The NHL Thread

I was visiting Chicago this weekend and was constantly wearing my Sharks hat.

I made so many frenemies and I couldn't even talk smack because the Blackhawks are too good :(

BTW, is there violence around ice hockey? Will you get your ass kicked if you go to the wrong part of town wearing your team's colours?

I know there's violence on the ice, but what about around the stadia?

Are you in Canada? The answer to this is the same as the answer to the question about violence.

Maybe football could learn a lesson or two from ice hockey... (Not to bring violence into the game, though!)

Yes, but what lesson would they be learning from the Vancouver Hockey Riots? Note the s at the end. These are not an unusual occurrence.

edited 26th Feb '13 3:59:52 PM by shimaspawn

Oh, look. Tampa lost. Again.

Jesus.

Even with Stamkos, it's painful to watch. The Bolts are slumping pretty bad, but it's worse because their team is pretty much healthy. It's like they haven't totally gelled just yet.

Here's what we know so far:

• The Blackhawks are still awesome
• The Kings have started to rise up after a strong win against the Anaheim Ducks. And wait until Mitchell and Greene come back!
• The Bruins... are still the Bruins
• The Senators are really fighting hard despite such losses. Gotta hand it to Todd Mac Lean
• The Rangers suck right now and the injuries they've sustained are making things worse
• The Dallas Stars seem to have trouble having an identity
• The Canadiens are playing pretty good
• This is the first time I've seen the Red Wings being pretty inconsistent.
• Once again, the Pacific division houses all the teams that are above .500

at least in the US, stands are too empty for people to get into fights.

also, I think baseball ends up being a catalyst for riots more often than football.

Best Of is from Finland. He's referring to the sport the majority of the world call Football. And the fans of it are loony in the rest of the world. No one really cares about the MLS most of the time.

And go Hawks! Have to root for my city.

oh, I was localizing since the NHL refers to an American/Canadian league

in that case, yeah, football football fans could learn a thing or two from pretty much every other sports'

This depends on the city... In Tampa, Charlotte, LA, Phoenix or Dallas, and most other "southern" NHL cities, the crowd is proportional to how well the team is doing...

You will not find the stadium to be "too empty" in Pittsburgh, Philly, DC, Boston, Denver, Detroit, or most other "northern" NHL cities... In fact, you'd be lucky to find a single empty seat in those stands...

edited 27th Feb '13 12:47:28 AM by Swish

Blackhawk tickets sell well and have for years. We've got the highest annual attendance for our games. Hockey does better and better the farther north you get.

Blackhawks continue their point streak to 21 straight.

Also beat their latest opponent in OT.

edited 1st Mar '13 11:23:01 PM by Serocco

Go, Blackhawks! They're my home team.

And tomorrow morning they'll play the Red Wings. That's gonna be on NBC for sure.

I'm dancing to Chelsea Dagger.

Meanwhile, my team continues to suck.

My anger towards you rages hotter than a million suns, shimaspawn.

I've come to this conclusion while watching the Sharks: if the Sharks score one goal, they decide to take it easy since they're ahead. If the Sharks get scored on, they immediately lose all hope of victory.

And so, despite the huge amount of raw, individual talent they have, they continue to be average.

(but at least they managed the shoot out win tonight)

I'm loving the way the Kings are hustling back into the division. It won't be long before they catch up to Anaheim now.

I was trying to find a particularly silly thing that Joe Thornton said in an interview, but I found this old commercial instead

12 game win streak for Pittsburgh, thus far(and undefeated in March).

I'm surprised that the NHL isn't showing Tuesday's Montreal-Pittsburgh game nationally in the US, though... But I suppose they can't have every nationally televised game be a Penguins game.

edited 24th Mar '13 7:22:01 PM by Swish

The Lightning fired Guy Boucher.

Shocked, I am not.

Penguins-Blackhawks isn't a bad pick for a Stanley Cup Finals, but crazier things tend to happen and there'll be either a top team that stays hot throughout the playoffs or some team that'll emulate the Kings and just beat everyone up from the 8th seed. My projections for the Finals include:

• Penguins-Blackhawks
• Canadiens-Blackhawks
• Bruins-Blackhawks
• Penguins-Ducks
• Canadiens-Ducks
• Bruins-Ducks
• Penguins-Wild/Canucks

Whichever wins the Southeast Division (Carolina or Winnipeg), just know they'll have a hard time getting past the Habs, Bruins and Penguins if they win their 1st round matchup. I would probably give the Wild the nod over the Canucks on the account that they're more healthy and they're starting to peak at the right time, though Vancouver is no stranger to late season rallies before. Unless Chicago gets into a huge collapse, I don't see them losing the Central Division and the Northeast division will be one huge dogfight. It's highly likely that all 4 teams except Buffalo will get into the playoffs unless they start to flounder in the remainder of the season.

Was adding Brenden Morrow necessary for the Penguins? It smells more like a rental than anything and it just seems that Pittsburgh is fleecing Dallas more and more.

It's only fleecing Dallas if Pittsburgh manages to re-up Morrow's contract and goes deep in the playoffs... But since Dallas also has Jagr and Roy as UFAs at the end of the season, I'm not seeing it "fleecing" in either respect... More like Dallas trying to prevent a repeat of a couple years ago when they kept Richards hoping to make the playoffs, didn't, and watched him leave...

As for whether it was necessary or not for Pittsburgh... Debatable. They do need size on Malkin's line, and Morrow can add that at the very least. But whether or not it works will only be clear after the season. The moves by the Pens in the last two years didn't work. But in the two prior(the two trips to the finals versus Detroit), they did...

edited 25th Mar '13 11:46:57 PM by Swish

... So. Pittsburgh got Morrow from Dallas, Murrey from San Jose, and Iginla from Calgary. All three were "stolen" from the Bruins(who were looking at those players).

The Pens have essentially bet the farm for the Cup this year... Especially if they don't keep the three over the off-season(though, with all three having no-trade clauses, it'd be weird that they would be willing to go to a team if they weren't willing to take a "reasonable" contract renewal.