OOT: May 5

[ice dog]

emery is going to wind up making lalime look like the rock of gibraltar...

that one OLN guy in the middle between clement and engbloom just went on and on about how exciting the game was. sorry, but when a game is that sloppy and the goal tending sucks that bad, it's really not that great...

however i must say that buffalo's win was insane, and credit them for not giving up...

if they can give miller a little more support, i like their chances...send the sens packing...

yes, we all hate the neidersisters!!!

yes, you are all correct... he wated till the end, screwed the devils and used the leverage to broker his little brother more $$$ from the ducks as well.

the ducks are looking good, it will come down to them and san jose...

the young russian goalie is the real deal, jiggy is toast.

[sandman441]

that one OLN guy in the middle between clement and engbloom just went on and on about how exciting the game was. sorry, but when a game is that sloppy and the goal tending sucks that bad, it's really not that great...

It was a good game but I wouldn't want to see a whole season of these type of games.

[Derek21]

You don't think he would've played for the Rags if Robbie had been playing for them?

All these 'if's.' Enough already. Did it ever occur to some that maybe aside from family, Niedermayer wanted more of a challenge?

He had accomplished everything he could and more with the Devils, winning three Cups and a Norris and becoming an elite defenseman, plus helping Canada win Olympic gold.

Maybe he wanted to go to a new team and see what he could do on his own. Everyone laughed at his choice last summer. It's no laughing situation anymore. Niedermayer has proven he doesn't need the Devils to be successful. And vice versa. The Devils are doing just fine without him. So what's the problem?

Edited May 6, 2006 by Derek21

[sammyk]

Because it would have been nice to have either said I'm not coming back or sign somewhere else without waiting so we could have a chance to sign somebody else.

Sure it would have been nice...if that were even the case but I don't think he's required to say/do anything for the convenience/benefit of the Devils since he was unrestricted. He probably told Lou what he needed to tell him and Lou probably accepted it. Why assume there is some trickery and deceit here?

Like IAC said, family comes first. His family probably sacrificed for him to play in NJ when they might have wanted to live elsewhere closer to family. Now he's doing what he wants and he's probably happy doing it. He didn't leave for money. He didn't even go to some high profile team. He went to where his brother and family was. Anaheim probably though signing Rob was a small price to pay to get a great defenseman like Scott on board. Looks like it's paid off so far.

[IAmCanadian27]

yes, we all hate the neidersisters!!!

yes, you are all correct... he wated till the end, screwed the devils and used the leverage to broker his little brother more $$$ from the ducks as well.

The end? Since when is three days into the UFA period the end?

I'd also like to know how he screwed the Devils. Even if Nieds had left earlier, how do we know that Lou still wouldn't have signed Malakhov and McGillis on D? And we still ended up winning our division anyway.

Just like Derek said, it's all 'what ifs.' Everyone seems to just be scraping for reasons to hate Nieds for actually daring not to stay with the Devils.

[Derek21]

On topic. After watching the actual highlights of the Sabres-Sens game, my god. Connolly's SHG was sick. This guy scores some of the most ridiculous goals. And his setup to Roy to tie it on another shorthander was genius. I felt Alfredsson should've been taken before he could setup Smolinski's tap-in.

The tying goal by Connolly. I mean come on. Emery whiffed on covering it up (cardinal mistake). But he's still got to be in position there. The coverage was as matador as it gets. But you could say that for virtually the entire game. Earlier, Havlat should not have been able to go to the backhand on that breakaway.

The OT winner. Terrible play by Volchenkov and Drury snaps it with Emery not in position. He's got to be ready for that.

Woh. Might be the ugliest defense ever for a postseason game.

[ice dog]

i think don's post a few pages back sums up the whole neidermayer debacle...he played lou.

honestly i don't really care, but i dislike the ducks... been out here since '93 and watched the whole disney bastardization of an nhl franchise up close. seeing the neidermayers marketed all over town is pretty laughable. However, the new owners are good...and they seem to be turning things around.

i guess live and let die...no big deal, just hope they get bounced from the post season.

[Vinnie]

All these 'if's.' Enough already. Did it ever occur to some that maybe aside from family, Niedermayer wanted more of a challenge?

He had accomplished everything he could and more with the Devils, winning three Cups and a Norris and becoming an elite defenseman, plus helping Canada win Olympic gold.

Maybe he wanted to go to a new team and see what he could do on his own. Everyone laughed at his choice last summer. It's no laughing situation anymore. Niedermayer has proven he doesn't need the Devils to be successful. And vice versa. The Devils are doing just fine without him. So what's the problem?

A challenge that is coincidentally on mom's favourite Rob's team? I'm still laughing at Scott on a joke of a team like The Mighty Ducks. If he really left for a challenge he could have gone to Pittsburgh or some other horrible orginization instead of getting his brother a nice contract. fvck him. fvck the duckies. The league owes the Devils for keeping that franchise off the Cup.

[Triumph]

He knew he was accepting the offer to play for the Ducks. He used Lou to up his contract as high as he could and screwed over the Devils by waiting so long. Most other teams had already signed all of the useful free agents by the time Scott told Lou that he was walking.

That he put being near his mom and playing with his brother over the Devils definitely is a non-plus. But I'm peeved over how long he held the Devils in limbo.

Major, major kudos to Brian Rafalski for waiting for Niedermayer to fly the coup. He could have accepted *MORE* money to play elsewhere and instead he wait around to see if Lou had access to the money to sign him.

I know we've debated this 100 times but this is well within his right as a free agent. Once he is a UFA, he is no longer 'a Devil'. Lou can go out and sign anyone he likes - he can also sign Scott Niedermayer, who is a UFA. To think that Scott used New Jersey as leverage - that's fine if you want to think that. It's also possible that Scott had a true dilemma over where he wanted to play and was taking his time considering both options. Let's also not forget that Lou and Scott had all summer of 2004 to sign a new long-term deal. Lou got left holding the bag but he put himself in that position. Regardless he wouldn't've signed any of the other guys out there.

I don't think Rafalski would have gotten more than 4.2 million.

[dmitri]

A challenge that is coincidentally on mom's favourite Rob's team? I'm still laughing at Scott on a joke of a team like The Mighty Ducks. If he really left for a challenge he could have gone to Pittsburgh or some other horrible orginization instead of getting his brother a nice contract. fvck him. fvck the duckies. The league owes the Devils for keeping that franchise off the Cup.

Umm... did you watch the game last night? The Ducks are a good team.

[Don]

Umm... did you watch the game last night? The Ducks are a good team.

I think what he meant by "joke of a team" is the organization. Their genesis, their logo, their NAME... even if they drop the idiotic "Mighty", "Ducks" is a pretty tacky hockey team name.

[SueNJ97]

The reasons I dislike the Ducks are Giggy-puff and Carol Niedermayer's whining about Rob. Now that Giggy is benched and Carol isn't being interviewed right and left I find it hard to actively dislike them, although I would have preferred to see the Battle of Alberta.

As for Nieds, yes, I think it is obvious what happened. He signed as soon as his brother was signed to a long-term contract. That's what he was waiting for. Could he have told Lou, NJ isn't a realistic option if Burke comes through with the contract for my brother? Yeah, maybe. But he was a free agent, he doesn't have that obligation anymore. Lou could also have given him the contract offer and said, "It's the max contract for 5 years, and I have to know now because the market is moving fast". And then he would have had his answer, which would still have been "No". And then he could have signed Zhitnik or Aucoin, who I believe were also available, in additon to Rafalski.

[CRASHER]

You know it doesn't help either that Niedermayer held out for more money and missed major parts of the season BOTH time he was a resricted free agent.. and yeah.. blah blah .. it's his right to hold out (don't make it right just ask Nedved and Ca$hin how missing a season worked... it took a Mike Milbury level of idiocy to get Ca$hin paid )

I hate the whole idea of holdouts regardless of sport and he's always been a douch

[SueNJ97]

You know it doesn't help either that Niedermayer held out for more money and missed major parts of the season BOTH time he was a resricted free agent.. and yeah.. blah blah .. it's his right to hold out (don't make it right just ask Nedved and Ca$hin how missing a season worked... it took a Mike Milbury level of idiocy to get Ca$hin paid )

I hate the whole idea of holdouts regardless of sport and he's always been a douch

[sammyk]

As for Nieds, yes, I think it is obvious what happened. He signed as soon as his brother was signed to a long-term contract. That's what he was waiting for. Could he have told Lou, NJ isn't a realistic option if Burke comes through with the contract for my brother? Yeah, maybe. But he was a free agent, he doesn't have that obligation anymore. Lou could also have given him the contract offer and said, "It's the max contract for 5 years, and I have to know now because the market is moving fast". And then he would have had his answer, which would still have been "No". And then he could have signed Zhitnik or Aucoin, who I believe were also available, in additon to Rafalski.

How do we know Lou even asked him for an answer right away? Perhaps it was Lou waiting around hoping the Anaheim deal didn't work out?

[MantaRay]

tim connolly is amazing

Tim Connolly....yet, another reminder of how stupid Miike Milbury is.

[RowdyFan42]

What the Needmybrother defenders conveniently forget is that the free agent market was moving at warp speed this offseason. That three days that Scott took to make up his mind was all it took for all of the good players to be snapped up by other teams. By the time he nailed down as much cash as he could, Lou was left with table scraps, and we all know what eventually happened with Malacoughitup and McUseless. It's a damn good thing Rafalski has Kool-Aid running through his veins, or else the Devs would have been left even worse off.

Argument 1: "Lou had the entire summer before the lockout started to sign him. If he couldn't get it done, that's his fault."

Response: That's a load of crap. Obviously Scott decided that he was going to string Lou along for as long as it took for him to rent a Brinks truck and/or leave the Devils with little choice as to how to structure their defense. The only thing you can really fault Lou for is that he was TOO loyal to Scott. For possibly the first time ever, Lou put one player above the team, and the results were disastrous.

Argument 2: "It's Scott's right under the CBA."

Response: Yeah, so? This argument assumes we're all robots with no feelings or emotions or capabilities to think for ourselves. Newsflash: We're all humans, and as such we have an unalienable right to be bitter toward Scott for using his rights to fvck over his former team (and don't forget, as CRASHER pointed out, that he stuck it to us twice before in pursuit of cash and/or revenge). It may be his right as a NHL player to do what he did, but it's our right as humans to dislike him for it.

Conclusion: Despite my sometimes-bitter-sounding tirade above, I don't hate Scott for leaving. If any of us were in his place, we'd probably do it too. What I'm mad at him for is the way he did it, going for maximum fvckoverage on his way out the door.

[LizDevil30]

Exactly, Rowdy. I don't hate Nieds, hate what he did though. There is a saying that covers this emotion. "Love the sinner, hate the sin."

Lou had a lapse of good business sense when it came to Nieds. I think that will never happen again.

[SueNJ97]

How do we know Lou even asked him for an answer right away? Perhaps it was Lou waiting around hoping the Anaheim deal didn't work out?

I didn't say that's what happened. I meant that was an option Lou had if he didn't want to wait. I think the answer would still have been "No". But he had that option. He obviously didn't take it. But if he felt he needed an answer right away because the market was moving so fast, he did have that option.

[David Puddy]

I know we've debated this 100 times but this is well within his right as a free agent. Once he is a UFA, he is no longer 'a Devil'. Lou can go out and sign anyone he likes - he can also sign Scott Niedermayer, who is a UFA. To think that Scott used New Jersey as leverage - that's fine if you want to think that. It's also possible that Scott had a true dilemma over where he wanted to play and was taking his time considering both options. Let's also not forget that Lou and Scott had all summer of 2004 to sign a new long-term deal. Lou got left holding the bag but he put himself in that position. Regardless he wouldn't've signed any of the other guys out there.

I don't think Rafalski would have gotten more than 4.2 million.

It's not a matter of his right as a free agent, it's a matter of respect for the team that drafted him and helped him win 3 cups.