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On July 24 2013 10:58 StarStruck wrote:Show nested quote +On July 24 2013 10:43 QuanticHawk wrote:On July 24 2013 10:01 nikj wrote:On July 23 2013 23:34 Flaccid wrote:
What happened to JimmyJRaynor? Where'd he go?
I need someone to hurry up and tell me that Subban is shit and that MAF is bestgoalieever because cupz. I'm hoping the OP has him scared off. If he comes here he will have to explain himself. Frankly I don't mind, but I feel he will be back in some form or another soon enough... If he isn't already... he probably made three more accounts, and is building up post counts by posting sc2 conspricacies, reminiscing about the 80s in the mlb thread or some other crazy nonsense. Man, this is really the shitty part of summer, where I get so itchy for hockey and football that I start wishing it was over  I havent checked out the invite list or anything, but I would have to imagine there are no shortage of wingers clearly better than Lupul. He aint a bad player by any means, but let's be real, a lot of that production is because of who he plays with I haven't heard anyone say that about a Toronto player in a really really long time. Wow.
As much as I love to make fun of Kessel and the Leafs, he is legitimately a very good goal scorer who will make the players around him better, even if it is just because he draws defenders away from his linemates or the second line won't face the top defensive unit. Don't get me wrong, I think Lupul is a fine nhl player and would probably be a 50ish point dude without Kessel, so he isn't like Bozak clinging to tailcoats, but he benefits from Kessel for sure.
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Lupul played quite a bit with Kadri as well man. At the start of the season I wouldn't be surprised if they start with Bozak, Kessel and JVR. Second line would be Kadri, Lupul & Clarkson. I think it's going to be awfully hard for Lupul to pull off what he did last season. With that amount of injuries and coming back to keep his goal a game pace the way he did. That was ridiculous. Several injuries and the suspension yet he comes right back and keeps it going. In either case, we'll have three guys who are capable of standing in front of the net in our top six. We haven't had that in a while either. That's if we get possession. :/
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Yeah I'm talking about the two years prior. It was usually him kessel and bozak was it not?? I forget the site that shows line mates he plays with... I know he ended up with Kadri at times this past season, but it was a short one and he played less than 20 regular season games.
My main point is that without playing with Kessel, there isnt' a chance he'd be in this discussion.
What's the deal with JVR? I see hi ma lot less since he left philly, but I was so sure he was gonna be an awesome powerforward. As much as Toronto could have used a defensemen, Schenn for JVR was a no brainer.
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On July 24 2013 11:25 QuanticHawk wrote:
Yeah I'm talking about the two years prior. It was usually him kessel and bozak was it not?? I forget the site that shows line mates he plays with... I know he ended up with Kadri at times this past season, but it was a short one and he played less than 20 regular season games.
My main point is that without playing with Kessel, there isnt' a chance he'd be in this discussion.
What's the deal with JVR? I see hi ma lot less since he left philly, but I was so sure he was gonna be an awesome powerforward. As much as Toronto could have used a defensemen, Schenn for JVR was a no brainer.
Yes it was. Oh JVR's been doing work over here. He's been a treat once he started going to the net. You know how it was in Philly. They were always asking him to use his body more there too and he's answered the bell in Toronto once Carlyle spoke to him about his role, i.e. go to the fucking net and that's where he got a lot of his points: going hard to the net. I think he has softer hands compared to Clarkson and Carlyle does like JVR running alongside Kessel and Bozie. If JVR plays like he did last season, he will have at least 30 goals.
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JVR really has shown to be a quality player and still has the potential to be a true star. In 2010-2011 playoffs versus Boston he had a ridiculous Game 2. The Flyers lost the series in 5, but JVR fucking dominated. It's rare in the NHL that one player makes such an obvious difference, but he was unreal. His combination of speed, size, and hands was a thrill to watch, and had the whole arena chanting "J-V-R!" for long stretches. The only comparison for him was Ovechkin, who can dominate in the same way. JVR showed in TOR last year that he is indeed a top-line winger. He should certainly be a 30 goal scorer across his career.
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On July 24 2013 10:04 StarStruck wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2013 23:37 Flaccid wrote:On July 23 2013 13:46 P7GAB wrote:
suprised no jamie benn invited to the camp and no lupul, even tho im a habs fan lupal was pretty sick last year Is Lupul as slow as he usually looks? Maybe this means that Canada will finally 'get it' and forego good NHL players who don't have a hope in hell of being competitive on Olympic ice. The real sign will be if they have the presence to cut guys like Thornton (who has never been effective on bigger ice) in favor of quicker, more dynamic players. edit: Also thank god the Chris Draper era is over, as in Canada inviting marginal, grinder-type players who can be effective in the NHL but have nothing to offer the international game. "We need character on this team." No, you need to score more goals than the other team and allow less. Lupul's speed has improved immensely though. The dude's just very, very injury prone. >_< Show nested quote +On July 24 2013 10:01 nikj wrote:On July 23 2013 23:34 Flaccid wrote:
What happened to JimmyJRaynor? Where'd he go?
I need someone to hurry up and tell me that Subban is shit and that MAF is bestgoalieever because cupz. I'm hoping the OP has him scared off. If he comes here he will have to explain himself. Frankly I don't mind, but I feel he will be back in some form or another soon enough... If he isn't already... He will always be around lmao. Show nested quote +On July 24 2013 08:51 GolemMadness wrote:On July 23 2013 23:34 Flaccid wrote:
What happened to JimmyJRaynor? Where'd he go?
I need someone to hurry up and tell me that Subban is shit and that MAF is bestgoalieever because cupz. If you want him to appear, all you need to do is mention any of the following topics: Larger ice surfaces Anything pertaining to Phoenix/Glendale Concussions and/or Crosby Players from the 70's/80's Toronto You left out a few like conspiracy theories and goaltender save percentages. hue hue hue
Yeah, but those seem more one time deals. I've seen him mention the others multiple times, sometimes bringing them up almost at random.
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Canada3710 Posts
The reason Lupul is so slow is because you're comparing him with half of Toronto's team which is speedy as fk. If you have Kessel, Kadri, Frattin, Grabovski, Gardiner floating around all the time you would look hella slow too. He's still slow, but the other guys make him look REALLY slow.
The threat of Kessel/Kadri last season was so ridiculous it was fun to watch. You have your best line out against Kessel and then your second against Kadri, but then you're really scared of a 2nd-liner in Grabov so what do you do? You give Kadri the third line and now Kadri has nearly 1pt/game. It was great to watch. The presence of Kessel is just really intimidating that you just HAVE to have a strategy against him otherwise you're going to give away 3+ decent scoring opportunities when he completely outruns your defence. And now he's learning to use that presence to draw away players and then use his skill to make a pass rather than score, so he's really productive even without goals. If he can fix his consistency he's EASILY a pt/game player, but he has those really off weeks where nothing goes in. The good thing now is that the team doesn't completely depend on his sniping ability like it did 2-3 years ago, and you have Kadri/Lupul/JVR stepping in and up. This is why I have a Kessel jersey :3
Once JVR learns to just crash the net like he did in the first half of last season he'll be really consistent - the problem is we don't really have a legitimate playermaker center in Bozak which really kills our production - we don't have any playmakers in fact. Lupul was our closest 2+ seasons ago but nowadays the only guy that you can possibly see do something cray-cray is Gardiner, and then Kadri at times. It isn't like Boston where everyone's a playmaker/scorer, but you can't really compare any team with Boston.
Lupul/Kadri had some chemistry but they're not top-line guys and one's only played half the season, so they dropped off really badly near the end. It sucked to watch because once their production goes off you're looking at Kessel again. Leafs were fun this year since they stopped losing so much.
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lol its funny to see how much Hope toronto fans have despite the fragile team they have, they're almost reaching the habsfanfags like me. JVR is overrated IMO, i found like Kadri and franson were solid during last season they're the hopes for this team. i have lost faith in lupul's capacity to NOT be injured every season.
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Canada3710 Posts
On July 24 2013 16:45 crazyweasel wrote:
lol its funny to see how much Hope toronto fans have despite the fragile team they have, they're almost reaching the habsfanfags like me. JVR is overrated IMO, i found like Kadri and franson were solid during last season they're the hopes for this team. i have lost faith in lupul's capacity to NOT be injured every season.
Fuck it man, it was 9 years. If you ain't got false hope then you got nothing.
+ Show Spoiler +
I don't think Leafs fans know what hope feels like anymore. Last 4 seasons was like following STBomber.
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They knew what hope felt like. Then the third period of game 7 happened.
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On July 24 2013 18:26 GolemMadness wrote:
They knew what hope felt like. Then the third period of game 7 happened.
Gohd why did you have to remind me... The pain was almost gone..
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Toronto is weird in that they have a fair amount of pieces that there should be some hope for the immediate future, but they have a bonehead coaching staff that ignores any stats that say they werent as good as they seemed last year (as starstruck said, their possesion was abysmal and while that isnt the end all be all for good teams, it points to luck on a short season when you still do decent enough in spite of being 3rd worst in the league for possession). The offeseason moves didnt really address any needs at all. They felt more like luxury moves a conference finalist makes because theyre solid everywhere. Toronto is far from it.
they really could be anywhere from a 7-13 or so, depending on a lot of variables. if young guys like kadri and gardiner continue to progress, and at least one of reimer or bernier can post above average stats, theyll be in the hunt.
Phaneuf is fine if you look at him as a top pairing but not elite defenseman. People were all crazy about him in Calgary and he was vastly overrated. But I think most clubs would love to have him logging big minutes, so long as he is paired with a more defensively reliable partner to cover up for when he ventures off to go whiff on an unnecessary hit or something. Lupul is fine too, and has good chemistry with Kessel, and he'd be a solid nhler without being paired with him. Bozak and Clarkson's deals are on the short list of worst deals of hte offseason for sure
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ROFL detroit is getting a new arena, with 44% of funding coming from the city.
i saw that coming from a mile away but holy fuck that is awful
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On July 25 2013 08:32 QuanticHawk wrote:
ROFL detroit is getting a new arena, with 44% of funding coming from the city.
i saw that coming from a mile away but holy fuck that is awful
I love JLA so its sad on multiple levels. Probably will get some lame corporate name too =\
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On July 24 2013 16:45 crazyweasel wrote:
lol its funny to see how much Hope toronto fans have despite the fragile team they have, they're almost reaching the habsfanfags like me. JVR is overrated IMO, i found like Kadri and franson were solid during last season they're the hopes for this team. i have lost faith in lupul's capacity to NOT be injured every season.
What the heck are you talking about? I hope your comments aren't just in relation to this thread because it couldn't be further from the truth lol. Just because we have a few good lines doesn't mean everyone is planning a parade route like Tim Leiweke. lol
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My memory is dogshit, and id have to do a fair amount of research to have a solid opinion on the best in 10 year thing! that is a stellar offseason for boston though
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On July 26 2013 00:45 JimmiC wrote:
Question time.
Best offseasons in the last 10 years. I'm going to go with boston 2006.
They signed Chara which is obviously MASSIVE. Biggest reason they became relevant. But also they drafted
Kessel, Lucic, Marchant.
Turned Kessel into Errikson and Hamilton.
Wow pretty good offseaon Signed there Captian and arguably best Dman in the league top 5 for sure. Drafted 2 top 6 forwards, One being top 3 Powerforward, and 1 best combo of aggitation, skill and speed in the league. Traded a successful #1 for now another top 6 forward and one of the highest rated young/prospect Dman in the league (it was two trades but still started 06)
AND they traded for Rask, with the super awesome raycroft. So tehy also got there starting goalie who is top 3 the league.
Thats a pretty bad ass offseason.
Lets not forget Marc Savard a 100 pt player who was also in the mix. Hamilton and Joe Morrow is something to watch also they could be our Keith and Seabrook down the road in the future if Morrow develops.
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Morrow getting traded twice is a bad sign for a young player, and he doesn't look to likely to be a top-pairing guy regardless. Still, does have the potential.
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EPT
