yak

nothing if its done right

it wasnt that heatley didnt want to be traded. he just didnt want to go to a team that will be out of the playoffs for the next 15 years .

If someone started a thread called "up" , im pretty sure you would be the first guy to post "down"

off topic, but who are the nice folks that own a B&B that used to run a rope across the river to try and keep non paying guests off "their section of the river"

No offense to Humble, but since you brought it up,if i saw someone breaking into my vehicle, a camera isnt the first thing I would grab on the way out the door.

jezzuz man. theres jumping ship and then theres committing a hockey lobotomy. If you are gonna change allegiances, at least pick another professional team.

its not considered assault if the poor young fellows accidentally fall down and get all banged up while you are chasing them .

you know what. it wasnt that long ago that the mens teams from russia,sweden, and canada used to blow out teams like switzerland,germany and norway. Now those games are pretty dam close. would be a shame to give up on the womans game just yet.

every other team has 6-10 superstars (including the russians and swedes) and a bunch of role players. The stars score and the other guys try to be good defensiveley. Team canada is superstars from top to bottom (except maybe chris pylon) so a lot of guys have to take on different roles. Thus time is needed for these guys to adapt(see gel) to their new roles as well as new teammates. Canada is the only nation that could easily ice 2 high quality teams for this tourney. Understand your excitement Rickr as your team just knocked off the tourney favorites but lets not get to carried away. Millers exceptional play and brodeurs/prongers brain farts were the only reason the game ended up as it did. I expect we would have had to beat the ruskys at some point anyways so the only difference is we get a warmup tilt agains the germans

I like his work ethic and willingness to go back and forth without complaint but what exactly did you expect for a 29 yr old perrenial AHler who has a grand total of 35 goals over his 10 year career in the bigs. I think sutter asked for phanuef back but it was a no go .

agree. IMO, Auger has it in for all the western canadian teams. The call on white that led to the PP was brutal. Then in the faceoff the ottawa forward hangs on to mayers stick while kovalev tees it up(he proceeds to miss the net by 10 feet buts caroms it in off a flames froward).The missed calls the rest of the game were bad enough but the topper was the cheapy on Jbo late in the game. That being said, the additions looked fantastic last night and for the most part the flames dominated one of the hottest teams in the league. Hagman,iginla and stajan were on fire(the 2 goals were absolute beautys), and higgins/kotalik had at least 7 good chances last night. Overall the 4 forwards we added all had extremely good games and the flames deserved a lot better than what they got last night. Again, patience Brian, I think these guys may be able to make some noise when they have all their guys back (bourque,dawes,moss). ps. god giordano looks good.he looks so confident with the puck and has really developed that nasty edge to his game as well. gonna cost Dutter some money when its comes to contract time for that guy. the other guy they MUST leave in the lineup is Baklund. Hes good defensively,isnt shy about the rough stuff, and you can see hes starting to gain confidence in the offenssive end. This kids gonna be really good and needs to stay with the big team.

what in the name of hockey does edmonton have to be happy about. Taylor hall wont sign for that mickey mouse club even if they do draft him so Lowes master plan of loosing the last 40 games of the season may back fire. Fortunately the majority of the oiler fan base are a little "challenged" so they continue to buy into the 15 year rebuilding process but eventually they will figure it out and get a little annoyed(especially the poor SOBs who got conned into season tickets this year). ps.we were loosing 10 straight pre trade and had a PP that was 1- 1000. Since the deals we are 2-1-1 and have a PP that can score once in a while. still not convinced these trades wont work out. patience............

could be hes going to russia for 130 million................................................

LOL, sorry bhurt but theres so much wrong with this post Im not sure where to start but will give it a go anyways. 1- he turned down the league max from atlanta because he knows he can get more for playing less in the KHL. Again, you will see this when he signs in the KHL this summer 2- While I agree that 3 whole years of watching the flames on PPV elevates you to near expert status, quality teams and quality players do everything they need to do to win. Including blocking shots. The secret to the Avs success this year is they lead the entire league in blocked shots and every guy on the team is willing to do it. Teams that win 16 games in the post season also have every guy on board when it comes to sacrificing the body. This is one of the nuances of the game you may have missed. 3-when detroit was winning cups they were led by yzerman,shanahan,maltby,draper and others. Datsuk,larionov, and the other russians were good "accessories" but for anyone who watched those great Wing teams there was no question who the leaders were. 4-patrick roy left montreal because his coach embarassed him by leaving him in to be shelled for 7 goals in a nothing game. Coach was fired at the end of the year and the habs went in the pisser. Had nothing to do with money 5-cant argue much about lindros although i believe his dad was born in moscow (saw it on NHL ticket one night) 6-A)Brett hull is an american. when exactly did he sign for less money when he went to other teams?

I would be surprised if he signs for less than league maximum anywhere (I believe that is the 10.75 mill. that atlanta offered him) and I dont know how many GMs out there are willing to commit 1/5 of their cap to a a guy who may or may not decide to try and earn his money. Im not sure what there was for him to hate about Atlanta. He was treated like a king,had no pressure in a non hockey market, great weather, was offered the biggest contract in NHL history, the team was playing decent ( last time i checked they were still in the playoffs) and management seemed to be doing everything they could to make the team better.

Its not so much work ethic as a tradition thats ingrained in canadian hocky players from the time the learn to skate. Its all about team goals and the ultimate goal is the stanley cup. I recognize that players like AO and Kovy worked dam hard to be as good as they are but i just dont think the SC is a big a deal to them(Again, Im fairly certain either OA or Kovy would rather have 200 points seasons or olympic gold). I also dont think they have the loyalty to NHL teams that canadian players have. When Iginla signed for 7 million a year it was no secret he could have made 8-9 if he had opted to free agency. For Kovy to turn down a 10 year 110 million dollar contract ( would have made him the highest paid player in nhl history) from the team that drafted him is BS. Not trying to go all Don Cherry on anyone, but seeing him turn down that offer made me want to puke.

Do you need my address so you know where to send your check when Kovy signs in russia this summer?

while i know you are a football coach i assume you dont follow a lot of hockey( dont think I need to stoop to calling you an idiot). Iginla signed for approx 2 million dollars less than he could have on the open market because he recognized who gave him his start and remained loyal. Yzerman played his nuts off for the team that drafted him,won 3 cups and retired as a wing. He too played for less money in detroit than he could have made had he whored himself out like Kovy ( cmon, turning down the team who drafted you for a 100 mill. contract for 10 years is ridiculous) . Pretty sure if you check all your "examples "you will find the same thing. Yes candian playeras sign lucrative contracts but I garantee every one of them has a single goal in mind ( the same one they had when they wer playing midget and junior hockey ) and that is to hoist Lord stanleys mug. ps. again, you obviuosly didnt watch any of the SC playoffs last year as Sid did everything a team captain and leader needs to do(including laying out in front of slapshots). Resulted in a stanley cup for his team

he will take his act to the KHL where he will sign a 10 year deal worth 120 million. He will play for minor league championships in a watered down league were hitting is frowned upon and spend the offseason rolling in his money. Dont expect him to "go to the wall" for the devils either as he wont risk injury (think of Dorn from the movie minor league) for a championship i garantee he doesnt really care about.

the wings are/were led by guys like yzerman,shanahan,lidstrom, and zetterberg (assuming you know the last 2 guys are swedes and not russians).The wings ruskys (datsyuk,larionov,etc) were the flash and the players i mentioned were the team leaders. say what you want but i garantee ovechkin or kovy would take an 80 goal season over a stanley cup any day. If I ever see ovechkin, or kovy block a shot in the playoffs i will eat my shorts. ps. Im not talking about russians vs "N americans". Im talking about russian vs canadian players.

hes russian. priorities are in this order 1-money 2-personal stats 3-money 4-personal stats 5-money 6-olympic gold medal 7-money 8-vodka 9-SC ring hes gonna sign in the KHL for a zillion bucks and wont give a rats ass about winning a real championship.

strictly a rental. the devils were one of the top clubs before the deal and have likley put themselves over the top (if brodeur stays healthy) with this deal.IMO,the devils move to the top of the class in the east . Kovy vs. AO in the conference finals?

Gios accelerated learning curve ( along with signing JBO) are what made Dion expendable IMO. Without a doubt, Giordano has been our most consistent and overall our best Dman all year. He has all the offensive tools to run a PP, is a very smart player in his own end, and now he has added the "nasty" component to his game as well ( the game that really sticks out in my mind was the one against LA where he hammered Dustin Brown 4 times in one game). Again, I dont think the sky has fallen just yet. Our lineup looks pretty decent with the guys we picked up and i dont think having White back there instead of Dion is gonna hurt us(his offensive numbers are just as good and he isnt prone to the brain freezes that sometimes plague phaneuf). We have a much more offensive team now with a full 4 lines that can score ( as glencross on the 4th line accentuated last night). When all of our guys return to the lineup it should look something like this: FORWARDS: Hagman-Stajan-Iginla Dawes-Langkow-Bourque GlenX-Boyd-Moss Nystrom-Baklund-Kotalik (pretty dam good 4th line IMO ) IMO, they need to keep Baklund in the lineup and sit conroy and lundmark. Mayers and Higgins are decent spare parts that give us depth up front and Mcgratton is there when we need some muscle . Flames also have approx 1.8 million in cap space which translates to a 5million dollar rental at the trade deadline ( ray whitney comes to mind). DEFENSE: Regher-White Gio-Jbo Sarrich-Pardy Again, dont panic or toss the flames/sutter under the bus just yet.

Lets not hit the panic button yet boys. lets wait for all the apples to fall out of the tree before throwing sutter under the bus. I still think something else is brewing as he has too many forwards in the lineup. Theres a ton of hype about this because Dion has been traded to the center of the hockey universe and except for the minor league team up north, the Laffs are the worst in the league so any news in ontario is good news. While i agree Conny and Langkow are slowing down, it seems a tad premature to give up on #12. The flames have a better D this year than last even without dion ( adding Jbo and having Gio step up), and added some good young forwards to the lineup. Again, i dont think sutters done dealing just yet.

"yap". Hope you didnt burn up too much grey matter coming up with that gem