OMFG.

It is over before it began.

Today, Tuesday, September 12th, the NY Islanders sign Ricky "Pretty Boy" DiPietro to a fucking 15 year deal. What the fuck.

This makes no sense. The only way this works for us is if DiPietro becomes a kick-ass goalie. Right now, he's just "OK". Hardly worth the $4mill and change he's gonna get a year... for 15 fucking years in a row.

In one article, an GM stated that it was stupid because, even if Rick becomes fantasmagorical andw e can't afford the $7mill a year he could command, that we should then let him go because we can still get a great goalie for $4 mill or so. I am inlicned to agree.

Voices also say that now DiPietro has no real motivation to work. "He's won the lottery" one GM said. Again, I'd have to agree.

What motivation does he have to perform? In fact, he's guaranteed his yearly if he retires due to an injury! If I were him, I'd be rushing the breakaways just begging for someone to take out my MCL. Or ACL. Or any-CL for that matter!

This just fucking sucks. It's apparently not bad enough that we're laden with Yashin's albatross of a contract but now this?

We should've given him $3-4 to start and gotten a vet to push him. Now it's too late.

And I thought putting Garth Snow in GM position was bad...

Progress?

Islanders sign Mike Sillinger. BFD. I didn't even like The Catcher in the Rye. But they did get Brendan Witt. In the words of that corpulent Ranger wind-bag, John Davidson, "Oh, BABY!"

Witt is a bonafide crease-clearer with a crap-ass attitude to match. I'm hoping he'll crunch some bones in the new season and that his signing will draw some other good names to the team. I'm an once again hopeful though, the lats time I got this excited about a player signing was when they nabbed satan.

We shall see.

Love Letter

Dear Edmonton Oilers,
Thank You!
Love,
Me

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!

Dear Islander214.

You positively S-U-C-K!

So much for your boast about being in the top 4 by Christmas. You've finished second to last! Yes... clearly you have much hockey savvy! Thanks so much for dropping Mezaros and Prucha! Prucha had such a shitty year, didn't he? And Mez' +/- was abysmal, wasn't it?

Grow some pubes before trying top run a league, joker.

Tell Me Again Why This Is My Favorite Team?

Excerpted from the Chicago Tribune. My comments in BOLD.

Bill Wirtz was unwilling to comment on the NHL's betting scandal Wednesday, but the Blackhawks' owner had a lot to say about his team's disappointing season, admitting "we made mistakes on our free-agent signings because we didn't think the game would change that much with the new rules."

Doesn't the very nature of NEW rules imply change is a certainty?

The emphasis was on defense. But the new rules this season—particularly those curtailing obstruction, widening the offensive zone and allowing the two-line pass—put the accent on offense."We signed the free agents, and then we had the rule changes," Wirtz said. "With the red line out, that has changed the game. Speed is the greatest requirement.

I seem to remember the rule changes and the salary cap/free agent signing period were announced at the same time. Am I wrong?

"I thought Khabibulin was the best goaltender in the world," Wirtz said."But when you're off for a year those skills go down. That has affected his game, there's no question. You have to hone those skills back up. I think next year and the following year he will be fine.

Umm. Bullshit excuse. Next............

"Some of our younger players we had high hopes for—[Anton] Babchuk, [Mikhail Yakubov] and [Pavel] Vorobiev—have not panned out."All three were drafted by Mike Smith, who joined the Hawks' front office in December 1999, was promoted to general manager the next year and was fired Oct. 24, 2003.

Sure. Blame the guy who's not around anymore. Typical.

Tallon decided not to bring back Brian Sutter as coach. Instead he promoted the less intense Trent Yawney, who had coached most of the Hawks' young players when they were with the Norfolk farm team of the American Hockey League, reasoning the change would bring out their best. But center Tyler Arnason, the player who seemingly has the most potential, has continued to underachieve.Like Tallon, Wirtz doesn't blame Yawney for the ongoing Arnason motivation problem. He believes Yawney's problem isn't in handling players but rather "the learning curve."

Gettting rid of a proven winner who is also a Sutter is just a bad move.

"Any coach coming from the AHL has to learn the NHL," Wirtz said."You can be a good coach, but you have to know the line changes and stuff like that. That's his biggest drawback."

WTF? Line changes? Hockey coaching 101 if you ask me.

I could go on and on.

At last!!

Jason Blake breaks out of his 10 game, scoreless slump and nabs two goals against the Caps last night. Granted, one was an empty-netter but who really cares?

The team won last night but the fact that they gave up the lead to the not-so-mighty Washington Capitals is disconcerting. Even more troubling is the fact that the Caps have the 2nd worst powerplay in the NHL (ranked 29th out of 30) and yet they were able to convert twice. Not good.

Still, they got 2 points out of it and could ride the momentum when they face the Rangers tomorrow.

We'll be at that game. Hopefully we won't suck too badly. If there's any team the Isles need to beat, it's the goddam Rangers. But they've been playing well this year and they're a totally different animal.


Time to sacrifice a chicken.

Haha! Go Prucha!!

Dumb shit also dropped Petr Prucha. Why drop a guy when he's just in the middle of his scoring jag? Why? because you're a goddam, pre-puber moron, that's why.
I was able to get him (as I did Meszaros) and ol' Petery gets me a goal.

How nice.

What's even nicer is that I've been 5th while Captain Braggodocia is almost at the bottom.