Around the League 46: Sharks Finally Yank A Win Out Of Their Cloaca

[bleedgreen]

T

Remember meeting him outside the Meadowlands Arena after a game the Whalers got crushed 4-0 in. Zalapski and a few other guys were traded earlier in the day and Burkie had the flu and it was the most phoned in effort ever (think they only had 9 shots, Brodeur only got 3rd star).

That trade was brutal. That was when Holmgren as the gm was only month or two away from a DUI and a trip to rehab while the season was still going. He was either hitting the sauce when he agreed to this trade or was hitting it because the owner said he had to cut salary on an already crap team. They got stud Gary Suter in the first trade with Jacks dad and Ranheim and immediately traded Suter to Chicago for Jocelyn Lemieux and Frank Kucera. Two top four d (Zalapski and James Patrick….who we had just acquired a month before), maybe top pair defensemen and our top prospect in Pops Nylander for a collection of fourth liners and third pair dmen. That year was the darkest of the dark days. Pierre McGuire was the coach, he had Nylander sent down for not being mean enough when he’s a Swede playmaker who made 19 y/o Necas look beefy, he had something like 6 or 7 pts in one game and the AHL basically told the Whalers to knock it off and bring him back up where he belonged. This trade happened soon after. I wouldn’t wish that year on any fan. Pronger got arrested with a DUI as the summer started if memory serves, after he was already arrested with his teammates in a bar brawl where he and Sanderson (Jake’s Dad), Verbeek and at least one coach were arrested and the first two were underage in the first place. Late dman Marchment also got a dui right then.

All that happened in about a month, right after this trade. That was the year that led to the sale to PK. We were a yard sale truly only for that one year….but damn it was a drunk uncle in a stained wife beater snoring on the couch your trying to sell at 11am on Saturday morning kind of yard sale. The way it all went down I would’ve more understood taking the team away from us THEN due to embarrassing Slap Shot style behavior over all the crap that was associated with the sale and the eventual departure with PK. It would’ve made more sense than anything that happened after.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Lol Ducks PR:

"And the Ducks lost again 5-2 tonight."

 

[tarheelhockey]

T

That trade was brutal. That was when Holmgren as the gm was only month or two away from a DUI and a trip to rehab while the season was still going. He was either hitting the sauce when he agreed to this trade or was hitting it because the owner said he had to cut salary on an already crap team. They got stud Gary Suter in the first trade with Jacks dad and Ranheim and immediately traded Suter to Chicago for Jocelyn Lemieux and Frank Kucera. Two top four d (Zalapski and James Patrick….who we had just acquired a month before), maybe top pair defensemen and our top prospect in Pops Nylander for a collection of fourth liners and third pair dmen. That year was the darkest of the dark days. Pierre McGuire was the coach, he had Nylander sent down for not being mean enough when he’s a Swede playmaker who made 19 y/o Necas look beefy, he had something like 6 or 7 pts in one game and the AHL basically told the Whalers to knock it off and bring him back up where he belonged. This trade happened soon after. I wouldn’t wish that year on any fan. Pronger got arrested with a DUI as the summer started if memory serves, after he was already arrested with his teammates in a bar brawl where he and Sanderson (Jake’s Dad), Verbeek and at least one coach were arrested and the first two were underage in the first place. Late dman Marchment also got a dui right then.

All that happened in about a month, right after this trade. That was the year that led to the sale to PK. We were a yard sale truly only for that one year….but damn it was a drunk uncle in a stained wife beater snoring on the couch your trying to sell at 11am on Saturday morning kind of yard sale. The way it all went down I would’ve more understood taking the team away from us THEN due to embarrassing Slap Shot style behavior over all the crap that was associated with the sale and the eventual departure with PK. It would’ve made more sense than anything that happened after.

This one’s for all the youngsters who thought the late-era Whalers were a plucky bunch of lovable scamps who got relocated in the middle of the night for no reason.

That franchise was a complete tire fire in the early 90s. They ran a hockey team the way the Coyotes ran real estate deals.

 

[bleedgreen]

This one’s for all the youngsters who thought the late-era Whalers were a plucky bunch of lovable scamps who got relocated in the middle of the night for no reason.

That franchise was a complete tire fire in the early 90s. They ran a hockey team the way the Coyotes ran real estate deals.

It was that stretch from the Francis trade to that epic month worthy of a Will Ferrell parody.

Now the mid 90’s Whalers were a plucky bunch of lovable scamps in sweet rebranded jerseys that despite an obvious improving squad and fans getting behind them were moved anyways in a series of fascinating and sometimes devious events that include not only the skullet that roared, but a corrupt authority that sold the team, Bettman and a CT governor thinking he was going to be a hero replacing the Whale with the Patriots and after failing ended up in jail. Twice.

 

[Svechhammer]

Oh... OOOH this could be interesting

 

[tarheelhockey]

It was that stretch from the Francis trade to that epic month worthy of a Will Ferrell parody.

Now the mid 90’s Whalers were a plucky bunch of lovable scamps in sweet rebranded jerseys that despite an obvious improving squad and fans getting behind them were moved anyways in a series of fascinating and sometimes devious events that include not only the skullet that roared, but a corrupt authority that sold the team, Bettman and a CT governor thinking he was going to be a hero replacing the Whale with the Patriots and after failing ended up in jail. Twice.

So, I must have missed the part where the Will Ferrell parody ended

But yeah, I didn’t mean that as a shot at the entire history of the Whale. Just that I feel like people under 40 have a very different sense of what they were like.

 

[bleedgreen]

So, I must have missed the part where the Will Ferrell parody ended

But yeah, I didn’t mean that as a shot at the entire history of the Whale. Just that I feel like people under 40 have a very different sense of what they were like.

Well they sold the team at the end of that shit show and PK/JR take running a team seriously (regardless how I felt about it) so all the shenanigans with the players immediately stopped. The team immediately stabilized and improved. The issues at that point became ownership, as PK immediately trying to move the team after agreeing to a four year deal ehich was the proof he never had intentions of keeping the team there and the fans had been hoodwinked by the “process”. That wasn’t the gong show of the pre PK era though. Those two years of failing management/leadership is where the shenanigans were, and people like Brian Burke jumped ship to avoid the mess. The time where we were waiting for PK to sell the Canes while he was clearing salaries and refusing to add any had a similar feel minus the legal charges of course.

If you think the PK years preceding the move were anything like that year of Holmgren and McGuire you’re missing the boat! I don’t know what under 40 people say about that time. I’m sure you don’t want to get into it any more than I do. That last pre PK season was brutal. Awful. I would never tell anyone different.

Oh... OOOH this could be interesting

I need popcorn. Stat.

 

[Svechhammer]

Well they sold the team at the end of that shit show and PK/JR take running a team seriously (regardless how I felt about it) so all the shenanigans with the players immediately stopped. The team immediately stabilized and improved. The issues at that point became ownership, as PK immediately trying to move the team after agreeing to a four year deal ehich was the proof he never had intentions of keeping the team there and the fans had been hoodwinked by the “process”. That wasn’t the gong show of the pre PK era though. Those two years of failing management/leadership is where the shenanigans were, and people like Brian Burke jumped ship to avoid the mess. The time where we were waiting for PK to sell the Canes while he was clearing salaries and refusing to add any had a similar feel minus the legal charges of course.

If you think the PK years preceding the move were anything like that year of Holmgren and McGuire you’re missing the boat! I don’t know what under 40 people say about that time. I’m sure you don’t want to get into it any more than I do. That last pre PK season was brutal. Awful. I would never tell anyone different.


I need popcorn. Stat.

 

[AD Skinner]

Lol Ducks PR:

“Presented by UCI health” at the end of that is hilarious

 

[hockey diva]

The current state of hockey diva

 

[sabremike]

 

[chaz4hockey]

Is your Gm looking to shake things up?

Cozens available for nhl player(s)/picks/prospects?

 

[sabremike]

Is your Gm looking to shake things up?

Cozens available for nhl player(s)/picks/prospects?

I'd trade him for some Booberry Biscuits at this point.

 

[Stickpucker]

Lol Ducks PR:

Meh they're trying to establish a culture and an identity. Much better than not having one at all....and the direction not too surprising from the little ball of hate.

 

[sabremike]

 

[cptjeff]

Meh they're trying to establish a culture and an identity. Much better than not having one at all....and the direction not too surprising from the little ball of hate.

I mean, this is the team that won a cup with Pronger and Niedermayer throwing elbows around.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I mean, this is the team that won a cup with Pronger and Niedermayer throwing elbows around.

Pronger, sure. But Neidermayer was clean. Physical, but clean.

 

[AD Skinner]

Yeah maybe I’m misremembering but I remember niedermayer as being scary good but not scary scary the way pronger was. I also kinda think these days pronger is kinda underrated or under talked about or whatever for being as good as he was

 

[bleedgreen]

Yeah maybe I’m misremembering but I remember niedermayer as being scary good but not scary scary the way pronger was. I also kinda think these days pronger is kinda underrated or under talked about or whatever for being as good as he was

The effect he had on the Oilers team we played in 06 speaks for itself. He was a dominant player, one that could personally drag his team to a higher level. Yes there was a physically intimidating aspect but he was primarily an all star level dman. He was Slavin good defensively at least and you were generally scared to go into the corners with him. The whole goon aspect of Pronger has gotten overblown as an excuse to dismiss how good he actually was. He was a deserving Norris candidate yearly once he hit his peak.

 

[chaz4hockey]

The effect he had on the Oilers team we played in 06 speaks for itself. He was a dominant player, one that could personally drag his team to a higher level. Yes there was a physically intimidating aspect but he was primarily an all star level dman. He was Slavin good defensively at least and you were generally scared to go into the corners with him. The whole goon aspect of Pronger has gotten overblown as an excuse to dismiss how good he actually was. He was a deserving Norris candidate yearly once he hit his peak.

He was very good defensively but also a bad goon in an era where excessive physical stuff was allowed.

 

[AD Skinner]

The effect he had on the Oilers team we played in 06 speaks for itself. He was a dominant player, one that could personally drag his team to a higher level. Yes there was a physically intimidating aspect but he was primarily an all star level dman. He was Slavin good defensively at least and you were generally scared to go into the corners with him. The whole goon aspect of Pronger has gotten overblown as an excuse to dismiss how good he actually was. He was a deserving Norris candidate yearly once he hit his peak.

Agree 100%. It’s not like he had zero help, especially with Anaheim, but his arrival there and in Edmonton and in Philadelphia was what took them to the heights they reached. He could affect a game by himself in a way that very few other players could

 

[bleedgreen]

He was very good defensively but also a bad goon in an era where excessive physical stuff was allowed.

How does that work against him? He wasn’t a bad goon, he was better at a role than everyone else was when it was completely legal to be that way. It’s a compliment not a minus. You can’t dismiss eras because hockey was tougher then. Scott Stevens was ferocious and scary, and he was one of the best defensemen of his generation. Yes their intimidation is part of their game but that can’t be used against them now. It was respected and applauded back then. They were both legitimately dominant at their position without any of the violence.

 

[chaz4hockey]

How does that work against him? He wasn’t a bad goon, he was better at a role than everyone else was when it was completely legal to be that way. It’s a compliment not a minus. You can’t dismiss eras because hockey was tougher then. Scott Stevens was ferocious and scary, and he was one of the best defensemen of his generation. Yes their intimidation is part of their game but that can’t be used against them now. It was respected and applauded back then. They were both legitimately dominant at their position without any of the violence.

Just don’t agree pronger was goon and Scott Steven’s was one too.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Buffalo getting some heat. Often that leads to front offices making mistakes.

Sabres GM's comments on 'no palm trees' and 'taxes' miss mark in Buffalo

Sabres GM Kevyn Adams brought up Buffalo's lack of palm trees and high taxes as a challenge for the franchise. All this did was make fans of the struggling team even angrier, writes Mike Koreen.

www.sportsnet.ca

 

[HisIceness]

Well he's not wrong.

The last 5-10 years we've seen more and more interest by FAs in "non-traditional" markets. Sure you can point to weather and taxes but those teams have also put together good rosters. And there's less media pressure and they can go out in public and not be bothered.

Of course winning is always attractive be it in Florida or Winnipeg but these days so is golfing in November