My Hockey Season Roundup

[Scruffy]

A great year. Two Maple Leaf victories away from being the best hockey year ever. On the whole it was an exciting year with some great players shining through and the best international tournament in my life(I'm sure Czechs would argue for 98 as opposed to 2002 but 2002 was the first Olympics with Canada at full strength)

My final thoughts on the Maple Leafs: I am getting sick and tired of this team not paying for first line talent. We have all sorts of money for second round talent(Mogilny, Reichel) but none for the half dozen superstars that could have been had for nothing(Bure, Jagr, Tkachuk, Lindros, Allison and Blake come to mind) and what it's creating is a team very capable of bowing out in the first two rounds. Even with all the injuries it doesn't excuse that the Leafs are a team that is full of one or two all stars(Sundin and Yushkevich) a bunch of serviceable NHLers and a whole lot of players that could be called average on a good day. I'm getting pretty tired of seeing the team pass on players who could push them into real contenders. Let's not forget how much the Islanders(THE ISLANDERS) pushed them to the wall.

Final grade: B

 

[ExLimey]

Unfortunately sports is now a business and too many owners are willing to settle for mediocrity on the ice if it means a profit off the ice.

You could have an $80 million dollar payroll, win the Cup and still loose money. Or you could have a $40 million dollar payroll, make the second or third round and make a little money. The businessmen prefer the profit, not the winning.

Thank God that currently in Detroit they're willing to spend to win. It's a cycle however, so it won't last.

As great as a lot of the Red Wings are (Federov, Lidstrom, Shanahan to name a few) the heart and soul of the team is Steve Yzerman and to some extent Scotty Bowman. Without Bowman next year and Yzerman off for months due to rehab it'll be interesting to see the effect.

As for your Leafs, it seems for years they've been willing to sign players whose best years are behind them (Roberts to name one) and muckers and grinders more than skilled players. Watching CBC this year though they have an awful amount of pressure to win put on them by the media in Toronto. Fair or not, that has an affect as well.

 

[magicpenis]

LET THEM SEE RED!

The RedWings cleaned up!! Bring back a Russian 5 line!

 

[concrete]

SCRUFF

What da hey did yu expect.
{boom ..boomb da rap.}
da old man dead
team can advance
don't spend da the bucks to a sold out crowd
sell me me players dat don't mean a damm
as long as C.B.C keeps hypeing da game
does Leafs will always make me laugh
Long Time Time Till Stanley returns