[NHL] Offseason Talk

[Eomer]

Praise be unto Jesus, Craig Simpson resigned as assistant coach of the Oil and is back to the broadcast booth, where his pretty ass belongs. Now if MacTavish would call it quits as well and Lowe would have the common sense to hire a coach from outside the Oilers alumni, we might actually start developing talented players instead of turning first round picks into grinders. Oh, right, they just made Buchberger coach of the AHL affiliate, next grinder coach OTW. Sigh.

[Bottle]

Well Bucky cut his teeth in the ahl for a couple of weeks so he might be over qualified.

[EmpireF4i]

Well, looks like Scotty Niedermayer might be coming back for another cup after all.

TSN : NHL - Canada's Sports Leader

[Ishad]

Originally Posted by EmpireF4i

Well, looks like Scotty Niedermayer might be coming back for another cup after all.

Looks like we might find out tommorow

TSN : NHL - Canada's Sports Leader

Edit: No decision, will be late to camp if he decides to play. Hopefully he retires so the ducks defense is downgraded from disqustingly good, to one of the best in the league.

[EmpireF4i]

Neidermayer officially suspended

TSN : NHL - Canada's Sports Leader

It was expected by everyone including Scotty. This may help the Ducks though as his salary loss for each game he misses will be deducted from the team salary, thus leaving more room for say, Selanne playing sometime this season also?

[Flinch]

Thankfully Bettman has pretty broad powers where he can intervene if he feels someone is trying to circumvent the rules of the CBA, so there's a good chance that Niedermayer may be sitting out this season, retirement or not.

I really fucking hope so.

[Burkex]

Originally Posted by EmpireF4i

I doubt Burke will give Giguere a ton more. Its Burke, he knows Giguere is good, but hes no Louongo or Kippy, and wont pay a rediculous number. If they do raise the cap, one of those forwards would fit in fine.

Why are you guys talking about me?

[Flinch]

You're Bryan Burke? ;p

[Burkex]

lol no. I was just kidding. I just say no to hockey.

This is me:

[EmpireF4i]

Originally Posted by Burkex

lol no. I was just kidding. I just say no to hockey.

This is me:

aww, thats too bad. It would have been alot better if you were bryan burke.

Oh yeah, and if that is you on that card, your signature makes it look like your first name is Cunt.

[Moontayle]

NHL board of governors finally agree change is needed for schedule

PIERRE LEBRUN
September 19, 2007
CHICAGO (CP) - Sid the Kid will play every team in the NHL next season.

The league's current schedule format will be history after this season, the NHL's board of governors finally agreeing that change was needed Tuesday. "I think it's clear that there will be a change," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said after the four-hour meeting with owners.

A formal vote will take place at the next board of governors' meeting in late November.

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"The end result is we're going to see change in the best interests of the league," said Calgary Flames chairman and part-owner Harley Hotchkiss.

The current format has been in existence since the lockout ended and has ignited much debate among owners. It features eight games versus each divisional opponent - too many according to some - and only 10 games (five on the road) against non-conference opponents.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins finally plays his first regular-season games in Edmonton, Vancouver and Calgary this season - in his third year in the league. This season the unbalanced schedule also has the Oilers, Flames and Canucks not playing a single regular-season game against Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.

"We think everybody should play everybody at least once," said Ottawa Senators president and CEO Roy Mlakar. "Whether that's home and away, we'll need to see more evidence that that's the direction the majority wants to go in. But we're willing to change."

The vote at the next owners' meeting will require two-thirds majority to pass and Bettman was confident he would get it after conducting a straw poll Tuesday.

"After a discussion with the board I have a sense of where we need to be and where I think we need to be," said Bettman. "I'm optimistic we will get there in December."

But just what exact schedule format is adopted remains to be seen. While the room agreed the unbalanced schedule had to go, there still isn't consensus on the right option to replace it. Here are some options:

-Drop to seven games against each divisional opponent play each team in the other conference once. That would mean a team from the West would play in each Eastern city at least once every two years;

-Or drop to six games against each divisional opponent and play a home-and-home with every team in the other conference. That would guarantee a visit each year from each team in the league.

There are other tweaks and variances as well.

"We want to play all of the Canadian teams at least home and home every year," said Richard Peddie, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

The bottom line is that no matter what the new schedule is, it won't feature eight games against the same division opponent.

"Our fans are telling us they see a little too much of that," said Hotchkiss. "They'd like to see all the teams more frequently than they do now."

Meanwhile, Bettman did touch on possible expansion Tuesday, but downplayed any short-term decision on that front. Las Vegas, Kansas City, Seattle and Winnipeg are on the radar as possible targets.

"We know there is interest from a number of places but we haven't got to a point where we want to open this up to a formal expansion process," Bettman said.

"As we continue to explore the expressions of interest we will decide on how we want to proceed."

Owners and GMs leaving the meeting Tuesday did not sound terribly interested in expansion.

"There might be markets out there that want to pay a lot but let's make sure we have 30 strong teams," said Peddie. "Let's make sure we are in the best markets before we add markets, that's Toronto's point of view."

One executive, who requested anonymity, went one step further: "We've got too many weak spots right now to think about expansion."

Other items of discussion Tuesday:

-NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly gave governors a "state of the business" presentation and provided an analysis on the contract and salary trends heading into the third year of the collective bargaining agreement;

-Updates on the proposed sale of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators. Bettman said neither sale was ready for a vote by the board just yet but there would be one by December at the latest.

-There discussion about NHL on-ice officials in lieu of the Tim Donaghy scandal in the NBA and the safeguards in place to avoid a similar situation.

"We did our own self evaluation of what our procedures are and how we handle them," said Bettman. "We gave the update of where we were to the board and I think there was a comfort level in the room that we deal with these matters appropriately."

-Colin Campbell, the NHL's director of hockey operations, addressed the board concerning hits to the head, an issue the league continues to monitor closely.

[Haka Shakamalakabalsaka]

Finally. The post lock-out schedule is brutal. Who would want to see the Canucks and Wild play 8 times a season? Boring hockey. The guy who thought that seeing 2 teams play each other 4 times in a 2 week period is an idiot.

Go back to the old schedule, I don't know why it was ever changed.

[Eomer]

At first I thought it was a good idea, having lots of divisional play. But yeah, it's gotten old awfully fast. It makes sense to ride out the 3 year cycle this year, but it's high time to change it. Not having the Western Canadian teams play the Eastern ones this year is fucking retarded beyond all measure. Not to mention that the lack of travel for Eastern teams gives them a pretty significant advantage both competively in terms of travel fatigue, as well as making them a more attractive destination for players who want to be home every night.

Things would be so much simpler on the schedule front if the league went up to 32 teams and 4 divisions, though.

And Selanne and Neidermayer taking their sweet time deciding on their playing careers is pretty goddamn selfish, given the salary cap. They've REALLY hamstrung Brian Burke from making many moves to either replace them or make room for them. No one's going to publicly say that, but it's the truth.

As far as the Oilers go, we're going to sink or swim with our youth this year. If two or three young forwards can step up and contribute consistently for the season we might squeak into the playoffs. If not, I just can't see us making it without adding another top 6 forward at least, if not two. And it's looking like Pisani may be gone for the season, which is a pretty big blow. There's few all-around players in the league that do as much with 15 minutes a night as he does.

[Ishad]

Originally Posted by Eomer

At first I thought it was a good idea, having lots of divisional play. But yeah, it's gotten old awfully fast. It makes sense to ride out the 3 year cycle this year, but it's high time to change it. Not having the Western Canadian teams play the Eastern ones this year is fucking retarded beyond all measure. Not to mention that the lack of travel for Eastern teams gives them a pretty significant advantage both competively in terms of travel fatigue, as well as making them a more attractive destination for players who want to be home every night.

Things would be so much simpler on the schedule front if the league went up to 32 teams and 4 divisions, though.

The current scheduling is terrible. As much as I like the Wings artificially inflated record every year I'd rather see them play more Eastern teams during the regular season. A year without a Detroit-Toronto matchup is a crime.

And Selanne and Neidermayer taking their sweet time deciding on their playing careers is pretty goddamn selfish, given the salary cap. They've REALLY hamstrung Brian Burke from making many moves to either replace them or make room for them. No one's going to publicly say that, but it's the truth.

They really haven't hamstrung Burke at all, Neidermayer has already been replaced with Schnieder (though he'll be out till the regular season starts now).

The team is still a million under the cap with Neids salary, and really is there anyone out there they now really want? I mean Neids contract gives them less room to get Selanne but he hasn't really said if he's interested in playing, but other than that who else is still out there? Forsberg? Waste of money at this point.

Neids stays and they have the best defense in the league hands down. Neids leaves, they have 7 million under the cap to go shopping with at the trade deadline.

It's really not that bad of situation.

[Haka Shakamalakabalsaka]

Oilers will have a touch time leapfrogging anyone in the NW division but I still see them competitive this year. I see them hanging around where StL was last year, 9-10th spot picking off teams that show up not ready to play, but just missing a couple pieces of the puzzle to push them into post season. Picking up Garon was a good move in that you have someone there when Roloson runs out of gas. I see Edmonton back in their usual 8th seed come playoff time in the next couple years, don't worry =p

Apparently Anaheim still needs a top 6 RW'er. Not sure where Bertuzzi is going to play, apparently he's looking really good with Getzlaf and Perry, so they need someone for Macdonald and Kunitz's line (Selanne's old spot). From what I've read, Bobby Ryan has promise but isn't ready for a top 6 role in the NHL yet. Understandable, since he's young and powerforwards take longer than most forwards to mature.