2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Zeoni]

I don't have a problem with the officiating at all tbh. The international tournaments are usually horrendous as a comparable, the NHL refs are much better. I don't like the shitty stick penalties and I prefer to see them put the whistles away for the most part. Especially overtime, smalltime hooks and little petty slashes should NEVER be called in overtime. Puck over glass, blatant interference, too many men, actual roughing are the only things that should be called during sudden death imo. The refs can actually decide a game with a shit call in overtime and that's just heartbreaking. At least when someone scores off a bad call powerplay (in regulation) the other team has opportunities in the game to redeem themselves. They almost always get a makeup call on something equaly as bad but no one notices it because they're so mad about the one that went against them. I swear to god people only remember the bad calls going against them and not for them. I'm guilty of that as well.

Sharks take control of that series and London is going to walk all over the Memorial Cup as previously thought.

[Armourboy]

I'm not sure what has happened to Tarasenko, the guy looks like he just has forgotten how to play hockey. At this point I wonder if the guy has a head injury he is concealing cause he has been that worthless.

[Snackpack]

Every year it's the same, the closer we are to the Stanley cup the worst the officiating is. It's pretty sad.

I'm really interested in knowing witch goalie Pittsburgh is going to chose. It's going to be a super rough choice.

Looks like Murray... Fleury was a little rusty but I don't think Murray would have stopped those goals either. Pitts defense is the problem right now.

[Kalador]

Looks like Murray... Fleury was a little rusty but I don't think Murray would have stopped those goals either. Pitts defense is the problem right now.

Yeah fleury was not amazing but i don't think he's to blame in that lost either, I think Murray is the right call tho.

Any news on the stamkos case recently or it's still a big ?

[Stommped]

One more W Kerdoz, c'mon Shark bros plis men

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BTW as far the Canadian team talk earlier, if I had to pick the team who I think has the best chance at winning the cup first it's a no brainer: Edmonton

[Kalador]

BTW as far the Canadian team talk earlier, if I had to pick the team who I think has the best chance at winning the cup first it's a no brainer: Edmonton

God I hope not lol, I like Mcdavid and I wish him a stanley cup but Oliers.... damn that team keep drafting superhigh, has/had so much young talented guys and fail to train them, feels like there just waisting talent. They've been failling to rebuild for so long it's just sad now.

I would love to see a Flames stanley cup with gaudreau, love watch him play, feels like i'm cheating my team when i watch them XD.

[Greeney]

I'm not sure what has happened to Tarasenko, the guy looks like he just has forgotten how to play hockey. At this point I wonder if the guy has a head injury he is concealing cause he has been that worthless.

I haven't watched much of the East, but from what I've heard Vlasic is just shutting him down.

[Zeoni]

BTW as far the Canadian team talk earlier, if I had to pick the team who I think has the best chance at winning the cup first it's a no brainer: Edmonton

Do you think that just because of McDavid? All the Canadian teams have such major flaws its hard to pick one over the others.

Vancouver has an aging core and a serious lack of defense top to bottom.

The Flames have a major hole in net aswell as a scoring depth issue outside of the top line. Young core all around.

Edmonton has the prodigy and oodles of offensive talent but not even close to a playoff contending blue line. Too many chiefs not enough indians.

Winnipeg has serious issues with their defensive game and are just a worse version or St Louis or Anaheim without the elite Tarasenko/Getzlaf factor.

Toronto is rebuilding and wont be a good team for at least 3 years but when their prospects graduate they will be a force.

Ottawa doesnt have a complete enougy team to seriously compete not enough talent on forward or depth on D. Issues in net too.

Montreal plain and simple suck without Price because they dont have good enough offense overall.

[Armourboy]

I haven't watched much of the East, but from what I've heard Vlasic is just shutting him down.

Not from what I saw, the guy isn't skating or even handling the puck that well. He honestly looks like he is going at half speed. He isn't even making good decisions with no one on him.

[Greeney]

Do you think that just because of McDavid? All the Canadian teams have such major flaws its hard to pick one over the others.

Vancouver has an aging core and a serious lack of defense top to bottom.

The Flames have a major hole in net aswell as a scoring depth issue outside of the top line. Young core all around.

Edmonton has the prodigy and oodles of offensive talent but not even close to a playoff contending blue line. Too many chiefs not enough indians.

Winnipeg has serious issues with their defensive game and are just a worse version or St Louis or Anaheim without the elite Tarasenko/Getzlaf factor.

Toronto is rebuilding and wont be a good team for at least 3 years but when their prospects graduate they will be a force.

Ottawa doesnt have a complete enougy team to seriously compete not enough talent on forward or depth on D. Issues in net too.

Montreal plain and simple suck without Price because they dont have good enough offense overall.

Montreal will always be a threat of a team with a healthy Price though. He is good enough to win the cup almost on his own. Winnipeg is in a tough division but within a couple years they should be an amazing team.

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Not from what I saw, the guy isn't skating or even handling the puck that well. He honestly looks like he is going at half speed. He isn't even making good decisions with no one on him.

I guess he's just lucky then?

[Zeoni]

Montreal will always be a threat of a team with a healthy Price though. He is good enough to win the cup almost on his own. Winnipeg is in a tough division but within a couple years they should be an amazing team.

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I guess he's just lucky then?

I don't see them as a cup contender with Price either way. He can win you 2-3 games in a series but they need some actual offense to be a threat imo. Montreal with Price this year doesn't beat either team in the Eastern Conference finals imo and gets stomped by any team in the West besides Minnesota.

[Greeney]

I don't see them as a cup contender with Price either way. He can win you 2-3 games in a series but they need some actual offense to be a threat imo. Montreal with Price this year doesn't beat either team in the Eastern Conference finals imo and gets stomped by any team in the West besides Minnesota.

With Bishop out Montreal beat them a couple years ago 4-0 and made it to conf finals until he was injured. Tampa has a better team now but the playoff picture might be completely different in the east if Price was healthy all year.

[Zeoni]

With Bishop out Montreal beat them a couple years ago 4-0 and made it to conf finals until he was injured. Tampa has a better team now but the playoff picture might be completely different in the east if Price was healthy all year.

That's also a Tampa team without the prominence of Kucherov, Johnson, Drouin, a backup goalie, Hedman being elite, ect as well. I don't see Montreal having a competative series with any of the 3 best in the East (Tampa/Washington/Pittsburgh) or even the Islanders tbh. With Price, I'd say they belong in the 2nd echelon of the East which in my (bias) opinion is on par with teams not in the playoffs of the West. Probably better than Florida but not as good as the Islanders. I don't think they have the offensive firepower to bang with any of the top 4. The Canadiens were doing well at the beginning of the season because guys like Weise and Fleishmann were scoring almost every game but when they came back down to reality and Price went down, they looked like a joke of a team. That defense core is also not impressive besides Subban and maybe Petry.

I like Toronto's chances of becoming competitive again over the Canadiens losing in the 2nd round of the playoffs every year tbh. I really do like Pacioretty, Galchenyuk, and Gallagher but I think the Subban contract is too much money and there isn't enough scoring options as you go down the depth chart. To me, they have 4 legit top 6 forwards in the NHL and the rest are middle 6 guys with more of a ceiling of a 3rd liner than a 2nd. If they had a superstar stud it would be a different story but I feel like Montreal in a playoff situation is too easy to matchup against. Throw your shut down D against whatever line Pacioretty is on and have your top line bang with their other forward group.

THIS Tampa game my god!

[Stommped]

Do you think that just because of McDavid?

More or less. I think Hall and Eberle are 1st line wingers as well, plus RNH is still only 23. They'll get another top 5 pick this year, which hopefully for them they use on defense. They need to find a goalie in the next few years too when they are ready to compete, maybe Jake Allen.

Oh and I like the coach, he had consistent success with the Sharks in the regular season and I don't put it all on him that they failed so much in the playoffs, anything can happen in a 7 game series.

[Nazrark]

Well, I've been talking with Jamie McLennan on twitter in DMs and he seems to think there will be a lot of goalie movement in the off-season. Teams who've got two goalies won't be able to protect them in the expansion draft. So expect Fleury, Bishop, Allen/Elliot, Anderson/Gibson or a Washington goalie to be moved out and probably not for what they are actually worth as well. This upcoming year we may see a lot more trades based on whether or not you can keep them in the expansion draft.

Winnipeg is in a retardedly good central division. They'll have a hard time making the playoffs just based on who they play the majority of their games against. It's like the AL East of the early 2000s when you had the Yankees, BoSox and Rays. All good teams but one of them wasn't going to make the playoffs. Or even the Western Conference in the mid to late 2000s for the NBA. Where you had team that were over .500 missing the playoffs because everyone else was that much better.

[Puupi]

This upcoming year we may see a lot more trades based on whether or not you can keep them in the expansion draft.

Hang on, is there a new team (or teams) joining the league in 2017? The Las Vegas team or something?

[Zeoni]

2018 i believe with the expansion draft happening after next season but they havent really released any official information exactly how it will work iirc.

[draynay]

I was looking it up, the general idea was 7 forwards 3 defensemen 1 goalie protected, or any combination of 8 forwards/defense and 1 goalie. No team can lose more than 1 player per expansion team.

Announcement re: expansion still to come, prior to the draft/June?

Lots of information still to come and details to be decided. Once some of that comes to light it could affect how GMs approach the offseason, I don't know that there will be a fire sale just yet, but teams may be looking into ways to protect their core assets over the next years time.

[Nazrark]

The league has said they will let teams know before the draft if they are going to do it after next season or the season afterwards. The rules may be you don't have to protect players on their entry level deals because you don't know if they are a bust or not yet. Which means a lot of forwards will be fine. Defensemen and goalies will be the space where most teams start freaking out.

[Armourboy]

Long as we can protect 4 Dmen were good, losing one of our top 4 would suck. Depending on when they do it and what Saros does I wouldn't be shocked to see Rinne left unprotected.