NHL

[alanschu]

I liked Radek Dvorak, and thought he was underrated. Hopefully he can have some success with St. Louis as he was no longer in the Oilers' plans.

[Checkpoint]

I always liked Dvorak too. It is a shame that he had to go - I'd have loved to keep him as a depth guy - but I guess the last worry we have right now is our depth on the wings, so I suppose he had to go.

[Delta Truth]

I liked Radek Dvorak, and thought he was underrated.  Hopefully he can have some success with St. Louis as he was no longer in the Oilers' plans.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

What he was the best oiler there was, the oilers will have no chance now against the improved Calgary Flames :D

 

Flames

Best Goalie= Kipper

steady D best in the division = Regehr . his offensive should improve this year

Hamrlik -played well when Healthy

Phaneuf no reason why he can't be better

Zyuzin - blocks alot of shots probably will play with Regehr

Ference - Stepped it up big time in the playoffs -

Warrener - Steady as always

 

Offensive -Tanguay and Iginla should have a great year

Friesen should improve, Lombardi last chance really

 

I cant wait for the season to start

 

Go Flames Go

 

and some funny videos

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbjC2qPG2Lo...related&search=

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaJANSAc2qM...related&search=

[Hurlshort]

The Flames did make some great changes, and Tanguay is a serious weapon. Still, I don't think they did enough to their offense. They seem to have one awesome line and then grinders.

[alanschu]

There's some guys that do some pretty insane line matching analysis and it was quite surprising to see how sheltered Phaneuf was. Well, maybe not surprising, because he IS a rookie.

 

But he didn't face off against "tough competition" (tough competition is analyzed as being playing time against players that have an Even Strength plus in +/-). The guys recognize that it's not a perfect stat, but it also showed just how sheltered players like Raffi Torres and Jarrett Stoll were. Mike Peca was far and away the #2 center (and Horcoff is a huge "outscorer" as well), both in terms of ES mintues as well as ES performance (a metric of how well he does, compared to his level of competition).

 

It's a pretty interesting perspective.

[mkreku]

Teehee, we have Peca now! )

[alanschu]

I'm at a loss for words.

 

I never expected Peca to play here at all, so meh.

[Kor Qel Droma]

You know it's getting close to the start of the season when Delta Truth comes back singing the gospel according to Mikka Kipprusoff.

 

And DVO goes to the Blues? I think that's just peachy. There should be just about enough ex-Oilers on that squad to dress two lines. I remember Dvorak going end to end when he first came over to the Copper and Blue and scoring a beautiful unassisted goal. Too bad the guy has no luck whatsoever. Hopefully he can be the 20-20 guy the Blues so desperately need right now.

 

And tomorrow morning is the start of training camp here in town. I'm kind of excited. I want to wear my old school Canucks jersey just to be a ****, but I'm too much of an Oiler fanboi to dare to do so.

 

I'll leave the thread tonight with me least favorite Keith Primeau moment. It's May 4th, 2000. Pittsburgh and Philly are squaring off in the first or second round of the playoffs. This game goes to its fifth overtime period, and I'm getting pretty antsy. Primeau pots the game winner on a nice, albeit lucky wrist shot that fools Ron Tugnutt. The only part that sucks was that I was cheering for the Pens.

[mkreku]

You know it's getting close to the start of the season when Delta Truth comes back singing the gospel according to Mika Kiprusoff.

Uhm.. If the Leafs had Kiprusoff in goal, I'd not only be singing the gospel, I'd be doing the balloon dance on my office table. In the nude. With my pubic hair on fire.

 

We have Andrew Raycroft. Andrew Raycroft.

[Kor Qel Droma]

I'd still say Raycroft is an improvement over Eddie the aging Eagle. Bostons' goaltending wasn't its only problem last season, although from what I remember Raycroft did stink the joint up. Whattabout that other Euro goalie on the team? Wasn't he hot **** for a while last season?

 

As for Kipper, I'll admit that I'm pretty envious of Calgary and their netminder. He is pretty much the best in the game right now. Of course that don't mean **** if your team doesn't score goals in front of him. It actually made news today that Iggy dropped fifteen pounds this offseason by doing Yoga. Hopefully that didn't relax him too much, because I kind of like watching the guy dropping the gloves every once in a while.

[mkreku]

We have Raycroft as a supposed starter. Then we have Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who did really well at the end of the season as a backup-turned-panicky-starter. After that we have Mikael Tellqvist. He got the chance as a starter last year after Eddie broke his back (or whatever) but he blew it. He really blew it. I've totally lost confidence in Tellkvist after that run. I just can't see him ever becoming a starting goalie in the NHL. I don't believe he has what it takes, whether it is a mental problem or other. This is strange, because he has performed well on the international scene and before that in the swedish leagues. I always thought that if only he'd get the chance to prove himself, he would take the number one spot.

 

Andrew Raycroft had the ****tiest stats of all goalies in the NHL last season (if not exactly THE ****tiest, then one of the top three ****tiest). Ferguson and Maurice are hoping he will turn back into the Calder winning super goalie he once was. Personally I am worried he will turn into Jim Carey v2.0 and be in hiding by the end of november.

[Kor Qel Droma]

Peca will make a huge impact on your team defensively, Mkreku. But then again, Raycroft + Hal Gill= trouble.

[mkreku]

 

Isn't that the best picture ever?!

Yes, it is Ovechkin in a Toronto Maple Leafs toque

[Kor Qel Droma]

I just got in from training camp. It was teh awesomeness!!

 

Sykora played center between Hemsky and Torres, and although after the first skating drill we were like 'Uh-oh, somebody is pretty rusty', but by the end of the session he was arguably the best player on the ice.

[alanschu]

Yeah, don't read too much into the preseason stuff, especially the early stuff. People were all slagging on Pronger during last preseason as well.

 

Interesting that he's playing center. Keep the updates coming!

[Volourn]

"I'd still say Raycroft is an improvement over Eddie the aging Eagle."

 

No.

 

Belfour could be a 100 while Raycroft was in his prime, and the Eagle would still be better.

[mkreku]

Belfour is currently unemployed. You should write to the Rangers that they should fire Lundqvist and take Belfour instead.

 

I think Lundqvist would look good in a Leafs jersey.

[alanschu]

Belfour is not unemployed, he is signed in Florida.

[mkreku]

Damn, foiled again!

[Volourn]

"You should write to the Rangers that they should fire Lundqvist and take Belfour instead."

 

At this time, I'd take Belfour over Lundqvist espicially in the play offs.

[Kor Qel Droma]

Man I wish I could have went to training camp again today.

[Kor Qel Droma]

And Traktor Boy comes through in the pre season! Of course beating up on one of the worst goalies in the league in a meaningless encounter isn't really much to go on, but here's to crossed fingers and no injuries!

[alanschu]

Did you get a chance to go to the Joey Moss game?

[Kor Qel Droma]

No, the only tickets I could score were for day one of training camp.

 

BTW Marty Reasoner is leading the league in assists right now.

[alanschu]

He had 3 last night didn't he?

 

 

Hopefully this offense first philosophy pays off enough that our question marks on defense are too exposed.