How is it bashing by mentioning that he was a terrible skater? With that being said, I enjoyed watching him fight.

bhlloy is saying that tongue in cheek, I am sure, although it's indubitable that we both thought he was a great enforcer while he was here (I know I did).

Don't be so sensitive. Who are you, Jiri Hudler?

Nah, I don't skate with my head down. :)

Bruins give Julien new deal.

Bruins give Claude Julien a new deal - BostonHerald.com

A well deserved extension at that.

For the past couple seasons, the Penguins have had players hand deliver season tickets.

Two seasons ago, this lady had her tix delivered by Crosby. During the time, Crosby mentions he'd do his best to win the Cup and she said "Not this year...maybe next year."

Now she looks pretty damn smart.

Crosby delivered her tickets again today.

A surprise visit for a longtime Penguins fan

The video is even better-
Video: Stanley Cup surprise

fucking. awesome.

very cool

Like father, like son. Douchebags.

Son of NHL great Patrick Roy to stand trial for assault - ESPN

Sabres start camp today with rookies reporting. Veterans report Saturday.

Is the NHL playing in Europe this year?

Yes. I know the Wings are opening the season in Sweden. I think they may be playing the Blues? Maybe not, but someone like that. I think two other teams are playing somewhere else in Europe as well to start the season.

Personally, I think the Wings will struggle a bit this season as compared to the last 3 for the following reasons:

1. The start in Europe combined with the compressed schedule (because of the Olympics) and the fact that so many Wings are playing in the Olypmics.

2. The loss of Hossa, Hulder and Samuelsson will hurt the offense more than expected and Williams, Bertuzzi, and Eaves will do less.

3. The division is a lot tougher, especially Chicago, but both Columbus and St. Louis are coming on strong.

Panthers and Blackhawks in Helsinki. Last year the games were before the rest of the season started. This year, it's the weekend after everything kicks off, which makes a lot more sense.

Some talk recently about Toronto offering Kessel a contract. With that looming, I hear that Chiarelli may be looking at trading Phil. I'll just be happy when this whole thing is over with, re-sign the guy or trade him for a decent young D-Man.

Yeah, I read that as well. I guess the Leafs swaped some draft picks around that appeared to give them the ability to offer Kessel a contract. I'd be surprised if Burke did it, especially after his on-going hissy-fit with Kevin Lowe over the whole Dustin Penner thing.

The Leafs made an interesting deal with the Hawks, swapping a 2nd and 3rd (both from 2011) for a 2nd in 2010.

But it's not just any 2nd. It's the Leafs pick, which had been dealt to Chicago via Montreal last year. So the Leafs now have each of their own first three picks, which means they can now sign an RFA. Which means Phil Kessel is probably talking to Brian Burke right now.

A few things that make this interesting:
- The Bruins say they'll match any offer, but they don't have cap room. How high will they go?

- The second the Leafs sign Kessel to an offer sheet, the Bruins can no longer trade him to anyone but Toronto. So the other teams that bidding now have some extra pressure to put on the Bruins.

- If the Bruins do trade Kessel's rights to another team, the Leafs could still sign Kessel and then force his new team to match.

- And of course, Burke will be accused of hyprocisy after he was so angry at Lowe for signing RFAs two years ago. Back then he said that signing RFAs was fine as long as it wasn't to ridiculous Vanek/Penner type offers, but that won't matter. The media will kill him over this. And, of course, he won't care.

Burke makes things interesting, that's for sure.

Too bad Kessel is pretty overrated and I suspect will crumble under the media scrutiny in Toronto.

Plus the kid is a dick most of his teammates don't like.

Brian Burke is the yin to Gary Bettman's yang.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=290397

Apparently now, Burke is totally fine with signing RFAs so long as there is "no blindside or backdoor like what Kevin Lowe did." So, as long as the "entire process has involved dialogue with [opposing GM]" it's all totally legit and no one can be angry about it.

That said, I do recall him getting all pissed off, not only because of Kevin Lowe's "blindside or backdoor" shennagins, but because he felt that the offer sheet to Penner threw salaries all out of whack and forced him (and other teams) to pay younger players (e.g., Getzlaf and Perry) more.

Yeah, here are his quotes on the Penner signing:

Angry Burke blasts fellow GM Lowe

"Edmonton has offered a mostly inflated salary for a player, and I think it's an act of desperation for a general manager who is fighting to keep his job," he said.

The comments came a day after Lowe signed Penner — a 24-year-old restricted free agent who scored 29 goals last season — to a five-year, $21.25-million US offer sheet.

Burke said he wasn't upset that the Oilers made a play for Penner, but rather took exception to the potential inflationary effects of offering a $4.25-million annual salary to a player who made the league minimum of $450,000 last season.

"I have no problem with offer sheets," Burke said, noting they are part of the NHL's collective bargaining agreement.
"If you can identify a player and pay him appropriately and make him an offer, that's fine. At some point, the deals you make, the offers you extend, whether the team matches it or not, impacts all 30 teams, including your own."

Brian Burke needs to get over it already.

Burke needs to find his happy place.

As a Bruins fan I'd rather have Toronto deal for Kessel and give up NHL talent than get draft picks as signing compensation. This Bruins team can complete for the Cup now and I think they should do as much as possible to keep that window open. Obviously dealing a top line winger hurts their chances so if they're going to let him go I'd rather get NHL talent back right now.

Does anyone else see this as a bribe? WTF is going on with the NHL these days?

James Balsillie offers $50M to Glendale in Phoenix Coyotes sale - ESPN

Oh, and this one is fun too:

Nashville Predators owner sentenced to more than 8 years in prison - ESPN

Add the dismissal of Paul Kelly and the resignation of Glenn Healy, and you have one helluva an NHL offseason. :eek:

I've seen these documents first hand.

But OMGZ, we can't let this nasty man Balsillie buy a team. He's just too shady. Somebody think of the children.

Now, welcome to the league Mr. Hitler. Please tell me more about your plan to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix. :)

Get over what? Those quotes are from two years ago.

So if he offers Kessel something in the range of $4.25 or $4.5M, where's the hypocrisy?

Not getting into the Burke-Lowe thing again except to note that Penner has proven exactly what Burke said at the time--he was massively overpaid for his talent.

Arguable, but besides that point, it's not like that clarification is unique only to RFA's. There are plenty of overpaid players in this league coughHorcoffcough.

I mean the Vanek offer certainly isn't looking all that crazy at this point. There's always going to be stupid contracts handed out across the league, the more RFA offer sheets there are, the more those bad contracts will just be spread across a wider age range.

Not arguable from the way you Oilers fans speak about Penner in the season threads. :D

I think an argument can be made that Burke was right, in that Lowe's offer to Vanek and signing of Penner were bad for hockey in general (even if the CBA gave Lowe every right to do what he did), and I think it has been proven over time that Lowe is every bit as much of an ass as Burke (so the lack of contact that set Burke off seems to have some traction).

Regardless, Pandora's Box, what's done is done, blah, blah. Burke's where he wants to be, Lowe's where he deserves to be (unemployed), and we're all happier (even Oil fans). ;)

The first set of quotes about the backdoor/blindsiding were from yesterday. He still hasn't gotten over it. That's not too surprising, he seems like the kind of guy to hold a grudge.

I don't think it will so much be hysprocrisy if Burke makes an offer to Kessel in that range. It perfectly fits within his narrow definition of how an RFA offer should be made:

1. You must discuss the offer with the other team's GM first.

2. You must make him an offer that pays him appropriately.

If you follow the Burke Guidelines, it's all good and honorable. If not, your're a backdoor, blindsiding son of a bitch.

Well played sir, well played.

My buddy texted me this rumor, anyone hear this? I have no idea where it's from:

Heatley to the Rangers for Staal, Dubinsky and Rosival.

Ugh, that would be terrible for the Rangers. Please no, Glen.

Dubinsky, Del Zotto, and Roszival was a rumor that was shot down by the Rangers camp really quickly when the Heatley talk first started. To think they'd put Staal in that deal is nuts.

We'll see though, but I'd be amazed.

Looks like it came from the Ottawa Citizen, worded as speculation or "what Ottawa would hope to get."

Good news for the Wings, maybe Lilja will play again.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index....andreas_l.html

That's certainly good news for the Lilja. But, as far as the Wings are concerned, I'd just call it "news".

This. Well hey if's healthy he becomes tradeable.

Comrie and Lowe are re-united...is Burke the next to reconcile with Lowe?

Actually, he played pretty well for us last season. If he can come back and replicate that performance, I would indeed say it is good news for the Wings. We need a big body on the blue line, with the loss of some of our scoring from last year we need to play better defense this time around.

The salary cap issue, however, remains a problem.

Just found out that the NHL Network is now part of my basic cable package. The HD channel will be coming soon.

Very nice...

On The Fly is a great show!

The Sabres have RFA Drew Stafford still unsigned. Interesting tatics this year.

Rookie Tyler Myers is trying to push for a D position with the Sabres. At 6'8'' and a physical game, he could really make an impact if he gets the chance.

Blair Betts and Mike Bell are at the Flyers camp trying to make the team.

Mark Bell?

Scrolling on ESPN earlier was Heatley to the Sharks in a 3-team deal, Marleau to LA.

Just check TSN .. saw this:

Here we go again.

Amid reports that the Ottawa Senators have traded Dany Heatley to the San Jose Sharks as part of a three-way deal with the Los Angeles Kings, sources tell TSN nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, sources tell TSN that not only is the report of a three-way deal being done not true, but the Senators are no closer to trading Heatley now than they have been for most of the summer.

It's eerily similar to earlier this summer when there were reports the Senators had traded Heatley to the Edmonton Oilers. The difference then, though, was the Sens and Oilers actually had a deal worked out, but Heatley refused to waive his no-movement clause. This time around, it doesn't appear there's been any agreement.

Yeah, I missed a piece of the scroll, but saw also at the end something like "...and Murray deny such a deal." Thought it was interesting that it wasn't reported from a source or anything like that, but a definite deal.

Same story on NHL.com too. Could be some truth to it, while I don't trust ESPN that much, NHL.com is usually pretty reliable.

It is but they have an absolutely terrible set.