The Official MERB 2011-2012 NHL Hockey Thread

[Doc Holliday]

Top 5 players available for trade

The countdown to the Feb. 27 trade deadline has begun. The list of top players available at the deadline is going to be fluid, but here's a look at five guys who present some of the most interesting situations for their teams.

1. Zach Parise, New Jersey Devils. The Devils are a bubble team and Parise shapes up as potentially the most in-demand free agent this summer. Hang onto him and risk losing him for nothing or keep him around for the playoff push? Hard to see the Devils parting with him, but it's a tough call.

2. Ryan Suter, Nashville Predators. Another potential UFA, he has said he's not interested in signing before the deadline. He wants to see what the Preds do in terms of adding to their team. Can a budget team like the Preds afford to lose him for nothing? Do they wind up using him to make that addition? Is that irony?

3. Teemu Selanne, Anaheim Ducks. The Flying Finn probably doesn't want to go anywhere, but with his experience and enduring scoring touch (47 points in 50 games this year) he would be a great addition for a contending team.

4. Cory Schneider, Vancouver Canucks. He is going to be a restricted free agent in the summer, so the Canucks still have a little leverage, but he has shown he can be a No. 1 and will want that chance. Thing is, can the Canucks afford to move him with the way he's playing and Roberto Luongo's spotty playoff performances?

5. Ryan Smyth, Edmonton Oilers. It normally would be a no-brainer to move a veteran UFA on a rebuilding team, but Smyth is a guy with an emotional attachment to the City of Champions (remember when he left for the New York Islanders in 2007, a move brought to you by Kleenex?) The New York Rangers have interest.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2012/02/04/19338146.html

 

[Doc Holliday]

Travis Moen drawing interest

While the Canadiens make it policy not to discuss trade rumors, there’s growing interest in versatile winger Travis Moen. Most of the interest seems to be coming from Western Conference teams with the San Jose Sharks among the front-runners for Moen’s services.

The Canadiens are in a position to start selling players in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline at the end of the month, but any talks involving Moen will have to wait until he can show prospective buyers that he is healthy. Moen suffered an upper-body injury in the Toronto game on Jan. 21. He has resumed light skating, but Canadiens coach Randy Cunneyworth said he will be out for at least another week.

Moen was having a career season offensively before he was injured with nine goals and seven assists but it’s his work ethic which has attracted attention from other teams. He plays at both ends of the ice and is a key element in one of the best penalty-killing units in the NHL. He was part of Anaheim’s Stanley Cup win in 2007. That year, he had seven goals in 21 playoff games, including the game-winner in the deciding game of the Cup final.

The Canadiens have been happy with Moen but he’s eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and he’s not a priority because (a) they don’t think they can fit him under the cap and (b) they want to give more ice time to some of their younger players.

The Canadiens would like to find a taker for Scott Gomez, who failed to score in a 3-0 loss to Washington on Saturday. Gomez hasn’t scored a goal since Feb. 5, 2011, when he scored against the New York Rangers. That fact wasn’t lost on the matinee crowd at the Bell Centre on Saturday. The afternoon games during Super Bowl weekend tend to draw a large number of youngsters and they are more forgiving when the Canadiens struggle. There were lots of oohs and aahs and there were cheers of encouragement each time Gomez touched the puck. He had two shots on goal and had another shot blocked.

The loss was the third in a row for the Canadiens, and they fell 11 points behind Washington, which is in ninth place.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Montreal/2012/02/05/19340746.html

 

[lgna69xxx]

Again, Thank You bruins!

Bruins over the Cap's. Thomas played well, goals by Lucic, Marchand and Seguin. Strong showing by the Black and Gold.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Henrik Sedin gets ankle scanned

Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin missed practice and underwent an X-ray and a CT scan Wednesday after injuring his right ankle in a 4-3 win over Nashville on Tuesday night.

A team official told ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun that the team expects to know the results of the scan by Thursday morning.

"They did an X-ray on Hank and they couldn't tell on the X-ray and he was just obviously in a lot of pain, so we're doing a follow up right now," Vancouver couch Alain Vigneault said on the team's official website.

If he can't play, Sedin would see his 552-game consecutive games streak end when the Canucks play the Wild on Thursday night. Sedin's streak is the second-longest active NHL streak behind the Flames' Jay Bouwmeester, who has played in 559 straight games.

Vigneault said he's hopeful Sedin will be able to play in Thursday's game.

Sedin briefly left Tuesday's game after blocking Nashville defenseman Kevin Klein's slap shot with his foot.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7...ver-canucks-skips-practice-gets-ct-scan-ankle

 

[Doc Holliday]

Bruins got schooled last night, 6-0 by Buffalo.

Did they ever! As i mentionned last week, Carolina has shown to the rest of the NHL how to beat the Bruins.

 

[evillethings]

Bruins falling to Miller and the Sabers was a huge surprise. You have to believe Boston is feeling the effects of a long 2010-11 season and a messed up goaltending situation.

 

[evillethings]

I love how the 2013 Winter Classic will be played at Comerica Park between TOR and DET. Great match up! Did you call this one Iggy???

The other venue would've been much better but a ballpark is great too and the rivalry is perfect all around.

 

[Doc Holliday]

It's official: Two historical NHL franchises will face one another in the Winter Classic

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7...wings-vs-toronto-maple-leafs-michigan-stadium

 

[lgna69xxx]

Well, I had heard this a few weeks ago and I said it would be confirmed after the allstar break. It is at the "Big House" not Comerica Park, although there will be plenty of games at a second rink @ Comerica but the BIG GAME will be held at the BIG HOUSE in front of a world record of over 115,000 crazed Leafs and Wings fans including yours truly if all goes well. Maybe JCairo and myself will even talk Hockey over a few cold ones. :thumb:

I love how the 2013 Winter Classic will be played at Comerica Park between TOR and DET. Great match up! Did you call this one Iggy???

The other venue would've been much better but a ballpark is great too and the rivalry is perfect all around.

 

[lgna69xxx]

And it is nice to see that 2 of the NHL's best GM's are leading the way.

It's official: Two historical NHL franchises will face one another in the Winter Classic

 

[Lovemaker]

Ken Holland became GM for the Detroit Red Wings in 1997. Since then Detroit has won 4 Stanley Cups, absolutely amazing.

Under his leadership as GM, the Red Wings have won the Central Division eight times and the Presidents' Trophy four times, imagine that!

And to top it off, since he became GM in 1997 the Red Wings have won more games than any other team in the league; 493 regular season wins and 67 post-season wins!

Not much can be said about Burke.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Not much can be said about Burke.

Not so, LM. A lot can be said about Burke, very little of it good. He took a team that netted 83 points and in less than 4 years has turned them into a team that is likely to score 88 points and might even make the playoffs. And, if they don't make the playoffs this year, they'll likely make them within the next 10-20 years.

 

[Lovemaker]

^ Hilarious, love the way u word it!:thumb:

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

^ Hilarious, love the way u word it!:thumb:

Oh, my god. I just realized that someone referred to Burke as one of the NHL's best GMs. Boy, the NHL must have 28 lousy GMs.

 

[Lovemaker]

lollllllllllllllllllllllll!:lol: That's what I was thinking!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Not to blow your bubble, boyz....but Burkie did win a Cup once. How many did Gauthier win? lol

 

[Doc Holliday]

And it is nice to see that 2 of the NHL's best GM's are leading the way.

I totally agree with you, Iggy. Burke & Holland are definitely the two best GM's in the game today.

Your hockey knowledge & insight always astounds me. I'll admit that other than yourself & yours truly, the only person on this board who participates in the hockey threads that knows anything about hockey is none other than Mr. Joel Cairo. Love him or hate him, you can't deny that he does know his hockey. The others? Pffffft!!! lol

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Not to blow your bubble, boyz....but Burkie did win a Cup once. How many did Gauthier win? lol

Yeah, with a team that his predecessor built.

 

[Lovemaker]

Your hockey knowledge & insight always astounds me. I'll admit that other than yourself & yours truly, the only person on this board who participates in the hockey threads that knows anything about hockey is none other than Mr. Joel Cairo. Love him or hate him, you can't deny that he does know his hockey. The others? Pffffft!!! lol

Everyone here is talking about hockey. We were comparing Burke to Ken Holland. And here you are, once again, going off on a tangent and insulting members by telling them that they do not know anything about hockey. This is becoming played out now. Stick to the facts, you're always trying to make things personal, understood?

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

In Chiarelli's first year as GM of the Boston Bruins, the team finished with 76 points. In his second, they tallied 94. In the three since, 116, 91, 103. Their post-season performance improved in years 2, 4 and in year 5 they won the Stanley Cup. (For those Leafs fans who may not know or remember what the Stanley Cup/Coupe Stanley is, it's a large trophy given to the team that win's the NHL Championship.) They are on pace for 107 points this season.

In Burke's first year, the Leafs tallied 81 points. Where Chiarelli's team tacked on 18 points in his second season, Burke's backtracked to 74. In his third, they netted 85 points, exactly 2 more than the year before he took the helm. In three years in charge of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Burke's charges improved not a whit. They sucked before he took over, they sucked equally in his third season at the helm. This season they are on pace to squeak into the playoffs with 92 points. Four years and only an 11 point improvement.

By what stretch of the imagination can anyone who claims to know anything about hockey call this man a good GM? Certainly not from the success his teams have achieved, because they haven't achieved anything. You can say anything you want, Doc, as long as you realize that you're fighting the facts.