2010-2011 NHL Season Thread

[Alderaan]

The first thing that always strikes me when I watch a classic game from the vintage Gretzky/Mario/Dionne era is how different goaltending was back then. The equipment, the techniques and styles they used, the playing of pucks out of the crease, everything just seems foreign to me. Unless they shrink the padding measurements and outlaw the butterfly, there's no way we'll see that level of scoring again.

There was no obstruction on every play as soon as you gained the blue line back then, but yeah i agree with you.

The first thing i notice is how much bigger the ice looked back then which is why i'm in favor of the olympic size rinks, which are 13ft wider than NHL, to make up for players being so much bigger and faster. Aside from contraction, which won't happen, the only other thing i can think of are the goalie pads or you know actually calling obstruction. It doesn't help that the games are called differently at the start of the season than they are at the end and the playoffs.

[Thoronas]

The funny thing is, Stamkos isn't ridiculously gifted outside of his shot. He's fairly average but hardworking in his skating, stickhandling, etc, but his shot is terrific and it makes him into something special.

I wish I could find the article where Stamkos straight up says the only thing he was ever naturally good at was skating. The reason why his shot is so terrific is because his dad made him shoot 500 pucks almost every freakin day as a kid. Then he got more help as he entered the NHL to improve it even more. That fantastic shot we see now is almost entirely based on crazy amounts of practice and effort on his part. Which makes it all the more impressive now.

Edit: found the article. Puck Daddy for the win again.

Your offensive game seems like it's been taken to a new level this season. We wanted to ask about your shot, and the wicked one-timers you uncork. Was there anyone who influenced you in developing that shot?

Joe Sakic(notes) was one of my favorite players growing up, and had one of the best shots. Not a one-timer, but one of the best snap-shots in the game. My dad would always get me to shoot 300-400 pucks every day. He'd take me to shooting school, learning how to shoot the puck around 9 or 10 years old against an instructor.

I was always a pretty good skater, but couldn't really shoot the puck. So I went on that synthetic ice with the lower part of my gear and shot 400-500 pucks.

It was about learning the proper technique. A lot of people don't understand that it's like a golf shot. It's like a pitcher's mechanics. There's a technique, and I still work on it today.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puc...urn=nhl-283726

[Callisto]

Not really sure why people are still even calling for more measures to increase scoring. I enjoy seeing great defensive plays and saves as much as much as goals, this isn't soccer where anything that isn't a goal is just running back and forth or diving for calls, even when scoring chances aren't happening the action is still relatively non-stop. Plus as things are now, scoring is relatively high, but not so high that individual goals aren't still valuable and worth celebrating.

[isladar]

If every game was like TB/PHI I'd be disappointed. More goals does not equal more good. Cheering for a goalie to get a shut out / make that ONE AWESOME SAVE is just as fulfilling as HESHOOTSHESCORES

someone was saying there's been a lot more hat tricks this year, hasn't there also been a lot of shut outs?

[Bregor]

Wasn't talking about the olden days like I think it was better, I think scoring is fine where it is. I always loved hockey, but when I got really into following all the teams and players and not just the Caps, I was a teenager and the Jacques Lemaire-Admiral Ackbar-inspired copycat league had everybody clogging the fuck out of the neutral zone and it was pretty vanilla. Dump and chase, rinse and repeat until you get a lucky bounce or force the other team to take a minor. One goal lead, time to pack it the fuck in. I bet most people who've picked up hockey recently don't know what the two-line pass was, and that's a good thing. Since the lockout I think the game has been trending in the right direction in terms of rule changes to balance offense and defense. We might be getting a little too cute with obstruction calls now but I'd rather have too many power plays than too few.

[Selamis]

Two line pass was probably the single worst rule back in the day, it killed the speed of the game so much. I'm glad that they got rid of that, it's helped a ton.

[Callisto]

Looks like Holmstrom is getting moved out of the Datsyuk line to let Franzen have a shot at getting some offense going with them, that seems like it would mess the dynamics of that line up a bit to me...

[isladar]

This post from DBG made me laffo like six times:

Differences between the NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft and your fantasy draft

Esp. this:

NHL all-star draft: A Bruins goaltender is selected early, when Tim Thomas hears his name called.
Your fantasy draft: A Bruins goaltender is selected early, when you draft Tuuka Rask in the third round because that's what the "experts" told you to do and then you watch him lose his starting job on the season's opening weekend and basically ruin your chances of ever winning anything and making you want to smash your computer monitor over your own head every time you check your league standings, not that this happened to me.

[Bregor]

NHL all-star draft: Anyone who doesn't draft Chris Pronger risks making him angry, leading to the possibility of getting elbowed in the throat during a subsequent game.
Your fantasy draft: The odds of Chris Pronger actually taking the time to personally hunt you down and injure you are probably less than 80%.

lol'd

[Ishido]

Looks like Holmstrom is getting moved out of the Datsyuk line to let Franzen have a shot at getting some offense going with them, that seems like it would mess the dynamics of that line up a bit to me...

The only thing I worry about is Franzen being used in the same way that Homer typically is, because it would really limit his game. He can do a lot more than sit in front of the net and screen the goalie so using him for pretty much only that is sort of a waste. On paper though a Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Franzen line should be one of the best in the league.

Oh man just looked at the rest of the lines, shit is weird. Modano/Cleary/Bertuzzi as the 2nd and Hudler/Filppula/Abdelkader as the 3rd. Should be interesting, I like Fil with Huds, since they had a lot of chemistry last time Hudler was in the NHL, and Adbelkader has potential on the line with them. The 2nd I would normally cringe at but all 3 of them have been playing well, especially Cleary.

[Callisto]

The only thing I worry about is Franzen being used in the same way that Homer typically is, because it would really limit his game. He can do a lot more than sit in front of the net and screen the goalie so using him for pretty much only that is sort of a waste. On paper though a Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Franzen line should be one of the best in the league.

Oh man just looked at the rest of the lines, shit is weird. Modano/Cleary/Bertuzzi as the 2nd and Hudler/Filppula/Abdelkader as the 3rd. Should be interesting, I like Fil with Huds, since they had a lot of chemistry last time Hudler was in the NHL, and Adbelkader has potential on the line with them. The 2nd I would normally cringe at but all 3 of them have been playing well, especially Cleary.

Yeah that's what I meant, I think that he's being expected to just hop in and Holmstrom it up, and idk if he's really built for that. If not, like I said earlier, putting a third puck-possession guy on that line seems kind of counter-productive because there's just not enough puck to go around for three players like that. That 2nd line actually sounds pretty solid imo, that's some damn hefty veteran action there.

[Callisto]

And wait, if that's the 2nd/3rd, does that mean Holmstrom's on the 4th with Helm and someone else, or is he expected to be a healthy scratch lol?

[Thoronas]

Good news for you Callisto, sounds like Anderson is almost ready to start playing again.

[Callisto]

Yeah, hoping he's back tomorrow. Giggy didn't do too terrible as an emergency fill-in, but not great either.

[Palin]

The only thing I worry about is Franzen being used in the same way that Homer typically is, because it would really limit his game. He can do a lot more than sit in front of the net and screen the goalie so using him for pretty much only that is sort of a waste. On paper though a Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Franzen line should be one of the best in the league.

Oh man just looked at the rest of the lines, shit is weird. Modano/Cleary/Bertuzzi as the 2nd and Hudler/Filppula/Abdelkader as the 3rd. Should be interesting, I like Fil with Huds, since they had a lot of chemistry last time Hudler was in the NHL, and Adbelkader has potential on the line with them. The 2nd I would normally cringe at but all 3 of them have been playing well, especially Cleary.

Is that accurate with positions? Cuz Modano as a winger is really bad.

[Ishido]

No, Modano would be the center on that line, the other 2 are wingers, I just wasn't really paying attention to the order as I typed it out.

And yeah Holmstrom is slated to be on the 4th with Helm and Eaves. Should be funny with the slowest guy on the team along with the 2 fastest. To his credit though, Holmstrom still works really hard and it very good at what he is on the team for... but he is still an older, slower guy on an energy line.

[Bregor]

Man I'm actually betting on Atlanta tonight. Holtby's in net instead of Neuvy, they've played us hard all season (already the 4th game tonight) and Ramsay the ThrashHawks coach has a killer accent.

[Thoronas]

Pat Burns is dead. Long live zombie Pat Burns

[Callisto]

Man I'm actually betting on Atlanta tonight. Holtby's in net instead of Neuvy, they've played us hard all season (already the 4th game tonight) and Ramsay the ThrashHawks coach has a killer accent.

I hate when they rush in 4 division games and then don't do the other 2 til the end of the season, all the Thrashers/Caps games have been awesome so far, going to be like 3 months without one after this I think

[Ishido]

Pat Burns is dead. Long live zombie Pat Burns

That sucks. It's a huge shame that he didn't get into the HHOF before he died.