Officialâ„¢ NHL Camps/Pre-Season Thread

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:39 pm

I don't think they're doing this one over the radio here. Even if they did, I'm a very visually oriented person. I have to see the game. Just hearing it doesn't do it for me.

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:40 pm

I know what you mean. As when I listen to Football (Soccer) it is not the same as seing my Team live.

oxenhoper · Post by **oxenhoper** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:51 am

Nice..................Spanked the Habs 5-1 last night.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:58 pm

We're lucky in Chicago to have one of the best in the business behind the mic whihc is a very good thing since none of our home games are televised

Pat Foley is actually so go with the play by play I actually bring a radio to the games to listen to him when I go

I grew up listening to Pat and have had the pleasure of meeting him a few times with my charity stuff and he's a great guy. I still love his 'He shoots he SCORRRRRRRRRRRRESSSS!!!!!!' calls, often followed with an 'Oh my, there wasn't much doubt about that one as he pumped it shortside!' or the like, its the passion and love of the game you can hear in his voice even after decades on the job that still makes it a joy to listen to the games.

It's just amazing he hasn't ended up like Bob Uecker's announcer in the Major League movies in the booth in a dirty wifebeater tshirt drinking Jack Daniels straight from the bottle given the kind of rubbish on the ice he's seen that he has to continually try to polish into a diamond... though he always gives a good combo of giving it to people who deserve it but still supporting the team. He's the owner of my favorite hockey rant ever as well, when Karpovtsev was finally traded from Chicago:

Good Riddance! .mp3, about 1 meg

You've got to love that one because you can hear that they were planning to just come back and then take a quick commercial break but Pat just launched into this and since it was a live road game nothing they could really do, just awesome.

Eternal thanks to a guy I know who worked at the AM station at the time and got that digitized for us for posterity.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 8:08 pm

Okay, it's official... Tuomo Ruutu is incapable of staying healthy. Period. Injuries just seek this poor kid out, he suffered a wierd back injury that they weren't sure when/if it would heal then after missing most of the season he comes back and four games in he gets his calf skated over when his foot gets caught in the net and has his tendon severed by a skate blade only stopping at his bone

He's had multiple knee surgeries and now he'll be out a month again after taking a questionable hit by Klesla and ending up with a Grade II knee sprain.

I'm telling ya, I haven't seen such a dynamic difference maker on the Hawks ice since Jeremy Roenick in the 80's (and that incudes my undying gratitude to Tony Amonte) as when Ruu is on the ice but man is it frustrating never being able to have him in the lineup to see what he can actually do.

*sigh* Anyhow, I just wanted to add a link to say that the Hawks have really picked up their Multimedia area in the past year or so and they have highlight features from the first two preseason games up now:

http://www.chicagoblackhawks.com/multim ... chive.html

Also, check out their 'Classic Videos' for some great stuff like the Stan Mikita montage!

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:42 am

Another win for the Bruins last night.

Beating Islanders 3-2. Scorers this time was Tyler Redenbach, Glen Murray and Jonathan Sigalet (pp).

Afer going 3-0 in the first period Islanders pulles 2 back. One in the second and one in the Third.

Can't wait for thhe new season.

thecoolstuff · Post by **thecoolstuff** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:04 pm

A 3rd lost for the Nucks (the worst in the league i think)... This is particularly scary since Luongo and most veterans were playing in the 5-1 beating by the Ducks. I REALLY hope Luongo is the answer.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 8:26 pm

I'm pretty confident Luongo is the answer, the problem may be that there are other questions that are as of yet unanswered with the team having lost Sopel and especially now Jovo in back to back years they need to get some answers as to who is going to fill in those holes literally on ice and figuratively as Jovo brought so much leadership and combo of offensive punch and punishing defense.

thecoolstuff · Post by **thecoolstuff** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 9:03 pm

For the defensive part, Mitchell is capable of shutting down other team's top line. Ohlund is also a solid dman in his own zone. As for offense, Ohlund can chip in from time to time, and last season us Nucks fan saw the power of Salo's slapshot. Another guy, Krajicek, we hope he can develop to his draft position indicates (some say he is the most offensive talented dman in that year's draft class). Who can forget Bourdon? He has very good upside for both offense and defense, just a matter of time.

Of course, its hard to replace Jovo, but when you need elite goaltending you will have to sacrifice other elite players.

Dont get me wrong, I believe in Luongo's ability, but its hard when you see your team losing 3 straight game in the preseason and not feel slightly worried.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 9:14 pm

I've caught the majority of the Nucks games over the past two years actually and I agree the Salo is a baaad man with that MacInnis-like bomb from the point. I also think Ohlund doesn't get anywhere near the credit he deserves as one of the best in the league really but when they had Sopel and Jovonovski that was four really top dmen that can spread the duties around as well as get away from opponent matchups. So if you can bottle up Ohlund there's a lot of coverage still left to go around from most teams and that can be problems especially with teams that possess and cycle the puck deep.

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:16 am

To me this sounds like a very ominous note... regarding Saku Koivu who is set to play the last two preseason games and is said to be doing fine, but:

"He says he still has to look down more often then he used to to locate the puck due to his eye injury."

We all know what happens when players look down at the puck too often

I'd probably be less worried about that statement for a larger player but I see bad things if he's looking down at the puck and get hammered by say Chris Pronger or Zdeno Chara...

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:03 pm

We have NY Rangers tonight. Should be a good game. What are peoples predictions?? I will go for a 5-2 win.

Post by **Minstrel** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 12:27 am

Hawks vs Blues tonight is our first televised preseason game haven't seen any live hockey since the Finals man am I jonesin for some puck!!!!

As one of my previous posts has mentioned the official Hawks website has been really good about multimedia and have highlights for each preseason game so far up on their site. We'll see how the team looks tonight not sure who's going to be in the lineup yet though.

Post by **Minstrel** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:34 am

Interesting game... good to see the young guys out there but it quickly became one of those penalty fests and a really uneven game overall. However the team seems to be "on the same page" and that is great to see. We seem like maybe we've actually figured out how to have a powerplay finally. Our PP has been so bad for so long we would have been better of declining the man "advantage"

We have a kid in camp who is on a tryout and has a real shot to make the team or get an offer from someone I think, he's done really well and scored on the PP again tonight, Jeff Hamilton. Did real well in the AHL last year and has been seeing a lot of time in preseason. We head to Florida to play the Panthers tommorow night with the Hawks, unbelievably, trying to win their seventh straight preseason game!

Post by **inSTAALed** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:29 pm

Good news out of Columbus:

The Jax finally resigned Nikolai Zherdev.

Maybe they can finally make a playoff push.

Post by **Minstrel** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 7:43 pm

They have a dangerous team... they could have made it last year with a healthy Rick Nash I think. This year will depend as with for every team staying healthy but also the development of they goaltending; people may not have heard or their young 'tenders but they've got good ones

Maybe the Federov injury really was a blessing in disguise for the team that pushed them to get Zherdev back with the team. It would have been a bummer to not see what he could do building on last year's experience, they're a team to watch

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:06 pm

It looks like Carolina got sick of waiting for Jack Johnson to leave college and turn pro. They made a deal with LA.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=179262&hubname=nhl

Post by **inSTAALed** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:14 pm

I don't know if I like this trade or not.

We lose Turnoverdovsky and the best defensive prospect not named Erik but we get Gleason (:() and Belanger...

Hmm...

Post by **E5150_ca** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:17 pm

Smooth.

Post by **inSTAALed** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:25 pm

Actually, I take that back.

Now that I think about this trade I love it.

We get rid of the most overpaid defenseman in the NHL and a prospect who had no interest whatsoever in playing for us and get a younger Aaron Ward and a second coming of Matt Cullen.

I'll take another cup now over a cup in 5 years anyday.

Post by **E5150_ca** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:28 pm

Works out great for me, carolina trades away their future star blueliner, and said blueliner goes to another hockey ****hole.

Post by **inSTAALed** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:30 pm

E5150_ca wrote:Works out great for me, carolina trades away their future star blueliner, and said blueliner goes to another hockey ****hole.

Trust me, Tom.

The kid had no interest in playing in Carolina from the moment we drafted him. I'm sure LA will be a much better fit for him.

Post by **E5150_ca** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:29 pm

Can't say I blame him. Doesn't change the way I feel about him. He deserves LA.

Post by **Minstrel** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:41 pm

I know the general cry around this deal is that Carolina got nothing but I repsectfully disagree... this is a good deal for the Canes right now. With Stillman out with shoulder surgery and the loss of Cullen to the Rags Belanger will be a real asset for the Canes. As for Gleason at least they did get a still young talented blueliner. He doesn't have the rep or pedigree of a Jack Johnson but he's closer to being an impact player and his best eyars are ahead of him. Gleason is a really solid prospect.

Johnson it seems will continue on at Michigan until he graduates so that means three more years before he hits NHL ice and who knows what could happen in that amount of time... his projected rate of development could slow, he could a severe injury etc. I think that was what Carolina was considering; the unknown product three years down the road or solid young D man to play/learn/grow now in their system plus a guy who can both be a #1 center AND kill penalties as Belanger is excellent defensively as well. The team has all the firepower they need, and I think this deal works for them.

Post by **Minstrel** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:00 am

I know they are not nearly this good, but the Hawks went 7-1 in the preseason

including a really impressive win over Minnesota that they closed out with, a fantastic game and a 4-1 win. A lot of teams were playing almost full lineups while the Hawks lineup was mainly a lot of younger players so there really are a lot of interesting things about this team.

I don't know how they'll really do but I think they can at least be competetive every night and you can really see that the coaching/systems of Trent Yawney is kicking in. They've really done quite the overhaul and the changes will be apparent. I think they will be playing a style very similar to Buffalo last year; heavy puck pressure combined with a lot of team speed as well as good defensively. The team just seems to all be on the same page for the first time in many many many years and if Ruutu can come back and stay healthy they could make a playoff push I think. In the least they will interesting to watch which in itself is a gigantic upgrade for the team.