Stag Lord said:

Ouch!

lol.... yeah. The Devils keep going back to the good 'ole days when they used to be able to get a lead, and shut teams down. Between the current D, and the "New NHL", they just can't get away with that crap anymore. They rely on Marty too much, far too often.

Man, I miss the Scotties.

Gaborik to the Rangers! SWEET! How long have I been coveting this guy?

The Rangers finally have the dynamic offensive ofrce they have been missing for the past three years. Gomez is a loss - but I'll take Gaborik over him any day - and we had to move gomez to free up the dollars under the ap. Plus we pikced up Chris higgins in the deal, who is a talented and gritty player.

Still kind of need a first line center, and we are clsoe to teh cap now - but we are definitely a better team than we were alst year. I am pretty pumped for the start of the season.

of all the guys the rags could have picked up, gaborik scares me the least. One solid hit and he his hurt for a week+.

I'm not sure what this flyer team is going to look like, but i'm excited for it despite losing knuble (who wasn't going to be happy w/ 1.5 million over 2 years.....or a lot more for 1 yr....)

Whatever. He palyed 77 games in 07-08 and every doctor says he is back from the injury fine. Its not like he had a concussion.

You should be scared. The one thing the Ranegrs were missing was a finisher - and now we have one. And Brashear to make sure no one gets feisty with him.

yeah...the one thing....

brasher...please. Orr was a better fighter and didn't go for long streches of time trying to be a goal scorer. How many lines can brasher play on? flyers have four lines of hitters/fighters (that can get major points too) and a d-core that got a whole lot meaner.

It was the one thing. We had a top three penalty kill, the best goalie in the conference, and a solid six deep defensive corps. we blew a 3-1 series lead to teh Caps, but each of those first four agmes - we locked them down defensively and protected leads. Games 5 and 6 were aberrations, were the Rangers didn't show up and got blown out - but 7 was a nail biter which came down to a federov goal with less than five minutes ot go.

Given a real sniper, i really like this team's chances. I would like a crease clearing defenseman as well, but this move has me more optimistic about this team than I have been in years.

I'll let Andy Strickland, one of the featured bloggers at Hockeybuzz.com, speak for me. Andy, the floor is yours.

"The What is He Thinking Award goes to Glen Sather….This guy gives Donald Brashear nearly $3 million dollars when he could have signed Brian McGrattan for far less money.

It gets worse…

Marian Gaborik- 5 yrs at $7.5? I don’t get how and why teams just change players all the time. The Rangers get rid of Scott Gomez and then they sign Gaborik."

Who the hell is Andy Strickland? Did he even watch the Rangers last year?

Gomez is an aging center whose production ahs been decreasing and is a gifted playmekr> Gaborik is a 27 year old sniper, in his pirme who answers the single most pressing nee dhte team has ahd for a couple of years.

This is Sather's best move since he acquired Jagr.

interesting note. gaborik's cap hit is 2 million more then hossa. How many cup finals has gaborik played in?

I LOVE the fact that Gomer and his bloated contract got shipped off to Montreal!!!

Pronger + Flyers = Are you kidding me? Hopefully Emery can perform in goal.

As for the Devils, I like what we did at the draft. Lots of Big D.

I'm sad about losing Madden and Gionta, but we need a change. There's no way we were going to pay Gio 5 Million to keep him. I wish we could have worked something out with Madden, but there are younger guys that can do his job. What we need are people who want to play in front of Marty, instead of the normal guys who depend on him to play behind them. This might be a painful year, but hopefully we won't have to rely on a #1 draft pick to rebuild. It was sad seeing Clemmer go too, but it was to be expected. I hope Frazee gets a chance this year behind Marty.

Now all we need is a coach who wants to be here.

I say "we" like I'm on the team, and "here" like I'm not on the completely opposite coast... Lol!!!

Interesting (while not sure if 100% true, still intresting if only 25% true). Heatly and the rags (note i'd have been more scared of that then gaborik)

Oh yeah - the Heatley thing was very, very close to getting done - ti was widely reported in all the papers here. your source has edmonton still a fornt runner - but I think that is dead. from what i aher, Heatly vetoed a trade out there.

i think the Rangers still have a shot at him, but Ottawa will ahve to take Rosival's contract, and i don't know if they'll do that. I am also not sure I wnat this guy - his character was already in question, and he has been a baby through this whole trade process.

ESPN shows how much they have their head up thier ass when it comes to hockey again. They are bitching (mind you by a guy who covers hockey while based in Atlanta...........seriously) about the selection of the flyers over the capitals and saying that the NHL picked the wrong "team" [key term]. They article mostly talks about how great ovechken is and that mike green, nick backstrum and alex semin are also star players.....yet they don't consider Richards, carter, gagne, pronger, timmon, and briere to be stars (i won't go into a detailed comparison of scott hartnell's stats verse alex semin's, but one tidbit is that semin only had 4 more goals then scotty). The key here that ESPN seems to be missing is that the Winter Classic is a game and not a skills competition. The flyers ahev a better overall team then the caps do (granted they both of goalie issues, but over 82 games who you you want, emery/boosh or varlimov/theodre????) and are much less reliant/focused on one player. Another issue that ESPN misses is that match-ups also make ratings. Last year no one seemed to question the balckhawks as a selection (they only had potiental and actually wound up getting smoked) since they were playing the red wings and that is a classic rivarly incompising great games and great players throught the decades fo hockey. Flyers bruins does the same thing and provides compelling match-ups/stoprylines within the game, chars v pronger, hard nose forwards verse hard nose forwards, two of the favoroued teams to reach the finals 9caps have this too, but its not like its lost by picking the flyers), and storied franchise verse stroied franchise.

I guess its my fault for still reading the dribble that ESPN writes abotu hockey....

Hah, ESPN sucks in almost everything they report on. They have a limited number of good writers/bloggers. On the whole are equal to the typical local radio talkshow blowhards who makes a big deal out of meaningless stuff, and misses the big picture. Not to mention they are incredible whores for any sports/games they will be televising

I generally agree with you Lars. Flyers-Bruins was a great rivalry in teh seventies, and then again a little bit when they were both good late eigthies/early ninties. Thsi is a fine matchup and will do a great number for NBC next New Years.

I think your off though about your analysis of the tw teams. I think its pretty clear that the Caps and the Pens are the class fo teh conference. I think eveyrone else is fighting for third - but odds on - one of those two get through to the Finals.

Stag Lord said:

first. Find me their best defensmen that isn't a winger who skates backwards (Green). Second find me their second best defensemen period.

Third. Tell me hwo their starting goalie is and if you would rely on him for 82 games.

Fourth give me thier second line.

Last explain how a better caps team 2 playoffs ago (better goalie, more depth) who couldn't get by a worse flyers team (no expeirence no gagne nor pronger) in the playoffs is going to get by them this year?

heres the caps roster to help you out.

Forwards
# Player Height Weight DOB Age Birthplace
19 Nicklas Backstrom 6' 0" 183 Nov 23, 1987 21 Gavle, SWE
10 Matt Bradley 6' 3" 201 Jun 13, 1978 31 Stittsville, ON, CAN
17 Chris Clark "C" 6' 0" 196 Mar 8, 1976 33 South Windsor, CT, USA
16 Eric Fehr 6' 4" 212 Sep 7, 1985 23 Winkler, MB, CAN
14 Tomas Fleischmann 6' 1" 190 May 16, 1984 25 Koprivnice, CZE
15 Boyd Gordon 6' 0" 201 Oct 19, 1983 25 Unity, SK, CAN
Mike Knuble 6' 3" 230 Jul 4, 1972 37 Toronto, ON, CAN
21 Brooks Laich 6' 2" 210 Jun 23, 1983 26 Wawota, SK, CAN
Brendan Morrison 5' 11" 181 Aug 15, 1975 33 Pitt Meadows, BC, CAN
92 Michael Nylander 6' 1" 195 Oct 3, 1972 36 Stockholm, SWE
8 Alex Ovechkin 6' 2" 220 Sep 17, 1985 23 Moscow, RUS
28 Alexander Semin 6' 2" 205 Mar 3, 1984 25 Krasnojarsk, RUS
39 David Steckel 6' 5" 222 Mar 15, 1982 27 Milwaukee, WI, USA

Defensemen
# Player Height Weight DOB Age Birthplace
4 John Erskine 6' 4" 216 Jun 26, 1980 29 Kingston, ON, CAN
52 Mike Green 6' 2" 208 Oct 12, 1985 23 Calgary, AB, CAN
23 Milan Jurcina 6' 4" 233 Jun 7, 1983 26 Liptovsky, SVK
26 Shaone Morrisonn 6' 4" 210 Dec 23, 1982 26 Vancouver, BC, CAN
2 Brian Pothier 6' 0" 200 Apr 15, 1977 32 New Bedford, MA, USA
3 Tom Poti 6' 3" 210 Mar 22, 1977 32 Worcester, MA, USA
55 Jeff Schultz 6' 6" 221 Feb 25, 1986 23 Calgary, AB, CAN

Goalies
# Player Height Weight DOB Age Birthplace
60 Jose Theodore 5' 11" 182 Sep 13, 1976 32 Laval, QC, CAN
40 Simeon Varlamov 6' 1" 183 Apr 27, 1988 21 Samara, RUS

Jsut because Green scores you don't think he's a solid defnseman? that's the smae thing they said about Leetch - and they were just as wrong. Green plays great positional defense and can outlet the puck quickly and consistently. Poti is solid as well and so is Jeff schults. You guys probably have a better defense corps granted - but their forwards are so much better than your forwards are that ti more than makes up for it.

And quite honestly - i don't think your goaltending si that much better. tehy finished secodn in the conference with tehodore starting and Varlamov got tehm to a Game 7 agaisnt the Pens - and a couple fo the losses weren't his fault. (Game 3 - PP with tow minutes left, OT PPG fo the game winner) comes to mind.

And yes - that team two years ago was n hte playoffs for teh FIRST time and came from 3-1 down to force a Game 7 before losing (in OT IIRC). Tehy're more experienced, tehy are more seasoned - and they are much better than the Flyers. They will finsih at least ten points ahead of you in teh stadnings, assuming no injuries, and depending on trades and such - its either them or the Pens in the Finals.

you take ovechkin out of the picture and their forwards are no where near as good as ours. Their first line w/out oveckin would be backstrum semin and knuble. you can compare that to the richards knuble gagne line we had from last year and you will see what its lacking. hartnell who is our 5-6 best forward has very comparable stats and plays a more overall and grittier game them semin (there 4th best foward). Briere is not hurt this year. That makes our first line Richards Gags and briere and our second line Carter Girouix and hartnell, thats two solid lines that can both produce a ton of points. You still haven't told me the caps second line. Is it semin-nylander (who they don't like and have been trying to move)-unproven minor leaguer? or is it clark/bradley/laich all defensive guys that are good on pk and abotu it? I mean they took a flyer (no pun intended) on brendon morrision who was good 5 years ago w/ tood bertuzzi and nasland (how did that work out by the way?). Eric fehr was supposed to give them more scoring depth and now will be battling with two call ups from the hesery bears in training camp.

Green is not Brian leetch. Leetch was a very very solid defensmen. Green is not. he gets caught up ice and might be okay positionally when in the d-zone (i think the rags exploited him a couple of times early in the series when he was caught looking up ice) but not in the corners or in front of the net. The caps aren't even sure what schultz is going to be and the resigned him for only a year at very little money becuase of it. Poti is mike green lite and by lite i mean lite on the offensive end. Did you see richards destroy Poti a few games last year?

Key difference between leetch and green. Scotty upshall induced green into a fight in the playoffs. Leetch would have ignored someone as insignifigant as him.

The team that the flyers beat in 7 games and that came back from 3-1 two playoffs in a row is not there anymore. Fedorov is gone, Viktor Kozlov is gone, Brasher (i.e. grit) is gone. They are relying on a lot of AHL guys to be their depth this year, and their d-core is still very weak. You named two guys in addition to green that would be the 3rd pairing on most other teams. Milan Jurcina or John erksine is their 4th defensmen....wow.

Yes we have goaltending issues, but one of our goaltenders is proof that a rookie in the playoffs is not how to judge a goalie (boosh). Both of ours have been to stanley cup finals and are now, older, wiser ,still hungry, but not over the hill. Theodore is a joke, has been since his mafia days in MONT. He was so when the caps signed him and then they found out the hard way. The only reason he is still there is becuase of the over large contract they gave him.

Oveckhin is a great player, but he can't carry the team for 82 playoff games and 16 wins (and at they way they go 12 losses) in the playoffs. Yes a lot of his goals are highlite reel goals, becasue he has to do a ton of work himself to score. Who was #2 in the NHL in goasl scored last year behind the Great #8? oh yeah Jeff Carter.

here stags, just for you. Arron Asham undressing Jeff Schultz and Theodore