2007-2008 NHL Catch All Thread

[EvilJester99]

Seen on Stuy's board Sharp signed a 4 yr deal!!

 

http://blackhawks.nhl.com/team/app/?servic...rticleid=350337

Edited January 17, 2008 by EvilJester99

[Harry Chappas]

The "big" move went down.

 

link

Watch out for this pointless move. The stocking of the 4th line commences. Does this mean Perrault or LaPointe are out the door? That'd be swell, especially the latter.

 

This team loves forwards that can get you 20 points (usually the 8G / 12A) for a season.

[DBAHO]

Good news on Sharp, he's been a shrewd acquisition and deserves a long - term deal with his play this season.

 

As for the Adams deal, maybe it's the end for LaPointe, unless either of those 2 could play center on the 4th line.

 

We have enough 3rd/4th line scrappers, and really need a 1st or 2nd line winger in the off-season along with a top D-Man.

 

Hopefully with some cap space, that's do-able.

[IlliniKrush]

I knew I shouldn't have benched Kane in favor of Havlat in my fantasy league!

 

Good to see the pucks hitting the back of the net again. Two in a row, and you'll notice who was between the pipes. My boy Lalime.

Let's start him next year!

 

Hey look at that, the Hawks scored 6 goals for him, too.

Edited January 18, 2008 by IlliniKrush

[DBAHO]

Well Lalime has been pretty solid over the past few games, certainly better than Khabibulin in his last few.

 

And last night's game was a total reverse of the Minny game. IIRC, the Blues outshot us last night, but Lalime blocked them out, while we only had around 20 shots and put 6 on the board.

 

I know you like to defend him, and when he's in form he is a top 10 goalie in the NHL, but you can't say that his recent play has been that inspiring.

 

And in the salary cap age, paying $7M for a goalie who only has around a .900 SVG, I think most people can be justified for asking for a little more.

 

And I mean sure the team in front of him isn't great, but it's better than in season's past, and I don't think Khabi has really stepped up his game like most of the team has.

[Steve9347]

Let's start him next year!

 

Hey look at that, the Hawks scored 6 goals for him, too.

Dude, say what you will, he still only gave up 1 goal and has looked far better than Khabibulin this year. We get it, you think Bulin is still the man and remember him leading Tampa to the Cup all those years ago. What's the difference between Lalime and Khabibulin next year other than like 4 million in salary?

 

Not much. Lalime is the better goaltender right now and though I doubt they'll find a taker, getting rid of Bulin would be great regardless of return.

[EvilJester99]

Looks like he watched Toews hehe

[Rowand44]

That was pretty sweet.

[The Critic]

Looks like he watched Toews hehe

Toews didn't need the goalie to F up the pokecheck.

[CWSGuy406]

Dude, say what you will, he still only gave up 1 goal and has looked far better than Khabibulin this year. We get it, you think Bulin is still the man and remember him leading Tampa to the Cup all those years ago. What's the difference between Lalime and Khabibulin next year other than like 4 million in salary?

 

Do you honestly have a f***ing clue? Cripes, it's always the same lack of reading comprehension with you -- same ole, same ole provocative bulls***. Krush never said that Khabibulin is an awesome goalie -- he's said that ( a ) the losing streak wasn't completely on him, despite everyone wanting to do that and ( b ) Lalime ain't going to get us anywhere. He's not touting him as Roberto Luongo, just saying that there was a LOT of blame to go around.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if Lalime puts up very good numbers over the next couple games, but I'd bet that has more to do with this team starting to get healthy (namely Sopel and Wizniewski -- I'd say 95% of the goalies in this league would suck with Seabrook, Keith, Byfuglien, Barker, Zyuzin and Richmond playing in front of them) than Lalime himself.

 

That takes nothing away from Lalime, BTW -- he's played well and every one of us hopes that he can run off a ten game streak where he only allows 15 goals.

Edited January 18, 2008 by CWSGuy406

[IlliniKrush]

Dude, say what you will, he still only gave up 1 goal and has looked far better than Khabibulin this year. We get it, you think Bulin is still the man and remember him leading Tampa to the Cup all those years ago. What's the difference between Lalime and Khabibulin next year other than like 4 million in salary?

 

Not much. Lalime is the better goaltender right now and though I doubt they'll find a taker, getting rid of Bulin would be great regardless of return.

 

 

Do you honestly have a f***ing clue? Cripes, it's always the same lack of reading comprehension with you -- same ole, same ole provocative bulls***. Krush never said that Khabibulin is an awesome goalie -- he's said that ( a ) the losing streak wasn't completely on him, despite everyone wanting to do that and ( b ) Lalime ain't going to get us anywhere. He's not touting him as Roberto Luongo, just saying that there was a LOT of blame to go around.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if Lalime puts up very good numbers over the next couple games, but I'd bet that has more to do with this team starting to get healthy (namely Sopel and Wizniewski -- I'd say 95% of the goalies in this league would suck with Seabrook, Keith, Byfuglien, Barker, Zyuzin and Richmond playing in front of them) than Lalime himself.

 

That takes nothing away from Lalime, BTW -- he's played well and every one of us hopes that he can run off a ten game streak where he only allows 15 goals.

Well, I guess that about covers it.

[Steve9347]

Do you honestly have a f***ing clue? Cripes, it's always the same lack of reading comprehension with you -- same ole, same ole provocative bulls***. Krush never said that Khabibulin is an awesome goalie -- he's said that ( a ) the losing streak wasn't completely on him, despite everyone wanting to do that and ( b ) Lalime ain't going to get us anywhere. He's not touting him as Roberto Luongo, just saying that there was a LOT of blame to go around.

Yeah, I do have a clue. I was replying to his point that the Hawks scored 6 goals for Lalime, even though he only gave up one goal so that really had no merit.

 

Why don't you take a chill pill, sorry to argue with your best friend about something. It's simple, as of right now, Patrick Lalime is the better goaltender than Nikolai Khabibulin. Krush has backed 'Bulin time and time again, so why don't you "get a f***ing clue?"

 

I don't believe I said anything inflammatory in the above post. You need to take your blood-pressure medication right now you crazy bastard.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Steve9347

[CWSGuy406]

Why don't you take a chill pill, sorry to argue with your best friend about something.

 

No -- you make the same stupid ass comments time and time again. I could care less that it's Krush -- it's when unreasonable people like yourself start insinuating and looking for stuff that isn't there. You have a history of doing this exact same thing -- is it that difficult to be a reasonable person? Apparently so...

 

So yes -- get a f***ing clue.

[IlliniKrush]

Yeah, I do have a clue. I was replying to his point that the Hawks scored 6 goals for Lalime, even though he only gave up one goal so that really had no merit.

 

Why don't you take a chill pill, sorry to argue with your best friend about something. It's simple, as of right now, Patrick Lalime is the better goaltender than Nikolai Khabibulin. Krush has backed 'Bulin time and time again, so why don't you "get a f***ing clue?"

 

Seriously, take some anti-cramping pills or something.

It's indeed relevant. They haven't scored 4 or more goals for Habby since what, Dec 26? Like I've said before, it'd be nice if Habby didn't have to only allow 0, 1, or 2 goals to MAYBE get a win. Had The Hawks won, say, 6-4, I highly doubt you would have changed your "look who was in net" tune.

 

Your lack of understanding is astounding. I don't really defend Bulin until people come on here and chime in on how he sucks regardless of the team's play in front of him or the analysis of each goal. Like I said, it's simple, it's lazy, and it's like blaming Grossman. I've always said there's way more problems than that (someone try to argue otherwise...) and when Habby is THE problem around here, then we can really jump on him.

 

Plus, how many times do we have to hear "he's not worth nearly 7 million. We should trade him!" No, really? I had no idea he wasn't a top 3 goaltender in the league. We know, you'd like him to be traded. I'm sure they'd do it if they easily could. Doesn't really seem to be an option with that salary and the way the CBA is set up. Plus, I will stand by my stance that Lalime wouldn't cut it whatsoever as a starter playing 65ish games a year.

 

However, I would love to see what people would have said had the Hawks not went out and tried to get a superstar goalie to get this team back on the map. They've had s*** since Belfour left, for the most part. Furthermore, I'd like to see how many people were upset with the contract at the time. Probably no one.

 

I'm all for the Hawks winning, but there's more to a hockey game than just goaltending.

Edited January 19, 2008 by IlliniKrush

[IlliniKrush]

BTW, this sucks - Williams surgery, out at least 6 weeks. I'm no doctor...but why couldn't this surgery have happened earlier? Maybe there's a reason, but this seems a bit odd.

 

http://blackhawks.nhl.com/team/app/?servic...rticleid=350454

Edited January 19, 2008 by IlliniKrush

[SoxAce]

No -- you make the same stupid ass comments time and time again. I could care less that it's Krush -- it's when unreasonable people like yourself start insinuating and looking for stuff that isn't there. You have a history of doing this exact same thing -- is it that difficult to be a reasonable person? Apparently so...

 

So yes -- get a f***ing clue.

 

Understandable. Steve, your an awsome poster n you do know your sports but sometimes you don't "get it" (kinda figured that out when I was trying to explain to you the Tyson C. debate, but just didn't bother anymore cuz you weren't getting it.) But I gotta thank all of you guys for your knowledge on hockey especially considering I'm just learning the game and really wasn't into it/hated the game until this season (mostly thanks to the young guys) So Andrew, Keith, Tony, Steve, Jeff, Mike etc.. etc.. on this board in this hockey thread.... thank you.

[Steve9347]

Of course there's more to a hockey game than goaltending. Jesus H Christ, you refute time and time again that Lalime isn't a guy who can lead a team, that he can't play enough games to be the regular starter (a point refuted with actual statistics).

 

I have not once used wins as a way to gauge good goaltending. I've played hockey my entire life; I know a thing or two about the sport. The Blackhawks have played equally in front of Nik and Lalime, and Khabibulin and Lalime have produced about equally (Nik: 2.82, .898/ Pat 2.69 / .900). I'd feel confident with him as the #1 as we work Crawford into the regular rotation next year... all I've said, is if you can get a bag of pucks for Nik, do it ASAP, bc he will never be around when this team really has a shot, and he's already showing that his best days are well past him.

 

When he came over in that FA deal, I really thought we'd see what we saw in a Tampa, a guy who single-handedly was stealing games. We've seen that maybe 5 times in 3 seasons. What we are seeing now is that Lalime and Khabibulin are putting up about the same production... guess what, that's not worth the $6.5 mill per that Khabibulin is taking out of a rather small salary cap. At his best, Nik was a game changer, but he's a long way away from that... he's stopping under 90% of shots against him for crying out loud.

 

If you think holding onto Nik is in the Blackhawks' best interest, then it is you who know nothing about hockey.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Steve9347

[Steve9347]

Understandable. Steve, your an awsome poster n you do know your sports but sometimes you don't "get it" (kinda figured that out when I was trying to explain to you the Tyson C. debate, but just didn't bother anymore cuz you weren't getting it.)

Don't know if that's exactly fair to just state that you figured out sometimes I just don't "get it" when half of Bulls nation would agree with me and presumably more. The Bulls giving up on Tyson at 23 so they could sign an old guy whom they wanted to do the exact same thing but for 5 mill more per year is still rather questionable.

 

No doubt Tyson has benefited from Chris Paul, and it was also understandable that Paxson wanted to get Wallace from the Pistons to take us to the next level. I was just saying that I adored Tyson and didn't really understand the move, and it's looking like (regardless if Paul is on his team or not), Chandler is the much more valuable commodity as he continues to grow into his body.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Steve9347

[SoxAce]

Don't know if that's exactly fair to just state that you figured out sometimes I just don't "get it" when half of Bulls nation would agree with me and presumably more. The Bulls giving up on Tyson at 23 so they could sign an old guy whom they wanted to do the exact same thing but for 5 mill more per year is still rather questionable.

 

No doubt Tyson has benefited from Chris Paul, and it was also understandable that Paxson wanted to get Wallace from the Pistons to take us to the next level. I was just saying that I adored Tyson and didn't really understand the move, and it's looking like (regardless if Paul is on his team or not), Chandler is the much more valuable commodity as he continues to grow into his body.

 

Please do not turn this thread into an NBA thread. If you wanna be mr. badass smart guy, then re-up the post in the NBA thread or PM me and we'll talk about it. (I will obviously say your wrong in that aspect, other than saying what I posted about Paul in your second paragraph) You do know your hockey, which is why I thanked you n others in my post. I want to learn more about the game, players, etc. Just drop the b.s.

Edited January 19, 2008 by SoxAce

[IlliniKrush]

Of course there's more to a hockey game than goaltending. Jesus H Christ, you refute time and time again that Lalime isn't a guy who can lead a team, that he can't play enough games to be the regular starter (a point refuted with actual statistics).

 

I have not once used wins as a way to gauge good goaltending. I've played hockey my entire life; I know a thing or two about the sport. The Blackhawks have played equally in front of Nik and Lalime, and Khabibulin and Lalime have produced about equally (Nik: 2.82, .898/ Pat 2.69 / .900). I'd feel confident with him as the #1 as we work Crawford into the regular rotation next year... all I've said, is if you can get a bag of pucks for Nik, do it ASAP, bc he will never be around when this team really has a shot, and he's already showing that his best days are well past him.

 

When he came over in that FA deal, I really thought we'd see what we saw in a Tampa, a guy who single-handedly was stealing games. We've seen that maybe 5 times in 3 seasons. What we are seeing now is that Lalime and Khabibulin are putting up about the same production... guess what, that's not worth the $6.5 mill per that Khabibulin is taking out of a rather small salary cap. At his best, Nik was a game changer, but he's a long way away from that... he's stopping under 90% of shots against him for crying out loud.

 

If you think holding onto Nik is in the Blackhawks' best interest, then it is you who know nothing about hockey.

Remember when he started for a while in St. Louis in 05-06? 3.64 GAA, .881%. Though it was a bad team, he was 4-18. Habby had a bad year, but his stats were still better, and for as bad a team really. Last year in limited action, 3.07, .896%. Both seasons he has spent time in the minors. Might be a reason he hasn't started since 03-04.

 

Also, I may or may not have been playing hockey my entire life, so great point there. I'm astounded you actually have played that long because your posts usually have very little analysis in them that would show an understanding of the game.

 

And wait, the Hawks have played equally in front of Nik and Lalime? f*** that's a bad blanket statement if I've ever heard one. Habby has played basically this entire stretch of injured/bad Hawks hockey and has suffered because of it. He's also been overworked as Savvy has rode him into the ground as he gets hot instead of popping in a day off. I wouldn't feel confident in Lalime as a #1 next year...and if you think it's a point that can be argued with statistics, I'd like to see them - because limited action really doesn't show anything, and he's given up plenty of his own soft goals over the past 2 years. If you think you can just float those statistics over 65 games, I disagree.

 

There's way too many people around here and everywhere else in Chicago that see a Hawks loss, maybe one s*** goal from Habby, and think that Habby sucks and throw the loss on him. That's when I chime in. They'll lose a game 3-2, 2-1, 3-1 or some s*** and people are all over the goaltender. Again...Grossman style.

 

And wait, how much does Habby make again? Is he worth it? I guess we should just make some team take him from us, because that seems easy to do. As of now, we're arguing who should play the majority next year, and that's an argument that has NOTHING to do with how much they are making. I don't care if he's making a billion dollars, you play the better goalie, not who you think is a better value. You can pay me 10 bucks to play net, and that'd be a f***load of value compared to either of them, no?

 

And as far as stopping under 90% of his shots...A) look at the defense in front of him and the goals scored on him, and B] Lalime is stopping 90% exactly. OMG I GUESS I GOT OWNED...or not, considering the games (and number of) he's played in and what his save percentage has been the last few seasons.

 

f***, if we could trade Habby for a good player and get rid of that salary there isn't a person around that wouldn't do it. But it seems like a pipe dream, does it not? I'm sure Dale has never thought about how he's paying a goalie almost 7 mil to not live up to Cup standards. He tried in that offseason to shore up the goaltending for once and it didn't quite work out how he wanted. You can complain all you want about the salary, but it's not going away unless some GM is retarded/we take back some other worthless s*** with a high salary. It's a pretty irrelevant topic.

 

The bigger problem is after Habby is gone next year and this team is really in its prime, who the hell is in net? Lalime (if around) nor Crawford don't appear to be ready to take this team deep into the playoffs. This could easily be Dale's biggest problem sooner than later.

Edited January 19, 2008 by IlliniKrush

[DBAHO]

If I'm Tallon, I still try to go all out for Huet in the off-season.

 

There's really no place for him in Montreal, with Carey Price emerging.

 

Or Tallon could even look at Jaroslav Halak who I believe is a restricted FA.

 

I think as well, the general thought on Khabibulin was that he was a goalie that got better with more consistent work, and unfortunately in that stretch when we were decimated that wasn't the case, hence why Lalime was given a chance and now we're riding the hotter goalie.

 

I think Tampa Bay would take him back in a heartbeat considering;

 

a - How bad they've been this season

b - How bad their goaltending currently is.

 

You'd just have to work out the right deal cap wise.

[SoxFanForever]

Wham, bam, Kane!

[SoxAce]

How good has Kane been lately? Nice pass by Havlet. 1-0 Hawks.

[Steve9347]

Please do not turn this thread into an NBA thread. If you wanna be mr. badass smart guy, then re-up the post in the NBA thread or PM me and we'll talk about it. (I will obviously say your wrong in that aspect, other than saying what I posted about Paul in your second paragraph) You do know your hockey, which is why I thanked you n others in my post. I want to learn more about the game, players, etc. Just drop the b.s.

Man, I'm not trying to be Mr. Badass. Take it easy. You were wrong, you're still wrong, and if you want to talk about it, do so IN the NBA thread instead of bringing it up in here.

[Steve9347]

How good has Kane been lately? Nice pass by Havlet. 1-0 Hawks.

You're right about that... nice to see Patrick adjusting.