In honour of Fraserburn's last post, I have started the following thread.


Well we've roughly reached the halfway point in the NHL season
is anything suprising you? are teams where you expected? are players fading into the sunset or on the rise?

aaahh the benefits of moderation.........

Here is one surprise so far this year
martin brodeur looking average at best, he is making strides to get back to his legendary status though with 2 shut outs in a week

Sorry....not trying to steal your thunder. I was just trying to keep some organized thoughts in this forum by starting a few new posts.


I like the Brodeur reference. I was a little shocked, but one of his strengths is playing the puck wherever he wants. He can't do that anymore. That coupled with the loss of two of his best defencemen has really set him back.

Let's see...what else? Well St. Louis residing at the bottom of the league standings kind of blows my mind. I thought that they might be average at best. The same could be said for Pittsburg. They spent a lot of dough in the offseason and made some prettyt bold moves...all of which have translated to absolute shit.

Carolina is a bit of a suprise (for me, at least). Staal has been a beast and their goaltending has been a pleasant suprise.

The Rangers have also been a suprise. Jagr is actually playing like he deserves his money and the rookie they have in goal (not gonna try and spell his name) has been spectacular.

One team that hasn't really suprised me is Colorado. Their golatending woes have translated to quite an average season.

Another team that hasn't suprised me is The Senators. Everyone is really in awe of their success. I don't think anyone is suprised, but they certainly are impressed. I, however, will never give this team any credit until they win in the postseason.

More non-suprises include Tampa Bay's slow start, Vancouver's goalie troubles, LA's cool off, and Barry's Melrose sucking Philly's dicks again. That guy has a serious problem.

In keeping with my theme of Bon Jovi quotes this week...

Oh, we're halfway there.

Oh-oh, livin' on a prayer.

---------

Sorry, please continue.

L U N D Q V I S T, H E N R I CK

LA actually does surprise me i didnt think they had the team to be in first in their division, until you look at who's in their division

Dallas started out rough but got back on track,

SJ was brutal until the thornton trade, got hot and got brutal again

Anaheim is being systematically torn down and rebuilt by brian burke

Phoenix - dont even get me started

and alot of the congratulations for the first half of LA's season belongs to their goalie Mathieu Garon and his back up Jason Labarbarra

out on the Northwest Vancouver's goalie troubles have been going on for as long as i can remember and they have come to the forfront constantly ever since cloutier went there. You could probably argue that the Canucks would have a cup or 2 if they had a goalie like cujo, theodore, or another good goalie thats not exactly top tier(luongo, brodeur, hasek)
they had amazing offense the last 3 years before the lockout


Edmonton was made for the new NHL
they've been operating under a cap for years

St Louis demise was well known to be coming
its like being at the bottom of the hill and watching an avalanche
you can see and hear it coming but it seems to take forever getting down

Pitt spent alot of money on a lot of crap
high priced players in the twilight of their careers
lets get the goalie from chicago he played great last year when the blackhawks sucked.........smart move patrick/lemieux thibault couldnt even win the starting job from mike leighton, and craig anderson or whoever the hell

I am also surpised Toronto is in a playoff spot I had them pegged to be about 9th MAAAAYbe 8th by this time of the year
we'll see where they go now that mccabe has a groin injury..........keep eddie out of the blow they might be able to hold their spot down the stretch[/quote]

As far as surprising goes, when was the last time that a team in any sport waived their captain mid season?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2286789


Lightning place captain Andreychuk on waivers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services

The Lightning parted ways with captain Dave Andreychuk on Tuesday, placing the 42-year-old on waivers.

If Andreychuk isn't claimed, he will the 23-year NHL veteran be assigned to the Springfield Falcons of the AHL, but the Lightning said they won't require him to report.

If Andreychuk retired, the Lightning wouldn't be required to pay his 2005-06 salary, but by placing him on waivers, the team can pay his full salary, which is reported at $800,000.

"When we entered into the contract with David this summer, both sides did so in good faith, recognizing that no one would work harder in the summer preparing for the new season than David," Lightning Executive Vice President and General Manager Jay Feaster said in a statement.

"At the same time, both sides understood that it would take some time to work through the impact of missing an entire season. What neither side could foresee was the type of game the 'new NHL' would be upon its return -- a game in which speed and quickness carry the day. After giving ourselves half a season to evaluate and analyze, it became clear to us that David's game was not suited to the 'new NHL.'"

Andreychuk has appeared in 42 of the Lightning's 43 games this season, scoring six goals with 12 assists. He has appeared in 1,639 games (fourth most in NHL history) in his career and is the NHLs all-time leader in power play goals with 274.

The Lightning signed Andreychuk as a free agent in 2001, and he was named the seventh captain in team history in 2002.

Andreychuk became the 14th player in league history to record 600 goals on Nov. 23, 2002.

Brian Burke might just be a mad genius. He is dumping salary like crazy That Federov trade was sheer brilliance. They should be poised to make some serious moves as early as THIS season...although they'll probably wait until next.

I'm also glad you mentioned Edmonton. I love this team and the mad rivalry they have had with Dallas and Colorodo over the past few seasons. Young cheap speed is EXACTLY what the new NHL is about. I hope they continue to flourish.

Vancouver probably has one of the best scoring lines in the league with the Morrison/ Bertuzzi/ Naslund line....and that's what I think kills them. In the post season you need to roll more than one line. They're lucky if they have 2. Not that a top notch goalie would hurt.....

Speaking of Toronto...who would have thought that they would be in such a competitive division? Buffalo? Where the hell did they come from? I watched Ryan Miller play in college (go Spartys), but I didn't think he would be doing so well...or would even be starting at this point. Does anyone else smell that Biron trade happening?

More competitive divisions reside in the West. The Northwest and Pacific divisions are way too tight for this time of year. Out of all 10 teams, 0 of them have a losing record. Wow. That also means that Phoenix isn't doing so bad.

What's the knock on Phoenix anyways? I think they're doing OK considering that they have a new coach who has only been there half of the time. You also have to take into consideration their slow assed start.