EHM The Blue Line

I think it's about time we had one of these!

Is anybody lucky enough to be going to the games in Sweden? My bro and myself have agreed that if there's an NHL season opener in Europe next year, we'll try to organise a trip over for it. It was such a great experience last year in London.

I'v had heard that maybe 09/10 season opener is in Finland.
Hjallis Harkimo has discussed with Bill Daly & Ken Yaffe about it.

I was planning to go to the season opener, but I missed the time when the tickets were released, and when Ichecked into the site which sold them they were all gone.

Shane O'Brien and Max Oulette to Vancouver for Lukas Krappicek and Juraj Simek.

Canucks get tougher with O'Brien. Oulette may be a call up from Manitoba. Canucks are getting tough. Wow! I like it.

Hmmm... I've got Shane O'Brien in my Yahoo league. I wonder what this is going to do for his fantasy stats? That league doesn't do anything for ATOI but it does give points for PIMs.

He will get tons of PIMS. My guess plays on the 3rd pairing and kills some penalties, except when in the box.

Well the Leafs have waived Bell, Deveraux and Kronwall.

They sign Schenn and have said the Frogren and Mitchell will start the season in Toronto.

I expect Deveraux to get claimed, but not Kronwall.

Kyle McLaren is also on waivers. Sharkies obvisouly needing to save money and have a few defensman already.

So when does the actual regular season start? This weekend?

Technically, the season already started last weekend but that was just a few games that the NHL played in Europe. I know the Bruins kick off their season tomorrow. I'm guessing most other teams start tomorrow as well.

The Bruins waived a few guys yesterday, including Peter Schaefer and his salary (somewhere over $2M for a 3rd or 4th liner). They've decided to keep Blake Wheeler on the roster instead of sending him to their AHL affiliate. He's had a great camp and preseason. He made it so they really couldn't justify sending him down. I hear there still might be a trade in the works too though.

I've read somewhere that Lucic is being demoted to a lower line to make room for Wheeler. And I heard that Kessel and Bergeron will be together. That could be dangerous.

Franck - Some teams start on Thursday. Some Friday.

Lucic wasn't as impressive this preseason as he was in last year's. Just growing pains, I'm sure. Right now it's looking like they're going to play Wheeler at LW (he's normally a RW) on a line with Krejci and Kobasew. That's the 3rd line but it's a third line with some offensive talent. Bergeron will be centering Sturm (LW) and Kessel (RW). Bergeron and Sturm have always clicked and Kessel has fit right in with them so far. At one point Lucic was set as the LW on a line with Savard (C) and Ryder (RW) but he wasn't performing up to par, so he got shifted down to a lower line and Axelsson moved up to fill his place. So I guess if Axelsson is still LW of that top line, then Lucic was probably on the third line with Krejci and Kobasew. So now that Wheeler is there, Lucic must be on the 4th line. Still, all that can change in a heartbeat. No matter how you slice it, these are good decisions to have to make. We've got some good young talent on the Bruins.

The Bruins have less than $1M left under The Cap (IIRC, it was about $300k) and there's talk that they could still try and make a deal. I have no idea what they're working but I wouldn't be surprised if Axelsson was sent packing. He's getting older and although he's an excellent checking forward, he has no offensive talent to speak of. His role could be filled by a cheaper and younger player. I'm pretty sure he makes more than $2M. He seems a prime candidate to be shipped out and I'm sure there are teams that would be interested. Maybe he could be packaged with a defenseman (Alberts? Please?) for a decent puck-moving defenseman?

Take some of the Ducks cap space. We had to send down Bobby Ryan as we couldn't afford to keep him on our roster. All this and we're paying Todd Marchant almost the same as Teemu. Rumour has it that Ryan may even be traded if Burkey cannot find a way of making the cap space.

6-0. Now that is a good start. Hopefully the Nucks did not use up all their goals for the next 6 games in one go. And watching Bernier take on Phaneuf...awesome! Ryan Johnson must have blocked 5 shots, and Ohlund must have had 10-11 hits, of which 4 were bonecrushers. Especially the one on Bert.

The Nucks outworked the Flames in every single area and clearly deserved this demolishing score. Without any surprise, they've been way faster. But what surprised me more was that they were way tougher than Calgary. I know the Nucks are tougher this season, but still...

Oh and the Maple Laughs have downed the champ in Motor City! IMO, this was the biggest surprise of the night. Toskala even looked like a NHL goalie for once.

Anyway, it's good to see some hockey! Those summer months have been annoying, and the games in Europe were pretty boring.

Is anyone has an idea why so many people still think that the Pens will go far once more this season? When you replace Hossa by Satan, Malone by Fedotenko, loose Recchi's experience and leadership, loose Gonchar for 4-6 months to injury and Whitney injured for several months too, how can you go anywhere near the top? They are a playoff contender at best.

Kopitar has signed a 7 year extension with the Kings. Hockeybuzz have it at $6,800,000 each year.

I have zero faith in Manny Fernandez. I'm much more confident with Tim Thomas in net. I'd love to see the Bruins ship out Fernandez and go with a tandem of Thomas and Rask.

I predict that Kessel will be a 30 goal scorer this year. He's looked incredible so far (yeah, it's only 2 games... I know) this season. I really think that benching in the playoffs last season got through to him. The best part of watching the Bruins so far this season has been watching the line of Sturm-Bergeron-Kessel. These guys are really clicking.

Okay...so the winner is....Denis Savard. 4 games in...canned. Um...what the?

Here is the story: Joel Quenville brought in as a scout, but just before Hawks were to announce this back in Sep...he gets a DUI in Chicago. So..they keep things quiet, and Joel stays on staff.

Then...Scotty Bowman comes in as a Consultant.

All this after Fale Tallon (Spelling is not intentional...it was a typo ...really...and I left it cause it was funny) had $13 million tied up in goalies. And cannot trade the one they have there. No one takes him on waivers...and FALE (intentional this time, although I know FAIL is spelled FAIL)..trades Robert Lang...leaves Chicago with no 2nd line center, and even after that has no cap room...So he.has to send Barker and Niemi down to the minors because the team cannot keep Barker under cap, and Niemi is now #3. All because Fale could not get rid of the leaky Bhulin wall...

Savard: No system, mixes lines every single game...hmm that gonna work? Nope.

Plays guys out of position...idjit.

Coach Q---comes in immediately following a day where 20 year old captain Jonathon toews calls a player only meeting,of which the COACH (SAvard at the time) was not even aware. This after 3 games of the season. Ugh. Jesus.

So now Savard gone. Q in. But the real problem still resides...FALE...what the hell is his plan? To sign another Sopel to a 3 year deal at a grossly overpaid amount? leave barker in the minors? Um....well...

FIRE TALLON TOO!! Come on Rocky, you have done lots of good things...time to can the idiot in the GM office.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=252791& ... Story_main

Yeah you beat me too it.


I don't think anyone had him in the pool

Penguins lost again

Yeah but Malkin had 3 points and was a plus 1 Go Malkin for my pool!

It looks like, new hips in place, Antero has begun to realize his potential, there's talk of him stealing the starter job in Philly from Biron...

Ha!

Nitty ended up on my fantasy team so that would be nice for me.
On the other hand, I don't want the Flyers to have any success...

The season is still young, he's no way near his EHM attributes and never will be. There too good for him even in the future. I think the fact he is seen to be having a good year is coupled with Biron having a pretty shocking year. He probably will take the starters job of Biron though.

Unbelievable! The Ducks are heading for their second win of the year to maybe build up a bit of momentum for their canadian road trip, and we concede with 52 seconds left on the clock! What is going on Ducks!? Maybe we're playing badly so we can get Tavares because we missed out on Crosby by one pick. Hope not though.

And... Getzlaf was scratched for the game, not heard any news of an injury though!?

Come on Ducks! Sort it out!