2023-24 NHL Season Thread

[OburgOrange]

Add Nurse to that.

Horrible

 

[Cusefan95]

Skinner = Bad

I actually heard Steve Dangle’s voice in my head - “Tend the Goal!”

 

[jncuse]

Horrible

It seems like almost all the goals by Florida this series have been plays where somebody gets beat behind by the net or turnover by the Net (usually involving Nurse or Ceci) and then a quick pass and its in the net.

 

[Cowtown]

It seems like almost all the goals by Florida this series have been plays where somebody gets beat behind by the net or turnover by the Net (usually involving Nurse or Ceci) and then a quick pass and its in the net.

Well, tonight misplays by Bouchard and Kulak X2 led to three goals. Edmonton doesn't like to play in their own end. They cough up the puck with regularity. Bouchard is a hammer head.

Edmonton wants to play in the middle of the ice, but Florida plugs up the middle of the ice. There are always 4 or 5 guys in front of the net. Shots don't get through, passes don't get across. On the PK they attack the puck, while Edmonton has been weak on the puck. They mishandle or fumble a lot of passes. Which is a problem given how they over-pass.

Florida keeps everything to the perimeter, and Edmonton's not good at playing in the corners. It seems they don't like to. Nor, except for Hyman, are they willing to get into the mix in front of the net. They want to score on the rush or the PP, and if they don't, they're scuppered.

Edmonton is built for the regular season, to play a different team every night. Their fast paced, high energy game works if you only see them a few times a year. In the playoffs, the other team gets to see you every night. They take away what you've shown them you do and if you can't adjust, you don't win. Edmonton hasn't yet adjusted. To wit:

McDavid - 0 goals
Draisaitl - 0 goals
Hyman - 0 goals
RNH - 0 goals
Bouchard - 0 goals
Nurse - 0 goals

That's the majority of their cap. Skinner hasn't been bad, Bob's just better. The Corey Perry experiment, a gamble at best, is over. He has no game at this level.

 

[Cowtown]

Nah, Skinner hasn't been bad. His defense has been exposed. They're playing like they just discovered hockey. Florida is playing position, and Edmonton is chasing the puck.

 

[jncuse]

WARNING - She does not flash in this one.

 

[Fireball Jr.]

 

[Cowtown]

 

[OburgOrange]

 

[Cowtown]

Panthers Shmanthers. I think they should switch to the Florida Felons. Much more appropriate.

 

[jncuse]

These 3 day gaps between games are ridiculous. It's June 21, and the draft starts in 6 days.

Sure the flight is a bit long, but they are chartering private planes... its not that hard.

I remember when I was younger in the mid 80's they completed the opening round 3 of 5 series, by playing 4 games in the first 5 nights of the playoffs (which was equally crazy I suppose), and they weren't flying in style. And the 5 game series was over in 7 days.

I just selected a random team from the 80's (Minnesota North Stars and looked at their game log). In round 1 of 1986, they played the following nights against St Louis

Game 1 April 9
Game 2 April 10
Travel Day
Game 3 April 12
Game 4 April 13
Travel Day
Game 5 April 15

In 1986, the Montreal Canadiens won the Cup in 5 games and the season finished on MAY 24! MAY 24! If it had went 7, it would have been May 28.

And they were flying in **** compared to what the guys do today.

 

[Cusefan95]

I’d rather see Florida win this series, but momentum has really swung to Edmonton. As a Devils fan, I’ll be happy for Adam Henrique if he finally gets his name on the Cup.

Considering his career started with the Devils in 2011-12, and he scored the game winning goal in 2OT in game 7 to eliminate the Panthers that year - it would be a storybook ending if he gets an OT game winner on Monday. Prolly needs to retire if it happens, no way to top that.

 

[tbonezone]

go oilers . send the cup back to canada where it belongs.

 

[Cowtown]

I’d rather see Florida win this series, but momentum has really swung to Edmonton. As a Devils fan, I’ll be happy for Adam Henrique if he finally gets his name on the Cup.

Considering his career started with the Devils in 2011-12, and he scored the game winning goal in 2OT in game 7 to eliminate the Panthers that year - it would be a storybook ending if he gets an OT game winner on Monday. Prolly needs to retire if it happens, no way to top that.

I knew when the Oil picked him up that it was a difference maker. He and Brown and whoever else they put on that line have been a force, getting better with each game.

 

[Cusefan95]

I knew when the Oil picked him up that it was a difference maker. He and Brown and whoever else they put on that line have been a force, getting better with each game.

It was a forgone conclusion he was going to be traded by the Devils in 2018, the team was in a rebuild and he had more trade value to the Devils trying to acquire picks and players for the future. Any time the Ducks played in Newark over the last five years, the Devils would do a short career highlights video for him, which would always get a loud cheer from the crowd. I’m not surprised he’s playing well - he started his career as a third-line center who had a knack for making good plays and being in the right place at the right time. That’s just who he is.

It’s a shame his career started right as the Devils were about to fall off the cliff into a decade of irrelevance; if he’d started ten years earlier and was on a Cup team, he would have been a lock for the Devils Ring of Honor.

 

[jncuse]

Watched the first 30 seconds of the final game of the 1984 Stanley Cup Final between Islanders and Oilers. In the first 30 seconds, I counted six penalties for hooking / interference that would be called today.

The game was played at such a slow speed. Thankfully the goalies were the size of twigs (so they had look more spectacular flopping around) and some defenceman had less skill than a good 12 year old today so that a bunch of guys could score a whole bunch of goals, so at least the game was entertaining,

 

[tbonezone]

alas last time my beloved isles went to the finals. from 1980 to 1990 those 2 teams won the cup 9 times. those were all-time great teams you watched skating . and as far as defense paul coffey , kevin lowe , denis potvin are all in the hall of fame . ken morrow is in the US hall of fame and won gold in 80 and "stefan persson feeds mike bossy score! " is still music in my ears .

 

[Cowtown]

The NHL is such a bullshit sports league. They play an 82 game regular season under one set of rules, and when the playoffs begin everything changes. The holding and interference that Florida was able to get away with was terrible. Did I mention how shitty the ice is in June?

 

[upperdeck]

The NHL is such a bullshit sports league. They play an 82 game regular season under one set of rules, and when the playoffs begin everything changes. The holding and interference that Florida was able to get away with was terrible. Did I mention how shitty the ice is in June?

you dont think Flo plays that way all year in the east?

 

[Cusefan95]

I took my 8 year old son to the Bears-Firebirds game last night. Before we went he was telling me he only wanted to stay for one period so he could get home to watch the Panthers (the team he adopted as his favorite in spite of us going to many Devils games every year). Once we got there and the crowd was so intense, he changed his mind; he was worried we’d leave when the game went into OT and was telling me “Dad, we HAVE to stay”. He lost his mind when the Bears won and clinched the Calder Cup (even better since our favorite player Riley Sutter made the key play to set up the game winning goal).

Then we went home and watched the third period and saw Florida win the Stanley Cup. This morning I was telling him that was the first time I was at a clinching game for either cup; I’ve never had a day like that. He said “I hope I have another day like it.”

I’m sure this will be a lifetime memory he’ll still look back on fondly 50 years from now.

 

[Cowtown]

you dont think Flo plays that way all year in the east?

We only see the Eastern teams once or twice a year, so I couldn't tell you. But my complaint about changing the rules for the playoffs applies to decades of this crap. I'll watch NHL games on the tube, but I won't spend a dollar to go to a game. Haven't for over 30 years. Case in point: early in the third I watched an Oiler forechecker chase a Florida defenseman with the puck behind the net, and the other defenseman ran him off right into the boards, with a ref looking right at it. No call. I said, "Okay, this game is over."

 

[Cusefan95]

We only see the Eastern teams once or twice a year, so I couldn't tell you. But my complaint about changing the rules for the playoffs applies to decades of this crap. I'll watch NHL games on the tube, but I won't spend a dollar to go to a game. Haven't for over 30 years. Case in point: early in the third I watched an Oiler forechecker chase a Florida defenseman with the puck behind the net, and the other defenseman ran him off right into the boards, with a ref looking right at it. No call. I said, "Okay, this game is over."

The NHL has nothing on the NBA; I’ve never seen anything as blatantly obviously one-sided as the Sacramento-LA Western Conference finals in 2002. I think the NBA has a clear agenda and has refs putting their thumbs on the scale all the time - it wasn’t working in 2002 and they switched to both hands on the scale to make sure they got the result they wanted.

At least in the NHL you know what “playoff hockey penalties” are, and it’s normally fairly evenly called. I didn’t see last night as some egregious exception to that.

 

[Cusefan95]

I’m more irritated at McDavid getting the Conn Smythe Trophy than the officiating. The trophy is in part a PR strategy by the league to create marketing opportunities for the team. The Oilers can’t credible use it in a marketing pitch since they lost and would be killed in the media if they did. You can’t get any media narrative (other than what a stupid decision it is) because McDavid is going to rightly blow off any questions about it. The optics of Bettman handing the trophy to himself is just awful…but I’m not sure the optics of a road player on the losing team getting booed while getting handed the trophy is better.

There might be some unique circumstance where a player on the losing team getting the Conn Smythe would make sense…last night was not one of those rare times (which I’m unsure exist in the real world anyway).

 

[OburgOrange]

We only see the Eastern teams once or twice a year, so I couldn't tell you. But my complaint about changing the rules for the playoffs applies to decades of this crap. I'll watch NHL games on the tube, but I won't spend a dollar to go to a game. Haven't for over 30 years. Case in point: early in the third I watched an Oiler forechecker chase a Florida defenseman with the puck behind the net, and the other defenseman ran him off right into the boards, with a ref looking right at it. No call. I said, "Okay, this game is over."

Nothing is worse than basketball officiating

 

[tbonezone]

the Oilers simply ran out of gas.

(crude pun)