2009-10 NHL Thread

Well, I watched Caps-Canes last night. And unless your boys are planning on ... you know ... playing a little defense, I like the Pens chances.

It seemed like Carolina had an odd-man rush or a breakaway every other shift. Trot that out there in the playoffs and the Caps better make sure they're scoring AT LEAST five a game.

 

The Globe & Mail weighs in on head shots on their EDITORIAL page this morning.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/some-brain-some-trust/article1496949/

Blows to the brain like the one delivered by Mr. Cooke do nothing to make the game more exciting. They put skill players at the mercy of headhunters. They encourage children and teenagers to do the same. And the league asks the fans to cheer all the while.

It's morally bankrupt. late though it is for Mr. Savard and his team.

 

And Globe & Mail Investigative Reporter Allan Maki gives us the entire story on The Missing Stick and How They Found It.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...Bauer involved? Was anyone tortured? Jesus.

 

Not surprised the sticks have a code, they are all custom jobs and it's there to probably there to prevent fakes etc.

This whole thing seems a little too John LeCarre-ish to me.

 

And last year, the Pens went 1-3 against the Caps in the regular season, the only win coming in a shootout.

Maybe I just caught them on a bad night. And maybe they'll tighten things up once mid-April rolls around. But if they don't, there's not an offense on planet earth that will be able to carry that defense to a Cup.

 

OK, this may be the most original fanboi in the NHL.

The Capstronaut. Gotta love it.



http://tinyurl.com/yl8l96h

But he's already sat three rows behind the visitor's bench on several occasions, and claims to have unnerved the opposition.

"I think I'm affecting their play," he told me. "They try not to catch anybody's eye, but they keep looking over their shoulders at me. I give them the two fingers in my eye and then back at them, and they don't look back after that. I think they're a little concerned that I may be blasting off or something."

 

I honestly don't know WTF to think about the East ... or for that matter, the West ... this year. It seems like all the would-be great teams (the three with 90+ points now) have HUGE question marks.

Washington: Defense and goal
Chicago: Goal
San Jose: Tends to roll over and play dead in late April

And, yet, for all the crap I give Washington, the Pens needed a fortuitous (won't say lucky) bounce in OT to avoid going down 3-0 in their series with the Caps last year.

 

It's wide open this year, I like Chicago if they can get even average goaltending, I know that's a big if. Washington may be able to outscore there problems, but I get a Russian national team feeling about them. And how can anyone trust San Jose?

 

Should be interesting to see what happens when the Bruins play the Pens. Lucic or Thornton should skate by the bench and tell Cooke so everone can hear that either he fight one of them or they're going to go after Crosby and Malkin all night with "legal" head shots. Put the pressure on the weasel in front of his teammates to defend himself. If he stands up and fights, then it should be over with. He gain's his teammates and opposition respect and stops, potentially their best players being run all night. That is how players police themselves.