Oh dear, if they don't sign Tomas Kaberle I'd go with the Atlanta defense over the Toronto defense.
The forwards looked very good, with two lines being genuine scoring threats, one really good crash-and-bang line and a fourth line which isn't completely useless.
But having Cory Cross, Dave Manson and Anders Eriksson in one team is not good. One of them, sure. All three... won't work.
Hopefully Pilar will be able to take a place on the blue-line after a few months.

As a long-suffering Leafs fan who was four years old the last time they took the Cup, I sure as bloody hell hope they can come to terms with Kaberle, or it's going to be another loooong season. :-(

I think you'll have to come to the realization that the Leafs won't win a cup until they get Pat Quinn out of there...a good GM needs to come in and build a balanced team. The Leafs are all offense, and have been since Quinn took over.

I'm still lookin' for my Wings to win another cup... although they got rid of one of my favorite guys in Chris Osgood... but oh well. They're a better bet than my Oilers.

Yeah, I'm a Wings fan too. I also kinda miss Osgood. I hear he got a lot of shit in the Detroit press. It's nice to have all these great new guys, but it all seems pretty mercenary. Of course, this is PROFESSIONAL hockey... I just hope they don't turn into the NHL equivalent of last year's Portland Trailblazers.

-Matthew

Wings? Bah. I'm a Blues fan. I hate the Wings. They knocked us out of the playoffs too many times recently. I still vividly remember Yzerman's slapshot high and to the corner from the blue line in game 7 in double overtime to beat the Blues. That was the year they rented Gretzky for a couple of months. I also wanted the Blues to get the Dominator -- not the Wings!

And the Blues have never won the Cup, so there you suffering Leafs fans! :)

Wings, Blues, Leafs, blah. Flyers all the way, baby. This is one stacked team, and heavily favored to win the East. Dumping Lindros improved the team... a ton.

Raphael

Wings, baby. Although they may be turning into an analog of the Houston Rockets of a few years ago, a team that is hanging on to older fan favorites who won a couple of championships, trying to pick up a big name here and there in hopes of another ring.

After watching the Flyers first game last night...the rest of the league is in trouble if they stay healthy. I've been a fan for years and this looks like the right group of guys.

Cechmanek is going to get vindication for last year's snubbing with the Vezina Trophy too.

--Dave

Gee, I hope that means we get to see MORE Flyers games on ESPN2...

Philadelphia Flyers - the Atlanta Braves of hockey. :)

-Matthew

Heh... I have no control over ESPN's team choices. I watch on Comcast Sports Network from Philly. They could never show the Flyers on ESPN2 and I'd never even notice. :)

At least they're showing a top team instead of those mediocre Leafs.

Zing!

--Dave

Bruins fan slipping in here... Oh, who am I kidding? I bleed green baby! Give me them Boston Celtics! You puck heads can go freeze, lets talk about the 17th banner Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker will be earning this great city next June!

I'm not optimistic of the Leafs' chances this year -- their lineup is a nice all-star team, from 1993 -- but I did have a great time catching the Habs vs. Leafs Montreal home opener this weekend. Sat in the first row, behind the goalie, and bought my tickets the day of the game from the box office for cost (at a fraction of they would have cost in Toronto, and it'd be essentially impossible to get 'em).

Great time - good way to start the season.

I may be a fan of the woeful Redskins but I am a bigger Capitals fan. We had a good team last year and added the best offensive player in the league to our lineup. It will be a dogfight between the Caps, Flyers, and Devs for the East for sure.

The Caps have always had the defense and goaltending but now they have the offense and McPhee is not done tinkering yet. Be afraid, be very afraid. :)

All I have to say is:

Red Wings!

Amen, brother Geryk, Amen.

Red Wings? That's as commie as you get. They even have Russians on the team. And it's well known that the Russian army is hiding in the caverns beneath Michigan.

We hate those commie Red Wings here in St. Louis. Hate 'em!

"We hate those commie Red Wings here in St. Louis. Hate 'em!"

All I have to say is:

Brett Hull!

Hull's a deserter. Pronger's going to show him the working end of his elbows when we play. Macinnis may bounce a few hundred mile an hour slapshots off his forehead too. :)

A few years ago, they truly were the "Red" Wings. I was just getting into hockey at that point, but IIRC, they had a lot of former Soviets on the team. I dunno what kinda name "Yzerman" is, but it sounds pretty shifty to me...

Hey, didn't they get Shanahan (my favorite player) from the Blues? And now they have Hull, by way of Dallas... I predict MacInnis to be the next Blue to be assimilated by my evil Red menace. mwahahaha


-Matthew

They got Shanahan from Hartford. The Blues traded Shanny for Pronger -- not a bad deal, really, since Pronger's probably the best defenseman in the game now.

A few years ago they had Federov, Larianof, Fetisov, and one or two other Russian players. Yzerman's not Russian though. (I know I spelled those names wrong too.)

Oops, check that. Shanny did a stint with the Whale before caving into Marxist ideology. I'm sure there's a joke about his being oppressed under Hartford's capitalist yoke there, but I'm too lazy to work it out.

-Matthew

Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

--Dave

I am _so_ happy for Ozzy now that he's in the Isle and they're actually haulin' ass. I'm still a Wings fan, first and foremost, but I'll definitely be rooting for the Islanders this year, too. And yeah, Mark, the Wings basically were the Central Red Army when they won the cup--Fetisov and Konstantinov on defense, and Kozlov, Larionov, and Fedorov on offense. I like their team better now... even though they picked up stupid Hasek.