NHL 2009 Official Thread

[Valmy]

My god you really are quite the racist.

YOU MOCK MY PAIN!

[C.C.R.]

Not to dishearten everyone but that team from the South evened the series 1-1!

Can the Canes ruin hockey once again by winning the Cup. 

I prefer to refer to them as "The Artists Formally Known As The Hartford Whalers."

[C.C.R.]

Game Night in La Casa de CCR.  I worked my way through all of the Negra Modelo & the Labatt's Blue on Saturday, so I had to pick up a fresh case of PBR today.

The pre-game dinner should be OK -- pre-packaged, store bought italian beef.  Meh.  It's nowhere near as good as at a good greasy spoon restaurant, but it'll do in a pinch.  I probably should have grilled up some italian sausages to go with & make combos, but oh well.  Live & learn.

Big game for both Vancouver & Chicago tonight.  I think that Chicago has the momentum coming home, but Vancouver is too good & too proud to not come out of the gate flying tonight.  Should be a good one...

[Jacob]

So far so good, but I guess Vancouver has to have at least a 4 or 5 goal lead before we can feel good about it.

[C.C.R.]

So far so good, but I guess Vancouver has to have at least a 4 or 5 goal lead before we can feel good about it.

As much as it pains me to admit, I think that tonight is going to be Vancouver's night.  They're doing all of the little things right:  good forechecking, getting sticks in the passing lanes & good blocked shots in their own end  and getting good puck control in the offensive end.  I can't bring myself to give up on the Blackhawks yet, but there comes a time when that lucky horseshoe falls out of you ass, and I think that the time is now.  Or something...

[jech]

Of course I do.  I am hoping my bravado will distract the Hockey Gods long enough for them to squeeze through.

However the Caps have not suffered the wrath of the Pens in 8 years so maybe the current crop of players on both teams will not benefit/suffer from the weight of history in this historically one sided playoff rivalry.

Hell I do not even feel that much hatred for the Pens anymore and I used to have a Super Mario voodoo doll.

Yes...yes they have...what a black black time the 1990s was.

Yeah the rivalry kinda died with both teams sucking it up for a few years, but the whole Crosby-Malkin/Ovie thing has re-ignited it some. We're gonna need a few more playoff series to really get it going again though.

I'm too young to remember that 3-1 series comeback but one of the first memories I have of the Pens is Petr Nedved scoring in the early morning hours (4th OT) of game 4 in 96. Pens were down 0-2 then as well, 4 straight victories 

I'll be in attendance tomorrow, my first playoff game since 2001. I'm pumped, gonna be intense as shit.

And...Lets go Ducks! Fuck you Hossa!

[BuddhaRhubarb]

solid gutcheck performance from the Canucks. Pyatt's return helped some i think. Ohlund may be out though. that won't do, the top two D gone.

[C.C.R.]

solid gutcheck performance from the Canucks.

Agreed.  They played 60 hard minutes & got the bounces, and they pulled a well-earned win tonight.  The pressure will obviously be square on the Hawks' shoulders come Game 4 on Thursday...

[crazy canuck]

Its going to be a great game 4.  I sure hope Ohlund is ok.  He is as solid as a rock back on defence.

[PRC]

Solid gam

solid gutcheck performance from the Canucks. Pyatt's return helped some i think. Ohlund may be out though. that won't do, the top two D gone.

Totally.

[Delirium]

Sometimes I just don't "get" hockey.

That disallowed Detroit equalizer is beyond me. More than that, the fight after the final whistle that Anaheim seemed to start just because they felt like it: two guys gang up on Franzen (I think), one holding him and another beating him up with some hard hits to his back.

Why? And why is there no repercussion (from what I can tell)? The NHL talk about banning staged fighting, how about two-on-one fighting? 

It's things like this that make it so hard for people to take hockey serious as a sport. Arbitrary rulings on chicken-shit plays. There's just no respect between players, as long as it's called "playoff hockey" anything you can get away with is fine. Makes me sick.

[Grey Fox]

It's all the referees fault anyway. They have no consistency.

[saskganesh]

Phoenix is filing for chapter 11. Balsilie is swooping in, making a cash offer that will satisfy all creditors including NHL, contingent on moving the team to somewhere in southern Ontario. the owner (Moyes) has agreed, and has surrendered any value he has. the NHL is pissed, having effectively financed the franchise since February, and has retaliated by removing Moyes from any executive/management position with the club and are poised to dispute the filing on the basis that it's their franchise anyway and they will decide who will acquire the team and that the team will stay in the desert goddamnit.

last night, the better game was off the ice.

[Valmy]

Phoenix is filing for chapter 11. Balsilie is swooping in, making a cash offer that will satisfy all creditors including NHL, contingent on moving the team to somewhere in southern Ontario. the owner (Moyes) has agreed, and has surrendered any value he has. the NHL is pissed, having effectively financed the franchise since February, and has retaliated by removing Moyes from any executive/management position with the club and are poised to dispute the filing on the basis that it's their franchise anyway and they will decide who will acquire the team and that the team will stay in the desert goddamnit.

God I hate Bettman and the NHL.

[saskganesh]

Phoenix is filing for chapter 11. Balsilie is swooping in, making a cash offer that will satisfy all creditors including NHL, contingent on moving the team to somewhere in southern Ontario. the owner (Moyes) has agreed, and has surrendered any value he has. the NHL is pissed, having effectively financed the franchise since February, and has retaliated by removing Moyes from any executive/management position with the club and are poised to dispute the filing on the basis that it's their franchise anyway and they will decide who will acquire the team and that the team will stay in the desert goddamnit.

if you goto the Phoenix newspaper's website commentary, it seems that a good chunk of respondents never knew they had a hockey team. funny.

God I hate Bettman and the NHL.