OFFICIAL 2010-11 NHL SEASON THREAD ... Regular season has ended. Visit Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread.

[True Blues]

Steve Simmons is a freakin' idiot:

[h3][/h3]

[h3]Crosby’s solo career[/h3]
By STEVE SIMMONS, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: October 13, 2010 9:49pm
When Sidney Crosby began the hockey season, he was skating on a line with Eric Tangradi and Mike Comrie.
Which is a lot like putting figure skates on Georges Laraque and expecting him to be elegant.

Ginger Rogers should dance with Gene Kelly. And Crosby, the most accomplished centre in the National Hockey League, should not be forced to carry around plodders, also-rans, wannabes, and those who can’t possibly comprehend or take advatnage of his immense talents.

And how do I say this nicely? This is what the salary cap era has done to the National Hockey League. It has stepped all over the toes of the greatest players in the game. It has, in a very serious way, choked the life out of hockey, at least in the big picture, out of the game I love.

One night, Crosby was with Tangradi and Comrie. Last night he began with Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis as his linemates. And somewhere Bryan Trottier must be thinking about how good he had it — having Mike Bossy on one side and either John Tonelli or Clark Gillies on the other.

Phil Esposito had Ken Hodge and Wayne Cashman.

Wayne Gretzky always had Jari Kurri.

Guy Lafleur played with Steve Shutt and either Jacques Lemaire or Peter Mahovlich.

Marcel Dionne, at his best played, with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer.

But on opening night, Sid the Kid, who is probably underpaid at $8.7 million US per, had wingers with a combined salary of $1.3 million. Up to now, he has been doing his best Billy Idol — Dancing With Myself. And to think, the salary cap was introduced to save hockey, save owners from themselves and keep franchises alive and thriving.

Tell that to Sheldon Souray, Jeff Finger, Wade Redden and Cristobal Huet — almost $20 million worth of NHL of talent — each of them skilled enough to find a place on an NHL team. But there is no place for them.

Why?

Because each of them had the temerity to accept a contract from an NHL general manager that, frankly, was larger than his capabilities. They didn’t make a mistake, their teams did: But they are buried for it now, paid meaningfully to play games that mean little, three of them in the American Hockey League, one of them in Europe, all of them centred out because the contract didn’t work under the salary cap structure of their individual team.

Here is what I’m trying to comprehend: The NHL took a whole season off, toyed with its fan base, to get what it calls cost certainty. Cost certainty then was $39 million.

Today, it’s $59.4 million.

The cap has gone up $20 million in five seasons, which means the hockey business is good. But here’s what makes even less sense: As the cap has increased, it has become more and more difficult to handle. The opposite should have occurred. Ideally, if you have more to spend, it should be easier to balance the books.

But when you see almost every NHL roster dotted at the bottom with players you have to Google to find out who they are and where they came from, you are forced to take a step back and wonder in whose interest all this is.

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, revitalized hockey in Chicago, invigorated the hockey world, then sent half their team packing. All in the name of cap management.

The New Jersey Devils have begun the season playing three men short — and who knows when they will have a full compliment of players. (In almost every other sport, coaches would kill to have larger rosters: In the NHL, the opposite is occurring.) On Wednesday night, they progressed to playing only two men short. All in the name of cap management.

Cap space has become the equivalent of power in the NHL. But hardly anyone of consequence has any.

Players aren’t valuable any more. Cap space is. And the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have any room. And if you wonder why Sid the Kid isn’t scoring 150 points a season, take a look at his linemates. Mario Lemieux may have turned Warren Young and Rob Brown into 40-goal scorers, but The Kid is no Mario. There aren’t any of those anymore.

 

[DeadsetAce]

god this one week off for the bruins is killer. cant wait for saturday

 

[frenchblue23]

This dude Jonathan Quick, I mean he never seizes to amaze me sometimes.

And the unfortunate part is, he plays on a West Coast team that doesn't get much exposure, so not everyone knows about him.

Any who, Kings/Canucks game was great tonight, the energy inside Staples Center had it feeling like it was a playoff game.

 

[doublejs07]

Hate the Pens w. a passion, but Letang was jobbed on that hit of Comeau....NHL needs to do something about these game misconducts that are being handed out so quickly....I'm in favor of replay of questionable open-ice hits.

 

[solemate96]

Originally Posted by DeadsetAce

god this one week off for the bruins is killer. cant wait for saturday

You got that right! 

 

[dmxfury]

I'd be cool with that


Glad the Pens got a win at home finally

 

[scuse7]

Hossa already playing like a man this year...


And I saw quick play great last night, twcs has free NHL package to start the year

 

[DownByLaw]

Things I have noticed so far:

1.) Hossa is off to a solid start.
2.) Hawks have Stanley Cup hangover.
3.) Toronto looks good
4.) Ducks & Devils are trash

 

[offbad]

sharrrrks!

 

[useref15]

Its going to be a tough few weeks without Gaborik.....SMH.



I want to see Boogaard fight somebody already!

 

[solemate96]

Great game by the Bruins tonight! Some of the highlights of tonight's game: 
1. Caron's 1st goal. 

2. The 4th line chipping in a goal.

 No need for Paille anymore; just put Marchand in there because that little munchkin is a pest! 

3. Sick feeds by Seguin and Krejci. 

4. Thomas and his new hip. 

 

[offbad]

byfuglien

 

[sosly]

eff you Oilers. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :]
I'm still angry that they got two of my favorite prospects: MPS and Rajala

 

[agold1002]

gonna try and make it out to glendale sometime int he next week or two to catch a game in person...gotta love going to a hockey game in shorts and a tee

 

[DeadsetAce]

Originally Posted by Solemate96

Great game by the Bruins tonight! Some of the highlights of tonight's game: 
1. Caron's 1st goal. 

2. The 4th line chipping in a goal.

 No need for Paille anymore; just put Marchand in there because that little munchkin is a pest! 

3. Sick feeds by Seguin and Krejci. 

4. Thomas and his new hip. 

word. caron and seguin contributing from the get-go so far. huge.
the krejci pass to lucic was amazing. and the ryder snipe was classic ryder. dude is probably the best sniper on the team when he's not slumping, which can be quite often

i'm still not sold on thomas. it boggles my mind how he makes some of the saves he does. the flopping kills me. but he's hot right now, so i guess you gotta go with him.

bring on the caps...

 

[DownByLaw]

Who's the Asian reporter on NESN? 

 

[DeadsetAce]

Originally Posted by FIRST B0RN

Who's the Asian reporter on NESN? 

her first season was god awful. last year she got a lot better. and now i feel like she knows what shes talking about

 

[DownByLaw]

I was watching NHL on the fly and was actually shocked, she seemed to actually know what the hell she was talking about 

 

[numberr97]

what line is taylor hall on, and what line is seguin on?

Blackhawk fans how do you guys like turco? I know it must feel terrible with him in net.

 

[DeadsetAce]

Originally Posted by Numberr97

what line is taylor hall on, and what line is seguin on?

technically it's the third line. seguin centers ryder and recchi.

but julien has been toying with the lines. last night he stuck with them all game. we'll see if he mixes em up. but the current configs have scored 7 in two games, so they look good.

 

[smoke ya later]

Originally Posted by FIRST B0RN

I was watching NHL on the fly and was actually shocked, she seemed to actually know what the hell she was talking about 

I need this channel back ASAP

 

[doublejs07]

Jack Edwards is terrible. That's all.

 

[True Blues]

Originally Posted by DoubleJs07

Jack Edwards is terrible. That's all.

Blasphemy!!!

 

[physicx]

^

and hall plays on the 2nd line with horcoff and eberle. theyre still tweaking the lines though but i hope they dont break this one up

screw the flames though...

 

[True Blues]

Anyone else catch Conklin's robbery of Ribeiro?

The user won't let me embed, but here's a link: