Tuesday, July 31, 2007

We Barely Freakin' Knew Ya

He's going home! Oleg is returning to Mother Russia. In what can only be described as a crippling blow to the sens' hopes of returning to the Finals Saprykin decided that Old Man Muckler's million bucks was not enough for him to stay and watch Patrick Eaves play instead of Gary Roberts.

Oleg Saprykin: Great senator or greatest senator? Discuss.

Kelly signs

$1.265 for a one year deal.

That, by David's calcs, means the Sens stand right now with a $46.4 million dollar lineup.

FOLLOW THE BOUNCING PUCK

Major Breaking News this morning.
Ok, maybe not.
But in a city renowned for our frigid women, one would think that a few degrees colder in the ACC would have been welcomed?

Monday, July 30, 2007

There's Something Rotten In Ottawa

Erin points out that things might not be so great in the nation's capital. Was the aborted trade story a way of Murray forcing Redden's hand? Will he take that into account this summer when he is a UFA? Will the world's most extended 'groin injury' continue as Wade's cover for another season?

Thursday, July 26, 2007

To tweak an Onion headline a little...

Arrest of Staal Brothers Somehow Becomes Feel-Good Sports Story Of Summer.

From a comment at AOL fanhouse:
Lamest "incident" in the history of sports incidents. It's a bachelor party! Where are the hookers? The blow? Why is it in Minnesota? A little noise and they are threatening deportation??? Yell a few nasty comments at passing motorists? Let's hope at least someone was waving their ____ at the motorists.

BoO PSA: Hockey4Life

This just got dropped in the comments and thought that it would be something worth bringing to everyone's attention.

Hockey4Life is offering you the chance to play in a fantasy hockey tournament with proceeds going towards saving lives, right here in our community.

When you register to play in the hockey tournament, you will receive a $150 hockey sweater, tickets to an amazing house party/concert, three games in the tournament including the third game with 2 professional hockey legends on your team. There are also playoffs and the celebrity hockey game that you can play in.

Proceeds from Hockey4Life events go to The Mikey Network to place life-saving defibrillators and the related training into our hockey arenas. Your team can donate the defibrillator to your local rink or keep it for you team. Naturally, EMS will train up to 8 members of your team on how to use the defibrillator. For more information, or to register for the tournament please contact Adena at (905) 763-1200 or adena@integratedmar.com.

You can also access more information on our website www.hockey4life.org or here.

It's definitely a good cause to support. Defibrillators helped save Jiri Fischer's life and in a country where far too many people play hockey when completely out of shape (and far too old) you could be saving your father's life. Or THM's. Or Duff's. Or the next GM that gets a phone call from Krazy Lowe. But don't let that stop you from participating!

Return of the Mack and Look Who's Desperate

Glove tap to Alanah at Canucks and Beyond for finding out what sens old boy (SOB) Mike Comrie is doing. Surprise! It's Hilary Duff. Good for him. That Strawberry Quik diet (ie Strawberry flavoured cocaine for the innocent) is working wonders.

In other news, Kevin Lowe continues to be the only GM with the balls/sense of desperation/total lack of respect for the NHL's old boys' (NOBs) way of business to tender qualifying offers. This time it's Dustin Penner getting a 5 year, $21.5M offer. According to Irish Blues' new site, nhlscap.com, the Ducks only have around $2M under the cap to match the offer. They can go up to 10% over the cap until training camp opens so they can match now and figure things out later. If SNiedermayer retires then it's no problem.

This is the situation I was anticipating and it's probably why Leapin' Lou didn't sign Souray before Parise went through arbitration. A GM that has pushed their team too close to the cap before signing his RFAs apparently needs to fear Kevin Lowe.

You decide which part of the post title refers to which protagonist.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Im-Peca-Ble Signing?

I've always wanted to create a Toronto Sun headline!

Anyway, for a change of gears I notice that this rumour of Mike Peca coming back to Toronto just won't go away. I'm seriously wondering how to fit him in because the fact is he would be awesome in a playoff run. He would have to replace either Battaglia, Pohl, or Stajan, most likely Stajan, who is also up for a new contract next summer.

Injuries aside, he's still Mike Peca. What does one do?

Also, I hate to admit, he would look real good on Ottawa's third line.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

F**k Yeah Murray

That's about another mill saved for the kitty. JP Barry said "Bryan and I started pretty far apart". What caused the gap to close so suddenly on the morning of the hearing? Did Murray have an animated PowerPoint of Emery's Game 4 and 5 performances, complete with Benny Hill theme?

Anyway, lets pass around the hat and thank Ray for his reasonableness. Brother's got to refresh the threads, pay a few traffic tickets and take the Hummer into the bodyshop in the off season.

Monday, July 23, 2007

More Redden rumours

The Marleau for Redden rumours have resurfaced. Thoughts?

Tickets Available?

I noticed the first BoO is actually September 24th here in Toronto. Which means the average fan could possibly land tickets at face value through a traditional vendor! Yay for us. Imagine that? Just calling ticket master and buying tickets?

Juxtaposition to that is our "other" major sports franchise. I made a phone call at 3:30pm Friday to one of our suppliers, and landed a pair of 3rd row seats beside the visitor dugout to Fridays Blue Jay game. Free of charge.
The game stunk and the Jays lost, but afterwards I hit a bar on King street where I met Sean McCormick from Sportsnet. He's a stand-up guy, I must say, he even humoured me for 5-10 minutes as we chatted about hockey and his blog and of course the BoO blog. He says he's visited us before and I encouraged him (slurringly I'm sure), to make it a habit. After all, we don't have too many Oiler fans who hates the Leafs on here, and diversity is always welcome.

No hockey news in the papers this morning, except this, the same wellwood and maurice story, only repackaged and redelivered by TSN, for the 3rd time in a week, being passed off as a new twist to the saga.

September 24th. Hurry the hell up.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Bullshit

Whatever:
Reports from Russia indicate Yashin had offers from New Jersey and Ottawa

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Maurice Never Sleeps

Or if he does, it must be at the ACC...
Here he is, speaking again, for the second time in a week.

It IS July right?
Seriously Paul, you need a vacation bro.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Jay Won't Be Happy

Fucking hell. While the Battle of Alberta gets an "R" rating (must be all of the stabbings in the province) our corner of the internets gets a fucking "G" rating?

Free Online Dating

Clearly this program does not read the comments so in true BoO fashion "Fuck You Mingle2!"

Update: My efforts have already got us a bump out of the Disney animated classic range and right into Pixar territory!

Free Online Dating

Muppet, Jay, and Don - Do your part!

Sens trade

According to the Team1200 (and in keeping with the theme)for

(Hint for this one - think character names).

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Friday, July 13, 2007

Something to Brighten Gee's Birthday

Laughter is the best medicine and that will be my present to Gee. The Edmonton Oilers have signed Sheldon Souray to a 5 year/$27M contract. Meanwhile, the Habs kept that money, sacrificed the most important piece to their one weapon (the powerplay) and signed Roman Hamrlik.

Reaction and fodder for laughter:
Habsblog
Battle of Alberta
Covered in Oil
Lowetide

It Has Come To This

Absent any entertaining or even mildly interesting news emanating from 1000 Palladium Drive this summer, I'm afraid I'm left with no choice.

Behold the lolsens:










Generate ur own here.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Did Murray Even Consider Brent?

Rumour has it Brent Sutter is coming to coach the Devils.
This guy should have been in the NHL 3 years ago.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

2007-2008 Battle of Ontario Schedule

The friendly neighbourhood rivalry gets off to a quick start this coming season with a home and home series kicking off the festivities. These two games will set the tone for the early part of the season. The defending Stanley Cup Finalists will look to get their season off to a good start after meekly bowing out in the Finals. Who is starting in goal could be a question as Emery still has his arbitration hearing and teams are rumoured to be waiting to see how Ottawa deals with an award.

Meanwhile, the Leafs did well last year to move the rivalry from the "Rape and Pillage of Lower Ontario" to the "Mild Beating of a Lost Puppy". Of interest in that first piece is that Five-O proved to be the blue and white's answer to Duff's prognostication with the spot on guess of 5 sens wins versus 3 for the good guys. If you follow the pattern (1-7, 3-5) the Leafs are due to win the regular season BoO for the first time since Brad Marsh was patrolling their blueline. They will want a good showing in the first two games (split between Raycroft and Toskala no doubt) especially from Bell, Blake, and Toskala as the team tries to return to the playoffs.

Here is the list of eight meetings between the two combatants:

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 - senators @ Maple Leafs
Thursday, October 4th, 2007 - Maple Leafs @ senators
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 - Maple Leafs @ senators
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 - senators @ Maple Leafs
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 - senators @ Maple Leafs
Monday, February 25th, 2008 - Maple Leafs @ senators
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 - Maple Leafs @ senators
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 - senators @ Maple Leafs

Looks like someone in the scheduling office listened to the complaints about spreading the games between division rivals out. Here are the complete schedules: Good and evil.

84 days until Round 1!

Globe:
After the opening weekend in London, England on Sept. 29-30 with two contests between the Los Angeles Kings and the Stanley Cup-champion Anaheim Ducks, the next slate of games won't be until Oct. 3, when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators renew their rivalry at the Air Canada Centre.
The home openers for the other Canadian teams include: Toronto at Ottawa, Oct. 4; Philadelphia Flyers at Calgary, Oct. 4; San Jose Sharks at Edmonton, Oct. 4; San Jose at Vancouver on Oct. 5. and the Carolina Hurricanes visit the Bell Centre in Montreal on Oct. 13 in a rematch of the Hurricanes-Canadiens in Raleigh, N.C. season opener on Oct. 3.
A home and home again to open things up.

Who will the Leafs be starting on the 4th after Toskala gets introduced to the Sens on opening night?

Lundqvist contract

A 4.25 million one year deal.

His stats are similiar to Emery and he's only played a few more games than Ray. Sounds like Sather gave the arbitrator, should it go to that, an easy comparable.

Erin's column from almost a month ago needs to reviewed again now.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Tentative Decisions

Darren Dreger of TSN was talking about the possible UFA class of 2008 and he mentioned that teams might be lining up to offer Dany Heatley the maximum salary allowable. At $50.3M that translates to $10.06M. Heatley is definitely a good candidate for the maximum. He has back-to-back 50 goal and 100 point seasons. But if he wants that much then what does Giggles get for setting up most of those goals?

Emery is headed to arbitration and his comparables have recently signed contracts for upwards of $3M per season. Some tough decisions will be forthcoming for the sens. Personally, I'd keep Heatley over Spezza as Dany showed during Giggles' injury that he could handle the load by himself. Plus, Spezza on the open market would draw a treasure trove of assets.

When Paul Speaks, You Listen.

You have to love Paul Maurice.
Especially if your name is Andrew Raycroft.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Is Don K-Lowe In Disguise?

Tom Benjamin, noted hater of all things NHL, thinks Don's projections are 'ridiculous':
I think the claim being made by BoO is ridiculous but I'm not going to challenge it either. I don't care. If Don wants to believe we'd have a $100 MM payroll by now under the old CBA, fine by me.
Tom can love the old CBA all he wants and hate the new one with the passion of 1000 burning suns but it doesn't change the fact that those teams were pushing $80M in payroll and would have had no incentive to curb their spending. The Rangers, for one, have shown that when they can they'll dish out ridiculous amounts of cash.

Vanek's offer

Matt says don't match - other fan says match.

Sucks to be Buffalo - again. Discuss.

UPDATE: Buffalo matched.

Standing pat

Looking at Mirtle's list here, with Guerin off it (getting a salary that I'm glad the Sens didn't try to fit into the lineup) and assuming Shanny's going to resign with the Rangers, I'm thinking the best course would be for the Sens to go into the season with this lineup:

Heatley-Spezza-Alfie
Schaefer-Fisher-Eaves
Vermette-Kelly-Neil
Hennessey-McAmmond-McGratton

Redden-Meszaros
Phillips-Volchenkov
Schubert-Corvo

We'll be 3 mil or so below the cap* after Emery, Kelly, and Schubert get their expected deals and in good position to add salary should a team falter in the first half or Forsberg decides to play again and join a winner.

(* I'm using David Johnson's site as a reference)

Is it a mistake not to make changes?

Paddock to be announced as coach

Well, he did get 25% of the vote.

It's the safe choice perhaps and one that I can't argue with. Here's his record.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Murray screws over nephew

This might tear the family apart. Right after naming his nephew Tim as GM of the farm team, there's talk Bryan might force him to take Martin Gerber.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Rangers break $100 million payroll

For all the belly aching we see in the media and blogging world about how a 50.3 million dollar cap is too high and that some teams will be setting their internal cap at 40 or so million, we need to realize that this year probably would have seen one or more of the big market teams break the $100 million dollar mark in payroll. The chart above shows the Ranger, Wings, Flyers and Leaf payrolls the four seasons before the lockout with linear projections to this year.

Sorted

Well, that's that. Vesa Toskala better be the answer or the new question will be "what do we do with $6M worth of backups?" Just kidding. The Leafs have the Marlies in Toronto so that they can solve those problems easily in conjunction with the TTC.

Still no word on Emery. Where are the offer sheets JP Barry promised? I want chaos!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Winners and Losers.

At some point last night while I was playing my 5th straight game of X-Box 360 MLB 2K7, Brian Burke pulled the trigger and brought in Todd Bertuzzi.
Now, call me crazy, but I can't for the life of me figure out why the Stanley Cup Champs need to pay a guy coming off years of turmoil and injury $4Million to play for questionably the strongest team in the NHL?
If Chicago signed him, I could understand. Or Boston signing him - looking for any port in the storm - I could get my head around that too. But Anaheim? Seemed the last place he would go from where I'm standing.

Perhaps the funniest signing of the UFA season happened last night as well. Owen Nolan, one year in Calgary, for around $2M if he reaches incentives? It amazes me that HE is signed and not Jason Alison. The latter, although less than swift, and a defensive liability at best, was still almost worth a point per game and would make 80% of the Powerplays out there better. I mean, hello, Chicago, the only way is up man, get some help.

It's been a colourful few days, but surely this isn't finished. Edmonton surely haven't done enough considering where they parked at the end the season. And apparently Vancouver are happy with an offense that is pressed to score 2 goals in an NHL game.

Then there is of course Ottawa, who don't have room to make many moves but one suspects Murray would want to put some kind of footprint on the team before camp? Maybe it's Billy Guerin? Or will it be Jason Alison? Or maybe, just maybe (fingers crossed), it's Alexei Yashin?

Happy Short Week.

Update: Vancouver has added a trio of players to their roster. Tough to get excited about them if you're a Canuck fan.

Blake

Maybe this Blake signing is as big as some Leaf fans think it is - the guy does have as many career playoff goals as Antropov and Ponikarovsky combined! 3.