Around the League: Vancouver staves elimination, Pittsburgh and Boston look to close out series

Poory Sammy, I thought it was to the solar plexus, apparently I was a few clicks north of the actual spot. ooooohboooy.

Murray hit*

Agreed. He hit Franzen’s shoulder, and Franzen flopped to the ice and tried to draw a 5 minute penalty…because, you know, he’s a classy guy. The retaliation hit on Murray busted open his face, and all Murray did was skate (wobbly, I might add) to the bench. God, I’m glad I’m a Sharks fan…

when a big man scores 4 on your team, you let him nowhere near the net and Mr. Murry did a fine job of putting it to Franzen. IMHO (in my homer opinion) ;-)

It will be up today.

And it’s own video.

Interesting to think that Chicago has “problems on defense” as that is supposed to be their strength. I agree with you, though. Their blueline, and definately their goaltending, has not been very good this postseason.

Has there been any talk of Blake potentially retiring? I’m just curious; that’d leave a bit of a hole in our D (and a hole in our third-period penalties) but free up some to keep Nabby and Marleau around assuming they’ll both take hometown discounts — I think Marleau certainly would, and Nabby most likely (seems more likely when I think about their letting him make his own schedule…)

Definitely agree on Seto and JoePa — barring a deal of unfathomable magnitude, I think the Sharks organization will pull whatever they can to keep these two in San Jose as long as possible. As much proclaimed through these playoffs, Pavelski is the future of this team.

It’s certainly going to be an interesting summer.

That’s all basically impossible.

Between Seto and Pavelski getting raises (even if they’re restricted, they’re still FA’s and will want a pay check).

We’re up against the cap now, there is no way we can sign Blake, Nabby and Marleau (even if the later two take some kind of discount) and still retain Pav’s and Seto. Basically all but 1 of Blake, Nabby and Marleau are going to walk next year if we want to resign Pavs, Seto, Malhotra, etc.

I love how he already is answering Sharks postseason questions. It’s like he already had this planned out for when the Wings took out the Sharks, and now that the Sharks are actually still playing, he decided, fuck it, I’m running it anyways.

I don’t even want to think about this stuff yet. This offseason will be very interesting…

We have Thornton until June of 2011, at which point he’s a UFA, so unless he’s traded in this offseason, he’s not going anywhere.

Well, we know it won’t start Thursday or Saturday, since HP is booked.

Go Vancouver, knock out that Versus-favorite and very dirty-playing team!
Go Montreal, knock out Gary’s idol to shut them up about him!
Go Boston, finish it up so you’re rested! Then take out the winner of the other series winner.
And in all series’, GO SHARKS!

You know, without your anti-Red Wings avatar and all.

The cap will remain flat next year, according to Bettman, but will go up in subsequent years. The Sharks don’t have a self imposed cap, as they are up against the NHL cap this year… hence the roster moves. Due to Heatley’s salary, I think they are actually above the cap in terms of salary paid this year.

And, as a policy, we don’t do those types of pieces during the playoffs. We’ll hit it hard after the playoffs are over.

Every since the 2005 season the internal salary cap no longer applies. The owners told DW to spend what was necessary. We have been near the ceiling for a while now. The team took a loss last year because we were projected to go further in the playoffs. For every additional home playoff game the team plays, SVSE makes another $1 million to use towards paying players.

saw that this morning, too – very entertaining article

I like all the Wings fans bitching about the article in the comments

Pretty decent. The comments section on that one is the best, though, because of all the Wings fans who got completely butthurt over it…

WHICH IS THE POINT OF ALL THESE ARTICLES!

Man, I wonder what it’s like to have literally zero sense of humor.

I thought it was pretty lame. The golf pic was sorta funny, and I didn’t much care for the jab at Joe, but I guess since the Hawks figure they’re playing us next round, it’s to be expected.

The Phoenix one was still the best in my opinion. Followed closely by New Jersey’s.

The eulogy? Kinda flat, I think, though the golf-wing image was gold and the post had it’s moments.

The real hilarity is definitely the Wings fans in the comments. Holy mother of god, that shit is downright fantastically hilarious. Someone needs to explain the following to (most of the) Wings fans (posting there):

1. Every eliminated team got one of these. You’ve just had blinders on ‘til now.
2. They’re supposed to be satire. You know, cutting, anti-[team] remarks.
3. You’re supposed to laugh. You lost, you’re done, get over it.
4. Wysh did not write the article. Please learn this. Please.

Two Line Pass

Here’s a pretty good eulogy from Two Line Pass on the Wings. It was pretty much hilarious.

I’m cautiously looking forward to getting some tickets to the WCF if the Hawks can man up and hold on.

being Directv and all, but what you’re asking for will never happen, especially with Center Ice available. Comcast makes money by having it’s channels exclusive to a region, because if you want to watch an out-of-market game, you have to pay more. Oh, and Vs. is a Comcast-owned channel, as those of us on Directv know from losing Vs. until the last 1/4 of the season. Again, they make money by screwing the fans, with the idea being if they screw you hard enough, you’ll pay extra to not be screwed (i.e. pony up for Center Ice).

There were too many teams for just CSNBA to begin with (Sharks, A’s, Giants, Warriors, and Earthquakes), and when the Giants bought a stake in CSNBA it caused HUGE conflict of intrest problems. Within a year of the Giants investment in the channel the Warriors were suing and the A’s were looking to jump ship.

Pretty much the three other ownership groups (the A’s and Earthquakes are owned by the same group) didn’t feel comfortable with the Giants having control over which teams got front billing, were relegated to the B channel, or were sent to limbo. This was twice as true for the A’s, Earthquakes, and Sharks, all looking to establish themselves (or recover from a ratings slide after loosing Drew Remenda to Hockey Night in Canada). Being relegated to plus or having games canceled on a semi-permanent basis (as was happening to the A’s and Sharks when the Giants and Warriors were playing) was having a noticeable effect on all teams ratings and television profits. The A’s (in part by pressure from the Giants) were only beling allowed to show about 40% of their games a year.

The A’s/Earthquakes, who were in the worst position of the three non-Giants ownership groups, went out and cut a deal with CSNCA, who at the time was a backwoods network only carrying Kings games. The A’s cut a deal that would use the Kings black out in the Bay Area to give them the channel all to themselves, allowing them to no longer have to answer to the their chief rivals in the BA, the Giants. As soon as the jumped ship they were magically able to air over 90% of their games giving credence to the rumors of favoritism going on behind the scenes.

Once the A’s had CSNCA established in the Bay Area, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the Sharks would be the next to jump. Not only do the two ownership groups work closely together (SVSC will be running day to day operations of the Earthquakes Stadium) but the Gaints had been banishing the Sharks to CSNBA+ against the higher rated Warriors games.

The Giants thought they could walk in, use the station to promote themselves (like they do with KNBR), and the other teams would thank them politely for second billing and hand over wads of TV revenue. In the end they were the ones who caused the Sharks, A’s and Earthquakes to move off the channel by screwing the other four teams. Comcast is blameless in this one.

The Warriors are still suing as far as I know, but it may soon be a moot point since they could be bought by the Giants and moved to San Francisco.

If there is a Kings game, they show that on CSN-CA HD and black it out. The Sharks game is on some random alternate channel in standard def. I also just realized that when I go home after finals this week, my dish package has no VERSUS!!!! I’m either going to have to purchase the channel for a month, or stream online. This sucks.

almost…

Most of the Conference Finals and SC Finals will be on Versus. I think NBC only picks up the weekend games.

Nice that Philly’s up 2-0 though. Hope they keep that going.

Still, I’m rooting for a bruins-habs and nucks-sharks East and West finals, so go bruins!