The Random Hockey Thoughts Thread

[theMINI]

Toronto fucking sucks.

[leaffan]

I loved all the stiffs he played in the 3rd period.
And while I understand Giguere has done well against Montreal, I say Toronto should ride Reimer for the rest of the season.
Giguere is not the future, Reimer might be.
Burke can't be so delusional that he actually believes this team might make the playoffs.
As for Wilson, I don't get what he was doing in the third period either. After the second penalty, that stiff would never have seen the ice ... but Wilson kept putting him out there.
Leafs should offer Ken Holland $5 million a year to fix this mess - Burke clearly isn't the guy to do it. The Kessel trade set the rebuild back five years and Burke sticks to these antiquated notions that half your team has to be goon-like.
In today's NHL, that dinosaur attitude no longer applies.
And it looks pretty bad when Luke Schenn looks more engaged in the game than the guy you're paying $6.5M to ... and gave the C to.

LOL not even going to bother responding. Typical montreal guy has no idea what he is talking about. Quite hilarious.

[leaffan]

BTW nice "classy" move by Subban tonight. Guy continues to show why he is terrible and has a ton to learn.

[theMINI]

BTW nice "classy" move by Subban tonight. Guy continues to show why he is terrible and has a ton to learn.

Haters gon hate lollll

[leaffan]

Haters gon hate lollll

Only pointing out the obvious. Dave goes on about other teams not following the "fighters code" and shit when his own team doesn't even know it is what I'm getting at.

[Ravin]

I loved all the stiffs he played in the 3rd period.
And while I understand Giguere has done well against Montreal, I say Toronto should ride Reimer for the rest of the season.
Giguere is not the future, Reimer might be.

You can't throw Reimer in every single time. You know Toronto is going to get shelled and having him getting killed night in and out isn't going to help. I like the idea of spliting the duties with Giggy because it gives him experience and doesn't over work him. It's the perfect way to develop the goalie. Toronto next season needs to do this with Reimer and Gustovson and get them both time and make sure they are both ready. The competition will help them both.

Burke can't be so delusional that he actually believes this team might make the playoffs.

You got to know what he says to the media isn't true. A little note, we had a Junior B coach here get fired because he basically said about the team not playing well "we will be fine for playoffs". He said that because in the division of 9 teams, 8 making the playoffs everyone was in the playoffs as the bottom team had 3 wins all season. But his comments got him fired because they thought he was coasting through the season till playoff time.

Toronto is only 8 points back, which isn't really a lot when you figure there is still 28 or so games to be played. The bottom of the East is wide open right now, and three toronto wins puts them right in the hunt. Will they make the playoffs? Probably not. There next four games are against Bruins, Sabres, Islanders and Senators, then can easily (well should) pick up 4-6 points between those teams which puts them right in the race. Rangers are playing like shit right now, Carolina and Atlanta are winning as much as they lose, so it isn't hard to think they could be up there.

Leafs should offer Ken Holland $5 million a year to fix this mess - Burke clearly isn't the guy to do it. The Kessel trade set the rebuild back five years and Burke sticks to these antiquated notions that half your team has to be goon-like.
In today's NHL, that dinosaur attitude no longer applies.
And it looks pretty bad when Luke Schenn looks more engaged in the game than the guy you're paying $6.5M to ... and gave the C to.

[/QUOTE]

No the Kessel trade did not set them back. Seguin has been a health scratch for the last like 7 games. Kessel is a 30+ goal scorer. The problem is ther is no one on the team to set him up and give him the chances. Every big time goal scorer in the league has someone setting them up. Stamkos has St. Louis, Sedin has Sedin, Corey Perry has Getzlaf, where as Kessel has who? Bozak? MacAruthur, Kulemin? No one these guys are top line players. Now yes, Kessel has sucked lately, and he should be able to pot in a few goals here and there, 13 games is a bit much even for him with no one. But I would bet good money that if Toronto got a legit first line center, you could easily see Kessel getting 35-40 goals a season, maybe more.

You have to figure the deal Seguin is atleast 2-4 years out of being a "top player" and Kessel is basically one now. Boston is most likely not getting a top 5 pick this year, and the draft is not super deep. They just need a top line centre. You can go up and down the top 10 list of goal scorer's and pick their partners out.

The tough guy approach may not be the best approach anymore. Burke does seem to be bringing in size rather then skill. But the thing is he can only do so much with what he has. Who is he going to trade away for a first line scorer? He needs to be very active in the free agency period because they do not have the depth to trade away people for scoring.

[dave]

You can't compare Seguin and Kessel now.
Seguin joined a talented team and is riding the pine like Stamkos did his first year.
And, if I'm not mistaken, the Bruins also got a 2nd round pick out of this deal.
Two top-5 picks and a 2nd rounder for a soft 2nd-line forward is not a good deal.
Phil Kessel is not, and never will be, a franchise player.
Seguin might ... and the other top-5 player might.

Eight points back with 28 games left in the NHL playoff race is huge. The NHL has become like the NFL where every game really counts, especially the conference games.

As for Leaffan, if there's someone who should not be criticizing others for being know it alls it's, well, Leaffan/Comic Book Guy. "Worst ... team ... ever."

[leaffan]

Its pretty hilarious and how ass backwards Dave is on things. I'm bored right now so its multi quote time.

You can't compare Seguin and Kessel now.

Yet you can go ahead and make claims like "that trade will set toronto back for 5 years!" :bowrofl:

Seguin joined a talented team and is riding the pine like Stamkos did his first year.

No he joined a team that was 2nd last in goal scoring the year before. When guys like Lucic and Krejci start having pretty good years it balances out the issues they had last year. I honestly thought they should of left him in Jr. this year thanks to him being 3rd/4th on the depth chart in the C category.

Now the stamkos comment is just hilarious. Stamkos first season was a result of brutal coaching by melrose and tocchet. He still ended up with 20 goals in his rookie season. Melrose had him doing things like playing him on the 4th and 3rd line and he was only put on the powerplay at the end of the year. Its quite a miracle when you find out a guy has a crazy shot and you use him as a shooter on the power play. His number of shots from his rookie year to his second (51 goal year) almost doubled.

Another quick thing about Tampa, Guy Boucher should be in line for coach of the year. That dude just knows how to get the most out of his players.

Phil Kessel is not, and never will be, a franchise player.

I don't think I've ever said Kessel will be a franchise player and I would pretty much agree, but the guy had 30 goals last year on the second last place team in the league and played on a line where he was centered by Matt Stajan for 45 to 50 games... MATT STAJAN. This year is more of a result of again terrible coaching and he has had almost everyone center for him. Its no secret toronto still needs a top centerman and winger to play with him. Kadri is still a whiles a way and might give it a go next year.

Eight points back with 28 games left in the NHL playoff race is huge. The NHL has become like the NFL where every game really counts, especially the conference games.

Yep I gave up on the whole playoff push thing a while back. Unless they pull a calgary its not getting done.

As for Leaffan, if there's someone who should not be criticizing others for being know it alls it's, well, Leaffan/Comic Book Guy. "Worst ... team ... ever."

I won't say I know it all but I do follow other teams and tend to watch a bitch load of hockey. I also tend to not be the common leaf fan in the fact that I know the team is weak. When they went on their 4 game winning streak in the begining I was a little suspicious since it was pretty obvious in the preseason that first line scoring was badly missing. I'm pretty sure I said that quite a few times in this thread back in the preseason. I'll also continue to roll with saying that Montreal isn't anywhere near a top team and a borderline playoff team. If that makes you mad then whatever I don't care.

[theMINI]

Dave your closer to Toronto or Ottawa why are you a Habs fan?

[leaffan]

Dave your closer to Toronto or Ottawa why are you a Habs fan?

French family?

Is vachon french?

[leaffan]

For the habs fans:

Cammalleri is looking to return in time for the outdoor game vs calgary on saturday. He skated and practiced with the team today.

[killgod]

Forsberg retires...

[dave]

French family?

Is vachon french?

This is part of it.
Another is Ken Dryden was my sporting hero as a little kid.
I was raised in North Bay, which is 50/50 Toronto and Montreal, because of a significant French population.
My father's side of the family is a collection of Pepsis, all from Quebec.

[leaffan]

What no thank you kessel chant tonight?

[Obst]

Damn that Flyers game was wild.