2007-2008 NHL Season thread

MrJoeSoap

Hey folks, less than three weeks now until the big face-off. Are there many regular fans on here, or even anyone with a passing interest in the sport? Thought it might be a good idea to get a thread going about the season and maybe generate some interest on boards.ie, so maybe people could start by posting what team they have an interest in, and their hopes for the season.

I'm a Penguins man myself, massively optimistic about the year ahead with such amazing young talent ready to take on anyone and everyone. Crosby is only going to go from strength to strength and Jordan Staal and Malkin are exciting prospects to say the least. With the experience of Recchi and Gonchar, I'd expect them to get further than last campaign at least, and after that, who knows! Hopefully Sidney will have matured enough to be able to grow a proper beard for the Stanley Cup

Also, for those of you with digital, NASN is going freeview for the opening weekend as the two regular season games between the Ducks and Kings takes place in London on the 29th and 30th of this month. As well as this, NASN will continue their coverage of the season with over 200 games, including the usual Saturday night double-headers. Can't bloody wait!

Rented Mule

Excellent call on an O-ficial thread to get ready for the upcoming hockey season.

I am a lunatic Chicago Blackhawk fan, obviously ANY fan of the Chicago Blackhawks is going to be a bit off of his rocker. One playoff appearance in the past 11 years does tend to wear on the faithful.

I am looking forward to the season with a sense of anticipation that we may actually challenge for the #8 spot in the Western Conference provide:

1) We stay healthy
2) We develop a PP that is somewhere in the Top 15 in the NHL
3) The 'Kids' are for real (Toews and Kane)
4) Samsonov/Lang/Perrault all actually contribute O-fensivey
5) Khabibulin gets his save percentage up @ .920
6) Our young D gels as a cohesive unit
7) If, if, if and more ifs.

We have more question marks than The Riddlers closet.

Hawks GM Dale Tallon cut loose a lot of dead weight/contracts in the off season without sacrificing the future of this once great or-gan-I-za-tion.

We have a very long way to go to get back to respectability, and it all starts in October.

wolski

hey there,
i was on here ages ago but forgot so resigned,anyway im a avalanche fan,im just getting back into it and seeing how the team are i love the sport,i caught a match in finland i put money down tho i had the score in reverse heh.
a penguins man hummm be interesting to see them play colorado.
your right and you would have people stopin in to see whats happening.
good idea man
oh do ya know a decent place to get a jersey in ireland that wont brake the bank?thanks

MrJoeSoap

Don't think I've ever seen a place in Ireland that sells NHL jerseys, the nhl.com website has a 40% off sale at the moment, but packaging is still quite expensive I think. Still might be worth checking out. If I'd have started this thread a month ago I could have picked you up a Joe Sakic Avalanche jersey for €30 in Australia.

wolski

cheers for the info.i did look at the site,with the way some people are its em well worrying ive had a fake one for ages its the only one i could get and afford but people look down on ya heh.joe is a great player im looking forward to this season. this is gona be a hit alot of my mate love ice hockey.
is nasn coming up free on the 30th for the opening games?.
already ya have to other fans saying we're up for it:)

MrJoeSoap

wolski wrote:

is nasn coming up free on the 30th for the opening games?.

Yeah apparently it will be free on the weekend of the 29th and 30th.

http://www.nasn.com/content/nasn/portal.nsf/content/nhlpremierelondon07

wolski

cheers,i spoke to setanta earlier who own the rights to nasn here,its 18e a month but ya get golf,football,touring car(its not jumpin off the shelf yet heh)
the LA Kings V Anaheim Ducks in london on the 30/9/07.

MrJoeSoap

Has anyone else signed up for the Yahoo Fantasy NHL game? My draft is on Monday at 7, this game looks amazing.

Rented Mule

I have the NASN sports package with NTL and I am very happy with it during the NHL season.

It is worth the price if you are going to use it.

wolski

cheers for the heads up joesoap.
how much does the package cost ya rented mule and when its off season is ot worth having it?
thanks

Rented Mule

http://www.ntl.ie/television/digitaltv/extras/setanta/


I highly recommend it.

You are going to get different video feeds of the games from different broadcasting companies. TSN, CBC, Versus, Fox, Comcast etc.

MrJoeSoap

I've signed up to NASN for the year, can't wait. Got my fantasy team picked tonight as well, so I'm just counting down the days.

The NHL announced the first ever outdoor NHL game in the USA today, between the Sabres and my beloved Penguins in Buffalo on New Years Day. I'm seriously seriously tempted to go, I'll sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow.

MrJoeSoap

January 1st, 2008. Buffalo, NY.

The first ever outdoor NHL game in the USA. Sidney Crosby will be there, 73,000 mental fans will be there... and so will I.

Zone 102, Row 30, Seat 20!

Rented Mule

I hear they screwed over the local Buffalo fans during the sale of tickets for this game.

I heard that Toronto Maple Leafs and Blue Jays season ticket holders had chances to buy tickets before the general public.

I find that really hard to believe, but if it is then Gary Bettman should be dragged through the streets of Buffalo (as he should have been in 1999)

YeatsCounty

I know that NASN shows Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Does anyone know if they show a lot of Habs games or do they mostly just show Maple Leaf games on NASN's viewing of HNIC? The Habs aren't shown too often on HNIC unless they are playing the Maple Leafs or Ottawa and even then the non-Habs vs Leafs games can only be viewed in Quebec & sometimes Ottawa. The rest of Canada has to stick with "Hockey Night in Toronto".

Oh yes, as you've probably guessed I'm a Montreal fan. Hopefully we can start the season strongly and this time we'll try not to collapse in the second half this time. For other Habs fans out there, "Habs Inside Out" is a tremendous resource for al things Canadiens from the Montreal Gazette paper.

Viggo Mortenson is a Habs fan btw. Seriously!

MrJoeSoap

I'm really not sure but I'd imagine it's just the national version, meaning Hockey Night in Toronto, yeah.

Would any of you guys be up for a fantasy league on Yahoo between the few of us? Anyone know of any other hockey fans on boards?

bombidol

I'm a big Red Wings fan and have been to games in Detroit over the last year or two. Will be back over in a while so will catch as many as possible. Looking forward to this season!

MrJoeSoap

Don't suppose any of you have been to Buffalo? I passed through it once, but was asleep on an Amtrak train at the time...

bombidol

Passed through by it once thats about it.

MrJoeSoap

Rented Mule wrote:

I hear they screwed over the local Buffalo fans during the sale of tickets for this game.

I heard that Toronto Maple Leafs and Blue Jays season ticket holders had chances to buy tickets before the general public.

I find that really hard to believe, but if it is then Gary Bettman should be dragged through the streets of Buffalo (as he should have been in 1999)

Apparently not, though it certainly doesn't look that way.

Buffalo Sabres fans, apparently believing some conspiracy at work, are supposedly miffed they have been left out in the cold.

It was bad enough that some 42,000 tickets to the New Year's Day outdoor showdown between the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins at the football Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium were snapped up inside of 30 minutes Tuesday.

It got worse when rumour had it that subscribers to not only the Toronto Maple Leafs but also the Toronto Blue Jays had been given preferential treatment and special passwords to gobble up ducats online.

This wasn't quite the case. Another 30,000 or so seats – capacity is about 74,000 – have been set aside for Sabres subscribers, Bills club-seat members and the NHL.

The Leafs reportedly have had no involvement and the Blue Jays only in the sense that they have made a recent practice of alerting their subscribers to special offers at every opportunity.

Patrick Elster, the Jays' vice-president of ticket sales and services, said yesterday that the club was made aware of the coming sale, not because of any long-standing relationship with the Bills, but through Cenergy Communications – their advertising agency in western New York State. Among other Cenergy clients: the Buffalo Bills.

"We take our people to Florida," Elster said, "we give them free luxury suites. This is no different than us offering our subscribers front-of-the-line access to Disney on Ice or Supercross or, you know, The Wiggles."

Penguins fans got 1,500 tickets mind.

Rented Mule

Thank you for clearing that up.

I still would like to see Bettman dragged through the streets !! lol

MrJoeSoap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=322zqTkL0-c

Let any doubts that pre-season is just a warm up be dispelled...

xeduCat

It is worth mentioning that even NTL analogue, with Setanta Ireland, will be showing a lot of hockey this season, e.g. this Thursday night/Friday morning, Leafs v Senators and another game straight after it...

MrJoeSoap

According to the Setanta website they're showing the Ducks and Red Wings at midnight on Wednesday night (as in technically Thursday) followed by Dallas at Colorado at 2.30am. Took me an absolute age to figure out that the Setanta website is a day off...

So the listings for this week are:

Wednesday 3rd October
Anaheim Ducks @ Detroit Red Wings, midnight. Setanta.
Dallas Stars @ Colorado Avalanche, 2.30am. Setanta.

Thursday 4th October
Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators, midnight. Setanta. REPLAY on NASN next day at 9am.
Philadelphia Flyers @ Calgary Flames, 3am. Setanta. REPLAY on NASN next day at 11.30am.

Friday 5th October
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Carolina Hurricanes, 00.30. Setanta. REPLAY on NASN next day at 8.30am.
NHL On The Fly, 02.30. Setanta

Saturday 6th October
Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs, midnight. NASN. Hockey Night in Canada.
Vancouver Canucks @ Calgary Flames, 03.30. NASN. Hockey Night in Canada.

Monday 8th October
Edmonton Oilers @ Detroit Red Wings, 00.30. Setanta.

Tuesday 9th October
Carolina Hurricanes @ Toronto Maple Leafs, midnight. Setanta.
NHL On The Fly, 02.30. Setanta.

Wednesday 10th October
New York Rangers @ New York Islanders, midnight. Setanta.

Thursday 11th October
Atlanta Thrashers @ Buffalo Sabres, midnight. Setanta.

Can anyone let me know if they are reading this! I'll try to keep it updated every week if anyone is actually interested, otherwise I won't bother.

Rented Mule

Post away.

I work shifts and often forget to read NASNs schedule and end up catching a replay of some of the games that I want to watch.

I am actually trying to find away around the NHL Cetre Ice package this season. It is available onlone for the first time, but only in North America.

They have a free preview going on until Saturday 6th October as well. I was able to watch several games for far with this preview. I did register my information as a Chicago address though.

http://www.nhl.com/nhlhq/centerice_online.html

MrJoeSoap

Yeah same here, used the address of the hotel I'm staying in in Buffalo to watch a few of the games. Not a bad package at all, but I wonder if I could do the same for the whole season...

Rented Mule

I am going to try and see what happens.

I have a credit card with a billing address to my father's home in the Chicago.

My only concern is that if they are going to block it from 'foreign' ISPs.

MrJoeSoap

Two very entertaining live games last night, the Red Wings beat the Ducks in a shootout, Hudler getting the decisive goal in that after the first five attempts were unsuccesful. The second live game was the Stars at Colorado, were Paul Stastny got his first career hat-trick to put the Av in contol, which they just about held until the end.

Had a fiver on a Red Wings / Senators double, which hauled in a whopping €12.82 to make up for the €10 I lost on the Kings on Sunday. Roll on tonight!

MrJoeSoap

[I]Eastern Conference[/I]
[B]ATLANTIC 	GP 	W 	L 	OTL 	PTS 	GF 	GA 	PP% 	PK% 	HOME 	AWAY 	L10[/B]
NY Islanders 	4 	3 	1 	0 	6 	12 	9 	23.5 	95.7 	2-1-0 	1-0-0 	3-1-0
Philadelphia 	3 	2 	1 	0 	4 	14 	9 	26.7 	75.0 	0-0-0 	2-1-0 	2-1-0
Pittsburgh 	3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	8 	11 	18.8 	75.0 	1-1-0 	0-1-0 	1-2-0
NY Rangers 	3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	6 	6 	0.0 	92.3 	1-0-0 	0-2-0 	1-2-0
New Jersey 	3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	7 	8 	23.1 	80.0 	0-0-0 	1-2-0 	1-2-0
[B]NORTHEAST 	GP 	W 	L 	OTL 	PTS 	GF 	GA 	PP% 	PK% 	HOME 	AWAY 	L10[/B]
Ottawa 	        5 	5 	0 	0 	10 	16 	8 	16.0 	100.0 	3-0-0 	2-0-0 	5-0-0
Montreal 	3 	2 	0 	1 	5 	9 	8 	26.7 	81.3 	0-0-0 	2-0-1 	2-0-1
Toronto 	4 	1 	2 	1 	3 	10 	17 	8.7 	78.6 	1-1-1 	0-1-0 	1-2-1
Boston 	        3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	5 	7 	27.3 	88.9 	0-0-0 	1-2-0 	1-2-0
Buffalo 	2 	0 	2 	0 	0 	6 	9 	9.1 	50.0 	0-1-0 	0-1-0 	0-2-0
[B]SOUTHEAST 	GP 	W 	L 	OTL 	PTS 	GF 	GA 	PP% 	PK% 	HOME 	AWAY 	L10[/B]
Washington 	3 	3 	0 	0 	6 	7 	2 	11.8 	100.0 	1-0-0 	2-0-0 	3-0-0
Tampa Bay 	3 	3 	0 	0 	6 	10 	4 	23.1 	86.7 	3-0-0 	0-0-0 	3-0-0
Carolina 	4 	2 	1 	1 	5 	13 	7 	25.0 	72.7 	1-0-1 	1-1-0 	2-1-1
Atlanta 	3 	0 	3 	0 	0 	4 	11 	9.1 	76.5 	0-2-0 	0-1-0 	0-3-0
Florida 	3 	0 	3 	0 	0 	4 	11 	8.3 	80.0 	0-1-0 	0-2-0 	0-3-0
[I]Western Conference[/I]
[B]CENTRAL 	GP 	W 	L 	OTL 	PTS 	GF 	GA 	PP% 	PK% 	HOME 	AWAY 	L10[/B]
Detroit 	4 	3 	0 	1 	7 	14 	10 	31.8 	93.3 	3-0-0 	0-0-1 	3-0-1
Nashville 	3 	2 	1 	0 	4 	10 	5 	16.7 	100.0 	2-0-0 	0-1-0 	2-1-0
St. Louis 	3 	2 	1 	0 	4 	11 	7 	11.8 	93.3 	1-0-0 	1-1-0 	2-1-0
Columbus 	3 	2 	1 	0 	4 	9 	3 	26.7 	100.0 	2-0-0 	0-1-0 	2-1-0
Chicago 	3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	5 	6 	0.0 	76.5 	1-1-0 	0-1-0 	1-2-0
[B]NORTHWEST 	GP 	W 	L 	OTL 	PTS 	GF 	GA 	PP% 	PK% 	HOME 	AWAY 	L10[/B]
Minnesota 	3 	3 	0 	0 	6 	6 	2 	0.0 	88.9 	3-0-0 	0-0-0 	3-0-0
Colorado 	3 	2 	1 	0 	4 	10 	9 	16.7 	71.4 	2-0-0 	0-1-0 	2-1-0
Edmonton 	4 	2 	2 	0 	4 	10 	11 	0.0 	81.3 	2-0-0 	0-2-0 	2-2-0
Vancouver 	3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	7 	14 	28.6 	82.4 	0-2-0 	1-0-0 	1-2-0
Calgary 	3 	0 	2 	1 	1 	7 	11 	23.1 	61.1 	0-1-1 	0-1-0 	0-2-1
[B]PACIFIC 	GP 	W 	L 	OTL 	PTS 	GF 	GA 	PP% 	PK% 	HOME 	AWAY 	L10[/B]
San Jose 	4 	2 	1 	1 	5 	9 	11 	15.4 	89.5 	0-0-0 	2-1-1 	2-1-1
Anaheim 	6 	2 	3 	1 	5 	13 	18 	16.1 	75.7 	2-0-0 	0-3-1 	2-3-1
Dallas 	        4 	2 	2 	0 	4 	13 	11 	20.0 	87.5 	2-0-0 	0-2-0 	2-2-0
Phoenix 	3 	1 	2 	0 	2 	4 	8 	0.0 	70.0 	1-1-0 	0-1-0 	1-2-0
Los Angeles 	4 	1 	3 	0 	2 	9 	15 	18.2 	80.0 	1-1-0 	0-2-0 	1-3-0

Perfect starts for Ottawa, Washington, Tampa and Minnesota thus far.

No surprises from Ottawa really, given the way they finished last season. Heatley, Spezza and Alfredson are probably the best line in the league at the moment and already the latter two are in the top five points league-wide (Spezza with 8 and Alfredsson with a league leading 9). I'll reserve judgement on the other three until they've played a few more games to be honest.

Players that have stuck out so far have been the Avs Paul Stastny, the toothless wonder, who scored a hat-trick in the season opener against Dallas (live on Setanta) and has racked up a five-pointer against the Sharks as well. Four goals off six shots this season has got to be one of the best ratio's around, it will obviously fade but I can see him being a big player this season.

Tampa can put their early success down to Lecavalier, the guy shoots on the slightest hint of a chance.

Also, how good is Anze Kopitar? Pity he's surrounded by mediocrity really.

In terms of goalies, can't look past Gerber really, Emery has a job on his hands to get back the starting spot there. Mentions must go to the other great starters in Kolzig and the rookie Backstrom at Minnesota, but I'd say Roberto Luongo fans will be shocked at his stats so far. I know I am, he was my first fantasy draft choice.

MrJoeSoap

Is it just me or is there no hockey at all on either Setanta or NASN tonight? What happened to HNIC??

B00MSTICK

Leafs vs Sabres live tonight on Setanta.

Can't wait for this after losing they're first 2 games the Sabres have hit back with 6-0 and 7-3 wins and with Spacek and Campbell on fire the loss of Briére and Drury doesnt seem so bad.

College early tomorrow but I won't be missing this