The 2017/2018 NHL Thread

[Meacon Keaton]

I ended up finishing 15th out of 20th in my Strat hockey league this year. We got up to about 12th with a month left, but I kind of pulled the reigns back a little so as to get a higher percentage in the lottery since the odds of me jumping from 12th to 8th to get the last playoff spot were painfully long. I've only got an 8% chance of the #1 pick, but if I can get a Top-3 or 4 pick, I'd be quite pleased with that. We're set up to have a decent year and maybe even compete for the playoffs next year. 

[gunnar hendershow]

3 hours ago, Liam Mk2 said:

I finally found some NHL to watch on FreeSports in the UK.

How in the hell are you supposed to follow the puck? I mean, do you have to train your eye or what? I'm thinking if the picture was HD it might be easier. 

It is a little easier in HD, but honestly most of the action in hockey happens away from the puck. Your eyes train to taking in everything happening on the ice, where skaters are positioned, where they're going, where someone might be able to have a chance to shoot. It sounds counter-intuitive but you don't really need to see the puck to know what's going on.

And yeah, back in the 90s when the NHL had its first national TV deal in the US (on Fox) they tried getting the light up puck to help people know where it was. But it made it distracting, there was this weird light up trail that followed it wherever it went. Those were interesting times. Hockey experienced a huge surge in popularity here in the early 90s and then the double whammy of a lockout and the advent of the dead puck era really killed that momentum. Nowadays the on-ice product is as good and exciting as ever. Plus the salary cap has made for unprecedented levels of parity, which means all but a few fanbases have reason to be excited every season.

[Ruki]

Hockey is ok again.

[Draevyn]

I think this is the first year where I'm cheering for more than 1 team in the playoffs. Pens, Colorado, Vegas, Toronto and Winnipeg.

Now I know they all can't win so it's actually based on that order for preference as well when it comes to the cup.

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Are the Golden Knights the first team in history (any sport?) to win their first postseason series before losing their first postseason game?

Update. According to ESPN: "With Tuesday's sweep, they became just the third team in the NHL, NBA or MLB to complete a four-game sweep in its first playoff series. The Pittsburgh Penguins did so in 1970 against the Oakland Seals, and MLB's Boston Braves pulled off the feat in 1914 against the Philadelphia Athletics."

[RPS]

14 hours ago, Forever Forky said:

I think this is the first year where I'm cheering for more than 1 team in the playoffs. Pens, Colorado, Vegas, Toronto and Winnipeg.

Now I know they all can't win so it's actually based on that order for preference as well when it comes to the cup.

 

It is a super fascinating playoff year on the Western Conference final. Presumably we will have Vegas/Jets, Penguins/Bruins showdown. 2 of those teams were not even in the Playoffs last year and the Bruins were out first round. 

[Ruki]

Vegas is going to win the cup and they are going to make a movie about it. 

[Draevyn]

Just now, Ruki said:

Vegas is going to win the cup and they are going to make a movie about it. 

Unfortunately they've got a strong Preds team to contend with unless the Avs can pull off a miracle and put them out.

[Ruki]

Just now, Forever Forky said:

Unfortunately they've got a strong Preds team to contend with unless the Avs can pull off a miracle and put them out.

The Preds are gonna go up 3-0, then in game 4, they will be up like....4-2. 

 

The the Knights will come back and win the series. Because hockey makes no sense and how the fuck is Vegas so good. 

[gunnar hendershow]

My friend texted me today "Vegas has to be the most stacked expansion team ever." And I mean, yeah kinda? But still, they're basically a roster of every team from last year's 5th best player. That doesn't make a team this good. It's a great coaching job to identify their strengths and weaknesses and play around them.

[Plubby]

Their first line is worst than most team's first lines, but they have four really good 2nd-to-2.5th lines so they get really good secondary scoring. None of their players stink, imo.

[Draevyn]

Vegas has managed to find something that a lot of teams struggle with when first coming together and that's chemistry. Talent will get you a long ways but chemistry is that icing on the cake and Vegas has it in spades. Unfortunately I don't think Colorado is going to get by Nashville so I'm all in on Vegas in the west. Vegas vs Penguins is my dream for this playoffs. I feel like Pittsburgh has finally woken up and when they're on their game, there isn't a team in the league that can stand with them.

[Ruki]

Isn't like every Vegas player having a career year? That probably helps.

 

I want Vegas to win the west.

 

And then the Leafs to beat them

[gunnar hendershow]

5 hours ago, Forever Forky said:

Vegas has managed to find something that a lot of teams struggle with when first coming together and that's chemistry. Talent will get you a long ways but chemistry is that icing on the cake and Vegas has it in spades. Unfortunately I don't think Colorado is going to get by Nashville so I'm all in on Vegas in the west. Vegas vs Penguins is my dream for this playoffs. I feel like Pittsburgh has finally woken up and when they're on their game, there isn't a team in the league that can stand with them.

Not to take anything away from Pittsburgh but the Flyers either looked like one of the best teams in the NHL this season or one of the worst, and there was no middle ground. We'll have a better idea of how the Pens are playing when they face either Washington or Columbus in what will almost certainly be a great series in the next round.

[Ruki]

I know there's 14 minutes left but....hockey is stupid again.

[Draevyn]

9 hours ago, Ruki said:

I know there's 14 minutes left but....hockey is stupid again.

They're just preparing for the miracle comeback.

Yeah...I'm sorry....they really aren't

[Ruki]

They are going to really change up their D this coming summer. Like...majorly. 

[Ruki]

The Leafs won game 5. They are gonna win game 6 too. And then lose in game 7, because why not.

[Draevyn]

Well that was a little harder than I thought it would be, but thankfully the first round is done with. Now if it's the Caps next, we all know how that always ends up.

[Plubby]

I'm okay with this. They thought we'd get swept. We took a game at home, we took a game in their barn, and we gave the home fans the full three games we could get. It's a hell of an improvement on 48 points. We have absolute nobodies on our second line (BTW our second line is Kerfoot-Jost-Andrighetto for those who think MacKinnon isn't solo-carrying this team) so if they get better or we can improve that line we should be fine moving forward