All-Purpose Hockey Thread II

How long until CBC's contract with the NHL expires? If hockey leaves the Mother Corp, that'll put Bob Cole, Harry Neale and Grapes out to pasture.

Oh, by the way...

10-0-1.

Just thought I'd save Madhavok the trouble there. ;D

 

I thought the same thing going into last year. Glad to be wrong.

The 'Canes need Stillman and Kaberle back, but both had major shoulder surgery, and will still be out a while.

Thank goodness Babchuk looks pretty good, and Scott Walker has surprised.

 

No. 51,

I saw Babchuk at the 18s years back. Big enough, skilled enough, but I don't think he showed instincts or hockey sense at all. Maybe that's changed for the better. But if he had no brain at all I suppose he could play in the league--after all Malakhov got his name on the Cup.

YHS, etc

 

Babchuk still has a long way to go, in my opinion, with positioning on defense. He's got a solid, hard shot that can be dangerous. He's just lucky Tanabe is on the team because it's easy to beat him out for ice time.

 

Let's just say that Anton isn't getting anywhere near the ice on a PK and leave it at that. And Tanabe is a hell of a guy.

 

Sabres continue to win in spite of uniforms

 

Scott Walker has been a solid player for a while now, just easy to hide away in Nashville. Good two way forward.

Two things I just learned about Scott Walker while doublechecking his stats on hockeydb.com
1) He's from Montreal. Never would have figured that with his name, obviously from the anglo areas.
2) He played for the Dundas Real McCoys during the lockout for one game, scored a goal, an assist and picked up 17 PIMS. Gotta love senior hockey. Anyone know why he didn't play more? I know there were a number of Senior AAA teams that momentarally tried to load up with out of work NHLers for a run at the Allan Cup, but then Hockey Canada ruled that those teams would have been ruled ineligible. Is this one of those cases? I'm pretty sure Dundas went a ways in the playdowns that year.

 

Walker grew up in Cambridge, Ontario. There are various sites on the net that say he was born there rather than in Montreal -- I'm not sure which is correct.

He played major junior in Owen Sound, where he was a defenceman. In 1992-93 he set a franchise record by scoring 91 points as a D and was named to the OHL's second all-star team.

Also during that season, he was chosen to be part of the Canadian national team for an exhibition game that was taking place in Owen Sound. I forget who the opponent was but Walker, still playing defence, ended up with a hat trick and was named the star of the game.

He started the 04-05 season with the Cambridge Hornets senior team but left for some reason after only a handful of games and wound up in Dundas, which is fairly close by. Dundas beat Cambridge in the playoff semifinals but wound up losing to the Aylmer Blues in the final.

Walker didn't last in Dundas either. As you mentioned, he wouldn't have been eligible to play for the Allan Cup had the McCoys made it to the tournament, so he left and wound up playing for Team Canada in the world championships that spring.

 

I thought I remembered him playing for the national team.

I take it that was the league final that they lost to Aylmer in becaue I know Thunder Bay was the Ontario rep at the Allan Cup and then went on to win it all after playing a grand total of like 10 games all year, including the Allan Cup.

 

You got it. The Thunder Bay Bombers (minus Carl Racki) didn't have a league to play in so they got a free pass to the Ontario final against Aylmer.

 

NHL Live says that Jordan Staal is staying with the Pens and isn't going back to juniors.

 

Team confirmed a little while ago on web site.