2009-10 NHL Regular Season Thread

[Crosby87]

One month to go, folks. Two weeks til the pre-season.

Going to be an unbelievably long two weeks, but I figured I'd throw this up now so we can all count down to October 1st (2nd for us).

 

[Bradesmaen]

Go Sharks, choke again!

 

[catters078]

Its almost preview time..

I guess we have to wait till Heatley gets traded, the trade will be crucial for a playoff team...

Cant wait for the puck to drop.

 

[peebs]

new to the NHL part of these boards but long time hockey fan....

Can't freakin wait for the season to get underway! TSN is just starting to amp up for the preseason games starting sept 15th, is going to be awesome to have the hockey season back.

As a newbie to this board what is the deal with predictions and so forth? do you guys make a thread up closer to the season or are we who think Dany Heatley is remaining in Ottawa free to do ours here?

Here's to a ripping season. Go Blues! bow down to TJ Oshie.

 

[catters078]

new to the NHL part of these boards but long time hockey fan....

Can't freakin wait for the season to get underway! TSN is just starting to amp up for the preseason games starting sept 15th, is going to be awesome to have the hockey season back.

As a newbie to this board what is the deal with predictions and so forth? do you guys make a thread up closer to the season or are we who think Dany Heatley is remaining in Ottawa free to do ours here?

Here's to a ripping season. Go Blues! bow down to TJ Oshie.

No formality about the predicitons, someone usually puts theirs up and everyone usually just responds...ill have a crack..

East

Pittsburgh
Washington
Boston
Philadelphia
Rangers
Montreal (big unknown this year)
Carolina
NJ

Toronto
Tampa
Florida
Atlanta
Buffalo
Ottawa
NYI

Bottom 7 teams will be hard to pick the order as i dont see much difference in them,

West

Sharks
Hawks
Canucks
Wings
Flames
Ducks
Blues
Stars (possibly a biased pick but you have to optimistic about your team)

Jackets
LA
Wild
Preds
Oil
Colorado
Phoenix

Again the bottom 8 could finish in any order and their may be few pts between them..

Hart: Ovechkin
rocket: Ovechkin 64 goals 2nd Lecavelier 57
ross: Ovechkin 118 pts 2nd Crosby 115

Norris: Shea Weber
Vezina: Fleury

calder: Nikita Filatov, Cody Hodgson, smokies Villi Leino and Colin Wilson

Player to watch : Erik Johnson to have a big comeback year

Team to watch: Chicago, may start slow due to injuries but I can see them coming home strong...will be the highest scoring team in the league by a mile if they get it right

Cup Final

Penguins Vs Sharks

 

[peebs]

ok catters i will give it a crack too. Agree with you on EJ, he should be huge on the point this season for the Blues. I pretty much don't differ too much from yours. I don't think its bias to predict the Stars in 8th. They are right in the mix, Turco should rebound, has been watching tapes and identifying his problems the entire offseason. Plus they were hit hard with injuries, having Morrow back for a full 82 will do all the good in the world.

Here are mine:

EAST
1. Flyers
2. Bruins
3. Caps
4. Pens
5. Canes
6. Devs
7. Canadiens
8. Rags
9. Sabres
10. Lightning
11. Sens
12. Thrashers
13. Panthers
14. Islanders
15. Leafs (hate em, hate em, hate em)

WEST
1. Sharks
2. Nucks
3. Wings (till they are displaced, i will pickem in the central every year)
4. Hawks
5. Flames
6. Blues
7. Ducks
8. Kings
9. Stars
10. Jackets (i think Mason will have an off year)
11. Preds
12. Wild
13. Oilers
14. Yotes
15. Avs

HART: Ovy
ART ROSS: Crosby
ROCKET: Ovy
SELKE: Richards
NORRIS: Weber
BYNG: Who cares?
VEZINA: Luongo
CALDER: Tavares (believe the hype!)

Player to watch: TJ Oshie. Whats not to love about the kid.

Team to watch: Kings. Watch the abundance of prospects start to click, Doughty will be unbelievable by year's end.

WCF: Wings vs Nucks
ECF: Philly vs Pens

SCF: Philly def Nucks in 6

 

[PalaceGun]

15. Leafs (hate em, hate em, hate em)

I like the cut of your jib.

Here's to the 43rd season of Chronna's complete ineptness.

 

[Tex_21]

I like the cut of your jib.

Here's to the 43rd season of Chronna's complete ineptness.

God I hope not. At least let us make the playoffs. Give us something!

 

[PalaceGun]

I'll grant the Laughs a playoff spot but only on the basis that they get swept in the first round, preferably by the Habs.

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

Snore..

Wake me up when we have one of the following:

Taylor Hall, Kirill Kabanov or Cam Fowler.

zzz....

 

[R_n_B]

Snore..

Wake me up when we have one of the following:

Taylor Hall, Kirill Kabanov or Cam Fowler.

zzz....

Well you may be hibernating for the whole season but I'm actually excited about our team this season, but in a different way.

Don't care where we finish, or the results, just can't wait to see how the young guys perform both for the Avs and the guys playing for the Monsters in the A.
So many young players to keep a watch on! You would think Duchene is a shoe in to play the whole year as an Av.

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

Nah I'll be watching us, I really want to see how the young guys not named Duchene go.

There's miles more responsibility on the likes of Stewart, Jones, Galiardi, Hensick and Stoa.

For the first time, Hejduk excluded, there's no vets to bail the team out. The kids will have to pull some serious weight. Stastny when fit will, and Duchene I can just see staying up for the whole year, but we're icing 12 forwards, not three.

Oh, Marek Svatos and Wojtek Wolski, the time is now.

I can't even try and attempt the 12 forwards we'll have opening night, let alone line combinations.

I mean what Stastny with Hejduk, and them um, whatever..

But we get a few youngn's to come on, chuck in Stastny, Duchene and whoever we get first pick next year, then bang, playoff hockey will be back in Denver before you know it.

 

[R_n_B]

Our defence this year is actually quite experienced, which is the opposite of our fowards.
Foote, Hannan, Clark, Salei, Liles and Preissing. Our defence should be ok if Lefebvre can put together a good defensive plan.

Anderson should be an improvement in goal. We just hired Jocelyn Thibault as goalie coach, so hopefully he can benefit the Gs.

But yeh, the exciting part are the fowards. I think Duchene should make the team, but then where does that leave Hensick? Will coach Sacco have three scoring lines?
We don't really have a 3rd line defensive centre, so you would think 3 scoring lines may be the option.

 

[Deez Baby]

Go Sharks, choke again!

Go Sharks, DONT CHOKE THIS TIME

 

[Crosby87]

Predictions:

East
1. Philadelphia
2. Washington
3. Boston
4. Pittsburgh
5. New Jersey
6. NY Rangers
7. Montreal
8. Carolina
9. Tampa Bay
10. Buffalo
11. Florida
12. Atlanta
13. Toronto
14. Ottawa
15. NY Islanders

West
1. Detroit
2. Vancouver
3. San Jose
4. Chicago
5. Calgary
6. Columbus
7. St. Louis
8. Los Angeles
9. Anaheim
10. Dallas
11. Minnesota
12. Edmonton
13. Nashville
14. Colorado
15. Phoenix

Hart: Mike Richards, Philadelphia
Art Ross: Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh
Rocket: Alexander Ovechkin, Washington
Calder: John Tavares, NY Islanders
Vezina: Roberto Luongo, Vancouver
Selke: Mike Richards, Philadelphia

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

We're not gonna win a tonne of games this year, but I am excited to watch our top 9 go about its work:

Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
Galiardi-Duchene-Svatos
Stewart-Hensick-Jones

With perhaps Stoa floating into there somewhere. Or combinations to that effect. Gonna be fun to watch 'em, that's for sure.

 

[NWTYRX]

Vancouver beat the Islanders 2-1 in the Pre-Season opener today

 

[Crosby87]

From what I've seen/read, I actually think Theo Fleury might make the Flames. Nothing more than a fourth line/scratch job, but if Claude Lemieux can make it at 44, surely Fleury at 41 - and the fittest he's ever been - has a legit shot.

The mere fact that they'll sell a shitload of Fleury jerseys (especially the throwback alternates they're going to be wearing a few times) should be enough.

 

[Bradesmaen]

I'm getting excited for the season now. Sharks have a better top line now and have 6 top forwards, good third and fourth lines with scoring all over the place. Defence is a bit thinner in terms of scoring but we have two talented rookies coming through. I hope Petrecki makes it, he's just 20 but he's already levelling his big team mates at the Sharks. 6ft 4 and 220 pounds of beast. He got so many penalties in College Hockey due to his size and over enthusiasm

 

[catters078]

IM luke warm about Dallas this season..realistically I think we will finish anywhere from 6th to 11th..

Alot of the "ifs" have to go our way..

If Turco comes back to his old self.
If Morrow, Ribeiro, Richards and eriksson stay healthy for 70+ games
If Niskanen can start to become a kaberle type player
If The rest of the D can pick up their game and get Dallas back to being one of the best shot blocking teams in the NHL

Dallas' top 9 forwards look OK.

Morrow-Ribeiro-Brunnstrom
Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Ott-Modano-Lehtinen

Ive noticed in camp young stud prospect Jamie Benn has been having alot of shifts with the Morrow-Ribeiro combination on the top line, he is clearly being given a good should to make the line up on opening night. He is an up and coming agressive hard hitting goal scorer who makes the most of breaking to the net. Cant wait to see him in a stars uniform for years to come..

 

[NWTYRX]

IM luke warm about Dallas this season..realistically I think we will finish anywhere from 6th to 11th..

Alot of the "ifs" have to go our way..

If Turco comes back to his old self.
If Morrow, Ribeiro, Richards and eriksson stay healthy for 70+ games
If Niskanen can start to become a kaberle type player
If The rest of the D can pick up their game and get Dallas back to being one of the best shot blocking teams in the NHL

Dallas' top 9 forwards look OK.

Morrow-Ribeiro-Brunnstrom
Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Ott-Modano-Lehtinen

Ive noticed in camp young stud prospect Jamie Benn has been having alot of shifts with the Morrow-Ribeiro combination on the top line, he is clearly being given a good should to make the line up on opening night. He is an up and coming agressive hard hitting goal scorer who makes the most of breaking to the net. Cant wait to see him in a stars uniform for years to come..

You're right about Richards and Morrow staying healthy for us to have a chance at making the playoffs. But, I just feel there's something missing in our team, and even if they stay healthy, I still think we'll struggle

 

[SupersonicDocker]

You're right about Richards and Morrow staying healthy for us to have a chance at making the playoffs. But, I just feel there's something missing in our team, and even if they stay healthy, I still think we'll struggle

Dallas just havent been the same since Hull and Modano provided the best and most unheralded combo in recent history...

As for Colorado, from what I watched of Duchene last year i think he is a smokey to pinch the calder from Tavares this year...

 

[catters078]

You're right about Richards and Morrow staying healthy for us to have a chance at making the playoffs. But, I just feel there's something missing in our team, and even if they stay healthy, I still think we'll struggle

For the first time in 12 years we are going in without a true number 1 defenseman, we saw how much we stuggled all of last year without Zubov, now we get a taste for Dallas hockey post Zubov.

Ivan Vishnevskiy is waiting in the wings and will hopefully take the number 1 mantle in 2-3 years, but you cant go around replacing potential hall of famers like zubie..Which is why I cant see Dallas competing against the the top 4-5 teams in the west this year.

The fact that Tom Hicks is having so many financial troubles has really hurt our chances, Dallas is only at their internal roof of 45 million, If Hicks had sold the texas rangers the stars could have free'd up 6-7 million and nab a number 1 D man they need.

 

[R_n_B]

Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
Galiardi-Duchene-Svatos
Stewart-Hensick-Jones

There has been some interesting line combos in camp with Stewart and Jones playing LW and Galiardi, Wolski and Stoa playing C. Jones has been playing on a line with Duchene and Hejduk and that line has worked well. I have read some good things about the Duchene-Hejduk combo.

So it will be interesting to see exactly how the camp combos pan out though the exhibition games.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stoa started the season in the AHL. You wouldn't have him on the 4th line. Galiardi is having a good camp so far and looks like the candidate to take that top 9 foward position over Stoa.

The 4th line should consist of McLeod - ? - Tucker. The 4th line center could go to a number of players including Hendricks and Dupuis. I also wouldn't be surprised if Yip got a roster spot opening night with his physical play, it could work well on the 4th line.

But like you, I am excited to see how all these young fowards perform.

 

[PalaceGun]

We're not gonna win a tonne of games this year, but I am excited to watch our top 9 go about its work:

Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
Galiardi-Duchene-Svatos
Stewart-Hensick-Jones

With perhaps Stoa floating into there somewhere. Or combinations to that effect. Gonna be fun to watch 'em, that's for sure.

Don't think you'll be seeing too many goals.
Hejduk the most last season with 27? Daylight second.
Yikes...