NHL 2009/2010 Regular Season

[DuCross Brothers]

5-13 is kind of a clusterf in the west. i will say that i'm pretty sure the top 7 in the west will at least be in the playoffs. 8th spot should be a dogfight though.

 

i feel like chicago, detroit, vancouver and san jose are pretty much locks to make the playoffs... it wouldn't shock me if calgary, st. louis or anaheim miss out although i do think they all get in.

 

i think the East is really weak after the top 5.

 

agree for the most part, although i think there's a gap between the top 4 in the east (pitt, philly, boston, wash) and the rest. though carolina is still a good team and who knows about jersey, they won the division last year and with lemaire back they could always get 110 pts while winning 50 games by one goal.

 

You still can't sleep on Montreal Canadians in the east, because of them not being all that consistent at times...they can sneak up and play with the best of them. I like this team a lot better than last yr as they have gotten rid of some of the problems kids to move forward with being a little tougher.

[Drew Doughty]

the canadiens are average. they have a shoddy D and an undersized group of forwards. hal gill and jaroslav spacek both suck.

 

the only way they can join that group of very good teams in the east is if carey price takes a huge step forward. he played great tonight and is the only reason they won.

 

i would ask if a mod could rename this to the "NHL Thread" or something but if a mod actually reads this topic, i'd be stunned.

 

couple of random thoughts:

 

calgary is better on paper than i thought they were. i would actually swap them with vancouver, regardless of what happens in the third period of this game.

 

washington desperately needs a 2nd line center. morrison was completely invisible and the caps never got anything going aside from the first line/pp unit. as a quasi-caps fan, i really hope the forsberg rumors are true and he can play half the games he's signed for.

 

on the other hand, washington's first power play unit is insane. they move the puck better than any pp unit (lol) i've seen in a long time.

 

vesa toskala sucks. i didn't actually see much of his game (mainly because whenever i flipped to that game, the leafs were in control), but he sucks. stupid organization. i hope the leafs fall on their face this year. they really remind me of the cubs going into 07. spent a bunch of money to improve the team, except they did it really, really poorly.

[Derwood]

so no one gives Columbus a shot at the playoffs this year?

[Drew Doughty]

so no one gives Columbus a shot at the playoffs this year?

 

they have a good shot. which is why i said something like "5-13 is going to be a dogfight in the west."

[TruffleShuffle]

so no one gives Columbus a shot at the playoffs this year?

 

a lot of people do. i had them finishing 10th and AO had them 9th. they're not talented enough to be considered up with the top 6 teams in the conference so they're back in a pig pile with teams like LA, st. louis, edmonton, dallas, etc. they'll be close but if they get in they'll almost certainly end up playing the winner of one of the divisions.

 

vesa toskala sucks. i didn't actually see much of his game (mainly because whenever i flipped to that game, the leafs were in control), but he sucks.

 

indeed he does, which is why i picked gustavsson as one of the calder finalists. i think he ends up starting for them during most of the second half of the year.

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't know what this means, but for the past 3 months we couldn't give our office Mets tickets away, but now the first two months of Rangers tickets are already taken with lots of disappointed people who didn't get them. Kind of weird.

[kujay]

I don't know what this means, but for the past 3 months we couldn't give our office Mets tickets away, but now the first two months of Rangers tickets are already taken with lots of disappointed people who didn't get them. Kind of weird.

 

I've been hearing a lot of optimism about the Rangers. I don't get it, but it's there.

 

I shudder to say it because it's been wrongly thought before, but I think the NHL is entering a mini-renaissance. The O-6 are good (Toronto aside, maybe), and other teams like the Caps, Flyers, Pens, and perhaps even Kings look promising.

[Derwood]

so no one gives Columbus a shot at the playoffs this year?

 

they have a good shot. which is why i said something like "5-13 is going to be a dogfight in the west."

 

I ask because there's a lot of excitement about them here (after the playoffs last year), but I don't watch them regularly enough to know the roster well. I'll probably watch more games this season

[TruffleShuffle]

yahoo western conference picks

 

someone picked phoenix to make the playoffs. if that happens i will crap a brick.

[Flames24Rulz]

yahoo western conference picks

 

someone picked phoenix to make the playoffs. if that happens i will crap a brick.

 

Why do people continue to pick the Sharks to actually do something after the first week in April?

[RedFlash]

yahoo western conference picks

 

someone picked phoenix to make the playoffs. if that happens i will crap a brick.

 

Why do people continue to pick the Sharks to actually do something after the first week in April?

 

The same reason why people continue to pick the Cubs to win.

[Flames24Rulz]

yahoo western conference picks

 

someone picked phoenix to make the playoffs. if that happens i will crap a brick.

 

Why do people continue to pick the Sharks to actually do something after the first week in April?

 

The same reason why people continue to pick the Cubs to win.

 

Well that's just idiotic.

[RedFlash]

yahoo western conference picks

 

someone picked phoenix to make the playoffs. if that happens i will crap a brick.

 

Why do people continue to pick the Sharks to actually do something after the first week in April?

 

The same reason why people continue to pick the Cubs to win.

 

Well that's just idiotic.

 

Be that as it may, it's the impression I get.

[Drew Doughty]

Because picking teams to fail in the playoffs because they failed in the playoffs before is kind of dumb. I don't think the Sharks will do much in the playoffs this year, but that's because they don't have very good depth or rock-solid goaltending (Nabokov is neck-in-neck(-in-neck?) with Turco and Kiprusoff for most overrated goalie in the NHL). Not because they've failed in the past.

 

Carolina/Philly ought to be pretty good.

[Drew Doughty]

i get the feeling that dan carcillo is going to drive you nuts, truffle.

[TruffleShuffle]

i get the feeling that dan carcillo is going to drive you nuts, truffle.

 

yeah he plays the style that i want them to get away from - he'll take too many dumb-ass penalties. he was bailed out this time because gleason instigated a fight after the hit on whitney, but it was just a dumb hit - the puck was gone and whitney was near the boards, facing the other way. then in the second he took a stupid high-sticking penalty.

 

the annoying part is that carcillo has real talent and could be a player like scott walker or something, but he's too dumb to do it. hopefully they'll just bench him for a game or two when he has games where he subtracts more than he adds.

[Drew Doughty]

Varlamov had an amazing first period. Toskala sucks and is awful.

[Derwood]

so......time to start an NHL Regular Season Thread?

[Drew Doughty]

i guess. there should just be a general nhl thread, i don't really see the point of making a new thread just because the season's change but whatever.

 

lol kings

[Derwood]

just rename this thread

[TruffleShuffle]

ok cynosure, rename the thread. oh wait he's banned.

 

 

flyers-caps should be really good tonight.

[Drew Doughty]

ok cynosure, rename the thread. oh wait he's banned.

 

 

flyers-caps should be really good tonight.

 

ya i'm pumped for that one. was just coming here to say that.

 

 

 

montreal signs MA Bergeron, lucic re-signs for 3 years in boston.

[Drew Doughty]

oh man this game is awesome. semin scores a beauty then richards completes the last 2/3 of his hat trick in like 20 seconds.

 

varlamov has been only ok this season. he can make some spectacular saves but he is prone to huge mistakes too.

[TruffleShuffle]

oh man this game is awesome. semin scores a beauty then richards completes the last 2/3 of his hat trick in like 20 seconds.

 

varlamov has been only ok this season. he can make some spectacular saves but he is prone to huge mistakes too.

 

yeah richards' hat trick goal was a terrible rebound by varlamov.

 

really great game overall. i thought we outplayed them but they're so dangerous in transition... ovechkin forced a turnover from pronger when nothing was happening for them, and boom, five seconds later it's his second goal. we need to get better positionally - the penalty late in regulation was a good example, the caps had the puck in their own zone with nothing going on and one pass later semin is almost on a breakaway and they have to take a penalty to prevent a scoring chance. you have to be ready for that against washington.

 

now we get a day to recover before another must-see battle - this time with pittsburgh. hosting the ducks on saturday night should be a good one as well. they're certainly giving me lots to watch early in the season.

[Drew Doughty]

i think the flyers are the most talented team in the NHL right now. or at the very least, they have very good depth. if emery holds up, i could see them winning the president's trophy. they made some mistakes last night, but i don't know if anyone is really going to shut down the capitals top line/pp unit right now.