***The Official NHL Thread 2008/2009***

I've managed to watch about 20 games this year because of a pretty decent site I found for free online feeds. Almost HD quality some nights!

Last nights game was TSN in Canada and when Bergy made the dive and then made that ridiculous cross ice pass to Savvy I hit the ceiling. Those are the things that a healthy Bergeron can do and I think he will start clicking pretty soon. He was really good last night.

The Caps are going to be a pain in the *** come playoff time. They are a talented team....that dives a LOT. There were a few truly sad penalty calls in that game.

Tonight was a moral victory. The B's never play well against the Devils and to come back and get a point is something I'll take. I'll plead ignorance on the game though because the feed was awful so I could not watch much of it at all.

Rumour is Tuukka Rask will start Saturday against the Rangers if he stays up. I think they need to give him a start. Timmy needs rest and there is no point in having Rask up if he is going to siot at the end of the bench for 2 weeks.

The Sunday game against the Habs is the traditional Super bowl Sunday game on CBC. I'm much more excited about that then I am about the Super Bowl.

 

That San Jose game is going to be NICE! The two best teams (record wise) in their respective conferences and Joe's return.

It is a tough stretch and any other time I would have been concerned but not with this club. They beat the Caps and had a late lead against the Devils and got a point.

In the next 15 days they play Rangers, @ Habs, @ Philly, @ Sens, Philly, San Jose and @ Jersey. that, like you said, is a tough stretch. I think getting 10 points out of those 7 games could happen but I think 8 points is more than reasonable and acceptable. All that is pending the health of the goaltending. Tim Thomas can not play all those games. Ideally Manny would play 3 of them but his health is up in the air. I don't know if I want Tuukka Rask playing a lot of those games. I'd stick him in against the Rangers on Saturday and the Sens and let Timmy run with the ball for the rest of them.

After that stretch though they have some gravy with 7 very winnable games in their next 10 including a 6 game home stand.

If everything that should happen does happen in the next 5 weeks they will be sitting at 100 points by the 2nd week of March with a spot sewed up. Go .500 the rest of the way and they are the #1 seed in the East.

I want Florida or Carolina in the 1st round. They can roll through either of those teams. Philly, Pittsburgh and Buffalo are hovering around the #8 seed. I have no issue with Philly, their goaltending will be their undoing. Pittsburgh is scary because of the "star factor" but their defense is a trainwreck. Buffalo scares me the most of the three.

I want nothing to do with the Devils, Sabres or the Caps at any point but if the B's go as far as they could they are gonna have to beat two of those 3 teams.

Off topic...kinda: Wow, I can REALLY blab on and on about this hockey club. That was meant to be a one paragraph response...LOL!

 

Sorry man. Mad Mike is an easy target but I have to remember that their are Islander fans (like yourself) that still REALLY care about that club and deserve a lot more.

I think Snow has it back on the rails. He won't be doing the crazy **** that Milbury did. That on it's own should fix the team in the long term.

 

Tuukka Rask with a 35 save shutout in a 1-0 game. Sorry Pinky.

 

Kovalev played two shifts in the 3rd period. There is an uproar in the Montreal press about him...tough break.

The O'Byrne thing goes into the memory bank. I think the refs chickened out. they could have given him a match penalty which comes with an automatic suspension. He was head hunting, plain and simple. The NHL NEEDS to get that **** out of the game. I think Kobie saw it coming or he would have gotten hurt. O'Byrne will get his.

Shawn Thornton is playing out of his mind right now. In fact the Bruins 4th line (with Bitz and Yelle) was the best line on the ice on Sunday. They were also really good against the Rangers on Saturday.

Our penalty kill has been really good the last week, I think Patrice returning to the lineup has certainly been a factor. It allows Julien to roll out three different pairs on the kill (Axe and Bergy, Savvy and Yelle and Krejci and Wheels).

Montreal has no heart right now in my opinion. They are a very soft team that can be pushed around. Boston and Philly showed it last year in the playoffs and Boston showed it again on Sunday. The Habs came out hitting and being physical but as soon as Boston started hitting back they folded. Their PP (like you said) is having a very tough time. they need a bomber from the backend, too bad they have let Sourey and Streit go.

The Bruins PP was no screaming hell on the weekend either. I've seen good puck movement but no openings. They need to simplify it a little bit. they have made a living down low with Savvy and Krejci feeding the backside and the slot from the half wall for most of the year. Krejci threw about 4 pucks to the middle on Sunday and they all got dumped out of the zone. Chara and Wideman need to start throwing bombs from the point (they did some of that on Sunday) to open up the down low stuff because teams are collapsing to the net on us now.

I did not like how we sat back on Sunday and let the Habs attack us in waves for almost all of the 3rd period. Sometimes Julien goes into the "defense first/trap" shell a little to willingly. This team is WAY too talented to trap for entire periods.

Rask's game was brilliant. He looked so cool, nothing rattled him. He is so confident. His positional play has REALLY improved since the last time he started in the NHL. When he came up 2 years ago he played very deep in his net and got by with his ridiculous athleticism. Now he is out on top of the blue challenging and his puck handling has improved. Bob Essensa is doing a heck of a job with him on the baby B's. Combine good coaching, improved technical play and add that to one of the most athletic goalies at any level and you have the makings of a guy who COULD be a Vezina candidate quickly.

Oh yah....they are 18 points clear of the Habs for the division title. If they only go .500 the rest of the way they still end up with 110 points. The division is basically locked up barring the most monumental collapse in recent memory.

Feels good.

 

There is a rumour that the Avalanche are interested in Manny F and we could get a Svatos or Leopold coming back. I'd do the deal in a second. Manny is a goner as a UFA in the offseason anyway. Timmy will be the #1 in the playoffs.

I'm watching them lose to the ****ing Senators right now. They look tired and uninspired. The powrerplay looks terrible again. Shane Hnidy and MArk Stuart have been quite bad. Phil Kessel is still looking for his timing and PJ Axe is playing WAY too much.

 

They pulled out an ugly one versus the Sens tonight with Axe getting the shootout winner after playing the worst game I've seen him play in years.

 

B's were terrible in the 2nd and 3rd periods. They appear to be floating right now, getting to comfortable with their big lead in the standings.

BTW...I REALLY hope you were kidding about that comment in bold. They were playing their 5th game in 8 nights in 4 different cities. They also have a 14 point lead for home ice though out the conference playoffs.

The Flyers did a good job coming back (and of flopping all over the ice, your team dives a LOT) today. I almost put my fist through my computer screen when that piece of **** Randy Jones scored the winner. He's my 2nd most hated professional athlete.

Good game though.

 

I was not making excuses, stating facts. I'll take my now 13 point conference and 21 point division lead and run with it. They are in their toughest stretch of schedule right now and have a massive lead in the standings so they are bound to have games like yesterday. No worries...

Jones is a piece of crap. Why?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xAEetam6HQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xAEetam6HQ[/ame]

 

Manny was alright all things considered. They sat back WAY too much after taking the lead. Sometimes Julien seems to go into the defensive shell far too early in games. they could have buried the Flyers but they let them hang around and it cost us. They looked like a tired team and the Flyers had a ton of jump in the 2nd half of the game.

Blake Wheeler was benched for the 2nd half of the game and only played a total of 7:30 in total, a very low number for him. David Krejci saw pine as well, seeing only about 13:00 of ice time. Both were WAY below their average for the season.

Julien has a maddening double standard when it comes to ice time. PJ Axe was AWFUL against Ottawa, probably his worst game in a decade. His reward? Over 20:00 against Philly and a TON of powerplay time.

I understand Julien sending a message to the young players. It's worked in the past. He has lit a fire under Kessel with reduced ice time. That said, no matter what PJ does he continues to get ice on the powerplay when he has ZERO business being on ANY powerplay. This team has too much firepower to have PJ on the PP.

The PP has been terrible and it all due to personal in my opinion. Bergeron is out of place on the point, he should be playing on the half wall. PJ is out of place at any spot on the PP. It needs a shake up. I'd like to see them add a puck moving D-man at the deadline, a PP quarterback type.

The team has been lackluster lately and getting away with it for the most part. I know it sounds weird but I'd like to see them get bombed in the next week or two. Lose a 6-1 game where all the mistakes and lack of hard work come back to haunt them all at once. It would re-energize the team I think and make them remember that they got to where they are in the standings by working harder then the other team.

Thanks for the compliment on the siggy. I'd had the same one for an eternity. I've got a Tuukka Rask one in the works.

 

No team in the East scares me more than the Devils. They have all the ingredients to go to the Cup. Coaching, speed, style of play...everything. They can play it whatever style you want and beat you at your own game.

Terrified of that hockey club, every team in the East should be.

 

Look at my preseason picks, I said then that the Pens would miss the playoffs. Looks good now...LOL!

 

Disgusted by my Bruins tonight. The powerplay was TERRIBLE again and they blew another lead. I hope tonight's *** kicking is what they need so they will start working hard again.

 

They did show good effort last night. Bergy played his best game since he's been back, he was everywhere.

I've said it before and I'll say it again....the Devils scare me more then any team in the East. I want to avoid them at all cost, as well as the Sabres to a lesser degree.

The only bright side I see about it is we won't have to see the Devils until the Eastern Conference Finals, if either team makes it that far.