Around the League Thread | Playoffs 🏒

[lawrence]

The yzerplan hasn’t really worked out in Detroit. Really makes you wonder if BriseBois was the actual brains behind Tampa bays success

Let’s be honest. He inherited a team that just drafted stamkos and hedman. You can’t ask for a better rebuild foundation than a first line center and a dman like hedman.

 

[Ernie]

If the Stars lose tonight, I wonder if Tocchet will go for the #1 seed. I expect the Jets to rest their stars, including Hellebuyck.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Pens make the playoffs if Jake Guentzel is healthy all year long.

What a shame.

 

[1440]

Watching the highlights, Hutson really has some rizz to his play. In Slaf's goal he made everyone back off and stare at the puck with his moves and skating even though he hardly changed positions, then had a clear lane to get the puck through for Slaf to capitalize on. No doubt he's already on the Calder radar for next season.

He also got caught out of position on the Seider and Sprong goals against (funny to see a player born in "Holland" outfoxed by a player born in Amsterdam), so nothing new in terms of what he was doing at BU. I do think there is a good NHL player there (he would have been my pick at the time instead of Lekkerimaki), but he has work to do in the defensive zone. Luckily that part of the game is much more coachable, and you have to think NHL quality linemates will do a better job of reading some of his movement in the offensive zone. Who knows... maybe he would be best utilized as a Connor Garland style forward?

 

[Jerry the great]

Pens make the playoffs if Jake Guentzel is healthy all year long.

What a shame.

it's unbelievable that Washington made the playoffs. bottom half of the league in GA, bottom 5 in GF. both special teams are bottom half. traded away a guy a month ago and he's still a top 5 scorer for them. to quote one of the finest men to ever walk the earth:

If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now.

 

[Luongos Knob]

It is. Worst goal differential to make the playoffs.

Worst since 1991, -72 posted by.... the Canucks

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

It's hard to think about where the next arena could be honestly. Even once the viaducts come down they will be replaced with different arterial roads. Could an arena be built over top of those? Maybe I guess, but that's still a really cramped space. The team could always play at the Coliseum during construction.

Across Pacific Blvd there's the parking lot plus the Cirque du soleil grounds. Maybe a small amount of land reclamation in False Creek and that could work? They really need a bigger footprint for a world class arena.

Other folks have noted the lot and food farm directly east of the south side of Cambie bridge as a potential site. Could work but not super ideal for skytrain.

if my understanding of city-MST relations is accurate, any land rec in false creek would be off the table

 

[timw33]

I think it was more they were betting on Seider but he's regressed since an excellent rookie year.

They bet on Seider by deploying him in tougher minutes than any D man in the league, mostly because they couldn't trust any other D on the team to take the tough minutes. I personally think they sewered him in this regard as he was spending all of his time helping the team dig themselves out of defensive zone quagmires.

 

[vancityluongo]

They bet on Seider by deploying him in tougher minutes than any D man in the league, mostly because they couldn't trust any other D on the team to take the tough minutes. I personally think they sewered him in this regard as he was spending all of his time helping the team dig themselves out of defensive zone quagmires.

seider looked like he was a future hhof'er in his rookie season. i've never been more blown away by a player live. when the wings were in edmonton, there were like 3 mcdavid partial breakaway chances that seider cleanly stopped, which i don't think i've seen any defenseman do since.

no idea what happened, but now he looks like he's on a higher-iq dion phaneuf track. very good defenseman with all of the physical tools but will keep getting burned due to very little support.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I quite respect and enjoy Detroit and their fans as a market.

But f*** Patrick Kane forever. Laughing my ass off at his heartless, depressed shootout goal. "Showtime" is over for now, asshole.

 

[timw33]

seider looked like he was a future hhof'er in his rookie season. i've never been more blown away by a player live. when the wings were in edmonton, there were like 3 mcdavid partial breakaway chances that seider cleanly stopped, which i don't think i've seen any defenseman do since.

no idea what happened, but now he looks like he's on a higher-iq dion phaneuf track. very good defenseman with all of the physical tools but will keep getting burned due to very little support.

I think they've maybe been over-coaching him and not giving him the green lights to rush, which was his bread and butter in his rookie season. Really hope he can get back on track, a very interesting player.

 

[MS]

Yeah but they made it. Shows how bad the other teams chasing WC2 were as Wash controlled their fate heading into the final game as well. First tie breaker is Reg W not goal differential.

They were so much worse than those other teams and it was just dumb luck and a weird great season from a career journeyman goalie that got them there.

27th in goal differential
28th offensively
17th defensively
17th PP
18th PK
Leading scorer Dylan Strome
3 players over 35 points
Rasmus Sandin as a #2 defender
Career journeyman backup Charlie Lindgren as a starting goalie.

Like, on paper this is a bottom-5 team in the league. If you look at that squad and if they had finished 29th in the NHL and getting a high lottery pick ... it would make sense. Nothing about that team is good. They have no strengths.

 

[StreetHawk]

They were so much worse than those other teams and it was just dumb luck and a weird great season from a career journeyman goalie that got them there.

27th in goal differential
28th offensively
17th defensively
17th PP
18th PK
Leading scorer Dylan Strome
3 players over 35 points
Rasmus Sandin as a #2 defender
Career journeyman backup Charlie Lindgren as a starting goalie.

Like, on paper this is a bottom-5 team in the league. If you look at that squad and if they had finished 29th in the NHL and getting a high lottery pick ... it would make sense. Nothing about that team is good. They have no strengths.

Really, the East is just 6 good teams.

It happens..... NYR should finish off Wash in 5 or less. NYI has a goalie, so, that would be my main worry for Carolina.

I just laugh at RW fans who say they got screwed. You were 27-32 in regulation. You won just 1/3 of your games in regulation. Every other team holding down a PO spot is +1, with the Isles the only one who can drop to even. With TB and the West bottom couple of teams at +7 right now or better in RW/RL ratio.

 

[DFAC]

If the Stars lose tonight, I wonder if Tocchet will go for the #1 seed. I expect the Jets to rest their stars, including Hellebuyck.

Interesting tidbit - Dallas has schooled LA this year but has lost 2 of 3 against Nashville. Got to think they want to take top spot in the West to get the LA matchup tonight

Dallas vs LA
Winnipeg vs Colorado
Vancouver vs Nashville
Edmoton vs Vegas

....is what it is shaping up to look like

 

[StreetHawk]

No diff in rest between win and col. both play tomorrow.
Jets locked into central 2 seed. Only thing this game means for them is home ice vs Van in round 3 if they win. Same as for Van.

But man the Canucks have a crappy end of year schedule. 2 home games then a one off trip to Edm home for cal then to win.

 

[Peen]

This was me last season too. I was right then and I will be right again!

Serious answer, excellently coached with all players fully committed to a defensive system that is reinforced by the strongest goaltending tandem in the league. They are an okay offensive team and just soaked up loser points.

The Bruins are everything people said we were. They hav a high PDO, but were outshot and outchanced almost every single night, and were carried by strong goaltending and luck and overtime games. That's not the say they can't do well in the playoffs, after all they made it work for 82 straight games but it was definitely puck luck driven.

All that said the leafs were also carried by OT games so it's an interesting series for sure.

wonder if this ends up being a 2018 caps thing for the leafs where one of their meh iterations ends up being the one

you never know how that shit’s gonna go honestly. leafs in every previous year where their teams were much better would be heavy favorites instead of losing 50/50 coin flips every year. now they finally play someone who isn’t a contender and their iteration is also much worse. but who knows.

playoffs are weird.

i also think people overevaluate the playoffs - not to say that i think that the regular season matters more but just that there’s so much case by case context and then anything can happen in a small sample size

 

[Orr4Norris]

wonder if this ends up being a 2018 caps thing for the leafs where one of their meh iterations ends up being the one

you never know how that shit’s gonna go honestly. leafs in every previous year where their teams were much better would be heavy favorites instead of losing 50/50 coin flips every year. now they finally play someone who isn’t a contender and their iteration is also much worse. but who knows.

playoffs are weird.

i also think people overevaluate the playoffs - not to say that i think that the regular season matters more but just that there’s so much case by case context and then anything can happen in a small sample size

For me the playoffs have become fun but nothing more. IMO The best teams are shown in the regular season.

Partly this is because they allow teams to be some ridiculous number over the cap which cheapens the fair play of sport. Part of this is also because refereeing can be so atrocious. But it’s fun…especially round one. But like, I kinda don’t care who wins the Stanley Cup anymore?

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

Worst since 1991, -72 posted by.... the Canucks

ha they didn't touch our record!

The Wings BARELY beat the Habs in back to back games. Sorry but they should have had those both ITB easily with season on the line. They also lost to the Caps twice in the last month. It is their own fault.

So many dislikeable players on the Wings. Kane, Perron, Raymond, Wallman..

 

[Flik]

They were so much worse than those other teams and it was just dumb luck and a weird great season from a career journeyman goalie that got them there.

27th in goal differential
28th offensively
17th defensively
17th PP
18th PK
Leading scorer Dylan Strome
3 players over 35 points
Rasmus Sandin as a #2 defender
Career journeyman backup Charlie Lindgren as a starting goalie.

Like, on paper this is a bottom-5 team in the league. If you look at that squad and if they had finished 29th in the NHL and getting a high lottery pick ... it would make sense. Nothing about that team is good. They have no strengths.

Rangers right now:

 

[LuckyDay]

People keep wanting Nashville over the Kings and Vegas.
This is their records since the All Star break.

The media has been repeatedly pointing out they have been the best team since then, and are surprised we could win the west even though we've lead the league for more most of the year.

Not only does this mean Big Eastern Media does not watch games in the West, it also means we don't pay attention to Nashville for any reason. PS - Why are they in the Western conference?

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

View attachment 854013

People keep wanting Nashville over the Kings and Vegas.
This is their records since the All Star break.

The media has been repeatedly pointing out they have been the best team since then, and are surprised we could win the west even though we've lead the league for more most of the year.

Not only does this mean Big Eastern Media does not watch games in the West, it also means we don't pay attention to Nashville for any reason. PS - Why are they in the Western conference?

Meh. They went on absolute heater for 18 games where everything went right.

If anything, now is the perfect time to play them.

 

[F A N]

They bet on Seider by deploying him in tougher minutes than any D man in the league, mostly because they couldn't trust any other D on the team to take the tough minutes. I personally think they sewered him in this regard as he was spending all of his time helping the team dig themselves out of defensive zone quagmires.

That’s what happened to Hronek in Detroit before last season. It’s not easy handling top defensive minutes and needing to carry your pairing.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

I just learned that the Blues lost all 3 games against SJ this season

 

[ziploc]

They were so much worse than those other teams and it was just dumb luck and a weird great season from a career journeyman goalie that got them there.

27th in goal differential
28th offensively
17th defensively
17th PP
18th PK
Leading scorer Dylan Strome
3 players over 35 points
Rasmus Sandin as a #2 defender
Career journeyman backup Charlie Lindgren as a starting goalie.

Like, on paper this is a bottom-5 team in the league. If you look at that squad and if they had finished 29th in the NHL and getting a high lottery pick ... it would make sense. Nothing about that team is good. They have no strengths.

Perfect set-up to knock out the Rangers.

 

[lawrence]

Pens make the playoffs if Jake Guentzel is healthy all year long.

What a shame.

Maybe if they didn’t trade him.