General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

shabbs wrote:So, we're back in 7th spot in the East now after the Rags' win last night. 1 point behind them.

Ahem!

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:So, we're back in 7th spot in the East now after the Rags' win last night. 1 point behind them.

Ahem!

Crazy how it changes almost daily. What a huge win today - whew.

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:So, we're back in 7th spot in the East now after the Rags' win last night. 1 point behind them.

Ahem!

And now we're back in 6th!

YAHOO!

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:So, we're back in 7th spot in the East now after the Rags' win last night. 1 point behind them.

Ahem!

And now we're back in 6th!

YAHOO!

And then another rematch on Saturday when we can finally reclaim 2nd int he East.

Here's the crazy part. Where would Boston be without those four wins against us earlier? They'd have 46 points and be 3rd last in the Conference, with just Toronto and Carolina behind them.

Even if they got a point from the two games that went to the SO, they'd have 48 points, which would place them 12th, tied in points with the two Sunshine State teams.

Why were we being so freakin' generous with them????!

Hejduk will have arthroscopic surgery on his knee and will miss the Olympics (which is odd, because I read somewhere he'll only be out 1-2 weeks). 1-2 weeks? The wuss.

Don't look now, but DiPietro followed his SO victory with a SO victory over the Devils. The first SO was a Shoot Out; today's affair was a Shut Out. The Isles have won 4 in a row and 6 of 7 and sit in 8th, 2 points ahead of Montreal, with a game in hand.

wprager wrote:Don't look now, but DiPietro followed his SO victory with a SO victory over the Devils. The first SO was a Shoot Out; today's affair was a Shut Out. The Isles have won 4 in a row and 6 of 7 and sit in 8th, 2 points ahead of Montreal, with a game in hand.

Holy cow, that's absolutely incredible. Could he come back healthy and help the Isles to the playoffs? They look pretty good now. How is that though? Matt Moulson, JT, Okposo, Bailey...Streit and goaltending? How does that get you into a playoff spot. I guess Weight, Sutton and Witt are the veteran sandpaper. Still, the team seriously appears to need some quality top 6s to go with that youth, but yet, here they are, in 8th.

Crazy...it's all crazy...

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:Don't look now, but DiPietro followed his SO victory with a SO victory over the Devils. The first SO was a Shoot Out; today's affair was a Shut Out. The Isles have won 4 in a row and 6 of 7 and sit in 85h, 2 points ahead of Montreal, with a game in hand.

Holy cow, that's absolutely incredible. Could he come back healthy and help the Isles to the playoffs? They look pretty good now. How is that though? Matt Moulson, JT, Okposo, Bailey...Streit and goaltending? How does that get you into a playoff spot. I guess Weight, Sutton and Witt are the veteran sandpaper. Still, the team seriously appears to need some quality top 6s to go with that youth, but yet, here they are, in 8th.

Crazy...it's all crazy...

Perhaps they want Campoli back for the stretch run! I'll settle for a blue chipper.

Seriously though, I could see them being buyers at the deadline and making a run at the playoffs. Their long suffering fans certainly deserve it.

hemlock wrote:
Perhaps they want Campoli back for the stretch run! I'll settle for a blue chipper.

Tell me more!

SpezDispenser wrote:

hemlock wrote:
Perhaps they want Campoli back for the stretch run! I'll settle for a blue chipper.

Tell me more!

Noooooo I don't wanna hear it

Calgary was getting hammered 6-0 after 2. Turned it off, but it was a bloodbath.

It's 7-1 SJ right now. Col hammered EDM 6-0 as well.

Time for some Phaneuf/Vishnovsky/Souray rumours.

marakh wrote:It's 7-1 SJ right now. Col hammered EDM 6-0 as well.

Time for some Phaneuf/Vishnovsky/Souray rumours.

Right here on any of the three.

And Heatley is -1

SpezDispenser wrote:

hemlock wrote:
Perhaps they want Campoli back for the stretch run! I'll settle for a blue chipper.

Tell me more!

Well, not much more to tell. .....Then I woke up. It was a great dream though.

I'd take a $25 Pier One gift card for Campoli.

We don't have trouble getting out of our zone anymore (don't forget the catastroph that was last year). Picard and Campoli might not be the greatest defense guys, but they move the puck well.

marakh wrote:We don't have trouble getting out of our zone anymore (don't forget the catastroph that was last year). Picard and Campoli might not be the greatest defense guys, but they move the puck well.

Picard is a keeper, I'll agree. Campoli at his age and contract status can kindly Diddle right off though.

Part of the Isles' "success" surely has to do with the mess the East is in. There are so many teams playing well below expectations: Boston, Philly, Rangers. Even the ones ahead of them may have given away or point or two to them. Hell, even Buffalo, with all their wins, how many of those came in extra time? Then, of course, you have teams that weren't expected to make the playoffs, yet they still are under-performing even based on those predictions.

The East is a mess and, let's not kid ourselves, we are benefiting from it. We may be in that 5-8 placement many of us were predicting at the start, but that's with injuries galore, Spezza and Kovalev way below expectations, Leclaire *way* below expectations (.900 would have been below expectations), Kuba, etc. Sure, there are probably just as many unexpected positive surprises but even Kelly and Fisher with 10 unexpected goals between them hardly make up for Spezza and Kovalev's drop off.