Out the window
Last night was the start of the North American season. I love it when all the analysts have to eat their words within the first 4 hours of the season. All I've heard over the last week was how bad Toronto is going to be, and how Vancouver is going to have trouble scoring.
Both of these things could still come true, I'll give you that.
Toronto looked pretty sharp going into Detroit and spoiling the banner raising party by taking two points out of Joe Louis Arena (probably the toughest building to win in if you are in visitors silks).
Toronto management came out in the last week and basically said that the team sucks, and don't expect it to do very good this year. If this was a calculated move it's a pretty risky one. If you are a boss do you really want all your employees to hate you? Ill admit that anger is a great motivating force, but it also has a huge chance of backfiring the next time you try to attract a free agent, or try to re-sign players you have. This was a classless, bone-headed move by Toronto brass.
After I watched Toronto beat Detroit, I decided to watch a washed up Def Leppard band butcher a couple of their old tunes. It's a good thing for the singer that the crowd was singing along with the band so loudly, he was brutal.
Next up was Calgary versus Vancouver. The offensively challenged Vancouver Canucks took on the Flames. The Flames looked flustered about 23 minutes into this game, the chances they gave the Canucks in front of their own net were unbelievable. Offensively, believe it or not, the flames had lots of chances, but Luongo with his brand new 'C' on his mask decided to make that 'C' stand for 'Cement Wall' and was unstoppable. The Flames threw more shots at Luongo, but couldn't beat him. Kippper didn't look good, don't get me wrong, but his team definitely let him down up front.
The thing to learn here? Talk is cheap. Once the season start throw out all the stupid predictions and trash talk and play the bloody game.
With that in mind, here are my predictions for this year.
1. Oilers will indeed make the playoffs this year, I will agree with trevor that they will probably end up 6th or 7th. A lot is going to depend on Garon and if he can play as good as he did last season, or if last season was a fluke. The Edmonton Oilers defense got a little less responsible defensively on the off season, (Jared Stoll was a good two way player, Matt Greene was pretty solid defensively) this will translate to better/more chances against our netminder so lets hope he's up for the task.
2. Ovechkin scores 60. Maybe more, but man this guy is amazing. I wish you could bottle this guys itchy trigger finger and give it to Ales Hemsky. If hemsky shot as often as Ovechkin hemsky would probably have 70 goals per season.
3. Crosby bounces back, 120+ points. Sid the Kid missed 29 games last year and only had 72 points. He's definitely the most gifted player in the NHL, but lets hope for Pittsburgh's sake, that he doesn't suffer the injury bug as badly as another Pittsburgh super star, Mario Lemieux.
4. Buffalo, Toronto both miss playoffs. Toronto looks very weak, buffalo didn't do much to improve the team in the off season.
Last year I made a most likely to get injured list, and a least likely to get injured list. The entire list as blown apart, so take this list with a grain of salt.
Most Likely to be injured - Marian Hossa, Mats Sundin (Only because if he ever res-igns he will be out of shape and prone to injury), Joe Sakic, Manny Legace (think he has a rebuilt knee), Jose Theodore (Is this guy made of glass?).
Least likely to be injured - Dany Heatley, Sergei Federov, Rick Nash, Alex Ovechkin, Chris Pronger.
Look for the Oilers to beat the Avalanche 4-2 on sunday night.
Both of these things could still come true, I'll give you that.
Toronto looked pretty sharp going into Detroit and spoiling the banner raising party by taking two points out of Joe Louis Arena (probably the toughest building to win in if you are in visitors silks).
Toronto management came out in the last week and basically said that the team sucks, and don't expect it to do very good this year. If this was a calculated move it's a pretty risky one. If you are a boss do you really want all your employees to hate you? Ill admit that anger is a great motivating force, but it also has a huge chance of backfiring the next time you try to attract a free agent, or try to re-sign players you have. This was a classless, bone-headed move by Toronto brass.
After I watched Toronto beat Detroit, I decided to watch a washed up Def Leppard band butcher a couple of their old tunes. It's a good thing for the singer that the crowd was singing along with the band so loudly, he was brutal.
Next up was Calgary versus Vancouver. The offensively challenged Vancouver Canucks took on the Flames. The Flames looked flustered about 23 minutes into this game, the chances they gave the Canucks in front of their own net were unbelievable. Offensively, believe it or not, the flames had lots of chances, but Luongo with his brand new 'C' on his mask decided to make that 'C' stand for 'Cement Wall' and was unstoppable. The Flames threw more shots at Luongo, but couldn't beat him. Kippper didn't look good, don't get me wrong, but his team definitely let him down up front.
The thing to learn here? Talk is cheap. Once the season start throw out all the stupid predictions and trash talk and play the bloody game.
With that in mind, here are my predictions for this year.
1. Oilers will indeed make the playoffs this year, I will agree with trevor that they will probably end up 6th or 7th. A lot is going to depend on Garon and if he can play as good as he did last season, or if last season was a fluke. The Edmonton Oilers defense got a little less responsible defensively on the off season, (Jared Stoll was a good two way player, Matt Greene was pretty solid defensively) this will translate to better/more chances against our netminder so lets hope he's up for the task.
2. Ovechkin scores 60. Maybe more, but man this guy is amazing. I wish you could bottle this guys itchy trigger finger and give it to Ales Hemsky. If hemsky shot as often as Ovechkin hemsky would probably have 70 goals per season.
3. Crosby bounces back, 120+ points. Sid the Kid missed 29 games last year and only had 72 points. He's definitely the most gifted player in the NHL, but lets hope for Pittsburgh's sake, that he doesn't suffer the injury bug as badly as another Pittsburgh super star, Mario Lemieux.
4. Buffalo, Toronto both miss playoffs. Toronto looks very weak, buffalo didn't do much to improve the team in the off season.
Last year I made a most likely to get injured list, and a least likely to get injured list. The entire list as blown apart, so take this list with a grain of salt.
Most Likely to be injured - Marian Hossa, Mats Sundin (Only because if he ever res-igns he will be out of shape and prone to injury), Joe Sakic, Manny Legace (think he has a rebuilt knee), Jose Theodore (Is this guy made of glass?).
Least likely to be injured - Dany Heatley, Sergei Federov, Rick Nash, Alex Ovechkin, Chris Pronger.
Look for the Oilers to beat the Avalanche 4-2 on sunday night.
posted by Jay at
7:50 AM
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