Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Hannibal]

Yet another awful offseason for Holland.

[WingsFan]

Kid is a warrior, to have wrist surgery,

Right, more like just another boo boo (excuse) for Cindys terrible playoff.

Despite reports to the contrary earlier this month, Crosby will not have surgery on his wrist according to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team released a brief statement Tuesday to confirm that Crosby will not be going under the knife.

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/24621962/sidney-crosby-wont-have-surgery-on-wrist-after-all

[Optimus Prime]

Bob Probert was the king, plain and simple. Contender after contender after contender tried him, and man after man after man lost. He was The Heavy. He was the ‘90s best enforcer, and the standard by which all others were measured.

Probie TKO's Scott Parker
[Youtube]GFJ1HZ2CU5g[/YouTube]

[Optimus Prime]

Crosby's agent says surgery is still an option.
http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/538348

[Optimus Prime]

When Czar Putin isn't busy shooting down civilian commercial jets with Russian missles, he's doling out expensive German automobiles to "B" Russian hockey players courtesy of the impoverished Russian tax payer.

You'd think after their national embarrassment at the REAL world championship during the Olympics in Sochi Russia they'd be Gulag bound?

I guess it's a kinder gentler Moscow these days?



Putin gives players from Russia's winning World Championship team Mercedes-Benzes

[Optimus Prime]

Wings show $650M new arena, Lighted like the Bolshoi in Sochi, ice 32 ft. Below ground level so building has a lower profile? Looks awesome!

http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/540174

[Optimus Prime]

Canada kicked the shit out of Russia today in Exhibition play 5-2 in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Aaron Ekblad sat out with concussion, 1st overall draft pick will likely play for his NHL club (Florida) this fall at age 18 will probably miss the Tourney. Connor McDavid looked unreal centering Robbie Fabbri & Nick Richie, fully expect these guys to crush Russia again in the medal round.

Russia and Putin should be banned from International play anyway, F them.

The World Jr. Tournament held over Christmas is split between Toronto & Montreal this year. Tickets sold out over 2 years ago.


Hockey Canada has announced its slate of 41 players invited to its National Junior Team summer development camp, set for Aug. 3-8 in Brossard, Montreal and Sherbrooke, Que.

The list includes 11 returning members from the squad that finished fourth at the 2014 World Junior Hockey Championship in Malmo, Sweden.

Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad and Jonathan Drouin headline the returnees but they are joined by a wealth of prospects from Canadian NHL clubs, including Winnipeg Jets prospects Nicolas Petan and Josh Morrissey, Montreal Canadiens prospect Zachary Fucale, Toronto Maple Leafs pick Frederik Gauthier, Vancouver Canucks prospect Bo Horvat and Ottawa Senators pick Curtis Lazar.

The list also features some of the top names eligible for Friday's 2015 NHL Draft, beyond Reinhart and Ekblad. Sam Bennett, Michael Dal Colle, Jake Virtanen, Nick Ritchie and Haydn Fleury are all projected Top 10 picks that got the invite to the camp.

Other prospects of note that got invited include: Darnell Nurse and Greg Chase (Edmonton), Max Domi (Phoenix), Morgan Klimchuk (Calgary), Eric Comrie (Winnipeg), Jeremy Gregoire (Montreal) and Ben Harpur (Ottawa).

A total of 22 players will be selected to represent Canada at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2014 to Jan. 5, 2015 in Montreal and Toronto.

[Optimus Prime]

I'd like the board to observe a moment of silence as "The Trade" just date recently passed, August 9th , a day that will live in infamy.

Gretzky turned professional sport on its head.

[Youtube]263540[/YouTube]

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=263540

[Optimus Prime]

Don't ever kid yourself, the greatest athletes in the world.
[Youtube]iHiVBehzP9E[/YouTube]

[Optimus Prime]

Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, arguably the best hockey player in the world, and Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, the first overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft and reigning rookie of the year, travel back to Cole Harbour to keep themselves sharp. They've been joined in recent years by MacKinnon's All-Star Colorado teammate Matt Duchene.......watch Duchene dance with the puck in front of net, unreal. Colorado is an elite defenceman away from the SC.

[Youtube]nWWvRjMDr4s[/YouTube]

[Optimus Prime]

Lots of chatter, NHL to expand by 2017, Las Vegas, Seattle, Toronto (2nd) & Quebec City gets its NHL team back.

http://www.si.com/nhl/2014/08/26/rep...-nhl-expansion

[Optimus Prime]

Screw the Olympics , it's always been about amateur sport anyway, which is the way it should be IMO.

Canada Cup, World Cup, this is what we do, just like old times!



The World Cup is a step closer to becoming a reality, according to hokej.cz. The details are reportedly being ironed out over the next few months, with IIHF president Rene Fasel holding a meeting in Toronto in October.

Details are few, but the tournament will take place between Sept. 15 and Oct. 1 2016, featuring eight teams from the top hockey nations, six of which were confirmed by NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, according to the report. Whether the rankings will be decided by Olympic or IIHF standings is still unclear.

The six teams set to participate are Canada, the United States, Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Two other countries are expected to be announced at a later date.

[Hannibal]

SHOCKING NEWS:

Pavel Datsyuk is injured again and he will miss probably October.

[Optimus Prime]

The Kid remains unchallenged, let's hope Pittsburgh can add an enforcer or two to protect his ass. Crosby & Malkin got routinely mugged last season.

Steve Dryden - Senior Managing Editor, Hockey
Sidney Crosby is top of the TSN polls for a fifth straight year - reaffirming his status as the best hockey player in the world.
Crosby was the overwhelming choice as the NHL’s No.1 player in balloting by a selection of league general managers and coaches and TSN experts. The Penguins’ captain received 85 per cent of first place votes. Crosby, chosen first overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, has been chosen first overall all five years of the TSN Top 50 Players poll. He was the 2013-14 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award winner, marking the second time in his nine-year NHL career he swept the three highest regular season honors.

http://www.tsn.ca/crosby-tops-tsn-ho...layers-1.94060

How Crosby's dominance among NHL players remains unparalleled
A challenge to Sidney Crosby's supremacy seemed within the realm of possibility when ballots went out for voting on TSN Hockey's Top 50 this year.
Sure, Crosby was the big individual regular season winner in 2013-14 but it was conceivable that consecutive (and disappointing) playoff exits could diminish the Pittsburgh centre's greatness, however slightly - and leave an opening in voters' minds for a rival to wedge in and earn serious consideration.
Didn't happen.
Eighty-five per cent of voters on a panel of NHL coaches, general managers and TSN experts named the 2013-14 Art Ross Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award winner No. 1 on their ballots. It was a rout again – he earned 88 per cent of No. 1 votes in 2013 - making it five straight years Crosby has been voted the world's best player in the TSN poll.
Only Chicago Blackhawks centre Jonathan Toews kept it from being unanimous.
There is but one conclusion. Crosby remains unparalleled, if not unstoppable – witness five pointless games in a seven-game second round playoff loss to the New York Rangers – with the latter saying less about No. 87 and more about the lack of Pittsburgh's depth and extraordinary depth of competition in today's game.
Entering his milestone 10th NHL season, Crosby has never scored at less than a 100-point full-season pace and is fourth all-time in points per game (1.40). Joining him in the top five are Wayne Gretzky (1.92), Mario Lemieux (1.88 ), Mike Bossy (1.50 ) and Bobby Orr (1.39).
If the measure of a hockey player is the company he keeps, then Crosby belongs among the pantheon of all-time greats.
The faces of the game have followed a clear lineage since the start of the 20th century: Frank McGee, ‘Cyclone’ Taylor, Howie Morenz, Eddie Shore, ‘Rocket’ Richard, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Orr, Guy Lafleur, Gretzky, Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and now Crosby.
The only recent blemishes for Crosby have been unproductive post-season finishes against Boston in 2013 and the Rangers in 2014. But he remains, in the minds of most, the most dangerous player on the planet. That includes the playoffs, where he stands sixth all-time in points per game (1.20) behind Gretzky (1.84), Lemieux (1.61), Messier (1.25), Orr (1.24) and Bossy (1.24).
Toews was the only other player to receive No. 1 votes and he placed second in balloting, improving upon his No. 3 ranking in 2013. The Chicago superstar – who was actually used more than Crosby during Canada's gold medal run in Sochi - is the consummate captain and champion, winning two World Junior Championships, two Stanley Cups and of course, two Olympic gold medals.
Steven Stamkos, meanwhile, continued his inexorable climb up the rankings, moving from No. 10 (2010) to No. 6 (2011) to No. 4 (2012 and 2013) to No. 3 this year. It may be Stamkos and not Toews who eventually supplants Crosby. At No. 4 is Ryan Getzlaf who has scored more points than anyone but Crosby since a dreadful 2011-12 season. And at No. 5 is two-time Cup champ and analytics darling Anze Kopitar who made the year's most significant breakthrough, rising from No. 18 in 2013.
Completing the exclusive group are centre Evgeni Malkin (No. 6), who trails only Crosby in regular season and playoff points per game since 2005-06; defenceman Drew Doughty (No. 7), who based on Stanley Cup and Olympic performances, is the game's best big game blueliner; rearguard Shea Weber (No. 9), the NHL's leading goal-scorer from the blue line since entering the league in 2005; and right winger Patrick Kane (No. 10), who earns as many style points as actual points for the works of art he creates on ice.
Here are 10 more takeaways from TSN Hockey's Top 50:
1. NHL goal leader Alexander Ovechkin, who ranked No. 2 the first two years of the poll, is at No. 12 this season.
2. Jamie Benn experienced the biggest rise in the rankings, moving 22 places from No. 37 to No. 15.
3. Henrik Lundqvist is the top-ranked goalie at No. 16 and only netminder to make the list all five seasons.
4. First Team All-Star Zdeno Chara (No. 6 to No. 23) and Eric Staal (No. 28 to No. 45) experienced the biggest falls from grace, dropping 17 places.
5. Phil Kessel, whose 94 goals over the past three seasons rank fourth, moved to No. 38 from No. 43, but third-leading scorer Corey Perry (95 goals) is at No. 14.
6. Four players named to the previous four Top 50 lists were voted off the list: 30-year-old Rick Nash, 34-year-olds Henrik and Danel Sedin and 39-year-old Marty St. Louis.
7. Only six of 30 teams are not represented: Calgary, Vancouver and Winnipeg, along with Buffalo, Florida and New Jersey.
8. Chicago and Boston have the highest representation with five players each. Colorado boasts a league-high three players on the list who are 23 or younger - Matt Duchene (23), Nate MacKinnon (19) and Gabe Landeskog (21) – plus goalie Semyon Varlamov (26).
9. Eight players earned Top 50 status for the first times in their careers – including 30th-ranked Tuukka Rask and Kyle Okposo at No. 50.
10. Missing the cut by one at No. 51 is St. Louis Blues captain David Backes.

[Hannibal]

Inuries are already piling up like crazy for the Red Wings again. Nyquist, Tatar, Mantha, Smith, Ericsson, Helm, and Datsyuk are all out. And it's the fucking preaseason. Zetterbeg's, Kronwall, and Franzen haven't gotten their annual injuries yet.