DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum The Hockey thread

You guys know of Auston Matthews, the American kid many expect to go first overall in the 2016 draft?

Well, as a Maple Leafs fan totally on board with the rebuild, (what choice do I have?), I want that guy and hope we lose enough to get him.

The Leafs have a 7.7 per cent success rate on the power play and score two goals per game.

We suck and I think it's great!!

Time to start pucking again...
...

Last spring, the Leafs cleaned house, took the scorched earth approach, went out and hired Mike Babcock to coach them in a contract worth $50 million over eight years, IIRC.

So he's got the job security and has them playing his way - it's his way or the highway - and after a horrible start this season, they've turned it around. They probably won't make the playoffs this year but they have a lot of young talent coming up and the future looks bright.

How's your hockey team doing?

It's good to see the Leafs playing well. I think there is still time for them this season, but they have to get really hot for a stretch or two. Babcock is such a good coach. I'm pretty confident he's going to have this thing turned around.

The Browns need that kind of coaching change. Problem is, coaches that good don't really hit the market like Babcock did. It's not quite Belichick, but he's so good, especially with young players.

The Hawks are right where they need to be. I think too many fans around here still don't understand the NHL regular season. People wrote them off in the middle of the year last season. That's not how it works. You tread water as much as you can. Stay healthy, and gear up right around mid-March so you can peak at the right time.

In the NBA, the seven game series is great because you truly find out the better team between the two. In the NHL, it's not so much about that, but more about survival. You have to be able to absorb bad breaks, bad bounces, and guys getting hurt.

I'm so impressed with Dallas too. It sucks for them that they aren't a major market or an original six, but they are playing a style of hockey that sells tickets and drives ratings. It's fun, fast, hockey. They have star power, good goaltending, and as a whole it seems like they're one unit. A Blackhawks/Stars series in late April or early May would be pretty fun.

And I still hate this playoff format. I really think the 1 through 8 is the better way. They should really look at how the league sets up the playoffs so that fans can literally watch every game without missing another in that first round.

When Dallas hired Lindy Ruff to coach I knew they'd be better. He's simply a good hockey coach.

I am surprised Florida is doing as well as they are, the Canadiens are a whole different team without Carey Price, and the 'Hawks are the 'Hawks : Keith, Kane and my favourite non-Leafs player: Jonathan Toews, a truly great player, captain and class act.
They are a team that other teams fear, especially in the playoffs. I have great respect for the Blackhawks.

They give me hope as a Browns fan. When I moved here in 2004, things were really bad. Horrible relationship between organization and fans. They are now the model not just for hockey franchises, but pro sports.

Totally agree about Lindy Ruff. I love his style of hockey. All about flying around the ice. Those teams in Buffalo with Vanek, Briere, Afiniengov, Campbell, etc.. were fun to watch.

Now he's got serious scoring power in Dallas, Benn, Seguin, Sharp.. 2 good goalies. They will be a tough out in the spring.

I hope the Leafs turn things around. It's good for hockey in general. Since no one wants to talk about the Wings....they've struggled the last few weeks, but they're holding their own in the East. The new coach has hit some bumps in the road, but the players are buying in....they ought to, he coached most of them in Grand Rapids, lol.

The Red Wings, despite being a team I've never been fond of, are another model NHL franchise and have had a foundation/system in place for years and years. They're like the Steelers, in a way.

They're definitely the best at developing talent via the minor leagues.

The minors for hockey is nothing like the minors for baseball. Baseball players get developed in the minors. For a lot of hockey players, they get developed in the NHL. Superstars go right up. Your roster is filled out by guys who spend time in the minors, but usually you don't see them blossom into superstars. Not saying it doesn't happen, but it's not like baseball where even the blue chippers have to go down. Sidney Crosby, and Patrick Kane, and Ovechkin, and guys like that were ready to play at 18. It's always going to be a game dominated by youth so it's easier to keep up in hockey.

Detroit is so good at finding guys to fit into their model. 2 way hockey. Defense. They don't have volume scorers. They spread the puck around. Harder to defend 2 or 3 lines with a bunch of solid scorers, then one stacked line with good players...

The Blackhawks have taken that model and use guys who could be volume scorers on other teams, and got them to buy into the same system. Hence the 3 cups in 6 seasons. It's remarkable. Patrick Kane plays good defense and I think a lot would have been surprised if you told them that when he was coming out in 2007. Was thought to be a 40 goal-tons of assists type player.

When Ilitch bought the Wings in the 80s, he threw money at scouting overseas and even college hockey and let his "hockey people" do their job. It helped he had Scotty bowman in the loop and those are big reasons Detroit has been a good franchise ever since.

Sounds like something the Browns should strive for.

Things slowly started to turn around with Torts, but then Boborovsky goes out and injured himself, again.

Columbus traded for Seth Jones, smart move long-term.

Man I stayed up late to watch the Leafs play in LA last night. The Kings are a big team, they wear you down. By the end the Leafs would get the puck and you could tell they were hearing footsteps.

The Panthers have been a great story. They aren't on TV much, but maybe that'll change soon. Jagr is simply amazing. I'm 42 years old and I remember being a senior in high school and a friend of mine would wear his Pens Jagr jersey once every week. That was soooooooo long ago. And it's also nice to see Bobby Lou back. What a postseason Hollywood script that would be if he wins one with Florida.

As for the Blackhawks, they're a model I wish the Browns can copy. It wasn't that long ago they were "the Browns". They couldn't do anything right, the fans were ticked off at the owner, and the rest of the league treated the team like an IHL team. Now they have 3 titles in 6 years and are poised for a 4th. The Breadman (Artemi Panarin) has been fun to watch. It helps he's been playing with Kane, anyone would benefit from Kane's vision, but the rookie is making plays on his own too. The Saad trade doesn't look too bad. Neither player is lighting it up, but playing solid. I'd still like to have Saad, but there was no money.

And again, 3-on-3 overtime is the sexiest thing in sports right now. Man, talk about 5 minutes of incredible action!!! I'm glad it'll never find it's way into the playoffs, but it fits perfectly in the regular season. I actually root for OT in most games I watch (well, not if the Hawks are leading in the 3rd).

A lot of Columbus fans are irate over the trade. I think many overvalued Johansen, and his lack of progress shows he's not as good as everyone thought he would be.

I saw something about torts and johansen, issues there maybe?

Torts made him a scratch for a game or two. Questioned whether Johansen started to lose his care for the game or not.

I like Torts. He's what the club needs.

I'm hoping I can sit down and actually watch a (my new favorite hockey team of choice) Predators game sometime soon.

My work schedule sucks for sports.

Its difficult to get emotionally attached to an ESPN Update.

The NHL All Star game is actually watchable. The 3-on-3 action is great (not as great as it is in the regular season though).

And it's awesome to see John Scott score the first goal for the Pacific. Great story. I'm glad he got to play.

..and Kane is "fighting" Scott. Hilarious.

The championship game was a joy to watch. There was true strategy going on, and world class goaltending. I hope they stick with this format in the future.

The NHL all star game is pro bowl level bad. Nobody hits, there is no forecheck, no clappers, no chirping. It's just a c-jerk of the league's best players. It's a waste.

3 on 3 hockey doesn't feature a lot of the stuff that is missing in 5v5 all star game hockey. There's still no real forecheck, no big hits, but the pace is incredible and skill gets put on display.

The cool thing is the real NHL season starts up as soon as this is done. The mad dash for teams to start claiming playoff spots is when this league gets interesting.

The Blackhawks look like they are giong to be another tough out this year, and I think the Caps are for real.

I didn't watch it, haven't watched any all-star game in any sport in probably 20 years.

Well, the Wings back into the playoffs....for the 25th straight year. It's looking like we get Tampa Bay in the first round. We split with them this year. Might squeak that one out, but after that i think it's over. My brother lives in St. Louis and is a Blues fan, so I'm pulling for them this year.

TB is really beaten up. Stamkos is out for weeks and a couple other key guys hurt.
I don't mind stamkos being out because he's gonna sign with the Leafs in free agency and I didn't wanna see him get a severe injury.

I'll be pulling for the Caps, I think. Ovie is a great player and they've never won it.
Btw if Leafs lose tonight - they're down 2-1 in jersey - we will sew up first overall pick.

Who you got and by how many games? (Seed and Season Point Total included for each team):

ATLANTIC DIVISION:
(1) Florida Panthers {103} vs. (WC1) New York Islanders {100}
(2) Tampa Bay Lightning {97} vs. (3) Detroit Red Wings {93}

METROPOLITAN DIVISION:
(1) Washington Capitals {120} vs. (WC2) Philadelphia Flyers {96}
(2) Pittsburgh Penguins {104} vs. (3) New York Rangers {101}

CENTRAL DIVISION:
(1) Dallas Stars {109} vs. (WC2) Minnesota Wild {87}
(2) St. Louis Blues {107} vs. (3) Chicago Blackhawks {103}

PACIFIC DIVISION:
(1) Anaheim Ducks {103} vs. (WC1) Nashville Predators {96}
(2) Los Angeles Kings {102} vs. (3) San Jose Sharks {98}

ATLANTIC DIVISION:
New York Islanders (7 games)
Detroit Red Wings (6 games)

METROPOLITAN DIVISION:
Washington Capitals (5 games)
New York Rangers (6 games)

CENTRAL DIVISION:
Dallas Stars (4 games)
St. Louis Blues (6 games)

PACIFIC DIVISION:
Anaheim Ducks (5 games)
Los Angeles Kings (6 games)

Islanders in 7
Detroit in 5
Caps in 5
Rangers in 6

Dallas in 6
St. Louis in 7
Anaheim in 6
San Jose in 6

Anyone wanna do a bracket challenge or anything? I'd throw in ten bucks...

Here's mine that I filled out on NHL.com

Rd.1
Capitals over Flyers in 5
Penguins over Rangers in 7

Panthers over Islanders in 6
Red Wings over Lightning in 6

Stars over Wild in 6
Blackhawks over Blues in 6

Predators over Ducks in 7
Kings over Sharks in 5

Rd.2

Capitals over Penguins
Panthers over Red Wings

Blackhawks over Stars
Kings over Predators

Rd.3

Capitals over Panthers

Kings over Blackhawks

Cup Final

Kings over Capitals (22 total goals scored)


First let me say this, the West is going to be an absolute grind this year. You know how we talk about the West playoffs in basketball? Well it's going to be like that. I think 5 of the 8 teams in the West could easily end up with the Cup this year.

The best first round matchup is going to be Florida and the Islanders. It won't get the coverage that Pittsburgh/NYR or Washington/Philly, but Florida is the dark horse in the this whole tournament. People automatically just think Jagr when they hear about Florida, but there is a young and exciting team down there that could be ready for the big stage this year..

I have a hard time seeing the Blackhawks coming out of the West again. Dallas/Chicago will be the matchup to watch in the second round, should it happen. That'll be fast exciting hockey. Chicago will try and slow down Dallas, but they themselves can play fast.

I really can't wait. This is my favorite time of the year for sports. NHL and NBA playoffs will be on every single day from this Wednesday until the middle of June. Yes please.

Doesn't the NHL reseed after each round? That makes a bracket challenge almost impossible.

And yes, it's the best time of the sports year. Masters, NHL/NBA playoffs, NFL draft, and the EPL is coming to a close. Too much to enjoy.

They stopped reseeding after they re-did the division layout.

Top seed in conference meets the lower wild card, the other division winner gets the higher wild card. The second and third place division teams play each other.

In the second round, the winner of the wild card game plays the winner of the divisonal games from the top seed's division (regardless if there is an upset or not)

It's basically set up to try and cut down on travel in the first round, as well as aim to pit the two best division winners in the conference final.

I really wish they would go back to regular 1-8 seeding and don't reseed. I think the NBA is fine with it although they tend to give more days off between games on average.

Instead of a bracket challenge - whatever that is and don't bother explaining cuz I don't care - how about a pool of some sort? Get 2, 4 or 8 of us DT hockey fans in on it, do a gentlemen draw for draft order, have a draft and each guy gets 8, 4 or 2 teams in a draft, and everyone puts in $20?

Or $10. Whatever....

I'd be down with that, but seriously, the bracket challenge is super easy. NHL.com has it, and you just click the team you think will win. You have to pick the how many games each series ends at in the first round, and total goals in the cup finals series as a tiebreaker.

Dunno if we could get anything together but I'd be down for 10-20 bucks.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Islanders make a run.

After adopting the Predators as my team, watching a total of one game all season due to work/life schedules and the fact that I had to stream them..

I will be able to watch one of their first round series games against the Ducks, next Tuesday, Game 3..

My hope is that they pull the upset, and I can continue to watch them..

It'd be totally fine with me if they made it all the way to the Cup, as long as they play the Red Wings, so I can go see them.. (live in Toledo)

Of all the sports, Hockey is tue only one my lady doesn't get super annoyed watching, she hates basketball and finds football boring.. We both hate baseball..

What a craptastic way to end a 0-0 overtime playoff game

Sometimes OT goals are garbage goals, but if it is your team you take it and skate away with it

Go Blues!

Not a fan of this replay challenge system. Hawks definitely benefited from it last night, and the refs made right calls, but it really doesn't seem right.

It took too long in both cases.

Same can be said with the NFL replay system. I'm cool with teams challenging plays, just speed up the decision.

I just don't like the system for nhl. It'd be like calling off a touchdown because of some holding call they missed 3 plays before. It's stupid.

And to make the on ice officials have to make the call on a freaking iPad? Soooo dumb.

The nhl needs to stop trying to be like the nfl with the tinkering of rules. The game is fine the way it is. Scoring is at a good pace. They're phasing out dangerous plays. They just can't let the game breathe at all.

Tough loss for the Hawks today. You just can't take the penalty that Kane took with about 8 minutes left in the third period of a tie game. And he drew blood to boot. Those are grave penalties when a series is as tight as it's been basically the whole way through. I still feel like the Hawks will come out of that series, but it's really trending toward going 7 games, and you just never know in those situations.

Also, Washington just looks like a different team. Holtby is in a really good place with his game right now. Barry Trotz is an amazing coach.

They should really finish off Philly with relative ease, and I think they'll get a decent push from the Penguins or the Rangers, but really I would be surprised to not see them in the finals.

The west is a little more cloudy. As my old coach in high school said, it's a damn meat grinder.