All-purpose hockey thread...

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

Goonie, who potted the goal for Cal-Gary? ;D

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

Langkow from Leopold and Regher

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

All North Americans! Don Cherry is probably having a party in his pants!

And that's an awful mental image. :-X I'm sorry. :-\ :-[

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

Cherry and Maclean were both there today. I didnt catch the early game so I dont know if they did Coaches Corner after that first intermission.

But they were both on the air during the second intermission of the Ottawa-Calgary game.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

I guess that makes sense. Ottawa-Calgary was probably the best game of the week.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

Messier played on three Canada Cup-winning teams, but he never won a World Cup or a world championship. He never won a Memorial Cup either.
Only one player in history has won every major hockey championship -- Scott Niedermayer. He won the world junior championship in 1991, the Memorial Cup in 1992, the Stanley Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2003, Olympic gold in 2002 and the world championship and World Cup, both in 2004.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

If you're reading this thread, you probably love hockey as much as I do. I'm wondering if everybody else is as frustrated with national sports talk radio as I am.

It seems that hockey NEVER is discussed on national talk radio. I understand that hockey doesn't get the ratings like pro football or pro basketball, but what about a little variety?

ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd? His idea of variety is talking about pro football AND college football. He talked about college basketball today only to set himself up for a Rose Bowl argument. I've heard him mention hockey twice. One time he showed he's completely clueless about what's going on this year by saying that the reason people don't like hockey was because of the clutching and grabbing that prevented the stars from performing.

I've never heard Dan Patrick talk about hockey, either.

I used to really dislike the Fabulous Sports Babe, with good reason. But at least she talked about hockey on a regular basis. She didn't know what she was talking about, but she had experts on who did know what they were talking about.

I used to live in an NHL market and enjoyed fairly regular hockey talk on local shows. Now I'm in an AHL market and there isn't that much local sports talk and what little there is is terrible. And it seems like it's all football, sprinkled with a little bit of talk about the area's wanna-be NCAA tournament Division I basketball program. Hockey? The only time its mentioned is during an hour of talk about the AHL team once a week. Never any NHL talk.

One answer for me is the NHL Live show on nhl.com, which I've been able to catch some.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

Ondeadline

Log on to www.fan590.com and you'll hear hockey Leaf talk 24/7

Actually, if you're online at around 7:25 each morning, they have a regular program called "Hockey Insider".

Monday's Scott Morrison (former editor of the Toronto Sun), Tuesday's Scotty Bowman, Wednesday's Pierre Maguire (I think he's Wednesday), Glenn Healy is Thursday and then on Friday it's John Davidson.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

A pretty good notes column Ed Moran

Lemieux could help Olympians

The news was all over the wire services yesterday morning.

Mario Lemieux has pulled his name from consideration for Team Canada for the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. It followed an announcement last week that Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman had done the same.

Both said they were too old for another Olympic run, not that they didn't think they could play.

It was because there are so many young players who are ready to take their place.

They were admirable decisions, and in Yzerman's case, he was probably right. But Lemieux? As long as Lemieux can skate, he should be at the Olympics. If his ice time is even just 10 minutes a game, is it possible that he could not contribute significantly both on and off the ice?

Don't ask me to believe that.

I think it has more to do with Sidney Crosby.

"I talked to [Wayne Gretzky] a couple days ago and I told him that I would pass on the Olympics," Lemieux told Canadian Press this weekend. "With the way I have been playing so far and with the young guys we have coming up in Canada, I think the best thing to do is to go with the young guys, the young legs. With [Jason] Spezza playing very well and Sid and [Eric] Staal and all these guys, I think it's time for these guys to step up and they deserve to be on the team."

Lemieux's Penguins were lucky enough to have won the draft lottery that made Crosby a Penguin. Since before the season, Lemieux has taken the young star into his home and become his mentor.

Again, it was an admirable thing to do.

And it is great for Crosby's career. Is there anyone better than Lemieux to guide a talented, young player through the beginning of a very high-profile career?

No. But I really wonder how much Lemieux's announcement had to do with putting pressure on his good friend and fellow hockey legend Gretzky, the Team Canada head executive, to get Crosby on the team. Until now, I was under the impression that Crosby was under consideration, along with several other young players. But he was not a lock.

As an aside, if I were the player-owner of a team desperate for a new arena that just landed the biggest marketing plus of the new NHL - Crosby - I would want him on the world stage, too.

It's just a thought, and one that brings me to another Olympic-related announcement this week.

One made by former Flyer Jeremy Roenick.

It wouldn't be Roenick's personality to go about lobbying USA Hockey for a spot on the 2006 squad in a quiet and unassuming way. When has Roenick ever been quiet and unassuming? Not on the ice, where he has been a stalwart of the Team USA movement since he first skated in the World Junior Championships out of high school in 1988, and certainly not off the ice.

He makes his case on the ice as a warrior and a savvy player, who also could be a contributor at the Olympics even in a reduced role. Team USA is not as loaded as Canada is with young players. Team USA has youth and skill and promise, but not at the same level.

So Roenick might have a chance. I don't think he helped himself at all last week, and the announcement by Lemieux should play right into any Team USA decision not to include him.

As he always does, Roenick spoke his mind and said that him not being on the team would be a "travesty." And as it often does when he speaks his mind, it got him in trouble.

"I know they want a youth movement, and they need to have one," Roenick said. "But it'd be disrespectful of the guys who have gotten Team USA to this point internationally."

Roenick, 35, told the Los Angeles Times that if he doesn't make the cut, Team USA "better hope that I don't get a job as a commentator on NBC for [the Games], or it'd be 'Go Canada' all the way, and I don't want that."

Yikes!

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Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

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New rules

This year's new rules will be examined after the season. One that is bound to be scrutinized will be when a team ices the puck, it is not allowed to change players to get fresh legs off the bench.

But Flyers general manager Bob Clarke thinks the rule contributes to injuries. Eric Desjardins was nailed by Calgary's Darren McCarty on Tuesday after an icing in which he was tired and couldn't get off, Clarke said.

"I don't think the play would have been much different," Clarke said. "But because of the icing we couldn't get our tired players off. Had Desjardins not been tired he might have been able to protect himself or avoid the hit.

"I spoke to [NHL rules czar] Colin Campbell about it and he said the rule can't be changed this year, but it would have to be reviewed."

Clarke said he also is dismayed at another change in the new NHL, the one that is apparently keeping fighting out of the game. With the officials making so many calls, players don't feel the need to defend their actions or stick up for teammates.

"For me the biggest [example] on the whole thing showed when [Donald] Brashear challenged McCarty and he just skated away," Clarke said. "He felt he didn't have to answer the bell and he doesn't. That's an attitude change. Rules don't have anything to do with that."

Ryan update

Bobby Ryan is having a good start to his last year in junior hockey. Ryan, of Cherry Hill, who was drafted second overall in the 2005 NHL draft by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, was named the Ontario Hockey League player of the month for November and last week was named to the U.S. junior national team. The World Junior Championships begin Dec. 26 in British Columbia, Canada.

Ryan, 18, led the OHL in scoring in November with 11 goals and 15 assists in 12 games.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

I despise sports talk radio and can't listen to it for more than 10 minutes at a time, if that. It's just inane babblings of people who don't really have any idea what's good and bad.

 

Re: New NHL vs. the old NHL

Goonie's right.

In New York, not one of the clown-idiot babblers can differentiate between icing and offsides. So, why would anyone take their thinking--"The Rangers should trade Prucha, Lundqvist and draft picks to Vancouver for Todd Bertuzzi!"--seriously.

The talkers don't care about the sport. They don't make an effort to learn about the sport. So there's no point in listening to them.