Oopsie ... you're right Tekneek. Looking back through the newspaper archives, it appears I was out of town when the guy who was going to salvage them for another season pulled the plug back in April.

So anyone have a guess what I'll be watching on TV when I get home from class tonight? :D

I know the guy who was trying to put together a new ownership group. He was lied to and jerked around by the previous ownership (the same guy who runs that league). That's why it fell apart. In fact, the notice went out that the franchise was folding about 3 days before the deadline he had been given. Not to mention that the fellow was really overpricing the team.

I almost wish I lived in Iowa or Nebraska or what have you. The USHL is so much fun to watch

Isles-Rags game was great to watch!

About a half dozen penalties in the first period, then the players caught on! Saw time after time where would-be hooks, clutches, and/or grabs simply didn't happen. Loved the 2-line pass; penalized offensive zone turnovers more.

Great hockey!

~rpi-fan

Went to the Wild game tonight, saw Vanek get a couple of points but the Wild did win. That line of Vanek-Briere-Dumont should be fun to watch.

USHL hockey is fun to watch, lots of future stars in that league.

Indeed. One of my best friends is playing for Cedar Rapids this year. I'm trying to get down there for his home opener October 8th

Name, please. It is a little more interesting to have someone to look for in the stat reports. A player for Chicago the past couple of years was the younger brother of a player we knew in the ECHL, so it gave me a reason to look at USHL stats. He should have moved on to Ferris State now.

Yeah, give us the name and I'll tell you how he has done in my NHL EHM 2005 soak test if he has been included in the DB :D

I've seen Stalock and Wehrs play many times, Stalock stood on his head one year at the State Tourney and took his team to the finals and Wehrs is a undersized D-man that can really skate and create.

Dustin Cloutier.

Dustin Cloutier, ha. I doubt he's in the new DB but do add him haha/

He has only played 1 of 3 possible games so far. Did he join the team late or miss time?

Sorry to disappoint you. He's already in out DB with Cedar Rapids :D

I'll let you know tomorrow if he was in my soak test game I have running at the office.

He was there but he was in a rotation early on. He's playing in the opener and is on their PK unit now.

Adam Deadmarsh retires due to problems with concussions.

That's a shame. Despite his Wing-killing ways and deep association with the Forces of Darkness(tm), I liked the guy. A good, hard-nosed player with skill. Though it ended up hurting his career, I love the fact that the night he returned from his first big concussion (suffered as a result of a solid punch during a fight with Jovonkoski), he gets into another fight with Jovo for payback. I think he suffered another concussion in that fight.

Didn't find Dustin Cloutier around anymore in my soaks in 2013+ as he probably only had a short career in college before fading out of the game. But as I said, he is in the database, rated and everything, ready to be drafted if you want to get him to the big leagues :D

Since this had fallen to the 2nd page, I figured I'd bump to brag that I can get my Khabibulin in Blackhawks gear card free next week. So far, the only two weeks I've remembered, I've gotten Gonchar and Heatley.

http://sports.upperdeck.com/hockey/showcase/

SI

Why are all the hockey superstars retiring before this season. They are needed now more than ever.

Because they can't find jobs.

Which makes sense... I love these guys, but they're mostly in the 42-45 range and in the new, more open, offensive* NHL there isn't much room for those guys. (Except for Stumpy Thomas, who I hope makes the Leafs for nothing other than sentimental reasons.)

*No, Martha Burke, I mean the other kind of offensive.

Is Stumpy Thomas a double-entendre?

No.

You're thinking of "Ron Tugnutt".

Well, just got home from my first live look at the new NHL.
Thrashers 4-2 exhibition win over Carolina

I dunno what that was, but it sure didn't resemble major league hockey for long stretches of the night.

from the linked article:
There were 25 penalties in the game -- 14 by Atlanta -- in keeping with the league's mandate to cut down on obstruction and create more scoring chances.


Well, it sure manages that goal pretty well ... the 2nd period started with, give or take, 1 minute remaining of a Carolina powerplay. The teams finally managed to play five-on-five after just under 15 minutes of play in the period. Yep, that's right, it's was either 4-on-4 or powerplay hockey for 15 of the 20 minutes. And that produced a whopping ONE goal combined.

Other random observations/thoughts from the game:
Mike Dunham looked very solid in goal, albeit against an offense that didn't look very good ... Bondra looked much quicker than I expected for a guy his age (2nd oldest player on the Atlanta roster, behind Scott Mellanby) ... Hossa seems to play "quietly", you don't notice him for stretches & then BAM he makes a nice move or something & he's suddenly back on your radar ... Thrashers top 4 D's are noticeably better than last year, but 5+ still looks pretty weak ... Surprising to me was that it looked like the younger players were having more trouble adapting to the rules changes than the older players, especially with regard to the defensive changes, I would have thought it would be the other way around ... waaaaaay too many bad passes right now as players try to hit the long bomb. The new rules make it legal to go long but unfortunately the rule changes couldn't bring along any judgement about when to try it. ... not talked about much in the off-season, but I believe one of the biggest impact changes will be the no-line-change-when -you-ice-the-puck rule. Looked like both teams tried to take advantage of that situation when it came up & the difference in fresh vs tired was noticeable ... I had to work very hard not to gag when they decided to showcase the new shootout rules for the fans afterwards (complete with an explanation on the video screen courtesy of EA Sports NHL 2k6 - yes, they use video game footage to explain the rules)

Still, all in all, I actually didn't hate the new look quite as much as I expected to, but pre-season or not I came away feeling like the game looks a lot sloppier than I'm used to seeing. Between the outrageous number of penalties & the Hail Mary offensive tactics, it's was like watching a couple of run-and-
shoot teams playing each other ... minus anything resembling a top flight QB or WR.

The reason the young guys have a problem is because the game has been distorted for so long that they've grown up being told to "tie up" their man. The old guys grew up learning the game a little more purely, so they are able to turn back the clock.

The players, and especially entire teams, that learn how to make the best use of the two-line pass the fastest will really score a lot of goals. By what I have read, the Islanders have it down really well at this point. I expect some lopsided games in their favor early in the season.

The outrageous number of penalties is because of violations by the players. If players keep doing it over and over, should they just swallow the whistle and forget about it? I know the NFL takes that stance, but I hate it.

I agree, the Isles have put together a terrific team for the new rules. They actually didn't do too much 2-line passing vs. the Rangers, but looked phenomenal in the neutral zone.


See, I think you're missing the point. The idea isn't to create more scoring via the powerplay. That is just a symptom of the new rules being enforced. The overall goal is to have more scoring because there's more open ice and skating room during 5 v. 5 hockey -- the penalties are just a necessary evil until the players & coaches "get it".

~rpi-fan

The reports from their intra-team games out in Nova Scotia said there were some very good passes made, particularly from Dipietro, to players in the neutral zone that would have been whistled back in previous years. I want to see some of that in the game. These changes will keep the puck in motion, which is what everyone should want to see. Constant action is a good thing, not a bad thing. Once players stop trying to clutch and grab, these games will be more fun for everyone.

Oh, I know that. Apparently my sarcasm didn't come through when posting so late.


But what I got for my $160 ($80x2 that is) last night was 4-on-4 hockey or man-advantage hockey. Maybe it'll change, or maybe it was because it was two average (I'm being kind) teams, but frankly it was pretty bush-league looking stuff with the exception of rare flashes.

I'm not suggesting they swallow the whistle, I'd far prefer they abandon this homesick abortion of a rule-change package. That ain't gonna happen of course, but they'll probably end up losing my interest in the end.

If I want to see numbers changing in a blur, I'll go pump gas, which is one of the few things cheaper than to do on Saturday than the NHL.

You went to a pre-season game, i dont know what you were expecting? Wether its team Canada vs. Team Russia in an exhibition game, or the Thrashers vs. whoever, its preseason, alot of experimenting, still some lesser players, and less effort from the established players....its a warm up

Actually, with the exception of the unsigned Kovalchuk, a slightly dinged up Exelby, and an injured/out-of-shape Lehtonen (and Dunham looked as good last night as any #1 we've had here) that was pretty much the regular season Thrasher lineup out there last night.

Nobody was short-shifted significantly, the majority of the cuts were made earlier in the week, and I don't expect the players to magically have a lightbulb come on with regard to the new rules in just a matter of a few days of pre-season left.

Sorry J93g, but I believe that was pretty damned close to what the regular season is going to look like with they drop the puck for real. 2 weeks ago, I'd give your take a lot more credence (and the ugly scores are there to back it up), but not at this point.

It's still unclear to me if this is a legitimate crackdown. Clarke and Sinden have already made their displeasure known. On the other hand, Risebrough has indicated that players who haven't adapted by the start of the season, won't be playing.

I remember reading that fines were supposed to be dolled out by the league for any public criticism; I guess it might be done behind closed doors.

If this is the 'new' NHL, you can forget about overtime marathons. Playoff games will be decided on the powerplay.

If they back off of it, I'm finished. I'm teetering on the edge anyway.

Eventually the will back off some, how much is the Million Dollar question.

I think with the redline gone and once you see players get used to being able to open up the passing game it will look like a much better game with players being able to skate up and down the ice a lot more then what we were seeing in the last NHL season.

A (somewhat) serious question: if what matters is watching 'em skate up & down the ice, why not just watch speed skating?

I guess it depends on what kind of hockey you like to watch. I would say most Minnesotans would agree with me when I make the statement above. It doesn't mean we want the hitting out of the game, but what the NHL was selling before, clutch and grab just isn't hockey to us. A big reason why HS and College hockey is so popular here is because we want hockey with a flow and you do see that on that level. One of the best games I have ever seen in person is a State HS Semi that went 5 OT's, tons of scoring chances and yes, great checking too.

C4E - Maybe that's the difference somehow. I exponentially prefer 2-1, 3-2, 2-0 typical scores & the clutch-grab-trap et al tends to work toward keeping it that way. 5-4, 6-3, 7-2, etc is what I expect to see in the NHL this year & that really isn't likely to hold my interest very long. The goals will be plentiful but they seem very cheap to me and, for whatever reason, diminishes my interest a lot.

I think the "flow" difference is also a matter of perception (or something like that), to me there was a flow or at least a rhythm of sorts -- I guess I just prefer the action in the neutral zone to repetitive end to end rushes, the latter being way too much like the NBA for my taste (actually, last night reminded me quite a bit of the NBA in some ways).

to me there's a big difference between baseball 2-1 scores (which I like) to hockey 2-1 scores (which I don't like). It's that usually there's a lot of skill sitll involved in the baseball score where there isn't in the hockey one due to any good being able to clutch and grab.

I don't mind a 2-1 final score if they combine for 100 shots on goal.

Hockey is a game about skills, whether it be skating, shooting, passing or checking. I just went to a USA Hockey Coaching clinic on Friday night, and that was one thing that was really impressed upon us, work on skills, skills, skills. I just don't think clutch and grab is a skill.

I'm pretty sure you are going to the extreme, but I think we are on the same page here. Lots of scoring chances, doesn't matter what the score ends up being.

I agree with you. Clutching and grabbing is a way to defeat skill, but takes no real hockey skill to implement. Interesting that someone wants to see that sort of tactic in a sport. It would be like never calling holding on the defense in a football game. Surely it makes it more of a defensive struggle, but I don't think it will be too exciting or really reveal who the best players and teams are.

Well, consider that Skydog would like to ban the forward pass. Some people like strange things.

I love it. The end of the QB and WR. If he doesn't like the forward pass, why not just watch Rugby instead?

Too British.

Are you familiar with this kid Tekneek?

Joseph Brock
9/5/87
Cumming, GA

Guess it's just a personal preference... I think "cheap" goals will be less meaningful in the new NHL. In the past, bad bounces seemed to decide half of the games. Now, you need to make a real play to get on the board as there aren't going to be huge crowds in front of the net.

I think every goal in the Isles-Rags game on Tuesday was a pretty one -- good stuff.

Nope. Hockey player, I suppose? :D

I only know of two guys from Georgia making it to any high level... David Caruso with Ohio State and Brad Miller who should be in with North Dakota this year. Caruso was a transplant, but his family still lives in Roswell. Brad Miller is a real "Georgia" kid who has made his way to Division I hockey.

I don't count Jean-Marc Pelletier or Eric Chouinard, although they were both born in Atlanta.

So, who else is getting NHL Center Ice this year?

I'm getting it, along with a new TiVo just for it.