NHL 2013-2014

[Blotus]

Here is where we talk about hockey.

Last night's performance by Shark's rookie Tomas Hurtl hints that the race for the Calder may not be as easy a trek for Nathan MacKinnon as I had hoped.




I'm following Colorado closely this year since MacKinnon is a Nova Scotia boy and I watched him a lot in the past couple of years playing for the Halifax Mooseheads. I almost feel like a bit of a traitor since Colorado and Detroit (my guys) had a pretty sick rivalry over the last 15 years. Anyway, Colorado has a number of good young players up front and they've been exciting to watch so far.

Detroit, on the other hand, made some questionable moves in the off-season. I'm fine with them taking Alfredsson and Weiss (replacement for Filppula, who will probably do better elsewhere), but the re-signing of Dan Cleary and retaining Bertuzzi and Samulesson kind of bites. Cleary can be effective when it really counts in the playoffs, and Samuelsson is a decent special teams player, but Bertuzzi might as well just be there to hit people and fight.

Those three dudes occupy spots on the roster that could otherwise be used to better prepare hungry young players like Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar. Buuuuut Bert and Samuelsson both have no-trade clauses and are being paid too much to scratch, I guess.

The jokes about the "old timer" Wings will continue until next season when:
-Bert/Cleary/Samuelsson's contracts all end and they go to free agency (doubt any will be resigned)
-Alfie retires

I think the Wings can still do really well this season provided:
-DARREN HELM returns and stays healthy
-Abdelkader earns his spot and contributes on the Hank/Pav line
-The new second line of Franzen/Weiss/Alf produces

They're fine in goal with Jimmy Howard and on defence with Kronwall, Ericsson, Smith, Kinl, and Dekeyser (Quincy can suck it).

Anyway, that's my armchair GM assessment of Detroit so far. Now Zeus and KluYa can talk about the Leafs.

[Zeus]

Leafs are interesting. Other than Pittsburgh and maybe Boston, there are no other teams clearly better....and about 8 to 10 in the same league. They can do very well or miss the playoffs, along with basically their entire division, Red Wings included. If Bernier plays the way he has so far all year, they'll easily get in and be a tough team.

Wings are interesting. They can just as easily miss the playoffs as be 3rd or 4th. Last year they did much better than expected and we'll see if they can repeat that kind of performance. Sens are kind of the same. Everyone was blowing them for overcoming all their injuries and the the Habs rolled over for them, but they got beat pretty good by the Pens who were handled easily by the Bruins.

Habs? I don't trust they're as good as last yr when they played over their heads. Don't be too shocked if they miss the playoffs this yr. The Lightning are a real wildcard now that they have Bishop. Rangers are odd. World class goaltending should get them into the playoffs but they shouldn't go anywhere. Jersey I don't know, Schneider is overrated in my books. Carolina, Florida, and Buffalo will bring up the rear.

As for the West, it seems to be Chicago and Anaheim with the Blues thrown in. Does anyone else have a chance?

[Blotus]

As for the West, it seems to be Chicago and Anaheim with the Blues thrown in. Does anyone else have a chance?

San Jose and LA will continue to do well.

NHL Network predictions:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=684510

Wings came really close to not making the playoffs last year, but they killed it in the last leg of the regular season and took that into the playoffs. Shame they had to play the Hawks.

I'm sure TO will make the playoffs, but I'll be shocked if they get past the first round with how competitive the top tier in that conference will be... unless they place 1-4 and end up knocking off a bottom seed team. And with the weird conference restructure (14W, 16E), one team that may have placed 8th last year won't make it this year. Pens or Bruins will probably repeat as East champs.

It's going to be a very entertaining season!

[Zeus]

Don't be too surprised if Toronto does well this year. They have a ton of depth up front, a goalie who's already proving he's world class, and a decent defensive core (not great but not nearly the weakness everyone is trying to make them out to be). They can compete with anyone in the conference if Carlyle can put it together. They proved that last year and they're better this year.

St. Louis needs to prove they can do well in the playoffs, they haven't yet. LA can certainly be great but they just don't seem to put a full season together (the year they won, they were barely 8th). San Jose are choke masters. We'll see, I think Chicago is still the cream over there

[KluYa]

No mention of Joe Thornton's would be goal celebration for potting 4 in a game. Let's pray he never does lol.

New Jersey and Buffalo still winless. Brodeur should probably hang up the skates (although he didn't start in yesterday's shutout loss), and the Sabres, well, they may never win again? I think they scored a total of 6 goals in 6 games played. It may take a game versus the Rags or even the Oilers to cure an offensive slump of that degree.

Quick and Bogosian both in early contention for gaffe of the year.

[Blotus]

I don't think anybody will beat Quick.

[KluYa]

Yeah that one was good. Very similar to what happened to Brodeur in the SCF. Here we'll throw in this one too from the other night.

[Blotus]

Wings became the fist team to beat the Avalanche last night.

But it came at a shitty cost, as Kronwall was hit from behind and sustained a concussion.

The Altitude Newtork (Colorado) announcer was just giddy about this, and goes on to call it Kronwall getting a taste of his own medicine.

[Zeus]

And just as we're talking about weird own-goals, Bernier decides to follow his ex-Kings teammate

[KluYa]

In contrast to some of the less than stellar goalie moments, here's a pretty ridiculous game winning save by Niemi against Todd Bertuzzi in the shootout tonight.

[Zeus]

That is a pretty kick-ass save

[Blotus]

That was a heartbreaker.

[SineSwiper]

0-0 again?

[Zeus]

That was a heartbreaker.

Just deal with the fact that Detroit is very much a middle of the run team. They BARELY made the playoffs last year (did very well to win a series) and will have to play very well to do it again. There's more competition here in the East and they're in a transition. It's gonna be hard for them. I love Illitch, Holland, and Babcock but it's gonna take them a bit to build it back up again

[Blotus]

Just deal with the fact that Detroit is very much a middle of the run team. They BARELY made the playoffs last year (did very well to win a series) and will have to play very well to do it again. There's more competition here in the East and they're in a transition. It's gonna be hard for them. I love Illitch, Holland, and Babcock but it's gonna take them a bit to build it back up again

New year, same claims. Every year they're "too old" or "losing it", and they end up -- in the case of last year -- going to seven games with the eventual cup champion (which Boston did not). I've resigned myself to them not winning 60 games a season, but never count them out.

Right now, they need to figure out their forward situation. There are three forwards in the AHL who ought to be on the team by now; however, the Wings simply have too many forwards under contract, a number of them not producing, and don't have the cap space to bring the younger guys up.

More competition in the East? I thought so at first as well, but that hasn't been the case so far this year:

Heading into Thursday's action, [the West] are a combined 42-16-7 against the East this season, a remarkable .700 points percentage.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=688247

[KluYa]

Yeah I raised an eyebrow at that comment too. Not much evidence to suggest the Wings are going to have it tougher in the east than they would in the west. DGB had an entertaining read last week about the west's dominance not just this year but over the past decade or so.

[Chris]

bah the wings are screwed for one reason and one reason alone. What is that reason you ask?

Real Life Manbaby Daniel Alfreddson.

[Zeus]

bah the wings are screwed for one reason and one reason alone. What is that reason you ask?

Real Life Manbaby Daniel Alfreddson.

You spelled it wrong. It's "Alfuckssen" :-)

Look, I like the Wings. I always have, even when they and the Leafs were battling it out a decade and a half ago and won every time (we still remember Borchevsky jumping up and down in the early 90s). They're coached so well that you can never count them out. But they fall in that 5th-to-11th conference ranking now. Can you really say they're as good overall as the Bruins, Pens, or even the Leafs (more on them in a sec)? Not really. The fact that the Flyers, Rangers, Panthers, and Sabres are so damned awful and the 'Canes, Sens, Lightning, and Islanders show so many holes will more likely boost them into at least the top 7 in the conference. And, as we saw last year, good coaching can even get them a win against a top-seeded team. But they just ain't in the top 3rd of the league anymore, that's a fact. Heck, Holland came out at the beginning of last year and said they would have a hard time making the playoffs. And he was right, they barely snuck in.

As for the West, is there anyone to really challenge Chicago this year? Avs can't keep this up forever, Canucks will have to prove they haven't lost too much, Anaheim I'm just not sure of, Sharks are always the Sharks (ie. disappointing), and the Blues still haven't proven they've put it all together. And now that Leafs are 8-4, not having played particularly well, and having beaten two very tough teams (ANA and PIT) in a week, how much longer before people will finally believe they're one of the stronger teams in the East?

[SineSwiper]

http://deadspin.com/goalie-fight-1457133052

Look, I don't really like hockey or sports in general. But, I cannot understand why any sport that considers themselves "pro" thinks fighting to be a-okay. Can you imagine if this shit happened in the NBA? NFL? Soccer? Baseball? Hell, you can't even do a fucking victory dance in the NFL.

[kali o.]

http://deadspin.com/goalie-fight-1457133052

Look, I don't really like hockey or sports in general. But, I cannot understand why any sport that considers themselves "pro" thinks fighting to be a-okay. Can you imagine if this shit happened in the NBA? NFL? Soccer? Baseball? Hell, you can't even do a fucking victory dance in the NFL.

Ya, I can imagine...I'd probably see a lot less pussies and cheap pricks in those other "sports".

[Chris]

http://deadspin.com/goalie-fight-1457133052

Look, I don't really like hockey or sports in general. But, I cannot understand why any sport that considers themselves "pro" thinks fighting to be a-okay. Can you imagine if this shit happened in the NBA? NFL? Soccer? Baseball? Hell, you can't even do a fucking victory dance in the NFL.

Ya, I can imagine...I'd probably see a lot less pussies and cheap pricks in those other "sports".

plus this happens in baseball all the time...except in baseball it usually involves every single player on the bench getting into a fight. At least in hockey it's normally one on one outside of when the flyers act like babies. Which to be fair...this was the flyers acting like goddamn babies and really, they need to make some big time changes after that clusterfuck and what has been a completely embarrassing season this far with that mess being the capper that kind of exemplifies just how bad of a mess they are as a team. It's like them and Buffalo has a new player suspended every other game. God those 2 teams are in such a sad place.

[zoeyku]

that one was good.