Monday Morning Recap

*insert something witty and/or snappy*

Here are my NHL thoughts of the week...

1 a – Daily Oiler Bashing – Trade deadline came around and we got 2 20-goal men instead of 1 40-goal man, sounds like a bandaid fix to me...

1 b – Edmonton NEEDS to win tonight (at Montreal) or this roadtrip is a disaster...

1 c – When we had out cup run, Roli was outstanding, but I think it's because he had been resting so much in Minni that he was fresh for the last 20 games and on... Now, he has already PLAYED 20 consecutive games with 15 more to go, I'm not sure he will be the same impact as he once was.

1 d – Edmonton beat a Leafs team that was down to 4 Dmen halfway through the game. Heck, their 5th and 6th Dmen were playing 24-25 minutes that game! No wonder Edmonton won...

1 e – the Oilers are killing penalties at a rate of 76.6%, good enough to be ahead of Atlanta, Toronto and... that's all...

1 f – Apparently, Jagr attempted to sign with the Oil. The deal included a 7mil 2nd year option (aka. 'a poison pill') to twart teams (Pitssburgh) from claiming him on re-entry waivers; however, Omsk made the 8th playoff spot, then upset the #1 seed in 5-games.

2 – I'm not so certain that the Calder Trophy should be wrapped up and presented to Steve Mason just yet, has anyone seen Pekka Rinne's numbers? Heres a comparison:

2 b – Speaking of rookies, this year's crop is probably one of the worst I've seen in awhile. There is only going to be one, maybe two, rookies who are going to crack 60 pts (Versteeg, Ryan), not impressive at all.

3 a – Fuck Erik Cole.

3 b – Since his return to Carolina, Eric Staal has 8 pts in 2 games, Whitney has had a hat-trick and Cole himself has 5points in his 2 games back.

3 c – Erik Cole can go 'off' himself.

4 – The main goal for the NHLPA at the Gm's meeting is: headshots. Great. Are we seriously back on this crap? I would love to see mroe open ice hitting, even if it's at the expense of someone's career. Ya, that's right, I went that far. Who is Brandon Sutter? He's a Sutter, so he can't be anything better then a 3rd line player, but he gave me 30 seconds of sheer brilliance earlier this year, from Doug Weight no less! Keep headshots in the game, it's a part of the game.

4 b- These are the other topics at the GMs meetings...

-having the Zamboni scrape the entire ice surface immediately before overtime as opposed to a partial scrape just prior to the shootout
-how the league deals with players who choose not to accept All-Star Game invitations
-making the number of regulation-time victories, instead of total wins, the first tiebreaker in the standings
-changing the rule on a delayed penalty to force the penalized time to clear the defensive zone, as opposed to simply gaining possession, before the whistle is blown
-the use of the "bear hug" hit into the boards to prevent injury
-a modified icing rule
-not allowing players to leave their feet to block a shot
-one-minute penalties in overtime
-hand passes
-retaining salary as part of trades.

4 c – The last topic, retaining salary as part of trades, is going to be a major one. Hypothetically, if Detroit had 4 mil in cap room at the year's beginning, they could trade for an 8mil player as long as the player's team would agree to have half the salary count against their cap! Its brilliat! The NBA, NFL and MLB all use it; however, it does smudge the lines on the salary cap... I mean, if a todays teams HAVE to sign them for 8 mil, but COULD sign them for 4mil, then what's the point of the cap?

5 – Crazy stat. EVERY SINGLE WEST TEAM IS .500 OR BETTER AT HOME! Outstanding. Even Colorado is 17-15-0. The cream of the crop is San Jose (26-3-4), Detroit (24-5-3), Chicago (17-6-6) and Calgary (22-8-4) while the 'worst home record' belongs to Anaheim (15-15-3) LA (15-13-8) and Edmonton (15-12-4).

5 b – Looks like home-ice advantage will never be more of a factor then this year.

Here are my non-NHL thoughts of the week...

1 – Let's start with David Beckham and the MLS debacle. Let me set up the situation for you non-soccer lovers... Beckham signed that massive deal with the LA Galaxy; however, in order to be included on England's squad, he needed to become more fit and play at a higher level. So, he went to AC Milan during the LA off-season and was supposed to be back for the beginning of LA's season. Well, Beckham has played SO well, that he wants to stay at AC full-time. LA wanted 10mil from AC Milan, but Milan was only willing ot pay 3mil. So, what does Becks do? He's paying out of HIS OWN POCKET the difference in order to stay at Milan for the end of THEIR season, then come back to LA half-way through their season, then return to Milan full-time and leave LA for good.

1 b – Some people view Beckham as negating on the original deal with LA, but I see it as Beckham trying incredibly hard to make the World Cup squad and is willing to pay for it himself. He's all class.

2 a – Remember we were all arguing about who is the greatest QB of all time? Two points in that conversation... #1 – Is Damon Allen in that talk at all? #2 – Kerry Collins will pass Joe Montana in yards with 3,159 (less then 200 over 16 games). How can Montana be the best?!

2 b – I hate Vince Young with a passion. What a fruity loser.

3 a – In other NFL news, San Diego has cut ties with LaDainian Tomlinson are you freakin' kidding me?! Does two injury plagued seasons negate the previous six seasons of ridiculously amazing stats he put up?! Even with the last two years, his average yards per game has dipped from 113.4 to 92.1 to 69.4 and yet he STILL rushes for over 1,000 yards and double digit TDs! It's crazy talk! San Diego wants him to take a paycut and he's having none of it. Word around the street has a former teammates of his, Drew Brees, doing some recruiting. Could you imagine, Reggie Bush and LT in the same backfield? Think of the dynamics. Wow.

3 b – TO is in Buffalo. This is a GREAT signing on three levels... 1 – It relieves some pressure off of Lee Evans (who still had a 1,000 yards)... 2 – In a division with Randy Moss, Leon Washington and the Wildcat Offense, you need all the help you can get... 3 – It's only a one year deal. Distractions like Owens are always risky, but while Sean Avery grinders are a dime-a-dozen, game-breaking receivers are not and Owens is more then worth the 6.5mil he's getting.

4 – Get out your pencils because pens will only, inevitabley, screw you over! It's time to pick your bracket for March Madness! Well, on Sunday it is. This week is the kick off for the conference tournaments and is always good for some upsets, but it's no-where the insanity that is 'March Madness'. UNC, Pitt, Uconn and Louisville are the predicted #1 seeds, but that doesn't matter for team #64 because, much like the NHL playoffs, all you have to do... is get in.

5 a – Random Thoughts – Pizza 73 has some friggin' sweet ass pizza deals. Have you seen them?! 2 pizzas, 4 cans of pop, 2 movie tickets for 18 bucks. Wow. Drew, are you feelin' a date night???

5 b – Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill better hurry the crap up and come out on DVD so I can watch them, dammit!

5 c – Cheese and Nachos just isn't enough, there needs to be some for of meat or chicken. I mean, even basic salsa isn't enough.

5 d – For 10 bucks, you can buy 10 tacos, 2 fries and 2 nachos from Taco Bell. How outrageously delicious does that sound? Yah. Awesomely delicious.

Cheers.
-Steve

p.s. Seriously? Tocchet gets a contract extension and Carbonneau gets fired? What is this world coming too...