2010-11 NHL Season Thread

[Corvus]

So apparently Rick Rypien is on "indefinite leave for personal reasons" for the second time in three seasons. I really hope he doesn't have a drug problem or something. Also makes me wonder if the Canucks will recall Andrew Peters

[Brendan]

So apparently Rick Rypien is on "indefinite leave for personal reasons" for the second time in three seasons. I really hope he doesn't have a drug problem or something. Also makes me wonder if the Canucks will recall Andrew Peters

It was rumored to be a painkiller addiction last time, so I wouldn't be shocked if it was related. Rypien's been pretty useless this season though, which is disappointing because I had high expectations from him. It's really too bad that they cut ties with Hordi because now they lack any intimidating fighters. Is Schaeffer now back in the fold?

[Lee.]

Schaefer cleared waivers, but wasn't going to Manitoba. I think he's done.

Intimidating fighters only get you so far. Bieksa can drop the gloves if he has to, as can Alberts. They can always recall Bliznak to help out on that fourth line, dunno how well he'd adapt to a move to the wing, though.

[Corvus]

Schaefer's still getting buyout money from Boston, so yeah, I could see him being done. Or maybe head to Europe. And Schaefer was OK, but doesn't provide the same things Rypien does.

[Sport]

Big game tonight between the Blue Jackets and Red Wings. It will help show where the Blue Jackets stand as a legitimate contender and a Blue Jackets win will put them at #1 in the Western Conference. If they've ever been that high at any point in a season then it would surprise me. Hell, I don't think they've ever been as high as they are now.

I'll be in section 115

Also, the Jackets will be in their new third uniforms. Looking forward to seeing them in action.

[NEW.ERA]

The Sean Avery rule comes in to effect and bites Chris Pronger in the ass, Leading to a disallowed goal.

Oh and the Flames finally catch a break and win on this Roadtrip beating the Flyers in the hated Shootout.

[Magnus]

Meh. One game out of 82. Bring on the next ones.

Oh, sweet! It's Jersey!

[Don]

Caps humble Tampa Bay 6-0 behind 3 goals from Alex Semin. Good to see these boys turning it around when everyone was throwing them and their captain under the bus.

[IceCap]

Caps humble Tampa Bay 6-0 behind 3 goals from Alex Semin. Good to see these boys turning it around when everyone was throwing them and their captain under the bus.

It's not throwing them under the bus if they deserve it. Both Ovie and the Caps had been playing terrible hockey before this big win.

[Don]

Caps humble Tampa Bay 6-0 behind 3 goals from Alex Semin. Good to see these boys turning it around when everyone was throwing them and their captain under the bus.

It's not throwing them under the bus if they deserve it. Both Ovie and the Caps had been playing terrible hockey before this big win.

3 game losing streak with 2 games they played absolutely horribly. Before that they had 9 games where they had won pts (1 was a OTL to Buffalo). I guess the bar is set that high to where they can throw a couple stinkers in November and everyone writes them off as horrible losers who just dont care.

[RyanMcD29]

Wooo the 14 game losing streak is over. Thank goodness the Islanders played the Devils!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2NVwuGiZ9

[IceCap]

Caps humble Tampa Bay 6-0 behind 3 goals from Alex Semin. Good to see these boys turning it around when everyone was throwing them and their captain under the bus.

It's not throwing them under the bus if they deserve it. Both Ovie and the Caps had been playing terrible hockey before this big win.

3 game losing streak with 2 games they played absolutely horribly. Before that they had 9 games where they had won pts (1 was a OTL to Buffalo). I guess the bar is set that high to where they can throw a couple stinkers in November and everyone writes them off as horrible losers who just dont care.

Lets be honest. This team (and their captain) has a history of chocking big time come the post-season. That's kind of scarred a lot people off the "Capitals as Cup contenders" bandwagon. Until they prove otherwise it's a team that seems more at home in the "pretender" category.

[Don]

Caps humble Tampa Bay 6-0 behind 3 goals from Alex Semin. Good to see these boys turning it around when everyone was throwing them and their captain under the bus.

It's not throwing them under the bus if they deserve it. Both Ovie and the Caps had been playing terrible hockey before this big win.

3 game losing streak with 2 games they played absolutely horribly. Before that they had 9 games where they had won pts (1 was a OTL to Buffalo). I guess the bar is set that high to where they can throw a couple stinkers in November and everyone writes them off as horrible losers who just dont care.

Lets be honest. This team (and their captain) has a history of chocking big time come the post-season. That's kind of scarred a lot people off the "Capitals as Cup contenders" bandwagon. Until they prove otherwise it's a team that seems more at home in the "pretender" category.

You are not incorrect. This team has alot to prove when it comes to the postseason. But nothing comes from the fact that "the captain doesnt care". No one can ever say that about Ovechkin. Talk about his seemingly unwillingness to play both sides of the ice (not true but thats another debate), talk about our thin defense corps and young goaltending. I'm not saying they're Cup contenders, I've seen alot of good Caps teams and alot of bad Caps teams, and they always have a way of letting people down, but people were talking like losing to Jersey is the end of the world for them, and it really wasnt. Did they need a good kick in the ass? Of course, but every team needs that every now and then, not to mention a team that in the eyes of everyone watching can prove nothing until April. I dont blame them for losing a bit of focus.

This is a huge win, its a division game, and Tampa came in as probably the hottest team in the league, and the young defense pairing of Carlson/Alzner shut down the "best player in the NHL" right now. Thats something to be excited about.

[oddball]

Watching the Ducks play today... ugh! Seriously. That is a bad defense and the team as a whole showed little. I hate to use the phrase, but they didn't "compete". They just didn't come to play. When the best line is your fourth line and that line has a great shift and you have a break and don't throw them back out there, then there are problems. I'm not going to say that Randy Carlyle is on the way out, I've said that before and he's survived, but I wonder if that little winning spurt was an oasis and this is the horrible team we saw at the beginning of the season. If this is the team that they are going to put out there for the rest of the season, then I feel bad for Duck fans as it's a bad, bad team.

[wildwing64]

Watching the Ducks play today... ugh! Seriously. That is a bad defense and the team as a whole showed little. I hate to use the phrase, but they didn't "compete". They just didn't come to play. When the best line is your fourth line and that line has a great shift and you have a break and don't throw them back out there, then there are problems. I'm not going to say that Randy Carlyle is on the way out, I've said that before and he's survived, but I wonder if that little winning spurt was an oasis and this is the horrible team we saw at the beginning of the season. If this is the team that they are going to put out there for the rest of the season, then I feel bad for Duck fans as it's a bad, bad team.

The Ducks seemed to be playing well right until the end of the first period. Overall it was a very lazy effort compared to the previous two games.

Weirdly, I found myself feeling very... indifferent at this game's end. The jersey may have had something to do with that.

Hiller certainly wasn't happy.

[Still MIGHTY]

Watching the Ducks play today... ugh! Seriously. That is a bad defense and the team as a whole showed little. I hate to use the phrase, but they didn't "compete". They just didn't come to play. When the best line is your fourth line and that line has a great shift and you have a break and don't throw them back out there, then there are problems. I'm not going to say that Randy Carlyle is on the way out, I've said that before and he's survived, but I wonder if that little winning spurt was an oasis and this is the horrible team we saw at the beginning of the season. If this is the team that they are going to put out there for the rest of the season, then I feel bad for Duck fans as it's a bad, bad team.

The Ducks seemed to be playing well right until the end of the first period. Overall it was a very lazy effort compared to the previous two games.

Weirdly, I found myself feeling very... indifferent at this game's end. The jersey may have had something to do with that.

Hiller certainly wasn't happy.

Following up a 6-game winning streak with a 6-game losing streak isn't doing too much for ya. Frustrating as hell.

And yeah, unlike most times, they played a pretty good first period (Albeit outshot). Then of course at the end of the game when Hiller got pulled, yeah wasn't happy. The guy never ever shows emotion, good/bad/indifferent, but he didn't look happy skating to the bench (well again, not happy compared to Hiller's standards), and he walked down the hall to the locker room. As soon as he turned the corner and thought he was out of view, I see the blade of his stick swing backwards into my view, then fling forward out of it.

And unfortunately, I have to agree with oddball. That winning streak looks to be the abnormality of the season. Even when they were winning, they were all one-goal games, they were still being outshot by large margins. They won once in the streak with a 2 goal margin, and the second goal was an empty net.

That win streak that gave me hope has been nullified. Gonna be a longer season than I thought

[crashcarson15]

The good news for the Jackets is, Sunday's game in Detroit is still for 1st place in the division and in the conference. The Jackets are arguably playing the best hockey they ever have right now, and if it weren't for :censored:ing Jimmy Howard, they'd be in 1st place in the conference. I know it's a long season, but we're a quarter of the way through, and I like the way my team is playing. Derick Brassard is finally becoming what the Jackets need him to be, an assists machine for Rick Nash. Speaking of Nash, he's turned it on lately, and Jakub Voracek's been producing nicely. Nikita Filatov seems to have learned something from his stint in Russia/Arniel's coaching style is 100x better when it comes to players like him than Hitch's. Arniel scratched Nikki the other night for disciplinary reasons (sleeping in essentially), and doesn't hesitate to knock him down from the 2nd line, and it's really nice to see Filatov with the "Okay coach, what can I do to get better and back on the 2nd line?" attitude instead of the "I'm going back to Russia" one he had last year. And Mr. Bipolar himself, Steve Mason, playing well helps the cause too.

[wildwing64]

Jobing.com Arena is surprisingly busy tonight. Or at least, it looks it from what I can see on TV.

[Lee.]

The latest rumor out of the mill has Kevin Bieksa going to Washington in exchange for Tomas Fleischmann. Discuss.

[NEW.ERA]

Flames are facing their most important week of the season starting tonight. The need at least 5 of 6 points against the Wild twice and the Canucks on Wednesday.

Hate to call the death of a team in Late November, Early December but that's the reality they're facing.