All-Purpose Hockey Thread III

Folks, it's officially a rout. Rangers up 6-1 midway through the third.

Tom Renney's tinkering may have paid off, as the Petr Prucha-Matt Cullen-Jed Ortmeyer line has been great. Now, all Renney has to do is put a set-up centerman (cough-Michael Nylander-cough) on Brendan Shanahan's line, and there will be no stopping New York City's hockey team until they get stoned in the playoffs by Marty Brodeur.

 

Ken Dryden night in Montreal tonight.



Numbers don't do the man justice, but it's a start: http://www.canadiens.com/eng/news/redirect.cfm?sectionID=habsNewsDetails.cfm&newsItemID=5602

So, of course, the Habs are down 1-0 to the gutless Sens after one...

 

I started a thread on this. He's deserving.

And the Sens are still gutless pukes

 

Drew Sharp would like the Red Wings to make perpetually pained Peter Forsberg theirs. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070125/COL08/701250324/1053/SPORTS05

 

League's new financial structure increases the odds of a bidding war? It might increase the number of teams interested, but it's not going to be a Sakic-esque bidding war.

Comparing Forsberg to "former superstar" Chris Webber? Forsberg: Calder Trophy winner, two-time Olympic gold medalist, Stanely Cup champion, Hart Trophy winner, Art Ross Trophy winner, future Hall of Famer. Webber: Cost his college team the 1993 national championship, 1994 NBA Rookie of the Year, appeared on Naughty by Nature's 1995 album "Poverty's Paradise".

Would come to Detroit and create and elite Swedish national team? Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Kronwall, Lidstrom, Forsberg, Lilja. I might buy this line if Hasek were Swedish.

Igniting the Wings' number three line? Come on, that's like bringing Ted Williams back to life and having him play for the Brewers' AA team.

One of the better stick magicians when his head is screwed on straight? Forsberg's head is okay, but he does have problems with his groin and foot. But hey Drew, don't let facts get in the way of a solid cliche.

This is an opportunity for the Wings' front office to show it does more than take care of Mike Ilitch's enormous checkbook? I have absolutely no idea what this means. I guess Sharp is bitter about having high-priced superstars at every position. Then he follows that up with saying Holland and co. have never gotten their due for drafting Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hudler, Filppula. Strange ... just so strange.

A steady diet of Columbus and Nashville at the Joe? That's right, the same Nashville team that's first in the West and leading Detroit by 7 points. Oh poor Wing fans, I'm sure the monotony of a game against the Predators has them counting down the days until spring training.

Changing the sport's economics brought a stimulating change to Detroit's hockey mentality? Well, all those empty seats in "Hockeytown" would suggest otherwise.

Written by a columnist who clearly hasn't closely followed/cared about an NHL game for years, this one is absolutely craptacular and misses the mark by several rink lengths. And the unnecessary jabs at the NHL at the end don't do anything for Sharp's credibility.

 

There's a good story in today's Toronto Star. AHL president David Andrews suggests that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment "overestimated...the Leafs brand" when they moved the Marlies to town.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/176174

The league is also moving back to Cleveland next season for the umpteenth time and a group is also hoping to put a franchise in Windsor, Ontario. That'll be interesting to watch.

 

And 16-year-old John Tavares keeps rolling along in the Ontario Hockey League, being named its player of the week after scoring six goals and four assists and compiling a plus-seven rating in three games.

He had four goals and seven points last Thursday against Windsor and hit the 50-goal mark in only 44 games. Tavares is now leading the league with 52 goals and 98 points in 46 games. I don't know about the old days but I do know he'll be the youngest scoring champion in recent league history if he can hang on to the lead.

Congratulations also to Bobby Ryan of Owen Sound, who racked up his 269th career point on Saturday and is now the franchise's all-time leading scorer. Andrew Brunette, now of the Colorado Avalanche, held the old mark.

 

Lord, if MLSE thought they were going to pack the Ricoh Centre with an AHL team, they were clearly not paying attention.

There are three OHL teams in the Greater Toronto Area. St.Mike's has a fanbase of about 200 people and the Ice Dogs and the Battalion are usually at around 50% capacity. OHL hockey is about 1/3 the price of AHL hockey and about ten times more exciting.

I know it's a cliche but Toronto is NOT a hockey city, contrary to the Centre of the Universe nonsense. It's a Leafs town. Period.

Also, Marlies games are expensive as is the parking.

 

Quelle surprise. And $50 tickets? Piss on that.

 

And speaking of incompetence, Dan Wetzel rips Gary "The Weasel" Bettman a new one.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=dw-bettman012907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

There has never been a commissioner of a major North American sports league this inept, yet the league's board of governors keeps employing him, keeps giving him another chance to sink this once-proud, once-vibrant league to new depths.


and

Bettman has his apologists who point out that he beat former NHLPA head Bob Goodenow during the last lockout and got a salary cap installed.

Which is true, except it cost the NHL an entire season and an incalculable number of fans. And the proposed cap for next season is already creeping close to the average pre-lockout team salary. Wasn't the new deal only needed because the old deal was so bad? And who negotiated that one for the NHL in 1994? Oh yes, Gary Bettman, who locked the players out and killed all momentum from the Rangers' Stanley Cup championship to get that ill-fated deal done.

 

Mr R,

Cox writes his biographies. I write mine.

YHS, etc