The 2011-2012 NHL Season Thread

I hate the NHL.

Boychuk gets boarded by Malkin and because it's Malkin on a Bruin its only a 2 minute penalty.

I dare anyone to dispute the fact that if it was reversed, and it was Lucic hitting Malkin like that, he would have gotten 5+ games suspension.

More inconsistency from Shanahan. I guess he got concussed a few too many times as a player. Brain damage is probably the only way you can make this many crap, inconsistent decisions.

GM meetings in Florida

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=390139

sounds like the hybrid icing (mix of no touch and existing rules) is starting to get traction-no firm decision either way but it seems like more are warming up to it.

I was kinda surprised about the question of eliminating the hand pass in the defensive zone-players using it as a faceoff tatic? Seems like a really pointless rule change to me-if a guy wants to put his hand on the puck in the defensive zone, its his own fault if it gets slashed off. We already have a rule for closing one's hand on the puck-its called delay of game.

Anyone else have a better explanation or thought?

Surely said:

I don't have a problem with the rule as it currently is.

I just hope that they finally get rid of the stupid trapezoid behind the net. That was one of the dumbest rule changes they've ever made.

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sadly, that won't happen

None of the other items on the agenda gained much support, including the possible re-introduction of the red-line. The majority of the managers also remain in favour of keeping the trapezoid that prevents goaltenders from playing the puck in the corners.

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miracles do happen! We can win a game!!!!!

Surely said:

Noticed someone using this avatar on slickdeals:

Image

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^^ Didn't come through

I was stuck watching the Habs and Sabres last night because there was NOTHING on. Sadly, I actually wanted the Habs to win -- which they didn't. Worse yet they both got a point.

jbennardo said:

Do you think they have the sauce to do what they did back in 92/93? Was it 17 in a row to finish the season? Crazy!

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Haha I was just a kid then, that would be awesome. Thursday is a big game against NYR and Crosby is playing. Oh shiiieeet.

That's awesome!

that is excellent

Funniest thing I've seen since... well, the ***** game last night.

ugh.

Crosby going to be targeted on Thursday or will they try to not finish their checks on him as per the Hockey Today podcast? One thing they said was players don't want to go down in history as "the player who ended Crosby's career".

MooneyFlyer said:

Funniest thing I've seen since... well, the ***** game last night.

ugh.

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The B's took a beating, but at least nobody was silly-stringed.

jbennardo said:

The B's took a beating, but at least nobody was silly-stringed.

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I repeat, ugh.

Surely said:

I don't think that players will take it easy on him, but I don't think that they'll go out of their way to make a huge hit on him.

If a player hits him, and he goes down, I wouldn't consider that particular player to be responsible for ending his career. I kind of look at it as if Crosby's playing on borrowed time until his body can prove that he can take a punishing hit and not be out for another half season.

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I'm actually surprised they aren't just forcing him to sit the rest of the season. This looks way too much like Savard to me. The Rangers aren't playing a light game these days either.

Surely said:

Lolz.

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Bite it dough boy!

Sadly, I find myself having to hope for the Habs to pull out a couple of wins here. They have a home/home against Ottawa who is currently a not too distant two points behind. It's a fast drop from 2nd to 7th.

Surely said:

Stamkos is awesome.

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50 goals is pretty amazing... even if they were in an empty net with Turco in net last night.

I'm guessing Zioxide finally jumped off the Longfellow.

MooneyFlyer said:

I'm guessing Zioxide finally jumped off the Longfellow.

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Not yet... I'm still here to annoy Surely and lee


That game last night was BRUTAL. A 5 year old girl in a princess costume could stop more goals than Turco did last night. Don't even know why they wasted time bringing Timmy in... should have just let him have the whole night off instead of bringing him in for 10 minutes in a game that was already lost.

To me, it looks like the Bruins hit the wall. Obviously, they have injuries, but you should be able to overcome them. EVERY player on the team looked completely gassed last night. They were out-skated so badly, the lightning beat them to the puck almost every time.

This team isn't nearly good enough to keep up that torrid pace from November/December, but when healthy and rested they are still a top-5 team in the league. That said, they aren't healthy, and more importantly they are not rested. The 107 games last year and short offseason is catching up to them quick. Sadly, with the 13 games in the next 3 weeks or so, there isn't going to be much time for rest.

I know the playoffs are a whole different season, and as last year proved, ANYTHING can happen, but for the Bruins it's just not looking good. These are the reasons no team has repeated in the last 14 years.

Luckily, we have a great general manager who realizes this, and didn't blow up the future to try to win it all again next year. This team is built for the future, with only 3 of 18 core players over the age of 30. We have tons of cap space to keep these core guys (Lucic, Seguin, Marchand, Bergeron, Rask, Boychuk, Hamilton) locked up. And with rumors of the cap possibly going up to close to $70 million next season, Pete Chiarelli has the space to bring in a player like Zach Parise or Ryan Suter if he wants too also.

^^^ he surfaces!

btw: I'm selling my tickets for the 3/27 rematch game if you have any interest (my cost). I'll be traveling. I'm putting them on craigslist for bust out retail this weekend if I don't have any takers. Sold.

PS. that was me in goal last night. Prove it wasn't... and how would you know the difference, I couldn't have sucked worse. He didn't look that bad on Sunday.

Completely agree on the Timmy thing. Play Turco again Thursday, tell Timmy to go have dinner somewhere.

Surely said:

Where have you heard that? Everything I've read/heard is that the cap will probably go down, not up.

Let's wait and see if there's even a season to speak of. CBA negotiations aren't going to start until June, and apparently they have to be finished by September 15th. That doesn't give them much time to come to an agreement, especially after what happened last time , and especially now that the NHLPA has a superstar in charge now. No way Donald Fehr is going to bend over and take it like they did last time.

Last time the PA agreed to a 24% rollback of then-current salaries, and a salary cap of $39 million. It's risen to the current level of $64.3 million.

I think it's going to get ugly.

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I agree with this. And, the Bruins have already collected their $8600 from me... bastards.

In the meantime I'm sitting here sweating out the Habs/Ottawa game. I bought the Gamecenter Live for the remainder of the season to increase the suffering.

EDIT: Freaking Habs. No wonder they are in last. Lost two leads in another 3 pt game. Won in a SO but still let up a point.

Crosby and Letang are back tonight. I'm stoked on this game. And I'm sure if the rangers "target" Crosby we'll have some answers for them.

Fmd

I had free tickets to the Islanders Flyers game. Section 123, I think, fairly low behind the goal.

A few things.

Islanders played like they were surprised to be in the Flyers' zone, once they got up there it seemed like they didn't really know what to do, they took a bunch of what seemed to be soft shots.

The Flyers' first goal, from where we were, seemed like it came in from an impossible angle. They scored a pretty good breakaway goal too.

Seeing Simmonds in person, he's a tough guy, hit hard (and clean) in the open ice but seemed to lose his temper easily, the fight vs Martin was pretty good, with Martin pinning him against the glass. It did look like the Islanders were out there to irritate him though.

My friend thought the best part of the game for most of it was the ice girls... But then with 8 minutes to go, the Islanders woke up. 2 goals in 35 seconds and the arena was the loudest I had ever heard. They couldn't get it into overtime though, but they really played well and stopped an embarrassing result from occurring.

steviem said:

I had free tickets to the Islanders Flyers game. Section 123, I think, fairly low behind the goal.

A few things.

Islanders played like they were surprised to be in the Flyers' zone, once they got up there it seemed like they didn't really know what to do, they took a bunch of what seemed to be soft shots.

The Flyers' first goal, from where we were, seemed like it came in from an impossible angle. They scored a pretty good breakaway goal too.

Seeing Simmonds in person, he's a tough guy, hit hard (and clean) in the open ice but seemed to lose his temper easily, the fight vs Martin was pretty good, with Martin pinning him against the glass. It did look like the Islanders were out there to irritate him though.

My friend thought the best part of the game for most of it was the ice girls... But then with 8 minutes to go, the Islanders woke up. 2 goals in 35 seconds and the arena was the loudest I had ever heard. They couldn't get it into overtime though, but they really played well and stopped an embarrassing result from occurring.

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Dude sorry about last night Simmonds and Talbot are the grinders on the team You just ran into a team that's heating up for the playoffs If I were the Rangers and Bruins I'd watch their asses Not too bad for a bunch of rookies starting It's going to be a fun ride
Peace