Take it on the Run

“Detroit is just too tough”….once again, you make me smile Bubba!

Sean

I might be alone on this here but I hope the flyers sweep washington right on out in 4. I know they are hot and all that jazz but I still feel like the southeast was hijacked considering we had it all flippin year. I do not care if they deserved it or not I hope they get blown out.

Gerber just doesn’t seem mentally tough enough to make that series go past about 5 games. He was a world beater when the season opened, then faltered big time. Malkin, Crosby and Sykora aren’t going to help him in the confidence department.

I’d look for Hossa to wake up instead and for the series to be over quickly. Hossa’s due to have a good playoff series.

I can’t help but hold out hope that this is the year Marty Turco finally gets the stress of the playoffs out of his head. That and maybe someone from the Stars organization steps up and shows Chris Pronger how sharp his skate blades really are…..

Dallas in 7.

how are the ducks cheaters?

niedermyer and selanne.

correct Hfan. thanks.

I don’t see how nieds or selanne helped the ducks to “cheat”. Selanne was a UFA, there is nothing in the rule book that says he has to sign at the beginning of the season – he could sign whenever he wanted. Did Cujo help the Flames ‘Cheat’ as well when he joined the team for the second half? Please explain your logic.

Nieds might have been pushing it since he was under contract, but they took the cap hit just the same…

Tokyo

So you admit that they were “pushing it” with Neids? I think that statement says it all.. :-)

As far as Selanne goes, he was a UFA in name only. He proclaimed retirement initially, then considered coming back, and everyone knew that he would only return to one team if he came back at all. I don’t call that being a UFA.

Would CUJO have signed with Carolina if they tried to sign him? Possibly. Not so with Selanne. Big difference there.

The Ducks only took a partial cap hit with both players. They would not have been able to fit them in at the beginning of the year.

My opinion and I’m sticking to it! Cheers!

What about Forsberg signing so late in the season?

Personal opinion aside, Selanne was a UFA – and he had kids in school in California, so wanting to only sign on the coast is understandable in my opinion.

When I say that nieds was pushing it – i feel it was disrespectful for him as a player to do what he did to his teammates. But I don’t see anything cheating about it on Burke’s part. In fact, Burke took the proactive stance and acquired Schnieder – so he clearly wasn’t counting on Nieds coming back.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree :)

Oh – and the reason they would not have been able to fit both in at the beginning of the year is because they planned for them to be out, and so got Schnieder and Bertuzzi in place to fill the gaps.

Speaking of Bertuzzi, Fauxrumors had an interesting article about him. I always wondered if Burke was a little soft in the head with that signing, but this shows things in a different light.

http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/04/hush-money.html

Forsberg is another case which is a little bit different but also similar, I admit. But it doesn’t seem fair to me to bring in a fresh player, (out of retirement who was under contract) with less than half the season to play. It’s a bad precedent to set. If you declare retirement, I think you should have to stay that way for the entire year.

The Ducks leave a bad taste in my mouth. I just don’t like what they did.

Reading that Bertuzzi article, maybe you could make a conspiracy case for the Burke angle, but I have no idea what the writer is getting at in terms of Brad May…

Burke stated on XM a long time ago when Selanne initially resigned that he is in favor of a rules change that prevents players coming back so late in the season, like Nied or Selanne. But, he went on to say, that there is NOTHING in the rules to prevent it. The gist of the conversation was: XM guys asked him…“at the beginning of the season, who did you talk to about what it takes to win it all again.” Burke said he talked to Jim Rutherford (he had big props for JR), Lou Lamourello (sp?), and someone another GM. Burke said JR told him that his players are going to be dog tired, that they gave it all and left it all on the ice in June….they need to have the fun over the summer prior to coming back to training camp. Burke didn’t really say what Lou told him…the XM guys were all talkig about it mysteriously, like “well, I wonder what Lou told Burke???” I’d wager Lou told him to sit his guys out if he could…..and he did.

Lou probably said “is there anyone you need me to help you get on the long term injury list even though they are playing in the AHL?”