2010-2011 NHL season

Not earth-shattering, but a fairly big deal between Pittsburgh and Dallas. Pens get James Neal and Matt Niskanen. Dallas gets Alex Goligoski.

BBJ gets a forward ... and a guy he has fought.

 

I'm inclined to agree that two per season isn't one too many, but they are awful close together, and with the All-Star Game (and in Olympic years, the Games) in between, it might be a good idea to consider moving one of the games to earlier in the season. I'd bet that Mark Fischel in the NHL's events office would approve.

 

Good deal for both teams.

Niskanen is a waste of space, and getting rid of his cap hit for Dallas is worth whatever mid-range pick would have been going the other way without him. He's the seventh guy on the Stars and while he's a great skater, he's a terrible decision maker.

Neal is all-world when he's hot and all-bench when he's not, and there's almost no middle ground. His two most recent stretches are 7 goals in 8 games and 1 goal in 11 games, and that's pretty indicative of his career. Ever since his suspension a couple years ago, he's not used his size as an asset, and he's not a factor on anything except sniping (and he's had a curious lack of chemistry with anyone on the Stars besides Richards). But the Pens need more scoring ability from their wingers, and Neal has a heck of a shot.

The Stars, meanwhile, desperately needed a defenseman with any sort of puck-moving and offensive ability, and they preferred one signed after this season. Goligoski seems to fit that. They also get $2.5 million in cap and real savings while not depleting any particular position (they have plenty of left-shot wingers - Eriksson, Benn and Morrow all being highter on that list than Neal).

 

Putting him on waivers? with the demand for defencemen out there right now it was worth a shot to get rid of him one way or another. And if your remark is over signing Souray, we've argued about this before. Don't really feel like going down that path again right now because we've done this to death. As it stands, I was never a big fan of the signing to begin with.

 

The problem with the outdoor games isn't necessarily the games themselves but the fact that they're regular season games which count in the standings.

The Heinz game should probably have been called because of rain and the ice conditions in the Flames/Habs game were horrible and the brutal cold is never a factor in any professional game.

Sorry, but the outdoor nostalgic bullshit shouldn't have an impact in the standings.

 

Still not the Flames Heritage. The Oilers could have gone Edmonton Eskimos (1905-1927) or even the Edmonton Oil Kings (this was prior to the Oil Kings franchise starting up in the WHL). It would have been like the Canadiens going with Wanderers or Maroon jersey's during their 100 year anniversary season or for either of their outdoor games. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but the sweaters with the pants are hideous. Like I said before, they would have been better off with their 80s sweaters. And really if they wanted to go total retro for the franchise, they would have had a flaming A on the sweater.

 

Um ... they've been going with the 80s sweaters as a third jersey for two seasons. They wanted something different for the Heritage Classic and decided to pay tribute to the city's first pro hockey team. I'm not sure why you don't get the connection.

I liked the look. And, judging by the number of the jerseys in the stands, a lot of other people did, too.

I'll go with popular opinion.

 

I totally agree. That said, I'm not sure how you can run a team/league where everyone lives in "must win" for close to half the season. I looked at the standings today and picked a number for each team in the west where I guess they will finish (sorry, beef, but Oilers got a 15). I suspect the standings will toss and turn a few times over the next seven weeks, but finish pretty close to where they are now.

It reminds me of a conversation in a baseball press box years ago, with the home team trying to rally from a one-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth and the clock ticking on my copy deadline. I was just hoping the game would end as soon as possible. I explained to a colleague that the team could win the rest of the games on the homestand, go 6-1 and this loss would be forgotten all too quickly.

Same premise. If Montreal wins in Vancouver on Tuesday, those losses in Edmonton and Calgary won't seem quite so bothersome. My point is no matter how long or short the season, the races will almost always come down to the final week.

 

Oh I'm well aware they have been using their 80s sweaters for two seasons now, and I see there being no reason they couldn't have used them Sunday. As far as popularity among fans goes, I will caution you with the Oilers third jersey from several years ago, the McFarland designed one. It was one of the best selling NHL third jerseys of it's time -- where it ranks now I don't know but it sold huge when it came out and set sales standards for the third jersey. I even had one. To this day I still don't like it and was happy when it was taken out of rotation. Most fans will buy a team jersey to support the team -- especially when its a limited run special edition type deal like these ones -- not necessarily because it is a good looking jersey. But that's my opinion. I am hardly the person to go to when it comes to matters of style and coolness If you like the jersey that's great, I am glad you do. It's just not my cup o' tea.

 

But if Montreal misses the playoffs by a point or due to a tie breaker, a lot of people will look back to this game in February with the substandard ice and the media circus surrounding it. Personally I don't like the games as it is, the nostalgia has worn off for me and the play is substandard -- the stars rarely shine in them. But I know the league is going to continue on with them because the money is still good, maybe better than it has ever been. I would rather have the games in the first half rather than the beginning of the stretch drive for the playoffs.

Oh and don't fret about telling me the Oilers are going to finish last in the Conference. It is a reality I am more than aware of. It is the first year of a complete rebuild and this kind of a season is almost expected, as painful as it might be. But at least there is a light at the end of the road with players like Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi, Omark, Petry, Peckham, Chorney, Whitney, Dubnyk, etc. They are also in just about every game, a couple weeks with standing. The highs are going to be extremely high, and the lows painfully low with this team. At the very least they should get either a franchise defenceman (Larsson) or potential all-star centreman (Nugent-Hopkins) with a one, two or three pick, both of which they are in dire need of.

 

I get your point, and last year Philadelphia showed what you can do when you baaaaaaarely make the playoffs, but ...

I'd have a really hard problem feeling sorry for a team that missed out on the playoffs by a point when it had 82 full games to get that extra point.

From tough scheduling to illnesses and injuries to problems with transportation, every team deals with its own fair share of shit over the course of the season.