I agree with you about Huet and Price. I'm not entirely convinced Price is completely reliable to lead the Habs into the playoffs and so on. However, there is no doubt in my mind that he is a strong goalie. It was a gamble to release Huet, no doubt about it - even Gainey recognizes it - but I feel as if it was something that had to be done. And so far, Price isn't letting me down. It's something that I suppose we'll have to evaluate after the season is finished. Releasing Huet will ultimately be seen as a terribly lame move, or a good stroke of insight. Hopefully for my Habs it is the latter, heh.

Peace,
Mike

I hope they keep losing, myself. Heh.

I'm sorry, that's really mean of me, but I've never liked the Red Wings.

Peace,
Mike

Yep, even to my crappy team!

Speaking of which, the Oilers set a NHL record with their thirteenth shootout win of the season tonight.

Well, it's not like getting a big contract like Hossa's off at the end of the season is a bad thing, if that's any consolation for the Penguins. Though I guess expiring contracts in hockey aren't as huge and important as they are in basketball.

Not sure what you mean. The Penguins aren't paying Hossa's entire contract, just the remainder left for the rest of the season.

Ottawa fired their coach, John Paddock, today and replaced him with Bryan Murray, who was coach last year and got promoted to GM. I saw it coming, Ottawa's been in a tailspin lately.

Yes, but the effect is the same, no? I assume Christenson, Armstrong, and Esposito's combined contracts equal Hossa or close to it for the deal to work, and when the season's over, they don't have to pay anything, whereas before they would've had those three players on the books for next season. When Hossa's contract runs out, it's the equivalent of having that 5-6 mil+(I assume that's what he's getting) subtracted from your overall cap space and will give them more breathing room to set themselves up to resign Malkin at the end of next year.

I'm not sure if the rules are different in hockey, but in basketball, the portion of the season left and how much the players are actually getting paid doesn't make much of a difference, their contracts in full are still figuratively counted towards the team being "under the cap" or not.

Big game tonight for the Bruins. If they win, they have somewhat of a chance to get up into the 2-5 range rather than the 6-8 range. They wouldn't leapfrog over anyone tonight since they're five points behind the Canadiens, but to get within three of them, four behind the Sens and five behind Pittsburgh, it'd be nice. Then again, where they end up is going to be a big deal. Would it exactly be in their best interest to finish 4th or 5th so they play the Canadiens? That's worked out magically so far this year. They either have to hope the Canadiens get up to #1 (which is not a stretch anymore), or they gain a little bit of confidence when they play them again at home next month.

The nice thing though is we've got two games in hand on everyone right now (by the end of the night they'll still have two on the Penguins).

I'm also starting to think that not making a move at the deadline was probably the best move since they would've had to trade away Phil Kessell and someone else to even make a substantial move for probably just a rent-a-player. They have a shot to do something this year, but their future is looking pretty nice as well. We just need to get Bergeron back.

In hockey, I think the contracts are pro-rated, meaning the Penguins only have to pay Hossa for the rest of the season. Not for the whole season. But I guess you're right about it counting towards the cap, and I guess that makes sense for them to have more room for next year. But they lost three of their young players (and a first rounder) to do it.

Great start for Hossa.

lol

Anyone still think Pittsburgh didn't get fucked in this deal?

Nevermind, Pascal Dupuis just scored for them!

And suddenly the Eastern Conference becomes much more interesting. The Bruins are on fire right now.

Ottawa's only 7 points out of 9th...

Hahaha, they had to give up an arm and a leg for Hossa, and the first thing Hossa does is get injured! lol. And Pittsburgh gets their ass kicked in their first game with Hossa and Dupuis.

Peace,
Mike

The Oilers won another shootout last night. They're now 14-3, and they have the record for most shootout wins in a season.

Even more impressively, Garon is 10-0 in shootouts. That's also a record.

Even more impressively, he's stopped 30 of 32 shots in the shootout. That's a save percentage of .938. Next in the league is Roloson, with .800. That's insane.

Just a bright spot on our relatively bad season, but it's picking up lately. We only need to go 12-4 (or thereabouts) in our last 16 games to make it in!

One could interpret the many shootouts as a poor reflection of the Oilers, in that they can't seem to finish up a game in regulation time. Haha.

Just kidding. I'm glad for the Oilers, and would like to see them make a push for the playoffs. We need as many Canadian teams in the playoffs as possible (well, except Toronto... hehe).

Peace,
Mike

Hey, I'll take what I can get with the Oilers. A win's a win.

Toronto's only 6 points out...

Well, at least the Bruins are making it easy for me to decide whether or not I want to continue watching them tonight. Ovechkin already has a hat trick and they're not even out of the first period yet. Now we just need some help from the Sharks and Ducks, not to mention a bunch of other teams tomorrow night.

6-0 in the 1st

This is awesome

Holy shit, I just saw it. 6-0 after only 1 period. And 6 goals on just 16 shots. Craaazy. And this is "just" Washington. They must really want that playoff spot.

Peace,
Mike

9-2, 4 goals for Ovechkin now... 53 overall. Damn.

Edit - Aw they changed it

So he had a hat trick in the FIRST PERIOD?!

I have 4 of the top 6 point getters in fantasy.

Boston lost tonight, Ottawa is currently losing 2-1 to Anaheim, and the Montreal/San Jose game is tied at 2. If Anaheim can just prevail over Ottawa, and the Habs win their game, the Habs will be in a solid position, distancing themselves from Ottawa and Boston and keeping a firm grip on the top spot in the division. As long as they have that spot, they will be at least in top 3 in the conference. And right now sit at #1.

Come on Habs, don't screw this up. And I'm crossing my fingers for Anaheim to beat Ottawa.

Peace,
Mike