09/10 NHL Season you Fav's and Predictions
 

Ok as Hockey season is just around the corner,what are your favorite teams and why and what is your predictions for Stanley Cup.

My first team is the Flames. I think the off season moves they made were good. Sutter as coach should make our Dmen actually play more D this year and help give Kipper a hand.
Seem Jokinen will be seeing more ice with Iggy and hopefully they can click. J-BO was a fantastic pick up!! DO NOT START KIPPER 76 TIMES!!! If the D play and forwards come back we can afford McE to show us what he really has. Calgary should be considered a Cup contender this year. I predict they win the Cup this year.

My Second Team is the Flyers,they should be better then last year and I'm thinking they will end up somewhere near the top in the East,but only go 2 or 3 rounds in the playoffs.

1) Flames
2) Oilers
3) Canucks

But If I had to bet in Vegas my life savings on a team (pound for pound) I would pick SJ Sharks

although Calgary will one day get a true NHL team, I think San jose is going to be the team to watch especialy after saturdays trade. they have alway been a tough team and now they will be that much harder.

other than that, Edmonton made a few good trades and are starting to get there young guys going so maybe we'll see them off and running this year.

Steve

Canucks are my fave.

Watch out for Calgary, Chicago, Detroit and San Jose in the west and Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington in the east.

Does anybody think #14 has as serious chance of making the Flames roster? I think it would be great to see him do it, but I have my doubts that he will be able to keep up.

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs23/300W...ackeration.jpg

I've always been a flyer's fan, not sure what will happen with them. All depends on how Emery performs. I still like to support the Canadian teams and always hope they all make it into the playoffs. The summer rumble between Bettman & Balsillies will hopefully be over soon, and who knows maybe one more.

I'm a huge Oiler's fan, and think they can get back in the playoffs this year, but is anybody going to be able to knock off the Penguins when they haven't changed their roster much this offseason? I don't think so.
I think the west is ready for a new team to make it to the finals though. I think it's pretty wide open as to who that will be. My pick is Chicago, but Detroit, San Jose, and Vancouver have a pretty good shot as well, although I think Pittsburgh could take any of them.
As for Fluery, I don't think he has a shot of playing anywhere in the NHL. I think they're giving him an invite out of respect, and hopefully he'll realize that he is out of place.

I am a die hard Oiler fan and I see them making the playoffs but just barely like usual. The Flames season still rests solely on Kippers shoulders, I'm still not sold on the Canucks they should be decent but the Sisters need to prove more. I think the teams to beat in the west are:
1. Chicago
2. San Jose
3. Detroit

Teams to watch for are LA and Columbus. La should make a huge leap this year and Columbus will continue to rise.

Um duh! The canucks!
 

im thinking were better then any other team posted on here ..(sorry calgary,edmonton,sanjose,philly,) maybe next year! go CANUCKS !

Hehe...based on???

LOL you Canucks fans are funny!! :lol:





He was joking wasn't he?:sad:

Well, they did sign Mary-Kate and Ashley to new contracts. :lol:

I don't think he was joking, but maybe he was having fun thinking about his upcoming season. :drinking:

Haha... too funny.
Thats how i refer them them swedish ice dancers as well. :razz:

Are you oilers fans seriously knocking the Canucks and the Sedins?
As I recall...Canucks, 2nd round of the playoffs. Sedins, both 82 points.
How did the oilers do in the playoffs last year?
How many points did your top 2 players get?

I guess your all excited about resting the weight of your team on an old mans sholders.....lol

Send the Sedin's into "The Tunnel of Death" and see how they fair,just ask Hemsky he knows all too well :)

I don't think it will be all about Kipper this year. Our Defense should be wayyy better.

As for the Sharks,I just don't see them doing anything just cause they have Heatley.
They'll be among the top teams no doubt,but they will still under achieve in the Playoffs.
They have been contenders for what 3 or 4 years? And they still have no cup.

As we have a dual team house hold here, (wife canucks, Me Oilers) I end up following both teams and I agree, sedins are good but not as good as they are hyped up to be. wellwood is worth more in my opinion. the best thing they could have done is traded one of the sedins and got someone who is a good complement but a little tougher, but there contract prevents that. they did resign Lou, which is good as with out him I don't think they would make the playoffs. to me they are like the oilers were when they have Cujo, and rely on the goalie way to much. Other than that not much new with them.. pretty much the dsame team as last year, where everyone else has made some big changes. The oilers have made a few interesting changes which I think will be for the better and may be enough to get them another run but it is wide open.

the bigest problem is the way the legue makes the scheduals. it is a unfair set up as in the east there are a hand full of good teams and the rest pretty much suck, so you get the same teams every year domanating. out west even the bad teams arn't much worse than the best so it is a lot tighter and a harder division and since most of your games are with in your division there are teams in the west not making the playoffs when they were better than teams in the east that did. I think they should go back to a everyone plays everyone the same amount of times type system. but owners are tossed between traveling costs and points.. and since it is a double win for the east teams they will vote to keep it the same where in the west you would end up with a split vote as it saves money.

but this post reminded me it is almost time to order my center ice :mrgreen:

Steve

Tsn has the Oilers ahead of the Flames and Habs in the pre-season power rankings! :mrgreen:

The pre-season Oil v. Flames game is being streamed on the Oilers website tonight in case anyone besides me wants to watch.

TSN is using the playoff monkey for pre-season rankings now?

Sorry, gotta disagree with this. The twins are good together, but terrible on their own. They've been playing together since they were toddlers. That's what makes them good. They know where the other is and where he will be. You have to trade either both of them or keep them. Apart, they're not much.

[quote=StirCrazy;448117]As we have a dual team house hold here, (wife canucks, Me Oilers) I end up following both teams and I agree, sedins are good but not as good as they are hyped up to be.


How can you make a comment like that?
Only 13 other players last season got more points than the sedins.
4th and 5th best in the western conference.

No one needs to hype the Sedins, there production proves it.

4-1 We kicked flame butt! GO OILERS GO!!!!!!!

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. :biggrin:

Oh geez I knew that would happen. Calgary played mostly the young guys and Edmonton fans are already in a uproar!! I'm surprised your not all yelling "this is The Cup year"!!:)

Um and edmonton played almost all rookies as well.....pre season means little but man Flames fans are touchy already......calgary did well to improve on the defense but really until you get a true elite goalie you will not be cup contenders....bring on the hate...... But take a looke Kipper's numbers make him a bottom line goalie when compared to the rest of the NHL. I don't believe they will contend this year.

Edmonton has young players starting to mature and Comrie for 1.15 million may prove to be a steal. The real improvement is in coaching, this groups will have the locker room behind them and should get more out of the team. Oh did I mention the flame killer in net.
Oil makes playoffs and Calgary chokes in 1/2nd round once again.

Oil makes playoffs?! That's a lofty goal! :lol:

that is what I was saying and is exactly the problem.. they are expensive, and have no versitility.. they are 2/3rds of any line you put them on as you have to play them togeather to get the points. in the long run I feal they are a problem instead of the solution.

Steve

[quote=Canuckgod420;448170]ok, easy.. see my post above then find me how many points each of them got when the other wasn't on the ice.:mrgreen:

the problem is there team is based around 2 real good players who can't realy be split up.. they need to be able to be on the same shift or they are average. with there cost they are good, but the problem is they are having a hard time finding a 3rd for there line as they play there way. sofar no one they have tried.. even sudin (or how ever you spell it) wasn't a good fit with them.. so here you have a bunch of money tied up in 2/3rds of 1 line. you have to be more than a 1 line hockey team these days, and this is what killed them in the playoffs. the only reason they made it as far as they did was that Lou was briliant again.

Steve

I don't see where Flames fans are touchy,considering NONE of our top Dmen played and none of the cream of the crop played either. I seen alot of Edmonton veterans on the ice.
Kipper plays 76 games to your "Elite" goalie that plays 42. Kipper has 45 wins and yours 25.
Of course his numbers will go down,he plays twice as many minutes as your guy. You play Kipper the same amount of games as Khabibulin and I bet his numbers are better. To say Kipper's not an elite gaolie is typical of someone that doesn't like him. That would be like me saying Luongo is crap cause he play for the Canucks.

Kipper WAS an elite goaltender, but certainly hasn't looked like it lately. Have you seen what his stats looked like compared to other elite goalies in the league? He was average, at best, the last 2 years. He was overplayed, but still, I don't remember Brodeur or Luongo falling apart because they played so much.

flames fans are hilarious too, they figure they're gonna win the cup every year and then they choke cuz they aren't that good!! So you got bowmeester, how does that improve your dfence? He's not known as a very good defensive dman. Oh and the oilers making the playoffs a lofty goal? We missed by what three points last year and we are going to be much better this year. I'm not gonna be stupid and say we're contenders but look out I think!!

We had better make the playoffs this year! I miss watching playoff games with the oilers in them.

I know, but do you remember what we did the last time we were there? Ahhh it was glorious was it not, untill the end that is.

How do you figure Brodeur and Luongo were played so much???? Didn't Luongo blow the last game the Canucks played in last years playoffs? Weren't they both hurt?????
Hmmm lets see
Kipper 76 GP TOI 4,417:59

Luongo 54 GP TOI 3,181:05
Brodeur 31 GP TOI 1,813:35

Its not just JBO,Sutter is always defensive minded and that style will come out in the Flames. The Oilers will have to work hard to make the Playoffs once again.....3 points is still 3 points you didn't get to make the playoffs. I think they may make it in but it will be by the skin of their nose.

I wasn't refering to last season specifically. I was making a point that Brodeur and Luongo's games don't deteriorate because they played a lot. "Of course his numbers will go down,he plays twice as many minutes as your guy." They were able to be just as dominate as ever.

Brodeur: 2007-08 New Jersey NHL 77 44 27 6 4 .920 2.17 4635
2006-07 New Jersey NHL 78 48 23 7 12 .922 2.18 4697

Luongo: 2007-08 Vancouver NHL 73 35 29 9 6 .917 2.38 4233
2006-07 Vancouver NHL 76 47 22 6 5 .921 2.29 4490

Kipper:2008-09 Calgary NHL 76 45 24 5 4 .903 2.84 4418
2007-08 Calgary NHL 76 39 26 10 2 .906 2.69 4398
2006-07 Calgary NHL 74 40 24 9 7 .917 2.46 4419

Brodeau played even more hockey than Kipper did in back to back years, and still looked better.

yup hurt and still two of the best golies around. kipper is good, but he is not consistant enough, to even compare him to Brodeur is like comparing a pinto to a mustang. Brodeur got hurt last year yes, but he has already proven himself as one of if not the best goalie of all time, untill some one new comes along :mrgreen:

So Fleury made his debut last night and I must say he did not look out of place. Him and Langkow look good together. And add a shoot out winner to boot. Don't get me wrong he wasn't a superstar and it took awhile before he looked comfortable but he did ok.

Anyone see Phaneuf lay out Okposo? Damn I hope the guy is ok but what the hell was he doing crossing over without looking,he got nailed!!! I just would have liked to see Kipper beat the tar outta Biron.

I know we were on such a roll, and so close to a perfect ending *sigh*