NHL Training camp discussion

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This thread is for those of us who like the NHL to share our impression of our team's performance in Training camp, and what you think your team will look like come October 4.

My leafs are 1-1 so far. Carlo Coliaccovo had to leave the first day of on ice practice with what was originally thought (but later found not to be) post concussion syndrome. It may still put him out of the running for one of the last two spots on the defence. Right now my candidates are Ian White, a young, skilled offensive defenceman, and Andy Woznewski, a 6'5" stay at home defenceman who has a goal in an intersquad game and one last night against Ottawa.

Up front, I had penciled John Pohl as a fourth line centre and Ben Ondrus to take Tie Domi's old spot as tough guy grinder. Ondrus and Kris Newbury are fighting (literally, but against the other team) for that job. Suglobov, Westrum, Tlusty and Bataglia have also looked good so far.

Pavel Kubina left the game against Ottawa early with a hip flexor problem, and Wade Belak didn't play with a groin problem. I figure both to be ready for the start of the season.

 

Milan Michalek scored a hat trick for the Sharks yesterday. I don't think that the Sharks can count on Cheechoo to put up the same goal numbers as he did last year so they are going to need some of the other players to step it up and score some goals.

 

Staffan Kronwall left tonight's game against the Montreal Canadians in the First period. It is a lower body injury, but the Leafs say there is no fracture.

The Leafs won the game 5-1, and goals for John Pohl, Mats Sundin, Darcy Tucker and Alexei Ponikarovsky look good for the big club, while the beautiful goal by Alexander Suglobov means that the future is looking bright for the club. Right now I pick Wellwood and Ponikarovsky for the Sundin line, O'neil will play with either Steen/Stajan or Peca/Tucker. Depending on where they put O'neil, either Antropov (with Peca/Tucker) or Pohl (with Steen/Stajan) move up. The fourth line looks like Antropov or Pohl between Chad Kilger and Ben Ondrus (who looks to be a good replacement for Tie Domi).

I'm still calling Ian White and Andy Woznewski for the last two defence spots. Wade Belak, Bates Battaglia and Brad Brown for the last three roster places.

In goal, it's too close to call. Raycroft is the number 1, but Tellqvist and Aubin both looked good in their respective games.

 

I would have to say that Saturday night's win in Montreal was the first really encouraging one so far. The Leafs left most of their big names out of the line up and the kids still managed to beat the Canadiens starters.

It was another good night for Suglobov so you have to think that it is getting a lot harder to leave him off the roster.

 

How are Anaheim this year? Have they made any decent signings?

When I used to follow the NHL, they were my favourite team (back in the days of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanni!)

 

My favourite team are the San Jose Sharks. I went to see them play once and got free pizza because they beat Denver (I think... some team in red and white anyway)

 

JSBB: Suglobov may end up in the Marlies to work on his defensive game. He has the talent, but just may not quite have the system down yet.

BA: They acquired Chris Pronger (6'6", about 240 lbs) from Edmonton, giving them the best defensive pair in the league (along with Scott Neidermayer, signed last year).

Harbs: The Sharks look to be in tough in their division with two solid offensive lines and two solid Goalies. I expect them in the playoffs. I don't know much more than that as they are in the Western Conference and most of my information is about the Eastern conference.

 

I wonder how much correlation exists between pre-season success and regular season success.

 

From what I have seen over the last ten years or so there has been very little correlation between preseason and regular season success.

I guess the team to watch this year in order to test this will be Chicago. They are undefeated in preseason after being terrible last year. I think that they will be better than last year but I doubt that they will be one of the top teams. I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

Chicago has lost one of their key players for the first part of the season as well.

Back to the Leafs: They made the first wave of cuts. Justin Pogge, Chris Newbury and Jiri Tlusty were the biggest names, but few questions are answered yet. Also, they asked the league to review a slash from Dany Heatly to Brendan Bell which has injured his foot. It would be good for the Leafs if Heatley was suspended for the first two games of the regular season (conveniently against the Leafs).

 

@Gnarfflinger - Do you mean Ruutu for Chicago? I would hardly say he was a key player - more like a key press box filler. That guy is always injured. I think he managed to play around 15 games last season.

 

All the predictions I heard was that Ruutu would rebound and emerge as a power forward. He's hurt again.

I'm calling Pohl, Ondrus and Battaglia getting forward positions while White, Woznewski and Brown getting spots on defence.

I suspect that at some point the Leafs may trade one goalie and perhaps a player or two that they risk losing to waivers to get minor league or major Junior prospects and draft picks. I think the team is almost selected...

 

Montréal is having quite the difficult time in pre-season this year (in contrast to last year where they had an excellent record). I think they are now at 2 wins and 4 losses. What scares me the most is the lack of intensity by the veterans. In all of thoses 6 games, the best players were always the young kids (yes, I admit, they're playing for a spot on the team, but still). Kovalev, Samsonov, Souray, Rivet, Ribeiro, Ryder, Markov have been almost invisible since the start of the pre-season. Even Huet has been quite ordinary. When Streit is your best defenseman, there's something wrong...

The recent wave of cuts was made a couple of days ago. Seems like Latendresse will finally be offered a shot at the final spot on the team. I say finally, because there was a big stir in the public last year when the habs sent him to his junior club although he had been the best player by far in the exhibition games. People saw in him the power forward we have always been waiting for in Montréal. But this year, after an even better training camp than last year, he might be skipping his last junior year to start the season with the Canadiens.

 

If you thought things looked bad before Triactus what do you think now that they went out and got Patrick Traverse back? The injuries to the Montreal defence must be worse than I thought for them to have gone and claimed that liability.

Hopefully Traverse will quickly be banished back down to the minors where he belongs but until then I expect Montreal fans to be going on a regular basis.

 

Well, we'll all agree on the fact that Traverse is not the best defenseman ever. But he's stil a good insurance policy. He's basically there to fill a spot until someone better can play again. But let's face it, the Canadians had to do something. Bouillon (A face, hard hitting intellegent D) is out until november or december, Jonathan Ferland (A young rising D who would've had a shot at the number 6 spot) got injured in the training camp and is out for at least 6 weeks. On top of that, Souray injured his shoulder in the game last saturday, and they don't know if he'll be able to play...

I heard the habs were in talk to sign Jason Wolley. I guess they decided to grab Traverse since his salary is probably a lot less than Wolley would have had...

I have a question for you guys. What do you think will happen to unsign guys, like Brian Leetch, or Éric Dazé? In the latter's case, that's really a shame. He was in the elite of the league before a back problem put him out of the play. But now, his back is completly healed, but no team will sign him...

 

Some players get a raw deal on the injury front. Daze is just another victime in these regards.

Jeff O'Neil may end up on the trading block or even in the AHL if he doesn't step up this weekend. Suglobov just might get his spot.

 

Yeah I woulod have to say that O'Neil is doing a pretty good job of playing himself out of a job.

If there wasn't the GM eating crow factor you could say the same of Raycroft - letting in four goals on twenty two shots definitely isn't what you want to see from your main goaltender.

 

haha... that reminds me of Luongo getting shelled in the early part of the pre-season for the Canucks... except that he's still guaranteed his job.

 

Actually, trading Raycroft and O'Neil would give the leafs a ton of Cap room, and they really have no pressing needs either. They could use this to stock up on AHL players to help the Marlies make a run at the Calder Cup.

 

They can't really trade Raycroft. They have no other experienced goalie. Yes, Aubin is there, but he has never played as a number one. There's no telling how he would play in 60 games or so...

The O'neill case must be infuriating for the Leaf's GM. He came out of Carolina as their sniper and best player. Today, he might be headed for the AHL... lol

I just learned that the Canadians traded center Mike Ribeiro to the Stars for Janne Niinimaa... I so didn't see that coming. I thought they decided to wait out the D problem by signing Traverse! Now, the habs are definitly in trouble with the Cs. Koivu is apparently okay, but he still has a habit of getting injured. Plekanec (RW) is now a C, between Kovalev and Samsonov. There's Bonk and Bégin on the 3rd and 4th, and that's it for centers...