2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[draynay]

first penalty of the game comes with 3 minutes left...

[Zeoni]

I was looking forward to a New York New York battle but Caps Rangers is an intriguing matchup too.

[Reg]

I was looking forward to a New York New York battle but Caps Rangers is an intriguing matchup too.

I was hoping for a Rangers-Islanders series myself. We've faced the Capitals like 5 times in 7 seasons or something stupid like that. A little variety with a splash of rivalry would have been nice.

[draynay]

I was hoping for a Rangers-Islanders series myself. We've faced the Capitals like 5 times in 7 seasons or something stupid like that. A little variety with a splash of rivalry would have been nice.

I know the feeling, it was fun to finally get a Kings-Ducks series last year, oh well.

[melodramocracy]

Islanders seemed flat in that game. Aside from Calgary and the Rangers, none of my hopefuls did well in this round Add me to the list of someone who'd have loved to see a NY - NY battle. The coliseum would have been crazy.

[Armourboy]

That's a really tough spot for the NHL, on the flip side what if Price did freeze the puck, but because the whistle didn't blow right away he took a bunch of samurai chops that causes it to squeak out and lead to a goal? Can you then review that and say Price had it secured and play should have been blown dead and take away the goal?

To me though there is a difference in the two though and is something that can be solved by rules. Its one thing to have a goalie in a possible dangerous situation where people are swinging sticks and you blow it, and a no one being around you, never controlling it, it dropping to the ice and the guy putting it in and it not being a goal cause you blew the whistle instantly. Its never going to be perfect but that was just horrible.

I agree with the rest of you, you aren't going to see every single thing, those you can understand even if you don't like it. What I don't like is stuff like the make up calls because you blew an earlier call. Those types of things can be changed and controlled.

[Toxigen]

Tomorrow's Game 7 will make or break the rest of my bracket. I was impressed with our game 6 showing @ the Joe...feeling pretty good.

GO BOLTS!

[draynay]

A pity I wasn't around for the bracket making, all the teams I figured to go through have done so.

[Stommped]

Jesus fuck 11 shots on goal?

[Zeoni]

a pity i wasn't around for the bracket making, all the teams i figured to go through have done so.

Are we going to beat the ducks, great prophet?

[draynay]

Jesus fuck 11 shots on goal?

I think they had an 11-12 minute stretch in period 1 where they didn't get a shot on goal, and a longer stretch than that in the 2nd. It was miserable.

- - - Updated - - -

Are we going to beat the ducks, great prophet?

I think I picked well because I was without bias so far, but my desire to see the ducks lose clouds that.

[jackofwind]

The Canucks fucked over my official bracket, but hope remains as long as Montreal makes a cup run in the East.

My first round predictions were:

Minnesota in 6
Montreal in 5
Chicago in 6
Tampa Bay in 5
Anaheim in 5
New York R in 5
Washington in 7
Canucks in 6

In all honesty I'm feeling pretty impressed with them at this point. Hoping for 7/8 correct win predictions with 4/8 correct number of games predicted. Not that it will be good enough to win anything in the end, especially with my Western Conference 2nd and 3rd round shitshow.

[Armourboy]

St. Louis sucking it up messed me up. Need Tampa to win tonight or the other side gets messy as well.

[Zeoni]

Game 1 Thursday night, game 2 Sunday for Flames / Quacks

[Armourboy]

And as the information comes out after the season, I feel better about what we were seeing with certain players.

-Weber played the last 25 games with Patella Tendinitis, which explains him not having those booming slappers, being slower, and less physical. The injury in the playoffs ends up being a dislocated kneecap, which from a doctor on HF will not cause any long term problems.

-Fisher's injury in the playoffs was a groin injury. The fact he played as well as he did is pretty dang amazing. Poile also came out and said as long as he is GM Fisher could play as long as he wanted. Heck of a vote of confidence if you are Fisher.

-Rinne was apparently injury free, it was mental, which is not good. However, that explains him playing better as the series wore on. He definitely is missing Mitch Korn who was insanely good at getting his head back on straight. It did however all start with the injury around the All Star break.

I really feel bad for Weber, once Giordano went down, I think he was a lock for the Norris if he would have had his normal season ( he normally starts slow and is on fire by the end).

[draynay]

-Rinne was apparently injury free, it was mental, which is not good. However, that explains him playing better as the series wore on. He definitely is missing Mitch Korn who was insanely good at getting his head back on straight. It did however all start with the injury around the All Star break.

I figured as much, he went into complete spaz mode when the team had some defensive breakdowns in front of him and it took him some time to get settled in. It's a good thing he doesn't have to play for Edmonton or Toronto. Nashville was better able to limit his tendency to get shell-shocked. Goalies have to be really mentally tough, its impressive how calm and collected they manage to stay. Quick will go nuts slashing players and arguing with the ref after the whistle but he'll be all business again as soon as the puck drops.

[Zeoni]

Quick is so easy to get rattled lol

In other news Kronwall suspended for game 7, Palat had a headshot too, no hearing. DoPS consistency at it's best!

[Armourboy]

Quick is so easy to get rattled lol

In other news Kronwall suspended for game 7, Palat had a headshot too, no hearing. DoPS consistency at it's best!

Much like the Refs, that is another thing the league needs to get on top of. There have been some very iffy things that have been allowed to slip by without even a phone call.

- - - Updated - - -

I figured as much, he went into complete spaz mode when the team had some defensive breakdowns in front of him and it took him some time to get settled in. It's a good thing he doesn't have to play for Edmonton or Toronto. Nashville was better able to limit his tendency to get shell-shocked. Goalies have to be really mentally tough, its impressive how calm and collected they manage to stay. Quick will go nuts slashing players and arguing with the ref after the whistle but he'll be all business again as soon as the puck drops.

Well basically it went like this for Rinne. He came in on fire after the worlds, loads of confidence and played great. This held until the injury. I think he probably came back a touch too soon from it, which caused him to compensate, which cause him to form some bad habits ( not standing up, being too deep in his net, overplaying his positioning, lots of rebounds). That killed his confidence, which in turn killed the teams confidence, and they started losing. Then it was just a cycle that fed itself.

I think him keeping us in those long OT games did a lot for his confidence, even if we lost it made him feel like he did all he could. I think as well that once the schedule slowed down ( hard to believe the playoffs was a slower pace compared to after the all star break) they had time to work on some things and that helped him as well.

The difference between this year and the past though was Mitch Korn. The guy can get or keep guys on track, which you have seen with Holtby this year. Sad to think that very few of us cared when it was announced Trotz wasn't coming back, we cared more that Mitch Korn probably wouldn't stay.

[Zeoni]

The department of player safety is just a complete joke. They have too many factors that go into suspensions like past history and stuff. A clean hit to the head should be 2 games minimum every time. I was thinking about it the other day and it's kind of dark to think about but there's nothing stopping a guy from rocking another player in the head or intending to injure him and getting away with it for the most part. Someone could easily deliver a hit to the head and end a guys season and they would only be penalized for 1-3 games maximum it seems these days unless their name is Raffi Torres. Then they'd be like oh he wasn't a repeat offender so 1 game suspension! Same thing with running the goalie. Just an example and not saying he does it on purpose but Chris Kreider is a guy who has injured goalies in the past and only had a slap on the wrist for the most part. What's stopping other players/teams from doing this other than morals? Because it sure as fuck isn't the DoPS.

In other news, Connor McDavid has 36 points in 13 playoff games for the OHL playoffs. Everytime I see his name I cringe at how annoying this is going to be to deal with. Fuckin' Oilers having McJesus light us up every game. I hope Bennett ends up being his kyptonite.

[jackofwind]

The department of player safety is just a complete joke. They have too many factors that go into suspensions like past history and stuff. A clean hit to the head should be 2 games minimum every time. I was thinking about it the other day and it's kind of dark to think about but there's nothing stopping a guy from rocking another player in the head or intending to injure him and getting away with it for the most part. Someone could easily deliver a hit to the head and end a guys season and they would only be penalized for 1-3 games maximum it seems these days unless their name is Raffi Torres. Then they'd be like oh he wasn't a repeat offender so 1 game suspension! Same thing with running the goalie. Just an example and not saying he does it on purpose but Chris Kreider is a guy who has injured goalies in the past and only had a slap on the wrist for the most part. What's stopping other players/teams from doing this other than morals? Because it sure as fuck isn't the DoPS.

In other news, Connor McDavid has 36 points in 13 playoff games for the OHL playoffs. Everytime I see his name I cringe at how annoying this is going to be to deal with. Fuckin' Oilers having McJesus light us up every game. I hope Bennett ends up being his kyptonite.

Yeah, but they'll also let you score 8 goals on them a game so it won't matter. Honestly, they've had glorious prospects for years and all they've demonstrated with them is an incredible ability to waste young talent.