-
Posts
21,784 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
6
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Gallery
Everything posted by IBatch
-
[Rumour] Dahlin Close to Signing Extension in Buffalo
IBatch replied to Warhippy's topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
QHs, Hronek, Bleugar and Suter training camp official measuring time! -
NHL Hockey Trivia Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Must have been from the 2000's. Who was he going up against, Rafalski? Or Phanuef? Maybe Niedermayer. Only time Lidstrom was a PPG, was at 35, year after the lockout and rule changes, scored 80 in 80. There is a pretty long list of guys who scored at a higher clip over their careers. He's 18th behind Gary Suter. Erik Karlsson is currently 8th. Yes he scored a lot of career points, he also played the 6th most games all-time. Orr is so ahead of everyone else it's not even close, although Coffey did pace him in same games played. Borque wouldn't be a bad pick either, can use him for goals and Orr for 70's. Defensively and physically Robinson >> offensively close. Lidstrom is a lock for Swedish player, unless you need a goalie. Then Lundqvist. But for sure you could make better pairings without rules as well. Borque/Potvin for sure. Robinson, Al Mac, Coffey. Maybe Harvey all worthy of consideration. Lidstrom couldn't win until the old guard retired. Just had Neidermayer and Pronger left. Not really the same. Lidstrom did everything well, but nothing at the highest levels, and hard hitting wasn't part of his game. Potvin could crush you, take the puck and score. Same with Orr and Borque (who was 230 at the latter part of his career, and thick when he started). Borque was better than Lidstrom. 13 first, six second all-star team berths. For 18 of his 22 seasons considered a top 1-4 D against a lot stiffer competition. Never lower than 7th in Norris voting, and those were some bad Boston teams, why he went to COL. Then second in Norris his final season...Potvin, 19 consecutive playoff series forced him into retirement at 34, Bossy followed suit, was also tough on him. Gretzky said Potvin was the scariest player he ever played against. Would never go down his side, was either going to get creamed or stripped of the puck and then they'd go down and score. Nobody feared for their well-being going in against Lidstrom other than getting embarrassed maybe. Konstantinov was scary. Agree THN probably likely said that more than once. Lidstrom was just the best of what was left. Rafalski was second in D scoring in the 2000's. Yikes. Took Lidstrom 504 games, to score 90 more points than Potvin. Potvin scored 310 goals ... 46 more in 504 less games. He was a monster. The best player on one of the greatest teams ever. -
Know your reply is to EP, but since we started this, it's an opinion of quite a few guys who watched those teams. Broduer was absolutely exceptional. A better comp might be Borque than Gretzky though (that's too generous really). Just as steady as ever. But not the GOAT either. Nobody was saying Broduer was the best all-time during his playing days in the 90's. The hockey experts who watched guys like Sawchuk play all the way to Hasek, still had Sawchuk best). It's a pretty common line of thinking that Lemaires system which of course he was a key cog, benefited him which of course it did. Terry Crisp copied it with SJ right away. With Irbe and an aging Makarov, against the best regular season to date (which was nuts considering the MTL teams of the 70's and what they did), fell the mighty Wings and shocked the hockey world. Makarov was that good though, Crips gave up on coaching him, because he'd come up say "Niet no no no - you do it all wrong" take the chalk out of his hand and re-do the board lol. So he just gave him five guys to coach on one side of the ice and let Makarov (34 plus at the time) do his thing. That's how powerful the neutral zone trap was played well. A ragtag group of guys could make it work. NJ didn't have a ragtag crew. Kevin Stevens talked about that team. Said a lot of guys could have padded their individual stats, and that he himself bought into Lemaires game plan, and left a ton of points off the board as a result. He was every bit as talented in the o-zone as Neidermayer, but instead took the harder job of defending to let him roam or strike with planned plays. Looking just at stats is fun. But context matters. Broduer had stiff competition in the 90's but was part of the conversation as the best goalie. So was Belfour. Roy. Hasek also had the best six years in a row any goalie all-time managed during Broduer's best NJ years. Then their were guys like Kolzig, Vernon, Beezer, Richter and Cujo (often in the Vezina conversation).. Then the 2000's. Eventually a guy named Luongo came up, Kipper had a couple great seasons but who else was around to challenge him? Roy won another cup (number 4, two from two teams, 3 conn Smythes), was a first team all-star and vezina runner up and Hart finalist his second to last season...his final season more Hart votes, 4th in Vezina voting. Last two years he posted .925 and .920sp seasons. Was he better goalie at 36,37 than he was when he broke into the league and inspired Broduer plus all the future generations of goalies to use the butterfly? Well that certainly doesn't make much sense. Most goalies SP climbed in the dead puck era. Heck even Vernon almost done in Florida posted what today would put him tops. And he wasn't the best Vernon at all by then. Roy could have played until he was 40 and padded his stats for sure. And his stats doesn't include 4 x 4 OT or shootout wins/losses either. Ties. Lundqvist As an aside Broduer isn't a bad choice either. Gretzky thinks it's Furh. Coco is a pretty great movie about his career. Guy was absolute money, and EDM's style hung him out to dry often. NJ style rarely if ever hung Broduer out to dry. And Broduer was so good with the puck..leagues made some dumb rules, penalizing skill - Broduer, Turco and others that could handle the puck. Broduer wanted to play every single game ... Furh his last great season, was ridden by Keenan like a mule - he also wanted to play every single game. Rare ability. Pet Peeve of mine, is this: They should be put in their own column and deducted from the win column. 400 wins used to be an automatic HHOF career. Except for Cujo. Sawchuk with his shut-out to games played ratio, gets lost, how many would wins would he have instead of ties? Same with Plante, Hall. A lot of guys. Hasek too. MAF, and Lundqvist. Even Luongo who wasn't great at it really. I've pointed this out dozens of times now. Most of us saw and know Lundqvist was a great goalie. But in fairness to guys like Hall, Plante, Bower, Dryden, Espo, Parent, Smith, Furh etc ... He wouldn't have cracked 400 wins if those were instead tie games. Even counting them all as wins, Broduer is 10th all-time in winning percentage. Without that benefit, Roy is 7th. Dryden's is sick almost 75%. Vasilevsky is currently 4th, with that benefit. Plante is 5th. Hasek is 11th. The list would move around not including shoot-out wins. Lundkqvist doesn't make the top 50, with the added benefit. Vernon, Osgood, Furh do.
-
Two Canadian Teams are Favourites to Win Stanley Cup!
IBatch replied to allegend's topic in General Hockey Discussion
I have Dallas/CAR going to final this year. Dallas gave Vegas a run for their money. We're every single bit as good as they were. Florida were outplayed by CAR the entire series, without keys guys. Slavin was just so good it was sick. -
Why didn't you start with that? Seriously though, if it wasn't for Mario, he'd have just kept sweeping the hardware, and did anyways for awhile back and forth. We all know EDM was a better team. Edit: After Nichols was traded, Gretzky played on a line with Tony Granato and Thomas Sandstrom. Still won the Art Ross trophy. And his first season the Hart. Rightly so too. They also beat the Stanley cup champs in the first round that year, no small feat - that team was loaded. Same team that kept beating them the past 3 years. 1989-90. They beat the Oilers the year before, this time they didn't and the Oilers won the cup. Remember that well because I watched most televised games that playoffs. His follow up? Another Art Ross. 163 points. Granato kept scoring (for those that remember him, his points died completely once he wasn't playing with Gretzky). Gretzky's back, neck and shoulder injuries just became too much. 92-93 played about half the games. Was 32. He also won two Hart trophies (and a runner up to Brett Hull) 3 Art Ross with LA. Sure he wasn't as "good", there was another sheriff in town as well in Mario then. Mario however, played with some loaded teams in the early 90's too. And was a lot younger. Gretzky was 28 his first year in LA. Mario had his best season at 27. Food for thought. What's McDavid career points per game going to look like, when he gets to 28-33/34
-
NHL Hockey Trivia Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Lol. I did have a bit of a harder time with this than I thought. My first thought was what goalie am I going to take and why is it only five players? Then screwed it up. Swedish players I considered, Lidstrom, Salming, Forsberg. 70's without Orr would be really hard. You can use Potvin, Gretzky, Borque and Bossy in those ones. Yes I used Mario for only one team. And Yes I didn't like taking Mathews. The other team I considered was this: Gretzky Mario Lidstrom Orr Sheshterkin -
NHL Hockey Trivia Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Nice! -
[Report/Rumour] Elias Pettersson Contract Talks
IBatch replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
Nice thing about the PK, it's a simple math problem. If we go from 70% to 80%, how many less goals does that allow? We allowed 69 last year. You have to also consider how many times we get penalized. MTL allowed the most. We were 5th in the league. Then you also need to factor in SH goals we were second best in the league with 15. Pretty sure that stat is going to drop reducing EP and Millers PP time. So that's a net of 54 GA. What's the midline? 7-8 seems to be the average SH goals and 54 the average goals allowed on a PP. So 54-7 equals 44. Last year we had 69-15 equals 54. It's reasonable to say with an average PK, we should reduce our GA by 10. On average. MTL led the league in goals against on the PK 81, and short handed goals 18. Go figure. An improved PK will help us gain some points. We just added guys who also take more penalties. Won't even get into that. PKers that's get penalized in Cole and Soucy. A simpler way to do this, is just say our PK improved 1/8. 13ish % (70-80%) or so. That means we go from 69 goals allowed, to around 61? So we allow 8 less goals on the year. Get it? The PK is part of the problem, but far from the only one. How many extra points will that get us. Maybe 4 games. But 8 points is for sure a big step in the right direction. -
His last Art Ross, 130, then Robataille 86, then Kurri 77, then Blake 68 then Zhtnik 58, two defenseman in their top five scorers. That was considered, a bad team for the era. They mostly weren't really that good for the era, without Gretzky. Nichols was a very good player. Scored 150 playing with Gretzky, that team had a ton of promise, not sure why they'd trade the guy after doing that. His last Art Ross he was 33. 93-94 which I'm sure anyone around remembers well. Gretzky and Mario traded Ross trophies back and forth for awhile, until it was Jagr's time. Mediocre - isn't slouches. Take Gretzky off those teams. Mediocre is probably nice. Look what happened to a loaded PENs team without Mario. Same thing that happened to EDM when Gretzky was hurt in 86-87. Barely .500. I'd argue the Canucks would have being a better team than LA all but one season without Gretzky, 1.5 actually. Nichols. That WAS their second line center. Foolish. Gretzky's Kings beat EDM their first go at it. But it's said EDM just didn't have the heart to play him, not sure. Could understand that. Messier and McSorely sure didn't mind bringing the heat up though, so don't buy into that too much. That was Gretzky worst full year as a King (his final Art Ross). 92-93 he was injured but brought it playoff time. There were plenty of guys I liked on their rosters. But let's be real, take him away and what did they have, and what would they actually do? All of those full years (by the lockout writing was on the wall for about a year) he was 70 plus points ahead of 2-4th in scoring, accept his injury shortened 92-93 year (went on to lead the playoffs again though). 89-90 was their best roster. They should have kept Nichols. Could have been LA's first cup. And for the record, I really liked a lot of their guys, year to year, but they rarely got it going because they kept changing it up. Gretzky also changed that team the moment he stepped on the ice. Changed hockey in the US actually. Robataille was really the only mainstay, (and McSorely) even Kurri came later. Taylor. Tonelli. Nichols. Hrudey. Huddy. Granato. Blake. Robinson. Never at the same time and rarely the right ages. Long in the tooth or just starting out. Believe LA ownership might have taken a bit on more then they could properly chew, why Nichols was axed, he was on his way to have another awesome season. Blake and Robataille did got on to have HHOF careers. Blake was whom I hoped Jovo would emulate, just not the same though.
-
Nope. Hands down not really. Broduer played behind the greatest defensive teams of his era. He was a great goalie. But not the greatest despite the stats. And it's not the only reason why he doesn't get all of the love from guys who were around for Sawchuk, Plante, Hall play either. In the end he's in the top six. Behind guys like Sawchuk, Roy, maybe Plante and for sure Hasek. Hasek on NJ, or Roy playing for NJ in the playoffs instead. And put Broduer in Buffalo instead. He's still a worthy candidate. He also padded his stats with OT, and shoot out wins or losses instead of ties. Sawchuk's shut-out to win ratio is simply gaudy, like some of Gretzky's stats. As for save percentages. Thankfully hockey historians have gone back which gives us a glimpse anyways. Drydens, and Parents PHI years, Plant, Halls, Bower's etc sure line up well with Hasek's numbers. Broduer's was rather garden variety star goalie for his era until the 2000's. Belfour. Roy. Hasek. Broduer. He for sure wasn't the only name. What he ruled the roost with, was his puck handling ability. Luongo scared me when he left the net, became his stiffest competition once the old guard was done. One thing that is lost with the butterfly, was the art of rebound control. Used to be goalies could direct a shot to where they wanted, almost like playing the puck (Furh was great at this - and his glove hand was absolutely sick). Didn't see Sawchuk, Plante play. I did see Roy from the start. And well the guys that saw Roy, Broduer, Hasek and those older guys play - have Roy ahead too. Nobody will ever beat his 10 OT a win record from 92-93. No way MTL had any business making it to the final. PIT handled NJ. NYR handled NJ the year later. Then they won a cup. Roy handled Broduer in his prime just before he retired. Roy for me. Edit: As an aside it's an interesting read what Lemaire expected of his players. Kevin Stevens was actually a skilled offensive defenseman. Had just as much to offer as Neidermayer. Stevens bought in, and focused on his D-game. Those were great teams. COL/DET/NJ after NYR and PIT had their go, we're the teams to beat (Dallas created one of the better dead puck era teams too). PHI didn't ascend like folks thought they would. Goaltending considered the missing link at the time, still trying to find a Hextall or Parent. NJ also boasted one of the best offense's which is lost at times, for awhile anyways, and we added to that with Mogilny. Lemaire is the genuis that changed the game. Broduer was the perfect goalie, at the right time in the right spot. His save percentage took a nose dive after he lost his defense. Did do an admirable late career charge to the final without them which cements his legacy, as one of the greatest - Sawchuk did that too, older. "You could throw a bag of rice at Terry, and he'd stop every grain". Suppose that's why THN, still has him as number one. Roy 2. Broduer 3. Plante 4. Hall 5. Hasek 6. Dryden 7. With an argument that any of those guys could be considered the greatest all-time goalie. It's also noted, younger writers/hockey folks that got to vote moved Broduer up. I wouldn't build a team around Broduer before either Hasek or Roy. Same way Lidstrom only viewers, felt the need to vote him ahead of Orr for some reason, which put him ahead of Borque, Potvin and Coffey all the way to number 3 behind Harvey and Orr. Sure the same thing will be done one day to Crosby, McDavid and Ovi.
-
The Wayne Gretzky Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Sure was. Added some more above. When some of those guys came in was excited. McLean did need replacing, his best days seemed to be behind him. Settling on Cloutier was odd. -
The Wayne Gretzky Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
I added some stuff above. What about Suitcase from the 70's? Maybe too few teams back then. Also Burke is yet another example, of save percentages climbing in the 90's into the 2000's during the dead puck era ... Was he really better in his mid 30's? Doubt it. Same thing with Roy. Same thing with Vernon. Beezer. A ton of goalies. SP climbed because of no equipment restrictions, copying Roy's style (Halls actually but that doesn't come up often) and the neutral zone trap which was a result of expansion and teams copying NJ. Even a mediocre at best team (thanks to Makarov mostly) like SJ could do that and beat Detroit with Irbe. After they set a record (sorry Boston, you have to make your SO wins ties) and OT 3 x 3 just has to be in its own category too. Beating my drum again about that era. It was tough to see that much talent, stuck in the mud, a lot of guys in their later primes and in their primes suffered as a result. The league grew too fast. The Wall falling helped a ton, but once those countries were scoured ... they needed to stop. CLB/NSH etc should have been postponed at least a decade, after SJ, ANA and OTT and FLD/TB. -
The Wayne Gretzky Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Sean Burke. Does he hold the record for goalies playing for different teams ? Seems like he played for half the league at some point, including us. Happy he went on to have great success in PHX after us. And do remember when he came to us, we were getting a good goalie. Essensa was also a good goalie with WNP. Irbe with SJ, Potvin with TO. Crazy that part of our history. -
The Wayne Gretzky Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
Yes and Healy had one heck of a playoffs too. (I said Hrudey lol - he of course was doing his fish fry flop with LA that year blue bandanna and all). Don't remember their games much. They for sure weren't considered to be much but a tune up team for PIT, on the way to the conference final, and some of those games, they couldn't win without Healy. Roy won games for MTL all the way to the cup, more then a few they shouldn't have won too (those I remember better; friends Dad was a Habs fan after the Canucks..I secretly wanted LA to win after VAN was out because Gretzky of course, even after losing to them). Much like this seasons FLD/CAR series, MTL won games they shouldn't have if it wasn't for their goaltending. 92-93 TO/LA series was fun to watch. McSorely hitting Gilmour "trolly tracking" then Clarke .. Gretzky talked about how much that meant to both teams in that series, and considers game 7 TO/LA his best playoff game all-time. -
If MAF played on that team, and is named as the player who was recognized. The league will have quite the mess on its hands. I don't think he was. Alcohol, entitlement, and this sort hazing behaviour or twisted "team building" crap needs to be pulled out of the closest and aired out. Can't believe anyone from the original six or the 70-80's would ever consider crap like this either. But it sure makes you wonder what else has occurred, that was kept secret.
-
The Wayne Gretzky Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
How's this for a beauty statline: Gretzky led the league in assists and goals several times, but the 1984-1985 stands out as special year. Starting with the 1984 Canada Cup. That was one tough Russian team. They were a perfect 5-0 in the round robin. Canada owned them the first two periods but could only manage one goal..then back and forth, Coffey's legendary play and we play Sweden for the final. Win the Cup. Gretzky led the tournament in scoring, Tonneli the MVP (and the Russian coach laid a lot of praise on him - Tonneli as an aside). So before the season already a first line Canada Cup selection and a team award. Then goes on and in typical fashion, gets the most goals, assists, wins a cup, and the Smythe...also led the league in plus minus, short handed points etc etc etc. Pearson too. Does the same thing in the playoffs too. Only one other player managed this, Guy Lafluer, and for sure Beliveau would have won all of them in 1955-56 had they existed. One could probably say that was Gretzky's greatest year. Edit: Honourable mention to Mario's amazing, most magnificent, marvellous 1992-93 season. In his peak prime now at 27, Mario started the year off chasing Gretzky's 215 point season. Let's look at it in blocks: Came out charging. 36 points in 11 games for October. November petered off a bit, 29 points in 15 games. December went on a roll, 36 points in 11 games.. entering the new year with an eye popping 101 points in just 38 games! Or good for 202 in 76 ... this is the sort of pace, a player needs to play to be able to get to 215 points. He was pacing that up until then. And just a treat to watch. The other shoe dropped when he noticed a lump and started radiation treatment. Took a month off. When he returned, trailed Lafontaine by 12 points, who was also having what ordinarily, would be considered a season for the ages. First game back, a goal and an assist. Then went on to score 46 points over his next 16 games including 22 goals lol. Yikes. In the end 160 points in 60 games was a remarkable feat. That's 218 points if that pace can be kept up for 82 games. NYI , famously upset the mighty Pens. They only won one more game then lost without him...and won 17 in a row at one point when he came back. As an aside, this was the norm for Gretzky 5 times in his career. Would have also won one other Art Ross, taking Mario's first away, if he didn't miss some time in with the Oilers one season also on pace for 200 plus points, and curiously EDM didn't do so well without him either. The PENs entered the post season as the favourites. Until recently under Trotz, NYI fans - that was their last playoff moment to celebrate. Their magical run was ended by a cheap shot later by Dale Hunter on Turgeon in the next round. For some reason they couldn't close out the NYI series, up 3-2. Otherwise Mario likely would be added to the list, Conn Smythe and Cup plus the rest. But that was peak Mario, something to be-hold for sure. Luckily lived with a friend who's Dad loved hockey back then...92-93 was special for Gretzky too but for different reasons. Gretzky missed even more time, at one point there were rumblings he would retire due to neck, back and shoulder issues. Turned out to be his last hurrah in the post season. Roy was just peak Roy and they were denied. Up with minutes to go in the third period ... if they won that game, up 2-0 in the series, I doubt even Roy would have saved them (they peppered him at times, best goaltending i've ever seen in the post season)... 92-93 had more storylines for a variety of reasons, then almost any other season. 3 all time greats GOATs had key moments in their illustrious careers. -
Ok. Our division. 1. EDM 108 2. Vegas 102 3. LA 100 4. CAL 96 5. Van 95 6. Seattle 94 7. ANA 79 8. SJ 50 4-6 are pretty interchangable. Just like the idea of things going well, manifesting a bit. It's going to be tight, and come right down to the last week of games to see who has a shot at the wild card spot(s). Last season we were below .500 against EDM and Vegas. .333 curiously we only played them 3 times each and not 4. We split points (.500) against LA and Seattle. Gained points on CAL, stomped ANA (4-0). All the games are important, but it's promising we didn't lose ground against the key guys too, LA, SEA, CAL. Those will be must win games for us. Record under Tochett 20-12-4, that's of course a playoff team. Not going to read too much into that. But I sure like that coaching staff. All winners. Teaching coaches as well. Our goals for 276, remarkable given we barely got any from the D core. Good for 13th in the league. That's early 90's levels as an aside. Last time we scored more was 1995-1996, 278 - which at the time, was good for 6th in the league. Most WCE era managed was in the low 250's, most the Sedin led teams scored was 272, 2009 after that it dropped significantly. Scoring is finally up league wide, and it's a glorious time to be a hockey fan. 2-1 games aren't as fun to watch, as 3-2 or a 5-4 game. Imagine if we could score from the back end too? Or defend as well? Our goals against, 298 - 24th in the league. Not hard to figure that out. Bad defending under Bruce. Terrible PK, mostly not good goaltending. Lucky it wasn't worse really. That's pretty bad. Last time we let that many in was 1990-1991, 315th only two other teams let in more. Drafted Nedved. Going to 80% with our PK unit would make a huge difference. That seems plausible. Allvin for spent his money well this summer to shore that up. We aren't an 83 bad team. Not a 100 point team yet either (need everything to go right to manage that). That will reduce our goals against, and win us close games adding points. Some of the teams we see regularly, have deadly power plays. It's a modest step season for us. EPs going to be amazing. EP gets Hart, Selke and Byng votes QHs moves up the Norris rankings Tochett's name is floated for Adams a several times during the season, but isn't a finalist. Brock has a nice come-back year, scores 30 goals, while back-checking regularly. For some reason a couple CDCers are unhappy about that. EP leads the team in scoring, 106 points, 43 goals. What a beaut! Pearson manages a come back too. Is our Masterson nominee. Our winning percentage also gets a nice bump when he plays too. Demko is very good. Gives us a chance to win every game. Plays 60 games for us too. Hronek is solid, it helps. Adds some goals from the blue line, and buys into Tochett's system. Soucy becomes a fan favourite by Christmas. Crunches guys. EP is satisfied, re-signs, 12 x 8 in the summer of 2024, a collective sigh of relief can be heard right across the country. Going to be optimistic, that we do win a wild card spot. Dallas plays CAR in the final. Dallas wins the cup. We play Dallas in the first round. Awards: Heiskenan, Makar, Dahlin Norris finalists. Art Ross, Hart, Lindsay, Richard another sweep by McJesus. 142 points, 57 goals.
-
[Report/Rumour] Elias Pettersson Contract Talks
IBatch replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
Miller called the last couple seasons before Tochett came in a 'shitshow'. Believe it or not, these players prefer and need systems, and especially a teaching coach. One thing that is curious, was playing an AHL D aside from Myers and Hughes, both not top guys defensively, although QHs work on that part of his game is evident...we lowered shots allowed, PK went to almost respectable levels (78.4?) while also scoring a lot of shorties. It's not all on Demko, but sure if he goes down we are toast. Good teams, their goalie goes down, the next man up doesn't hurt them much. Maybe Silvos can be our Hill (Vegas) but that's also a stretch. It's a lot easier to get good stats if you're not allowing 12-14 grade a scoring chances a game. Tochett recently talked about that. Getting uncomfortable, includes doing those things. EP is going to do that. Sure hope the team follows his lead. More than anything, the teams next decade will be impacted one way or another by him. Personally won't be on the side that gets on Allvins case if he has to trade him. And for sure hope we don't either. -
Broduer was great no doubt. But when it comes to being good regular season and playoffs, Roy is a tier above. No way does MTL win a cup in 92-93 without him. Same with COL. Roy beat Broduer head to head too, and before anyone says "those NJ teams couldn't score" They led the league in goals scored one of their cup years (regular season). There were other goalies in his era like Belfour and Hasek to consider as well. Same with Luongo to a degree.
-
The Wayne Gretzky Discussion Thread
IBatch replied to Elias Pettersson's topic in General Hockey Discussion
It's hard to say for sure. Al Mac and Pronger were the guys to beat soon in St. Louis. But he for sure was robbed of his prime D years, and was a force to be reckoned with. His hits were mostly clean too. For those that don't know him, just google 97 playoffs Konstantinov hits and see why they called him Vlad the Impaler. Was happy when Detroit won a second cup. His story is a real tragedy though. Festisov too, and their trainer. -
[Proposal] Final piece to solidify defense
IBatch replied to PhillipBlunt's topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
I do agree we are a top four D away from a legit D-core (your OP). Especially if we keep Myers and manage a winger trade. Soucy and Myers as the third pairing would be a lot of fun to watch. -
[Proposal] Final piece to solidify defense
IBatch replied to PhillipBlunt's topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
Not sure we will have much choice. In the end, as long as he's off the PK, think he will do well with lesser competition in a reduced role too. Also like his post season game. Would be great if we can watch some of that this season. -
[Proposal] Final piece to solidify defense
IBatch replied to PhillipBlunt's topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
Well it's been four days and counting already ... so.