'7'

They're 8th seed material

I don't know, but with the worst offense in hockey, it's going to be pretty hard for them to make the playoffs.

In a wide open East, Tampa is good enough to beat anybody. They're very solid top to bottom.

Are the Lightning for real? 3-0 with a 8-5 win tonight, OLD TIME SHOOTOUT! Listening to the game on NHL.com, sounds like Lecavalier got into a scrap.

didn't see the goal, but Vinny is having an incredible start to this season, 7 pts in 3 games, there's another one benefitting from the enforcement of obstruction.

shouldn't have been this hard, but I'm glad we got it done. There's going to be a lot of season ticket holders in Nashville getting there money back

those Preds are a fiesty bunch eh

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/hockeydev.../nhlarenas.html says here it's 19,700, also the Stadiums and Arena page from Munsey and Suppes also states 19,700. http://www.sfo.com/~csuppes/NHL/misc/index.htm that's too much for the Caps as they don't really have much of a fan base. I remember they couldn't even sell out opening night or any playoff games until the conference finals in 98.

The MCI and FU center seat closer to 20,000, and the MCI center can look pretty barren for a mid november Caps/Predators game.

I would like a real deal power forward just like everybody else, but when you can get a guy like V. Bure for cheap you just have to take that chance. Trading Nieds for a power forward won't get us anywhere because another hole is opened up on defense. you know McKay and Holik, our old power forwards did nothing in the playoffs 97-99, but when we added Alex Mogilny, there game picked up. You're not going to get it done with the Mike Griers(overrated anyways) and Keith Tkachuks unless you have some finess players feeding them the puck, they can't do it alone. You need to have a nice mix.

I don't want a state of the art cookie cutter like the Pepsi Center or the National Car Rental Center. Those places have no soul. I like what Jerry suggested, Something smaller(17,500-18,000), cosy, low roof and have the majority of the seats in the lower bowl, arenas with more seats there are usually much louder. I'd like them to model it after the Fleetcenter or the United Center, new arena but an old time feel.

But right now we need goal scorers, Bure can probably chip in 25-30 and that's all we need for him, it's not possible to assemble a team with all 2 way forwards. Plus, we have the great Martin Brodeur in net right? so it wouldn't kill us if we obtain a one dimensional scorer like you claim V. Bure is. He still wouldn't be enough, we have to aquire at least 2 25-30 goal scorers this year to make up for Lou's offseason blunders and they might not be the power forwards you want.

tri, i heard Van Impe was in negotiations with Florida again but can't back it up with any link. My guess is he's just sitting around waiting for an offer from some team that'll get bit by the injury bug on defense. If Berglund was tearing it up as Claude Jr.(seems like Dantons job now) I wouldn't be interested in V. Bure. But Salo was a bust and is gone, Stevenson's always hurt and his knee is acting up again, Berglund is in Albany, Foster is supposedly hurt again according to Red. Perhaps it's not such a bad idea to trade a defensman for a relatively young forward who's a pretty dynamic player. I admit it's a risk, and Lou doesn't take many risks. But Bure is that guy who can chip in 20-25 goals and 50+ pts, don't we need a player like that?

Florida threw away Van Impe and he played great for the Isles last year. I don't know where he is and why he's unsigned. Milbury throws away Tarnstrom and he's doing great in Pittsburgh. Keenan is a weird coach that way, he only wants his guys. If you don't play the way he wants, you're benched or released so how do you know he wouldn't fit here, he played well for the Oilers. In the right system he can be a good defensman. I don't think it would hurt taking a chance on a guy like Ulanov or Bure, it wouldn't make the team any worse.

Ulanov isn't terrible, he's an average defensman and an above average hitter who gets under players skin. We can use a hitter on defense because Stevens doesn't seem willing anymore and Daneyko is a pylon. so he was -4 with the Rags in 39 games, doesn't make him terrible

1 season with the Rags and Ulanov goes from tough, gritty defensman to complete bum I don't think he's that bad, can't be much worse than Daneyko.

I was listening to the game on NHL.com radio, sounds like he made some pretty spectacular saves.

sabres come roaring back, 2-2.

Our schedule is always out of whack at the beginning of the season. 5 days between games and then back2back games is a little ridiculous, by the end of October the Rags will have played 13 games and we will only have played 8. It's like the NHL doesn't want us around until November or something.

Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, and Guy Lapointe, I already mentioned them! or maybe he's talking about Cote, Hatcher, and Iafrate, each scored 20 goals in 1 season for the Caps.

Robinson, Lapointe & Savard?

I'm holding out hope they'll continue to call the obstruction, the results have been great.

I don't think so, just a penalty and you have to switch sticks. It's ok to play with an illegal stick, just make sure you don't get caught.

neither do the Rags or Leafs or Panthers, or Bruins a lot of teams, including playoff teams, are very thin on D. When they can't clutch and grab players like Lemieux(and Mogilny ) are going to take advantage.

4 games, 10 points yea yea, I know he's a jerk, another flakey little french canadian, but at the age of 37 hampered by nagging injuries, he's still one of if not the most dominant player in hockey today. It's inevitable, he's going to get hurt, miss games and complain about something, but you have to wonder how many pts he would put up in a full 82 game, relatively obstruction free season? On Lemieux's wing, Alex Kovalev could score 60 goals, on Lemieux's wing, Alexei Morozov goes from career underachiever to a guy who might score 30-40 goals and 80 pts this year.