(2014)-2015 NHL Thread

[xenophobe]

Rangers and Hawks... that's who I want to see in the finals.

[Jackson8090s]

I'm looking forward to next yr, Mike Babcock can kiss my ass, That's right I'm blue & gold , GO SABRES!

[goodwood]

I'm looking forward to next yr, Mike Babcock can kiss my ass, That's right I'm blue & gold , GO SABRES!

Why the he77 would Buffalo fire Ted Nolan? He coached the team while they stripped away everything from his line-up.

I have a soft spot for the Sabres but them missing the #1 pick is very deserving seeing how they conducted their franchise this year.


As for Babcock? Silly. If he wouldn't do the job for $3 million per year then I wouldn't have hired him. That would make him #1 in coaching salary...now he will be paid like an elite player. Only TML Corp would do that. It works for him - he can still live in Detroit and commute to Toronto if he chooses to do so.

Here's the thing with the Babcock situation: the team needs a huge personnel change. Currently, Toronto has no Datsyuk, no Zetterburg, no Kronwall, no Franzen, no Nyquist, no Tatar and no Abdelkader. They don't even have a Jimmy Howard.

They have a JVR, a Phaneuf and a Kessel. I estimate that the Wings have about twice the talent of the Leafs.

[clifffclaven]

Toews in beast mode last night. I wanted to see him get the ot winner for a hatty. Oh well

[Razor]

Why the he77 would Buffalo fire Ted Nolan? He coached the team while they stripped away everything from his line-up.

I thought the same thing too. I've always liked how he coached. Just seems to be a tough as nails I'm gonna hold your ass accountable kind of guy.

It'll be interesting to see if Babcock can turn the Leafs around immediately. I personally don't think they'll do that well without some major roster changes. I don't think Babcock alone is the answer for the Leafs. He's a hella good coach, but that's a team with zero chemistry if you ask me.

[xenophobe]

It's not Babcock alone... he's there for the long haul to revamp their whole system, or at least what isn't working in his opinion... 8 year 50 mil contract pretty much shows that they're dedicated to making things better.

AND SJ's pool of coaching talent has gotten thinner... now that Bcock has landed in Toronto, Hitchcock is staying in St Louis...

There are a lot of terrible coaches looking for jobs... I hope SJ doesn't sign any of them. I think Bylsma is the only really good coach left. God forbid we sign Oates or Carlyle... both of whom have already interviewed in SJ.

[Jackson8090s]

Ted Nolan was hired temporally and for "the tank" he knew that coming aboard. I like Ted though. Babcock in addition to his term of money which was no problem for the Sabres... they agreed to everything he wanted up until ...control of draft picks and trading of players they told him NO! Then again that bit of info came from WGR550 Buffalo. I don't know how true that is.

[Shawn Lutz]

Ted Nolan was hired temporally and for "the tank" he knew that coming aboard. I like Ted though. Babcock in addition to his term of money which was no problem for the Sabres... they agreed to everything he wanted up until ...control of draft picks and trading of players they told him NO! Then again that bit of info came from WGR550 Buffalo. I don't know how true that is.

Babcock indicated he wanted no part of GM'ing and that is where player movement/drafting come into play. I don't believe it really..yeah he's just a coach but I think part of the reason he left Detroit was because of KH keeping kids down in GR when HE wanted them in Detroit.

Coaching is tough on longevity and Babcock was in Detroit for 10 years...you wear out your welcome and players stop buying into what the coach is selling. I wish Babcock all the luck in the world and thank him for motivation to knock the snot out of he Leafs every time Detroit plays them. I'm not denying he's a top quality coach and I'm for one glad he left. I personally think he's over rated...he comes to Detroit on a team who would have won a cup in 08 if they had no coach at all. He could have coached them to another one in 09 when but failed. He's 1-2 in 3 Cup finals...Ducks lost, Wing lost. Olympic gold? come on now...Canada would have won with any NHL coach as Yzerman gave him the players that YZERMAN wanted for team Canada, not Babcock. We'll find out how good he really is....he is good, no doubt but Toronto is in a disarray and it is an extremely tough city to coach in if the team is losing.

[xenophobe]

DeBoner to SJ Sharks. I'm quite underwhelmed.... We can never have nice things in SJ.

[Shawn Lutz]

Todd McLellan was not the problem in SJ. The main problem with the San Jose Sharks has always been a guy name Joe Thornton. Boston never won shit with him, San Jose never won shit with him. I don't care what the fan base says...the guy is a cancer to the org and they'll NEVER win a cup with Big Joe Blow on the roster! Sharks should have had 2 cups by now and they got jack shit

[xenophobe]

Ummmm... that's a bit ignorant. We went from a 111 point season to "rebuild... one step back for two steps forward" because LA Kings beat us, came back from 0-3 to win 4. The FO imploded. FWIW LA went on to win 3 more 7 games series to take the Stanley cup that year, but nobody really seems to consider that. Seriously, when does a 111 point team need a rebuild?

It wasn't Joe Thornton... if you actually saw what SJ looked like when he wasn't in the game, you'd realize he's probably the main reason we even made it into the playoffs in the last few years of decline. Patrick Marleau is more of a problem than Jumbo. Patty is hot or not, sometimes doesn't look like he gives a shit, then the next day will look like league MVP.

SJ is weak on the blue line, we have 1 top-2 dman.... and LA knocked him out, SJ turned to shit. And we saw what happens when Vlassic doesn't play this season. The team goes to shit. Boyle was still underperforming since his concussion the year before.

So in last year's off season, we let our other top dman Dan Boyle go. Who did we get to replace him? Scott Hannan? And we let Marty Havlat go. Who did we get to replace him? John fucking mr hocky Scott. We were already in the weeks with our bottom 4 Dpairing... and we were in the weeds with our 4th line.

To top that off we have Mike Brown and had Adam Burish in the lineup as well. I imagine you give any playoff contending team, take out 4 talent guys, replace them with John Scott, Mike Brown, Scott Hannan and Adam Burish, and that team would heavily suck too.

And it didn't help that our best power forward was put back on defense. Brent Burns absolutely sucked at defense.

Tmac's biggest problem is that he has trouble benching the big guys, especially if they might actually need it, and instead of skating a skilled 4th line and regularly benching bottom two forwards, he'd skate a combination of goons including Scott, Burish and Brown.

What SJ needs is two more top 2 dmen so Burns can be put up front where he belongs and we need to ditch the goons and play a skilled 4th line.

Our goaltending was mediocre, but Neimi was pretty much middle of the pack for starters. He almost always let a soft one or two go in, but was otherwise good enough.

Tmac isn't without issues. He's not a very excitable guy and he never really yelled very much. Not his style. Too soft at times. Also his lineup choices are sometimes really fucking questionable. And his treatment of youth players isn't all that great. He always pushed rookies to do too much when they showed promise which ended up stunting the growth of most of our best prospects. Every rookie who showed great promise on the 3rd and 4th line ended up on the 1st or 2nd line playing against players that were just too much for call-ups and rookies. Of course, he's one of the best coaches in the league, but he was set up to fail this year by Doug Wilson.

The biggest problem SJ fans had with the team is GM Doug Wilson. He really needs to go.

[Shawn Lutz]

I dunno, I may very well be ignorant on many things but when it comes to the game of hockey I am far from ignorant I think know of enough of BJT well before he came into the NHL. I know he is a dick and a cancer to any squad he's on. He is a loser with himself as the center of the universe LOL. He's great regular season pro, great hands, vision awesome play maker who is pert near invisible in the playoffs. I'm not speaking as a casual NHL fan who just tunes in if my team is doing well...know Joe's armature career before even entering the draft. I played some games with his brother who also is a major dickhead....yea the one who got in a bar brawl with BJT a few years back. Want to know why they got in to a brawl? Because they're both dickheads LOL.

One element of GM'ing and team building over looked are intangibles. When scouting you want competitors who hate to lose, you want skill sure but you also want players who are winners. I'll take a lesser skilled guy who won at every level from mite to jrs...players who stepped up for Memorial cup, Calder cup or Olympics....proven winners you dont set this, heart, and work ethic in any stat column. Team chemisrty that is equally important as skill.

You can take a team of all highly skilled STARS and never win a championship. One or 2 SUPER STAR along with skilled guys who won and show up for games that matter the most. Its not all about individual stats, goals assists, points and +/-, you have to have something inside you...BJT doesn't have, never will have it and never will win a cup unless he pulls a Ray Bourque douche move and go to a team that would have won a cup with or with him.

Take a look at the kid leading the playoffs in scoring...undrafted, 5'9 a buck seventy wringing wet...the intangibles inside. I'll take that kind of player over any player hyped as the second coming like Joe was entering the draft.

[xenophobe]

SJ has always had questionable D depth and had a habit of choking in the playoffs, going back since before Joe was here. Being a dick hasn't prevented a lot of players from making the finals.

We lost Raffi and Vlassic, and lost to a team that went on to win 4 7 game series... which hasn't happened for a good while. It's not that SJ fell apart as much as Daryl Sutter coming up with better matchups after our top Dman got injured.

SJ just doesn't have the depth that any of the final 4 teams have. Oh well... as someone who has watched most of SJ's games over the last 20+ years, there was a whole bunch of little issues you can't blame one person on.

[xenophobe]

Rangers.... wow. Hall of fame lineup handshaking and packing it up. After all the major acquisitions over the last couple seasons, shame...

Hawks better win or I won't watch the finals...

[Shawn Lutz]

I'm pulling for TB...if Chicago wins how cool will it be from an expansion team from Florida to knock off 4 of the original 6 teams on the way to hoisting their second cup?