2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[draynay]

the last sweep was the Washington Capitals by the Red Wings, in particular I remember Esa Tikkanen missing a wide open net and then the Caps blowing the lead, that series was over in the 2nd game

[Nazrark]

Maybe after seeing how strong the Western conference is will wake up the GMs in the Eastern conference. Get your shit together.

[Stommped]

Hopefully the Kings can't afford to sign Gabby, but looking at CapGeek there should be plenty of room if they let one of Mitchell or Greene walk (might need to be both depending on how much he asks).

[Zeoni]

I'm of the opinion that It doesn't matter how close the game were, if you get swept in a long series, it's embarrassing. Rangers need to win a game and save some face, or every scum bag Bruins or Canadians fan will be chirping all off season about how they could have represented the Eastern Conference better. Who could blame them, sure they had a couple tight games on the road, but they lost them both, and they just got shut out on home ice. It happens again and it'll have been possibly one of the worst Cup Finals in recent memory, I mean when was the last sweep in a Finals? Some time in the 90s... because I really don't recall.

Yeah? And by the time next season begins no one is going to remember it was a sweep. They're just going to remember how much better the West is than the East. Rangers aren't in the same league as the Kings because they're overpaying 2 idiots who are scoring 3rd line points right now. Lundqvist has to win the games on his own and that's not going to matter because Jonathon Quick is just as good if not better than him in this series. It's not even the Rangers vs the Kings, it's the King vs the Kings. Everyone knows this and no one is surprised it's a sweep.

[VanillaO]

Honestly, any team that doesn't win the Cup can chirp all they want. My team made it one more round than your team! You still didn't win the Cup. Who cares. If Bruins and Habs fans want to chirp. let them. None of them won shit this year at the end of the day. At the end of the day, all a Rangers fan has to say to a Habs fan is '1993'. The Bruins at least have a leg to stand on for the next 2 years. After that (5 years), IMO the statute of fan-bragging runs out.

As for GMs in the East... much like there's only a handful of elite players at each position, there are only a handful of elite coaches, and elite GMs. Unfortunately, it seems most of them appear to be in the West. In fact, the only current head coach in the East with a point percentage of 60%+ (for their career, not just with their current team) is Julien, which isn't a surprise. The one thing that bothers me - this SCF appearance by the Rangers gives Sather some more job security. The guy is not what I consider an elite NHL GM and I am shocked he has had that job for 15 years. Even more so... how does Poile still have a job? That guy is the 3rd longest-tenured GM in the league at 16.5 years and has nothing to show for it. Not even a Conference Final. Dude has had two jobs in the last 30 years. How does that happen when you don't win a goddamn thing?

[Zeoni]

Who do you replace him with? I'm sure the owners love him because up until last 2 years he was building a team who consistently made the playoffs with a budgeted roster. He's not a terrible GM by any means, managed to swindle Forsberg out of Washington for Erat somehow. Their drafting has been meh for the most part, snagging Weber 49 overall seems like wizardry although I can't remember paying attention to prospects at that time so I don't know if he was touted or not. Bunch of busts when they had high picks hurt though. Team was stuck in the 15-22ish overall picking area for a bit there when they were making the playoffs so it'd be kind of hard to stock the shelves with quality prospects. His trading is not too bad either http://www.nhltradetracker.com/user/...le_Predators/1 much of what you would expect though. I imagine it's kind of hard for Nashville to attract free agents as well especially since they won't likely pay people the money they want.

[draynay]

Different markets have different expectations, the Predators were competitive in a very very tough division. It took them awhile to stop being first-round speedbumps but things were going well for them given the nature of their market. The last couple years they've regressed a bit and so moves are finally happening for what was the most stable organization around. I think they really prided themselves on stability but back to back non-playoff seasons are finally stirring things up so maybe Poile will be the next to go if things don't trend up next season.

[Zeoni]

Spezza wants out of Ottawa, asking price is 1st rounder a prospect and a roster player. I guess he doesn't like being blamed for all their losses according to a couple interviews. Wonder who will bite.

[draynay]

He only has one year left on his contract, maybe if somebody could negotiate an extension it would be worth trading for him. If he isn't going to re-sign with Ottawa they have until March to try and get something for him, I suppose their best bet is either before the draft or at the deadline.

- - - Updated - - -

Idunno about high sticking penalties when the guy is bent all the way over

[Reg]

Live to die another day.

[Drikkink]

I don't think any game I've watched these playoffs was officiated well.

This is a sad year for refereeing.

[Zeoni]

There now its not embarrassing if they lose!

[Reg]

Kind of sick of these fair weather Kings fans who didn't even know the team existed until 2012 coming out to chirp that the Kings intentionally lost to win at home.

[Toxigen]

Kind of sick of these fair weather Kings fans who didn't even know the team existed until 2012 coming out to chirp that the Kings intentionally lost to win at home.

The Kings have been my western conference team since Gretzky. I'm really impressed by what coach Sutter and the rest of his staff have been able to do there in recent years.

I wish these finals were going to go longer, but I fear its all over in Game 5.


edit: did I win the MMO champion bracket?

[Reg]

The Kings have been my western conference team since Gretzky. I'm really impressed by what coach Sutter and the rest of his staff have been able to do there in recent years.

I don't mean in this thread, people in here know hockey. I mean on Facebook and on hockey forums.

And I just have to post these pictures...

[Zeoni]

How does that even happen twice in1 game, hockey gods smiled upon you

[Tradewind]

How does that even happen twice in1 game, hockey gods smiled upon you

Any other arena in the world and both of those would have gone in.

[Stommped]

edit: did I win the MMO champion bracket?

Yeah you pretty much smashed everyone. Nobody picked the Kings or Rangers to win the cup, and since point totals increase exponentially per round, our scores as a group look pretty weak.

[Nazrark]

Yeah you pretty much smashed everyone. Nobody picked the Kings or Rangers to win the cup, and since point totals increase exponentially per round, our scores as a group look pretty weak.

Yeah, it was all dependent for me on whether Chicago won. If they won I would have won the bracket. But that is in the past.

[Gumboy]

Who you all got tomorrow? I have the Kings closing it out, 2-0.