NHL 15-16 Regular Season Thread: F I R E _ T H E R R I E N

[Sepukku]

Kid's got to learn some time. First time in forever the Pens are throwing the young blue line in the deep end. I'm all for it.

I'll remember and quote this one day soon

[Vaspinne]

Glencross and the Guch cut by the Leafs. I'm curious what Glencross does from here, hate seeing his career basically fade into nothing

[Obsidian]

He didn't play badly but he didn't really blow me away either. Setoguchi looked pretty bad though.

[Wulfgang]

MOTHERFUCKING DOOMPREDATORS OF DOOM! YOU'RE ALL FUCKED!

http://41.media.tumblr.com/f4be70cab...sm34o0_500.jpg

I usually do a lengthy post of predictions, GIFs, and whatnot, but I'm at the office on a Sunday and actually want to work so I can GTFO. Love hockey so much; much excite.

[Judai]

Caps open up the season on my bday, can't wait!

[Wulfgang]

Dude Blue, what the hell are the Jets doing lol? Preseason is preseason, but it's 5-0 MIN like 20 mins in.

[Thoronas]

Dude Blue, what the hell are the Jets doing lol? Preseason is preseason, but it's 5-0 MIN like 20 mins in.

The Jets are the future. Not the present.

[Ratatapa]

But our present is the future of someone else

[Obsidian]

Dude Blue, what the hell are the Jets doing lol? Preseason is preseason, but it's 5-0 MIN like 20 mins in.

[Insert Pavelec "it's just preaseason" clip here.]

[Richybear]

7-0 now
Does Winnipeg know that Milt Stegall can't come out of retirement and score a TD to bring them back into this?

[NynJa]

MOTHERFUCKING DOOMPREDATORS OF DOOM! YOU'RE ALL FUCKED!

http://41.media.tumblr.com/f4be70cab...sm34o0_500.jpg

I usually do a lengthy post of predictions, GIFs, and whatnot, but I'm at the office on a Sunday and actually want to work so I can GTFO. Love hockey so much; much excite.

I have a prediction:
Price regresses, still finishes top 3 in sv%/GAA, but habs are a bubble team because Therrien insists on the team playing like a bunch of pussies with their "risk free defensive" hockey

[bori]

Soooo...what's going on in this MIN-WPG game? Just saw it's 8-1 lol.

[Obsidian]

itsjustpreseason.png

[Ratatapa]

itsjustpreseason.png

And that's why leafs are doing good

[BadKarma]

8 goals and nobody on the team has a hat trick

[BadKarma]

And that's why leafs are doing good

99% sure every rational leafs fan wants the leafs to suck so they get Austin Matthews

[Obsidian]

Oh we're going to suck. The question is, can we out-suck the Coyotes?

[Bregor]

PREDICTION TIME!

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

1. Montreal - Contract year for TOPTEN TOMAS means gloom and doom for the rest of the Atlantic. PK Subban officially my favorite non-Cap.
2. Tampa Bay - Johnson, Drouin, Kucherov, Palat, Namestinkov quite the young supporting cast for Stamkos. Excellent goalie tandem gets them another deep run.
3. Florida - Jagr easily dominates everyone half his age. Barkov takes a big step forward. And how can you root against Bobby Lu?
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4. Detroit - Blashill can't squeeze the vets enough to get into the playoffs. Someone stop Johan Franzen from playing before he literally dies on the ice.
5. Ottawa - The Hamburgler turns back into just a guy who loves McDonald's. How is Bobby Ryan still on this team?
6. Buffalo - Lots of improvement led by Eichel, Kane, O'Reilly, and everyone favorite All Star ZEMGUS GIRGENSONS. Playoffs a year or two away.
7. Boston - Uh, about that off-season... Chara's already hurt too. At least Spooner and Pastrnak cut their teeth with big minutes.
8. Toronto - They sucked last year and then ran their best player out of town. Welp. Only hope is Lupul and JVR stay healthy I guess.

Metropolitan

1. Washington - TJ Oshie comin' for dat ass. Assuming Backstrom's hip is okay the sky's the limit.
2. NY Rangers - A young, fast team with the handsome-est goalie in the world. How is Keith Yandle only 29? I swear he's been around forever.
3. Pittsburgh - Phil the Thrill will be the new scapegoat sniper in the 'Burgh. Adding Bonino and Fehr gives the bottom six some juice.
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4. Columbus (Wild Card 1) - No way they have as many injuries as last season, right? They finally prove you can win with Dave Clarkson.
5. Philadelphia (Wild Card 2) - Steve Mason doesn't turn into a pumpkin, Medvedev gives the D some breathing room. Lots to like among their forward ranks.
6. NY Islanders - Tavares and company can't overcome another terrible coaching job by Jack Capuano. Boychuk starts to show some wear and tear.
7. New Jersey - What's the point in having a world-class goalie when you ice 18 bad skaters in front of him?
8. Carolina - Justin Faulk a lone bright spot. How much are they paying Skinner to have hot brain and Semin to play for the Habs? Yikes.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central

1. St. Louis - Tarasenko and Schwartz a nasty one-two punch. More regular season success. Can Elliott or Allen establish themselves as a true #1 and carry them far into the postseason?
2. Minnesota - Dubnyk mostly keeps his amazing numbers he posted after moving to the Twin Cities. Granlund and Coyle are very exciting young centers.
3. Nashville - Might have the best young defenseman corps in the league. Rinne finally gets his Vezina.
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4. Chicago (Wild Card 1) - Slow start thanks to the Patrick Kane "distraction" but they rebound because of course they do. Teravainen is one to watch to pick up scoring slack from Sharp's departure (and maybe Kane's prison sentence).
5. Dallas (Wild Card 2) - Absolutely lethal offense gets better support from the blue line. Niemi has a good year and they survive a brutal division for a playoff spot.
6. Winnipeg - The Canadian Team of the Future© has a lot of really good pieces but suffers from inexperience and injuries on defense. Pavelec/Hutchinson isn't the answer in net.
7. Colorado - Patrick Roy spends another year wasting the talents of MacKinnon, Landeskog, Duchene, and now Grigorenko. They're paying Erik Johnson how much money again?

Pacific

1. Los Angeles - Bounce-back year for the deepest team in the division. Milan Lucic hailed for "intangibles" which means running a lot of people over for no reason.
2. Anaheim - Top-heavy team with lots of cap space to make adjustments on the fly. Vatanen. Lindholm, and Despres intriguing young d-men. Fuck Corey Perry.
3. Calgary - They get their puck posession game in line with their record from last season. Oozing with young forward talent, and getting Dougie Hamilton was a steal. Can they run four d-men on one power play unit? Only question is how Hiller holds up.
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4. San Jose - Another year older and deeper in the standings. $26 million over the next two seasons tied up in Thornton and Marleau. Following the Oilers playbook of paying a good backup goalie to be a bad starting goalie.
5. Edmonton - They have to make something out of all these generational talents, right? Maybe Nail or RNH hits the trade block for some help on D. Also I always think Justin Schultz is actually Jeff Schultz and crack myself up.
6. Vancouver - They identified Brandon Sutter and Luca Sbisa as core talents for their present and future. Sedin twins staring into the abyss of their mid-30s. Ryan Miller might be cooked.
7. Arizona - Not sure this roster could make the AHL playoffs. Get OEL the fuck out of the desert and onto a real hockey team already.


WCF: Anaheim def. Minnesota
ECF: Washington def. Tampa Bay
STANLEY CUP FINALS: Washington def. Anaheim


AWARDS
Hart: Alex Ovechkin
Richard: Alex Ovechkin
Art Ross: John Tavares
Vezina: Pekka Rinne
Norris: PK Subban
Calder: Jack Eichel
Selke: Jonathan Toews
Lady Byng: who gives a shit
Jack Adams: Gerard Gallant
Conn Smythe: Braden Holtby

[Wulfgang]

Anaheim scares me this year. They're not just skilled, they're also a mean fucking team to play (our 2011 series was a damn street fight half the time). Their D corps is one of the best young groups out there and their tending tandem is very solid; toss in Perry, Getz, Kesler, etc. and it's a brutal team.

[Deader2818]

Every year people highly overrate the Ducks. They don't have a ton of depth and their defense is pretty suspect. People always seem to act like Fowler is a Top defenseman but hes merely been alright in his career. Vatanen is looking like he'll be very good and Lindholm has looked good in his 2 years but their defense doesn't scare me at all.