The NHL Thread

[trostol]

Still jerking off to that Bobby Clarke poster? 

how dare you sir!!!!!

[Taco Bell]

Can't believe the Jackets blew the 2 game lead...
Can't believe Boston can't close out Toronto, wait, yeah I can. B's fans I know fully expect the Bruins to shit the bed Wednesday night.

[Taco Bell]

I can’t believe ShayP took BellGab down just because the Blackhawks kicked the Penguins Ass!!!!!!!! LOL

10-1

Those were the days...

[ShayP]

This was very thoughtful...

A memorable epitaph for the Philadephia Flyers' 11-day playoff run was penned by staff at an East Pittsburgh funeral home.

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home & Crematory directed condolences toward Flyers fans after the Penguins eliminated them Sunday in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Click the pic Flyers fans. (trostol)  This is heartwarming.  I had to get a tissue to wipe the tear from my eye.

[trostol]

This was very thoughtful...

A memorable epitaph for the Philadephia Flyers' 11-day playoff run was penned by staff at an East Pittsburgh funeral home.

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home & Crematory directed condolences toward Flyers fans after the Penguins eliminated them Sunday in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Click the pic Flyers fans. (trostol)  This is heartwarming.  I had to get a tissue to wipe the tear from my eye.

You are a cruel cruel man

[Taco Bell]

You are a cruel cruel man

Flyers definitely have a bright future. Alex Lyon will be a stud, he's young no need to rush him. Players like Ghost, Provorov and Gudas on the blue line has me jealous as a Hawks fan.

[ShayP]

Flyers definitely have a bright future.

[trostol]

Flyers definitely have a bright future. Alex Lyon will be a stud, he's young no need to rush him. Players like Ghost, Provorov and Gudas on the blue line has me jealous as a Hawks fan.

Lyon won't be anything but the back up in a year or two...the kid to watch is Carter Hart

[trostol]

i hates you lol

[ShayP]

i hates you lol

LOL!  Nuthin but love for you man! ...considering. 

[Taco Bell]

Predictions for tonight?

Could see Rask imploding after letting in a softie, Leafs seem to have made the necessary adjustments to slow down Marchand and Pasta - so based on that I'm going Leafs 4-2.

Then there's the other side, where Marchand goes nuts, puts in 3 and buries the Leafs. Still don't know how this kid turned his game around. Too bad he's still doing scummy things.

[ShayP]

Predictions for tonight?

Could see Rask imploding after letting in a softie, Leafs seem to have made the necessary adjustments to slow down Marchand and Pasta - so based on that I'm going Leafs 4-2.

Then there's the other side, where Marchand goes nuts, puts in 3 and buries the Leafs. Still don't know how this kid turned his game around. Too bad he's still doing scummy things.

Man, I hate Brad Marchand.  Anyway, I'm trying to find a reason why the Leafs will win, probably because I want them to.  However my gut tells me the Bruins take this one at home 3-2.

[ShayP]

Bruins essentially imposing their will in a 7-4 victory with a 4 goal third period.

Assuming the Pens got to the conference finals, the Bruins and the Lightning were two of the teams I was hoping they wouldn't face. Now they will get one of them, if they make it. Ugh.

[HumanBeing]

Montreal    What a f'n disaster this year. Absolute train wreck.

They need a 1st and 2nd line center or two 2nd line centers plus a 1st pairing left handed defenseman to play with Weber.
But I think that the center ice position for the top 2 lines is the most dire. Its pathetic GM Marc Bergevin could not acquire a couple centers in the 6+ years he's been there.

Pacioretty may be gone with a trade deal on the draft floor in June. I expect some shakeup with the team and assistant coaches. It was Claude Julien's first full season since taking over February 2017 so it is very unlikely he gets the boot. But hey a francophone, Alain Vigneault, got fired from the Rangers so there is that. I doubt he'd take an assistants coach position though. Guy Boucher, another francophone, might not be around for much longer with the Senators either.

A lot of Habs fans are hoping they are able to entice John Tavares to sign on July 1st. Sure I'd be happy about that but I don't think he'd be worth 10-12 million per season for the next 8 yrs. I'm in the minority with that opinion for sure, but how well has the Islanders done with him leading all these years?

Also Carey Price has been real fragile the last two seasons. I'm kind of worried about that with his big contract kicking in next season and he has a no movement clause that kicked in right away when he signed that extension 
It was reported that Carey had some marital issues early on in the season. He did not seem to really recover mentally from that due to him harboring some ill will towards the press and being short with answers during media scrums. Even though it was apparently just one journalist who reported on those family issues he seemed to blame the entirety. He also missed a bit of time early on and they team eventually said it was because he was 'chronically fatigued'  :

I'm hoping they win the lottery this Saturday. Picks 15 through 4 is suppose to be revealed before the start of the first game Saturday.
Then in the 2nd intermission of the Vegas/Sharks game picks 3 to 1 haha

[albrecht]

FU ShayP.       We are going to take this series. Dammit. This just will motivate.

[albrecht]

Damn. Vegas knows how to introduce a hockey game. Bizarre. But Vegas, baby. I was doubting of the team, thought the name was stupid but they are doing well and Vegas can put on a show.  But
Let's Go Caps!

[ShayP]

FU ShayP.       We are going to take this series. Dammit. This just will motivate.

10 playoff series's between the Pens and Caps.  Pens 9 ~ Caps 1.  Another series win will be added to the Pens tally this year.      

[ShayP]

Montreal    What a f'n disaster this year. Absolute train wreck.

Where did they go wrong?  I recall them being projected as a playoff team pre-season.  I look at the roster and it really is garbage.  No offense, but the pieces just don't fit.  I think Price will be fine but maybe a trade can be made.  The Habs may need a full rebuild.  Tavares would be good but there's no way he's going to Montreal.  Finding the pieces you mentioned is going to be difficult.  Two top-2 centers, top line d-man.  That's a tall task.

They just didn't score enough.  In the entire league only the Sabres scored less.  I think a few tweaks can bring them back to the playoffs, but my opinion is they need to blow it up and redevelop the team and culture.

[GravitySucks]

Where did they go wrong?  I recall them being projected as a playoff team pre-season.  I look at the roster and it really is garbage.  No offense, but the pieces just don't fit.  I think Price will be fine but maybe a trade can be made.  The Habs may need a full rebuild.  Tavares would be good but there's no way he's going to Montreal.  Finding the pieces you mentioned is going to be difficult.  Two top-2 centers, top line d-man.  That's a tall task.

They just didn't score enough.  In the entire league only the Sabres scored less.  I think a few tweaks can bring them back to the playoffs, but my opinion is they need to blow it up and redevelop the team and culture.

I still have no clue how the Hawks didn’t take the cup

[ShayP]

I still have no clue how the Hawks didn’t take the cup

What happened to them is a real puzzler.  Last place in their division.  I would never of considered that a possibility.  That was just as surprising as the Golden Knights success.

[Taco Bell]

Damn. Vegas knows how to introduce a hockey game. Bizarre. But Vegas, baby. I was doubting of the team, thought the name was stupid but they are doing well and Vegas can put on a show.  But
Let's Go Caps!

Wishing they were instead named the Neon Knights - big Ronnie James Dio fan - but holy shit did that team show up last night.

[HumanBeing]

Where did they go wrong?  I recall them being projected as a playoff team pre-season.  I look at the roster and it really is garbage.  No offense, but the pieces just don't fit.  I think Price will be fine but maybe a trade can be made.  The Habs may need a full rebuild.  Tavares would be good but there's no way he's going to Montreal.  Finding the pieces you mentioned is going to be difficult.  Two top-2 centers, top line d-man.  That's a tall task.

They just didn't score enough.  In the entire league only the Sabres scored less.  I think a few tweaks can bring them back to the playoffs, but my opinion is they need to blow it up and redevelop the team and culture.

I think they were poorly managed and they failed to develop talent. But they did fire their minor league affiliate AHL head coach recently. They also fired their two assistant coaches today and hired Dominique Ducharme. He was a junior league coach, he also coached Drouin when he was in the juniors, but also was the head coach for the Team Canada World Juniors that won gold this past January. So that's a positive 

Another reason I think they failed so hard was they did not recognize the meta was changing to a more speedy game overall with the need for mobile fleet-footed defensemen that can make that split second pass from their dzone up the ice to the forwards. And if you are not strong down the middle of the ice you won't get far. This season's rule change were the Ref's would call any slashing on or near the hands really opened up the game as well and allowed talented players to do their thing and dangle and carry the puck more to create offensive opportunities.

You're Pittsburgh fan so winning those back to back cups besides Letang the rest of their defense was very capable but nothing extraordinary. Olli Maatta is solid and Schultz was a reclamation project after coming to the Pens from Edmonton. Hainsey was a veteran. Their defense never blew anyone away but they had enough to get by because their forwards lines were/are superb. Pluis down the middle of the ice they had Crosby (best freaking player on the planet - McDavid doesn't yet have all the tangibles Crosby has), Malkin, Bonino, Cullen. Oh and you got Kessell who was playing on the 3rd line haha Like holy shit.

You probably already know this but the Montreal Canadiens are owned by Geoff Molson. He and his family own the Molson beer company. So money is not an obstacle. The GM has the go ahead to spend to the cap. With that said though, they failed to re-sign defensemen Andrei Markov and forward Alex Radulov during the off season which resulted in the Habs having 8 million plus in cap space... which they did not use to sign any other assets and ultimately was one of the main talking points throughout the season for many pundits and fans who called into talk radio.

Your spot on though the Habs simply could not score. They were dreadful. They got shutout a shitload. They also put Drouin at center even though to get the most out of him they need him at wing. Then they were stubborn not to put Galchenyuk back at center. Even though his two-way game is a defensive liability I think his offense would out-weigh the mistakes he would make defensively. They needed to rebuild about 3 years ago but GM Marc Bergevin was hesitant to do that since Carey Price is still in his prime and also Bergevin had the philosophy that if you can make it into the playoffs then anything can happen. Which is true but he mismanaged things so badly.

Draft day will be a huge day for the direction of the Habs.
Win the draft lottery and pick Rasmus Dahlin and then package Pacioretty with other assets and trade for Ryan O'Reilly.
Then on July 1st sign free agent John Tavares  bada bing bada boom!
Oh and if there is any money left, and if they did not draft Dahlin, sign John Carlson.
They have to buyout Karl Alzner's contract as well. He simply can not play in today's NHL.

Sorry for the bloody novel. Hockey gets me worked up. I'm a Canadian 

[HumanBeing]

What happened to them is a real puzzler.  Last place in their division.  I would never of considered that a possibility.  That was just as surprising as the Golden Knights success.

Hawks defense got a bit old. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook aren't what they were.
Trading Panarin for Saad hurt the dynamics of their team as well.
They traded for Saad thinking Kane could basically play with anyone and Toews needed a boost. But things did not go as planned.

Hawks have some decent young talent though with Alex DeBrincat and Nick Schmaltz. Vinnie Hinostroza is not to shabby.
I didn't like them trading away Ryan Hartman to the Predators at the deadline though. That was a steal for the Preds.

The Hawks have Stan Bowman running the team though and he ain't afraid to make changes and those changes will be coming.

[Taco Bell]

Was pissed when they brought Sharp back. Great, lets add another old guy who's past his prime and can no longer produce.
The Breadman/Saad trade was enough to make me drink.

The Ice Hogs just swept the Chicago Wolves in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs, Grand Rapids or Manitoba next. It's my only glimmer of spring hockey hope as a Hawks fan.

[Garrett Mendelbaum]

  My Islanders are going to lose Tavares to the Leafs after that first round flop. Matthews a real no show!!!

[ksm32]

Undeserving Vegas is going to win the whole thing, do not kid yourself. In the meantime the Jets turned the preds inside out. Gonna be a good series.

[Garrett Mendelbaum]

Undeserving Vegas is going to win the whole thing, do not kid yourself. In the meantime the Jets turned the preds inside out. Gonna be a good series.

    It's been in that bag since that fat schmuck killed 60 people because Tom Petty died.

[HumanBeing]

Hell YES!!!!!!!!! Canadiens are going to get one of the top 3 draft picks!

Now I just have to wait until the f'n 2nd intermission of the Vegas/Sharks game to see if they can actually get the #1 overall pick.

[Dr. MD MD]

Hell YES!!!!!!!!! Canadiens are going to get one of the top 3 draft picks!

Now I just have to wait until the f'n 2nd intermission of the Vegas/Sharks game to see if they can actually get the #1 overall pick.

Habs fan?

[ShayP]

Habs fan?

Who's your team?