Neech

Bonk makes 1.475, and Johnson makes 700k, both less than Smoke and Kost respectively. Price was alright, nothing special either way.

We need to wait a season or two.

Yeah, last season I was sad to lose Bonk but I thought he would command too much money so I was OK with it. But now he's making half of what he was, and we're stuck with Smolinski who is mediocre at best. Last season Bonk was one of the biggest reasons we got off to that good start. I've grown to really hate Redden, he seems like worthless heap of shit. Their team was really targeting Lapierre, and then they go after lil Teets.

Ah well, this sucked. It'll bring us back down to Earth and help some fans realize that teams like the Sens are still in another league from us. This is really one of those games where you wish that we had some goon to send out to bash some faces and release frustration, but I get pissed when other teams do that to us in these situations. It looked like lil Teeties was really hurt from that Redden punch, but he looked like he was alright afterwards, so I hope he's ok. He probably should have had some ice on his face in the penalty box. Look at me, I feel all protective of our lil Teets Every shot that they took seemed to find its way in. Yeah, they outplayed us, but they got ALL the bounces, and then some extra bounces too. I think we actually had more scoring chances than them but couldn't beat Emery or the posts. The Koivu line was creating some positives out there. And on the powerplay, Streit needs to realize that he's our FIFTH most dangerous threat on the ice, so stop taking hasty 45-foot slapshots and pass it to Kovy. Like others have said, our defense is really exposed without Hamrlik. Komi looked foolish on that Heatley goal, and while I'm not trying to scapegoat Breezer, he shouldn't be on the ice. All in all this loss is tough, but it isn't so bad for us in the long run. It'll show our young team that we still have a ways to go if we want to become an elite team. And we did come back with a flurry of scoring chances after Huet was pulled, which is a good sign. I hope we regroup and get another 4 points this week in Flow-da.

Yeah, there's no way that Brisebois will be back next year, the performances of players this year have shown that he is not needed.

I admire your dedication, Trizzak. If there are empty seats I don't see why they wouldn't let you do that. You'll probably have to watch it without sound to not disturb people, but there's also a good chance of there being other fans on the bus who would be ecstatic to watch a hockey game on a boring bus ride. A couple of questions: how long is the bus ride going to be? If it's to Thunder Bay one would assume it's going to be pretty long. And are you bringing the TV and generator along for the trip for the sole purpose of watching the game tonight? If so, then you are truly a die-hard fan. Yeah, this'll be tough with Hammer out, I hope Brisebois isn't playing and they put Dandy back there. My optimistic prediction: 5-4 win for us. A. Kosty, S. Kosty, Koivu, Markov, and Lapierre score, two assists for Kovalev.

Yeah, we'd sure be laughing at it if it were Leafs players.

That is officially the post of the year! Great job Helmethead. But that scenario just makes me feel bad about losing Chrissy, I mean she's such a good girl and her and Bobby are great together.

Isn't Atlanta pretty set for their LWs? I don't think Higgins would be the guy they want. And to people talking about Hossa signing for 3-4 more years: don't you think it would be more likely that he would go for a longer contract, more like 5-7 years, like other players in situations similar to his (Heatley, Spezza, Drury, Gomez etc.)?

Do you write everything twice on purpose?

I wouldn't bet on it, we say that any time there's any sort of minor roster moves. Why isn't it safe to assume that he's just tinkering with his Hamilton roster?

I've gotten over rooting against Theo, now I wish him success and hope he can get the Avs somewhere in the playoffs if they make it.

Even if we finish in 8th it is still an improvement, although it would be a little disappointing after our good run. But yeah, any playoffs is what we want and any success therein is a bonus.

Yeah, but Kovalev had the contract and the confidence in him already last season. Plus, every other season Ryder signed a one-year deal. He had all the motivation to go for the money with his UFA year coming up, so a poor frame of mind on his part can hardly be blamed on the organization.

Wikipedia is always helpful. link

Not that well... so we should all start bitching out Plekanec for not being good enough!

Yeah, I was kind of hoping for OT so both teams would get points, and hopefully Toronto goes on a run and manages to finish 10th.

Didn't he have like 66 career goals, 26 of which came last year? His big goals were awesome, especially the ones that went DING off the crossbar and in, when he'd just step into it from the slot and everyone would be off their seats in anticipation a few seconds before. But he just had too many holes in his game, and he really was like our McCabe, except even McCabe is probably better all-around.

Hey thanks!!! But I wasn't there. Haha, good job. Even if they lost that must have been such an exciting game to be at. The Kovalev goal kind of reminded me of that Rivet goal on Theodore coming out of the penalty box in terms of awesomeness. Yeah, I don't really fault him for our loss. I was just suggesting that maybe Carbo could put Latendresse on the PP because Kosty wasn't doing much there, and Lats could be a bigger presence in front of the net.

Bah, sucked that we lost, but this was one hell of a game. A clear showcase why no arena comes close to the Bell centre. Man, Kovy's short-handed goal was such an awesome play, after the scramble in front of our net and then he's all alone. That's what hockey's about. Well, we didn't play all that well, but once again it wasn't that bad either. We had plenty of chances but just couldn't bury them. Our powerplay had great control in their zone but we just couldn't put the right passes together. Andrei Kostitsyn didn't have his best night, I think on our third or fourth powerplay Carbo should have put Latendresse out with Plex and Kovy to stand in front of the net and bang in rebounds. Once again it was our top line being our offensive catalysts, but I think Koivu had a pretty good game, and his line was decent. Higgins was pretty useless again, I'm not sure what's going on with him or what it'll take to get him out of the funk. Brisebois was pretty bad, he had some costly defensive breakdowns again. It might even be better to just put Dandenault in that spot, I think he's more physical and more responsible. But really, the most remarkable thing about this game was AK27, he was a man among boys out there. Amazing to watch. Anyways, I don't care if we don't catch the Sens because I never thought that it would happen for us (although it could be nice). I'd still be happy with this team finishing in a playoff spot, and anywhere above 7th is an unexpected bonus. Let's not forget where we thought this team was before the season started, we're doing great and first place isn't a big concern for me.

You guys that are going are really lucky. Make sure that the 'Leafs SUCK' chant is especially deafening. This'll be a great game, plus it's televised nationally, so I hope we really take it to them.

That Leafs picture is priceless. Awesome thread, Cataclaw! And way to get it out early too. Great job.

Yep, this is how I feel. We have a good team, but we're young and we didn't make the playoffs last year; we're on the rise. Although things are becoming clearer by the day, it's still early to judge the value of many of our young players. They show promise, and we could feasibly have almost all the talent we need on this team (or in the system) already. This is not 'our year', but 'our year' is coming up. If a great offer comes, then take it, but otherwise it's best to stick with what we've got. And I wouldn't be so certain that Ottawa's approaching the end of their window of Cup contention yet, Alfredsson is the only guy who's really getting old. Besides him, all their key players are locked up for a while: Heatley, Spezza, Fisher, Phillips, Volchenkov. They should be good for while (depending of course on their young players).

He's signed for two more years at 5.25 million per year, a good deal. I agree with habanero that he would be an ideal guy to take Koivu's place once his contract is up.

Like I and many others have said before, there's no big need to do a deal now, so unless we get a good deal we might as well sit on what we got, which is a good young team.