goaltenderforhire

Havin' a few beers after our game, a funny conversation started that we should have morning skates like the professionals to improve our play. But the conversation expanded into how the morning skate came about at the professional level.

Now many coaches have been credited with ideas used frequently in everyday life in the NHL like the use of video to study team strategies, I think Roger Nielsen nicknamed Captain Video, started this trend. I guess my question is which coach came up with the idea of having a morning skate on the same day as the game?

Reason why I am asking is because from what I am to understand is that during the early years of professional hockey, like the 1920's, 30's , 40's, 50's and etc., many players had day jobs and played games at night. From what I was told a long time ago even the late great Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard worked in a steel factory during the day in the prime of his hockey career.

So going back to the original thought, was the morning skate something that brought one team an advantage that every other team decided to implement it in their routine and for how long has this format been in practise?

I guess first off it's funny to say I bought a new used car, but I did recently purchase a pre-owned 2003 Acura TL 2.3 S type automatic and I am wondering about the gear controls. I notice that I have three drive options D5, D4 and D3. I also have this other gear what looks like 1<>2.

So my question is what gear should I be driving my car during regular city driving conditions?

Also should I switch gears when I get onto to the highways/freeways or on hills travelling on an incline or when I am descending and do any of these gears help increase my car's fuel efficiency?

I guess really what I am asking is at what point should I be using any of these gear controls!

Was playing hockey the other day, a friend of mine was talking with another teammate about how his game has never been the same since they discontinued a Modano stick or curve ( I didn't get all details) but it got me to thinking and how I can relate with my goaltender gear and how I liked the KOHO brands the best, although I am comfortable with my current Reebok. But recently I have discovered KOHO has made a comeback in goal-tending gear which has got me interested in making that switch again. As my friends continued their conversation, everyone got into the discussion about old pieces of hockey gear and sticks one can not find anymore, like the old Gretzky and Bossy Titan hockey sticks. A Gretzky Easton aluminium shaft with the old 1980's Jofa style helmets.

Anyways it was great to reminisce but my question to everyone is what was your favourite piece of equipment not manufactured anymore?

It can be anything from skates to shin pads to helmets, sticks etc., tell me your favourite brand name, from before, that has now been discontinued and tell me how it has effected your game today and/or tell me if you were able to find a suitable, current replacement of your favourite discontinued label !!!

Also tell me, if you have, what great lengths have you gone to try to find your irreplaceable hockey stick or other pieces of hockey gear. By the way, this friend I mentioned earlier with his specific hockey stick, is driving 2 hours out of his way today to meet another friend of a friend to see if he has the stick he has been looking for a longtime. Now I consider that insane but would you go to the same lengths?

So we have seen a number of outdoor NHL games now, which seems like it has become a regular yearly event with the Winter Classic on January 1st and now the Heritage Classic coming up this weekend, of course it being the first one since November of 2003. Has the NHL gone overboard with the outdoor projects, should maybe the league just do this once in awhile like every 2 or 4 years? I mean how could it be 'classic' if it's done regularly or should the NHL put on plenty more outdoor games like 2 or 3 every year and of course scrapping the 'classic' label completely from the title?

And another thought, although not being able to host an outdoor nhl game due to warm climates but should southern US teams, like Tampa or Florida and etc., be excluded from participating in an outdoor winter game?

Tell me your thoughts on some of the regular season milestones and who will reach them first.

For example:

The first player to reach 50 goals this year or will there be one!

The first player to reach 100 points this season.

The first goalie to reach 30 wins.

The first team from the western conference to make the playoffs and in how many games it would take them to do this!

Same as above but for the eastern conference.

And not necessary to answer but if you want tell me, from the start of the regular season, which player will suffer the season's first major injury that would keep him out of the lineup for at least half the season or more. These players must be eligible to play from the start of the season and not players with current long term injuries.

I having a feeling many of you might say Alexandre Daigle from the 1993 draft picked first overall, which I can agree with, all that so called potential and nothing really panned out for him. But the NHL still has seen many first rounders not amount to hell of a lot in the NHL, so which one do you feel (going as far back as you want) was the most disappointing first round bust?

For me it is a tie between the 1993 finals between the Habs and Kings (the Mcsorley illegal stick in game 2, the habs 3 straight overtime wins) and the 1994 finals between the Canucks and Rangers, where it was a goaltending battle between Kirk Mclean, Mike Richter and the goal post that stole the victory for the Rangers in game 7 when Nathan Lafayette hit the post with minutes left to play!

Now that's Drama!!!!!!!!

Ever since the last team to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a stanley cup playoff series (the 1975 New York Islanders), other teams have been in the same situation thousands of times but yet have not been able to make the big comeback like the '75 Isles and the '42 Leafs!

Tell me your opinion why this is such a difficult task to perform to come back from a 3-0 deficit !

And tell me if or when will this streak come to an end and what kind of team could make such a comeback!

What do you think of Peter Forseberg possibly coming to Montreal...apparently there was a rumour swirling around Hockey Night In Canada that he possibly was Montreal bound but there were no hard facts of it being true...tell me what you all think, would it benefit the habs and who or what philly should get in return?

If you had the oppurtunity to play in the NHL, who would you want to play with on your line...

First tell me what position you play, if you are a forward name me 2 other current NHL forwards that you would like to have on your line, if you are a defenseman name a current NHL defenseman that you would like to be partnered with and name a goaltender you would like to have support you and your defensive partner.... if you are a goalie name 2 defenseman you would like to have infront of you...

for example i am a goalie and i would really like to have Sheldon Souray and Dion Phaneuf as my D-men infront of me...

if you had an oppurtunity to move a current existing NHL team, which city, either in Canada or the US, would you move it to and tell everyone the reasons for your choice....

I myself would like to take Pittsburgh and move it to Seattle only because I live in the Vancouver area and I wouldn't mind having 2 NHL franchises within 3 hours from each other just like with some teams in the east...that is my choice and my reason, what's yours?

I see plenty of questions about NHL hockey but I am curious of how many people out there think who the greatest non-NHLer to have played the game...

I myself have always felt that Vladislav Tretiak was the greatest goaltender never to have played in the NHL but incredibly was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame... I have always wondered how he would have done in NHL if the Montreal Canadiens were able to bring him across to north america away from communist Soviet Union....

Now I am curious to find out what everyone else thinks....

Name me your favorite non-NHLer to have played hockey....it could be anyone that has played from junior, collegiate, semi professional in Canada or U.S. or professionally in europe, anything really....

or if you don't have one, name someone you admired greatly that influenced your love of hockey whether it was an old coach or a teammate that you played with when you were growing up...

for example, last night in Montreal the Habs win in a shootout against Florida 1-0...

now a bunch of us sitting in bar havin a few pops were trying to figure out a so called minor glitch in the NHL statistic department...

now from what i understand the players who score goals in the shoot out do not get credit for the goal on their total points...

so my question is does the losing goalie in the 1-0 shootout loss still get the shutout for that game?

referring to last night's game in montreal in the habs 1-0 shootout win over florida, the canadiens scored twice in the shootout and florida scored once, officially does alex auld for florida still get his shutout for the 3 periods and overtime? and if not, how could alex auld's goals against for last night's game be 1.00 when the montreal player who scored does not get credit for the goal and if the only goals alex allowed were only during the shootout, how come huet still gets a shutout when he too allowed one goal in the shootout?

Is it viable for the league to have NBC, ABC, CBS or Fox Network on board or is the NHL just fooling itself?