2023-24 NHL Season Thread

[Cusefan95]

Oh, forgot to mention this: Toronto's biggest problem is there aren't enough mirrors in their dressing room. If you catch my drift. The Boston bogeyman is always in their closet, and they'll never get mentally past them until they prove they physically can. And even if they eventually do, then "whither Candide?"

One of my favorite traditions is to check out Steve Dangle's meltdown after Toronto gets eliminated in the playoffs every year. I'm already looking forward to it...

 

[Cowtown]

Sayonara Lindy Ruff. The fans were crying "Fire Lindy" last year, IIRC, so this was inevitable given how they never resolved their goaltending.

 

[Cusefan95]

Sayonara Lindy Ruff. The fans were crying "Fire Lindy" last year, IIRC, so this was inevitable given how they never resolved their goaltending.

The “Fire Lindy” cheers were during the second game of the season - the team went on a long winning streak right after that and about two weeks later there was a “Sorry Lindy” cheer. Frankly it took a lot of bad play this year for Ruff to burn through the goodwill he’d earned with the fan base last year.

Goaltending issues are getting all the focus, but the problems are more widespread than that. Ruff had similar issues with lack of defensive focus in Dallas, and it was a huge problem this year. The forwards have never been strong defensively, but so many times this year I couldn’t even figure out what they thought they were doing as opposing players skated freely through the slot. I think Ruff tried to instill some defensive focus by benching Holtz for long stretches for defensive lapses - but that’s not going to work when Jack Hughes is also a problem that’s not being addressed…I suspect that started creating major team chemistry issues as well.

I think this is too little, too late for this year - Fitz needed to make a coaching change about six weeks ago, then make a move on a goaltender if they started to show signs of life. As I commented earlier, it was so obvious the wheels came off completely vs the Kings he had no choice but to make this move today, and not addressing the goaltending is part of the problem which is on Fitz - but Ruff ultimately got fired because his defensive system is atrocious.

 

[kirbivore]

Rangers can't hang with the elite teams. ECF is their ceiling.

 

[Cusefan95]

Rangers can't hang with the elite teams. ECF is their ceiling.

Stanley Cup isn’t won in March, and I think the Rangers are built well for playoff hockey. They may not get to the Cup finals, but if I was a Rangers fan I’d be feeling good about my chances right now.

 

[Cusefan95]

I’m hoping the Devils trade Toffoli and bring back something to help plug the holes from this year. Very unlikely they resign him, may as well trade him now. Doubt they can get a goalie with him as the chip, but a warm six pack would be better value than just letting him walk…they’d likely get draft picks and maybe an AHL lifer which I’d be fine with.

 

[Cusefan95]

Interesting that Devils sat Toffoli today since they are trying to trade him. Supposedly they are shooting for a first round pick - I would be ecstatic if they got that. I’m thinking closer to a 2nd rd and 5th round pick would be a great but reasonable deal.

I’m curious if Florida stealing Tarasenko from Ottawa set a low market for sellers though.

 

[jncuse]

Note - this is neither a yay or nay to LTIR rules, but a point on those promoting the following easy solution that doesn't work.

So many people saying "The easy and simple answer to this LTIR issue is to not allow teams to dress more than the cap number in the playoffs"

It's not that simple stupid. Let's take LTIR out of the equation.
The cap doesn't work like NBA which is a flat number all year. In the NHL if you accumulate space early (independent of LTIR), you can add a big salary at the end. Teams always have total salaries over the cap number at year end even before LTIR. Its because you can accumulate space below the cap for the first 70% of the season, then allowing you to get a higher $ number for the last 30%.

Say a team that has an opening spend of $77M (Team A) vs $80M (Team B) - cap is $81M.

Team A can pick up a $9M player at the deadline with no cost of retention, because they have saved and accumulated cap space throughout the first 70% of the season. Nothing to do with LTIR, but there total salaries are now $86M, and they have to sit someone making $5M in game one under this solution.

Team B can pick up a $9M player at the deadline, with 75% retention through two trades (only way they can acquire him), and can fit him into the lineup at a salary of $2.2M. Team B total salary is only $82 million. Can sit some schlub making $1M.

Why should team B have the advantage over Team A?
Or are you going to force Team B to take the $9 million hit...raising their total salaries to $89 million, and forcing them to sit out $8m in salaries?

Point is - its not the simple solution to the LTIR issue that people think it is.

 

[Cusefan95]

Note - this is neither a yay or nay to LTIR rules, but a point on those promoting the following easy solution that doesn't work.

So many people saying "The easy and simple answer to this LTIR issue is to not allow teams to dress more than the cap number in the playoffs"

It's not that simple stupid. Let's take LTIR out of the equation.
The cap doesn't work like NBA which is a flat number all year. In the NHL if you accumulate space early (independent of LTIR), you can add a big salary at the end. Teams always have total salaries over the cap number at year end even before LTIR. Its because you can accumulate space below the cap for the first 70% of the season, then allowing you to get a higher $ number for the last 30%.

Say a team that has an opening spend of $77M (Team A) vs $80M (Team B) - cap is $81M.

Team A can pick up a $9M player at the deadline with no cost of retention, because they have saved and accumulated cap space throughout the first 70% of the season. Nothing to do with LTIR, but there total salaries are now $86M, and they have to sit someone making $5M in game one under this solution.

Team B can pick up a $9M player at the deadline, with 75% retention through two trades (only way they can acquire him), and can fit him into the lineup at a salary of $2.2M. Team B total salary is only $82 million. Can sit some schlub making $1M.

Why should team B have the advantage over Team A?
Or are you going to force Team B to take the $9 million hit...raising their total salaries to $89 million, and forcing them to sit out $8m in salaries?

Point is - its not the simple solution to the LTIR issue that people think it is.

There’s no easy and simple solution since whatever they come up with needs to be collectively bargained and can’t just be implemented by the league. This gets easy and simple if they redo the way the cap works to be more like the NBA - but that’s unlikely to happen. (It might since guys at the fringes of the league would benefit at the cost of high salary players - and there’s more fringe guys than big contract guys….but it feels unlikely).

The idea I’m seeing is if a guy isn’t ready for game 82 but then magically heals in time for game 1 of the playoffs, that’s what the GMs upset with the current system would like to eliminate. Something like game 1 roster is set by game 78 in the regular season - a guy who misses any chunk of the last 5 games isn’t eligible until the playoff roster until the same number of playoff games (so potentially up to round 1, game 6). That would force teams that need/want to play cap games to assess how much risk of losing in round 1 due to healthy players not eligible they are willing to absorb.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[BlazeOrange]

The Pittsburgh Porch Pirates strike again!

I wonder if the stolen ones can be authenticated as official Black Market Bobbleheads and have more value?

 

[Cusefan95]

Panthers - Rangers game tonight should be a good one. Florida has gone on a bit of a skid, a win tonight would get them back on track. Right now they kinda look like a team that peaked a month too early.

 

[kirbivore]

Panthers - Rangers game tonight should be a good one. Florida has gone on a bit of a skid, a win tonight would get them back on track. Right now they kinda look like a team that peaked a month too early.

When the Rangers went down 2-0 I was losing hope they'd ever beat the Panthers. Great shootout win.

 

[Cusefan95]

When the Rangers went down 2-0 I was losing hope they'd ever beat the Panthers. Great shootout win.

Coming back from down 2-0 wasn’t a surprise to me; that’s fairly common in today’s NHL. Once they were down 3-2 with five minutes left, I expected the Panthers to clamp down hard and grind out the win - a goal to tie it and send it to OT in that situation (and without having to pull the goalie to get the tie) shocked me.

I’ll stand by my earlier opinion those are the best two teams in the East - a conference final between them would be fantastic.

 

[Cusefan95]

I took my kids to the Devils-Jets game on Thursday. Since it was partly a birthday celebration for my 8 year old son, I got extra experiences for my son and daughter - they were in the “high five tunnel” getting fist bumps from Devils players going out for warm-ups, were on the Zamboni before the game, and I had the mascot come by and drop off gift bags to my kids.

My son was keeping track of the numbers of players who fist bumped him, and would point them out during the game. “#13” was one of them. I’ve noticed at other games and then experienced it Thursday - Nico Hischier makes honest effort to engage with fans for things like this. I’ve started pointing out things Hischier does well, like he’s very dependable with defensive positioning (on a team where the forwards overall are terrible), trying to get my son to model that mentality when he’s playing hockey. My son was definitely watching him closely all game on Thursday, which made showing him good play by Nico a lot easier than usual.

In a year which has been incredibly frustrating as a Devils fan, I’m sure that the game with my kids will be the highlight.

 

[Cusefan95]

The Pittsburgh Porch Pirates strike again!

I wonder if the stolen ones can be authenticated as official Black Market Bobbleheads and have more value?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/2024/03/25/jaromir-jagr-bobbleheads-nhl-penguins/2ded623c-eafc-11ee-8f2c-380a821c02db_story.html

Apparently the bobble heads have been returned and will be handed out to fans that were supposed to get them in early April.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Old Time Hockey...

 

[Cusefan95]

Old Time Hockey...

Was inevitable with Rempe not fighting after he injured Siegenthaler in the last game against the Devils. Reminded me of the 5-on-5 brawl between these teams in 2012.

 

[Cowtown]

Old Time Hockey...

Toss all ten of 'em. It's such bullshit.

 

[Cusefan95]

Toss all ten of 'em. It's such bullshit.

The first two (Lazar/Vasey) to drop gloves got 5 for fighting, everyone else got game misconducts.

As noted, what was “bullshit” was Rempe injuring a Devils player in the last game (AGAIN…), refusing to fight, and taunting the New Jersey crowd. If the NHL really wanted to avoid situations like this (which they don’t…), suspensions for reckless play would be substantially longer than they are. That clown Rempe has five minutes of ice time against the Devils in three games, all of which he’s been ejected from. He’s an old school goon who has no business in the NHL, but he’s treated like a star by Rangers fans. That is a huge problem.

I think the league likes stuff like tonight, but don’t realize how close they are getting to another Burtuzzi -Moore type incident since the office of player safety is not doing nearly enough to minimize reckless play.

 

[jncuse]

Some interesting developments in world of Canadian Junior Hockey (CHL) and its relationship with the NCAA based on what I heard from a podcast. As most are aware, the NCAA policy has been to ban any kids from entering the NCAA, who had ever played a CHL game, or even practiced once with a CHL team.

The rationale was these 16-19 year olds in the CHL were "professionals" because they received small amounts of money which largely equated to stipends each month. Of course some teams (London) seems to have found "creative" ways to bring players in as well.

It seems in this new world for the NCAA things are changing, and players from the CHL will soon be permitted to enter the NCAA. From a podcast I recently heard the split from coaches appears to be 75/25 in favour.

I think its an interesting development that in the end will open up the player pool for the NCAA.

I think of a kid who is the star on our Tier 1 Junior Team in town (a typical feeder for the NCAA in Canada). Happens to be the son of a past friend. was drafted as a 16 year old and made the OHL team as a 16 year old. Things didn't work out and by 17, he was back on the Tier 1 team. He is the best player on the team as an 18 year old - I would think some NCAA teams would certainly be interested, but that was not an option before.

 

[Cusefan95]

Looking like Arizona moving to SLC is pretty close to a done deal. Makes sense, every arena proposal they come up with in Arizona get torpedoed…staying in a college arena with no end in sight doesn’t make any sense.

 

[OburgOrange]

Looking like Arizona moving to SLC is pretty close to a done deal. Makes sense, every arena proposal they come up with in Arizona get torpedoed…staying in a college arena with no end in sight doesn’t make any sense.

New name, Utah Stormin’ Mormons?

 

[Cusefan95]

Jeff Carter getting handshakes from all the Islanders after playing his last game with the Penguins was cool to see.

 

[tbonezone]

epic meltdown by the islanders last night. up 3-2 with 2 min left . lose 5-3 .