About damn time. College football and NFL are winding down. I'll need something to do between the Super Bowl and Spring Training.

about time is right!
1/2 a season s better then no season

did they announce starting day already? its tentative agreement so might be end of month before games start and beg of april should start playoffs.

I think you spelled your name wrong.

yay go Atlanta Thrasher...o wait they are in Winnipeg now :-(

I heard Jan 15-20 depending on when camps open

I'm bitter, but I'll absolutely start watching once the NFL playoffs are done.

Stupid situation to start with.

I'm curious to see how this unfolds. If I remember correctly, many of those who signed in the Euro leagues had to sign full-season guarantees.

Maybe I'm just wrong though.

go leafs go

I'm bitter too. I've even been ignoring CHL, AHL and World Juniors because I told myself I was done with hockey... but fluff it I'm Canadian it's in our blood. I'm starting to get excited.

Besides - when's the last time the Leafs have been undefeated into the New Year? 2004?

Or, to look at it another way, the Leafs went 16-22-5 in the 2012 calendar year. =)

hawkeyee why would you ignore leagues that have nothing to do with it?

On another note I hope to hell that no one here goes to a live game or purchases a jersey for a good part of this season. At least a week-month. Dont support their greed!

Hockey sucks, canucks play hockey they suck also and canuck beer is so close to water it sucks too!The young canuck chick i'm seeing really sucks!

:)

yay?

go wings! I hope Brunner keeps lighting it up like he has been in europe.

Down with the NHL, Go to the junior leagues for real hockey spirit and competition.

Go Pittsburg!

Go Habs Go

It's about time

apparently 48 matches on regular season in ~3.5 months and then playoffs.

GO FLAMES GO

yay! that sport that like 100 canadians and 5 americans watch is back on TV!


i'd rather watch curling blah

Go Wings

Because I knew if I watched any hockey at all I would miss the NHL even more.

Bye Bye Burkie

http://espn.go.com/...ian-burke-season-imminent

Yep, speculation sounds like Burke didn't want to pull the trigger on Luongo but the owners did.

I'm hearing they wanted Gardiner and Kadri. Burke was fine with Kadri. Didn't want to move Gardiner. From a hockey perspective, I like the non-move. Gardiner is too valuable to move for a goalie whose struggles are linked to a cause that would not be resolved by coming to Toronto. The only reason ownership (read: Bell) would have a problem with this is because they want Luongo to hype up the product - which seems kind of odd that the Maple Leafs would be putting marketing over smart hockey moves given that all the Leafs really need to do to market themselves is affix a blue maple leaf to anything anywhere in this country.

Exactly right hawkeyee. As a non-Leafs fan, the Luongo trade is madness. Nobody else in the league would take him even if Vancouver was giving him away. He isn't (and never was) that spectacular of a player. His contract sucks, and he is way on the wrong side of 30.

Seems like the Leafs have this delusion that they are THIS CLOSE to winning the cup. Its as if, for my whole life, they have acted like they are just one player away from a dynasty. All they need is to make the playoffs, and the Cup will fall right in their laps. Reality is, they aren't even close.

I'm no Burke fan. As lifelong Wings fanatic, I hated him when he was in charge of Anaheim. I hated him when he was in charge of Vancouver.... but not trading for Luongo might have been the best deal he never made.

ahahahahahah Cougar you obviously know absolutely nothing about hockey dude. You think people would not take Lou for free? People will trade for him even. Jesus. A career .919 save percentage with 60 shutouts and you think he is terrible? People need to actually watch someone play before coming to retarded conclusions. He got 2 shutouts in the cup finals. He did not lose that for them. He is 6th in save % for goalies with over 100 games in the last 5 years. He is also one of the best things that ever happened to Vancouver hockey in ages.

He also has the 2nd most shutouts btw.

Oh and I am not commenting on whether it would have been a good trade for Toronto or not. Just your opinion on Lou which is horribly, horribly wrong. Oh and his contract is not bad actually. His cap hit of $5,333,333 is 9th in the league.

Yes. I obviously know nothing about hockey. Apparently you know nothing about exaggeration...

Yes his cap hit is 5.3M, for what? the next 9 years? I didn't say he was terrible. He is, and always has been overrated. BELIEVE me... If he hadn't been playing for a Canadian team, say he'd stayed on Florida, he wouldn't have anywhere near the adulation he's gotten from the Canadian media.

Saying he is the best thing that happened to Vancouver hockey is not really that big of a claim to fame.... Vancouver is and will continue to be a paper tiger.

Riddle me this.... If Bobby Lou is Goalie Jesus, why is it that Vancouver can not get him out the door fast enough? I mean, they still have their core intact for a while longer... why ship him out now?

Who cares because OUR MINNESOTA WILD ARE GONNA BE AWESOME.

Git on the bandwagon before you git ran over by it!

Whooaaoaaaa!

Don't you mean "get on the bandwagon before our franchise moves again" :P

I agree with you hawkeye on the not wanting to give up Gardiner thing being a bad idea, but realistically the Leafs' biggest problem right now is goaltending. If they can not get scored on.. they have a few goal scorers.. And I'd say Loluongo's better than Reimer right now.

Some Vancouver fans are retards and blame him for everything when the rest of the team blew it way more in the playoffs. They expect to win the cup every year so unlike a goalie on another team who might have a bad game or two he gets a fluff ton of attention and crap for it. We also have someone who looks to be a similar skilled(maybe better but too early to say) as a starter now so that is the other reason.

Oh and Lou was a big name before coming to Van. He just wasnt blamed for his teams failures then.