sakiqc Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Chicago are set to lose their 1st game in regulation tonight. Wondering how long will be their losing streak now that their hora of invincibility is gone. 4 games ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commandant Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Quick question. What happens if Colorado deems he is not worth the minimum 6.5mil to qualify him and neither does anyone else? If Colorado doesn't qualify him, he's UFA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurdBurglar Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Just wanted to show something that shows how Boston's style is accepted, whether it's legal or not. NHL.com Barry Melrose did a preview of tonight's game between Boston and Pittsburgh. http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=53&id=218428&cmpid=embed About half way through he's talking about Bostons defense, and the clip is Chara getting away with an interference penalty. This is priceless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMMR Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Massive choke job by the Bruins tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazy26 Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Massive choke job by the Bruins tonight. Love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Bruins and Leafs lost. Unless someone goes on a drastic winning/losing streak, the East looks easy to write: In: Montreal, Pittsburgh, Boston Battling for Position: Carolina, Ottawa, Toronto, New Jersey, New York, Winnipeg Outside Looking In: Philadelphia, Long Island Likely Out: Buffalo, Florida, Washington, Tampa Bay There's a seven point difference between the "in" teams and the "Battling for Position" teams. It would take a massive downfall for any of those teams to fall out of the playoff race. In other words, barring a 5+ game winning streak, Buffalo, TB, Florida and Washington should become sellers at the deadline. Philly and the Islanders only if they lose a few more games while you'd be hard pressed to see the teams battling for position to be selling. Top in the East will be a fight between Montreal, Boston and Pittsburgh. I'll give the nod to Pittsburgh, they have divisional rivals that are really struggling. The West only has Anaheim and Chicago guaranteed. An eleven point difference between Anaheim and Vancouver/LA/St. Louis. Yikes. Edmonton, Calgary, Columbus and Colorado are more outside looking in than likely out. Columbus looked likely out and then went on a five game winning streak. They are only three points from a playoff spot but Calgary at 15th is only six points behind. Not going to underestimate that bag of surprises. This is just going to make the market even tighter. Sellers will ask for the moon. Buyers will likely stick with the teams they have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 Remember when San Jose got off to such a strong start? Niemi was playing well, while Thornton/Marleau/Pavelski were lighting it up. In their last 20 games, they have a whopping 2 regulation wins. I never would have guessed that would happen. Despite that, they're hanging around the playoff race with some OT/SO victories and lots of loser points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Remember when San Jose got off to such a strong start? Niemi was playing well, while Thornton/Marleau/Pavelski were lighting it up. In their last 20 games, they have a whopping 2 regulation wins. I never would have guessed that would happen. Despite that, they're hanging around the playoff race with some OT/SO victories and lots of loser points. Yeah, SJ is a good example of why we shouldn't get too excited with our current standings but as the Sportsclubstats states, all Montreal has to do from here on in to make the playoffs is play .500 hockey and we're doing much better than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurdBurglar Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Realignment approved. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=660138&navid=DL|NHL|home Not liking our division with the unnecessary travel to Florida and the extra team. It also makes the Western conference the preferred conference to play for as 6 of 14 teams are guaranteed to make the playoffs, while in the east only 6 of 16 are. I'm unsure why the Florida teams aren't in the D division while CBJ and Pittsburgh should be in our division. This alignment seems to make our division the worse balanced in the league, with travel and the extra team. The only way to fix it is move Florida and Tampa to Quebec City/Hamilton and Seattle/Vegas respectively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbp Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Realignment approved. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=660138&navid=DL|NHL|home Not liking our division with the unnecessary travel to Florida and the extra team. It also makes the Western conference the preferred conference to play for as 6 of 14 teams are guaranteed to make the playoffs, while in the east only 6 of 16 are. I'm unsure why the Florida teams aren't in the D division while CBJ and Pittsburgh should be in our division. This alignment seems to make our division the worse balanced in the league, with travel and the extra team. The only way to fix it is move Florida and Tampa to Quebec City/Hamilton and Seattle/Vegas respectively. Worst Idea I've Seen. More games against teams that we aren't competing against. Divisions aren't even equal. Since the teams are fighting for fewer spots I only see it as an intensive to tank, i know they changed the lottery but being a bottom 5 team will still get you a great player. All because some teams complain about time-zone changes and some flight time? I haven't heard people say anything about that in Champions league for soccer... NHL franchises are the most pathetic in the world of sport. Get over yourselves. Please someone show me something positive about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 14, 2013 Author Share Posted March 14, 2013 Worst Idea I've Seen. More games against teams that we aren't competing against. Divisions aren't even equal. Since the teams are fighting for fewer spots I only see it as an intensive to tank, i know they changed the lottery but being a bottom 5 team will still get you a great player. All because some teams complain about time-zone changes and some flight time? I haven't heard people say anything about that in Champions league for soccer... NHL franchises are the most pathetic in the world of sport. Get over yourselves. Please someone show me something positive about this. I do think the time zone changes are important for teams like Dallas, Winnipeg, Columbus, and Detroit. Those teams will have a lot more of their road games in the local time zone; that should be huge for the smaller market Columbus and Dallas in particular. As for positives, let's see... Divisional playoffs for the first two rounds increases the chance of the Habs being involved in a rivalry matchup (Detroit, Boston, Toronto...heck, even Ottawa). I like that there are more games against the other conference, it's nice to see every team twice instead of just once (plus 3 games which always were against the Western Canadian teams). Those are the ones that jump to mind although like you, I'm not a fan of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Not a fan of the divisions either but Florida and Detroit are regressing so adding them isn't so bad for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I would guess the Canadiens organization would not be fans of this. I would suggest that there may be small benefits in other ways to powerful teams like Montreal who have to yield to the wishes of the NHL. Preferential back-to-backs, perhaps. First choice on home dates. First choice on road dates. There would have had to be give and take for this to go through, and I would guess that Montreal was a team that will benefit in some other ways. Fla and TB may be in the division with teams that will help fill their empty arenas, but they surely won't get first choice as to when that'll happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 I would guess the Canadiens organization would not be fans of this. I would suggest that there may be small benefits in other ways to powerful teams like Montreal who have to yield to the wishes of the NHL. Preferential back-to-backs, perhaps. First choice on home dates. First choice on road dates. There would have had to be give and take for this to go through, and I would guess that Montreal was a team that will benefit in some other ways. Fla and TB may be in the division with teams that will help fill their empty arenas, but they surely won't get first choice as to when that'll happen. They did vote in favour of re-alignment which is odd as they voted against the original proposal. https://twitter.com/RenLavoieRDS/status/312390824384155648 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 They did vote in favour of re-alignment which is odd as they voted against the original proposal. https://twitter.com/RenLavoieRDS/status/312390824384155648 Oh, I'm sure they voted in favour - they were probably given a few provisos under the table to do so. Makes things look really good when one of the showpiece franchises rubber stamps any move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Oh, I'm sure they voted in favour - they were probably given a few provisos under the table to do so. Makes things look really good when one of the showpiece franchises rubber stamps any move. They'll probably get a significant cut in the expansion/relocation fees whenever Quebec comes back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 Oh, I'm sure they voted in favour - they were probably given a few provisos under the table to do so. Makes things look really good when one of the showpiece franchises rubber stamps any move. Last time (in 2011), the vote was 26-4 pro vs against. Assuming there was still that appetite (per Bettman, it wasn't a unanimous yes but pretty close), there was no need for a 'wink, wink, nudge, nudge' agreement under the table to secure the Habs' vote. It still likely would have passed without it (the magic number was 23 votes). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Last time (in 2011), the vote was 26-4 pro vs against. Assuming there was still that appetite (per Bettman, it wasn't a unanimous yes but pretty close), there was no need for a 'wink, wink, nudge, nudge' agreement under the table to secure the Habs' vote. It still likely would have passed without it (the magic number was 23 votes). I suspect there's a lot of politicking that goes on behind the scenes. Like, for instance, the 7 or 8 teams the Habs prop up financially having to listen very closely to what Montreal is saying. I don't think it's anywhere near as cut and dried as it's made out to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 6 years, $5.5 M per year for Oliver Ekman-Larsson in Phoenix. It buys out his last four RFA years and two UFA ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 6 years, $5.5 M per year for Oliver Ekman-Larsson in Phoenix. It buys out his last four RFA years and two UFA ones. Good player, but for me that contract smacks of hope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueKross Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 I suspect there's a lot of politicking that goes on behind the scenes. Like, for instance, the 7 or 8 teams the Habs prop up financially having to listen very closely to what Montreal is saying. I don't think it's anywhere near as cut and dried as it's made out to be. Not to worry, this is a temporary alignment, they got expansion fees in their sights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 Good player, but for me that contract smacks of hope. He's one of the most underrated players in the league but fundamentally, I don't like contracts like this that essentially pay close to UFA money for RFA years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sakiqc Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 He's one of the most underrated players in the league but fundamentally, I don't like contracts like this that essentially pay close to UFA money for RFA years. Insane indeed. Changing subject. Quick NHL trivia: Who is the current Hits leader of the New Jersey Devils ? A. Volchenkov B. Clarkson C. 5'7" Stephen Gionta You guessed right.. Gionta ! insane http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/njd/stats?sort=nhl.stat_type.117 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeLassister Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Obviously, the Canadiens are the biggest surprise for me this season. But I wanted to talk about my personal biggest dissapointment : the New-York Rangers. I was expecting to see them fight for the President trophy this season. A big 3, some quality depth (Stepan, Callahan, Hagelin), a dmen squad that I thought would be steady and Henrik Lundqvist (still with 0 shutout). Very dissapointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 I was looking back through old posts to see if I posted a prediction about this (evidently I didn't) but their struggles honestly don't surprise me too much. I thought they'd be hanging around 7th-10th at this time - they're 9th - and would rebound down the stretch to finish 6th or so in the East. Every year they add a big name player, every year they get similar results (great goaltending, subpar offence). With less proven offensive depth (depth being the wave of the present right now), I suspected they'd fall below expectations. I figure around the deadline they'll shore up their secondary scoring which should give them a boost. In terms of scoreboard watching today, both Boston and Pittsburgh won this afternoon. The Habs are presently in 4th, 1 point behind Boston for the division lead and 2 behind the Penguins for the conference lead (a win would put Montreal back in 1st although no matter what they won't be in first after tomorrow as Boston plays Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.