They were held off the scoreboard tonight because Halak played his ass off and had an amazing game. Congrats on the win, though 3-2 wasn't a massacre by any means, thank your goaltender for stopping 45/47 shots taken against him vs the mere 25/28 your team managed to get against Luo... ;-)
Firstly I never suggested it was a massacre, the Habs have been trash for a while now and it was nice to see them play a complete game. Secondly, the system the team plays gives up a lot of low-percentage shots which inflate the goaltender's stats. If you go by scoring chances it was a bit closer but still, Halak likes to give up juicy rebounds, I don't trust it but so far so good. And what a game for the Leafs, not only beating the Devils but shutting them out. Good for Phaneuf, he's their stud for the next XY years.
For all those hockey fans out there who so far do you think is the biggest surprise of the season. Could be a rookie or someone who has been around for a while? Possibly a little one eyed but Jimmy Howard for me is going off and is possibly the only thing that has and is keeping us in the race at the moment. I saw a little of him last year and the year before and did not think anything of him but this year has been a complete 180.
Biggest surprises to me are: 1. Herik Sedin, who's finally figured out that shooting the puck once in a while isn't a bad thing and he's having an amazing season because of it; 2. Duncan Keith being the big point man on D for the Hawks instead of Brian Campbell; 3. How quickly Tyler Myers has turned into a very good D-man.
I'm pretty damn far from a Leafs fan [I just like Leafs humour sites], but if you think the deals were in any way bad for Toronto you have a serious lack of appreciation to how bad they were prior to the trades. My only concern is whether this will hurt someone like Christian Hanson's development, but considering he's older already and was doing fine in the AHL the issue is moot. I'm pretty sure if you said "Hagman and White for Phaneuf" on a hockey board two weeks ago you would have been laughed at and/or banned. I'm still not sold on Halak. He's been playing well but as said they force low percentage shots and he is fucking -terrible- with the puck. How can you call Spacek and/or Hamrlik poison? Did you just not watch the half of the season we played without Andrei Markov?
I watch every game and most other games every night. They combine for nearly 10m in cap space and perform to the ability of two 2m defenseman. I'm not in the mood to get into a distinct analysis (I post on HFboards too, I've offered my thoughts there, repeatedly) but basically they're wrecking havoc to our otherwise heartful, fast team. They don't ever play physical, they don't skate fast, they don't protect the goalie (see: 2nd goal by Vancouver, Hamrlik wasn't even trying to bother Kesler), and their mental game and quickness is rapidly deteriorating. Spacek is playing on his off-side, but he is leading the league in giveaways. Hamrlik is 2nd. That is unacceptable considering their the two of the three slowest players on this team.
My 09-10 surprises: New Jersey still being good surprised me, I pegged this season to be their decent from grace. I guess it's next season... sigh. Washington being this good. Chicago too. Malkin being just great, not fantastic. Lecavalier missing the Canadian team. Edmonton's horrible campaign. Calgary trading Phaneuf. Gaborik's deserved superstar status on a very bad team. Guillaume Latendresse actually scoring regularly. Anaheim suffering from the Pronger curse. L.A. finally putting it together.
Oduya, Bergfors, Cormier (suspended for the season in the OHL), and a 1st. Less than I thought they'd get.
no assurances he'll sign after he becomes a UFA anyway. He wasn't going to sign with Atlanta for 100 mil, so at least they got something for it.
I agree that it's a rental trade as opposed to trading a guy of Kovy's status who's signed for a long time. I'm just surprised that A) Anyone would take Cormier; B) Oduya was the D-man that went; and C) New Jersey was in on this at all. Lemaire is gonna HATE the way Kovy plays.
Lou Lamoriello proves to be once again the best executive in the league today. I always liked 4quarters for 1dollar trades because most of the time the team getting the star player benefits much more. Oduya is great but replaceable. Cormier I like but his development has stalled due to suspension and will always have that stigma around him. The 1st is in the low 20s, still a good choice but Atlanta's scouting is pretty hit-or-miss. Bergfors is a talented player but I don't know anything else about him to offer a good analysis. The Devils will have fun with Kovalchuk now. Maybe waive Pandolfo and make more room for his new contract. He just wanted out of ATL, I doubt he's going to demand 100M$. Look out for more Lecavalier to Habs rumours, the Lightening were sold for 150M (peanuts!), and the owner doesn't want to lose money. edit: Begin is a moron, I hated him when he played for the Canadiens and I surely hate his guts now. Diving fool. Go Habs.
As a Devils fan, I can't tell you how excited I am to have Kovalchuk. Especially if he winds up playing with Zach Parise, it's not often you have two top 15 skaters (Kovy is top 15, Parise is top 10) playing on your top line. That being said, they're both natural left wings, so maybe we end up with Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner and Kovalchuk-Zubrus-Elias? I'm really looking forward to finding that out tonight. That being said, I know he's just a rental. You can't pay max salary to the second best player on your team, and Lou isn't gonna give this guy more than 5 years at 7-8m per. That being said, if the guy was willing to take less money to play on a winning team, I'd love to have him. Maybe Lou could even pull a Hossa like contract, frontload the fucker, then give him league min on the back end to mitigate the cap hit.
Man, I didn't realize how invested an article can make you: <a class="postlink" href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=4685761" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/s ... id=4685761</a> this was an article from a few months back about Brian Burke's son coming out. I figured 'cool, good to show Burke's an accepting guy of his son', I almost expected him to be the sort of "WHAT? THATS NOT TRUCULENT" or whatever. Anyway it was good to see that he was going to try and make it in hockey. Unfortunatly Brendan Burke died in a car accident tonight =\. I mean, all thoughts considered he's a guy I only know via proximity to celebrity, but fuck, seriously.
Well, there's the end of Gainey in Montreal. So nice to see that after fucking up the franchise ever since the lockout, he gets the luxury of stepping down instead of being fired like every other GM that screws up (except Sather). Bob Gainey: "Hey Pierre, you know the Gomez/Ribeiro/Souray/Streit/Gionta/Gill/Spacek/Hamrlik/Laraque situations you disagreed with and always bug me about?" Pierre Gauthier: "Uh, Yeah?" BG: "Well, I'm outta here. Good luck with all that!"
Once again you prove that you don't know shit about the Canadiens. Gauthier was the one that signed off on the Ribeiro trade. The Gomez trade was a 2nd choice to the oft-proposed Lecavalier trade (which was done and dusted until Len Barrie vetoed the trade). Souray wanted more than Gainey was willing to give. Streit wanted to play defense when Carbonneau didn't trust him enough (Streit was also atrocious in the playoffs, atrocious). Gionta's contract I don't like but he does create magic with Gomez, everyone can attest to that. Gill is a good signing, he's a cup-winning d-man for god's sake. Hamrlik is an atrocious contract, and from what I've read, is also on Gauthier's hands. Laraque was a lemon. The average position of the Habs before Gainey was something like 20th in the league while during his tenure it was 16th-13th, making the playoffs 4/5 seasons. Not good, but not bad either. Don't comment on the Canadiens if you have no clue what you're saying. Gainey did a decent job, he was too patient and it bit him in the ass. He lost his daughter a couple of years ago and wanted to step down but was implored not to by the organization, his heart probably ached more now that Burke lost his son as well. Gainey should be president or some other upper echelon position, he doesn't need the pressure of being a GM. Gauthier on the other hand is only interim and will have to be sacked by the draft, I dislike him completely. .edited.
Gainey has made a lot of moves to improve the franchise along side a few bigger and more controversial ones. In all I think he was a man with a plan that went well until his locker room started rebelling against each other. His efforts to fix the problems seem to have kept them in contention for the bottom half of the playoffs, injuries notwithstanding.