FAUXRUMORS

Penguin Doctors Incompetent?

2012-01-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

1) That's what many specialists are telling Fauxrumors as the new revelations concerning Sid Crosby's medical situation. Evidently Crosby, in addition to the concussion(s) suffered, also sustained a "neck injury". An interesting twist for sure, but before we get into the medical aspects of this we ave to ask:

When did this injury take place?

When was it detected?

Has it been known all along?

Is this why he hasn't been playing since early December?

2) This appears to be the second time (in our opinion) that the team medical staff (trainers and Doctors) have screwed up. The first time was NOT detecting Crosby's first apparent concussion that occurred in the 2011 Winter Classic when he and then-Caps forward David Steckel had a collision. It was clear to even casual fans that Crosby was not himself after that. You would have thought that he would have been thoroughly examined to be cleared to play after that. However he was allowed to play in the Penguins' subsequent game against the Lightning. Here Crosby suffered yet another concussion when he was hit by monster defenseman Victor Hedman into the boards head first. We believe from our discussions with concussion specialists this is where Crosby was let down by the team med staff. As we have mentioned here before, its the second and subsequent concussions that occurred BEFORE the earlier ones have resolved is what makes them so debilitating. If he was not allowed to play after the first hit he would have been more likely to have been able to recover and probably be playing today.

3) Now this new revelation has us asking about the competence of the Penguins medical staff. Regardless of when it occurred, how could a potentially life threatening injury to a neck be missed when the player has been examined by countless specialists? From the trainers, team DR. then a litany of neurologists, etc you would have to think someone would/could pick up such an injury? (As an aside IF they did find it and treat it, why are we only now hearing about it???) It doesn't appear to be the case though and we again have to question the competence of the Penguins medical staff and also wonder how long before this becomes public, or the Crosby family starts to ask these questions much like the Lindros camp did 20 years ago when the Flyers medical staffs' gaffes almost cost Eric his life? http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/03/sports/sp-23883

4) Our sources tell us that although the Crosby family is no where near where the Lindros' were when Eric and then- Flyers GM Bob Clark had their very public feud resulting in Lindros eventual trade to their division rival NY Rangers, things are not all roses and candy in Penguin-land. It was the Crosby camp that have pushed for non-penguin specialists to examine and clear him to play this past December miffing management. Although in public they have been supportive of their captain, privately things have been a bit "tense" lately with the Pens quietly questioning Sid's commitment to trying to actually returning this season. Its also complicated the Penguins cap issues. Should they put Crosby on LTR and save his 8.7 mil cap hit? Crosby has another season with that same cap hit remaining and we do not foresee a Lindros type power play occurring, but if things such as misdiagnosed neck injuries and concussions continue there could be long term repercussions for the relationship. Hopefully Sid's health issue will be resolved soon. The NHL needs him!

Good For You Tim Thomas!!!

2012-01-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

1) Many have lambasted Boston Bruins super star net minder Tim Thomas following his decision to not go to The Obama White House visit by his team. It is customary for a championship team to visit the White House and give the current occupant a jersey with his name etc. However as Thomas correctly pointed out, these are NOT usual times, but a precarious time period where our very existence as a free, representative democratic republic is under attack from all sides and Thomas wanted to make a statement that he is decrying what is happening to the country he represents and loves.

2) To that we both agree and applaud Thomas' principled stand and throw out all the negative press that has been thrown his way by the far left wing media (including most sports writers.) We hope his statement places more light on what is happening in our great country and opens the eyes of more citizens that freedom isn't free and won't last if its taken for granted!! "Don't Tread on Me" Indeed!!!!

Week 16 Results

2012-01-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

1) The busy week 16 day/night is complete For the day we went a disappointing 8-6 to bring the season total to 113-85, or a .571 winning percentage. On the bright side we got our Lock of the week correct to elevate that stat to 13-3. We will NOT be picking next week (as its Allstar Snooze Weekend) and no games will be played) So the next pick is February 4th when a dozen games will be played.
2) We hope to publish a few posts this up coming week. As the abbreviated pre Allstar week arrives we believe teams will start to look toward the trade deadline and deals will be coming fast and furious. We will pass along any trade discussion we are privy to. As always keep it here for all the latest

Week 16 Picks!

2012-01-21T05:11:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, its week 16 of the NHL season. We hope it will turn out to be a sweet week for us to help erase the sour taste from last weeks picks. Today/night we have a very busy schedule with 14 games up for grabs. Not sure if it was it intentional, but lots of current/former rivalry type games this day. We hope to improve our record of 105-79 or a .571 winning percentage.

NY Rangers at Boston: Rangers (Original 6 matchup/top 2 in conference)

Philadelphia at New Jersey: Devils (Old Patrick Divison rivalry)

San Jose at Vancouver: Canucks (Conference Finals Preview)

Ottawa at Anaheim: Duck (2007 Finals replay)

Montreal at Toronto: Maple Leafs (Biggest NHL rivalry?)

Carolina at NY Islanders: Islanders

Columbus at Detroit: Red Wings (Lock of The Week)

Florida at Winnipeg: Jets

Buffalo at St. Louis: Blues

Chicago at Nashville: Predators

Tampa Bay at Phoenix: Coyotes

Dallas at Minnesota: Wild

Calgary at Edmonton: Oilers (Battle of Alberta)

Colorado at Los Angeles: Kings

Wanted Dead or Alive?

2012-01-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

1) Well, its not quite life or death (even to the nutty Montreal media) but the evaporation of ANY contribution from well paid center Scott Gomez has many in the NHL asking how long can the Habs carry along this underachiever? Yes Scott has not played to much so far this season, but in the 15+ games he has participated in he has yet to 'dent the twine', and has a mere 5 assists. Not that Gomez has ever been much of a sniper which makes it all the more curious as to why the Habs ever traded for the Anchorage Alaska native in the first place. Originally the NY Rangers signed him as a UFA from New Jersey, who correctly saw that he was no more than a good 2nd line play making center not worthy of top forward money, let alone super star compensation. However Glen Sather bestowed the former Devil with a very lucrative 7 year 51 million contract that had a cap hit of 7.357. We at Fauxrumors saw it as a boondoggle from the start and were extremely surprised that Sather was able to deal away Gomez to the Canadiens. It wouldn't have mattered if the Rangers didn't get back anything for him, but in addition to unloading his bloated salary (allowing them to bid on/attain Marion Gaborik) they also got defensemen Ryan McDonagh, who at 22 has quietly become a top 4 defender for the Blue shirts this season, compounding the error by the Habs.

2) So what do they do now? "Gomer" has ANOTHER 2 YEARS AFTER THIS, sucking another 7+ million from the Canadiens cap space while providing marginal output. We believe that the Habs will either exercise their right to buy out the remaining 2 seasons at 2/3 of the remaining salary spread out over 4 seasons OR if/when there is another post new CBA grace period for buyouts he would be a prime candidate to be bought out without the Habs taking the long term cap hit. We predict right now that Gomez will NOT be with the Canadiens beyond this season AND another team will be happy to give him a 3+ million deal when he becomes a UFA again this summer! Yes, GM's are not the brightest bunch!

Week 15 Results

2012-01-15T05:43:00.000-08:00

1) A rather disappointing afternoon/evening for week 15. We went 5-6 to bring the season total to 105-79 or a .571 winning percentage. The bright spot was we got our Lock of The Week correct to bring that season long total to 12-3, or .800! Look for Week 16's picks next Saturday when a whopping 14 games will be decided.

2) We're working on several posts for the up coming week including a rumour post concerning early possibilities of what may occur later next month as the trade deadline approaches.
As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 15 Picks

2012-01-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

1) WE enter the NHL season's 2nd half this weekend and we hope to continue where we left off last weekend with our pretty decent showing in our weekly picks. Thus far we are 100-73 or a .578 winning percentage. Today/night there are contests on the schedule.

Chicago at Detroit: Black Hawks

Colorado at Dallas: Stars

New Jersey at Winnipeg: Jets

NY Rangers at Toronto: Rangers

Ottawa at Montreal: Habitants

Buffalo at NY Islanders: Islanders

Boston at Carolina: Bruins

San Jose at Columbus: Sharks (Lock of The Week)

Minnesota at St. Louis: Blues

Philadelphia at Nashville: Predators

Los Angeles at Calgary: Flame

At The Half Way Point........

2012-01-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

1) Hard to believe, but we are actually at the half way mark of the NHL season. Seems like just yesterday that we were discussing and making preseason predictions, etc. Much like Fauxrumors did at the "Quarter pole' we will PROJECT, (NOT PREDICT) where each team will end up based upon their current points/games played. Its a bit more accurate than the 1/4 mark, as trends have firmly been made between the contenders and pretenders now, but there are still lots of games and time remaining for teams to ascend or decline from their current situations. Like usual, we will do the East, then West. I will also list my current Awards winners based upon the first half.

2) East:

NY Rangers- 118

Boston- 114

Philadelphia- 107

Florida- 97

New Jersey- 96

Ottawa- 95

Pittsburgh-94

Toronto-94

Washington- 90

Winnipeg- 90

Buffalo-82

Montreal-78

Tampa Bay-76

NY Isalnders- 71

Carolina-67

West:

San Jose- 108

Detroit- 106

St. Louis- 106

Vancouver- 104

Chicago-103

Dallas-96

Nashville-96

Minnesota-94

LA- 93

Colorado-90

Phoenix-88

Calgary- 82

Edmonton-70

Anaheim-61

Columbus-54

3) Next our picks as Half way Trophy winners:

Hart/MVP: Claude Giroux

Norris: Shea Weber

Vezina: Henrik Lundqvist

Calder: Adam Henrique

Adams: Ken Hitchcock

Scott Arniel Fired

2012-01-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

1) The Columbus Blue Jackets have fired head coach Scott Arniel. The move comes a day after the Blue Jackets were defeated 7-4 by the Anaheim Ducks in a meeting of the NHL's worst teams. (The Ducks fired their coach Randy Carlyle a month ago and thus far have failed to improve). Assistant coach Todd Richards will take over on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. As Fauxrumors stated in October in his annual great post concerning NHL coaches- who-gets-axe-first-2011-edition. In that post concerning Arniel he said:" Scott in a tough situation. The team tried to make a splash with off season moves AND they have a GM(Scottt Howson) who himself is under the gun. Coupled that with not having the horses to win a playoff spot, we wouldn't be shocked to see Scott be on the chopping block before season's end. Nice call FR!

2) We believe that Columbus management would have been better served if they simply "cleaned house" and fired Howson first or along with Arniel. We feel badly for Scott as I believe he never had a chance to succeed here. A bad team with a few injuries simply was NOT going to win. He didn't assemble the team, Howson did! So when the GM says crap like:" I just wanted to move the team in a new direction with a different head coach. Scott tried everything and he was running out of answers. I didn't see much hope in moving forward with him. I just felt this needed to be done." Hey asshole, YOU'RE the problem. If you had any class you'd have resigned today!

3) As for the change we don't think it'll have much long term impact upon the team this season. Much like we didn't have anything against Arniel, we also aren't slighting new coach Richards. He did a decent job with the Wild in his last head coaching gig, but they are 20 points out of the 8th spot, dead last in the West. At best they may avoid being 30th and overtake Anaheim, Edmonton or the NY Islanders but we can't see them going above 26th, so (another) Lottery pick is all but assured. The team needs to trade Nash (which we believe it will be the deadline) and also jetison Howson and start afresh this summer.

Week 14 Results

2012-01-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

1) Basically we are at the half way mark of the NHL season. The official half way game is the Caps-vs Kings tomorrow night, but for all intents and purposes we are there. Yesterday/night we went a pretty decent 9-4 to elevate our season total to 100-73 or a .578 winning percentage. Additionally we got our weekly 'Lock' correct to bring that season long stat to a now impressive 11-3' Of course look for Week 15's picks next Saturday when 11 games will be decided

2) In the upcoming week we plan to do out 1/2 way projections(not predictions) along with our 1/2 way Trophy winners. Also we are finally planning on dropping our post on the stats behind scoring 50. As always keep it here for all the latest!

Weekly Picks-14

2012-01-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

1) Its a new year, and week 14 rolls around with 13 big games on the NHL docket today/night. We bring our 91-69 record, or a .569 winning % into the action. Hoping to improve on our .500 week last time around.

Vancouver at Boston: Bruins (11' Cup Finals Rewind)

Ottawa at Philadelphia: Flyers

Edmonton at Dallas: Stars

Columbus at Los Angeles: Kings

Winnipeg at Buffalo: Jets

Detroit at Toronto: Maple Leafs

Tampa Bay at Montreal: Habitants

New Jersey at Pittsburgh: Penguins

Colorado at St. Louis: Blues

Carolina at Nashville: Predators (Lock of The Week)

NY Islanders at Phoenix: Coyotes

Minnesota at Calgary: Wild

Washington at San Jose: Sharks

All-Star Fan "Voting" Results Absurd!

2012-01-06T05:06:00.000-08:00

1) WE at Faux rumors are already on record of the inanity of the concept of playing an All Star game. (In any sport) no-more-all-star-games-please The game itself is usually boring to the max and rarely resembles actual hockey. More like a game of shinny, or pond hockey with better ice. As we wrote 3 years ago on the topic of the fans picking the team: Our take on that is; Who cares! The All Star game has become increasingly irrelevant. With the success of the Winter Classic, the All Star game has become less and less of interest to fans. As for the picks; that's what you get when you combine allowing fans to vote as much/often as they want (Chicago politics) with the idiocy/incompetence that is the NHL. The "honor" of starting is not like it was years ago. The real honor of selection takes place at the end of the season when the true All Star selections are made. Sure its nice to be selected, but few players have (are allowed with the current CBA) to get contractual bonuses for selection, so many might prefer to have the 3 days off in the middle of a grueling season instead.

2) To illustrate the insanity of the "selection process" the host team Senators were able to select 4 of the 6 starters! The 6th seeded Senators somehow landed 67% of the Eastern Conference starters? Now, for sure Erik Karlsson deserves to be starting. As the leading scorer among defensemen the 21 year old Swede as well as Toronto's DION Phaneuf are fine to be heading to the festivities in Kanata. The other 3, less so much. We'd even be OK if Spezza was an add on (not a starter) If the prerequisite to being selected is who is having the best 1st half. Spezza is currently 11th in the league in scoring ; meaning the Top 10 NHL scorers were NOT among the starting All stars! Absurd. However, the next 2 Senators really illustrate the nonsense here. Daniel Alfredsson, as much of a future Hall of Famer he might be, is NOT having an All Star year. If the commish wanted to add him as a fan-favourite, that would be fine, but as a starter? No! An Milan Michalek? There are 73 forwards with MORE points than he!! He's an elite player???? His selection more than taints the process, its destroys it!

3) Geez, we read that Toronto Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer was second in goalie voting behind Tim Thomas. Thomas is a no brainer. As the reigning Vezina/ConSmyth winner, as well as having some of the best stats among goalies in the NHL he should be the starter no questions asked. However how could ANYONE vote for Reimer?? He's 37th in wins, 35th in save %,and 36th in GAA. In other words there are probably 35 better goalies to choose from, and he was within a whisker of starting???.

4) We maintain the ONLY possible way to make the game have any possible excitement was to have player stats count in the regular season AND to give a boat load of cash to the winners. Right now there is NO enticement for players to give anything near 100% Even the "skills competition" which initially was well received/got increased fan interest, has seen its shine dwindle in recent years. However that all said anyone who believes we will see the end of the game as we know it you can forget it! Like in the other team sports, both the league and Players' Association want the event to continue. Too much money is involved to change that fact (surprised that's all about cash?) In fact, we're told cities and teams are still lining up to host it. Despite the bore, it does generate revenue for the host team/city. So we can all save a trip to see our Dr. for an Ambien prescription because the NHL All Star game is here to stay.

Is Torts Right?

2012-01-05T01:03:00.000-08:00

1) Fiery NY Rangers head coach didn't beat around the bush about how he felt about the officiating after the Winter Classic. In his words it was "disgusting". Now usually its the losing coach that blames the officiating for helping defeat his team, but in this case its the WINNING coach making the claims that perhaps there was some kind of maleficence going on to try to keep the game close. Saying, "I thought the game was reffed horribly,"....I'm not sure what happened there. Maybe they wanted to get it to overtime. I'm not sure if they have meetings about that or what...That third period It was disgusting."

2) So did Tortorella have a beef here? In our opinion its yes and no. Certainly the penalty shot awarded Philly in the waning moments of the game appeared to be justified, as the Ranger player clearly covered the puck inside the crease preventing the Flyers from stuffing the puck into the net. Actually it was a great play. However preceding that there were two questionable calls that Tortorella probably was also seething about. One was the "pitch forking" of Rangers super star Marion Gaborik which was not called and then moments later Ryan Callahan was called for a very questionable call for "holding the stick". It was probably those 2 calls/non-call that set off Torts.

3) OK, he later took back his comments, but in the heat of the moment he may have stumbled upon something that each and everyone of us fans already suspected; that the officials alter the way they call the game based upon circumstance. No, its not what Tortorella initially insinuated (sarcastically or otherwise) that the league, and NBC discussed with the officials on how to keep the game close/exciting. We do NOT believe in that 'Conspiracy Theory' nonsense. However there is NO doubt that referees do not call the games the same from start to finish. We called around to various folks we know within the league and with no exceptions (as long as they weren't going to be 'on the record') and all said its been long understood that if a team is leading they were MORE likely to be assessed the next power play. Additionally they also said it seems that refs try to keep the number of PP's awarded as even as possible, even if the play didn't dictate it. The league absolutely HATES when the officials, and by extension/insinuation the integrity of the game is questioned. Which explains the huge fine ($300,000) Tortorella recieved even after following his mia-culpa yesterday. The NHL simply couldn't be silent when a winnig coach with credibility questions in such a public forum the integrity of its officials. John should know better.

Dumbest Post of Year Award?

2012-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, yes, its early in the year but when we came across this premise for a hockey post we felt it would be tough to top. The blog post I'm referring to is From "The Bleacher Report" and it's titled "The Dumbest Player on Each NHL Team". OK, we got hooked into reading this tripe to see if in fact there was something to the author's premise. However he immediately takes the story from what we expected, dumb or unintelligent players to players who may be a bit odd, he writes"... Every team has at least one guy who has a few screws loose..." Well, duh! Everyone who has co-workers can say that, but being nutty or is far from "dumb", no? First here's the link if you want to read the bullshit for yourself: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1006227-the-dumbest-player-on-each-nhl-team

2) So here are a few of his reasons for a player making his 'dumb' list.

Boston Bruins: Tuukka Rask- Apparently he's the dumbest Bruin because he walked off the plane after winning the Stanley Cup wearing a helmet

Buffalo Sabres: Ryan Miller- Dumbest Sabre because the author (and I use that term loosely here), thinks he's a whiner with regard to comments after being hit by Lucic.

Calgary Flames: Olli Jokienen - Dumbest Flame for- "acts stupid, says stupid things and just looks dumb" Can you believe this guy had the balls to write this nonsense?

Carolina Hurricanes: Tuomo Rutu-"I can't speak to his intelligence certainly plays the game like a jackass". Fine, buddy you don't like these guys but maybe they aren't dumb, perhaps some like Tuomo they are just dicks? We did our list of hated players last month. http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2011/12/all-prickmost-hated-teams-2011-edition.html

Chicago Black Hawks: Dan Carcillo- Finally a player clearly worthy of the list! LOL

Colorado Avalanche: Shane O'Brien- A bit of a pest/pugilist, but don't recall any major incidents?

Columbus Blue Jackets: James Wisniewski- On the list for his elbow this preseason? Dumb!

Dallas Stars: Steve Ott: "I'm sure he is fairly smart, but he doesn't do himself any favors with how he behaves on the ice." Again, if the premise was assholes or hated players, yes Ott would be fine to list, but 'dumb'?? No!

Detroit Red Wings: Todd Bertuzzi- OK, we might be OK with this one too

Edmonton Oilers: Nikolai Khabibulin- Dumb for drinking and driving. Agreed, it was a dumb move, but hardly is unique to the Oiler netminder

Florida Panthers: Ed Jovanovski- The author doesn't like Jovo's interview style apparently?

Los Angeles Kings: Anze Kopitar- "can be difficult to comprehend at time in his interviews" Dipshit he's Slovenian! I guarantee his English is better than your Slovenian or maybe YOUR English!

Minnesota Wild: Dany Heatley- I don't know for sure, but I can't argue with this choice

Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price. As goalies are, he's weird, but "dumb"? Hardly!

Nashville Predators: Jordin Tootoo. Another player who would be properly labeled a 'dick', not dumb.

New Jersey Devils: Martin Brodeur- First he didn't have kids with sisters. Not defending him, but get your facts correct. They were sister's in-law. He's a shit head, yes. but dumb?

New York Islanders: Evgeni Nabokov- Yes, his failure to report to the Isles was dumb, but who knows if his agent is the one behind the move? I can name several Isles who ARE dumb!

New York Rangers: Sean Avery- Hard to argue here. A dick for sure, but does stupid things too.

Philadelphia Flyers: Ilya Bryzgalov. Like Price, (and most goalies) he's an odd ball, but hardly "dumb"!

Phoenix Coyotes: Paul Bissonnette- "Anyone who follows Paul Bissonnette on Twitter knows that he says some entertainingly foolish things". Anyone who follows a player on Twitter is DUMB!

Pittsburgh Penguins: Evgeni Malkin. So because Geno likes to "party" he's "dumb" Then 99% of the league is dumb! Moron!

Ottawa Senators: Jason Spezza- Makes this moron's list because of his "laugh"

San Jose Sharks: Martin Havlat. "Ill advised Tweets". Again with this dumb Twitter nonsense. Get a life!

St. Louis Blues: T.J. Oshie- "Dumb" for missing a practice last season. Immature maybe, dumb, hardly.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Steve Downie- "Maybe he is just a goon..." He has scored 20+ goals and is on one of the Bolts top 2 lines. A pugilist/pest yes. 'Dumb', hardly.

Toronto: Dion Phaneuf- Apparently the blogger didn't like the way Dion read a prepared statement? Dumb reason!

Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo- Over paid/over rated, perhaps. Dumb? Hardly!

Washington Capitals: Alexander Ovechkin "....goofball Alexander Ovechkin can be. He parties hard.." Moron, you got the wrong Alex! Semin is the player who really IS Dumb!!

Winnipeg Jets: Tanner Glass- "Glass is a complete goon" Perhaps, but he makes $750,000 for playing a few minutes a night! Brilliant!

Trade Whispers......

2012-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

1) Firstly thanks to FR2 for the blogs first real post for the year. he beat me to the punch with his usual top notch Power Rankings post. We usually don't like to make multiple posts on one day, but we got some inside info earlier today from some of our usually good sources that we wanted to pass along to our loyal readers. There are a few possible trades being contemplated/worked on today.

2) We are hearing that the Washington Capitals GM George McPhee has been working the phones the past week or so in an attempt to peddle either or both enigmatic Winger Alexander Semin and defensemen Jeff Schultz. Schultz has become an after thought once new coach Dale Hunter took over. Our sources tell us Hunter has told his confidants that he "doesn't want that pussy on his team." Alluding to the perceived way the 6'5" 230 pounder plays the game. His +50 2 yrs ago fell back to Earth once he was no longer paired with Mike Green and his career has fallen as well. The stumbling block with Schultz is his 2.75 mil cap hit (with a year left after the current one) As for Semin his recent surge is giving other GM's reason to possible add him as a rental. His dwindling 6.7 mil cap hit looks better with each passing day, so a team in need of offense might take a shot at him as long as the price isn't too steep.

3) What we have been hearing all day is a possible "package deal". We've been hearing that the Caps were asked by a rival team to keep Semin out of practice today out of fear he could get injured. So what teams are in on this possible deal? The big deal that we've been alluding to for months is the Drew Doughty deal. A possible scenario is Doughty along with a throw in Colin Fraser for Semin and Schultz along with a possible draft pick(s)-a 1st rounder for sure. Its a cap-neutral deal and could be contingent upon a "sign and trade" arrangement with Semin extended for another season at about 6 mil. We're told the bad blood with Doughty's "hold out" is still fresh, and the team would be fine with this deal to possible infuse some offense into the club. Other possible Semin suitors include the Avalanche who are looking to unload Paul Stastney. A one for one is possible but a draft pick or lower level player thrown into the picture is also possible. Stay tuned this could happen soon

4) Islanders getting multiple calls about Nabokhov. NY Islanders GM Garth Snow has been coy about moving the previously disgruntled Kamenogorsk native. Now that he is healthy and playing well it would seem to be the perfect time to make a deal. So who is calling? Oddly the team that traded for a goalie from the Isles last year, the TB Lightning. Last year Roloson turned out to be a steal. Guiding the Bolts to a playoff semi finals appearance. However the 49 year old has looked his age this season and he along with Garon have been quite underwhelming. Its unlikely Snow will get more than a 2nd rounder for Nabby, and if we were he, we'd make the deal now and not wait for Evgeny to reinjure his groin again!

Power Rankings-New years Edition!

2012-01-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

1) First off, Happy New years to everyone out there in the blogosphere! Looking forward to contributing along with FR to yet another year of writing about our favourite subject, NHL hockey! We are long over due in compiling a Power Rankings so we figured what a great time to throw out our latest rankings as we head into the 1/2 way mark. As we always do we list each team's current rank, their previous ranking as well as our input about the team/why we ranked them where we did.

NY Rangers: (4) A couple of blips lately but overall playing the best hockey of any NHL team as they head into the Winter Classic. Scary to think how they will do once healthy, as Staal appears almost ready

Chicago: (2) Are pacing the entire NHL in points. Practically unbeatable at home. Is there any better all around player than Patrick Sharp? Getting quality starts from both Crawford and Emery the offensive power house looks ready to get back to the Finals.

Vancouver: (20) The Canucks very quietly have been vaulting up the standings. Starting to look much like last season's version with their dynamic offense. As a top 10 team in offense, defense and special teams they are a threat to win every night .

Boston: (12) Since their Cup coma wore off have been one of the best teams in the NHL. The B's lead the league in goals per game and goals allowed per game. Equally dangerous home or away, bodes well for Cup repeat

Philadelphia: (3) Suddenly there is a goalie controversy in Philly. Nothing new to them except this time they are on the hook for 50 million for their 'back up'! That said the Flyers night in and out are one of the tougher teams to play against. If they could win at home more frequently they'd be atop the NHL

Detroit: (9) Unbeatable at The Joe, but under .500 on the road. Uncharacteristic for them. Is Lidstrom really 41? Looks like he's ready to compete for another Norris! They are clearly one of the best West teams BUT right now appear to be a shade weaker than their divisional rivals in Chicago

Nashville: (15) The loss of Weber hurts as he was their leading scorer and a probable Norris finalist, but still the Preds just keep on staying competitive, winning their last couple without their super star captain.

Los Angeles: (19) The Daryl Sutter Kings are light years better than the Murray Kings! If they can start to score (and we believe they will) they will quickly rise in the West

St. Louis: (17) Another team that has greatly benefited from a coaching change. Hitchcock has the Blues playing great defensive/opportunistic hockey. Have stumbled a tad lately and also need to play better on the road to be taken seriously as a contender

Florida: (14) Has any coach done a better job? Dineen has quickly shaped a rebuilt roster with average goalies into a playoff contending squad. Recent injuries have hurt them lately though and we believe they are at a cross roads. Will they rebound, or fall back to old habits and miss the post season.... again!

New Jersey: (24) The past few eeks the Devils have put together a very solid record that has put them right in the middle of the tight East playoff race. However without lots of wins in extra time/shoot outs the Swamp things wouldn't be quite so well off

Minnesota: (5) Starting to tumble big time. Back to where most of us believed they belonged; Competitive, but not quite ready to make the playoffs. As seems to always be the case, have trouble scoring

Pittsburgh: (1) The slew of injuries seem to have finally had their toll on the pens as they have played .500 hockey the past couple of weeks. With the news on Crosby apparently bleak, the Pens are not looking Ike the cohesive unit that started the season. The loss at home to the Jagr-led Flyers signified who the better Pennsylvania team was

Winnipeg: (25) The Jets seemed to have found their after burners and are no longer the door-mat they were when in Atlanta. If they played .500 on the road they'd be firmly in first in the SE!

Colorado: (26) Bizarre season thus far. Started on fire, then fell quickly to the near bottom, and now are playing solid hockey again. As always it comes down to goaltending and Guigere has recently looked like his old self

Ottawa: (22) Just when you think the Sens are ready to pack it in they rebound. The past couple of weeks they have been solid despite having a porous defense/goaltending. We don't see them staying in the top 8 hunt all season

Washington: (10) Winners of 3 strait are the caps ready to get back to contention or is this just another 1 step forward to be followed by 2 back again? Inconsistent goaltending has plagued them all year

Dallas: (8) Similar to Minnesota the Stars have returned to the pack after a fast start. Surprise has been Richard Bachman who is in for injured(again) Lehtonen. hard to figure out a team that beats Boston and loses to Columbus in back to back games!

San Jose: (13)Have yet to put it all together. Hanging in there, but they should be better than this. Lets see if this most recent up-tick is for real or another mirage

Phoenix: (6) Have fallen off the map after an exciting/fast start. Not surprisingly are not a good home team as the desert is usually, well deserted. The loss of Mike Smith certainly has hurt their cause.

Tampa Bay: (21) As good as they have been in St Pete Times Forum, they have been bad away. 'Scar' can not be pleased with the poor goaltending that has been his team's number one issue thus far. Too much talent here for them to stay out of playoff contention. (Nabokhov coming?)

Toronto: (16) The Maple Leaves (we hate saying Leafs!) appear to be settling down to the ground after a nice start. Ron Wilson got his contract extended so I guess he's not going anywhere soon!

Calgary: (23) Just when it looked like the Flames were about to rise from the ash heap, their long road trip has tripped them up. This version doesn't seem to perform well away from Saddle Dome. If they wan to return to the playoffs they best start winning some road games

Buffalo: (7) After a nice start injuries have riddled and destroyed the team. Of course getting less than the usual spectacular goaltending from Miller hasn't helped. Still if they stay close and get healthy in the 2nd half we wouldn't yet count them out

NY Islanders: (30) have shown positive signs of life the past couple of weeks, but those times are few and too far between the bad outings. Will the endless rebuild ever show real fruit? WE don't want to hear crap about the arena being the reason!

Montreal: (18) In any language, they suck! Its not Cunneyworth's fault (nor was it Martin), its the moron in charge of assembling players(Gautier!) Winning 3 of their past 10 don't be shocked to see yet another coaching change with of course a French flavour.

Edmonton: The kids are no longer alright. Outside of Rexall they are as bad as ever (5-14). Thankfully they are decent at home. Exciting team to watch, but not quite ready for the prime time

Carolina: (27) New coach, similar results. Muller seems to have them playing better, and Staal appears to be back, but is it too little too late? Missing Skinner also not helping

Anaheim: (28) See above, only team WORSE with new 'Gluttonous" coach. Is it time to dismantle the Ducks? Bobby Ryan appears almost out the door and few except maybe recent Hart winner Cory Perry are safe. Might Getzlaf be available?

Columbus: (29) What a mess! Forging new levels of futility. The Jackets are equally bad home and on the road. Exactly what is keeping Howson's job secure other than ownership turmoil? A troubled franchise from top to bottom!

Week 13- Results

2012-01-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

1) Not quite a horrifying day/night for us, but it wasn't pretty. We went 6-6 to bring the season totals to 91-69, or a .569 winning %. On the bright side we did get the Lock of the week correct to bring that stat up to a healthy 10-3 on the year. Look for us to get back at the picks next Saturday when a 'Bakers Dozen' (13) games are scheduled. Lots of games to either improve on or plummet. Also we should be shaking off the holiday doldrums to get you folks some 'non picks' posts this coming week.
As always, keep it here for all the latest into 2012 and beyond!

Happy New Year- 2012!!

2011-12-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

1) Just a quickie note to wish all our readers the very best this New Years! 2012 will be the seventh calendar year we at FAUXRUMORS have been blogging.

2) We are excited to begin the year where we left off; Providing hard hitting, unique commentary, rumors and rumor evaluation, and of course always with irreverent humor. Thanks to all of you for making this venture so much fun! As always, keep it here for all the latest in 2012 and beyond!

Week 13 Picks

2011-12-31T05:56:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, Its Lucky week 13 in the NHL. Along with it being New Years Eve there are an even dozen games on the docket today/tonight. Thus ar we are 85-63 for a .574 winning %

Edmonton at NY Islanders: Oiler

Pittsburgh at New Jersey: Penguins

Carolina at Tampa Bay: Lightning

Phoenix at Minnesota: Wild

Montreal at Florida: Panther

Ottawa at Buffalo: Sabre

Toronto at Winnipeg: Jets

St. Louis at Detroit: Red wings (Lock of The Week)

Washington at Columbus: Capitals

Boston at Dallas: Bruins

Colorado at Anaheim: Duck

Vancouver at Los Angeles: Kings

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T05:05:00.000-08:00

1) Firstly we here at FAUXRUMORS want to thank each and every one of our many loyal readers. We wouldn't be here without you!

2) During this hockey hiatus, we at the FAUXRUMORS group, along with the entire NHL, will also be taking a 24-48 hour break. We want to wish all of you and yours the best this holiday season! We will be back, along with the NHL back in action on Monday Until then we at FAUXRUMORS want to say:MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Week 12 Results

2011-12-24T05:08:00.000-08:00

1) The Holiday vacation is underway.. No games for 48 hours. Our early Week 12 is complete. For the night we went a decent 7-4 to bring the season totals to 85-63 for a .574 winning %. We got our Lock to bring that stat to 9-3.

2) FR2 maintains he will get a Power Rankings out soon. A business deal prevented him dropping it this past week. I'm also working on a post concerning the coaching turn over. Look for it in the next few days.
As always keep it here for all the latest!

Week 12 Picks

2011-12-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, a day early, but as we mentioned Saturday with the Christmas holiday there will be no games Saturday so we will use Friday his week as our weekly day to pick all the winners. To date through the first 11 weeks we are 78-59 for a .569 winning %.

Florida at Boston: Bruins

Washington at New Jersey:Devils

Toronto at NY Islanders: Islanders

Philadelphia at NY Rangers: Flyers

Ottawa at Carolina: Hurricane

Pittsburgh at Winnipeg: Penguins

Nashville at Dallas: Stars (Lock of the Week)

Tampa Bay at Colorado: Avalanche

St. Louis at Phoenix: Coyotes

Calgary at Vancouver: Canucks

Los Angeles at San Jose: Sharks

Sacrebleu!! Habs Hire NON-Francophone to Coach!

2011-12-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

1) In a non-stunning move the Montreal Canadiens fired underachieving head coach Jacques Martin over the weekend. What was stunning to the local (French speaking) media was the hiring of a non-French speaker in Randy Cunneyworth. Who cares if he was a good candidate or not, its all about the politics (of exclusion of Anglo-phones) when it comes to anything in Canada's mostly Franco-phone province of Quebec. Oops, sorry, Québec.

2) First as to the move. It was LONG over due. Martin wasn't cutting it. You might recall how we chastized the Canadiens for their dumb move in firing their assisteant coach when it was clear the problem lied in their coach and GM being incredibly inept. In fact the GM was in our cross hairs with the recent Kaberle trade. See-----> http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2011/12/bettman-to-drug-test-canadiens-gm.html So when they finally fired Martin we said "Its about time"! The French press of course couldn't careless if Martin was fired as long as he was replaced with someone with whom they could talk with in French. So the move to hire Cunneyworth was met with severe criticism with political officials. In fact The Province's culture minister says she expects "the Habs to correct the situation". In other words fire Cunneyworth and replace him with ANYone who can speak French. Even a French speaking chimp would probably be fine with the likes of these clowns!

3) So what will happen? AS Cunnyworth is still labeled 'interim coach' you can be sure that GM Pierre Gauthier and the Habs ownership will 'rectify' this situation and try to mollify the imbeciles who seem to make up the political class in Quebec. WE are already reading about a possible Patrick Roy hiring. It would of course make sense for many reasons. He's a former Hab great and MOST IMPORTANTLY he speaks French!!!! Voila this Faux pas will be corrected and we can finally Vive la différence and again the Quebec politicians can Joie de vivre.
Merci beaucoup

Christmas Trade Freeze?

2011-12-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

1) Well the once heralded start of the Christmas trade freeze came and went with a mere whimper. ( THE NHL XMAS TRADE FREEZE PERIOD IS DECEMBER 19-27.) What was once one of the more active times of year (behind only the spring trade deadline, and entry draft) the holiday trade freeze has become just another arbitrary deadline that comes and goes with little notice by anyone but team' GM's and some hard core fans/bloggers. The inevitable question would be why? Why is it/has it been so quiet the last few years. The answer(s) are simple:

The salary cap: This is the obvious reason for ALL trade inhibition. Teams can no longer simply make a trade without first thinking of the short AND long term salary cap implications. Although the cap has increased substantially(39 to 64 mil) the past 5 seasons, teams are still learning the system and reluctant to get too close to the max, if possible, to retain flexibility for a deal later in the season. As we have seen, even then the cap (as well as the earlier trade deadline) helps to retard the number and scope of a trade.

League-wide parity: With so many (almost all right now) teams still technically in it for longer periods, almost all GM's are still thinking of this year and not ready to throw in the towel, per se, after 30 or so games and think re-build. So there are very few 'sellers' of quality.

2) There are some deals that were rumoured to be left on the table that may be revisited again in the New Year. The previously rumoured Nash deal, as we wrote back then blue-jackets-looking-to-make-big-move. the deal would either happen then or after the holidays, probably closer to the AllStar game in late January. Additionally we're told that GM of the Washington Capitals is actively shopping under performing/uber-talented winger Alex Semin. With his 6.7 mil salary almost 40% off the books it could become more palatable as the new year begins for a team to take on the enigmatic Russian as a rental. The Doughty trade rumours also refuse to go away despite his new long term deal. hard feeling remain. These were a few of the stories we were following the last week or so. If any seem to be getting close to fruition we of course will let all our loyal readers in on the rumor as we hear them. As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 11- Results

2011-12-18T15:09:00.000-08:00

1) Week 11 is complete. We had another pretty decent week, going a solid 8-4 for the day/night to bring the season total to 78-59 or a .569 winning %. We also claimed another "Lock" to elevate that stat to 8-3. The NHL is dark on X-mas Eve and X-mas day so we will do our picks on Christmas Eve Eve(Friday) when 11 games will be played prior to the 2 day hiatus.

2) Look for a couple of posts this week. A pre holiday Power rankings is likely as is a discussion of the holiday trade freeze. As always keep it here for all the latest

Week 11 Picks- Who Would Janet Bet On?

2011-12-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, we are taking a shot at Janet(Jones) Gretzky and her past-? affinity to put a few bucks on the line for sporting events. Anyway its week 11. WE hope to have our first back to back solid week. For the season we are an ordinary(for us) 70- 55 for a .560 winning %. FR2 tells me he plans on trying to put up a pre holiday Power rankings. Look for it to drop sometime in the upcoming week.

Boston at Philadelphia: Bruins

Vancouver at Toronto: Canucks

New Jersey at Montreal: Habitants

Buffalo at Pittsburgh: Sabres

Anaheim at Winnipeg: Jets (Lock of The Week)

Los Angeles at Detroit: Red Wings

Tampa Bay at Columbus: Blue Jackets

St. Louis at Nashville: Predators

NY Islanders at Minnesota: Wild

NY Rangers at Phoenix: Rangers

Washington at Colorado: Avalanche

Edmonton at San Jose: Sharks

Concussion Epidemic?

2011-12-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

1) The way things are going you'd believe that there is a real epidemic of concussions going around the NHL this season. With the oft discussed Sidney Crosby concussion(s), to the most recent Chris Pronger (apparent) season ending concussion there seem to be a lot more high profile players going down with this very difficult to treat/often career threatening injury. In recent days/weeks we've seen stars Claude Giroux, Milan Michalek, Jeff Skinner, and Mike Richards join the aforementioned Crosby and Pronger to the list of star players going down with a concussion. However, according to the league the actual number of these type of injuries is no higher than last season. However don't believe for a second that the league won't have a knee-jerk response to these well-publicized injuries. There will be an inevitable call for 'changes' even if there really isn't one single factor involved in players having a concussion. Firstly NONE of the previous list of players injuries occurred as a result of a fight yet you can be sure the anti-fighting morons are going to bring that up as a way to curb concussions.

2) So despite the leagues statement that concussions are not suddenly increasing, we at Fauxrumors, who have been following the game for 40+ years, do NOT recall hearing much about concussions as a major problem until the past decade or so and really only the past 5 or so years. So what factors might be involved in this change?

Better Diagnosis: The neurological scans simply were not available 2 decades ago that are responsible in allowing teams to assess a players brain damage(if any). Techniques in assessment/diagnosis among medical professionals is light years ahead of where it was even a decade ago, so diagnoses are not missing concussions like in the past

Better Equipment: The new equipment certainly protects players much more effectively than in the past. Its light weight and hard as a rock. Players are more apt to feel free to make a hard shoulder hit, knowing they are well protected from harm, etc. Meanwhile helmets have changed little.

Faster game: Since the lockout the reduction in clutching and grabbing has sped up the game significantly. I ask any reader to watch a "classic" game from the 90's or before and you'll be struck by how much slower the game seems to be

3) So what will likely be proposed to curb this apparent epidemic? We predict some of the ideas will be in effect to try to slow down the game. If that happens we will have come full circle from the lockout when there was a call to make the game more exciting by reducing the boring (NJ Devils) trap and clutch/grab game. Some even point to the Brodeur rule (silly Trapezoid) as one factor allowing opponents an easier path to hit a defensman because goalies can't play the puck. The league has already tried to eliminate 'head shots'and in my opinion is succeeding, however most concussions (apart from Matt Cooke opponents) are not happening from direct dirty head shots, but from either inadvertent contact (Crosby) pucks to the head (Pronger) or just plane legal hard hits. It would be a shame if they league attempted to change the game now that its as exciting as its been.

Is 87 History?

2011-12-14T05:10:00.000-08:00

1) Well its probably a bit premature to bury Sidney Crosby as being 'done' however as we have written a few times the past few months, and most recently last week, if Crosby were to sustain another concussion it could be career threatening. What was widely reported last week when Crosby was going to take a "precautionary" 2 game rest after having "mild symptoms" was that he and the team were just being careful. Of course we reported that we had heard otherwise. That indeed it was quite likely that Crosby had suffered another setback(concussion) At the time of that post it was still unknown how serious that new situation was. We wrote last week that we would know if/when Crosby failed to return from the 2 game absence if this was more serious than the team/he were letting the media know.

2) Fast forward to yesterday when the team officially announced that Crosby was going to be out 'indefinitely'. Quite a bit of a change/leap from a precautionary couple of days to 'indefinitely'. That had to bring an ominous feel to Penguin supporters. from what we could learn (and the team is being especially tight lipped/quiet even in private) Crosby has been having head aches even without exertion since last weeks game against the Bruins. Recall he didn't have a huge hit(s) in that game but a few what we'd call mundane hockey plays where he was jolted a bit. All neurologists as well as the faux resident medical expert Dr. Varga have told us to be ready for that. Once a player suffers multiple concussions he is very prone to re-injuring himself even with a less-than hard hit directly to the head. Our experts tell us that its unlikely that we'll see Crosby before 2012. Ofcourse that's a mere 2 weeks, but the longer he's out and having symptoms the more unlikely it'll be that he'll ever be counted upon to play much longer if ever. So yes, the end could be very close at hand with respect to Sid. It'll be a sad day for the Penguins and for the NHL. having one of its best players cut so short.

All-Prick/Most Hated Teams: 2011 Edition

2011-12-12T05:20:00.000-08:00

1) We have been inundated with requests to update one of our most popular lists and felt enough time (4 years) had gone by that we could update it here. To review for our newer readers, in November of 2007 FR2 did a post listing the starting 6 players that were jerks, dirty, or just plane assholes/disliked by the rest of the NHL. He went on to list a First then second string team(s) along with his All time Prick team. Sio without further ado, here is our 2011 edition of The All Prick Team(s)

First team:

Center: Sean Avery

Left Wing: Chris Neal

Right wing: Matt Cooke

Defense: Dion Phaneuf

Defense: Chris Pronger

Goalie: Ray Emery

Head Coach: John Tortorella

GM: Brian Burke

Second Team:

Center: Steve Ott

Right wing: Jordon Tootoo

Leftwing: Dan Carcillo

Defense: Zdeno Chara

Defense:Shane O'Brian

Goalie: Roberto Luongo

Head coach: Dale Hunter

GM: Terry Murray

2) Next Our All-Time All-Prick Team(s)

First Team:

Center: Bobby Clarke

Rightwing: Chris (Knuckles) Nilan

Left wing: Dave (Tiger) Williams

Defense:Marty McSorley

Defense: Dave Manson

Goalie: (Battling)Billy Smith

Head Coach: Don (Grapes) Cherry

GM: (Iron)Mike Keenan

Second Team:

Center: Dale Hunter

Right wing: Claude Lemieux

Left wing: Ken (The Rat) Linseman

Defense: Dennis Potvin

Defense: Ulf Sammulesson

Goalie: Ron Hextall

Head Coach: Fred (The Fog) Shero

GM: Harry Sinden

Week 10-Results

2011-12-11T06:17:00.001-08:00

1) Yes, week 10 is complete. For the day/night we went a solid 8-4 (finally a good week!) to bring our season total to 70- 55 for a .560 winning %. We also (easily) got our Lock of the week to bring that season total to 7-3. We will ofcourse be back at picks next Saturday when another even dozen games will be decided.

2) Also look (finally) for our 'All Prick team" this week and some other interesting posts for sure. As always, keep it here for all the latest

Week 10 Picks

2011-12-10T06:03:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, already we've made it to week 10 of the 26 week NHL season! Over 1/3 the way to the playoffs. We bring our record of 62-51, or a .549 winning % to today/tonight's scheduled 1 dozen contests.

Montreal at New Jersey: Devils

NY Rangers at Buffalo: Rangers

Vancouver at Ottawa: Senators

Pittsburgh at NY Islanders: Penguins

Tampa Bay at Philadelphia: Flyers

Winnipeg at Detroit: Red Wings (Lock of The Week)

Boston at Columbus: Bruins

San Jose at St. Louis: Blues

Anaheim at Nashville: Preditors

Minnesota at Phoenix: Coyotes

Edmonton at Calgary: Flames

Dallas at Los Angeles: Kings

Bettman to Drug Test Canadiens GM?

2011-12-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

1) In a stunningly stupid move the Montreal Canadiens acquired Tomas Kaberle from the Carolina Hurricanes earlier today. The former Bruins defensemen was signed to a bloated 3 year 12 mil contract this summer which Canes' GM Jim Rutherford admits was a colossal mistake. So what does Canadiens GM do? he picks up the underachieving/over paid defender AND Kabelrle still has another 2 years AFTER this one! We wonder what GM Pierre Gauthier was smoking to do this deal!?!

2) The Hurricanes picked up Jaroslav Spacek, who will be a UFA after this season, in return. For the Hurricanes its addition by subtraction. Eliminating the Kaberle contract was a boon to Rutherford's attempt to possible reshape/adjust his moribund roster. Its amazing he found such a willing partner in Gauthier. Doesn't Gauthier recall how his team (prior to his arrival) picked up another salary cap anchor in Scott Gomez from the Rangers? Just shows that these hockey execs really aren't all that bright, or perhaps are under the influence. ;)

Crosby Concussed?

2011-12-09T06:41:00.000-08:00

1) Just when it appeared that Sidney Crosby had recovered from his long post-concussion convalescence, the team is sitting their super star the next 2 games "as a precaution". Apparently during Sid's most recent game he had 2 "hard hits" that may have shook up his fragile/sensitive brain to the point where he had brief periods of post concussion symptoms once again. The team is NOT saying he suffered another concussion, but if you take a look at both of the "hits' described to be hard, you have to be concerned with Crosby's long term prognosis. Simply because in my opinion neither was a very significant blow compared to what could be delivered in a typical NHL contest. The first wasn't even a direct blow when he collided seemingly accidentally with David Krejci. In the play Krejci innocently played the puck and spinned to pass it, accidentally catching Crosby in the face with his elbow. There’s no apparent ill intent, no purpose to hurt anyone, it was just a hockey play.

2) Later in the contest Crosby accidentally bumped into teammate Chris Kunitz in another seemingly Innocent, less-than-hard knock. Probably most players sustain hits much worse than this on a regular basis so this has to be an ominous sign. However this should not be surprising to readers of this blog. We pointed out on several occasions how it won't take much to generate another concussion. Our resident medical expert, Dr. Varga has told us as such. Quoting our blog post from 8/29/11. As Eric Lindros, Pat Lafontaine and other former star players who have had multiple concussions have found once they return they seem extra prone to re-injuring themselves. Even hits that appear to be routine/innocuous can have severe consequences. Almost all specialists tell Fauxrumors that were Crosby to sustain another significant event (concussion) its all but sure his career would be over.

3) To have Crosby sit at all has to show he had some symptoms. Although the team denies such a problem and simply being cautious, our insiders tell us that Crosby did not appear to be himself in practice the next day. They also say he may have tweaked his shoulder? Regardless, we now more than ever believe that his career is going to be cut significantly short. Whether its this season or very shortly afterwards we believe Crosby will suffer a career ending concussion and be forced to retire prematurely. I hope and pray that I am Dr. Varga are wrong in that assessment! For the good of the game we hope Crosby plays another decade or more! It remains to be seen if the 2 game absence is extended or not. If so, then you can be sure Crosby is much worse than being reported. Additionally we had already planned a post that we worked on with respect to how the league is going to try to protect Sid. Look for it next week unless the current fluid situation changes for the worse.

New Alignment- Winners and Losers

2011-12-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

1) Many are currently discussing the new NHL divisional and playoff format set to become reality next season (if there is a 2012-2013 season). Since, as we discussed last post that Gary Bettman had to shove this plan down several teams' throats, we figured we'd go through who we believe are the biggest winners and losers under this plan.

First the Winners:

Detroit: Probably the biggest overall winners in the new alignment. The Redwings aren't moving to the Eastern Conference BUT with increased play among the East there will be fewer games on the Pacific time zone reducing their overall time out of their Eastern time zone by 40%!

Columbus: See above! The Blue jackets along with the Redwings were the 2 teams that lie in the eastern time zone that were playing the most games outside this zone so this new configuration greatly reduces the teams travel

Nashville: The Preds are a Central time zone team, but this plan prevented a possible move to the soon to be defunct SE division. They get to retain their more natural rivalries they've been growing in the Central the past few years

Washington: The caps and especially their fans get their X-mas wish and return to the old Patrick Division(with Carolina. jettisoning their Florida 'rivals'. By doing so they probably will have some of the lest amount of travel(other than the 3 NY teams) in the NHL

Next The Losers:

Florida/Tampa Bay: Already separated by hundreds of miles fro their nearest rivals(Carolina) with this new set up the closest team to Florida suddenly is Boston? I guess someone had to take a hit, but seems odd to have the old NE division remain intact and adding the FLA teams. Their new conference rivals are probably pleased to escape the NE winter with a few extra road trips to the sunshine state! Sorry we don't buy the Canandian Snow birds argument that they will help boost attendance for the Fla teams!

NY Islanders: Imagine how difficult it will now be for the Isles to make the playoffs. Can anyone see them eclipsing the Pens, Flyers, or Caps any time soon? So that leaves the Rangers(who appear one of the best teams this year) Devils and Hurricanes. Even with the Canes and Devils in lean times its unlikely their management will allow them to stay that way soon, so it will take a small miracle to get them into the post season any time soon

Colorado: I guess geography is what it, but with the required increased travel East under this plan and having all their divisional/conference opponents in a different time zone the Avalanche will probably have the worst travel itinerary of any NHL team

2) By the way a frequent reader of ours wrote last night to remind us of how far in front of this realignment issue Fauxrumors has been. She reminded me that we wrote back in November of 2007 that the NHL should go to a 7 and 8 team division concept as well as bring back the old or (new) names to honor the past. See it here====>http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/11/division-power-rankings.html

Bettman Shows his Muscles in Realignment Fight!

2011-12-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

1) Looks like Big Gary got his way last night. We're told that there was "significant arm twisting" by the commissioner in the last 48 hours to convince several owners who were resistant to the large scale changes outlined and released last night. As regular readers know, we did a post yesterday where we believed from talking with our usual good sources that the league was going to sequentially realign the next 2 seasons instead of one big change as we saw occur. So why the change?

2) I believe the biggest enticements were Bettmans commitments to all owners that he can get an even better deal i the next CBA than even the NBA owners got recently. He told the board that he believes an owners favoured 54-46% split as opposed to the current 43-57 split in which the players get the upper hand, thus reducing payrolls roughly 25% across the board. Additionally an extra round of playoffs is likely in the cards as well. The new format will have the top 4 teams in each "conference" play in the first 2 rounds. Opening up a possibility that a team from another conference might fail to make the playoffs even though they have more points than a team that qualified. To ease that problem and to increase revenue/fan interest the league will create a "preliminary round" where the top 2 teams that missed the playoff cut would square off against eachother.

3) The Phoenix issue will solve itself under this plan. (Unless they move to Quebec.) A move to another city west of the Mississippi is easily solved with this format. It reduces travel for the Redwings so their owner is happy. It continues the regionalization (unless you live in Florida) and the associated rivalries. No one will ever be happy with any plan. Already teams are griping with the potential playoff format, and until the Preliminary round is instituted we'll be sure to hear crying from a bubble team or two. The other bit of intrigue left to be determined are the names of these 4 new conferences. We restate our desire to bring back the old names instead of the geographic names that Bettman brought to the NHL. The Patrick, Norris, Smythe, Adams Conferences sound so much better, and give the league a way to differentiate themselves from the bland NBA/NFL names.

UnderAchieving/Over-Paid!?!

2011-12-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

1) When we looked at the NHL overall stats sheet the other day it struck us how a few of the more highly paid players were NO where to be found among even the top 20 point producers thus far in the NHL. Its not like this is the first week of the season either. To this point most teams have completed close to a third of their regular season games and the players below while sucking up a vast amount of precious salary cap resources are not producing to the level of their compensation. If this were pre 2005 it wouldn't matter nearly as much, but in today's NHL if a highly compensated star player isn't cutting it its a double whammy to their teams!

Alex Ovechkin- Salary 9 million Goals: 8 Points: 19 Projected Totals: 26/62

Eric Staal: Salary: 7.75 mil Goals:5 points 14 Projected Totals: 15/41

Dany Heatley- 9 million Goals: 7 goals 16 points Projected Totals: 22/50

Scott Gomez- 7.5 mil Goals: 0 goals points 4. Projected Totals: 0/25(missed 10 games)

Jarome Iginla- 7 mil Goals 7 Points 15. Projected Totals: 23/49

Rick Nash- 7.5 mil Goals 8 Points 19 Projected totals: 25/60

Vincent Lecavalier-10 million Goals: 10 Points: 18 Projected Totals: 34/62

Henrik Zetterburg-7.75 mil Goals:5 Points 14 Projected Totals: 17/48

2) Those are 8 players, all making in excess of 7-10 million dollars this season. None are on pace to amass more than 62 points. In my opinion if a player is making close to 15-20% of his teams' salary cap allotment, he best be putting up numbers minimally of 40 goals and 90 points. Some of these numbers have to be alarming to their teams. Eric Staal on pace for 15 goals and 40 points? No wonder the Canes are in the toilet. Alex Ovechkin, once the most feared player in the NHL is now no better than an average 2nd line forward projecting 26 goals. Hardly earnig his 9+ million dollar salary. Vincent Lecavalier? Amazing that he was given such an absurd contract when he hasn't put up decent numbers in years, yet he earns more than any other NHLer, despite being on pace to attain a tad over 60 points.

3) We could go through each of these players in addition to several others (like Ovechkin's team mate Alex Semin who is on pace for 18 goals 36 points to go with his 6.7 mil salary) or goalie Robeto Luongo, who's stats hardly match his 6.7 mil salary. The bottom line to all these stats is the fact that most of these players are signed to long term deals. In excess of 5 years and in the case of Ovechkin 12(7 more to go!) Its insanity to sign ANY player beyond 5 years. Goalies (are you listening Mr. Wang?) are especially problematic in giving them long term deals.

Realignment Going to be a 1-2 Punch?

2011-12-05T05:16:00.001-08:00

1) From what we can discern from our various contacts in the NHL the league is likely going to plan on a "1-2 punch" in realignment. We're told that an announcement will be forthcoming later this week that Nashville will be moving to the SE division replacing the relocated Winnipeg Jets, who will take the Preds spot in the Central. A quick and easy move, and probably the one that makes the most geographical sense given all the possible choices. It simply was dumb to think about possibly moving Detroit there to make their owner happy

2) However there is the unspoken (other than here) "Elephant in the realignment room" the Phoenix Coyotes. The Yotes, from all we hear are just about ready to be relocated. The NHL has all but given up hope that a deal can be struck in the desert. There really was never a chance given the financial realities there. Only a deep pocketed local (who doesn't exist) who was willing to lose millions could keep them there. So the Board of Governors will have to decide where the team goes(likely East) thus making another realignment necessary.

3) The proposed 'Big change' realignment that would eliminate 1 division in each conference, thus giving one 8 and one 7 team division in each conference will probably be given the go ahead but not announced until next spring or even summer when the Coyotes are officially declared dead. The final decision of whom goes where will ultimately be decided depending if the Yotes go to KC as many surmise, or to Quebec City as many up north would prefer. However there isn't an NHL ready arena yet in Quebec like there is in KC and the move to KC would geographicly be easier to accomidate. The Coyotes would move to the Central and allow the Red Wings to move East where their owner has been "Ilitching" to go for years. Stay tuned folks we're told this is still a fluid situation and one that is giving Mr. Bettman quite the head ache having many owners calling him daily making thier cases of why they want to move where!

Week 9 Results

2011-12-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

1) Week 9 is complete. Just when we thought we could turn things around we fall even further back, going 5-7 on the night to bring our 9 week total to 62-51, or a .549 winning %. On the night the road teams were an astounding 9-3! Rather amazing. We even failed to win our Lock of the Week as Dallas continued their recent side by giving up 5 goals at home to the scoring-deprived Islanders! Oh well. We have a chance at redemption next Saturday when another 12 games will be decided.

2) This upcoming week look for a post we did recently updating our popular post we did a few years ago. The All Prick team! Also we believe FR2 is working on a post concerning some under performing, highly paid players in the league right now.
As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 9 Picks

2011-12-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

1) A new month, and a new chance for me to try to improve what I think is an abysmal record through the first 8 weeks of the NHL season. Thus far I am 57-44, f0r a .564 winning %. Not terrible, but I'd prefer to be above .600. Today/night there are an even dozen games.

Montreal at Los Angeles: Kings

Toronto at Boston: Bruins

Ottawa at Washington: Capitals

Pittsburgh at Carolina: Penguins

New Jersey at Winnipeg: Jets

NY Rangers at Tampa Bay: Lightning

Chicago at St. Louis: Blues

Buffalo at Nashville: Predators

Philadelphia at Phoenix: Coyotes

NY Islanders at Dallas: Stars (Lock of The Week)

Calgary at Edmonton: Flames

Florida at San Jose: Sharks

Coaching Carousel Continues....

2011-12-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

1) In a bit of a bizarre move the Anaheim Ducks abruptly fired head coach Randy Carlyle late last night and replaced him with recently fired Bruce Boudreau. The strangest aspects of this move is not that the Ducks fired Carlyle. The Ducks were off to an absolutely awful start to the season as they sat 14th in the Western Conference. However the team seemed to be trending up a bit lately, and the move was made after a sound 4-1 victory over the Canadiens at Honda Center. Its unusual for a team to fire a coach late in the evening, especially immediately after his team wins a game.

2) So why? Our sources tell us that Ducks GM Bob Murray was contemplating a move for the past couple of weeks, but didn't have a suitable replacement lined up. When Boudreau was fired by the Capitals this past Monday morning Murray thought he might have his man. What also added to the swiftness of the move was the fact that Boudreau was a wanted man. As our sources correctly told us Monday, Bruce was already being courted/contacted by 2 other teams. Both of which were 'North of The Border'. One scout tells us that Boudreau was going to have another job by weeks end somewhere". Thus Murray was forced to act fast, else he'd lose his opportunity. We're told that early yesterday afternoon, after receiving the OK to talk to Boudreau from Caps management, (He had another year on his contract) Murray offered the job to Bruce and a verbal deal was made, but too late in the day for Murray to make his move before game time. We're told Bruce threw a few items into a suit case and was en-route to California even before the official announcement was made early this morning (Eastern time)

3) For Boudreau the timing couldn't be better. Like the Capitals whom he took over for Glen Hanlon in 2007, the Ducks should be better than their record indicates. They can't go anywhere but up. When one of your stars like Ryan Getzlaf goes 14 games between goals it can't fall on the coach, but as always, it does/did. We believe the Ducks will have a bit of a resurgence under Gabby(as we believe they would have anyway). As for Carlyle, don't feel sorry for him folks. For one, he signed a 3 year, multi million dollar extension right before the start of the season. More importantly our very accurate sources tell us some of those teams "up north' who were looking at Boudreau will now set their sites on the former Norris winner/Stanley Cup winning coach. "Don't be shocked to see Carlyle coaching by Christmas" is what one Eastern Conference official told Fauxrumors early today. Yes, the coaching carousel goes round and round.....

Boudreau Canned! Maurice Next?

2011-11-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

1) The waiting is finally over in Washington where 4 year head coach Bruce Boudreau was finally let go officially this morning and replaced with former cap/fan favourite, Dale Hunter. We say finally because from we have been told this move has been in the works for as much as the past 2 weeks. General manager George McPhee, our spys tell us was spotted visiting new coach Hunter in London Ontario over 3 weeks ago. Probably a bit more than a scouting trip? Our source tells us that Hunter was approached with the proposition for this position in early November but needed additional time to get things in order with his current team for which he is also the co-owner.

2) The writing was clearly on the wall in DC where the Caps have tried every possible way to shake up their consistent under achieving/mistakes. When their star and captain, Alex Ovechkin stops skating/trying(as is evident the past 2 weeks) its clear something has to give. Boudreau had a verbal altercation with Ovechkin and benched the 26 yr old at the end of a 1 goal game to 'send a message'. However this was the 'straw' that caused GMGM to decide it was time to make a change. If the team captain is no longer listening, the coach has lost the entire team. Ovechkin in our opinion is as much to blame for the recent team issues as anyone. He was the wrong guy to be named captain and Hunter may quickly find that he is against a "prima donna'. It will be interesting how that goes. Stay tuned, for as we're told "Hunter is not the kind of guy to sit still for that kind of Bullshit"

3) Meanwhile in Raleigh Paul Maurice's days are also numbered. The Canes lost their 3rd consecutive game last night in Ottawa, and are now 3-6-1 in their last 10, dropping them to 14th in the 15 team conference. The team like their counterparts in Washington appear rudderless and in need of a change. GM Rutherford likes Paul Maurice a great deal, but come on' Jim, its time for a change! The season is slipping away and while we don't think the Hurricanes are a playoff calibre team we don't think they are a 'lottery team" either and we have long said that Maurice is hugely over rated and needs to be replaced!

4) Just an aside, another source tells us that Boudreau won't be out of work too long. The source tells Fauxrumors that he fully expects Bruce to be working before the All star Break and likely in a city 'North of the border'.

Post Script: Apparent Maurice was fired a little over an hour after we posted this article!!

Week 8 Results

2011-11-27T06:17:00.000-08:00

1) Another very ordinary week here. We went a piss-poor 6-5 on the day night to bring the season total to 57-44 0r a .564 winning %. We did get the Lock correct to elevate that record to 6-2 on the season. We'll be back at this next Saturday when week 9 has an even dozen games on the NHL docket

Week 8 Picks

2011-11-26T05:27:00.000-08:00

1) Well, now that the L-tryptophan induced Turkey day comas are passed its time to get back to picking hockey games. Today/night there are 11 games on the schedule where we bring our 51-39 record.

NY Islanders at New Jersey: Devils

Philadelphia at NY Rangers: Flyers

Edmonton at Colorado: Avalanche

Winnipeg at Boston: Bruins (Lock of The Week)

Washington at Buffalo: Sabres

Pittsburgh at Montreal: Penguins

Florida at Tampa Bay: Lightning

Nashville at Detroit: Predators

Dallas at Phoenix: Coyotes

Vancouver at San Jose: Sharks

Chicago at Los Angeles: Kings

At The Quarter Pole......

2011-11-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

1) With nearly all teams having now played 20% of their schedules and the NHL dark on this Thanks Giving holiday we decided to project (NOT predict) the finals standings. Obviously there is plenty of time for teams outside of the playoffs to get back in, but some trends are clearly becoming evident. This is NOT a Prediction!! We merely are projecting an 82 game season point total based upon each teams current point total/games played.

2) First in the East:

Boston 107

Philadelphia: 105

Florida: 105

NY Rangers: 105

Pittsburgh: 104

Washington: 103

Buffalo: 98

Toronto: 97

__________________________

NJ: 94

Montreal: 86

Ottawa: 86

Tampa Bay: 82

Winnipeg: 78

Carolina: 71

NY Islanders: 60

3) Next the West:

San Jose: 117

Minnesota: 113

Detroit: 103

Phoenix: 103

Dallas: 102

Chicago: 101

Los Angeles: 97

St. Louis: 94

______________________________________

Edmonton: 94

Nashville: 94

Vancouver: 90

Colorado: 71

Calgary: 70

Anaheim: 62

Columbus: 51

4) To reiterate, these are PROJECTIONS NOT PREDICTIONS! With a relatively small sample size a few (more or less) games played can alter the point totals significantly. That said there are a few interesting developments thus far. Who expected teams like Minnesota, Florida, Phoenix, Dallas, or Toronto to be in the playoff race this season? Who could have seen Carolina, and Anaheim be so low in the standings? Yes, plenty of time for 'water to find its level' but sometimes these trends do continue throughout the season.

5) Finally our (admittedly silly to mention) quarter pole Trophy winners.

Hart: Phil Kessel

Vezina: Tim Thomas

Norris: Shea Weber

Calder: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Adams: Kevin Dineen

87 Returns

2011-11-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

1) The waiting is apparently over. Sidney Crosby will make his long over due/waited for return to the NHL tonight when the NY Islanders enter CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. Crosby apparently has been given the "all clear" from his many Dr.s. Having participated in 'contact drill' of increasing intensity the past few weeks, the 24 year old Penguin captain has remained symptom free. Our contacts in Pittsburgh tell us that the team has been "extra cautious", and that Crosby was actually cleared to play over a week ago, but the team was waiting for additional time and the right time/place for the super stars return.

2) The internal thought was that playing his first game on friendly ice against an opponent that is wavering in the standings, who (despite last years fight filled mess of a game last February) lacks overall team toughness and is just the right team to play against right now. Don't expect anyone in the organization to state that publicly, but you can bet your bottom dollar Sid wouldn't be playing his first game in/against Philly! So what should we expect? We at Fauxrumors fully expect that Crosby will show little rust/effects of his time off. He simply is the most talented player in the game and in his prime. We wouldn't be shocked if he has a multi-point game right out of the gate tonight, and be right up with the rest of the league leaders (29 points right now) by the All star break, if not sooner.

3) Of course all of that will depend on his future health. As many of our regular readers will recall we had own own 'expert' comment on his situation a few months ago. http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html Dr. Varga was dead-on in his assessment back then that it would be a minimum of another 2-3 months before we should expect a return. We are hoping that the venerable Dr is dead wrong in his prediction that Crosby will be very vulnerable to a subsequent injury. As we wrote then: As Eric Lindros, Pat Lafontaine and other former star players who have had multiple concussions have found once they return they seem extra prone to re-injuring themselves. Even hits that appear to be routine/innocuous can have severe consequences. Almost all specialists tell Fauxrumors that were Crosby to sustain another significant event (concussion) its all but sure his career would be over. Lets all (regardless of how you feel about the Penguins or Crosby) hope/pray that 87's return is not short lived but the next stage of what has already been an amazing career! We hope to never again see scenes such as we witnessed (below)

Week 7 Results

2011-11-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

1) Another ordinary week for us at FR. Week 7 is complete and we went 6-6 on the day/evening to bring our season total to 51-39 or a .567 winning % We did manage to win the Lock of the Week easily on LI to bring that stat to 5-2 on the season. We will be back for Thanks Giving weekend next week when 11 games are on the schedule.

Week 7 Picks

2011-11-19T05:58:00.000-08:00

1) Week Lucky 7 in the NHL today/tonight as 12 games will be decided. We take our 45-33 record into the action and try to improve from our barely .500 score a week ago.

Philadelphia at Winnipeg: Flyers

Detroit at Los Angeles: Red Wings

Phoenix at Buffalo: Coyotes

Washington at Toronto: Capitals

NY Rangers at Montreal: Rangers

Boston at NY Islanders: Bruins (Lock of The Week)

New Jersey at Tampa Bay: Lightning

Pittsburgh at Florida: Penguins

Columbus at Nashville: Predators

St. Louis at Minnesota: Wild

San Jose at Dallas: Sharks

Chicago at Edmonton: Oilers

On The Hot Seat?

2011-11-18T04:14:00.000-08:00

1) With the recent coaching change in St. Louis we decided it might be wise to look at whom may also be or SHOULD be on the proverbial hot seat as the NHL heads into the Quarter poll of the 2011-2012 season. We'll list 4 coaches/GM's who should now be held accountable (fired) for what they have done/not done to help improve their squads.

Garth Snow: Despite winning last night the Isles are bringing up the rear in the East. Winning only twice in their past dozen games. It would usually go on the coach for the record, but Capuano is not at fault here. It is Snow who has been in charge for much of the past 6 years. Responsible for the interminable "rebuild". The team, especially the defense is old and slow. Its looking like high draft picks like Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey are not progressing. Remember Snow spurned Luke Schenn in order to get Bailey (and another draft pick). Okposo has been a recent 'healthy scratch. The Minnesota native who was taken with the 8th overall pick in 2006 appears lost. The team lacks overall toughness and the triad of goalies is not only a distraction but gives Capuano less roster options. We don't anticipate Wang to replace Snow, but the chants of 'Snow Must Go' will undoubtedly start to rain down from the venerable rafters of the NVMC. (Where they haven't seen a playoff series win in 19 years!)

Paul Maurice: Its mind boggling that Paul was even asked to come back when Rutherford fired Peter Laviolette. Maurice was fired from Carolina after the 2004 season. How long can Maurice live off their playoff Final 4 appearance 3 years ago? Since then the Hurricanes have finished 3rd in the SE and out of the post season. Thus far this season they Canes are near the basement, only the lowly Islanders (see above) are beneath them (for now). After two additional bad seasons in Toronto why do folks still seem to think he's a quality coach? He's coached an amazing 15 seasons and failed to make the post season 10 times!! Coached 1000 games yet is well under .500 lifetime (.472). This seems like a no-brainer to me. Rutheford is an astute hockey exec, and we don't think he will stick with his buddy too much longer.

Scott Howson: The Blue Jackets GM since June of 2007, the Toronto native went "all in" this past off season and spent right up to the salary cap max to try to get his team back into the post season after two seasons where they missed the post season all together. The franchise is actually still looking for its first ever playoff GAME win, after getting swept by the Red Wings in 2009. Thus far the Blue Jackets are dead last in the entire NHL with a mere 8 pints through 18 games. This after Howson got Jeff Carter. Traded to the for restricted free agent to-be Jakub Voracek, the eighth-overall pick in the 2011 draft and Columbus’ third-round selection Carter, 26, starts an 11-year $58 million extension this season. He also gave big bucks to UFA defender James Wisniewski to a six-year, 33 mil contract. They also re-upped R.J. Umberger to a five-year 23 mil contract extension. With those moves along with adding UFA Czechs Radek Martinek and Vinny Prospal most figured the Jackets would at least be competing for a spot. The owners shouldn't be happy how their limited resources have been used here and so Howson rightly should be on the hot seat!

Bruce Boudreau: Some might be surprised to see 'Gabby's name here, but real hockey fans, and most importantly knowledgeable Caps fans won't. Despite a gaudy regular season record (199-85) the Capitals have been a great disapointment when it means most, the post season. In the playoffs Boudreau is a winner of 2 of 6 playoff rounds, or a 17-20 record. Despite being the higher seed in EACH of those losing series! Worse yet, if one watched HBL24/7 last year we saw a man who frequently became unhinged and through F-bombs everywhere. Worse yet, it appeared the players could care less. This season we were told there would be a new "accountability". Caps fans tell us the roster might be altered somwhat, but the underlying issues remain. Its clear Bruce was a breathe of fresh air after Hanlon, but its quite clear he can NOT get them to the next level and needs to be changed. Anyone think if the Caps and Penguins exchanged Only coaches we'd see the Pens stay a top and caps flounder? Fuck no!

NHL Power Rankings-1st Installment

2011-11-16T05:18:00.000-08:00

1) Our first of what we anticipate will be a bi monthly posting of who is playing at what level. Based loosely upon overall record, and recent trends over the past few weeks. Obviously the first installment is all about how well teams came out of the gate. Subsequent Power Rankings will give their previous ranking along with their current placement in our unbiased poll

Pittsburgh: Hard to quibble placing the Penguins on top of our poll. Despite injuries to key personnel Bylsma has his team playing at peak performance. Scary to imagine how well they'd do/be once they're healthy/get Crosby back?

Chicago: Have the most points of any NHL team as of today. have been putting the puck in the net quite regularly helped by their PP coming to life with avengence, helped by their potent backline

Philadelphia: Surprisingly the Flyers are among the highest scorers in the league. So much for the defense first approach? heck, it seems to be working so far. The best road team thus far If they can get their PP working they might be tough to beat!

NY Rangers: Winners of 7 strait the Broadway Blue Shirts have turned an early season slump around in a hurry. Is Sean Avery really the difference? Actually its been Lundqvist and Dan Girardi helping to propel the Rangers up the standings

Minnesota: Despite having one of the worst PP units the Wild are pacing the NW division. Its again their defense and goaltending led by Josh Harding's amazing start to the season. can he and the Wild keep it up? So far we're liking what new coach Mike Yeo is doing

Phoenix: Another surprise is the way the 'Yotes are playing. Ownership uncertainty remains and they lost Bryzgalov, but so far Mike Smith has been doing well as his replacement in the desert

Buffalo: Wit the most wins in the East the resurgent Sabres are a top the NE division. Have slipped in the past week or 2, and lost starting goalie Ryan Miller to injury so its time to step up for the soft Sabres?

Dallas: After the fastest start in team history the Stars have cooled a bit They remain on top of the Pacific after their long road trip. Can Lehtonen continue to play at this high level? He will probably need to for the Stars to stay in playoff contention

Detroit: Seems that the Wings have finally found their skating legs. Winning 4 strait Franzen has been on fire of late to help the surging wings. Now if they can get Zetterberg going the Wings will be totally back

Washington: After a fast start the caps are reverting back to their old ways of taking periods off and not playing up to their talent level. New personnel, same old habits. Their PK is a tad better of late, but still needs improving

Edmonton: The Kids are alright. They got off to a fast start, but have comeback to earth with a recent road trip. Khabibulin still looking like his old self despite recent set backs. Hall and Nugent-Hopkins look like real deals. If they can get Magnus Paajarvi on board they would really have something

Boston: The Bruins have finally awoken from their early season Cup-Coma. The past 2 weeks they have been playing as good as anyone. Early season scoring woes are long forgotten Super Soph Tyler Seguin is double digit in goals and appears ready to assert himself as their #1 forward

San Jose: Winners of 7 of their past 10 the Sharks are playing their best hockey thus far after their usual slow start. If they can get Antti Niemi playing like he can the Sharks will once again be the team to beat out West

Florida: Surprising most of us with their early record that has them right in contention for the weak SE division. Not surprising they can score. Surprise is the strong play of defenesemen Dmitry Kulikov
Nashville: Congrats to Trotz and his 1000 games coached. As we expected the Preds are goal starved, but have one of the best goalies in the game in Rinne so they are in every game. Rookie Craig Smith off to a nice start

Toronto: Would probably been in the top 5 if this had been done 2 weeks ago. Injuries and poor play have hurt the Leafs of late. Biggest injury is to Reimer, who's replacement, The Monster' has been down right ugly in goal

St. Louis: They're initial/expected spurt after 'Hitch took over not withstanding, can it continue, or will they revert back? 2 regulation goals in 3 games is certainly Hitcock-like! However if they want to make the post season he better work on the leagues worst PP unit!

Montreal: The Habs are slowly coming back to life after a disastrous start. Uncharacteristically they have a very poor PP. Martin will have to find a way to revive that else it'll put too much pressure on Price to be the difference maker nightly

LA: With that kind of talent, no excuse for winning a mere 2 of their past 8 games! Murray deservedly should be on the hot seat! Through 17 games they have scored 2 or more only 4 times! This team should be scoring more!

Vancouver: Like Boston had a bit of a hang over, although they didn't win anything. They seem to have little trouble scoring, its their defense and Luongo that seem to be the issue. We're not big Roberto fans, but we'd expect he'll turn things around

TB: Another team that got off to a less than stellar start but have turned the corner the past couple of weeks. Roloson not looking 48 years old in net helps. Scoring has been there all year, its their defense and goaltending that'll determine if they get in the top 8

Ottawa: As expected the young Sens are a fickle bunch. Look great on some nights and God-aweful the next. The offense certainly has done their share. Its the back line and in goal that has been the biggest reason the sens are under .500

Calgary: So far nothing is distinguishing this team from last season's squad that missed the playoffs. Inconsistency abounds. No extended winning or losing streaks, but with their offense invisible how long before GM Feaster decides enough is enough and unloads a vet or two?

NJ: The Devils record is a bit deceiving. 4 of their 8 wins have come via the shoot out. Rookie Adam Larsson looks solid, but how long/far can a team have a teen age rookie lead their defense in ice time and succeed? Getting Kovalchuk back soon should help

Winnipeg: Few had expectations they'd be great this season, but after a dreadful start the Jets appear to be playing at least competitively. They don't have any stars up front so if they don't give a full effort they probably have little chance of victory

Colorado: After an initial great start, most of which was away from Pepsi center, the Av's are crashing back down to Earth and sputtering to say the least to stay in contention. Two wins in their past 10 games not good

Carolina: Isn't it time Rutherford see that Paul Maurice is NOT the right fit here? The Hurricanes GM is a savvy man so we can't see the canes not making a move if they continue to flounder

Anaheim: Very disappointing start for the Ducks. They should not be playing this poorly. WE had to check twice, but they have won 2 of their past 12 games!! Its gut-check time in southern California(for both teams!)

Columbus: Like on the Island, the GM has much to answer for here. Scott Howson spent and traded for a team that was supposed to compete for a playoff spot. Instead they stand(sit) at the bottom of all 30 teams!

NY Islanders: Not exactly where Isles fans thought they'd be. Its time for accountability from the man who assembled the roster, Garth Snow? One win in their past 11 puts them dead last in our poll. Most thought they'd at least stay in contention until the All Star break, not out of it by the holidays!

Goalies Now Fair Game?

2011-11-15T05:21:00.000-08:00

1) That's what the Buffalo Sabres contend after the league failed to suspend Bruins forward Milan Lucic for a hit on Sabres' net minder Ryan Miller. Lucic knocked the East Lansing Michigan native out of the game with an apparent concussion which will side line him for an undetermined period. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff was outraged that Brendan Shanahan decided that the 2 minute penalty that Lucic received was all that was appropriate in this incident. Citing Lucic's intent was not to run the sabres goalie. Here is a short Youtube version of the said-incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4EjRTYcpxk&noredirect=1

2) Our reason for bring this story to light is NOT to take a side one way or the other here but to address the issue head on. As I and Fauxrumors have long asked its time to allow players to make "legal contact" with goalies who wander outside their crease and play the puck. No, they shouldn't be boarded and have their heads targeted, but should be able to be hit like Lucic did to Miller, who was well outside of his crease, and took it upon himself to play the puck. To often we have seen goalies use the fact that referees protect them like sacred cows to go out of their net to play the puck with impunity. We believe that is why the dumb trapezoid rule was implemented. Goalies like Brodeur were feeling quite comfortable to go and become a third defensemen thus the league decided to increase scoring they needed to reign in the ability of goalies to play the puck as much.

3) Seemed like an odd/dumb way of treating a problem. Why not address it more directly? If goalies like Miller Brodeur, etc knew that they would possibly get knocked off the puck and possibly out of position as a result, they would be far less likely to leave their crease in the first place, making it unnecessary to paint silly shapes like trapezoids behind the goals. As long as they weren't hit illegally we would have no issue with body contact outside of the crease when a goalie plays the puck. The pendulum has shifted WAY too far from where it was 30-40 years ago when goalies were "fair game" if they left their crease. A hit like the one by Lucic wouldn't be seen as menacing or illegal and bring the ire of the sabres, but would make Ruff angry with Miller for placing himsel in a vulnerable position in the first place.

First Salvo in 2012 Labour War?

2011-11-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

1) In what many are saying was a LONG overdue move, according to Larry Brooks of the NY Post the NHLPA requested and received forensic accounting report on a few 'select NHL franchises. In effect to see if the reported income matches with the actual income. Why? Simple, the players share is directly related to the overall NHL income. If teams under report it then the players get short changed, literally. According to Brooks several teams including Nashville and Washington were 'guilty' of under reporting income. To that we say, shocker!(not!) We say why hasn't this gone on since the last CBA was signed in 2005? And why only selected clubs? If I were the head of the NHLPA I'd demand ( as is their right under the CBA) a detailed/independent forensic accounting of EVERY team EVERY year! Geez, it makes too much sense to not!

2) Brooks goes on to mention that the discredited Ted Saskin made a secret side deal with the NHL that disallowed the NHLPA from looking at the books of teams after a season is completed. Which means if 1/2 the teams were 'skimming/hiding' money from 2005 to 2010 the NHLPA can't/would never find out about it! Dumb at the least, and probably one of the reasons Saskin was let go. Donald Fehr the NHLPA should respond to the findings with asking for the remaining teams to be audited as well. If, as we have LONG surmised in the next CBA the NHL will ask for further concessions from the players, the NHLPA best have ammunition to respond. We believe the NHL will have far less ability (but still try) to demonize the 'rich' players this time around. I'd advise our readers to follow the NBA labour problems as I'm sure the NHL is as well. If the players eventually cave in, it is all but assured that the NHL and especially its hard liners will feel emboldened to make significant demands. Our sources tell us that a reduction of the current 57% to 47-48% along with a 25% roll back across the board will be the minimum the league will demand. They may even try to reduce the guarantees on future contracts much like the NFL does. If the NBA owners get all they want their NHL counter parts will smell blood and go for the kill of what they already perceive as a weakened foe. It remains to be seen if this recent demand for auditing is an early sign that the players will fight, or just a PR move by Fehr to show he's trying to do something to his rank and file and for public consumption.

Week 6 Results

2011-11-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

1) Not the greatest of evenings for us. Went an ordinary 6-5 on the night to bring the season total through 6 weeks to 45-33 or a .579 winning %. Worse yet we missed our 'Lock" to bring that total to 4-2. We will of course be back at this next week when an even dozen games will be up for grabs in week 'Luck' 7!

2) In the mean time we will have a couple of posts the upcoming week. Finally our first power rankings should drop early this week and ofcourse we will continue to scour the league for any trade rumours. It appears we stirred the pot with our Nash revelation. Soon afterwards other blogs/publications took that one and ran with it as if it were there own LOL.
As always, keep it here for all the latest!

Week 6 Picks

2011-11-12T05:36:00.000-08:00

1) We head into week 6 with an improved 39-27 record. We have 11 games on the NHL docket to improve that .591 winning %. As well as our 4-1 in 'Locks'.

Buffalo at Boston: Bruins
Ottawa at Toronto: Maple Leafs
New Jersey at Washington: Capitals
Dallas at Detroit: Red Wings
Pittsburgh at Carolina: Hurricanes
Winnipeg at Columbus: Blue Jackets
Montreal at Nashville: Predators
Tampa Bay at St. Louis: Blues
Calgary at Colorado: Avalanche (Lock of The Week)
Minnesota at Los Angeles: Kings
Phoenix at San Jose: Shark

Free To Blog? Thank a Vet!

2011-11-11T05:14:00.000-08:00

1) As we like to remind readers: "Besides:

Ending Communism

Ending Slavery

Saving the world from Totalitarianism Fascism and Terrorism

War never solved a thing?!?"

Blue Jackets Looking To make "Big" Move?

2011-11-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

1) In a stunning rumour we picked up on over the weekend several (now confirmed) reports out of Columbus tell Fauxrumors exclusively that GM Scott Howson is contemplating making a big trade to shake up his moribund roster. No shocker there as the Jackets are at the bottom of the league in terms of win as and points. However (and the reason we sat on this story until we received further independent reports) was that none other than super star Rick Nash is going to be (or already has) been dangled as trade bait!!!! I can already hear some of you out there; "Doesn't Nash have a No Trade Clause"? Yes, he does, but from what our source(s) tell us "he is all over this", and has given Howson a list of teams he'd NOT like to be traded to. From what we have discerned that list only has about 5 teams so Howson has almost free reign to deal here

2) Now, Rick won't come cheaply. Howson will be looking for a (cheaper/younger) 1st line forward, albeit not in Nashs' status, but able to step into the Jackets line up and help their anemic offense. Additionally we're told confidently that Howson will also seek to get an additional top prospect and/or two 1st round picks depending on who his trading partner is, etc. Now, who is being (or will be) targeted by Columbus as a trading partner? At this stage of the season its not easy to simply trade a Nash who makes 7.8 million BUT also has ANOTHER 6 years to go after this one at that same salary/cap-hit. We're told that the owners are on board with this possible move as they need to reduce salary. The Bluejackets have a team payroll of 64 million and going no where fast. Attendance is dismal so they don't feel trading their only super star could cause any more damage than has already been done with their poor play/record. From what we've been told look for this deal to get done by Thanks Giving, else it might wait until nearer the trade deadline in February. Nash has told Jackets management he doesn't want to be dealt during the holiday season.

3) So lets speculate what teams might take on Nash and his LONG/HUGE contract? We have asked all of our usually reliable sources throughout the league and the most common 'rumour'/speculation seems to surround the LA Kings in the West and Flyers in the East. Firstly in LA, they tell us that the recent contract spat with defensemen Drew Doughty has left a lingering bad taste in both management and the player so he could be made available, but Columbus probably would prefer a Kopitar who's contract has only 2 years let unlike Doughty's who has another 7 after this one. Still another Eastern scout tells us he's heard the Flyers might attempt to pry Nash away, thinking he could be the final piece. However in return Howson would demand a combo of either Giroux or Van Riemsdyk along with Braden Schenn. The source tells us that Holmgren would consider Giroux over VanRiemsdyk but would also prefer to trade a future 1st rounder(s) before parting with Schenn. What is clear from all this chatter is that;

1- Talks are on going with these and a couple of other teams,

2- Its going to take a lot to get Nash and

3- With so much salary going back and forth the negotiations are going to be complicated so it won't be an easy deal to get completed quickly.

We will update our readers as we receive additional information.

As always, keep here for all the latest

Captain Kangaroo Takes Over Blues

2011-11-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

1) In the season's first coaching casualty the St. Louis Blues kinda surprised the league by naming Ken Hitchcock as their new head coach, replacing Davis Payne as the Blues sit 14th in the Western Conference with a 6-7-0 record. As we wrote last month with regard to Payne:" Unlike the past 2 years the pressure will be elevated this season. Fans are getting restless for the interminable 'rebuild' to end. Injuries have hurt but management will only let that excuse work for so long. If the Blues fail to compete, Davis will be gonzo. With the slow start Blues management didn't want to allow the season to get away from them so they turned to the veteran bench boss in Hitchcock.

2) The problem one long time NHL executive told Fauxrumors is the fact that the Blues have a very young impressionable team. Full of talent yes, but fragile and green. Ken isn't known to get along with the younger players. In fact in his last stop in Columbus he rarely talked to any player under 30. We also take issue with this choice in that 'Hitch' wasn't able to maintain a good relationship with his past 2 teams, what has changed now? Its now 13 years since his Cup winning season in Dallas. Since that time he has won 4 playoff rounds and failed to make the post season two other times. We feel the 60 year old obese hockey genius' best days are behind him. At best he might have done well with a more veteran team that might have made a coaching switch, but this is a terrible fit and it won't take too long for the team to rebel against 'Hich's abrasive style

Week 5 Results

2011-11-06T05:05:00.001-08:00

1) Finally we had a week were have been trying for. In week 5 we went an impressive 8-3 on the night to bring our season total to 39-27, for an improved .591 winning %. We also easily got our Lock of the Week in Philly to bring that stat to 4-1 thus far.

2) We will be back at this once again next Saturday when 11 more games will be decided, and we're working on a couple of posts this upcoming week. FR2 says our first Power rankings should be out. As always, keep it here for all the latest

Week 5 Picks

2011-11-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

1) As we head into the 5th weekend of the NHL season we again have our weekly foray into choosing the winners on traditionally the busiest day of the week on the schedule. Today is no different with 11 contests being played throughout the league. We attempt to improve our mediocre 31-24 record.

Boston at Toronto: Bruins

Buffalo at Ottawa: Senators

Winnipeg at New Jersey: Devils

Washington at NY Islanders: Islanders

Montreal at NY Rangers: Rangers

Columbus at Philadelphia: Flyers (Lock of The Week)

Anaheim at Detroit: Red Wings

St. Louis at Minnesota: Wild

Edmonton at Phoenix: Coyotes

Pittsburgh at Los Angeles: Kings

Nashville at San Jose: Sharks

Surprise!?!

2011-11-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

1) Well after 5 full weeks of the NHL season with most teams having played at least 12 or so games, or 14% of the schedule finished we decided to take a look around the league and see what early surprises there are to be found. Keeping in mind many times these early trends do not hold up throughout the long 82 game slog of an NHL season, but some are interesting nonetheless.

2) First some positive surprises:

NHL hockey in Ontario! Yes, folks the place where arguably there is the highest percentage of hockey fans has been a dead spot within the NHL ranks the past few years with the decent of the Senators and the Leafs, well, being the Leafs and perpetually rebuilding. Thus far both teams are performing quite well thank you. The NE division is literally standing on its head with the Bruins (more on them later) sitting on the bottom and the Leafs on top. In Kanata they got off to a very hot start, cooling off a bit lately but enough to get the faithful excited that perhaps this won't be quite as a dreadful of a season as most (including us) anticipated. Jason Spezza is off to a hot start, along with defensemen Eric Karlsson to help the hot beginning. However having Anderson as your starter will eventually catch up with the Sens so we don't expect the resurgence to continue. Meanwhile in TO the Leafs are playing some of the best hockey in the league. Kessell and Lupul are pacing the suddenly potent offense, and Dion Phaneuf turned back the clock to 3+ years ago when he was a dominant force at both sides of the rink. Can they maintain this? Probably not at this level, but certainly we don't expect the Leafs to drop right out of the race, and should hang in there most of the season to keep Ontario hockey relevant again!

The Oil is back!?! Much like in Toronto there are signs of (hockey) life in Alberta, well in Edmonton anyway. Accumulating tons of top/lottery picks seems to finally paying off. The kids are alright! (so is the old guy-Smyth) Both Ryans, he and Nugent-Hopkins are pacing the Oilers and Khabibulin looks like the "Bulin Wall" of yore. Meanwile another team out west is surprising. The Stars many thought would struggle when they lost their offensive leader in Richards. However we didn't anticipate that Kari Lehtonen would finally become the goalie he was projected to be when Atlanta drafted him 9 years ago. He has been lights-out magnificent thus far. f he stays healthy and at this level of play even an offensively-challenged team like Dallas has a chance to win nightly

3) Next the negative:

Bruins don't have a Cup hangover but a Stanley Cup Coma!! Most expect the B's to get off to a less than stellar start, but this is becoming ridiculous. It hasn't been their goaltending or defense, but their lack of scoring that's been killing the Bruins. Other than 12 year old Tyler Seguin, no player is double digit in points. Do they miss Mark Recchi's leadership this much? We don't think the season is lost, but Julian/Chirelli needs to change something.

Detroit can't find the net!? No time to panic yet in Mo-town but after 11 games the Wings have a mere 24 goals, paced by Franzen with 4. No player is yet in double digits in points. Thankfully for them Howard is playing goal at a very high level to at least keep them in most games and allow them to be at .500

4) To reiterate its WAY too early to either get overly excited in Dallas/Toronto/Edmonton, or get depressed in Boston or Detroit. We have upwards of 70 more games left. In each season there are ups and downs. These early results might become 'trends', but most will be forgotten by Christmas and we'll be talking about a new set of teams that are surging or sagging. I the end of the 82 game schedule things have a tendancy to even themselves out

Bang For The Bucks- Part 2 (Goalies)

2011-11-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

1) This is part 2 of our two part posting where we take a look at production of players compared with their monetary compensation. As we wrote last post, in the salary capped NHL with the increased pressure on teams' to get as much production from as few a dollar spent as possible we at Faux rumors thought we'd do a little retrospective evaluation of players production verses their salaries through the years. Not only of today's players, but also those of the recent past. (Going back to the 1980's)

2) Keeping in mind several factors making it difficult/impossible to make a decisive proclamation concerning each player. Such differences include eras; The scoring vs the dead puck era. The pre-vs post salary capped eras, etc. However with those provisos in mind here is our abridged list of players, their total wins, their total salary earned for their careers, and the average $/win. We also will NOT be counting the current season and will try to avoid players who have played less than 5 seasons where the rookie cap will affect their numbers

3) Here we'll look at some of today's star goalies. First number will be total wins in their careers, followed by total income earned through 2010-2011, then the average $$/point/million. Then we'll look at some star players from the recent past (post 1985)

M-A Fleury: 187 wins 10.8 mil 17.3 wins/mil

Tim Thomas: 163 wins 10.2 mil 15.9 wins/mil

Ryan Miller: 224 wins 14.7 mil. 15.2 wins/mil

Ilya Brygalov: 159 wins 11 mil. 14.4 wins/mil

Dwayne Roloson: 215 wins 19.6 mil 11 wins/mil

Tomas Vokoun: 266 wins 25.4 mil 10.5 wins/mil.

Henrik Lundqvist: 214 wins 20.5 mil. 10.4 wins/mil.

Miika Kiprusoff: 278 wins 27.7 mil. 10 wins/mil

Marty Brodeur: 625 wins 62.6 mil 9.8 wins/mil

Cam Ward: 178 wins 8.4 mil. 9.3 wins/mil

Evgeni Nabokov: 294 wins 33 mil. 8.9 wins/mil

Marty Turco: 273 wins 31.5 mil 8.7 wins/mil

Roberto Luongo: 309 wins 35.5 mil 8.7 wins/mil.

J-S Giguere: 233 wins 33.1 mil 7.0 wins/mil

Nikolai Khabibulin: 317 wins 46.4 mil 6.8 wins/mil

Jose Theodore: 263 wins 39.6 mil 6.6 wins/mil

Next goalies from the recent past:

Andy Moog: 372 wins 9.3 mil 40 wins/mil

Grant Fuhr: 403 wins 15.5 mil 26 wins/mil

Ron Hextall: 296 wins 12.5 mil 23.7 wins/mil

Bill Ranford: 240 wins 12.2 mil 19.7 wins/mil

Tom Barrasso: 369 wins 20 mil 18.4 wins/mil

John VanBiesbrouk: 374 wins 21.6 mil 17.3 wins/mil

Mike Vernon: 385 wins 23.9 mil 16.1 wins/mil

Chris Osgood: 401 wins 27.2 mil. 14.7 wins/mil

Artus Irbe: 218 wins 14.9 mil. 14.6 wins/mil

Sean Burke: 324 wins 27 mil. 12 wins/mil

Ed Belfour: 484 wins 49.6 mil 9.8 wins/mil

Patrick Roy: 551 wins 56.8 mil 9.7 wins/mil

Curtis Joseph: 454 wins 51.4 mil. 8.8 wins/mil.

Dominic Hasek: 389 wins 55.9 mil. 7 wins/mil

Olaf Kolzig: 303 wins 43.8 mil 6.9 wins/mil

Mike Richter: 301 wins 43.6 mil 6.9 wins/mil

Sorry, But Its Dumb and Dumber!!

2011-10-31T05:31:00.000-07:00

1) OK have a few things to talk abut with respect to them being "dumb". First thing is the Canadiens firing their "ASSISTANT" coach. That's right, they didn't fire the GM who assembled the team. Nor did they fire the head coach who is responsible for team discipline/readiness/systems, etc. Instead they chose to fire a lowly assistant, Perry Pearn. Pearn was in his third season as a Habs asst. Apparently helping with the PP unit. So because the team was off to a poor start and the PP was struggling they thought the best way to jump start the team was to fire a guy who was minimally responsible for that bad start. I guess suddenly he became stupid and didn't know how to organize the PP unit after 2 pretty good seasons with the extra man? Sorry, but that's DUMB!

2) Next thing on my pet peeve list are bloggers and professional hockey writers making prognostications of whom will win the various NHL trophies. Now, we find it inane to do it prior to the mid way point, but now we're seeing it done before most teams have played 10 games!!! Come on already! How meaningless can one get?!? I find it incredible enough that my bloggers are writing posts postulating who the 'early favourites' are in the various categories, but we read with amusement Scott Burnside's latest article handicapping who will win the Jack Adams award for coach of the year. Add the fact that its one of the more meaningless awards and its still freaking October!! Are we so short of items to discuss that we have to dredge/make up inane items of dubious inportance/interest? Sorry, but its dumb!!

Week 4 Results:

2011-10-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

1) Week 4 is now in the books. For the day/night we went a solid 9-4 to bring our season total to 31-24 or a .564 winning %. We did lose our first Lock of the week, but it topok a 3 goal 3rd period collapse by the Rangers to do it, but it brings that stat to 3-1 on the season. We will be back at this again next Saturday when 11 contests will be decided.

2) Look for some interesting posts this upcoming week as we head into the second month of the NHL season. FR2 tells me that he is posting an article about some 'dumb' observations. Look for my second installment of "bang for the Bucks-goalies edition" later this week. Finally, I also plan of dropping a post concerning 50 goal scorers. Hopefully late this week or early next week. As always, keep it here for all the latest

Week 4 Picks

2011-10-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

1) Already we're into week 4 of the NHL season. There are 13 games on the docket today/nite. We take a very crappy 22-20 record after 3 weeks, hoping to do better than we have the past 2 weeks.

Ottawa at NY Rangers: Rangers (Lock of The Week)

Florida at Buffalo: Sabres
Pittsburgh at Toronto: Maple Leafs

Boston at Montreal: Habs
San Jose at NY Islanders: Islanders

Carolina at Philadelphia: Flyers

Winnipeg at Tampa Bay: Lightning

Anaheim at Nashville: Ducks

Detroit at Minnesota: Wild

New Jersey at Dallas: Stars

Columbus at Chicago: BlackHawks

Los Angeles at Phoenix: Coyotes

Washington at Vancouver: Canucks

Reverberations/Effects of NBA Lock out?

2011-10-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

1) As the NBA (yawn, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ) lock out continues many have inquired to us and other bloggers/hockey writers as to the impact on the current NBA stalemate to the NHL.

What parallels can be made to the potential NHL CBA soon to be expired?

What are the ramifications of the eventual settlement there?

Does it benefit the NHL to have NBA arenas dark?

2) I'll answer the last question first. Simply, no, or minimally. Especially right now with the World Series and NFL going full blazes sports stations that usually ignore or give minimal coverage to the NHL(ESPN) haven't changed their policies or increased their coverage/interest to make up for the lack of showing 50 boring layup/dunks nightly. Now, that could change IF the NBA season is either cancelled or the lockout continues after the Super Bowl (both unlikely scenarios)

3) The parallels and ramifications questions I'll take together. There are absolutely parallels here. We contacted a source on the players side who said definitively that they expect the owners to make their share the primary issue. Much like the NBA is trying to reduce the players share of the pie, so will the NHL owners insist that the players slice of the pie be reduced from its current 57% to a "more equal" 50(or less if they can pull it off). The difference lies in the fact that the NBA does NOT have a hard cap. There are numerous/intentional loop holes built into their system. Some of which the NBA owners are trying to eliminate that don't exist in the NHL CBA.

4) The biggest possible ramification will be the outcome. The NHL owners would certainly feel more emboldened to crack the whip if the NBA owners eventually win their standoff; showing the NHL players that if the NBA, which is MUCH stronger economically, needs to make adjustments then certainly the NHL its MUCH weaker sister sports league needs to do the same to stay economically sound/competitive. Our sources tell us to expect the NBA players to start to get antsy for resolution very soon when the first pay cheque is missed(mid November). From there the owners' advantage just gains momentum. "Billionaires can outlast millionaires indefinitely" is how one league source put it. Donald Fehr can bloviate all he wants (so far he's been mute) but in the end Gary Bettman 'has hand', and no doubt is prepared to use it. Another well placed source tells us the NHL "players better be prepared to get spanked" in this next go around. Another 25% across the board reduction will be on the table.

Bang For The Bucks?!? Part 1

2011-10-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

1) In the salary capped NHL with the increased pressure on teams' to get as much production from as few a dollar spent as possible we at Faux rumors thought we'd do a little retrospective evaluation of players production verses their salaries through the years. Not only of today's players, but also those of the recent past. (Going back to 1989)

2) Keeping in mind several factors making it difficult/impossible to make a decisive proclamation concerning each player. Such differences include eras. The scoring vs the dead puck era. The pre-vs post salary capped eras, etc. However with those provisos in mind he is our abridged list of players, their total points (or wins for goalies), their total salary earned for their careers, and the average $/point (or win). Admittedly it's a MUCH more difficult thing to assess defensemen as it is goalies/forwards where points and wins are clear cut numbers to weigh. We also will NOT be counting the current season and will try to avoid players who have played less than 5 seasons where the rookie cap will affect their numbers

3) At first we were going to do all this in 1 post. However after compiling the data we figured this all would be so much easier to read/digest if we separated the information into 2 different posts. One for skaters and one for goalies. First we'll look at some of today's star non goalies. First number will be total points in their careers, followed by total income earned through 2010-2011, then the average $$/point/million. Then we'll look at some star players from the recent past (post 1985)

Ryan Getzlaf: 417 pts 11.8 mil 35.3 pts/mil

Evgeny Malkin: 422 pts 12 mil 35.2 pts/mil

Patrick Sharp: 321 pts 9.3 mil 34.5 pts/mil

Henrik Sedin: 673 points. 21.7 mil. 31 pts/mil.

Daniel Sedin: 658 pts. 21.7 mil. 30 pts/million

Alex Ovechkin: 617 pts 21.0 mil 29.4 pts/mil

Cory Perry: 371 pts. 12.8mil 29.0 pts/mil

Alex Semin: 359 pts. 12.7 mil 28.2 pts/mil

Henrik Zetterberg: 556 pts 19.8 mil 28.1 pts/mil

Jeff Carter: 346 pts. 12.3 mil 28.1 pts/mil

Sidney Crosby: 572 pts. 20.5 mil 27.9 pts/mil

Alex Tanguay: 691 pts 25.8 mil 26.8 pts/mil

Mike Richards: 353 pts. 13.8 mil 25.6 pts/mil

Eric Staal: 508 pts. 20 mil. 25.4 pts/mil

Marty St. Louis: 782 pts. 30.8 mil 25.4 pts./mil.

Patrick Marleau: 768 pts 34.2 mil 22.5 pts/mil

Teemu Selanne: 1343 pts 61.6 mil 21.8 pts/mil

Pavel Datsyuk: 654 pts. 30.7 mil 21.3 pts/mil

Joe Thornton: 1002 pts. 48.2 mil 20.8 pts/mil

Daniel Alfredsson: 1027 pts. 49.6 pts. 20.7 pts/mil

Dany Heatley: 692 pts. 34.7 mil 19.9 pts/mil

Ilya Kovalchuk: 706 pts 35.4 mil 19.9 pts/mil

Jarome Iginla: 1007 pts 55 mil 18.3 pts/mil

Brad Richards: 720 pts 39.9 mil 18 pts/mil

Marion Gabarik: 574 pts 32.4 mil 17.7 pts/mil

Vinny Lecavalier: 796 pts. 46.5 mil 17.1 pts/mil

Rick Nash: 494 pts 29.4 mil 16.8 pts/mil

Danny Briere: 597 pts. 38.2 mil 15.6 pts/mil

Thomas Vanek: 394 pts 26.3 mil 15 pts/mil

4) Next we will look back a bit at some of the best players from the past 25 years and see where they stack up with regard to the same criteria:

Today again we will look at the forwards:

Wayne Gretzky: 2857 pts. 48 mil 59.5 pts/mil

Adam Oats: 1420 pts. 25 mil 56.8 pts/mil

Luc Robitaille: 1394 pts 34.8 mil 40 pts/mil

Mario Lemieux: 1723 pts. 54 mil 31.9 pts/mil

Mark Recchi: 1533 pts 49.9 mil 30.7 pts/mil

Mark Messier: 1887 pts. 64 mil 29.5/mil

Brett Hull: 1391 pts. 52.5 mil 26.5 pts/mil

Pierre Turgeon: 1327 pts 52.3 mil 25.4 pts/mil

Jeremy Roenick: 1216 pts. 54 mil 22.5 pts/mil

Brendan Shanahan: 1354 pts. 61 mil 22.2 pts/mil

Doug Weight: 1033 pts. 58.1 mil 17.8 pts/mil

Joe Sakic: 1641 pts 93.2 mil 17.6 pts/mil

Mats Sundin: 1349 pts. 79.7 mil. 16.9 pts/mil

Jaromir Jagr: 1603 pts 98 mil 16.4 pts/mil

Alex Yashin: 781 pts. 53.9 mil 14.5 pts/mil

Peter Forsberg: 885 pts 65.4 mil 13.5 pts/mil

Keith Tkachuk: 1065 pts 80.5 mil 13.2 pts/mil

Pavel Bure: 779 pts 66.4 mil 11.7 pts/mil

5) So what do we take from this? You can say that players from the early/mid 80's were either vastly under paid or their bretheren a decade later were vastly OVER paid. It seems star players from the early 90's to early 2000's were compensated well beyond the predesessors and probably quite a bit better than today. What would Gretzky have made if his prime was 10 years later? How could a Keith Tkachuk rake in 80+ mil, 30 mil more than TGO who had almost 3 times as many points?

Look for our post concerning goalies up coming soon.

Week 3 Results

2011-10-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

1) Week three is complete. For the night we went an average/poor 7-7 to bring our season total to a very ordinary 22-20 for a .525 winning %. We did manage to get our Lock of The week to say a perfect 3-0 on the season. We will be back at this again next week when there will be 13 games to be decided.
Additionally we're working on a couple of interesting posts. One concerning the 50 goal plateau and another concerning what stars are worth the big $$ they're getting. Look for them later this week. As always, keep it here for all the latest

Week 3 Picks

2011-10-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

Nashville at Calgary: Flames

Minnesota at Vancouver: Canucks

San Jose at Boston: Bruins

Toronto at Montreal: Habs

Columbus at Ottawa: Senators

St. Louis at Philadelphia: Flyers

New Jersey at Pittsburgh: Penguins

Detroit at Washington: Capitals

Carolina at Winnipeg: Jets

Buffalo at Tampa Bay: Sabres

NY Islanders at Florida: Panthers

Colorado at Chicago: Black Hawks

NY Rangers at Edmonton: Rangers

Dallas at Los Angeles: Kings (Lock of The Week)

Amen, Brooks Laich!!

2011-10-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

1) Last week Washington Capitals veteran forward said what Fauxrumors and I have been advocating/saying; That the pussification of the sport has gone too far. Laich was responding to questions about his team mate Jay Beagle who earlier in the night was knocked to the ice by enforcer Arron Asham, bloodying the 4th line forward. At the time is was suspected that Beagle had suffered a concussion in addition to a nice facial laceration. Beagle actually wanted to get back on the ice. However , he was not allowed.

2) The league's new rules which were implemented in March as a way to stem the rising rate of concussions in the sport state a player leaving the ice after a possible head injury must be examined by a doctor in the locker room or a "quiet room." A player exhibiting signs of a possible concussion is not allowed to play the rest of the game. Laich's reaction to Beagles plight was "I really don't care about that(concussion) awareness crap, to be honest, I'm sick of hearing all this talk about concussions and the quiet room," He went on," We accept that there's going to be dangers when we play this game and you know that every night you get dressed," he said. "Sometimes it feels like we're being babysat a little too much. We're grown men, we should have a little say in what we want to do."

3) Geez, finally a player steps up and says what I bet a lot of them are feeling and saying behind the scenes. What gives his statement even more weight is the fact that Laich is the Capitals player representative for the NHLPA. It leads us to ask, will there be push back by the players and their association to curb/reduce the current rules/protocol. Additionally, we feel there will also be some push back against the new hitting enforcement being implemented by Brendan Shanahan. As was (poorly) espoused by Don Cherry, but accurate the new rules changes has resulted in reduced hitting/body contact of all varieties. Is this the game the NHL wants to sell? Hopefully more players, like the respected Brooks Laich will continue to speak up!

Realignment Poll

2011-10-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

1) With realignment set to become a reality this December at the Board of Governors meeting we have read many possibilities thrown around by fellow Bloggers and hockey media. We wrote our opinion on this way back in July http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2011/07/realignment.html So here is our readers chance to sound off their opinion below. Feel free to take the poll and/or leave your opinions. We'll post the results in a week along with any pithy retorts/opinions

Take my poll!

Week 2-Results

2011-10-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

1) Well Week two is done. For the night we went an abysmal 5-9. For the season's first 2 weeks our combined score is 15-13 or a .536 winning %. Barely over the Mendoza line. We did manage to win our Lock to bring that to 2-0 on the young season. Strange night that saw 8 road teams come away with wins with 10 1 goal games, 6 going to extra time/the silly SO. Not an excuse, but does show how highly competitive the league is and how difficult/impossible it is to pick winners even without a 'spread'.

2) Anyway, we plan to be back at is next Saturday when 14 more tilts will be decided. Look for our first poll in a long time. This time on Realignment. Should be out tomorrow morning
As always, keep it here for all the latest

Week 2 Picks

2011-10-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

1) Its week 2 in our season long extravaganza. To review last week we went a very solid 9-4 or a .692 winning %, as well as winning the first "Lock of The Week". 14 big games on the line today/night.

Calgary at Toronto: Flames

Colorado at Montreal: Canadiens

NY Rangers at NY Islanders: Rangers

Los Angeles at Philadelphia: Flyers

Buffalo at Pittsburgh: Penguins

Ottawa at Washington: Capitals (Lock of The Week)

Winnipeg at Phoenix: Coyotes

Tampa Bay at Florida: Lightning

New Jersey at Nashville: Preditors

Detroit at Minnesota: Red Wings

Columbus at Dallas: Stars

Boston at Chicago: Black Hawks

Vancouver at Edmonton: Canucks

St. Louis at San Jose: Sharks

Shocker: Rick DiPietro Injured!

2011-10-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

1) In yet another set back for the NY Isalnder's 'Goalie For Life', Rick DiPietro suffered another significant injury when DiPietro was struck in the mask on a shot by teammate Brian Rolston during practice Wednesday. He underwent tests Thursday where it was confirmed that the Isl;es maligned netminder had indeed suffered yet another concussion. DiPietro has been sidelined by multiple concussions during his career. From our count its at least 4. Twon in 2007, one last season and this latest set back

2) He didn't play in any of New York's first three regular-season games and has played a total of 39 games the past three seasons. The 30-year-old goalie is in the sixth season of an absurdly long 15-year contract with the Islanders. DiPietro missed the majority of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons because of a knee injury following having had surgery on both hips. Additionally, last season, DiPietro was sidelined for several weeks because of broken bones in his face caused by a punch from Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson DiPietro was knocked cold by a left hook above his right eye, and the broken bones and also swelling in his knee kept him out of action until March 19.

3) In a related story Pittsburgh Penguins announced that superstar Sidney Crosby has been cleared for contact, the next step in returning to the ice after almost 10 months following multiple concussions last January. Why is this story related? because the Crosby concussion as well as the DiPietro injury did NOT come either fighting or from an 'illegal body check. The things that the media and reflexively the NHL are now trying to reduce. Our point? That in a tough, rough violent sport its inevitable that players will get injured. Unless they want to fundamentally change the game(see Don Cherry's rant) players will get injured.

Calm Down and Step Away From The Ledge!

2011-10-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

1) OK folks, Calm down!! Its only the first week of the season, and with most team having played 4 or less games its hardly time to go off and do something desperate. I have been reading some of the blogs out there and already its amazing but they are "seeing trends" and using an amazingly short sample size to extrapolate their teams strengths and weaknesses. To that we say, are you nuts!?! Even after a full month one can't make too many for-certain proclamations of trends or feel that a slow or fast start means that your team is going to win the Cup of be a 'Lottery-pick' finisher

2) We see it each and every season. Some team gets off to a lighting fast start and everyone is proclaiming them the favorite, only to fall back to the pack by the holidays. The reverse is also quite true. A team may get off to a dreadful start only to go on a tear and suddenly be right back in the mix. The only interesting stat we have heard (and is probably as useless as any) is that no team going 0-3 to start a season has ever gone on to win the Stanley Cup. Sorry Columbus. LOL Usually over the long haul the proverbial cream will rise to the top. In the mean time folks of those teams getting off to a slow start, Step back From The Ledge!

3) Look for Week 2 of our Saturday picks when 14 games will be decided, and look for an upcoming early trade rumour posting. As always, keep it here for all the latest!

No Touch Icing Debate

2011-10-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

1) There has been an ongoing/long debate in the hockey world concerning the institution of the so-called no-touch icing. The rule that there is automatic icing without a player having to come back to 'make the touch' thus ostensibly making it safer for players. Even usually conservative voices like Don Cherry have been outspoken about this issue; calling for the rule change. The issue again came to light recently in an exhibition game between Edmonton and Minnesota. An Oilers prospect, defenseman Taylor Fedun suffered a season ending leg injury when he fell awkwardly into the boards, apparently when he was knocked off stride by Wild forward Eric Nystrom as they pursued the puck. Fedun was trying to touch the puck to get the icing call, Nystrom to prevent it.

2) One of the best hockey bloggers, and whom we at Fauxrumors respect, Lyle Richardson(Spector) recently did his 'Soap Box" on this very issue. His point was that the race for an iced puck is needless and potentially hazardous to players. He goes on to list not only the aforementioned example in Edmonton, but also several from the past. He goes on to cite that almost all European leagues and college leagues have already instituted the rule. Sorry Lyle we respectfully disagree. Its too easy to have a knee-jerk response to the unfortunate injury Mr Fedun suffered.

3) We don't believe the facts support a whole sale change in the current rules. Its not like we’re having guys go down with injuries every other week on this. The vast majority of the cases he cited occurred proior to the change, and the current limited contact rule now in effect. I think the current system that dissuades body contact on an icing but preserves the ability of teams to hustle and avoid the call is proper. Since the current rule was enacted how many serious injuries have resulted? Please don’t give me the pat answer of “one is too many”. I hate automatic icing. Its boring and needless. Hockey is a fast paced, dangerous game. If you want to prevent injuries why not eliminate all body contact totally? You’ll sure to see a precipitous decline in injuries (along with TV ratings).

Who gets The Axe First? 2011 Edition

2011-10-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

1) A popular annual post we do here at Fauxrumors is our annual 'Who will Get the Axe First. With the season underway the inevitable discussions will commence as to what coaches are on the proverbial 'hot seat'. With that in mind we'll go through the 30 current coaches and discuss who is pretty secure (as NHL coaches go), who is teetering on the brink, and the rest in between.
2) If this season is anything typical, about 25-30% of the current head coaches will no longer have their jobs by this time next season. Like in previous years, we'll simply go alphabetically in the East then in the West: To simplify/quantify this we will use a scale 0-10. Zero-being very safe, and 10-being close to out the door. At this stage there are no 10's (yet)

East

Claude Julien (Boston Bruins)- (1) The reigning Stanley Cup winning coach, Claude is as safe as he has been in any season since he started coaching in the NHL. Barring an incredible collapse he should have little trouble finishing out the season as the B's bench boss

Lindy Ruff (Buffalo Sabres) (2) Entering his 14th season behind the Sabres bench, the longest tenured NHL coach is pretty safe as he has the full backing of the new owner and his long time GM partner Darcy Regier.

Paul Maurice (Carolina Hurricanes) (5) Entering his 11th NHL season, the leagues most over rated coach is guiding a team that could go either way. If its south, then Paul might not make it through the season before Rutherford cans him. If they stay in contention for the playoffs Maurice should stay safe

Kevin Dineen (Florida Panthers) (2) The highly successful AHL coach enters his inaugural season the NHL. Few expect the Cats to make the playoffs(outside their most rabid fans) so as long as the team doesn't completely fall apart Kevin should complete his first season

Jacques Martin (Montreal Canadians) (4) Seldomly are Habs' coaches less than a 4 as they play in the hockey pressure cooker known as Quebec. They always expect to make the playoffs, but few are expecting a Presidents trophy so as long as they hang around the top 8 or so, Jack should be safe

Peter DeBoer (NJ Devils) (6) Usually a rookie coach gets a bit of slack, but these are the Lamarelo Devils where no coach is safe no matter the record it seems. DeBoer is a good coach who may be entering his 2nd stint where he will ultimately get screwed. If the Devils don't stay in the top 8 and appear destined for a bottom finish Peter won't see April

Jack Capuano (NY Islanders) (3) There are some expectations now, but realistically as long as the team competes hard and doesn't embarrass themselves early on with a long losing streak, Jack should be OK.

John Tortorella (NY Rangers) (3) Usually Ranger coaches had been always in jeopardy of losing their jobs, but Torts is highly regarded both within the organization but also throughout the league. AS long as the BlueShirts stay in the top 8 John should be safe

Paul MacLean (Ottawa Senators) (5) Another rookie head coach who theoretically should have few expectations, but with a desperate GM(Murray) playing in Canada's capital city someone may have to be the scape goat if (as we expect) the team sucks

Peter Laviolette (Philadelphia Flyers) (2) Yes, high expectations but the team players and management alike respect Peter. Unless he loses the team (pisses off Jagr/Bryzgalov) or for some reason the team goes below .500 by the holidays, Laviolette's job is secure

Dan Bylsma (Pittsburgh Penguins) (0) Probably one of the safest coaches in the East. The current Jack Adams winner runs a tight, loyal and successful team. Liked equally by the stars and grunts. Not an easy task! We can see no scenario where Dan loses his job before season's end.

Guy Boucher (TB Lightning) (2) The only situation we can see that would make Guy vulnerable is if the Bolts ascendancy suddenly collapses. Unlikely even if we believe they will not be quite as good as last season. 'Scar' should make it through the season unscathed.

Ron Wilson (Toronto Maple Leafs) (5) Even his pal and superior Brian Burke can't save his job if the wheels fall off early in TO. Ron's job will be as safe as his goaltending will allow. Simple as that.

Bruce Boudreau (Washington Capitals) (5) Even in town-mediocrity, they expect a winning season every now and then. If the team has a similar issue as last fall when the team suffered through a very rough patch, it could cost Gabby his job. Else, his job will be safe for the regular season anyway

Claude Noel (Winnipeg Jets) (2) The rookie head coach in the city's first season back with hockey should be safe unless the team slides deeply out of contention and doesn't compete hard nightly. Else expectations should be relatively low

West

Randy Carlyle (Anaheim Duck) (2) The team apparently believes in The former Norris Trophy winner as they gave him a 3 year extension this summer. We can't see the team letting him go unless they struggle mightily early on

Brent Sutter (Calgary Flame) (7) With his brother already gone Brent's job is now clearly on the line this season. If the team struggles early the Flames may be forced to dismiss their home town guy.

Joel Quenneville (Chicago Blackhawk) (1) The former Cup champ coach entering his 15th season in the league has one of the safer positions. With his league wide respect and recent success it would take tons to see him gone

Joe Sacco (Colorado Avalanche) (5) Teams that are rebuilding only stay patient for so long. In Denver they may not expect to be Cup contending, but certainly playoff contending this season. If they appear destined for another bottom finish Joe's job could be on the line

Scott Arniel (Columbus Blue Jackets) (5) Scott in a tough situation. The team tried to make a splash with off season moves AND they have a GM(Scottt Howson) who himself is under the gun. Coupled that with not having the horses to win a playoff spot, we wouldn't be shocked to see Scott be on the chopping block before season's end

Glen Gulutzan (Dallas Star) (2) Anther of the incoming coaching freshmen. Unlike the other rookie coaches Glen hasn't either played or coached in the NHL at any level. Few expect the team to win this year, and with ownership in flux its unlikely he will feel the heat if things don't go too well

Mike Babcock (Detroit Red Wing) (1) Entering his 7th season guiding the Motor city sextet, Mike is one of the best in the business. Almost no doubt he will guide his veteran team without chance of being 2nd guessed/replaced

Tom Renney (Edmonton Oiler) (4) His 'good teacher' persona will be tested big time this season as Edmonton will have one of the most inexperienced rosters in the NHL. It may be exciting to the fans but management wants to see the team show signs of improvement. A bottom overall finish won't sit well.

Terry Murray (Los Angeles King) (5) The other Murray brother will be entering his 15th season behind an NHL bench. The Kings have lofty expectations this year so anything short of divisional/Cup contention and it might be Murray's last

Mike Yeo (Minnesota Wild) (2) Much like Gulutzan in Dallas there should be a honeymoon period in Minny. However it won't be quite as long or forgiving as in Big D, as the Wild added some talent and the fans up north are as rabid as the come south of the border

Barry Trotz (Nashville Predator) (3) The only coach the franchise has ever known. Despite low playoff success he still manages to get his team to the post season despite a cap flor payroll and an anemic offense. The organization will probably only consider a change if they appear to be taking a huge step back.

Dave Tippett (Phoenix Coyote) (2) Despite the team likely taking a step(or 2) back from the past few, we believe the combination of that recent success coupled with the continued franchise ownership turmoil will make Dave';s job safe through the season

Davis Payne (St. Louis Blues) (4) Unlike the past 2 years the pressure will be elevated this season. Fans are getting restless for the interminable 'rebuild' to end. Injuries have hurt but management will only let that excuse work for so long. If the Blues fail to compete, Davis will be gonzo

Todd McClellan (San Jose Shark) (2) Highly unlikely that Todd is replaced as coach. They struggled out of the gate last season, but still won their division. WE can't see the team losing patience but if they lose in the first round, that patience will be highly tested

Alain Vigneault (Vancouver Canuck) (1) The Cup/Adams runner up will probably survive almost any calamity that is thrust upon him this season. Unless The Twins' ask him to be fired(not gonna happen) his job is safe for the season!

Week 1- Results

2011-10-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

1) Well week 1 is in the books. For the afternoon/night we went a solid 9-4 or a .692 winning %. We also won our Lock of the week. Not a bad start for sure. Of course there's always next week where we hope to continue when we will pick the winners of the 14 scheduled games for October 15th. Also FR2 tells us that he will be posting his No touch icing opinion this week. Also look for our annual "who gets the axe first" posting and read who we believe could be the first coach to get the boot. As always, keep it here for all the latest

Week 1 Picks!

2011-10-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

1) As promised we are back with our weekly picks for the new 2011-2012 NHL season. Like last time we will simply pick a winner for each scheduled game. With a "Lock Of The Week also listed. The NHL cooperated with our endeavour by having 26 teams in action today/night, including the first 2 listed, in Europe.

Rangers-vs Ducks: Anaheim

Sabres-vs-Kings: Los Angeles

Lightning-vs-Bruins: Boston

Senators-vs-MapleLeafs: Toronto

Flyers-vs-Devils: Philadelphia

Hurricanes-vs-Capitals: Washington

Panthers-vs-Islanders: NY

Predators-vs-Blues: St. Louis

Blue Jackets-vs Wild: Minnisota

Stars-vs-Black Hawks: Chicago

RedWings-vs-Avalanche: Colorado

Penguins-vs-Flames: Pittsburgh

Coyotes-vs- Sharks: Sharks (Lock of The Week)

Preseason 2012 Playoff and Cup Predictions

2011-10-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

1) Next in the prediction process is to use our published projected/predicted order of finish and use these as a basis for the playoff matchups. We will briefly predict these anticipated playoff matchups and determine this far out who will win each series culminating with who we believe is going t be the 2012 Stanley Cup winner. A few years ago when we did this we were very close to getting many of the matchup/winners dead on. Last time not as well Anyway, as we note in our season projections much of this is a dart throw. This is REALLY a dart throw in the dark! But hey, everyone else is making/publishing their Cup choice so why not make it interesting. Enjoy and feel free to tell us where we're off our rockers. LOL

2) First The East: Round 1

Philadelphia- vs-Montreal: Montreal had to fight just to make the playoffs and it shows in this lop-sided first round easily won by Philadelphia. Flyers in 4

Washington-vs-Tampa Bay: A rematch from the second round last season. Last time it was a sweep by the Bolts. Not this time. The caps with fear in their eyes, go out and make the 42 year old Roloson look every bit his age. Caps in 5

Boston-vs-N.Y. Rangers: The defending champs defend their crown against the Rangers who had a decent season but with few expectations. The Blueshirts stun the hockey world as Lundqvist stymies the B's attack and propels NY to round 2. Rangers in 6

Pittsburgh-vs-Buffalo: The marquis 1st round series. Both teams come evenly matched with Pitts star power up front vs Buffalo stars on defense and in goal. Just a bit too much offense for the sabres to handle and in the end they succumb. Penguins in 6

3) Round 2- East

Philadelphia-vs-NY Rangers: The upstart Rangers coming off their upset of the champs are riding high and not intimidated by the conference champs. Former Ranger Jaromir Jagr though come through in a big way, leading the Flyers into the Final 4. Flyers in 5

Washington-vs- Pittsburgh: Grudge matchup for sure. The Caps trying to erase their recent/long term tendency to lose to lower seeds in the first 2 rounds/lose to the penguins in the playoffs fail to advance once again prompting the team to finally realize that their coach and core players are the problem not their role players. Penguins in 6

4) Conference Finals: Philadelphia-vs- Pittsburgh: Not surprising to most that the road to The Cup had to travel through Pennsylvania. The battle of the Keystone state proves to be bitter and long. So many story lines prove to make it an epic battle. Jagr is smothered well and not a factor, while Crosby pots multiple OT game winners to get the penguins back to the Finals for the 3rd time in 4 years. Penguins in 7

5) Next the West: Round 1

San Jose-vs-Calgary: No David and Goliath this time. Goliath easily sleighs 'David' this time as the Sharks eat up/douse the Flames. Sharks in 4

Chicago-vs-Nashville: Another mismatch as the Predators try to play a defensive style while the hawks try to keep it up tempo. The Hawks style is too much for Trotz's gang and the Preds fall relatively easily. Black Hawks in 5

Vancouver-vs-Anaheim: The Canucks attempt to get back into the Finals and they have little trouble getting past the opening round as the Ducks' top line is shut down by the swarming Canuck defense. Canucks in 4

LA-vs-Detroit: The only competitive opening round match up. The Kings looking to finally assert themselves do themselves proud as their superior forward depth is too much for the Detroit sextet, but not before a long tough battle. Kings in 7

6) West: Round 2

San Jose- vs- LA: The 'Battle of California'. The next chapter of this now seemingly annual fight for the biggest state's bragging rights goes the distance. This time the Kings are able to stave off a let down from their first round win and hold the Shark attack at bay. Kings in 5

Chicago- vs- Vancouver Another right of spring, a Chicago Vancouver series. The last 2 years we have seen great series between these 2 powerful deep squads. This time the result is similar to 2 years ago when the Hawks were able to squeak by the 'Nucks. Black Hawks in 7

7) Conference Finals: LA-vs- Chicago: The Kings first visit to The Final 4 since Gretzky led them to the Finals in 93. They purport themselves well under the intense pressure against a far more playoff hardened opponent. In the end though it appears that Chicago's experience is enough to help get them back to the Finals. Black Hawks in 6

8) The Finals: Chicago-vs- Pittsburgh: Gary Bettman has to be pleased with this marquis match up. he has two of the last 3 champions back. Two US based teams with super-stars on both teams giving it the intrigue TV craves. It doesn't disappoint either. Its a series won by the home team with at least 2 games going into OT. The Hawks by virtue of having had 1 extra win in the regular season have home ice advantage and the Chicago faithful are feted to their second Cup in 3 seasons. Black Hawks in 7 to win their 5th Stanley Cup and 2nd in 3 years!

NHL 2K11: Game on!

2011-10-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

1) The day we NHL die-hard fans have been waiting for since we saw Z-Chara accept the Cup from Gary Bettman 3 1/2 months ago. The seemingly never ending off season is now over and real hockey is back. Their is a relatively small slate of games starting tonight with couple of of marquis match ups. One that could be a Finals preview and another that easily could end up being previews of The Conference Finals. In the East power houses Boston and Philadelphia will face off in TD Garden while out West we will see The Crosby-less Penguins play the Cup runner-ups/President's Trophy champ, Canucks at GM Place. We will also see an Original 6, and one of the NHL's longest/biggest rivalries in the Leafs-vs the Habs at the ACC.

2) Also due to popular demand we will again do our weekly Saturday picks. For new readers, last season each Saturday (usually the NHL's busiest day) we would pick the winners of every game and do One Lock of The week. Some might think its easy to simply pick a winner of a game. We challenge anyone out there to do what we did and do it better. Our goal is to stay above .500. Last time we finished the year with a 176-127 record for a solid .580 winning %, or 49 games above .500! On those 'Locks' each week we had an impressive 20-6, record or winning 78% of those weekly picks. We'll be hard pressed to match those figures in both categories, but we'll give it a shot. Look for it this Saturday when 26 teams will be in action. Yes, 13 games in all including games in Europe (Rangers-Ducks) and (Buffalo-LA)).

Game On Baby!

3) Post script: Look for the final preseason preview post tomorrow as we extrapolate the playoffs next spring based upon our preseason predictions posted earlier this week. Always an interesting posting. Additionally FR2 tells me he has a post concerning no-touch icing due out next week. A very exciting time for us at Fauxrumors, as it is with all NHL hockey fans.

As always, keep it here for all the latest!

2011-2012 Season Predictions- West

2011-10-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

1) Like the East. As we mentioned last time we understand its no more than a blind folded dart throw, but its the preseason and almost everyone else does it, so why not? As has been in evidence the last few seasons, regardless of whom won the Cup the West is the stronger of the two conferences. It has traditionally been the easier conference for us to predict in past years. However we see this season as being much tougher with a changing of the guard taking place. Previous bottom feeders are now contending, and some traditional powers are falling back. Here is the list in the order of playoff seeding (divisional winners in the top 3) With our Difference maker, or Wild card listed for each team.

San Jose: (110)- Folks have to remember that even with an awful start last year San Jose still won the Pacific and finished second overall in the West. After back-to-back Western final appearances, the Sharks are still short of their goal to win their first Cup prompting Wilson to make significant changes. Traded were Heatley and Setoguchi for Martin Havlat and Brent Burns. Michal Handzus will also bring a sizable defensive presence and depth to the lines. We feel the Sharks are as dangerous as ever but, it’s just a matter of how well and quickly the new players gel. If they do winning the conference and a President's Trophy can't be ruled out. Difference Maker:Brent Burns

Chicago:(105)- The Hawks come into 11-12 without having had the huge roster turnover they were forced to endure the year before. Instead Stan Bowman simply tweaked and improved his already solid roster. Offensively they should score they share of goals with Kane, Towes, Hossa and Sharp. On defense they still have one of the best pairings in Keith and Seabrook. Crawford is being looked upon to carry the big load in goal after supplanting an aging Turco as a rookie last season. Will he be up to the task? We see them winning the division and returning to Cup contention. Difference Maker: Bryan Bickell

Vancouver: (103) Just too much talent not to expect the Canucks to win the relatively weak NW division. However, we don't see them being quite as dominating as last season when they won the President's Trophy and were Cup runner-ups. The lineup remains solid from top to bottom, and despite losing Christian Ehroff the defense remains one of the best in the West and despite his Finals' suck job, Luongo remains a perennial Vezina candidate. The Twins and Kesler provide a solid 1-2 offensive punch. Difference Maker: Marco Sturm

LA: (100)- With the combination of Mike Richards and Anze Kopitar it gives the Kings one of the most lethal center combinations in the league. On defense, with Drew Doughty contract settled he will continue to play a vital role from the blueline. Fellow youngster, Jack Johnson complements him nicely, but adding on Willie Mitchell and Rob Scuderi to the backline give the Kings a very solid defense corps. Jonathan Quick was one of the top netminders last year. The Kings long re-build is finally paying off? If so its time they make a run for the division and show it where it counts most, in spring. Difference Maker: Dustin Penner

Detroit: (99)- No denying that the long dynastic run may soon be coming to an end, but not quite yet. They lost Rafalski, but added Ian White and Mike Commodore. Perhaps they won't be as dynamic but they should help bolster the defense. They are still led by the veterans who brought their last Cup four seasons ago: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Nicklas Lidstrom, etc. We have never been big Jimmy Howard fans, but he had a solid season. With Mike Babcock at the helm we have no doubt the Wings will continue to be at or near the top 4 in the conference. Difference Maker: Justin Abdelkater

Anaheim: (97)- The Ducks boast one of the best forward lines in the game with Getzlaf, Ryan, and reigning HART and Richard winner Perry. However after that its not quite as impressive. Can aging stars Sellane, Koivu and Blake add enough? The defense is still mediocre at best. The biggest question will be Hiller. Are his vertigo issues resolved? With a healthy Hiller they are easily a playoff team. If he misses significant time, it'll be a crap shoot. Difference Maker: Jonas Hiller

Nashville: (95)- Year in and year out Barry Trotz is able to squeeze just enough offense out of his team's defense- first approach to get to the playoffs. It doesn't hurt that they have a formidable top pairing in Weber-Suter along with monster Finn, Pekka Rinne between the pipes to keep opponents scoring limited for a chance to win each night. If their young promising forwards from the post season last year (Nick Spaling and Matt Halischuk) continue to emerge along with their continued excellent defense they should be able to get back to the post season. Difference Maker: Niclas Bergfors

Calgary: (94)- While some are anticipating Calgary to replace Edmonton as the West's door matts we say, not so fast. Yes, they no longer are an elite team, knocking on the proverbial Cup door, but they still posses enough talent up and down the lineup to attain the 8th seed. Providing their aging lineup stays away from the injury bug. This is Brent Sutter's 'water shed' season. If he fails to get this team into the post season he may have to go back north and concentrate on his junior squad once again. Difference Maker: Daymond Langkow

St. Louis: (92)- It seems that the Blues are a popular choice to propel themselves up the standing this season. We are not among them. Yes they brought in Jamie Langenbrunner and Jason Arnott in for their veteran experience along with Alexander Steen to augment a decent young forward unit led by Pietrangelo and Backes. Halak was good at times and ordinary at times as well last season. Overall the Blues should be better, but not quite ready to make the post season unless a team above crumbles or if everthing falls their way. Difference Maker: Chris Stewart

Colorado: (90)- We see a big leap for the Denver denizens. They totally revamped their goaltending, their biggest weakness last season. Adding future super star Semyon Varlamov and past super star J.S. Giguere as their tandem. A significant improvement. That along with the maturation especially of Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly up front and Jack Johnson anchoring the blueline we can see things looking up for the Av's. Not quite into the post season, but definitely no longer a bottom feeder. Difference Maker: Peter Mueller

Columbus: (87)- With the pressure on GM Scott Howson made some bold moves this off season. Acquiring center Jeff Carter and signing UFA defender James Wisniewki were certainly headliners. Are they enough to get the Jackets back into the playoffs? We think not. 'Wiz' for all the flash and $$ spent on him isn't exactly Ray Bourque. The rest of the defense is suspect and Steve Mason has looked anything but Vezina-like the past 2 years. Since they have no on else to play goal he best regain that form else it'll be another long season with more empty seats in nationwide Arena. Difference Maker: Steve Mason

Phoenix: (85)- This is almost surely the last season in Phoenix, and from the looks of things it won't be a memorable one. From up and coming team back to 'pretender' status is likely. With the departure of Bryzgalov and to a lesser extent Scottie Upshall (no, the loss of Jovanovski isn't a negative) the Yotes are a significantly weaker team. Mike Smith is NOT a top flight starting goalie and with a less than stellar team in front of him it will become apparent quickly how inportant Bryzgalov was. That said they are well coached and have enough talent that we don't foresee a bottom finish. Difference Maker: Martin Hanzal

Minnisota: (81)- Like in Philly, we have to give credit to management for making changes to a team that was boring to watch and stagnating. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together. Brent Burns and Martin Havlat were the two best players moved, replaced by Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi, to upgrade their anemic offense. With new coach Mike Yeo in charge, perhaps the Wild really will shift from a defense-first mindset to an all-in offense for the first time? They still have one of the better goalies in the league in Niklas Backstrom, but their defense isn't impressive, so while it may be more exciting for their fans, the results will be the same as last season. Difference Maker: Devin Setoguchi

Edmonton:(76) the Oilers still have a couple years of bumps and bruises ahead of them. Their off-season additions were mostly muscle (Andy Sutton, Ben Eager and Darcy Hordichuk) and that doesn’t bode well for the possibility of getting anywhere close to a playoff spot this year. However with multiple lottery selections in recent years they do possess quite a few of possible young future (super) stars in the making, but the roster will need significant time to mature before a leap up the standing should be expected. Difference Maker: Ryan Nungent-Hopkins

Dallas: (71)- To put it simply,This isn't going to be a fun season for the Dallas Stars. Even before the loss of Richards the signs weren't good. Now that he's gone the offense will be tough to find and even worse their defense is going to be worse. So desperate are they, Sheldon Souray who hasn't played an NHL game in2 years was signed. We like Goligoski, but he can't do it alone. Lehtonen stayed healthy(finally) last season, but his stats were mediocre at best. He'll have to stand on his head to get this bunch to .500 let alone the post season. Difference Maker: Sheldon Souray

2011-2012 Season Predictions-East

2011-10-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

1) Yes, its that time of year. While others amazingly(stupidly) posted/wrote their predictions in late July/early August, the we at FAUXRUMORS always have thought that we would be better served/more accurate to wait until after the start of training camp when complete rosters could be analyzed, and early trends (as limited as that is for these purposes) could be evaluated. So without further nonsense we will get right to it. We will project each team's order of finish. Number of points, and name one player we believe might be the 'difference maker'. A player we believe might be the team's wild card.

2) First The East where despite the turnover from last season we don't think the balance of power has changed all that much and we don't see any of last year's non-playoff teams nosing out a team that was in the top 8 a year ago.

Philadelphia: (110) Probably the wild card team in the East. Holgren unsatisfied where the team was headed did a major make over in the off season resulting in a new look Flyers. The biggest addition is goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Finally it appears the Flyers addressed their biggest weakness, net. They still have a very solid top 6 defense and up front despite the loss of Carter and Richards the Flyers can still ice 2 very dangerous scoring lines. If they can gel as a team we can see the Flyers as the team to beat in the East. Difference Maker: Jaromir Jagr

Washington:(107): Like Holmgren GM George McPhee didn't take losing lightly and revamped a good bit of their roster, while retaining its talented core. They appear to be the consensus pick to win the East, (not us) and Stanley Cup. On paper anyway we'd agree, as with the additions of Brouwer,Ward, Halpern. Hamrlik, and Voloun they now have a very solid lineup. We expect in the long haul of the regular season they should prevail the majority of games and win another SE title/top 3 seed. However without a change in coach we are less sure of next springs results than many of my fellow bloggers. Difference Maker: Troy Brouwer

Boston: (100)-Bruins are essentially the same team they were when they won it all last June. The lone newcomers are former Montreal Canadiens forward Benoît Pouliot and offence-first defenceman Joe Corvo who, along with more contributions from the youngsters, should help keep Boston among the contenders. With the NE division appearing weaker than in past seasons they should have little problem winning a top 3 seed. Difference Maker: Nathan Horton

Pittsburgh:(105) Very few new faces from last season, and why not? All they did was compile one of their best regular season records despite not having their 2 best players for a majority of the season. Malkin appears healthy and ready to reassert himself in a big way. When Sid returns it will give the Pens the best center depth in the East. If they are to make a run James Neil, Kunitz and newcomer Steve Sullivan will have to contribute. They will battle Philly all year for the Atlantic crown. Difference Maker: James Neal

Buffalo: (97)-Buoyed by new ownership, Sabres general manager Darcy Regier became a significant spender in the summer, adding Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino on bloated, multiyear deals, and Robyn Regehr via trade. We are not alone in 'liking' the Sabres chances of becoming an NHL power once again. With Ryan Miller they have a chance to win every night. If their offense can score enough they should keep up with the Bruins and give them a run for their division winning money. Difference maker: Brad Boyes

NY Rangers (95)- Hauled in the biggest free agent fish in Brad Richards giving the Broadway Blue shirts a legit #1 center. If Gaborik can stay healthy he and Richards could combine for a lethal combination. The top 2 defense and goalie Henrik Lundqvist provide the Rangers with an opportunity to stay in most games. It remains to be seen if the remaining roster can also chip in. That said we see enough talent to keep NY in their playoffs. Difference Maker: Woljtek Wolski

Tampa Bay (94)- Many were surprised to see the Bolts surge last season. We were not. However, while many are projecting them to continue to improve, we see a bit of slippage on the horizon. They will still be a playoff team, but unlike last season they won't challenge the Caps for the SE and will struggle to keep playoff position. Can 42 yr old Roloson hold up to play 50-60 games? Difference Maker: Teddy Purcell

Montreal: (92)-Montreal fans are hoping to finally see a healthy Andrei Markov, Josh Gorges to go along with recently signed free agent Chris Campoli. Up front, newcomer Erik Cole adds some size, muscle and the ability to add 25 goals, but the rest of the improvement will have to come from within as Pierre Gauthier decided to basically stand pat this summer. They will go as far as Carey price can carry them. Most likely will hold onto a playoff spot but an injury to price and that will be tough. Difference Maker: Andrei Markov

New Jersey: (89)- While we don't think the Devils will get off to as bad a start as last season, we also don't think they are as good as they played in the second half. What that means is they will be a near-miss playoff wise. From what we've heard youngster Larsson on defense is going to be the real deal, but is it too early to expect an impact season? . Marty Brodeur will have another solid season, and it will be good to have Zac Parise back but we don't think that will be enough to get back to the post season. Difference Maker: Adam Larsson

Carolina:(88)-The Canes did some roster shake up this summer in an effort to get back to the post season after missing 4 times in the past 5 attempts. Can Cam Ward again play 70+ games? He may have to. We like the additions of Ponikarovski and Kaberle, but unfortunately for their fans we don't see this assemblage as quite up to the task once again. They will be right in it to the end and a couple of favourable bonces could get them in, but in the end I believe they come up a tad short. Difference Maker: Alex Ponikarovski

Toronto: (85)-GM Burke certainly was busy in the off-season. He added center Tim Connolly, along with John-Michael Liles, Cody Franson and Matt Lombardi. This in an attempt to finally get the Leafs into the postseason, amazingly for the first time since 2004! Forward depth is surely improved, but will they get the goaltending all season long from young Reimer and Gus? The defense is expensive but questionable. All things together they are better, but the Leafs are not yet a playoff calibre team. Difference Maker: James Reimer

NY Islanders (83)- The popular pick among prognosticators to be their "sleeper team". Sorry Isles supporters, we don't see it. Players like Grabner and Moulson are set for a bit of a decline in my opinion. Yes, they should be better and if they avoid a long losing streak they will hang around and be in the 8th spot hunt till March. That said they don't have the depth on defense especially to make a legit run and secure that spot. Is 'Johnny T' ready to lead the team? Difference Maker: Rick DiPietro

Winnipeg: (82) The franchise may be in a different locale, but it probably won't (in the short run) change their fortunes. With the front office turnover, few significant roster changes were made so to see improvement their existing roster (already paper thin in depth) will have to improve. They will have MANY more fans, but probably not many more points in the standings as last year. Difference Maker: Evander Kane

Ottawa: (78)-Their continued youth movement is going to make for some very painful nights for Sens' fans this season. The only significant off-season signings of note were tough guy Zenon Konopka, Nikita Filitov and backup goalie Alex Auld. There’s a gaping hole down the middle that will probably be filled with an untested rookie. The Spezza trade rumours will persist all season and Murray might be looking at his last season as GM. ( That would be the best result of the season in my opinion!) Difference Maker: Nikita Filitov

Florida: (75) Despite the enormous turnover (fueled in large part by the salary floor) by GM Dale Tallon we don't see the Cats as any better off than they were with the previous roster. They will probably score more, but we also foresee them giving up way more goals than last year with a weakening of their goaltending. If they suffer a series of injuries, it could get ugly in South Florida (again) and another late February sell-off will be in store. Difference Maker: Brian Campbell

Top 10 Players By Position

2011-09-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

1) As the run up to the regular season gets closer we at FR2 decided we'd take a quick look around the league and give our unbiased opinion of whom the top 10 players are at each of the 5 positions: Center, Left Wing , Right Wing, Defense, and Goal. Take into account that some players can play multiple forward positions, but for the list we tried to place the players in their traditional/most common position

2) First The Best NHL Pivots (Centers). Probably an under rated position of importance in hockey. The centre takes all faceoffs important in initiating puck possession. They also have to be defensively sound, being the first back to assist the D, and first to move the puck into the offensive zone.

Sidney Crosby: (Pit) Although now probably damaged good, when healthy there is no better player in the league. No one does everything well like Sid can from scoring in close, winning important draws to setting up his team mates, he's the best

Henrik Sedin: (Van) The play making twin. Despite he and Daniel's disappearance against Boston he is one of the best pure passers/ play makers in the game

Steve Stamkos: (TB) The 21 year old has been one of the best snipers from the center position the past 2 seasons, with 96 goals during that time. He isn't shabby in the distributing department either. Also doesn't hurt that he plays with talented line mates

Ryan Kesler: (Van) The Livonia, Michigan native really came into his own with the Olympics last year and carried that through to a great playoff run(until his injury in The Finals)

Evgeni Malkin: (Pit) The 'other' super star center in Steel Town. Has won a scoring title and Conn Smythe Trophy. If healthy one of the best play makers in the game. Less over shadowed when Sid is out of the lineup

Jonathan Toews: (Chi) Although still only 23, has developed into one of the best 2-way centers in the league. Already with a Cup to his credit and still getting better

Ryan Getzlaf: (Ana) One tough and talented kid. Hard to say if his numbers are so good because of his line mates or if he is the reason for their superior production. Probably both. We'd certainly take him on my team in a heart beat!

Joe Thornton: (SJ) Probably the best play making center in the game. Lacks superior scoring touch, but makes up for it with a nifty passing 6th sense . We'd prefer more intensity, but there's no denying Joe is a top 10 NHL Center

Pavel Datsyuk: (Det) Datsyuk had a bit of a down year in 2010-2011 mostly due to a hand injury, but it should not overshadow what he is capable of doing as one of the best 2-way centers in the game.

Eric Staal: (Car) One of the more consistently productive centers. Has a Cup ring and despite having less than super star talent around him continues to produce in Raleigh

3) Next the Wings: Right then Left: Both are usually the top goal scorers/snipers by trade. Not usually vital to defense but they do have that role nonetheless, covering their counter parts and/or the point. For this exercise its offense that elevates them in my list

RW:

Martin St. Louis: (TB) Even at 36 is one of the best players in the NHL. Under rated in the extreme in our opinion. Had he played north of the border he'd of been easily a Hall of Fame candidate

Corey Perry: (ANA) The reigning Hart/Richard Trophy winner. Along with Getzlaf make one of the more formidable 1-2 punches in the NHL

Patrick Kane: (Chi) Kane will only get better as one of the younger right wingers in the league. Already is one of the NHL's premiere young snipers, and probably best American-born NHL-er

Bobby Ryan: (Ana) Perhaps, and understandably overshadowed by Corey Perry, but he has developed into one of the NHL's best power forwards, and appears to get better every year

Danny Briere: (Phi) If as projected he plays on the Flyers #1 line with Claude Giroux and James Van Riemsdyk, he might have his best year ever. Not mention in the post season he is pure clutch!

Rick Nash: (Clb) Still considered one the NHL's top power forwards, despite seldomly paired with a legit top center. If Carter is that guy, Nash might have a great season

Phil Kessel: (Tor) While it is true that Kessel does not have the benefit of playing alongside an offensive play maker, he possesses enough pure ability that he should post 30+ goals. Sorry Leaf fans, we don't see Connolly as that guy

Jarome Iginla: (Cal) Even for a team in decline Jarome still scored 43 goals in 2010-11 and has also quietly averaged nearly 40 goals per year for the past five seasons. Even at an advanced age for hockey(34) remains one of its top RW's

Shane Doan: (Phx) Still good for 60-70 pts to go along with one of the best leaders in the league. Toiling in both the literal and figurative NHL desert has not helped garner respect for all the good things Doan can do

Marian Gaborik: (NYR) If he can stay healthy the combo of Richards and Marian could potentially develop into a deadly combination for opposition goalies to face. 'Gabby' is as gifted a pure goal scorer as there is

LW:

Alex Ovechkin: (Wst) Despite seeing a huge decline in his stats last season #8 remains the top LW(if not overall player with Crosby hurt) in the NHL today. We look for a rebound type season, and if he plays 80 games, another 50 goal campaign

Zach Parise: (NJ) One of the more underrated snipers in the league. He also has the speed to skate past most defenders one-on-one, and the stick-handling ability to create offense for the players around him. One of the top American born players in the game today

Ilya Kovalchuk: (NJ) Kovalchuk had a season to forget last year registering a mere 60 points. He did manage 30 goals and we'd expect the Russian sniper to have a bit of a rebound season of 40 goals/80 pts+ this time around

Daniel Sedin: (Van) Daniel had the best season of his career last season . He eclipsed 100 points and 40 goals and will probably do that again this year. It doesn't hurt that, he has the guarantee of one of the top set up men in the game being on the ice with him every shift.

Thomas Vanek:(Buf) Tough to live up to the huge mega contract that Edmonton's Kevin Lowe helped engineer. Yet Thomas remains an underrated sniper from the left side, where he and center Derek Roy provide a lot of the offense in Buffalo

Henrik Zetterberg: (Det) Has almost no flaws to his game. Probably the best all around forward in the NHL. It would be interesting to see the offensive numbers Zetterberg would put up if he played less defensively responsibly

Loui Ericksson: (Dal) Despite increasing point totals for the past 5 seasons it remains to be seen how much will Richards' departure affect Eriksson's production?

Dany Heatley : (Min) Has a lot to prove following his playoff disappearance last spring, and subsequent trade from the Sharks. Will probably be paired up with Mikko Koivu an underrated play maker center on the Wild first line, so it might be a productive season for Dany.

Patrick Marleau:(SJ) With the departure of Heatley, Marleau will now be the #1 LW (and sometimes in the center slot on the Shark 2nd line)

Milan Lucic: (Bos) Lucic is an up and coming power forward who seems to excel in close. Lucic had a career high 62 points for the Stanly Cup champion Boston Bruins last season.

4) Defense: This is probably the toughest to rate as they can't be valued by offensive stats alone. What we did was take a players' offensive skill/production, their defensive ability along with an admittedly subjective assessment or intangibles/ clutch play and their leadership ability to compile this list

Drew Doughty: (LA) Despite a bit of a down year (compared to his Norris runner-up season) still remains a top defensemen able to contribute at both ends with equal talent. Hopefully LA and he will get a deal done soon!

Zdeno Chara: Big Z not only continues to be a monster in his own end but has been a model of consistency over the past 8 seasons, sticking around the 40 point territory. The REAL Tower of Power!

Duncan Keith: (Chi) The former Norris Trophy winner along with having a rocket for a shot and possessing exceptional offensive ability he also has stellar, shut-down defensive prowess along with toughness and leadership

Shea Weber: (Nsh) The quintessential 2 way defender. Great shot, can carry the mail ,and is a punishing checker. He uses his size and strength to impose his will with regularity on forwards thriving on physical play. Simply the complete package now entering his prime

Nicklas Lidstrom: (Det) Simply what superlative can we add to the ageless wonder? The best defensemen of his generation. Certainly since #7/77 retired from Boston/Colorado. Even over 40 there are few better in the game

Dan Boyle: (SJ) Quite simply is the prototypical offensive defensemen. Kind of a poor mans Paul Coffey. Few defensemen can skate as well as Dan, and few can run the power play as well. Not the best defensive defensemen on our list but his offense more than over shadows those deficiencies

Tyler Myers: (Buf) The heir apparent to Zdeno Chara as the tallest/best defensemen in the NHL? The 21 year old plays beyond his years on both sides of the rink and is a force to be reckoned with every time he steps on the ice

Mike Green: (Wst) It would be hard to not to place the Alberta native into this list. He simply has as much offensive talent as any of his peers despite an injury-laden season. He also continues to improve in his own end as well

Keith Yandle: (Phx) Playing in the desert "The other Keith"(Duncan) is probably best defenseman that nobody talks about. If he has another season like last year the discussion might be more out in the open! he has tremendous skating ability and mobility with his with superb offensive instincts and can hit as well

Andrei Markov: (Mtl) The veteren Russian can do it all, but has had injury issues holding him back.

5) Goalies: Finally what is unarguably the most inportant position, the last line of defense. The last few years (outside of this year) the teams vying for the Cup haven't always had the percieved top goalies? There seems to be a 'changing of the guard going on with some of the more familiar names either retiring or late in their careers and no longer in our top 10

Tim Thomas: (Bos) Currently standing atop the hockey and goalie kingdoms with his Conn Smyth/Vezina and Stanley Cup trophies this past season. At 37 how long will he stay there? Not the prototypical butterfly goalie, more of a Hasek style will probably lend him to leg injuries now that he's no longer a young man, but in the mean time none are better

Pekka Rinne:(Nsh) With the decline of Kipprusoff, Pekka is now the supreme Finn, if not NHL goalie. His numbers last season were amazing, posting a .930 save %, propelling an offensively challenged Preds team into the post season. It doesn't hurt that he's huge and as nimble as a player a foot smaller

Roberto Luongo: (Van) Last season was the 2nd best goalie in the regular and post season. Not quite up to the challenge of carrying his team all the way, but it wasn't all his fault. However the best are able to over come/cover for their teams' mistakes and elevate them to win championships. Thus far Roberto has lacked that ability.

Cam Ward: (Car) One wonders how well Cam would do if he played for a better team or if he was a more consistent goalie. He has shown the ability to carry a team (Cup/Conn Smythe winner) but has also struggled at times.

Henrik Lundqvist: (NYR) Few goalies are as important to their teams fortunes as Hank is for the Rangers. Without his heroics they probably wouldn't have been a playoff team 5 of the past 6 seasons. Unfortunately thus far those heroics haven't continued into the post season

Ilya Bryzgalov: (Phi) Now that he is beyond the shadow of playing in Phoenix we will finally see if Ilya is the elite goalie we believe he is. He helped carry the Yotes at times the past few seasons and into the post season (They will miss him!)

Ryan Miller: (Buf) Possesses the great combination of physical ability with phenominal positioning. If he played for a top team there is little doubt he'd have a ring by now. Easily the best U.S.born goalie today (see 2010 Olympics)

Carey Price: (Mtl) Had we done this last season Carey would not have been on it, but he had a very solid if not spectacular season guiding a mediocre Habs team into the post season. All taking place in hockey's version of The Cruciable. We will soon find out if he deserves to stay here

Jonas Hiller:(Ana) Most goalies would hate to be called "Swiss" as in the cheese, but Jonas is easily the best Swiss goalie to come along. Having already stolen the #1 job from J.S. Giguere, Hiller has become an exceptional goalie, possessing great reflexes but its his positioning of always squared to the shooter that stands out

Marc-Andre Fleury: M-A-F certainly appears to have the ability, and has won a Cup, yet lacks consistency or the ability to stay focused to be considered a top/Vezina challenger.

Are You F-Ing Kidding Me??

2011-09-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

1) We can not believe the amazing uproar being created by recent events, both of which surround Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds. First, last week in a preseason game against the RedWings, played in western Ontario a 'fan' tossed a banana in Simmonds' general direction during the after game shoot out festivities. Naturally being that Simmonds is of African decent it was surmised, without knowing the idiots intent, that this was a racially motivated action. Not the common action of a moron trying to place him/herself into the game by throwing an object onto the ice. Perhaps it was racially motivated, but as of this writing we do not know that for sure. What is certain, the amazing out rage that poured in was as if a noose with the "N" word on it had been thrown at Simmonds. There was universal outrage that this was awful, etc. OK, for the record we do NOT condone ANYONE throwing objects on to the ice. Its very dangerous to the players. Anyone who is caught should be prosecuted. However, how does one discern/afix 'intent' and does this somehow make it a more heinous offense?

2) Fast forward to this week when the same Wayne Simmonds' team is playing against the NY Rangers and known super pest Sean Avery. Apparently Simmonds took exception to a common Avery tactic, 'the sucker punch and run.' From there on in Simmonds was intent to fight Avery. The two apparently exchanged words. It wasn't until afterwards that we find out that among the interplay Simmnds called Avery a "Faggot". Evidently from the reaction of various pro-homo groups that's the gay equivalent to calling Simmonds a "Nigger". In other words the absolute worst thing you can ever say or do without it being a felony (yet)! Firstly, who give a fucking shit what players yell at each other during the heat of a game?!? I hated it when this whole bull shit started a few years ago with the Shane Doan allegations of an anti Franco-phone epitaph directed at an official (later proved to be false). Later we have had various incidents of profanity being interlaced with racially charged wording. Whether against black or Native Americans/First Nation players, each reaction to these incident has incrementally grown in volume.

3) Its our position that if a player says anything on the ice at all it should remain there and no punishment should ever be taken period. Its a high pressure/violent game. Political Correctness(PC) has NO place here. Players should agree to stop the fucking whining over it. Sadly we have gotten to the point now where society teaches us that every minority group is a victim. Apparently that has now spilled over into the all sports and now solidly in NHL as well. No doubt there will be a severe reaction from the league. Simmonds can expect a big fine and probably a suspension. If it were up to us all players/officials would be mic'ed and fans would enjoy the game all the more (paying extra or the privilege as we wrote/suggested 3 years ago). http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/09/uncensored-hockey.html Perhaps this would lessen the verbiage used, or make fans/media over react less to the stuff that is spatted in the heat of battle. To us at Fauxrumors, the trend of pussifying the game continues and saddens us.

Shanny Asserting Himself?!?

2011-09-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

1) When we first contemplated this post last week we were intending to write a favourable report on Brendan Shanahan. The future Hall of Famer/former 600 goal scorer is not only The NHL's Vice President of Hockey and Business Development, but also the NHL's chief player disciplinarian succeeding Colin Campbell who had been long criticized by many, including us http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/10/nhl-crime-and-punishment.html. However, before I had an opportunity to jot down my thoughts for you folks to read, it seems that almost every other hockey writer/blogger did their version of the same post. I don't intend to change my perspective of Shanahan drastically because of this, but will now have a bit of a wary eye on him. It just seems a bit of a coincidence that everyone had a story on the same subject at the same time? Yes, its entirely possible with the a season yet to have started, writers were simply looking for anything to muse about, but come on, everyone and all with the same opinion/story bent at the same time?

2) So first what we originally intended to discuss here. We were not so much happy with the justice served by Shanahan with his recent suspensions of Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Jody Shelley (Yes, it was deserved if the letter of the new rules are to be interpreted as such), but we were happy with the way it was handled; very publicly and with a clear explanation of why the suspension was levied with video and the VP himself there to explain his actions. His predecessor(s) seemed to never give adequate(if any) explanation of why they came to their conclusions. The more transparency on all subjects the better has always been our motto/goal of us at Fauxrumors. http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2008/08/salary-cap-transparency.html

3) So where do we go from here? Well, with these rulings, and more importantly the way they were levied, we now have an expectation. Will all future suspensions be handled this way? Preseason suspensions of players who are not vital to their teams' success is one thing, but will 'Shanny' be equally up front if he has to discipline a star player down the stretch or in the playoffs? Will he continue to rule the same way all season and with all offenders? Will he recuse himself if a former teammate comes before him? These are areas where the rubber will hit the road. We will be first to laud Brendan if he maintains a consistency in suspension length for all offenders regardless of who it is, and when it takes place. That has been lacking in all the MANY years I and Fauxrumors have been following the NHL. Let's all hope that this will be the new 'rule' and not a short term PR campaign.

PS. FR2 tells me that he is working on a post where he will list his Top 10 at each position along with a brief description of why. Should be interesting. He tels me it should drop later this week. Of course look for our Preseason predictions coming in the next week or so. And as always, keep it here for all the latest!

Punching Holes in The Goon Death Nonsense

2011-09-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

1) Firstly before I begin this post I wanted to say that we are NOT taking the recent deaths of the three former NHL-ers frivolously. Far from it. However, unlike what seems to be a uniform response from the media, we are not going to link them together simply because they occurred within a short time, and involved players with a tendency to accumulate PIM's. OK so lets get down to some basic thoughts without a bias against fighting. As Mr. Webb said, "Just the facts Ma'am "! Despite the ease to lump all the deaths together to date there hasn't be a unifying theme in the 3 recent cases. One was a clear suicide (Belak), while the Boogard was an accidental overdose of legally prescribed medications. In the case of Rick Rypien police have yet to release an official Cause of death but ts not being called suspicious. Regardless, it appears despite the media's clamor, all 3 died differently.

2) If, as we have been told (over and over) from the anti fighting zealots, that these players died directly or indirectly from fighting then we have to ask why now??? I mean now when fighting is at its lowest since the NHL began would we suddenly see players die from it? Last season other than Konopka no player eclipsed the 300 PIM plateau and only 2 were even over 200! By contrast in 1992 8 players had over 300 PIM's and one, Mike Peluso had 400+! Even only 10 years ago 9 players had 200+ PIM's. Think about it, if it were the fighting that was the cause wouldn't we have seen a player drop dead every week during the early-mid 1970's when almost every player in the line up had as many fights as the top pugilists do today. Back then 300 PIMs wasn't unusual. Dave 'The Hammer' Schultz alone had 472 PIM's in 1975! To our knowledge Dave is alive and well, as are almost all his former team mates, most of whom accumulated 200+ PIM's and 15+ fighting majors/season. So is it the game or is it society that has changed leading to these deaths? You see, its easy/lazy to say lets eliminate/change one thing (fighting) and all will be well. If one is intellectually honest, you'll know that's not gonna happen

3) OK, so lets take the leaps of faith. Yes, the players all died directly and indirectly from having a few more fights than their peers, etc. What do we do now? Ending all fighting in the NHL will solve the problem? OK, can/will the minors also do the same? Fat chance! Its NO secret that especially in the minors, fighting sells, so owners of those franchises who get almost no TV money, and rely even more heavily on gate attendance than the NHL want/need fannys in the seats. Eliminate fighting and I'd say a 20% reduction in attendance might be a conservative estimate. So if fighting would likely continue in the minors the players who would be enforcers in the NHL will simply "ply their craft" in the AHL or ECHL. Make less money and probably fight 10 times more. If by some slim chance ALL fighting is eliminated in all hockey levels then what do these guys do for a living? The same psychological issues that they take to hockey now, will simply go to another profession. They will still have substance abuse/depression issues regardless if they dance on ice with their gloves off 15-20 times a year or not. Problem not solved just shifted and we can all sleep well at night knowing we've solved a major problem right?

News And Notes: Training Camps Open-Edition!

2011-09-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

1) Finally the LONG off-season is over and the NHL starts back in action this weekend. Technically teams' had rookie camps this past week, but the regular squads didn't have to report until tomorrow. Since last week there has been tons of news to report/comment on. We'll touch on each important item; giving our 2 cents and relay and inside info we are hearing.

2)

Teemu Is Coming Back: The 41-year-old former All-star will return for his 19th season, in the NHL after agreeing to a one-year, $4 million contract. This will be Salanne's 14th season as a Duck (in 2 stints). It will also allow the Finn a chance to return to play where his career started, Winnipeg. For those interested, that game is scheduled for Saturday December 17th!

Luke Schenn Re-signs: From what we've been told by sources close to the situation its a 5 year deal which will have a $3.5 or so million average yearly hit to the Maple Leafs' salary cap. The 21 year old defensemen was coming off his Entry level Contract (ELC) which gives players little leverage, but with GM Brian Burke wanting to form the team in Schenn's image it was imperative to get this deal done. As a 3rd year pro he led the league among defensemen with 251 hits and led the team with 168 blocked shots.

Sidney Crosby: The word out of Pittsburgh is that Superstar center Sidney Crosby will attend the Penguins training camp, starting tomorrow. Unfortunately for Pens fans this isn't really news at all. Sid will only be taking part in 'skating drills', and from what we've been told, he probably won't even be doing that full time from the start either. Essentially the only change is he won't be doing his daily skating work outs alone. Until he is cleared for 'contact' he is NOT ready to contemplate a return date. And as we have reported before, even then his career will be VERY tenuous from that point forward. The next concussion will likely be his last

Tyler Myers: Great news out of Buffalo where the monster defensemen, and former Rookie of the year (and likely future Norris finalist/team captain) signed a lengthy contract extension prior to training camp opening. The deal we're told contains a bunch of bonuses and differing salaries but the bottom line its a 7 year deal with a cap hit of about 5.5 million. Not a bad deal for either side as Myers, like Luke Schenn, would have had little real leverage other then sitting out next season. Nice to see the Sabres getting things done proactively, and avoiding the bad feeling like is happening in our next story.

Drew Doughty: This situation went from friendly, to business-like, to testy, to now down right cantankerous. As we wrote back in early August folks expected Drew to be in camp on time with at least a one year deal signed. Things started to fall apart as an apparent power play with agent Don Meehan has formed. Meehan wants his current client Doughty to be the Kings highest paid player. More than his former client Anze Kopitar. Kopitar dropped Meehan as an agent at the urging of former King Luc Robitaille (now in the Kings front office). So you can see its more complicated then most contracts. Meehan wants 7 mil. Kings have a drop dead number of 6.8. Seems to be such a small difference, but as a non affiliated agent told us "most of the problems here are more about egos than dollar numbers". This one could get uglier before it gets rectified. Its entirely possible Doughty will miss the opening game. Once that happens we're told Kings management might become even more hard lined and allow the kid to swing in the wind a few weeks. A trade IS NOT likely though. Stay tuned as this situation is very fluid!

Islander Moves: Some definite positives on the Island to report. Firstly to the surprise of many (especially the Canadian media) John Tavares, the first overall pick in 2009 signed a 6 year extension. Many were surprised by the timing. Most thought Johnny T would first wait to see if the team was going to remain on the island. However he appears to be committed to try to be part of the rebuild and see it through. The 5.5 mil cap hit(starting next season) is very reasonable if he becomes the super-star everyone is expecting the soon-to-be 21 yr old will be. Will this stop the incessant trade rumours? No. It'll just change the story line to this being an imminent sign and trade. LOL In addition to Tavares, the Isles also signed 2008 1st round (9th overall) pick Josh Bailey to a 2 yr 2 million deal. Had a deal not been reached Bailey would not play in the NHL this season, as its Wang's rule that if a player is not in camp he doesn't play until next year. Bailey has shown signs of being the solid 2-way player Snow thought he drafted but perhaps was rushed too quickly into the NHL

New NHL Guide lines for Social Networks: Our response: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Who cares. Its pretty meaningless. Its not like there have been a plethora of controversial statements made on Twitter the past couple of years. I guess little Gary wanted to make sure he was clear to the players that they best not say anything about him in cyberspace

Brad Marchand signs: As we expected Brad Marchand signed a 2 yr 5 mil deal. The 23-year-old will be paid $2 million this season and $3 million next season. A reasonable raise considering Marchand had a decent regular season, but shined in the post season.

3) There you have it. A brief run down on the many stories around the league as we are about to start training camps. In the upcoming weeks look for:

Fauxrumors will ofcourse publish our annual preseason predictions for all 30 teams. Doing each conference in separate posts.

We will also, as we have done in the past, make our preseason playoff, and Cup winner predictions post as well.

Additionally as the season is about to start look for our annual 'who will get the axe first' post in which we handicap what coaches are most likely to be fired.

We plan to renew our popular weekly picks every Saturday and try to stay above 'The Mendoza line' (.500)