Training Camps are open, the Leafs play their first Exhibition game tomorrow night in Edmonton!

I can't wait!

I for one think the Leafs will do better this year. Jason Blake will improve the offence, scoring some key goals, and when he gets off his suspension, Mark Bell will also contribute offennsively. Another crucial year of development for Carlo Colliaccovo, Ian White, Alexander Steen and Kyle Wellwood will make them better players than they were last year. The team is finally beginning to understand what Nik Antropov brings to the ice. Vesa Toskala will secure the Number one job, and the presence of Clemenson will make Raycroft available for the right deal.

It's very possible that they could make the palyoffs...

I would have to say that for all the reasons you mentioned the Leafs are a slightly better team than they were last year. Normally I wouldn't get all that excited about that but I think that the other teams in their division are not as strong as they were last year which should make things interesting. All in all I think the Leafs have a solid shot at making the playoffs this year although I don't think they have the defence or goaltending to win the cup.

Well, Pogge looked good in net tonight in the exhibition game against Edmonton. Ponikarovsky got a beautiful goal in the first period, and I see him really stepping up.

Right now I see two lines for Opening Night:

Sundin-Blake-Antropov
Wellwood-Tucker-Ponikarovsky.

Then there's Stajan and Gamache who played well together (Steen likely the third on that line)

I liked seeing Belak with Ondrus and Newbury together. That was a harsh forecheck...

Vancouver has been buzzing about hockey again too. I guess people here think we can seriously contend with Luongo in net. I hope more that a second line of consistent scoring materializes in Naslund and Morrison.

Sami Salo out for a month already, after one exhibition game :(

Yeah and I just read that Anson Carter left the Toronto-Edmonton game with a concussion. I am guessing that pretty much kills his hopes of getting a contract. Oh well, sooner or later someone will give him another chance.

I'm really likeing this guy Gamache. He stood up one of the Phoenix guys at the Leafs Blue line at the end of the second period. He also assisted on Steen's goal.

Blake got the tying goal. That Line with him, Sundin and Antropov looks really good too.

Penguins will be good again. How can they not be.

The line with Tucker and Ponikarovsky doesn't seem to be gelling. They've tried Wellwood, Steen and Pohl at centre, but they don't seem to be getting the results that Paul Maurice wants...

Over two weeks and nothing?

I guess that JSBB and I are the only ones who seem to care, and we're both Leaf's fans...

The Leafs beat the Montreal Canadians tonight in overtime, bringing their record to 1-1-1 for the season. They'ce looked good all three games, but they didn't get the results the first two games. If the results will eventually come, then I think that Paul Maurice may well guide this team into the Playoffs and make someone's life miserable for 4 to 7 games in April...

Good to welcome back Hockey Night in Canada in CBC :) Results today couldn't have been any better for the Canadian teams - they all got at least one point.

I think my super early picks for the Stanley Cup finalists are San Jose in the west and Ottawa in the east. Both have looked very strong so far, with deep lineups. Anaheim and Buffalo seem to be slipping early on, rather disappointing.

I blame the Sabres management for that slip up. They could have signed Drury and Briere long term and got Vanek cheaper had they been willing to negotiate during the season. But instead they lost the first two and are overpaying for the third.

AS for the Ducks, Neidemayer and Selane are hard to replace. Burke seems to be more interested in jabbering at Kevin Lowe over the Dustin Penner deal, and maybe should pay more attention to his own team...

Oilers are surprising the young players (Cogliano, Ganger and Gilbert) are playing well. I hope they keep it up all season.

The Penguins I haven't been able to watch yet. They seemed to struggle in both games and just escaped Anaheim because they capitalized on a worn out teams mistakes.

Yeah, Edmonton will be in feast or famine mode as we see what the kids will do over the season.

Pittsburgh caught another break as Crosby didn't break his foot blocking a shot.

Toronto's big off season free agent signing, Jason Blake has just been diagnosed with a rare but treatable form of Lukemia. He believes himself able to play through this however. The big question is what are the side effects of this medication...

How bad is it when your goalie was your best player in a 7-1 loss?

The Leaf's defence has looked absolutely pathetic so far this year. Blake and Tucker have been a big fat zero so far. Sundin has been playing well but he can only do so much. Besides Sundin I guess Stajan and Steen are the only silver lining so far. McCabe just seems to play worse every time I see him.

It looks like Maurice is going to be putting the Sundin Antropov Ponikarovsky line back together again for the starting line-up instead of switching to it midgame and teaming Blake up with Stajan and Steen. So much for Blake being the great scoring winger that Sundin has always needed. It is almost a shame that the Leaf didn't unload Tucker around the trade deadline last year when he actually had some value.

Oh well, at least the people in Ottawa have reason to be happy. Having two quality number one goalies sure beats having two second stringers.

I (and many of my friends) used to watch hockey a lot. I was really into it. I had a favorite team (Penguins) and everything. During that time, the U.S. referred to the sports scene as "The Big Four". Football was #1, Baseball #2, Basketball #3, and Hockey closing fast at #4.

Then the strike happened, and it seems like Americans largely forgot about hockey. The thing is now you NEVER see a hockey game on TV. It used to be that hockey was shown an major national television networks - FOX, CBS, etc. Failing that, there were always a couple of games per week televised on ESPN. ESPN is a cable network, but it is really a basic cable station, and any cable package includes it. So the games were readily available to see for just about everyone.

Last year the playoffs were broadcast on OLN (which I'm told stands for "outdoor life network"). wtf? Needless to say, the big four in the U.S. are down to three. OLN is hardly what anyone would call a basic cable station. In fact, unless you have an ultra-delux cable package that gives you 200+ channels, you probably DON'T get OLN.

So there are now only two ways you can see hockey games in the U.S. (I mean on TV - you can obviously see hockey if you go to a game). Some local affiliates will carry hockey games of the local team. I live near Baltimore, and Baltimore doesn't have a NHL team, so that's out for me. The other is to buy the NHL package (which I think is now called "Center Ice") which shows somewhere around 30-40 hockey games per week. That's great and all, but it also will set you back about $150 for the package, and with a new baby that's costing me a fortune... well... I don't like hockey quite that much.

I guess what I'm saying is that the reason there aren't many Americans in this thread is not because we don't like hockey - it's that we can't see hockey. And that ticks me off, because it wasn't long ago that you could find a game on almost any given night. Sorry for the rant - but I've been stewing over this for the past couple of years. :mad: I mean when you can't even watch the PLAYOFFS something is wrong.

That really sucks Aldeth.

I always liked the lesser interest in hockey that you find in the U.S. because it allows me to see hockey games there for relatively cheap. Buying $10 Blackhawk tickets and then sneaking down to ice level has become almost a tradition for our Chicago audits.

I always figured that with the silly number of sports channels that exist these days that someone would be airing hockey.

Just to update on Aldeth's post. Now a lot of people think that UFC/ other mixed martial arts leagues are the #4.

[ October 11, 2007, 02:48: Message edited by: The Great Snook ]

The only channel that I know of that shows hockey in the US is VS.

Or Poker at #4, that has gotten really popular since the strike year. I thought hockey's biggest competition was basketball because the seasons clash. Football is still there, but they only play once a week on certain days right? Baseball plays every day, but only from April to October or so. What else can they show on a Wednesday night in the middle of December besides hockey? Probably basketball, UFC or poker.

Toskala is better than what you've seen so far. Last year, he competed with Evgeni Nabokov for the starting job in San Jose. He got traded because San Jose didn't want two number one goalies eating up cap space. I think he's just the victim of bad defensive so far, and maybe also from pressure after being traded.

It gets worse in Leaf Land. Alexei Ponikarovsky was injured in practice today after colliding along the boards with Chad Kilger. It sounded bad from what I heard on the Toronto Sport's radio station...

Tomorrow when I go to feed the cats, I'll be putting on the hard hat. I would not be surprised if some blogs are claiming that the sky is falling...

Well I suppose bouncing back from a huge loss with a huge win is a good sign but the Islanders have a pretty good excuse courtesy of the insane schedule maker. I would have liked to have been able to watch the game but damned Leaf TV had it.

Sundin got an assist in the second period, but later they decided that he didn't touch the puck. When he got the goal in the third period, he got an even bigger standing ovation. Simon Gamache also got a Goal, and Matt Stajan had a four point night. Apparently Stajan-Tucker-Gamache could be that second line that the leafs are looking for.

I do get Leafs TV. The game was good. I also had the pleasure of watching the Marlies defeat the Lake Erie Monsters (Colorado Avalanche Affiliate). I'm glad that Strahlman agreed to play for the Marlies. It will help him develop quite well.

[ October 13, 2007, 07:23: Message edited by: Gnarfflinger ]

What a shift for the Sedin twins against Edmonton Saturday night. The shift started with a faceoff win on the power play, and they controlled the puck, generated some chances, hit the post, couldn't score but kept recovering the puck. Two minutes later, the penalty killers were exhausted, the guy in the box came back on, but the same 5-man power play unit still had puck control. Another 20 seconds later of offensive pressure, they pass the puck around the dead-tired and stagnated defense and score a goal. The way Souray defended the last shot in the sequence said it all - he couldn't move his legs to get into the circle to check Daniel Sedin's stick before the shot, he just stood beside the goalie and hoped to block the shot. Never seen 2:20 of relentless attack in the offensive zone in one shift!

That sounds amazing. I wish I'd stayed with the second hockey game instead of Parts of Volcano and TNA's preview of Bound for Glory...

The big question for me is whether or not I should bother watching tonight's Leafs game. Given how depressing the last two games that I have been able to watch have been I feel much more inclined to watch Heroes instead of the Leafs' porous defence letting up another gadzillion shots on net.

One more blown lead and I'm calling for Paul Maurice to bag skate those guys.

Against Ottawa, they blew leads in back to back games, and lost both. Against Pittsburgh, they blew a 3-1 lead, and they blew a 2-0 lead and 2 more 1 goal leads in an overtime loss to Buffalo.

If they can't protect a lead, then something needs to be done. Whether its changing personel, the Coach or his staff, or the GM who gave three of them long term deals with no trade clauses, I'm not sure, but some heads need to roll in TO...

Yeah that game was just plain ugly - which makes it three in a row for games that I have watched. When it was 2-0 I was shaking my head wondering how the Leafs were so lucky because the way they were playing they deserved to be losing. So many shots were ringing off the iron that I think Buffalo is going to have to replace the nets.

Now Brian McCabe is getting booed every time he touches the puck.

The team needs to decide who they are then, where needed, remake themselves in that image. Until management can do that (be it Ferguson or his replacement), we'll hear about it from everyone that hates the Leafs...

Penguins lost tonight. It was tough to watch as the refs kept blowing call after call. There was a stretch where in about 10 minutes of the second period the penguins were shorthanded for 8 of them.

The Leafs won tonight to bring them back to the .500 mark. Brian McCabe got the tying goal on a 5 on 3 advantage to get out of the dog house with Leafs fans. Alexei Ponikarovsky is back in the lineup. All seems right with the world in Leafs Nation for now...

From what I hear McCabe played his best game of the season last night but I don't know if it will help all that much with the fans given that barely anyone would have been able to watch the game.

The Crowd at the ACC got off his back.

In other news, Bob Hartley is the first coach to get the axe. He was fired and Don Wadell (likely on his way out of Atlanta) took his place behind the bench in the interim.

Also the Calgary Flames have gone 7 consecutive games with at least one player having two or more goals in a game...

I think the Leafs should redo their TV schedule so that all of their games are on Leafs TV only. They are now 3-0-0 when their games are on Leafs TV and 1-4-3 when they are on regular TV channels.

Yeah. The Leafs are 2-0-0 in games where they open up a lead of 3 or more goals, and 2-0-0 in games where they score 5 or more goals.

If they can do what they did tonight for the next 71 games, then there will be a big run on crow for meals in April...

How ironic: Montreal has the best power play percentage even after trading Souray's big shot to Edmonton... who now have the worse power play (although not his fault since he has been injured).

I changed the channel when the leafs went down 6-1. Something tells me that hard hats will be the fashion in Toronto for a couple days, after all, Leafs nation will be reporting that the sky is falling...

Well I think you can nix the "all games on Leafs TV" plan but apart from that the 7-1 loss isn't anything new. Yesterday they were terrible, next game they will probably play really well just to be terrible again the following game. The Leafs are just plain inconsistent and in the end they will probably be barely missing out on the final playoff spot for the third year in a row.

And hopefully for the fans, MLSE and the Teacher's pension fund will realize how much playoff revenue they are losing out on and fire Ferguson and bring in someone that can build a winner...

Did anyone see the habs vs Flyers game? Phily had two players thrown out for game misconduct and a third who should have been for his shoulder hit on Kovalev's head. I don't know why, but this year the Fleyrs are really nasty. They make you think of the Broadstreet bullies. The league shouldn't tolerate things like that!

On another note, it's another Habs vs Maple Leafs game tonight. Who do you think will win? I have to root for Montréal, but lets's say 3-2 in overtime. :)

As first european in this tread, I watch it on NASN. Due to a stong lack of interest for north american sports here, it comes in a package whit some other channels. A few good games so far but for me to choose a favorit, no. I play hockey whitout ice.

The Flyers need to play with that physical edge, but the players they have need to learn to do so within the confines of the rules for them to be of benefit to the Flyers.

Also, Triactus, you were close, it was 3-2, but for the leafs, and no OT involved...

Haha, Iwas at my sister in law for a family supper and I got back in the middle of the third period. It was 2-2, so I was thinking that 3-2 in overtime was going to be plausible! Alas, close, yet so far away.. :P

What do you think of the leafs' team this year? Do you think the team has improved from last season? I think Mark Bell was a good addition, but he has to actually play to see if he's going to help the team.

I think that Gainey could have done more to boost the Habs' team. Granted he tried to get Brière (it was down to Montréal and Phily for him, but he ultimatly chose Phily even though the habs had offered him more money) and Smyth (whom Montréal had also offered more money than Colorado). But there is a lot of risky players you can sign at a low salary but lots of bonuses. Offer Lindros 400 000$ plus performance bonuses. Lindros is a very risky choice because he's always injured, but let's face it, when he plays, he practically does at least 1 point per game. Anson Carter is another risky player that could be beneficial. Anyways, the habs have been playing great this year. They're 4th in the east. I just hope that they won't crash and burn in the winter like last year... :(

Actually, their bad streak started december 23rd. A quirky fact : the habs have lost every single game on decembre 23rd since something like 1946.... that's really funny!

The Leafs have too many players on no trade clauses (not that I'd trade some of them), and not enough room to develop younger players. I like the youth they have (Tlusty, Strahlman, Gamache), but they aren't there yet.

The Injuries and suspensions have taken their toll, as Wellwood, Tucker, McCabe and Colliaccovo are all out (Wellwood to be back against Ottawa Tuesday), and Mark Bell's suspension (also returning Tuesday against Ottawa), they haven't had their full roster. This is the loss of three top nine forwards and 2 top six defensemen. I am impressed with the way that guys like Pohl and White have stepped up the depth chart, and liked what I've seen from Strahlman, Gamache and Tlusty. I have my doubts about the playoffs, and believe that JFJ should be fired, but the future looks better (as long as they don't mess it up by giving up the key guys for aging vets who are past their prime).

That's freaky about the Canadians on Dec 23...

One thing that is somewhat encouraging for the Leafs is that the Marlies actually seem to be pretty good this year. I can't say that I have followed them that closely but when your farm team is doing well it has to give you at least some hope for the future. Of course knowing the Leafs they will probably trade away all of their good prospects for some old has-beens at the trade deadline in a futile attempt to make the playoffs.

Last I heard, the only loss the marlies have had was in a shootout. And they're getting Strahlman and Gamache back, likely Tlusty too...

Time to bring this one back to the lime light.

The Leafs beat the rival Ottawa Senators 3-0. Both Raycroft and Toscala have looked good (as long as you forget the game against Boston), getting 6 points in 5 games. They could make the playoffs and a first round with the Senators after all...

But this time the Leafs played solid defence, juggled the lines a bit, and they looked like they had some chemistry...

Mattias Ohlund received a 4-game suspension for a slash that broke Mikko Koivu's leg. Thus he'll miss the rematch when Vancouver plays in Minnesota this week. I hope the threats that their tough guy made to hurt the Canuck's star players does not boil over. Makes me kind of hope that the coach benches that guy just to avoid the issue altogether; I'm sure neither side wants another Todd Bertuzzi incident.

A broken leg makes the suspension justified then. At first it looked like something to get his attention that got more than he bargained for. I guess the slash was worse than it looked.

Meanwhile, I'm convinced that the Leafs need to fire the ownership, Gm and Coaching staff. Yet another blown lead, a 4 million dollar player that is not producing, and is having his input on the problem ignored by the coach, and a team at the cap with a couple guys that really need to be somewhere else, but they can't be traded because of the high salary and in some cases, no Trade clauses...

Teams with fired coaches this season seem to be doing well on the rebound. Just look at Atlanta, Washington and Dallas.

Dallas actually fired their GM. So as long as Ferguson or Maurice get the axe, then the season might turn around...

Luongo's shutout streak ended at 3 games, spanning 212 minutes. Fun while it lasted. Must be frustrating for him that the Canucks offense couldn't bail him out of a loss just because he let in 2 goals in a game. You can't expect a shutout every game.

Wow, Wade Belak actually managed to score a goal. If the Leafs keep playing like this they might actually manage to make the playoffs.

Figures, the first game I totally miss all year, and Belak pots one...

Hey Gnarf's got an avatar now! Nice!

Now to make this post not completely spam... Sidney Crosby is finally coming to western Canada! What do you think of the NHL going back to the old scheduling next year? I like it! Vancouver playing against Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal is sooo much more exciting to watch that playing Colorado and Minnesota 8 times a year. Say what you want about the development of those rivalries, but nothing beats the all-Canadian matchups.

I prefer the old schedule format over what we currently have but I would go even further and have every team play at least one home and one away game against every other team.

Division rivalries are nice but they get watered down if you play too often. I would much rather see all of the teams a couple of times than see yet another game against the division rivals.

The travel time argument is kind of silly really. I regularly travel for business and the lions share of the travel time in going anywhere in North America is the time to get to the airport, get checked in, wait for the flight, collect your baggage, catch a taxi to your hotel etc. The difference in actual flight time really isn't that significant.

I think there's a home and home with every team in the other conference for next year, and reduces conference and division games. It still promotes division rivalries without making you sick of them--unless you're beating them handily...

The NHL Board of Governors approved a scheduling change Thursday that will produce more inter-conference matchups, increasing the variety of teams fans can expect to see next season.
Under the new format, approved at the League meetings in Pebble Beach, Calif., and scheduled to begin in 2008-09, teams will play each club in their division six times, a total of 24 games, and the 10 other clubs in their conference four times, a total of 40 games.

The remaining 18 games in the 82-game schedule will involve each club playing all 15 clubs in the other conference at least once, home or away. The three remaining games will be devoted to inter-conference “at-large” scheduling.

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=344955&page=NewsPage&service=page

But that's still not a homa and home with every team from the other conference. Sure there may not be the demand to see Florida, but they want to see Crosby, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, etc. in every city...

At worse you'll have to wait a year to see a particular team, instead of 3 years with the current schedule. It's still an improvement. I wonder what if they rotated between schedules regularly, maybe on a 3-year cycle or something, so everybody is happy for at least once in a while.

The media here is having some fun at the Leaf's demise. The good news is, they'll get a high draft pick.

3 Wings and 2 Flames in the starting lineup for the West all-stars... how's that for variety. I'm surprised Dion Phaneuf got voted into the all-star starting lineup in the West. I guess Chris Pronger gets booed too much by fans nowaday.

There's even a petition to fire the President of MLSE, Richard Peddie!

http://www.gopetition.com/online/16331.html

I hope all Leafs fans will sign this, so we can get a good hockey man in charge of the Leafs, who can make the changes needed to turn the team around.

Where I think this starts is trading Sundin to a contender for a package of prospects and draft picks. We can always re-sign him July 1 if he really wants to come back. Any year where the playoffs aren't going to happen, then simply trade the UFA near the deadline and get some good prospects and draft picks to restock. The problem is that you need the right people in charge of doing this...

This morning, Jon Ferguson Junior was relieved of his duties as General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Cliff Fletcher, once hailed as a genius, but at the end also unceremoniously dumped was named interim GM, and will join Richard Peddie and Lawyer Gord Kirk in finding a long term president and general manager.

It's a good step, and despite what people say, you can't simply "blow it up and start over". Fletcher has the experience to make the first moves that will start the reshaping process. With any luck, that could some day end the cup drought!

YES! The Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-2. Emery didn't look too good between the pipes, and they had little to no offence without Heatley and Alfredson. It bodes ill for the Senators with their playoff hopes...

I wouldn't count Ottawa out yet. Alfredson and Heatley will be back and you can be sure that Ottawa will pick up once that happens. Emery does seem to be doing his best to lose his job. Gerber has been having a bit of a cold streak going but that happens from time to time during a season.

I just hope that the Leafs can manage to trade away some of their high salary underperformers. It really does seem that the salary cap has cut down a lot of teh ability to do this but hopefully someone will want these guys.

Tonight was a train wreck. Florida, 13th in the Eastern conference, beath the Leafs 8-0. Ah well, February 26th, I'll be seated in front of a TV watching the Trade Deadline coverage...

First, the lighter news: The Leafs have rebounded fromt hat train wreck by beating long time rivals and current top teams, the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings. They still are too far back to make the playoffs, so Trader Cliff will have a ton of work to do for the deadline. I'll be watching the coverage on Feb 26 to see what happens...

Now for something more serious: Florida Panthers forward, Richard Zednik was accidentally struck in the throat with the skate of one of his teammates. He was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery, but is stabilized. The game was put on hold until word was received that he was stable, and they played the last 10 minutes of the game. Buffalo Sabres coach, Lindy Ruff expressed his relief that Zednik would be okay.

I saw the replays on TV, it looked awful with all the blood on the ice. It reminds me of the Canucks' Kevin Bieska's leg getting lacerated by Sami Salo's skate blade way back in October... except more serious since this happened on the neck. I hope Zednik is alright.

He is still in the ICU in a Buffalo Hospital, but is stable. The blade caught his caratid artery...

I went and opened the TSN website last night and there on the home page was a nice big picture of Zednik showing off his neck and I must say that it is enough to send a shiver up your spine.

So the Penguins have remained strong even missing Sid. My only hope is that when he comes back, that instead of thinking "Oh Sids, back now we can take is easy" and everyone kind of lets up that the rest continue to play like they are and Sid comes in and plays at his level. The East should be ours no problem then.

The Pens do look like a dominant team, Malkin has taken over the league points lead. They could do some real damage in the playoffs...

Meanwhile in Toronto, Trade rumours continue to circulate involving Mats Sundin and now Brian McCabe. There are clauses in two of the No Trade contracts that allow the Leafs to freely move Kubina this summer, and Kaberle in 2009 if they again miss the playoffs. Sundin to Anaheim is a rumour that won't go away and the possibility of getting 2 top 10 picks in the Entry draft this year is feuling optimism in Leaf Land...

Peter Forsberg signed with Colorado again. One moment he says he wasn't going to make a comeback, and then here he is!

Kind of surprised me too. If the Avs make the playoffs, then nobody will breathe easy.

Meanwhile the Leafs embarrassed the Senators again tonight. Even though they need to tank, I can't help but enjoy watching a division Rival get smoked.

Their big 5 (Sundin, Tucker, Kaberle, McCabe and Kubina) would not waive their no trade clauses, so I don't expect much action out of Toronto tomorrow. But I will be up to watch as much of the 10 hours of coverage that the big 3 sports networks are offering to cover the Trade deadline. Look for some opinions tomorrow night...

The Deadline was today, with 25 trades. Hossa is in Pittsburgh, Campbell is in San Jose, Brad Richards is in Dallas. The Leafs offloaded two UFA and another big defenceman and brought in 4 draft picks. An interesting day, but let's see what real impact this makes...

I thought the Hossa trade was better for Atlanta. Pittsburgh already had two good scoring lines, they've just made there top line even scarier. Atlanta added an entire second scoring line (if the prospect and draft pick work out) so opposing teams can't just focus on Kovalchuk anymore.

Brad Richards trade I thought was quite even. Tampa got what they wanted - Smith is a good goalie, Halpern is a checking center and Jussi Jokinen is a shootout specialist. Dallas can now build two great lines with Modano, Morrow, Richards, Lehtinen, Hagman and Ribeiro.

The only move the Canucks made was a salary dump of Cooke. The media here sounds bitter about it because he was in the organization for 9 years and a fan favourite, but I agree with the trade. We have other players that can do his job for less money, and the guy we got back MIGHT develop into a scorer (he did score 20 goals once), which is what we need.

Looking at the expected 8, I like Pittsburgh to come out of the East.

Ottawa, after firing John Paddock will struggle because they have a mediochre goalie in Gerber, and a sideshow in Emery. They have one Offensive line. About the best thing they have is a top four defence that's best in the conference.

New Jersey has Brodeur. Beyond that, for them to make noise, someone has to step up and make their name.

About the only team in the South East that has any chance in the playoffs would be Washington now that they have Huet. I would love to see Ovechkin on that big a stage. Anyone else will loose embarrassingly in the first round.

Montreal needs to win the division or else they would see Pittsburgh in the first round. I just don't think that Price or Halak would last in four to seven games with Sid the Kid, Malkin and the rest of the offensive Juggernaut.

The Rangers don't impress me, The Sabres are too depleated and the Bruins are over achievers. Philly will be on the outside looking in...

Detroit is really struggling without Lidstrom, Rafalski and Chelios, going 1-7-2 in their last ten games. They look a lot like Ottawa right now.

Dallas is looking like the best in the west on paper now. Great defense and goaltending, 2 solid scoring lines.

Anaheim is probably the runner up. They signed free agents in case Selanne and Niedermeyer chose to retire, and hey they're both back! The team is almost the same as last year's with some replacements.

The other 5 playoff spots are chased by 7 teams. I think San Jose, Colorado, Calgary, Minnesota and Vancouver with squeeze in past Nashville and Phoenix. Colorado just buffed up from trades, so they could be scary. San Jose and Calgary both have potential for second line scoring, but Marleau and Tanguay haven't been having a good year. Minny and Vancouver can only hope to grab the lead and hold it for the game.

I just couldn't stop laughing when I heard that Hossa was injured in his first game with the Penguins. I know that he is only expected to be out for a week or two but, considering how much the Penguins gave up to land him as a rental player, it has to hurt.

Still, with Hossa and Crosby due back in plenty of time for the playoffs you have to like them for the East.

For the West I wouldn't count Detroit out but I do agree that Anaheim and Dallas look like the favourites at this time.

The Media still won't pronounce the Leafs truly eliminated, and the opinion is split on whether they could sneak into the playoffs. Nobody from the club will hear suggestions that tanking is in their best interests...

Speaking of injuries, Colorado lost Ryan Smyth and Svatos in one game. More pressure on Forsberg to come back productively I guess.

You'd think we need an Alley behind the Colloseum now. Chris Pronger got suspended for 8 games for a stomp on Vancouver's Ryan Kessler. Earlier this season,. Chris Simon got 30 games for a similar offense. Pronger has one suspension more then Simon over his career. The only differences are that Pronger is always a candidate for the Norris Trophy, and that the Playoffs would be 9 games away for Anaheim.

Needless to say, I don't think that's fair. I believe that Colin Campbell has done a poor job of maintaining consistency in dicipline, handing down huge suspensions one minute then light suspension the next for similar offenses. If he wants to raise the bar for suspensions, he has to keep handing down longer sentences...

Well, it looks like my Leafs are mathematically eliminated from the Playoffs for the third year in a row. If they lose their last four games, they could be in a position to get a top 10 draft pick. Also, if they get the right deal for Kubina in the off season, the rebuilding process may not take as long as feared...

Alexander Ovechkin scored 2 goals tonight, giving him 64 on the season. This is a new NHL record for mose goals in a season for a Left Winger. The previous record was 63, held by Luc Robitaille when he was witht he Los Angeles Kings in the early 1990's.

Canucks are out of the playoffs too, making my playoff prediction off by one team. Going 1-6-0 down the stretch and missing the postseason by 4 points did them in. They even had early 2-goal leads and third period 1-goal leads in at least half of those 6 losses and still lost in regulation time. What sounds even worse is if they lose their last game, they could finish tied with Edmonton for last in the Northwest division after winning the division last year.

I guess I'm a Habs fan now :)
My playoff prediction would be San Jose to win it all.

I want to see the first round matchups before I stick my foot in my mouth. If the Washington Capitals make the playoffs, they could make some noise...

Canucks GM Dave Nonis got fired basically for missing the playoffs this year. I'm a bit indifferent about it... at least he didn't trade a bunch of assets just for one year's (long) shot at the Cup. But someone was going to get punished for the lack of success this year, it turns out that the guy being too conservative gets the boot.

Sens are getting dominated. Flames are playing great against a choking Sharks team. The Shark's best players have been neutralized all series long. Montreal is looking strong.

[EDIT] Spoke too soon. Thorton and Cheechoo both got their first goals in the last 5 minutes of the game to tie the series at 2.

I'm surprised that Nonis got the axe, but at the deadline he tried to get Olli Jokinen, but the Panthers wouldn't budge fromt he demand--of the Sedin twins!

I'm loving the Senators struggle. They need to make major changes. Starting with the GM and then the goalies. Redden is gone as a free agent, and they need more support for Fisher to make a second line...

Playoff update:

Ottawa has been swept by the Penguins, no surprise, Murray is looking for another coach (instead of a new job), He also wants to trade Emery (like that's going to happen), and will need to replace Redden on the Blue line. How long before they don't make the playoffs?

New Jersey lost to the Rangers in 5. I still am not impressed with the Rangers, but still get a chuckle from the overplayed antics of Sean Avery.

WE also have our first game 7, Boston capitalized in a game where Carey Price had a bad game, then won a wild one. Monday night is game 7. Could this be the big upset in the first round?

I guess that tomorrow night we have 2 game 7 matchups. Calgary vs San Jose and Philly vs Washington.

I'm taking Calgary for the upset, and Washington to set up the Crosby vs Malkin showdown that US television will drool over...

There are three potential sweeps in the second round, which is a little disappointing. The only interesting one to watch is the Montreal - Philly series. Detroit and Pittsburgh are just overwhelming their opponents, and I'm not too surprised. The Dallas and San Jose series was a major letdown. On paper it should have been a close series. The first round was far more exciting to watch.

The Rangers won 3-0, but with the wings up 7-1 after 2 periods, the Avalanche are going to be golfing this weekend. I figure that the remaining series will end in 5.

Down goes Montreal :( I think the Habs fans would have liked to see Crosby play some playoff games there.

And the Rangers joined them this afternoon. Dallas and San Jose are in OT as I write this...