NHL 2011-2012 Thread - Page 3

Was surprised to hear what Hannan ended up signing for. I was mostly expecting him to come back to the Caps, but at a lesser rate. I'm not sure what he might have asked for (or if he was even willing to come back), but it was apparently not even close to working as the Caps spent little time replacing him with Hamrlik. Then I couldn't believe how long he stayed on the market without a deal. At 1 million he is a very solid depth defenseman. Definitely getting too old and too slow to be worth 4 million anymore, but I think that was a good signing.

Ex Canucks grinder/tough guy Rick Rypien found dead in his Alberta home, reports say it was suicide. Absolutely terrible.

Yea rough news. Really young too.

Really shitty. I remember when he tweaked out on that Wild fan; too bad it seems like there was more going on behind the scenes. Always really sad when somebody doesn't win their battle with something like depression.

Really tough news. His incident with the Wild fan painted him in a poor light but everything I heard about him off the ice was that he was a stand-up kid and great teammate.

Depression is a tough disease and it's tragic this kid lost his life to it.

Rest in Peace.

Very sad news this summer about Rick Rypien and Derek Boogarden. 

 

On a positive note - training camps are starting up in a few short weeks, wow! 

 

As a die hard Sabres fan I am excited about Kotalik, but only for his one timer & shootout abilities.  He does not show up when his size and strength are needed, especially when some defensive play is needed.  In the last year of his Sather contract (NYR on July 1st: overpriced and too long) Kotalik may very well be in Rochester all year.  Morissonn will not play with Buffalo this season, Rochester or traded/waived.  Another Sabres roster move should put them below the cap, whether it is Kotalik or another forward it will be fun to see what they do.

 

I'm excited for this season, can't wait to see how Buffalo shapes up and the rest of league! 

 

Game on!

Forget Kotalik, the guy is a bum even if he did have his best years in Buffalo. Regehr is where its at. I am still very, very, very sore about losing him. Considering you guys made the playoffs last year, you guys are going to have a damn good year. Ehrhoff, Regehr, Leino are some very solid acquisitions.

Ex-Leaf enforcer Wade Belak found dead in his hotel room.

Forget it NYR. The NHL has gotten to a point where calling out any of this stuff will immediately have you branded as a pussy by the hockey "purists" who think you want to take fighting and hitting out of the game.

We already have ample evidence that enforcers have scrambled brains (Boogard, Bob Probert), as well as a literal laundry list of players being taken off the ice on stretchers due to vicious head-shots, yet fans who voice their concern are still branded as Euro-pussies who are trying to turn the NHL into figure skating.

Do you know when this shit will change? When the average hockey fan quits acting like he's been there before because he played a year of PeeWee C hockey and starts realizing that the hockey currently played in the NHL is not "good old hockey". It's dangerous, often vicious, and leading to irreparable damage on and off the ice for many players.

Without knowing the details of Belak's death, I imagine it will look something like the Rypien or Boogard tragedies and the NHL will probably continue with their whole "isolated incidents" bullshit.

How will it look like the Rypien and Boogard incidents when those two were completely and utterly different? Wade Belak wasn't an enforcer cut from the same cloth as those two, for one thing, but more than that, I can't think of any pro athlete whose death is comparable to Rypien's. That guy has had problems for years to a point where you were surprised but at the same time not when the news came out. You guys are dreaming up equivalencies when really the only thing these guys had in common was they played pro hockey.

I can't jump to conclusions about Belak's death (which apparently was a suicide) but I wouldn't be surprised if it came out that he was suffering from depression and had used, or was using, drugs. Belak was a fighter, just like Rypien and Boogard. These guys are almost all on some type of drug (legal or not) to deal with getting hit in the face every other day, not to mention the fact that most of them have been plying their "trade" for years and often have the physical issues that come with it (i.e Bob Probert).

To say that there is no link in these deaths holds a hell of a lot less water than saying that there likely is one.