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2006/2007 Hockey Season Thread

The Sultan of Swank
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Enter Blue Guy Upper Midcarder

Enter Blue Guy

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Posted (edited)

I'm very passionate about Leafs hockey and I could never read the topic last year because I know I'd explode. But yeah, this year is going to be very interesting following the Buds. It looks like they actually tried to improve the squad in the off season (note the word "tried"), but I don't think they signings will do as much as management is hoping for.

I'd say their best signing, the only real logical one at that, was picking up Raycroft. He's a gamble after last season, but they needed a good, young goaltender between the pipes who can... dare I say... be the future of the Leafs. Raycroft has shown signs of greatness, but whether he can have rebound year, that's the risk he comes with him being the starter. He's going to go through the fire this year with Toronto's shit factory defense. Being a young goalie facing more shots than any defense worth anything should allow could mean bad news.

As much as I love McCabe, it was time for him to go this offseason. Letting him go would have given the Leafs a nice bit of money to make some solid signings, but instead they gave him more than they should have to keep him in TO. Whatever, I guess I can make my peace with the McCabe signing, he's a valuble offensive roleplayer and a fan favorite, but then to go out and sign Pavel Kubina as well? Dumbest move of the offseason. They WAAAAY overpaid him too. There is no logic in having Kubina and McCabe (both getting big money) on a defense struggling to keep the puck out of the net. Well, unless the logic is hoping the team will go through the season winning games by a score of 6-5. Seriously, McCabe and Kubina's combined +/- last season was like - 9 million. Poor Tomas. It seems like he's going to be the lone piece of Toronto's defensive core this year. Good luck, Andrew.

Then we have Michael Peca. He is playoff hockey. Too bad he's been virtually non-existant in the regular season for years now. If the Leafs can make it to post season, I'll be more than happy to see Peca get a nice chunk of ice time, but really, he's going to give very little to Leafs run for the playoffs.

I would die for Maple Leafs hockey, but right now they seem like a team without any structure. They've got a decent cast of supporting players, many that are young, talented, and could make this franchise great in a few years, but overall they are lacking big time anchors. Waaaay too many holes on the team and not enough sizable corks to fill em.

Honestly, people give Sundin a lot of shit in Toronto, but the guy is going to do more than any one player on the Leafs that fans could hope for this year. Mats is always overlooked when it comes to mentioning the stand out two-way players in the league. And it's a shame because he's probably better defensively than most of the Leafs actual defensemen. Toronto fans don't give Sundin enough credit, but he's one of the few thing that will keep this team afloat this season.

Nik Antropov. Ugh.

Anyways, they could surpise me, I hope they do. The young guns need to step up huge (moreso than they did last year), defense needs to shape up big time, they need protect Raycroft like it's their mothers in there, and Paul Maurice needs to do the one thing Quinn hasn't done for the team in years... RUN ACTUAL PRACTICES!

Edited by Enter Blue Guy
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NobBe Nobbs Hall Of Famer

NobBe Nobbs

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Posted (edited)

Right, so as mentioned in the other thread, this was up by now last season. Personally I'm hoping for good things from the Habs this year, but they don't seem to have improved their roster in any way. Boullion is out for the first month of the season with a knee injury, but we have guys like Chipchura, Latendresse and Price comming up from our farm system.

Personally I'm predicting a 6th place finish and eliminated in the second round for the Habs, with the Leafs falling even further out of the Playoffs and the Sens taking it all.

So like... you know none of those players you mentioend (Chippy, Lats and Price) will be playing on the Habs this year? Hell, Lats and Price won't even be in Hamilton.

Montreal will finish about 6th or so, that I agree with. Toronto really haven't done a thing to improve the team (OMG PECA AND RAYCROFT!!!!!!!!!), so I don't see them making the playoffs this year. Pretty awesome.

Edited by Little Bo Peep
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CKN Midcarder

CKN

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Posted

He's also the definition of chicken shit.

meh, it's not his role to get mixed up with the bigger players. why risk it?

he did, however, drop the gloves against Hal Gill last year, and Gill didn't want a part of him. Funniest thing ever.

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Toe Hall Of Famer

Toe

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Hal Gill, no matter how overrated you think he is, is 100 times better then Aki Berg. Seeing Mike Grier deke him out with the simplest deke ever made me want to throw a brick through my TV in an idiotic effort to hit Berg.

CKN, your Senators still look to be one of the most gifted teams offensively. Sure, losing Chara hurts a ton, but I think Ottawa has the pieces to go pretty far. They need to somehow make it work in the playoffs.

And the Ducks do have a good shot. They have a ton of young players who showed they could play last season, they now have 2 of the games best defenders at the moment. All they lack right now is scoring depth, as past Selanne all that remains is the younger players who could do really well or show last year was just luck. Getzlaf and Perry are the keys to that teams success, but seeing them win there division is not an insane thought anymore.

I think the keys to Toronto winning this year is Andrew Raycroft being steady in net, and Mats Sundin getting ice time. He could have played 5 more minutes a game then he did in the past few years under Quinn. When he did get the ice time, Sundin was golden at the end of the season. Getting him a sniper on the wing may have been nice, but after reading an article in "The Hockey News" about Sundin, I believe that the key is not him passing to a sniper, but having someone passing the puck to him.

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CKN Midcarder

CKN

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Hal Gill, no matter how overrated you think he is, is 100 times better then Aki Berg. Seeing Mike Grier deke him out with the simplest deke ever made me want to throw a brick through my TV in an idiotic effort to hit Berg.
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Guest puremadness45

Guest puremadness45

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16 goals, and 51 points last year, and he played quite a few games with horrible linemates. He should be able to reach 60+ points with Samsonov and Kovalev this year.

Edited by puremadness45
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Guest puremadness45

Guest puremadness45

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Exactly. I think Montreal has a chance at going deep if someone can get Alexei Kovalev to play at his best and get Sergei Samsonov to finally break out. I don't know if that is Riberio.

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