Vanflyer

So, you are suggesting a total re-build?? Kimmo and Briere are both stalwarts to the leadership group. What are draft picks going to do to help this team? Don't we have enough young kids?

I hate to say it, but he is 100% correct. We are not losing because of 5-on-5. We are losing because of our abysmal PP / PK. The irony is that last year he never said "we better get our goalie straightened out because our PK / PP and 5-on-5 are firing on all cylinders".

I get that, but it was so borderline that it is a joke the league suspended him for one game. Who sent the file in?? I know the NHL does not sit there and say "lets look at all the marginal hits last night and make a marginal call on it". If so, the league is a joke. IF they do a retrospective review every day, the fact that Kronwall has not once been suspended is an utter joke. Shannahan should turn his cojones over now. At least we knew Cambell was prejudice.

Okay- so somebody told somebody about something that told somebody else, yada, yada, yada. Is that what you are saying? Or are you specifically opining that Murrays style is not the same as Lavi's (which would be accurate). What I want from my AHL coach (and particularly one that is tenured in the NHL), is to teach the kids the fundamentals of sound defense. If a player has any hope to God of playing in the NHL, they have to learn pro defence first. I think Murray brings that quality and is a good teacher of kids. Or maybe you are saying Lavi is a lousy coach?? Playing against some of the best young NHL players is not necessarily saying they were playing against the Hansons. While I am not a stepford, I think the problems are correctable somewhat: 1) The D has not been as bad as I thought it would be. 2) The G has not been as bad as I thought it would be. 3) The PP / PK has not been anywhere near as good as I thought it would be. 4) The 5-on-5 play has been average at best. I will attribute some of that to personnel changes / injuries. I think if 1 and 2 continue to hold true and 3 can be rectified, we will be in the hunt.

The thing that irks me is that there was no on-ice call. The second thing that irks me is that Kronwall does this (but in a much dirtier fashion) on almost all of his nasty hits. Why is there not any retro-review / suspension on him??

While the execution has not been where I would expect it, the coaching has not been great either. Lavy is the head coach, but I look particularly to special teams (joey Muellen and craig berube). Wtf is going on with the PP and PK. Those are the places where we are losing games.

your completely lost me. So you are saying it is all conjecture and opinion on your part? You mention last season when Coots was doing fine and Murray was not even here. I am totally lost on your thread of thought here. How you can connect last-season to this season and point fingers at Murray is beyond me. Coots was the best player on the Phantom team (followed by B. Schenn). If I am to read you post correctly, that was in despite of murrays coaching abilities (or inabilities according to you). ?? P.S. My head can swivel- why do you ask?

certainly not from me. I mean we might as well say roo is not all that good at this point as well. Your post is dead on. The reality is that not signing Jagr does hurt. Not having Briere to start the season hurts. Having Hartnell DOWN does hurt. Underestimating Carle hurts. At the end of the day, the players still have to play. It is not the end of the world. Shockingly, the one guy that we guessed to be our worse players has been perhaps our best.

Have to call bs on this. So, you think the hacks that were coaching adirondack before murray were good? Your name must be Primeaue

The rules are this: "NHL goalie masks only. Goalie masks do not need to have been worn." I do think Miller actually wore it in practice for Team USA, but since it was not an NHL goalie mask, I think the mask is defunct from the competition. That said, it was a good quiz. My opinion is Bert- if the rules I stated were correct should be the next one to post again.

The KID was one of the best two way forwards in Juniors AND perhaps Calder worthy last year. You think Murray eff'd him up? I think not. The KID is an extremely smart AND skilled hockey player. Don't blow up his head because of this poor start (nor B. Schenn or L Schenn). The only fingers to point are at Joey Muellen and Craig Berube. Both are respectively responsible for PP and PK. This team will be fine if it can figure out one or both of those things.

Ha ha. I am going to eat some halibut fish sticks with tomato sauce now. Thanks!!!

What kind of skates were you skating with before?? Different brands have different blades. In addition to pods suggestion, I would also go along the boards, hold the wall and take the skate and try and slowly make ice shavings. This will show you were the sweet spot (or rocker) point is on the skate. When you have found that spot, go into the corner and just using about 5-6 feet at a very moderate pace, try and find that sweet spot for stopping. Practice both feet. The other thing I have seen that will cause skipping is one of two additional things (and sometimes a combination of both): 1) You are catching your outside edge a bit when trying to stop (instead of your inside edge). 2) The bevel (the depth of the cut) was not set correctly. In the end, if you really want to figure it out, seek out one of the university / junior / semi-pro there in NM (I believe they have all three). Use the web and see if you can find contact names for practice schedule or even e-mail address for any of the staff (preferably a coach or a trainer). Make contact with them and tell them you are interested in finding a well qualified hockey skating coach for a session or two. Not knowing what your finances $50 for a session is pretty reasonable and as long as the coach is indeed qualified, will pay off in spades. Everybody skates different- especially when learning. Some are too far over their toes, some too far back on their heals. This can be corrected two ways: one by appropriate skating drills to get the balance point corrected and two adjusting the skate curvature (known as rocker point). I would not mess with the rocker point until you have had a chance to speak to an expert skating instructor as changing it prematurely without proper assessment could adversely screw up your skating mechanics. Lastly- if none of that is an option, take the last skates you had where you were able to not have this problem and take both pairs to a trusted pro-shop. Explain your problem and see if they can replicate both the depth of cut (bevel) and the rocker from your old pair of skates to your new pair. Lastly, for me on sizing, I only go half a size down from my shoe size. I also have wider feet and like shoes you can get wider skate sizes too.

Since you said not to google, I am guessing either Tim Thomas or Ryan Miller for team USA. I would lean toward Tim Thomas just given his position on not to visit the white house for his cup ceremony.

I over-reacted to the article. I just sounded very cavalier to me on Gange's part. I am sure it is like you said. Given that, team doctors are often wrong (look at Crosby, lindros, etc.).

and certainly is better than JVR.

I would not do either one (Schenn or Coots). Laughton + a prospect and a pick. Nothing more. I do not like Subban at all. He is a Benn (prima donna) in my mind.

Hi Howie- The only thing that matters is did you throw your lid on Reads hatty or take a sip of Merlow?

Truthfully, you are best to use your own brain. There are websites that list starting days goalies (which obviously have a significant bearing on odds making). Hockey is a very tough sport to bet on (because many odds makers use goals for odds on over / under). Even that withstanding, you really need to know hockey to have any success to bet on it. With the parity in the league now, it is very hard. When a team like Columbus comes along, the lines are so far out of reach that the risk / reward is not worth it.

I get that sort of. But I don't think its the Dineens / Poulins / Lindros / Preems / Prongers of the world that particularly make that occur. It can't be one guy that gets the engine going.

Interesting to see with Kopitar out thus far, Mike and frosty aren't doing squat. What is the deal with LA and scoring goals in the regular season. 3 games and only 4 goals forced (while giving up 10).

cool-thanks. So it looks like Bobs .600 sv percentage is about fair to mid-land. Quck played an astonishing 14 shootouts last year (14 goals on 47 shots). He went 6-8. Mike Smith and Luongo numbers very similar. Varlamov was the best (undefeated at 8-0 while stopping 22 of 24 shots). It is interesting to look at that because Lundqvist numbers are very similar to Bobs (sv pctg wise), yet he is the Vezina winner. In the end, the shoot-out is a gimmick. If you don't have the studs that can shoot, it does not matter how good your goalie is.

But when and why?? For example, I watched the teams of the early 90's (pre-lindros and even Lindros first year), consistently play 60 minutes of hockey. But they were not good teams (mostly skill wise and not so much to do with cohesiveness). I could pick some of the teams from the late 70's and 80's the same could be said.

I had to actually go look it up. In three years, Sergie has played in 10 shot outs. Posting a 3-7 record while 21 out of 35 shots (a .600 sv percentage). So, it certainly looks like your comment has steam. There is one question I would ask and a comment: 1) What is the norm / elite level (save percentage wise) for a goalie in shoot-outs? My observation is that the Flyers forwards have been absolutely wretched in shootouts. So, while you can not defend the goals allowed, I also think you can not hang the 3-7 record on Bobs shoulders soley either. Cheers

Going to a strip club with you wife can be allot of fun. I mean after all, you get all randy at a strip club- might as well have a happy ending. If the girls were towel girls in the rest room at the hockey game, would it be better (I mean at least you would not be distracted)? Joking of course.