At 11/14/10 06:38 PM, Ronald-McDonald-LoL wrote: 2-0-0 on the home stand so far. Beat Colorado and shat down the Oilers' chimney.

Well, that's just cheering for a win over the Avs :P

Also, St Louis is on a little frefall at the moment, with the Avs solving Halak. I hope that Chris Stewart carries on killing the Blues for us. When we get Andy back between the pipes, we are looking to be a very good team. Not the best in the NHL, but the best team on paper rarely wins it all :P

At 11/16/10 04:20 PM, MattTheParanoidKat wrote: When the Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames are doing better than your team... better re-evaluate with side of New York you wanna cheer for.

I guess that I just don't like faggotry enough to like the Rags. I'd sooner root for the Flyers.

It's cute how the Blues aim to beat out the Red Wings for the best in the Central -- but fail miserably every year.

Halak scored on himself and they played the circus music. That made my night.

Danny Cleary has been absolutely red-hot lately, two goals tonight.
Don't let the score fool you (7-4), the first two periods were intense and very close. Wings just blew this right open in the third.

St. Louis is actually one point ahead of Chicago at this very minute in the Central standings. But they look pretty convincing tonight, so I think the Blues will sink to 3rd.

At 4/21/10 01:05 AM, michelinman wrote: FUCK JOE PAVELSKI.

I screamed this again less than 1 minute into the game tonight. I'm beginning to hate this man. If the NHL was 82 games of Avs/Sharks matchups, this dude would be the MVP. Got the assist on the early goal, but then disappeared luckily. Beat the team that knocked us out of the playoffs on an OT breakaway. Gotta love it. Now if someone could just bash in that bastard Pavelskis knee, we might be able to win a series against them.

So, the Fliers and Bolts combining for 9 goals in 14 minutes the other night - did the goalies decide to go on strike for the 1st?

Ilya Kovalchuk / Marty Brodeur / Devils. ROFL I'm so glad I traded away a liability in the fantasy league.

Colorado is starting to put it together, with a 5-1 win over the Rangers and with Andy back between the pipes, that's a very encouraging sign. How long before Peter Mueller is back on his skates?

Pat Burns 1952 - 2010. He will be missed, as he's a great success story for the ex-cop, turned hockey coach, who won the Jack Adams award 3 times, with three different teams (Montreal, Toronto and Boston) and possibly deserving of it in 2003 with New Jersey. He was the only coach to win that award 3 times.

What about the defending champs? 22 games into the season for them and they lie in 11th in the West, with a 10-10-2 record. If the teams below them win enough of their 4 or 5 games in hand, the Hawks will lie 14th at the quarter distance marker. Are the alarm bells ringing in the Windy City? Perhaps it's because their opponents have got better and they have traded down? Detroit has recovered from injuries and looks strong, St. Louis has Halak in net (though they still can't solve the Avs) and Columbus is of to its best start yet.

As for the most competitive divisions in the NHL, I'd say that in the East, we're talking the Southeast narrowly edging out the Northeast, because of Toronto's poor showing. That could change pretty much overnight.

Out West, the most competitive division is the Central. If the Champs can make some close games count, they could certainly be back in the mix. The Pacific has 5 teams separated by 4 points and there is good competition in the Northwest, but Edmonton and Calgary are dragging the standard down there.

LET'S GO IS-LES! (12th, loss, in a row)

Lucky number thirteen.

Our offense is just terrible.

Turned the tables on Calgary in the last few seconds to force overtime, then Nick Lidstrom scores the winner. My god. What a game.

Pavel Datsyuk is fucking amazing. Found his way through three Calgary players, and set up Henrik Zetterberg for the tying goal.

My bet is on Nick Lidstrom for the Norris, and Datsyuk for the Selke, again. This is how well they've been playing.

Well, ain't that a b.

Sidney Crosby, most underrated player?

"Instead, dopes like you, if you're a fan of Alex Ovechkin(notes) or Steven Stamkos(notes) or -- in Alex Semin's case -- Patrick Kane, you are the reason there is sadness in the world, because, "Crosby is now an underrated player," according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT

Yeah that blog post was a fucking joke. Crosby is very good, but fuck the idea that he's underrated. If anything he's just "rated" at this point, because for several years he was definitely overrated.

Also, Evgeni Malkin will never get the love he deserves as long as he plays with Crosby. Second fiddle all the way.

At 11/22/10 10:52 PM, Ronald-McDonald-LoL wrote: Sidney Crosby, most underrated player?

Come on man, that was the most blatantly sarcastic and hyperbolic thing I've read in a while.

I actually kind of liked it though, because the point he is trying to make isn't that far off:

Basically Crosby is probably better now than he was in the years when the media was all over his nuts, but now there is a new flavour of the month in the NHL, so Crosby's outstanding season is sort of shifted out of focus. I've recently heard a few people say Stamkos is better than Crosby, which is completely ridiculous in my opinion, and it would appear in the blogger's as well.

I think it's in general more about the fickleness of our consumption of stars, than about Crosby in particular, that's what I got out of it anyways.

At 11/24/10 01:03 PM, EternitySpent wrote:

At 11/22/10 10:52 PM, Ronald-McDonald-LoL wrote: Sidney Crosby, most underrated player?

Come on man, that was the most blatantly sarcastic and hyperbolic thing I've read in a while.

Oh, no, I understand that, it's just the actual post that says that Crosby is underrated that got me. I mean, it was pretty bad. If anything, Crosby is just now finally falling out of the spotlight that has been shining up his ass since the Lockout.

I actually quite enjoyed the article and the sarcasm.

Wait, that came out really confusing.

What I meant is that I laughed at the satire, but I thought the original piece from the Pittsburgh newspaper was quite stuck up.

I think I'm going to cry. I thought Anderson being out again was bad, not Stewart decided to break his hand. Who had this idea of fighting with helmets on anyway? Back in my hockey days we took those fuckers off before we fought.

Let's hope they can keep pulling off some wins. Budaj isn't looking too hot, but if our strength of scoring goals goes down with Stewart out, that won't help at all.

It's time for some Statsny magic.

Remember when the Flames were actually a competent team? Neither do I :D

At 12/1/10 11:33 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote: I think I'm going to cry. I thought Anderson being out again was bad, not Stewart decided to break his hand. Who had this idea of fighting with helmets on anyway? Back in my hockey days we took those fuckers off before we fought.

And we're still fighting for top of the division without Andy. What's the problem?

Let's hope they can keep pulling off some wins. Budaj isn't looking too hot, but if our strength of scoring goals goes down with Stewart out, that won't help at all.

Okay, the loss of Chris Stewart is going to hurt. David Jones is now the leader for Goals and we need some help from Stastny and Hejduk to keep us going, along with Duchene, who seems to have found his scoring touch of late.

It's time for some Statsny magic.

How about a line with him, Hejduk and the newly acquired Tomas Fleischmann?

At 12/2/10 04:40 AM, Coop wrote: And we're still fighting for top of the division without Andy. What's the problem?

Which is amazing, but how long can we ride that wave for you think?

Okay, the loss of Chris Stewart is going to hurt. David Jones is now the leader for Goals and we need some help from Stastny and Hejduk to keep us going, along with Duchene, who seems to have found his scoring touch of late.

We certainly don't lack talent, albeit somewhat young talent. Hopefully someone will manage to step up.

How about a line with him, Hejduk and the newly acquired Tomas Fleischmann?

Yes I think that's what they've been looking at. Moving Fleischmann to the left wing should be interesting. I've never heard of him before so I don't know much about him. But I know Hejduk and Stastny have always made a good pair.

Oh how I miss the good old days with Forsberg and Sakic...

At 12/2/10 06:17 AM, SpiffyMasta wrote:

At 12/2/10 04:40 AM, Coop wrote: And we're still fighting for top of the division without Andy. What's the problem?

Which is amazing, but how long can we ride that wave for you think?

As long as we make the playoffs, anything is possible. We came in with an 8 seed last year and took the sharks to game 7. We've got no trouble scoring goals which is an easy way to put up some breathing room on those tough road games in our series. If we've got everyone healthy for round 1, I wouldn't put money against us. These guys all want to win.

Okay, the loss of Chris Stewart is going to hurt. David Jones is now the leader for Goals and we need some help from Stastny and Hejduk to keep us going, along with Duchene, who seems to have found his scoring touch of late.

We certainly don't lack talent, albeit somewhat young talent. Hopefully someone will manage to step up.

You called it at the start of the year about David Jones Coop. That guy has been lighting it up. Very impressed. It sucks we lost Stewart, but with how many goals the team is scoring as a whole, we can still win games on days Anderson and Budaj play well.

How about a line with him, Hejduk and the newly acquired Tomas Fleischmann?

Oh how I miss the good old days with Forsberg and Sakic...

I think with some time, one day we'll be saying Oh how I miss the good old days with Stewart and Duchene. Plus Ryan O'Reilly, even though he's only got 7 points thus far. Hard to say anything bad about that guy when he works as hard as he does. Those guys are improving so fast and they're so young. Lot of potential.

OMG CROSBY NATURAL HAT TRICK!!!!

*media beats off furiously*

At 12/3/10 03:48 PM, Buddhist wrote: OMG CROSBY NATURAL HAT TRICK!!!!

*media beats off furiously*

WOW
WOW
WOW

THAT'S AMAZING.

In other news, I read a story about how Crosby is upset about being called a dirty player. Waaah.
Did you see the call a few games ago where he gave another player the slewfoot and they took the penalty?
This is the number one reason why I don't have any respect for him. He's a crybaby. I bet you can check the statistics for this year and Pittsburgh will be leading the league in power plays, especially in the third period when they happen to be down by a goal.

That's my two cents worth. I think the media should focus on some of the more underrated players in the league. . .

At 12/3/10 12:53 PM, michelinman wrote:

At 12/2/10 06:17 AM, SpiffyMasta wrote:

At 12/2/10 04:40 AM, Coop wrote: Okay, the loss of Chris Stewart is going to hurt. David Jones is now the leader for Goals and we need some help from Stastny and Hejduk to keep us going, along with Duchene, who seems to have found his scoring touch of late.

We certainly don't lack talent, albeit somewhat young talent. Hopefully someone will manage to step up.

You called it at the start of the year about David Jones Coop. That guy has been lighting it up. Very impressed. It sucks we lost Stewart, but with how many goals the team is scoring as a whole, we can still win games on days Anderson and Budaj play well.

Jones was playing well last season, before he tore his ACL. Now he's on my fantasy team again and scoring a little. I'd ideally like to see us scoring more points and coughing up less. The game last night was a good tilt, with Cam Ward keeping the Avs at bay for the most part. Tampa are coming off a blowout loss to the Bruins and will be expected to be a tough test for us. It doesn't get any easier, with trips to Atlanta and Washington.

Oh how I miss the good old days with Forsberg and Sakic...

I think with some time, one day we'll be saying Oh how I miss the good old days with Stewart and Duchene. Plus Ryan O'Reilly, even though he's only got 7 points thus far. Hard to say anything bad about that guy when he works as hard as he does. Those guys are improving so fast and they're so young. Lot of potential.

I'm pretty sure we'll be saying that Craig Anderson was the best goalie that played for the Avs, by his numbers. Since Roy played for the Habs for so long, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to get as many wins in an Avs jersey as him. I think he's after about 280 for the marker, so a good few seasons of work, but Anderson's work ethic is fantastic.

At 12/4/10 04:58 PM, Coop wrote: I'm pretty sure we'll be saying that Craig Anderson was the best goalie that played for the Avs, by his numbers. Since Roy played for the Habs for so long, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to get as many wins in an Avs jersey as him. I think he's after about 280 for the marker, so a good few seasons of work, but Anderson's work ethic is fantastic.

The only thing he might get better than St-Patrick is wins total. If he lasts that long in front of the net for the Avs. You can't top Roy. No. Just no. Roy is the best goalie that played for the Avs. It'll take a guy that can bring us a few cups in a row to top him.

Sorry :) I just won't stand for that Coop lol.

Not that Anderson isn't a really good goalie, I think he's pretty special, but I just can't make the comparison.

End of 2nd period vs. Tampa, 4-2... Let's score some goals damn it.

Comparing Patrick Roy to Craig Anderson is like comparing gold to... something that isn't very good.

Also, I think the whole Crosby is a crybaby thing is vastly overstated. I actually liked his comments when they asked him about the whole Callahan/Dubinsky thing; he got that Crosby smirk on his face and was like: "If I tripped him, I tripped him." In general I think it's a little funny that anyone on the Rangers would call someone out for being a dirty player, seeing as they are pretty much the dirtiest fucking team in the league.

The NHL needs more of these Original Six matchups. They rock.
Watching Montreal vs Detroit, 1-1 after the first. It's loud downtown.
What better game to watch? Seriously, if you like hockey, I don't see a better matchup tonight.

That game was awesome. The NHL needs to get a clue and put the Original Six teams together more. Montreal - Detroit would be an epic Stanley Cup final. I hope it happens this year.

Nick Lidstrom shows once again that he is not too old -- Norris-level play at age 40. And Pavel Datsyuk was asked about his goal after the game:

Q: Here it is, your goal. Explain what happened?
A: I just shoot.

Or something like that.

What a classy match-up, and it did not disappoint.

Coop, do the I <3 Tomas Fleischmann dance with me! *dances*

Avs are suddenly on a tear beating down the Blackhawks twice in 2 games, which makes me happy as I live in Illinois and the majority of hockey fans here like the hawks. I was talking shit so bad on facebook. Haha. 4 game win streak and we're on top of the Northwest division and a lot of it is due to Mr. Fleischmann scoring goals left and right. Life is good.

At 12/4/10 09:10 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote: Not that Anderson isn't a really good goalie, I think he's pretty special, but I just can't make the comparison.

Not yet. When Patrick Roy joined the Nordiques / Avs franchise, he was proven as a goalie with a massive future and already two cups to his name. Anderson is a goalie, with something to prove, which he did last year, showing that he's a first choice goalie. Now he's got a chance to take it further and we get to see if we can build on last year's work.

Duchene is developing into a franchise player, picking up pretty much where Joe Sakic left off, so we're looking good there. Given that there are some pretty good players to back him up, in Stewart, Stastny and even the veteran presence of Milan Hejduk is still paying dividends.

It was a shame that the days when players like Hejduk, Chris Drury (we got rid of you far too early) and Alex Tanguay seem to have turned into a false dawn, but I think this could be the real thing and good times are set to roll in Colorado.

At 12/19/10 06:51 PM, michelinman wrote: Coop, do the I <3 Tomas Fleischmann dance with me! *dances*

I think I shall *dances madly*

At 12/20/10 04:46 PM, Coop wrote:
Not yet. When Patrick Roy joined the Nordiques / Avs franchise, he was proven as a goalie with a massive future and already two cups to his name. Anderson is a goalie, with something to prove, which he did last year, showing that he's a first choice goalie. Now he's got a chance to take it further and we get to see if we can build on last year's work.

That's true, he already had the established achievements in place and half his career behind him already. Even though his cups were seven years apart, he was still dominant throughout that period of time. The guy won a cup at 20 years old for crying out loud! Hopefully Anderson can keep this wave going that he has right now, unlike last year when he started super hot, and ended up kind of dwindling down as the second half of the season came around.

Duchene is developing into a franchise player, picking up pretty much where Joe Sakic left off, so we're looking good there. Given that there are some pretty good players to back him up, in Stewart, Stastny and even the veteran presence of Milan Hejduk is still paying dividends.

There's no doubts in my mind we have a great core of young talented players, and hopefully we can capitalize on that, because it's when their salaries are still low that you can manage to keep so much talent on the same team. Save the Kariya/Selanne year, which ended up being a total disaster, salary caps make it difficult to round up a lot of talent. It always needs to be a perfect mix of established veterans and upcoming rising stars.

It was a shame that the days when players like Hejduk, Chris Drury (we got rid of you far too early) and Alex Tanguay seem to have turned into a false dawn, but I think this could be the real thing and good times are set to roll in Colorado.

Yea Drury and Tanguay were definitely two players I hated to see let go. Out of those three though, I think Hejduk is the best choice though.

I hope like you that we can get another championship within the next few years.

News in the NHL today is that our good friend Crosby's point streak is over at 25 games. And they lost to the Islanders, no less. How could this happen?
I've seen it many times. A large, powerful and maybe overrated team going to play with a very low-level team. Many things can happen. The "better" team may underestimate their opponent, or bad luck and bad bounces can turn the momentum.

All I know is that the Wings better not underestimate the Isles this upcoming New Years eve.

Red Wings are first in the West after clobbering Dallas, 7-3. They were actually down 3-1 at one point. I was more suprised by the hat trick by Patrick Eaves, a third liner. Very solid comeback.