2017-18 NHL thread

[clifffclaven]

Hawks are terrible this year so far. Toews/seabrook look slow, anisimov on IR, Hossa out.. we'll be lucky to get a wild card. Honestly really not as interested anymore. Still watch the hawks all the time, but most games now are passionless euro- ice skating matches with a puck. No fights, no physicality, no rivalries, you touch someone with yr stick and its slashing/hooking. That and I've maybe seen 5 hits all year. Big hits= automatic penalty anymore.

Could you imagine colorado/Detroit from the 90s today? Lmao, their entire teams would be suspended. Probably for the season. Bettman and the clowns in charge have ruined the game.

[clifffclaven]

Chicago gets a bs goal... then seabrook gets 2 minutes for "pushing"... literally. Fucking pussified nhl.

[Razor]

Could you imagine colorado/Detroit from the 90s today? Lmao, their entire teams would be suspended. Probably for the season. Bettman and the clowns in charge have ruined the game.

Claude Lemieux wouldn't be able to play in the AHL with today's rules. It's a damn shame too.

Pens still look lost too. I won't disagree that Bettman has ruined the game. At least rooting for Fleury and the Vegas Golden Knights has been easy this year.

[Shawn Lutz]

WTF is up the Blackhawks? The had the most points in the Western Conference last year and may not make the playoffss this season....they suck just as bad as my Red Wings

[clifffclaven]

WTF is up the Blackhawks? The had the most points in the Western Conference last year and may not make the playoffss this season....they suck just as bad as my Red Wings

worse than the wings, by far. No hossa, panarin gone, Crawford out, toews mailing it in, seabrook is slow and terrible. They lost 6-1 to the fuckin yotes last night. Season is done.

[clifffclaven]

....

[xenophobe]

Lots of recent rumors of Nash to Sharks. I'm not sure how I feel about that but we need to get someone in that's reasonable that's not named too much to pay for Tavares. Our special teams are doing great now but our 5 on 5 is horrible. The west is a brawl... LVK beat us, but you can't tell that the refs aren't getting paid to help them win.

[xenophobe]

So in the end it was Evander Kane. Imagine the shitstorm of a player like him coming to town. Well, he is an excellent player and it seems like he's only a rental, apparently he refused an extension and will be hitting the free market. That's fine, I would still have rather overpaid for Nash or Karlsson.

[clifffclaven]

http://www.hockeyfights.com/stats/

So sad.

[clifffclaven]

God today’s nhl sucks. Anyone that has watched for more than 6-7 years should be (and probably is) cringing. All you have to do is watch a few games, and watch the puck movement. No one except maybe Ryan reeves or buff, finishes their check anymore for fear of a penalty. We get to see a lot of poke checks, players standing in the crease with no fear of retribution, and literally zero fights. It’s become a passionless game to placate the soccer moms, much like thenfl. I’ve already quit watching nfl for the most part. Quit watching basketball after Jordan retired. The Isle of Man tt is coming up soon, and MotoGP/wsbk are starting up at least.


Anyway, this will be my last full season of the nhl. Go hawks, hope you win another cup

[goodwood]

I don't think that anyone on the Panthers or the Bruins can get enough goals to take Ovi out of the top scorer spot so let's recap a bit of his career to this point.
He has led the NHL in goals 7 times. Only Brett Hull has done that.

He has 35% of the 50 goal seasons since he entered the NHL. He came ONE GOAL away from another one this season. Gretzky only had 7.5% of the 50 goal seasons to this point (age 32) in his career.
Ovi did this in an era in which goalies are bigger, their gear is way bigger (the nets are the same size), and goalies have a higher save %.

This guy is one of the best to ever lace up skates in the NHL. Too bad that the GM wasn't decent for years in Washington. Their first really good team was last year - Presidents Trophies aside because if you know hockey, you know that the team was not built for the playoffs with Semin and Green.

[Razor]

Gotta agree, Ovi is a hell of a goal scorer, and a damn tough too. IMHO Holtby is their weak link. Maybe this will be the year he wins them a series or two, but I wouldn't bank on it. As the Ovi goes, so will the Caps go too. Everyone knows that if you can shut Ovi down, you have decent odds of winning the game because Holtby just seems to lose it in the playoffs.

Tampa Bay still looks to be the team to beat in the East, and Nashville looks tough in the West.

[goodwood]

I agree Razor...Holtby has never 'stolen' them a series. Just about every Stanley Cup winner that you look at, their goalie has stolen either a series or a key game (most often some key games) to get the team to the final destination. Can he do it this year? I would love to see the Capitals win it all but there is a fundamental difference between being built for the playoffs and being built for the regular season. Last year, the Penguins would not have made it to the Final without Fleury. He got them through until Murray came back - if Fleury would have been traded at the deadline Pittsburgh would have been out in the first round. That's hockey. In 1993, the Montreal Canadiens would not have gone anywhere without Patrick Roy...same with 1986. A goalie never gets a free ride to The Cup.

[Razor]

Was glad to see Fleury get a shutout with the Golden Knights last night, and of course glad to see Murray and my Pens blank the Flyers. Damn sure wasn't expecting that type of performance from the Pens. I hope they keep it up. The Jets and Wild game was good, but the Kings and Golden Knights game was one of the best I've watched all season.

[clifffclaven]

Was glad to see Fleury get a shutout with the Golden Knights last night, and of course glad to see Murray and my Pens blank the Flyers. Damn sure wasn't expecting that type of performance from the Pens. I hope they keep it up. The Jets and Wild game was good, but the Kings and Golden Knights game was one of the best I've watched all season.

well, that wouldn't be too tough, because I don't have a game all season that stands out as a "good game"... and I watch hockey every night.. I have nbcsn, nbcchicago, fox Midwest, NHL network, and yahoo games, along with Reddit. There is literally zero passion in the nhl anymore. And watching the first round of the playoffs so far, it's the same. "Oh my, there's a scrum", is about as exciting as it gets.