NHL (2021-2022) v. Congrats Avs. Jack Johnson is a Stanley Cup Champion.

[TAC]

Mac's points should improve, as he's not really had a lot of PP time playing behind Krug and Gryzlchk on the first unit.

[axeman90210]

Hamilton scores 17 seconds into the season and Jack Hughes with two goals, including a dirty OT winner. On the whole would've liked to have held on in regulation, but a great start to the season nonetheless.

[Nick]

A very typical Flyers game last night. Got down by two goals twice. Played lights out amazing for one period and somewhat awful for most of the other two. Pulled our goalie to get two late goals to tie the game 4-4, only to then lose in a shootout. It was really a truly Flyers start to the season.

On the bright side, we were in Philly for the first time when the Golden Knights came to town and we bought tickets for Monday's game to greet the Kraken.

[KevShmev]

The Blues tried giving that one away,  but held on to get a nice opening win at Colorado.  Despite 2019, decades of heartbreak will always prevent me from an eternal optimist with this team . but if feels like many are sleeping on the Blues coming into this season. 

[jingle.boy]

Charlie McAvoy. 8 x 9.5. Wow!

I'm just gonna post what I had from the last thread at the FA signings:

Hamilton contract is great for him, terrible for the Devils.  He's a $6-$7 guy at most.  D-men who are UFAs next year are licking their chops (see, Morgan Reilly, Darnell Nurse, Parayko, Werenski, McAvoy, Klingberg).

Yup... Nurse and McAvoy should both send Hamilton and his agent a Rolex.  Werenski and Klingberg are guaranteed $9M AAV paydays now.  Reilly and Parayko might be in the $8-$9 range depending on what kind of year they have.

Seems I also forgot that Werenski did sign a $9.5M AAV contract in July.  If Klingberg has a good year, he just might bet to 8 figures.

Buffalo fans should enjoy being at the top of the division for the moment!  I've no doubt they'll come crashing to reality soon enough.  They're usually good for a 1-11-1-1 run at some point in the first half of the season. 

[gmillerdrake]

The Blues tried giving that one away,  but held on to get a nice opening win at Colorado.  Despite 2019, decades of heartbreak will always prevent me from an eternal optimist with this team . but if feels like many are sleeping on the Blues coming into this season.

Good to bank 2pts on the road against the league darlings for sure. Wasn’t a complete game but lots of positives. I’m good with everyone sleeping on them…..it’s par for course.

[jingle.boy]

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32424014/tampa-bay-lightning-nikita-kucherov-injury-not-day-day-thing-coach-jon-cooper-says

It's like deja vu all over again.

Good thing Stammer is looking like the stud he used to be.

[gmillerdrake]

I mean….they got away with it last year so why change what works? It’s almost 100% certainty that he will ‘recover’ just in time to get back in shape for the playoffs.

[Anguyen92]

Well, in order for this to be properly effective, they got to find a way to get players via trades to fill that $9.5 million cap hit to fill the void after Kucherov's injury in the event that this is actually a season ender for him.  If only Eichel was healthy right now.  That would be a way to really piss everyone in the league if Tampa Bay was able to steal him away from Buffalo.

[jingle.boy]

Finally, and expansion team looking like an expansion team.  I'm sure Nick enjoyed that spanking.

[TAC]

Finally, and expansion team looking like an expansion team.  I'm sure Nick enjoyed that spanking.

Any spanking is a good spanking for Nick.

[Nick]

Finally, and expansion team looking like an expansion team.  I'm sure Nick enjoyed that spanking.

We were 4th row right behind the net where the Flyers got their first 4 goals, was amazing!

[KevShmev]

Buchnevich is not going to endear himself to Blues fans with that kind of dirty BS.

[KevShmev]

Meanwhile, the Blues just had one helluva 2nd period. 

[jingle.boy]

Mike Smith injured.  What's the word on that, Rich?

Seems some the good teams are starting out soft (TB, CO, Wpg), while some of the crapsters (Buf, NJ, Det) aren't looking as shit as expected.  But holy man was the Keybank Centre (Buffalo) a ghost town.  Between how the club has handled the Eichel situation, and no Canadians crossing the border, looked like there was barely a few thousand in the arena.

I know we're only a few games in, so nobody's going to be too worried, or too excited.

[jingle.boy]

Oh damn... Bossy diagnosed with lung cancer.   

[Stadler]

Oh damn... Bossy diagnosed with lung cancer.   

Damn; those Islander teams are some of my favorite sports teams ever.  Billy Smith is still my favorite hockey player of all time, and Al Arbour is a top three coach of all time for me.   

[SchecterShredder]

Mike Smith injured.  What's the word on that, Rich?

Seems some the good teams are starting out soft (TB, CO, Wpg), while some of the crapsters (Buf, NJ, Det) aren't looking as shit as expected.  But holy man was the Keybank Centre (Buffalo) a ghost town.  Between how the club has handled the Eichel situation, and no Canadians crossing the border, looked like there was barely a few thousand in the arena.

I know we're only a few games in, so nobody's going to be too worried, or too excited.

They didn't provide much in terms of info.  Sounds like he just tweaked something, so he asked Tippet to take him out just in case.  My guess is he plays Friday.

The local (vocal) fanbase that chimes in on the Edmonton TSN radio broadcasts seems to think the Oilers are a lock for the WCF, and anything less is a disappointment. What. The. Fuck. Even the radio hosts are telling people they're out to lunch.

[jingle.boy]

And Kuch is on LTIR again.  I don't feel bad - at least it didn't happen in the off-season where the team could backfill his space with comparable salary.  Maybe they go after Eichel now!   

[SchecterShredder]

Well, Smith is off to the IR. On the bright side, this could give the Oil a good look at Stuart Skinner. He's our top young goalie prospect who'll be called up from the AHL to backup Koskinen. With how inconsistent Koskinen plays, I can't imagine Skinner is back up for long. I'm hoping this can turn into a Binnington type of situation.

[romdrums]

Small sample size, but it looks like the Red Wings will be competitive this year.  2019 1st Round Pick Moritz Seider and 2020 1st Round Pick Lucas Raymond are having an immediate impact on this team, with Raymond on the 1st line with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, and Seider on the 2nd D pair with Nick Leddy.  It's nice to see this much needed infusion of talent!  I'm hoping they play well, but not enough to fall out of a chance to get the #1 overall pick in this years draft.  Shane Wright will be a nice addition to a re-stocked cupboard!

[jingle.boy]

The NHL Super-16 / power rankings are a bit of a joke.  I get not wanting to put much (any) stock in the Devils (16) and Sabres (14) being undefeated at the moment, but I'm really struggling to see how the Bolts (3), Oil (4), Avs (6), Bruins (8), and Knights (11) deserved their rankings.  The Bruins got spanked by the Flyers, the Oil offense has looked good (even though they needed a shootout to beat Vcr), but defence and goaltending is suspect when you give up 5 goals to Anaheim, and the other 3 all have losing records

I think the Blues (10), Leafs (12) are both better than those rankings - Blues are undefeated; Leafs only non-wins were 1-goal losses (1 in OT) where the both opposing goalies absolutely stole the victory for their team - and Matthews wasn't in the lineup for the first 3 games.

Whatever... it's only week 1.

[gmillerdrake]

With the AVs….again, I understand they have talented players and all but they’ve yet to prove anything when it counts. They should have Beat an injury riddled Blues team last year in the playoffs so that wasn’t all that special and then they choked the next round. Same scenario with Vegas. They have some talented players but what have they really done to earn consistent top billing?

I’m perfectly fine with the ‘experts’ sleeping on the Blues as that’s historically the case. Binnington is on a mission to force Armstrong to select him for the Canadian national team and has been razor sharp thus far. Given it’s been three games but still….he’s dialed in. The Blues have a skilled group of youngsters and crafty group of veterans so I think it’s going to be fun being a Blues fan this season.

[jingle.boy]

I’m perfectly fine with the ‘experts’ sleeping on the Blues as that’s historically the case. Binnington is on a mission to force Armstrong to select him for the Canadian national team and has been razor sharp thus far. Given it’s been three games but still….he’s dialed in. The Blues have a skilled group of youngsters and crafty group of veterans so I think it’s going to be fun being a Blues fan this season.

I hope this is the case, because I don't think Canada can count on either Fleury or Price come February.  Russia, USA, and Sweden all have more than a couple of #1 options

[axeman90210]

And Jack Hughes is now out with a dislocated shoulder, which really was kind of a best case scenario given the hit/landing he took.

[KevShmev]

With the AVs….again, I understand they have talented players and all but they’ve yet to prove anything when it counts. They should have Beat an injury riddled Blues team last year in the playoffs so that wasn’t all that special and then they choked the next round. Same scenario with Vegas. They have some talented players but what have they really done to earn consistent top billing?

I’m perfectly fine with the ‘experts’ sleeping on the Blues as that’s historically the case. Binnington is on a mission to force Armstrong to select him for the Canadian national team and has been razor sharp thus far. Given it’s been three games but still….he’s dialed in. The Blues have a skilled group of youngsters and crafty group of veterans so I think it’s going to be fun being a Blues fan this season.

I think you are right, and I pray that you are.  I am still trying to find a way to go to the home opener on Saturday. 

[TAC]

It's like deja vu all over again.

Tell me about it...

With the AVs….again, I understand they have talented players and all but they’ve yet to prove anything when it counts. They should have Beat an injury riddled Blues team last year in the playoffs so that wasn’t all that special and then they choked the next round. Same scenario with Vegas. They have some talented players but what have they really done to earn consistent top billing?

I’m perfectly fine with the ‘experts’ sleeping on the Blues as that’s historically the case.  The Blues have a skilled group of youngsters and crafty group of veterans so I think it’s going to be fun being a Blues fan this season.

Seems like a slightly more truncated version of last season's post..

Especially Colorado. I get it.....they've got talent out the wahzoo....but, even last year pre-covid heading into the Playoffs they were in trouble. Covid saved them and Dallas from embarrassing first round losses in the playoffs. It's one of those deals where somewhere Colorado has been anointed and they're the new 'it' team. They have an utter super star in McKinnon which it's understandable....but you have to produce when it counts and they haven't.

Vegas will be interesting to watch because there were a ton of stories before, during and after Petro was signed that the players were ticked that they were shuffling and changing things around to land Petro. They'll all say the right things but it'll be interesting to see how they play together. Petro is not a very animated leader or a person who is loud in the locker room. He's very soft spoken. The knock on him in StL in the locker room was that he was just 'boring'  He never went out with the guys.....he's a big family man and if he wasn't playing hockey he was at home. Vegas is another team with a ton of pressure to produce....lets see if they can live up to the hype.

I personally love the lack of 'respect' or whatever it is that StL gets and is getting in all the pre season stuff. I get it. Petro's gone and we brought in new guys but IMO StL got better...not worse...by passing on Petro and picking up Krug, Clifford and Hoffman. It's a new look team that's going to have some spunk and attitude.

[gmillerdrake]

And it’s still just as true.

[Anguyen92]

Sigh.......  Kings lost to the Stars in OT.  Had the lead twice.  Kopitar and Vilardi had goals.  That's something.  Doughty being taken out of the game after a knee on knee collision in the 2nd and could not walk out under his power and who knows how long he's going to be gone for.  That's a really heavy blow for this team to lose and weather through.

[TheCountOfNYC]

The Rangers woke up in the last six minutes of today’s game, but I guess six good minutes is all you need to beat Ottawa.

[TAC]

Ann Wilson singing the National Anthem in Seattle tonight!

[Anguyen92]

Well.  That was a rough week that I would rather forget and move on and hope for better days for the Kings.  Did anyone here had a good week?

[jammindude]

It’s pretty ridiculous that there’s no local broadcast of our home opener. It’s streaming on ESPN plus and Hulu, but you would think one local network would be carrying the home opener of the brand new expansion team. It’s just ludicrous that it’s not anywhere on TV. The only place you can watch it on regular TV is on the Vancouver CBC station that happens to be a part of our cable package.

[Cool Chris]

The KJR guys were talking about that yesterday. They laid out the reasoning, crappy as it may have been, but I cannot recall what it was.

The Sounders really took off here, and it looks like the Kraken might do so as well. They have handled the launch very well, admittedly from what little I have followed.

[axeman90210]

Got to my first Devils game since the pandemic, was good to be back at the arena and even better to catch an OT win.