NHL 2012-2013: Tentative deal early Sunday January 6

Doughty signed for pretty much what was offered. I am happy he wants to be with the Kings not only 7 years but 8 years.

Cups are in the future!

Does anyone know if Jason Labarbera or Mike Smith is going to be the starting goalie for Phoenix this year? I picked up Labarbera really late in my fantasy league and am wondering if I got a sleeper or just a back-up.

IMAGE(http://chucksconnection.com/waynesworld/wayne05.jpg)
Game On, October 7:

Philly vs Boston
Pittsburgh vs Vancouver
Toronto vs Montreal

.. and a Rangers-Kings game on Friday at 1:00 pm? Ducks-Sabres at 1:00 pm? In Europe?

MaxShrek wrote:

IMAGE(http://chucksconnection.com/waynesworld/wayne05.jpg)
Game On, October 7:

Hurricanes vs Lightning

FTFY

Ranger Rick wrote:
MaxShrek wrote:

IMAGE(http://chucksconnection.com/waynesworld/wayne05.jpg)
Game On, October 7:

Hurricanes vs Lightning

FTFY

Truth. That MaxShrek guy is a chode.

I'll be at opening night! In our fancy new lower-level seats right over glass level! Last year we took my daughter and paid for 3 upper level seats where she basically waited impatiently for her chicken strips at the end of the first period, then waited impatiently for her ice cream at the end of the second period and then slept through the third period. Why spend money on a ticket that essentially still costs me more money at the game for food? This year we sprung for two lower-level seats and we'll find babysitters, damn it. No, not the full season ticket package, just a 12 game pack.

Also, even with all of that, last year it was hard to get excited about nosebleed seats when most of the games were broadcast in high def and I have a damn-near 10 foot screen to watch it on. Lower level ought to help bring the live excitement back.

skeletonframes wrote:

Does anyone know if Jason Labarbera or Mike Smith is going to be the starting goalie for Phoenix this year? I picked up Labarbera really late in my fantasy league and am wondering if I got a sleeper or just a back-up.

The local press seems to infer that Smith is going to debut as the number 1. ESPN seems to think Smith is going to be number 1 as well. Whether that holds up or lasts very long is another story.

ColdForged wrote:

I'll be at opening night! In our fancy new lower-level seats right over glass level!

Woot! We'll be there too, we moved forward to the mezzanine on the 3rd floor, so less likely to have annoying people around us. Plus, no obstructions when I try to take photos.

ColdForged wrote:

This year we sprung for two lower-level seats and we'll find babysitters, damn it. No, not the full season ticket package, just a 12 game pack.

Sounds like a plan.

I'll be watching TO vs MTL tomorrow night! Can't wait!

Game of the week this week is DEFINITELY Winnipeg vs Montreal on Sunday, home opener in Winnipeg. The energy in that arena will be electrifying.

Here's hoping for a great season for Cam Ward this year, 'Canes fans. My keeper league really needs it!

Dysplastic wrote:

I'll be watching TO vs MTL tomorrow night! Can't wait!

Game of the week this week is DEFINITELY Winnipeg vs Montreal on Sunday, home opener in Winnipeg. The energy in that arena will be electrifying.

Yeah, they were pretty loud and crazy even in our preseason game there. We watched Winnipeg's feed online when Carolina played them. Kinda funny to hear the announcers pretend Atlanta didn't exist and the "Winnipeg drafted..." comments. =)

Dysplastic wrote:

Here's hoping for a great season for Cam Ward this year, 'Canes fans. My keeper league really needs it!

I'll drink to that!

Pfff. Everyone knows that "Atlanta" is just a myth, or buried in the Mediterranean somewhere.

ColdForged wrote:
Ranger Rick wrote:

Truth. That MaxShrek guy is a chode.

hehehehee

Leafs v Habs tonight! I'm very excited - mostly for hockey to start.

Preseason hasn't been good for the Leafs, and other than the Grabovski line looking good again, there isn't a whole lot I'm positive about. But the season is when things start for real and we see where the team actually stand. Montreal is definitely the stronger team, but Toronto is certainly capable of beating them.

Success for the Leafs this year is going to come from working hard every single night and good goaltending from Reimer. That was how they won games down the stretch last year and that's how they'll win games this year.

In other news, it looks like I'll be going to the Philadelphia - New Jersey game on Saturday night, in New Jersey. Might get the chance to enter locker rooms after the game as well. I've followed the crazy changes to the Flyers over the off season, but have barely paid attention to New Jersey. Looks like I need to do some reading and catch up on the main developments on the Devils.

Wow, is this a sloppy start to a hockey game. Terrible.

If the Habs continue to be a strong puck-possession/shot-generating team and their shooting percentage doesn't regress I'm going to go insane.

Nice to see Lombardi score a goal though. Good on him.

I'm claiming we're getting Home Ice Advantage in Stockholm today, as we've got not one, but two Swedes skating around the ice. I am excited for another season of leading the league in blocked shots, and still barely sneaking into the playoffs.

/reverse jinx'd
//not really

Gotta say, the Vancouver game last night was pretty damn entertaining.

SO can't wait to go to the 'canes game tonight. We've got all our tailgating stuff ready. Made brandy balls. So many wonderful opportunities for innuendo.

I'll take the win. I still say that first period was atrocious, but when Lombardi scored shorthanded it seemed to calm everyone down and the Leafs played their game a bit. None of the lines looked particularly good on opening night. Grabovski and Kulemin had a couple of decent shifts, and Lombardi played well I thought, but there were a lot of bouncing pucks and broken plays last night.

Reimer is getting credit for keeping the Leafs in it in the first period, (and the guy got a shutout, so good on him) but truthfully he was mostly very lucky in the first period. There were a couple situations where Reimer was seriously scrambling or lost track of the puck entirely. When the Habs got pucks through him they went off posts or just somehow stayed out. What can you say? Reimer made the saves he needed to make and the hockey gods took care of the rest.

What you can say is that the Leafs skaters did very well blocking a ton of shots from getting through to the net. Shot quality from the Habs in the 2nd and 3rd wasn't very good as they were having a difficult time finding open ice. I liked it.

I want to see better games out of the Leafs than this one though. Next game is on Saturday, then they have a week off to work the kinks out. Maybe get Connolly healed up. I can't imagine a friendlier opening schedule, so there's that.

I can't believe how much money Vancouver pays for the privilege of forfeiting nearly every shoot-out.

Flyers @ Bruins was pretty entertaining. It was awfully cool seeing Jagr out there. Brzgalov made some absolutely insane saves to deny the home team some joy. Didn't see enough of the Nucks and Penguins to make much sense of it, though Luongo had a pretty shaky outing early with that short-side PP nightmare and then a shorty.

Canes tonight and I will find brandy balls somewhere in that parking lot, I swear it.

Nothing kills new season enthusiasm like listening to Mark Lee and Kevin Weekes. I've also heard CBC turns down the crowd volume, I guess to ensure the arenas sound as dull as their commentators.

Gravey wrote:

Nothing kills new season enthusiasm like listening to Mark Lee and Kevin Weekes. I've also heard CBC turns down the crowd volume, I guess to ensure the arenas sound as dull as their commentators.

No no no.. Glenn Healy takes the prize for last person you want to hear on a CBC broadcast. He had me fuming at the tv last night, and it was the first game of the season. We're going to have a long next few months, me and Glenn.

Okay, yeah, Canucks CBC broadcasts are going to be hurting without Jim Hughson doing play by play anymore. Thanks for donating him to us Easterners.

Gravey wrote:

Nothing kills new season enthusiasm like listening to Mark Lee and Kevin Weekes. I've also heard CBC turns down the crowd volume, I guess to ensure the arenas sound as dull as their commentators.

Dude needs to learn that there is no "D" in "Henrik".

Also, I'm not sure why Luongo is getting such crap for his shootout performance; when you only play one period out of three you don't deserve the win, and when you start Mikael Samuelsson in the shootout you're pretty much just trolling.

nihilo wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Nothing kills new season enthusiasm like listening to Mark Lee and Kevin Weekes. I've also heard CBC turns down the crowd volume, I guess to ensure the arenas sound as dull as their commentators.

No no no.. Glenn Healy takes the prize for last person you want to hear on a CBC broadcast. He had me fuming at the tv last night, and it was the first game of the season. We're going to have a long next few months, me and Glenn.

Okay, yeah, Canucks CBC broadcasts are going to be hurting without Jim Hughson doing play by play anymore. Thanks for donating him to us Easterners.

Yeah, I like Jim Hughson but hate Glen Healy. I have to say its reassuring to me that a Leafs fan hates him just as much as I do, as I was worried it was my Habs homerism clouding my judgement.

Well, that sucked.

ColdForged wrote:

Well, that sucked.

I'm pretty sure your tagline from Prederick is appropriate:

"THE HELL ASS BALLS."

Yeah, I think one of you guys should swing by Cam Ward's house to let him know he scored me negative points in my fantasy league, last night. I. Want. Him. To. Know.

Was fun tonight at the Devils - Flyers game. In the press box again, but this time without responsibilities. Best of both worlds. I went down to the Flyers locker room after the game and listened in on the media scrums. Bryzgalov was a disappointment as I've heard so often he likes to shoot off his mouth - he said pretty much nothing. Pronger, too, said some bland stuff about how hard everyone worked out of training camp. The Flyers had their rookie Matt Read score his first NHL goal, so it was fun listening to the kid gush about being in the NHL. Jaromir Jagr was interviewed as well - mostly in Czech after the game, but nobody was asking him any hard questions in English either.

I came away with a good impression of coach Laviolette - he seems thoughtful and open about his assessment of his team's play. But then again, it was a three goal shutout, so of course he's happy.

All in all - fun times. I'm super lucky to be able to do these things (very) occasionaly.

nihilo wrote:

I came away with a good impression of coach Laviolette - he seems thoughtful and open about his assessment of his team's play. But then again, it was a three goal shutout, so of course he's happy.

All in all - fun times. I'm super lucky to be able to do these things (very) occasionaly.

Lavi was a polarizing force in Carolina. He won us the cup, but he also has a style that the locker room either buys into, or doesn't. From what I understand, by the time he left here he'd lost the team, and things kind of fell apart. But man, when he motivates, he motivates.

He seems to have found his groove in Philly though, I hope he continues to do well there.

Blues lose 4-2, but damn they could have won 6-3. They not only outshot Nashville, but they had a ton of shots that would be in most any other night. Rinne was pretty freaking awesome in goal for the Predators.

Sucks to lose, especially at home, but the team still looked really, really solid. Was surprised to see Langenbrunner on the first line, but it worked really well.