Some showboating is okay, on a rare occassion, but Ovechkin takes it to an extreme higher than what's acceptable all the time. Using his stick like a shotgun, sprinting and sliding on both knees with two hands in the air, and checking and shoving other players to the ice after the whistle are all overdoing it when he scores. His team could be down 4-0 and he'll still do that. I've seen the highlights. You can celebrate like crazy when scoring a hat trick or overtime winner, but he's got to pick his times better. Like I said, he'll be creamed into the boards by someone very soon if he does any of those things, no matter whether me and you agree with showboating or not. Hockey players themselves feel it's disrespectful and eventually one of them will get fed up. He'll have to tone it down or else he's going to have a huge target on his back. Anyways, the NHL regular season starts tonight. I'm calling a 4-3 win by the Leafs over the Sens.
I say Senators take that one 3-1. Red Wings 2-0 about halfway through the first ...and, I'm sorry, but OLN sucks.
1-0 Leafs after 2. I'm surprised, Ovechkin's celebrations on the two goals have been subdued for him. Good job.
Red Wings win 5-1... but it's over the Blues, so it's not really much of a feat. Edit: Like I said, Ovechkin's a beat. He'll get the calder this year, but Crosby will probably be better long-run.
This is absolutely pathetic. Losing in a shootout? By far the worst way to lose a game. Absolutely terrible. I am rotted. Bullshit!
I agree. I'm not a big fan of the shootout, but I guess it's not so bad as long as each team gets at least one point (which they do).
The Wings game was awesome. They were way too aggressive with each other which resulted in a few fights. In my humble opinion, Shanahan did exactly what he should have by attacking the Blues' player that cross-sticked or high-sticked Datsyuk in the head.
Hell Yes. Wings won again. 4-3. They were dominating for awhile with a 4-1 lead, but St. Louis started coming back in the third. It wasn't enough though.
I think this might be the first season in about 17 years where the Blues don't make the playoffs. I know they're on a playoff streak like that, not sure what the amount of consecutive years it is, though. No Pronger, no Demitra, no MacInnis. An overweight captain (Tkachuk came to camp 35 pounds overweight) and old guys like Weight who can't produce like they used to. The only bright spots I see for the Blues is Petr Cajanek and Eric Brewer. And they're not able to carry the team.
Unfortunately for me, and other Wings fans, the Red Wings are currently down 3-2 to Vancouver with roughly 8 minutes to go.
Unfortunately for me, and other Wings fans, the Red Wings are currently down 3-2 to Vancouver with roughly 8 minutes to go. [/b][/quote] Wings lost 4-2. Dammit, we almost scored with the 6 on 5 advantage with roughly 15 seconds left but it just didn't happen.
Guess who lost in a shootout, again, to the Senators? If you guessed the Leafs, you're correct! This is horrendous. The Leafs were down 4-2 in the third and came back and scored 3 straight goals in under 2 minutes! And then they reverted back to their old ways of playing well for the first 50 minutes then completely self-destructing in the last 10 minutes. What the hell are they doing having Belak and Berg suited up for defence? Get some younger guys in there, and if they make mistakes, at least you know they'll improve instead of just getting worse! I am so frustrated. And what the hell is Quinn doing putting Allison on the shootout list again? He's slower than glaciers! I don't know how Quinn expects Allison to score on Hasek. It's terrible.
Not to sound rude, but who else would you put instead of him? Toronto's not exactly star-studded anymore, and I think it's a decent choice for the shootout, though it may not be the best. Edit: Gosh dang do I hate Barry Melrose. He changes his opinion every day... now he's praising Ov since he's doing better than Crosby... Melrose needs to be quiet -- he's a master of stating the obvious, and sometimes he can't even state that!
Stajan and Steen are both great on shootouts. Czerkawski's a sniper. Antropov is faster than Allison and has a hard, accurate shot when he gets an opening. There's four for you off the top of my head. Allison's too slow for shootouts. Especially on someone who's good on dekes like Hasek. Sure, Allison might've pulled a great move on your Detroit goalie in a pre-season shootout, but I'm fairly sure he was a rookie who bit too early. The only way you score on breakaways on Hasek is up high, and you need speed to get him down on the ice. A couple of head fakes here and there and put it right under the bar. It's not just their skill, it's how they stack up against certain goaltenders styles. Bad choice by Quinn.