Mils

That's awesome. No matter which way the Habs go in game 7, we will find out exactly what Carey Price is made of. he's a young kid, under an insane amount of pressure. The last time we saw this was 1986, with a guy with a 3 letter last name and two 3's on the back of his jersey. He came through just fine and turned out to be one of the top 2 (giving Brodeur his due) best goaltenders of all time. If he crumbles, then he will be a decent starting oalie, but not one that will take you to any Stanley Cups... if he's solid, and plays a good game, win or lose, he's the legit goalie of the future. In the mean time, I was at Pepsi centre tonight, and Theo was brilliant. Thanks for him. I think we (the Avs) won that trade.

Avs all the way... even when you picked Minnesota in 4? Intriguing.

Rd. 1 1. Montreal vs 8. Boston: Habs in 4 2. Pittsburgh vs 7. Ottawa: Pens in 5 3. Washington vs 6. Philadelphia: Washington in 5 Ovechkin takes over. 4. New Jersey vs 5. NY Rangers: Devils in 7 Brodeur wins this battle of the goaltenders 1. Detroit vs 8. Nashville: Nashville in 5 Preds take the physical game to the Wings, and the Red Wings don't adjust. 2. San Jose vs 7. Calgary: San Jose in 7 3. Minnesota vs 6. Colorado: Colorado in 7 At least 2 OT games, and 1 other decided in the last 3:00 of regulation. 4. Anaheim vs 5. Dallas: Dallas in 6 Rd. 2 1. Montreal vs. 4. New Jersey: Habs in 6 Price starts to look like Roy and Giguere. 2. Pittsburgh vs. 3. Washington: Pens in 6 Crosby + Malkin is greater than Kolzig or Huet 2. San Jose vs. 8. Nashville: Sharks in 5 Thornton proves to just be too much. 5. Dallas vs. 6. Colorado: Colorado in 6 The Avs come rolling off of the Lemaire system Wild and have an easier time with Dallas' D. Rd. 3 1. Montreal vs. 2. Pittsburgh: Pens in 6 The Pittsburgh offense does it all. Fleury gets some lucky breaks. 2. San Jose vs. 6. Colorado: Avs in 7 Forsberg-Sakic-Hejduk proves to be the cure for Evgeni Nabokov. Finals 2. Pittsburgh vs. 6. Colorado: In an offensive showcase of 20th vs. 21st century, Crosby and Malkin are just too much for Theo and the rest of the Avs' defense. A beaten up Colorado team (probably missing Forsberg, and maybe Foote for at least one of these games) just can't keep pace. One game features 10 or more combined goals as Budaj and Conklin both rack up at least 10 minutes in this series. Pens in 5. Conn Smythe: Evgeni Malkin

I want to be the first to speculate that they will at least entertain the idea of trying to pick up a stud defenseman. They've got Lecavalier to build around up front, I think a solid, physical blue-liner (Bogosian) might be more what they need.

Don't say I never gave you anything: TSN broadcast schedule, including COL vs. MIN: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=233725&hubname=

Svats is out. Torn ACL. He's on the shelf for at least 3 more months.

Jets is a prophet.

And to finally answer the question that started this thread: Since the thread was started on the morning of March 3rd, Forsberg has tallied 1G and 13A for 14 Pts. Sakic has 4G and 11A for 15 Pts. The Sakics pull out a narrow victory. With that said... I'd still take Forsberg every time. He actually played in 9 games, as opposed to Sakic's 16 since March 3rd. That puts Forsberg at a 1.56 point per game pace. In the last four games he's played, his point totals are 3,3,2,3. Stellar. Let's do the math: If Forsberg only played 9 out of every 16 game (56.25% of games, or about 46 games), then he would STILL score around 71-72 points (9-10 G and 62-63 A). Note: Crosby put up 72 points this year, and it took him, supposedly the best in the game right now, 53 games. Hypothetically, if Forsberg played a full season at that pace (it's a pipe-dream to think he'd be healthy for 82 straight games, but for the sake of argument), he would score something on the order of about 125-130 points, probably nearing 100 assists. (Ovechkin finished the year with the most points this year with 112... Forbserg, in theory, couldbe capable of almost matching that in assists only.) Say what you will about him being injury prone and all of that, most of it is true, he is injured a lot.The bottom line is that the guy makes things happen. He's still a MAJOR force. He's still an asset to any team, and his production at the end of this season has shown, not only is he not a liability, he's a serious component to the success of any team he plays for. Anybody who still wants to say that they don't want Forsberg is just ignoring the facts. If he plays more than 55 or 60 games in any season from here on out, he's in any respectable Hart trophy discussion. His injury status is now the only debate, not his ability. Flyersfan: "Guess how many finger I'm holding up." -Drew Carey

ha. I put the Avalanche on the poll, just to be a ridiculous homer, but it looks like they're in second place. Awesome. My heart says Avs in 4, but my brain says Minnesota in 7. Flashback to 2003. GO AVS!!

I think you're referring to EJ Hradek. He's okay. Not anything remarkable.

Somebody remind me the last time Melrose made a correct pick about anything. It hasn't happened in my life time. Is it any wonder he makes his playoff picks "subject to change?" Yes, it happens. He's the only person the regular football-loving, give me the hot stove league or give me death ESPN regular viewer associates with hockey. What ever happened to Al Morganti?

Firing up the 2008 edition of the Colorado Rockies bandwagon. Everybody hop on now, because you don't want to admit you were entirely wrong about them two years in a row. 88-74 Second in the NL West to the Dodgers (90-72), NL Wild Card once again. NL Pennant: NY Mets, in a 7 game thriller over the Rockies, with Johan Santana throwing a lights-out 2 hitter in game 7.

Count Basie (Big-band drummer) died on the day I was born. My birthday seems to be associated with destruction. 1865: John Wilkes Booth got what he had coming. (He dead.) 1986: Chernobyl blew up. 1992: Rodney King riots. (Later immortalized in the song "April 26, 1992," by Sublime.) 1995: The Rockies play the inaugural game in Coors Field after the 1994 baseball players strike. Dante Bichette hits a walk-off home-run in the 14th inning. Shakespeare was born (or baptized, depending on who you ask) 320 years to the day before I was born. According to Wikipedia, April 26 was one of the two alleged days on which Muhammed (THE Muhammed) was born. (April 20 is the other... that's scary.) Other births: (1933) Carol Burnett, (1963) Jet Li, (1965) Kevin James, and (1976) Vaclav Varada (That's right, THE Vaclav Varada. )

Not at all. It's always good to have converters from the dark side... even if it is horribly temporary.

:?- ...

Went to the Avs - Edmonton game last night. First 19:54 of the third period amounted to the worst period I have seen the Avalanche play in a very long time. Last 0:05.9, OT, and the Shootout was the most excited I've been for that team in a long time. That could be a big moment for this team if they make a darkhorse playoff run. (See: Todd Helton's walk-off homer against Saito last season to kick-off the 21/22 run to the playoffs and world series.)

I don't know. I suppose that's the crux of my question. I imagine that it is number of tickets sold, but that's just a guess. If the methodology has remained the same with the NHL, then that really shouldn't matter, because, in theory, the embellishment would probably remain roughly the same. Perhaps the pessimist would say, "They used to count butts in seats, but now they're going off ticket sales, just so they can say they're setting records. They know that nobody has the knowledge or resources to refute their claims." "Great story... compelling and rich." -Anchorman For the sake of consideration, according to ESPN.com, the only teams who have sold out every game this season (100.0%+ home attendance) are: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?s...t&year=2008 Calgary Toronto Ottawa Buffalo Minnesota Anaheim Vancouver Pittsburgh Philadelphia Montreal New York Rangers I am not sure how the "winter classic" affected PIT and/or BUF. Depends on the methodology, to which we do not have access. 3 Original sixers, 5 out of the 6 Canadian teams (Edm. is 13), 4 out of 6 "expansion 6" cities (no Kings or Blues, but Minnesota is there), only 1 90s expansion team, and 0 teams in the "South," although Anaheim is only at 33 degrees N. Latitute, it's not in the traditional "south" like ATL, FLA, TB, DAL, NAS, or CAR. The bottom 5 are: Boston Washington Columbus Chicago Florida Very interesting. 2 original 6 teams (both American), 2 90s expansion teams, and the Capitals. Not to mention 3/4 teams that have been/still are right in the thick of a playoff race. The three traditional american sellout teams in the western conference (DET, DAL, COL) are 16, 14, 17 respectively. All above 93% capacity.

I want to know what other hockey folks make of the information in this article: In brief, the article says, citing specific statistics, that attendance for the month of march will increase something on the order of about 500 fans per game. According to the article -- which I'm not taking as gospel, but granting a certain presumption of truth -- this will set a new all-time record for attendance in the month of March. My first reaction was, "Yeah, but there are more teams now than ever, so what do you expect?" But upon closer review, the numbers are "per game," which controls for number of teams. So, here is the question: What does this mean? I have a few ideas. 1.) The uber-optimist: "This obviously means that, despite Gary Bettman's best efforts, the sport is beginning to grow again. TV ratings are getting better (See: Winter Classic pulling biggest audience since mid-1990s), people are identifying with the super-stars like Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin, and people are attending games in larger numbers. This means that hockey is headed back into "big four" status in the U.S. This opens the door for the final expansion to 32 teams, and a solid alignment of 8 divisions of 4 teams each, and a slight tweak of the current playoff format. Hockey is moving into the 21st century, starting now. Hockey should be back on ESPN in no time." 2.) The tempered optimist: "This is a good sign that the first step back towards respectability in American markets has been taken. Hockey is a game best enjoyed live, and does not televise well. With that said, it is good to see that people across the U.S. are taking notice again. However, this is just a small step forward, and the league cannot get carried away with what almost destroyed it: expansion. Continuing with the game as it is now and continuing to market the game and the players aggresively and trying to return to ESPN would all be good things to do. The worst thing possible would be to see the league go back to the crazy expansion, run-away salaries, and constant rule tinkering that cost us the 2004-2005 season. Good to see the positive numbers though, slow and steady wins the race." 3.) Neutral: "That's nice and all, but those numbers are probably a little bit inflated. It's good to see more people going to games, since the best way to watch a hockey game is from the stands. But, on the same note, the NHL claimed to be setting attendance records left and right last season too, so we have to wonder where the numbers are coming from." 4.) Pessimist: "Those numbers are inflated by ticket giveaways and promotions going on all over the league to try o get people in the U.S. to go see hockey games again. They'll keep claiming attendance records until they can't anymore. The numbers are also too big because of all of the playoff races. People want to see the exciting games, and there's no reason to believe that this will translate into better attendance or TV numbers long term. Plus, the owners have to get tickets out the door to pay players. It would be a lot more impressive to see these kinds of numbers in November and December." 5.) Pierre The Great: "Gary bettman and his cronies are inventing these numbers to try to get violence-obsessed, blood thirsty Americans to rip themselves away from a car race and a 40 of Mickey's long enough to watch a hockey game. Bettman continues to ruin the NHL by trying to cater to American markets, and the only way to make it seem like it's working is to convince lemming-like American consumers that all their friends are doing it. If the NHL was reduced to 4 teams, all in Canada, the attendance numbers would be 116.73%. Season tickets to the 4 teams would sell out in 19 minutes and 38 seconds, and ech time would have a roster of solid all-stars. Nobody deserves a team south of the Mason-Dixon line or west of the Mississippi river, so they could go, and nobody would miss them, and they wouldn't miss their teams. These non-hockey markets are killing hockey. The attendance would be way over 100% if all of the non-hockey markets got out of MY sport. If Gary Bettman expands the NHL, I will personally find him and kick his dog." So, where do you all fall on this? Are these numbers legit? How excited should we get? PTG: All in good fun.

Beat the hell out of them, thank you kindly.

I don't know a whole lot about his career in Montreal, being an Avalanche fan since '95, but it seems to me that a lot of his character "issues" get blown way out of proportion. He went into a Hartley's office and broke a few TVs after Billington got credit for a win where Billington came in for about 1:00, and the Avalanche scored. The media made it sound like he destroyed the whole office in a blind rage. Later, he went home and broke two french doors at home. The media, local and national, at very least hinted that he was assualting his wife. This thing with his kid... not great, but still, all he did was wave his arm. But, if Crawford is going to be implicated in the Bertuzzi thing, then Roy is just as culpable, if not more, in this situation. Roy is an angel compared to his counterparts in the NBA and NFL. No drug issues, no performance enhancers issue, and he's not shooting bystanders at night clubs (Ray Lewis, Pacman Jones). He breaks household appliances... I don't find that extremely morally reprehensible. He's always been mean, especially on the ice (ask Dino Ciccarelli), and that came through here. Not a big deal. I voted that they should consider character, but I think he still watches 33 go to the rafters. (#33 hangs in the Pepsi Centre rafters, along with Bourque's #77 (go figure on that one), but Colorado doesn't have nearly as much history as the bleu, blanc, et rouge.)

Doesn't help that the Avs played like ass.

Hey. I'm in Denver, CO, and we just set our clocks ahead an hour, supposedly going off "daylight savings time." It appears that my timestamp got an hour closer to Montreal time (I'm now within 2 hours, where I was 3 hours behind last week.) The question: Does Montreal adjust their clocks twice a year for "daylight savings," or does everything stay the same all through the year? Second question: What time zone is Montreal in officially? thanks. :hlogo:

Avs and 'Nucks first round seed no. 3 v. 6 in the west. Colorado goes 8-2-0 in their last 10 (100 pts.) Minnesota: 4-7-0 (95 pts.) Calgary: 6-4-1 (97 pts.) Vancouver: 8-1-2 (98 pts.) Wishful thinking for sure... but a fan is allowed some ridiculous hope at this time of year... especially having seen the Colorado Rockies do their thing last fall. (that was awesome. Once in a lifetime thing.) Avalanche in 6 after a 4 OT game winner by Mason Raymond in game 5. These predictions will be revisited... I will probably feel shame. haha.

Peter McNab (the same guy who assisted Mike Milbury in assaulting a Ranger fan with the fan's shoe at MSG in 1979) said on the broadcast tonight that Salei's black eye might be the worst he's seen in hockey. That is a thing to behold. McNab is #8, Milbury #26:

One thing being mildly overlooked in the Avs run is the play of the second tier forwards who weren't especially productive from the all-star breakup until the last rash of injuries (Foote, Forsberg, Leopold, Salei). Specifically, I'm looking at Jaro Hlinka, Wojtek Wolski, and David Jones. To start at the end, Jones's play in the last two games speaks for itself. he's been hitting, scoring, and setting up Bruno and Sakic with excellent opportunities. I dare not compare him to Peter Forsberg, but he has filled in very nicely in last 2 games. Wolski contributed a goal tonight, and he has been contributing (except for being a scratch against Atlanta) although it hasn't shown up on the score sheet. He's showing glimmers of finally coming out of his shell a little bit... but unless he gets some confidence soon, he'll turn into another Adam Deadmarsh -- good player to have, but never lived up to potential. Hlinka seemed like he was everywhere against Edmonton. He had a beautiful pass to set up Wolski's breakaway and he had a goal of his own as well as an assist agianst Atlanta. All three of these guys are playing their best hockey of the season at the right time. When Forsberg comes back (assuming he stays healthy, which is never a safe assumption), Wolski, Hlinka, and Jones could all be very nice contributors on a 3rd/4th line. Top 6: Forsberg, Sakic, Hejduk, Stastny, Smyth, Bruno. 3rd line Lappy, Guite, and one of the Cody Mc's. (This leaves out Arnason, the other of the Cody Mc's 55/11, Parker (inj.), and Svatos (inj.)). A little scoring punch against the other team's 5/6 defensemen would be a great asset with Wolski, Hlinka, and Jones left over. Unfortunately for David Jones or Cody McLeod, unless somebody else goes out for the playoffs, one of them ends up in Lake Erie because it certainly won't be any of the others. I would send McLeod down if I were Q. Either way, so long as we get over the injury bug headed into the second season, I like our forwards. Sidenote: On Salei, I couldn't agree more, he's been everything we were hoping Scott Hannan would be and more. Solid positioning, physical, and contributes on the offensive end. Excellent trade.