He can move more freely since he shaved that neck beard!

That's just a funny picture :)

SI

A nice mug shot of Kane.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200.../patrick.kane/

I understand the Leafs are really excited about the Swedish kid in goal but didn't they give Justin Pogge away awfully cheaply? Wasn't he expected to be the goalie of the future only a year ago? They're putting a lot of faith in a rookie netminder if you ask me.

Looks like it could be an interesting case:

Cabbie in Kane case had no valid license : Home: The Buffalo News

You mean the next Ron Francis?

They didn't make all bad moves. They got a serviceable player in Kent Manderville for Billy Tibbetts.

Looks like this was updated to now he has a license....:popcorn:

Cabbie in Kane case had valid license, his attorney says : Home: The Buffalo News

Pogge was the goalie of the future two years ago. He had an iffy year in the AHL in 2007-08, and was benched in the playoffs. Last year he was pretty bad again, was given a few chances to play in the NHL, and was just awful. There was talk about him having serious problems with his technique.

In one sense the Leafs gave up on him for not much return (max of a third round pick if he plays 30 games). On the other hand, they did get something and if they feel like he has no future in Toronto I guess it's better than nothing.

Keep in mind the Leafs have a new goalie coach who's very highly regarded. I'd assume he watched the tapes of Pogge and his impression wasn't positive.

I hope this goes well for him.

Fleury, 41 and sober, attempting NHL comeback - NHL News - FOX Sports on MSN

I'd love to see him as a Leaf...we all know he is Truculent enough to be a Burke player.

My favorite part of the article...

So what you're saying is that it is a lot like the Leafs ;)

/ducks

SI

Yeah, but only if they were also using wooden skates. :lol:

Yahoo power rankings:

Power rankings: Chasing the summer blahs - NHL - Yahoo! Sports

Dola

He says this about the Islanders:


and this about the Coyotes:

He loses points for suggesting Carolina adopt a Whalers throwback uniform. No, that would be disgusting.

Couple of moves by the NY Rangers

Report: Rangers add Prospal, Messier - NHL.com - 2009 NHL Offseason News

Surprised it took this long for them to bring Messier into the fold. I would imagine he is going to be groomed for the next head coaching position with the team, and then eventually as the next GM.

Wings looking at Bertuzzi....again?

Report: Wings talking to Bertuzzi - NHL.com - 2009 NHL Offseason News

Makes sense actually. Bertuzzi is the only free-agent right-winger remaining who's worth a damn that fits inside the 2m in cap space the Wings have to work with.

Hm. I wonder if the Flyers are still thinking about going after a 1-2 mil forward (after finding a way to dump Randy Jones or Matt Carle). Bertuzzi was probably near the top of the list for desirable candidates, in as much as he'd be a near exact replacement for Knuble.

Sorry but have to disagree with you on this one. I would take Knuble over Bertuzzi any day. Bertuzzi is not physical since his back injury, is universally loathed, and generally brings very little to the NHL table. In fact, he put up 44 points last season with Calgary and was still a -13 on the ice. I am a lifelong Wings fan and can't stand this guy, so this news saddens me. However, I will make the best of it and hope he gets hurt and never plays again.

I agree...I really liked Knuble. But I have to agree with the Flyers decision to let him walk. His productivity tailed at the end of last season, he looked very slow against the Pens and was pretty much a non factor. They were willing to give him the 2.8 mil he wanted but for only one year, and Knuble said he was going to give the Flyers a "discount" to stay with them. However, I can't blame him for taking the extra year with Washington.

Yup, I'm definitely still rooting against the Red Wings this year.

Big surprise:

Grand jury dismisses felony charge against Patrick Kane, but indicts Chicago Blackhawks star on lesser charges - ESPN Chicago

Canes make a free agent pick-up...

Stephane Yelle agrees to one-year deal with Carolina Hurricanes - ESPN

Can't hurt, that's for sure. At the very least he can offer some leadership. One of the few Avalanche players I didn't loathe.

I liked Yelle when he was on the Bruins. He's a good solid player and does a great job killing penalties.

Yelle's a bargain, that's for sure.

He's quite good at faceoffs, as well. Do they still have Cullen? Between Cullen, Brind'Amour, and Yelle, they'll never lose a faceoff.

I'm not surpised. Living in the Buffalo/Niagara area, the cabbie and his lawyer have sort of changed their story a little. I get the feeling some of the information is still not being released.

Yes, we still have all of them. Canes fans are pretty happy with the pickup.

Outside of Staal and maybe Ward, we don't have a superstar player, but this is probably the deepest team I can recall having. It's not Detroit rolling four lines, but by our normal standards, we can put an awful lot of combinations out there now. It'll also allow what's turned into a pretty good batch of solid young players to gel this year in Albany with the expectation that the roster will probably go through some heavy turnover in the next couple of seasons as the older vets retire or others finish out their contracts, at which point the Albany kids will become the next core of the team with Staal and Ward.

I'm getting pretty excited about the upcoming season right now. :)

Heatley speaks:

Dany Heatley discusses his request for trade from Ottawa Senators - ESPN

I actually have more respect for him now that he has come out and said a few things. Even if he hasn't said much, at least he explained his reasoning for a trade request, and more importantly, he still plans on showing up for tc instead of holding out like a lot of other athletes seem to do these days.

So, I am wondering. Is this maybe an Ottawa problem? I look at the club's short history and it is not pretty. Yashin played/plays with no heart. Daigle played with no heart. Redden seems to be washed up upon leaving the Canadian capital. The only two guys whom seem to be relatively happy there are Chris Neil and Daniel Alfredsson.

Ottawa has to be one of the biggest underachievers in the NHL in the past half-decade.

Thoughts?

He didn't say anything. He had a gun to his head from Team Canada, so he read a statement, gave 25-minutes on non-answers, and then got out of there. He didn't shed any light on anything at all.

He did what he had to do, but you shouldn't respect him any more for it.

Could be, but I am trying to see the good in him. I hate seeing guys with so much talent let it go to waste.

I am beginning to think, though, that Ottawa is the new place to go and die for NHL players.

Ottawa problem? Because players like Yashin and Daigle don't live up to expectations...in Ottawa or elsewhere? Huh? And Redden was washed up before he left...oddly enough, right around the time Chara left...hmmm.

And as for being underachievers...well, they missed the playoffs for the first time this past season after 11 straight visits. I guess not winning the Cup during that time could be underachieving but, really, I think there are several other teams that would fit that label much better.

As for Heatley, well, who cares.

09-10 THN Yearbook came in the mail today-

EAST
1 Boston
2 Washington
3 Pittsburgh
4 Philadelphia
5 New Jersey
6 Carolina
7 Buffalo
8 Montreal
9 Ottawa
10 Tampa Bay
11 Toronto
12 Florida
13 NY Rangers
14 Atlanta
15 NY Islanders

WEST

1 San Jose
2 Chicago
3 Vancouver
4 Detroit
5 Calgary
6 Anaheim
7 Dallas
8 Columbus
9 St Louis
10 Nashville
11 Edmonton
12 LA
13 Minnesota
14 Colorado
15 Phoenix


And their pick to win it all--

The Flyers!?!?! WTF

The issue contains all the usual features-- line/parings prjections, rookie outlook, etc-- and a new one this season: sort of a hedge on their ranking about, projecting a best case/worst case scenario, and what would happen to reach that.

Pittsburgh for example is projected as 3rd in the East, but could be 1st if "Crosby hits 40, and Staal reaches rookie promise", but could fall to 6th if "Gas tank is empty, team D takes a step back".

Any interest in a team, post here, I'll try my best to fill all requests

Washington, please.

I don't know whether to be happy or unhappy that they picked the Flyers to win. I can't remember the last time that happened. We will be legit contenders with Pronger, but it's hard to predict how injuries or other issues will impact the playoffs at this point.

Caps

2nd in the East
1st - if goaltending and team D improve
5th- if injuries take their toll and the offense sputters

As far as the projected lineup, couple things to note:

Theodore listed as the starter ahead of Varlamov
Knuble penciled in on the 1st line with Ovy and Backstrom
Alzner listed in the top 6 ahead of Jurcina
Nylander (4th) listed ahead of Steckel (5th) at center on the depth chart (I don't get that one at all)

Most of that looks dead on except Nylander who's probably somewhere around 74th on the depth chart.

I think Varly has to start the season as the starter after his work in the playoffs. He has had problems with conditioning, so I'd expect Theodore to play more than most backups. Of course I'm not sure where Theodore will be mentally this season after the horrible death of his child last week.

The Flyers?!? Really?!?

Anaheim please?

Why is that so shocking? Just because Emery is an unknown quantity doesn't mean they weren't one stupid fight away from taking the Pens to game 7 and gave them the hardest time aside from the Wings.

+ Pronger, + Laperriere, + full season of Briere/Giroux + Emery/Boucher heavily outweighs - Knuble, Lupul, and Biron/Niitty.

Ducks

3rd - if Koivu and Selanne rekindle Finnish magic
9th - if goaltending falters and youngsters stall

Lineup notes-

Hiller listed as the starter
Whitney paired with Niedermayer on top pair
Sbisa on 3rd pair, and listed as top prospect
Crusher Christensen listed 4th on the LW depth chart

They even said it in THN. Will Emery lead the Flyers to the Cup? No, almost definitely not. But he won't have to, just like Osgood didn't have to do jack to get the Wings to the finals the past two years.

It is mainly hard to believe because of Emery. Yeah, he's as, or more, talented then Biron. But nobody knows what to expect from him. It's not hard to say they downgraded in goal, which was their weakest spot to begin with.

And I love Talbot as much as any other Pens fan, but losing a fight to Carcillo didn't let in 4 straight goals.

I know. I actually get irked when people point that out as the reason the Flyers lost - they clearly lost because they allowed all the goals (but you have to admit that did mark a complete change in the attitudes of the teams during that game).

And as I said in the post above yours, Emery probably won't have to lead the Flyers to the Cup. If they had Pronger last year, things would've been different. None of the Flyers D-men pushed anyone anywhere. That won't be the case anymore.

And if Emery blows up, I really don't mind Boucher. He's had playoff experience, been to the conference finals, and has been pretty good in backup duty over the past few years.

I think you are selling Osgood a little short. Sure, he didn't have to carry that team to 1-0 wins, but he was infinitely better in the postseason than regular season last year.

To win 16, you goalie needs to steal you one or two games. Fleury did it game 4 vs Philly, and was really good games 6 and 7 vs Detroit.

So best shot is lowest point total among division champs? I can see that, except I actually think, top to bottom, the Pacific is stronger than the Northwest, and I think the Pacific champ will end up at #2.

I think the Ducks have made a number of key relatively under the radar additions (Koivu, Lupul, Boynton, Sbisa, plus full seasons from the trade guys and from Ryan) that are going to make them a very competitive squad right from the start.

I'm actually not certain Sbisa makes the team. Ducks have a lot of candidates on D, and maybe 2-3 spots open, and that's it.

I'm not so sure Whitney pairs with Niedermayer. Those are the two best puck moving D-men. If Sbisa makes the team, he might actually pair with Niedermayer. The staff has always been big on pairing good young players with Niedermayer, so they can learn from him.

Christensen's spot sounds about right. Some of the team's additions have really pushed him back on the depth chart.

Right, well, Emery is certainly an unknown quantity, but it's not like he doesn't have the potential to steal a game or two. Been to the cup finals, put up very good numbers on his KHL team, we'll see how it goes.