The Hockey Thread

[TGWL]

I wouldn't worry too much about the rangers. I don't see them making the playoffs. Anything is possible, but they really haven't done anything all season to deserve the 8th spot.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Well the 5 teams still competing for the last 2 spots look like this...

Canadiens - 72 points - 0 games in hand - 33-29-6 - 72.9% Chance

Bruins - 70 points - 3 games in hand - 29-24-12 - 62.8% Chance

----

Thrashers - 66 points - 3 Games in hand - 28-27-10 - 22.6% Chance

Rangers - 67 points - 1 Game in hand - 29-29-9 - 19.4% Chance

Lightining - 65 Points - 3 Games in hand - 27-27-11 - 12.3% Chance

I dislike that this season the bottom 2 teams that make the playoffs may be sub .500 teams as currently Montreal is 2 games below .500 and Boston is currently 7 games below .500

[Toe]

Great pass from Bozak to Kessel to win in overtime tonight against the Lightning! Where were these performances earlier in the season?

It's good to see Kessel and Bozak developing some chemistry and Luca Caputi has put up some points in the few games he has played as a Leaf.

[Ananas]

In fairness, earlier in the season Bozak was playing his home games at RICOH and Phil Kessel had absolutely zero chemistry with the Blakes, Stajans, Ponikarovskys and basically everyone they played him with until they tried Kuley and Bozak. Glad they've put that pairing back together; nothing against Poni but Kuley's just a rare treat on the Leafs to watch when he's got somebody to play with.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Hooray Habs win again! Not thrilled it had to go to shootout against the worst team in the league but a win is a win and 74 points puts us well clear of 9th and 10th even if they win all the games they have in hand. A win against Boston on saturday and I'll be quite pleased.

[Plubby]

Oh, Andy - I love him, I wanna boof him, get him down here.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I understand that the CBC wants better ratings, so they're gonna show the Leafs game because 80% of Quebec is french and thus watching on RDS, but really, a part of me feels that the #29 v #30 team match up just shouldn't get precedence over the most intense rivalry since expansion, which is also an original 6 match up and is a game where #7 and #8 in the East are duking it out for position.

Again, I understand there's more ratings in the Leafs/Oil game... but I just needed to get that out.

In other news

Montreal's chances now at 79.2%

Boston at 76.8%

Number 9 Rangers down to 17%

[Toe]

Craig Anderson continues to be great for the Avalanche. What a pick up for them, he has been a force in net.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

50th goal of the season, in the last home game, with 11.8 seconds remaining, to put his team ahead.

Jeff Skinner is going to be huge.

[SeanDMan]

My post in Bragging Bitch reminded me, this was the last year where I was too busy to follow hockey. I decided to read back and see what I missed during the playoffs, and then for lulz, I decided to see how absolutely wrong everyone was with their preseason banter.

Vokoun's solid enough that I think he'll make a huge difference with Florida. I'd feel more comfortable with Tomas Vokoun in Florida than Rick DiPietro, Dwayne Roloson or Kari Lehtonen...

Florida won 3 more games than the previous year, but failed to pick up any points and still missed the playoffs. Lehtonen and DiPietro both had sub par years and Roloson was unable to get his team to the playoffs.

Florida sucked with Luongo in net. They could go back in time, kidnap 1993 Patrick Roy, load him up with steroids and amphetamines, and replace his bones with adamantium, and Florida would still find a way to lose. Vokoun will suffer this year because his team is just awful.

Florida remained awful.

I see Ottawa winning the division, with Buffalo placing 5th, Toronto in 7th, and Montreal facing Toronto on the final Saturday of the season with their playoff lives on the line as well. Boston is still out, although they made some good steps in acquiring Fernandez.

Ottawa was 2nd in their division, Buffalo placed 10th, Toronto was 12th, and Boston finished 8th. So pretty much wrong on everything.

I think LA will suprise a lot of people this year. They've tended to suck due to mangames lost but they have less veterans and more youngsters around, so look for them to make a big step forward this year. They just need a goalie.

Los Angeles suprised me by continuing to get slaughtered by injuries. They did manage to score more goals than all but 2 of the western conference teams, however, they also gave up more goals than any other western conference team. So they badly needed a goalie.

A lot of talk in the thread about the team needing to be patient and wait for Jonathen Bernier to come of age. I don't think anyone is waiting anymore.

The notion that the Canadiens even have a shot at making the playoffs single-handedly bumps Maurice's comment from most ridiculous.

Montreal is Edmonton, Version 2K7/2K8. Seriously...who do they have? WHO?!?!

I'm not just trying to rile you, Basha - I legitimately DO NOT see what the Habs have that gives you these ideas...

Montreal finished first in the east.

So, while I wouldn't call Montreal a contender by any means, I think we have all the tools to finish at the very least in the top 6 in the East.

Basha actually undervalues the Habs.

Since Gabe is reading this topic and him, I, Plubby, and Dragsy supposedly support Northwest teams...

Predicted Northwest Standings

Vancouver - 1st in Division, 3rd in Conference

Calgary - 2nd in division, 5th in conference

Colorado - 3rd in divison, 7th in conference

Minnesota - 4th in division, 10th in conference

Edmonton - Fifth in the division, 11th in conference

Actual Results:

Minnesota - 1st in division, 3rd in conference

Colorado - 2nd in divison, 6th in conference

Calgary - 3rd in division, 7th in conference

Edmonton - 3rd In division, 9th in conference

Vancouver - Fifth in the division, eleventh in conference

So pretty much wrong about everything.

I don't the Sedins are all that.

Nucks will still win the division though.

Nucks didn't win the division; Sedins are all that.

...and Kyle Wellwood is hurt again.

They had to do more surgery to correct his sports hernia which took him out last year. He is out indefinately. The loss of Wellwood will hurt Toronto's offence badly, as he was the key to having a potent scoring second line.

Don't know that the loss of Wellwood hurt Toronto's offense as much as the fact that Toronto's offense was made up of Toronto's offense.

...and the fact that Leaf fans can combine "Kyle Wellwood" with "potent second line" and a straight face is pretty much why I'm not cheering for them.

So, the Ducks repeat as Champs... my Flames get ousted in the first round, the Habs and the Leafs meet in the Quarter-Finals, and the Tampa Bay Lightning get 3rd in the East because of a very weak Southeast Division.

Ducks out in the first round, Calgary as well, Leafs miss the playoffs, Tampa finishes last in their division. Only accurate predication is Flames Failure, which isn't exactly top of the line psychic work.

I doubt the Ducks repeat as champs or even win their division. Selanne and Niedermayer were huge parts of their team both on the ice and in the dressing room. Team is still a playoff team, but I think western final material at best. Depending on how the goalie situation shakes down. San Jose and Anaheim are pretty much in the same boat and have very similar teams, but I think the top end talent of San Jose is much better, when you compare them one to one, I think San Jose is better in every area.

San Jose was much better than Anaheim, finishing ahead of them and making it a round deeper in the playoffs.

After a rigourous amount of time spent reading up on the teams and predicting their placements and how well they will do...

Vancouver

Detroit

San Jose

Calgary

Anaheim

Minnesota

Colorado

Dallas

Pittsburgh

Ottawa

Tampa Bay

New Jersey

Toronto

Montreal

New York R

Buffalo

Since Gabe did it:

1. Detroit

2. San Jose

3. Vancouver

4. Calgary

5. Anaheim

6. Dallas

7-8. Colorado, Minnesota, Edmonton, Los Angeles

1. Ottawa

2. New York Rangers

3. Washington

4. New Jersey

5. Pittsburgh

6. Buffalo

7-8. Toronto, Atlanta, Carolina, Tampa

Bear in mind i'm a little shaky on divisions.

East:

1 Senators

2 Rangers

3 Thrashers

4 Penguins

5 Tampa

6 Toronto

7 New Jersey

8 Buffalo

West:

1 Anaheim

2 Canucks. Anyone that does not put this team at this spot in the NW division is fooling themselves.

3 Detroit

4 San Jose

5 Dallas

6 Colorado (optimistic)

7 Wild

8 Flames <- And once again, they will be LUCKY to be here. They have to learn, Kipprusoff alone WILL NOT take this team to the promised land. Iggy's hands are going to have to be as big as his heart to launch them any higher. I'm very opinionated on our division

1) Ottawa

2) Tampa Bay

3) Rangers

4) Pittsburgh

5) Washington

6) Philly

7) Buffalo

8) Montreal

1) Vancouver

2) Anaheim

3) Detroit

4) San Jose

5) Colorado

6) Dallas

7) St. Louis

8) Calgary

Most of us were very wrong. Final standings here for reference. Bold marks for anyone who correctly picked what spot a team would finish in, italics for correctly predicting a team would make the playoffs.

[SeanDMan]

Also;

Ugh...the only thing worse than a bandwagon fan is a FEMALE bandwagon fan.

I know whats worse.

Driving on the highway, looking over, and seeing that the car next to you is being driven by an old asian woman.

That is like suicide!

[Toe]

How dare you question my stereotyping old asian women as poor drivers!

[Enter Blue Guy]

Yes! A team that sucks slightly more than the Leafs do. A team that beat us last time before losing 46 games in a row or something like that. At least the kids are trying hard and have some momentum.

Just a bunch lil' guys in the big city trying to win three in a row. I want to take them all out and buy them ice cream for their effort.

[The Sultan of Swank]

The Leafs are exhibiting a classic Leaf pattern. Usually by January or Feb Toronto has played themselves out of the playoffs and are sitting in 11-13th. Then in March and April they have something like an 11-5-2 run or whatever and play up to 10th place getting stuck with a shitty draft pick. Only this season they're playing to not give Boston a top 5.

Montreal wins their 5th in a row and since the Olympics are the best team in the league. The win over Boston means that the Broons need to win all 3 games in hand or score 5 of 6 points to catch Montreal for 7th.

It looks like Boston and Montreal will finish in 7th and 8th. Either way one team gets the right to get pole axed by Washington, the other by Pittsburgh... Although Montreal was 2-1-1 against Washington this season, so it would at least be an entertaining series. Only 1-3-0 against the Pens though...

[Plubby]

I've been blind-praising Anderson rather a lot in this thread, but anyone who hasn't seen it should check out the highlight video from Dallas/Colorado today. He was utterly ridiculous at the end of that game.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Despite the loss the Leafs still have a 0.0008% chance of making the playoffs. They need a combination of at least 24 points in their last 14 games. Which happens 215 or so times out of 25,000,000 according to the computer, and they need a bunch of other teams to start dropping games.

The Rangers and potentially the Lightning seems to be the two teams who want to ruin the playoffs for Montreal. It musn't happen. Game against the Blueshirts on tuesday, then no games 'till saturday, but this week is when teams start to make up a bunch of the games in hand.

[TGWL]

The rangers have put together 2 straight wins, which isn't really anything to be excited about, but if they're going to make a run for the playoffs...nows the time where every winning streak is going to help, and if they can sneak away with points in their next 2 games it'll be huge for them. They have Montreal and Boston and there's a chance to close the gap by thursday since the Canadians aren't playing much this week, especially against Boston who sit 1 point ahead of the rangers, but still have 1 game more to play. That'll be huge for the rangers.

I really don't see it happening, but I think it's all going to come down to Lundqvist and how shitty the D plays in front of him, because they will not win any scoring race. The players to watch are obviously Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik, Chris Drury, Sean Avery, and Henrik Lundqvist. If they can't get hot I don' see any playoff run happening.

Edited March 15, 2010 by thisgamewelose

[The Sultan of Swank]

Sorry gamewelose, but the Blueshirts are gonna lose tomorrow. Fate and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGANLolukqg&feature=related

also, thought this was fucking hilarious.

Keith Aulie.. he's uh... he's 6'6 kid... he's like... a fucking wookie on skates.

Edited March 15, 2010 by The Sultan of Swank

[TGWL]

Probably. I said I don't see it happening. They might surprise me, but I doubt it.

[Cactus Drags]

I found a place to download Avs games, squeal!

No more shitty-quality highlights clips! Hopefully I'll be able to contribute more to the thread