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

Big Ev wrote:Umberger knows first hand how to beat the Caps, he and the Flyers beat them in the first round in 2008.

Two years ago though? Backstrom is now one of the super-powers of the league in terms of being a 2-way dynamic player, Green is that much better defensively, Ovechkin is better, Semin is better. I might be inclined to agree with a TSN guy saying something like this, but RJ Umberger just seems sour grapes because his team sucks.

LOL Ottawa is behind New York, Boston, Calgary, and Montreal in the TSN power rankings.

Another reason not to listen to anything that comes from TSN! The only reputable guy they have is McKenzie!

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Umberger knows first hand how to beat the Caps, he and the Flyers beat them in the first round in 2008.

Two years ago though? Backstrom is now one of the super-powers of the league in terms of being a 2-way dynamic player, Green is that much better defensively, Ovechkin is better, Semin is better. I might be inclined to agree with a TSN guy saying something like this, but RJ Umberger just seems sour grapes because his team sucks.

2 years ago with Cristobal Huet in net

Michallica wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Umberger knows first hand how to beat the Caps, he and the Flyers beat them in the first round in 2008.

Two years ago though? Backstrom is now one of the super-powers of the league in terms of being a 2-way dynamic player, Green is that much better defensively, Ovechkin is better, Semin is better. I might be inclined to agree with a TSN guy saying something like this, but RJ Umberger just seems sour grapes because his team sucks.

2 years ago with Cristobal Huet in net

He was great too. Talk about a guy who Diddled up in taking the money and running in Chicago. Big mistake, massive pressure - can't handle it...

Mueller out with a concussion after a blind-side hit from Rob Blake. He'll probably miss the last week of the season, if not more.

With 3 games left, Dany Heatley has 39 goals and will struggle to hit 40. His 80 points is acceptable, but for 7.5 million dollars and Michalek and SJ's 2nd round pick (+ the defective Cheechoo), is this season a disappointment for Heater?

Absolutely. They should feel ripped off in San Jose.

SpezDispenser wrote:With 3 games left, Dany Heatley has 39 goals and will struggle to hit 40. His 80 points is acceptable, but for 7.5 million dollars and Michalek and SJ's 2nd round pick (+ the defective Cheechoo), is this season a disappointment for Heater?

Absolutely. They should feel ripped off in San Jose.

Terrible!! That's right I said it, Terrible!!! Not worth that kind of cash, IMO. He would have probably hit 90 points with Spezza this year easily. What a dumb move by a dumb, dumb man child.

I would definitely feel ripped off as a SJ fan. I'm sure they're missing Michalek like you wouldn't believe. He's a special player who's so much younger and should only get better if he can stay healthy.

No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

Big Ev wrote:No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

Not fully ripped-off no, but they can't be completely pleased with his performance this year. I guarantee they were expecting 50 goals from him and at least 90 points, especially playing with Thornton and Marleau. Those guys have better numbers than Heatley does, not by too much but still.

I would definitely be concerned if I were them. He's getting older, his eye is getting worse fromt he looks of it, his knees are messed-up, his shoulder held out this year but who knows how long it will. I know we can probably say the same about Michalek (health wise) but we're not paying him 7.5 Million per. And, he isn't a sniper like Heatley is.

Thornton - 87 points - 7.2 Million (that's more like it for the money, he still has 3 games to go or something)
Marleau - 81 points - 43 goals - 6.3 Million (great salary, ending this year though)
Heatley - 80 points - 39 goals - 7.5 Million

So far the Heatley era in SJ has been somewhat underwhelming for sure. I think they expected him to have a year like he did his first here with Spezz and Alfie.

103 Points - 50 Goals - 53 Assists
followed by
105 Points - 50 Goals - 55 Assists
followed by

all downhill from there

82
72
80

Is it a sign of things to come? I think so.

I would much rather have a young fresh Spezza turning into the player he is than a 29 year old stuck in a 35 year old's body.

We were so close to losing Spezza, it's not even funny. I thank Heatley for coming out when he did and getting the f out of here. Looking at that contract and term left, I am starting to believe we are lucky we got out of it.

Big Ev wrote:No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

The whole world will be watching in the playoffs - and I'm telling you, Heatley had better perform.

As for deadweight, I love Milan Michalek. Statistically he didn't break any records this year, but at least he's not one-dimensional. I maintain that under 40 goals for a guy making 7.5 million is unacceptable, while 4.3 million for Milan Michalek is fantastic.

Also, SJ's 2nd rounder turned into Andy Sutton, who's awesome.

Cheechoo? The only one paying for that is Melnyk - and who knows, he might be of use come playoff time.

SensGirl11 wrote:I would much rather have a young fresh Spezza turning into the player he is than a 29 year old stuck in a 35 year old's body.

We were so close to losing Spezza, it's not even funny. I thank Heatley for coming out when he did and getting the f out of here. Looking at that contract and term left, I am starting to believe we are lucky we got out of it.

We got lucky that Spezza seems to be maturing and we got lucky that Heatley made our decision easy by demanding out.

Imagine if we had dealt Spezza, then Heatley had demanded out? Yikes...

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

The whole world will be watching in the playoffs - and I'm telling you, Heatley had better perform.

As for deadweight, I love Milan Michalek. Statistically he didn't break any records this year, but at least he's not one-dimensional. I maintain that under 40 goals for a guy making 7.5 million is unacceptable, while 4.3 million for Milan Michalek is fantastic.

Also, SJ's 2nd rounder turned into Andy Sutton, who's awesome.

Cheechoo? The only one paying for that is Melnyk - and who knows, he might be of use come playoff time.

Heatley is going to find out what we already (should) know. Spezza is a much better Center than Jumbo Joe.

All hail Andy Sutton.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

The whole world will be watching in the playoffs - and I'm telling you, Heatley had better perform.

As for deadweight, I love Milan Michalek. Statistically he didn't break any records this year, but at least he's not one-dimensional. I maintain that under 40 goals for a guy making 7.5 million is unacceptable, while 4.3 million for Milan Michalek is fantastic.

Also, SJ's 2nd rounder turned into Andy Sutton, who's awesome.

Cheechoo? The only one paying for that is Melnyk - and who knows, he might be of use come playoff time.

I shouldn't speak for others, but I think he my have meant Cheechoo in his reference to deadweight. I hope so at least because Michalek is anything but.

Other than that, I agree with your whole post and I for whatever reason, I never made the correlation that Sutton was brought in with SJ's 2nd round draft selection. Sutton makes the Heatley trade that tiny bit better (and you should never use the word tiny and Sutton in the same sentence).

Cheechoo will be playing for Ottawa come playoff time.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

The whole world will be watching in the playoffs - and I'm telling you, Heatley had better perform.

As for deadweight, I love Milan Michalek. Statistically he didn't break any records this year, but at least he's not one-dimensional. I maintain that under 40 goals for a guy making 7.5 million is unacceptable, while 4.3 million for Milan Michalek is fantastic.

Also, SJ's 2nd rounder turned into Andy Sutton, who's awesome.

Cheechoo? The only one paying for that is Melnyk - and who knows, he might be of use come playoff time.

Heatley is going to find out what we already (should) know. Spezza is a much better Center than Jumbo Joe.

All hail Andy Sutton.

We are not worthy

Big Ev wrote:No they shouldn't feel ripped off. They got rid of inconsistent deadweight off their team to add a legitimate sniper which they will need for the playoffs.

A "sniper" who got a ton of secondary assists in his last playoffs. He was handily outscored by Alfie (8-5) and barely squeaked by his set-up man Spezza (5-4).

I don't mean to pile on Heatley here, everyone already knows I hate the diddler, but as everyone has pointed out - does that correlate to 7.5 million dollars or 1/7.5th of the entire salary cap? I think we did real well to clear his cap hit - even if we didn't have a chance and may not have wanted to, it sure looks nice now.

SpezDispenser wrote:I don't mean to pile on Heatley here, everyone already knows I hate the diddler, but as everyone has pointed out - does that correlate to 7.5 million dollars or 1/7.5th of the entire salary cap? I think we did real well to clear his cap hit - even if we didn't have a chance and may not have wanted to, it sure looks nice now.

i always liked the guy and met him got my jersey signed by him the season before then he does this, ya it sucks but just do what i do and go watch some ''im Dany Diddling healtey'' videos on youtube made my day better.