The 2005/2006 Hockey Season Thread

[SeanDMan]

Cool story: I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, I've told a few people but anyway. My dad works as a designated driver, driving drunks home, so he occaisionally gets to drive someone famous, or meet somebody famous, or meet somebody who met somebody famous.

This is one of the latter. He's driving a guy who he picks up from The Roxy (which is a gay bar). He went to a texas hold em tournament, with topless dealers. Why he decided to go from there to a fag bar I dunno, but I guess he was getting shitty cards. Anyway the dudes in the bar and guess who walks in...

...but Jarkko Ruutu. You knew there was a reason I posted this here, right?

Jarkko walks in like it's no big thing, like he's a usual at The Roxy (a gay bar). He gets some drinks and one of the guys says to Jarkko, so, do you come here often? And Jarkoo says yeah, he likes to come here sometimes after games. Of course, last night the Canucks played IN EDMONTON. Ruutu says first flight back.

So yeah, just a neat little pointless story. The first thing Jarkko Ruutu does when he gets off the plane from away games is go to The Roxy (which is a gay bar).

[prime time]

The Rutu thing is kind of funny.

On a different note, my Sens played like ass last night and deserved to loose. It's just a shame Heatley couldn't tie Gretzky's record.

[grind your soul]

Ruutu is awesome. He's so manly he goes to a gay bar. Does he even know it's a gay bar? Maybe in Finland, going to gay bars is a sign of manlihood. I don't know. Let's ask Sami Salo.

And sucks about Heater's streak. I was hoping for 24. Would be nice for someone to break a Gretzky record, no matter how obscure.

And hey, let's go over this season series!

TORONTO 18 | 2 ATLANTA

I like it!

Bryan McCabe - 3GP, 1+8, +6

Jason Allison - 3GP, 1+7, +3, 21PIM

Darcy Tucker - 3GP, 3+3, +2, 2PIM

vs

Marc Savard - 3GP, 1+1, -3, 8PIM

Ilya Kovalchuk - 3GP, 1+0, -4

Marian Hossa - 3GP, 0+1, -3, 4PIM

Ed Belfour - 2-0-0, 50 saves, .962% save percentage

Mikael Tellqvist - 1-0-0, 28 saves, one shutout [first career]

vs

Michael Garnett - 0-2-0, 69 saves, .831% save percentage

Adam Berhoel - 0-1-0, 13 saves, .765% save percentage

Bahahaha, that's just great.

Research done by me. I'm bored

Edited December 2, 2005 by grind your soul

[NobBe Nobbs]

Ruutu is awesome. He's so manly he goes to a gay bar. Does he even know it's a gay bar? Maybe in Finland, going to gay bars is a sign of manlihood. I don't know. Let's ask Sami Salo.

[CKN]

In tonights Kings vs. Sens game Zdeno Chara destroyed Tim Gleason in a fight that was amazing. Chara was sitting with Gleason between his legs as Chara was just wailing on him.

[Clawson]

Wait so Chara pummeled a guy when sitting on him when his team was winning by a considerable margin, if I remember correctly, with under 5 minutes to go? No wonder he's suspended.

[CKN]

Wait so Chara pummeled a guy when sitting on him when his team was winning by a considerable margin, if I remember correctly, with under 5 minutes to go? No wonder he's suspended.

[Clawson]

Meh, whatever.

The refs in the Leafs-Sharks game are brutal. All the penalties they've called have been WTF!? while they've missed about 6 should be calls on both sides.

EDIT: Yep they reinforced my idea. 10 seconds left, Tucker breaks in and is hooked off his feet. The Sharks shoot it out...no call. Fucking brutal.

Edited December 4, 2005 by Santa Clawson

[The Sultan of Swank]

Good game last night. Habs vs Kings. Glad Montreal finally got a win, but the game was tremendously exciting. Dagenais scoring 2 beauty goals then Begin skating like a madman before passing to Bulis for the winner. Theo played pretty alright too. At least now with a week off we can recouperate a bit. And get 4 good players back for next Saturday in Koivu, Komasarek, Souray and I believe Markov aswell.

Even if we've been playing like ass without most of our regulars and Kovalev, It is good that the other guys have been stepping up, or at least trying too, hell Dagenais logged 18 min on the ice last night, he's usually sitting around on the fourth line.

[grind your soul]

The OTT/LA game was a fight filled affair.

McGrattan started off by challenging both Sean Avery and Jeff Cowan [LA's closest thing to an enforcer]. He was declined by both, of course.

Mike Fisher laid out Eric Belanger with a wicked hit. Avery decides to pick on him. They drop the gloves, Fisher edges him in a decent fight.

Later on, Avery decides to take a run at Hasek. This is not a good idea. Hasek goes after Avery, scrum ensues, nothing happens. Avery's next shift - and Brian McGrattan lines up next to him. McGrattan pummels, Avery turtles, hilarity.

Later on, "tough guy" Jeff Cowan picks a fight with Chris Kelly, a guy who hasn't fought in his pro career and has probably zero fighting experience in his life. Cowan obviously wipes the floor with him, but props to Kelly for squaring off with someone obviously out of his league playing the coward.

So in response, Chara comes out and lines up as a forward. He immediately goes after Tim Gleason, the one player on the Kings who will drop the gloves [but is not a known enforcer]. Gleason isn't very willing, so Chara just begins pounding him.

Chara gets misconduct, Murray gets fined, etc etc. The LA announcer then uses this as a forum to completely bash Murray, calling him gutless, a coward, and a terrible human being. Weak cheapshots by the LA announcer who was calling Cowan a "top heavyweight" for destroying a guy who has NEVER FOUGHT BEFORE.

Anyway, it was a good game.

[Jerichoholic23]

I wish my team would get more respect. They have 10 of their last 12 and now are 4 points ahead of the Laffs. They are 4th in the east and yet no one ever says anything good about them. The Sabres also have the 4th best Power Play in the league. Yet all I ever hear about is the Laffs. We will all see when the Laffs don't make the playoffs and Buffalo does. Lets Go Buffalo.

[Guest Grapehead]

Buffalo is a competitive team, and I wouldn't count them out if they can hold their own in the Northeast Division.

Edited December 10, 2005 by Grapehead

[SeanDMan]

The Sabres need some consistency. They have alternated between looking abysmal against the Sens to looking really solid in stretches to Martin Biron letting in 11 goals one night and then 0 the next. In net and beyond the bluelines the Sabers need to be more then just a "sometimes" team.

Great game between the Sens and Canucks tonight. Hasek has to be seen to be believed, he is something else. Auld was steady at times but that Maz goal was questionable. Good shootout and a solid move by Bertuzzi to keep it going. The better team came out ahead too.

[Clawson]

Mario isn't going to play for Team Canada at the Olympics. I swear to God if Crosby gets that spot instead of Spezza or Staal I'm taking a chair to Gretzky's face.

[SeanDMan]

With all due respect to Eric Staal, it really should be Jason Spezza. Let's look at team Canada right now.

Players from the World Cup and World Championships that look to be a lock.

Up front, Shane Doan, Simon Gagne, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Joe Sakic, and Joe Thorton should be can't miss bets returning from the world cup team. Martin St. Louis is having an iffy year but is probably there too. If Rick Nash is healthy, his absolutely disgusting performance at the World Championships should put him on the team. And everyone knows that Gretzky wants Bertuzzi on the team. That would leave one spot at forward to fill. If Nash isn't healthy, two.

Now, if you have two spots, one of them has to go to Ryan Smyth. Ryan Smyth is a former Canadian captain, has a bucketload of international experience, and never, ever backed out of a games when he was called upon to play.

But not taking Spezza would be a gigantic mistake. Spezza has the ability to make anyone on his line better. He distributes like a motherfucker and his ability to get free and open up space allows him to get the puck in spots most other players can't even get, and he has a mean edge. He's by no means a real power forward, but he does play with an edge, mixing it up, going hard to the net. When you consider that Heatley is on the team, and that Heatly has struggled on international teams before, if you can pair Spezza and Heatley and maybe Smyth or Gagne, you have an absolutely money combination. If it comes down to Spezza against Smyth I'd even hesitantly give the bump to Spezza, because even though Smyth has been a PPG player he's not 100%, he's missed time due to injury, and Heatley and Spezza have a combined 84 points in 26 games. If they can carry over that level of dominance and that chemistry to the Olympics, fuhgedabodit.

Eric Staal just doesn't have the maturity and he doesn't have the benefit of a team mate on the team for an easy line pairing. As good as Crosby has been, he's only a PPG player. Ovechkin right now has been better and so has Staal, but right now, Spezza is second in the league for points. How can you NOT put the guy on the team?

There are a lot of tought cuts for Team Canada as well. Guys like Kris Draper, Patrick Marleau, Brendan Morrison, just don't have a spot with so many talented guys. Even with Stevie Y and Mario opting out, they've only got so much space on the roster.

[million$$man]

I don't know if this has been covered, but as a Tampa Bay Lightning fan I thought I'd pass it along.

During the lockout Defensmen Pavel Kubina was playing in his native Czech Rep. where he accused a ref of bribery. That Czech league fined him 10,000 which he hasn't payed. Now Czech Olypmic officals are telling him to pay it by today or he will not be on the Olympic team.......

Edited December 10, 2005 by million$$man

[SeanDMan]

I hadn't heard anything about that. That's hillarious. Not as hillarious as "I'm Rick Nash, Bitch!", but it definitely warrants a fit of laughter or two.

[million$$man]

Czechs To Kubina: Cut A Check Or Else

Published: Dec 9, 2005

TAMPA - Pavel Kubina always answers the call of his national team, having represented the Czech Republic six times since 1996.

After four appearances in the World Championships, one in the World Junior Championships and a spot on the 2002 Olympic team, Kubina should be a lock to be named as one of the defensemen to the 2006 Czech team that will compete in the Olympics in Italy in two months.

Or maybe not.

Kubina got in some hot water with the Czech Elite League during the lockout when, during a playoff game, he was levied a 15-game suspension and the equivalent of a $10,000 fine for calling referee Petr Bolina corrupt after a 3-1 loss in the semifinals.

The fine has not been paid and the chairman of the league has issued an ultimatum for Kubina to pay the fine or risk being kept off the Olympic roster.

"We decided to set a deadline for Kubina," Vratislav Kulhánek told Czech Business Weekly. "He needs to pay the fine by [saturday] or at least suggest how he intends to clear his debt. If he doesn't respond by this date, he'll be dropped from the Olympic lineup."

On Thursday, Kubina indicated the situation has been cleared up, though he said his spot on the Olympic roster was never in jeopardy after speaking to national team officials last month.

"It's still not 100 percent [of making the team]," Kubina said. "I made a deal where I will pay half [of the fine] to charity."

The money will go to a charity started by the wife of former Czech national coach Ivan Hnlicka, who was killed in an automobile accident in 2004.

Kubina has already represented the Czech Republic at the 2005 World Championships since the fine was handed down and fully expects to participate in the Olympics.

"I was told that this wouldn't be an issue at all," Kubina said. "I have always played for the national team."

Erik Erlendsson, Carter Gaddis

[Guest Grapehead]

What a game between the Canucks and Sens, if that's the Stanley Cup finals, count me the fuck in. One thing I'll say about Hasek, my heart never settles down watching him in goal, whether he's doing something completely bonehead or making a head spinning save, he's always moving. Too bad there were so many penalty calls, some were rather weak, but for the most part the Sens were picking up some stupid penalties are even stupider points in the game. After the second I was hoping for a shootout, and I got it, and it was oh so exciting. In the end the better team, that night, prevailed as they should have in regulation(if not for the own goal). If these two meet in the stanley cup you can imagine it will live up to the hype and then some, here's hoping.

[Clawson]

Alex Steen - Mats Sundin - Darcy Tucker

Alexei Ponikarovsky - Jason Allison - Nik Antropov

Clarke Wilm - Kyle Wellwood - Jeff O'Neill

Matty Stajan - Eric Lindros - Wade Belak

Tomas Kaberle - Ken Klee

Bryan McCabe - Alexander Khavanov

Carlo Colaiacovo - Aki Berg