I know most of you Americans probably don't care, but for us Canucks... Hockey is life!

Discuss your favorite teams, players, transactions etc.

Topic at the moment: The Off Season

What trades/free agent signings do you like? What do you think of the 08/09 schedule? All Canadian teams play each other at least twice (home and home). Good move! I love when Western teams come to visit!

PS: GO SENS GO!!!

Well I've been a suffering Canucks fan ever since I was a child and it looks like it's going to be a damn long season. We have a new idiot GM who's let Naslund and Morrison go and all we've gotten is Bernier and Demitra...... Plus we offered a ridiculous amount of money to a 37 year injury prone player who's never even led his team to a Stanley Cup final in his entire career, that would be Mats Sundin. I just really hope this doesn't lead to the premature departure of Roberto Luongo who has been my favorite goalie since his NY Islanders days.

Btw I'm a Sens fan as well when my Nucks are blowing ass, glad to see Emery is gone and next year I think they'll re-emerge as a true threat to win the cup again.

it the centuary of the canadians
i just hope we gonna have mat sundin with us this year

Ya, Luongo is an amazing goalie. I hope you guys can hold onto him.

Ya, I'm not going to lie... You guys need some more scoring. It doesn't help that Naslund and Morrison are gone, but who knows. Maybe there will be a trade or two before the season starts.

As for my Sens, we're looking a bit better now. Glad Emery is gone, and that no one wanted him. Ruutu and Smith are great additions, but we need someone on blueline to quarterback our powerplay (I could be preoven wrong with rookie Brian Lee). Our PK, however, will be awesome with Phillips, Volchenkov, Smith and Schubert will be great on defence! Goaltending... Gerber always has me nervous. Sure, he played amazing at the beginning and end of the season, but when he looses his confidence... I get scared!

There are talks that there's going to a 3-way trade with Ottawa, Chicago and LA where we would lose Gerber and Meszaros (I call hom sack of potatoes because I think we should trade him away for a sack of potatoes because it will be more useful for the the team... players would get their vitamins and lose a freakin USELESS player) and in return we would get Nikolai Khabibulin and one of two young defencemen (their names escape me). Now, I don't know what to think of that, but at least Khabibulin is a proven goalie... just a little injury prone.

It does help that Naslund is gone in particular. I used to love the guy, he was my favourite player, but over the past few seasons it seems he has zero passion for playing the game. That and I questioned his captaincy last season so it was time for a change. Sure at $4mil a season he seems like a steal but at the end of the day his time in Vancouver was over.

I assume Demitra is going to play with the Sedin's which could be good for him. Although he is a notorious floater he does have a scoring touch and Hank and Dan are 2 very good setup men. Hopefully he can help with the scoring because outside of that the Canucks D and goal tending are fairly impressive.

Just saw a recent TSN posting saying Gillis is still trying to court Sundin. God dammit Mike let it go you are going to enrage longtime Canucks fans. It is bad enough you picked up the Leafs trash in Kyle Wellwood but 10mil a season for that old bastard!? Slow down, don't blow your budget all at once.

I agree. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Sundin (for a guy who HATES the Leafs with a passion, that says a lot) but come on... He won't get the Canucks a cup.

I say sign Sundin, that way it'll be easier to get Gillis to be fired sooner then later and then maybe we can beg and plead and get Nonis back or someone who knows how to build a team. This was the one offseason in which Nonis would finally have Burkie's dead weight contracts eliminated but no he never got a chance to really build his own team, it's a real shame.

God, Burke should just sign to become the GM for the Leafs now just so I can have more of an excuse to hate them. Worst GM in the league right now as far as I'm concerned. Biggest mouth too. He belongs in TO.

The Penguins were sooooooo close...

i haven't watched hockey since scott stevens retired from the devils. it made me a sad panda.

Well , if i made that when Mario Lemieux retired, i will be sad cuz i 'be missing a lot of good game

Damn those Penguins! Taking out my Sens in the playoffs!... then again, a slight breeze could have beaten us.

I have to admit, I have been a long time Pens fan (still my favorite team to use in NHL 94 and 95). Glad to see things are on the up in Pittsburg!

I used to be a die hard blackhawks fan, but the owner arthur wertz was a fucking tyrant.

seriously, the guy ruined hockey for most of the people in chicago, for 1 the guy was greedy, I mean mega greedy, he would charge outrageous prices for tickets, but he also owned all the concesions, and would charge 20 bucks for a beer and 10 for a hot dog, even by sports team stadium standards, that is fucking rediculous. with parking and admission and if you wanted anything to eat or drink it could easily cost you 500 bucks + per person to go see a blackhawks game.

the guy also was cheap and wouldnt get any talent whatsoever, he would just get the cheapest players he could to stick out on the ice regardless of the how they would perform.

but the absolute worst thing he did which almost sunk the team was NO GAMES AT ALL were allowed to be broadcast on TV in or around the chicago land area for like 300 miles, he figgured if he played the games no one would come out to the arena to watch them, the problem is that no new people were able to become blackhawk fans and and with the problems mentioned above the team began to die off hard core in popularity, for years im talking 30+ it was imposible to get tickets to the blackhawks, constantly sold out, the past few years they were lucky if they could get 3,000 people in the arena.

last year however, wertz died , the old coot left the team to his son rocky who imediatly struck a deal to put 20 games of last years season on TV and all of the following one, he also began to lower prices to more reasonable levels.

so I am just now starting to get back into NHL hockey, but I guess you could say I am a blackhawks fan, they are my favorite NHL team.

truth is I live about 70 miles out side of chicago atm in rockford and we have an ice hockey team here called the rockford icehogs, which was just small time team in the United hockey league, however last year the ice hogs switched over to the American Hockey League and is now the blackhawks offical farm team, so truth be told the ice hogs are my favorite hockey team but they are not NHL soooo.

plus the icehogs have the coolest logo ever ( ill spoiler tag it so it dont take up so much space )

I feel your pain. I have two teams in the West, Chicago and Edmonton. I've always liked Chicago, and Edmonton has grown on me as one of my best friends is a die hard Oilers fan. The past decade has not been kind to the Blackhawks, that's for sure. But look at all the talent you guys have now? Young talent, yes, but the way things are going in a couple of years you'll be cup contenders. No doubt in my mind. Big off-season signings too will help out the Hawks. Mark my words, with all the young talent in Chicago and Edmonton both teams will be in the elite of the West!

Get rid of Havlat though... He's an amazing player, don't get me wrong, but he's made of glass and therefore a liability. You could get a lot in return for him.

I have been a hockey fan since I was 5 or 6, as soon as I could walk I was on a pair of skates, but I never played in school because my parents couldn't afford it or take the time off from work. I was born and raised in the biggest best hockey hotbed in the U.S. the Iron Range in northern Minnesota. So I have been a North Stars fan until for some dumb ass reason they sold to Dallas, making me a Wild fan now. I've been a Penguins fan since the late 80's, I remember when they got Lemieux and later got Jagr.

Zeddy: I hate to tell you bro, but the Nucks don't have a cup anywhere in the near future, even though you guys took Demitra from us, we still have Gaborik and the almighty Boogaard. Actually Burns is my favorite player on the Wild and actually the whole NHL. Your Nucks are actually gonna get one of my hometown boys, Patrick White grew up and played in my hometown of Grand Rapids Minnesota in which two years in a row they went to the state finals.

Zombies: The Blackhawks are coming up man, I wouldn't count them out for a good playoff run this year. There were a lot of Hawk fans in my hometown when I was a kid, living almost next door to your state.

Man, I'm a huge Might...I mean Ducks fan. I've been a fan of them since their existence in '93 and loved them ever since. I really wasn't a huge Hockey fan (even though half of my relatives live in Montreal), but I remember my cousin wore this hat with the Mighty Ducks logo on it, so I asked him where it was from and he told me it was a new NHL team.

I remember the good ol' days with Steve Rucchin, Paul Kariya, and Teemu Selanee, and watching the Ducks reach the playoffs, but never getting to the Cup until finally in '03 where they got spanked by the Devils .

Then Kariya sold his soul to the devil by signing with Colorado to join Selanee and I began feeling like the Ducks were going to have to rebuild and I remember being pissed that they couldn't capitalize when they finally reached the Cup after finally getting by Detroit (DAMN THEM!) in the West.

All is well though, because we finally won the cup in the 06-07 season!

I'm really glad they got rid of Bertuzzi (what a POS) and extended the Randy Carlyle's contract to start this offseason.

Ugh.... the Ducks.... they ruined my team's chance at brining the cup to my home town! Although, I was ice level for the one game we won... which also happened to be the game Pronger tried to decapitate McAmmond. I have absolutely no respect for Chris Pronger after that hit. Way beyond dirty. Was it a turning point in the series? No. The Sens had pretty well no chance against the Ducks, which makes me sad to say. But seeing that elbow to the head at ice level, I have no respect for Pronger at all...

Scott Neidermeyer, however, is one of the classiest players to ever strap on skates. Great player, great leader and hall of fame bound for sure.

So do you think doug gilmore will come back in hockey or leaving the nhl?

I think i am the only Canadian who hates hockey. I think its like the most pointless sport ever.

You know my brother feels the exact same way about Basketball. Personally I see Basketball as Gangbang. Think about it. 10 guys trying to put their single object in one of two holes.