EHM The Blue Line

A message from the TBL Moderating Team:

Owing to the enormous popularity of last year's NHL Regular Season Thread, we have decided to split the discussion for this season into three threads. We hope that by doing this we will be able to encourage greater discussion and build upon the popularity of last season's discussion. We're going to give it a trial run - if things work fine then we'll stick with it. If they don't then we'll merge it all back into one thread.


Here is how it is going to work:


1) Official 10-11 NHL Eastern Conference Regular Season Thread - Use this thread to discuss anything relating to Eastern Conference Teams.

2) Official 10-11 NHL Western Conference Regular Season Thread - Use this thread to discuss anything relating to Western Conference Teams.

3) Official 10-11 NHL League-Wide Regular Season Thread (this thread) - Use this thread to discuss anything that relates to the NHL in general. In other words, it's not specific to any particular team/conference/division.


The general idea is that the majority of discussion will take place in the Eastern and Western discussion threads. In most cases, discussion will fall within one or the other. For example, if you want to post something about the Buffalo Sabres then post it in the Eastern discussion thread.

We're not going to be strict in policing within which thread a user chooses to post. For example, if you want to discuss a game involving both a Western and an Eastern team (e.g. LA Kings v New York Rangers) then you may put it in either the Western or Eastern thread - just use your best judgement. Also, we don't mind if there's duplication of discussion between the two threads.

The NHL League-Wide Thread is more of a general thread to discuss league-wide issues and topics. Things like a particular game/team/player wouldn't fall within this thread.



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Original message by Batdad:


Anyone want Corey Schneider? Boy did he get ventilated by a bunch of Oiler stiffs last night. But...Bieksa, Ballard, O'Brien, Rome did not exactly look like NHLers. Oh and Mikhael Samuelsson was -5. Ugh.

Anyway prediction time for me:

1. Maple Laffs sign Brendan Morrison, who after a great camp in Vancouver goes in the tank and scores 20 points. BTW--Jody Shelley gets 21.

2. Antti Niemi absolutely stones everyone during the regular season, but somewhere during the summer he picked up Shark disease--and allows 19 goals in 4 games in the first round of the playoffs and the Sharks get knocked out by the 7th place Western Conference finisher===Calgary Flames. Of those 19 goals, Olli Jokkinen scores exactly 0. Meanwhile, Jody Shelley scored 2 goals in the Flyers first round. He actually gets some PP time, replacing James Van Riemsdyk.

3. Dustin Byfuglien leads the Atlanta Thrashers in Goals, Plus Minus and Alcohol intake. Not to hard to do on a team like that. Shelley had more goals with 10.

4. Brett Favre (of course--what else can you write in 4...Favrety favre?) Is that Shelley's number?

5. In January Alex Tanguay gets traded...to Philadelphia. Where he plays on the 2nd line with Jody Shelley. In return the Flames get .... nothing.

6. The Canucks whine and complain about how they had 10 NHL Defencemen signed to contracts, yet can only ice 5 healthy ones from January on. Oh...and Sami Salo is one of the healthy ones. Oh-oh. Gillis inquires about Jody Shelley saying he is a perfect match for the Sedins.

7. Edmonton trades disgruntled centre Shawn Horcoff to Toronto for Toronto's 1st round pick in 2012 and first round pick in 2013. Brian Burke says Horcoff will be the bestest player evah.

8. Leafs make playoffs.---um yeah right

9. Milan Lucic kicks the living daylights out of Jody Shelley in the first Flyer-Bruins game. However, Lucic i slost to the Bruins with 8 broken knuckles and a twisted elbow. Shelley, scores a Gordie Howe hatrick leading the Flyers to a 2-0 win.

10. Phoenix Coyotes training camp tryout Kyle Wellwood gets caught up in a drug sting. But...he was not really involved. Just never left Burger King.

11. Conference Standings

East

1. Washington
2. Pittsburgh
3. Buffalo
4. Philadelphia
5. New Jersey
6. Tampa Bay
7 Boston
8. Carolina
-----------

9. Ottawa
10. Montreal
11. Atlanta
12. NY Rangers
13. NY Islanders
14. Florida
15. Atlanta


West

1. Vancouver
2. San Jose
3. Detroit
4. Chicago
5. Los Angeles
6. St Louis
7. Calgary
8.Anaheim
_____

9. Phoenix
10. Colorado
11. Nashville
12. Dallas
13. Edmonton
14. Minnesota
15. Columbus

batdad wrote:
East

1. Washington
2. Pittsburgh
3. Buffalo
4. Philadelphia
5. New Jersey
6. Tampa Bay
7 Boston
8. Carolina
-----------

9. Ottawa
10. Montreal
11. Atlanta
12. NY Rangers
13. NY Islanders
14. Florida
15. Atlanta

I just noticed that you listed Atlanta twice and didn't list Toronto. Which one are you picking at 11 and which at 15?

Dude...almost everything had a Shelley prediction. Too much fun for Stinson. And I put in the LOOOCH just cause you know I loves him. But he gotta stop gettin hurt. Who was it he went with the other night? Oh yeah, Tristan Grant one of his best buds from the Giants days.

batdad wrote: 11. Conference Standings

East

1. Washington
2. Pittsburgh
3. Buffalo
4. Philadelphia
5. New Jersey
6. Tampa Bay
7 Boston
8. Carolina
-----------

9. Ottawa
10. Montreal
11. Atlanta
12. NY Rangers
13. NY Islanders
14. Florida
15. Atlanta


West

1. Vancouver
2. San Jose
3. Detroit
4. Chicago
5. Los Angeles
6. St Louis
7. Calgary
8.Anaheim
_____

9. Phoenix
10. Colorado
11. Nashville
12. Dallas
13. Edmonton
14. Minnesota
15. Columbus

>Wild 14th
This list is invalid.

I think the Wild can pretty much finish this far. The west will be strong ( as always ) this year in my opinion. For me I would've put PHO and the AVS in the playoffs though. I don't see Anaheim and Calgary making it or even St-Louis.

In the east you've been generous with the Habs. With the Price is right badass camp so far.....ugh! Even me I was like come on give him a chance but after those two games I highly doubt it.....we'll see this later in the evening.

Batdad, you left the Maple Leafs out on purpose, didn't you?


Well, I would like to make some predicions too:

East

1. Washington
2. Philadelphia
3. New Jersey
4. Pittsburgh
5. NY Rangers
6. Boston
7. Ottawa
8. Tampa Bay
-----------
9. Carolina
10. Montreal
11. Toronto
12. Buffalo
13. NY Islanders
14. Atlanta
15. Florida

Florida is a shame. Atlanta got a hockey team? NY got too many teams. Buffalo's defense is the worst in the league. Toronto's offense is the worst on earth. Montreal got many fans but no goalie. Carolina got many good players but no fans. Marty St.Louis is one of my favourite players. Gonchar+Kovalev=magic. Boston to finals. Batdad loves his Rangers. Malkin will steal Crosby's show this year. Kovalschuks' last season in Jersey. Philly will be tired when it matters most. The beautiful President's Trophy goes to ... Washigton. Ovechkin will never win a Stanley.


West

1. San Jose
2. Detroit
3. Vancouver
4. Chicago
5. Los Angeles
6. Colorado
7. Anaheim
8. Nashville
---------
9. Phoenix
10. St Louis
11. Calgary
12. Dallas
13. Edmonton
14. Minnesota
15. Columbus

Columbus is just bad. Minnessota is getting worse every year. Edmonton too young and a weak defense. Identity crisis in Dallas. Calgary should have won it all a couple years ago. St. Louis and Phoenix are boring. Nashville rocks. Anaheim with Ryan at center. Colorado with self confidence. Doughty's King of LA. Chicago is better than last season. How can you not like the Sedins? Youth movement in Detroit. This is finally San Jose's year.

ATLANTIC
2. Philadelphia
4. Pittsburgh
7. New Jersey
8. NY Rangers
14. NY Islanders

NORTHEAST
3. Boston
6. Ottawa
9. Buffalo
10. Toronto
11. Montreal

SOUTHEAST
1. Washington
5. Tampa Bay
12. Atlanta
13. Carolina
15. Florida

CENTRAL
2. Detroit
5. Chicago
8. St. Louis
9. Nashville
14. Columbus

NORTHWEST
1. Vancouver
7. Calgary
10. Edmonton
11. Colorado
13. Minnesota

PACIFIC
3. San Jose
4. Los Angeles
6. Phoenix
12. Anaheim
15. Dallas


President's Trophy: Washington Capitals


Western Conference Playoffs:
1. Vancouver defeats 8. St. Louis
2. Detroit defeats 7. Calgary
6. Phoenix defeats 3. San Jose
5. Chicago defeats 4. Los Angeles

6. Phoenix defeats 1. Vancouver
2. Detroit defeats 5. Chicago

2. Detroit defeats 6. Phoenix

Eastern Conference Finals:
1. Washington defeats 8. NY Rangers
2. Philadelphia defeats 7. New Jersey
3. Boston defeats 6. Ottawa
4. Pittsburgh defeats 5. Tampa Bay

4. Pittsburgh defeats 1. Washington
2. Philadelphia defeats 3. Boston

2. Philadelphia defeats Pittsburgh

Finals:
2. Detroit defeats 2. Philadelphia

Nice trade between the Panthers and the Nucks. :thup

Hordichuk for Peters. It's like 1 dollar for four quarters.

So Wisniewsky got a 2 games suspension to tell to Avery who he really is and Hjalmarsson got 2 games too for injured someone from behind. Good job NHL.


I know we're just in the beginning of the season but there not alot of people posting in the three threads. All the "regular" posters vanished except for me, B's, Archi and maybe Batdad, where's everyone!!!!

Anyway, to split the season by three threads let me posts three times more than usual.

Kirk Maltby retires and is now scout of Red Wings. He had a nice career

I really only have time to watch the Bruins (and don't really have the time to catch all of those games), so I've got no hockey to talk about until the weekend. They gave the Bruins the week off to shake off the jet lag from their trip to Europe.

And sometimes you don't even know they're playing

Danny wrote:And sometimes you don't even know they're playing

Sad but true. I need a calendar with all of the Bruins game in it. I've seen a few nice computer desktop wallpapers on hfboards but I've got a picture of my kids as my wallpaper. I've heard that there is a way to upload the Bruins schedule to Outlook and then to have it sync with the calendar on your Blackberry but I only use Outlook at work and it's not synced with my Blackberry. I wish there was a way to just import the schedule into my Blackberry calendar. That would be nice.

Or just check the NHL schedule every morning like I do
That way I'm fully prepared and have the whole day thinking about a way of apologizing to woman for having other plans if necessary

I barely remember to shower every day. I can't be bothered to check a schedule as well! Jeez... you must think I have free time or something!

Yeah kids are great aren't they

Last season I downloaded the Bruins schedule from their official site. I seem to remember it was in Excel format which means it can be fairly easily converted for many different calendar formats. I'm sure there must be a way to convert it to something Blackberry friendly...

Actually here it is: http://bruins.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=38859 The top of this page has links for iCal / Excel / CSV.

Thanks for the link! My Blackberry didn't have an option to import anything to the calendar but it seems to draw from other sources. For me, it's linked to Facebook and my Hotmail account. If I can import that schedule into either of those, I think I'll be in business.

Ah! I might be close to a workable solution. I was looking for import in Hotmail's calendar but didn't find it. That link you provided had an ICS file. I was unfamiliar with it but in Hotmail's calendar it allows you to "subscribe" to a calendar. I've got all of the games showing in my Hotmail calendar now but for some reason I can't get them to show up in my Blackberry calendar.

I want someone to make a trade! There haven't been one of significance in a long time. This darn cap has made trading so much harder

Yeah, it sure has. Every team that can afford players is right up against the cap. If a team has room under the cap it's usually because they can't afford to spend that much. So once the free agency period is over, trading gets very difficult until closer to the trade deadline when player somehow don't cost as much to add (because of pro-rated contracts and such).

We enter a boring period in NHL. There will not be as much trade as in the past. You remember the last deadline we were all here and completely bored, it's just the beginning!

I think it's good for players and their families that they don't have to move across N-A during season.

For example Mike Sillinger, whose career i really respect, but if I have a chance to choose, which player I would want to be, I wouldn't choose him 'cause of his 17-season-career with 12 teams.

That's a good point though Jyp! We, the fans, like when there's trade because it make it more exciting but for the players sometimes it's really hard to been trade. Just thinking about Ryan Symth when he left Edmonton...

Whats everyones opinion on the new allstar system? I think its pretty cool. Just hope its not Bettman's wet dream(team) Ovie-Crosby bs again.