2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Rennadrel]

HOLY FUCK! Phaneuf completely dominated Sauer with that hit, then Schenn crushed Anisimov. Del Zotto damn near got killed by Steckle as well chasing for the puck and the icing was waved off. Kinda one of the reasons why they need no touch icing when you see those incidents happen.

Leafs win 4-2, Steckle gets the empty netter. Man though, you gotta hand it to Gustavsson, he really is rebounding this season and made some stellar saves tonight. Good to see the boys win a game against a rolling team like the Rangers, especially after their laughable start.

[Greeney]

HOLY FUCK! Phaneuf completely dominated Sauer with that hit, then Schenn crushed Anisimov. Del Zotto damn near got killed by Steckle as well chasing for the puck and the icing was waved off. Kinda one of the reasons why they need no touch icing when you see those incidents happen.

Leafs win 4-2, Steckle gets the empty netter. Man though, you gotta hand it to Gustavsson, he really is rebounding this season and made some stellar saves tonight. Good to see the boys win a game against a rolling team like the Rangers, especially after their laughable start.

I wouldn't say he nearly got killed by Steckel, he dove forward during a race for an iced puck. That was his own fault.
Thank God Gustavsson is getting better, but maybe he's just like Luongo in the sense that he's shit during October.

Only saw the last ten minutes of the third, but it was a great half-period.
Playing NJ tomorrow. They're on a 4 game losing streak, but playing back to back games hasn't turned out too well for us.



Anyone else notice the Goal Differential for Boston right now is +34? Holy shit.
Also impressed with Florida. Thought they would be 14th or 15th at this point.

[Fuzzzie]

Kinda one of the reasons why they need no touch icing when you see those incidents happen.

I agree. That sort of thing is far too dangerous. It looked like Steckle even came close to a bad injury as Del Zotto's skates came up.

Good win though. Kinda takes away some of the sting of the 4pts lost to Boston. Looking forward to tommorow as two of my favorite teams meet in TO.
GG

[Masqerader]

nhl alignment for next year

Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto -
Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, and Winnipeg -
Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver. -
Carolina, New Jersey, the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington -

[Fuzzzie]

And when Phoenix finds itself in Quebec City?

[Masqerader]

And when Phoenix finds itself in Quebec City?

toronto to central?

[Rennadrel]

toronto to central?

LOL! That will be the day, if it happens then I know Hell has frozen over and Gary Buttman will be the first supreme ruler of Earth.

---------- Post added 2011-12-05 at 10:17 PM ----------

nhl alignment for next year

Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto -
Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, and Winnipeg -
Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver. -
Carolina, New Jersey, the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington -

Pretty much how I figured, Toronto gets the Eastern Pacific Conference, which means that nothing changes positionally in terms of how much competition there will be.

[Fuzzzie]

toronto to central?

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

[Asera]

At this point I'd be surprised if Phoenix moved before Columbus did...

[Masqerader]

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

i actually liked it better when the leafs where in the central compared to now.

[AceofHarts]

i am happy because now those East Coast teams finally get to understand the meaning of the word "Travel".

[Xevan]

So what do about the inherent unfairness of having unequal numbers in each division?

DO the top from each division go on to the playoffs or the top from each conference?

It seems like there will be teams moving around /being added. This placement looks like it's going towards that direction.

[Masqerader]

So what do about the inherent unfairness of having unequal numbers in each division?

DO the top from each division go on to the playoffs or the top from each conference?

It seems like there will be teams moving around /being added. This placement looks like it's going towards that direction.

i think the playoff format is top 2, and then so forth down the list?

[Fuzzzie]

i am happy because now those East Coast teams finally get to understand the meaning of the word "Travel".

Fair enough.. Here's a head scratcher.. Toronto played at MSG tonight. They play the Devils tomorrow in what amounts to a 30min tunnel drive, but instead both teams have to fly to Toronto...

GG

[Epuration]

Fair enough.. Here's a head scratcher.. Toronto played at MSG tonight. They play the Devils tomorrow in what amounts to a 30min tunnel drive, but instead both teams have to fly to Toronto...

GG

that's the hardcore shit

[Rennadrel]

NYC is only what, a 4 hour drive from Toronto. Hell, Buffalo is less then 2.

[conscript]

At this point I'd be surprised if Phoenix moved before Columbus did...

Phoenix has literally four days, FOUR, to get an ownership arrangement done in principal to get it on the docket for this month's city council meeting. If not it would require a special meeting called. They absolutely have to have something done at least in principal before the end of this year and that looks incredibly, incredibly bleak right now. Both ownership groups pursuing the Coyotes want massive concessions from Glendale to pay for losses over the next couple years and that simply isn't going to happen. Glendale already poured $50 million down the Coyotes black hole, no way are they going to make that $100 million especially when expected losses for the Coyotes this year are $36 million. Ya, $36 million in losses. Sure does sound like that place should have a team...

The NHL did this realignment for one reason and one reason only. They expect Phoenix to relocate in the next two seasons. The landing spot is likely either Quebec, Hamilton, or that new arena planned for the Toronto area. The other relocation options are dead in the water. Kc has zero interested groups. The Las Vegas plan has been abandoned since the economy has declined and LV has taken a massive hit. Seattle or Portland don't have arenas. The NHL also is starting to scramble over the Florida Panthers. That team is in as much, if not more, trouble than the Yotes. Ownership brought in tons of new mid-high profile players this year. The team has been great and leads their division.They've managed to sell out four games and attendance is awful overall. Florida would still be in the East though so no big deal there. With the yotes moving all they have to do is make one 7 team an 8 team in the East with the yotes move.

[Greeney]

i think the playoff format is top 2, and then so forth down the list?

Nope, it will be the top 4 in each conference. I'm just curious if Conference A will be set to play against another conference or if it will be the Conference Champion with the most points at the end of the regular season against the Conference Champion with the least amount of points in the regular season.

In the seven-team Conferences, teams would play six times -- three home, three away -- for a total of 36 inter-division games. In the eight-team Conferences, teams would play either five or six times in a season on a rotating basis -- for a total of 38 inter-division games.

...

The top four teams in each Conference will qualify for the playoffs. The first-place team in each conference would play the fourth-place team in the same conference; the second-place team would play the third-place team.

The four respective Conference champions would meet in the third round, with the survivors playing for the Stanley Cup.

...

He also conceded that there was a focus on the fact that there are two conferences with only seven teams as opposed to two with eight teams. However, he added that didn't seem to be an issue within the Board.

"Frankly it's not the seventh and eighth teams that are competing for a playoff spot," Bettman said. "When you look at the map of North America, it's not geographic perfection so we're looking for something that makes the most sense and most fans and most clubs as comfortable as possible."

Source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=604852

I don't like how a sixth place team might be doing better in one conference than a fourth place team in another and the fourth place team would be able to make the playoffs, but other than that I'm interested in it. Definitely like the group Leafs were placed into. Good luck to St. Louis, Winnipeg, and Columbus. If Washington gets better Conference D will suck to be in also with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia already in it.

[VanillaO]

It took me a few hours to finally accept the whole Florida/Tampa + Northeast thing. I still, however, cannot accept the playoff format at all. IMO, move one of those Conference B teams (the 'mid-west') over to Conference C (Northeast/Florida/Tampa) or D (Atlantic), or have one move from B to C and one from C to D, then just give the top 8 teams from those conferences a playoff spot. 15 teams per region (West/Mid-West and Northeast/Atlantic) like it is now.

[conscript]

It took me a few hours to finally accept the whole Florida/Tampa + Northeast thing. I still, however, cannot accept the playoff format at all. IMO, move one of those Conference B teams (the 'mid-west') over to Conference C (Northeast/Florida/Tampa) or D (Atlantic), or have one move from B to C and one from C to D, then just give the top 8 teams from those conferences a playoff spot. 15 teams per region (West/Mid-West and Northeast/Atlantic) like it is now.

I wonder what the average travel distance would have been had it been Detroit and Columbus in that division and then Florida and Tampa in the West. The time zone starts wouldn't have been affected at all. All of the conference teams with Tampa/Florida currently would have their division travel load drop immensely. The change for Florida/Tampa wouldn't have been all that significant as they drop all the Canadian and NE teams and only have equally long trips to Winnipeg and Minnesota.

The one thing I don't like about the playoff format is that we lose the 1v8 upset. That along with the division disparity that is going to pop up with some 3-4th place team in a division having fewer points than a 6 in another and the stagnation of the first two rounds of the playoffs as seemingly the same teams will meet a whole hell of a lot of the time. I'm intrigued to see how it plays out. I'm not a big fan of now either removing the conference trophies or adding two more. I don't really like the possibility of two West or two East teams playing for the Cup, assuming they do end up going with reseeding.

It would add an interesting twist to the last two years of the playoffs (Conference "names" derived from this list: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...n=nhl-wp19063:

Opening round matchups 2010:
Conference A: Vancouver vs Phoenix, San Jose vs Anaheim
Conference B: Detroit vs Dallas, Nashville vs Chicago
Conference C: Boston vs Buffalo, Tampa vs Montreal
Conference D: Washington vs New York, Philly vs Pittsburgh

Biggest changes are the loss of the Kings in their division at 98 points being replaced in the playoffs by Dallas at 95. A full 5 teams would get in the playoffs with lower points than the Kings: Dallas, New york, Chicago, Buffalo and Montreal. Despite being tied for second in points in the East, Philly and Pittsburgh would face each other in the opening round.

2009 is pretty much the same:
Conference A: San Jose vs Los Angeles, Phoenix vs Vancouver
Conference B: Chicago vs St Louis, Detroit vs Nashville
Conference C: Buffalo vs Montreal, Ottawa vs Boston
Conference D: Washington vs Philly, New Jersey vs Pittsburgh

Colorado at 95 points loses their spot to St Louis at 90 points. Colorado had more points than 5 playoff teams: St Louis, Boston 91, Montreal 88, Ottawa 94, and Philly 88.

2008 sees much more shake up:
Conference a: San Jose vs Anaheim, Vancouver vs Calgary
Conference B: Detroit vs St Louis, Chicago vs Columbus
Conference C: Boston vs Buffalo, Florida vs Montreal
Conference D: Washington vs Philly, NJ vs Pittsburgh

New York (95) and Carolina (97), both playoff teams, are gone replaced by Florida (93) and Buffalo (91).

I went into this expecting it to have a lot more problems than it does. Bettman did a pretty good job dividing up the teams so that each division has a pretty fair share of good teams and bottom feeders. Interested to see how this plays out this year. The NHL is now the only one of the major sport leagues where teams have a competitive disadvantage based on the number of teams in their division. The MLB currently has that, but won't soon when Houston moves to the AL with the new ownership agreement making it a 15 per conference league.