The Official 13-14 NHL Regular season thread
 

Cause it's no longer the offseason

Flyers have too many defenseman already and just signed Hal Gill (facepalm) to a 1 year deal .. trade coming?

Leafs extend Phil the Thrill, 8 years/$8m per

you should have reposted that GIF in that comment

I imagine the Leafs were hovering around $7m, until he pulled this up on his phone

You know, I had frankly forgotten that Patrick Roy was the Avs coach now.

So I have a new reason to hate Colorado again.

I am very excited to have the Wings in the East. It will be great to see so many more games against Boston, Toronto and Montreal. It will also be good to have fewer 10:00/10:30 pm EST starts. Those were brutal.

Things I am interested in seeing:

1. How the Wings handle being in the East

2. How Alfredsson and Weiss perform on the second line.

3. Will the younger players - DeKeyser, Nyquist, Tatar and Andersson - take the next step? (Assuming they're given the opportunity to do so. The Wings have a massive glut of forwards.)

Glad to have hockey back!

Things I am not looking forward to. Alfredsson on the Wings.
Playing Pavel D. more.
The Wings.

That is all from Boston ;)

I'm just glad we got Columbus in the Metropolitan (facepalm) instead of Detroit.

Something on NHL net last night, regarding Columbus (which would hold true for Detroit too).

Last season they played 2% of their road games in the Eastern (ie, their own) time zone. This year that number will be 66%.

I realize I am speaking from a biased perspective, but it is my impression that the "experts" are sleeping on the Ducks, calling last year fluky or just generally not rating them very highly. I beleive that is a mistake.

Hiller and Fasth form one of the best one-two GK combos in the league. Even without Ryan, the Perry-Getzlaf-whoever (probably Penner) line is still one of hockey's best. Cogliano (or a natural RW kiddie forward)-Koivu-Selanne is a strong second line. Tons of developing offensive talent abound on the roster (Etem, Palmieri, Bonino, Holland, Silfverberg). A blueline which will miss Souray's hard shot, but is otherwise very effective with Beauchemin, an improving Fowler, Allen, Lovejoy, well-regarded rookie offensive blueliner Sami Vatanen, and so forth.

There is depth and talent throughout this organization and finishing #2 in the West was no fluke. I'm hoping they prove the experts wrong this season.

I think the Ducks have a good shot at finishing in the top 5 out West, a good shot indeed. Probably rate them behind Chicago and St. Louis but after that they're right there with the other solid bunch. Looking at that conference I could definitely see them finishing 3rd.

I think the experts are too focused on the playoffs. I think that they look at Anaheim's first round loss to Detroit and assume there no 2 overall record in the West was a fluke, a product of just being "hot" in a shortened season or something along those lines.

On the other side, I think that a lot of experts think the Wings are better than they are because of what happened in the playoffs. (Though getting knocked out in the second round isn't that impressive.) The Wings were very much a bubble team all year last year. They had to win their last 4 games just to squeak into the playoffs.

Going into the season the top teams in the West seem to be: Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis and San Jose. I think Anaheim is right up there with most of those teams.

I disagree. Because I see plenty of experts picking the Pens as the winner of the Metro, but barely anyone having them come out of the East in the playoffs. And that's a 100% legit stance.

thats... obscene.

buck says in 3 years his contract goes for ovechkins contract and both teams hope these guys retire early!

What is a "protective equipment" penalty? I can't see the game, i can only look at espns box score.

when you are wearing a helmet and you fight its an extra 2 min...

no i don't think that's in effect, just something being discussed. protective equipment penalty is what they are calling the untucked jersey, i think

I think it's the visor, since you're not allowed to remove your helmet before a fight.

Unless the call is for removing?

i was watching that fight and they both took their helmets off, but i didn't have volume on so i didn't hear about the penalty

haha, so maybe they both got called for removing their helmets?

in sad news, did anyone see what just happened to parros? got pulled down by the jersey as orr was going to the ice after a fight and slammed his face into the ice hard - bloody chin, tried to stand up with the help of three people and couldn't - stretchered off. scary sight.

DOLA

Watching Pirates game, but apparently Parros fell at end of fight with Orr, and head hit the ice. Taken off on stretcher.

Removal of your helmet during a fight is an automatic 2 minutes penalty

I sure am glad the Caps gave away their top rated prospect for a guy that's now on the fourth line.

I fully anticipate doing at least 3 double takes in the next month when people tell me they're going to a Bruins game, then start to pay attention in January when the Patriots lose... only to realize the Bruins either have a playoff spot pretty much locked up, or are one of 7 teams within 3 points of the #5 seed due to the shootout/OTL system, and check out again until the trade deadline.

I think that you get 2 minutes for removing your helmet in a fight.

They removed the 2 minutes for fighting with a visor when they made visors mandatory.

Visors aren't mandatory....yet.

Visors are mandatory for new players, aren't they? Just not grandfathered?

Yeah, bad wording on my part. It will be probably 10 years before they are required for all players at this point.

It's only 1 game, but Trouba looked great last night. I think Chevy found a real gem there. Scheifele also looks like he truly belongs in the NHL this year. I'm sure they will both have their struggles at times this year, but I'm pretty stoked about their futures.

Vokoun out 3 to 6 months....







:popcorn:

You forget this picture, regularly seen in late April and into May



;)

DOLA

I have zero expectations. Fleury won't be the problem from October-April. He'll be fine. They'll be a playoff team.

After that...again, zero expectations.

Yeah that's the faulty club from a Pittsburgh Manufacturer. But on the bright side, he had as many points as Sid and Malkin did in the ECF last year!

Holmgren knows Hal Gill isn't a goalie, right?

Yes but he thinks that since he plays like a big orange cone, he can just park him in front of the net. It's part of his new age thinking.

Orange cones will come in handy for rehab skates for Lecavalier and Streit

I have no rebuttal, I've been making Hal Gill jokes for years...

It just doesn't make sense. He can be slow and get away with holding in the playoffs.

So why sign in Philly?

:p

Or to play the 3rd and 4th line for you guys since you paid your stars so much money. :p

Those orange cones will have little trouble getting in Hartnell's way and causing him to fall.

What? He can't hear you...

Well done, Dr. Sak

I'm on at work, so can't see....by guessing it him with Cy Clark (Malkamania guy).

Too lazy to look on my phone

Correct

They are mandatory for anyone with less than 25 games experience.

Hybrid icing tops list of NHL rule changes for 2013-14 season - NHL.com - News

Good to see Patrick Roy bringing his unique brand of lunacy back to the NHL...it's game 1 Patty! Calm down!

And in a 6-1 win for his team, on top of that. Jeez, Roy.

I love it! Go Patty Roy! His presence and some of the talent upfront makes a once very, very dull Colorado team brimming with possible excitement.

too bad we have an old goalie, a headcase goalie, and no defense.

this team needs to pray for a lot of 6-5 wins!

i think the flyers are going to be in a lot of 6-5 games this year too...

DROP THE MOTHERFUCKIN PUCK IN BOSTON AND LETS GET THIS SEASON STARTED!!!!!

Mike Smith just made the first ridiculous save I've seen this season.

Great win for the Bruins. 3-1, with one goal wrongly disallowed due to a ref whistle when the puck was literally loose in the air.

2 short-handed goals, 1 on a penalty shot.

Ducks/Jets tonight! Final game for Teemu in Winnipeg! I will be cheering loud from section 202!

Only issue is our babysitter doesn't get here until 6:30 and the game starts at 7:00. Gonna be tight...

Frank Seravalli ‏@DNFlyers 4m

Flyers have fired Peter Laviolette, per a source. Replacing him with Craig Berube. Press conference at 11am.

I don't understand moves like this.

If his hold on the job was that slim that 3 games were make or break, should have happened in the offseason.

Agreed.

Very true. Definitely smacks of Snider urgency. Honestly, Holmgren should be let go as well so Hexy can start making his imprint.

Fact of the matter is that the current team is not built to play Lavy's system. Defense is too slow and not great at the transition game - forwards can skate and hit but haven't been working as a unit, especially entering the zone.

Seems like they might have been tuning him out - I'm happy for a change.

Reading at HF, apparently Snider went bonkers at the press conference.

Was asked why his teams have had more coaches over the last 20 years (11) than any other team in the league, and he blew a gasket. A second question was why hire a guy (apparently, no interim tag for Berube, and has a "multi year deal") who has been part of the last 4 coaching regimes...and he went bananas.

Hoping a YouTube surfaces

Ducks recovered from the seaosn opening shellacking by the Crazy Roys by taking four points from two road games in Minny and Winnepeg. Now they head home for the home opener against the Rangers tomorrow night. Should be a fun game.

I'd like to pretend that game last night didn't happen. K thx.

- Zach Bogosian

That was as brutal a 2 minute sequence for one player as I've ever seen (obviously not Steve Smith or Chris Phillips scoring Stanley cup winning goal into own net bad in the grand scheme of things but still).

Craig Berube?

Broad street bullies coming back?

Never left

Quick obviously felt bad for Bogosian and didn't want him to be on the blooper reel for more than one night

(seriously if you haven't seen it yet, go look it up. just wow)

Just got to work and saw the replay. That was rough. The Rangers' 2nd goal was off a Kings' stick too, but not nearly as bad.

Marc Andre Fleury probably has this cued up in the locker room this morning, showing everyone and saying "But I never did THIS!"

Quicky actually allowed a worse one than that once at UMass. Same scenario (clearance from a man-down unit) except it was about half that speed and actually beat him 5-hole. Guy's amazing (especially his glove hand), and one of our 2 best players ever, but he was an adventure outside of the crease.

So, uh, Tomas Hertl is having himself a game over in San Jose.

In two days I've now seen the worst and best goal I've ever seen. That last goal was unreal. 9-2 now

Not a bad 3 games for the kid. Man what a 4th goal that was tonight.

That was insane. Wow.

Went to bed with the Rangers down 2-1. Woke up and checked my phone...did not expect to see that.

That goal would only be better if Torts was still in NY, and called him arrogant afterwards.

Sure was arrogant. That move should only be allowed to be performed by hulking Czech defensemen in shootouts.

Phone hearing for Brad Stuart for his elbow on Rick Nash last night.

I've got to admit, even as a Sharks fan who loved the hell out of the goal it seemed almost excessively show-boat-y. Can you imagine how hard he'd be taking it if he missed that shot?

As a Rangers fan I had no problem with it: just stop the shot.

I could see the criticism being a little stronger though because he already had a hat trick, kind of like a "...and for my next trick..."

FTR, I didn't find it out of line. But I know Torts would have blown a gasket.

I took it as more of a "this will really fool the goalie and increase my chances" than "I'm going to make this guy look completely awful!".

Joe Thornton's thoughts: Canucks vs Hertl gameday: What we learned | The Province

I love that quote, it's been cracking me up for the last 24 hours. I also love that someone suggested a new nickname: Strokin' Joe Thornton :P

It is getting really depressing how much the flyers suck

When is Claude Noel going to learn that starting Pavelec in back-to-back games is a bad idea? I'm not saying Pavy cost them the game tonight (there is plenty of blame to go around yet again), but he did let in a couple that I think he should have stopped. There is overwhelming statistical evidence over the past 2+ seasons showing Pavelec's Save % dropping dramatically in the second game of a back to back, and yet Noel continues to throw him out there. What's the point of even having Al Montoya? He's not a bad backup, throw him out there once in awhile.

I'm pretty much of the opinion that Noel is holding this team back at this point. They aren't built to be contenders, but they can (and should) be better.

Not as depressing as the Sabres...

devils are winless in 5 as well. blown leads in 4 straight.

how has schneider looked? he was pretty great in the preseason

:D

Bizarro land in Pittsburgh...people calling for the backup to be benched and Fleury to play.

Well at least the Wings can hold onto a lead against a team from Boston.

Today's sign of the Apocalypse

Cooke to Kaleta: I can help you change - Cross Checks Blog - ESPN

I'm still confused over something I saw in the Rangers game last night.

NBC Sports starts talking about Derick Brassard and the strong play he put together after the trade from Columbus last season. Then they put up a graphic with his name/headshot that says "First game vs Capitals since trade from Columbus on April..."

For one, let's forget about the fact that he participated in every game of a great seven game series with the Caps a month after that trade, which makes that all pointless anyway. Or that it wasn't even like anyone else on the Rangers played a game against the Caps since that trade, even excluding the playoffs. But besides all of that, I'm still racking my brain trying to figure out the point they were trying to make. Stumped.

And BTW that's three consecutive shutouts of the Caps by Hank dating back to Game 6 of the first round.

Guessing it was more of "This guy has played against Washington before in the regular season, but only as a Blue Jacket. Now he's playing them in the regular season as a Ranger"?

But agree....why does it matter?

Speaking of...this has already been edited back.

Hybrid icing claimed its first victim tonight. No, nobody got hurt, but a freak bounce of the puck off the boards directed puck into Leaf goalie Jonathan Bernier's skate and bounced in as a game-winning goal for Carolina. This was because Radek Dvorak edged out a Leaf defender on a race to the dots in the opinion of the officials. The puck wasn't blown dead for icing and the odd bounce from the boards took care of the rest. The goal would have counted under the old icing system anyway, but I think Bernier would have been more active and less casual about playing it if he knew it was live.

While I rarely care about the opposing coach, I thought it was very fitting that the Red Wings give Patrick Roy his first career lost as a NHL head coach.

Glad Kronwall is ok after the cheap shot he took from behind against Colorado. What actually angers me about the entire thing is not so much the hit itself (hockey players take care of their own, right? Right?), but rather the idiotic comments of the Avalanche announcer Mike Haynes:


There really is no place for any of this crap in the NHL, and stupid announcers like this aren't helping matters any.

How to mismanage the salary cap, Washington style:

Nearly 20% of the cap is spent on forwards currently playing on the third and fourth lines.

About 35% of the cap is spent on Ovi, Backstrom and Green.

The remaining 45% covers 5 top 6 defensemen, 4 top 6 forwards and 2 goalies.