Official Hockey discussion thread

Blues have won 7 games in a row and are now in the 1. wild card spot of West. Things didn't look very good a month ago but I'm so glad they turned it around.
 
The Blues, along with Philly and Chicago are teams that are turning it around, hopefully not too late for a playoff run. The Blues and Philly, though, have something in common. Rookie goalies playing extremely well. Everyone knew Carter Hart was Philly's next stud goalie, but they didn't want to rush him. Due to the circumstances and injuries, they had to. Thankfully he's responded well so far. 8 straight victories. The Blues rookie goalie is doing the same for them. Finally providing consistently strong play in net. With Minnesota missing Koivu for the rest of the season due to injury and the way the Blues and Hawks are playing, how the West ends up will be the unreported story of the second half of the season.

The headlines will continue to be about Panarin, the Kings and Ducks poor play and if this is the real Golden Knights v. last season's.
 
TheTalisman said:
It's not only the Jets, it's because this is the year that the Flames will enter the top 5 in the league and contend for the Stanley Cup, after a 4 year rebuild.
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Oct 8, 2017

A bit too early...but at least I don't look ridiculous anymore. They have a chance of winning their division for the first time since 2005/2006 with 74 points in 55 games. I think they can go deep in the playoffs too if Dave Rittich can stay consistent in net (or if Smith can get his act together)
What's interesting is that they have won so many games with average or below average goaltending:
Rittich save percentage is 91.5 % in 33 games, while Mike Smith's percentage is 88.9 % in 27 games.

Iginla's number to be retired on march 2 btw.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-jarome-iginla-jersey-retire-1.4982454
 
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What is amazing is the little attention that they're getting! I just saw the standings yesterday and was completely surprised as to how well they're doing. Most of the headlines around them are about their inconsistent goaltending, so I thought they were in trouble and nope.... one of the teams to beat out West. Amazing.

Good on Iginla! Him and Kipper carried them for years.
 
Goaltenders used by Calgary since Kiprusoff's injury in his final year, 6 years ago, until today (from 2005 to 2012 it didn't matter much who they had more than Kipper - Joseph, Mcelhinney, Toskala...whatever).

Leland Irving
Joey Mcdonald
Daniel Taylor
Karri Ramo
Reto Berra
Joni Ortio
Jonas Hiller
Nicklas Bäckström
Brian Elliott
Chad Johnson
Jon Gillies
David Rittich
Eddie Lack
Mike Smith

:p
 
All played REALLY well elswhere. Ramo and Berra were promising prospects that didn't pan out, but Backstrom, Hiller, Johnson and Elliot, did play from well, to great elswhere. Smith went to Calgary after very strong seasons in Arizona.
 
Better that than not play at all. Knew the name rang bells, yup, Flyers goalie. That's where I remember him from.
 
I am actually thinking the Hawks will make the playoffs and I am happy with that. I am not a fan of "lose for Hughes: for a few reasons .. 1) no promise you draft 1st with the lottery 2) I think organizations can get a culture of losing, not a ton of danger of that with Kane, Toews, Keith, etc, but still lot's of young players might get sucked into that 3) You make the playoffs, who knows what happens .. odds of the Hawks going all the way (or even getting to round 2) would be slim, but looks like Crawford is coming back soon and he can win a series 4) I think it gives them something to build on for next year, the D needs help, they need another forward to give them 3 scoring lines.

Anyway, the season is much more enjoyable now, the D is bad, but the games are at least fun to watch and knowing they will not have to dump salary for once, there are some good young players on the team and in the organization, and they can fill needs in FA next year and maybe have another run in them in the next couple of years.

It helps that the Wild are a dumpster fire right now and I think the Hawks can pass them and Colorado.
 
When you look at the history of tanking in the lottery era, it's not necessarily successful. Edmonton is an absolute nuclear disaster and they had 4 #1 lottery picks in the 2010s. Buffalo tanked for McDavid and while they got Eichel as a consolation, the team is still ruined from their scorched earth approach. You can certainly argue that some teams made moves that helped them to better lottery balls (IE the Leafs before they drafted Matthews), but the straight-up tank leaves you with a ruined roster and a poor culture.

Some minor moves yesterday - Talbot to the Flyers, likely to make sure they don't ruin Carter Hart; Vancouver and Edmonton swap depth players.

But yeah, looking at Edmonton's first round drafting is just sad. I think I actually did that before so I'm not gonna write it out, but they manage their first round picks about as well as Toronto did in the 1990s.
 
bearfan said:
The Athletic had a great story on Hossa today and how bad the skin condition he had was.

https://theathletic.com/821669/2019...painful-skin-condition-that-ended-his-career/
Click to expand...

As much as I hate him from a professional standpoint, I don't have anything against the guy and it is sad he had to retire, due to how bad it got. At least he had a more than successful career, few players reach the heights he did.

LooseCannon said:
But yeah, looking at Edmonton's first round drafting is just sad. I think I actually did that before so I'm not gonna write it out, but they manage their first round picks about as well as Toronto did in the 1990s.
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We both did lol. Thank god the days of tanking on purpose are long gone. Which one would you say was the last one that actually worked? The only one I can think of is Lemieux, but I'm sure there were others.
 
Holy shit! Can you say, "Holy shit?" Cuz, HOLY SHIT. Blue Jackets get two of OTT's big three?! Talk about them doubling down on a SERIOUS playoff run. Haglin to WSH?! Beast. Holy crap. Sure boston got the third line center they wanted, but... WTF. Shit just got real.
 
Interesting, they could either trade Panarin if they can get a good haul for him and still have a team that can sneak in ... or hang onto him and Bob and make a run for it this year and see who they can resign in the offseason, they put themselves in good shape, but you have to think they need to win this year or that is it for a while
 
I don't think the market is quite there for Panarin, because the market isn't there for Stone. I think if Stone moves then the Panarin market might change up, but quite frankly, I don't expect a move to happen. They need to win a playoff round or two - they'll treat Panarin and Bobrovsky as an own-rental and trade their rights after the season for a 2nd round pick or something.

Zuccarello to the Stars, immediately gets hurt and put out for 4 weeks. Which sucks, because I have Zuccarello in my pool.

Pretty much every Ottawa Senators fan is watching the trade ticket today and waiting to cut their wrists when Stone moves.
 
I agree. Columbus is not willing to part with Panarin, and teams are most likely not willing to give up the asking price. According to NHL.com they're getting "plenty" of offers, but staying pat. He, along with "Bob", is part of their immediate future plans. We'll see if he stays or gets traded for futures after the playoffs.

Sucks about Zuccarello. Kinda what has been happening to the Pens lol. They get Malkin back, suspended a game for stick to the head. Get Schultz back, lose Maatta indefinitely with upper body injury. Then lose Dumolin to a concussion and Letang to upper body injury in one play.

Deadline only a few hours away, Stone might stay.
 
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