f13.net

(http://i.imgur.com/yijmu.jpg)

I was going to post this.  Looks like the lock out is over.  Lets hope the NHL can un-fuck the damage this lock out has done, esp. in the Southern US markets.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2013/01/06/sp-nhl-lockout-cba-gary-bettman-donald-fehr-ends.html

Too bad I no longer give a shit.  :sad:

Yeah, my GAF factor is pretty low, and I'm Canadian, which means I should be jizzing all over myself after hearing about it. 

I care, but I'm Canadian, and an Edmonton Oiler fan, so I have reason more than most to care. I'll likely never go to another hockey game again or buy merchandise, but I'll probably watch most games on the television or free streams.

Probably one of the dumber lockouts amongst the professional leagues, though. A lot of potential damage in Southern U.S. markets.

Gary Bettman is a cancer.

He is, but he's not the only one.Its fairly endemic in the NHL management as well as the NHLPA upper echelons and "militant players".

While I put most of this on the shoulders of the NHL and its owners/management, the players also have to realize that if any of the teams fold, thats means fewer jobs for everyone.  The star players will get their money, but the 3rd and 4th liners will either be in the minors or out of a job, period.  It looks like the NHLPA is run by and for the star players and the lesser players interests are just an afterthought.

Toronto's perfect season, ruined!

They still have a chance to lose them all  :grin:

I've become more of an NBA fan than an NHL fan over the last few years. No kidding. I mean I was a rabid fan a decade ago.

Then, they took my local franchise, my former franchise started to suck repeatedly, and I went through two labor strikes that crippled if not cancelled seasons. Not to mention the fact that the NHL took it's TV deal out back and shot it.

If you'd told my 2003 self I'd watch more NBA games than NHL games in 10 years, I'd punch me in the face. But here we are.

If the NHL went on strike for five years I'd still watch the NHL over the nba.  Fucking awful sport.

Now can someone start the NHL 2013 thread?  Go B's!

I'm still hearing Luongo is heading to the Leafs.  As a Canucks fan, I would approve of that.  Tyler Bozek and Nazim Kadri would be more than enough IMO. 

I was almost hoping for the lockout to continue...several months ago, my buddy procured tickets for the Blackhawks @ Canucks game on Feb 2. Both being rabid Canucks fans, we planned to go up and see the game in Vancouver and stay overnight. About a week ago, I realized the Super Bowl is the next day, which means we either have to speed out of town in order to fight through the border crossing and get home in time for the game, or hole up in a sports bar in Vancouver and watch there. Normally not a HUGE deal, but now the Seahawks have a decent chance to be in the game, which complicates things even worse.

And yes, my diamond shoes are chafing the shit out of my poor feet.

I'm curious how that is going to work with pre-sold tickets. They've already said the shortened schedule will be entirely in conference, so obviously many of the games on the current schedule won't happen.

Border won't be bad late Saturday night. You'll spend more time just getting out of the parking lot at the game.

We will be far too drunk to try Saturday night...it would be Sunday noon-ish probably. Our ticket hookup hasn't gotten his actual tickets yet, so we might be able to swing a different game with the new schedule. That would be ideal, obv.

Burke out in Toronto. I wonder how that effects the potential Luongo deal? Would be funny if Nonis got promoted and traded for him  :grin:

Luongo probably was a factor in the decision. Most importantly, however, the main reason is likely that Burke doesn't do politicking within the corporate structure well, given his personality. With the new ownership group I can see that being a huge issue.

Big story up here in Canada; apparently no one saw it coming. Our Sport channels are covering the shit out of it.

I am both pleased and displeased to see it happen. On the one hand, I hate Burke. On the other it means the Leafs may improve and that simply cannot be allowed.

I always liked Burke- seems like he would be fun as hell to drink with and have him regale you with stories. Funny that Nonis is taking over for him (like he did in Vancouver) and will likely trade for Luongo (like he did in Vancouver). I am hearing that Burke was being a hardass with the Luongo negotiations from a couple of people, so maybe Nonis will get it done now.

People are surprised he got fired?

I'm surprised it took this long!

Word has it, Vancouver wanted Kadri and Gardiner for Luongo and Burke thought that was too high of a price.  I don't know.  A proven #1 goalie for a rookie defenceman and a young player Toronto, and Burke himself, don't seem to like very much.

Luongo in Toronto would be hilarious in a "watch as the city devours him" sort of way. For a guy who has issues with pressure, Toronto will be a GREAT fit.  :why_so_serious:


Would not be surprised if he ended up here though, no.

Luongo is a terrible fit in Toronto. Playing behind a bad team in a city that'll roast him for every single goal?  :ye_gods:

There's a reason he wants to go back to Florida so badly. He's ready to mail it in these days.

Sounds like it's going to happen though.

Not that the price Toronto is paying is too high. Kadri has no value, IMO. Burke has just been forced to defend him for so long that he became emotionally attached, I would imagine.

I'm happy, though! Burke was almost certainly taking a run at Getzlaf and/or Perry in the offseason. I want Perry in Pittsburgh. That'd be dynamite.

For my season tickets, they held onto the cash and are paying interest on the first few months with an option to put the extra cash towards next year's tickets or get a refund. Unless they offer some sort of extremely sweet retention plan, this'll be the last year I hold season tickets for a long time.

Bettman offered an apology yesterday, but the thing is - no one is mad. It's even worse, no one really seems to care.

I have heard some rumors that Center Ice is going to be deeply discounted or free- anyone know for sure? That would be a nice way to recover some goodwill.

SB Nation says meeeeeeeeh probably not free. http://www.sbnation.com/2013/1/6/3843108/why-free-center-ice-simply-cant-happen

If sales look like they're going to be down, it'd be a good idea. So I'm sure it won't happen.

Glad hockey is back, but...with the Flyers' lineup decimated by injuries/non-signings (especially defense), it may not be pretty to watch. Maybe they'll tank the short season and pull a nice draft pick?  :oh_i_see:

If they gave me NHL center ice for $40, I'd get it. Otherwise, fuck em.

It will probably be about $85 or so. It is normally $159 for the full season or something.

Well as I see it, they were close to getting $0 per package without a season. Now, they have a chance to draw a fan back with a reasonable price on a sport that has had ZERO positive press in a long time.

I get emails from the CBC reminding me about the HNIC pool. I always do a double take when I read it.

That acronym in Atlanta means something WAAAAAAAY different than in Canada.

CBC or HNIC?

HNIC (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=head%20nigger%20in%20charge)

Just a guess.  :ye_gods:

Atlanta, why you so bad!

Dirty South, yo.

What ever happened to running the pools via Yahoo? I have like, records and stuff there.

Boooooo, let's go PENGUINS!

The Evolution of Brent Burns (Sharks defenseman):

Hehe. 

We have puck drop!!

I'm having such a hard time hating Giroux. At least Philly still has Hartnell to bite people.

One of only two things I miss from Ohio to Seattle is the Bluejackets.  I hope NHL comes to Seattle with the new arena. 

People watched Columbus!?

Nice to have hockey back. Pity my team isn't playing tonight, but it lets me watch a few of my secondary teams at least (that said... NBC/Fox coverage of the sport makes me want to shoot people).

The Blue Jackets have just had a history of hiring exceptionally piss poor management.

Doug Maclean.   :uhrr:

(http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/files/2012/12/maclean.jpg)

"I have a brain thissssss big."

Toronto's perfect season continues!

Poor Montreal.

Watching that torch get passed from Beliveau to Gionta was embarrassing.

I never said Columbus was good!  It was still fun to have NHL in the town I lived in, though.  Even nosebleed seats were fun.

I grew up in Toledo, and the Storm was the farm team for the Red Wings.  Those games were a riot.  More fighting in the stands than on the ice.  Any visiting team had to cross a beer line to get to the locker room, so by third period those guys would have been in at least a few fights off the ice, just trying to get to a break.  Fun times.

I watched the Buffalo game today. Reminded me why I like the sport.

Dear god, the Canucks 2nd line  :facepalm:

Which was only one of several problems for the Canucks last night.

Thank you Luongo for not knowing who Eberle is and for the Hemsky goal, after the Canucks got up 2-0 I was expecting the usual loss for my team. Even the Sedins looked old and tired as the game went into the later stages and at times struggled with the kid line.

The Canucks will be fine, despite the slow start. I wouldn't get too excited about it.

The Sedins weren't playing during the lockout. A lot of other players were. They're probably going to look slow for a couple of weeks.

Looks like Comcast is doing the Center Ice free Preview until the 31st.

Exactly why I need to be excited about it; it won't last. However, in this shortened season who knows? Could see all sorts of things exacerbated by the small sample size leading to a lot of surprises around the league.

Toronto's perfect season, RUINED!  :cry2:

Apparently the NHL to Seattle is pretty realistic right now.

It'd be sort of funny of Luongo got traded to Florida, then Florida moved to Seattle.

And then we'd have to worry about more teams moving conferences.

Could we not just collapse the South East Division and be done with it?

Edit: You're right, though. The NHL can't seem to figure that one out for the life of them.

Also, someone start a fantasy league.

Well they had a realignment plan but then the players union squashed it as a negiotating tactic (yeah that worked wonders). At some point they will have to deal with the issue, primarily so that Winnipeg doesn't get continually fucked by the amount of travel it has to do each season.

Ahem.

I'm going to see the Gwinnett Gladiators team this weekend since I lost my NHL franchise.

I'll take this moment to say, go fuck yourself Winnipeg.  :mob:

Tentatively looking for a seat on the Kassian bandwagon. If he can play like he has the past two games on a consistent basis, he is going to be fun as hell to watch.

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-VlpKIB6vR44/UQCdtRfrBDI/AAAAAAAAAHE/S1JS4yrm_fE/s513/CarlyleWhiteboardStruggle.gif)

Great Team or Greatest Team?  :oh_i_see:


Oh God Dammit Leafs.  :why_so_serious:

Look at the bright side Fordel.  I've been there.  The way I see it, the Leafs are about 6-7 years into the 10-year rebuilding plan my Blackhawks used from 1997-2007.  Sure they missed the playoffs in '07-08, but at least Toews & Kane broke in that year which made for some exciting games.  The Leafs simply need to bottom out then make a couple top 3 draft picks even they can't screw up.

So, Leafs 2016-2017!!!   :heart:

Hopefully they'll stop screwing around and actually rebuild this time, though.

The Leafs are like the Cubs. The ownership has realized that they can make a handy profit even when their fans have low expectations. Why ruin a sure thing by spending resources at the chance of a championship and all of the expectations that the fans then bring to the table?  :grin:

I have a fondness for the Leafs and would dearly love to see them do well one of these years. It's always fun going to Leafs' games when they come to Calgary.

Draft Picks?

Oh those things we give away to Boston for top tier talent like Kessel  :oh_i_see:  :why_so_serious:  :cry:




Chimpy, that would have been true 20-30 years ago easily. The Ballard years.

Now? Now they WANT to win, desperately. They can make so much more money if they actually win.

It's just incompetence, which is arguably worse.

Time to rebuild.

Call up Boston and offer Kessel for Seguin and Hamilton.

Boston got rid of Kessel for a reason. He's a one dimensional 20-30 goal scorer with no size or grit and probably a headcase but that last one may just be my frustration with him. I still agree that it would be worth while to try and get something for him. He's not the kind of player you rebuild around.


Reimer seems to be back on form at least, that concussion last season really messed him up. Now if we could get some kind of defense that wasn't made up of pylons and traffic cones, that would be SUPER.



Won in Buffalo tonight, barely. Literally with 1 second left in OT we sneaked the winning goal in. Reimer saved that game from our atrocious defense play.

One thing that really stood out to me tonight, is the Leafs do not seem to understand how to preform one-timers. It's REALLY hurting them on the powerplay. All our point-men need that extra touch to set themselves up and its giving the other guys time to adjust and defend.

Muahahaha

Thanks for dougie assists Toronto. Kid is going to be a beast.

So Chicago is still pretty good.

Yikes.

In other news, Pittsburgh stinks.

I don't think they'll continue to stink long, but... wow, pew.

I hate to be That Guy, but I think Bylsma's time is over. 

Damn Chicago couldn't keep their streak going for another game.

If they play like shit against the Rangers tonight, I assume the axe could fall at any point.

So is Philly a total greasefire, or is it the fact they've been mostly on the road?

6 games in 9 days.

Also no Hartnell, plus Bryzgalov  :ye_gods:

Yeah the Kessel deal was pretty bad.  He's a fine acquisition if your team is a player or two away from the Cup, but for team consistently missing the playoffs it's an obvious bad deal.  I'd say it's comparable to the KC Royals trading for James Shields this offseason.  Seguin is the exact player Toronto needs right now to reinvigorate the franchise.  Even the Hawks took advantage of Toronto a bit by getting Stalberg back in the Versteeg trade.

I'm happy the Hawks are finally back.  Winning the Cup in 2010 was a tad bittersweet knowing the roster would need to be gutted due to the salary cap.  Although I should be grateful for seeing any Cup win in my lifetime  :grin:

If Bylsma values his job, Vokoun just earned himself about five or six starts in a row.

They are going down tonight. At least Keith is :drill:

Does anyone know where I can find stats on which teams have gotten the most power plays?

I want to say Toronto has had a unusually high number of PP's this season, and it's helping hide just how shitty we are defensively.


The game against washington, I think we had like 10 PP's that night. That's a LOT of freaking time with a man advantage.

Toronto is tied for first in powerplay opportunities at 39. The NHL.com site actually has decent stat tracking (go to stats -> teams). Other sites like behindthenet and such also tend to be great for advanced stat tracking.

Sad thing for Toronto is their powerplay is 21st in the league with a shitty 15.4%.

Quite a few of those were 2 man advantages too.

Bryz is not the issue here. Their defense is going to be pretty suspect this year, and they're just not scoring enough goals.

You can't always be playing against MAF.

Toronto must have the worst PP in the league at this point. Or damn close to it.


WTB Hockey team, pst.

Oddly.. no. 24th best powerplay as of, well, now. They are going at 12.8%. Who's worse; Dallas (12.1%), Detroit (11.1%), LA (10.8%), Boston (10%), NYR (10%), and Colorado (9.8%). Some very putrid powerplay teams so far in this season of small sample sizes. Top powerplay is Tampa Bay at 36.1%. Average for a season, normally? Around 17-18%. Top powerplay the last two years was Nashville (21.6%) and Vancouver (24.3%). Worst? Dallas (13.5%) and Florida (13.1%).

So, yeah. Shitty powerplay in Toronto.

Now just combine that with the fact they get so damn many PP opportunities. Drive a man batty it does.

Dallas hasn't had a decent power play since Guy Carbonneau retired.

Boston hasn't had a decent power play since Claude Julien became coach. In fact I think he makes it intentionally bad just to troll the local media. I don't have a problem with this.  :grin:

Actually, Dallas, historically, has had a decent, but not great powerplay for the last decade+ ('08-'09 excepted) until last year. Carbonneau retired even earlier. Claude Julien took control of the Bruins in what? '07? They started with an average or great powerplay under him before in '09, '10 it began to tank to below average before rebounding to average last year. Fan memory is always interesting to me. Looking at the powerplay percentages since the '04 lockout shows a decent amount of variation in who sucks. The bottom ones tend to stay there for 3-4 years, jump to average and get replaced by another team sucking for 3-4 years.

Went to the Flames vs. Blackhawks game on Saturday and I haven't seen the Flames dominate a game like that in... well... forever.

They still lost    :awesome_for_real:

I stopped watching after the first strike so i missed that  :awesome_for_real:

The hockey gods officially hate my team.

4 of our top 5 centers? Injured. Including the two that are, y'know, old enough to shave.

I'm on the waiting list for one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_jDWuE2tk&list=UUJ36B8tFFZG8sHaLjAxS7zQ&index=1

www.budweiser.ca/redlights

 :drill: I want one!  :heart:

btw if anyone thought I was joking about Claude Julien and trolling with his power play efforts he had Ryan Spooner, a rookie playing in his first NHL game ever, out there on the power play unit last night.

I know very little about the Bruins. Is he subscribing to an 'effort trumps skill on the powerplay' newsletter?

Seems like that could be a reason. Five guys still have to outwork four. When they don't, it's pretty sad.

Also, the NHL needs to stop making itself look so pathetic.

I guess Will Smith was at a Habs/Bruins game a few days ago. There's still a picture of him up on NHL.com.

Someone there has to realize how sad that is, right?

The Oilers flogged Kevin Smith becoming an Oilers fan for well over a year.

The league as a whole is just kinda pathetic in how it tries to market itself. Which is weird, I mean.. you'd figure hockey would be very popular in the U.S. just on the basis on the physicality and sometimes outright brutality involved in the sport.

When you think about the most popular American sports, there is a high correlation between the popularity of that sport and the amount of American-born athletes involved.

Hockey suffers from the fact that only about 20% of the players are Americans. Major League baseball is starting to suffer the consequences of that as well with the number of foreign players getting close to 30%.

Compare to the most popular sport in the US, the NFL, where 96.5% of the participants are Americans.

The other 3.5% are Canadians and they can just blend in. :awesome_for_real:

Really who the hell knows.  You Definately can't fault this bruins team for effort. There are no slackers on this team, even Seguin back checks, penalty kill is amongst leagues best. I  sometimes wonder if their commitment to team defense and the fact they are so good 5 on 5 means tyeh don't pay so much attention to the power play to not screw things up......or something cause it's not like they don't have the players to pull it off.

Thugging it up is directly counterproductive to the power play, so it suffers.

Canucks fan?

The problem is Chara he just is not that good on the PP and too much is run through him. He doesn't have the quick vision and creative playmaking to open up the ice. Also his shot is very heavy but not all that accurate. They should get a PP specialist or maybe put a guy like Krecje on the point.

Heh, smart man. In the last two games they've had Krejci at the point and/or put Dougie "assists" Hamilton at Chara's spot. You're right, Chara is just not the right guy for PP, everything else yes but not power play work.

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JxtE4g-R_WI/URmok8X5FvI/AAAAAAAAALg/EbvReXoM0Es/s512/VanRiemsdykGoalSchennDive.png)

Teams who blow 3 goal leads in the 3rd period don't deserve 2 points because they can win a skills contest. I'm looking at you Rangers and Canadiens.

Also to show I'm not biased I don't think the Bruins should've got 2 points if they'd won the shootout, they played like shit at times in that game.

I used to not care about the shootout but I'm starting to realise why people despise it...what's wrong with a good tie?

Ties are terrible. Only the NFL still has them, and even that's rare. I think hockey should give up the shootout and just go with the playoff OT rules all the time. Basketball does it, baseball does it, you play until somebody wins.

There's probably some logistical reasons that make that not a good idea plus look at the frequency of scoring in basketball or baseball vs hockey. By their nature an overtime/extra innings game won't last that long (typically) because scores happen more often in those games.

I don't think after an OT period and 60 minutes of fun hockey that anyone who watched the Rangers Bruins game would've been dissapointed that it ended in a tie.

 

Baseball games routinely go deep into extras during the regular season, and there are twice as many games as hockey. We just had a college basketball game go 5 OTs this month. They play until it's decided. That's sport.

The reason people hate ties is because normal life is full of ties and compromises. Sport is supposed to be one of the places where you invest your time to get a definitive answer. A binary result. Win or loss, you proved something by playing the game. A tie proves nothing except that you got tired of playing and quit.

There's not a goddamn thing wrong with a tie.

Hockey did just fine with ties for 80+ years. One of the problems is that most Hockey teams share their building with a basketball team, and so it simply may be impractical to allow an overtime game to go forever. I know we had a 5 OT game in basketball and sometimes we get 18 inning baseball games but those are very rare.

Actually I'm not all against the idea cause I'm really coming around to hating the shootout but I'm not sure if I like the idea of endless overtime in the regular season. Almost like it's special to playoff hockey and I don't want to dilute that by bringing it into the rest of the season.

Also your hatred of ties is a little overwrought and has the undertones of 'We americans love a winner , only European soccer weanies love ties!'. Again would anyone have been dissapointed with that game last night ending in a tie? Super exciting game, late heroics and at end of the day its regular season not playoffs.

Americans do love a winner. The reason hockey got rid of ties is because the American audience hated them.

Don't drag soccer into this because it's a different ball of wax. I played it for 15 years at all levels except pro, and I still think ties are for pussy diving forwards who just want to get home faster.

The NHL has a fairly atrocious knowledge of what the American audience wants (I give you the Florida Panthers!). I don't think Hockey's somewhat resurgance had anything to do with getting rid of ties but more to do with slowly improving the television product and getting rid of a lot of the clutching and grabbing and some rules changes to open up the game. People want an exciting game, a tie can be just as meaningful as a win or loss especially towards the end of the season. I know as a Bruins fan I was super excited to get one point of that Raskbacle last night.


Oh and pussy diving forwards? Oxymoron.

The NHL got rid of ties because the extra OT in the regular season became 10 mins of pass the puck back and forth, since neither team would risk losing their 1 point at that stage of the game.

Yep, they were playing for the tie. Which is ridiculous. And if you didn't have OT, you'd have them doing it 5m left in the 3rd period. Conservatism would rule the day, and the sport would look like total ass in the later stages of games.

Ties suck.

You are correct in that. Here is my half-baked proposal:

One over time period of say 10 or 20 minutes (instead of 5 we have right now). NO penalty shoot-out. If you lose in OT you still get 1 point , 2 if you win, and maybe to sweeten the pot OT wins could have some tie-breaking ability for playoff seedings/qualifications.

Teams would go balls out for that 10-20 minutes so even if you didn't get a result it still would be damn exciting hockey to watch leaving fans happy.

(I also think unlimited overtimes in the regular season would probably be nixed by the players. Hockey, unlike baseball and basketball (ever watched the end of a basketball game? what. a. fucking. joke.) is extremely taxing on its players fitness.

Your analysis of basketball OT not being taxing is frankly laughable. Not to mention the fact that hockey lines get subbed out constantly. In a 48 minute NBA game, a star scorer like Kevin Durant is averaging 38 minutes up and down the court. Same with Kobe.

In hockey? What's Crosby putting out there? 20 minutes maybe of ice time in 60 total? Give me a break.

Basketball is certainly an athletic game, but there is a reason hockey is played in constantly rotating shifts. Basketball is often played half court, has somewhat limited physical contact (nothing like hockey scrums), and isn't played in full pads. There's a reason Durant can play 30 minutes straight.

Also, end of a hockey game - maybe a single 30 second timeout. End of a basketball game - 6 timeouts called over the last 42 seconds on the clock? (I'm not hating on basketball here, I just find watching the end of a close NBA game very painful).

The issue quite simply is that you can't just play to a winner, because some hockey games will last 6 hours. Once you start hitting period five, the players are so bagged that there's almost no offence. At that point they just slog through until there's a bad bounce.

Ok now I think your just trolling me. Compare a hockey shift vs basketball time, where half to 3/4 of it is spent standing around in the half-court (and on a smaller playing surface btw). The other point I was making was look at the end of a basketball game and the ridicolous number of time-outs that are taken that slow the game to a crawl, giving players a break from all that 'running'.  Hockey, unless there is a whistle , is constant skating, there's a reason a shift only last a cpl of minutes...it's fucking exhausting.
I'd also like to see statistics on how many times a basketball or baseball game go into overtime/extra innings vs a hockey game. I'm betting hockey has a lot more overtime games than baseball or basketball due to less scoring frequency.

Watch any team on the 3rd night of a back to back to back and try and tell me that basketball isn't taxing.  :oh_i_see:

Relative to hockey in that same situation?

/shrug

Hockey is so taxing that they don't allow 3 in 3, at least at the pro level. The poor kids in junior do it all the time though.

This makes me hope the Panthers score a lot of goals this year. :awesome_for_real:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS8z0QZzazw

Holy crap I'm crying laughing at that.

Haha that was awesome.

Glorious!   :awesome_for_real:

There's like 3 more and they are all awesome. My favorite of them all is when he just yells out  MIKE BIBBY BE FLOPPIN!

The NHL should switch to 3 points awarded per regulation or OT win (0 for loser) , and 2 points for shootout win (1 for loser). 3 points would mean teams playing hard until last second of OT.

Agreed. I have been saying this since they instituted the shutout.

Won't happen. Not with the GMs/Owners of Detroit, Philly, Toronto, Rangers and Chicago all against it. Those are the big ones who have favoured the current system heavily. Hasn't helped that Detroit's coach (Babcock) came out heavily in favour of the current system when he was asked about it last year.

Current system does exactly what they want it to; it gives the illusion of teams being closer together in the middle than they actually are. Personally? I loathe the current system. Loser points are idiotic. I could live with it if all games added up to three points (having games result in different point totals is, imo, the definition of a retarded point system) but it just won't happen.

I'm surprised you'd think PHL is in favor of shootouts, seeing as they're historically not good at them.

Didn't say they were in favour of shootouts; said they were in favour of the three point system as it currently stands instead of moving to a system where all games are worth three points (such as having a regulation win net the winner three points, the loser none, winner in over-time or shootout getting two points and the loser one). The group I mentioned have publically stated they do not favour the latter system because it would cause too much confusion amongst fans (seriously?) and that it would stop the standings from being so close (I think several of the blog-stat guys have done work on this, including Dellow and King and showed that this is utter bullshit). All that changes is the system making sense (for once) and instead of the illusion of teams having a chance to play catch-up, they actually would -- although end of season checks show you'd only see one to two teams bumped from the playoffs under the new system and few rank changes of those in the playoffs.

Yeah every year on hfboards someone goes over the stats and posts what they would look like on that 3-2-1 system and it never changes much besides few outlier teams with absurdly good/bad shootout stats. What it would do is increase the compete level cuz more teams would play for the win up until last second of OT instead of playing to bank the point last 5 mins of 3rd (or worse through OT if they have better shootout stats).

HFBoards is one of those things I like to pretend doesn't exist.

I never go to hfboards. I usually only hit a few hockey blogs/sites. Main stat guys I follow are Vollman, King and Dellow. If its neat and nifty and not coming from one of them.. they'll usually mention it. Lets me avoid the various hockey forums out there that generally make me want to abolish the league and nuke every city or town with a hockey fan in it.

Also; nice to see Clutterbuck get his ass hit into oblivion. Dirty little shit.

HFBoards genuinely makes me ashamed to be a sports fan of any kind.

Well, it's official. The Penguins may absolutely not have both Malkin and Crosby. Ever. The Hockey Gods have spoken. Trade one before locusts.

yeah hfboards is pretty bad but it can still be a decent information aggregator where there's people posting about whatever happens instantly and with a highlight, decent statistical discussions plus for every 20 idiots there is usually a guy or two who does really know what he's talking about.

'Hawks off to the best start in NHL history.

Bruins off to their best start in 36 years.


Original 6 matchup for the Cup? That would be sweet.

Also proposed division realignment for 2013-14 (sorry this is video not an article, 1:00 minute mark is where it lists new conferences)

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockeynightincanada/hotstove/video/#id=2338204443 (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockeynightincanada/hotstove/video/#id=2338204443)

Last I checked, Boston is also the most-rested team in hockey. I don't think that's a coincidence.

Not quite sure how we are 4-5 games behind others in our conference. We missed one game because of the snowstorm a couple of weeks back but to be behind 3-4 games in a compressed year is a bit wierd. Probably gonna bite us in the butt in a few weeks.

Oh yeah, Montreal did 5 games in 7 nights it was brutal by the second back to back they could barely skate and only managed 17 sog against the rangers, brutal game (still won, cuz..the rangers).

Not a fan of that realignment I prefer playing division more, better rivalries when you plan same team 6-8 times.

Just a general observation, but can we just DROP THE FUCKING PUCK PLEASE. God damn it takes 4 years to have a face off these days.

watching leafs vs flyers I assume. Linesmen must've been watching oscars last night.

Yea it's just getting silly. SILLY!

Well, my team just used the Oakland Seal method of playing hockey (be so bad that you drag the other team down to your level) to snatch a point out of Chicago. Only the one point, mind you; I think Petry is still trying to find his brain and his jock.

The four conferences basically become 4 big divisions, I'd be up for having Detroit in the same division as the Bruins, that'd be fun.

Something has to be done because of teams like Winnipeg and Detroit having to fly thousands of more miles than any other team each season.

The simple solution would be to have intelligent road trips designed around maximizing the efficiency of said road trips, and two games against other-conference teams. Hell, you could do a home-stand against the same team two nights in a row, or in three nights, and basically swap which team has the home games every year.

But the NHL has no idea how to properly schedule its season -- although, to be fair, a big part of that is how various teams act as second, or third fiddle in their buildings, and thus have a tougher time getting the dates for a good schedule.

But the number of 2-5 days off in the regular season (and the playoffs mid-series) shows just how inefficient the schedules are. Solve that problem, increase the number of teams you play out of conference and you'll even out the travel involved for teams.

And I say this as a fan of a team that generally sees more travel than most (Edmonton, although for us its mainly because we're far away from everyone but Calgary).

Amusing because the Bruins are on their annual 'Disney on Ice is in Boston' Roadtrip.

Which kicked Chicago out of their building earlier.

My team is on a long road trip (9 games, 18 days, including 2 back-to-backs) because of the Brier (major curling tournament).

Long road trips are fine, but if you look at the Oiler road trip.. its nonsensical where they are going and when. A lot of added travel going back and forth instead of a logical progression in cities. For example, they play Chicago twice on the road trip; seven games apart instead of one after the other.

Aaaaaand Ryan O'Reilly signs offer sheet from Calgary (http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=417051)

If Colorado doesn't match, they get Calgary's first and third round picks this year, with that first rounder potentially being very high. If that's the way this goes, The Avalanche could legitimately have two shots at the #1 pick.

Also, they play each other tonight.

Finally, a use for my Center Ice package beyond the Canucks making me cry! God I hope the GMs run into each other somewhere in front of the cameras.

Not all that familar with O'reilly, but does it seem that he was given too much money and Calgary paid way to much in terms of draft picks? Kids only played 2 NHL seasons.

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33271127/Oviewtf.gif)

I doubt flopping/diving/douchebaggin' will float in this league. He spent too much time in the lock out watching soccer.

Diving doesn't float in hockey because people will actively beat the shit out of you legally.

They also call it a penalty a good chunk of the time.

The one dude gets 2 mins for high sticking or whatever, and the diver gets 2 mins for unsportsmanlike conduct or whatever.

Well, it was an interesting 4 hours anyways. Flames would overpay for O'Reilly because they don't have a center and haven't had a good one in over a decade. I do like all the talking heads today in Calgary that were all "those draft picks are totally worth O'Reilly" yesterday and are now "oh, that was a steep cost and probably worked out for the best" today.

Well I guess the kid made out.

Btw I note in the eastern conference standings that Winnipeg is in 8th position above the Flyers and Rangers...*Chortle*. Also good to see all 4 Canadian teams in the top 8, hope it lasts.

5 mil a year is an overpay for O'reilly. He's basically a second line center who's a third line center in Colorado due to their line-up; Duchene on the top line who can face tougher opposition, Stasny on the second line who has to face softer opposition, and O'reilly on the third who can play tougher opposition. However, due to the injury to Duchene last season O'reilly was on the top line (again, because Stasny gets killed if he plays power verse power) and did well, but a lot of that was due to Landeskog carrying the line. This is the main reason you had a contract dispute. It wasn't entirely about the money; O'reilly wanted to get paid (and played) like the top line or two center he is, or thinks he is. He didn't really want to stay in Colorado due to the fact he'll be on the third line.

So, by Colorado matching.. he gets more cash than he deserves (he should cap out at around 4.0-4.5 million a year) but is stuck playing on a team where there's some animosity between him and the organization and he's playing down the line up. 5 million is a lot for a third line center (which is slightly ironic coming from an Oiler fan with the horrible Horcoff contract). Could be a bit of an issue for next year with the cap coming down, but I haven't looked at the Av's cap situation for the next few years.

As for diving; falling like that on a high stick is actually quite common (and its uncommon to see diving called, especially on that kind of situation), as its how players try to guarantee the refs actually see it given how many high sticks they miss. Not a fan of it; I'd love to see diving called a lot more, but if diving and the other penalty I want to see called more often (offensive zone interference) certain teams (like the Canucks) would never see even strength play again.

Yeah they were talking about it a cpl of days ago on sports radio here in Boston and taking a shot at O'reilly. My thought was why the fuck would they sign a guy who projects to be 'maybe' Patrice Bergeron and then proceed to give him more money than what Bergeron is making. Av's should've taken the draft picks.

Gives me hope that if Calgary is that dumb we can pick up Iginla for a steal..:D

Correction: Same money as Bergeron, only slightly less than Krecji (5.25)

Ok I can't think I can emphasise it enough, 5 mil is RIDICOLOUS for this kid.

Ovechkin's been doing this crap for years...less often than sissyboy Crosby, but more dramatic.

I was actually surprised that Colorado matched the offer.

I actually just looked at the O'reilly offer sheet in detail.. and its even worse than I thought.

The second year is at 6.5 million. Which means his qualifying offer is going to be 6.5 million when the contract is offer and he goes back to being an RFA in two years. Based on qualifying offer rules... it could be quite possible that O'reilly could be make an average salary of over 6.5 million dollars on his next contract, which is just insane for a guy with two seasons of less than 30 points and one season of 56 points (or was it 58?). Massive, massive over-pay.

Honestly, this is a good move by Calgary; they either got O'reilly and an actual center who's young and with some upside (and good defensively) for two years to work with Iginla and extend their window (and after that two years it doesn't matter what they pay O'reilly because Iginla and Kipper will be gone and they'll have a ton of cap room) or.. they absolutely screw Colorado's cap management (which is the result with Colorado matching). With this result Colorado could be forced into making a bad trade next season for cap reasons.

Additionally, O'reilly isn't happy, because according to his father the hold-out on the contract signing was more about his role with the team than money and some issues with the coach; so O'reilly won't be really happy to stay which could lead to locker room issues.

Entire situation is hilarious, as an Oiler fan. And it all happened on the day Colorado and Calgary played each other, hah.

If you look at the salary structure of the offer sheet it actually looks like it was designed to get O'reilly out of Colorado (some rumours floating about that the contract was designed by O'reilly's agent for that affect) with that second year at 6.5 million.

Screws Colorado either way. Either they match and suffer cap-wise for a third line center and possible qualifying offer issues after this contract ends while having a player who isn't happy with the situation staying, or they see a divisional rival get a key piece that could push them up the standings and devalue the picks they'd get in return (a 1st and a 3rd -- which would of left Calgary with no picks in the first three rounds of a very strong draft year!).

On the downside for Calgary.. they've got two possible players who could see offer sheets coming up (Backlund and Baartschi) that could lead to some pain for the Flames, especially with the question mark on the cap in the next few years.

No one is going to go after Backlund, but Baertschi is a real possibility.

I love how butthurt GMs get when someone tenders an offer sheet. My favourite will always be Burkie challenging Kevin Lowe to a fight in a barn.

ROR would have had to clear waivers to join the Flames (http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2013/03/01/calgary_flames_fortunate_colorado_avalanche_match_ryan_oreilly/).

 :awesome_for_real:

Any wonder why the Flames have missed the playoffs so often recently? The front office is a landfill fire.

Yeah, except it doesn't look like that story is true.

http://cdn.agilitycms.com/nhlpacom/PDF/Summary-of-Terms-1-10-13.pdf


Now, the debate is whether or not just being on a RFA list exempts that player when he signs, no matter the team.


Also - no matter what would have happened, this is completely correct.

Holy... yeah, he would have had to go through waivers. Not because he was RFA, but because he played in the KHL (two games, Jan 21st and 23rd) after the start of the NHL season -- same situation as Nabakov in 2011.

That would of been hilarious.

Yeah, it's starting to be confirmed by more people. The Flames would have had to sit him the rest of the year, or he would have gone onto waivers.

I... I don't even...

Go Leafs go?


Edit: Sitting him wouldn't even have been an option - he would have immediately hit waivers. Good Lord.

I can't believe the Flames front office is that inept, even as an Oiler fan, so perhaps the entire offer sheet was done in the knowledge that Colorado would match, or worst case scenario, O'reilly would be a Columbus Blue Jacket, thus still fucking Colorado over.

And you could put Sidney Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Stamkos and the Sisters on Columbus and they would still find a way to suck, so what harm is them getting O'reilly?

I don't think shipping a first and third pick to CO and getting nothing in return really qualifies as fucking anyone but Calgary over. I have heard they would have been on the hook for the $2.5M signing bonus too, no matter where he ended up.

Obviously, yeah. The whole situation is so.. hilariously inept that I forgot they still would have had to gift the Avs with the picks.

I wish the Avs had walked away from it. The hilarity would of been immense.

Curious to see if this is the straw the breaks the back of the Flames upper management; either in terms of finally committing to a rebuilt of some kind or getting fired.

If it doesn't, the ownership has nowhere to look but in the mirror for the main reason the team has wasted the vast majority of Iginla's career (and Kiprusoff for that matter).

Saw this in the NHL.com comment section:

What do you call it when Hamilton passes to Seguin for a goal?

"A Kessel"

 :grin:

It was seriously one of the worst trades in recent memory, the all our draft picks for the worlds softest and most predictable forward.


If I had a dollar for every time kessel went the outside to take a bad angle shot at nothing but the goalies chest. He never, ever, makes a move anywhere but down that wing for the easy shot.

It's like if Alex Ovechkin's minions made him a clone one eighth his size.

Good to see Montreal is conforming to stereotypes.

I guess Malkin returns tonight. Did anyone actually see what happened to him? It was pretty alarming.

If that happened to a French Canadian player, they'd be out for months.

If it happened to Crosby, I think he'd be dead.

Malkin? Just shook one of his cybernetic implants loose for a moment.

How has Boston played so few games still? Is there schedule just entirely back loaded?


Toronto is dooomed once our goal-tending stops over achieving.

Well they missed a game because of a blizzard. That would've brough them up to 20 GP which is only 3 behind the highest number teams have played.

In Feb they played 10 games (should've been 11), in March they play 17! games. This could hurt.

4 back to backs. Actually for the rest of the season they only have 2 days in a row off once. Mind you most teams are probably close to this as well.

Goal-tending isn't the only reason Toronto is having success; their even strength shooting percentage is  fairly good, and above what they should be getting. Both will regress, but they might not do so this year (its not uncommon for streaks in sports to last a full season). Personally I'm hoping both come crashing back to reality sooner rather than later because, y'know, fuck Toronto and them being the center of the hockey universe.

But then again, I'd also like to see the Flames and Canucks die in a horrible mid-air collision so I might just be an asshole (okay, so there's no "might" about it).

I want to modify my previous statement to say that Chicago is terrifyingly good.

I love the Toronto is the center of the universe thing, because no one from Toronto thinks that, or is even aware the rest of the country thinks that about them. Which just makes the rest of Canada even more bitter or whatever  :why_so_serious:

It's totally true in regards to Hockey though. The Leafs ARE the center of the hockey universe, for good or for ill. The number of times the Leafs don't get the prime time HNIC spot are few and far between. The number of Leaf fans outside of Toronto is enormous and the Leafs consistently makes the most money and have the most pull in terms of ownership.

Still doesn't help them win though  :why_so_serious:

This (http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2013/3/4/4065708/highlights-of-bruins-embellishments-set-to-soft-music) is what they have been up to recently  :awesome_for_real:

Oh, in terms of fan base and so forth, sure. Out here in Western Canada we don't mind that aspect of it, as it is (unfortunately) true. The "center of the universe" thing we bitch about is more about the media end of it and it especially comes to the forefront when you get guys who mainly watch the Eastern Conference (because, of course, that's where Toronto [and Montreal] play) talk about the West. Its often quite hilarious how utterly, completely wrong or mistaken they are about how things work out here.. or even the actual roster of the teams. CBC's and Sportsnet's panels are the worst of the bunch (aside from Friedman). Although TSN has a couple similar twits.

Made by a Vancouver fan.   We have one guy Marchand who has seriously toned down his act this season and then we have the entire roster of the Montreal Canadiens. 

Eh, Vancouver fans have a right to be pissy about officiating. The Bruins never win that Stanley Cup without biased officiating (and I'm referring more to the last game against Tampa, not the cup final - calling zero penalties in a game 7 where one team's best asset is their powerplay is not "letting them play", it's biased).

On the flip side, Vancouver wouldn't have gotten to the playoffs with letter-of-the-law type officiating as they'd never have seen even strength play due to diving and offensive zone interference  :awesome_for_real: The Canucks are the reason that penalty is even being called at all nowadays!

No, I'm not being serious (well... not completely).

... and then it was time for mandatory visors.

I wonder how many more guys would be wearing visors if there wasn't the Don Cherry wimp stigma attached to them. That was scary to watch Staal on the ice like that after getting hit.

The sport is based around a vulcanized rubber projectile zipping around at 100mph, but covering your eyes with some plastic makes you a big pussy.  :oh_i_see:

I mean, I get it. If you play tough, you have to be ready to fight. If you're ready to fight, having a visor on isn't ideal. Taking your helmet off to fight is a reasonably poor idea.

So figure out proper detachable visors already or something.

OTOH, starting a fight when you have a visor and the other guy doesn't is a huge cunt move and should come with a hefty penalty (aside from the undying loathing of everyone else in the league).

Starting a fight while wearing a visor is an automatic additional minor.

Yeah Vancouver bitching about calls makes me stabby. Fuck right off with that.

100% agree that the Lightning got fucked but that's a big stretch for Canucks should have had a cup.

New Realignment Plan Approved (http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=660202&cmpid=pit-fb-penguins)

(http://2.cdn.nhle.com/nhl/images/upload/2013/03/realign_img.jpg)

Some good new rivalries for the Canucks...they have faced most of the former Pacific division clubs in recent playoff series. Not many teams I hate more than the Ducks, so it will be exciting to play them more often. And hurray for less Wild games. Their whole style is just unbelievably dull. And Clutterbuck's terrible mustache makes it even worse.

Lol at Florida being just the tip. Just to see how it feels.  :awesome_for_real:

Boy did the Canucks ever need a game like last night's. Yea, it was a defensive mess, but they scored more last night than they had in their last four combined.

7 different goal scorers too...spread it out and hope some folks get hot. May Ray/Beaker line was awesome. Even more awesome? this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnCCaAYtqbc).

Yes, TSN does some pretty cool stuff some times.

I hope they give the divisions interesting names

If they don't go with Smythe, Norris, Adams, and Patrick someone needs to stab Bettman in the eye with a skate. Actually someone should do that right now.

No, that's just wrong. Tradition or not, naming divisions after owners is just too self felating for me.


Would you want to have a Bettman Division 50 years from now? (I know he's not an owner, but you get the idea)

I firmly endorse both the naming options and the stabbing part.

I honestly, can not give two shits about what the divisions are called.


6 game losing streak, ENGAGE.   :cry:

Ah sad Toronto fans......oh wait they won a game?!? Thanks for keeping my seat on that wagon warm buddy!

Im kind of impressed they managed to keep to their usual mid-late season collapse pattern even during a shortened season. Like clockwork...

I have to admit, I kinda don't want to go back to an 82 game season.

While it has its upsides (Oilers playing meaningful games in March!?) there are so many reasons it can't work as a norm.

But this shortened season is full of all sorts of weirdness (see: Cogliano in Anaheim or the West standings -- Columbus in particular). Its kind of fun, kind of maddening.

Thankfully reffing is its normal shit-show. At least some things never change.

Revenue being #1.

It's the only reason basically. There is no way they are giving up the 20-40 games of revenue.

The old 40-50 game season is dramatically better, games mean more, less filler, less roster rotation due to injury. It's not coming back though.

I'm going to say it. I quit hockey after the bullshit this year and I haven't missed it all that much. If they are going back to having nba length seasons I don't think I'll ever come back and if they can't get refs who aren't utter paid off shit in the playoffs I probably wont even watch those anymore.

Uh oh. B.A. Baracus hit a shot from center ice at a Blackhawks game. Now I'll have to stare at Mr. T's ugly mug every time I got to NHL.com for the next two months.

"Penguins win the Stanley Cup...

... also, we had a celebrity at a game once!"

Video! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IAq7VwO3Js8)

So, Iginla is now a Boston Bruin with the Bruins sending Khokhlachev and Bartkowski to the Flames along with a conditional 1st round pick if Iginla (pending UFA) signs with Boston.

Not too bad of a trade both ways, imo, although Iginla isn't the player he used to be. Being a second or third liner in Boston should work out pretty well for him. Curious if this causes a number of the other trades rumoured to be out there to get pushed through now that the Iginla sweepstakes are over.

I knew the return wasn't going to be great, but a conditional first? Goddammit.

Flames about to hold a press conference to confirm.

Holy fuck - or it's Pittsburgh!


That... that was from left field. WOW.

Iginla for Kenneth Agostino, Ben Hankowski and 2013 first-round pick.

Screee.

That was fun and exciting and also hilarious.

So yeah.... Pittsburgh.

Irony?

The Bruins deal was getting Flames' fans furious. So what does Feaster do? Takes an arguably worse deal from the Pens. Sure, they get the guaranteed draft pick, but the prospects involved are the 10th and 12th best in the Pens' system, instead of the 2nd best prospect in the Bruins systems (Khokhlachev) and a 5-6 d-man in Bartkowski with a conditional pick thrown in.

Man.. Feaster has no idea what he's doing.

The Assistant GM in Calgary is a college hockey guy and likes those prospects a lot, apparently.

Also, the first rounder.

They say Koko's ceiling is a 2nd line center. So...

Future 2nd line center vs. a first round pick in a deep draft and two college prospects that the organization likes a lot.

I know what I'd take.

The two college prospects Pittsburgh sent Calgary's way won't amount to much from what I was able to dig up on them. Agostino has a chance to, admittedly, but he's a definite long-shot. The first rounder is nice (and more importantly could be bundled together with the Flames' own first round pick should they need/want to move up in the draft to grab a specific player), but Calgary's draft history is fairly hit and miss recently.

Khokhlachev is someone I've seen a fair amount of and from what I've seen he's actually a very sound prospect. His ceiling is likely 2nd line center (who don't exactly grow on trees, especially for the Flames who have been starved for centers) and while not large he plays a fairly physical, gritty game -- and could be NHL ready in the next year or two. He by his lonesome might be on par with the first round pick the Flames got from the Pens, depending on how that selection goes (and there was significant interest in Boston about re-signing Iginla, so that conditional could have panned out, but agreed it was hilarious to offer).

All in all the Flames didn't get a great return. To be fair, there was no way the Flames were going to "win" the trade. They simply needed to get enough in return and I don't think they did. Thankfully for them, however, they still have a couple other players they can move to hasten the rebuild that badly needs to happen.

Because the Penguins needed more talent on that team.  :ye_gods:

Fuck the Flames, Fuck the Penguins and most of all Fuck the Canadiens.

The Boston deal was the preferable one, but ultimately Iginla had say where he went and he went to Pittsburgh. This also looks like purely a rental for the Pens, as they are going to be a bit tight on cap space next year to resign him. Now, the Flames need to continue tanking and secure that top 5 draft pick! Sadly, the return on trading Bouwmeester will net them more than they got for Iginla.

Good chance Iginla will re-sign with Calgary anyway. And they didn't have much leverage since apparently he would only waive no-trade clause for 3 teams so there was no huge bidding war like we've seen for lesser players.

Getting 2 prospects and a 1st for a 2-3 month rental is still better than nothing. They're not blue chip, and it's a late pick, but if 1-2 of those prospects/pick become legit NHLers down the road that's a ++ for Calgary eventually for a guy who will be by then retired.

Disagree - think there's almost no chance he re-signs with Calgary except for a "retire as a Flame" deal.

Iginla is on record saying he wanted out of Calgary if they were going to rebuild (which is the main reason King told Feaster not to rebuild last year) as he didn't want to go through that. I don't see how he returns to Calgary after this season unless its a retirement deal where he signs, retires or plays just one year for relatively little money.

More likely in the off-season he signs with a team he thinks has a good shot at getting him back to the Cup and can afford him.

fuck it I didn't want Iginila anyway, I want Marty St. Louis.  :oh_i_see:

Though I will seriously enjoy it if the Bruins beat the Penguins in the playoffs. Hell hath no fury as a hockey fan scorned and all that.

As a Pittsburgher, I just wanted to drop in here and say "hahaha."

Now, when the Penguins choke against someone like Philadelphia, it will be even more amusing.

Oh my god the whining from the Boston brass (and their fans, but to a lesser extent) is just DELICIOUS.  :heart:

Almost makes up for Iginla making Pittsburgh sickeningly good.

What most likely happened was Boston and Pittsburgh both made offers and Iginla preferred to go to Pittsburgh.  Had Pittsburgh not made an offer, he would have gone to Boston.  Whether or not Boston made a better deal doesn't matter.  It was up to Iginla to decide.  And I do love the whiny bitching coming out of Boston. :heart:  Also, no crying at the press conference, unlike what a couple of Oilers did ( Gretzky & Smyth).  Having been to Edmonton a few times, I'd cry too if I was leaving...tears of joy. :awesome_for_real:

Living in Calgary, I'll probably be hearing about this trade for months.

Iginla did choose the Pens over Boston. Basically there was a deal in place with Boston around noon yesterday. They were told it was 'done' but they wanted to talk with Iginla, give him time, etc., etc.. Then radio silence, Feaster refused to let Boston talk directly to Iginla (which is the only weird part) and Pittsburgh made their push and they went to Iginla with the two trades and asked him to pick.

The Boston trade was the better trade, but when a no trade clause is involved.. that doesn't always matter. Its a great move by the Pens, but I could never cheer for them to win the Cup, despite the fact I used to love the team, but I just can't stand Crosby and a few others there.

It'll be interesting to see how the Bouwmeester trade, if one occurs -- though its pretty likely at this point, shakes out for Calgary. It could really jumpstart a rebuild (a luxury Edmonton didn't have due to inept management and waiting three years into our current sucking to actually go for a rebuild). I'm really hoping they get fleeced on it, though.

Who is Iginla going to play with on the pens? What's the new doom line  :why_so_serious:

All that guy needed to be good was a decent center. 

To be fair, Iginla has been on a noticeable decline lately. Struggles a lot more versus strong opposition whereas he used to be a strong power verse power player.

Of course, given he could be lining up with Crosby or Malkin.......

Also notable that Feaster screwed up the trade because he relied on Iginla's word that he'd accept a trade to any of the four teams on his list, instead of getting it in writing and filing it with the league like he should have done (and knows to do given prior experience in Tampa).

Couldve also been swayed by the fact the Pens are on a 7 game win streak and the B's have kinda been stinking up the joint lately.

I'm not really pissed, more annoyed about the loss to the Canadiens. And can't we all agree, that as hockey fans, we hate the Canadiens?

If anything this deal continues to tell us how absolutely amazingly incompentent the Calgary Flames management are.

I don't hate the Canadiens, I'm more jealous of them. Their fans actually get to have hope once in awhile.

Yes.  Combined with the almost debacle with the Ryan O'Reilly deal, the Flames look like a bunch of incompetent amateurs.  They've been living off that 2004 Cup final for years now.

I think Iginla will end up with Malkin and Neal. I'm fairly certain they're not too eager to break up Crosby's line, which is chewing up the league based entirely on speed and chemistry.

So then you have first defensive pairings going out against Crosby's buzzsaw line, and you trot Neal-Malkin-Iginla out afterward and...  :ye_gods:

Word around here is that Bylsma is not going to touch the Crosby line, so yeah... he'll be more than likely on the Gneo line.

Its not like Iginla wouldn't work well with Crosby.  I believe they were line mates at the 2010 Olympics, with Jerome feeding Sid the puck for the game winner in the gold medal game.  Still, I don't see a reason to break up Crosby's line at this point of the season.  Having Malkin as your centre isn't much of a drop off.

Well he won't be playing Crosby anytime soon  :ye_gods:

The Hockey Gods are huge fans of parity?

Well, fire sale has officially begun in Calgary. Bouwmeester trade doesn't look good, especially if St. Louis fails to make the playoffs and the first round pick gets moved to next year.

Well, Calgary just traded Jay Bouwmeester to St.Louis for a 1st round pick and two "prospects".  It looks like Jay Feaster and the Flames are trying to stockpile 1st round picks so they can trade up because the prospects they've gotten back look like garbage.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2013/04/01/sp-nhl-calgary-flames-st-louis-blues-jay-bouwmeester-trade.html

In more Calgary news, the Leafs were given permission to talk to Kiprusoff.  Given the history between the Leafs and Flames when it comes to trades, I fully expect Calgary to get fleeced...again. :awesome_for_real:

I really, really hope Toronto trades for Kipper. As an Oiler fan that's a win-win. Both the Flames and the Leafs get worse.

The last big trade was more like the Flames and the Leafs exchanging each others garbage.


I really like Reimer, so I kinda hope we don't get a 'real' goalie. The Leafs issue isn't goaltending, it's letting 40+ shots go through every fucking game.

Canucks just picked up Derek Roy for a 2nd rounder and a prospect defenseman. Probably means we'll be holding on to Luongo till Summer I would think.

If they want to make any kind of a playoff push they need to move him now. They are running 2 full lines of AHLers and skating fists, and they can't score for shit. Kesler back will help, but won't be enough.

Bruins pick up Jagr.

Bruins twitter feed has picture of Jagr with a then 10 year old Milan Lucic. nuff said.

This is pretty good.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BHBYGmRCUAA0rMU.jpg:large)

So much  :awesome_for_real: on that pic.

People, the end times are upon us.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=421309



The Leafs are in the playoffs.  :why_so_serious:

That's just a perfect example of how the NHL has too many teams in the playoffs.  :why_so_serious:

THE LEAFS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS

Also, I am so glad this got gif'd:

(http://i.imgur.com/26u7kFR.gif)

Gonna say, hockey lost me as a fan. I keep trying to give a fuck now that the playoffs are rolling around but I just don't anymore. While the nhl was off fucking itself I started paying a bit more attention to the nba and mlb, not that I actually enjoy watching those sports played that much but this is also a really really good year for the uefa leagues so I find my sports attention has just adjusted to not needing to care about hockey at all.

A deep Sharks playoffs run will probably at some point bring me back to tracking things from afar but I don't think I'll ever be the fan I was and I doubt I'll be the one buying and organizing trips to games ever again.

So basically you're never coming back?  ;D

Do not worry.

Kevin Lowe will continue to safeguard humanity by ensuring the Edmonton Oilers do not make the playoffs. Ever again. Thus diverting the possible apocalypse arising from a non-shitty Leafs team gaining access to the playoffs, for it is only when the Toronto Maple Leafs, the New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Edmonton Oilers make the playoffs that the world comes to an end (due to a tear in the fabric of space-time from the sheer impossibility of such an occurrence).

Now that was a win the Canucks needed to make than fans feel a little more at ease. Would have been 3 - 0 if not for a goofy bounce off the ref.

Yep...that was as good as they have looked all season. How much do you love Roy? Barely knew his name when they traded for him, but wow he fits in well.

Was really rooting for Columbus. They might have actually stood a chance against Chicago.

I love the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Watched the Kings vs. Blues last night - that was a extremely well played game by the Blues. They came out to bruise the Kings and Quick was the only reason that game didn't get out of hand.

And then he did this in OT:

(http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2557907/lol-quick.gif)


LEAFS TONIGHT YAY

I just can't believe that wasn't Luongo or Schneider.

My boys LOVE hockey and will drop what they are doing to watch games when they are on and request to watch highlights in the mornings.

I was talking about playoffs last night and asked Logan if the Leafs could win. His answer was an emphatic "No Daddy, no Toronto Maple Leafs. No! No! No!". I asked him who was going to win and started listing teams and he chose Chicago.

So there you go, my 2.5 year old has picked the Blackhawks to win.

Smart kid. I wouldn't be surprised by a 1 vs 1 this finals. Penguins vs Blackhawks. Hopefully Crosby would be back and it would be an epic 7 game series.

The Bruins look like shit and I wouldn't be surprised if they lost to the Leafs. Somehow I think they'll claw it out in 6 or 7 then lose in the second round.

(http://i.imgur.com/V0qgJ1U.png)

Crosby returns tonight as per Penguins official Twitter account.

Islanders coach hangs self, as per Islanders official Twitter account.

Anyone else see the hit on Eller last night? Is it just me or does the video show that it was kind of a wierd glancing blow and not delibrately dirty by the Ottawa player? Funny they only had a cpl of angles of it which don't really show it all that well.

Also, thank you Maple Leafs for being the Maple Leafs.

I still have 3 more games before another 10 years of no-playoff winter.

Let me have those  :why_so_serious:

The Gryba/Eller hit didn't look dirty because it wasn't dirty.

Edit: Some people will call it dirty.  We call those people "Montreal fans."

This. It was a clean hit on a poor bastard who received a suicide pass from an idiot.

If he hadn't smashed his face on the ice which resulted in the shock of blood, this wouldn't be a huge discussion today.

I was watching the game and went 'oooooh' on the hit, then CBC zoomed in on the gush of blood from his face and THAT was horrific. The reaction is mostly to that I think.

Prust called Maclean a "Bug-eyed fat walrus" today, so that was fun.

Prust isn't wrong, but he and Therrien are being whiny bitches, really.

The only player to blame in this current whole fiasco is Diaz.

Though I'll give an assist to the equipment players wear. A lot of hockey equipment is in dire need of modernizing and taking advantage of modern materials to provide similar protection without being so damn large and hard, especially shoulder and elbow pads.

It was technically "clean" under normal rules of hitting, but potentially not clean under new anti-headshot rules cuz it was a  predatory high hit on a vulnerable player. Result: player K.O'd by contact to head.

This is exactly what the NHL (and NFL) are trying to get rid of, because it's bad for the sport, and the NHL has the following rule in place to curb it:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=64063

These hits are basically the worst thing in the game atm, and I am glad at the very least Gryba's action his being reviewed and will be given full consideration of judgement whether it qualifies for further discipline under this anti-headshot rule (personally I think so).

Kerry Fraser and TSN does a good job picking it apart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83qHq-RgEGM

It just got worse for Montreal.  Unless Michel Therrien is playing some games, Pacioretty and Gionta are both out. Playing their home games back to back is the worst thing possible for them.  Carey Price better figure how to play again.


Full disclosure: Senators fan. Go Sens.

I think it should be reviewed by the Shan man but as the TSN guys said, its a legal hit. When you look at it from the backside he hits the body first and clips the head. Didnt leave his skates, didnt raise his elbow...any of that stuff. You dont want to see it but I think it was clean.

Full discolsure: Not a Sens fan. Still ....go Sens go!

It was a clean hit by the rules, but also one of those hits that you know is going to knock the guy silly - because he didn't see it coming. Eller was lucky he didn't bend down or lean forward just when he took the pass, or it would have been a head shot. That's the problem with those type of hits, its really just luck that determines whether or not its a headshot, because the guy making the hit doesn't have time to change things if the other guy moves the wrong way at the last second.

You really can't put in rules that say the hitter has to make sure the hitee sees him coming. So I agree with Ceryse ( :ye_gods: probably for the first time in this thread), they need to look at making the equipment less battering ram like.

So you are capable of seeing reason!  :grin:

But seriously; the equipment is a huge issue in hockey. Its built solely to protect the person wearing it with no concern given for the fact its also used to hit other people. Its a big reason why shoulder hits are causing so much damage, even in normal shoulder to shoulder hits. With the amount of speed and strength behind these hits... and more and more GMs are starting to see the same thing. Alternatives have existed for awhile, as well, which is sad. Its similar to the kevlar socks.. should be mandatory, honestly, but.. they aren't.

Two game suspension (http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=422306)

But the worst news? THE. WORST.

Jay Onrait And Dan O'Toole Are Coming To America (http://deadspin.com/jay-onrait-and-dan-otoole-are-coming-to-america-489561140?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow).

Even the Prime Minister commented on it:

https://twitter.com/pmharper/status/330406900564901889

Two game suspension is a fucking joke. Shanahan has been working hard since he took over to become a laughingstock. his suspensions are similar to just tossing a dart blindfolded. There was a hit earlier this year on Landeskog that saw far more initial contact to the head that got no suspension (and no penalty!).

In my opinion this suspension is due to the fact its a Montreal player and that it looked worse than it was.

If you want to send a message to a guy for a legal hit (but one you understandably want out of the game), 1 game should have been the maximum.

And I couldn't be happier about J&D coming south! I don't get TSN, but I got turned onto their podcast a couple of months ago and am now a huge fan. Hopefully Fox will let them do a new podcast as well.

I think that time served with his game misconduct and at max, a one game suspension would have been enough.

Yet Dustin Brown still runs around doing stuff like this:

(http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1587475/dustinknee_medium_medium.gif)

"He is a team captain just sticking up for his guys! Good Canadian boy and all that. I played with his dad in Juniors..."

Sorry, Don Cherry tackled me and took over my keyboard for a minute.

Don Cherry should be legally required to stay at least 100 meters from a camera or microphone. The man has been insane for more than a decade. I'm still surprised a racist bigot like him is still allowed on the air solely because of who he was.

Like I said earlier, you can't just run around drilling people in the head no matter how "legit" it is if they have the puck. Days of Scott Stevens ending careers and getting into hall of hame on "clean" hits are over, headshots in hockey & football are now a serious issue that even transcends pro leagues looking to not be in the bad publicity spotlight; People are pulling their kids out of contact sports because of it. There is rule 48 in the NHL and there is a responsibility on the hitter to NOT take that killshot as much as there is for the target not to put himself in that position.

Problem is in this situation, the head was never fully hit. The trauma came from his head hitting the ice, not the opposing player.

Except players are continually putting themselves into those positions. I see nothing wrong with the Gryba hit. Eller receives the puck, Gryba is stepping up to deliver the hit, makes clear contact with his hip into the body of Eller. Then, as Eller is in the process of changing his body position and position (watch his skates) it prevents Gryba from hitting fully through the body and the upper portion of his shoulder pad is driven into the lower part of Eller's head, which is clearly, imo, incidental.

Eller bears some responsibility for knowing that he's going to get hit; he's receiving the puck in open ice near his blue line, one of the big, prime areas you are going to get hit. Diaz bears responsibility as he is the one who throws that pass in suhc a way to force his team mate to make a choice; change his body position to receive the pass and be unable to keep his head up, or let it go.

Gryba is merely doing what he's been taught to do, and what he should do 10 times out of 10 in that instance.

Hits by Stevens were different. He would intentionally cut across the ice with the sole purpose of hitting his target as high as possible, as late as possible, with as much elbow and shoulder as possible -- t such extent he often vacated his defensive responsibilities to do so; and when he missed he gave a prime scoring opportunity to the opposition. He was clearly head hunting with intent. None of that is at play in the Gryba hit.

Diaz should've gotten two games for making a pass with intent to get your forward killed.

Fuck Dustin Brown.  How did the NHL not go back and review that???   Fuck they gave Ference a game for a hit that wasn't whistled.

he was KO'd on contact, that's why he didn't move his arms to protect face and broke nose/teeth when he fell onto ice.


Watch the NHL.com announcement they explain it pretty clearly what Gryba did wrong. It's not all on Eller, Gryba has responsibility to avoid headshots too, that is difference with rule 48. The league is starting to take this kind of player-killer headshot seriously and that puts an obligation on the hitter NOT to pulverize a guy's head even when the target set himself up on a tee for it; Hit him lower, hit him slower, avoid the headshot at all costs.

I will pleasantly agree to disagree with you completely - since many more egregious hits are not given penalties and not even given a second look. The inconsistency of rulings on this stuff has to be a complete mindfuck for the players. 

Sure is easy to hand 2 games to a bottom pair defenseman.  Can't wait to see Shanahan have to make a difficult decision not based on the depth chart.

While the NHL's decision is final and is something we all have to live by, by no means does it make it the right decision. I've seen the Shanahan video where he goes through the hit and he contradicts himself a couple times in it, as was pointed out during TSN's panel tonight. Players/coaches around the league disagree with Shanahan. Hell, Aaron Ward was extremely displeased with the suspension and went through it explaining why it was not only a poor decision by Shanahan in and of itself, but how it will negatively affect the game and the players in it.

Even in the Shanahan video he clearly says there was zero intent from Gryba to hit the head; and the only reason the suspension was given was because while there was no intent they deemed there to be too much head contact in comparison to the amount of body contact (which is bullshit, imo), but clearly shows that this is not a case of a clear head shot meant to pulverize a guy. As for "avoid the headshot at all costs" you can't. The game is too fast for that. The only way to ensure there are no headshots is to remove body checks from the game -- just based on the size difference of players. Based on your criteria.. guys like Chara can't hit anyone under a certain height because there is no way for Chara to squat low enough not to get head contact on a guy like St. Louis.

In the end, we're going to have to agree to disagree.. but I'll be blunt in that if the NHL continues down the road it is going.. its going to lose a lot of fans; myself included.

And lastly, I don't care if these guys get concussions. I'm sorry, but I don't. They know the risk. They accept the risk. They get paid extremely well to live with the risk and the possible consequences.

And what bothers me the most is most of these injuries, such as Eller, could be drastically reduced in severity and frequency if the NHL just altered equipment. Have you worn full NHL gear? There is a reason why shoulders are destroying people, and often it has very little to do with the guy doing the hitting and more to do with the pads on his shoulders and elbows. They are large and they are hard. Properly modernizing equipment and I doubt Eller's head gets hit at all (even if most of the damage to his head was from slamming into the ice).

Price's dman gets pushed onto him, skate hits him hard on mask. Whistle blown, skates calmly over bench, passes the trainer 2 teeth then calmly skates back to goal.

Not a fan of Torres.. but for tonight? The man is a hero.

Pretty good night for me, score-wise... only team I wanted to lose that ended up winning was Montreal. Even the teams in the lesser leagues that I wanted to win did (Barons and Oil Kings). Leave it to Shanahan and Montreal (it is surprisingly hard not to call that city by the nickname it has out here) to spoil a perfectly good day.

Suspension was bullshit - it was a clean hit. If Eller doesn't spout blood after falling, I doubt we would even be having this conversation.

Also, that poor pass...it's a pass that gets made a lot, but unfortunately Dias didn't see that Eller had a guy bearing down on him.

I'm surprised this isn't getting more play from  "Why aren't players wearing fucking masks" angle.  I played hockey from the time I was 5 until the end of high school, never once did I feel like my mask obstructed my view.  It isn't only useful for the puck to the face problem, but also high sticks and hits like this.  Someone is going to have to lose an eye on the ice before they do anything I guess.

Suspension made no sense.

That said, I apologize for getting cocky about the Penguins earlier in the thread. I had hoped the 2012 attitude was gone. They got out there, got an early lead, and decided they were the '93 Penguins (who could not possibly lose to a lowly Islanders team and uh.. oh, oh god no).

The Islander win was awesome.

It made me a good chunk of money.

Yes, I was crazy enough to bet on the Islanders.

Watching the Pens shit the bed again in game 3 is bittersweet. I love hearing all the asshats in my neighborhood yell and scream at their TVs. However, I have been a Pens fan since I was a kid - which in the 80s was filled with teasing and torture in grade/middle school.

Fear the wrath of the Walrus. Senators deliver an utter and complete ass-kicking.  On the ice and in the alley. :heart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7me3yqWrXp8

Stats you didn't think you'd hear:  The star of each game has had a tooth knocked out.

I love round 1 of the playoffs.  :awesome_for_real:

lol if you gonna lose, lose hard

Also fuck the refs and their hardons for Sydney Crosby, that was a weak weak call. Go Islanders!

God bless the Ottawa Senators. SUCK IT CANADIENS.

One guy waving his arms after a fight is dumb. Two is embarrassing. Three means maybe the other team should have rethought that line brawl. - @downgoesbrown (https://twitter.com/DownGoesBrown/status/331217296288788481)


I can't stop watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTk_DE_Crg0

Montreal and Vancouver losing like they did? Awesome. San Jose versus Vancouver is a really interesting series because its the two biggest playoff chokes playing off against one another.

Also; Calder Trophy finalists continue the trend of a big general 'wtf?'.

My first thought after last night's game: I have a party to go to later this month; at least I won't look like a bum with my scraggly playoff beard.

why? They seem solid to me

Oilers fan so insert Yakupov whine there.  :awesome_for_real: If the season had gone on another 34 games he might have had a point too.

Jonas Brodin should not only be on that list, but win the Calder imo.

Mine was actually coming in rather nicely this year  :heartbreak:

Brodin come on he's solid but he needs to put up some points to get consideration. When Tyler Myers won it he had almost 50 points as a 2-way Dman which is a lot more standout than just a stay at home role with 15-20 if prorated to 82 games.

Yakupov I dunno, I think there was prolly voting bias against Edmonton for the perception that they are a free-wheeling defensive mess (Same reason no Schultz). The voters had to choose 3  guys from a pack of 6 forwards with similar points and went with 2 rookies that had stand out roles on top placing teams, then with Huberdeau for playing a lot of hard minutes on a depleted team.

In my view the nominations should have been; Yakupov, Brodin, Gallagher.

With Brodin edging out Gallagher for the trophy (with rough %s around the lines of 45% for Brodin, 40% for Gallagher and 15% for Yakupov).

But the current list is, well.. a joke and I'll go through why;

1. Huberdeau; this is whom Yakupov should have replaced. Yakupov and he tied in points, but Yakupov did it with ~2:30 less ice time per game (and had more goals, which tends to matter with such things), better plus minus and didn't play with the top line (he played with cheats-for-offense Gagner mainly) and did so on his off wing for half the season. Additionally, Huberdeau had almost 2/3rds offensive zone starts to Yakupov's 50/50 split. But, honestly? I could fathom keeping Huberdeau. Yakupov was more deserving of the nomination, imo.. but I could see the argument against it giving the situation in Florida.

2. Saad; seriously? He had a good year, is a good player and will improve. But playing the vast majority of your ice time with Toews and Hossa should result in good numbers. He also got powerplay time similar to Huberdeau and did almost nothing with it. This is where Brodin should have been nominated. Brodin is young (19 to Saad's 20), playing phenomenal amounts of minutes for a rookie, is a defenseman and played tough minutes. Yes, he was paired with Suter for much of that time, but that doesn't diminish his accomplishments as much as it does Saad's due to position.

3. Gallagher; good player, but between him being 21 (two years older than Yakupov and Brodin), his numbers weren't as high as Yakupov's, nor his position and ice time as demanding (he had fairly easy zone starts, like Huberdeau), but deserves the nomination due to his even strength production (best of the bunch) and just how good Montreal was with him on the ice.

Overall.. there's just no real good reason to have Saad on the list and Brodin off. Yakupov should have been nominated over Huberdeau.. but that one is more forgivable.

Interesting to note that the last time a rookie who led the scoring lead didn't win the Calder was 1950-51 (excluding goaltender wins), and the last time one was left off the nomination list? Never happened before in the history of the NHL.

Like I said, though; Brodin should have won the Calder this year and doesn't even get nominated. And this is coming from someone who thinks the Wild should be nuked from orbit for playing such a boring style of hockey for so many years (and having a bunch of dirty, whiny bitches on their teams!).

Schultz didn't deserve a nomination. He put up a lot of points, especially for a rookie defenseman... but his defensive game went to absolute shit in the last third of the season. Part of that was his partners, but a lot of that was on him. His defensive play rules him out.

Some reasonable points, but you skip the part that Brodin isn't getting on with less than 20 points. A dman needs to 40 to stand out.

Fucking Leafs.


Mother Fucking Leafs.

Ah, yes the Leafs. Losing like they should! I will be extremely pleased if the first round sees the Canadians, Canucks, Leafs and Wild bow out. I'd also like to see the Pens lose out, but I don't see that happening.

Speedy; Brodin is my pick for the Calder, regardless of his point totals. He's just been that impressive in all the games I've seen him in. Either way, I believe he deserves the nomination over Saad who's getting too much recognition due to his plus/minus and point totals ignoring the fact of who he plays with and his relatively easier minutes than many other rookies.

Gallagher should win the Calder given the actual nominations and I'd have been content with him getting it over Brodin with my personal preference for nominations. But Saad and Huberdeau... meh. But the subjective trophies have been jokes for awhile now.

Don't worry the bruins will find a way to make sure this goes 7.

Dear Mario:
Please place Bylsma and Fleury in a large sack, fill it with rocks, and toss it into the Mon.

Love,
EG

Oh boy... fantastic night! Fleury craps the bed and gives the Isles the even-up. The Canadians lose and get pushed to the precipice alongside the Wild and the Canucks get swept!

The last item is really the best part of the playoffs thus far.

Well, that was one steaming pile of bullshit. Apparently refs only believe in letting powerplays decide a series when it goes against Vancouver.

25 powerplays for SJ versus 10 for Van in that series. Clearly because Vancouver players like Sedin are mean vicious bastards. Congrats San Jose, you gamed the system and it paid off for you.

I'd like to believe that there isn't some conspiracy by refs to stick it to teams that complain about officiating, but after this... Vancouver complained that SJ was flopping a lot in the first two games and the calls weren't exactly  being handed out evenly (SJ had 9 powerplays to Van's 5 in the first two games). So what happens in games three and four? 16 powerplays to SJ vs 5 for Vancouver. Nope, no bias there.

Worst thing about that shit ass call in OT against Sedin? He could have drawn a boarding call in the third had he stayed down and milked it, but he didn't. Then they call boarding on him in overtime on a shoulder to shoulder hit, where the other guy's forward momentum was the only thing that made him hit the boards. Really flimsy call that ended the series. The "boarding" on Bieksa that setup the tie? Yea, SJ player stayed face down just long enough for the ref to make the late call, then pops up and skates away.

To finalize my rant, do I think Vancouver would have won this series had the penalties been close? Honestly, probably not (SJ played well) - but at least it would have been a series instead of a four game officiating joke.

Reffing in the NHL is and always has been a joke.. its just one that everyone is in on nowadays.

However, I personally find it hilarious that Vancouver is getting fucked over by refs considering they used to be the ones benefiting from shit reffing. That said.. I wouldn't say a lot of the calls on Vancouver were shit calls; merely that almost every 50/50 situation went against Vancouver -- which is what will happen if you bitch about the refs and linesmen. Would they have won in an evenly called series? No; they simply didn't have the offense and Schneider, while good at times, was simply not the goalie to lean on.

Would have been nice to actually see that series played out as opposed to having it predetermined by the refs.

At least half the penalties Vancouver took were 50/50 calls that weren't being called in the regular season. Problem was, the refs didn't call the 50/50 ones on San Jose. There's never an excuse for a 3 to 1 advantage in powerplays over two games.

While I've never fully agreed with the rest of the world's opinion on Vancouver being a "diving" team, the fact is that the refs have been "getting back" at Vancouver for it for about the last four seasons.

The last couple of penalties were total bullshit - but fuck the Canucks. So happy they are done. It is pretty crazy that 5 straight Northwest division titles, two President's Trophies and the AV will probably be fired.

They can't fire him fast enough. His fucking bullshit anti-offensive system, his garbage handling of the goalies, his mind-boggling line decisions, his mind games, and his inexplicable 'doghouse' have utterly destroyed this team. He plays favorites, and is a smug fuck. I have never liked him, but tolerated him because they seemed to be winning (whether in spite of him or not remains to be seen). Good fucking riddance.

If the refs decided to fuck a team over they couldn't find a more deserving team for that fucking. Sayonara Canucks, enjoy the golf!  :why_so_serious:

That final call was terrible, but most of the calls weren't. Power play disparity doesn't prove ref conspiracies.

(http://i.imgur.com/qK4eXcI.jpg)

Too soon?

I've hated the Canucks since Pavel Bure played with them and beat Dallas in 5 games.

Nobody likes you Canucks.

(http://i.minus.com/ibqIqyfbMc2Y5S.gif)

Vokoun to start game #5.

First time Fleury benched in playoffs IIRC.

Also, Pens need to scratch Niskannen -- maybe during the regular season he could impersonate an NHL defenseman but in the playoffs a pylon would serve as a greater impediment to opposing forwards…

Nah, just inaccurate:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_Stanley_Cup_Finals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_Stanley_Cup_Finals)

Ok, it's been a while.

There's a reason most around here call the Canucks the "Dys" with almost sociopathic glee.

The modern team has won absolutely fuck-all and yet for years the fans, media and team itself put the team on such a pedestal you'd figure they were the'80s Oilers who never got fucked over in a dark alley by Peter Puck. There is no such thing as something unfair if it happens to the Canucks -- its just Karma trying to prove its existance.

Sad to see Vokoun start the next game in the Pens/Isles series, though. Islanders winning that season would be hilarious good fun as the Pens are a great team to cheer against (and easy, too!).

So you're basically saying the Canucks are hockey's version of the Cubs?  I mean, according to Bunk, it's apaprently been almost as long since either team won their series prize.

No. People actually like and feel sympathy for the Cubs.  :why_so_serious:

The Leafs would be closer to the Cubs probably. Undying loyal fan base, for no real good reason.  :why_so_serious:

If the Leafs are going to lose like they did the last couple of games, I am not going to be REALLY upset when the Bruins beat them. I don't think I expected them to win more than one or two games this series at the most, but they've hung in with one of the better playoffs teams.

Dion was being Dion in OT though - that was the exact stuff that got him chased out of Calgary.

In other news:

(http://imgius.com/photos/20130509136808541567205.gif)

The Leafs have THIRTEEN Stanley Cups. They're closer to the Yankees than the Cubs (although the Canadiens are the real Yankees of hockey.)

Those cups were won when there was like, literally 6 teams in the league.


They haven't won shit since the NHL expansion.

The gifs are killing me.

Also, David Krecji, most underrated athlete in Boston.

Don't park your car in downtown Montreal tonight.  :why_so_serious:

Nah.

Only Vancouver riots after a loss.

Oh, they know a few things about that in Montreal.

(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/specialj99/habs_zpsbb448dd4.jpg) (http://s148.photobucket.com/user/specialj99/media/habs_zpsbb448dd4.jpg.html)

Oh, they know how to riot... but ONLY Vancouver has rioted after a loss. The other cities riot after a win.

Only exception is the Richard riot when Canadians fans rioted after Richard got a (justified) suspension for basically trying to kill a guy.

I think I got the most angry I've been in years watching that Habs-Sens game last  night. The Habs missed so many great chances, empty nets basically, cannot do that against a red hot goalie like Anderson (final save % for series: .950 cmon !!!). Really pissed me off when Bourque has a wide open net and hit the post, and the crowd starts waving their stupid towels like he accomplished something good lord what a bunch of morons. Between that, the Armstrong breakaway and Gallagher missing the open net on the PP right before the Turris shorty it shoulda been 4-2 Habs going into the 3rd. Not a safe lead certainly but better than 3-1 against.

The Sens remind me of the 2010 Canadiens that upset the Caps & Pens, mediocre team but playing tight, spirited D, clutch opportunistic to net goals, and riding a red hot goalie.

Keep in mind the Senators spent over half the season without:

The league's #1 goalie
Their #1 Center
Their leading goal scorer
Their Norris trophy defenseman and best overall player.

With 3 out of 4 back, this is a better team than their record shows.

Canadiens took a big jump and their kids show lots of promise, but right now they're too soft.

EDIT:  Hart nominees out, same old suspects Crosby & Ovechkin.  Plus Tavares.  Have to agree now, the West gets no love.

Not bashing the Sens every team that made the NHL playoff is a dangerous one (hell even basement teams are still full of NHL hockey players and can light you up if you don't take them seriously). I think the Habs played ok just could not score, very frustrating to watch. Again against a hot goalie playing .950 you absolutely need to convert chances when they have pressure on, it's so difficult to score on him it demoralizes a team when open nets are pissed away then on the counter attack some goofey triple bounce deflection goes in or your own mediocre goalie misses a 40 foot wrister. But that's hockey.

Ah, they already posted the Ovechkin gif. Damn.

I'm convinced that French people are terrible hockey fans, if the game I watched while on vacation was any indication.

Also, I'm just going to leave this here: http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/page/Mag15notsocrazynowami/former-hockey-player-eric-lindros-redefined-nhl-culture-playing-injuries-espn-magazine (http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/page/Mag15notsocrazynowami/former-hockey-player-eric-lindros-redefined-nhl-culture-playing-injuries-espn-magazine)

Such a shame - Lindros was an absolute monster back in his day - there were times when he put a goal up on the board through sheer force of will. And I thought he still looked good a few years ago during the Winter Classic alumni game.

Kind of funny to read that now when the narrative for so much of his career was about not living up to expectations.

Rangers wasted no time.

The Leafs played 40 minutes, Boston played 20. 2-1 Leafs.


These fucking guys  :oh_i_see:

(http://i.imgur.com/iDBGP53.jpg)

I was going to point that out but you beat me to it.  Leaf fans are by far the most annoying.  Its bad enough the rest of the country has to be subjected to endless Leaf talk on sports programs and in newspapers but their fans act they've actually done something positive in the last 45+ years.  Vancouver has been to 3 Cup finals since they came into the league in 1970 compared to Toronto's big fat zero. GO LEAFS GO!!! GO LEAFS GO!!!...fuck off. :mob:

Vancouver needs another jersey change.

And there we go.

What a choke by Anaheim. Pretty terrible showing by Perry after signing a 70$ million contract, 2 assists in 7 games!

The only thing that's consistent in these playoffs is how bad the refs are and them doing their best to decide games and series. For all that Canuck fans bitched Islander fans have even more reason to complain. Hell, just look at the last Capitals/Rangers game. There is no way the Rangers didn't take at least one penalty (there were numerous missed calls -- a couple which were fairly egregious) and a number of the Capitals' penalties were bull shit (and they missed a number of their actual penalties).

But.. this is the NHL. Easily the worst refs of any major sport (which is sad, given the state of reffing in a couple other of the sports..)

Oh, and Booregard's family is suing the NHL for wrongful death. Y'know.. because he was an enforcer, got concussions.. then addicted to pain killers and such and then died because of such. Such a sad state when people can sue over such things (the guy knew exactly what he was doing/getting into -- fighting was the sole reason he was in the NHL at all; its not like he could play the game all that well).

The NHL and NFL are both going to deal with the concussion issue because they are linked together in terms of violent play. The NFL is out in front of the issue, though. The NHL is positioning itself poorly.

As much as fans lament the oddness to the head-to-head calls in the NFL, it's the right way to go. The NHL has to ban all head hits and enforce them, or they will lose the sport due to lawsuits, especially if the NFL players make their case.

The NHL has always had it's thing, where you have the rules for the regular season, and then "the rules" for the playoffs.

Like, last night in the Leaf/Bruin game, both teams SHOULD have been penalized like half a dozen times more then either team did. Blatant hooking, holding, interference etc. it all gets waved off in the playoffs. You basically have to murder someone to get 2 minutes in a game 7.

That's what killed the Canucks the last couple years. Gillis tried building a team modeled after the teams that were successful after the first lockout, when they were actually enforcing the rules on obstruction. Teams like Detroit dominated in that brief era through skill and speed. Then along came Boston, and we went right back to the pre-lock out crap. Vancouver has no chance when the other team is allowed to just clog up the defensive zone and tackle anyone that goes near the net. 80% of the goals scored in the series with San Jose were scrums in front of the net, where something got banged in on the third try. Who the fuck wants to see skill and playmaking, right?

I'm so annoyed by the way things have gone, I'm going to root for Toronto.

I am wearing my Wendel Clark jersey tonight.  :grin:

You should do that every night!

NEVER!!!!  I would rather Montreal win the Stanley Cup from now until the end of time than see Toronto win it once.

And fuck me, they're beating Boston now 4-1. :facepalm:  Leaf fans are going to relive this series for the next 10 years, even if they get put out in 4 in the second round.

I feel sick

Not so fast......

:( wtf... 10 minutes away and that happens.

SUCK IT LEAFS!!! SUCK IT HARD!!!

MACE TO THE FACE, SAVVA THE FLAVA!!! YOU JUST GOT FUCKED IN THE MOUTH!!!

Wow

Thank you Toronto for the epic choke. I was actually worried the Bruins were going to lose. Only team I don't like that managed to advance was Pittsburgh; the rest bombed out.

It'll be even more hilarious when Toronto fails to make the playoffs next year due to realignment and the East actually having to play the West next year in the regular season.

times a billion.

Oh wow. That's one of the most epic chokes I've seen since, well, ever.

As a Canucks fan, you don't know how hard it was to hope for a Bruins win, esp. when it was that little weasel Marchand that scored the winning goal.  Still, soooo worth it. :thumbs_up:

Yep, worst choke I've ever seen. It being Toronto, I would normally be jumping for joy, but I actually hate the Bruins more.

That elbow to VanReemsdyke that didn't get called? That was the entire last three games of the 2011 finals.

That's the most epic choke since Boston choked a 3-0 series lead vs Flyers a couple of years ago.

And back in the closet goes the no. 17.  :oh_i_see:

Business as usual for Alexander Ovechkin.  Nominated for Hart.  Stinks it out in a seven game series.

I still feel sick. I don't think I'll be able to watch a game for a few days. That was the very Leafiest Leafs game. It was bad enough that they got my hopes up by getting to game seven, but blowing it like that was a little much. The worst part is that this was such an epic collapse that i'll be taked about and referenced FOREVER.

I actually didn't watch the OT, I just sat on my couch with my head in my hands after standing in front of the TV for 3 hours. Brutal.

More tears on my Clark jersey. I am very sorry, it is me. I blame myself. Closet Leafs fan, Browns fan, Indians fan, closet Cubs fan... I am the weakest link. The only team I have not plagued into oblivion are my LSU Tigers.

Dear god man.

I must admit I ordered a 'Keep Calm and Bergeron' t-shirt this morning.

If its any consolation, I was an Ottawa Rough Riders fan.  And an Expos fan. I know what soul-crushing defeats feel like.

Pens vs Sens: Sens in 7 -shit goaltending for Pens, shit d, maybe gets you past the ilses in a gonze hockey series but not tight sens who have hottest goalie in league.

Bos vs NYR: NYR in 5 -Boston is a mess don't let the lucky  last second win over the Toronto Maple chumps fool you. They are not playing very good hockey.  For the Rags the King Hank has his A game on and have a lot of talented vet depth up front, bad news for banged up Bruins D.

Hawks vs Wings: Wings in 6 - Wings dug deep to steal it from my Ducks (quack.......), killed me in my office pool but very impressive comeback. Might be team of destiny this year, Howard is playing well and the money players up front are doing their job. I'm just not sold on the Black Hawks, too flashy and haven't faced enough adversity this season I think they are in for a surprise here.

Kings vs Sharks: Kings in 6 - Sharks played well against the Canucks but them again the Canucks blow so that doesn't count for too much. Kings just match up too well against the Sharks.

My favorite part of the Leafs epic collapse is seeing some Leaf fans posting about how shitty the reffing was and the non calls against Boston.

While I agree, The elbow, the boading, throwing the waterbottle on the ice and more probably should have been called and it is shitty that the Bruins got away it when those calls could have ended the series.
It is the very same fans that were laughing when it was happening to the canucks. But of course there was no bullshit calls/non-calls in the Nucks/Bruins series, right Maple Laugh fans? RIGHT?    Fuckers.

Nah that wasn't the reffing, that's just people trying to rationalize their pain or whatever. Both teams got away with MURDER last night, if that was a regular season game, there would've been like 60 minutes of penalties last night combined.

Toronto just lost the game, in a historic fashion (literally I believe, that may be the biggest comeback in game 7 history or something).

That's a game that was won, the end.

They managed to lose it.

The end.



 :heartbreak:

After that so called "refereeing" last night, do any Leaf fans now see what Canuck fans were talking about during the 2011 cups finals?  As much joy as I've gotten out of the Leafs collapse, they did get screwed on more than a few calls.  That water bottle thrown on the ice should have been a delay of game penalty or a bench penalty and the elbow on JVRD was brutal.

Or this.

You really seem to give a shit about what Leaf fans think about the Canucks.


We mostly don't either way.  :why_so_serious:

You clearly have never read a comment thread on TSN after a Canucks game. It's like Torontonians live to berate us on those forums. Now we are just sitting back and enjoying the sweet irony.

Honestly though, the game has changed, again. We're back to "play-off hockey" aka, there are no fucking rules in the playoffs - we know our referee pool is spread too thin to do a decent job, so we just tell em to put the whistles away and "let them play".

Which is just fine and dandy if you enjoy that type of hockey. Personally, I prefer the high speed skill game (RIP).

TSN Comments are right up there with Youtube Comments.


If you waste any time with them you get what you deserve.  :why_so_serious:

You are probably right. Seidenburg and Ference being out will be a big problem. Two things that give me some hope: The reason the B's were so bad against Toronto was the Leafs speed was giving them absolute FITS. Speed on the forecheck, speed into our zone...we just couldn't keep up. Rangers aren't as fast but they have better D and goaltending. I forsee a lot of 2-1 games and a rather brutal series. Oh the other thing? The fact that who the fuck knows with this Bruins team....they'll either crash out in 4 or win it in 7.

Yeah in the playoffs losing vet D-men is a huge problem, they might not be sexy names but Ference & Seidenberg are important depth on the Bruins to support Chara. Also I wouldn't be surprised if Chara's gameplay declines too he is playing 30-40 minutes a night and has been targetted for rough treatment (Colton Orr hit him A LOT against Leafs, hard hits too sent him flying a few times). With Chara's efficiencypotentially declining and the supporting cast thinned out and they are in trouble cuz when the Chara anchored D sputters, Rask is going to be exposed (Montreal is very good at throwing their D off and Rask has bad save% against Habs cuz of it, only team he does).

The Bruins were struggling before playoffs they only won 3 of last 10, against Leafs they essentially lost 3 in a row (counting game 7 cuz they needed a historic miracle comeback in last minute of what was otherwise a defeat against a decent opponent). This is not a team getting it together it's one falling apart. I know it when I see it haha I've watched enough Montreal Canadiens.  To be fair as you say the Bruins do have a few things going for them:

-NYR lack of speed compared to say Toronto or Montreal. The speed really kills the B's defence so at least this wounded D won't have to deal with that nemesis.
-The forwards are playing very well especially Krecje, because Bergeron can't do everything himself. This will keep the  Bruins in the game although beating Hank will not be easy.

Overall as you say most likely close, low scoring games but getting over the top will not be easy given these serious obstacles facing the Bruins at this point and my gut prediction is that they go down hard here.

Shit, I was actually pulling for the Leafs, because fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Boston.  :oh_i_see:

Going to Kings-Sharks game 4. Hopefully it isn't an elimination game.  :why_so_serious:

TSN posted some interesting stats about the teams today. San Jose's team average was 10 lbs bigger per player than Vancouver. LA's average? About 10 lbs and 1" in height bigger than San Jose.

Don't like some of the scheduling.. you should never have two days off in the playoffs during a series.

Hoping the Sens can upset the Pens (I can't stand the Penguins... they're almost as bad as the Canucks and Leafs in my hate-meter).

Also, not NHL, but.. some Canucks show up at the Worlds.. and Edler already doing the dirty with a knee on knee with E. Staal.

It took every ounce of will I had to hope for a Boston win.  Pyrrhic victory I guess.

Looks like we're going back to the days of lumbering, skill less hulks like Mike Rathje, Kyle MacLaren, Brian Marchment and Derian Hatcher.  Lovely. :oh_i_see:

Well it was one game but the B's looked the better team tonight and deserved then win.  Christ 4 posts hit in the last 15 min of the game alone.

The rangers need to control the god damned puck.  Lundqvist has to make 35-40 saves a night because the Rangers can't keep the puck in the offensive zone.  If I were him I'd be absolutely livid with the rest of the team.  Same old story every fucking year.  He's a magician to keep them in games and they can't put the puck in the net. BAH (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I've said it many times; but just imagine King Henrik on a good team instead of the Rangers. Imagine him on Chicago. Or Pittsburgh.

How Boston won with three rookie defensemen is.. beyond me. Shows just how much the Rangers need to learn about taking advantage of a team and getting a killer instinct.

Krooog!

Rangers in 6?

You know I thought Bruins crowd could be awful quite but halfway through the 3rd period of a tied playoff game you could hear a pin drop in MSG. WTF? Rangers deserve to lose if your fans suck that much.

Man that's the last time I have any faith in the Rangers to show up in playoffs. They are like the SJ Sharks of the East. Full of tin men.

AV out. Couldn't happen to a smugger fuck.

Fortunately for our viewing pleasure, smug French-Canadian replaced by arrogant, violent, angry French-Canadian. Long live Pattie Roy!

Pens made this a laugher late. I mean damn Ottawa, how can you completely go to sleep on the PP?

Good lord, there may not be a fan left in the building if this keeps up.

It's ok, we got the Penguins right where we want them.

Ok, the reality is the Pens power play is absolutely killing them.  This is a team that takes penalties and relies on their ability to shut down defensively, and if its not working, they're toast.  Of course when Sergei Gonchar is a total fucking disaster, that's not helping much either.

Oh why couldn't Fleury play just well enough to keep starting in goal?

In another chapter of "Great UFA Signings by Glen Sather":

Brad Richards is in year two of a  $58.5 million contract; he will be a healthy scratch tonight.  A bold move from the Rangers' soon to be former coach.

Heading to Chicago for game 7 Wednesday night. I'm hopjng they can pull this out.

Based on Speedy's predictions so far I would be confident in a Hawks win  :grin:

I enjoy looking for underdog picks, usually it just bites me in the ass :)

Was overconfident in the Sens cuz I saw them beat my Habs but didn't take into account the Pens magnitude of firepower compared to the wounded Habs (who had essentially lost a top line in 2 days with Eller out and Gionta+Pacioretty getting serious injuries).

Overestimated the Rangers too. Last time I make that mistake, there's something rotten about that team, like the Sharks they just have no playoff mojo.

Going to game 7 it's now a toss up, the Wings did have them on the ropes but couldn't close the deal.

And the Hawks just pulled off a comeback from being down 3-1, to win 4-3 against Detroit. Congrats Blackhawks!

edit: 3-1 and 4-3 are win totals, not game scores :)

detroit looked so gassed. I guess their long stretch run to get into playoffs + ducks series + first 4 games killed their legs.

Blackhawks win it all. Calling it now.  :grin:

Last 4 teams left are the last 4 Stanley cup winners. Its a hunger games quarter quell, or whatever that thing was called.

I really wish the Red Wings had pulled it out in OT last night, and not just because I fucking hate the Blackhawks (and every other team still alive). The NHL needed to be embarrassed by its utterly substandard officiating on a huge stage, and instead got lucky.

Speaking of utterly substandard officiating... is there a reason the Bruins always seem to benefit from it?

Eh, they really don't, not from what I have seen. They only seem to get a bit more than average in favourable calls/non-calls. Penguins and Sharks have been the teams with the most favourable disposition, imo, with the Rangers and Wings a fair bit back of them, but still overly in their favour.

Its something a group of the stat-guys on various blogs are looking at tracking. I know a group of them have done a trial run of it in these playoffs; wish I knew what their results were and hope its something that gets a lot more work done on it because its the number one issue facing the game (aside from the concussion issue, of course). Reffing is horrific in the NHL and far too subjective on the teams playing, the time of year, conditions of the game, reputations of those involved and so on.

Technically, if the refs called games by the book you'd see close to 30-40 penalties a game -- which is why reffing is so shitty. So much shit is gotten away with for so long that its just steam-rolled.

Look at Vancouver, as an example. I know a few years ago a group of the stat guys looked at their games and found that, on average, the Canucks got away with almost four interference penalties for every five minutes played (and in terms of impacting the rules, the Canucks were the reason offensive zone interference became a penalty --and its a big reason their powerplay suffered as they couldn't run picks nearly as often).

Of course, a sub-set of the problem is that most fans don't even understand what is, or is not a penalty based on a few poll samplings Dellow and others did. Even something that should be a simple yes/no like high sticking saw a large number of fans get it wrong (primarily because a surprising amount of fans did not understand a high stick actually has to make contact to be a penalty and that the follow through from a shot is not a penalty).

Hell, just look at off-sides; most fans don't understand that if the defending team brings the puck back into the zone it negates any off-side (and its something the linesmen screw up from time to time, as well).

Blaming the Pens game yesterday on refs seems silly. Pitt was giving away the puck and playing like shit.

Why not? Sydney Crosby certainly wants too.  I've never watched enough of Crosby but dear god what a little shit.  My favorite moment may have been when he was jawing with Chara...seriously?  The whole country knows you ain't going to fight so shut your mouth and actually play.

It wasn't a great call on Matt Cooke but fuck it, that's revenge for Marc Savard.

And it's fricken laughable if you want to blame the game on the refs. 

Pens deserved to lose that game, shit calls or not. 

Marchand makes it really fucking hard to cheer for Boston in this series.  He's such a shitheel.  Gets away with the same hit they tossed Cooke for and with blatant interference on Letang while fucking waving Bergeron into a breakaway.

First two periods were some great hockey though.

Chara is a dirty s.o.b. and you can call him that without having to fight him.

W...T...F?

First, the uneven calls - Cooke gets 5 minutes, yet same Boston hit results in a minor. Just about the most infuriating thing about NHL officiating -- not calling it consistent.

But I think the officials are influencing the play and it does affect the Penguins more -- the permitting of holding, clutching and grabbing that the Bruins did on wide scale. Previous Penguin opponents got whistled more for these acts of interference, but the officials have decided to just let 'em play. Which often erupts in fights and retaliation that often goes against the purer skating team.

Bruins look like they're going to accentuate their size and goaltending.

Chara constantly dishing dirty shots or boards, in corners and in scrums. If you don't see it you either got Bruins homer goggles on or don't know enough hockey well enough to see it.

Anyone who says Chara isn't dirty after he almost killed Pacioretty is either blind or willfully ignorant. The entire Bruins roster takes as many cheap shots as they can every single shift.

Oh god , I knew that was coming up. You guys are idiots.

If your team gets 30 shots and comes up with nothing in the net, blaming the refs is the last ditch effort of delusional fan.

I have no horse in this race. Crosby needs to STFU and play, the Pens had home ice and got pantsed by their own turnovers, and I don't think there's a single defenseman in the league that shouldn't be called "dirty" by opposing fans if he's actually doing his job.

Well argued. I especially like how you used facts and logic to counteract the claims.

The irony of your post is quite amusing. Lets move on...Vokoun pulled in the first period, Bylsma needs to pull his d and forwards who can't give two shits about playing defense. U

Is Chara dirty? Of course. Is he as dirty as say... Cooke? Not even close -- and Cooke will almost never get the benefit of the doubt, nor should he given his history of not only being a dirty player, but one who HAS hit to hurt (I despise Cooke, but I give him props for largely changing his game in the last few years, but he's still got that stigma about him and always will). Chara is dirty in a manner that's not only largely accepted, but encouraged by the players, refs, media, fans and league. He walks the line very closely, and not nearly as well as a lot of others who do that; as his penalty minutes show. Refs actually watch him pretty closely, especially after the Pacioretty hit (which, imo, was clean, if nasty -- a horrible confluence of timing, position and a guy as large as Chara stepping up).

Bruins do clutch and grab, but not nearly as much as some seem to make out; the Penguins have actually been more guilty of that then the Bruins so far and its showing; Penguins are slowing down, trying to play the man and not the puck, reaching and getting beat, badly, by a team that is fast, physical and relentless and is only rarely stopping to engage in the dirty while the play is alive. That's the lesson the Penguins have refused to learn about playing a team like the Bruins. You save that shit for between whistles or when the play is slow and along the boards or behind the net. Trying to do it around the blue lines is suicide in the playoffs; but that's what they're trying to do.

Bruins have been the clearly better team so far -- its not even close. Crosby and Malkin need to play hockey and stop being children trying to beak and instigate. They're overwhelmingly better players than anyone on the Bruins and yet they are getting schooled because they aren't playing a skill game. They aren't even trying.

Also, Penguins defensive zone coverage? Horrendous. Krug is playing better than any Penguins defenseman and that's pathetic.

I'd like to hear how the refs got in the way of that asskicking.  :why_so_serious:

PS - 12 Giveaways? It seemed like more. That's how much of a disaster the Pens appeared to be.

 :why_so_serious:

2OT  :heart:

Another really great game.

Hoping for the original six finals match-up.

Nice to see the Pens pushed to elimination. Not a fan of the Bruins.. but would prefer them in the final; they deserve it more, imo. Either the Hawks or Kings would be fine with me (although I'd prefer the Kings solely on the number of ex-Oilers I can cheer for).

I actually fell asleep during the intermission between 1st and 2nd OT. Arrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh.

51 seconds... That's all they had to hold on for was 51 seconds...

/wanders off muttering

Like I was saying to my friends on a chat channel last night... Pittsburgh is the alpha strike team. If you can withstand or nullify that aspect, they are pretty squishy and fall over quite easily. DPS vs Tank, Tank wins as long as it keeps facing the DPS.

It is rather amazing how the Pens have completely shit the bed in this series. Defense and goaltending always are good enough when you are scoring 4+ goals a game. Take that away and the model falls apart pretty dramaticallly.

In 30+? years of watching sports  this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h15m87WsCHQ) was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. According to reports he broke his leg on the play. The crowd's standing o and then later chanting his name was the perfect touch.

I'm a big believer in the necessity of adversity and it's fairly clear the lack of it that the Pens faced up until now bit them. They have not faced very good defense in the playoffs and have crutched on scoring 4+ goals per game and came in to this one playing loose hockey.

Too bad they lost last night cuz I think they were starting to get it and it would have been a new series but now with the 3-0 deficit a comeback will be extremely difficult even against known chokers like Boston.

Well, Ottawa is not lacking on the defense or the goalie. Boston is just proving they have a playoff gear they can tap into when needed.

Ottawa was exposed as a weak team since that "playoff gear" is rather essential so any team that lacks it is clearly not all that great and the Pens overwhelmed them with offensive depth (something Montreal had, but lost with injuries).

They can't shoot. Plain and simple. They have 110 shots in 3 games, and 2 goals. They are mentally shot, completely out of their normal flow, and Boston is going to sweep this thing in 4 unless a team that knows how to shoot the puck shows up.

Pens looked good last night, hit the post 3 or 4 times? Rask was on fire. A 2-1 deficit with the knowledge that you can play with the B's vs 3-0 are two completely different things.

 This  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9M_FYFyo0k)is awesome.  :why_so_serious:

Can't believe he was brought back this year, but Bylsma really has to go now, right?  Team was utterly clueless both in this series and the Islanders series.  Either Bylsma thinks that was an appropriate strategy, in which case he's a moron, or the players were ignoring him, which means he's lost the team.  Either way, gotta go. 

Man... Pens swept. Out-scored 12-2. Shut out twice. Crosby and Malkin pointless in all four games (first time in their careers they've gone four games in a row without a point).

Honestly, you have to hang the series on the top players on the Penguins. Crosby, Malkin, Iginla, Neal, Letang. They were not only far from effective, but often liable for goals against.

Bruins were the lesser skilled team that played harder, skated more and worked together and it showed. I think they win the cup. Chicago has a good team.. but I don't think they're as good as the Bruins are right now.

I still think Chicago wins it all.

Pens honestly couldn't look worse, and I don't think it was all Boston's doing. They simply choked.

Oh Jerrrrrommmme   :why_so_serious:

And the coaching carousal in Edmonton continues.

At the rate they're going there won't be a coaching candidate in the world that hasn't coached the Oilers.

Chicago wins in the 2nd OT on Kane's hat trick goal.  So now it's going to be an original 6 finals.  Hoping Chicago's going to take it all again.

Boston is going to win and become the miracle team and it will be insufferable and everyone will be sad.

I don't see how they are a miracle team... They were basically 3rd in east (4th but one point out of 2nd).

Well there was game 7 of the Toronto series but yes, this is a team that won the cup 2 years ago (and is basically the same roster, only 5 different players (it'd be 4 if Campbell wasn't out) and was a point from being a #2 seed.

I have no idea how the series is going to turn out. Go B's.

I think Boston is going to steamroll Chicago. LA might have been a better matchup.

But I sure hope I am incorrect in this.

Still saying Chicago. Not wavering.

I think I'm going to skip the Cup finals this year.  I can't stand either team.  I was hoping the Pens would be there only because I want Jerome Iginla to get a Cup win before he retires.  I'm pretty neutral about LA so they would have been my choice over the Hawks.  I know Iginla doesn't need a Cup to get into the Hall of Fame since he has won Gold at the Olympics (twice), World Hockey Championships, World Cup and World Junior Championships but it would be nice for him to win one.

Chicago, because fuck a Boston.  :oh_i_see:

YUP

Yeah well, Boston shut down the Pens high flying offense pretty well. I don't see Chicago being that much different other than slightly better on D and a slightly more suspect goalie. That said, I am in Chicago's corner because my buddy lives there.

The Hawks just scored twice as many goals in that game against Boston than the Pens could their entire series.  Go Hawks!  :grin:

FUCK

Disco is back and so is Geno (for 8 years??) Glad the Pens will have him back with Crosby, but holy shit are they a cap liability.

wtf is it with Hockey GMs and giving these ridicolously long contracts. Has any of them worked out yet? Also considering the cap is getting smaller not bigger??

I'm glad the Habs seem to have a policy of never signing anyone over 5 years. These things always seem to backfire.

And we are even.

Blackhawks were all over Bruins in the first period. Thought there could've been goalie interference but whatever. Bruins were better team in 3rd period and dominated in OT. Thought they deserved the win.


In other news Ray Sherro won gm of the year....hahah

I thought 1st goal was bigtime interference also, he knocked over Rask twice before it went in.

That may be the most unbalanced OT period I've ever seen. At no point did I think Chicago had a chance. It was an onslaught and they looked like a drowning team desperately trying to tread water.

Leafs vs. Bruins – 18 goals, three wins. Everyone else vs. Bruins, so far – 17 goals, two wins


THAT'S FINE I DON'T CARE DOESN'T BOTHER ME

Chicago's PP is an unmitigated disaster.

Looooooong way from that happening yet.

You know it in your heart to be true.

Hawks are barely hanging on in this series, and somehow have tied it up 2-2.  I'll take it.

Also, I know overtime screws up national post-game coverage, but the best NBC can do is Andrew McCarthy (!) talking about his book?  That's...unexplainable.

Was watching the Mariners not score any runs and kept switching over to this since everyone on Twitter was raving about it. Saw Boston score to tie it twice in the third period. I wish I could use my powers for good  :ye_gods:



I did see the OT winner though...

What a sloppy game, not great hockey.

Doesn't matter, keeps things interesting for the last 3 games. The worst case scenario was a 3-1 Boston lead, because then it's effectively over.

Sounding like Torts is in for Vancouver. Ugh. Not my favorite, but it will be fun when he explodes and kills Tony Gallagher with a skate blade.

Hawks just played their best game of the series.  Hoping they can close this out in Boston on Monday.

I'm sticking with my Chicago pick.  :why_so_serious:

Bergeron probably done. Not helpful.

he was Boston's mvp, completely dominating ice. Hurts more than losing Toews.

I don't think it would be easy to behead someone with a skateblade, which would pretty much be necessary as most of us believe that Gallagher has been dead for more than a decade.

I'll take Torts over Ruff anyways. He may be insane, but his teams do have a habit of winning. I think he was the right choice for trying to win with this team now.

DOESN'T FEEL SO GOOD, DOES IT BOSTON?  :why_so_serious:

That was a crazy last 90 seconds.  You could just see it after the equalizer that they had a good shot at it.

Suck it Boston!  Suck it hard! :woot:

(http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2832859/chicagowoooo.gif)

 :oh_i_see:

:)

(http://i.imgur.com/EsPMtCp.jpg)
WHOOO!!!

I would have preferred Boston to win it (mainly because of Jagr, honestly), but I bet on the Hawks in that last game. Bergeron is probably the player I came out of the playoffs respecting the most, even before his game six efforts with a broken rib, torn cartilage and muscles in his ribs and a separated shoulder. He lost, but that shows a lot. Of course, its looking like more than half of each team was playing hurt.

If the last few years have shown us anything, it's that the NHL Playoffs are fucking brutal on a player's body.

I actually don't hate all of the Bruins. I'll give Bergeren plenty of credit and watching Jagr again was kind of fun. But as a team, they can lick scrotum. My dislike for that team was enough to make me cheer for the damn Blackhawks. Except for Duncan Keith, fuck that asshole.

Yeah I felt no joy in Chicago winning, but  some grim satisfaction that Boston lost. Here's hoping Torterella can propel this team to a Cup before they all die or quit listening to his bullshit.

 :why_so_serious:

Good job Chicaaahhhhhgo. Good job!

Although he played a minor part, I feel happy for Ray Emery. He was run out of town in Ottawa and then had serious back problems, he was told he'd never play hockey again. Now there is Ray-Ray hoisting the cup.

I'm glad for Emery.  When he was starting Ottawa, his rockstar swagger rubbed some people the wrong way but I liked it.  He did eventually let it get to his head though. By the time they bought him out, there were problems in that room that involved him, but hardly just him.

But he did give me this, and I'll always be grateful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49sqgSv5SE0


EDIT:  Flyers buyout Bryzgalov for $23 million (that means $40mil for two seasons work) and give away the eventual Vezina winner.  What a disaster.  :awesome_for_real:

Turns out he had a punctured lung as well  :uhrr:

My son wore his 'keep calm and Bergeron' shirt to school yesterday...

Lung was probably post-game, I believe.

But, still. The guy gets a nod of respect. I've had broken ribs and I'm shaking my head at him playing as well as he did with one. I mean, I can see playing with a broken rib, but playing and being effective -- even with freezing? Guy earned his paycheck.

I agree, but for different reasons. This past season cannot be blamed on Bryzgalov, IMO - the team in front of him played like utter garbage more than half the time. Same for the Devils series last year if you want to go back further. I'm not so sure blowing that kind of money was the right move. I think they're going to take the entirely wrong lessons from this, and now we have to hope Mason works out.

In addition, Bob had his shot in PHL - I loved the guy, but he wasn't going to get a Vezina with the Flyers. Perhaps I didn't see him play enough, but I didn't see him doing anything quite Vezina worthy, though he gets loads of credit for helping the Blue Jackets get to the playoffs.

On the bright side, I'm done here in October and will be in the US until at least June 2014, so I can actually watch games consistently this year.

Also:


 :grin:

Ugh. From the sounds of things.. Gillis is going to fleece MacT. Really hope this very reported Schneider deal doesn't happen.

So, draft day today.  Three things I'm interested in seeing: 1) Who Colorado picks first.  I'm thinking MacKinnon but wouldn't be shocked if it was Jones, 2) What is Calgary going to do with their 3 first round picks?  Keep them or make some sort of bundle trade with them to move up?, 3) Other trades for picks.  Who REALLY wants to move up and what are they willing to give up.  Should be interesting.

I'm always mainly interested in seeing which players slide the most and which teams go off the board. The sliders in particular tend to be the most fascinating, especially if they were ranked top 10 and slide like a number of them have the pest few years.

MacKinnon goes #1.  Lets see if Jones goes 2nd or if Florida goes another direction, maybe Drouin or Barkov.

Edit: Barkov #2. :awesome_for_real:

Jones sliding is no surprise given the teams in the top three all needed forwards (and the top two were desperate for centers). Sad for Nashville since they're also desperate for centers. They might trade the pick or take Jones.. but they can't be completely pleased; they were extremely looking forward to getting Barkov.

Whelp. As an Oiler fan.. not overly pleased.

WTF!!!  Cory Schneider for the Devils #9 pick???  Fuck me. :facepalm:

Lou robs Gillis blind and leaves him with his pants down in an alley bent over the trash pile.

Thank god the Oilers didn't bite on that deal.

Now hopefully Vancouver fucks up their pick!

So.. Schneider for Bo Horvat.

Hahahahaha.

Oh, god. Thank you Gillis.

Honestly I don't know why any team talks to Lou either.  He routinely rapes other teams every time he makes any trades.  Probably the very best GM in the NHL

On paper, it looks pretty bad, but there were only two alternatives:

 - Buy-out Luongo for like $27 million, and get nothing
 - Trade Luongo for a bag of pucks, and probably have to still eat half his contract.

Gillis painted himself in to a corner, he had 25% of the team salary tied up in two players that can't even be on the ice at the same time. At least here we ended up with an asset out of the deal.

The Canucks did okay with the draft itself (although Horvat was picked a bit early for what he is). Gillis screwed himself real good with how it all came together, however. He doesn't actually seem to understand how trades work, at times. Just think, had he not gotten his nose stuck in the air so high, the Canucks could have had Kadri and the first Toronto pick in this draft for Luongo. But Gillis wanted another player in addition to that.

Nevermind keeping the goalie who wanted out, and had been treated pretty poorly by the management/coach the last two years, and trading the goalie you promised your starting job to.

Its a pity Luongo will act like a professional and do his job. I'd love for him to fuck Gillis by demanding he follow through on his promise to trade him.

I'm not upset with who the Canucks used the 9th pick.  Horvat is a good player who many have compared to Patrice Bergeron.  If he ends up being close to that, I'll be happy.  I also understand why they traded Schneider and not Luongo.  The owners weren't willing to eat the buyout, esp. for a player that was still, mostly, playing well for the team.  What bothers me was how little Vancouver got and that there were better offers from other teams right up until draft day.  Part of it was they didn't want to trade Schneider to a divisional opponent, I guess.  IMO Gillis should lose his job over this whole situation.  Its his fault the team got saddled with that albatross of a contract that he gave Luongo and then he completely mishandles the how the trade unfolded.

Marty Broduer drafting his son was pretty cool.

Seguin traded to Dallas.  :uhrr:

Dallas will be interesting this year. Their possible first line (Benn--Seguin--Nichushkin) is a very high risk line. Seguin hasn't proven himself a capable NHL center, much less a first line center, and Nichushkin is the embodiment of high risk-high reward player-type.

The acquisition of Perverly and Horcoff makes them pretty deep down the middle, and as an Oiler fan I was slightly amazed to see the Oilers manage to move Horcoff's contract without eating any cap hit.

Toronto LOL

Nice signing with Clarkson, 7 years, 36$ million. These guys never learn

Feel bad for Ottawa fans, letting Alfredsson walk, real dumb move.

Nonis looks like a big idiot.

Buys out his best center (going by advanced stats), pays Bozak about what he's worth, ignoring the fact he's not a #1 center (meaning Toronto doesn't have a #1 center) and gives Clarkson too much money and WAY too much term.

My team has done... okay. Not thrilled with the dollars and term on Ference, but oh well.

Alfie leaving Ottawa is.. a shock. Someone needs a slap there.

Well, it looks like now maybe the reason Ottawa didn't re-sign Alfredson was because they were making a move to acquire Bobby Ryan from Anaheim.  Maybe use the money they would have paid Alfie to re-sign Ryan?  Having Ryan probably blunts a lot of the distress Sens fans had about losing Alfie.

Edit: Looks like Jakob Silfverberg, a prospect and a 1st rounder next year going back to the Ducks.

Ryan will help Ottawa.. but that's a dear, dear price. If you look at the history of the players involved and the potential with Silfverberg.. I don't think Ottawa comes out as a better team. Ryan will have to step up his game.

So most of my day was spent bummed out that the heart and soul of the team walked to the accursed Red Wings.  Pissed as Hell at Melnyk, damn cheapskate wouldn't spend some bucks to upgrade the team.

And then the Bobby Ryan deal happened.  :grin:
Every time I get pissed at something Bryan Murray does, he pulls something off like this.  Really pumped about seeing him with Spezza.

Ducks didn't do bad on that deal, however. Silfverberg's got some real potential.

You're still a tightwad Melnyk


I predict Nonis' successor buys out Clarkson after year 4.

Ryan is a proven commodity.  Silfverberg, while talented and showed signs he could do well in the NHL, isn't.  The Ducks probably figured they couldn't re-sign Ryan after re-signing both Perry and Getzlaf.  Ottawa has lots of cap room to sign Ryan long term if they want.  It was a good move for Ottawa.

Ryan is a good add for Ottawa, I agree. He replaces Alfie's production. He doesn't, however, do that and replace what Silfverberg produces, which is likely to be in the 30-50 point range next season. The deal was basically forced into existence to replace Alfie and I think they paid a bit too much for a guy with Ryan's history (55-70 point guy), but they were a bit desperate.

They were trying to get Ryan before Alfie walked away.  Either way, Ryan was coming to Ottawa.  Whether or not Alfie knew that is unknown yet.

Senators need goals and they added a proven goal scorer who can get into the dirty areas. He is exactly what they needed and a commodity that can be very hard to get.  The price was high but I'm fine with it

Apparently Alfie did know the deal was forthcoming.

I'm still not sold on the trade. Time will tell, but when Alfie decided to leave it was a moot point; they needed someone to give them a boost and instead of Ryan being what may have put them over the top.. it put them slightly ahead of where they were, disregarding losing Silfverberg (who we'll just have to wait and see how well he does in the next few years).

But I'll admit to not being a huge Bobby Ryan fan. He's a good player, but I don't believe he's a "great" player. Could easily prove me wrong, though.

Happy for Ference, he is a greAt guy, but that much money and years?  :uhrr:

On a unrelated note what is it with the Toronto Sun (star?) and their Boston inferiority complex?  After the Blackhawks win the cup it's a full page photo of a Chicago player holding the cup with the headline 'Thanks Chicago', now it's a photo of Phil Kessel smiling and a 'thanks Boston' headline. They do realize everyone in Boston ins laughing at them right?

I'll be interested to see how Seguin goes in Dallas, I have a feeling that he'll either score 30 goals and be a a -10 or will continue to be a 60-70 point a season player. Outside of all the stories of partying etc I think there was a realization in the organization (not in the fan base who keep crying 'he's only 21!!!!!!') that he was never going to be 'that guy'. We keep talking about his potential but at some point you have to face the fact that maybe it just isn't there. The bruins made that call and decided to sell high on the guy. Oh well.

Going to be really fucking awkward if Iginla signs here, though I think he might not simply for that reason.

Well never mind that then. Still, since its Iginla I want to see him actually In a Bruins uniform before I believe it

Wow....I mean, Clarkson is a decent power forward, but $5m+/yr?  :uhrr:

The Sun is catering to a specific demographic. Drunk, Dumb and Loud.  :why_so_serious:

Laughing... to hide their tears.

Toronto must be #1 in buy-outs over past 5 years. Are they still paying Darcy Tucker?

Leafs have money to burn, it's fine.

 :why_so_serious:

Joe Corvo back in Ottawa lol. Shows us you can return across a burnt bridge.

The Sharks have done absolutely nothing except get one year older. Wake me up at the half way point of next season.

Wow. 30 years old! I wonder if he is going to fuck off to Russia or something.

He's overrated.

I wouldn't say over-rated so much as he was drastically over-paid. The guy was one of the best in the league offensively. His defensive play is where it suffered -- and he'd been getting better there. But between his bad back and getting homesick there was no way his play and value wasn't going to suffer and make him even more over-paid.

Lou, however, is amazing. Because of how early Kovalchuk is into his massive contract the cap implications are going to be fairly minor, and thus he escapes one of the great albatross contracts in the league.

Whatever, he's out of the Atlantic, so I don't have to watch him load up that one-timer like 6 times a season anymore. :why_so_serious:

He was supposed to be the star here and he never EVER took to the limelight or tried to connect with the city. He was the man, and the one chance we had in the playoffs, he completely disappeared. He was overpaid and overrated, and short of the Thrasher who actually killed a guy with his car, I'd say he was one of the people who stole money from this town.

I can't speak to anything but his on-ice performance. And just on that.. he was a decent bet to earn his salary (though the Devils were very much the wrong team for a player like him). The guy led forwards in ice time, across the league. Upon his retirement only two active players (Ovechkin and Stamkos) had a higher goals per game number.

I mean, yeah.. he was over-paid. But that's on the Devil's ownership group, not Kovalchuk. And if you're betting your team on a single player.. your team is built badly. There's a lot not to like about Kovalchuk, don't get me wrong.. but on a pure offensive basis.. he did his job more often than not and after joining the Devil's he was slowly learning the two-way game (and was actually a pretty good pker). Not that his two way game will matter in the KHL; they don't really play defense there.

I'm just saying that while he was overpaid he was what he was and never said or did otherwise. It was on the media and GMs, and even fans, who said otherwise and pumped his tires for some reason. He was one of the real offensive talents of the current NHL generation, and his stats largely back that up.

As for Heatley.. yeah, fuck that asshole.

I'm sure NJ is thrilled to have lost draft picks for signing this guy.  The Lord giveth to Lou Lamoriello (Schneider) and then Lord taketh away.  Sometimes, the Lord can be a real asshole. :awesome_for_real:

Look at the NHL stats for the last ten years. Highest average goals per game - Kovalchuk. Sure he doesn't know how to pass or backcheck, but most any team is going to miss a guy who's scored 40+ 7 out of the last 10 years.

From what I hear though, Jersey was mostly happy to let him go, just because of the team's financial woes.

I'm biased because we lost our team. I fully admit that.

But I will go to the grave believing he didn't do enough. He didn't develop enough. He didn't take his awesome talent and make it into a complete player that could have been the biggest thing in this city desperate for playoff wins.

It wouldn't have helped if he had a decent supporting players around him.  Hockey, unlike say baseball or basketball, is difficult to do well as an individual if your teammates are shit.  Kobe Bryant is still going to get his 25+ points a game and Greg Maddux was going to win 15-20 games and have an ERA under 3.00 regardless of how good their teammates were.

Just look at the Oilers for proof of that. We have some of the best young talent in hockey today and remain a shitty team because the bottom six and defense are weak. Even if Kovalchuk had turned into Gretzky.. the Thrashers were always going to suck with the GMs they had.

Still true now that they're the Jets, actually. The team badly needs to upgrade its GM and coach.

I don't doubt the Thrashers would still suck. They wouldn't have been such a dumpster fire they would have left town if you got in the playoffs and won a single game. There would have been hope at the minimum.

So...new schedule is out along with realignment. Here's the new divisions:

Western Conference
   
 Pacific Divison: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Arizona, San Jose, Vancouver
   
 Central Division: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg

Eastern Conference

Metropolitan Division: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

Atlantic Division: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto

The Metropolitan Division....??? :facepalm:  Seriously, whats wrong with calling the Metro division the Atlantic and the Atlantic division the Northeast?

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2013/07/19/sp-nhl-schedule-chicago-blackhawks-stanley-cup-banner.html

The Atlantic is ridiculous. Every Eastern Canadian team, Florida, a Michigan team, and two NE teams?

The travel is absurd. Why the hell aren't Washington, both Floridas, Carolina and Columbus all in the same division?

WTF, the Atlantic is no longer...the Atlantic?  :cry: :cry2:

The names of the divisions are basically retarded -- especially the Metro division. Sadly, the NHL had the perfect, imo, names to go with (you know, the OLD names, Smythe, Adams, Norris, Patrick). Even modernizing them with more modern names would have been better then bland regional names that actually don't describe the location of all the teams.

Also, no Eastern conference team ever gets to bitch about travel, Paelos. Ever.

Yeah, no idea why they didn't go with the old division names. Just another example of how far out of touch the NHL is from their fan base. Also fuck Gary Bettman.

Yeah this. Ridiculous travel is when the Giants and Braves were in the same division.  :-P

No reason to continue repeating old mistakes on the geography. Instead of creating some regional pride you have teams playing each other from all over the place. It makes no sense.

Gary Bettman may be the worst Commish of any league in the last 30 years. I've never seen someone take a sport I literally couldn't get enough of, and reduce it to something that not only removed a franchise from my current home town, but also got it relegated to a fourth tier channel and won't even show the all fucking finals on network TV.

The reason, I believe, that the 2 Florida teams are in the Atlantic is because of the Canadian tourists that visit Florida during the winter.  I'm not kidding, either.  A Leafs game in Tampa will probably sell out.  Same with a Leaf/Panther game wherever the hell the Panthers play (Miami?).

And yes, the realignment is a bit of a clusterfuck.  Fuck Bettman.

Unfortunately there's not a terribly good place to put them - they, along with Carolina, are just way out from the rest of the teams. How about?

Atlantic: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington,  New Jersey, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina,  Columbus

Metro:  NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit,  Montreal, Ottawa,  Toronto

Would that have made people happier?

Yes, that would have made a ton more sense.

The fans would have gone apeshit if they broke up the old Patrick division (or Adams).

Only way was to break up South East div

I'm willing to bet the overwhelming majority of fans do not give the slightest shit about divisions in any regard outside of playoff seeding.

I think you'd win that.

I'm willing to bet the number who would be annoyed by messing with tradition outnumber the ones who are annoyed about shuffling around a bunch of expansion teams.

Does that make sense anymore with the financial troubles of the league? How do you straddle the line of staying with tradition and creating a successful product?

You're not going to solve a failing team by putting them in a division with other teams that you hope draw more tickets when they happen to be in town. That's at best a stopgap measure, and divisional realignment is enough of a pain in the ass that you don't want to use it for that sort of thing. Especially when they just had a shortened season and they don't know how good the bounce-back from that is going to look yet.

Is anyone in *really* bad shape besides the Devils?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/09/18/nhl-lockout-is-all-about-the-benjamins-and-who-doesnt-have-them/
http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/list/

Forbes seems to think that 13 teams are all operating at a loss.

Ah, Phoenix, maybe for one. :oh_i_see:  All the Canadian teams and the more traditional US hockey market teams are doing fine.  Its the teams in the "non-traditional" markets that are losing the most money.  Phoenix, both Florida teams, Columbus, the Islanders and a few others aren't doing so well.  Oh, and the Devils.  That's about 1/3 of the league.  Most Americans don't give a shit about hockey and never will.  They like football, NASCAR and college sports.  The NHL ranks only slightly higher than the WNBA in relevance to most Americans, esp. in the south.

I agree that it's overexpanded into American markets that don't give a shit. It will never do really well in the Southeastern US where people have a college football team that's worth a damn. The reason is that it runs concurrent to football for the most part, and then when it gets interesting in the spring, it's never on any decent TV coverage.

However, it has an advantage over football in that it can be played during the week, and it continues well into spring. That's the part they miss the most right now. Well that, and Americans like watching Americans play their sports. One of the reasons the NFL is as big as it is, because like 90%+ of the players are from America, and they are branded well.