Yumcha

Told you already; Deano is such a godly GM that he KNEW he was getting a wife-beater and still signed him to a cap-friendly deal.

Don't hate. You wish your team had players like Slapya Faceoff.

is300eater

the World Juniors Hockey Championship finals was a great game, anyone else watched it?

Yumcha

Caught the last 4 minutes...was hoping the Russians would tie it for entertainment sakes (don't care which country wins since Chinese-Taipei and China was eliminated ).

dom

I stopped watching when Finlandia was eliminated. Which I still can't believe happened.

Yumcha

Don't they play the gold medal winner in the platinum medal game?

Yumcha

Leaves fire their coach.

dom

The Edmonton Oilers of the East. Without all the #1 picks.

I don't even care anymore. Won't make a lick of a difference until they jettison Phaneuf and One sac.

dom

Oh, and welcome Babs.

dom

Let me translate that for our Detroit fans.

"We'll wait until the end of the season so we can sign Mike Babcock"

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

Keep dreaming, Babs doesnt want that headache.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

It was a great trade, and I was very excited to hear about it when it happened. Adding a true top 6 winger and not giving up much of anything. Perron looked great in his first game as a Penguin, and scored a beautiful goal off a sick pass by Crosby. Nice to see him wearing the black and gold
IMG_20150103_191542_zpsimpnwrck.jpg

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Also got to meet Rounder and Miss Rounder over the weekend, (he didn't ask me for any penis pics btw)

Really nice dude, it was fun to hang out and talk hockey

Rounder

great meeting you too, Ack. Thanks for joining us for lunch also. That was a really fun trip but exhausting 7-hour drive each way

dom

From Ron Wilson.

Ouch.

Rounder

you think it's phil's fault. don't you!

Yumcha

Ouch indeed.

dom

Did you see that? He's probably regretting signing that extension and is now desperate to get out of Toronto.

It was a dumb question but One sac could have handled himself better.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

All else fails, blame Phil the Thrill

Yumcha

And don't forget, Dion the Neon.

black label

He didn't want to play defense in Boston, Toronto knew what they were paying for when they got him. None of what kessel has done (or not done) in Toronto is a surprise to Boston fans.

black label

Ack, you going to the game tonight?

Yumcha

Okay...sure. Explain again with a team that can't buy a goal (yours) why they traded away not one but TWO premium scorers again?

I mean, let's say Sayghin is still horrid on D...have Burjerron and someone else defensively responsible with him?

What's the biggie?

Yumcha

For what One-Ball Phil is, he still is one of the better scorers in the league. I mean, other than Datsyook, who else that gets 90 points per season is THAT great defensively?

Sure, Sid back-checks but he'll never be a Selke candidate.

Yumcha

For the record though, I still believe the Bruins will make the playoffs. Same as the Kings.

dom

Is what Seguin's doing a surprise? The universe has a way of balancing itself out. Make a great Kessel trade, and then trade away Seguin for Nuts & Bolts.

black label

Don't forget jumbo joe.

The b's are a hot mess right now. They've always had pairs of forwards and were able to slot in a third.

Marchand/Bergeron Lucic/Krecji Thornton/Campbell peverly/Kelly. Half of those pairs are broken by trades (no st, no peverly), they haven't found a replacement for iginla. Marchand Bergeron is all that's left. The b's bigger problem is they traded away or decided not to re-sign the grit of the team an now they're soft.

Yumcha

Well, I dunno...I just know that trading away 2 All-Stars (One-Ballsack Phil and Saygooin) is just a recipe for disaster. Call them what you want: bad attitudes, no D, or party-animals...you still can't replace goals. And well, the Bruins just shipped out about 70+ goals with those 2.

Boston can be as tough as you want but if they can't score...ehhhh...even the almighty-amazing-godly-Kings have Maid Marian Gabs on the team. And is he an amazing defender? NOPE.



Well, I'm sure Moog will come back to tell me how wrong I am about Gabby's ability to back-check and play sound 2-way play.

Yumcha

Anyhow, hope the Bruins learned their lesson and stop trading away forwards that can pile on points.

Yumcha

Also, paying Loocheech all that money has backfired...I don't know if what I read is accurate but some analysts are calling his play indifferent and he's rarely using his size anymore.

black label

The problem with Looch is he "needs someone or something to get him going." There have been rare instances of seeing the "prototypical power forward" this year but they are few and far between.

My fear is that they make a stupid desperate trade that leave them no better off than they are now. This team isn't going to the promised land, accept it and address the issues in the off season.

Yumcha

Well, on paper, the Bruins are built for the playoffs...albeit, they have that pop-gun offence which will need addressing.

A trade in this day and age...well, given how close to the cap the team is, equal salary needs to go and come back. So, I dunno how much of a shake-up the GM can do. I hear Edmonton is desperate though.

black label

It woul have to be a dollar for dollar trade right now, what's the point

Any real trade made right now would involve jettisoning Krecji, Lucic, or Marchand. Next year iginla comes off the books at 4.1 million, thy could also use a compliance buyout on Kelly (which wasn't possible last season because he was on IR). That's an extra 7.3 million to replace 1 roster player.

Rounder

if leaves need a coach, disco dan is available!

black label

Torts

Think of it Sith Lord Torts and his apprentice darth kessel wage war on the galactic Toronto media.

The epic kanuckistan ice opera.

e30cabrio

iTrader: (6)

I hate west coast games. Rangers @ Ducks starts 8:30. grrrrr

e30cabrio

iTrader: (6)

Where is Torts? Yelling at a deli counterman in Conn?

e30cabrio

iTrader: (6)

How long until John Tortorella is back behind an NHL bench?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...211340679.html

It's no secret that John Tortorella's tenure in Vancouver was a disaster, but here's one story you may not have heard.

Tortorella never actually lived in Vancouver. Instead, he lived in nearby Point Roberts, which is across the American border, but only about a 45-minute drive from Rogers Arena on a good day. For practice days (which were so rare the players complained) Tortorella would drive in for a brief appearance, and then head home, leaving his assistants to handle everything else.

Mike Gillis got so frustrated with his quick turnarounds that the team eventually built a bed into Tortorella's office so he could take naps there instead of driving home. You can watch Willie Desjardins react with bemusement to the fold-out bed in this video of the Canucks showing their new coach into his office.

But despite Tortorella's one-and-done turn in Vancouver, which is destined for infamy and seems like a pretty logical endpoint to his NHL head coaching career, former GM Jay Feaster is confident that Tortorella's not done.

"I think time heals all wounds," he said in an exclusive interview with the Fischler Report:

I believe that John will get back. General managers in the league know he’s a good coach, and you take the good with the bad. Part of what makes him a good coach is that he does not have the political correctness gene. He is not worried about what you or me or what anybody else thinks about him – he’s going to do what he thinks is right. I think some time away, so time to decompress, I think that’ll be good for him.

I don’t have any doubt that at some point in time, a team is going to be struggling and a team is going to need some discipline, some structure, and a general manager is going to say, “This is a guy that can provide it.”

Feaster's probably right. It won't be too long before some team decides they need discipline, and then makes the puzzling leap that the famously difficult Tortorella is the man to provide it.

It will be insane, especially when you consider a story Feaster told just prior to vouching for Tortorella, about one of the legendary run-ins between Torts and Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

After a heated game versus the Devils, Feaster was worried Tortorella would blow up if he went out for his postgame presser before calming down:

We were literally nose to nose in each other’s faces. I was between he and the door. He said, “Jay, I’m telling you, I’m fine.” We go back and forth with this song and dance, so off he goes to do the media. It wasn’t three minutes later that somebody came walking by and said, “Guess what your head coach just told [NY Post reporter] Larry Brooks to do on live television?” Of course he dropped another F-bomb and he came back in and I looked at him and I said, “I thought you were fine!” He hanged his head and looked at me and said, “Did I put you in a bad spot?” If I had a dollar for every time I heard him say, “Did I put you in a bad spot?” We had a lot of fun together.

"Did I put you in a bad spot?" is the new "Did I do that?" One assumes he also said this to Mike Gillis after trying to punch his way through the Calgary Flames' hallway like that one scene in Oldboy.

And yet, Tortorella's next opportunity -- to be a paragon of discipline, ironically enough -- will undoubtedly come. I can hardly fathom it. Back in March, I asked aloud if we were living in the end times of Tortorella's coaching career:

If John Tortorella is let go after this season, he may never coach in the NHL again. There were few that wanted him last season before the Canucks surprised everyone and decided to take a chance, and they were burned for it. Who else is going to look at what's happened here in Vancouver, and how clearly at fault the coach has been for much of it -- how out of control he was that night in the hallway versus Calgary, how badly he mismanaged his goalies at the Winter Classic, how thoroughly he destroyed the Sedinery that made Vancouver so special, how, by the end of one season, nothing worked, and he looked completely out of ideas -- and say, 'he's our guy'?

Nobody is, I suggested, foolishly, but Feaster's words are a reminder that I wasn't being nearly cynical enough about the NHL's front-office recycling program.

Still, as crazy as it seems to me, I'm looking forward to Tortorella's return. Hockey needs personalities like him -- guys who can't help but be themselves, regardless of how difficult that is.

And let me tell you, it is difficult. In the interview, Feaster tells of players coming to his office to complain about Tortorella's in-your-face approach.

"The guy would come in and say, 'He hates me.' I would always tell him, 'Don’t flatter yourself, he hates all of us.'"

Yumcha

Hey, maybe the Leaves hire Dallas Eakins!

black label

But then Kessel's training won't be ComPleTe.

e30cabrio

iTrader: (6)

Woke up to Rangers 4-Ducks 1.

WOOT!!