Eh, we were tired in Europe, eh Tampa is a new team, eh the Blackhawks have fresh young legs, eh the Devils were bound to beat us, eh it was the Flyer’s home opener. None of those were meaningful losses.

That’s a really in depth analysis you gave us on the 5 wins. Good job.

Examine that 5-0 and it’s not that impressive. We started by playing Tampa Bay team twice, a team so desperate for defense that they are putting in calls to Malik. And all we could do is eek past them in two 2-1 games, despite the fact that we had 41 and 39 shots in those games, respectively.

Then we played a Blackhawks team that is still winless, with a goaltender who has been totally lost so far this season. It was also their first game of the season, and our third, and fourth if you count the highly competitve match with Metallurg.

Then we played the Flyers, in our 4th (5th if you count Metallurg) game of the season, which was their first. We got out to a 4-0 lead after the first period, particularly because of 3 soft goals let in by Biron. But, over the rest of the game, we were outscored 3-0. So, not exactly crushing defeat there.

I didn’t get to see the game last night against the MB30s, but it sounds like this was the first win that we should be satisfied with this season.

So, 5-0, I’m not that impressed. Didn’t the team go something like 9-1-2 last November? Then it was below .500 for the next 2-3 months. So, again, to quote the immortal words of Mr. Harvey Keitel, “let’s not start sucking each others d!cks just yet.”

MOSCOW—A Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that rising hockey star Alexei Cherepanov, a first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, may have died due to negligence on the part of paramedics who responded to an emergency call.

Russian investigators said Cherepanov suffered from chronic ischemia, a medical condition in which not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.

Pavel Krasheninnikov, who sits on the Russian Hockey Federation’s supervisory council and is a member of the State Duma, said there was no ambulance on duty at the arena where Cherepanov’s Russian team, Avangard Omsk, was playing.

He asserted that emergency workers took too long to respond and didn’t have a defibrillator, a machine used to shock the heart. It was unclear how much time it took paramedics to respond.

“There are elements of negligence here,” Krasheninnikov said in televised comments.

When asked Monday about the availability of a defibrillator or whether medical equipment that might have helped Cherepanov was in working order, coach Bruce Fleming told ESPN.com he had been asked not to comment by team officials.

An earlier report on the tragedy had suggested the ambulance usually stationed at the arena had left and had to be called back, delaying Cherepanov’s transport to the hospital. That report could not be independently verified.

So “chronic ischemia” is not an actual medical condition. It has to be caused by something else. Did Cherepanov have some sort of chronic vasculitis, and inflammation of the blood vessels that would result in “chronic ischemia”? There is no such diagnosis as “Chronic ischemia”. Most likely he had something called IHSS, which is a congenital thickening and deformity of the heart muscle that could easily never have surfaced. People with that condition (I believe Hank Gathers had that) have arrythmias that result in cardiac arrest. A defibrillator, if available, helps significantly. Even CPR might have halped, which apparently nobody did for at least 4 minutes after he collapsed. And if that’s the case – and I think it is – you can forget the stories that he was “revived” at any point after that. Maybe they got a pulse, but that’s it.

Terrible, terrible tragedy.

Terrible tragedy.

Second, are you happy with Drury getting 25 goals or are you one of those people who thinks he’s going to have a 30-40 goal seasons? I personally believe in this role, he should have 30+ goal seasons. His career average is 23goals.

Here’s the prucha point…Prucha played how many games last year? Prucha averaged how many minutes per game? Prucha played how much PP time? and Prucha’s most common linemates were thos 8 minutes he played per game? (many times 3rd and 4th liners). I’m sorry you’re too naive to see Prucha’s been black-listed by this team; they’re afraid he’s going to get injured. Why they took him off the PP after 16 PP goals his rookie year? Who knows. But when he did play the PP time and skated with Jagr he had 52 goals…sorry, you’re wrong.