The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Time to party like its 1999.

Leafs had a goal called back because a player had a foot in the crease.

Leafs didn't challenge though. It was a delayed penalty on Montreal. If Leafs challenge and were wrong, o well, its 4 on 4. Instead they opt to not challenge and think their PP has a better shot at scoring.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Matthews gets 40 goals and McDavid is well on track to get 100pts.

Neither played the full 56 games.

What a crazy season.

McDavid has more assists than almost anyone has points.

[Money99]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Matthews gets 40 goals and McDavid is well on track to get 100pts.

Neither played the full 56 games.

What a crazy season.

McDavid has more assists than almost anyone has points.

I just pray this type of hockey continues beyond this season.
I haven't watched a lot of hockey over the past decade but this year I've made a point to watch a lot of Leafs and Oilers games.
This whole division has been must-watch TV.

BTW, LOVE the avatar. Great stuff!

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

I just pray this type of hockey continues beyond this season.
I haven't watched a lot of hockey over the past decade but this year I've made a point to watch a lot of Leafs and Oilers games.
This whole division has been must-watch TV.

BTW, LOVE the avatar. Great stuff!

I found the avatar on some site before. I saw someone in a mall stole that design and were selling tees for like $50 with that logo lol.

I hope the big numbers continue. That's what NHL needs to help stand out. Doesn't make stars seem big if your star gets 60 points and some second line guy gets 40.

But if your star is getting 100+ points, he's well above everyone else. Especially since that's more than a point per game average, so every game you go to you feel like he'll get something.

Still a ways to go for this season, but I do hope they change up the schedule going forward. Those home and home back to backs have worked out great. Can't think of a more fair way to have the schedule while keeping the back to backs. Instead of trying to reduce the amount of back to backs and spreading out the season more, I'm sure players would be ok with them if their opponent is just as fatigued.

[Money99]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

I found the avatar on some site before. I saw someone in a mall stole that design and were selling tees for like $50 with that logo lol.

I hope the big numbers continue. That's what NHL needs to help stand out. Doesn't make stars seem big if your star gets 60 points and some second line guy gets 40.

But if your star is getting 100+ points, he's well above everyone else. Especially since that's more than a point per game average, so every game you go to you feel like he'll get something.

Still a ways to go for this season, but I do hope they change up the schedule going forward. Those home and home back to backs have worked out great. Can't think of a more fair way to have the schedule while keeping the back to backs. Instead of trying to reduce the amount of back to backs and spreading out the season more, I'm sure players would be ok with them if their opponent is just as fatigued.

Totally agree.

That's one of the ways, IMO, the league tries to create false parity.
In a typical season, it felt the schedule was setup so a good team would be on the backend of a 3-games-in-4-day set against a weaker team.
Those back-to-backs against different teams usually produced terrible hockey in the 2nd game. Some 1-0 or 2-1 game where the road weary team would play rope-a-dope for 3 periods and pray they at least get one point.
These home-and-homes against division rivals are great. Reminds me of the 80's when this seemed to happen all the time.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

OTL is another thing creating false parity, but that's a whole other story.

In a season series, team A is 5-1-1, but team B is 2-2-3. That looks a lot better than 2-5.

To me, NHL and MLB seems to be most disconnected from fans of all the pro leagues. What the league, gms, coaches, media think of hockey vs what fans think, seem to be very different.

Ironically, seems like old school people (specifically coaches) prefer those 2-1 games, when 5-4 games were the old school scores in the 80s.

We know ESPN obviously loves offense, hopefully they can push NHL into having more. What ends up on SportsCenter? Multiple shot block? A few pad saves? Or the goals? NHL highlights on SC with all of 2 or 3 goals and 0 fights won't hook non fans.

[Money99]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

OTL is another thing creating false parity, but that's a whole other story.

In a season series, team A is 5-1-1, but team B is 2-2-3. That looks a lot better than 2-5.

To me, NHL and MLB seems to be most disconnected from fans of all the pro leagues. What the league, gms, coaches, media think of hockey vs what fans think, seem to be very different.

Ironically, seems like old school people (specifically coaches) prefer those 2-1 games, when 5-4 games were the old school scores in the 80s.

We know ESPN obviously loves offense, hopefully they can push NHL into having more. What ends up on SportsCenter? Multiple shot block? A few pad saves? Or the goals? NHL highlights on SC with all of 2 or 3 goals and 0 fights won't hook non fans.

I used to have a 1-hour commute for work and I loved my XM satellite. I'd listen to NHL Network all the time.
One day when driving home I felt compelled to call in because some dingus called in to say that a good backcheck was just as exciting as a breakaway goal.
I went off; "What a stupid statement! That guy sounds like he's swimming in the koolaid to say something asinine like that!"

At some point in the mid to late 90's, it became dogma that games have to be defensive affairs with little creativity and low scoring.
And a lot of fans believed that in order to sound like a knowledgeable fan, you had to say stupid things like "A backcheck is better than a goal".

Like you said, when's the last time you ever saw a top 10 for backchecks?
I had a subscription to the hockey news back in the 80's and 90's and not once did I see an article complaining about too many goals or too much offense.

I really hope ESPN and TBS push that on the league. The NHL certainly won't listen to fans, but they will sit down and eat their vegetables if ESPN tells them to.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

So anyone have an idea of what's happening with the playoffs?

Some teams are playing game 56 tomorrow (tomorrow was actually the final date for many teams on the original schedule).

No idea when playoffs start?

Leafs vs Jets next Friday could be completely useless to both teams. I guess they have to play it, but all it does is delay the playoffs.

Habs are actually done on the 12th (so they get 3 extra days of rest on the Leafs)

And Canucks season doesn't end until May 19th...no way the rest of the division is gonna stand for the playoffs starting after the 19th when ALL the North playoff teams are done around the 12th-15th.

That'll be awkward having Canucks vs Flames happening while the north division playoffs are also happening.

[bcruise]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

I've never seen a shinier uniform component than the helmets the Golden Knights are wearing tonight. They stand out even from the normal TV angles, let alone close-ups.

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[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

I know the Leafs are abusing this rule this year too, but the NHL needs to fix it's own loopholes if they refuse to add a luxury cap.

They're openly promoting the Stamkos/Kucherov playoff returns to the TB lineup.

Kucherov was injured, missed the season, was on LTIR, but will suddenly make his return likely GM1 of the playoffs. Stamkos coming back too.

Cap means nothing in playoffs, so teams can do this.

Leafs likely doing the same with Andersen. He's in the AHL for a conditioning stint (which he needs) and seems like LTIR abuse by the Leafs will have them able to have everyone like Andersen, Hyman and others on the playoff roster.

Maybe NHL should have a rule where someone on LTIR as of the teams final regular season game will be deemed ineligible for the first round of the playoffs?

[bcruise]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Blues lose to the Knights in OT, but with the loser point plus a Kings regulation loss, they have locked down the final playoff spot in the West.

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[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Blues lose to the Knights in OT, but with the loser point plus a Kings regulation loss, they have locked down the final playoff spot in the West.

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We're also getting Panthers vs Lightning for first time ever in the playoffs.

Hopefully NHL promotes that matchup. Maybe for once the Panthers can finally get some attention.

Between that and Leafs vs Habs all but likely being a first round matchup, there's some real special matchups in rd1 we may never get again.

[nikethebike]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Player safety in the NHL is a complete joke. I'm also pretty sure the result would have been different if McDavid, Matthews or Crosby would have been the injured one. Now it was "only two russian players". Petterssons rookie season injury when he was basically chokeslammed WWE style is another example where the lack of protection from the league was evident on a foreign star.


I'm glad Rangers spoke out and the result of it all just shows the hypocracy. It's shameful in my opinion.

[nikethebike]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

On a more positive note, what McDavid is doing right now is actually on Gretzky/Lemieux level. And I've pretty much handled them as untouchable until now. Very impressive and I hope he can keep it up.


Also, when did the same two players from the same team finish first and second in the league for scoring two years in a row before?

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Official 2020-2021 Season Talk Thread

Also, when did the same two players from the same team finish first and second in the league for scoring before?

My guess would be Lemieux/Jagr