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

3 games!! Wow!

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

Unbelievable how relaxed the league is with this idiot. Two violent plays in a few days, combined with a scattered history of filthy plays (including arguably ending Savard's career), and this only gets 4 games???

Can't understand this. Numbers the entire way, charging from blue line... It won't be long until Cooke actually kills someone on the ice. Maybe THEN they'll finally come to their senses and boot this guy from the game altogether.

Hoags wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

Should be a zero after that four if there was any justice in the NHL.

How many careers does this guy have to endanger ?

Reminds me of Bryan Marchment.

From my recollection, Marchment wasn't nearly as predatory as Cocke (intentional typo). He was a big hitter and had a few incidents, but he isn't looking to maim people like that little bastard Cooke.

Malkin out for SIX months.

I'm not sure if this was discussed here - about Nabokov's contract - it is very serious and interesting though - have a read, it's well worth it.

The strange case of the goalie without a team heads into all-star weekend with Evgeni Nabokov caught in a firestorm of his own creation.

All he wanted to do was return to the National Hockey League, where he had played the previous nine seasons, but here’s where it got sticky — he wanted to do it on his own terms.

Now he has been caught, claimed on waivers by a New York Islanders team he doesn’t want to play for, suspended for not reporting, his career ostensibly taken hostage by his own stubbornness and staunch aspirations. It was one thing to want to be back in the NHL, with his California wife and his two kids in school in San Jose. It was another to misread all the warning signs.

A few weeks ago, when Nabokov made it clear he wanted to play again in the NHL, he approached his agent Don Meehan and the two formulated a plan or sorts. Meehan faxed a letter to all 30 teams in the NHL outlining Nabokov’s professional objectives. He wanted to play again for a competitive playoff team. He was willing to compromise salary for the right situation. But he was clear about what he was looking for.

The letter was sent out. At first there were no replies. Then one team — the Detroit Red Wings — responded.

“We knew Detroit had salary cap issues,” said Meehan, “but we also knew that they had an injury to Chris Osgood. Evgeni wanted to get back playing, needed some time to get there, wanted visibility within the league, and his preference was to be with a playoff team. I told him, if that’s your objective, Detroit is the perfect fit.”

He told him one other thing: He said Nabokov would have to clear waivers before he could be part of the Red Wings.

This is where the Red Wings, Meehan, Nabokov and just about everybody misread and miscalculated the situation. Nabokov signed with the Red Wings on the cheap, a $570,000 US contract for one season which would amount to less than half that much financially with so little of the season remaining. It was the easiest, cheapest way to get potentially quality goaltending, if in fact, Nabokov still has that in him.
Meehan knew there was some gamble in this, especially after Marek Svatos and Kyle Wellwood were recently signed by St. Louis and claimed by other teams on waivers, trying to get the in the NHL. And he thought, perhaps naively, or Nabokov’s case somewhat blindly, that because no other team responded to his letter, it was unlikely any team would claim the goalie on the waivers.

When it became the Islanders, the end of the earth NHL franchise, it turned out to be the worst possible situation for the goalie. While the Isles have taken some heat for claiming Nabokov, what general manager Garth Snow did made perfect sense. He grabbed a cheap goalie on a good short contract to finish this difficult year with. It should have worked for him — and even for Nabokov — who is looking to get back into the NHL as come kind of commodity. But despite urging from the Islanders and probably a push from his agent — agents get paid when players play, not when they don’t — Nabokov is home is in California contemplating his next move. Assuming he has one.

And he’s caught here because if he doesn’t play for the Islanders this season, the contract would extend to next season. Instead of having an inexpensive goalie for 30-some games, they would have a goalie at barely above league minimum for a full season. To get a new contract and get back in the league, he needs to play in the NHL.
“What would I have done?” Meehan repeated the question asked. “All I can tell you is he made the decision not to report.”

Now he has the all-star weekend to contemplate his future. The wise thing to do is hold your nose, report to the Islanders, play your butt off, and leave in free agency in July. But to date, Nabokov has avoided doing the wise thing, putting his career in limbo, his hockey future in self-imposed doubt.

Let me ask you this, why in the world will he just not go to the Islanders and have it be done with now rather than have to come back for a full season next year for them at league minimum?

Make sense to you? Doesn't make sense to me at all...this guy is el-doucherific!

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

This is justice? Cooke is a multi-multi-offender and hist most recent questionable hit was only a couple of days ago. And he gets just 1 game more than Volchenkov (plus I don't think A-Train hit the guy all that hard since he got up -- he must have relaxed his arm or the guy'd be nearly dead).

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

This is justice? Cooke is a multi-multi-offender and hist most recent questionable hit was only a couple of days ago. And he gets just 1 game more than Volchenkov (plus I don't think A-Train hit the guy all that hard since he got up -- he must have relaxed his arm or the guy'd be nearly dead).

What a load of crap!! I can't believe this is happening right now...Volchenkov has never been suspended from what I can recall, Cooke has been suspended god knows how many times and the guy gets only 4 games to Volchenkov's 3??!! WOW!!

There are serious problems with the league and the way they punish players that have never been suspended and those who have...

They need to give their heads a collective shake

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

This is justice? Cooke is a multi-multi-offender and hist most recent questionable hit was only a couple of days ago. And he gets just 1 game more than Volchenkov (plus I don't think A-Train hit the guy all that hard since he got up -- he must have relaxed his arm or the guy'd be nearly dead).

I'm actually glad to see Volchenkov get 3 games. Regardless if he pulled up at the last season to avoid destroying Boychuk it's still a head shot, which the league claims to be cracking down on.

Cooke on the other hand, is a joke. This guy needs 30 games. Send a message to Cooke (and by extension everyone else) that invoke a respone of "Pfft".

hemlock wrote:

Hoags wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

Should be a zero after that four if there was any justice in the NHL.

How many careers does this guy have to endanger ?

Reminds me of Bryan Marchment.

From my recollection, Marchment wasn't nearly as predatory as Cocke (intentional typo). He was a big hitter and had a few incidents, but he isn't looking to maim people like that little bastard Cooke.

Looked him up on wiki to see who's worse:

Marchment has been suspended for deliberate attempts to injure other players numerous times throughout his playing career. He was suspended 13 times by the league in his first 12 NHL seasons and his hits were blamed for injuries suffered by Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Greg Adams, Mike Gartner, Kevin Dineen, Peter Zezel, Pavel Bure, Paul Kariya, Wendel Clark and Martin Ručínský. On February 3, 1995, while the Toronto Maple Leafs were visiting Marchment's Oilers, a hit by Marchment partially collapsed one of Gartner's lungs; the severely injured Gartner had to return to Toronto by train.[6] Doug Weight attacked him in 2000 after Marchment applied a knee on knee hit to him.

Not sure I remember some of Marchment's attacks, scary ones are on youtube.

It's interesting that the league could easily make Cooke pay and take him out if they wanted to, instead they slap him on the wrist. Think about how quickly the NHL reacted to Avery's stick work on Brodeur and put the Avery rule in.

And yet Cooke barely gets anything. The league probably thinks he draws ratings (who's Cooke gonna lay out next).

Article on TSN today about Chiarelli being open to fielding offers for Toronto's 1st round pick.

Which leads to an interesting question-

Fisher + Phillips (+ pick?)
for
Toronto's 1st + cap dump (like Ryder?)

Boston won't be able to fit both into their lineup- so Ryder would likely be sent back simply to make the numbers work.

Chiarelli would no doubt be familiar with both players- who provide a veteran and leadership presence, and in my opinion would fit in exceptionally well to the Boston culture. Chara and Phillips could reunite and be the hardest shutdown tandem ever to play against- and up front- Fisher would contribute as a 2nd/3rd line grinding center and make the Bruins incredibly tough to play against when combined with some of their other pieces.

Likely a pipe dream- as I don't imagine that the 1st rd pick is going anywhere- but could you imagine having two lottery picks?

Even if Boston was willing to part with THEIR 1st round pick for some type of combination (such as Fisher, or Phillips+) I'd say we jump on it.

Jordo wrote:Article on TSN today about Chiarelli being open to fielding offers for Toronto's 1st round pick.

Which leads to an interesting question-

Fisher + Phillips (+ pick?)
for
Toronto's 1st + cap dump (like Ryder?)

Boston won't be able to fit both into their lineup- so Ryder would likely be sent back simply to make the numbers work.

Chiarelli would no doubt be familiar with both players- who provide a veteran and leadership presence, and in my opinion would fit in exceptionally well to the Boston culture. Chara and Phillips could reunite and be the hardest shutdown tandem ever to play against- and up front- Fisher would contribute as a 2nd/3rd line grinding center and make the Bruins incredibly tough to play against when combined with some of their other pieces.

Likely a pipe dream- as I don't imagine that the 1st rd pick is going anywhere- but could you imagine having two lottery picks?

Even if Boston was willing to part with THEIR 1st round pick for some type of combination (such as Fisher, or Phillips+) I'd say we jump on it.

Co-sign.

Welcome back, Jordo!

Hoags wrote:

hemlock wrote:

Hoags wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Cooke suspended 4 games.

Should be a zero after that four if there was any justice in the NHL.

How many careers does this guy have to endanger ?

Reminds me of Bryan Marchment.

From my recollection, Marchment wasn't nearly as predatory as Cocke (intentional typo). He was a big hitter and had a few incidents, but he isn't looking to maim people like that little bastard Cooke.

Looked him up on wiki to see who's worse:

Marchment has been suspended for deliberate attempts to injure other players numerous times throughout his playing career. He was suspended 13 times by the league in his first 12 NHL seasons and his hits were blamed for injuries suffered by Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Greg Adams, Mike Gartner, Kevin Dineen, Peter Zezel, Pavel Bure, Paul Kariya, Wendel Clark and Martin Ručínský. On February 3, 1995, while the Toronto Maple Leafs were visiting Marchment's Oilers, a hit by Marchment partially collapsed one of Gartner's lungs; the severely injured Gartner had to return to Toronto by train.[6] Doug Weight attacked him in 2000 after Marchment applied a knee on knee hit to him.

Not sure I remember some of Marchment's attacks, scary ones are on youtube.

It's interesting that the league could easily make Cooke pay and take him out if they wanted to, instead they slap him on the wrist. Think about how quickly the NHL reacted to Avery's stick work on Brodeur and put the Avery rule in.

And yet Cooke barely gets anything. The league probably thinks he draws ratings (who's Cooke gonna lay out next).

The scariest Marchment moment I remember is him missing a check (or being checked, I can't remember) into the boards and going head first into the open bench door, resulting in a seizure on the ice.

We'd have to do a lot better than that for Toronto's 1st pick.

Hoags wrote:We'd have to do a lot better than that for Toronto's 1st pick.

If Boston is wanting to compete right now, it's a good deal, especially if they can dump Ryder. As Jordo said, Fisher and Phillips fit right in with the make up of that team, and Chara would get the best partner he's ever had back. Plus, Chiarelli has already gotten more than enough for Kessel, so this is a essentially a free asset. Also, he could help along the Sens rebuild.

Imagine 2 picks in the top 5-7.....

Pipe dream, there's 29 other teams out there guys.
A top 5 pick for a combined 28 pts and - 43?

I also don't understand your logic Hemmie. He got Seguin last year so that justifies getting ripped in a deal?

Yeah that proposal is a pipe dream. I don't think we have anything that would get us the Toronto 1st.

marakh wrote:Pipe dream, there's 29 other teams out there guys.
A top 5 pick for a combined 28 pts and - 43?

I also don't understand your logic Hemmie. He got Seguin last year so that justifies getting ripped in a deal?

The logic is that it means that Kessel deal is Seguin, that other kid they drafted (I can't remember his name), a signed Fisher, Phillips for the playoff run, and they dump Ryder. In essense, that TO pick this year is like found money.

Big Ev wrote:Yeah that proposal is a pipe dream. I don't think we have anything that we would part with to get us the Toronto 1st.

Fixed.

Of course we do. Our first.