Official NHL 2015-2016 Thread

[mikeyd23]

Bring on game 7 baby! Great win by the Pens last night!!

Much improved effort defensively by the whole team. Also when your stars score it gives you a great chance to win. Good stuff all around.

[axeman90210]

My view of game six tonight's when the Lightning disappointed me

That's a fairly epic seat. I went to Devils vs Rangers in the EC Finals a few years ago and it was easily the best live sporting event I've ever been to. It did help that the Devils won handily

[KevShmev]

Outplayed, outworked, outcoached, etc.  The Blues look like they are ready for the season to be over. 

[gmillerdrake]

Outplayed, outworked, outcoached, etc.  The Blues look like they are ready for the season to be over. 

Yet it's only 1-0. All it takes is one to tie.

[dparrott]

The Blues are sure venting their frustration with a stick to the face! Punk ass.

[KevShmev]

The Blues are sure venting their frustration with a stick to the face! Punk ass.

The Sharks still have the lead in cheap shots this series, so simmer down there, sparky.

[gmillerdrake]

The Blues are sure venting their frustration with a stick to the face! Punk ass.

The Sharks still have the lead in cheap shots this series, so simmer down there, sparky.

I just considered it karma for the late hit on Fabbri two games ago. All he did was try to lift the stick and missed. Im surprised it was called being they let it go last game when it happened to Parayko.

[Jarlaxle]

 

[Mr. Ister]

The Sharks are SUCH a better team than the Blues right now. Blues were fortunate to even get 2 this series. Blues are slow, indecisive, and haven't switched up the plays much even though SJ has obviously studied the shit out of them. Congrats to the Sharks.

That being said fuck the Sharks: Joe Thornton with his subtle cheap shot habits (to Perron and Oshie in years past); Marleau for having stupid fucking eyebrows; Pete deBoeur for being a whiny bitch (and fuck the Blues for taking soooo many bad penalties); for toeing the line between diving to draw every penalty they did so as to increase the PP opportunities; for having a goalie who 6 games into this series I STILL haven't heard of; for fleecing the Wild in the Burns trade (seriously lol Wild); Logan Coture's teeth; and the fucking iSketch sound effects they make when announcing the goal scorers.

OK that felt pretty good and Tarasenko has scored twice since I've been typing it. I could make an even longer post about the Blues and especially the defenseman.

[fadetoblackdude7]

Congrats to the Sharks! This should be a great final series!

[KevShmev]

I think, other than when goals were scored, the 3rd period tonight was the first time the whole series I heard the San Jose crowd get loud.  I guess it's easy to get loud when you have in the bank.

That aside, the Blues put up a major fight at the end, instead of rolling over after it got to 4-0, so that was nice to see at least.  Disappointing end to the season, but still a helluva postseason run.  It was a mostly fun ride. 

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Way to go Sharks! My second team after the Caps I wanted to take home the cup. I've always really liked them and Thornton is one of my favourite players. Marleau needs this too. Hopefully they kick ass in the finals.

[gmillerdrake]

Well....that sucked.


First off...that has to be a great feeling there Dylan and dparrott....It's increasingly obvious I'll never experience it. Congrats on your team heading to the Cup, so exciting! They definitely whipped the Blues in many aspects. Good Luck. I do apologize for anything that I've said (or will say)....heat of the battle and all that....

[KevShmev]

Yep, congrats to the Sharks and their fans. 

I'll be rooting against them in the finals, however.

[gmillerdrake]

As far as the rest....first off...this:

That being said fuck the Sharks: Joe Thornton with his subtle cheap shot habits (to Perron and Oshie in years past); Marleau for having stupid fucking eyebrows; Pete deBoeur for being a whiny bitch (and fuck the Blues for taking soooo many bad penalties); for toeing the line between diving to draw every penalty they did so as to increase the PP opportunities; for having a goalie who 6 games into this series I STILL haven't heard of; for fleecing the Wild in the Burns trade (seriously lol Wild); Logan Coture's teeth; and the fucking iSketch sound effects they make when announcing the goal scorers.

and....if Hitchcock isn't fired by the time he leaves the building then something is wrong. He was drastically out coached in this series. I mean, you can't figure out what San Jose is doing to stifle your leading scorer....or figure out how to stifle that Pavalski/Thornton line? Gimme a break...what the  are they paying you for.

Jay Boumeister is useless and I don't care if he has a year left with a massive salary I'd pay him not to play any longer....who cares how many minutes he eats up if the minutes he's playing he F'n Sucks!!

Bye Bye Shattenkirk. Rick Nash has said he's interested in a trade and Shattenkirk is a NY boy so get it done Stillman. Paryako proved we don't need Shattenkirk's bad penalty taking, constantly outworked ass any longer.

Lay the F off of Tarasenko. We don't beat Chicago or Dallas without him and I'll bet $10 by the end of the week we learn there's some bone broke on his body. There has to be. Dude took more Slashes than a GnR groupie.

There was a team in this series that played to win it and a team in this series that played trying not to lose it. And year after year under Hitchcock the Blues approach these series trying to make sure they don't lose them rather than going out to F'n win them. That's what San Jose just did. They went out an Fucking won the series.


Now it'll be nothing but reading and hearing in the StL market about how this was still "a good year" and look at what they accomplished. Which was nothing. Nothing was accomplished. They lost. You play to win the fucking Cup...not make ti out of the first round or whatever BS I'm going to have to listen to...the F'n cliches' that are about to hit the fan.

The only positive thing that came out of tonight is that I won't have to hear another Fucking word come out of any of those atrocious announcers that NBC has. Wholy Sh%t....I mean disguise your favoritism a tad would you? Please. Series after series they churned the butter of the Blues opponent....it was near comical by the end.

The only person in St. Louis happy tonight is my wife....because now I have to resume "normal" parenting duty.   

[lonestar]

Well fuck me, they finally did it. Wonder if they sacrificed the Warriors to finally end the choking curse 

[Rattlehead]

I was really pulling for St. Louis in this series but I'm still happy for San Jose… if Tampa loses tonight then I'll definitely be going for San Jose.

[Hyperplex]

They're not going to fire Hitchcock. He got them farther than any other coach in recent memory. They'll be going thru enough turnover with Backes and Brouwer maybe not turning, they'll probably want to keep consistency at coach.

[gmillerdrake]

They're not going to fire Hitchcock. He got them farther than any other coach in recent memory. They'll be going thru enough turnover with Backes and Brouwer maybe not turning, they'll probably want to keep consistency at coach.

This would be horrible. Especially due to the rift between he and Tarasenko. Hitchcocks vision or whatever doesn't work. There's no way you should not have your team ready to play, and they weren't ready to play in games 2,3 and 6.

he needs to go.

[Mr. Ister]

I don't think he's going to go.  He was brought back on a one year, show-me-what-you-got deal, and he showed he can get them over the hump.  It's up to the players to perform, the coach cannot shout at Tarasenko to the point that he starts scoring.  I predict they'll re-sign Hitch on a 2- or 3-year deal.

[gmillerdrake]

I don't think he's going to go.  He was brought back on a one year, show-me-what-you-got deal, and he showed he can get them over the hump.  It's up to the players to perform, the coach cannot shout at Tarasenko to the point that he starts scoring.  I predict they'll re-sign Hitch on a 2- or 3-year deal.

Getting over the hump counts for nothing IMO. There should have never been a hump. His approach doesn't work. Time for a fresh new coach, I'm thinking Kirk Muller the assistant. He'd know enough of what works and bring a different take.

Re-signing Hitch is essentially putting us in this same spot a year from now. Close but no cigar.

[Hyperplex]

You're looking at it from the point of a view of a fan who is in the heat of losing in the playoffs. You feel pissed off and angered at how you think the coach handled a loss. But the management is not likely going to feel that way. They will look at overall performance and see how far they got and how well they played to get there and do an assessment. I am not overly familiar with his contract, but if Hitchcock still has time on it, I would be very surprised if he is cut loose. There is a lot of talk amongst people that I've seen (take it for what it is, nothing is certain til it's official) that both Backes and Brouwer will not be with St. Louis next year. But everything is speculation.

[Mr. Ister]

Hitch has been an incredibly successful coach here.  We have lost early in the playoffs to some great teams, several of whom went on to win the Stanley Cup, and this year went on a deep playoff run.  We are there every year.  You don't throw that away just because the team slightly underperformed against a team that was superior to them.

[Hyperplex]

And of course with all my going on about it, there is never a guarantee that anyone will be anywhere in the coming offseason. Each team has to trust in its management to make the decisions that are best. That said, Hitch has been a consistently effective coach, and is probably one of the most even-tempered bench bosses I've seen. He'd be an asset almost anywhere, so my thought is the Blues will keep him.

[gmillerdrake]

You're looking at it from the point of a view of a fan who is in the heat of losing in the playoffs. You feel pissed off and angered at how you think the coach handled a loss. But the management is not likely going to feel that way. They will look at overall performance and see how far they got and how well they played to get there and do an assessment. I am not overly familiar with his contract, but if Hitchcock still has time on it, I would be very surprised if he is cut loose. There is a lot of talk amongst people that I've seen (take it for what it is, nothing is certain til it's official) that both Backes and Brouwer will not be with St. Louis next year. But everything is speculation.

He had a one year deal to get the job done. Not get us past the first round, or 2 wins shy of a chance at the cup. To win the cup. He didn't. Time to move on.

Hitch has been an incredibly successful coach here.  We have lost early in the playoffs to some great teams, several of whom went on to win the Stanley Cup, and this year went on a deep playoff run.  We are there every year.  You don't throw that away just because the team slightly underperformed against a team that was superior to them.

I don't see him as being successful. What have his teams accomplished? His inability to game plan to neutralize the line that killed the Blues this round and change up some tactics to disrupt the Sharks tactics against the Blues is what lost this round. Not the 'superior' Sharks. The Sharks and the Blues are essentially the exact same team when you get to the nuts and bolts of it. Their team wanted to win that series and worked their butts off to do so.....on all aspects not just the players. The Blues gift wrapped (2) victories for the Sharks and were without a coach that could adapt on the fly. If they re-sign Hitchcock it is a near 100% certainty that the Blues do not win the cup again next year because he does not have the ability to motivate a team to get ready to play nor combat another coaches strategies.

The Blues should try very hard to re-sign Brauer....if Backes stays he stays but his best playing days are behind him and he's one hit/shift away from never playing hockey again due to the concussions so as much as I love Backes I think it'd be unwise for the Blues to spend the $$ he's going to want on him.

[Mr. Ister]

I think you're fooling yourself by thinking the Blues and Sharks are the exact same team.  The Sharks have more high-end talent that impose their will on a play or on a game as a whole more than anyone on the Blues.  The Blues do not have a Thornton or a Burns.  This slight deficit in upper-echelon skill was what made the difference in this series as the grinding mentality of the Blues was not sufficient to get through the skill level of the Sharks.  And that's not coaching either.

[gmillerdrake]

I think you're fooling yourself by thinking the Blues and Sharks are the exact same team.  The Sharks have more high-end talent that impose their will on a play or on a game as a whole more than anyone on the Blues.  The Blues do not have a Thornton or a Burns.  This slight deficit in upper-echelon skill was what made the difference in this series as the grinding mentality of the Blues was not sufficient to get through the skill level of the Sharks.  And that's not coaching either.

The Blues could have beaten them in a seven game series but they played like a$$. Some of that has to with our players not performing and some of it has to do with coaching. I think Hitchcock was out coached....again. It wasn't the first time and won't be the last.

San Jose whipped the Blues in every aspect by doing the thing that the Blues do to whip opponents....but they did it better than the Blues. I don't think there's that big a gap between talent on the teams to write it all off as San Jose just has better players.

I think the Blues paid the price for not ending the two previous series early when they should have which is a typical trait of the Hitchcock Blues not having the 'killer' instinct. Instead of stepping on the throats of opponents and crushing them they'd rather beat them thumb wrestling. We need a coach that will have our team hunting for blood. Hitchcock has never been able to do that for whatever reason. We always have the team trying not to lose the game rather than seeking to destroy. The Sharks just played 5 games of seek and destroy and did just that.

[KevShmev]

I don't think Hitch is going anywhere. The team did make progress this year, and changing coaches when you're on the verge is dangerous, since you'd have no way of knowing who you're getting. Proven coaches don't exactly grow on trees. I get the frustration, but I think a few more tweaks to the roster - shoring up on defense so we don't commit so many turnovers in our own zone is key - is the way to go. I definitely want Brouwer back. I'd be okay with say goodbye to Shattenkirk and Boumeister. Backes returning depends on how much money he wants.

[dparrott]

I can't believe they actually did it.  I've been a fan since day one in high school, so this is amazing!

Btw, the west has won the last four cups.  Westside is the best side!

[gmillerdrake]

I don't think Hitch is going anywhere. The team did make progress this year, and changing coaches when you're on the verge is dangerous, since you'd have no way of knowing who you're getting. Proven coaches don't exactly grow on trees.

Hitch may resonate with veterans but he doesn't with the 'younger' players. And we have a slew of younger players that are going to carry this team now....of which Kirk Muller has been very close with the past few years. I think you give him the spot...he knows the ins and outs of the system we've been running but will obviously have a different motivational approach. I understand that Hitch is proven and has a good track record and all that but enough is enough....I don't count getting out of the first round and playing into the third round as some massive success. I see it as things that we SHOULD have done already but choked at doing. 

I'd be okay with say goodbye to Shattenkirk and Boumeister.

This should be massive priorities. Moving Shattenkirk will be easy, I don't think anyone will touch Boumeister with a 10 foot pole. Eating minutes isn't enough...those minutes have to be successful and he and Shattenkirk were turn over machines in the playoffs.

Backes returning depends on how much money he wants.

It'd be nice to see him stay but I think he's gonna want 6 or 7 million a year and that won't happen here. Unless he just decides to give a home town discount given that he has all his charities established here and is so involved in the community.

[SchecterShredder]

I don't think Hitch is going anywhere. The team did make progress this year, and changing coaches when you're on the verge is dangerous, since you'd have no way of knowing who you're getting. Proven coaches don't exactly grow on trees.

The Pens changed from Therrien to Bylsma after making the cup final in '08, and that resulted in a cup win for the Pens. I agree with you that Hitch is probably safe (and he's a really good coach...and he's from my hometown here in Edmonton ), but it wouldn't surprise me if they made a change just for change's sake.

[gmillerdrake]

but it wouldn't surprise me if they made a change just for change's sake.

that's not why they need the change. They need the change because Hitch's approach doesn't work. He's had ample time to make it work. This post season was THE post season for his Blues team to win it all. After beating Chicago and Dallas.....there really was no excuse to lose to the Sharks. Not to take away from their play but the Blues were more than capable to beat them in a best of 7. The lack of killer instinct in his team cost them dearly by not putting Chicago and Dallas away on the first game we could have. That'd have given us the rest needed to battle and play at full potential.

Then, not having your team ready to play in the opening (3) games.....really? Sure they won game 1 but that was strictly due to Elliot stealing the game. Hitch's game plan sucked and him motivating his team sucked....which has been a problem before.

His time is up. Move on...thanks buddy. I don't see any issues with the talent the Blues have for them to return to the playoffs again next season. They need to find a coach that can instill a mindset in that team that they are going to destroy teams when they play them because they have the players to destroy teams...they've shown it plenty.

He was given a year contract for a reason....win it this year or else. Well...it's or else. Have your office cleaned out by Sunday. thanks.

[SchecterShredder]

but it wouldn't surprise me if they made a change just for change's sake.

that's not why they need the change. They need the change because Hitch's approach doesn't work. He's had ample time to make it work. This post season was THE post season for his Blues team to win it all. After beating Chicago and Dallas.....there really was no excuse to lose to the Sharks. Not to take away from their play but the Blues were more than capable to beat them in a best of 7. The lack of killer instinct in his team cost them dearly by not putting Chicago and Dallas away on the first game we could have. That'd have given us the rest needed to battle and play at full potential.

Then, not having your team ready to play in the opening (3) games.....really? Sure they won game 1 but that was strictly due to Elliot stealing the game. Hitch's game plan sucked and him motivating his team sucked....which has been a problem before.

His time is up. Move on...thanks buddy. I don't see any issues with the talent the Blues have for them to return to the playoffs again next season. They need to find a coach that can instill a mindset in that team that they are going to destroy teams when they play them because they have the players to destroy teams...they've shown it plenty.

He was given a year contract for a reason....win it this year or else. Well...it's or else. Have your office cleaned out by Sunday. thanks.

His coaching system clearly works though. The Blues were a top western team in the regular season, and they beat 2 other top contenders to make it to the conference final. The lack of 'killer instinct' needs to come from the players. I may be wrong, but I don't think a coach can instill that in the players if they don't already have it.

[gmillerdrake]

but it wouldn't surprise me if they made a change just for change's sake.

that's not why they need the change. They need the change because Hitch's approach doesn't work. He's had ample time to make it work. This post season was THE post season for his Blues team to win it all. After beating Chicago and Dallas.....there really was no excuse to lose to the Sharks. Not to take away from their play but the Blues were more than capable to beat them in a best of 7. The lack of killer instinct in his team cost them dearly by not putting Chicago and Dallas away on the first game we could have. That'd have given us the rest needed to battle and play at full potential.

Then, not having your team ready to play in the opening (3) games.....really? Sure they won game 1 but that was strictly due to Elliot stealing the game. Hitch's game plan sucked and him motivating his team sucked....which has been a problem before.

His time is up. Move on...thanks buddy. I don't see any issues with the talent the Blues have for them to return to the playoffs again next season. They need to find a coach that can instill a mindset in that team that they are going to destroy teams when they play them because they have the players to destroy teams...they've shown it plenty.

He was given a year contract for a reason....win it this year or else. Well...it's or else. Have your office cleaned out by Sunday. thanks.

His coaching system clearly works though. The Blues were a top western team in the regular season, and they beat 2 other top contenders to make it to the conference final. The lack of 'killer instinct' needs to come from the players. I may be wrong, but I don't think a coach can instill that in the players if they don't already have it.

The Kings stick out to me. Their coach has had a lot to do with their identity as a team. there needs to be changes. you can't blow up the team and start over from scratch so the next solution is a change in the coach. It happens all the time. the Blues are very talented and will continue to be so no matter who is making the calls.

[gmillerdrake]

I get that Hitchcock is a top of the line coach. I get I should be 'happy' about even having a team that's pretty consistent in making the playoffs. But, Hitch's window to win is over. We have a massive amount of young talent that is going to lead the way heading forward and it's ripe for a change of pace. If he re-signs I have zero doubt that this time next season I'll be talking about the same exact thing....that we came 'so close'.....