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And then there was one ...
posted by Mike Boone at 5h40 EST on Aug 7
Denver Post reports Peter Forsberg scored a hat trick in a Swedish exhibition game:
"He moved around without any problem, and he looked pretty fresh," Swedish national coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
• • •
Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated writes about The Only Olympic Games Canadians really care about.
He projects Team Canada for the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
No Canadiens in Muir's lineup.
• • •
The Hockey News' Brian Costello on the Top 10 contenders for John Tavares.
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OK
SUMMIT NEWS FLASH
Vicky, also known as HABSCHICK, by e-mail, is sending out an invoice to everyone for a 68 dollars ticket or 136 dollars for two tickets.Go to www.paypal.ca and open an account, it is easy and safe. Then when you get your invoice on your e-mail, just follow the Pay Pal instructions and you will receive a receipt immediately upon payment. I just paid mine and it worked well.
Once we secure these tickets and pay for them, we will ask for singles around
the building for people that want more than 2 tickets, if we can get them.
Single tickets will be reg. price. Make sure you pay for your tickets before noon on the 13th of AUG. or they will be sold to someone else.
We will invoice you again if and when we get your other single tickets after the 17th.
IAN
Favre to Jets is like Lafleur to Rangers .. by Sam Wienman .. Ranger Report ..... http://rangers.lohudblogs.com/2008/08/07/favre-to-jets-is-like-lafleur-t...
And then, there's was one?
Of all the "ones" left, he's not a bad "one", woudn't you say?
Mats,
It's Bugs.
What up? T's'goin' on? What'r'you doin'? Enough. Enough of this. C'mon. C'mon Mats. Stop foolin' around. Stop it. C'mon. Let's do it. Let's do this thing.
Let's go for it.
Together.
Peace Out.
Bugs.
Off topic but do you think the EA guys are reworking the Madden '09 cover now that Favre is a Jet?
haha... I dout it, it comes out next week...that will cost too much money to change a million covers. Does anyone know who is on the Cover of NHL09?
Stupid Phaneuf. How I hate hearing about him, but I do, virtually every single day during the season. Gotta love homer Calgary fans.
He is a very good defenseman.
"Give Koivu a Lifetime Contract"
I like him too. Love those bone-crushing hits.
K 12 - What is a troll ? The trolls among us .. by Matt Schwartz .. NY Times ..... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?_r=1&oref=slo...
Good, but extremely overrated, and worth no where near what he is being paid. But mostly i'm just sick of living in Calgary and being subjected to flames homers every day.
Hi All, I havent posted all summer. Sick of the Sundin talk.WE are a contender with or without him...just wanted to comment on the top ten list made by Hockey News....Classic.. I love what he is saying about the maple laffs.
Now the Q may eliminate import draft .. The National Post ..... http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=707619
Well, as I posted below, the NCAA essentially does things to limit the number of non-US players (read Canadians) on their rosters so I can understand why the CHA may adopt the same "closed shop" approach. Why should Canadian Major Junior leagues be any different? I guess for NHL scouts it is more convenient to have all of your potential picks under "one roof," but they will just have to get over it.
I think it's important to remember that the NHL clubs also like the fact that the European kids get a chance to learn English, adapt to a North American life-style and learn how not to cross the red line with with your head down.
I have a couple of questions and I'm asking them because I have pondered them and I still don't know the answers. I'd just like to hear what some of you thought.
Do you think Sergei Kostitsyn would have been able to make the jump as early as he did, if he wasn't playing for Dale Hunter in the London?
Do you think that 2 kids per team really takes away from our Nation as a hockey power?
And one final statemnet, I know how pissed off me and my colleges use to get when we would see that 75% of the cars parked at construction sites were from Quebec and we weren't allowed to work in their Province. As Krob said, it's a slippery slope.
No and no. I agree with krob, this seems like an ill considered idea. 2 roster spots is entirely reasonable and does little harm to Canadian prospects. It would be interesting to know how many Canadian youngsters are playing in Europe. It seems the present system offers more options to everyone. Chris's point about this potentially being a move to appease European countries is an interesting one. However, if part of the reasoning for this, which the article states, is that the CHL teams are finding it harder to get their European picks over here I wonder if European stakeholders are all that concerned. The development of the KHL may make it even more attractive to young Europeans to stay closer to home. I wonder if this is not just some negotiating tactic to gain greater cooperation from European countries to deliver the CHL drafted players to their Canadian teams. This line in particular makes me think it is,"Third, we must look and see if we can improve the situation we have with them." If it is, it doesn't strike me as a brilliant ploy.
And Dave, why do I suspect you knew your answers to these questions despite your preamble? Huh?
Ooooo Puck Bunny....
"If I wanted to hear from an ass, I would fart..."
for trolls only - The trolls among us .. by Matt Schwartz .. NY Times ..... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?_r=1&oref=slo...
Regarding Sergei Kostitsyn, absolutely no way does he make the NHL as early as he has if he did not play in the OHL. One could even be more specific and say its unlikely he makes the jump if he plays anywhere other than London...as much as I disliked him as a player and don't really care for some of his coaching philosophies, I can't argue with the results: Dale Hunter has churned out a relatively impressive group of NHL ready prospects in a short amount of time. Sergei Kostitsyn, Corey Perry, Sam Gagner, Patrick Kane...that's more above average players in a 3 year period than many teams see in a 10 year period.
Regarding the import quotas, I think they were fine as they were. But some of this might not just be CHL xenophobia, but also a bit of political give and take...the European leagues have long complained about losing their top young talent to North American leagues, depriving them of talented young players to aid in the development of their own junior players. Its just a messy situation, pitting the rights of the individual players and what is best for their long term development versus the rights of each country's junior leagues and what is best for their ability to develop a national hockey program.
Good informative post. I was aware Hunter was having some success but not to this extent. I was a Nordiques fan and I miss that rivalry. I liked him as a player, every team wants a Dale Hunter type.
Question 1: It probably did SK a world of good to play for Dale Hunter, just like Max Pacioretty certainly benefited from playing for Michigan and Red Berenson.
Question 2: Cuts to the core of what you think the CHL should be. Is is a place to develop to potential domestic talent or an apprenticeship program for future NHLers regardless of nationality? If the latter, let everyone come and try out. Just get rid of the "educational" rouse or give those that don't make it scholarships to be used at a future date.
Question 3: It's you country boyo, you guys have to decide this one on your own. I think the Wall Street Journal's creed of "Free Men, Free Markets" is the one to live by, but I am a Republican.
Great question (DD) and great replies by Chris , Yeats , 2/100 of a dollar and krob 1000 but the answer may be the normal one (money). If you catch the end of the article i think it's getting harder to get quality players over here and it's a tough expensive ordeal so someone wants to be paid off much more for their work and there's the political tag also.Maybe they will drop it down to one player / team if they are confiscated more , that's my take .. and here's the excerpt from the article ..... Sooner of later, the (import) rule will change," said Groulx. "Seven to 10 years ago, they were making a huge difference on a team.
"Now, I'm not sure it's worth it if they're not playing on one of your top two lines. If they're just playing on a third line, they are taking a post that could go to a young player.
"We've been talking about this thing for three or four years now. Some people want to go down to one European. Some want status quo. Some want to get rid of them altogether.
"It's expensive. And it's tough to get them here, and it's getting tougher and tougher. There's so many people involved. There's agents and other people. I really don't know how it's going to go."
I have a little seed for thought at this late/early hour on the subject.
Those as old as I am will recall the days when junior players were drafted at age 20 and not 18. A player two seasons older was a much more developed player, and more NHL ready when drafted. Junior hockey back then thrived, because players became fixtures in smaller towns and therefore interest was higher in these teams and players.
Along came the WHA and they started snapping up these 18 year olds and the NHL did the same in order to compete. Despite the practice, the WHA erroded nonetheless, but the NHL, never went back to drafting 20 year olds.
I think the NHL should go back to drafting only 20 year olds. It might benefit them, the junior teams, the kids and their education. I think it is a great argument. The flipside is about greed and money.
Phase out the 18 year old draft over a four year period by reducing the number of rounds they are eligible in. At some point, the CHA could even envision adding Canadian collegiate teams to the loop.
I think it is a win/win/win proposition.
The downside is we have to wait two years more for the Stampko's and Tavares'. Big boo hoo!
Two season ago, I posted this informative piece by THN's Ken Campbell on the CHL's dirty little secret and why Canadian junior kids need a player's association to represent the fact that they have little rights.
http://wwwrealitycheckeyesontheprize.blogspot.com/2006/11/juniors-of-wor...
I understand the logistics for the NHL, but I've always absolutely resented any notions of increasing the draft age in professional sports leagues. If a young man is old enough to die defending his country, then I see no reason why they aren't old enough to play professional hockey.
Increasing the entry age for professional athletes is generally less about what is best for the player and more about protecting management of professional sports teams from themselves. Those extra two years of draft ineligibility are an extra two years for a player to suffer a career-ending injury without any chance for financial compensation. To qualify for a full NHL pension, a player must play at least 400 games in the NHL. The average NHL career is less than 5 years, so most of these guys will never qualify for a pension, so they have to earn as much as possible in those 4 or 5 seasons (if that). Yes, there are a lot of guys making obscene money, but for the journeymen NHL players I suspect life isn't the bed of roses we always make it out to be once taxes and community service obligations are factored in.
I'm with you all the way on this one, Robert! Good post.
Slowly, very slowly, Canadian University hockey is coming around. In time, the CHA might have to compete with them. That's when things might finally get righted.
I'm going to post my thoughts above on today's thread a little later, and get some people thinking.
I'm not sure that there will ever be a direct competition between the CHL and CIAU. The OHL, QMJHL and WHL combine for 60 teams. The CIAU has 33 teams. University players should (I would argue must, but I'm not naive) meet reasonably stringent academic standards that many professional hockey players would balk at. University students are typically 17-18 years old, whereas you can start in the OHL as a 16 year old (or younger, for certain phenoms!).
Much of this argument centres around whether these kids should be going to university to get an education, but we aren't factoring in that very few of the NCAA players are going to finish their degrees...the lure of NHL contracts is too big, and you can always get an education when your NHL career is over. In the past few years, we have watched Komisarek, Pacioretty, O'Byrne, Higgins and Trotter all leave their NCAA team without graduating. I have very little doubt that McDonagh will also be leaving without graduating.
I am with you on this one, Robert. It would be good for hockey and players in so many ways.
HD Corner : TSN 2 "the sequil" coming your way this fall .. illegalcurve.com ..... http://www.illegalcurve.com/2008/08/07/the-hd-corner-tsnthe-sequel/
Hope it's not the sequel to The Love Guru!