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**Ming** · September 13, 2003, 14:02

Anyone Ready To Talk Hockey Yet?

Until Wirtz sells the Black Hawks, or dies... NO

**Hot Mustard** · September 13, 2003, 14:45

Re: Anyone Ready To Talk Hockey Yet?

Originally posted by cinch

Training Camp has begun!

Mike Comrie's locked out of Oilers camp for not signing a deal in time... He made 3.5 mil last year (1 mil basic, 2.5 bonus), and we offered him a basic of 1.1. mil this year (with same bonuses), and he balked. Comrie's arrogance never fails to annoy me. After his performance in the playoffs last year, he deserves a pay CUT. Oi!

Joseph's still in limbo. Probably will be until he's healthy... I almost feel sorry for him.

Almost.

Overall, I'm fairly pumped about this season. The Oil are as young and wily as ever, and the Western Conference is sure to be yet another classic shootout: The Avs, Wings, and Ducks are all looking fired up and strong. The Stars seem like they'll be weaker (Turco's contract, the loss of Hatcher & Sydor), but they still have some big guns. The rest is basically a toss-up: Will St. Louis do mysteriously well again? Who will sneak into the bottom 3 slots? Can the Canucks & Wild return to form? It's gonna be a great battle, for sure.

As for the East: Ah, who cares. I'll be shocked if the Devils don't take it again. Who else is there? The do-nothing Flyers? The...ha... Ran-... ho-sorry, I can hardly bring myself to say it... the Rangers? Yeah, right. I'd like to see good things from Ottawa again this year, but who knows? I'd like to see Mario make something good with the kids around him. That might be a pipe dream, though.

Also, I hope the Leafs and their collection of Great Satans (Marchment, especially) fail miserably. But I will concede that picking up Nieuwendyk might be a good move.

Is it too early to start making predictions for the season?

Does anyone else care?

No?

Alright, I'll be back in a month, then.

Edit as follows, and I'll agree with you:
The Avs, Wings, and Canucks are all looking fired up and strong. The Stars seem like they'll be weaker (Turco's contract, the loss of Hatcher & Sydor), but they still have some big guns. The rest is basically a toss-up: Will St. Louis do mysteriously well again? Who will sneak into the bottom 3 slots? Can the Ducks & Wild return to form? It's gonna be a great battle, for sure.

The Canucks were no fluke last season - they have been steadily improving over the last few years. The Ducks, on the other hand, rode a hot goalie last season and into the playoffs.

Every pre-season prediction I've read to date has predicted the Canucks to finish somewhere from 2nd to 4th in the West, with most predicting 3rd.

The West is definitely more exciting than the ploddingly slow and defensive East, with a few exceptions.

As for the Oilers, they are about where the 'Nucks were 3 years ago. If they can manage things as well as Burke has in Vancouver, I think they can be a serious contender in about the same time frame.

**Sava** · September 13, 2003, 14:50

Originally posted by Ming
Anyone Ready To Talk Hockey Yet?

Until Wirtz sells the Black Hawks, or dies... NO

C'mon now... I heard Tuomo Ruutu looks good. Any Finnish posters want to enlighten us? I heard he's a popular guy in Finland. Supposedly he's a lot like Peter Forsberg.

But I agree. The Wirtz's need to die. All of them...

**Imran Siddiqui** · September 13, 2003, 14:53

Well it'll be interesting to see if Larionov can fill in for Nieuwendyk well enough to get the Devs deep in the playoffs again. The minors are filled with great young defensivemen, but not too many forwards.

**H Tower** · September 13, 2003, 16:11

Football has barely begun, why bother with hockey until the Bears are 0-6?

**Agathon** · September 13, 2003, 16:16

The Leafs have their best bunch of forwards in years but are badly lacking on defence. If Carlo Colaiacovo is another Tomas Kaberle then we may be in business. But if Aebischer turns out OK then no one is beating the Avs.

**Agathon** · September 13, 2003, 16:23

****! DP

**Jon Shafer** · September 13, 2003, 16:26

Colorado!

**H Tower** · September 13, 2003, 16:27

Originally posted by Agathon
****! DP

7 minute dp?

**Agathon** · September 13, 2003, 17:58

Originally posted by H Tower

7 minute dp?

Don't ask. I went out and must have hit the back button. I thought I hadn't posted it.

I should stop sniffing glue....

**Ben Kenobi** · September 13, 2003, 22:13

That might explain your preference for the Leafs.

The Avs, Wings, and Canucks are all looking fired up and strong.

All they need is a decent second-line centre and a goalie. We'll see how Cloutier does this year.

I hate being in the toughest division in hockey, we always get stuck behind Colorado.

I'm really happy they picked up Arvedson.

**Imran Siddiqui** · September 14, 2003, 02:32

Yeah, you Western Conference (I still prefer Campbell Conference, dammit!) teams can beat up on each other, so the Devs can just win another cup

.

**Tingkai** · September 14, 2003, 13:29

Originally posted by Agathon
The Leafs have their best bunch of forwards in years but are badly lacking on defence.

And sadly lacking in coaching. Quinn's done a terrible job with the team, particularly the defence. The only way the Leafs are going to go anywhere is if they develop a decent system and stick to it. Last year they were all over the place, making lots of stupid mistakes. I blame that on Quinn. At least he's not GM anymore.

**cinch** · September 18, 2003, 18:05

DAMMIT!!!

Turco signs new deal with Stars
WebPosted Thu Sep 18 17:01:48 2003
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - The contract stalemate between the Dallas Stars and Marty Turco didn't last very long.

Just last week, Stars general manager Doug Armstrong said there was a chance his club would be without Turco's services during training camp after the goaltender rejected a contract offer.

But on Thursday, Armstrong announced the impass between Turco and the Stars had passed and new deal had been reached.

The contract is worth $12 million US over three years -- the same amount Turco rejected earlier. The difference is that this contract offer included more lucrative bonuses and some team performance incentives.

Turco will earn $3.5 million in base salary this season, $4 million in 2004-05 and $4.5 million in 2005-06. It's a huge raise on the $850,000 he made last season.

Detroit Red Wing goalies Dominik Hasek and Curtis Joseph are the highest-paid goaltenders in the NHL. They both make $8 million US per season.

"We're very excited to get Marty signed and under contract," Armstrong said in a statement. "I'd like to thank Marty for his patience in this process.

"We look forward to sharing success on the ice over the next three years."

Turco is expected to board a plane to join his teammates at training camp in Vail, Colorado.

"It was important for myself to quickly join my teammates in the pursuit of building a championship team," said Turco.

"With every day that had gone by, in my mind, I believed it gave us less chance to win."

The 28-year-old Turco was a standout in his first full season as a start in the NHL. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., native posted a 31-10-10 mark en route to a modern-day league record 1.72 goals-against average in 2002-03.

The University of Michigan product also led the NHL with a .932 save percentage.

Turco finished second to the New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur in voting for the Vezina Trophy as the league's top netminder.
***************************************

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP. I was hoping this stalemate would last a fair deal longer.

I still don't think he's worth that kind of money, but I'd be much more comfortable if the Stars didn't have him.

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