2017-18 Around the League

[Pokecheque]

Really brutal start to the year for Buffalo, still winless. Wonder when / if we see moves made there to shake something up. New GM with no attachment to anyone, and he hired the coach, so...

Arizona winless as well...oof. I was hoping they'd do well for their fans, really nice group on here. They seemed excited after their offseason.

Housley already making some bizarre decisions. Apparently he doesn’t use O’Reilly on the PK. Whaaaaat?

 

[Murzu]

I hope that Arizona picks it up. They've made good and bold moves IMO and should be rewarded eventually.

I haven't seen any games by them this year. What's killing them?

 

[Balthazar]

New coaches in Buffalo and Arizona didn't work as expected so far.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

If you want a good laugh the Vegas Golden Knights are going to be running a Malcolm Subban/Maxime Lagace tandem until MAF comes back. Our goalie depth is certainly bad but not "lose one goalie and suddenly it's AHL average at best" bad. Now we'll see if Subban suddenly becomes a legit NHLer or Vegas starts taking some big loses.

 

[Ceremony]

If only they'd kept Pickard they would've been unstoppable

 

[S E P H]

Selfishly I want to see Duchene land in Nashville. Seems like the perfect fit, plus I really like the Preds + their prospects.

Agreed. I just hope there is a way we can land Fiala...I wouldn't mind adding to get him honestly, but Predators are a likeable team.

Auston Matthews is good at hockey. Like really, really good. This is him tonight vs. the Habs:

It's hard to look at that and not think about MacKinnon.

Matthews is very good at creating plays for himself, compared to Eichel who is a better playmaker for his overall team (had a sick pass against the Kings).

Mackinnon is like Matthews with brain damage.

Nice work by Nylander great back check and hustle.

MacKinnon has looked really solid this season, I have no complaints against him, but I still believe Jones was the right selection. I know you're going to obviously disagree with me on that.

Really brutal start to the year for Buffalo, still winless. Wonder when / if we see moves made there to shake something up. New GM with no attachment to anyone, and he hired the coach, so...

Arizona winless as well...oof. I was hoping they'd do well for their fans, really nice group on here. They seemed excited after their offseason.

I think Housley is a good coach (or assistant coach), but going 0% on the penalty kill is quite brutal and coming from a defencive coach such as him. It's insane how bad they've been, but it's not like this draft sucks or anything. Of course the lottery makes it much hard to stay at #1, but there are perks for this season to suck. It's just crazy because they do have some solid NHL talent offencively and Kane has been really good.

I hope that Arizona picks it up. They've made good and bold moves IMO and should be rewarded eventually.

I haven't seen any games by them this year. What's killing them?

Goaltending has been awful, Raanta can't stop a beachball and Domingue has never been good. Plus Stepan is the type of player you don't want to trust as your top centre. For all the people who complain about Stastny here, Stepan is way, way, way more invisible and soft.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

If only they'd kept Pickard they would've been unstoppable

That's not the point of the issue. McPhee and co have deliberately ignored their league worst goalie depth to make it even worse. Any time you are only one goalie injury away from having a tandem that would rank ~20th in the AHL then you deserve criticism. There's no excuse in the NHL for ignoring your goalie depth. These are experienced NHL execs and having come from the Washington Capitals you'd think McPhee would understand the importance of a strong goalie pool.

 

[Avs44]

That's not the point of the issue. McPhee and co have deliberately ignored their league worst goalie depth to make it even worse. Any time you are only one goalie injury away from having a tandem that would rank ~20th in the AHL then you deserve criticism. There's no excuse in the NHL for ignoring your goalie depth. These are experienced NHL execs and having come from the Washington Capitals you'd think McPhee would understand the importance of a strong goalie pool.

I think McPhee wants to lose. As in, he genuinely wants his team to suck because he wants a really high draft pick. I think everything he's done so far is to intentionally tank.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

I think McPhee wants to lose. As in, he genuinely wants his team to suck because he wants a really high draft pick. I think everything he's done so far is to intentionally tank.

He doesn't need to employ a barely average AHL tandem to do so. Vegas was headed there with or without MAF.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Really brutal start to the year for Buffalo, still winless. Wonder when / if we see moves made there to shake something up. New GM with no attachment to anyone, and he hired the coach, so...

Arizona winless as well...oof. I was hoping they'd do well for their fans, really nice group on here. They seemed excited after their offseason.

I thought Eichel was the coach and GM.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Matthews is very good at creating plays for himself, compared to Eichel who is a better playmaker for his overall team (had a sick pass against the Kings).


MacKinnon has looked really solid this season, I have no complaints against him, but I still believe Jones was the right selection. I know you're going to obviously disagree with me on that.

I think it safe to say that Jones is the best player in the draft right now. They all have their issues but Jones is the more well rounded in his draft class. Still early days though. Another thing I firmly believe this would not have been the case if Jones been drafted by the avs 1st overall.

Re: Buffalo their setting themselves up nicely for Dahlin.

Dahlin-Risto or Sevch +Eichel... Yeah, I'm jealous.

 

[dahrougem2]

I thought Eichel was the coach and GM.

Also owner.

 

[Balthazar]

I think McPhee wants to lose. As in, he genuinely wants his team to suck because he wants a really high draft pick. I think everything he's done so far is to intentionally tank.

He really does want to lose and it's pretty obvious. He was openly saying last summer that he was going to build his team through the entry draft and not the expansion draft. He wants a maximum of draft picks and obviously the best picks possible.

His current "building blocks" are Theodore, Glass, Suzuki and Brannstrom. Maybe Hague. Rest is likely up for trade for draft picks, including Fleury.

Problem is I'm not sure Gallant is on the same page. Coaches usually want to win.

 

[Avs_19]

Yeah, the Sabres are off to a terrible start. Many issues there with one of the main ones being that the big money players haven't been much of a Factor so far.

 

[Balthazar]

Yeah, the Sabres are off to a terrible start. Many issues there with one of the main ones being that the big money players haven't been much of a Factor so far.

Their defense is an absolute mess. From an outside perspective we think that Risto is their only legit top pairing guy but if you read the Buffalo board you'll see that fans want to healthy scratch him. That's how bad their only legit dman has been since the beginning of the year.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Ryan O'Reillys stat line is just sheeesh. Zads is outscoring him lol.

 

[AvsMakar08]

Ryan O'Reillys stat line is just sheeesh. Zads is outscoring him lol.

Reading from Buffalo boards they don't even know if ROR linemates are playing good enough on their second line.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Problem is I'm not sure Gallant is on the same page. Coaches usually want to win.

Gallant seems to be a pretty good coach to have for this situation, guy instills a tough and demanding mentality which you hope stays in the team for a few years even if/after he's gone. McPhee caught a break with the Fleury injury though because the best way to tank is with shit goaltending and though Subban got a 20ish save win tonight, the team will get some shit goaltending over the course of the season. This combined with the fact that he'll start trading guys probably once trades get going this year and they should be on course for a low finish but a Leafs sort of low finish where the team still plays solid each night and not an Avs or Oilers shitshow type of low finish.

 

[dahrougem2]

Ryan O'Reillys stat line is just sheeesh. Zads is outscoring him lol.

He looks like trash, too. We've seen this before in his final season here when he looked like a 4th line plug for the first two months of the season before turning it around.

For a guy that works as hard as he does off the ice, it's a surprise to me how slow he starts the season. But yeah, he looks horrendous right now. So slow.

 

[Balthazar]

Looks like the Ducks and Bruins do suck after all.

 

[UncleRisto]

So these tweets made the news a little bit. I was asked earlier what I thought was wrong with the Vegas social media showing personality. All I'm offended by is still the bad overall quality of jokes, but this is the kind of dumb shit that gets tweeted when these comedy masterminds show personality.

 

[dahrougem2]

I see your point lol. That isn't funny at all. I'd prefer team players showing personality instead of team twitter accounts but I take what I can get with this no-fun-league.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Yeah I unfollowed Vegas' twitter after like their second pre-season game. There's being funny/clever, and there's being irritating.

 

[UncleRisto]

Yeah I unfollowed Vegas' twitter after like their second pre-season game. There's being funny/clever, and there's being irritating.

Ditto.

 

[avsfan09]

Cringey can be funny but thats cringey in the worst way possible.