Anyone been watching the Stanley Cup?

bombidol

Been some great games recently

mossym

bombidol wrote:

Been some great games recently

??? stanley cup doesn't start for another few months, still in the regular season

bombidol

Apologies, Stanley cup on the brain. Just put some money on it on paddypower when i posted this. I meant of course this seasons games, feel like a spa now! I was just over at a game a few weeks back :P

mossym

nah worries, was only kidding with you..

only moved back from states last year, big san jose sharks fan, so watch a good bit on NASN, was over at a sharks game myself in january...

looks trong this season, at tiems...but d**n the ducks look good, hate to say it but they are going to take some beating...hope you put your money on a western conf team...it looks much much stronger than east this year

bombidol

Red Wings all the way. I travel back and forward to Detroit all the time as my girl lives over there. She also works in the Joe Lewis Arena. Went to see Detroit V LA a few weeks back, heading over again in a few weeks gonna catch a few games. NASN is handy but there should be 3 or 4 NASN channels to cover more games. Also the reception on NASN when the weather isnt great is god awful.
At least we get to watch though.

BrianCalgary

Watch out for the Flames, if they ever learn to win a road game.

bombidol

Sickened by the Wings last night. 10 Fricken years! what the hell like.

MrJoeSoap

Just said I'd lend my voice to support the Senators starting from tonight! Bring the Stanley Cup home lads!

mossym

alomst 4 months ago i said the ducks would take beating..and i stick by it...

YeatsCounty

Congrats to the Ducks, they were the best team and they proved it against a strong Ottawa outfit. Sure the cup will spend more time in Canada anyway now than if Ottawa won it, the Ducks have more Canadian players (18) in their squad than any other team in the NHL.

Coming up to Christmas, it looked like Ottawa would struggle to make the playoffs, so they can be very happy with their season. If only Montreal could have kept up their early season form. Ah well, there's always next season. Les Habitants are building a team to challenge for 2009 as it'll be the Canadiens centenary year. Bringing the cup back to Montreal for a 25th time in 2009 would be glorious.

Rented Mule

It is going to be a while before the Habs are going to bring the Cup back. They no longer can claim their 'cultural exemptions' in the draft and are forced to play the same hand as the rest of the NHL.

Pittsburgh is going to be the team coming out of the East for a few years to come. So long as they can keep their young kids signed and under the cap.
They are going to do nothing but get better as these kids mature.

As for the Ducks, BRAVO to Brian Burke and Bob Murray on putting together an exciting, hard hitting old-school hockey team that can play in the new NHL.

I got a chance to meet Bob Murray quite a bit over the years, as a player Asst. GM and GM in Chicago, and then with his time in Vancouver.

I was very happy to hear that he was going to stay with Brian Burke and the Ducks after turning down the chance to be the next GM of the Blue Jackets.

MrJoeSoap

Rented Mule wrote:

Pittsburgh is going to be the team coming out of the East for a few years to come.

Amen to that, Crosby alone is enough reason to get excited but Malkin, Staal et al just make it all that little bit sweeter!

Rented Mule

Angelo Esposito fell all the way down to them in last weekend's draft as well.

For those of you who don't know who Angelo is, he was the concensus #1 overall pick in this draft going into last season. He hit the proverbial wall as the season dragged on as well as the pressure of being #1 and had a freefall to the late 1st round.

Add this kid to the mix in a nother few years and you have another potential #1/#2 centre.

I am a Chicago Blackhawk fan and I am very happy to know that we may only see Pittsburgh once per season every 2/3 years.

YeatsCounty

This has been a disappointing off season for the Habs, as expected. Bob Gainey has been trying his best to get players to sign but no-one's interested. There was a big debate on Montreal sports radio yesterday about why Montreal is being snubbed by close to all and sundry. They came to the conclusion that Quebec's language laws leave a bad impression and, most importantly, word has spread about how the French sports media is terrible. The hockey version of papparazzi, following hockey players to restaurants. The incident during the 2006 playoffs when Saku Koivu was giving a press conference about the vision in his eye after he was nearly blinded by a Carolina stick is a good example. Koivu, a bilingual Finn (Finnish & English with some good parts of French) was effectively accosted by a journalist from the Journal de Quebec (from Quebec City) who asked repeatedly and aggresively why Koivu didn't speak French on the ice. In French, of course. The fans on both sides of the language divide love Koivu and saw this as low tactics by the French media. They do this all the time, they want a team of "flying Frenchmen" but when a Quebecois plyer makes one mistake, the press will attempt to destroy them.

This is why we can't attract the Brier's of this world and it is why we'll be losing Ryder and Pleks. Souray is magnificant on the power play and we'll miss him there but we certainly won't miss him in defence.

This could be a very long season again for the Habs.


As for Esposito, his stock really fell during the second half of the season in NHL circles. Gainey and Carbonneau didn't speak to his agent. They obviously didn't like what they saw.

Rented Mule

How do you think Kevin Lowe is feeling in Edmonton right now ?

He just offered Vanek a seven year deal @$50 million and Buffalo matched it. He can't buy a free agent at the moment, restricted or unrestricted.

I was really surprised that Montreal didn't snag Espo with the #12th pick. Gainey has really gotten a taste for players from the United States Under 18 team in recent years for some reason.