Ray77

One thing to think about with this - you have to get this talent and retain this talent. It does them no good if they draft high draft picks, let them develop, mature and prove themselves for a few years in the NHL during their entry-level contracts, and then bolt to another team. I have no idea what these guys' contract statuses are - but I'm just sayin'. Not a lot of guys are going to want to stick it out on crappy teams. If they're good enough, break into the league and prove themselves they'll want to go to another team eventually. So it's up to the GM's to put together that talent and build something there before these guys bolt. Then they have to pay to keep them.

I know this is a longshot, but...if anyone has any connections to Stanley Cup Finals tickets for games 3 or 4 in Boston (Monday, June 6th or Wednesday, June 8th) can you please let me know? I'd be interested in buying them. Thanks!

I know this is a longshot, but...if anyone has any connections to tickets for the Stanley Cup Finals games in Boston (Monday, June 6th or Wednesay, June 8th) can you please PM me? Thanks!

Bad goal for SJ to lose on. A couple things that went against them: 1. The icing at the end of the 3rd was not an icing. The SJ player shot the puck out of the zone and it actually went off of Sedin's shoulder. Game should have been over and both teams should be heading back to SJ for Game 6. 2. Horrible bounce off the stanchion on the glass, or someones stick, or whatever that went off of! The puck came right to Bieksa while everyone else was looking for it in the netting above, and he even got a weak shot off, but it found the back of the net. That being said, Vancouver was the better team and deserves to move on. Now I'm hoping and praying the Bruins can close it out tonight.

Whoa...I just glanced at the clock and it's 11:30. Getting late and I'm tired. Spent the night filling out a few mail-in SWEEPstakes that were lying around. Then decided the house was messy, so had to SWEEP the kitchen, then I figured I might as well clean out the garage so just got in from SWEEPing the garage floor. How'd the hockey games turn out?

I'm not quite sure that I get (or agree with) the Boudreau hating. He was hired mid-year in the 2007-08 season and when he took over the Caps were 30th in the league. They ended up winning the Southeast division and he also ends up winning the Jack Adams that year. He's since coached 3 full seasons and each of those seasons they end up 1st in their division. I get that it's a results driven profession and at some point you have to pick it up in the playoffs, but good lord - the guy goes from being the coach of the year to the chopping block in 3 years, when each year they took 1st in their division? How about putting some of this on the players? Boudreau should not be fired.

Yes...I won't feel good until this series is over with. I sure hope history doesn't repeat itself. However, I'd say this year's team has a different look and feel to it than last year, and Tim Thomas has been the best goalie in the playoffs - with all due respect to Pekka Rinne and Dwayne Roloson.

The Bruins are 1 game away from being able to erase DaveK's signature line!

I must say....last night's Bruins game was BEEEEAAAAAUTIFUL! The Flyers could have and probably should have won that one. I think goaltending is putting Boston over the edge in this series. Going back to Boston up 2-0 has me feeling good, but not "safe". I remember last year all too well - and just looking back to the Boston/Montreal series this year shows you what a 2-0 series lead can buy you.

I see Chrissy Pronger was up to his usual antics. About 10 mins into the game Paille almost beats him to the puck to negate an icing call (and he actually may have beaten him) and Chrissy throws a fit and hacks Paille. Each player got a 2 minute penalty, but I'm still wondering what Paille got his matching minor for. If anyone out there who's smarter than me can tell me why Paille got a penalty for this play, I'd be grateful. Chris Pronger Slashes Daniel Paille

Well, Vanek does play for Buffalo. Maybe he's rubbing off on his teammates. I would just hope that Stafford would step up and not allow that crap to infect their locker room!

Ahhh, that could very well be. However, I'm too lazy to go out to ESPN or another website and try match up their schedules or find the reason behind this.

Yeah, for some reason this series has been a bit weird - twice there has been 2 days off between games.

Did you also see the OT chance they had on the PP? Toews with all the patience in the world, waits out the defender, stickhandles between the D and the net, passes it to Sharp on the far side of the crease and somehow Luongo slid across to make the save. I thought for sure the game was over there. I think I'm a jinx as well - I'm in the same boat as you (except the Lakers - I could care less about basketball). All of the teams I wanted to win lost. Good thing, as you mentioned, is that last night all the home teams won - the Bruins are at home tonight!

Did you just insinuate that Jim is trolling on his own site?

NHL to remain with NBC, Versus

This can't be a serious comment. Now you're telling people who they do and don't know?! Please stop while you're ahead way behind.

First of all, I didn't reply directly to you. I quickly read through this thread to get a feel on how the masses were feeling after the loss, and predictably I found the typical horseshit posts that I would have expected. Believe me, I'm as pissed off as the next guy...I can't even tell you how this game made me feel. But none of that has to do with Hakstol and how he got "outcoached" or whatever you armchair quarterbacks want to call it. And to say Hakstol will be let go...what a joke. I expect a national title just like the rest of you on this board, but nothing that happened tonight was on Hakstol.

In reading through this, I've seen a few people talk about being outcoached, ripping on Hak, etc. Please tell me, you F'ing geniouses...what could he have done differenty? In my opinion, the Sioux badly outplayed Michigan, just didn't put a point on the board. They were sloppy at times, but overall the Sioux controlled the game. I can already see the Hakstol bashing - and it's complete bull$%!#.

Speaking of Chorney (and maybe this should go in the Fomer Player thread, but your post reminded me of it)...there's a documentary on NHL Network that's on every so often called "Oil Change". It's a behind the scenes look at the Oiler organization throughout the year, and it has been very interesting to watch. Chorney has gotten some time on there lately - they showed some footage of their AHL club and talked about guys getting called up, etc. I'd reccomend watching it if you get a chance.

JD Hoyt's and Monte Carlo (both in Minneapolis) are good too. A bit on the spendy/fancy side, though.

This isn't good to see. Hopefully there's a good reason for this. T.J Oshie a no-show for practice

You may want to take a step back and read what you posted. "14 to 17 games for a hit that warrants about 5 games is excessive". You ever stop to think why Cooke got 14 - 17 games, if it's a hit that for someone else may warrant a 5 game suspension? I'll give you a hint...it's because he's "earned" it. Now can we put a rest to all the "Matt Cooke is just a hard-nosed player" talk that we continually hear from you?