Around the League Thread | Meaningful Games in March

[LordBacon]

I love how all year they have been ranting like lunatics over our PDO ever since we broke them in October now since it's obvious this team is for real so now they have started saying without any actual facts that we are too soft, a bunch of divers and don't play a playoff style.
I really hope we face them in round 1.

Same, deadmonton is the easiest team to play against.
Other teams in the conference actually looks legit,
the west this year is ridiculously strong.

 

[DFAC]

I love how all year they have been ranting like lunatics over our PDO ever since we broke them in October now since it's obvious this team is for real so now they have started saying without any actual facts that we are too soft, a bunch of divers and don't play a playoff style.
I really hope we face them in round 1.

There’s really no way for us to play the Oilers in round 1 with how things are shaping up but then again you never know…

 

[Ace of Hades]

Oilers blow it and the site crashes.

Freaking Oiler fans.

Their tears made this site laggy. Worst fanbase in the league. Glad they are getting this karma. Very much deserving.

 

[Indiana]

The Edmonton Pretenders..

Meet the Vancouver Longshanks:

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

Way too scared of McDavid. F that.

Jesus. Kucherov has 15 points in his last 4 games.

 

[Nuck Bonino]

Oilers gdt and pgt are absolutely hilarious. Its a forum full of bbuds blaming the refs for this that and everything

bbud is a canucks hfboards treasure, dont be using him as a stereotype like that

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

1 point separates 1st in the league to 8th lol

 

[Bobby9]

Why would you be scared of Edmonton? They’re supposed to be better than us. All the pressure is on them. Not us.

They’re the team loaded w high end picks and high expectations, not us. They’re the ones with the slogan cup or bust. Not us. They’re the one all the odds makers picked to win the cup. Not us.

It’s the perfect match up.

 

[Orr4Norris]

Penguins also blew a 4-0 and ate it at 5-4 OT???

Bruh...are they THAT cooked?

Sucks with the season he’s having that Crosby is on a sinking ship. Would be awesome to see him in the post season this year.

 

[canuckking1]

The Oilers catching the Canucks talk reminded me of the "Can the Canucks make the playoffs?" talk when the team used to get unusually hot during garbage time. It was never a real possibility

 

[valkynax]

Sucks with the season he’s having that Crosby is on a sinking ship. Would be awesome to see him in the post season this year.

Both Capitals and Penguins, it seems, are holding on to relics of the past that are slowly rusting and turning into dust in their grasps.

Capitals wants to make sure Ovechkin claims all time goal scoring crown from Gretzky

Penguins wants to keep Crosby and Malkin in the playoff mixer, without actually shooting for the cup

Both to me are the NHL equivalent of Don Quixote, chasing and fighting imaginary targets, while tumbling towards mediocrity and misery.

Those teams are going nowhere, and they are taking their fanbases with them.

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

Oilers goalies (Skinner yesterday and whichever Pickard is inexplicably in the NHL today) have let in 9 goals on 43 shots in the last two days. That’s a nice cool .791 SV%.

And I was flamed for saying that there are questions regarding their goaltending.

 

[Huggy43]

I love how all year they have been ranting like lunatics over our PDO ever since we broke them in October now since it's obvious this team is for real so now they have started saying without any actual facts that we are too soft, a bunch of divers and don't play a playoff style.

Their OOT thread is so pathetic.
I liked a post one of their members made sh*t talking us with the usual riot talk & it got me banned. The level of insecurity there was quite the sight.

 

[drax0s]

I hope the Kings / Knights knock out the Oilers and their twitter team posts "I guess it was Bust?".

 

[Jyrki]

All of this and more is why I can't see either playing for the oilers any longer than necessary. Oil fans still talk about extensions but I can't see one reason why they'd stay, both frequently look absolutely miserable.

Unfortunately the chances of mcdavid bringing a cup to the leafs could go way way up. Maybe he wants to play in sunny florida or LA idk, but I could see the leafs throwing all the money at mcdavid.
Draisaitl not sure, maybe we find out as soon as thus summer.

The Leafs have similar D issues to the Oilers, except they're fortunate to not have long-term commitment aside from Rielly... there's a chance they could rebuild the backend but they don't have many assets to play with. I really doubt McDavid would want to jump into another team that wouldn't be good enough to contend - would run into the same issue with him and Matthews being scoring machines but not much else

All that said, McDavid is good enough to go supernova and carry the Oilers himself through a few rounds and is totally possible everything aligns for his team and he becomes a lifer in Edmonton. So I'm definitely not talking any shit right now, lest Oilers fans revel on quoting us if they end up deeper in the post-season than us.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

I love how Edmonton posters blame the refs when their PK allows 3 goals on four PP’s.

 

[Wisp]

I hope the Kings / Knights knock out the Oilers and their twitter team posts "I guess it was Bust?".

I hope it's us that knock them out. I think they're beatable.

 

[tantalum]

I realize the Oilers outshot and out chanced the Sens (and quite badly) but ultimately I'm not sure how much Oiler fans want their goaltenders to do...especially the back up. 2 goals were on the PP on east to west passes with a great one timer. One goal on an odd man rush and another goal on what may as well have been a breakaway given every Oiler backed off of Batherson and let go a great shot.

Don't get me wrong you need saves but at this point they have to know that they aren't going to get top of the league goaltending. It's going to be average to below average and they need to adjust for it. They aren't. Canuck fans are familiar with this lack of adjustment during the Cloutier years.

The Oilers to me have too many flaws. Goaltending is one of course. They don't have a goaltender that is going to win them a series on his own. The inability of their highest paid players to not get agitated/frustrated at the slightest provocation. A blueline that features two players in Nurse and Bouchard who quite frankly can't play defense with any sort of consistency. The Oilers are a PP and one line team (they tend to do nothing 5-on-5 unless McDavid and Draisatl are together). It can lead to some good regular seasons but rarely does it result in playoff success.

 

[StreetHawk]

Both Capitals and Penguins, it seems, are holding on to relics of the past that are slowly rusting and turning into dust in their grasps.

Capitals wants to make sure Ovechkin claims all time goal scoring crown from Gretzky

Penguins wants to keep Crosby and Malkin in the playoff mixer, without actually shooting for the cup

Both to me are the NHL equivalent of Don Quixote, chasing and fighting imaginary targets, while tumbling towards mediocrity and misery.

Those teams are going nowhere, and they are taking their fanbases with them.

They've won a Cup(s) with their stars. Wash, now hold the final WC spot (TB is 7 points up on Det) so they really are not likely to get caught for a WC spot. Wash/Phi also fighting for 3rd in Metro.

So, at least Ovy is still in the PO mix. He has 2 more seasons under contract. He needs 47 goals to surpass Wayne. Wash has 12 games left this regular season. Figure Ovy gets 3 maybe 4 more to bring it down to 43/44 goals to break the record. So a pair of 22/23 goal seasons would do it.
Thus, I get Wash holding onto Ovy to get the record in a Caps uniform. They haven't been adding guys like Pitt has. Last big acquisition was Mantha back in 2021 TDL. Have held onto their first since.

Pitt, 2 off-seasons ago, they re-signed Malkin and Letang for 4 and 6 year terms in the $6 mill range, so a paycut for both. Malkin looks done as a first line guy. He needs to drop down a line and not be a core guy. For $6 mill, that's probably what he should be if he finishes the final 2 years at the 60 point pace he's on this season. Letang, well, he holds a full NMC and mostly SB, so that's hard to move at his age (nearly like Burns when he was moved with 3 years left on his deal at 1/3 retention). EK, too much term for him as well to get moved for anything close to what Pitt gave up for him.

Sid is going to have to have a sit down with Pens management. These are new owners from the ones he has known over his time in Pitt. He doesn't owe this group any loyalty. Pens would want it to be Sid's call to move on from the team. They will not push him out.
So, it's really in Sid's court how he wants the final year or year(s) if he opts to continue playing after 2025 to decide where he wants to do that. Heck, if he wanted to go elsewhere in the summer, he could ask for a trade.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

They've won a Cup(s) with their stars. Wash, now hold the final WC spot (TB is 7 points up on Det) so they really are not likely to get caught for a WC spot. Wash/Phi also fighting for 3rd in Metro.

So, at least Ovy is still in the PO mix. He has 2 more seasons under contract. He needs 47 goals to surpass Wayne. Wash has 12 games left this regular season. Figure Ovy gets 3 maybe 4 more to bring it down to 43/44 goals to break the record. So a pair of 22/23 goal seasons would do it.
Thus, I get Wash holding onto Ovy to get the record in a Caps uniform. They haven't been adding guys like Pitt has. Last big acquisition was Mantha back in 2021 TDL. Have held onto their first since.

Pitt, 2 off-seasons ago, they re-signed Malkin and Letang for 4 and 6 year terms in the $6 mill range, so a paycut for both. Malkin looks done as a first line guy. He needs to drop down a line and not be a core guy. For $6 mill, that's probably what he should be if he finishes the final 2 years at the 60 point pace he's on this season. Letang, well, he holds a full NMC and mostly SB, so that's hard to move at his age (nearly like Burns when he was moved with 3 years left on his deal at 1/3 retention). EK, too much term for him as well to get moved for anything close to what Pitt gave up for him.

Sid is going to have to have a sit down with Pens management. These are new owners from the ones he has known over his time in Pitt. He doesn't owe this group any loyalty. Pens would want it to be Sid's call to move on from the team. They will not push him out.
So, it's really in Sid's court how he wants the final year or year(s) if he opts to continue playing after 2025 to decide where he wants to do that. Heck, if he wanted to go elsewhere in the summer, he could ask for a trade.

Ovechkin is on fire lately. He has a good shot at 30 this year now.

It sucks for him that he had 2 lockouts and covid during his years or he'd have passed Gretzky already.

The Oilers goalies are not nearly good enough for a playoff team let alone a contender but it's not just their goalies' fault. Their defense is abysmal, their coaching sucks, their systems are awful and their star forwards don't play D. So it's a recipe for disaster and they don't have the goaltending to save them.

 

[EpochLink]

Their OOT thread is so pathetic.
I liked a post one of their members made sh*t talking us with the usual riot talk & it got me banned. The level of insecurity there was quite the sight.

That’s a poster who’s never been outside the province of Alberta or the city of Edmonton.

 

[Grip it N RYP it]

How's McDavid going to score if he's chasing Hughes around for the puck?

 

[valkynax]

So, Flames lost, and Huberdeau is officially in the a million dollar a goal club.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

I'm firmly of the opinion that, if they're healthy and lucky and on a roll, the Canucks can take any team in the league in a 7 game series.

That said, there's lots of good teams out there and if the Canucks are unlucky or have a core player or two go down, or even if they're just not playing their best, the team could get bounced before they even know what's happening.

Match ups, schmatch ups... if the bounces go our way, I'm as confident as I can be regardless of who the Canucks end up playing.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Despite the West being the stronger conference there's no team other than Colorado that really scares me or makes me feel they could flip a switch and start bulldozing everyone. I don't get that feeling from the Canucks either, although I think they have as good a chance as anyone of reaching the finals.