Extra Attacker

Fantasy Week 5

2009-11-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

TSN has this really unfortunate poll up on their site right now.

Which slow starting All-Star is least likely to turn their season around?

Alex Kovalev
Vincent Lecavalier
Jarome Iginla
Cam Ward
Zdeno Chara
Nicklas Lidstrom

Obviously this question is based on pure offensive numbers, although I have Ward on my fantasy team and he's been putting up decent numbers, even though I haven't gotten a win from him since on, 1792. But Chara and Lidstrom? Everyone knows there's more to their game than putting up points.

But anyways, that goes into my topic of this blog post on Yahoo, on assessing star players in your lineup, whether to keep 'em or bench 'em and also, the sleeper players that might still be available.

The bandwagon continues to roll through Los Angeles, and suddenly now the New York Islanders who seem to be putting some wins together lately. If you have a player on IR (which seems to be at least one player on each team, and then some) nab those players. Oh and Philly's James van Riemsdyk and Colorado's Ryan O'Reilly. They're both available in my league and I'd nab them but I'm preaching patience on my players.

As for the Bruins, well, I'm just glad that Marc Savard's on my IR and I can deal with him later.

Fantasy Week 4

2009-10-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

I would have had a better week if it weren't for my goalies. Well, just one in particular, Pekka Rinne. I thought he'd be a little bit like last year, around the same numbers while splitting time with Dan Ellis. But not only has Dan Ellis been getting most of the starts but when Rinne has been playing, he's been pretty horrendous. He cost me all my goalie stats and in turn I couldn't pull out the win for the week. I'm in the bottom of the pack. Something had to change so I dropped him. Picked up Rene Bourque. Also, Marc Savard was placed on IR so I picked up Dustin Penner in his place. Let's see how long his play can hold up.

The No. 3 pick

2009-10-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

It seems as if last year's draft (picks 1-3) played out the way each team and players envisioned it. The Islanders wanted that franchise player they think they can build around (John Tavares), the Lightning got a much needed boost on the blue line (Victor Hedman) and the Avalanche got a player who said the team was his favorite growing up (Matt Duchene).

I had never seen this video before but it's pretty entertaining, especially where Duchene is giving it to his dad about the correct way to get a tie on. (For what it's worth, common sense would tell me that you lift the collar up, giving the edge to Dad).

Fantasy Week 3

2009-10-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Boston Bruins are a hot mess. And while this delights me personally, it's bad news for my fantasy team, as Marc Savard was my top center. He's been put on long-term IR and is expected to miss a minimum of four weeks.

Yahoo hasn't changed his status to IR, which means I can pick up another player to fill my empty roster space. I've been checking out some players who can fill his spot. Whoever I pick doesn't have to be a center although I'm debating whether I should. My other two centers right now are Steven Stamkos and Derek Roy.

The highest player available right now is Brandon Dubinsky, coincidentally a center. But I'm keeping my eye on Justin Williams, who is one-third of that hot Los Angeles Kings' top line. Rene Bourque is another option for me too. Even though he's a minus-3, he has more power play goals and points than the other two so right now, he might be the front-runner.

As for the rest of the team, I'm looking to dump Keith Ballard for Alex Goligoski. Ballard isn't putting up any points (1 assist), nor is he helping me out with penalty minutes (2, and I'm expecting him to get into a scrap really soon), and the rest of his stats are zero. Goligoski, meanwhile, is a plus-9, has two goals and five assists and two points on the PP.

I lost pretty badly last week, 6-2, even though I had two players on my team who were named three stars of the week!

Fantasy Week 2

2009-10-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

James Duthie wrote a column that was dead-on about fans and their "premature evaluation" problem and the root of the issue is that we want instant analysis.

PE has now reached full pandemic status. We live in a bubble of endless blogs, tweets, "longtime listener, first time caller" radio shows, and TV hockey panels that crave instant and definitive analysis. (Yes, there is a heavy dose of mea-culpa, or at least wea-culpa, in this rant.) We want judgments handed down NOW, even if we've only seen a tiny fragment of the evidence.

Some of the examples he cites are:

Colorado and Phoenix are unstoppable and will surely meet in the Western Conference Final.

San Jose and Detroit suck, are likely headed for the draft lottery, and are frantically sending their scouts to Windsor to watch Taylor Hall.

Alexander Ovechkin is going to score 90 goals, and 150 points. By Christmas.

Sound familiar? I've already made three roster moves in the first week of play (though to my defense, the first week was longer). I finally dropped Milan Michalek who has one goal and is minus-3 since the season started. I picked up Vinny Prospal in his place - playing for the surging New York Rangers, knows his coach's system so he's getting big minutes. I also dropped James Neal to pick up a third goaltender, Craig Anderson. I did this because I thought Pekka Rinne would be getting more starts but I feel like he'll be getting equal time with Dan Ellis. Plus, Rinne got spanked the last game. I also dropped Kris Letang for Matt Carle.

You definitely can't look past the Los Angeles Kings and their hot start. Their line of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams are off to a hot start. You want to ride that streak so if you're looking to pick up a player, any one of those three will help you.

Anaheim isn't off to the start that I expected and it's adversely affecting my team. Bobby Ryan only has one goal thus far, and zero assists. It's far too soon to dump someone like Ryan. I've been watching some of the Ducks games. It's not like he's not getting his chances. They'll go in eventually. But I might think about benching him if there's other wings slated to play at the same time.

When is enough enough?

2009-10-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

I Goggle 'Chris Chelios' to find a photo of him to attach with this post and this one I found through a blog connected with GetItNext.com couldn't be more perfect.

Chelios thinks he can play. Nevermind the fact that he's been relegated to 7th defenseman for the Wings the past couple of seasons, he knows he has what it takes to play hockey, that he can contribute and help a team win.

Nevermind that the Wings didn't offer him a contract for this season either. The man wants to fucking play.
He's set to skate with the AHL's Chicago Wolves on Monday, he tells the Detroit Free Press.

"I haven't even talked about anything. I'm just going to start practicing with them and give it a shot."

I was listening to a Detroit sports talk radio station earlier today and callers voiced their opinion on the issue. Out of a handful of those who spoke on the air, it seemed like everyone pitied him. The talk show host said it even pissed him off.

Doesn't Chelios want to spend time with his family? I mean, isn't that what most guys who retire say? It's kind of like the Brett Favre situation ... but not since Favre is still making a difference and leading his football team in his ripe age.

It's kind of sad, to me. You're a 25-year-old NHL veteran, with two Stanley Cups. And you're willing to play in the minors? I don't know. It must be really easy for him to push his pride aside because I feel like most players in this situation would just hang 'em up.

But more power to you, Mr. Chelios.

Their new home

2009-10-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver Sun recently went inside the Canucks' locker room, offering a glimpse of the revamped dressing room, including a kitchen and a computer workstation. Very modernized. Must be nice! Take a look at the rest of the gallery.

Ask and you shall receive

2009-10-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

An 18-minute phone call was all it took, for DirecTV to get me Center Ice free for the entire season because of the whole DirecTV/Comcast/Versus debacle. And as the puck drops tonight, an agreement in time seems unlikely. The representative I spoke with was optimistic about a new deal in place by the end of the year.

Remember, this non-deal doesn't just affect hockey fans. There's UFC, college football and ... I can't think of anything else at this point.

I was calm and nice over the phone, explaining my situation: I was extremely unhappy with the lack of Versus and that if this continued I would cancel. And that this year I couldn't afford Center Ice even though I had it last season. So the guy said he'd give it to me for free, and who am I to say no?

For more experiences from other people, who seemed to not only get Center Ice for free but get even deeper discounts, check this out. I wouldn't recommend getting too greedy though.

DirecTV is offering a free trial of Center Ice until Oct. 24. Check with Channels 769-784.

Fantasy Week 1

2009-09-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

When you're drafting through Yahoo, a word of caution is to remember to show up to the draft early, at least 10 minutes or more. It'll give you enough time to test your system and make sure the draft application is running smoothly. I had a little trouble getting started, and I switched browsers from Safari to Firefox. Others in my league had difficult getting in the room.

With that out of the way, I had the top pick of our draft, a position I was possibly hoping to avoid but I liked the way my team turned out. Having the top pick of the draft means that your next pick isn't 11th (we have 10 teams) but 20th, and also the 21st. The order of the draft is a snake. First to last, then reverse.

First, here's a look at the top 10 picks of our draft:

1. Alexander Ovechkin
2. Evgeni Malkin
3. Sidney Crosby
4. Zach Parise
5. Mike Green
6. Corey Perry
7. Ryan Getzlaf
8. Jeff Carter
9. Jarome Iginla
10. Ilya Kovalchuk

My observations: Real surprised Mike Green was picked at No. 5. I thought he would be the first defenseman picked but not in the first round and certainly not this high. I'm interested to hear how high he went in other leagues. I will guarantee you that he will not have the year he had last year. The next defenseman that was taken wasn't until Round 4! (Chris Pronger). Another surprise is how high Corey Perry went, I pictured him to be a high to mid second-rounder. I also would have picked Rick Nash to go in the first round but he didn't go until No. 14.

So here's the team I ended up drafting:

1. Alexander Ovechkin
2. Cam Ward
3. Marc Savard
4. Bobby Ryan
5. Devon Setoguchi
6. Duncan Keith
7. Steven Stamkos
8. Pekka Rinne
9. Milan Michalek
10. Drew Doughty
11. Keith Ballard
12. Derek Roy
13. Brad Boyes
14. Kris Letang
15. Milan Hejduk
16. James Neal

After taking Ovie and a goalie, I think I was really lucky to get Savard 21st pick. This is someone who averaged just over a point per game last year, and yeah we'll see how he is without Phil Kessel but I don't think I have anything to worry bout because he was putting up 100-point seasons in Atlanta. I think Stamkos is a strong No. 2, hoping for him to continue where he left off at the end of the season.

My team is pretty young and I don't know if that will work against me as the season goes on, but I picked players from a variety of teams who I expect to play big minutes and eat up a lot of time on special teams.

The puck drops tomorrow! Here's to a great season of fantasy hockey!

Home Swede home

2009-09-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

In North America, Henrik Zetterberg is known as an elite two-way forward, even drawing praise from Wayne Gretzky, who a few years ago called him "probably the most underrated player in the league." More specifically in Detroit, he's known as the other half of the Euro Twins and likely the next captain once Nicklas Lidstrom retires.

Back home in Sweden, Zetterberg is a rockstar, actually more than a rockstar. (Great story).

On the ice, he's grown up in front of Swedish fans' eyes - being a top player for the Swedish Elite League and earning a medal four out of the five times he's played in the World Championships.

Off the ice, he's engaged to a very famous Swedish television personality - and then his popularity grew even more once they started dating.

"Hank is the king there. And Emma the queen."

Zetterberg's homeland is going to go nuts once their pride and joy, along with the other Swedish players on the very European-friendly Wings team, head to Sweden following tonight's game for a a series of games there. Tickets sold within an hour.

"If people watch the NHL, they really like the Red Wings. If there are 100 NHL fans in Sweden, probably 95 of them are Red Wings fans."

As the league tries to grow the game, having the Red Wings, and other teams, go overseas will only help that cause. But travel is only going to catch up with this team, which has played an absurd number games more than the bottom feeders of the NHL, teams that haven't made the playoffs the last couple of years as the Wings went to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals. We'll just have to see how the team responds and get through it.

Family Men

2009-09-25T22:00:00.001-07:00

It's another boy! Eric Staal and his wife, Tanya, welcomed the newest addition to the Staal family this week: Parker Lucas Staal. Congratulations to them, and we all continue to wait for the first little princess in that clan.

Who doesn't love the off-ice stories? Friends, roommates, even playful ribbing between teammates in the locker room. We appreciate these NHLers showing off their youngsters, too. Here are a few, from handy dandy Google, as well as two friends of mine, contributing from Oil Country (*) and the other from the Capital of Canada (**). Thank you!

Daniel Alfredsson, son Hugo. **

Shane Doan with wife Andrea, and children Gracie, Josh, Karys, and Carson.

Daniel Sedin with wife Marinette, and Ronja and Erik.

Ryan Kesler with Makayla, Kevin Bieksa with Cole. Canucks play date?

Nicklas Lidstrom with wife Annika, and sons Kevin, Adam, Samuel, and Lucas.

Patrick Marleau with wife Christina and son Landon.

Ethan Moreau with Trey and Mia. *

Moreau with Trey, Steve Staios with Nathan. *

Chris Phillips with wife Erin, and children Ben, Naomi, and Zoe. **

Ryan Smyth with wife Stacey, and daughters Isabella and Elizabeth. *

And finally, just for fun....

WHO'S YOUR DADDY!??!?!?! Ethan Moreau dons Tommy Salo's mask, terrifying poor little Trey. *

New blood in the desert

2009-09-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm watching the introduction of Dave Tippett as the new head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. He's flanked with the assistant coaches, who it sounds like he'll keep, although I don't know why he wouldn't want to bring his own guys, GM Don Maloney captain Shane Doan and President Dave Moss.

Maloney provided some insight, saying that he believed they "force fed young players on our team" (why hello Kyle Turris, hope you're enjoying San Antonio). He also said he got the feeling in early June that Gretzky might not coach the time and the feeling was "much more definitive in early August." He called Dave Tippet "the ideal fit" saying his teams were "structured, disciplined, they worked" and that the man has a "quiet strength, intelligence." Maloney said he's looking to "carry on Wayne's work."

Now, I don't know if this is because he's got some facial hair, making him look grizzly and older, but Shane Doan looks like someone who's had a burden on his shoulders. He looks tired. Maloney mentioned that Doan took the lead this summer to keep in contact with the players to keep them updated on the situation, and to motivate them to focus on hockey and not let the off-ice stuff be the distraction. We all know what a consummate leader Doan is, and it must've worked because Maloney said only one player really called him over the summer, wanting to know what was going on.

But you feel for Doan. He's such a soldier. Any selfish player would've demanded a trade so long ago. While it's exciting for a new coach and young players to be part of a rebuilding process (ie. Los Angeles Kings) it can't be easy if YOU are the one every year putting on the same optimistic outlook, hoping and hoping for your chance.

While Tippet went on to say that he likes the young players, he knows the team from playing against them, and that the "chance to build something was very exciting," the Stars' beat reporter says he wished that Tippet passed on the opportunity for another one.

It's really telling to hear that Tippet wants to build something. He's already won the Stanley Cup, and although the chance to build something seems so daunting, if you're a winner, you're a competitor, and you have the confidence in your abilities, the challenge is something you can't give up.

I wish Tippett and the rest of the Coyotes all the best. I am rooting for the players because that's all they can do.

Speak up

2009-09-21T23:43:00.000-07:00

So Shawn Horcoff (good Michigan State man, like myself ... minus the man part) said what everyone except 29 other NHL reps thought during the whole Paul Kelly firing process: Maybe you shouldn't overthrow your leader in one all-nighter and certainly not after consulting the rest of your teammates.

You know, I know athletes aren't the brightest people in the world. I don't have any hard numbers but I bet if you compare the numbers, the NHL is the league with the least amount of education (with baseball, possibly) because at least with basketball and football a large majority of the athletes go through college and manage to get their degree before moving on to bigger and better things.

And really, I know your intelligence doesn't necessarily have to be measured by your education but come ON.

Hearing Horcoff's words though, I don't know if the issue is not being educated to know what's right and wrong and fair, but it's the lack of leadership from him and the other dissenters that's the most alarming issue.

"I never felt comfortable with the environment the advisory board created in the meetings in Chicago," Horcoff said.

If your gut is telling you that something isn't right about the situation then it's probably true!

And while Horcoff admits that he wasn't comfortable with the whole situation - remember, he could have just continued to not say anything - here's the anthesis of a leader, and furthermore, I want to know who made this kid the Leafs rep?

"We had everything laid out in front us," Stajan said. I'm fully confident we made the right decision. I don't think anything I can hear can change that."

It's not the decision, kiddo. It's the process.

Star players like Crosby and Blake need to continue to question and press for answers. But also like Horcoff said:

"Hopefully, more players will want to get involved. We don't have a lot of experience or clout in there. It doesn't have to be star players, or college grads, but experience helps and will make a difference."

To Tweet or not to Tweet?

2009-09-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

My fellow co-blogger was actually the one who found this, but asked me to mention it. Maybe she's too shy to blog about the Capitals. Great read over here: Fake Twitter Accounts Draw Caps' Attention.

We both agreed on disappointment when it comes to the truth about Alex Ovechkin's Twitter.

The Capitals' most popular player, Alex Ovechkin, has a genuine account with nearly 23,000 followers, but it's been inactive since January and has only 37 updates. The tweets were ghostwritten by Nate Ewell, the team's senior director of media relations.

"I don't know how much fun he had with it," Ewell said.

Ovie's account was created in January for the All Star events in Montreal. It was a bit hit, since there were plenty of @replies, and still has 20,000+ followers despite the last tweet being from January 30th.

Fans are having their fun now creating fake Twitter accounts for NHL players, supposedly with disclaimers in the bio section. Some tweets from @kingkarl27, Karl Alzner fake...

- It was @brookslaich21's idea to do suicides thismorning, wasn't it?
- @jeffschultz55 Did you see that the cool kids are trying to hone in on our party? @greenlife52 is on twitter now.
- I seem to have lost my favorite pair of shorts. As I haven't been drunk in over a month, I'm pretty sure it was a laundry thing.

Alzner has had family calling him asking about the legitimacy of the Twitter account, and a staff member of the Capitals organization also asked for confirmation. Nate Ewell says he is planning to encourage players to create 'official' Twitter accounts to deal with the fakes.

That way, they can say: 'Hey, this is the real Jeff Schultz. I might not post on here, but this is me.'"

Twitter is just starting to introduce the "Verified Account" idea to celebrities, helping to differentiate between the impersonations and the actual public figure.

For now, have fun checking out the genuine Twitter accounts of NHLers :)

Dan Boyle http://twitter.com/danboyle22
Martin Brodeur http://twitter.com/MB30

Patrik Elias http://twitter.com/pelias

Martin Havlat http://twitter.com/martinhavlat

Alex Ovechkin http://twitter.com/ovi8

Steve Sullivan http://twitter.com/Sully26

Teams grounded

2009-09-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

There's a fight going on in the skies between Air Canada and the Obama administration, one in which the timing is ridiculous and the effects are already being felt.

From a Wall Street Journal story ...

Air Canada last week sued U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, seeking to block his enforcement of an Aug. 11 Transportation Department order that Air Canada to cancel its season-long sports charter contracts.

At issue is whether Air Canada is allowed to fly Canadian sports teams between U.S. destinations without first returning to Canada. By law and treaty, foreign airlines can't pick up passengers when flying between U.S. cities -- nor can U.S. airlines in most foreign nations, including Canada.

However, the DOT for years has allowed Air Canada to fly sports teams on back-to-back U.S. flights if the teams ultimately would return to Canada. Similarly, U.S. airlines ferrying American teams have been allowed to fly within Canada.

So why then, all of a sudden, is the Obama administration up in arms about this? According to the article, Air Canada won contracts, that were mind you approved by the Department of Transportation, to fly the Boston Bruins and the Milwaukee Bucks. (If you are a sports organization, why wouldn't you want to have a contract that ensures one airline fly your team, a process that I'm sure cuts through a lot of red tape?)

I can almost HEAR it in my head, the U.S.' defense about "buying American." The article even states that the U.S. pilots union wanted to make sure that the "U.S. flights are operated by U.S. pilots." What, and all unions and presidents of the past was worried that it wouldn't be?

Look. I don't care how these flights are operated. I'm pretty sure that even if the U.S. flights were operated by U.S. pilots, it wouldn't lead to dramatic job losses. The NHL and NBA fan just wants their team to be able to fly the way they want - effortlessly and with the least number of stops as possible.

The Canadian Transportation Agency retaliated by banning flights by U.S. carriers that require multiple stops within Canada. Miami Air International Inc., a U.S. charter carrier that has contracts with 10 NHL teams this season, had to arrange for a Canadian charter to make intra-Canada flights last weekend for the Florida Panthers, rather than carry the NHL team itself, said Ross Fischer, chief executive of Miami Air.

Miami Air also had to amend its travel plans last weekend for a major-league baseball client, the Toronto Blue Jays, Mr. Fischer said. Instead of flying the team to Windsor, Ontario, from Toronto, as the team requested, the flight went to Detroit.

"We're scrambling," Mr. Fischer said. But the situation is worse for Canadian teams because they have more back-to-back games in the U.S., where there are 24 NHL teams. Canadian teams could be forced to return home between each U.S. game, which would be expensive.

Isn't anyone in the U.S. administration a sports fan?

The big 'C'

2009-09-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

The position of captaincy has always been intriguing to me. It is an honour to most, but not always the easiest kind to accept. The Florida Panthers are expected to name a captain this season, specifically some time between the start of training camp (today in Nova Scotia) and their first preseason match (to take place in Finland). The team's 'Sunday Coffee' feature writes:

Finding a leader has been tough for the Panthers since those early years. Skrudland, who came to the Panthers in the 1993 Expansion Draft via Montreal, was an all-out character who the fans and media fell in love with during those early years. Yes, he kept things light when they needed to be (he once carried Mellanby on his shoulders past a tour bus in Detroit, giving the impression to the horrified passengers that Mellanby was a 15-foot giant), but he also knew when to throw the hammer down. Mellanby could be quiet, but he had a disarming wit and was respected like Skrudland for his work ethic and desire to win.

Cory Stillman looks to be a shoo-in for this spot. Not only does he have over 10 years of NHL experience under his belt, he's also got two Stanley Cup rings (Tampa Bay '04, Carolina '06), and an overall respectable reputation. And what about the alternate captains? Nathan Horton has certainly been round for long enough, and provides a good example on the ice. Stephen Weiss? Bryan McCabe? David Booth? Keith Ballard? Bryan Allen?

Decisions, decisions.

Getting ready for fantasy hockey

2009-09-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

Fantasy sports allows a fan to act as a GM — in most instances to draft a full team, field a lineup every night and propose trades, drop/pick up players through the waivers.

With many variations and types of games out there, it can be difficult to decide what type of game suits you best. You have decide which type of league you want to play (salary cap vs. non) and what type of scoring you want to have (rotisserie, head to head, points only). Having played various types of fantasy hockey games for the past seven years, Yahoo Sports is the most user-friendly game out there.

My draft is coming up in 14 days. I'm not a statistics-obssessed fan so I won't be crunching numbers to figure out how the number of times last season Zach Parise talked to his mom before the game is related to the number of faceoffs he won when using a composite stick during weekend games in the West Coast. (I'm sure someone out there could figure it out.)

Basically, I try to field the best available player when it's my turn. I'll pick a goalie first and at least two forwards before on top four defenseman.

Fantasy hockey allows for greater flexibility. You have more time to make up for your mistakes (like when I drafted Eric Staal in a really early around he went on to have an off year) and that's why it's not as difficult to draft compared to fantasy football.

Here's some tips to keep in mind as you figure out who to draft:

+ The goaltender is the quarterback of your team. Don't fret if you draft in the middle or toward the end because if the earlier players taken are the usual suspects, that means you're the one who'll end up with a pretty great goaltender. In our goalie, goalie stats are big. I'm looking to draft a goaltender early on and pick up a reliable backup (someone who'll play around 20 games). If not, look to draft two lower-playing goaltenders (Brodeur or Kipprusoff's backups since those two play a lot of games).

+ If you have the top pick, you really won't go wrong with any of Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, Parise and even Datsyuk.

+ See whether penalty minutes and plus/minus is factored into your league's scoring. If you have a defenseman on the Thrashers, the chances you'll lose that category a lot of times, is high. Similarly, having an enforcer on your team will help your cause. Just try to find someone who can put up some points too.

+ After your draft, check out the players who are still available and keep them in mind as the first couple of weeks of the season go by and identify anybody with a hot start and pick them up.

+ Understand that it's a long 82-game season. Players may start slow and they will have dry spells. At the same time, don't hang onto a player for too long if they're in a prolonged slump. It's a fine line.

+ Identify which players have a lot to prove this season - Hossa, Heatley Speeza, Emery - will they be worth the game?

+ Players who are entering a contract year have a lot to play for. Conversely, those who already signed that big contract may taper off. Marc Savard should be an interesting pick up. He put up 88 points last season, 10 more than the previous year. He's already mad as hell for being left out of Team Canada's Olympic camp. And on top of that, he's entering a contract year.

Happy drafting!

$64 Million Man

2009-09-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, long term contracts are now the norm for the NHL's star players. Rather, 'long term' now means more than 5 years, no surprise if it extends 10. Remember all eyes on the Islanders in the summer of 2006, when they signed Rick DiPietro to a 15 year contract for $67.5 million? ... Remember the laughing and jeering?

Look who's laughing now. The Capitals signed Alex Ovechkin for 13 years, worth $124 million; the Flyers with Mike Richards for 12 years, $69 million, the Blackhawks with Marian Hossa for 12 years, $62.8 million. And most recently, Roberto Luongo is property of the Vancouver Canucks for Players seek stability and financial promise + NHL organizations looking for a superstar with whom they can build a team around = "I want to grow old with you" contracts"?

I still shake my head in disbelief.

A) You can't forget the chance of injury, especially in a physical sport like ice hockey. Minor, major, day-to-day, out indefinitely, season-ending, career-ending? Mike Richards was "definitely surprised" with DiPietro's deal, but points out, "Every team has got insurance, so it's not like the owners are going to be paying it out if the guy gets injured." [NY Daily News]

B) Roberto Luongo has broken franchise records for the Canucks. He's single-handedly won games for the team, backing up their inconsistent play with his brilliant goaltending. But can he keep it up at 40? "Chelly's doing it, I don't see why I can't... as long as my body keeps telling me I can play, I'll be in the pipes." [Toronto Sun]

C) It's funny how no one usually mentions this last issue. In April 2008, after falling short of making the playoffs, Luongo had this to say regarding the last game (and loss) of the season:

"I don't really care. My season ended Thursday as far as I'm concerned. I tried to bring it tonight, but obviously I didn't have anything in the tank." [Vancouver Sun]

He is a competitior, he loves to win, he hates to lose. That's great, but if Roberto Luongo is going to be with Vancouver for another 12 years, and if he is going to continue wearing the 'C', that attitude should be maintained for all 82 games of the season.