magisme Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I have to admit that I got grumpy with Nash at times over the past couple years. Not like I was a crazy person like people who call into talk radio and want to trade him, but sometimes he frustrated me. He's been absolutely brilliant this year.What's different between this year and the last? New linemates? New team playing style? Has he just turned it around? What gives.I haven't been able to watch much so far this year with my work schedule, but in the games I have seen he's much more aggressive putting the puck on net or toward the net than he had been. Last year he'd enter the zone with the puck and try to take on two defensemen by himself if he had no passing option. Now he whips the puck at the net and overpowers defensemen to the rebound if it doesn't go in. He looks purposeful. Sometimes last year he looked like he was playing men's league, doodling with the puck an seeing what worked. Much of it didn't work. Maybe it was the concussions. Hard to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downzy Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Buffalo has lost 11 games in a row, and they're still only tied for dead last with the Oilers. Looks like the Leafs will be joining them momentarily. Lost six of their last seven. Expect a whole lot more ego waffles being thrown at games going forward. I don't know why, but I instantly giggle at the thought of people throwing waffles at leafs game. What an absurd and hilarious way to protest your team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magisme Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 What's the story behind the waffles? Fuckin' Canadians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downzy Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 What's the story behind the waffles? Fuckin' Canadians. No real reason, as far as I can gather. Just some random asshole performing an act of civil disobedience. It doesn't make any sense, but for reasons I still don't understand, it seems appropriate.http://sports.nationalpost.com/2010/12/10/why-throw-waffles-at-the-maple-leafs/Probably the one of the funniest articles I've read (that didn't attempt to be funny). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheapJon Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 waffles -> maple syrup -> maple leafs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moreblack Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I mean yeah, 2 silvers and a bronze isn't bad, but Canada is expected to dominate hockey like Americans would dominate football or basketball. Doing objectively worse than pretty much the only four other countries that compete at a high level of hockey in the prospects tournament over a 5 year span isn't exactly inspiring for the future of Canadian hockey.This isn't even remotely close to true. Not even remotely close to close to being true. Canada has long been the best hockey country but we've never outright dominated it the way Americans would football or do basketball. International hockey has always been a pretty even playing field. Yes Canada and Russia are historically the top 2 powers houses while Slovakia and Finland are historically at the bottom of the big 7. In the middle you've got Sweden, USA, Czechs BUT any one of these countries(except maybe Slovakia) has the potential to win it all almost every year. Canada are usually the favourites sure but to say they are expected to dominate hockey the way the Americans would in football or basketball it just false. 100% false. It's never been that way so where does this assumption come from? And when it comes to World Juniors despite Canada's lack of Gold recently they've played in 8 of the last 11 gold medal games, have won a medal in 16 of the last 18 tournaments. I wouldn't get too worried about Canada's hockey future because of a blip on the radar where prior to this year they went a whopping 2 years without a medal. In a one and done situation Canada, Russia, Sweden, USA, Finland, Czechs and even Slovakia can beat anyone on any given day. If anything it's closer to what Brazil's situation in Football is. They have more World Cups and overall important international trophies than anybody else, but they are far far from beating everybody else on a yearly basis. There's Germany, Italy, Argentina, Netherlands, Spain(recently), France, and any number of rising nations that could beat them on any given day. But they always compete to the later rounds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I mean yeah, 2 silvers and a bronze isn't bad, but Canada is expected to dominate hockey like Americans would dominate football or basketball. Doing objectively worse than pretty much the only four other countries that compete at a high level of hockey in the prospects tournament over a 5 year span isn't exactly inspiring for the future of Canadian hockey.This isn't even remotely close to true. Not even remotely close to close to being true. Canada has long been the best hockey country but we've never outright dominated it the way Americans would football or do basketball. International hockey has always been a pretty even playing field. Yes Canada and Russia are historically the top 2 powers houses while Slovakia and Finland are historically at the bottom of the big 7. In the middle you've got Sweden, USA, Czechs BUT any one of these countries(except maybe Slovakia) has the potential to win it all almost every year. Canada are usually the favourites sure but to say they are expected to dominate hockey the way the Americans would in football or basketball it just false. 100% false. It's never been that way so where does this assumption come from? And when it comes to World Juniors despite Canada's lack of Gold recently they've played in 8 of the last 11 gold medal games, have won a medal in 16 of the last 18 tournaments. I wouldn't get too worried about Canada's hockey future because of a blip on the radar where prior to this year they went a whopping 2 years without a medal. In a one and done situation Canada, Russia, Sweden, USA, Finland, Czechs and even Slovakia can beat anyone on any given day. If anything it's closer to what Brazil's situation in Football is. They have more World Cups and overall important international trophies than anybody else, but they are far far from beating everybody else on a yearly basis. There's Germany, Italy, Argentina, Netherlands, Spain(recently), France, and any number of rising nations that could beat them on any given day. But they always compete to the later rounds.Brazil in soccer is the PERFECT comparison. They are basically the Canada of football(almost) and vive versa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Does anyone else get the feelings the LA Kings have been fucking around for most of the season and now that there's 20 games left they're gearing up to win it all again. 7 wins in a row and now in a playoff spot for the first time in months. That's a scary team and it would suck to have to play them in the first round, especially if you were Nashville who's had such an amazing season so far but pretty much zero playoff success as a franchise. Like heres your reward for finishing first overall. You get to play the defending Stanley Cup champs who just happen to be the hottest team the last 1/4 of the season. Although if playoffs started today I think it would be Kings vs Blackhawks to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxlsMainMan Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Kings vs. Blackhawks was a fantastic 7 game series last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satanisk_Slakt Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I saw your discussion about junior hockey. I wouldn't be worried if I was a Canada fan. Canada and America have dominated the junior cups forever, what has happened is that other nations have caught up, not that Canada has become worse. We were really worried about our juniors in the early 00's. Except from the Sedin, Henrik Lundqvist and Zetterberg we didn't get any new players that were good enough to be stars in the NHL. We had some validation about it and actions were taken to make sure they had better conditions and opportunities to reach their full potential, we looked at what Canada did and a few years later we started seeing results and now the teams pick several Swedish players in the first draft round almost every year. It also helps that our own league has become worse than it was since the Russian league, KHL, was started. The best Swedish and often Finnish players that didn't make it to the NHL used to play in Sweden. Now most of them go to Russia or the rich top teams in Switzerland, so it's easier for our juniors to get the chance in our highest league which obviously helps them become better. So the juniors here in Sweden at least have a lot better opportunities to reach their potential at an earlier age than they did just ten year ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheapJon Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Does anyone else get the feelings the LA Kings have been fucking around for most of the season and now that there's 20 games left they're gearing up to win it all again. 7 wins in a row and now in a playoff spot for the first time in months. That's a scary team and it would suck to have to play them in the first round, especially if you were Nashville who's had such an amazing season so far but pretty much zero playoff success as a franchise. Like heres your reward for finishing first overall. You get to play the defending Stanley Cup champs who just happen to be the hottest team the last 1/4 of the season. Although if playoffs started today I think it would be Kings vs Blackhawks to start. Sure as hell hope not! TBH I've been sort of rooting for them to miss the playoffs. I want a "new" winner, not LA and not CHI. If not the Rangers I hope Nashville or even Washington to win it due to Ovechkin and Bäckström mostly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axlslash Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Bumping this because today was the trade deadline and there is absolutely no reason for this thread to be so far back on fucking deadline day.Blackhawks absolutely pillaged the deadline. Kimmo Timonen and Antoine Vermette for next to nothing in present value. With Kane out until the playoffs and no salary cap for the post season, if the Hawks can figure themselves out, they will be absolutely lethal.That said, this is the best deadline deal this year, period, end of discussion: http://m.espn.go.com/nhl/story?storyId=12409736 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Habs made some little moves. Good moves though picked up some depth for next to nothing. they gave up no roster players or prospects so....I can't belive that if the Habs win tonight in San Jose they will be 1st overall in the NHL with a game in hand on Nashville. I think the last time the Habs were this high in the regular season standings was 1989 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bt88 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) To the Habs poster above, its pretty much all Carey Price isnt it? They're middle of the pack when it comes to the possession stats. Subban is really MTL's only other elite player. Pacioretty is good, not top tier though. That's not a knock, that's a perfectly viable recipe to go on a deep playoff run. To the rest of you, hope your teams did well today. Me personally I am a Sabres fan and watching Tim Murray essentially tank the team has been hilarious. We are ready for McDavid or Eichel next year. A top line of either one of those with Evander Kane on the wing is going to be fun. Edited March 3, 2015 by bt88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightningBolt Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Flyers got some good value for Coburn and Timonen. I can't complain. Really would've liked to have seen Grossmann and/or MacDonald moved somehow, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) To the Habs poster above, its pretty much all Carey Price isnt it? They're middle of the pack when it comes to the possession stats. Subban is really MTL's only other elite player. Pacioretty is good, not top tier though. That's not a knock, that's a perfectly viable recipe to go on a deep playoff run. To the rest of you, hope your teams did well today. Me personally I am a Sabres fan and watching Tim Murray essentially tank the team has been hilarious. We are ready for McDavid or Eichel next year. A top line of either one of those with Evander Kane on the wing is going to be fun. Wins and losses are what matter(Montreal leads the league in that category) not pseudo stats about puck posession. They have a top 5 goal scorer in Max Pacioretty who happens to lead the league in +/- and will likley end the year with 40 goals after scoring 39 last year. He's elite and should be nominated for the Selke this year. They have two defencemen who could legitimately be nominated for the Norris trophy this year. Subban who is obviously a star and Markov who has been a top 10 defenceman in the league for oh about a decade now. They've also got great young character guys like Gallagher and Galchenyuk. But if pseudo stats are what we're playing with even though he only scored his first goal of the season the other night they also have the leading faceoff guy in the league in Manny Malhotra. Montreal is a really good TEAM. You don't go to the conference finals last year and then 63 games into the following year sit in 2nd place overall in the league if it's only your goalie. I have no problem with Price getting tons of credit. He deserves it. He's the best goalie in the world right now and should get nominated for both the Hart and Vezina but I'm so sick of hearing people say the only reason Montreal is good is because of Price. It's clearly a opinion from people who don't pay attention. No offence. Edited March 3, 2015 by Bono Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bt88 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) To the Habs poster above, its pretty much all Carey Price isnt it? They're middle of the pack when it comes to the possession stats. Subban is really MTL's only other elite player. Pacioretty is good, not top tier though. That's not a knock, that's a perfectly viable recipe to go on a deep playoff run. To the rest of you, hope your teams did well today. Me personally I am a Sabres fan and watching Tim Murray essentially tank the team has been hilarious. We are ready for McDavid or Eichel next year. A top line of either one of those with Evander Kane on the wing is going to be fun. Wins and losses are what matter(Montreal leads the league in that category) not pseudo stats about puck posession. They have a top 5 goal scorer in Max Pacioretty who happens to lead the league in +/- and will likley end the year with 40 goals after scoring 39 last year. He's elite and should be nominated for the Selke this year. They have two defencemen who could legitimately be nominated for the Norris trophy this year. Subban who is obviously a star and Markov who has been a top 10 defenceman in the league for oh about a decade now. They've also got great young character guys like Gallagher and Galchenyuk. But if pseudo stats are what we're playing with even though he only scored his first goal of the season the other night they also have the leading faceoff guy in the league in Manny Malhotra. Montreal is a really good TEAM. You don't go to the conference finals last year and then 63 games into the following year sit in 2nd place overall in the league if it's only your goalie. I have no problem with Price getting tons of credit. He deserves it. He's the best goalie in the world right now and should get nominated for both the Hart and Vezina but I'm so sick of hearing people say the only reason Montreal is good is because of Price. It's clearly a opinion from people who don't pay attention. No offence.Oh none take I could see how you'd get annoyed. If it sounded like I said theyre only winning because of Price that was wrong. however he's definitely a heart candidate, meaning he needs to be playing at a high level throughout the entire playoffs. I feel like if St Louis lost a player they'd still have a chance, and just look at what NYR are doing without Lundqvist. but if Price goes down, that diminishes their chances significantly. Plus does MTL have the necessary depth? Are they sort of top heavy? This was an interesting piece about the team at the halfway point: http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2015/1/12/7517603/montreal-canadiens-mid-season-player-analysis-analytics-habs-review-advanced-stats-performance Though as you pointed out they did just add some depth pieces. Flynn is a hard working guy. With the possession stats though I wouldnt totally dismiss them. They arent gospel but they tend to be indicators. The Cup winners dating back to 09 were strong possession teams. The possession stats also predicted the Avalanche's regression this year and the Leafs 2 years ago. Don't forget that the NHL recently rolled these stats out and teams are employing analytics guys, so it's no longer a fringe blogger thing anymore. I guess I brought it up because going in it indicates a few red flags for MTL however thats over a long sample size. In a shorter sample size a hot goalie and a tight defense goes a long way. Thats why they play the games on the ice, as they say. Analytics don't override the eye test, merely act as a check and balance. Extra intelligence. Edited March 3, 2015 by bt88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Gotta savour this while it lsts cause it's not gonna last long. My guess is the Rangers finish 1st overall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bt88 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Loving the Sabres in last. bring on McDavid!The Rangers can only go so far without Hank. I know Talbot has held up so farWho do people like for the cup finalists? Its so damn hard to predict in the NHL. I said Tampa- St Louis earlier in the year but its hard to trust Brian Elliot. I think the Islanders are a really good pick. Good stats no matter which type of stats you choose, traditional or newer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Signs Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I have a feeling my Sabres will fuck this tank up.I'm a fan of Nolan but I think Murray will wanna bring his guy in next season. Even if Buffalo finishes last I doubt they draft first so no McDavid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheapJon Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) I have a feeling my Sabres will fuck this tank up.I'm a fan of Nolan but I think Murray will wanna bring his guy in next season. Even if Buffalo finishes last I doubt they draft first so no McDavid.Eichel will be fantastic as well so as long as they finish last, it's a good tank.For the final I don't know from the western but it's Rangers in the east as long as Hank comes back in time. Oh, and this is the year the Rangers wins it all. Edited March 13, 2015 by CheapJon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bt88 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I have a feeling my Sabres will fuck this tank up.I'm a fan of Nolan but I think Murray will wanna bring his guy in next season. Even if Buffalo finishes last I doubt they draft first so no McDavid.Eichel will be fantastic as well so as long as they finish last, it's a good tank.For the final I don't know from the western but it's Rangers in the east as long as Hank comes back in time. Oh, and this is the year the Rangers wins it all. I know Hank has been the man forever for NYR, but they are 13-2-3 since he's been gone. I mean, is it crazy to think you roll with Talbot? he's been playing great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheapJon Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) I have a feeling my Sabres will fuck this tank up.I'm a fan of Nolan but I think Murray will wanna bring his guy in next season. Even if Buffalo finishes last I doubt they draft first so no McDavid.Eichel will be fantastic as well so as long as they finish last, it's a good tank.For the final I don't know from the western but it's Rangers in the east as long as Hank comes back in time. Oh, and this is the year the Rangers wins it all. I know Hank has been the man forever for NYR, but they are 13-2-3 since he's been gone. I mean, is it crazy to think you roll with Talbot? he's been playing great Cam's been great but yes that would be crazy! The rest of the team is a big part of Talbot's play. For the first 12 games he had an GAA of 2.75, thankfully the Rangers averaged 4 goals in those games. Lately he's been incredible though!Rangers are 31-7-3 the last 41 games. That's what 130 point pace through 82 games? Team effort Edited March 13, 2015 by CheapJon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bono Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 (edited) Massive comeback by Ottawa over the Penguins tonight to keep their playoff hopes alive and a HUGE loss by the Kings to the Oilers to take their playoff hopes out of their own hands. They gotta hope Calgary loses at least once now because they won tonight and their fans were chanting "Let's Go Oilers!" We've eneterd the twilight zone.Defending champs are now 2 points out of a playoff spot with 2 games left. If Calgary wins their last two games the LA Kings are done. Edited April 8, 2015 by Bono Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bt88 Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 I have no personal beef with the kings but it will just be nice to see a new team in the playoffs. Would be great to see Winnipeg, those fans up there are wild and it would be fun to watch games in that arena. The Sabres are basically messing up the tank job. There were fans cheering for the opposition the last few games here. I understand the mentality but that seems taking it a bit too far. Can't wait for this season to be overWho do we like in the playoffs? I know thats much harder to predict without the match ups. I'm starting to think this is not the year to sleep on the Caps. This may be the year they do itAlso, are the Blues becoming the new Sharks? Strong during the season but weak playoff performances? We'll find out I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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