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It's a very sad day...

Olympic winner in Nagano (1998) and three times winner of World Hockey Championships (2000, 2001 and 2002) with Czech team.

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Cechmanek dies at 52, was goalie for Flyers, Kings | NHL.com

Joined NHL at 29, played 4 seasons, shared Jennings Trophy in 2002-03
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R.I.P. Roman, you'll stay forever in our hearts and minds. Thanks for all what you've done for both Czech hockey and NHL. <3
 
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Super tragic, article I read stated they were yet to confirm cause of death. It also mentioned he wasn't doing too well financially due to some failed investments after his playing career. I fear the worst. These stories always get me, don't know why they hit so hard, but always breaks my heart.
 
LooseCannon said:
There's so many players who got nothing from hockey other than CTE and a painkiller addiction, man. It's not as bad as American football for that, but it's still way way too common.
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I know, a friend and I were talking about it that one summer, like a decade ago or so, when 3 enforcers died practically back to back, all of them with depression and at least one with a painkiller addiction.
 
Ok, so sure the Canucks are tearing it up and have like half the team tied for point leaders, but can we talk about Crosby for just a second?

So, in 2010 my man played 41 games, 32 goals, 34 assists, 66 points a plus 20, 161 shots and a 19.9 shooting percentage.
Now, in 2023 he has played 16 games, 12 goals, 10 assists, 22 points a plus 10, 59 shots and a 20 shooting percentage. He also has a 60% on face-offs, his highest EVER, his previous high was 55%.

Honestly, with all the hype around McDavid, Matthews, Bedard and even Ovi.... Crosby is a fucking beast, period.
 
Yeah, Sid is a special player, and I love seeing him pour it on. He's on pace for 112 points right now, which wouldn't be particularly notable across the point totals of the past season, but would still be particularly cool to see him do at age 36, and it just shows his longevity. Not many players make it to 36, even star players, and remain that good. If he does score 112, that'll put him at 1614 on the career, good enough for 10th all time. He'd pass Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, Joe Thornton, Ray Bourque, and Phil Esposito.

If Sid hadn't lost 120 games to concussions, 45 games to a lockout, and another 65 games to COVID, imagine how far along that list he'd be.
 
LooseCannon said:
If Sid hadn't lost 120 games to concussions, 45 games to a lockout, and another 65 games to COVID, imagine how far along that list he'd be.
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The ones that hurt the most (no pun intended) are the 120 lost to concussions, because not only did he not play those games, they were at his peak. He could've had several season of over 120 points per season. up to that point he had 4 100+ seasons, the one he didn't he only played 53 games, because of the leg injury. But after the concussions he's only hit 100 points twice.
 
So all this talk about Karlsson having done what no defenseman since Brian Leetch and yada yada yada, Quinn Hughes is leading the league in points. Something no defenseman has done since Bobby Orr. I know, I know, it's still early in the season, but definitely something I'm going to keep an eye out the rest of the season. Even if he doesn't win the Art Ross, he might still eclipse the 100 points. The last time a defenseman had 120 points was in 1970.... Bobby Orr. So anything 100 and up.... historic.
 
Well, Karlsson had a heck of a year, and if he had that year so that Quinn can have this year, even better. Let's go, Quinn Hughes.
 
LooseCannon said:
Well, Karlsson had a heck of a year, and if he had that year so that Quinn can have this year, even better. Let's go, Quinn Hughes.
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Also, like Crosby, it's not so much WHAT he did, which in and of itself was impressive, but WHEN he did it (over 30). So yeah, just great hockey all around. Like Makar being the fastest defenseman to get to 200 assists.
 
Yeah, the beautiful thing about hockey is that right now there's more talent in the game than ever before. Scoring is just naturally up, the NHL didn't do anything, the players are just better generationally, and likely taking advantage of hockey having less headhunting than in the past.
 
24 game seasons. So I'm pretty excited to be going. I wasn't expecting Ottawa to get a team, but they did so here we are.
 
Well they chose three American markets and three Canadian. Were you expecting less Canadian markets, no Canadian markets or different Canadian Markets? I thought the chosen cities made a lot of sense.
 
I was expecting it to be Montreal and Toronto, with four American teams. Minnesota, Boston, New York, and probably Philly or Detroit to start.
 
So Nolan Patrick announced his retirement at the age of 25.... due to concussion/migraine issues. Very sad. I told my brother that there are TONS of players who retire for similar health issues or any sort of injury that we don't even hear about, because they weren't a 2nd overall pick with a lot of promise and potential. We also discussed how superhuman Crosby is, because that could've been him. He's overcome concussions, broken jaw, leg injuries, hand surgeries and still elite. He's tied for 4th in goals and is the ONLY 35+ year old player that high up.

We were talking about all time point lists and how Crosby will most likely end top 10 and then we talked about the guys on said list we actually got to see play: Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Sakic, Jagr, Bourque, etc. That's just from the skater side, we saw peak Hasek, Roy, and Brodeur. The only goalies that come close to the sheer dominance they had on the ice is probably Lundqvist and Quick. I know Fleury will likely surpass Roy in wins, but oddly, he never exuded that "I got this" confidence Roy or Hasek did.

Also, anyone else wondering if there is something wrong with Ovie? I remember there was a playoff series where Crosby didn't do jack and it turned out he played with broken hand. Is Ovie fighting something other than Father Time?
 
Crosby, man, he is a tank. The stuff he's played through only to be dominant time and time again. Now he's 36, one of the oldest players in the league, and he's on course for another 90+ point season. And the Penguins suck right now, so you have to think if anyone else was scoring he'd have more assists. But that's Sid. If nobody else is getting it done, he'll do it. He only needs 56 more points to pass Phil Esposito for 10th, which could happen this season. Two more 80 point seasons puts him past Mario for 8th, and then he just needs one more of those to get to 5th all time. Anything higher than that is probably out of the question, which sucks. We lost so many Sid games to concussions, COVID, and lockouts.

I don't think there's been a goaltender anything like Roy or Hasek in the league today. Fleury played for a great team for a long time, but he never did what Roy did and pull a team to a cup singlehandedly, let alone doing it twice like Roy did. Both Habs teams he won with weren't good, but Patrick Roy just went on a heater. Hasek was the same for the regular season. He pulled Buffalo along to a much higher finish than they otherwise would have done. Nobody else is like them.

And yeah, I am hoping Ovechkin isn't cooked, but it's not looking great right now. Something's wrong, and if it's just time...well. Time is undefeated.
 
Ugh, looks like everyone fell for the fake reporting of Nolan Patrick's retirement. He IS working for a skills analytics type company, BUT he has come out to say that he is NOT retiring. Either way, doesn't look like he's playing at the moment.
 
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