2015-2016 NHL Thread

[Bullfrog]

I wish I was good at passive aggression. Then I could be mean like you guys.

 

[hockeyfan1]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/alexander-orekhov-dies-after-being-hit-in-the-neck-by-puck-travelling-at-over-100mph-a6852596.html

Didn't know where else to put this.

Poor kid.

Tragic.  He was slated to become a prospect/draft pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.  Judging by the looks of it, a top one, too.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

James Mirtle ‏@mirtle
Daniel Sedin gave away all his all-star game winnings ($91,000 U.S.) to the Canucks training staff. What a class act.

Awesome gesture from Daniel Sedin. That's about $125k Canadian.

 

[Zee]

Aren't they scoring at basically the same rate overall as last season?  I can't find where I saw that but I swear I read it today or yesterday.

On the season, yes, but since the beginning of December, they're averaging ~1.9 goals per game (not including a pair of shootout "goals"). Basically, once Price got injured the 2nd time and it was known he'd be out for an extended period, they started to become exposed for what they really are.

I'm glad.  I was sick of hearing them labelled contenders.  And hey, maybe they would be with Price in net, and any team would suffer losing their best player.  But that doesn't make them a good team.

I hear you.  The media and a boatload of Habs fans were calling them contenders.  I even heard some fans say "best team since 1993", which of course implied they could win the Cup again this season. 

While I scoff at them being labelled "contenders", the sad fact is if they got into the playoffs with Price playing like he can, there's always that chance.  We've seen teams ride hot goalies a long way before,  luckily they won't have that chance this year.

Oh and one more thing, I remember seeing quite a few Habs flags on cars back in late November early December.  I don't see that anymore around the GTA.  Funny that.

 

[cabber24]

7 of the bottom 9 teams in the league are all the Canadian teams. I am a Leaf fan first but this is ugly.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I talked about his recovery a bit before, but last night Joni Pitkanen returned to the ice for his first professional game in almost 3 years. A bit about his injury and recovery here:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/joni-pitkanen-signs-with-finland-s-karpat--returns-to-ice-saturday-153227379.html

A lot of people are saying he had a very good game. I don't know why, but I was always a very big fan of his. I think he was someone I just consistently took in every fantasy draft that I could and he just grew on me because of it. He's 32 years old now, but I'd love to see him try and get another crack at the NHL.

 

[L K]

Ovechkin hits 30 goals.  That makes it 11 straight 30 goal seasons to start his career.  Only two other players have done that (Mike Gartner and Wayne Gretzky).  The Capitals also won their 38th game of the year.  Braden Holtby won his 33rd of the year.  Brodeur holds the record with 48 wins.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Ovechkin hits 30 goals.  That makes it 11 straight 30 goal seasons to start his career.  Only two other players have done that (Mike Gartner and Wayne Gretzky).  The Capitals also won their 38th game of the year.  Braden Holtby won his 33rd of the year.  Brodeur holds the record with 48 wins.

And one of those seasons was the lockout year.

 

[Beowulf]

Ovechkin hits 30 goals.  That makes it 11 straight 30 goal seasons to start his career.  Only two other players have done that (Mike Gartner and Wayne Gretzky).  The Capitals also won their 38th game of the year.  Braden Holtby won his 33rd of the year.  Brodeur holds the record with 48 wins.

And one of those seasons was the lockout year.

On top of that the relative difficulty of scoring in this era vs. when Gartner or Gretzky played. Very impressive.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Rumours of Crosby's demise were greatly exaggerated.

 

[bustaheims]

Rumours of Crosby's demise were greatly exaggerated.

Yup. Looks like the Leafs don't have to worry about not getting their 1st this year.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Rumours of Crosby's demise were greatly exaggerated.

Yup. Looks like the Leafs don't have to worry about not getting their 1st this year.

Now we might need to worry about them picking 27th or later.

 

[Omallley]

Rumours of Crosby's demise were greatly exaggerated.

Yup. Looks like the Leafs don't have to worry about not getting their 1st this year.

Now we might need to worry about them picking 27th or later.

Ha!

He's on a hell of a streak in his last 11 games including tonights: 12G, 10A, 22P, +8, 3 GWG. That span accounts for 50% of his total goals this season, 50% of his GWGs, and 41% of his overall points.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

He's on a hell of a streak in his last 11 games including tonights: 12G, 10A, 22P, +8, 3 GWG. That span accounts for 50% of his total goals this season, 50% of his GWGs, and 41% of his overall points.

He's top-5 in points now. Obviously catching Kane is impossible but finishing 2nd isn't out of the question. Pretty amazing.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

He's on a hell of a streak in his last 11 games including tonights: 12G, 10A, 22P, +8, 3 GWG. That span accounts for 50% of his total goals this season, 50% of his GWGs, and 41% of his overall points.

He's top-5 in points now. Obviously catching Kane is impossible but finishing 2nd isn't out of the question. Pretty amazing.

Crosby (if he had a personality): "Challenge accepted."

 

[rdowdall]

He's on a hell of a streak in his last 11 games including tonights: 12G, 10A, 22P, +8, 3 GWG. That span accounts for 50% of his total goals this season, 50% of his GWGs, and 41% of his overall points.

He's top-5 in points now. Obviously catching Kane is impossible but finishing 2nd isn't out of the question. Pretty amazing.

If he gets to 100 and the Pens make the playoffs after the start they had, do you think he wins the Hart?  I ask because of the problems Kane had in the offseason, and the tendency for people to rate late season performances higher than early season performances.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

If he gets to 100 and the Pens make the playoffs after the start they had, do you think he wins the Hart?  I ask because of the problems Kane had in the offseason, and the tendency for people to rate late season performances higher than early season performances.

If he gets to 100? Maaayyybee, but that's a lofty goal. Kane's having an insane season and he's on pace for 111. Karlsson is 2nd right now and he's on pace for 89. So Crosby hitting 100 would be tough.

But even assuming that happened people would be voting for Sid the story will be about how he single-handily turned the Pens season around so he's a true "MVP". Kane's offseason stuff will have nothing to do with it.

 

[rdowdall]

If he gets to 100 and the Pens make the playoffs after the start they had, do you think he wins the Hart?  I ask because of the problems Kane had in the offseason, and the tendency for people to rate late season performances higher than early season performances.

If he gets to 100? Maaayyybee, but that's a lofty goal. Kane's having an insane season and he's on pace for 111. Karlsson is 2nd right now and he's on pace for 89. So Crosby hitting 100 would be tough.

But even assuming that happened people would be voting for Sid the story will be about how he single-handily turned the Pens season around so he's a true "MVP". Kane's offseason stuff will have nothing to do with it.

The other night when I looked, he needed 45 in 32 to hit 90.  That seemed pretty doable for Crosby.  You're right that hitting 100 might be a bit out of range now.  It would require him to maintain close to a 2 point a game pace.  Do you think the NHL would influence the voting in any way considering that they were still investigating Kane a couple of weeks ago?

 

[Kin]

But even assuming that happened people would be voting for Sid the story will be about how he single-handily turned the Pens season around so he's a true "MVP". Kane's offseason stuff will have nothing to do with it.

I think that if another really viable candidate emerges then Kane will lose some votes because of it but, yeah, Crosby would have to close the gap in a hurry.

 

[Zee]

Do the Sens really believe they can make the playoffs after this Phaneuf deal?  They're 5 points back, the teams in the wild card spots have games in hand, and there's 3 other teams to jump too.  This is like a fan-appeasing move that the Leafs management would have done 5-6 years ago.  Optics of making a push for the playoffs.  They would really need to go on a miracle run like they did last year with the hamburgler, how often does that happen?