NHL 2011/2012 Season

Originally posted by richardvoyageur I think Suter is one of the best defensive defensemen in the league.  They did some stats on him, forget the website, but it rated him as playing the most vs. the best players in the league.  It was an interesting stat, and to top that off, his +/- while playing against those elite players was fantastic. I think you'll really get to see how good Shea Weber is without his best buddy.  I think looking at his play next year will tell you how good Suter really is.

Of course that's also playing in front of (in my opinion) the best goalie in the league.  Rinne almost single-handedly beat Vancouver last year, and got Detroit this year. Of course time will tell with Suter, but I don't know about next year being as big a year.  Athletes in general tend to do worse the first year on a new team after signing a huge contract.

^It's hard to say how Rinne will be affected by Suter leaving, though.  He ate up a ton of minutes back there.  Maybe Suter made Rinne better, and maybe he'll make Backstrom better.  We'll see.  Bottom line is I don't think Minnesota made a mistake or overpaid.

Originally posted by Von44 Originally posted by richardvoyageur I think you'll really get to see how good Shea Weber is without his best buddy. I think looking at his play next year will tell you how good Suter really is. Yeah i'm more interested to see how Weber does next year and also vice versa for Suter. It'll be a huge change for both players not being together anymore.

Originally posted by grapeape2669 Originally posted by zakk In other news, love the Sharks getting Larry Robinson as an associate coach.  i think he'll really help the PK and make Todd actually coach this year The Sharks will have to train Larry Robinson pretty extensively before the season gets going.  The issue is that he's a born winner, so the Sharks organization is going to have to teach him how to choke when the pressure is on.

Shouldn't be too hard when they have a captain like no-show-joe leading by example.

Now that Parise and Suter signed, the remaining UFA's are pretty underwhelming.  Seems like most of the big names are in their mid-30's.  Dwayne Roloson is available, though, if you're in the market for a 42-year-old goalie.  That being said, he's still good.

Originally posted by grapeape2669 Now that Parise and Suter signed, the remaining UFA's are pretty underwhelming.  Seems like most of the big names are in their mid-30's.  Dwayne Roloson is available, though, if you're in the market for a 42-year-old goalie.  That being said, he's still good.

@zakk - who cares about what Thornton did over the regular season. what matters is that he doesn't show up in the playoffs.

Originally posted by zakk Originally posted by grapeape2669 Now that Parise and Suter signed, the remaining UFA's are pretty underwhelming.  Seems like most of the big names are in their mid-30's.  Dwayne Roloson is available, though, if you're in the market for a 42-year-old goalie.  That being said, he's still good. yeah, he totally didn't get outplayed by Matty Garon and have his stats fall off a cliff last year: http://yhoo.it/MhYnEV Does anyone actually watch hockey in here?

Originally posted by Von44 @zakk - who cares about what Thornton did over the regular season. what matters is that he doesn't show up in the playoffs.

Originally posted by zakk Originally posted by Von44 @zakk - who cares about what Thornton did over the regular season. what matters is that he doesn't show up in the playoffs. He has been there the past two years, but yes, his Boston years were the days of being a ghost. the Sharks as a whole do not have the "It" factor that teams that win it.  it's a culture thing and one that this current incarnation of the team will go to retirement with.  Much like the 2007 Senators, 2013 Vancouver Canucks, and, if you talk to a Toronto native, every Leaf's squad since 1968.

A few things:

Originally posted by grapeape2669 Originally posted by richardvoyageur -Will be interesting to see JVR go back to centre for the Leafs, God knows they need someone in the middle that can make plays.  What a horrible team.  Riemer might try to take his job back after that injury-riddled season JVR's quote on being traded to Toronto: "going to play in Toronto is really exciting for me. The tradition they have there, the city, the fans, it's all unbelievable. Growing up a big time Yankees fan, it's kind of like playing for the New York Yankees of the NHL." That was probably a fair comparison in 1965, but they've taken slightly different paths from there on out.

Originally posted by richardvoyageur Yeah the market might dictate that they are like the Yankees (you should see the ticket prices in Toronto, which is the closest NHL market to me).  What's funny is when you're at the games it's all business type guys that show up in the middle period with their Blackberries and don't even pay attention to the games, in their corporate seats.  There is no fire in that building like in Montreal for example. And they can't win anything, which is humorous to me.  I am surrounded by Leafs fans in my city and it's great to see them fail year after year.  The Bruins win just made it that much sweeter, grapes.

^ Because in Detroit it's more important to be seen at the game than actually paying attention to the game.  Those girls were probably updating their Facebook status... "At the Red Wings game!!!" and taking pictures of each other making duck faces to upload to Facebook.  Back when the Wings sucked the real fans went to the games.  Now it's all about appearances and getting the hot ticket in town.

I took the baseball team I coach to the Tigers game last night (ten 8-year-olds and some of their parents) and most of the people I could see around us were watching the game, cheering and having a good time.  It was farking hot as hell but still had a good time.

Read this, it would cost you at least $500 to bring a family of 4 to a Leafs game these days, it's sickening.  And those tickets are nothing special at all, not even close to lower bowl.

The average cost of a non-premium Leafs ticket for the 2011-2012 season is $123.77 — the same amount as last season, but enough to lead the league for a second year in row. For the entire NHL, the average price of a non-premium ticket this season is $57.10, up 4.8 percent over last season.

The Winnipeg Jets, formerly the Atlanta Thrashers, have the league's second-highest average ticket price at $98.27. Rounding out the top five are the Montreal Canadiens($88.67); the Edmonton Oilers ($70.13); and the Vancouver Canucks ($68.38). All prices are listed in U.S. dollars.

The team with the lowest average ticket price was the Dallas Stars ($29.95).

Originally posted by ctoma Shea Weber signs a 14 year offer sheet from the Flyers, Nashville claims they will match any offer for Weber.  Let's see if they do.

Originally posted by zakk Originally posted by ctoma Shea Weber signs a 14 year offer sheet from the Flyers, Nashville claims they will match any offer for Weber.  Let's see if they do. fucking Sharks not doing a damn thing this off-season.  It was obvious they didn't have the defense to go deep in the playoffs and sit by as two generational talents get snatched up.  Marleau is paid $6.9mm, how can they not pay Shea Freakin' Weber $7.2mm?

I can't see how Nashville could match that offer, it's a big one.  

Originally posted by Von44 ^All I know is these contracts have gotten ridiculous! I remember when a 5 year deal was massive. Things have really gotten out of hand.

Yeah thats what a lot of teams are doing now with their stars. They pay them a ton of money for the first few years then very little towards the end of the contract.

The analysts basically said that the NHL proposal was tantamount to a declaration of war to the players.  They will obviously come back with a ridiculous counter proposal of their own and hopefully they work it out from here.  Post-strike hockey has been fantastic in my view and I hope they don't get all greedy.  Share the profits, enjoy the game and get rid of these stupid front-loaded long contracts

in the end, they need football style revenue sharing so that the Nashville's of the world have a war-chest that can somewhat compete with the likes of Philly (Comcast money) can.

Originally posted by grapeape2669 I'm not surprised that the owners are pulling this again considering how the last strike worked out for the NHLPA.  It's too bad though, because the players really aren't being greedy at this point. And the front-loaded contracts obviously work out for the players that sign them, but it benefits the teams just as much in that they can spread the cap hit over the entire length of the contract.  But if they want to get rid of that type of contract, why not just have the cap hit be the actual salary that each player is paid for the current year?

Then there's still the problem of contracts like the one the Blackhawks gave Hossa. 12 years 62.8 million at age 30? There's no way hes going to be playing at 42, so instead of doing so much of the frontloaded contract, teams will just extend the length of the contracts, and end up buying out the last x amount of years after the player regresses too much from age.

I'm just trying to say, if they don't limit contract length too, then that will be the next loophole the GMs will use.  For instance instead of a steady $4mil a year for 4 years, they sign the player at $2 mil per year for 8 years.  I just used Hossa as an example because I thought of his first as a contract that's already longer than necessary, especially for a forward.

Welp, Shea Weber is staying in Nashville.  still some very good players they can sign to RFA offer sheets