The Hockey Thread

[warwick.hoy]

The B's seem to be imploding. No more Horton Peverly or Seguin. Hey but you got space to go out and making an offer on grey beard Alfredson.

I've been liking the Flyers offseason. Dumped Bryz and Briere's prohibitive contracts and signed Lecavalier. Looking to have the space to go out and get a goalie that can work in tandem with Mason. Tim Thomas' name got thrown around but I don't see that happening. Emery, Khudobin or Nabokov seem to be likely to fill the hole. Also looking to be reaching an extension for Giroux. The Streight deal I could take or leave and there is a log jam at defense that is going have to be sorted out.

[magiclawnchair]

i dont get that trade for the bruins. Eriksson is pretty good though. i guess they save some more cap space but those three guys showed up in the final. if they are trying to move money around so they can bury Rask in cash they might be sorry. once all the blocked shots took their toll and the Blackhawks went at Chara, Rask didnt look so invincible. thats a tough situation to be in though, the Blackhawks were there in 2010 and lost 10 players. the salary cap is a bitch!!!

i do like what the Blackhawks have done so far. Bolland will be missed but he has been very injury prone since 2010 and was signed for three or four more years. Frolik was a real solid two way player that looked real good on the pk. im actually more bummed out about trading him than i am about Bolland. those two guys brought in about 6 mil in cap which allowed Bickell and Leddy to be resigned. apparently Kruger is next up for a new deal. he sholdnt be too expensive. Bickell is making 4 mil a year for the next 4 years and i think that is rather high. yes, he showed up in the playoffs and if he plays like that next season he will be worth it but if he goes back to regular season Bickell thats bad money.

[warwick.hoy]

Flyers reportedly ink Emery to a one year deal less than 2mil.

[magiclawnchair]

yeah, Emery went to philly, Stalberg and the third string goalie Hutton went to nashville. Rozival and Handzus were resigned and i read that Khabibulin is talking with the Hawks. I dont know about bringing the wall back...

boston signed Iginla.

[bigchiefbc]

yeah, Emery went to philly, Stalberg and the third string goalie Hutton went to nashville. Rozival and Handzus were resigned and i read that Khabibulin is talking with the Hawks. I dont know about bringing the wall back...

boston signed Iginla.

Interesting, so we exchanged Seguin and Horton for Eriksson and Iginla. I mean, that's not the route I would have gone, but I guess it's not a downgrade.

[magiclawnchair]

at this point Iginla has to be better than Jagr. Jagr wasnt terrible but towards the end of the series he sure looked like he didn't want to be on the ice so much. He had some good shifts but at times he looked gassed. Still, for a 41 year old forward he was alright.
dont give up on your Burins yet Chief!

[bigchiefbc]

at this point Iginla has to be better than Jagr. Jagr wasnt terrible but towards the end of the series he sure looked like he didn't want to be on the ice so much. He had some good shifts but at times he looked gassed. Still, for a 41 year old forward he was alright.
dont give up on your Burins yet Chief!

Oh I would never give up on them. Doesn't mean I won't bitch when I think they do something stupid.

[warwick.hoy]

Horton signed with the Beejers (Columbus).

I'm pretty happy with the un-Flyers like deals that the Homer has made up to this point. The Lecavalier deal is a bargain for one of the better forwards in the League. Has he lost a step? Sure but I think he'll bring a lot of upside. Similar production as Briere without as much defensive liability.

They are now spending 2mil less for an agreeable goaltending tandem than they were for one questionable goalie. Emery has seemingly matured since the Sens dumped him 5ish years ago and they can focus on his game rather than rehabbing his image. I think Mason is able to turn his career around as well. With Bryz it seemed like the Flyers 5 man defense played so deep in the zone and the lack of breakout passing made offense pretty non existent. Both goalies now seem to be better puck handlers and that should be a big help. We saw a small sampling of that in the few games that Mason backstopped.

They locked in Giroux for the bulk of his prime years at a fair market value.

The Mark Striet deal is questionable; but Streit does seem to upgrade a defense that lacked puck moving ability last year.

They re-signed Adam Hall who is a quality 4th line center with some of the best Faceoff skills in the league. So between G, Vinny and Hall th Flyers look to be much improved on the dots (a facet I think is vastly underrated).

I see a salary dump in order to re-sign Gagne. Meszaros for a bag of pucks hopefully; but Coburn was also rumored to be on the block. I think that'd be a mistake. I think Coburn can turn it around this year; especially if there is more confidence and communication with the goalies.

Gagne should have always been in the O&B. He is immensely popular in Philly and should be given the opportunity to end his career there. This is just where he belongs; so I hope they can work it out.

With regard to Jagr; at this point he is more of a lockeroom leadership charectar guy more than anythingz else.

[magiclawnchair]

Mason is going to have to be the number one. I have no doubt that Emery is good enough but he physically cannot handle the number one duties with his hip. He broke down and was inactive the last week of the season and for the first round vs the Wild. Great pick up though. Would have liked to see him come back.

[warwick.hoy]

Mason is going to have to be the number one. I have no doubt that Emery is good enough but he physically cannot handle the number one duties with his hip. He broke down and was inactive the last week of the season and for the first round vs the Wild. Great pick up though. Would have liked to see him come back.

17-1-0 is an incredible mark for Emery.

I remember when the Flyers got him back from Russia and had the hip diagnosis not occurred,...the Flyers would probably have a much different look right now (Still have Carter and Richards? No Bryz mistake? But would we not have Giroux, Simmonds, Voracek, Schenn, Coulterier?).

The writing is pretty much on the wall; there is no clear cut starter and while I consider Emery to be the Better goalie,...I have a feeling that Mason will elevate his game with the healthy competition that will likely result. If both goalies turn out to be a bust; their contracts are only a year long. Considering that they are saving 2mil and are probably not gonna get any worse of a performance from Mason and Emery than they got out of Bryzgaloz,...there really isn't much to use. I'm also feeling like these two goalies just fit into Lavy's system better,...and Jeff Reese might actually be able to communicate with goalies who aren't ESL.

I've always been a staunch Bryz supporter but the more reality post Bryzgalov sets in; the more I realize that without a coaching and system change; he was never gonna fit in in Philly. Considering how much Homer loves his group of forwards (he has no choice when it comes to Schenn, Simmonds, Voracek and Coulterier as a result of the Richards and Carter deals) and his coach, a system and coaching change is never gonna happen.

I'm looking at the deals that Homer made and I really see a playoff team here. That said; I have a feeling that the 2012-13 Flyers could have been playoff bound; had they had an 82 game season.

[Haki]

Didn't like the Bobby Ryan trade at all. The Ducks need someone to center that 2nd line and upgrade their D. So what do you trade your most valuable trade chip for? A young winger, a prospect and a first round pick. Which is what we didn't need because we have too many prospects and wingers as it is. I think Barstool Bob took that deal because the prospect (Noesen) was the guy he targeted in the '11 Draft but Ottawa snagged him at 21, the Ducks then trade down with Toronto and that extra 2nd rounder they got turned into über goalie prospect John Gibson. He couldn't have called the Bruins and gotten Seguin?

[warwick.hoy]

Well the Flyers suck so far this year. Currently sitting at 3-9-0

Hit rock bottom last night with a 7 zip shellacking at the the hands of an Ovechkin-less Capitals team.

The frustration boiled over to an ill advised line brawl that put Lecavialer on the injured list (got a few teeth punched out) and likely has Emery suspended for leaving his crease to punch the shit out of the back of Braden Holtby's (who wanted nothing to do with it) head.

I keep refreshing the SBNation Broad Street Hockey blog waiting on a Homer/Berube Resignation/Firing.

I'll be a Flyers fan forever but right now, this team is pathetic.

[bigchiefbc]

With the Red Sox run, I've been totally slacking on my Bruins watching. I've only had the chance to watch 3 games so far, but they were all wins. The B's are looking pretty good so far, but not great. I'm glad Lucic seems to finally be playing with a fire under his ass. Marchand needs to wake the hell up.

[warwick.hoy]

Hockey > Baseball

[bigchiefbc]

Hockey > Baseball

For me, its:

Home team in the playoffs in any of the 4 sports > home team playing regular season game in any sport