AHL- Apolyton Hockey League 07/08: V Blades of Glory

[Asher]

I wonder if K-Lowe is eyeing up a draft pick...

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Asher

He only got 2 goals, but yes he's pretty spiffy.

Hmm, they must have changed one of them. I'm fairly sure Yahoo listed three at the time... but either way

[Asher]

Phaneuf is out with a leg injury..."indefinitely".

[Asher]

This cheered me up though:


McGeough.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Asher


Phaneuf is out with a leg injury..."indefinitely".

Ouch-- he has been the Flames best d-man this year-- Its time to see if some of Sutter's other acquisitions can step up their games

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Flubber


Ya they do have stretches that give their fans hope. But the reality right now is that they are in last place in the entire league. ouch

Merely being good sports and spotting the poorer teams some points.

[b etor]

Originally posted by Asher
This cheered me up though:


McGeough.

what in the world

[Asher]

That particular move is called "the swan".

I love how both Sedin and Regehr look at the guy like, "WTF?"

[Kontiki]

Is Ottawa good enough? I mean, I know the Leafs are useless, but I've seen some bits of other Sens games this season and they just look so complete. We need to bring the Cup back where it belongs!

[Flubber]

Originally posted by notyoueither


Merely being good sports and spotting the poorer teams some points.

How gentlemanly

I think last year many Oil fans held out the hope for a late charge into the playoffs for quite some time.

But until last years late season swoon, I don't know that their record was ever so bad as to lose 10 out of 15 . Add late last season to this stretch and it is an odiously bad record indeed.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Is Ottawa good enough? I mean, I know the Leafs are useless, but I've seen some bits of other Sens games this season and they just look so complete. We need to bring the Cup back where it belongs!

MY honest answer is I don't know. I picked their goalies because I did anticipate them being a killer regular season team. I am only mildly surprised at their record so far as I probably would have only predicted them having perhaps 4 points less at this point.

But three questions still hit me

1. Goaltending-- To win the CUP it needs to be superlative. I believe they have two very good goalies but I am unsure if they can be even better than "very good". I can give them the benefit of the doubt I guess.

2. Anaheim seemed to just run them over last year with size. Ottawa seemed outmatched. Have they toughened enough to meet those types of teams squarely?

3. The Ottawa factor . . . They have had too many good regular season teams that fizzled in the playoffs. There is part of me that does not trust this team to come up big when it counts most. Their cup finals run last year shows they can step up but that complicates things given how tough it has been for teams to succeed in the playoffs for two years running.

ON talent, a legitimate contender. I have watched a lot of their games and am amazed at how sometimes they can just dismantle their opposition. They should be there . .. but will they be?

I guess thats why we play the games

[Asher]

Ottawa still has the one real potent line, and that's it. They ran into trouble playing western teams last year who played a far more effective physical shutdown game (Calgary, Anaheim). Shut down that one line, and you win easily.

[Asher]

Phaneuf is probable for tomorrow's game.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Asher
Ottawa still has the one real potent line, and that's it. They ran into trouble playing western teams last year who played a far more effective physical shutdown game (Calgary, Anaheim). Shut down that one line, and you win easily.

Isn't that a tough generalization to make since they played "western teams" a grand total of once each outside the Stanley Cup final


Also I don't know what you were watching but Calgary last year was not a physical shutdown type team. The "Cup final run" year they were but last year they had two really punishing defencemen but were otherwise a "skill team" with a sometimes superlative goalie.

[Asher]

You don't need a shutdown team to beat Ottawa, you need 1 or 2 good shutdown d-men alone. And Calgary had that last year, and it Ottawa got -- for example -- 0 goals.

Anaheim had that and Ottawa lost in 5 games.