fastmiele

At first, I thought it was Mike Brown who played for the Maple Leafs. Turns out it was another Mike Brown, which makes sense because the Leafs Mike Brown is much smaller and 9 1/2 skate would be too big for him imo. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=26839

oh, I hate to say this but your defencemen are not helping you much. I am okay with old and slow, etc. but from the videos they seem to be out of position quite a bit. The least they can do is take their position.Left and right sides respectfully, at least this way you can deal with one shooter not 2 more 3 possible shooters. Too often I think the d-men are facing you, which I can understand because they are trying to follow the puck and recover control of it/get it out of harms way. But the problem it usually is not effective because the puck is bouncing around and it seems they are bit slow to react to the opposition. When I play defence, I try to look up the up the ice and face/cover the forward. Cover my ground, box out the opposition and use my stick and try not allow them to a one timer from the slot. I try to use the same mentality as basketball, man your spot, box out the opposition from driving to the net.

One time I got lucky and I got this former professional German hockey player for some hockey lessons. I never could puck handle with looking down at the puck, let alone skate up with the puck with head up. I always had to look to look down. So the German player tells us to stand still and puck handle with our heads up. No one does it and everyone looks down at the puck and ice. The next thing he says, if he sees anyone looking down, immediately get down on the ice and do 10 push ups. First couple times we still look down and then he stops us and forces us to do the push ups. After the second or third time, no one one wants to do the push ups anymore and we try to puck handle with our heads up. We all lose control of the puck but no push ups. Funny thing is quite soon afterwards you develop some type of muscle memory and you can actually puck handle the puck without looking down. Maybe Ackbar the goalie can do the same thing. For a practice session, with maybe 2 players, they slowly skate towards him and he must stay up no matter what, if he drops to one leg or both legs, he must do 10 push ups.

Okay, one is a no brainer with David Perron, who is the second friend ?

I would say Connor McDavid but they play completely different styles of games. But then again, I kind of question whether Auston Matthews and Jagr line up would work because I believe both players want to hold onto the puck. There is only one puck.

He can still play but is no longer a 1st line player imo. He can still play but what's he really going to do for your team ? He is taking valuable ice time from emerging players. There are only 2 scenarios where I think he can be a valuable player. Since he is a legend I am sure his presence, experience and wisdom would rub off on younger players. The other situation is if he helps pushes a team over the edge with his existing skills. He is still a big and strong player and scorer, Its hard to stop that. So I am imagine if he played with the right player they could be dangerous. Maybe someone like Auston Matthews ? Auston Matthews is another big and strong player with good control and skating, he could get in down low and feed Jagr. Maybe that would work ?

touche :) https://ibb.co/mdkfuv

to be honest I would prefer not to be in any situation to having to beg other teams to take a player off your hands. In these cases, you usually have to pay the team to take them off your hands. Look at Kessel, we are still paying Pittsburgh $1.2 million each year for the next 5 years (until 2022). Look at the older players we had to bury/buyout .ie. Robidas, Gleason. Speaking of which isn't Tim Gleason kind of similar in style of play to Hainsey ?

good points and article. Near the end of the season, I think one of his regular wingers Zach Hyman/Conner Brown was moved off his line. I personally think the coach believed even though those two players are playing and trying very hard, they are limited in skill/play and holding Auston Matthews back. You want Matthews play/game to go forward and playing with Marleau may just do it.

True to that, with proven top tier vets, their experience and professionalism may do wonders for the young players on and off the ice. One other thought has to come my head, may be the Leafs are trying to seriously win the Stanley Cup within the next 2 years. You got Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Kapanen cheap for the next couple of years. After that you got to pay out big contracts for them. Even Lou Lamoriello said he only has the luxury of making these types of signings now. In a couple of years he said it would not be possible. But then again, I am skeptical of Lou, sometimes I think he is not that honest. He goes on to say that the Leafs don't have a salary cap issue, even though they are $2.5 million over the cap at this present moment and still have a couple of RFA to resign (Conner Brown). https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/mapleleafs

Not only was JVR offered in the trade, management included a 1st round pick too. https://editorinleaf.com/2017/06/26/toronto-maple-leafs-trade-2/

according to the report, Marleau has a full no movement claus.

JVR is probably gone sooner than later, it was suspected the Leafs offered him to the Islanders for Harmonic.

http://www.tsn.ca/veteran-forward-marleau-signs-with-leafs-1.795020 I am confused. The Leafs had Auston Matthews, Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri and Brian Boyle for center men. Now they get Dominic Moore and Patrick Marleau, they will turn 37 and 38 before the season starts. Ron Hainsey is 36 and not exactly fleet footed either.

yes, prior to this year I never heard anything about teams/players/agents being able to discuss contract. In previous years I thought there was some type of illegal contact going on. How can a player/team agree/draw up a huge contract right at the start of free agent day ? It would reasonable to assume they already had a done deal in place well beforehand.

I have always been confused by July 1st - 12 pm free agent signings, a flurry of signings shortly after the start. I thought teams were not allowed to contact/negotiate deals beforehand. A few days ago I read an article that teams could contact the player/agent 5 days before July 1st and discuss and negotiate a deal, but cannot finalize until the official start. I am somewhat confused because I thought teams with UFA expiring contracts had exclusive rights ?

The one thing going for your argument is that some scouts say that the 2019 and 2020 will be deep. on another note, reports are that Vegas did not ask for a 1st round pick from Ottawa for protecting key players.

Something here doesn't make sense. I think Vegas and Ottawa both played hard ball and got short of what they hoped for. In hindsight, If Ottawa was offered the opportunity to protect key players such as Methot for a 2nd round pick (which is basically what Vegas got) now I am sure they would jumped on it. Now, Ottawa loses Methot and Vegas has to wait 3 years for the opportunity to use their draft pick.

I don't know much about the goalie prospect but he got drafted 194'th overall. How high of a prospect can he be ?

Happy 50th birthday Dave. I'll be sure to give you a well wishing in person

Vegas trades Methot to Dallas Stars for a 2020 second round pick. A 2nd round pick in 3 years ? Seems to me Vegas didn't get good offers and this was the best one they were got. http://www.tsn.ca/golden-knights-trade-methot-to-stars-1.789754

Unless there is some verbal agreement between Darling and Carolina, I think its a bit expensive to give up a 3rd round pick for exclusive negotiation rights for unrestricted player on July 1.

up until mid season I thought Anderson was going to be another average goalie, he played well since then and most of the playoffs. Now it seems like the Leafs got a great deal. Funny thing this week, sports analysts say they made a slew of great signings/deals. Kadri, Reilly, Gardiner and Anderson at very good prices, long term. Prior, they were iffy players/signings.

I like them, they play pretty gritty and have pretty good players. Pollack is a bit slow for this level of play but did give some hard hits and defended the crease.

by far, I think the most skilled player on the USA team I believe is Patrick Kane. His speed, puck handling and shot is just top notch.