Hockey Thread

I saw the bronze medal match, where Switzerland took over in the third period, and Sweden started to look very Russian.

Also, they only showed the third period of that Finland-Russia game, with highlights of the first two periods. What I saw fit what I read elsewhere afterwards that Finland had the exact right team to disrupt Russia.

I'm still at the mercy of the somewhat random schedule, but I hope they have the Canada-US game, although for the reasons above, me and Canada are *right-hand fistpump on left-side of chest* bros in this case. Sorry America, but supporting you would be like supporting Australia, and as such too close to going against everything I believe in.

Damn it. Quick was the only reason this was 1-0. CANADA NEEDS TO STOP WINNING

It doesn't matter if Canada beats Sweden or not. We beat the US, that's all that counts.

As a hockey fan, I'd like to say that I wouldn't want the off-the-post puck to go in, what with the referee getting in the way and all (refs are in play, but still). On the other hand, holy fuck I wanted that to go in. 

Canada! That is all.

Whatever, I don't even like hockey anymore.

...until the Rangers/Blackhawks game on Thursday.

The Rangers got two silvers and a gold, therefore we win.  


Oh wait, I forgot, I still hate hockey, what the hell am I doing here? 

Fuckin' A, that's some shitty defense from the Canes' top line, specifically the wildly-inconsistent-this-season Justin Faulk.  And, after an incredibly depressing 0-2 finish to pre-Olympic hockey, Carolina is 0-2 after the break, and after their upcoming three-game visit to the state of California, there's a very, very good chance that any realistic hopes of this team making the playoffs will be over, hopefully, but probably not, accompanied by the retirement of GM Jim Rutherford.

So, Buffalo traded Ryan Miller to the Blues and got in return 2015 first round pick(a possible 2014 first rounder if Blues make finals or Miller re-signs), a 2016 3rd rounder, Chris Stewart and Halak. Blues got fleeced, they are 3rd in the league in goals allowed per game, not like Miller(who could easily just be a half year rental) is going to realistically do much better than what Elliot and Halak have done for the past three years. They didn't need to upgrade at goalie at all, and now they could possibly be down two first round picks and all their goalies(If they make the finals with Miller and Elliot both re-signing elsewhere, very low percentage of happening, but still).

Miller is not almost always elite, he had a GAA of 2.81 last year, and a 2.72 this year. The bad defense can only go far as an excuse. And even with the good Sabres teams he has only had one year where his GAA was under 2.5. Yes, he is a former Vezina Winner, but that was half a decade ago. Miller is a good goalie who had one great year(that coincided with the olympics to get him a bigger spotlight). In theory Miller is an upgrade over Halak and Elliot. But the Blues are 3rd in goals allowed, the improvement isn't going to be that much to justify all of what they traded. And I don't care if a first rounder is towards the back, it is still a first rounder for a reason.

It isn't like the Blues lost in the playoffs the past two years due to a Fleury-like meltdown by their goalies. They just ran into a team that matches up against them very well in the Kings. Sometimes those are the breaks in the playoffs.

You guys, I am so tremendously depressed at the thought of Marty Brodeur getting traded.  How is it getting to this?  Why hasn't he come to his senses?  And why isn't Lou reassuring me that there's no way he'd let Marty's delusions dictate something like this happening?  This whole situation is stupid and it sucks and it's making me hate hockey.

Hmmm... Suicide suddenly seems appealing... 

That was not a very good trade by the Canucks.  Luongo is worth quite a bit more, even in his thirties, than a prospect like Markstrom.  Guess Luongo really wanted out of Vancouver, and the Canucks will hope Markstrom is just a late bloomer.

And speaking of late blooming goalies, the Canes just locked up Anton Khudobin (who's 27 and didn't even get consistent backup time until last season with Boston) for another two years, at the very reasonable price of $2 mil in 2014-15, and $2.5 mil the next season.  If he can even come close to matching the numbers he's been putting up this season (save % of .927, 5th in the league before he fell behind the current minimum number of games to appear on NHL's stat leaders page yesterday, and a GAA in the low 2s), this could be a steal for Carolina, and give them the luxury of being able to buy out out Cam Ward's enormous contract if they can't trade him (or was this offseason already the last for contract buyouts?).  Seriously, Khubobin has been super impressive thus far, given the defense he has in front of him; most goalies who put up those kinds of numbers have a pretty great defense in front of them.

Wow.  I had assumed that was all just scuttlebutt, and that Stevie Y would manage to talk some reason into Marty St. Louis.  That was about as ugly a prima-donna snit as possible from St. Louis, wasn't it?  That said, that's great news for Rangers fans to have him in the line-up, but possibly not great news at the cost of those picks...