2008/09 NHL Thread

The cap should go down.

I believe we're at the point already where the minimum spending amount is more than the original cap was. What the hell was the point of missing an entire season anyway?

 

Damn you, JC! It was a goal!!!

 

Honestly, that's not the case. The new owners were not nominally in charge at the deadline, but they were pulling the strings on the deals the Bolts made through Davidson and Feaster.

Koules and Barrie pulled the trigger on this.

 

Len Barrie speaks a different tune around these parts.

Anyways do you think the Bolts win the Southeast? I sure as hell hope so as they wii be a must see team. I will be making sure I get to their game in February when they're in Vancouver.

 

Len Barrie's a bit of a snake.

Honestly, I don't know. There's so many new parts like I alluded to on the offseason thread. Only 11 of 20 players remain from last season's opening game.

The Southeast isn't great, but I'd expect Carolina and Washington to be better. Lightning defensemen need to grow up in a hurry. Melrose played more games in the NHL than any of the players he's got to coach.

 

How are the Hitmen looking this year? The Rebels should be better, but then they couldn't be much worse than last year. I think best case scenario for Red Deer is to scrape into the final playoff spot, but to do so they will need some scoring to materialize out of basically nowhere, especially with Bradon Sutter expected to stick with the Canes this year -- at the very least get the nine game look.

 

So the owners can get a cap to protect themselves from themselves. Useful, unless you sign, oh, Wade Redden to a six year, $39 million deal with a no-trade clause.

If the Board of Governors is smart--never a sure thing--Florida relocates to (either) Vegas or Kansas City (thereby keeping alive Gary Bettman's Sun Belt wet dream) and Atlanta relocates to Hamilton or Quebec City.

 

I'm not sure how they look this year but I can't see them ever having a weak year. Kelly Kisio seems to know his stuff. Too bad nobody in the NHL ranks likes him, otherwise he might do a fine job up there.

 

We've got the thread but no predictions so far. Here are my fearless pre-season picks

Western Conference
Northwest Division
1(3) Edmonton Oilers - Division is surprisingly weak this year, but Oilers with young guns and momentum from last season are in as good a shape as any to take division. biggest question mark is between the pipes - can Garon last a full season?
2(8) Calgary Flames - not near enough offence, Defence lacking depth past top pairing and kipper in decline under Keenan. Will be tough out every night and scrape in to post season.
3 Minnesota Wild - Didn't re-sign Demitra and let Rolston walk and didn't replace either. not good for a team that didn't score much to begin with.
4 Vanvoucer Canucks - Begins and ends with Luongo. Will be long season for the Canucks.
5 Colorado Avalanche - will not be the swan song Sakic deserves. Too many holes at every position.

Pacific Division
1(2) San Jose Sharks - This has to be the year they win the cup. right?
2(5) Dallas Stars - Addition of Avery will allow the Stars many stars to shine.
3(6) Phoenix Coyotes - Team on the brink. Tons of young, exciting talent ready to explode. Savvy trade for Jokinen. Biggest weakness is the blue-line where they lost Boynton and Ballard.
4(7) Anaheim Ducks - few teams have tread water like the Ducks. Cap crunch has kept team from making key additions in post season, instead settling to reshuffle the deck to re-work Burke's favourites back into the fold.
5 LA Kings - A season or two away. good young talent, but lacking depth on the blue line and credible goaltending for now.

Central Division
1(1) Detroit Redwings - The best only got better. No holes in line up. Odds on favourite to win it all again.
2(4)Chicago Blackhawks - No team will take a bigger jump in the standings this year. May not challenge Detroit for top spot but should secure the No. 4 seed.
3 St. Louis Blues - It won't be pretty but they will be tough to play. built from the blue line out, they lack any offensive depth.
4 Columbus Blue Jackets - could surpass the Blues, huge offseason makeover, but a lot of project type players on the roster. Will still live and die with Nash. will be in playoff hunt.
5 Nashville Predators - needed to add offence not lose their best pure offensive talent (radulov). WIll struggle on the ice almost as much off it.

Eastern Conference
Northeast Division
1(1) Montreal Canadians - By far the class of the division, maybe the conference.
2(7) Boston Bruins - if they stay healthy they can make some noise.
3 Ottawa Senators - a lot of turn over, but will the new mix gel together?
4 Buffalo Sabres - Vanek will be better, as will some of their other young guns like Stafford and MacArthur, but depth is a problem throughout the line up. Miller needs to bounce back.
5 Toronto - Perhaps the strangest offseason in the league. Some moves made for the sake of making a move (Jamal Mayers sigining???) while a huge reach made in free agency (Finger???). But line up did get the purging it needed. likely in the running for Tavares.

Atlantic Division
1(2) Philadelphia Flyers - should expect bigger things from Brier. Young core and just getting better.
2(4) New York Rangers - Should be much more coehesion with Jagr gone. Gomez should have a bigger year while Naslund will be rejuvinated now that he is out from under Vigneault's suffocating system, wont return to prime, but will be a compitent second liner. Rangers need as much offensive help as they can get.
3(5) Pittsburgh Penguins - just lost far too many key players. will still be dangerous, but won't be near as leathal as they were down the stretch and in the playoffs a season ago.
4(8) New Jersey Devils - Not a huge vote of confidence, but I just cannot count them out completely. Will hang around under the radar but manage to be a factor in the end.
5 Long Island - The best thing about the Islanders this year will be Okoposo's coming out party.

Southeast Division
1(3) Tampa Bay Lightning - Boom or bust, gotta give them credit for the makeover.
2(6) Washington Captials - Young, exciting team lead by Ovechkin. Hard not to like them.
3 Carolina Hurricanes - Injuries are already starting to mount (Brindamour, Williams) and Training camp just opened. Not a good precident. Ward has to find a level of consistency.
4 Florida Panthers - Not sure of team direction, but with stellar goaltending will be in just about every game.
5 Atlanta Thrashers - terrible defence, no scoring after Kovalchuk, Lehtonen has been underwhelming . . . there is a big swedish defenceman I'm sure they would love to take with the first overall pick in the next draft.

Stanley Cup
Red Wings over Flyers in 6

Trophies
Hart - Datsyuk
Vezina - Nabokov
Calder - Turris
Norris - Lidstrom

 

Beef,
Fast out of the gate, aren't you?
As far as the Leafs go--they won't.

BTW, Tavares is NOT a lock to go #1 overall.

As Fly said on the other hockey thread, if it were a choice between Swedish defenceman Viktor Hedman and Tavares, he'd pick Hedman 100 times out of a 100.

Damien Cox also has a column on it today:

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Hockey/article/501304

You can also throw Brampton's Matt Duchene into the mix.

 

Oh I know Taveres is not a lock to go No. 1. I actually had Atlanta taking the Swede first overall (assuming they are bad enough to secure the top pick in the lottery). But if the Leafs are at No. 1 or even No. 2 I have a hard time seeing them pass on Taveres - who I think was mostly bored last year but will be incredibly motivated this year - especially after taking a big defenceman (Luke Schenn) this past draft with a top pick. They desperately need scoring in their system, even if Taveres turns into more of a Sam Gagner instead of a Sidney Crosby, his ofensive potential is in dire need. That is unless Taveres has an Angelo Espositio fall from grace this season and really plateaus.