Official 13-14 NHL Regular Season Thread

[philou21]

Jets--To me are stagnating. They are the same team they were before left Atlanta.

I'm having the same feeling about them. They sure seems to have better prospects than before but for now there's not much improvements. Best of the worst, that's it.

[rocker87]

At least, that franchise don't have overpaid losers like Kovalchuk. I think that's enough of moving forward.

[philou21]

That loser was the only thing that was keeping them alive though when they were in Atlanta haha

[Primis]

At least, that franchise don't have overpaid losers like Kovalchuk. I think that's enough of moving forward.

I'm sure Columbus would have been better off all along without Rick Nash too, right?

[jesterx7769]

Columbus just needs some serious scoring. They have a goalie, they have a fairly loaded D for a "non playoff team" (as a Wings fan I've been hoping they would trade for one of the Columbus D for years), but their offensive talent is just so thin in an offensive league. Johansen has been on fire the second half of the season but before that there was really nothing. Heck Wis is their leading assist man. I think someone like Sequin would have benefited them more than Horton, but idk if they could have got him so that's just my opinion of fantasy GM'ing.

[CJ]

Winnipeg hasn't had elite players like Atlanta did. Kovalchuk, Heatley, Hossa..

[rocker87]

At least, that franchise don't have overpaid losers like Kovalchuk. I think that's enough of moving forward.

I'm sure Columbus would have been better off all along without Rick Nash too, right?

Not really, I think they get new fresh start. He's real Rangers player, he deserve to be where he is and as you can see, he can't help them enough to be nothing but PO team with fast way out.

[rocker87]

That loser was the only thing that was keeping them alive though when they were in Atlanta haha

Yes, financialy and with higher venue, but with Hossa and Heatley, like jhc said to you + Lehtonen and Hedberg as goalies, and some good vets, Rucchin, De Vries, Holik and Havelid, they had nice team on paper.

[philou21]

Lethonen was most of the time injured when he was in ATL. Sure he is a good goalie but he goaled like one complete season there. Hedberg was just a good back-up. Rucchin, De Vries and Holik were all at the end of their career and ended up there because nobody wanted them. They were maybe good vets but not that usefull on the ice IMO. Heatley did not last long enough in ATL to have an impact and Hossa as well.

That team could've had potential but they got Waddell as a GM. That was their Garth Snow.

[rocker87]

I know all those facts, but in all, they were not that bad. At that time Pens were even worse.

Well, I remember last Waddell's moves, it was almost worse then Garth did. The problem about that team was in management, but still, some other teams were bad in management and they're still here. I really think Jets are solid team for now and they will improve in next few years, because they just need few years from moving to make things better.

[philou21]

The problem about that team was in management, but still, some other teams were bad in management and they're still here.

Problem with Atlanta was similar to any other teams to the south. People don't care and there's not much of an audience there. It's worse when the team is not winning. Other teams with bad management are in popular hockey area so the impact is not the same for example Toronto, Calgary, Montreal for almost 20 years, could add Philly a couple of seasons ago.

[rocker87]

You can add Pens also.

[batdad]

I think it has been 20 years since the Pens had bad management.

In fact Craig Patrick was GM from 1989-2006 and Ray Shero took over from him.

The previous GM to Patrick...lol was Tony Esposito? Huh? He barely made a full season being hired in April 1988 and fired in Dec 89 going 50-47-9 *even that is not that bad*

Eddie Johnston was GM prior to that from 83-88 drafting Mario Lemieux in 1984. So even he cannot be blamed for Penguin badness really.

So before him...is the guy...the last one that was really bad in Pittsburgh .... the guy that helped make them so bad they got to draft Mario.

SOme guy named Baz Bastien.

Anyway, I know some would say that the Pens had bad management leading to drafting Sid and Evgeni.

I would argue that with a couple of points.


1. Mario Lemieux--injured, sick, retire, come back, retire again prematurely....the Pens would not have been nearly as bad had he been able to play. Would have always been in playoffs and a threat, and would have topped off the team like they did with guys like Coffey, Mullen, Stevens, Francis...all guys that I believe Craig Patrick went out and got. Hmmm....

2. Jaromir Jagr--Greedy fool who wanted out because of not

a. being centre of attention and b. money.

Pens were in an OLD BUILDING that was rubbish, and could not get approval and help to build the new rink for AGES...until mario finally rallied them with Sidney to do so. The $$ were not there in ownership because it was a franchise with older school economics owners, who were not billionaires at the time when the league salary structure was going insane. Or if they were billionaires they were not able to spend it on hockey for whatever reason.


So yeah the Pens have had two times where they were really bad.. and led to them drafting Three Superstuds and more to end up at the top of the league again. BUT... I would caution to say that it was because of bad management...at least in the case of the later two picks. Mario, sure Pens were poorly managed, but not when they drafted Sid and Geno.

That was a concious decision made by ownership etc....to go for those guys...because the team was in financial mess from hell due to owners not being able to afford anything, and the old building. to me it was SMART....

not like the Isles at all...who go out and offer ALL of their draft picks for one selection.

[rocker87]

Yes, you're right, they were just a bad team. Bad management is history, probably 30+ years ago.

Looks like somebody have same opinion for Jagr as myself.

Pens didn't have luck. After Briere, things weren't bright, but they were in debt few years after. Then Lemieux, Bastien and a lot tough lost for Pens in history. Bad luck... now with Letang, Crosby is injury prone, etc... hopefully this will change a bit in near future.

What you think about Bylsma, batdad?

[jesterx7769]

Kind of random but I saw Leino on the injury news today so I clicked on him and he has ZERO goals this year lol how is that even possible? Dude got his big money and has been junkin it up on the fourth line ever since.

[Primis]

Kind of random but I saw Leino on the injury news today so I clicked on him and he has ZERO goals this year lol how is that even possible? Dude got his big money and has been junkin it up on the fourth line ever since.

To be fair, the Sabres' current leading scorer is Ennis with FORTY (40) pts in 73 games, Leino's weak 13 pts in 53 games still puts him at 10th or 11th on the team. If you take out guys no longer with the team (Moulson, Ott, etc), he's well in the Top 10. It's a combination of a *really* bad team with a really mercurial player.

[philou21]

To be fair, the Sabres' current leading scorer is Ennis with FORTY (40) pts in 73 games

Panthers leading scorer is Upshall with 35 pts. It's even worse.

[batdad]

To be fair...Ville Leino was the most overrated hockey player this side of EHM Patrick Marleau and that Nittymaaaaaaakkkiiiiii guy. He is and always has been at best a fringe NHL player. Some guys got all googly eyed about him the same way they got all googly eyed about Steve Kariya at one point.

[philou21]

Steve Kariya. Oh god been a while I've heard that name. IIRC in NHL 2002 I picked him on a trade so he would play with Paul.

[batdad]

Heh.

Oh yeah and my opinion on Jagr....


as a hockey player he is amazing, he is so fun to watch even to this day. Love the way he plays the game

As a young man off the ice selfish and greedy and annoying.

As a mature adult (took him a bit longer than some to get there) he has become a great person and teammate, and is even acting like a coach .... he has the keys to the Devils arena and goes around at night and picks up some of the younger players on the team and takes them to the rink for skills development sessions and fun, so they are not out partying as often. Dude has become an exemplary teammate.

So .. .no rocker...my opinion is not the same as yours probably. Because as with all things my opinion changes dramatically on things when shown evidence of people changing as I have been by watching Jagr closely over the years (well as closely as you can when he spent time in KHL) and you live in North America without being insane and staying up all night to watch him play.

Also my opinions vary widely on guys re on ice vs off ice. I separate the two dramatically. For instance, Sean Avery is an ass on the ice, and he was an ass off the ice, but he also tries to do some very good things off the ice for tolerance in society. This is amazing and awesome to me. He also did some pretty darn good stuff on the ice that goes unnoticed or un talked about because he was such a little rat.

When I grew up .... in Vancouver.... everyone in the city HATED Wayne Gretzky. All of my friends hated Messier, Anderson, Fuhr, Coffey, Kurri,etc etc.

Right from day 1...I loved those guys on the ice...because man they were amazing to me. I worshipped them, and it caused me alot of pain at times (both on and off the ice). Now did I cheer for the Oilers...nope. Just worshipped the amazing abilities those guys had.

Same goes today...there are things that every player does on the ice that I like. And there are things they do I do not like. I love stories like Burrows. I love stories like Crosby. I love stories that are mixed as well...like Ovechkin.

Do I make fun of them when they do dumb ass stuff? Yep...but I also will be the first to acknowledge the amazing stuff they can do.

I really separate the hockey from the man and off ice stuff. Always have. And things change, when I was young I did dumb stuff too like Jagr...as I got older...also like Jagr...I do marginally less dumb stuff

[jesterx7769]

Since you mentioned Ovechkin and we were talking about him above they pointed out last night on NBC sports he is on pace to be the first person to lead the league in goals and negative +/- followed by the awesome highlight of WHitney blowing right by him to score when Ovi didn't even go into hi sown zone defensively.

[batdad]

HE has competition for the low....Alex Edler could easily beat him out. Ovi did not score an even strength goal in all of March.

Ryan Kesler has not had an assist since January 28.

[philou21]

Ovi did not score an even strength goal in all of March.

Interesting stats. How many goals did he scored in march overall?

[batdad]

I dunno. Want to look it up for me? nhl.com game log. Counting.

[philou21]

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