OOTS

[tantalum]

Oilers are starting to find themselves in their rightful spot in the standings. The shine seems to be wearing off of them.

[dbr]

Speaking of which the Avs are in a bad slide (as probably everyone knows) but amusingly enough Adrian Dater is really going after them. He ran a column recently ripping the entire organization, and here are some gems from his coverage of their 3-1 loss to Dallas last night:

Well, that was three hours you and I will never get back. What a terrible hockey game tonight at the Pepsi Center, in front of the lowest crowd of the season (12,015). Just awful.

...

The Avs appeared to have no discernible plan or system tonight, other than “Flip the puck into the neutral zone, hope it bounces onto one of our guys’ sticks and maybe get a shot from there.”

...

The Avs’ offense is just too easy to play against. ... I mean, give me a break: there is no way Andrew Raycroft should have been allowed to come in here tonight and stop 35 shots, but that’s what happened. The guy was 0-5 on the season with an .899 saves percentage, but he, like so many other backups in the league in the last three years, came in here and looked like Terry Sawchuk [where have I heard this before].

...

The Avs of today just casually take off their gear and quietly walk to their back-room sanctuary, keeping their heads down to avoid having to talk to the media. This team just seems like it doesn’t care enough, doesn’t want it bad enough, and that’s the real indictment of it.

...

Now let’s talk about Paul Stastny. He was terrible tonight. One shot on net, no points, 43-percent on faceoffs. He was slow all night, got outworked on loose pucks along the boards and generally as noticeable as a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a 10-foot snowbank. There is probably a reason why the Avalanche didn’t give him the captaincy, despite being the team’s highest-paid player and one of its more tenured players. Because he’s not leading by example. Period, end of story.

What does GM Greg Sherman have to say about all this? Dunno, he hasn’t wanted to talk to the media lately. I’ve asked. Josh Kroenke? Ditto. It’s like Avalanche management has all retreated into the bunker lately, hoping not to be seen by the dastardly one or two people that actually cover this team anymore.

...

Link

Tell us what you really think.

[mathonwy]

Fucking Coilers..

Nuge is a really really good player who is on target for a 85 point rookie season.

[tantalum]

On target for 85 points and a member of a team that can likely get another lottery pick. And then they'll have to look at signing Hall and Eberle to extensions which are going to cost them precious cap space they need to actually get a blueline and future goaltending. They have a lot of work ahead of them to become the Pittsburgh Penguins of the West.

[dbr]

On that note Ray Shero's done a damn fine job with the Pens.

Obviously drafting Crosby, Malkin, Staal and Fleury didn't take a lot of skill but he's done a pretty damned good job of surrounding them with effective players, building and rebuilding their blueline and slowly adding some higher end wingers.

If there's a team in the East that can challenge (sigh) Boston, it's them.

[Corb]

I'm not convinced Tambellini is the right guy for the job.

[Potatoe1]

On that note Ray Shero's done a damn fine job with the Pens.

Obviously drafting Crosby, Malkin, Staal and Fleury didn't take a lot of skill but he's done a pretty damned good job of surrounding them with effective players, building and rebuilding their blueline and slowly adding some higher end wingers.

If there's a team in the East that can challenge (sigh) Boston, it's them.

His work on the blue line has been incredible. Letting Gonchar walk then signing Martin and Michalek, and drafting Letang in the 3rd round and Golo in the 2rd gave him the depth to make that Neil trade and still have a good defensive core.

On paper they look better then their cup team IMO.

That said, so does Boston...

[dbr]

Yeah if there's a GM that's done a better job than Shero - at least out of the ones that have a Cup to show for their work - it's probably Chiarelli.

Which stings because as a hockey fan after a Canucks Cup victory there's nothing I want to see more than that Bruins team slide into mediocrity.

[tantalum]

Crosby taking the next two games off after taking a hard hit.

Seguin scratched lats night because he missed a team meeting.

[Per]

Crosby taking the next two games off after taking a hard hit.

“I ended up skating the following day after with a little bit exertion and it just didn’t feel right,” Crosby said. “After kind of talking with everyone it was better to be cautious here and not take any chances.”
...
“I don’t think frustrating, that even describes it,” he said. “It’s not fun but I look at my ImPACT, I look at some of that stuff and I’m way better off than I was dealing with this stuff 10 months ago or whenever it was.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-penguins-crosby


Yup, seems a concussion. He can't form proper sentences and he doesn't really remember when he was injured.

[dbr]

Flyers announce Chris Pronger will be shut down for the rest of the regular season and playoffs.

[mathonwy]

Flyers announce Chris Pronger will be shut down for the rest of the regular season and playoffs.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Pens said the same for Crosby which would be pretty fucking shitty for hockey in general.

[CFP!]

Flyers announce Chris Pronger will be shut down for the rest of the regular season and playoffs.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Pens said the same for Crosby which would be pretty fucking shitty for hockey in general.

Agreed, as long as he is in fine form for 2014.

I hope he is back this season.

[tantalum]

In case everybody is like me and didn't notice....Samuelsson made his debut with the Panthers last week. He's playing his 4th game tonight and has collected his first Panther point.

Bit of a enigmatic guy but good to see him back playing.

[wienerdog]

In case everybody is like me and didn't notice....Samuelsson made his debut with the Panthers last week. He's playing his 4th game tonight and has collected his first Panther point.

Bit of a enigmatic guy but good to see him back playing.

I saw Samuelsson at the dry cleaner a couple of days after he was traded for Booth.

I shook his hand and thanked him for everything he did for the team while he was here - he was really thankful and talkative. When I told him I was sorry to see him go, he looked genuinely depressed about it.

People can say what they want about the guy, but I think he really loved it here and was really liked by his teammates. I'll never forget his playoff series against LA. He singlehandedly lifted us into the 2nd round.