NHL thread revived

[Pikachu Fan Number Nine]

Well, I know it's late, but here is the new edition of the NHL thread.

My team, the Jackets, got off to a slow start, but had a winning streak to start this month, which ended two nights ago, but they still managed to get the game into OT, so they got one point. If Columbus can keep playing well we will be back in the playoffs, and this time, I hope we win the Cup.

Meanwhile, the Winter Classic is almost here, and speaking of which, Boston will be hosting next year's. The opponent for next year should be Tampa Bay, since that recently-created division rivalry is made even more interesting by the cities' rivalry in baseball, as well as Tampa Bay representing a fresh face in the WC.

The Stadium Series games next year will be hosted by Colorado and Minnesota. Colorado's game should be against St. Louis, since both cities are home to major brewing companies - Denver has Coors, St. Louis has Anheuser-Busch. Hence my nickname for the rivalry, the Suds Series.

Minnesota should host Chicago in their Stadium Series game, since this rivalry is essentially a revival of an old Norris-era match-up.

So, NHL fans, discuss away!

 

[Vernikova]

Rangers are off slow, but it's the playoffs that count. I'm not worried at all.

 

[Pikachu Fan Number Nine]

Winter Classic was today. A rare win by a home team. If you read my first post you'll see my ideas as to who should play in the next few Winter Classics.

Blue Jackets are back in action on Saturday. Hope January is just as good as, if not better than, December.

 

[Puma Italia]

The Rangers are proving to be one of the best teams in New York right now. (yeah I'll give the Islanders some credit too)

 

[Vernikova]

The Rangers are proving to be one of the best teams in New York right now. (yeah I'll give the Islanders some credit too)

That's not really saying much. ):

 

[Mye]

Yeah, slovakia won the bronze medal in the world juniors. You have to give a hand to their goalie in this, as not only was he making clutch saves but he was doing so without a decent defense in front of him. Oh, and the audience was cheering him afterwards so you can tell he earned their respect in it.

Also, does anyone else hate the Oilers right now? They essentially "mercy-killed" Eakins' contract, got rid of Perron, signed two of their worst 3 forwards in +/- to massive contracts with partial no-trade clauses (which expire after 2 years), and probably aren't gonna have any sort of reasonable season despite their two goalies basically working their butts off/getting fed to the wolves. Ownership HAS to change things around, as clearly Mactavish doesn't know what the hell he's doing and much of their roster clearly doesn't care about anything other than paychecks.

 

[Golden_Latias]

I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the Red Wings have been doing this year. I mean, I wouldn't consider them elite, and they've cooled off a bit since their start, but they're more fun to watch now than they have been for the past few years. Those younger players they've been bringing up are finally starting to pay off.

The only thing I've noticed that's really wrong with them is that they just can't win in overtime and ESPECIALLY shootouts for whatever reason, but there are worse things you can be bad at.

 

[Mye]

I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the Red Wings have been doing this year. I mean, I wouldn't consider them elite, and they've cooled off a bit since their start, but they're more fun to watch now than they have been for the past few years. Those younger players they've been bringing up are finally starting to pay off.

The only thing I've noticed that's really wrong with them is that they just can't win in overtime and ESPECIALLY shootouts for whatever reason, but there are worse things you can be bad at.

Yeah, they added a few of those new guys who I thought would do horribly but they've ended up filling the roles quite nicely. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see them start Gustavvson more as he's probably going to be their future goalie, but meh, Howard'll do. Oh, and them being bad at shootouts is actually a good thing. New jersey didn't win a shootout/overtime game until february last year as their time in the offensive zone during OT was somewhere around 25%. Now it's up around 70% for them, and they have 3 more powerplays than penalties in the extra frame. And they're 4-7 right now as opposed to 3-18 from last year.

 

[Pikachu Fan Number Nine]

Well, the Jackets enter February far out of a playoff spot...not the kind of progress I had hoped they would make in January.

 

[Mye]

Yeah, apparently Nabokov got traded to the sharks and is planning on announcing his retirement. With all the good goalies in the NHL, Nabokov may go down as the most polarizing one (having some of the best regular season stats and the absolute worst post-season ones). Kinda fitting that he's retiring with the sharks, as that was literally the only team he actually had success with.

 

[Mister_SGG]

Flower's inconsistency has been pissing me off lately. He starts breaking all these franchise shutout records and then next thing Pens lose 5-0. I recognize it's not all his fault, as our defense is seriously lacking, but you'd still think he'd be able hold his own a bit more.

 

[Mye]

Yeah, despite what people think Fleury's actually one of the luckiest goalies in the NHL (and aside from Turco/Nabokov, of all time IMO). In the past 5 seasons, his winning percentage is up around 85% when he records 25 or fewer saves (which goes up to 91 when he records 20 or fewer). When facing more than 25 shots, his record sits at around .300 with a GAA up around 3.8. Pittsburgh has also had a weird trend going on right now in that their forwards lead the league (by a pretty decent margin) in non-rebounded goals (goals that went straight into the net without bouncing off the post or other players) whereas Fleury himself has had a hard time controlling rebounds, primarily due to the fact that the Penguins' defense is 5th-worst in the league in blocked shots dating back to the beginning of last season. Last season Columbus/Philly wrote the book on how to beat pittsburgh with ease: if you can disorient Fleury and prevent their forwards from getting clean shots off, you can typically pull out a W against them. Not every team can do that (Dallas being a great example), but nonetheless there is a "book" written on how to counter that team.