Official 2017-2018 NHL Thread v. Break the Ice

[jingle.boy]

Tampa Bay moves on to the Eastern Conference Championship!!!!

3 times in the last 4 years.  If not for the injuries last year, they could've been there then too!

[TAC]

Well.....

The Bruins simply did not have their A game, but that said, the Lightning were much stronger all the way around.

Rask takes a lot of heat in this town, but he was the B's best player against the Lightning. He was hung out to dry.

Rick Nash...I don't want to say he didn't compete, because he did, but he did not stand out, and he doesn't get paid to compete. He get's paid to produce.


Nothing to dislike about Tampa. I think Jon Cooper is excellent as is Rick Bowness.



Now I can sit back, relax, and enjoy the playoffs.

[King Postwhore]

Kudos to the Lightning.  They were obviously the better team. Great team defense. 

[SystematicThought]

My reaction when Brad Marchand and the Bruins are eliminated from the playoffs

[King Postwhore]

How dare you use Rene against us!

[jingle.boy]

My reaction when Brad Marchand and the Bruins are eliminated from the playoffs

[dparrott]

Sharks eliminated again.  19 times to the playoffs, one trip to the finals. 

[Anguyen92]

Tampa Bay moves on to the Eastern Conference Championship!!!!

Marchand can LICK mah balls!

Careful now, he may actually do it.

[mikeyd23]

Do or die tonight for the Pens. Honestly, with the gaps the team has shown in this series so far, I'm not sure about tonight at all. Maybe they'll win, maybe they won't. I have no idea what team will actually show up.

[pg1067]

Friggin' Vegas.

Seriously...can someone explain this team's dominance to me?  I look at the roster, and there are some decent players, but no one really special.  Obviously Fleury was a standout goalie 5-10 years ago, but he wasn't even his own team's starter the last two years.  Everyone else was no better than a second line guy or #3/4 defenseman.  And yet here they are in the Western Conference Finals, with an 8-2 record in the first two rounds after having gone wire to wire in first place in what was generally considered to be a very strong Pacific Division (although the playoff performance of the other Pacific Division teams suggests otherwise).

Go Jets!  Go Caps!

That is all.

[jingle.boy]

Friggin' Vegas.

Seriously...can someone explain this team's dominance to me?  I look at the roster, and there are some decent players, but no one really special.  Obviously Fleury was a standout goalie 5-10 years ago, but he wasn't even his own team's starter the last two years.  Everyone else was no better than a second line guy or #3/4 defenseman.  And yet here they are in the Western Conference Finals, with an 8-2 record in the first two rounds after having gone wire to wire in first place in what was generally considered to be a very strong Pacific Division (although the playoff performance of the other Pacific Division teams suggests otherwise).

Go Jets!  Go Caps!

That is all.

Get out of my brain!!!  Seriously, I could've typed that whole post word-for-word.  Flower has certainly had a resurgence (4 shut-outs in 10 games!?!?!?), and the team chemistry coming out of the tragedy last September I think has a role to play.  There has never been a truer case of the whole being greater than the sum of the individual parts.

[mikeyd23]

Friggin' Vegas.

Seriously...can someone explain this team's dominance to me?  I look at the roster, and there are some decent players, but no one really special.  Obviously Fleury was a standout goalie 5-10 years ago, but he wasn't even his own team's starter the last two years. Everyone else was no better than a second line guy or #3/4 defenseman.  And yet here they are in the Western Conference Finals, with an 8-2 record in the first two rounds after having gone wire to wire in first place in what was generally considered to be a very strong Pacific Division (although the playoff performance of the other Pacific Division teams suggests otherwise).

Go Jets!  Go Caps!

That is all.

That's tricky though. He wasn't the starter for the last two Cup wins, but it was basically due to injury and then a young goalie playing (what looks like now) above his head. And he still played a big role in both those Cup runs, IMO. Remember, he was the goalie that basically beat the Caps last year, something that it looks like Murray isn't going to be able to do. I'll put it this way, there are a lot of people in Pittsburgh that would really prefer to have Fleury right now.

That said, looking at the team as a whole, on paper, they are decent at best. They seem like they are getting production above a lot of guys typical work. I thought at some point it would dry up, but until it does, I gotta give them props.

[gmillerdrake]

Friggin' Vegas.

Seriously...can someone explain this team's dominance to me?  I look at the roster, and there are some decent players, but no one really special.  Obviously Fleury was a standout goalie 5-10 years ago, but he wasn't even his own team's starter the last two years. Everyone else was no better than a second line guy or #3/4 defenseman.  And yet here they are in the Western Conference Finals, with an 8-2 record in the first two rounds after having gone wire to wire in first place in what was generally considered to be a very strong Pacific Division (although the playoff performance of the other Pacific Division teams suggests otherwise).

Go Jets!  Go Caps!

That is all.

That's tricky though. He wasn't the starter for the last two Cup wins, but it was basically due to injury and then a young goalie playing (what looks like now) above his head. And he still played a big role in both those Cup runs, IMO. Remember, he was the goalie that basically beat the Caps last year, something that it looks like Murray isn't going to be able to do. I'll put it this way, there are a lot of people in Pittsburgh that would really prefer to have Fleury right now.

That said, looking at the team as a whole, on paper, they are decent at best. They seem like they are getting production above a lot of guys typical work. I thought at some point it would dry up, but until it does, I gotta give them props.

These guys have an 'us vs. the rest of the world' mentality. They're the players that weren't wanted by their old teams, they were expendable. They're playing for one another and have bought all in with each other and their coach. Couple that with the Vegas Shooting tragedy that brought the fans and team immediately together......they are just playing as a united team...plain and simple.

I think this season will be magical for them no matter what. It already has been. But I don't think you can sustain that 'us vs. them' swagger past this season. Like I said, there was a perfect storm of circumstance that united this team THIS year....it is 'special'. But You can't sustain that or carry it over from season to season.

[mikeyd23]

These guys have an 'us vs. the rest of the world' mentality. They're the players that weren't wanted by their old teams, they were expendable. They're playing for one another and have bought all in with each other and their coach. Couple that with the Vegas Shooting tragedy that brought the fans and team immediately together......they are just playing as a united team...plain and simple.

I think this season will be magical for them no matter what. It already has been. But I don't think you can sustain that 'us vs. them' swagger past this season. Like I said, there was a perfect storm of circumstance that united this team THIS year....it is 'special'. But You can't sustain that or carry it over from season to season.

Your post is spot on, but to me, talent always ends up beating intangible emotion. That's why I keep waiting for them to run out of intangible steam... They just haven't 

[gmillerdrake]

These guys have an 'us vs. the rest of the world' mentality. They're the players that weren't wanted by their old teams, they were expendable. They're playing for one another and have bought all in with each other and their coach. Couple that with the Vegas Shooting tragedy that brought the fans and team immediately together......they are just playing as a united team...plain and simple.

I think this season will be magical for them no matter what. It already has been. But I don't think you can sustain that 'us vs. them' swagger past this season. Like I said, there was a perfect storm of circumstance that united this team THIS year....it is 'special'. But You can't sustain that or carry it over from season to season.

Your post is spot on, but to me, talent always ends up beating intangible emotion. That's why I keep waiting for them to run out of intangible steam... They just haven't 

They may not all be super stars but what they are is 'blue collar' grinders. They work.....nearly every shift. They just hustle and grind and that can trump superstar talent in many cases.

[pg1067]

There has never been a truer case of the whole being greater than the sum of the individual parts.

That's why Gerard Gallant and George McPhee are shoe-ins for the Jack Adams and GM of the Year awards, but they kinda came out of nowhere too.

These guys have an 'us vs. the rest of the world' mentality. They're the players that weren't wanted by their old teams, they were expendable. They're playing for one another and have bought all in with each other and their coach. Couple that with the Vegas Shooting tragedy that brought the fans and team immediately together......they are just playing as a united team...plain and simple.

The first part is true of any expansion team.

talent always ends up beating intangible emotion. That's why I keep waiting for them to run out of intangible steam... They just haven't 

And waiting and waiting and waiting....

I'm gonna chalk it up to an endless supply of hookers and blow.   

[gmillerdrake]

These guys have an 'us vs. the rest of the world' mentality. They're the players that weren't wanted by their old teams, they were expendable. They're playing for one another and have bought all in with each other and their coach. Couple that with the Vegas Shooting tragedy that brought the fans and team immediately together......they are just playing as a united team...plain and simple.

The first part is true of any expansion team.

While that may be true there aren't many expansion teams that have turned that into the success that these guys have.

[jingle.boy]

I'm gonna chalk it up to an endless supply of hookers and blow.   

For the opposing teams coming in to LV.

[mikeyd23]

I'm gonna chalk it up to an endless supply of hookers and blow.   

For the opposing teams coming in to LV.

Exactly what I was going to say!

[mike099]

The way the Predators-Jets series has gone so far, I would not be surprised if the Predators win at the Jets tonight and the series goes back to Nashville for game 7. If that happens, I do not see Nashville losing at home for a third time in this series.

[KevShmev]

Let's hope the Jets win tonight so we don't have to worry about it.

Caps dominating and up 1-0. You just get the feeling that they had better win this game and the series tonight. A game 7 against the Pens might get in their heads too much.

[King Postwhore]

Dominating and only up one never feels like a good thing.

[gmillerdrake]

The way the Predators-Jets series has gone so far, I would not be surprised if the Predators win at the Jets tonight and the series goes back to Nashville for game 7. If that happens, I do not see Nashville losing at home for a third time in this series.

Agreed. Tonight is the Jets shot. Preds aren’t losing that game 7 at home.

[jingle.boy]

CAPS!!!!  I literally just flipped to the game 30 seconds ago.

So nice to see them get the monkey off their back.

[TAC]

The good news is that there'll be a new Cup Champion.

Let's go Lightning!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rattlehead]

So excited to see the Caps make it this far and finally beat the Penguins in the playoffs. Can't wait to watch the Eastern Finals 

[King Postwhore]

CAPS!!!!  I literally just flipped to the game 30 seconds ago.

So nice to see them get the monkey off their back.

Very surprising!!

[DragonAttack]

Red Wings fan here....now living north of Baltimore

FINALLY !!!

I am simply happy as a 'Northerner' that the Caps have finally advanced past the 2nd round for the first time in twenty years (oh, btw, they were swept by the defending champs in the Finals that year).  I do feel a bit of sadness that this series was not the conference finals (I hate the divisional setup).  I am also a prejudicial Northerner, and hate most if not all southern teams.  But how can I hate a team that has Steve Yzerman as its GM?

...I have two sports jerseys .....#3 Alan Trammell, #19 Steve Yzerman

Just wish I wasn't going to be traveling out of the country, otherwise I'd be dishing out bucco bucks to see Game 4 in DC.

oh...and congrats to that expansion team and the Atlanta transplants out west

[mike099]

The Jets were shut out at home last night.  Can they win for a third time in Nashville?
Vegas will be well rested for the next round.

[gmillerdrake]

Preds played like the best team in Hockey last night....which sucks.

I don’t see the Jets winning a third time in Nashville. Not saying they can’t it’s just tough to imagine the Preds losing three games at home this series. Such a bummer too because I don’t see any other team left being able to beat the Preds. Jets have the best shot.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Picked the wrong year to jump of the Caps wagon. Oh well... no regrets. Just glad that we'll have a new Cup winner.

My order of want at this point is 1. Vegas 2. Winnipeg 3. Washington 4. Tampa 5. Nashville 

[jingle.boy]

This Preds/Jets series has been nuts.  No consecutive games won... hoping that trend continues on Thursday.

Damn... 2 nights without hockey this time of year is also nuts!

[mikeyd23]

My Pens weren't able to put it together this year... Congratulations to the Caps, well played series!

For the Pens, too many defensive mistakes, and those types of mistakes ended up costing them their season.

After the amazing experience of winning two Cups in a row, I've never been more okay with seeing the Pens get knocked out. They have certainly delivered the goods over the last couple years and need, NEED some time off. Well deserved rest boys.

[mike099]

This Preds/Jets series has been nuts.  No consecutive games won... hoping that trend continues on Thursday.

Damn... 2 nights without hockey this time of year is also nuts!

Apparently, there is a Justin Timberlake concert Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena. 

[TAC]

WTF??

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/lightning-enforcing-dress-code-for-capitals-fans/ar-AAx1UwJ?li=BBnb7Kz