NHL 2012-2013 Offseason and On.

[MalReynolds]

Like i said its gonna get interesting for next year how much are dmen gonna get?

[Doogie2K]

Oilers pay seven million dollars for two more years from a league-average goaltender.

At least we're not paying four mill a year for Ondrej Pavelec.

[Dark Prince]

Report: Sharks to name Robinson associate coach (NHL.com)

This sucks. Now we have no assistants! What else can happen now? I hope Lou has that "Plan B" in the works.

[Orca]

Originally Posted by MalReynolds

All i have to say about all these 10-13 year deals is that the NHL has to do something about them..its getting fucking stupid...

5 year caps

They're going to bring those in just in time to really fuck the Oilers over on all their young talent.

[MalReynolds]

Rumor going around Pittsburgh gonna announce the signing of Alexander Semin to a 1 year deal

if he can play to his potential Thats one scary top 6

[Doogie2K]

If so, that's a great job by Shero. The arguments against Semin are, frankly, overstated. Leafs blogger Steve Burtch does a great job breaking them down here. While you can argue team effects on his defensive stats (playing on the top six means being with good D-men, generally), you can also look at his counting numbers from the last couple of years and see where injuries and, this year, the change in system and a slight dip in S% (from his career average around 14-15% down to 11%) hurts his numbers. I'd bet on a bounceback year if he can stay reasonably healthy.

I think there's a lot of anti-Russian horseshit at the heart of all this, TBH. Good for PIT, if they did sign him: they'll get a bona fide top-line winger on a value deal.

[Primus]

We finally get a 2C and we let Semin go to the Pens/ KHL? Fuck me.

Don't let people tell you he sucks either.

[MalReynolds]

My problem with Semin is the same problem i have with all Russian players(including Malkin) They can be lazy and make bad decisions( You dont understand how many penguins games i watch and im yelling at the tv bc of Malkin)

[Dark Prince]

Originally Posted by MalReynolds

My problem with Semin is the same problem i have with all Russian players(including Malkin) They can be lazy and make bad decisions( You dont understand how many penguins games i watch and im yelling at the tv bc of Malkin)

I feel the same way about Kovy sometimes.

[Hyperglide]

Grabovski and Kulemin never take shifts off. I guess I'm lucky the Leafs have some hard working Russians/Belorussians om the team.

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by MalReynolds

My problem with Semin is the same problem i have with all Russian players(including Malkin) They can be lazy and make bad decisions( You dont understand how many penguins games i watch and im yelling at the tv bc of Malkin)

Because no Canadian or American players are ever lazy or make bad decisions. Heaven fucking forbid.

[Serapth]

Originally Posted by Doogie2K

Because no Canadian or American players are ever lazy or make bad decisions. Heaven fucking forbid.

There certainly are a lot of Russians that fit the stereotype though...

[Hyperglide]

Teemus coming back for one more season (number 21 wow). Re-signed (no surprise there) by the Ducks for 4.5 million.

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by Serapth

There certainly are a lot of Russians that fit the stereotype though...

I have a theory that when a Canadian goes into a slump, he's squeezing his stick, whereas when a Russian goes into a slump, he's fucking the dog.

Also, Dustin Penner, Kyle Wellwood, Dustin Byfuglien, and Keith Tkachuk all say hey.

[Serapth]

Originally Posted by Doogie2K

I have a theory that when a Canadian goes into a slump, he's squeezing his stick, whereas when a Russian goes into a slump, he's fucking the dog.

Also, Dustin Penner, Kyle Wellwood, Dustin Byfuglien, and Keith Tkachuk all say hey.

Do the math though, there are what? 8x as many Canadians, but seemingly an equal number of dog fuckers...

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by Serapth

Do the math though, there are what? 8x as many Canadians, but seemingly an equal number of dog fuckers...

What I'm saying is, there's a presumption that they're dog fuckers that I don't think is necessarily true. People were talking shit about Ilya Kovalchuk dropping off during the later rounds of the playoffs even though he was playing with a herniated disc. I think people are much quicker to draw the "lazy/enigmatic" conclusion about Russian (and Eastern European in general) players, whereas North Americans and Scandinavians are "injured" or "snakebitten."

[roboninja]

Originally Posted by Doogie2K

What I'm saying is, there's a presumption that they're dog fuckers that I don't think is necessarily true. People were talking shit about Ilya Kovalchuk dropping off during the later rounds of the playoffs even though he was playing with a herniated disc. I think people are much quicker to draw the "lazy/enigmatic" conclusion about Russian (and Eastern European in general) players, whereas North Americans and Scandinavians are "injured" or "snakebitten."

There is some truth to what your are saying. However, it gets old when every time I rip Semin, I'm told I am being biased because he is Russian. It's like I can no longer rag on Russian players because that makes me bigoted. I rip on Penner and Marleau too!

[Doogie2K]

Originally Posted by roboninja

There is some truth to what your are saying. However, it gets old when every time I rip Semin, I'm told I am being biased because he is Russian. It's like I can no longer rag on Russian players because that makes me bigoted. I rip on Penner and Marleau too!

Speaking of Marleau, I recently read a blog post by a Sharks fan who looked at Marleau's reputed streakiness and found it was basically no different than you'd expect due to random chance alone.

I don't think everyone ripping on Semin is anti-Russian. I just think there are a lot of invalid complaints about him that have been ingrained into our collective consciousness, and I don't think the fact that he's Russian has helped his case any.

Penner's a funny one. He had defenders in the advanced-stats space well before he was known as anything but fat and lazy, and I don't think the fact that he's a big guy who doesn't hit really helps his case much. And indeed, there have been times in his career when he's put up the kind of results that gets fans off your back. But at the same time, we've all seen the same beer gut picture on Twitter. Conditioning and motivation have been a problem with all three franchises he's played for so far; at a certain point, that's not a coincidence or people making shit up.

[Dark Prince]

Devils add Scott Stevens and Matt Shaw as assistant coaches

I'm excited! It's about time Stevens is stepping up behind the bench full time. Our defense will be killer this year from his experience. Can't wait for puck drop.

[roboninja]

At least you know Stevens will have the respect of the players. Good call I would say.