apuszczalowski

who said it's the same level of goaltending? How do we know what Lehner may have done in Buffalo last year playing in a system with Irbe as his coach that made scrap heap guys make the tanker fans fear for their precious 30th place finish? Enroth did so well for the stars they are letting him go for nothing as a FA. This team has a goaltending crisis because it has no one left at the position with experience playing in the NHL and the team at some point has to try and win games again. Losing every night waiting for the magically day all these picks and prospects turn into good players is not going to want to make guys stick around or come here to play....

Everyone keeps saying we could just go out and get a FA goalie and it would be just as good, have they seen the list of who's out there? Murray still might get one to compete, but how many of the guys available are truly #1 starters in this league or could become one like Lehner? It's not like Enroth, Neuvirth went on to lead their teams as the #1 guy very far or continues to impress after leaving Buffalo last year. Their teams arent even looking to keep them around and letting them go for nothing after trading for them at the deadline he did, he just managed to get the unknown goalie and bogosian for myers Stafford ArmIA and Lemieux. .....

but your assuming you could get Lack for just that one pick. Hasek single handedly carried Sabres teams that would have been lucky to hit double digit wins if not for him. Just because he couldn't win a championship with them and finally did when on a very good team doesn't mean goaltenders are a dime a dozen. There are a bunch of good teams out there that are still looking for a good goaltender to get them to contender status. Do you think the Kings win a cup without Quick? Do you think Montreal makes the playoffs without Price? Teams stacked at other positions may be able to win without a superstar goaltender, but more often then not teams without a very good one aren't going far. he paid a premium to make a trade in the same division...

you could say the same thing about the Kane deal. The Jets wanted him out of their lockerroom, they also wanted players to help them make the playoffs last season. Very few teams outside of Buffalo could give them players who could help now for someone who wouldn't play til the next sEason. In most cases that would mean Buffalo should have had a ton of leverage and yet they gave up more then they should have. I have never understood the man crush for Murray around here, he seems like a total pick but I guess that's what they like about him. I actually don't mind the deal. They got a goalie who aside from maybe Lack, is a guy who has the potetial to be the franchise starter for years for a crap shoot lottery ticket that may amount to nothing. Everyone is so in love with picks and prospects. No team is ever built a winner using only their own draft picked players from a few year period.

Called it months ago that TM would go after one of the goalies in Ottawa. He knows them well so you have to hope he knows what he's getting

that's what it looks like from the one previous post. You can talk, but you can't agree to or sign anything. Basically it's time to allow players and teams to talk and work out offers and give them time to think things over instead of rushing everything on day 1

I think this is the old Regier approach and what everyone faulted him for. Can't trade away prospects for current developed players because they may turn out to be good elsewhere. They had to see exactly what they had in these guys at the NHL level before possibly moving them which usually gets you less when everyone has seen what they can do

that would get my vote

My worry about Talbot is he hasn't shown much outside of this season that would make you say he is definitely a #1 guy. Lack is maybe slightly ahead in that he has shown to be capable of possibly being a starter. Anderson has shown he can be when healthy. Lehner and Markstrom have the potential but haven't proven it. Outside of them there's Niemi but I question why the sharks would just let him go. Personally I would be looking at the Leafs and getting a price on Bernier or Reimer. One of them will want out if not the #1

The reason for the point for losing in OT is because you didn't lose in regulation time. They are rewarding teams with a point for not losing a game after the 60 minutes of game time in the rules. The ot/shootout is to determine who will get the point for winning the extra time.

because they are giving the penalty shot in place of a 2 minute penalty. The goalie making the save would be the equivalent of the short handed team killing off a 2 minute penalty

So the day after the cup was awarded the team with the best odds to win next year is the team that just won and the team with the worst odds is the team that had the worst record? They must have used state of the art technology in their computers to come up with these odds

The cup may not be "owned" by the league but it is what is awarded to the championship winning team by the league. And that is why the league has their highest level representative (the comissioner) present the award to them. They could do something like the NFL and have someone from the network on stage to help emcee, but you are going to always have the comissioner up there doing the actual awarding of the cup and speaking to the team. Having an alumni from the teams past makes no sense in most cases since they have no tie to the winning of the cup except that they were alumni

Yeah, having some senior citizen out there on the ice handing over a heavy trophy or just doing what Bettman does is going to be less ackward and clumsy. I haven't really seen much of a difference between the other sports leagues and the NHL presentation when it comes to ackwardness. It's difficult to have it go smooth when it's live and in the moment

For those arguing about games being aired or not being aired, this is why the league needs Florida teams, phoenix, and other teams in the league to succeed. Networks aren't going to spend the money to aquire the rights to the NHL in the us if it's only something of interest to part of the country. They need widespread interest. In Canada, I don't think there was a playoff game not televised here on cable without needing a premium package. Why? Because the networks fought over the rights to games because the entire country is interested in the sport

Doesn't the commissioner of every major sports league hand the championship trophy over to the winning team? Just because you hate Bettman it doesn't mean they should be different. And the owners don't hate him, if they did he wouldn't be in his job, the owners seem to think he is doing a really good job. The commissioners job always seems to be hated by the fans of that sport for some reason, and fans always think they are doing some horrible job running things, yet the owners of the teams all seem to think they are doing pretty good jobs at what they do

well think of it this way. If they go one extra day between games, that's one more day of hockey coming before the offseason where there are no games scheduled

Also its well known that the networks take hits in ratings putting stuff on Friday nights because most people are out that night of the week. Saturday night is a big hockey night for the entire season so it makes more sense to give the extra day off to skip Friday and play Saturday. Just because you don't want to wait an extra day to watch the game, doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way. I'm sure there are Tampa and Chicago fans that wanted the Friday night to go out and would prefer the game on Saturday no, they scheduled the game around the open times in the arenas schedule. This happens all of the time during the season, the arena schedules events all year and probably weren't expecting the lighting to be this far so they didn't leave the cup finals time slots open and just book around what's available

if they buy him out does a portion of it count against the cap? That may determine what else they are willing to give up to get him off the books

more control of the roster....

but he wouldn't be the gm, they would bring someone else in for the title of gm to do the rest of the stuff he doesn't want to handle. The talk is he wants some control over personel in Buffalo, well right now Toronto can give him whatever control he wants and the ability to help chose the guy he will be working with to handle the rest of the roles a gm would do that he doesn't want

That Maybe that is TMs plan all along. He can go out now and say they did everything they could to get Babs, then TM gets his buddy to coach here which is what he truly wanted all along. It's diabolical!

don't forget- Yancy's Fancy (or whatever it's called) artisan cheese - Celino and Barnes - Saleens Hotdogs and Geico has their office there too.....

So because Vanek been a bust it means re-signing Miller would have been? Who knows what could have been with Irbe as Miller's goaltending coach. Vanek was always overrated by Buffalo fans, problems been that they never brought in guys that were better so he didn't have to be the top guy. He isn't a leader or a guy who is going to make others better. He is what he is, a lazy, quiet goalscorer.

I would take Howard if the wings were looking to move him. He's a good goalie that can be good enough to make this team better