February NHL News

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
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Dec 2, 2006
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Tuukka's refugee camp
Leafs get Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford for Trevor Moore and ‘20/‘21 3rds.

Probably spells the end for Hutchinson.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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They had to do something. Their season is in jeopardy and Andersen is dinged up. A bad 4-5 games could sink them.
 

cshea

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Cody Ceci is out with an ankle injury for a few weeks too. Not that he is any good, but it’s still a blow to team already down Morgan Reilly for a long period of time. Ceci was playing over 20 minutes a night for them.

The Leafs are 1 point back of Florida in the Atlantic but Florida has 2 games in hand. 2 points behind Philly for the 2nd wild card and Philly has a game in hand. Toronto can’t really afford many more losses.

Also, they’re going to win a round eventually, but if they get do get in this year, their first round series will be on the road against Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington or Pittsburgh unless something truly crazy happens.
 

veritas

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Jan 13, 2009
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Among the 498 players that have logged at least 500 minutes of ice-time this season, Pettersson is 16th in the league in penalties drawn per 60 minutes. Shootouts may be too physical for Petterson.
It was a dirty hit. Petterson draws penalties because he's an elite player who is always skating by people.
 

Haunted

The Man in the Box
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Aug 23, 2006
6,196
I'm not sure I agree it was dirty. Late? Yeah, probably should have been a penalty for that. I see this as more whiny Canucks garbage. Montreal west.
 

OfTheCarmen

Cow Humper
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Jul 18, 2007
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Isnt a "late" hit essentially "dirty" though? If you agree that there probably should have been a penalty, then you admit it was wrong.

If you're taking the angle that it wasnt overtly malicious or intending to do harm to call it "not dirty", then that's just a matter of some grey area as to what poeple consider dirty.
 

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
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Dec 2, 2006
16,090
Tuukka's refugee camp
No. Late hits largely fall into two categories of "I meant to do this" and "I mistimed/misread the play". Intent, with a combination of player history (fairly or not), is extremely important in judging these instances. Just because someone does something "wrong" and commits a penalty (regardless of the call on the ice) doesn't mean it is dirty. Unless you want to call all penalties dirty, which is an unreasonable position to take IMO.
 

NYCSox

chris hansen of goats
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You would hope and expect that a team on an 18-2-1 run would hit a cold spell and lose a few games. That's really all Bruins need to put this away.

Whether it happens is another story.
 

TFP

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Dec 10, 2007
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They could also just beat the fucking Red Wings. Those 4 points could be the difference.
They've also given away at least 5-6 points on blown leads leading to OT/shootout losses. You knew at the time that those would come back to haunt them.

That said - lot of season left and they still are in the driver's seat. And there's a chance that playing the Atlantic 3 seed is a better matchup than the WC2 from the Metro. Who knows.
 

Haunted

The Man in the Box
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Aug 23, 2006
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Remind me - the top 3 of each division get in, and the other two spots are wild cards?

If so, Toronto may not even make the playoffs. Looking at the standings right now, they are only 2 points up on Florida, who has 2 games in hand. Both teams are behind 3 from the Metro division, so it's conceivable that Florida sneaks in ahead of Toronto and both WC teams are from the Metro.

Or maybe I'm wishcasting too much.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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Yep, top 4 in each division then the next 2 best records from either division become the wild cards.

Toronto is at like 70% to make it in most of the analytic guys models. They’ve been playing at a 110 point 82-game pace since they replaced Babcock with Keefe, but they run kind of hot and cold (5-5-3 in their last 13 currently). Their weakness is (as usual) defense and they’ll be without Morgan Reilly for most of the remainder of the regular season plus another top 4 guy in Ceci. Andersen is hurt too which forced the Campbell trade last week but Anderson should be back this week. They are in decent shape but their spot is certainly not guaranteed. Florida has defense and goaltending problems. If they get Bobrovsky to not suck, they could do some damage.

The Metro is a bit similar. Washington and Pittsburgh will be 1-2 in some order. 3 is up for grabs. CBJ holding it for now but everyone has games in hand on them and they just lost Seth Jones to injury. The Isles are 16-16-4 on the year outside of their insane 15-0-2 in run early in the year. Carolina and Philly are the other Metro teams vying for a spot.

So essentially there’s 4 spots for 6 teams.
 

Greg29fan

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Pens/Rutherford have been trying to get Zucker for an eternity so mission accomplished
 

cshea

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Seems like a reasonable deal for both sides though I’m not sure why Minny has been hell bent on trading Zucker over the past 12 months. 3rd agreed to trade Minny has had for him. The pick is nice, the prospect seems good. Galchenyuk is just a warm body at this point though. Pittsburgh gets 4 playoff runs with Zucker as they obviously try to maximize the Crosby/Malkin window.
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
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Jul 12, 2005
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The Island
There's a discussion to be had about just what the hell happened to Galchenyuk. Was he never that good, did the Habs break him, or is there something else?
 

cshea

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He was the #3 overall pick for Montreal so he was bound to be over hyped and have unrealistic expectations. Seems he peaked in his 21 year old season but has since settled into a 20 goal, 40 point kind of guy. His defensive game is pretty weak, and Sullivan didn’t like him, only giving him 11:30 a game.

He’s not worth the $4.9 million cap hit, but he may still have some use. Wonder if Minnesota tries to flip him again over the next 2 weeks.
 

NYCSox

chris hansen of goats
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Not only that but they have to run the southeast gauntlet (Bolts, Panthers and Canes) before the B's game. I don't know how they survive this.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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Not only that but they have to run the southeast gauntlet (Bolts, Panthers and Canes) before the B's game. I don't know how they survive this.
Probably by having the other Pacific teams trip over themselves and failing to take advantage.
 

PedroSpecialK

Comes at you like a tornado of hair and the NHL sa
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Dec 12, 2004
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And Kuemper just suffered a setback in his return... Raanta and Hill are OK but they need him back if they're gonna make a run
 

cshea

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Eh, I don’t think it’s that teams don’t want Hall. It is mostly circumstance. Edmonton made really bad decision. New Jersey was terrible and didn’t want to lose him for nothing in his UFA year. Arizona would be in a similar spot.

I think it is very unlikely that he gets traded again. Arizona is in the thick of it. It’d be a white flag on the season which is a tough sell to the rest of the players on the team as well as the fan base (even as small as it is). They‘re schedule isn’t great before the deadline so there is some fall-out-of -it potential, especially with their goalie injured.

@ Toronto (second half of a back to back)
@ Ottawa
Washington
New York Islanders
@ Dallas
@ St. Louis
Tampa Bay

Edit: FWIW, some of their odds- Dom’s model on the Athletic has them at 55% to make it, moneypuck 42%, hockey-reference 52%.
 
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kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
SoSH Member
Dec 2, 2006
16,090
Tuukka's refugee camp
Wouldn't he just pull a Pronger / Hossa and collect his money without having to actually play and get traded to Arizona?

That said, the sadist in me would find it funny if the Preds were hit with a $25M cap charge.
 

cshea

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Yeah, LTIR and passed around to the cap floor teams is my guess if this ends up being a long term thing. He’s got $18 million left to collect, doubt he’d completely walk away from that.

The league would also probably let Nashville off the hook if he did indeed retire. Like when they took a draft pick away from NJ for the illegal Kovalchuk contract and then just decided to forgive NJ and gave it back.
 

kenneycb

Hates Goose Island Beer; Loves Backdoor Play
SoSH Member
Dec 2, 2006
16,090
Tuukka's refugee camp
It is arguably the stupidest rule in sports too. Hey, let's approve this absurd contract and then create new rules a couple years later that punish the teams that legally did these contracts while not giving the teams an opportunity to get out of them!
 

FL4WL3SS

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Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Nothing on the Bouwmeester incident? Sounds like he died on the bench and needed to be brought back with a defib.

He's alive and well in the hospital, scary stuff. Blues vs Ducks was cancelled last night and will be made up later.

Edit: nm see it's covered in the game thread
 

Greg29fan

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Jul 14, 2005
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Fire sale in New Jersey starting (they did well here)


Also got a 2nd round pick for Andy Greene from NYI

 

Salem's Lot

Andy Moog! Andy God Damn Moog!
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Jul 15, 2005
14,464
Gallows Hill
Coleman is a good get for Tampa. They needed a center to bump Cirelli down to the third line center where he’s most effective. And getting it done early puts pressure on Sweeney to do something to finally fill that RW2 spot.