2006/2007 Hockey Season Thread

[Toe]

Buffalo tonight. If Toronto plays like they did on Monday in the win over the Islanders, then it's a Sabres win. Toronto needs to play smart hockey, no turnovers, and they need to shoot the puck as much as possible.

[CKN]

Anyways, if their is any player deserving of ballot-stuffing, it's Darcy Tucker. League leader in powerplay goals so far, but does he get any respect? Nooooooooo.

Toronto wins against the Islanders. The Islanders came on strong in the third period, but Raycroft made enough saves and we had a good amount of offence to win. Rick Dipietro made what could be the save of the fucking year when he stuffed Jeff O'Neill twice on a break away. It was just wrong.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Why would they allow stuffing the ballots? Shouldn't be too hard to delete any redundant votes by the same IP.

[Toe]

Toronto drops a close game to the Sabres mainly due to a lack of communication leading to Raycroft turning the puck over to the Sabres forwards. I don't think Toronto played that well though, they got an early two goal lead and then gave up four straight goals. A ton of penalties made it easier for the Sabres...

[Guest Grapehead]

Ottawa comes back to beat Philly in OT, which is semi-impressive. Glad they came back, but pretty disappointed they went down 2-0 to Philly, yikes.

I didn't watch Buff/TO, but wasn't the score 7-4? How is that a close one? :ohwell:

Edited November 23, 2006 by Grapehead

[Toe]

The last two goals were empty netters.

[NobBe Nobbs]

And short-handed empty netters, which begs the question why didn't they put Raycroft back in after the first one went in?

[Toe]

Maurice probably thought that the chances of coming back from 2 were so remote, that to have any chance he needed the extra attacker out their.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Montreal's won 4 of their last 5 and Huet is really picking up. number 1 in save percentage(.932) 5th in GAA 2.20 and a 7-2-2 record so far. He had a really shaky start, but he's been keeping us in most of our games that he plays in.

If Montreal is to beat Buffalo tonight, it's going to be because they kept the penalties and turn overs down. I think that Montreal has a strong enough team to beat the Sabre's but it's not going to be the type of game like against Atlanta, when a team with a depleted rosted was allowed to come back from a 2 goal deficit in the second period due to Montreal just not showing up in the period. It needs to be a complete 60 minute effort.

[Guest Grapehead]

Huet is tied for first, lol. I just like being a dick when my teams players have good stats, which Emery does. I'm pretty excited for the game tonight, I'm hoping Ottawa can pull back to .500 tonight and get a full turn around. I was calling for Emery to take the #1 job, and it looks as though Murray has given him just that, he's 7-3 on a team that's below .500, which is never easy, plus he sits atop both main goalie stats. I doubt Emery will finish the season that high on the stats page, but it's nice to see him there for now.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Actually statistically Huet had like a .9324 to Emery's .9322.

If you wanna get technical and all...

[Guest Grapehead]

Actually statistically Huet had like a .9324 to Emery's .9322.

If you wanna get technical and all...

Edited November 25, 2006 by Grapehead

[Toe]

Toronto put the proper whoopin' to the Capitals, beating them up to the tune of 7 to 1. Darcy FUCKING Tucker is one goal back of the NHL lead, Bryan McCabe continued his points streak to 8 games, Raycroft was steady as a rock. The 5 on 3 powerplay for Toronto was the knife through the heart for the Capitals, who had been playing pretty well despite letting 2 goals slip past. Ovechkin put them within one before the end of the first period, but then Toronto took over.

I'm hoping that a healthy Mats Sundin is in the line-up for tomorrow's game with Boston. I think the lines should go like this -

Steen - Sundin - Tucker

Ponikarovsky - Wellwood - Antropov

Pohl - Stajan - O'Neill

Kilger - Peca - Battaglia

That would give us four good lines that we can role all night. Stajan and O'Neill have shown good chemistry all year, the Wellwood line has been great filling in the offence without Sundin, all three on the Peca line work hard every second they are on the ice, and the top line is solid with Sundin helping Steen out of his scoring funk. Any one else have line ideas?

[The Sultan of Swank]

Actually statistically Huet had like a .9324 to Emery's .9322.

If you wanna get technical and all...

THAT'S IT!! HOCKEY NERD FIGHT!

Moving along, Ottawa woke up in the third to finish off the Panthers, who they should've had finished when they were up 3-1, but nonetheless, with the win they return to .500. Assuming Tampa loses, this moves Ottawa up into 10th, which means nothing if they don't keep playing well.

PS: if you want to be technical, the numbers past .932 are irrelevant due to significant figures

Edited November 25, 2006 by Basha

[NobBe Nobbs]

Remember, Rayman was only the worst last go-around because he had the Bruins' defense in front of him. Minus Zdeno Chara.

[Toe]

The Montreal Canadiens have started the season really well, and they have done it kind of quietly as you don't hear that much about them. I keep saying this, but in the Eastern Conference I would not be surprised to see 4 teams from the Northeast Division make the playoffs. Toronto and Montreal are doing well, Buffalo is flying, and Ottawa is turning it around.

[lari]

East looks pretty close, so it's hard to say who will make it to the playoffs yet. But I also think West has the better teams this year. In the East, only Buffalo (and maybe New Jersey) can match the top Western teams like Detroit, Nashville, Anaheim, Minnesota, San Jose and Dallas. From the games I've seen, West looks a lot stronger so far.

[Toe]

Ugggh. That was probably the worst hockey game I have seen in a long time. Mats Sundin returned and got the only Toronto goal, but the team could not get it through the neutral zone and Boston jumped on two early chances and then sat in the neutral zone all the way to victory. Thats the first time all season, and this includes the blowout loses to Ottawa, that I wanted to stop watching the game before it was over. It was the worst hockey game all year.

[Guest Grapehead]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned how good Yanic Perreault is playing for the Coyotes. Makes me wonder why he was on the market for so long.

The west may seem more intense, but they just have a lot more weaker teams to feed off of. Although you can't deny how good Anaheim, Minnesota, Nashvile, and San Jose are.

[Plubby]

I'd like to take this chance to LOL at Vancouver. Theodore has like six or seven wins, and three of those are against the Canucks....everyone else has managed to beat him