2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Nazrark]

Bruins lost a goal scorer and a defence man. They are projected to start sliding since Chara will play less. Defensive depth is only so far. And they don't score a lot to begin with. They will be leaning a lot heavier on Rask. They will still be a top 3 team, but not as strong as the previous years. They will pretty much rely on one of their players finding a hidden scoring touch.

[Deleted]

Any of the Swedes in this thread know anything about Oliver Kylington? Plays for Farjstad projected to go top 5~ in 2015 draft. Apparently is amazing?

He is a great offensive D. Reminds abit about Erik Karlsson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson

[Rennadrel]

Wow, poor Habs fans. Montreal just got absolutely waxed by Tampa Bay. And Buffalo got destroyed by Anaheim. You know no one in Florida gives two fucks about the Panthers when half the stadium has had reduced seating capacity and less then 7000 showed up. The team has only scored 3 goals all season and has only one point from an overtime loss to TB on opening night. Getting shutout by Ottalawl 1-0 shows you just how bad both teams are.

[Nazrark]

Yeah, that was brutal Renn. But the east is just awful. Like most teams are AHL teams.

[Armourboy]

Yeah I don't know how you guys can seriously be talking about Toronto and Mcdavid. They have some of the best offensive power in the East, no chance in hell they finish worse than Buffalo, Carolina, Florida, Calgary, or Nashville (in my opinion). Obviously though anything can happen if they get in the lottery, but looking at the new lottery odds for 2015, there's no way they have better than a 5-7% chance of getting the #1 pick.

Nashville won't be anywhere near the bottom, if anything we should be fighting for a playoffs spot yet again. Heck we were only 3 points out last season without Rinne for most of the season. All the lines so far have played really well, just need to get someone on those top two lines to finish. We still have some roster tuning that will need to be done once injuries come back.

Weber has come out on fire, I have a strange feeling he is after that Norris this year with a passion. Rinne looks like his old self from two years ago, and surprising enough the old Vets have looked really good. Forsberg has made a mistake or two but has made several guys look silly out there. The defense has played insanely well the first two games, especially Ellis and Jones.

Yeah its early, yeah the wheels could fall off, but tbh I thought the wheels wouldn't even be on yet and the guys are playing hard, exciting hockey that is a ton of fun too watch.

[Shaani]

Congratulations to Daniel Briere for his 300th Career Goal.

[Stommped]

Nashville won't be anywhere near the bottom, if anything we should be fighting for a playoffs spot yet again. Heck we were only 3 points out last season without Rinne for most of the season. All the lines so far have played really well, just need to get someone on those top two lines to finish. We still have some roster tuning that will need to be done once injuries come back.

Weber has come out on fire, I have a strange feeling he is after that Norris this year with a passion. Rinne looks like his old self from two years ago, and surprising enough the old Vets have looked really good. Forsberg has made a mistake or two but has made several guys look silly out there. The defense has played insanely well the first two games, especially Ellis and Jones.

Yeah its early, yeah the wheels could fall off, but tbh I thought the wheels wouldn't even be on yet and the guys are playing hard, exciting hockey that is a ton of fun too watch.

I just think that the West is so stacked, and when you are playing all those teams 3-5 times a year, couple teams in that conference are going to have to be the whipping boy. And I tend to prefer Winnipeg and Edmonton's lineups to Nashville's leaving them down there with Calgary and Arizona, but who knows I could be dead wrong.

[Zeoni]

I just think that the West is so stacked, and when you are playing all those teams 3-5 times a year, couple teams in that conference are going to have to be the whipping boy. And I tend to prefer Winnipeg and Edmonton's lineups to Nashville's leaving them down there with Calgary and Arizona, but who knows I could be dead wrong.

Nashville has the one thing that both Winnipeg and Edmonton DO NOT have and that's DEFENSE and GOALTENDING. That alone makes them a better team than both those squads imo. It's not even close how much better they are in those 2 categories. I wasn't sold on Nashville during the off season either but they are a lot better than most people are ready to give them credit for. Now obviously Eric Nystrom isn't going to be scoring at this pace but consider guys like James Neal, Olli Jokinen, Mike Ribeiro, Calle Jarnkrok WILL start to pick up the pace. Those guys aren't as good as Oilers/Jets firepower such as Hall, Eberle, RNH, Little, Ladd, Wheeler but they have the back end to more than make up for it. They're also quite deep when you look at their defense top 6. Weber / Josi, Jones / Ellis, Ekholm / Volchenkov is a very solid blue line. Especially their top 3 defensemen. The bottom pairing is serviceable for 15-16 minutes a night. And ontop of all this they have Pekka Rinne in net. Does no one remember how god damn good this guy was before he was injured last year(in previous seasons)? It was no QUESTION that he was a top 3 goaltender in the league. Him and Weber are more than used to carrying the squad but with more of a well rounded forward core I think Nashville has the best team they've had yet. Especially if they can get Mike Fischer, Viktor Stalberg, and Matt Cullen back for playoff time (providing they make it).

Also the change in coaching helps them so much. Preds are used to that defensive system of play they've been accustomed to but now they have someone who can throw in some offensive game plans. I'll get my first real look at the Laviolette coached Nashville team tonight. I also understand it's only been 2 games for them so far so it's kind of stupid to be judging a team this early but on paper, they look like they'll contend. Maybe not make it, but don't expect to just roll over them like you will do with my Calgary Flames. They're going to eat teams like Colorado and Dallas up this year with their defense. Big D only managed to score 1 on them the first game around. Teams with good scoring and poor defense will not make Nashville their "whipping boy". So far I can tell that the Flames, Sabres, Canes, and Panthers are the 4 true bottom teams. Looks like everyone else will be at least semi competitive with Jets and Oilers taking games off of random teams here and there.

Honestly in the West the only teams that I'm almost positive will be playoff teams are Chicago, St Louis, L.A. and Anaheim. Everyone else to the wolves, although it's hard to doubt San Jose and Minnesota at this point. In my reality those 6 playoff spots are essentially locked down leaving Dallas, Vancouver, Nashville, Colorado to battle for the final 2. The Oilers must be the most frustrating team in hockey to be a fan of, they're still just so bad defensively that it doesn't really matter how good they are up front. And I do think they have a great forward core in terms of offense. A little thin down the middle but what can you do. Hall - RNH - Eberle has potential to be one of the best lines in hockey.

[Toxigen]

I don't see the west ending up any different this year than last.

Anaheim, LA, Chicago, STL, Minnesota, Colorado, and San Jose all relevant this year.

Also:


http://i.imgur.com/3GFkGVP.gifv

[Deleted]

I don't see the west ending up any different this year than last.

Anaheim, LA, Chicago, STL, Minnesota, Colorado, and San Jose all relevant this year.

Also:


http://i.imgur.com/3GFkGVP.gifv

Hahahahaha dat gif!

Hoping for Sharks to get their third shutout tonight!

[Nazrark]

That is awesome Toxigen. I don't see much of any change in the West playoff picture from last year. It's just that the 7th and 8th slot will be contested by Central division teams (Col-Minny-Nash-Dallas). I don't expect to see any Canadian teams in the playoffs in the west this year. From the East I really only expect Montreal to make it. As I kind of expect Toronto's top players to completely unravel at some point this season.

Of all the Canadian teams. I only expect the Flames to end up making the playoffs in the West in a few years or be a surprise 8th slot. Since they are a hard working team, draft players who are hard working and have that culture built into the franchise. They've drafted smart as well and will be on track a lot faster than the Oilers or Nucks. The Jets will try to compete in a super competitive division with sub-par goal tending and get burned year after year because of it.

But hey, I could be wrong about any of the teams. At any point any one of those teams could have a Jesus type player come in and completely carry a franchise and turn it around.

[Ainur]

Man, I see a lot of people saying Colorado will make the playoffs. IMO, their spot has been taken over by Minnesota (yuck to both teams). Minnesota can easily be one of the top 3 teams in the West and I think they're neck & neck with St. Louis. They lack a little defensive depth and they have goaltending issues but they've looked unreal. Colorado will be a fringe team with Dallas, Winnipeg, Nashville in the Central and I think the 3 Pacific spots are locked. Arizona could challenge for a wild card probably better than Winnipeg but you never know with those guys. Chicago, Anaheim, LA, St. Louis, Minnesota, SJ, Dallas and the rest is a free for all. Those are my Western rankings fwiw. Might not be how the standings shake out but that is how I rate the West going in to this season. As far as the East... I wouldn't be shocked if the Wings won that damn conference. I don't think there is one team with the exception of Tampa who could challenge a Western Conference team. Thoughts?

EDIT: I'm going to slide LA ahead of Anaheim because I'm not sold on their goalie situation.

[Deleted]

Sharks in the lead 3-0 after first period against caps

[VanillaO]

Apparently that POS Gillies has ended up with the Flames' AHL team, Zeoni. And is still a useless goon who does dumb shit. Fix it with your Burke connection please.

[Zeoni]

He doesn't have a Flames contract my hands are tied bud. They took away our AHL teams super sick mascot too, the sky is falling.

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townn...size=620%2C420

[Strakha]

I have faith that the oilers can destroy themselves and attain McDavid. They're nothing if not consistent.

[Zeoni]

I have faith that the oilers can destroy themselves and attain McDavid. They're nothing if not consistent.

You guys would almost be better off with Noah Hanifin especially after taking Yakupov over Murray in that draft. Obviously you never pass up someone like McDavid but honestly it woulden't -really- solve any of the problems that you guys have. With Mcdavid or even Eichel the defense on the Oilers is still really weak. Imagine the blue line with Hanifin, Nurse, Klefbom, Marincin, Shultz. That's a very strong group of D-men by projection standards. If you could just find a goalie, I'm not sold on Fasth and Scrivens especially on their last 2 performances against us. That game last week was BRUTAL on Scrivens. Dudes a backup goalie for life. You guys have a solid forward group when Draisaitl gets some NHL experience under him too. I'm kind of jealous but the way this rebuild has been handled thusfar cures me of that feeling

[VanillaO]

It would give them the option of trading one of Yakupov/Eberle/RNH for a top 4 D-man (drafting McEichel). Scrivens is a decent goalie, same with Fasth. They will never be anything beyond a backup on a good team, a starter on a shit team, or a 1B/C on a middling team. And as I say this, I curse myself into failure... so he'll probably have another 58 save shutout or something this weekend. Honestly, if the Oilers are smart and end up with the #1 or 2 pick, they trade it for a big package of players/prospects... I'm talking like a top-6/a top-4, a top notch prospect, and a prospect the other team is just 'meh' with. I agree McEichel will do nothing to help the team, and they already have a ton of young talent up front.

[Zeoni]

It would give them the option of trading one of Yakupov/Eberle/RNH for a top 4 D-man (drafting McEichel). Scrivens is a decent goalie, same with Fasth. They will never be anything beyond a backup on a good team, a starter on a shit team, or a 1B/C on a middling team. And as I say this, I curse myself into failure... so he'll probably have another 58 save shutout or something this weekend. Honestly, if the Oilers are smart and end up with the #1 or 2 pick, they trade it for a big package of players/prospects... I'm talking like a top-6/a top-4, a top notch prospect, and a prospect the other team is just 'meh' with. I agree McEichel will do nothing to help the team, and they already have a ton of young talent up front.

I honestly think if they end up with it, they'd be better off trading for a whole stable of players plus the 3rd or 4th overall pick. This draft is being hyped up as the best class since that monster one with Getzlaf and shit in it. I'd be kind of pissed if Mcdavid or Eichel went to Edmonton to be honest with you, not just because I'm a Flames fan but that's such a garbage environment for a player to come into. If you look at their roster they SHOULD be better than fucking picking 3rd overall. But they don't have the culture of a team that will be successful I don't think. All those kids are just so used to losing that it's like clockwork now. None of them were taught how to play defense and their work ethic seems on and off. Tons of evidence of players like Hall just coasting around on the back check. They're all offense minded and no defense. Ryan Murray would have been absolutely perfect for them but they took Yakupov because BPA idiocy. Imo the only good things they've done sofar outside of the no brainers (drafting Hall and RNH) was drafting Eberle in the middle of the 1st round. Everything else has been sloppy and botched, from not drafting defense to not coaching good defense.

Filip Forsberg has been pretty dang impressive in this game. What a steal from the Caps.

https://vine.co/v/Oq5d5KVI173 God damn the hockey gods has chosen Carolina to get McDavid, thats Sekera one of their best D men injured. That's now Jeff Skinner, Jordin Staal, Sekera, and Eric Staal is day-to-day.

http://gfycat.com/WhirlwindHonoredArcticfox Fuck yeah my boy Ramo, loving him so far this year. He's been great.

[Rennadrel]

So that Phil Kessel guy...pretty good eh? Notch another tally for him with the GWG early in overtime after being down 2-1 in the last 5 minutes of the game when Lupul tied it.