2008/09 NHL Thread

I still wonder how Satan has never played for the Devils. He needs to before his career's done, just for jersey's sake.

 

I stand corrected, but I still think giving Malone 7 years is asinine.

 

In OHL news, John Tavares of London scored the 199th and 200th goals of his career on Sunday night in Kitchener. The milestone goal was the winner in a 3-2 overtime decision for the Knights.

He is now 15 goals shy of the OHL's career goals record, which has belonged to Peter Lee of Ottawa since 1976. As this will most certainly be Tavares' last season of junior hockey, he only has 12 games left in which to catch and pass Lee.

But it is possible. Since his trade from Oshawa to London, he has 17 goals in 13 games and is now leading the league in both goals and points. Should be a fun finish.

Stan Drulia's all-time record for points, however, will last. He finished his career with 479 points and Tavares has only 410.

The Canadian junior records are also safe, both of them held by players from the Quebec league - Mike Bossy with 309 goals and Patrice Lefebvre with 595 points.

 

- Ryan Malone wanted $4 million, Shero said he couldn't come close (supposedly he was willing to go 3-years $9 million). Pens used the Malone demands on the Staal contract. It was always going to be Malone or Staal from a cap perspective and it is a no-brainer decision.

- I heard two different stories about the Hossa offer; 5-years $40 million and 7-years $49 million. Any way you slice it, the offer was better than the 1-year deal from Detroit. The problem was, Hossa didn't believe the Penguins could repeat this season and boy was he right. Hossa could come to regret the move long-term as he could be forced into only picking among a few teams with enough cap space to pay him the $7-8 million and Detroit won't be one of those teams.

- Shero, as much as I think he had a horrible '08 offseason, didn't stand a chance once Hossa declined because the free agent pool at wing was bare (i.e. Satan, Fedotenko, Demitra). The team's talent cupboard was bare in the system when Craig Patrick was fired and Shero has slowly worked towards improving the depth in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and prospects around the globe. It will take another 2-3 drafts to fix the problems hurting this franchise.

- Next season, Shero has to be hoping for someone to break out and wow the team in training camp. Not sure how many of you are into the WHL but Vancouver Giants forward Casey Pierro-Zabotel (CPZ) is dominating (32g67a) right now. Last time, I checked he was +57 too but that says more about the brilliance of his team than just his great offensive stats. They'll likely hope to get CPZ, Luca Caputi, and Dustin Jeffrey into the lineup next season as the team probably is willing to go for one or two legitimate top six wingers to help Crosby and Malkin at even-strength.

- Shero's next move could be a trade to wake up the key players on the roster, I know everyone in Pittsburgh thinks it will be Jordan Staal or Ryan Whitney but I think Max Talbot is the perfect example of a guy who came into the season with the wrong mindset.

 

I attended the Ducks-Thrashers game last night and saw something I've never seen in all the years I've been attending games:

Courtesy of ajc.com's story on Atlanta's 8-4 win over the Ducks:

But not everything went right for the Thrashers. Eight seconds after the opening faceoff, they were penalized for starting a different lineup than the one John Anderson had circled on the roster. No. 6, Ron Hainsey, was on the ice instead of No. 4, Zach Bogosian.

“Bogosian was right below Hainsey [on the sheet]. I circled without my glasses,” Anderson said. “That’s the first time in 14 years [as a coach] I’ve done that, so I fined myself $200 and hugged all my penalty killers.”

 

Elliotte - You make excellent points about the dressing room but those were the same things that turned the mid-90's Penguins into a country club. Talbot's work rate hasn't been the same as last season because he thought he was going to be a third line player getting a shot to play with Crosby and Malkin. If Shero has to worry about hurting Crosby's feelings about friendships, Pens have bigger problems.

 

I don't think that they can get an impact player for Talbot.

 

He was right ... because he didn't sign. Had Hossa stayed with the Pens, that's a completely different team obviously.

 

Atlanta ships Mathieu Schneider and a conditional pick to Montreal for second round pick this year and a third round pick next.

http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/emptynetters/archive/2009/02/16/montreal-strikes-first-acquires-schneider-2-16-09.aspx

 

Nice rent-a-player for my Habs. John Vogl mentioned it on his Sabres blog this afternoon, where he also posted a link to this gloomy look at the Thrashers' future from the AJC: Hockey in Atlanta on thin ice