The official NHL thread

[WOLF]

Think the Habs might be interested in Thomas? Price isn't going to make it through the season without having a breakdown from the pressure. Every goal will be followed by a "Halak" chant.

Habs can't afford Thomas. Personally, I think Price is going to have a good year. Statistically he was bad, with 4 goals on 10 shots the other night, but only one goal was his fault. The so called fans here are the problem. It's sad, because if he was named, say, Martin Biron, everyone would be pulling for him, but because his name is Carey Price everyone is on him. He's 23. So many of the good goalies in the NHL right now were right where he is at 23. People need to be patient, but we're short on that in Montreal. The politics of hockey in this city drive me nuts.

[SkyDog112046]

/\

I think you guys are getting ahead of yourselves...

I don't think they are going to win, we were just talking hypothetically.

I think they will be better than last year, but that eventually their idiot coach will cost them a series. 2nd round at best with ol' Claude on the bench.

Claude got a HUGE ovation from the season ticket holders at the town hall meeting the other night. Almost as much as Bergy and Neely. I was sort of surprised after last seasons's ending. In front of Jacobs as well. He was all smiles.

That's because most Bruins fans are sheep and will take whatever bullshit Jacobs throws at them.

Jacobs: "We are raising ticket prices 50%"
Stupid fans: "YAAAAAAAAHHHH"

Jacobs: "We are going to trade our best goal scorer every 3 or 4 years"
Stupid fans: "YAAAAAAAAHHHH"

Jacobs: "Why should I bother building a competitive team around Bourque?
Let him go somewhere else to get his ring"
Stupid fans: "YAAAAAAAAHHHH"

Jeremy Jacobs = Al Davis without the championships

[SkyDog112046]

Think the Habs might be interested in Thomas? Price isn't going to make it through the season without having a breakdown from the pressure. Every goal will be followed by a "Halak" chant.

Habs can't afford Thomas. Personally, I think Price is going to have a good year. Statistically he was bad, with 4 goals on 10 shots the other night, but only one goal was his fault. The so called fans here are the problem. It's sad, because if he was named, say, Martin Biron, everyone would be pulling for him, but because his name is Carey Price everyone is on him. He's 23. So many of the good goalies in the NHL right now were right where he is at 23. People need to be patient, but we're short on that in Montreal. The politics of hockey in this city drive me nuts.

Nobody can afford Thomas with the salary he is getting, and nobody can justify paying a back-up that kind of money. If Thomas was making the $1M a year or so that he is worth the Bruins wouldn't be trying to dump him. It's just another stupid front office decision by Boston. Hopefully Neely will clean house.

[chungasrevenge]

Here are the lines for tomorrow night's game against the Panthers. I wouldn't be surprised if opening night looks something close to this. It sounds like Spooner has the lead on the 3rd Center job:

Lucic - Krejci - Horton ( im gitty)
Recchi - Bergy - Seguin
sauve - spooner - Caron

[WOLF]

Here are the lines for tomorrow night's game against the Panthers. I wouldn't be surprised if opening night looks something close to this. It sounds like Spooner has the lead on the 3rd Center job:

Lucic - Krejci - Horton ( im gitty)
Recchi - Bergy - Seguin
sauve - spooner - Caron

Spooner looked good in the game against the Habs. He caught my eye and I hadn't heard of him before. Most of the B's other prospects get the headlines. Colborne, Hamill, Caron, Seguin, et al

[chungasrevenge]

Here are the lines for tomorrow night's game against the Panthers. I wouldn't be surprised if opening night looks something close to this. It sounds like Spooner has the lead on the 3rd Center job:

Lucic - Krejci - Horton ( im gitty)
Recchi - Bergy - Seguin
sauve - spooner - Caron

Spooner looked good in the game against the Habs. He caught my eye and I hadn't heard of him before. Most of the B's other prospects get the headlines. Colborne, Hamill, Caron, Seguin, et al

First I've heard of him as well. 2nd rounder this year. He came out of nowhere. Julien came out in his press conference and pretty much announced that he wanted him on the club in so many ways. We'll see if management agrees.

Ryder, Wheeler and Hunwick are competing for their starting jobs right now. I love it. Neely at work.

[jizzyjizim]

Can't wait for the season to start, GO OILERS GO!!...ya, I know they are going to suck again this year, not expecting much, but hopefully the rookies coming in will make the games a little more exciting, not like they can do any worse than last year

[WOLF]

Can't wait for the season to start, GO OILERS GO!!...ya, I know they are going to suck again this year, not expecting much, but hopefully the rookies coming in will make the games a little more exciting, not like they can do any worse than last year

Some people think they can be this year's Colorado Avalanche. I certainly don't think they'll be at the very bottom of the conference as some are predicting. Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi, Gagner, Cogliano, Hemsky, Penner, Whitney, Foster, Gilbert - there is some young talent there. For me the biggest ? about the Oliers is goaltending.

[Kerry King's Pentagram]

Boston Bruins won their game against the Belfast Giants Select 5-1 on Saturday. The NHL report is here: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2010011001 and highlights footage can be found here: http://www.u.tv/UTVMediaPlayer/Default. ... ca7baefd35

[chungasrevenge]

Boston Bruins won their game against the Belfast Giants Select 5-1 on Saturday. The NHL report is here: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2010011001 and highlights footage can be found here: http://www.u.tv/UTVMediaPlayer/Default. ... ca7baefd35

The B's have been raving about the experience in the local press.

I'm so giddy about Patrice Bergeron that I ordered a goddamn second shirt with his name on it. This kid can run for Governor of Boston. If Chia doesn't sign him til retirement, I will slash his tires. Greatest B since Neely.

Seguin and Horton are stone cold snipers. Fuck everyone, the cup is ours this year. 2 U's, 2 K's, 2 points. Yes I'm drunk.

[Kerry King's Pentagram]

The B's have been raving about the experience in the local press.

Glad to hear it. I'm hoping the NHL will now visit the UK every year to play a British side.

[chungasrevenge]

The B's have been raving about the experience in the local press.

Glad to hear it. I'm hoping the NHL will now visit the UK every year to play a British side.

I think that will definitely happen. Sounded like the B's broke out in the third, but the score really didn't reflect the game that Belfast played. Not sure who the goalie is, but he had a hell of a game. By comparison, the Czech All Stars got their asses handed to them.

[Scatman]

I'm liking the new kid in the Flyers' net. What a great start to the season.

[johnk5150]

Duncan Keith and he's got no teeth.

Duncan Keith and he's got no teeth.

Welcome back hockey fans.

[John Simon Ritchie]

I'm liking the new kid in the Flyers' net. What a great start to the season.

Word! And even better...it was The Penguins!

[Kerry King's Pentagram]

The B's have been raving about the experience in the local press.

Glad to hear it. I'm hoping the NHL will now visit the UK every year to play a British side.

I think that will definitely happen. Sounded like the B's broke out in the third, but the score really didn't reflect the game that Belfast played. Not sure who the goalie is, but he had a hell of a game. By comparison, the Czech All Stars got their asses handed to them.

Yeah, at one point, it looked as though Belfast may just manage to pull off an upset but once that goal was scored, the Bruins woke up and worked in 3 goals in the last minute of the 2nd period. Even so, a lot of people were surprised that it wasn't the shutout that was expected.

The Belfast goalie is Stephen Murphy and he was superb. Definitely one of the best players in the whole league. Belfast are the team to beat this year. They've already got the league in the bag.

I should point out that the Belfast team that played against the Bruins was actually one made up of players throughout the league. 8 were from the regular Belfast team including Murphy, former St. Louis Blues forward Colin Hemingway and Colin Shields, one of only two British players to have ever been drafted by an NHL team. The guy who scored the sole goal for Belfast, Jade Galbraith, actually plays for rival side, Nottingham Panthers. Having a team made from the league overall was the best chance we had of managing a decent showing against the Bruins (in general, the standard of the Elite League is between the ECHL and CHL).

[chungasrevenge]

The Laff's begin their push for the playoffs!

Bergeron signed to a 3 year, $15 million extension. Awesome.

[jizzyjizim]

Best first goal ever?...I think so.....

http://video.oilers.nhl.com/videocenter ... 4&id=77707

[Kerry King's Pentagram]

Bruins get their asses handed to them by Pheonix in Prague. Not exactly a good start to the season for them.

[feds]

Yep, Eberle is a beauty! He was awesome for the Canadian Juniors and he will be awesome for the Oilers, which sucks cuz I am a Canucklehead. Here's hoping Cody Hodgson develops into the player he is expected to be.

[chungasrevenge]

Bruins get their asses handed to them by Pheonix in Prague. Not exactly a good start to the season for them.

Did they ever. Horrible. At least they made up for it in game 2.

Horton is good for 40 goals this year.

[johnk5150]

According to sky is falling Chicago radio, the Blackhawks may as well sell off every player as they won't be making the playoffs.

[chungasrevenge]

According to sky is falling Chicago radio, the Blackhawks may as well sell off every player as they won't be making the playoffs.

It looks like Pittsburgh and Jersey are out of the playoffs as well.

[johnk5150]

Quenneville demoted Kane to the 3rd line.

[ShearMagic]

Nice comeback so far from Tim Thomas. The old grey beard has been great.

[johnk5150]

Probert went through some serious dark shit.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/hockey/b ... 03.article

At the end of August [1995], I spent three days in jail and paid a fine of $1,395 after pleading guilty for driving impaired and crashing my motorcycle back in July 1994. I got out, and there were some major a--hole moves by the papers in Chicago. Rick Telander from the Sun-Times had been slamming me in his column. And he decided to get cute. He arranged to meet at a bar. During the interview, he got the waiter to bring out a shot and put it between us. Did he seriously think I was going to grab it? I mean, c'mon. Then he handed me a rolled up $20 bill and said, ''Snort away.'' All class, that guy.

In Detroit, hockey is on the front page. In Chicago, it's way down on the fifth. So if you screw up, it's not always going to make the paper. I'd go to the games and practices and come home -- the typical family man. The pressure was off. I was kind of private, so I didn't like how my life had always been spread out in the Detroit papers. ...

During the season, the Hawks went out to L.A. My old connection was waiting for me after the game, at the bar in the rink. I had been straight for about a year. He handed me an 8-ball of coke and I said, ''Oh, thanks buddy.'' I put it in my racquetball case, and it stayed there for, like, six years. And then, in my last year, I had a couple of guys over and said, ''Hey, I've got this stuff and I've been waiting for a special occasion.'' Cocaine does not go bad.

In January [1998], I signed a 14-page contract extension with the Blackhawks for four years, backdated to October 1, 1997, for $6.5 million. It felt pretty good knowing the team had that much confidence in me. The offer came with a four-page addendum that included performance bonuses. I would get an extra $100,000 if I achieved three out of four conditioning points and $50,000 for achieving two of them: My mVO2 (myocardial oxygen consumption) had to be at least 63, I couldn't weigh over 227 pounds, my body fat had to be 14 percent or lower and I had to do at least 600 watts on the bike. There was a goal-scoring incentive: A 25-goal season meant $75,000. ... The addendum also outlined all the things I could not do, like drink, drug and ride my Harley.

Off the ice, I had been doing really well. For six years, I hadn't ordered anything stronger than an O'Doul's. But about a month before my last full season ended, I was out for dinner with a buddy. I told him, ''Aw, f---, they want to rip up my contract.'' Then I ordered a Bailey's and coffee.

Within a couple of weeks, the Bailey's turned into triple vodka-and-waters that I'd down real quick or put in a water bottle.

I had it all figured out. The testers would call me a few hours ahead to say they were on the way. Piss is a certain temperature when it comes out -- 96 degrees Fahrenheit. It'll stay that way for four minutes. I always stored clean piss. When the tester knocked on the door, I wouldn't answer it right away. I'd grab the clean piss and put it in the microwave for exactly 12.5 seconds. I'd take it out, test the temperature and pour it into a little tube with a stopper. Then I'd stick it inside my pants and go and answer the door.

I didn't tell Dani any of this until years later, and she got kind of mad. She said, ''Damn it, Bob, what frigging thermometer did you use? The meat thermometer? The latte thermometer?''

During one of our road trips, I went out for dinner with a bunch of guys on the team. A teammate and I both knew we weren't playing the next day, so we sat at the bar afterward. Later, we jumped into a cab with a bunch of people we'd just met. One of them was a cop. He was a huge partier. He made a pit stop to pick up a bunch of blow, and then we headed downtown.

We made it back to the hotel by 7 a.m., which just gave us time to catch the 7:30 bus for practice. Denis Savard was running it. My buddy wasn't used to partying like I was. He stepped out on the ice, did a crossover, tripped and landed on his face. His nose and lip got all bloodied up. Savard said to him, ''What the hell is wrong with you?'' I thought for sure Savard was going to figure it out, so I said to my buddy, ''Yeah, for f--- sake, buddy, get control of yourself.''

On the bus back to the hotel, my buddy ... turned to me and said, ''Probie, you can be out all night and perform the next day. You are an animal. Just an animal.''

November 13, 2002, was D-Day for me. The Hawks no longer needed my services. I called Dani. I was totally upset. She said she felt terrible for me, but her grandmother had died that day and she needed me to come home to help her take the kids to the funeral. It was awful timing.

The mandatory testing was over, so I had free rein. I decided to have a few drinks before I headed home, and I ended up not making it. She packed up all the kids, got in the car and drove up to Toronto without me. She told me she cried her eyes out at her grandmother's funeral, but a lot of those tears were for me.

The Blackhawks put me on their radio broadcast team, but I didn't want to be part of the radio group, not when I looked at the ice and knew I could be out there. That was the hardest part. Even when a regular, well-adjusted guy retires, he will tell you it's the toughest thing he has ever done. It brings you down, man. My whole life had been built around hockey. ... I kept thinking, ''Why be sober? They're saying they'll pay me the rest of my contract, but I have to sit in this radio room, this f------ closet across the hall from the dressing room, and watch the boys go in to do their jobs?'' It hurt. I didn't know how to deal with it. My whole life, all my dreams and aspirations, revolved around hockey. And now I could only talk about hockey? That ripped me up. I lost my identity. I lost everything.

I went back to drinking and partying and wasn't hiding it anymore. Like they used to say in AA, the progression continues where you left off. I spent Christmas passed out on the couch. Dani was pretty angry with me. She was pissed off that I had relapsed and really worried about where it was headed. She didn't ask me to go to rehab, but I knew I had to.

I went back to rehab in February 2003. They'd lined up the Caron Foundation in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. At Caron, they had us write a letter to alcoholism.

What is an alcoholic? ... Sometimes I feel like I've never been an alcoholic. It's weird. It's almost like I've outgrown it. Now, I can drink one or two beers and that's it. I don't want any more. I had two yesterday, and before that it was probably two months since I had a beer. I think as you get older, you can't be bothered with it. At Caron, they really pushed the disease thing. Is it a disease? I'm not sure. Anyway, they had me write a letter about how I felt.

Dear Disease,

You have taken away my freedom to make healthy choices. You have taken away my valuable time from my wonderful wife Dani and my four kids. You have taken away my self-respect and dignity. You have turned me into someone I am not. You have hurt me financially. You have controlled my thoughts and my feelings. You took me away from things I used to do to have fun. You took away my ability to keep promises by running my will. At times you took me away from people that truly love me. You took away from me our twins' second birthday. You took away from me Christmas '02. You took a lot from me, but that is about to (STOP) change.

Yours truly,

Big Bob

[chungasrevenge]

The Providence Bruins and Hartford Whale will be playing an outdoor game at Renschler Field in Hartford on 2/19.

[pieceofme]

Some disappointing home attendance crowds so far for some clubs.

Here are a couple I remember from Hockey Central.

Thrashers all time low of roughly 8000 people.
Coyotes averaging 50% roughly. 43% if you don't count opening night.

No big surprise with these two clubs I guess.

[WOLF]

Some disappointing home attendance crowds so far for some clubs.

Here are a couple I remember from Hockey Central.

Thrashers all time low of roughly 8000 people.
Coyotes averaging 50% roughly. 43% if you don't count opening night.

No big surprise with these two clubs I guess.

Columbus isn't drawing flies these days either...

Calling Quebec, Winnipeg, and Southwestern Ontario...

[chungasrevenge]

Some disappointing home attendance crowds so far for some clubs.

Here are a couple I remember from Hockey Central.

Thrashers all time low of roughly 8000 people.
Coyotes averaging 50% roughly. 43% if you don't count opening night.

No big surprise with these two clubs I guess.

Columbus isn't drawing flies these days either...

Calling Quebec, Winnipeg, and Southwestern Ontario...

Columbus was drawing well, but they suck. You can't blame the fanbase for retreating. That crowd should come back if they start winning.

I went to the Bruins/Devils game in Jersey a few weeks back, and I couldn't believe the number of emtpy seats. The building was dead.