Bertmega

Basically what I got out of the article is that Shea Weber will be traded to the Flyers, in about six years, for two 1st round picks, a conditional 3rd round pick, a budding defensemen, and a top six forward. 10 days after being traded to the Flyers, he'll sign a 7 year extension and thus be considered an over 35 deal. Somewhere in the mix he'll get injured and the Flyers will be on the hook for lots of $$$. Hatcher+Rathje = Hathje the super defender in Clarke's mind. Pronger= all six defensemen in Holmgren's mind. Weber= the cycle continuing..... ......to be continued

@blocker That's a great suggestion (taping their progress) and I am excited to get my oldest on the ice ASAP. Birthday time this weekend, so I think the pro-shop is going to love me...

@murraycraven That's a very fair assessment. Nightmare is strong too. Billy Tibbitts = PR Nightmare (Red) JR= PR elevated, but probably will not get a network sued. (I'll say between blue and yellow)

@DaGreatGazoo Oaks is great. I've been doing Shinny there for awhile now.

@DaGreatGazoo I think they have the same lessons near by for me. Center Ice Oaks seems to have skating lessons at all levels. Good advice though, thank you

@brelic Thanks. I will forgo the double blades and go with the single. I do need to work my back out more, so this may be the perfect opportunity.....

@flyercanuck Thanks FC. I am going to take her to get sized this weekend.....

I have a question for my North American and European friends, what age did you start ice skating? I want to get my children involved at some point and my oldest is two, so I was thinking now may be a good time to start. According to my parents, I started at three-ish with the double blades and switched to single blade skates at four. I have seen toddler skates and think she would enjoy the activity, but don't want to rush or force anything. Any suggestions?

To me Mason is certainly serviceable and can help a team win. He is essentially Esche 2.0 until I see otherwise. Solid goalie just not one that will carry a team to the promise land.

Honorable Mention: Roenick crying like a baby when he was a healthy scratch....

Blue Jackets: Dubinsky Islanders: Tavares Pittsburgh: Crosby Rangers: Lundqvist Capitals: Ovechkin Flyers: Giroux Hurricanes: Eric Staal Devils: Not too sure, maybe Schneider Bruins: Chara Sabres: Villie Leino or a 1993 Lumina parked at Applebee's Red Wings: Datsyuk Panthers: Luongo (for now) ​Canadians: Subban unless traded to the Fyers (sarcasm font inserted) Senators: Karlsson Lightning: Stamkos Maple Leafs: some janitor for the local Lexus dealership I think....Vader? IDK, Kadri?

@flyercanuck "I consider him to be the States version of Don Cherry." That is a very good analogy FC, never thought of it like that. Now if he starts wearing those crazy suits, I may puke...

@murraycraven "JR is a good PR guy for the league" Wait the same JR that said for certain fans to kiss his @$$? And that they are jealous of his success, and to not watch or attend games in the future. All this for fans showing their displeasure with the 2004-05 lockout. Or the same guy that was under strong investigation for gambling? Or the one that cried for not being selected for the 06' Olympic squad? Or the same one that refused to show up to a game when he found out he was scratched? Instead he decided to go to a restaurant and get wasted and trash his coach and teammates..... JR is a PR nightmare. I'd rather have Kenny Powers as the leagues spokesperson.....

Roenick is a loudmouth and a moron. I couldn't stand him as a player and I can't stand him even more this day and age. He was the prototypical Clarke-esque move. Over the hill and over paid to play here. He was reckless as a player and did not bring that 8.5mm salary to the ice every night. Sure his first season in Philly was great, but not 8.5mm great. He goes to praise Holmgren as a GM, but then basically trashes the VLC move, how exactly does that work? He is "scratching his head on the Umberger trade", yet thinks Holmgren was a great GM. Yeah Holmgren was a great GM for overpaid players like him...... In any case, he doesn't think the Flyers can win with Mason, yet they were two games from winning it all with Michael Freaking Leighton. The only thing he said that is right is that the Flyers are lacking a true #1 defenseman, but if memory serves me correctly Roenick likes to kill #1 defensemen, i.e, Eric Dejardins. Yeah I didn't forget that reckless hit that Mr. Hockey tried laying on Matts Sudin and instead he basically took out a #1 defender. Ok, can you tell I do not like him. \ My top 5 list of FU Flyers: 1) Roenick 2) Comrie 3) Carcillo 4) Bryzgalov 5) Fat Balloon

@NoSlackDelta I think we all put it to bed, I think it's more of the hypothetical situation. Better question would be if one is so annoyed, why open the thread?

Probably have to look more like: Giroux, Couturier, Morin, 1st for Nashville to even consider that deal.

@Jam1986 I'd be very interested in the Tocchet framed pic. Can you PM me some details regarding price and shipping? Thanks Bert

This should be their true alt jersey..... Has a lot of meaning and roots in this town,

@Irishjim Add Carcillo and half of the NYR to the list.....

@Polaris922 "I'd be shocked if Laviolette wanted Lecavalier... Absolutely stunned. " Lavy was the one petitioning Holmgren to sign him in the off season. And if I were a guessing man, that is probably one of the many reasons that got him canned after three games. The guy he pushed for shows up to camp with a fat contract and out of shape..... Now in Nashville, Poile probably will not give Lavy the same influence with the FA market. That and the Weber debacle tells me that Nashville is not going to willingly deal with Philadelphia.

@flyercanuck I agree, it is just terrible to keep any animal like that. I am not saddened when these nut job "trainers" get mauled by animals that are genetically programmed to be killing machines. What I find sad is when they put the poor animal down for doing what its brain has been telling it to do for hundred of thousands of years..... However, when I came across this video I immediately thought of Bryzgalov, and how great he'd be in that Grizzly Bear League... Hell I'm not going to lie, those bears are better than 90% of my men's league....

I analyzed this to no end. I mean it can't be real, can it? If so who is the lucky bastard that got to dress the bears? Better yet who got stuck reffing that match? I can only hope Ilya B lands a starting role in that league.

@Poulin20 @sarsippius Thank you for the great write up. Very informative and gives me hope that this team is headed in the right direction. I hope Mr. Snider was taking notes... So can we officially call him Old MacDonald? E-I-E-I-O

@JackStraw I can agree with everything you said in your above post regarding the two. I'd give the edge to Carle at the end of the day. I am not saying that the MacDonald contract is bad per se, it just seemed like it was hurried. Or in other words, Holmgren didn't get that great of a sample size before he presented the contract. After seeing what Orpik got, I am thinking that the deal isn't so bad after all; however, they do play different games to be fair.