2011-12 NHL Season

[zpqmaowl]

Once again, two (non-shootout) goals for the Kings

[Still MIGHTY]

And the Ducks will probably get no more goals tonight. Again. Sigh.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Perhaps I need to be bitter and cynical more often.

Selanne has now overtaken Modano with that assist.

Yeah I have no idea how THIS team came out of 3-0 hole after those quick two to start the 2nd. But they were playing hard, fast, and intense at the end of the period. It's amazing to see how this team can actually play when they put their mind to it. Just get some damn consistency.

[Sodboy13]

If Cunneyworth can't be arsed to learn conversational French, then he's, well, a real cunneyworth.

What's a cunneyworth?

[HedleyLamarr]

If Cunneyworth can't be arsed to learn conversational French, then he's, well, a real cunneyworth.

What's a cunneyworth?

$1500 an hour.

[Kramerica Industries]

The Richards goal wasn't only scored at 0.1, but was officially a goal just as the 0.1 was expiring.

That has to be as late a goal as has ever been scored in a period and game. I remember Carolina beating New Jersey in the playoffs that way in 2009, but even that was with 0.2 left.

[wildwing64]

There we go again.

Hiller's not too popular right now. And I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but he's really not the All-Star calibre goalie the Ducks make him out to be. When he's good, he can be great. But at the same time he has gaping flaws and too easily lets in soft goals. I'm starting to want the Ducks to trade him for someone who's more solid in front of the net.

Seeing Anaheim come back from the 3-0 deficit was fantastic, but the same old mistakes cost them the game. Yet again. I'd like to think that Gabby will start his f-bombing run soon.

[Funky Bunky]

It's hard to look away....

[Still MIGHTY]

The whole thing is just a damn car fire. The only reason I tune in now is to maybe see something extraordinary and Teemu Selanne, and most nights, those two are one in the same.

[Funky Bunky]

There we go again.

Hiller's not too popular right now. And I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but he's really not the All-Star calibre goalie the Ducks make him out to be. When he's good, he can be great. But at the same time he has gaping flaws and too easily lets in soft goals. I'm starting to want the Ducks to trade him for someone who's more solid in front of the net.

Seeing Anaheim come back from the 3-0 deficit was fantastic, but the same old mistakes cost them the game. Yet again. I'd like to think that Gabby will start his f-bombing run soon.

This is the worst team I have ever seen. No depth, no goaltending, no defense, and the stars are struggling outside of Perry and Selanne.

[Still MIGHTY]

There we go again.

Hiller's not too popular right now. And I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but he's really not the All-Star calibre goalie the Ducks make him out to be. When he's good, he can be great. But at the same time he has gaping flaws and too easily lets in soft goals. I'm starting to want the Ducks to trade him for someone who's more solid in front of the net.

Seeing Anaheim come back from the 3-0 deficit was fantastic, but the same old mistakes cost them the game. Yet again. I'd like to think that Gabby will start his f-bombing run soon.

This is the worst team I have ever seen. No depth, no goaltending, no defense, and the stars are struggling outside of Perry and Selanne.

I've seen quite worse Mighty Ducks teams. The difference there was that they were just all and all bad. I didn't have expectations back then, because they were bad up and down. It used to be just Selanne/Kariya, Guy Hebert, and a bunch of Canadian farm boys. This is a team that is just horribly underperforming. The star players aren't playing up to snuff, minus the aforementioned Selanne and Perry. Depth is by far one of the biggest issues on the team. The Ducks were top-heavy to begin with, and now with everyone not pulling on the rope, it's just that much worse. Defense hasn't been all that bad. They'll play pretty well for a good majority of the game. The part that really sucks can only be attributed to just terrible luck. They'll have the occasional mental lapse, but each one of those lapses are being capitalized on by the other team. And the goaltending... ugh. Just so so soft. Hiller will make the spectacular save, then let in the really strange ones.

This team is flat out bad based on performance. Talent wise, they are not that bad (at least with the core). They just aren't performing up to snuff, the goaltending has been weak, and depth is an issue. They are playing with a little more energy with Boudreau, but the results just aren't changing. Bob Murray should have gone out the door with Carlyle, but I still have hope on that front (absolutely idiotic four-year extension or not).

[The_Admiral]

Whom can the Ducks shed? Beauchemin, Lydman, Selanne?

[CityOfWalrus]

Not a good idea with them going into the same division next year but could something be worked out with Ryan going for a goalie like Schneider?

[Still MIGHTY]

Whom can the Ducks shed? Beauchemin, Lydman, Selanne?

I say anyone outside of Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Fowler, Sbisa. Selanne I'd want to stay so he can get a proper career sendoff in Anaheim, but if he was open to it/wanted to be traded to a contender, I'd do it. I wouldn't want to, but I'd do it. And I'd even be open to trading Getzlaf, if the right deal came along to make it truly worth it. I think Perry and Ryan are more valuable to the Ducks than Getzlaf is. They create enough offense on their own, they just need a fuller roster around them.

Anybody else is free game. (But again, idk if I want Bob Murray making these decisions. So far, I'm not too impressed with what he deems as equal value.) They need to start restocking the system. The Ducks are pretty tapped out as far as the minors are.

[zpqmaowl]

Posting this here just because:

[NEW.ERA]

Lame trade rumor talk I'm putting out there.

If the Jets are within good playoff standing come the deadline, do they throw something at Bob Murray to get Selanne as a rental player for one last kick at the cup? Gotta think Selanne wouldn't mind playing in Winnipeg for 3 months, before he goes back to Anaheim to retire.

[The_Admiral]

The Jets don't have nearly enough talent for a Cup run, even with Selanne. For the good of the organization, they should be moving downward, not upward. They're a build-from-within team with nothing within. They need picks and prospects, not more Selanne nostalgia.

[NEW.ERA]

The Jets don't have nearly enough talent for a Cup run, even with Selanne. For the good of the organization, they should be moving downward, not upward. They're a build-from-within team with nothing within. They need picks and prospects, not more Selanne nostalgia.

And I agree. They're still at least 2 to 3 seasons away from being a contender in the East, but you know it's going to pick up more speed come February.

[oddball]

For as much as Duck fans want to celebrate Selanne, remember it was him and Niedermayer who held the team hostage after the Cup season and forced the Ducks to trade away valuable parts of the Cup winning team. I know a lot of Duck fans hate Paul Kariya, and yet they overlook how Selanne and Niedermayer both were so completely selfish that they ruined a team that should've contended for years. The by product of Selanne and Niedermayer is what you have on the ice. Getting the team back under the cap after those two decided that they would play halfway through the season started a series of bad trades for the Ducks that brought them nothing at best in return.

[Still MIGHTY]

For as much as Duck fans want to celebrate Selanne, remember it was him and Niedermayer who held the team hostage after the Cup season and forced the Ducks to trade away valuable parts of the Cup winning team. I know a lot of Duck fans hate Paul Kariya, and yet they overlook how Selanne and Niedermayer both were so completely selfish that they ruined a team that should've contended for years. The by product of Selanne and Niedermayer is what you have on the ice. Getting the team back under the cap after those two decided that they would play halfway through the season started a series of bad trades for the Ducks that brought them nothing at best in return.

Selanne and Niedermayer's holdouts (mostly Niedermayer's. Teemu wasn't making all that much money, relatively) made the need for trades, sure. They aren't responsible for the trades being bad or getting nothing in return. That's not even Burke. That one goes to Bob Murray. The majority of these bad trades post-Cup are on his hands.

And you've been pounding this drum since it happened, but how in the world is it selfish? They though they were done. They didn't want to play. As the season went on, they decided they did want to. Now Burke didn't have to oblige them, but he did. And the team has done so with Teemu/Scott since then giving them a lot of leeway on a timeframe to decide whether or not to play. This part falls on Burke. And look at who Burke brought in to replace them, he gave Bertuzzi and Schneider albatross contracts that they never lived up to in an Anaheim uniform. Bertuzzi was horrible as a Duck.

So no, it's not exactly Niedermayer and Teemu's fault. And even since the moves that were made immediately following their returns, there have been a series of moves over the years that have been a detriment to the Ducks. It comes back to the fact that Burke pulled out all the stops for that Cup run. And really the lingerings still made the Ducks an extremely competitive and contending team for a few years after. It was Bob Murray's job to fill in beneath the coattails that Burke left, and he's failed to do that. Now the team fell off the deep end and fast. There is practically NOTHING in the system, especially after trading away our #1 D prospect in Gardiner (who's doing quite well in Toronto. We all drooled over the thoughts of Gardiner/Fowler leading the Anaheim D for years, but that was screwed over for Francois Beauchemin. Not to mention Lupul was in that deal, and he's tearing it up on Kessel's wing. Funny, considering Carlyle said to Lupul that he didn't have the talent to be a top-end left wing in the NHL. Huh.)

This on Bob Murray. I mean, it's clear now that Carlyle wasn't the actual problem this year (although he was A problem, he definitely wasn't THE problem). Bob Murray has not filled in a sufficient roster or bolstered anything significant in the farm system.

[DEAD!]

I understand where they're coming from. It's bad enough that the onetime bastion of French-Canadian achievement is full of Slavs. The coach needs to be able to address the media. Just learn a little of the language. It's not their place to care, but it's something for someone to care about, if that makes any sense.

That's fair. I just don't think a government should be "demanding" anything like this. Given the current economic climate and political upheavel in Quebec focusing on who coaches a private hockey club seems silly.

If fans want to pressure the club that's something else all together.

Yes, the government shouldn't demand anything like this. It's more scoring political points than anything.

I think fans should be smart enough that they'll take a good coach even if he can't speak French, or not fluently at best. It should not be a great barrier. That didn't stop the Montreal Alouettes or Expos in that market. You can bring in an interpreter to press conferences, and I often see Quebec TV interviews where the bilingual questioner would translate the answer back to French.

So apparently the Quebec provincial government isn't too happy with the Canadiens' interim coach and is demanding (I'm not quite sure if that's the right word) that their next full-time coach speak French.

The Quebec provincial government has more important things to worry about then who coaches a hockey team.

Yeah, like getting a second team.

Bring back the Maroons!