NHL 2012 - 2013

[Fordel]

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.

[Shannow]

Time to rebuild.

Call up Boston and offer Kessel for Seguin and Hamilton.

Muahahaha

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

[Paelos]

So Chicago is still pretty good.

Yikes.

[Azaroth]

In other news, Pittsburgh stinks.

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

[El Gallo]

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

[Ceryse]

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

[Azaroth]

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

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

[Paelos]

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

[Strazos]

6 games in 9 days.

[WayAbvPar]

Also no Hartnell, plus Bryzgalov 

[Belasco]

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 

[Azaroth]

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

[WayAbvPar]

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 

They are going down tonight. At least Keith is

[Fordel]

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.

[Ceryse]

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%.

[Fordel]

Quite a few of those were 2 man advantages too.

[Strazos]

Also no Hartnell, plus Bryzgalov 

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

[Azaroth]

You can't always be playing against MAF.

[Fordel]

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


WTB Hockey team, pst.

[Ceryse]

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.

[Fordel]

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

[Paelos]

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

[Shannow]

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. 

[Ceryse]

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.

[murdoc]

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   

[Paelos]

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.

I stopped watching after the first strike so i missed that 

[Ceryse]

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.

[murdoc]

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

[Shannow]

  I want one!  

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.

[Azaroth]

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.

[Azaroth]

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?

[Ceryse]

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.

[Paelos]

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.

[Ginaz]

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.

[Shannow]

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.

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.