2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Greeney]

Looks like Vegas owner slipped up and stated there will be a Canadian division soon.
Also seems like seasons will start on New Years according to Bettman.
https://www.radio.com/wgr550/sports/...adian-division


Joe Thornton now on the Leafs as well. Sounds like Corey Perry might was hoping to be on Leafs as well. Man, if we could have had all this back in 2011...

[Armourboy]

Well Hall took a one year deal with Buffalo over a long term deal with Nashville. After the Dak Prescott injury I'm not sure I'd want to gamble that much.

Looks like we are going to give the young guns a shot if nothing else happens. I'm fine with that.

[eschatological]

Well Hall took a one year deal with Buffalo over a long term deal with Nashville. After the Dak Prescott injury I'm not sure I'd want to gamble that much.

Looks like we are going to give the young guns a shot if nothing else happens. I'm fine with that.

$8M for one year to play on Jack Eichel's wing, it's a good deal on both ends, imo. He'll drive up his value substantially, maybe Buffalo can get off the schneid and make the playoffs, and he'll be happy here playing with Jack and both will stay and we'll be Stanley Cup contenders....

...a guy can dream.

Meanwhile Dubas signed Zach Bogosian and today was justifying him keeping Ceci around, lol.

[Rennadrel]

$8M for one year to play on Jack Eichel's wing, it's a good deal on both ends, imo. He'll drive up his value substantially, maybe Buffalo can get off the schneid and make the playoffs, and he'll be happy here playing with Jack and both will stay and we'll be Stanley Cup contenders....

...a guy can dream.

Meanwhile Dubas signed Zach Bogosian and today was justifying him keeping Ceci around, lol.

Bogo and Thornton are pretty good signings. I'm not a fan of Brodie and Bogo, but they can't be any worse than Marincin and Ceci were. I think our bottom six forwards are significantly better than last year and our defense at the very least, should be more stable defensively. Ceci was just fucking awful with the puck, that was half of his problem, aside from also being a defensive black hole.

[eschatological]

Bogo is fucking awful. We've been trying to get rid of him for like 3 years, on an already crappy Buffalo team. We had to CUT him because we tried to send him to our AHL affiliate and he refused to go.

And then TB picked him up and he had one good play (out of a plethora of shitty bad plays) in the playoffs and now everyone's like "Oh, well, you can't buy that kind of Cup leadership and grit." Please, fuck that.

[Armourboy]

I'm pretty happy with most of Nashville's moves, just think we need at least 1 2nd line winger so we aren't forced to play so many young recruits all at once. As the roster sits today we are probably going to have Trenin, Tolvanen, and then either one of Pitlick or Tomasino in the lineup. Our 3rd pairing and the 4th line should be better, but the 3rd probably won't be as good.

[eschatological]

Talks this week of what the new NHL season might look like:

1) Start the training camps in early January, get the season going by like late Jan/Feb.
2) Aim for 48-62 games (20 less than a regular season at the high end)
3) Fit in 4 games a week, which is pretty high.
4) Do 4 "bubbles" based on 4 divisions (including an all-Canadian division to work around Canadian restrictions on going in and out of the U.S., which might actually be cool as fuck).
5) Roughly 1 division does a slate of games within the bubble, playing each other, maybe even multiple times, idk.
6) Take a small break (1-2 weeks) to go home, see families, etc.
7) Rinse-repeat in a new bubble with new teams after going into the bubble after expanded testing.
8) Repeat 5-7.
9) Hopefully be ready for 2021 season with the expansion Seattle Kraken.

This is still only one proposition, but it makes some sense to me.

Not entirely sure how long the NHL can survive without fans, though.

[Greeney]

Really glad about the division shift. 7 teams instead of 8 in North and won't have to take on Tampa or Boston in first round if we're a top 5 team in the league.

East division will be real tough.

Also will be a slight rule change to off sides (intent seems to keep play going longer without a whistle)

[eschatological]

Yeah Sabres are showing more promise than they have in years, but holy shit the East division is gonna be a beast. If we get the 4th slot I'd be happy and surprised. Boston and Washington seem like locks at this point.

And the offsides rule is great, now the blue line is a vertical plane, and your skate can simply just be above it, IE you can stride across the line instead of having to toe drag your skate to make sure you're onside.

[Rennadrel]

Opening night! Go Leafs!
@Edge, can you update the thread title to 2021?

[Armourboy]

Ready to see the Preds play tonight. Lots of roster moves in the offseason.

[Rennadrel]

Yeah Sabres are showing more promise than they have in years, but holy shit the East division is gonna be a beast. If we get the 4th slot I'd be happy and surprised. Boston and Washington seem like locks at this point.

And the offsides rule is great, now the blue line is a vertical plane, and your skate can simply just be above it, IE you can stride across the line instead of having to toe drag your skate to make sure you're onside.

Boston isn't going anywhere this season IMO. Chara is gone, Marchand and Pasternak are expected to miss the first month or two. IIRC Pasta is out longer but likely won't be back until mid-late February. It'll take them a while to get up to game speed as well. This really is the year the Bruins have to decide if they are going to start rebuilding. They've got 8 players eligible for free agency and only two of them are RFA. Kreijci is UFA and like Marchand (5 years left) and Bergeron (UFA after next season) are on the later ends of their careers. Sure, they are still good players, but they'd get more value out of them as trade assets than trying to keep on for another 2 or 3 seasons. Their D core is pretty young though, but their top 6 up front are going to be challenged to compete going forward. I think they'll have trouble moving their top players when teams are cap strapped, but those contracts are pretty team friendly too.

[eschatological]

I did say that 2 weeks ago before I knew anything about the Bruins, and before Chara signed with Washington.

[Rennadrel]

I did say that 2 weeks ago before I knew anything about the Bruins, and before Chara signed with Washington.

Haha fair enough

[Rennadrel]

Patrick Laine and Jack Roslovic to Columbus, Pierre-Luc Dubois heading to Winnipeg. Ironic that the Jets are trading the 2nd overall pick from the 2016 NHL draft for the 3rd overall pick from the same draft. It's almost like you should be drafting a centre over a goal scoring winger when it comes to building a winning team. Columbus effectively has what I call the "Phil Kessel Problem" in that they have a guy who could easily be a 30+ goal scorer but no setup man like the Leafs had when we got Kessel.

[eschatological]

Since they're crossing borders, aren't they gonna be out for like 2 weeks? Weird thing to consider during trade season.

Sabres look infinitely better than they did last year, but in the NHL B(East) division, they've gone 1-3-1 in their first 5, 3 of them against the Caps.

TBF, the game last night against the Caps without 4 of their top forwards who were positive for COVID, they should have taken both points, instead of just losing in the shootout.

[Armourboy]

We've just been meh. We had our first goal from a Dman this season and we just finished game 6. Think about having your top 4 being Josi, Ellis, Ekholm, and Fabbro and it took them that long.

We haven't scored 1st in a game yet this season. With that stat alone its pretty remarkable that we are at .500. Our special teams went from bad last season to worse than beer league, its bad.

[Rennadrel]

Scrubs letting this thread get to the second page

So it's official that the Leafs are the defacto best team in Canada right now. Montreal is a god damn tire fire and it gives me great joy seeing the narrative that was the start of the season where the hockey talking heads were all like "Montreal is a juggernaut" because they beat an aging and weak Penguins team in the play-in series in the bubble but still lost to a Flyers team that is generally bad at playing defense.

Kinda feel sorry for Buffalo fans right now. Eichel is hurt but hasn't produced when he was healthy. Both Jeff Skinner and Taylor Hall's contracts have become albatross's as they are the equivalent of 4th line players in terms of production. It wouldn't surprise me if Eichel demands a trade, that team is just dysfunctional and it amazes me that Ralph Kreuger, someone who has never won ANYTHING as an NHL coach, is still employed.

[eschatological]

Skinner's stats are off the charts, he just hasn't been finishing. Like, his high-danger chances are right where they need to be. Buffalo is forming a mutiny against the head coach who's scratched him for three games.

Both Skinner and Hall have some of the highest differences in Expected vs. Actual goals.

Meanwhile, we have the #1 powerplay in the league, and are 28th 5v5. Unfortunately the majority of the game is played 5v5.

[eschatological]

Sabres finally axe Ralph Krueger after our losing streak hits 12 after our COVID break.

Bruce Budreau has reportedly expressed interest, but this franchise is such a tire fire, and the feeling is the owners want a say and not a coach who'll push back against them. Thus the U of Providence head coach Learman is who the talking heads around here are discussing.

In a fit of irony: Jeff Skinner scored the last goal under the Krueger era.