 of most sold sweaters.

Stasny to blues

Boyle to rags

Robidas to leafs

Ehrhoff to Pitt in a steal

Camalleri to jersey

Vanek to minnesota

Wings slept in, missed entire day