The Official 13-14 NHL Regular season thread

[DaddyTorgo]

Milan Lucic of Boston Bruins explains incident, rips hometown of Vancouver - ESPN Boston

"That's one of the worst parts, it's in my hometown and going back to the spray painting of the church and my grandparents, parents and family getting harassed during the Finals against the Canucks in 2011, and now it's escalated to a point where I get attacked for minding my own business," he said. "I have no reason left to defend my city and the people in my city. I'm disgusted and outraged that it had to come to something like that. As far as that goes, other than being at Rogers Arena, no one will ever see me in downtown Vancouver ever again."

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Milan Lucic of Boston Bruins explains incident, rips hometown of Vancouver - ESPN Boston

If he would have fought the guy earlier, all this could have been avoided.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Join the club.

What he said. The injuries the Ducks have had this year, especially along the blueline, has just been ridiculous.

[DaddyTorgo]

Daniel Paille of Boston Bruins out indefinitely after suffering concussion - ESPN Boston

Injuries continue to plague the Boston Bruins, as forward Daniel Paille is out indefinitely after suffering a concussion, coach Claude Julien said Monday.

The Bruins are already without defensemen Adam McQuaid and Dougie Hamilton, both sidelined with lower-body injuries, along with forwards Chris Kelly (broken fibula) and Shawn Thornton, who is currently serving a 15-game suspension.

Also, Bruins forward Jarome Iginla suffered a left hand injury during a first-period fight with the Canucks' Ryan Kesler on Saturday night in Vancouver. Iginla did not practice with the team Monday and was sporting a brace on his left ring finger. He's scheduled to be examined by team doctors Monday afternoon.

"We're hoping it's all good and hopefully we get him back tomorrow," Julien said.

There's still no progress report on Bruins forward Loui Eriksson, who suffered a concussion -- his second in a five-week span -- on Dec. 7 at TD Garden.

"No, he hasn't even come to the rink, so that's the only thing I can give you right now, which is not a good sign," Julien said.

Count the bolded players. That's 7 starters.

[Chief Rum]

To be fair, you bolded a suspended player, and that's his own damn fault.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

To be fair, you bolded a suspended player, and that's his own damn fault.

Very true.

Still - 6 starters is a big number.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Penguins starting 6 defense tonight have about 550 games of NHL experience. Matt Niskanen has 450 of them. Brian Dumoulin had his first game Saturday. Ulf's boy, Phillip, gets his first tonight.

[bhlloy]

Speaking of inexperienced defensemen, Ducks first rounder from 2 years ago Hampus Lindholm is going to be really, really good. I don't want to jinx him by saying who he reminds me of at 19 but if you haven't heard of him yet look him up. He's playing lights out for a rookie defensemen getting top 4 minutes

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Penguins starting 6 defense tonight have about 550 games of NHL experience. Matt Niskanen has 450 of them. Brian Dumoulin had his first game Saturday. Ulf's boy, Phillip, gets his first tonight.

Pittsburgh has a nice BC-pipeline of defensemen.

[Sublime 2]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Pittsburgh has a nice BC-pipeline of defensemen.

Sucks for them.

Go BU.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Very true.

Still - 6 starters is a big number.

they start 6 skaters? I thought Rask was pretty good...

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Pittsburgh has a nice BC-pipeline of defensemen.

Orpik, Scuderi, Dumoulin, Samuelsson. Gibbons and Kobasew up front.

Depending how my son's game schedule falls over Xmas, we may catch the tournament they're in here in Pittsburgh 12/27 and 28.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Penguins starting 6 defense tonight have about 550 games of NHL experience. Matt Niskanen has 450 of them. Brian Dumoulin had his first game Saturday. Ulf's boy, Phillip, gets his first tonight.

Official numbers, after last night-

Niskanen (445 games) - Despres (61)
Maatta (35) - Bortuzzo (40)
Dumoulin (2) - Samuelsson (1)

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Sublime 2

Sucks for them.

Go BU.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

they start 6 skaters? I thought Rask was pretty good...

You know what I meant.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Orpik, Scuderi, Dumoulin, Samuelsson. Gibbons and Kobasew up front.

Depending how my son's game schedule falls over Xmas, we may catch the tournament they're in here in Pittsburgh 12/27 and 28.

Yup.

You totally should!!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

they start 6 skaters? I thought Rask was pretty good...

SI

[SirFozzie]

For Christmas, this goalie wants tighter pants. (the Sabres win in OT when the puck falls into the pants of the goalie, and the goalie, unaware, spills into the net trying to stop what he thought was a loose puck.)

NHL.com - PHX @ BUF - 3:47 of Overtime - NHL.com - News

[DaddyTorgo]

FML

Bruins lose Seidenberg for the season with a torn ACL & MCL.

Shorthanded team gets even shorter. Guess they may have to bring back up one of the AHL defenders and let the waiver clock hit on them.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Popular injury of the week. Pascal Dupuis taken out by some friendly fire when Crosby gets hip checked by Marc Methot



Out for the year, torn ACL. Which, could have been worse, could have had his face sliced open too

More importantly, who is Eddie O going to call "Pasquale" on NBC games?

[Dutch]

Outdoor Winter Classic is on. 100,000 people from USA and Canada in attendance. Snowing. Pretty cool to watch.

[sterlingice]

Looks pretty awesome. I forgot what time the game was

SI

[EagleFan]

Looks awesome but the game will take forever with all the snow clearing breaks and the quality of the game is going to seriously suffer.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Looks awesome but the game will take forever with all the snow clearing breaks and the quality of the game is going to seriously suffer.

NP, I'm from the '80's, I'm okay with shit taking a while to happen.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Looks awesome but the game will take forever with all the snow clearing breaks and the quality of the game is going to seriously suffer.

For one game a year, it's worth it for the publicity, especially with the visuals that will come out of it

SI

[Galaxy]

Does the NHL really need to expand to 6 outdoor games this year? Leave it to the NHL to muck something cool and special up.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Does the NHL really need to expand to 6 outdoor games this year? Leave it to the NHL to muck something cool and special up.

It's all about the money.

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

It's all about the money.

Of course.

[bhlloy]

How is it possible for a team to be built as badly as the Oilers? The Ducks played one of the worst games I've seen them play in years, went 0-8 on the PP and still won easily 5-2.

The only comparable I can possibly make is the Lions when they kept drafting WR but at least that was only three years in a row. Outside of Hall who was a no-brainer, what a shit show with 5+ years of high draft picks.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

The only comparable I can possibly make is the Lions when they kept drafting WR but at least that was only three years in a row. Outside of Hall who was a no-brainer, what a shit show with 5+ years of high draft picks.

You really can't build with defensemen (or goalies) at the top of the draft. I guess it sucks that there was no Tavares, Kane or Stamkos available in their years, but I don't really blame them for any of the Hall/Nugent-Hopkins (you could argue for Landeskog there)/Yakupov picks. The best defensemen picked in the top 8 I see are Adam Larsson and Ryan Murray - Jacob Trouba, Dougie Hamilton and Cam Fowler all went between 9th-12th, so they would have been aggressive reaches.

[bhlloy]

Then they should have traded down. You also can't build a cup winning team around skilled enigmatic forwards when you have no goalie, no defensemen and absolutely no veteran leadership

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Then they should have traded down. You also can't build a cup winning team around skilled enigmatic forwards when you have no goalie, no defensemen and absolutely no veteran leadership

So you're saying the problem is they drafted Yakupov instead of a North American?

Easy to say they should have traded down (and I agree) but without knowing the offers it's hard to say. It's also hard to build a cup-winning team when no free agent wants to live in your city. But hey, 2 more years until Connor McDavid!

[bhlloy]

Nah, I think Nugent-Hopkins falls into that category just as much as Yakupov does. Basically, they were insane to take skilled young forwards in those situations, especially ones they were then going to rush to the big leagues and let fail with the rest of the team.

Also, don't think you'll get too much sympathy from a Ducks fan about FA signings not wanting to play in Edmonton given the Schultz situation. Insane that their best NHL defenseman was basically gift wrapped because of a loophole. This team could be worse.

EDIT - I'm probably being unfair to Nugent-Hopkins and Yakupov, who haven't been terrible for young players in the league. But I just can't see the justification in drafting offensive players when there are so many holes elsewhere (and it looks really bad given what Landeskog has done already and then how strong the 2012 defenseman class already looks)

[Suburban Rhythm]

All Olympic rosters released now....thoughts?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

All Olympic rosters released now....thoughts?

Bobby Ryan.

Now that's out of the way...

Canada is still the strongest team. Great collection of forwards and defense. The biggest question will be goaltending. Price has been really good this year and Luongo has as well, but I think he's a bit banged up right now.

Dan Hamhuis was a surprise. No Cotoure (injury most likely), St. Louis, Giroux or Eric Staal seem to be the biggest snubs. Kunitz is great with Crosby, but is he good enough without him? Nash has been so quiet this year I sort of forgot about him.

The Russian roster doesn't look all that imposing.

Finland could have the best goaltending.

There will be a lot of setting the DVR and waking up early in the morning to watch games before work.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

All Olympic rosters released now....thoughts?

I'm waiting for that Sean McIndoe guy's 8000 word opus on the Canadian team at Grantland.

Giroux seems like a huge snub to me. Don't have a problem with Bobby Ryan being left off - Brandon Saad's actually the guy I want to see - but I'm not a fan of Brooks Orpik at D. Would've rather seen Jack Johnson, or even Keith Yandle regardless how much Brian Burke hates him, out there on the international surface.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Bobby Ryan.

Now that's out of the way...

Canada is still the strongest team. Great collection of forwards and defense. The biggest question will be goaltending. Price has been really good this year and Luongo has as well, but I think he's a bit banged up right now.

Dan Hamhuis was a surprise. No Cotoure (injury most likely), St. Louis, Giroux or Eric Staal seem to be the biggest snubs. Kunitz is great with Crosby, but is he good enough without him? Nash has been so quiet this year I sort of forgot about him.

The Russian roster doesn't look all that imposing.

Finland could have the best goaltending.

There will be a lot of setting the DVR and waking up early in the morning to watch games before work.

I was a long time Nash defender. I thought he didn't have enough support in Columbus for a long stretch. Then said he had to adjust to NY. Then that he didn't have an elite center in NY...turns out, maybe he's a nice player, a 1st liner on most teams, but not an elite guy.

Kunitz...I'm biased. I can understand where you look at him compared to, say, Giroux and see a wide gap in talent. I actually applaud both the US and Canada groups for not just picking All-Star teams.

And another thing re: Kunitz that bothers me...he's a 25 goal/50+ point guy on his own. He did it in Anaheim (yes, with talent around him). He did it in Pittsburgh without Sid (yes, with Malkin). Nobody has any problem to Patrick Sharp - who I also think earned his spot - being a near lock, but he's playing with Toews and Hossa. There are only about 12-15 guys who really carry a line on their own in the entire league. Not being one of those guys doesn't make you terrible.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

I'm waiting for that Sean McIndoe guy's 8000 word opus on the Canadian team at Grantland.

Giroux seems like a huge snub to me. Don't have a problem with Bobby Ryan being left off - Brandon Saad's actually the guy I want to see - but I'm not a fan of Brooks Orpik at D. Would've rather seen Jack Johnson, or even Keith Yandle regardless how much Brian Burke hates him, out there on the international surface.

DOLA

Penguin fan saying Orpik probably shouldn't be there. Though not for the reason most often cited. He'll be fine on the big ice. He can really skate, especially for a guy his size.

But he's been declining for two years now.

If you didn't read this -

http://espn.go.com/olympics/hockey/s...pics-was-named

- great (long) piece about US selection.

I was amused by this quote

Keith Yandle is another lightning-rod player whom the coaches were not enthused about having on the roster.

With him the reward never seems to exceed the risk, Poile says.

"It's not that he wouldn't be on the power play if he were on the team," Laviolette says. "But the risk in his game seems to be more than Dan's willing to take or wants to take with that type of player," he adds referring to head coach Dan Bylsma.

The same Dan Bylsma who puts Letang out there 25 minutes a night (when healthy).

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

I was a long time Nash defender. I thought he didn't have enough support in Columbus for a long stretch. Then said he had to adjust to NY. Then that he didn't have an elite center in NY...turns out, maybe he's a nice player, a 1st liner on most teams, but not an elite guy.

Kunitz...I'm biased. I can understand where you look at him compared to, say, Giroux and see a wide gap in talent. I actually applaud both the US and Canada groups for not just picking All-Star teams.

And another thing re: Kunitz that bothers me...he's a 25 goal/50+ point guy on his own. He did it in Anaheim (yes, with talent around him). He did it in Pittsburgh without Sid (yes, with Malkin). Nobody has any problem to Patrick Sharp - who I also think earned his spot - being a near lock, but he's playing with Toews and Hossa. There are only about 12-15 guys who really carry a line on their own in the entire league. Not being one of those guys doesn't make you terrible.

I don't think Kunitz is terrible. I think he's a really good player. I just think that there were some better players available that he was chosen over.

The Red Wings played the Blackhawks a lot. And whenever they did, it was always Patrick Sharp - not Toews, Kane, or Hossa - that most worried me. The dude always seemed to score daggers.

Giroux had a rough start to the year. Eric Staal hasn't been great. Couture is injured. Kunitz has played really well, especially the last couple of years. And chemistry is important.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Biggest surprise was Stevie Y leaving Marty St. Louis off the roster

[Suburban Rhythm]

DOLA

And James Neal is the hottest goal scorer in the NHL right now...but his injuries and probably his temper/dirty play didn't help him.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Giroux seems like a huge snub to me. Don't have a problem with Bobby Ryan being left off - Brandon Saad's actually the guy I want to see - but I'm not a fan of Brooks Orpik at D. Would've rather seen Jack Johnson, or even Keith Yandle regardless how much Brian Burke hates him, out there on the international surface.

I dont get the Giroux love. hes always talked about like a superstar, and as a long time fantasy owner (I cant fathom how I end up with him ever year) he always slumping ALWAYS. he a decent centerman, who plays decent (not great) defence, and has offensive tools that dont seem to ever add up to consistent production.

[bhlloy]

Somebody on an Anaheim board was trying to argue for Taylor Hall and I think I agree - he's a bonafide superstar on a train wreck of a team who is rounding out his game. He'd be on my team for sure, and I think he could be one of the stars of the tournament playing with better players

[bhlloy]

DOLA - I completely skipped over the fact that Nash made it. Wow. I'd have Hall over Nash on international size ice in a heartbeat and I'm not sure it's even close

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

DOLA - I completely skipped over the fact that Nash made it. Wow. I'd have Hall over Nash on international size ice in a heartbeat and I'm not sure it's even close

I'd argue Hall, Giroux, MSL, Neal...and probably a few others the longer I thought, over Rick Nash at this point.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Penguin fan saying Orpik probably shouldn't be there. Though not for the reason most often cited. He'll be fine on the big ice. He can really skate, especially for a guy his size.

But he's been declining for two years now.

If you didn't read this -

http://espn.go.com/olympics/hockey/s...pics-was-named

I know why Bylsma wants Orpik/Martin, so I can't be too mad at their selection, but if it was any other coaching staff I'd be mad. Did catch that piece. For all the controversy over Bobby Ryan, I actually thought Burkie was harsher on Keith Yandle. And it does kinda show that Burke was running the show and had personal grudges against those two - anything short of leading the NHL in scoring and they'd have been left off.

Originally Posted by claphamsa

I dont get the Giroux love. hes always talked about like a superstar, and as a long time fantasy owner (I cant fathom how I end up with him ever year) he always slumping ALWAYS. he a decent centerman, who plays decent (not great) defence, and has offensive tools that dont seem to ever add up to consistent production.

He's the leading Canadian scorer over the past 3 seasons. Player Season Finder | Hockey-Reference.com

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

DOLA

-

http://espn.go.com/olympics/hockey/s...pics-was-named

- great (long) piece about US selection.

Great piece. Feel like it should be on Grantland it's so long.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

He's the leading Canadian scorer over the past 3 seasons. Player Season Finder | Hockey-Reference.com

That list is actually kind of amazing when you look at it: half of the top 15 Canadian scorers over the past 3 years did not make the roster.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

I know why Bylsma wants Orpik/Martin, so I can't be too mad at their selection, but if it was any other coaching staff I'd be mad. Did catch that piece. For all the controversy over Bobby Ryan, I actually thought Burkie was harsher on Keith Yandle. And it does kinda show that Burke was running the show and had personal grudges against those two - anything short of leading the NHL in scoring and they'd have been left off.
He's the leading Canadian scorer over the past 3 seasons. Player Season Finder | Hockey-Reference.com

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

That list is actually kind of amazing when you look at it: half of the top 15 Canadian scorers over the past 3 years did not make the roster.

My mind is blown over Matt Moulson being tied in scoring with Corey Perry.

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Somebody on an Anaheim board was trying to argue for Taylor Hall and I think I agree - he's a bonafide superstar on a train wreck of a team who is rounding out his game. He'd be on my team for sure, and I think he could be one of the stars of the tournament playing with better players

Love how one of the decision makers, Six Rings Lowe, couldn't garner enough pull to get him on the team yet he can keep himself employed after all the crap he's put Oilers' fans through for nearly a decade. Mind boggling.