2008/09 NHL Thread

Speaking of old hockey sweaters, I've posted this before but it's still a great family photo



1908 Ancaster (near Hamilton Ontario) Hockey Club

My grandfather, who was the team rover, is top right beside the guy in the top coat

 

trading Rask? are you nuts? He's the future.....if they move anyone it will be Fernandez, but I think they'll go with the duo that's worked wonders for them all year, and you'll see Rask on the Bruins next year.

 

There he is!! I found him!!!

Shit, that was easy.....

 

Hartsburg was not the problem in Ottawa, anymore than John Paddock was. Heck, I won't even say Bryan Murray is THE problem (though I'm not sure he's part of the solution, either).

Murray and owner Eugene Melnyk need to wake up from this delusion that the team is an under-performing contender and get on with the business of rebuilding. In the last three years, the team has lost Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Andrei Meszaros and others. They have one and only one line capable of scoring on a consistent basis, no offence from the defencemen and very shaky goaltending. It's the definition of an also-ran right now.

Chris Neil, Antoine Vermette, Mike Fisher, et. all are third-line forwards at best. Nick Foligno is an AHL type. Bryan Elliott as the starting goaltender?

Look you could bring in Al Arbour or Scotty Bowman and it won't make a difference until you shake up the roster. I feel bad for Hartsburg, a fine major junior coach who could succeed at the NHL level, given the right circumstances. I hope he will get another chance.

 

I guess that works for where Toronto is, but they'd be smart to waive that little white flag as, which is why they certainly won't be back to the playoffs next year.

Also in your original post it sounded like the Oilers had no go to guy. the fact that Hemsky needs someone, anyone close to a first line talent to skate with is something we don't disagree on. The Vinny Lecavalier rumour was a wet dream.

 

Roy MacGregor's column on the Sens.

The problem isn't the coach's, it's the players. Grasp of the obvious, but people keep scratching their heads and wondering, "What's wrong"

Simple.

No goaltending. Nobody on defence who can move the puck. Other than the Pizza line, no scoring and hell, even they're not scoring. Hard to believe they were in the Final a couple of years back.

http://sports.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090202.wsptroy2/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home

Last summer, however, they turned instead to a new head coach, Craig Hartsburg, and bought out goaltender Ray Emery, who had been blamed for everything from lazy practices to caked mustard at the hot-dog stands.

Emery, it turns out, wasn't the problem — just a part of it. Nor was poor Hartsburg the solution

Melnyk's now paying two guys not to coach. Maybe he should blow himself up.

Schadenfreude uber alles!

 

The problems on that team are many and run deep. First they've done a pisspoor job of replenishing the shelves over time as other stars have left. Their amateur scouting department for the last 5-10 years is proving to be a joke of Edmonton oiler proportions. You brought up the lack of any scoring depth, the lack of having any reliable goaltender in the history of the team (OK, maybe Ron Tugnutt had his time but it falls off drastically after that), and the lack of a puck moving defenceman. I think Rob Ray on Off the Record yesterday brought up a valid point in saying that the players as a whole have yet to be held responsible for their failures. Bringing in a new players coach up from the minors with no NHL experiencee is just repeating the process. The players have been given a clean slate once again and for the most part have been taken off the hook. And for that matter Bryan Murray has been given a repreave by owenership, although he has been directly responsible for many of the personell decisions over the last few years (save for Chara) that has left the team a rudderless ship.

At this point I think the team from its orginal building of the franchise from when it came into the league has run its course. they have so many issues that it is almost easier to tear it down, get rid of the problems, replenish the system and start over again. Every team, unless they have out of this world management and scouting (see Detroit and New Jersey) has to go through this process at some point, or at least is smart to. Its hard and it sucks, but theyre not going to win the cup this year and theyre not going to win it next year, they might as well go through the process and have a stronger franchise for the decade ahead. And that means bringing in a new GM with a vision for the future and the balls to pull it off to do it.

 

You know, if you can point to the franchise's single biggest failure since it began, it's been their inability to sign and hold on to a #1 goalie other than the one year with Hasek and one of the three years with Tugnutt.

 

And Hasek was a head case and Tugnutt was merely a platoon goalie at that point, much the same as what Rolosen should be. Lalime for all of his melt downs in the post season was actually a solid regular season goalie most years. But yeah, they never have had a star in net that they could bank on. If they are smart they create enough cap room to go after Backstrom this offseason, that is if they don't want to do the really smart thing and tear it all down.

 

And remember Lalime's meltdown was in game seven against the Leafs.

To this day, as Nieuwendyk is getting ready to shoot from the far side of he face off circle, I said to HC, "There's no way you score from there". And bingo, he did.

And then he did it again.

Lalime should have gone straight to the room, got undressed and grabbed a cab.

 

It's not the Game 7 you were referring to JR, but I thought you'd enjoy 2002 just the same.

 

Finally found it