Around the League XXXVI: Fire all the coaches

[AmericanDream]

Let's see how many recycled/retread NHL staffers get positions with a brand new club. Tippett's already an advisor.

With that said, exciting day for the league.

Craig Button, come on down!!!

 

[AmericanDream]

Carolina fans are still hesitant to commit given how many times they have been teased by franchise in last decade. If they are doing good and in playoff fight in 2nd half of year fans will start to show up. Its understandable with way team has disappointed them thru years

Isles are in that god awful Barclay center and things wont improve until they get out and into own arena

Sens fans turned away after offseason mess and are essentially disgusted with Melnyk ownership

Florida is Florida. As of now the lease/arena deal is enough to guarantee they wont move and fans are at this point unenthusiastic for team that came out gate poorly and right now is in last place

Isles are back at Nassau for the rest of the year...

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Ok and that doesn't change much as they now are back in relic that last time it was used by NHL regularly had sewage pipe flood locker room

 

[AmericanDream]

Ok and that doesn't change much as they now are back in relic that last time it was used by NHL regularly had sewage pipe flood locker room

they updated it massively...

 

[BobbyJet]

If he wasn't already there, Frederik Anderson has joined the elite goaltenders club.

 

[Hawkaholic]

If he wasn't already there, Frederik Anderson has joined the elite goaltenders club.

He has always been up there, right behind Crawford for the most part.

 

[Hawkaholic]

That Drouin Segachev trade doesn't look so bad this year.

Drouin 24pts in 28GP on a not great Habs team
Sergachev 9A in 28GP on a loaded TB team

 

[x Tame Impala]

If he wasn't already there, Frederik Anderson has joined the elite goaltenders club.

He’s gotta do it in the playoffs first IMHO

 

[RayP]

He’s gotta do it in the playoffs first IMHO

Yeah that’s where I’m at with him. Until then he’s a guy I want nowhere near my team. Doesn’t he get significantly worse the deeper into the playoffs he gets?

 

[Hawkaholic]

Yeah that’s where I’m at with him. Until then he’s a guy I want nowhere near my team. Doesn’t he get significantly worse the deeper into the playoffs he gets?

I know he has a terrible record in Game 7s

 

[BobbyJet]

Sabres giving Leafs all they can handle tonight. Sabres look dam good in fact.

 

[BobbyJet]

Yeah that’s where I’m at with him. Until then he’s a guy I want nowhere near my team. Doesn’t he get significantly worse the deeper into the playoffs he gets?

LOL ... nowhere near your team. Right.

 

[RayP]

LOL ... nowhere near your team. Right.

The further you get into the playoffs with him the worse he gets.... I mean hey if you want a playoff choker as your goaltender then go for it.

I don’t.

 

[clydesdale line]

Sabres giving Leafs all they can handle tonight. Sabres look dam good in fact.

Amazing what a franchise center and #1 defenseman can do for a team.

 

[TLEH]

Auston Matthews.. The way he pulls that puck into his feet and still gets so much on it.

 

[BK]

Auston Matthews.. The way he pulls that puck into his feet and still gets so much on it.

He is kind of good. How much is he going to get?

 

[idontusethisanymore]

Here's Ryan Reaves knocking down Tom Wilson twice in less than 10 seconds, something probably every hockey fan wants to see

 

[x Tame Impala]

Well i still hate Reaves so that video doesn’t do a lot for me.

Edit: And proving my point...Reaves acts accordingly and goons it up

 

[clydesdale line]

It's Tom Wilson so I'll allow this. Both giant turds though.

 

[Hattrick Kane]

It would appear everyone wrote Vegas off far too early this year. Amazing what happens when you get your #1D into the lineup.

I’m rooting for Vegas to win it all just to piss off the league.

 

[ChiHawks10]

Here's Ryan Reaves knocking down Tom Wilson twice in less than 10 seconds, something probably every hockey fan wants to see

While I hate Reaves, I think I may hate Wilson more, because he doesn't need to goon it up to be a good NHLer, but does anyways. I smiled seeing this.

And in the 2nd video, he got a taste of his own medicine. Maybe he'll clean up his game now that he's been on the receiving end, huh?

 

[pvr]

Well i still hate Reaves so that video doesn’t do a lot for me.

Edit: And proving my point...Reaves acts accordingly and goons it up

Appropos old saying here...”Live by the sword, die by the sword.”

 

[Rick C137]

That was a terrific game to be at live. I’m ready for the blackhawks game on Thursday now that we got the good hockey out of the way

 

[x Tame Impala]

Strictly scoreboard watching here, but Bobrovsky gave up 8 goals on 26 shots last night. No bueno, especially in a contract year.

Still don’t agree with the hype and praise him and Rinne get. They both collapse in the playoffs despite regular season dominance

 

[JaegerDice]

Great stuff by Justin Bourne on stick tech and how its changing the game:

For years, goalies improved at a rate that outpaced stick technology, essentially getting to a point where players simply couldn’t beat unscreened goalies from any real distance. You had to get up around the net, you needed to tip pucks in, find rebounds and get gritty.

This increased the value of big heavy defencemen, those guys who could clear the crease, which in turn increased the desire for bigger, more physical forwards.

But this generation that’s taking over the NHL right now is really the first that grew up using only one-piece sticks. They’re the first generation that’s been shooting with the appropriate flex sticks all their lives (my Vukota’s didn’t have much give, as you can imagine, nor did the roughly 60000 flex aluminum Branches shafts I used when I was 10). They’ve come to understand how to manipulate the tool better than ever, and now we’re seeing players like Patrik Laine and Auston Matthews beat squared up goaltenders cleanly, even from distance, since they know how to harness the torque and power of today’s stick technology. (I wrote about the specifics of Laine’s shot here, and Matthews shot here.)

In today’s NHL, you can no longer give players space in the offensive zone, even if that space is at the top of the circles. In turn, you need defenceman who are quick and mobile, who can jump out on open players to take space away, yet still be able to get back to the net front after the shot is released. That’s shifted the importance of specific traits in D-men from size to speed, making headway for more small, quick, talented defenders. Some early adopters have caught on to this, while others continue to get burned by grunts more familiar to playing in an era where “keep ‘em outside” was good enough D. Now that some players can score from outside, that antiquated way of defending is no longer good enough.

That will be a change we continue to see as more and more players can whip pucks past tenders from anywhere. Parking at the netfront and waiting for forwards isn’t a safe strategy anymore. We’ve already seen fighting largely go extinct – the next endangered species is the stay-at-home D-man.

Bourne: The all-time best and worst sticks, favourite stick...