NHL Offseason: All 10 weeks of it

[Ninot]

NHL schedule to be released some time today. Can't wait to decide which tickets I'll be purchassing.

[Hot Mustard]

It's out.

I'm pleased to see my Canucks have a date against the Leafs this year, Jan 13. Actually, their stretch from Jan 13 to 19 looks cool - Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo. I may take that week off and organize a "follow the Canuckle-heads" road trip with my friends.

[Ninot]

Habs schedule is bizare. Only 79 games.

[Hot Mustard]

Originally posted by Ninot
Habs schedule is bizare. Only 79 games.

Apparently the NHL site screwed up the team-only schedules, and the full 82 games are in the full schedule. At least, that's what people in the Canucks forums said.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by dejon


Apparently the NHL site screwed up the team-only schedules, and the full 82 games are in the full schedule. At least, that's what people in the Canucks forums said.

So they're not starting out with 3 games in hand?

[Asher]

Beautiful! Edmonton's first game, and first home game, will be an asskicking at the hands of Calgary.

So will their second.

And not long after, Calgary gets to ass-kick the leafs.

[notyoueither]

Fun season ahead in Anaheim.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=171382&hubname=nhl

Ducks' Bryzgalov sees himself as No. 1

TSN.ca Staff with Reuters files

7/15/2006 2:08:18 PM

One of the last things an NHL team wants to endure is a goaltending controversy, and the Anaheim Ducks could have their hands full next season with their two netminders.

Ducks goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov told a Russian newspaper Saturday that the team wants him to be the No. 1 goaltender next season instead of Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

"I got a call from the club and they told me that they see me as their number one goaltender," he told Sovietsky Sport newspaper. "They also want to trade Giguere but no one wants him."

When asked about his relationship with the 2003 Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Bryzgalov told the paper, "I don't want to say anything about him because we play on the same team and I can't say anything bad about him."

Giguere backstopped Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Final in 2003, ultimately losing in Game 7 to the New Jersey Devils. He also recorded five shutouts in 21 games, including a shutout streak of 217 minutes and 44 seconds.

Giguere then signed a four-year contract that summer with the Ducks worth almost $20 million US. The 29-year-old is entering the final year of the deal and will make $3.99 million US next season.

Giguere won 30 games in 60 regular season appearances last season with a 2.66 goals against average, but struggled in the playoffs as the Ducks turned to Bryzgalov.

[Asher]

From the Battle of Alberta blog:

[Asher]

Backgrounder of Jim Playfair from the Calgary Sun:

Those close to Jim Playfair know he wasn't just handed the coaching reins of the Calgary Flames last week -- he earned that chance thanks to the hard work and dedication that have been hallmarks of his life at the rink and away from it. Sun columnist Eric Francis recently sat down with Playfair at his south Calgary home to talk about the personal tragedies and career triumphs that have shaped the new NHL head coach.

Four years after his youngest brother was killed in a car crash, Jim Playfair was read his last rites in a Quebec hospital. Suffering from a sizeable tear in his liver that came courtesy of a devastating bodycheck while his Nova Scotia Oilers played the Sherbooke Canadiens, Playfair remembers looking up to see a handful of strangers huddling around his hospital bed.

"There were two liver specialists and a surgeon and the doctor says, 'Your liver is like a tick-a-tick-a-time bomb and they said if anything happens, we have two minutes to stop the bleeding,' " said Playfair, reflecting back on a pivotal moment in his life in 1987.

"The chaplain came in and read me my last rites in broken French. Halfway through I'm thinking, 'I'm 21 years old and I'm going to die in a French hospital because I got hit in hockey?' I don't know if that knocked all the wind out of my sails but it changed the way I was as a player.

I struggled really hard to get over that as a player and it changed my way of thinking in life."

No longer could Playfair attempt to be the type of physical defenceman his older brother, Larry, had established himself as a Buffalo Sabres mainstay.

Four years earlier, the Edmonton Oilers had selected Playfair 20th overall, prompting one of his five brothers to call the house with early morning news that shocked everyone. Sharing a room with younger brother Dennis in the basement of the family's Fort

St. James, B.C. home, Playfair took a call from Glen Sather every small-town Canadian kid dreams of.

"We all believed we could play in the NHL because Brian (Spinner) Spencer came from our town and he did it," said Playfair. "We didn't know the path we'd have to take, though."

Two weeks later his 'path' took a serious detour when Dennis died in a car crash. Dennis, a top young hockey prospect himself at age 15, and three of his pals had been racing home after a night of drinking when the vehicle rolled off a dirt road and killed him instantly.

Hearing a trio of sirens wail by as he lay in bed, Jim and his father drove to the scene where they learned Dennis was dead.

"I went from such a high to a low," said Playfair of the saddest day of his life.

"It was not only devastating for our family but for the whole community. To lose a 15 year-old boy in the middle of me getting drafted. Two days later, it's a graduation for the whole community of 30 kids and a week after that it's Larry's wedding.

I think Dennis taught all of us this isn't a dress rehearsal. This is the real deal. It's important you max it out and get after it and go."

That's exactly what Jim and the rest of the Playfairs have done. Taking cues from their father who worked hard as a village superintendent most of his life, all four of Playfairs' brothers and his sister are all tremendously successful in their own rights.

Augmenting Playfair's work ethic is a discipline that has seen him make several sacrifices on his way to winning a Turner Cup championship (IHL) as a player, a Calder Cup trophy (AHL) as a coach and now head coach of the Calgary Flames.

For the first five years of his pro career he vowed to remain single, ensuring his focus wasn't skewed in any direction other than the rink.

However, after meeting his future wife, Roxanne, while training in Prince George one summer, his strong family beliefs were quickly cemented. Yet, again, after being married in 1990 they did their best to ensure their three sons would be born in the summer when he could be there for them.

An emotional man who remembers crying the day his mother presented him with an album of photos and clippings commemorating his life, Playfair's sentimental side has had him documenting his boys life for the last ten years in the form of a daily journal.

"The day they get married I'll give it to them and say, 'This is your life from a little boy until now through my eyes,' " said Playfair, fiercely proud of Austyn, 9, Jackson, 12, and Dylan, 14, who all play hockey.

"My kids have made huge sacrifices. They've lived in Dayton, Michigan and Saint John while I coached there and had to go make new friends and find their own way in the world.

I appreciate that."

Winning the IHL crown with Darryl Sutter as his coach, the two have shared a bond that intertwines similar philosophies on hockey and family, which gave Sutter the confidence to announce last week he'd handed Playfair the coaching reigns to the Flames.

"It's just like my brother Jeff (a logging truck driver) who missed a load of logs to pull over and listen to the press conference with my mom, sister and other family members (announcing Jim as coach) -- they all found a way to be a part of it," said Playfair, whose most cherished moments are spent with his family and friends at the cottage in Fort

St. James where every night ends at the fire pit. "That's what you have to do to be a good team -- you have to have family values and good work ethic. That's what the Sutters have and what I've been brought up with and what our team has grabbed onto."

Although forever striving to learn and be better, he knows better than anyone hockey is not a life or death situation.

He's been through his share of that already.

I like.

[notyoueither]

Lindros to Dallas.

Peca to Toronto.

I'm unhappy about one of these, but 2.5mil was too much for Peca.

[notyoueither]

Not sure if anyone posted this before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LimM0BaR-EU&search=hockey%20commercial

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Lindros to Dallas.

Peca to Toronto.

I'm unhappy about one of these, but 2.5mil was too much for Peca.

Earth to NYE, Earth to NYE.

How much did the Oilers pay for Peca last season? What was that? $4 million for a guy led the team to the finals. Toronto only has to pay $2.5 million, but then people want to play in Toronto.

A great deal.

Particularly when compared to what the Stars paid for Lindros $2.5 million.

All the pieces are coming together for Toronto. This will be a great year.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Tingkai




All the pieces are coming together for Toronto. This will be a great year.

I wonder how many times the Leaf's fans have said that in the last 40 years

[Ninot]

PLAN THE PARADE!

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Flubber


I wonder how many times the Leaf's fans have said that in the last 40 years

That's the difference between Calgary and Toronto fans. Calgary fans are defeatists. For good reason.