I remember being 5 or 6 in peewee hockey league, and the whole team fighting over who got Pavel's #10. He was a fucking rockstar.
Printable View
I remember being 5 or 6 in peewee hockey league, and the whole team fighting over who got Pavel's #10. He was a fucking rockstar.
Goalies back in the day were SOOOOO much better!
Fuhr, Potvin, Roy, Osgood, Hasek, McLean, Vanbiesbrouke, CuJo, Moog, Richter, Brodeur, Belfour, there were so many more great goalies back then.
Pavel Bure was my favorite, Theo Fleury was a favorite, John LeClair, Mats Sundin, Doug Gilmoure, Dave Andrychuk, Stevie Y, Ron Francis, Roenick, Modano, Messier, so many STAR players
They were great (especially Roy who I still think is the #1 GOAT) but they marked the beginning of the evolution of goalie when Roy popularized the butterfly style. They got the ball rolling and now they have goalie down to a science. I'll watch old goal highlights and it's like "what the fuck was that goalie doing" with the stupid kick-save attempt that looked more like a "rock pose".
To me Roy will always be the best, because he was amazing when it mattered and won 3 Conn Smythe's, which is something nobody else did. Not even Wayne Gretzky won 3 Conn Smythes
The NHL in the 1990's was just filled to the gills with STARS! Skaters and net minders, just studs on every single team.....bar Ottawa for the most part though, they ALWAYS sucked out loud! They had Yashin & Alfredsson and that was it!
Hopefully hockey will get back to that status, it's progressing pretty good since the lockout. I love the Winter Classic! Brilliant idea! That fucktard Dan Shaugnessy wanted to abolish it though :vd: stupid old lesbian lookalike! He believes in "spirits" and "ghosts" and "curses"........dumb dumb dumb.
Anywho the NHL is doing ok now, hopefully the Olympics pique the interests of the fans as well. It should be great hockey. I want USA vs Canada of course, that HAS to happen. Russia has a squad but 0 defense which is tragic because they used to produce EXCELLENT defensemen! Zubov, Konstantinov, Fetisov, etc
Just ordered my custom Bauer IMS 11 helmet and visor.....going to play stick and puck for the first time next Thursday. Hopefully I pick up where I left off.
Canes lost vs the Habs the other night but they've been in good form recently. Hopefully that continues. Anton Khudobin is solid at making saves, but he spills too many rebounds. Jay Harrison has been weak in the last few matches but our attack looks sharp and we're getting lots of shots on goal....maybe Muller knows what he's doing after all.
...now I've just got to come up with a decent original goal celebration ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong
Yeah that's my team hahah. Yashin was good but he was an unlikable asshole who everyone (including Ottawa press) hated.
Ottawa really got fucked by Alexander Daigle, who is probably the biggest draft bust in any sport ever. I don't know if you remember him (why would you or anyone else) but he had INSANE numbers in the minors and was projected to be the next Mario Lemieux, picked 1st overall in the 93 draft (over guys like Paul Kariya, Pronger, Arnott, ect), but turned out to be a mediocre bum.
Ottawa had a good 2000's though. Heatley/Spezza/Alfredsson was, at one time, the best line in the NHL IMO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong
It'll be interesting to see if they end up dealing Cam Ward and what they can get for him if they decide to go that route.
Jeff Skinner is coming along nicely too.
The Canes have a great minor league system! I was talking with my friend about Ward and if we should trade him. Khudobin is awesome but he gives up loads of rebounds. I would not mind swapping Ward for Miller, but I think Peters should be the one dealt. Ward can still get hot for the playoffs.
Yeah Ottawa was great in the 2000's very strong.
Cam's a vet but I think they're paying him $7 million a year. If they can get good value for him and free up some cap space for free agency it might be worth the gamble.
I'm not opposed to that. We need some help on D and I think we can challenge. The Gleason for Miles deal has been great!Quote:
Originally Posted by Beanflicker
You see Edmonton/San Jose the other day? Scrivens set the post-expansion shutout record at 59 saves. He was unreal, especially against a team like San Jose.
Karlsson's back on top of the defenseman scoring race with 51 points in 54 games, too. And the Turris/Ryan/MacCarthur line is on fire, so Sens fans have something to be thankful for.
As bad as the Daigle draft pick was, picking Karlsson 15th overall was an amazing pick. In hindsight, he should have went 2nd overall after Stamkos.
Wow, that's very impressive. And you're right SJ have some top rate goal scorers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beanflicker
Carolina have very good youth on their team: Justin Faulk 21, Elias Lindholm 19, Jeff Skinner (obviously...such a talent and only 21), Ryan Murphy 20 (who reminds me a little bit of Paul Coffey), Jared Staal 22 or somewhere around there.
The olympics are coming soon, who does everyone think is going to win ? canada have to be favourites surely but russia being at home will surely be motivated.. Russia will have a few problems though, kovalchuk doesnt seem to be on top form in the khl and he wasnt great in his final season with the devils either, although he does seem to be getting more assists these days than he used to.. his goal out put has dropped a lot though.. Ovechkin and malkin really dont like each other, ovechkin slashed malkins hand a week or two ago :S... and I think the russians want to showcase the khl has being a great league so they will rely on some players from there that they really shouldn't.. bobrovsky is on top form though..
I will be supporting my fellow europeans though, hoping for finland or maybe sweden to win it.
I have phoenix v pittsburgh on just now... and there was an amazing dive from james neal :S vermetter touchs his back and neals throws himself face first into the glass.... amazing.. weird how they deal with diving in the nhl, they give both the players a penalty (so its 4 on 4) but neal was clearly the one doing sometihng wrong
Good game! Thanks to Oliver Ekman-Larsson even tho he got outboxed and starred :)Quote:
Originally Posted by palmerq
Quote:
Originally Posted by palmerq
Of course as a Canadian I'll go going for Canada, but as a betting man I'm picking team Sweden.
They have insane depth, incredible scoring power and fantastic goaltending.
As an American I'm choosing the US. I want to see the US vs Canada, bad blood between us. Russia has a squad... no defense but a shitload of scoring talent. Sweden is always the darkhorse
Did stick and puck today. I've still got it! My back is hurting but it's because I haven't swung the stick recently. I was going top shelf pretty good. Slapshot wasn't there but it'll come around.
....duuuuude my back is fucking killing me. Just the muscles I haven't used in a while are so tired. But oh well, I'll get used to it after a while.
Check this shit out though...amazing shots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfkQq2g8NKk
the chip by omrak is brilliant... my favourite anyway
no henrik sedin for sweden... shame but he has been crap the last few weeks and is only playing 2 periods per game so he must be suffering.. It's a bit annoying how vague the canucks are on players injury, henrik apprently has a rib injury and hamhuis a soft tissue injury S: wish they would keep the fans updated a bit better .
So no henrik for sweden and unless daniel turns it around 180degrees from his recent form it'll be like sweden are just without the sedins.. I forget how well do the sedins perform for sweden, do sweden have the depth to cover these guys ?
No mikko koivu or fillpula for finland either, a fair few injuries all round.
also I hear there will be no nhl players in korea for the next olympics, does anyone think that that will give the khl a boost ? Playing for your country seems to be a lot more important for us european fellows, the attitude seems a bit different in north america, if the russians and others are not allowed to play in the winter olympics whilst in the nhl, maybe more guys will do a kovalchuk and switch to the khl, which seems to be growing I might be wronng but I think a team from finland has joined up too, it's becoming a europe wide league and the oil barons of the east have a ton of money :S.... might see a few players head over.
I had some GREAT seats at the Canes-Habs game the other night. It's a shame the Canes lost and also Max Pacioretty picked up a knock which sucks because he's an American.
Watching Olympic hockey is great. The Ruskies and Canadians won but the US just hammered the shit out of a deceng Slovakian team. I like the attitude the American team has, we'll get Gold!
I woke up early for the first big game of the Olympics, USA and Russia.
The scoring power is REDICULOUS. Malkin, Ovechkin and Kovalchuk on one line ;D
Well THAT was pretty fucking epic!
Seriously I can't remember a better game....wasn't even for a medal yet
Great game, very evenly matched.
Gotta say, USA got real lucky with that disallowed goal. I think it's a stupid rule, I much rather the NHL rule in regards to a dislodged net. In the end, Quick knocked his own net dislodged his own net which made the Russian goal not count, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Yeah that made it a little disappointingQuote:
Originally Posted by Beanflicker
Those are the rules it so fuck it, fair play to the Americans.
TJ Oshie put on a master clinic in the shoot out, holy fuck.
It was great seeing Kovalchuk again too.
Those are two nasty teams
Here's a few non-Olympic questions for everyone:
1. Who is the best play by play and color man pairing for calling hockey?
2. Who is the best hockey analyst?
3. What are peoples' opinions on Don Cherry?
Now for the Olympics:
The Teams with the day off:
1. Sweden
2. USA
3. Canada
4. Finland
The matches coming up:
Slovenia-Austria winner to face 1. Sweden
Russia-Norway winner to face 4. Finland
Switzerland-Latvia winner to face 3. Canada
Slovakia-Czech Republic winner to face 2. USA
Who do you think advances?
Who has the hardest road to the finals?
Will the USA and Canada meet in the semifinals?
Can Russia rebound?
1. I honestly don't have a favourite pair haha. I'm accustomed to the Hockey Night in Canada commentators/analysts, but I could care less about the commentary personally. Nobody really grabs me.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong
2. #1 I would give to Bob McKenzie who does great work. Darren Dreger is great as well.
3. Don Cherry is a Canadian treasure, it's hard not to love the guy.
For me I love him and hate him.
I love him because of his outspokenness. He always had the balls to call it as he saw it (as unpopular as his opinion might have been). I liked his willingness to call players out on their bullshit, and really go hard after dirtbags like Ulf Samuelson. He's a great character and has more credibility in the hockey world than almost anyone.
But unfortunately I think in doing his "character" he also gets on with a lot of bullshit. He's always openly been biased against European players, stereotyping them as being skilled but being pussies and having no heart. It's like, relax dude. It's not 1972 anymore: Canada isn't the only country producing elite level guys with balls. And personally, I think his old-timer sentiments are outdated. He's from the good old days where everyone was classy, soft spoken and polite (in public at least), so whenever someone deviates from that and displays any type of character or flashiness, he automatically dumps on it (case in point: Ovi doing the "hot stick" celebration). A lot of people seem to have the same opinion, and I think it's dumb. Hockey interviews are so fucking boring and predictable, what's the harm in someone deviating from that?
Anyway, I'm predicting a Canada vs Sweden final with Sweden winning (hope I'm wrong on that but that's what I see happening).
Gary Thorne and Bill Clement are the greatest play by play and color around!
Also the USA are getting Gold!
I just found out that USA Men's Olympic Hockey Coach (and Pittsburgh Penguins Coach) Dan Bylsma played 2 years for my hometown minor league hockey team.
How's about that? Pretty cool shit.
Next round of men's hockey is set
Sweden-Slovenia
Finland-Russia
USA-Czech Republic
Canada-Latvia
It's a no brainer to think the final 4 will be Sweden-Russia and USA-Canada, but I'm thinking Finland has a pretty damned good shot at beating the Ruskies
Russia put out by Finland, WOW. I knew the Russian team had some issues, but I never expected that one.
I did (see above)...the Fins are a really good team and with the Swedes lacking Zetterberg and one of the Sedin's they could very well make the Gold Medal round especially with Rask in goal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beanflicker
For the other matches only the US really have anything to worry about, Canada won't slip up vs a team like Latvia, not a chance. The Czech's are decent, but the US should hammer the piss out of them.
The Russian's really under performed for most of the tournament. Goes to show that its not just about putting the best players possible on the ice: a lot of times guys just won't have chemisty and will put up underwhelming performances. Epic fail for the Russians on home turf.
Yeah the Czechs could be a live underdog against the States, personally I don't see them pulling it off, but who knows.
Ted Nolan has done a great job with Latvia. They are incredibly scrappy.