I think the plan is for a 48 game season, with the playoffs extending until near the end of June. Training camps are going to be abbreviated, which means that most players from the juniors will probably not even be called up for camp. I am interested to see what Montreal decides with Galchenyuk, as he plays for Sarnia in the OHL. The Whalers are in a battle for the division lead with Sarnia, and his departure would certainly help my home team. Supposedly, the rules for next summer's entry draft will be altered, too. All teams that fail to make the playoffs will have a weighted chance of getting the #1 overall pick, and there will be no "maximum four spot drop" protection, either -- i.e. the team with the worst overall record could end up picking as low as #14. There should be a lot of happy fans this morning. There were two people sitting next to us attending their first Whalers game last night. They were Red Wings season ticket holders who were there for a "hockey fix". We have seen quite a few of these type fans at games this season. Is Tim Thomas sticking to his plan on retiring for Boston?Ockeghem said:
I watched the game yesterday morning on the NHL Network. It was nice to see the U.S. pull it out. Former Whaler J.T. Miller played well in the tournament, and current Whaler Ryan Hartman got a decent amount of playing time. The U.S. seems to have Sweden's number, as many of these same players beat Sweden each of the last two years in the gold medal game of the U18 world championships. Sweden will be the host for next year's tournament. Canada, the pre-tournament favorite, failed to win a medal for the first time in 15 years. Canadian fans are not happy.Ockeghem said:
Scott, I haven't heard differently. But have a (somewhat amusing) peek at the "Three predictions for 2013" header in the link below. http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/bruins/Scott Merryfield said:
His replacement is the former Canucks GM who traded for Luongo. Those Luongo to Toronto rumors just started up again.
...and the Habs are still winless.Ockeghem said:Scott, And we're approaching the fourth week of January, and the Bruins are still undefeated.
The hot topic on the sports program that I was listening to yesterday had to do with fighting in the NHL. With all of the concern these days with concussions in the NFL, the hosts were discussing whether or not fighting ought to be taken out of the NHL, and if it was, what ramifications (good or bad) would this have on the league. They pointed out that from the youth leagues on up to the college leagues, fighting isn't allowed. (They did add the proviso that they were talking solely about the U.S., and wanted their audience to know that they weren't sure of the rules in Canada with regard to the various leagues and fighting.) Several callers were saying that they would leave it as is, citing that the level (incidence) of fighting has decreased substantially over the past decade. (I was not aware of this.) The hosts also asked their audience if they would be more or less inclined to attend NHL games if fighting were not allowed any longer. The majority of those I heard responding to this last part said that fighting is integral to the game and that it ought to be left as is.
Montreal has looked better than I expected so far this season, as they are now 6-2. They swept back-to-back afternoon games this weekend, blowing out Buffalo and then winning a goaltender battle against Ottawa. The two rookies -- Galchenyuk and Gallagher -- have looked good so far. Next up is a Wednesday night matchup against the Bruins on NBCSports (formerly Versus).
