NHL 2011-12 Season

Anyone else excited for the start of the hockey season? It's my favorite time of year. It's the time of year where I can be hopeful for the possibility that both of my teams (Devils and Caps) won't disappoint me yet again.

(Man, it's weird not needing a picture to start a thread...)

Way I see it, the Kings also have a good shot to win the cup as well, as do the Sharks and Red Wings.

Still, it's just begun so there may be tough starts for some teams.

It's hard to care when your team has a horrible owner who refuses to spend money and then claims they are losing money when they sell out every game and the payroll is among the lowest.

I had forgotten it had started, so I need to start following the Wings.

Which team do you mean?

The St. Louis Blues.

Early good starts:

• Los Angeles Kings
• Dallas Stars
• Buffalo Sabers
• Philladelphia Flyers
• Washington Capitals
• Toronto Maple Leafs
• Colorado Avalanche

Not so good starts

• Columbus Blue Jackets
• San Jose Sharks (Though they're starting to come together)
• Montreal Canadiens
• Boston Bruins
• St. Louis Blues
• Tampa Bay Lightning (Ditto as with SJ)
• Nashville Predators
• Calgary Flames

Thoughts?

You forgot the Canucks, although they do tend to start slow.

On a semi-related note, I swear the Vancouver Fan Dumb could almost rival that of Star Wars.

Almost.

I also forgot about Winnipeg. How silly of me.

Speaking of them, it was a rather wild game between them and the Flyers (LOL for the airplane puns) and I think it should have at least gone to overtime because I feel that with such a high scoring affair both teams deserved at least 1 point, but the Jets would eventually win.

The Blues are doing about as expected. The team made no off-season moves (as I said, Checketts is a terrible owner who refuses to spend money on the team but will build new stadiums for his MLS teams) and it's been typical of them to start average, then do horrible at the midway point only to try and make a run for the past few seasons.

In case anyone cares, Sidney Crosby has returned and started producing as usual upon his return. The Penguins look pretty strong and are totally different now that he's back. The division is getting tight with the Flyers and Rangers coming up and over the West, the Blackhawks are doing pretty well after getting over a short funk in their 'Circus trip' road schedule.

It's been long enough. Leafs 2012

First, they gotta survive through this tough slog they're in at this time, have Reimer back on goal and simply don't get injured too much. You don't know how much of an impact being undermanned can have.

edited 28th Nov '11 5:31:53 PM by Android_Chaos

Anyone get a look at the realignment plan that was passed last week?

A: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver

B: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg

C: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto

D: Carolina, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

I'm more worried about the proposed playoff format - four teams from each conference and match-ups within each conference for the first two rounds. I'm not a big fan of it - I think it would get tiresome very quickly as well as allow too much possibility for a team with a better record to miss out to a team with a worse record only because it ended up fifth in a strong conference.

edited 11th Dec '11 7:25:29 PM by megarockman

It's bad if you're a Western Conference team (thankfully, my Blues have improved greatly since Hitchcock became head coach and could be a strong second or third team next year). It creates the same problems that Major League Baseball had when the Brewers moved to the NL (thankfully this was fixed when the Astros moved to the AL).

Reportedly, the 16/14 format is to allow for expansion. Quebec City is very interested in a team and Kansas City, Houston, Seattle and Las Vegas are all rumored cities.

I'm not sure I agree with this... The concept is that each team plays every non-conference team twice(home and home), and every team in their own conference 6-8 times... The only way a single conference has 5+ teams with "great" records is if the fifth team literally sweeps every non-conference team while playing poorly against conference opponents. It's possible, yes... But highly unlikely...

And yes, that's why they did the 8/8/7/7 thing... But they screwed themselves by making both "eastern" conferences have 7 teams instead of putting Columbus or Nashville in one of them...

I'm happy because now as a Red Wings fan we aren't lumped in with west coast time zones now.

God that made zero sense.

The original plan was to switch Winnipeg with Columbus or Detroit. Detroit wanted to move to the Eastern Conference to create more Original Six rivalries while Columbus refused to move to the Eastern Conference since they believe Detroit is their rival (this made me laugh since Detroit's rivalries with the Blackhawks and Blues are far more important than a decade old team that never competes).

Rather than make a geographical confusion, this realignment happened.

Columbus saw us as their rival? Haha oh wow.

edited 11th Dec '11 11:49:11 PM by Thorn14

I know. The Red Wings probably see the Blue Jackets as Tuesday.

There is a reason for this: The Blue Jackets are the Red Wings' Unknown Rival. Some of the players and directives saw too much Red Vs Blue.

I've been checking out ESPN's Power Rankings a lot lately (Blues are seventh) and I don't understand the Red Wings love. They are in third in Power Rankings but three points behind Chicago (who's in eighth) and tied with the Blues in the standings. Also, the Blues had a convincing win against the Red Wings a few weeks ago.

Because we're hockey town and have always had great seasons, even if its not always at the top? (We have had a few rough spots this year) and have constantly been in the playoffs?

And what the hell is power rankings?

edited 12th Dec '11 11:05:37 AM by Thorn14

ESPN's hockey experts rank the best teams each week.

But anyway, Chicago should be higher ranked. If Detroit really is better, they shouldn't be tied for second in their division.

edited 12th Dec '11 11:08:23 AM by Buscemi

The opinion of a few guys doesn't matter.

And like I said, the red wings have had a few rough spots this season.