NHL 2017-18

There sure have been some weird scores so far this season. Chicago beating Pittsburgh 10-1, Tampa beating Pittsburgh 7-1, and tonight Vegas are beating Colorado 7-0. Phoenix being winless is also interesting but they're so awful with such a huge hole to dig out of roster wise.

Roke wrote:

There sure have been some weird scores so far this season. Chicago beating Pittsburgh 10-1, Tampa beating Pittsburgh 7-1, and tonight Vegas are beating Colorado 7-0. Phoenix being winless is also interesting but they're so awful with such a huge hole to dig out of roster wise.

Goaltending in general this year has been atrocious. Leafs have been beat 6-3 a couple times too.

and another 7-1 beat-down for the penguins last night

saint2e wrote:

Goaltending in general this year has been atrocious.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/wsARbr8.png)

Looks OK to me!

*Legion* wrote:
saint2e wrote:

Goaltending in general this year has been atrocious.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/wsARbr8.png)

Looks OK to me!

No need to rush to Quick judgments.

Eugh... Another lacklustre performance for the Leafs. It was good to see Andersen on his game, I just wish they'd all sync up and be excellent at the same time, like when they shut out the Caps.

Leafs have been trending the wrong way for the last 4-5 games. Last night the fourth line (Martin, Moore, Brown/Bozak/whoever) were atrocious, Polak has been a liability on the ice (after his injury last playoffs, he's even slower). Bozak has not looked good outside of the powerplay. The Matthews line has been great, but all of a sudden everyone else is incompetent.

Babcock has to do something . Sit Polak, bring back Carrick, that seems like a no-brainer. Sit Martin, finally play Leivo, or play Kapanen, that'd also be good. I don't know what he can do about Bozak.. Babcock is already giving him super protected minutes, almost entirely o-zone starts.

Andersen was great last night. Him and Matthews were the reason it was a 1 goal game.

Okay, okay, I only mention Ovie's whole "Social Movement" for Putin thing here purely because it makes that old Sportscenter commercial absolutely hilarious in retrospect.

Movie Announcer Voice wrote:

This time, "Hacked by Ovechkin" isn't just a 2-minute minor...

I'll see myself out.

Blues are rolling, but this is a great piece about something greater. F*ck cancer.

Ari's impact on the Blues was beyond measure

IMAGE(https://nhl.bamcontent.com/images/photos/292876892/960x540/cut.jpg)

We've all had moments in our lives where we've gotten bad news and it stopped us in our tracks.

One of those moments came on Tuesday night during our game in New Jersey.

Not long after we finished celebrating Vladimir Tarasenko's game-tying goal in the second period against the Devils, we were alerted to a post on Facebook with an update on Arianna Dougan, the amazing 11-year-old we got to know so well when she joined our team for a road trip in March.

Ari's mom, Lori, had shared the following message:

"This is not a post anyone should have to write ever. Childhood cancer should not be a thing but it is....and so here it is ......Arianna is rapidly losing lung function. We have been told that soon her lungs will stop functioning. There is nothing more that can be done. She is not going to be better... She will not be leaving this room with us. She will not be turning 12, having a first kiss or a high school prom.

ARI DOES NOT want to talk about it, she is not saying goodbye to anyone and therefore we are only saying Love you."

Suddenly, hockey didn't matter.

The two points that were on the line against the Devils felt entirely meaningless. Ari wasn't going to be around to see how our season ended. She wouldn't be joining us for another game or singing the national anthem on Hockey Fights Cancer night like we had planned. She wasn't going to go on another road trip or take another selfie on the ice with Tarasenko ever again.

That realization shook us to our cores. The third period played out on the ice in New Jersey, but we barely noticed.

After about 10 minutes of thinking about how life isn't fair sometimes, we picked ourselves up and got back to work. The bracelets Ari handed out read "Fight like Arianna… always with a smile," so we couldn't stop doing our thing if Ari was still doing hers - and by doing her thing, we mean maintaining a charming, positive and inspiring attitude despite knowing she wasn't going to win a battle with cancer that she had been fighting for the last eight years.

Ari passed away peacefully on Saturday morning, but not before she impacted all of us in ways that the words you're reading right now on your smartphone or laptop screen could never possibly communicate.

She made us smile. She made us laugh. She made us cry. She even made us homemade cookies on a trip that was intended to be FOR her!

When our cameras followed her every move on the road, sometimes we felt a bit intrusive, like maybe we should back off and let her enjoy the trip without us around. But Ari wouldn't have it. She enjoyed being a celebrity. She liked being recognized by hockey fans on her way to the rink and she loved being on TV, so she wanted us to stick around. So that's what we did, and we're thankful for every moment of it.

If we were to sit down and think of the all the ways Ari has impacted our organization, we'd miss our next 10 hockey games.

Here are just three quick examples of the impact that she made in a very short time:

1. After physically-demanding games and a long road trip, players are quick to get off the plane, get in their cars and head home. But after Ari's trip, which landed around 2 a.m., every player, coach, pilot and flight crew member stood in line to say goodbye. They had been touched and inspired by Ari's unshakeable courage, and they weren't going home without telling her how they felt.

2. Because of Ari's incredible trip, the Blues have made a commitment to bring a child in need on a road trip every year, and that's why Levi joined us for a one-game trip to Carolina two weeks ago.

3. The day after the Blues returned home from New Jersey, Tarasenko and his wife, Yana, went to visit Ari at the hospital. They didn't go because they felt the need to say goodbye. They went because they had developed a special bond, one that came from terrible circumstances but was strengthened through hope and admiration for one another.

The world is a sadder place without Ari, but we're thankful to have gotten to know her and to have given her a distraction from her battle with cancer, if only for a few days. Her road trip was supposed to create lasting memories for her, but it ended up meaning the world to us.

At the request of Ari's family, please do something nice for someone today. And use #spreadArislight and #FightLikeAri if you share a story or memory about her on social media.

We're going to keep fighting like Arianna, always with a smile. But on days like today, that's much easier said than done.

I'm really digging the scrappy Golden Knights. Fun team to watch and root for. I'm not as much digging the sparkly gold trim on their sweaters, though.

mwdowns wrote:

I'm really digging the scrappy Golden Knights. Fun team to watch and root for. I'm not as much digging the sparkly gold trim on their sweaters, though.

It's not Vegas if it's not tacky.

We're going to Vegas to see the Hurricanes play them in a couple of weeks and I can't wait.

Anyone follow an AHL team? Just curious, I have seen several NHL'ers before they became stars. There is an AHL team in my town so I go to most of their games.

DrJones wrote:

Anyone follow an AHL team? Just curious, I have seen several NHL'ers before they became stars. There is an AHL team in my town so I go to most of their games.

I don't follow any, since I'm in St. Louis. I went to a Missouri Mavericks (now Kansas City Mavericks) game a couple of years ago, and it was a fantastic experience. If I lived in KC, I'd be going to their games a lot. They are an ECHL team affiliated with the Calgary Flames and the AHL Stockton Heat.

DrJones wrote:

Anyone follow an AHL team? Just curious, I have seen several NHL'ers before they became stars. There is an AHL team in my town so I go to most of their games.

I used to go to the occasional game (usually when the Habs' affiliate was in town) and had a lot of fun at a few Calder Cup games against Hamilton. It's not a bad way to spend an evening.

DrJones wrote:

There is an AHL team in my town so I go to most of their games.

When I lived in Fresno and started dating my wife, our date nights were largely Fresno Falcons ECHL games. Then when we were in Austin, we got a nice ticket pack to see Texas Stars AHL games. (Sadly just missing the point in time where they were coached by ex-Fresno Falcon Glen Gulutzan!)

Sadly, the Falcons exist no longer, but minor league hockey is some of the best sports entertainment per dollar there is.

There's an ECHL team here in Atlanta, the Gladiators, but the arena they play at is about a 25 minute drive (on a good day) from from the city perimeter, whereas I live pretty much right in the middle of Atlanta. I don't get out there much. Used to go to the Roanoke Express (now defunct, I think) all the time when I was in college at Virginia Tech.

Flames affiliate was in my home town for the exact amount of time I lived elsewhere. I went to one game while they were around.

Before that I used to follow the Manitoba Moose and now keep up with the Utica comets.

We have the WHL out here, and while I live closer to the Everett Silvertips, I play beer league hockey closer to the Seattle Thunderbirds so I end up watching their games with my team way, way more. That said, I rarely go out to games these days. Money's tight.

But if they would just give us a team I would go broke to support that!

Everyone's experiences sound cool. I go to about 25 Hershey Bears games a year. Luckily I only live 10 minutes away. I have seen quite a few players that are now on the Washington Capitals and other various teams. Unfortunately they lost all their good players to the Capitals and thus are not doing well :(.

Kings sweep a 4-game road trip, and start the season with their best 14-game road record in franchise history (10-3-1).

After being essentially written off (and unprotected in the expansion draft), Dustin Brown is on the best scoring pace of his career.

3or4monsters wrote:

We have the WHL out here, and while I live closer to the Everett Silvertips, I play beer league hockey closer to the Seattle Thunderbirds so I end up watching their games with my team way, way more. That said, I rarely go out to games these days. Money's tight.

But if they would just give us a team I would go broke to support that!

And today it sounds like Seattle will be getting an NHL team!

Vector wrote:
3or4monsters wrote:

We have the WHL out here, and while I live closer to the Everett Silvertips, I play beer league hockey closer to the Seattle Thunderbirds so I end up watching their games with my team way, way more. That said, I rarely go out to games these days. Money's tight.

But if they would just give us a team I would go broke to support that!

And today it sounds like Seattle will be getting an NHL team!

Huh. Would they go in the Central division instead of the Pacific, or might there be realignment? Or just grow the Pacific to 9 teams versus the Central's 7?

You can't have Seattle and Vancouver not be in the same division, right?

I saw someone suggest moving the two Alberta teams into the Central and moving Dallas into the Pacific. That cuts Vancouver off from all other Canadian teams though.

There'd be realignment. It'd probably look something like this.

Los Angeles
San Jose
Vancouver
Anaheim
Vegas
Seattle
Edmonton
Calgary

Winnipeg
Nashville
St. Louis
Minnesota
Chicago
Dallas
Arizona
Colorado

Arizona moving to the Central would be a little rough for them. They're much closer to three Pacific teams (Vegas and both LA area teams) than they are the closest Central team.

I guess someone has to lose though.

Ideally they just stop existing!

DrJones wrote:

Anyone follow an AHL team? Just curious, I have seen several NHL'ers before they became stars. There is an AHL team in my town so I go to most of their games.

The Hurricanes farm AHL team (the Checkers) is just down the road in Charlotte, so we keep up with them to some extent and usually hit a game or two a year.

I will admit I'm not usually very up on what their ECHL farm team is doing though. It's the Florida Everblades, which is a fantastic hockey team name.

Looks like there is going to be a new owner of the Carolina Hurricanes. I've no idea if the previous owners were considered good or bad by the fans.

The Canes have had some rough years, but from what I've read the team is pretty well-managed, generally make good decisions. They have a lot of young talent. In season previews I saw a number of people predicting the Canes would be good this year, but it hasn't really happened. A 6.68 team shooting percent is pretty terrible, you have to think that that will improve and they'll start winning.

The Metropolitan is super tough this year. (Wow is the Atlantic ever soft this year)

Peter Karmanos is the Hurricanes current (majority) owner, and he's a mixed bag.

He is the former CEO of Compuware and is a huge hockey fan, he has pumped a ton of money into hockey all the way from youth programs in Detroit (where he lives) up to buying the Whalers and moving them to NC. He has been good about keeping his promise to grow hockey as a sport in the triangle and in not moving the team away, but he's also been a pretty absentee owner for the most part, other than dumping money. He's kind of an asshole and is (was?) on the NHL advisory board and pushed hard in the negotiations with the NHLPA so as a person he's not really my favorite, but on the whole the Canes have done... OK under him.

Karmanos will be keeping a minority stake in the company, with the new guy (Tom Dundon) allegedly taking 52%. Dundon is from Dallas and owns some giant golf company called Topgolf -- I know nothing about golfing so I have no idea what his reputation is in those circles. The sense in the folks I've seen talk about it is that he's not specifically much of a hockey guy, and just wants something big-name to invest in.

Everyone I know is a little nervous about whether he's really going to be good for the team, but part of the default agreement for a team purchase is to promise not to move the team for at least 7 years so we can hope that things will at least stay the same for now, and that maybe if he wants the glamor of owning a big pro team he'll want to make us more than a cap-floor team and let us invest in that last bit we need to get over the hump into the playoffs.

We're in this funny place where a few years ago the team made the decision to move away from comp tickets and large amounts of promotions to try to fill the stands, and instead has pared that down and restructured a bit. The net result is that our arena looks a lot more empty than others around the league that are giving away tickets to make them seem more successful, but our last season was actually our first profitable one and we are trending upward as far as actual season ticket holders, which (other than corporate sponsorships) is the primary source of steady income. There was a pretty good article about that recently and it sounds like we're (slowly) building the base up.

The problem is that in the end, we've gotta perform on the ice, and despite having all the Fancy Stats on our side and having made a bunch of great moves over the last few years under Ron Francis as GM, it's not turning into more consistent wins. The fanbase and media are at the point of throwing up our hands not really knowing what to do next because it feels like we've got a rut going with no real thing to point at to fix it. People are starting to expect either a) getting rid of our coach -- who is really IMHO pretty good but has inexplicably lost the room, or b) making a big trade just to shake things up.

Maybe once the sale is finalized, Dundon will be willing to inject some cash into a big acquisition to punch things up, but otherwise I fear we'll do something stupid to shake things up, because right now we're in one of those mental holes that are hard to dig out of.

This is my new favourite thing: