Ya, bad news for the Panthers... I was playing my NHL 09 season... and the Cats have Eric Bougeniecki as their #1 centre and leading point-getter... that's not good news, considering they poached him from a European league, in this game, LOL.

But I am sure your NHL 09 doesnt have McCabe there....

Oh no he's definitely there haha.

Na, he wasn't moved to FLA when the game was shipped, and I didn't bother changing it, yet. Just waiting for the roster update when the season starts.

What?? Maybe your lame PS3 version doesn't have him but if you update the rosters when you go online and save them, he's there.

I'm on Xbox, but I haven't played online. He's on Toronto in the copy I got on Tuesday.

Ah, hurry up and get online!

I got LIVE the other day, but I dunno wtf to do with it.

I like playing 1-player, LOL.

live couldn't be any easier to set up imo

I have it set up, I just haven't done anything on it, with NHL.

I'm happy playing my solo games, lol.

I'm crazy about having my games updated. there are probably bugs and other tweaks to the game that you're missing out on by not connecting and updating.

How do you do that?

how should I know? I don't have a 360. the interface for live seemed really really simple when I played with my roommate's, though.

On the list of funny things today (while also scratching for news) Wade Belak actually sent me an email this morning. I had emailed him last season a little after he was acquired by Florida, he reads a lot of the fan mails and writes back; it's pretty hilarious/awesome. Anyway, all he did was tell me about his new site which is "up and running" and has a good amount of fight clips. Merchandise coming soon.

http://www.wadebelak.com/

little bit of a weird note, Jassen Cullimore is back (well..) with Florida by accepting a try out at training camp.

This one stumps me a little bit, Cullimore was actually very serviceable and his agent said he had heard from at least 10 different teams about signing a contract. He was looking in the range of 2mil. The guy put up more than 18 minutes per game (if my memory serves me) and had a team best +/- rating of +21. That's crazy on a very mediocre team like last year. So it's weird he chose to take a try out and not an actual contract, now the try out may just lead to a contract but we're pretty stocked already on the blue line so it's a bit of a head scratching move. But if Bouw is moved during the season it could make a little more sense.

I just picked up 2 tickets to the Panthers game here in Ottawa. 50% off, from the team, on the first day that they are being sold... I guess the Cats aren't a big draw... lol. Whatever, works for me.

Just snagged a couple of signed pucks:


Rostislav Olesz and Kamil Kreps respectively.

First Panther goal of the preseason goes to David Booth from Frolik ( )
1-0 Florida so far.


EDIT: Great game from the guys. 3-2 Florida win, come back from down 1-2 at the start of the third.

Highlights:
Boy Frolik was all over the ice, he was amazing in around 17:00 mins of icetime, unofficial 4 shots on net and an assist. Had a great breakaway, just missed it.
Jay Bouwmeester had the winning goal, and it was the most beautiful goal of the night. The guy is a stud.
Corey Murphy really fighting for that roster spot, played some good D.
Rusty Olesz put one in the net to tie it at 2, he had a lot of shot chances.

was repik playing?

I bought an authentic CCM navy panthers jersey today for $46.

Yeah Repik did play, just minimally. He did register a shot on net but nothing out of the ordinary, not bad but not great.

Those jerseys are awesome, where'd you find it for so low?

there might be a few left:
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=930804

Yay Booth!

So word out of camp is Horton will officially take his spot at C this year. This makes a few things interesting as it locks down all of our centers for sure and 1-4 will look like this (line wise):
Horton
Weiss
Kreps
Campbell

Now this also means Matthias will not be playing his normal position if he makes the team out of camp. With this news, and the news that Frolik is turning more heads and outplaying Matthias, it could be a hit to his chances. Ville Peltonen (or a slim slim chance of Bret McLean/Wade Belak) would have to be on the outside looking in if one of the two make the cut.

no offense to my friends in Florida, but I hope Matthias falls flat on his face..Nothing personal at all..just need my trade to look better.

Better use that $15 wisely! haha

Well at 1:49 of the first period Panthers have put one up by Janis Sprukts. 1-0 over Edmonton so far.
Couple things:
Vokoun not in net tonight, as previously thought. Beckford-Tseu will get the start.
Matthias playing again tonight, although most players from last night will not see action tonight.

what the hell!!

both goalies have hyphenated names.

Yeah haha, guess the game is on TSN but I don't get it so radio feed will have to do for now boo.
Isn't Van Ryn playing tonight for Toronto?

he is..he scored a goal...but on the wrong net...so did Stralman...Leafs defence gave the pens a 2-0 lead

haha rugged.

Just found out the Oilers site has video streaming of it so now I got live feed. It's awesome.

EDIT: So far I've surmised that there is some hot women in Edmonton.

3-2 win over Edmonton in the shootout, Bryan McCabe with the winner.

Game tonight against Calgary. Bryan McCabe will be out of the lineup with a minor hip flexor injury, it's reported as nothing serious.

How has Booth looked in the preseason? I watched a bit of their last game this morning, but obviously Booth did not play.

Booth has been good, got a light load because he doesn't have to prove anything but he doesn't look like he's falling into a slump. Skating hard and creating chances for his line.

Matthias looked good the other night. He's already using his size.

So the Edmonton Oilers picked up Steve MacIntyre off of waivers from Florida today. No biggie, just a big guy who was known for his fighting being sent down. But where things turn is the fact that according to Kevin Oklobzija's article "The Panthers vow to claim him back if the Oilers don’t keep MacIntyre in the NHL."
What?...Why would we vow to do such a thing. Mac had more than three seasons of pro hockey so waivers were forced if he were to be sent to Rochester, but throwing around words like vowing, well that's pretty hilarious. Pretty sure if someone claimed Rory Fitzpatrick (which they didn't ) we wouldn't be making such crazy statements to get him back if available. Supposedly Mac will get a chance to be the tough guy in Edmonton so good for him.

Just got my jersey today. holy shit does it look sharp! I had forgotten that reebok did the old jerseys for a while before the switch to edge.

Yeah they are tight, haven't gotten mine yet so hopefully soon. I did get my Ovechkin jersey in the mail today, authentic and red. It's slick I love those Caps jerseys.

did you pay full price? that's pretty sweet.

How can you get the jersey of a division rival?

Nah got an awesome deal on eBay paid $100 bucks.



Meh I'm a fan of hockey first and foremost, Ovechkin is crazy to watch I can't deny love for him plus it was a great deal on a select number of jerseys, their was all the big superstar names pretty much and I went with Ovie.

Hey Florida, dudes, just wondering what the chances are of Frolik making the team and what line he would be on?

His chances are great. The roster is currently at 27, and 4 more cuts are to be made. The guys on the chopping block are Frolik, Matthias, Glass, Stewart, Peltonen.
There are a couple guys with some nagging small injuries too so there might not be 4 cuts to start the season, just eventually. Frolik is playing the best out of those and has impressed the most but Matthias and Stewart are said to have taken big leaps in their play. Frolik is expected to play on the 2nd line when he makes the team with Weiss centering him and either Booth or Zednik.

The only thing that could throw a wrench into everything is Anthony Stewart, he's been a perennial underachiever and management/coaching is very upset and unhappy with him. This is THE year, if he doesn't prove that he's worth anything this year he's gone so he might get that chance to get some ice time.

Thanks for the info. Any chance they take both Frolik and Mathias? Or is it one or the other?

Yeah there is a chance they'd take both, it's just roster spots are hard to come by. Coach said that if there are young guys playing well enough to get a spot, they will make sure they find room. I think this week will be very telling obviously, so news should be coming fairly soon.

There will be no captain to start the season at least. Florida will go with three A's with Weiss, Stillman, and Allen wearing one.

no Horton? thats a slight suprise.

Yeah a little bit.

Also, teams have to submit their final rosters to the NHL today. Taking a look at Florida's not one cut was made, but the way this was accomplished was because Skrastins, Weiss, Booth, and Dvorak are on the injured list. All of which are available to be activated Friday. Booth and Weiss will be activated for sure, Skrastins is a doubtful, and Dvorak is a probable. So Stewart, Matthias, and Frolik remain up until Friday anyway.

Sounds like Frolik has an uphill battle ahead of him to stay on the team. Thats too bad, I was hoping he'd crack the roster and show enough to warrant top 6 time in the near future.

Im not sure why Florida continues to employ guys like Peltonen, Dvorak and even Zednik, unless they believe their prospects are not ready for the NHL.

I'm with you. Peltonen was brought in to appease Jokinen, who pretty much was auditioning him to JM. Now that Olli is gone I would think Florida would have had enough with some lackluster play mostly from Ville, but it's not the case. He's played well in the preseason and they seem very set on giving him endless amounts of chances. Dvorak I can see a bit more, the guy is their PK specialist and very defense first oriented, yet expendable. Zednik from what I've seen still has pop so I'm ok with him in there.
Crossing sports here, but Theo Epstein (GM of the Boston Red Sox) has one of my all time favorite lines. To paraphrase he said "Players do not win or lose spots in the preseason, we'd be an awful bunch of guys if we let preseason evaluate the majority of us." It makes all too much sense to me, I don't see if a guy exactly in Peltonen's spot is going to play well in the preseason after years of uninspired play how people are just going to turn their heads and pretend he'll be good this year. It's agonizing.

I have no idea what is going on with Matthias, Frolik, and Stewart now. Coach has been giving way too many crossed signals the past few days. One of them (maybe 2) will be with the team, it'd make the most sense logic-wise just looking at the rest of the 11 forwards that Frolik should make, it but who knows.