NHL: The puck has finally dropped

I was among the first to see the return of the NHL and didn't even realize it as I attended the preseason game featuring my Hurricanes against the hated Crapitals Friday night at the RBC Center. This preseason game was the first of any in the NHL, so those of us watching were getting in on the first view of this "new" NHL. I liked what I saw, though it was hard not to as my boys -- mostly younger players, including rookie netminder Cam Ward and newly grabbed Andrew Ladd -- just pounded on Washington, shutting them out six to naught and capitalizing on 4 of 14 powerplays. I later found out Washington fielded only 5 veterans and Kolzig was, of course, not in net, but to be fair Carolina wasn't fielding their first team either so eat it Washington fans.

I dig the rule changes, especially the removal of the two-line pass rule. And you could tell that Carolina had worked out some new strategies on the breakout making good use of it, where Washington still seemed tentative and still set up mostly in front of the red line. Saw a few tag-ups but nothing that made too much of a difference overall. All NHL preseason games end with an exhibition shootout to introduce people to the concept and I think it was well-received. I'm no purist so I think it's a Good Thing overall. Sunday's preseason game actually required the shootout as the game was still tied after the 4-on-4 OT period, so we got to see it in real effect. And lost, but thems the breaks (I love Erik Cole but if he could possibly, for once, not shoot center mass on the damned goalie all of his hard work may actually pay off... this is a hockey game Erik, not sniper school. Hitting the goalie directly in the sternum every time is not the goal here.).

The wife and I -- and this year, the baby -- have a 10-game season ticket plan in the upper section this year, FSS is broadcasting a dumpload of 'Canes games, OLN has a contract to broadcast a ton, HDNet blessMarkCubanAndMayAngelsAlightOnHisBum has a contract to broadcast 52 high definition games this season, and there's still an off chance that my local station will broadcast some HD Hurricanes games... that's a load of hockey goodness for us, boys!

Anyone else catch any so far?

Oh, is the NHL back...

hadn't noticed...

Hopefully our 2k6 league will have the same OT settings as the NHL.

On OT - I'd still like to see a full 20 minute 5 on 5, and I liked the idea of ties, but not that huge a deal to me I guess.

Looking forward to this season.

Haven't seen any yet, but I can't wait. I'm really looking forward to the season, and here's hoping that 40 games into the season they're still taking the rule changes seriously...

Thanks for the review of the game Coldforged. As a Whaler fan I always have a morbid curiosity on how the Cane's are doing. Although Maurice getting the boot (deserved or not) was probably the last bit of separation.

In any case it's good to hear hockey talk, and it's good to have hockey back. I'm going to try to see a few games either in Vancouver or San Jose this year.

Woot hockey... been waiting too long to start seeing games again. Must be nice to be in a market that can get tickets. I'm in Toronto.

Hopefully our 2k6 league will have the same OT settings as the NHL.

On OT - I'd still like to see a full 20 minute 5 on 5, and I liked the idea of ties, but not that huge a deal to me I guess.

Is it just me or are these two statements in contradiction? That said, I actually like the new regular season OT handling rather than slogging through another 20 minute 5-on-5 period. 4-on-4 opens it up a bit in my mind.

As a Whaler fan I always have a morbid curiosity on how the Cane's are doing. Although Maurice getting the boot (deserved or not) was probably the last bit of separation.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be a Hartford fan, especially with the seemingly intentional total separation that exists now. I missed Coach Maurice for a while -- we still saw him at the neighborhood parks playing with his kids on the jungle gyms -- but I think that Laviolette is doing a bang-up job on preparations this season if this early play is to be believed. I was really impressed with their play: not taking penalties on the new stickier rules (for the Washington game 6 penalties versus 14 and for Sunday's game against the Panthers 8 versus 18), ability to actually set up on offense, having a seriously effective power play for once, and the aforementioned sharper looking breakouts with the wingers often setting up on the offensive blue line.

Actually that segues into a thought I had before NHL2K6 came out that the developers of the NHL hockey video games would have a hard time predicting what real-world things the teams would do with the removal of the two-line pass rule. And it's already proven true, with the Hurricanes often setting up with defensemen back on breakout, center generally around the defensive blue line and wingers around offensive blue line. As the D-men start the breakout the wingers would often criss-cross along the offensive blue line trying to complicate the defense and open new passing lanes. NHL2K6 -- I can't speak for NHL06 as I haven't bought it and, perhaps as a surprising sign of good taste, my Blockbuster isn't even carrying it that I could tell when I tried to rent it last night -- kept the same breakout strategies from last year and only perhaps tweaking it slightly so the players don't necessarily worry overly about crossing the red line. They certainly didn't add any new breakout strategies or massively tweak the positioning to account for the doubling of effective neutral zone passing space.

P.S. HAHAHA I ACTUALLY SOMEWHAT SOUND LIKE I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!1 WHAT A BUNCH OF sh*t!!11111

Oh, it's so good to have the NHL back. Especially since my men's team just lost our playoffs. I'm gonna try to get to three for four Flyers games this season with some friends, should be a good time. The preseason games haven't been on my local stations yet, so I haven't seen the new rules in effect except for a couple of AHL games.

I'm going to my first preseason game of the year tomorrow. Oilers vs. Canucks. Whoot.

ColdForged wrote:
Hopefully our 2k6 league will have the same OT settings as the NHL.

On OT - I'd still like to see a full 20 minute 5 on 5, and I liked the idea of ties, but not that huge a deal to me I guess.

Is it just me or are these two statements in contradiction? That said, I actually like the new regular season OT handling rather than slogging through another 20 minute 5-on-5 period. 4-on-4 opens it up a bit in my mind.

It's just you. You read stupit and you dress funny, too.

In my brief but well written message, I said what I LIKED as far as OT, but that I wanted the 2k6 league's OT to match the real NHL's, my preferrence not withstanding. Don't be so STUPIT

Ties are for sissies who can't aspire to victory.

I got tickets to the Canucks (and the NHL) season opener against Wayne Gretzkey and his Phoenix Coyotes. I'm an really looking forward to it and want to see the changes first hand. My parents have tickets to a September 23 exhibition game against San Jose.

And Swampy, I love your avatar.

*Legion* wrote:

Ties are for sissies who can't aspire to victory.

Shootouts are for sissies who are too tired to play the damn game. Why don't you just flip a goddamn coin, cause that's what a shootout is.

*Legion* wrote:

Ties are for sissies who can't aspire to victory.

I'll tell you what - from now on if we're tied after 4 periods let's you and me Rochambeau for it. I go first.

Anyone up for a picup game Wed. night around 10 or 10:15 EST?

Mixolyde wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Ties are for sissies who can't aspire to victory.

Shootouts are for sissies who are too tired to play the damn game.

Yeah, that makes sense... because it's so much more physically draining to just end the game (a tie). Huh?

Yeah screw people working the next day and screw television schedules, I want regular season games to last 5 hours! IMAGE(http://img117.exs.cx/img117/9585/q9crolleyes.gif)

I think there's a little more skills (players/goalies) and strategy (coach) used in a shootout than flipping a coin too. I wouldn't want that in the playoffs but it'll make for a great show in the regular season.

On a side note: Mark my words, bookmark this page, Montreal for the cup!

Mr.Green wrote:

Mark my words, bookmark this page, Montreal for the cup!

Damn Green, you're prophetic. They do wear cups. Some would argue whether they're strictly necessary for the Canadiens considering their lack of balls, but form must be followed.

(Sorry, sweetie, that was simply too fun to pass up.)

Are you guys ignoring the league settings thread?!?

ColdForged wrote:
Mr.Green wrote:

Mark my words, bookmark this page, Montreal for the cup!

Damn Green, you're prophetic. They do wear cups. Some would argue whether they're strictly necessary for the Canadiens considering their lack of balls, but form must be followed.

(Sorry, sweetie, that was simply too fun to pass up.)

When I first read that, I thought it was a slam on canadians and was ready to go all rabid. Now that I see it was a slam on the Canadiens - carry on.

ColdForged wrote:
Mr.Green wrote:

Mark my words, bookmark this page, Montreal for the cup!

Damn Green, you're prophetic. They do wear cups. Some would argue whether they're strictly necessary for the Canadiens considering their lack of balls, but form must be followed.

(Sorry, sweetie, that was simply too fun to pass up.)

I can't wait for the season to begin. I feel there will be some pretty nasty rivalries around here. The fun I will make of you. No not just you. All of you!

For all that I love the Canadiens (only jersey I ever bought for myself... twice!), I just don't think they did enough over the off-season to be considered a favorite for the Cup. Here's hoping I'm wrong!

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft!

They've won their first two games, and one was against the Stanley Cup champions, 6 - 1. WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?

Islanders 5 - Rangers 1.

It's going to be a long goddamn season.

Islanders 5 - Rangers 1.

Not for the rest of us... I'm hoping they go another 67 years bettween cups.

Montreal may be an interesting team this year. They didn't change much, but I think they had one of the better young rosters before the lockout. And they still have most of it.

Unlike the leafs who are old and so very very afraid to take a chance on some of the young players. They just keep grabbing another 35+ player who will be injured by chistmas. At least young players give us hope for the future. That being said I think Belfour at 40 is still rock solid. And I wouldn't have thought it would be possible.

Prederick wrote:

Islanders 5 - Rangers 1.

It's going to be a long goddamn season.

Few teams deserve it more than the Rangers. I hope all the "buy a Cup" teams suffer so.

*Legion* wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Islanders 5 - Rangers 1.

It's going to be a long goddamn season.

Few teams deserve it more than the Rangers. I hope all the "buy a Cup" teams suffer so.

I can say I haven't heard that criticism before. Although, with what Sather has done, it's not surprising. Still, as someone who loves the blueshirts, pleased to go fork yourself with an iron stick.

Prederick wrote:

I can say I haven't heard that criticism before.

Wow. For the past few years I couldn't watch a hockey TV show or hear a radio show WITHOUT hearing the accusation.

Their recent bloated payrolls were most certainly Part Of The Problem (tm).

A nice little line from the Sporting News: "If you could just buy the Cup, the team of the '90s would have been the New York Rangers."

EDIT: I mean I hadn't heard that criticism of the '94 team.

Somehow, it doesn't surprise me. Of course, I'm not a regular subscriber to the Sporting News so I hadn't heard it, but I won't argue the point. I've watched them try to buy the Stanley Cup for a while now, and even as a fan, seeing them fail was kind of nice, if only because maybe they'd decide to actually field a skilled team rather than a bunch of overpaid layabouts.

God... Eric Lindros... God.

My 'Canes certainly aren't stinking up the preseason. They can score! 20 goals in 4 games! I'm liking this and hope to see it continue. Hurricanes for The Cup!

A guy can dream.

Pre-season games mean very little. I wouldn't read into them beyond how a few of the rookies and minor-leaguers are doing. However, CANUCKS FOR THE CUP!

They better get deep in the playoffs, I got dibs on some good playoff tickets.