2017-2018 NHL Regular Season Thread (Part 1) - Preparing for Lockout #3

[bori]

WOO 1-0 habs 30 seconds in, good start boys

[DFJS]

Too many pens fans here tonight.

[bori]

Bruins have beaten le Habs twice in a row!! OOOOOLE OLEEE OLEE OLEEEEEEEEEE

[Outlaw]

Bad Surprises
Chicago
Edmonton (Guess they learned that going in the playoffs removed them the chance for first pick)

Yes it is. And now Crawford has vertigo and is likely out for the rest of the season. FUUUUUUUUUUUUU..

[Cail]

Rene Rancort retiring after this year

[DFJS]

Fuck these refs. Kessel slashes Vermette on a breakaway chance no call and leads to a 2nd powerplay goal for Pittsburg. All 7 goals have been scored on the far end of the rink.

[NynJa]

Yes it is. And now Crawford has vertigo and is likely out for the rest of the season. FUUUUUUUUUUUUU..

Chicago wasnt a bad surprise. Theyre too top heavy. Toews Kane Saad Seabrook Keith Crawford are 45.4 mil, or 60% of the salary cap. That leaves 29.6 mil for 17 additional players: 9 forwards, 4 defensemen, a backup goaltender, and 3 additional players riding pine. And thats not including the massive gimme the league gave them by letting Hossa come off the books.

[Vaspinne]

Chicago wasnt a bad surprise. Theyre too top heavy. Toews Kane Saad Seabrook Keith Crawford are 45.4 mil, or 60% of the salary cap. That leaves 29.6 mil for 17 additional players: 9 forwards, 4 defensemen, a backup goaltender, and 3 additional players riding pine. And thats not including the massive gimme the league gave them by letting Hossa come off the books.

We definitely had a deep discussion about how fucked Chicago was at the start of the season, didn't we?

[NynJa]

We did, but some people still think "they have Kane and Toews, theyre gonna kill it". The same way Edmonton is faring with McJesus.

Even Toronto seems to be having problems now, and Matthews is still on his ELC!!

[Vaspinne]

Is Toronto doing that badly? I mean I hate to admit it, and sorry Obs but I love seeing Toronto fail and suffer, but they're still in a pretty decent situation. 3rd in their division, 11(!!!) points up on the closest divisional rival and 4-3-3 in their last 10 which isn't ideal but isn't a dire situation by any stretch. And cap wise, while it's tight this season, by the end they're dropping like a good $13mil in salary and the biggest contract they need to figure out for next season is Nylander. They still have 2 years to sort out Matthews and Marner. Marleau is definitely the worst contract on that team given the age and price, but all things considered they're in a pretty good spot.

But yeah, Chicago is fucked unless the cap goes up by like $5~10mil quickly here and Edmonton is already fucked given their inept GM and McJesus' contract hasn't even kicked in yet.

[NynJa]

4-3-3 is .550, which isnt terrible, but if you look at those OTLs as Ls, its 4-6 last 10. Also, theyve scored 26 goals in regulation in those last 10, which is a solid 2.6 G/GP. If you factor out the 7 goals in one game against Arizona, thats 19 goals in 9 games. 2.1 G/GP wont cut it.

[Obsidian]

If you look at how Toronto was playing at the beginning of the season and how they're playing now, they look like different teams. The high-flying offense was unsustainable and they were giving up way too many high-danger chances as a result, so they're now focusing hard on playing better defensively, and with an 11 point cushion on a playoff spot, they can afford the growing pains of becoming more defensively responsible as a team. It's also a team that is less than two seasons removed from being the last place team in the league, and a team that arguably overachieved. The Leafs have also played the most games of any team in the league so far, even after their week off.

There's also some weird player management shit going on like Leo Komarov leading all forwards in ice team (for the second time in two weeks) and Roman Polak being inexplicably stabled to the line-up. Dermott has looked real good in the few games he's played so far though so hopefully once Zaitsev is back Polak will see significantly less use.

As for money, Lupul, JVR, Bozak and Komarov are all up at the end of this season. I can't see more than one of those players returning and none of them will make more than they are currently if they do. Marleau's contract is designed to be traded away at some point but he's been a great add so far. The cap is not our enemy, shallow depth at D and a generally weaker D-core are the immediate problems facing the Leafs.

[Vaspinne]

That makes sense. The only things I’ve heard about them as of late have been how they’ve been boring to watch offensively, but given Babcock and his coaching style and what he’s said already about the team earlier this year, it makes sense that he’d reel in the offensive to stabilize defensive play. Calgary went through very similar growing pains with Gulutzan when he first started coaching last year.

[Obsidian]

We've blown more third period leads this week than we have the entire rest of the season combined. Fuck me.

[Wulfgang]

Perds with a clutch late win against PHX; dominated play, just couldn't hit the back of the net. Down 2-1 with ~2:30 left, Ellis sniped one to send it to OT where Smith rang one right off the crossbar. Won in R4 of the shootout and now back in the driver's seat in the Central with 2/4 games in hand on WPG/STL, respectively. Vamos los perds!

[Vaspinne]

Vegas winning sucks. But SJ losing and LA currently on pace to lose are both awesome

[Obsidian]

Rielly questionable for Saturday and RNH out 5-6 weeks with cracked ribs. Shattenkirk out forever with a torn meniscus.

[synistar]

Dustin Brown fined $10k for the boarding on Schultz last night. Was a 5min major + Misconduct called on the play. I thought he should have got at least a game for doing something that stupid.

And I guess Malkin fined $5k for spearing Brown much to the delight of everyone else in the league.

[Obsidian]

Spearing should really be a mandatory one game suspension.

Also Perry elbowed Letang in the head last night so I'm sure he'll be getting a phone call.

[synistar]

Not so much as a peep about Perry on the DoPS twitter feed. He's playing tonight vs the Kings.

There's gonna be a bunch of fighting tonight!