yave1964

@ruxpin you brought up the presser after Saturday nights game, that is one of the things going around a stars fan board, that he has a history of alcohol issues so that could be it. The other one, gaining traction is the possibility of inappropriate behavior with either a female in the organization or the wife of someone in the organization. "Materialistic act of unprofessionalism." That is what Nill called it.

Actually the Stars are the hottest team in the West since their awful start. They begun 1-7-1 since then they have went 16-4-2. The offense still hasn't been there but the defense and netminding are fantastic. I am getting sick of the politically correct police in every aspect of life. Again, we do not know yet what it is, on a Stars forum I read rumors which I wont put in here and spread but they dont sound egregious. I played racquetball with a friend of my wife today, I am a casual player, she is the most competitive person I have ever met, she simply destroys me every time we play and laughs and taunts me the whole time. Today when we were done, I sat at a table and called my wife, her friend quipped, " I just made your husband my be-othch." My wife laughed, so did I. Should we fire her as afirend for her inappropriate language? Should she fire me as a friendfor my lousy racquetball skills? God can she fire the ball, fast and accurate. I had more balls hit me in the face than Madonna used to in an eighties after party. Can I be fired in here for saying that? Anyway, screw the thought police.

Quote of the day.

Jim Nill GM of the Stars has fired coach Jim Montgomery, not publicly releasing the reason, simply stating that it was for inappropriate conduct. What the Hell. Where are we at nowadays. Look, like everyone else I dont have a clue what this is the only thing confirmed is it wasn't for an assault or anything along those lines. Anyway Rick Bowness hired on an interm basis until Cooper gets fired in Tampa and the Stars scoop him up, lol.

Okay here is more or less how that worked out..... Rux inquired about Fleury after I asked about Giordano who is a favorite of mine. I had to have a goalie in return. Rux knows how much I like players in both leagues, especially goalies, saw that I had just traded for Price in Nahana and BAM was all over that. His trade with you went through overnight, by 6am he had this as an offer to me, by 601 I took it. I never even considered a deal but he kinda put this together in a way that made sense. I told him a joke earlier in the year that kind of applies here ashe finally got Fleury from me, he is playing three dimensional chess while the rest of us are playing checkers sometimes. He does as good a job, if not better of networking, having al the angles locked down. Gotta hand it to him. As for me and trades, I have now been involved in 9 between the two leagues with 5 of them involving Rux. I think that often we just trade out of boredom, lol

Trade between Rux and myself..... Rux gets Flower and Gustafsson I add Price and Gio He gets an upgrade in net, I get an upgrade on my blueline. IMHO is a solid add for both. This is only my second deal of the year in All Star, bothwith Rux. Anyone wants to send me an offer I am always willing to listen. Kinda sorta considering trading MacKinnon in the right deal.

@SpikeDDS Hirose and Zadina shipped to GR today. Sigh. Hirose, truthfully I have been more than a bit skeptical. players who come out of nowhere tend to return there rather quickly. Zadina though, I was hoping we would give him a bit of a longer shot with Mantha out.

I am not a Smith Fan, AT ALL, never appreciated his style, the way his mask somehow comes lookse when he needs a breather or failing that, he falls to the ice feigning injury for a whistle. However while I love rittich letting smith go and replacing hi with the ghost of Cam Talbot puts Calgary in a dangerous position.

And Wings fans are like, "Whats with the word starter??"

It would not really be a stretch to say the reason that the Montreal Canadiens missed the playoffs last year was the putrid play of Antti Niemi. Niemi had been resigned to back up Carey Price prior to last season, he came aboard during the distastrous 17-18 season and was okay, helping to stabilize the net so bringing him back was not that big of a reach. He started out okay, winning about as many as he lost during the 18-19 season when giving Price a day off but even then his save pct. was down, his goals against was up, kind of a typical backup really. Then in early January he had a nice 3 game winning streak. From there however, the wheels fell off. He only started 4 games over the last 34, all of them losses as Price was forced to play nearly every night four times playing both ends of back to backs over a three and a half week stretch down the stretch. An exhausted and overused Price wore down during the stretch drive and the Habs fell just short of a playoff spot. So Niemi was shipped out and Keith Kincaid was brought in, a few years ago he was thought of as kind of a prospect for the Devils, he has been simply awful, going 1-5 and in is six appearances giving up at least 4 goals a staggering 5 times. In spite of having a 1.75 million dollar guaranteed deal the Habs just sent him out and recalled a twenty year old middling prospect to fill the backup role. And Price will again have to shoulder a huge load for a team that is a bubble club for a playoff spot. Now look at the Bruins who have watched Rask wear down during stretch drives too often, so they added veteran Halak as a 30 game a year starter, spelling Rask, giving him time off when needed, Rask was red hot in the postseason carrying the Bruins to within one game of the mountaintop. Along the same lines, Khubodin spelled Bishop generously and a fresh Bishop was brilliant last season being nominated for the Vezina. Backup goalies seem to fall into one of several categories: Young kids chomping at the bit, Demko in Vancouver, Ullmark, Saros and Georgiev also fill the bill among others. Samsonov is the latest. Veterans who know they are never going to be starters again but can play 30 quality games and keep the team in it. Khubodin, Ryan miller, Halak are among the best of this type. Desperation time for the player trying to hold on and the team hoping the backup doesn't kill them. Bernier, Talbot, Jack Campbell, Hutchinson, Jake Allen are this type. Teams are desperate, players want to keep playing. Usually a match made in Hell. True platoon arrangements which are rare especially for a true contender. Last year the Mrazek/McBackup duo shocked the game, now Raanta/Keumper are doing it in Arizona, Koskinen/smith and Lehner/Crawford are sgaring the net. So are Varly/Greiss. It is not impossible but it is a serious strike against you if you have your starting goalie expected to start 60 plus games a year anymore. 50 seems to be the ideal number to keep them from wearing down, in the same way that MLB has used stats to determine the optimum pitch count for a starting pitcher the NHL seems to have caught on to the optimum amount of starts a goalie can handle. Someone needs to tell Marc Bergevin before he gets Carey Price killed.

Two years ago under Hynes they over performed and snuck into the playoffs, last year they slipped back so Ray Shero went out and made some moves. They lucked into Jack Hughes They traded for PK Subban They signed Simmonds They traded for Gusev It hasn't been any one of the moves that didn't work out, it is all of them. Hughes will be a star potentially some day but this year he is raw and not doing well. Subban arguably the most overrated player in the game has been awful. Simmonds continues to erode and Gusev has been a healthy scratch a few times. And lets not even talk about the goaltending. Yuck. With all that, Hynes did what he could, he is a decent coach, I think he will land on his feet someday in the NHL again and I wouldnt be surprised if he does a fine job the second time out.

BTW I looked yesterday when chatting with Rux, I have made exactly one trade in this league, I think I have sent a million offers with few if any counters the only trade I made was Draisatl to Rux for Kane and Bishop, we both got what we wanted in the deal. But anyway, anyone wants to make a deal shoot me an offer it will get me out of hanging lights for the wife for a few, lol

Two waiver wire fodder players included so it comes down to Connor V Gaudreau. Personally I dont ever have players like that on my team in All star as they get zero hits/blocks/Faceoffs which is where I dominate, I try to go .500 or so in points and win everything else and it usually gets me a .700 win pect or so, give or take a bit on a week to week basis. So those types I avoid like the plague. That said, Gaudreau is intriguing as he will turn it on soon and go on a tear, if points and their subset cats are where you are hanging your hat, which there isn't anything wrong with going that route Johnny would be the one I would want, hands down. Not insulting either of the two big boys BTW I just build my team differently and it seems to work for me.

@SpikeDDS I think in my heart and brain that next year the Wings will be watchable, by the following year we will be competitive. But God is this team as presently assembled bad. Almost biblically so.

First year of the Yzerman era in Detroit, the Wings are awful, putrid, simply impossible to watch. We sit at 7-19-3 easily the worst record in Hockey, currently in the midst of a 7 game losing streak (their second such of the short season so far) with a paltry 62 goals for (worst in the league) and a ridiculous 115 goals against (easily the worst in the league as well) WE SIT AT A RIDICULOUS INUS 53 FOR THE SEASON and are on pace for record shattering goal differential. Simply a dreadful team. Thru 29 games, the team has nine players who are double digit minus players including Athanasiou who is on pace to challenge the once considered impossible record of Bill Mikkelson who went -82 with the expansion Capitals. Athanasiou is mins 29 thru his first 27 games. Read that stat again carefully. So then, where are the bright spots? Are there any? Here is what I came up with. Mantha was having a fine breakout season before getting injured. of course he is now injured. Bernier has been okay in net. Hronek has turned into a fine young offensive defenseman. Fabbri came over from the Blues and has slotted nicely into a middle six winger spot. Comrie came over from Arizona for nice organizational goalie depth. Bertuzzi has had a very nice year. Helm has played surprisingly well as a P/K guy and energy forward. Hel, Abby, Howard possibly Green all positioned to be moved at or near the deadline for much needed futures. Zadina called up, looks okay in his first four games. Rasmussen before getting hurt was doing wonderful for the Griffins Other young Griffs such as Seider, Svechnikov and Veleno have all shown flashes of promise of what they should become. Givani Smith looks as if he is developing into a solid bottom six forward as well. Overall lots of kids with talent down on the farm chomping at the bit. Is it ugly? God yeah, I usually watch every game twice to see what I missed the first time, this year I watch the ten minute recap and study the goals scored and against. But there are a few things to see here. Glad that Zadina was recalled with Mantha out, hopefully he locks into a role for the rest of the year.