I think the common practice has usually been to exclude shootout goals from league totals. Though a few european leagues have taken up giving a regular goal for the player who scores the winner in the shootout. Go figure :)

Groan...this from Sportsnet.ca:



http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/hearsay.jsp

Scott Stevens retires.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135528


Also saw on Kuklas that HDNet will announce their NHL schedule within the next 10 days. I get HDNet, so yay, hockey in HD!

scott stevens will be tremendously missed here in NJ. i really thought he was coming back. huge blow, and im very very sad to see him go. between him and niedermeyer, its a whole new defensive era.

what a great player he was :(

CRAP! That sucks :(. He will be missed.

Yeah, he was a great player. Just an absolute rock along the blue line. He had a number of fantastic open ice hits (usually checking guys with their head down), especially against Slava Kozlov (though to the little fella's credit he did get back up) and, of course, Lindros.

I think people also forget what an offensive threat he was in his career, cracking 50 pts 8 times (including one gaudy season of 18g 60a and +53). Also ironic that the lockout gave him a chance to see that he could be away from the game, as, in some way, he was a big catalyst for the salary boom in the 90s.

but what's impressive to me is his +/-: never had a regular season in the red, and was a plus 393 for his career. too bad he never managed to land a Norris.

weird seeing the Devils without Niedermeyer and Stevens.

Ueah, that is wierd. The guy will be a first ballot Hall of Famer, but almost seemed to do it quietly (well, except when he took out opposing players).

This year Brodeur will show tlhe world just how good he really is.

Zetterberg signed. $2.5 million, multiyear deal.

http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=432150

"After lengthy negotiations yesterday, Zetterberg is said to have received the contract he wanted. According to Sundsvalls Tidning, the deal is a multiyear deal worth $2.5 million per year, i.e. just above 18 million SEK per year. Everything was signed late last night Swedish time."

Damphousse retires.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135574

Interesting Article:

http://www.thebrushback.com/nhldonate_full.htm

I certainly hope this turns out to be accurate. This would be good news. $2.5 million is about exactly where I thought Zetterberg should sign.

According to this, http://www.detnews.com/2005/wings/05...D01-306435.htm

Datsyuk's contract has no out clause.

Confirmed. http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=135619&hubName=nhl


Islanders also re-sign Rick Dipietro to a 1 yr, $2.5 million deal.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135613

Nice. Very nice. This is the best deal the Wings have made yet. $2.65 is a perfect figure. Zetterberg is only 25, so at that price he could be one hell of a bargain in a few years' time.

Sounds like Datsyuk is a wash. It will be interesting to see if Holland concedes Datsyuk is out of the picture and go for someone (the only one left?) like Bondra or just sit on what he has. The Wings need more offensive punch.

Jeez, what is with all the retirements lately?

Al Macinnis retires. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...85&hubName=nhl

James Patrick retires. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135676

maybe a mix of guys having a year off and seeing how nice it is with guys not getting the contracts they hoped they would be getting.

plus, of course, all these guys are a year older than when they played last

WOOT! Isles are doing $10 tickets for some games in the first half of the year, and amazingly one of the games was the Flyers game.

So I snapped up two tix for November 29th for a whopping total of $25 (half the cost of ONE ticket to the Flyers game in Philly that I'm going to in October).

Anybody else get any deals like this?

~rpi-fan

The Sabres actually have season tickets starting at $10.00 a chair for the upper bowl, which is an absolute steal - $400.00 for the entire year!

I actually purchased a pair of season tickets in the lower bowl at $1200.00 US ($30.00 per game) each. Again, for tickets in the lower bowl, I feel like a thief! I'll end up selling off about half of the tickets to friends and co-workers and maybe give away a few sets of seats to some of my customers.

I didnt know it was possible to give away Sabres tickets..... :D

Once I get some extra $ I'm def getting Sabres season tickets as they are hella cheap I agree

Oops!

TSN is reporting that Derian Hatcher went down in the US camp today with a pulled hamstring and a knee injury. Results of the MRI are still pending.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp...59&hubName=nhl

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=135762

McKee signs 1 yr deal for $1.6

Now don't trade him for nothing Darcy! Or worse, let him go after the season for nothing :(

Not quite that good, but got better than nothing offer that ended up leading me to buy regular price tickets (which you know they gotta love)

The offers were kids under 15 free in October (only got to use that once, because most of the games were school nights & typically we don't get home from a game until between midnight & 1am).

Also 2-for-1 ticket Wednesdays most of the season, again, school night kills that for us too. And the Family 4-pack (4 tickets+4 cokes+4 hot dogs for $129 lower/$89 uppper) was sold out already, just 48 hours into the pre-sale.

But, given the price & driving hassles, matching up their schedule with other events, school nights, et al, I'm pretty happy with what I just finished buying.

I'm a front-of-the-upper-deck, center-ice kinda guy so I'm pretty happy with the selection, getting the pre-sale made a HUGE difference in the quality of single-game tickets available.

Sat 9/24 7pm vs Hurricanes section 110, row F, seats 3-4
Fifth row behind the goal, 2nd home game of the year
Sat 10/22 7pm vs Devils section 309, row L, seats 4-1
2 free under 15 y/o
Sun 12/11 2pm vs Blackhawks section 310, row D, seats 18-17
last home game before holiday break & we're usually traveling during that
Fri 1/6 7pm vs Penguins section 310, row E, seats 20-19
I went back & got these, figured I'd go ahead & buy into the Crosby hype
Sat 2/4 vs Panthers section 310, row D, seats 4-3
only home game in February due to the circus
Sat 4/15 2pm vs Bruins section 310, row D, seats 18-17
last regular season home game of the year

Total spent: $734 (including junk fees & $12 parking for the Carolina & P'burgh games)

Plus, I figure I can manage to score at least one freebie in somebody's luxury suite due to work (a damned sweet way to watch a game in ATL) and I can supplement with the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators (fabulous building, I can't wait to see hockey there & top ticket price is $19), all-in-all, I think that's a pretty good slate of live action for a 7 y/o + his dad :)

http://www.philadelphiaflyers.com/pr...chive/2116.asp

Hatcher will miss 3 weeks. He is also suspended the first 3 games of the regular season (for what I do not remember).

Forsberg will have surgery on his ankle and will miss 2-3 weeks.

Damn man, I'm telling you: get your hands on a student ID and you & the kiddo can go for $20 TOTAL, front of the upperdeck, center ice.

Oops, I just realized I probably didn't make it clear I was referring to Thrashers tickets at Phillips Arena. I was answering the "anybody else get deals like this" part of the earlier post & went ahead & filled in what I ended up getting after covering why the various specials here didn't work out too useful for me.

And it appears the value of those tickets I was so happy about earlier may be about to drop considerably :(

http://www.ajc.com/thrashers/content...thrashers.html

Contract talks with Ilya Kovalchuk have hit a roadblock, which could cost the Thrashers their best player this season.

Jay Grossman, the agent for the star left wing, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution his client will pursue a contract with a pro team in his native Russia, which could be completed by early next week.

If that happens, the Thrashers have until Oct. 5 to negotiate with Kovalchuk. If no agreement is reached, he likely would be lost for the season. Under the league's collective bargaining agreement, if a player plays outside of North America once the season starts, he must clear waivers to return to his NHL team — a risk the Thrashers could not afford to take, as he surely would be claimed by another team.

"We want him in Atlanta; he wants to be in Atlanta. We're going to do everything we can to make it happen," Thrashers general manager Don Waddell said Friday from Traverse City, Mich., where he was watching a prospect evaluation tournament.

Waddell wouldn't comment on what the Thrashers' offer was to the restricted free agent, other than to say, "I'd say we have a difference right now."

Asked if it was a serious difference, he responded: "A difference."

With training camp set to open Sunday, the 22-year-old Kovalchuk is in Russia playing with Khimik Voskresensk, a Moscow-area team that does not rank among the Super League's higher-paying teams.

No, if you have a student ID at Phillips, you get center ice lower-part-of-upper-deck for $10 Day of Game.

Hmm ... I wonder if I could grow my beard back & resemble my old GaState ID ;)

I know they never gave me a hard time about it... or just send the kiddo up to the window and train him to say "Two, please".

:)

Well, that's what I get for trying to be a hockey fan. That just sucks.

The Leafs have signed Mariusz Czerkawski aka "The Polish Wayne Gretzky" to a one year deal. Not a bad signing.

Also, more updates on the Datsyuk saga. Apparently nothing is final in Russia yet and he'll be making his decision tomorrow (Sunday). The Wings are allegedly offering a two year deal at $3.8 million a year.

For elbowing Matthew Lombardi in the playoffs.

Hard to believe the first preseason games start this Friday!

Wow, that is strange.

Not really, I've been watching live hockey since Labor Day weekend. Guess that's a benefit of being in Minnesota.

I'm not going slumming, I just want NHL quality hockey.

All these lovely ticket sales apparently haven't trickled down to exhibition play :(

In KC, they still wants $30 per ticket or $100 for 6 to watch a Blues/Preds preseason game. One of the local radio stations is running a $15 ticket deal for a certain upper deck section but nothing that really makes me want to go out and watch a team I don't like and a team I'm indifferent to. Regular season would be another story, but this is preseason.

SI

Mark Messier is going to announce his retirement later today.

7 years after he should have

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...thrashers.html

Free agent right wing Peter Bondra is en route to Atlanta where he expects to complete a contract with the Thrashers, if not by the end of the day then by sometime on Tuesday, Bondra's agent Ritch Winter said.

Bondra, 37, has 477 goals in 984 career games and while he has slowed down a bit, he has still managed to score an average of almost 32 goals over the last three NHL seasons, which is probably plenty more than the Thrashers would expect from him.

Winter said the parties were working on a one-year contract.

"We're working on details," Winter said. "But I can confirm we're getting very, very close to finalizing it."

Winter said part of what took so long to finalize a deal was that Bondra needed to make up his mind where he wanted to play, but there was another factor after the Thrashers took on $7.223 million in salary after trading Dany Heatley to Ottawa for Marian Hossa and Greg de Vries.

"Their interest was the same, but they didn't know if they had any money left," Winter said.

With their top six forwards of Hossa, Bondra, Marc Savard, Slava Kozlov, Bobby Holik and Ilya Kovalchuk – assuming he signs – Winter asked rhetorically, "Is there a better top two lines in hockey?"

Rich, I wouldn't count one's top two lines before they are all under contract. Get Kovalchuk under contract and then we'll start talking the best top two lines in hockey.

I am liking what they're doing in Atlanta though. The progress has been all positive thus far.

Actually, my guess is Bondra is signed because Kovalchuk will not be.

NHL signs a 10 year, $100 million deal with XM satellite radio. They plan to broadcast 1000 games a season.

Effective when? They used to have a contract with Sirius.

It starts this upcoming season.

Yes, yes there is

:( Thanks for the cup, Mess.