[...]Serious Thoughts: The Lars Eller Trade : Blades Of Funny[...]…

[...]Serious Thoughts: The Lars Eller Trade : Blades Of Funny[...]…

[...]Serious Thoughts: The Lars Eller Trade : Blades Of Funny[...]…

Also, I read a report today that the Hawks are still looking to move Versteeg. Should be interesting.

just read about the buff trade, too. stunning.
but the thrashers now end up with oduya, bergfors, cormier, byfuglien, sopel, eager and aliu for kovalchuk – not too shabby. and all they had to give up besides big k was a verteran and a seemingly pretty good prospect. we’ll see who got the better side of that one.

hmm, the only problem in agrentinia’s defense is demichelis (no, not because he’s playing in germany *g*) so far – hope he gets his act together now, maybe his fulminant goal against the greek will help him there.

i’m hoping for a german team playing like it did against australia and an english team playing like it did against the u.s. or algeria, so there’s really no need for penalties. even if they’d go to penalties: the english could just as well play without a goalkeeper

The Buff trade the Hawks pulled off is a pretty good one, imo. Saved $4 mil and got a 1st rounder + a second. Not bad at all. Wonder what else they’ll do.

Soccer:

Argentina has been great but they do freak me out here and there with their defensive lapses. Just hope that those don’t cost them going forward.

Messi should have had at least 2-3 goals by now with the chances he’s been getting. Hopefully those chances will start turning into goals during the knockout stage.

England vs. Germany? Penalties!

I wonder if England will be able to build on today’s victory and maybe gain some momentum from that. If they play like they did in their previous two games, then I would think Germany should be able to pull it out.

Sunday should be a good day with those two matches.

hope you enjoyed watching the world cup as much as refreshing kukla’s korner for trade news!

world cup:

argentinia keeps on giving me the creeps. just how good and how deep is that team? messi still didn’t score, but still they managed to get seven (!) goals in the qualification round. i was hoping for uruguay vs argentinia cause i really, really liked the mexicans so far, but well …
what’s your prediction for germany vs england on the weekend? no, it’s not gonna be penalties – that’d be too easy, y’know *g*
here’s hoping for an english humiliation. they played a poor wc so far.

hockey:

you’re right with that top 3 in hindsight – i didn’t think far enough that the top 3 in the conference are, of course, the division leaders. yea, it’s gonna be hard to beat the blackhawks that won the cup there … but let’s see how hard it’s gonna be to beat the ‘hawks that have to adjust to the cap next season, hehehe!

and the problem with the spezza-columbus deal is EXACTLY the fourth pick – i think the jackets need a good, offensive, puck-moving d-man even more than a #1 center. sigh. well, gotta be happy that i like/love the wings/isles/caps even more than columbus, eh?

oh, and you’re dead right with kulikov. saw him at the world cup in germany and watched his development in florida, and that guy has a huuuge potential! hope de haan turns out good as well, but the isles sure missed that one. but then, one can’t even be happy about good isles-drafting since you can be sure they’ll trade away their best players anyway

cheerio!

ps: c’mon, waiting for another article!

Yeah I read your comments on the last post, forgot to reply though! sorry.

Totally agree with you on that any sport has its boring games. It’s funny how Americans say that soccer is boring but they have no problem watching baseball. Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball too, but more times than not it consists of boring games. One thing about baseball that I love are the announcers. Best announcers in sports in my opinion are those that call baseball games because they constantly have to fill time.

Another sport that I found ultra-boring from the live games I’ve attended is the NFL. Great sport to watch on TV but in person, it doesn’t do it for me.

Re: World Cup. I missed the Germany game this morning and I hope they replay it in the evening here. Tough loss.

England has been pretty brutal so far too. But they always come in with too much hype and never live up to it. Rooney looked frustrated all game.

Re: Hockey

I’m not sure the Wings can unseed the Hawks for the top spot in the Central. Their top 2 dmen are getting old. And though I like Howard, he’s not a proven commodity yet. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’ll make the playoffs but I just don’t see them being better than the other 3 teams I mentioned. But we’ll see

Re: Columbus and Spezza

The rumor I read about that was Spezza for Brassard and the 4th overall pick. If that’s the case, I would do that if I was Ottawa. I like Brassard; He had a tough year after coming back from injury the previous season, but so did most of the Jackets. Adding the 4th overall pick, which would be one of the top 3 defensemen in this draft (Fowler, Gudbranson, Gormley), I think you get pretty fair value for Spezza.

I’d hate the Sens to do something like in the Heatley trade and get two guys like Cogliano. At least with the 4th overall, they have a chance to get a potential stud.

Re: Islanders

One of my good friends is a diehard Islanders fan so I understand your struggle. When they moved up last year into the 12th spot, I was telling him that they must be trying to get Kulikov. When they drafted de Haan, I was quite shocked. Right now I think that was a mistake. Although the “Russia KHL” factor probably came into play with Kulikov ’cause I think he should have been a top 10 pick.