NHL Thread

[MattA75]

Jack Eichel is a pretty good consolation prize, but I think its dumb that Buffalo finished last 2 years in a row and did not pick 1st either of them. I get that they are trying to keep teams from blatantly tanking for a top prospect, but it seemed like they implemented this year's "last place only gets a 20% chance of drafting #1" to punish the Sabres for committing to be bad for 2 seasons. I guess I can be thankful they didn't just skip right to next season's setup where they draw the top 3 picks, because I'm pretty sure the Sabres will be markedly better with players the will be leaving/coming back from injury + offseason moves. Who knows? pretty much anyone that misses gets a shot at a good pick

the NHL lottery was always set up to be stupid...initially wasn't it you could only move up a max of 3 or 4 picks regardless where you were? So if you were team 12 and won the lottery, you only got to move up to 8 or 9? What the hell kind of crap is that?

they should've been doing the top 3 picks all along, one of the rare times Bettman should've followed his previous employer's model and didn't bother

[numbers]

The Bruins, Leafs, or Kings should have won the lottery.

[Mecca]

Jack Eichel is a pretty good consolation prize

or Mikko Rantanen

wat

[philpritchard]

I have this vision in my head of Edmonton thinking McDavid single-handedly makes them a contender and responding by making a handful of win-now moves, including paying a ridiculous price to acquire Phaneuf to anchor their blueline.

[MattA75]

I have this vision in my head of Edmonton thinking McDavid single-handedly makes them a contender and responding by making a handful of win-now moves, including paying a ridiculous price to acquire Phaneuf to anchor their blueline.

I still think Edmonton should at least see what kind of ridiculous offer some team might give them

I saw an article over the weekend that broke down the Lindros trade and then tried to make a match of it between Toronto and Edmonton...it was a little harder because of the cap and the fact that the guys Toronto would be giving back would be a little older in cases, but it was something like Phaneuf, Gardiner, Bernier, Kadri, the #4 pick this year, 2 additional #1s, for McDavid and a couple of salary dumps to make the cap work

That being said, I'm hoping Jim Benning immediately calls up Edmonton once Vancouver's season is over and tries to convince them to take on the last 2 years of that Ryan Miller contract

[philpritchard]

I have this vision in my head of Edmonton thinking McDavid single-handedly makes them a contender and responding by making a handful of win-now moves, including paying a ridiculous price to acquire Phaneuf to anchor their blueline.

I still think Edmonton should at least see what kind of ridiculous offer some team might give them

I saw an article over the weekend that broke down the Lindros trade and then tried to make a match of it between Toronto and Edmonton...it was a little harder because of the cap and the fact that the guys Toronto would be giving back would be a little older in cases, but it was something like Phaneuf, Gardiner, Bernier, Kadri, the #4 pick this year, 2 additional #1s, for McDavid and a couple of salary dumps to make the cap work

That being said, I'm hoping Jim Benning immediately calls up Edmonton once Vancouver's season is over and tries to convince them to take on the last 2 years of that Ryan Miller contract

Yeah, and that's what Edmonton should probably be asking for, but it obviously wouldn't make sense for a team to give that up. The Leafs' future roster has holes pretty much everywhere, so I think they're better off casting as wide a net as possible to bring in a ton of high upside players rather than just getting one guy and trying to build around him.

I'm still mad that Edmonton won the lottery. There's literally no scenario that would have pissed me off more.

[Strat]

That is the best game of hockey I have ever seen the wild play. Completely out hustled, out muscled, out smarted out played the blues in every aspect. We were all over them. That was fun to watch. Man alive.

[Mecca]

Ducks!

[PHATJ]

That is the best game of hockey I have ever seen the wild play. Completely out hustled, out muscled, out smarted out played the blues in every aspect. We were all over them. That was fun to watch. Man alive.

They are good right now. Actually they are really good, and they have been for 3 months. Best record in the NHL during that time I believe.

#SuperBowlHomeboy

[MattA75]

The Blues are quickly becoming this decade's version of the Sharks...great regular seasons followed by utter and dismal failure in the playoffs...have they even won a playoff series since they became good again like 4-5 years ago?

[philpritchard]

The Blues are quickly becoming this decade's version of the Sharks...great regular seasons followed by utter and dismal failure in the playoffs...have they even won a playoff series since they became good again like 4-5 years ago?

They won the first round in 2011-12... against the Sharks.

Actually, in the last 11 seasons dating back to the Pronger/MacInnis days, they've missed the playoffs five times, been eliminated in the first round five times, and made it to the second round once.

I didn't know this until just now, but it's pretty amazing: they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals (and lost) their first three years of existence after expansion and haven't been back since. That's crazy.

[southp]

Way too much talk about non-playoff teams here.
It's the first round people... this is the best time of the year to be watching multiple hockey games per day!

All huge games tonight.
I'd love to see the Flames stick it to the Canucks and go up 3-1. Why are the Canucks so unlikeable? All the people are talk to here in Montreal don't really care for Vancouver. We can secretly support the Jets (although it's not looking good now) but not Vancouver. Is it the Sedins? Burrows? Miller?

[philpritchard]

Way too much talk about non-playoff teams here.
It's the first round people... this is the best time of the year to be watching multiple hockey games per day!

I actually don't watch that much playoff hockey the first couple rounds. Once the Leafs are done (so... mid-November most years) I focus almost entirely on baseball.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Halak has been nuts the 3rd period and OT so far.

[MattA75]

Way too much talk about non-playoff teams here.
It's the first round people... this is the best time of the year to be watching multiple hockey games per day!

All huge games tonight.
I'd love to see the Flames stick it to the Canucks and go up 3-1. Why are the Canucks so unlikeable? All the people are talk to here in Montreal don't really care for Vancouver. We can secretly support the Jets (although it's not looking good now) but not Vancouver. Is it the Sedins? Burrows? Miller?

mostly I think it's carryover from 2010-2012 plus last year's disaster with Tortorella...this year's team is much more likeable...well, Dan Hamhuis' stupidity the other night aside

Burrows was a big part of that, but he's sucked for the last three years, Lapierre is gone (thank Christ for that), Hansen's role has been reduced

[E.H. Ruddock]

Halak has been nuts the 3rd period and OT so far.

Welp

[Fuck You Jobu]

Halak has been nuts the 3rd period and OT so far.

Welp

What a great game. Wish I could say I made it to the end.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Halak has been nuts the 3rd period and OT so far.

Welp

What a great game. Wish I could say I made it to the end.

Also, Hiller was pretty great in goal against Vancouver last night. Probably my favorite part of the playoffs is great goalie play.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I h8 the Ducks

[Mecca]

I'm rooting for them. The Jets fans were chanting "Katy Perry" for Corey Perry as if that was some sort of insult. Don't be hating on my girl