The Official 2008-2009 NHL Thread

it's game day, and i'm fucking excited! i think i'll leave work early to go hang out at the city.

I can't wait until tonight

i had a dream the Blues totally raped the Canucks, and i was all "omg those bastards are playoff noobs they tired themselves out in the first round just to beat my team"

I think if the blues have any success this first round, the adrenaline from all of the young guys is going to be contagious and relentless. I just hope they play at the same intensity level as they have for the past month

i'm predicting a first minute goal by parise or gionta, whoever is on ice to start the game.

I'm so ready for this. Lets go caps!

Dumont was taken at #3 overall. I didn't say he wasn't a legit first rounder, I said he was a bad pick. At third overall, you can (and should) do better than a one-time 70 point player.

I won't dispute Tim Connoly, but Eric Lindros' play should have had no impact on Brett Lindros' draft position. Look at Brent Gretzky.

Kasparitis was an excellent pest, but nobody in their right mind drafts a pest 5th overall.

Pyatt is a legit NHLer but you're looking for more than a legit NHLer at 8th overall.

Chara, McCabe, Palffy, and Salo were great picks, but the fact that they were all traded in boneheaded moves only further illustrates that the Islanders can not assess talent in young players.

Comparing Connoly, Lindros, Pyatt, Dumont, and Kasparitis with players of the same draft position over the last 5 years:

#3 - J.P Dumont (Zach Bogosian, Kyle Turris, Jonathan Toews, Jack Johnson, Cam Barker)
#5 - Darius Kasparitis/Tim Connoly (Luke Schenn, Karl Alzner, Phil Kessel, Carey Price, Blake Wheeler)
#8 - Taylor Pyatt (Mikkel Boedker, Zach Hamill, Peter Mueller, Devin Setoguchi, Alexander Picard)
#9 - Bret Lindros (Josh Bailey, Logan Couture, James Sheppard, Ladislav Smid)

Since drafts vary in terms of how much talent is available, using a five year span seems pretty fair. Overall, this comparison should be even more fair to the Isles since none of the players I listed are over 23 years of age. 4 of them were drafted in 2008 and are already impact players in the NHL. It's also worth noting that the 2003 draft, which was insane, is not included in these five (Horton, Coburn, Vanek, Phaneuf). The NHL draft is not precise by any means (Patrick Stephan, Alexander Daigle) but its hardly a crapshoot. It's no coincidence that guys like Bobby Ryan (2nd overall), Derrick Brassard (6th overall), Steve Stamkos (1st overall), and Drew Doughty (2nd overall). are having a huge impact in the NHL.

Fucking Playoffs are starting tonight. Can't believe it.

Stamkos is hardly having a 'huge' impact. He's turned his game around, but he's not even sniffing the Calder.

In any case, my argument is not that the Isles are the best drafters on earth, but rather that their drafting has been nowhere near the top of their problems. It has been at least adequate, trending towards good, and if they hadn't traded everyone away they would be an extremely good team right now.

Stoked for tonight, even though I have to work and I can only catch snippets of the game.

23 goals by an 18 year old on an offensively bankrupt team is a huge impact. You don't have to win the Calder to prove you were a good pick.

Frankly, I don't see how the Isles have even been adequate at drafting in the past ten years. Once again, trading stars away also points to poor scouting and assessment of talent. Guys like Luongo were traded precisely because the team can't identify talent to save their lives. Their draft AND trade history show this.

Show me an example of a team worse than the isles at drafting in the past fifteen years. Even expansion teams that didn't have established scouting systems have drafted, developed and retained at least one or two star players during that time. Okposo is the best pick the Isles have to show for 13 top ten picks.

LET'S
GO
FLYERS!

LOL, phantom penalty called, Penguins score within 10 seconds, WHAT A SHOCK

Learn some 5-on-5 hockey Crosby.

lol AND it was kicked in, so it begins

If anyone is a crybaby its you. Shut up and watch the game

I mean I can respect skill, I'd just like to see some.

holy shit Jazz Samurai, we are not even 20 mins into this series and you are ALREADY whining and acting like a real crybaby?

I'm ing

Are you watching the game? As usual, Pens seem to get away with obstruction all game, and if we TOUCH another player it's a penalty and an inevitable goal.

Just now the Pens pushed Hartnell into Fleury and naturally it's goaltender interference on us.

yeah I'm watching

I would say try to count how many calls they DON'T make against Pittsburgh, but I know everyone here hates Philly so ...


Anyway worst period ever across the board, the Flyers need to wake up.

flyers PP was looking a bit sloppy

The Flyers decided to completely ignore that Gill lost his stick, effectively making it a 5-on-3.

Rather than complain about Crosby's play 5-on-5 why don't you complain about your team's putting him on the PP all the time?

It wasn't a 'phantom penalty' either. Unless by that you mean it was the kind of penalty a Flyers' minor-leaguer would take. You can't leave your lane to take the body in a race for the puck.

What about the missed high-stick Carle had on Cooke? That's 4 minutes right there.

anyone have a good stream for the caps vs rangers? the athde one is kinda shitty

I like Philly. Fuck the Pens, I hope they lose hard.

@ Arbiter I agree that they missed the Carle call, although I didn't see the contact and Philly CSN didn't show a replay. In general though, I don't think people can deny that several refs (and teams) still have the "Broad Street Bullies" in the back of their heads and tend to give us ... the opposite of "benefit of the doubt".

Matt Carle sucks. Blah.

Dunno if it's against the rules or not to post this, but this page has some links and the two (don't know password for third) I've checked are both better than the one on ATDHE:

http://www.myp2pforum.eu/nhl-icehockey/37492-ice-hockey-today-04-15-playoffs-day-1-a.html

edit: actually first one on that page is the ATDHE, and both streams are pretty shitty. I too would like to know if there's a good one out there.

Flyers playing decently in the last few minutes, hopefully they can turn it around in the 3rd.

lol flyers

GO BLUES

This just blows. No effort at all.

CROWN Sean Avery. Henrik Lundqvist was a fucking beast tonight. Maybe the boys in blue have a chance.

~ The Flyers, whether they win the series or not... what a goon squad of players. They slash and take cheap shots at will. I can hear Homer Simpson saying, "Hartnell is their leader."

They completely taken themselves out of the game with cheap shots coupled with goon squad tactics.

BTW, Fleury was excellent in goal tonight.

Flyers have been a goon squad for a while.

Also lol Theodore.

Hartnell is one of the biggest assholes in the NHL. That knee-on-knee hit was just classless and does nothing to help his team whatsoever. If your greatest contribution to your team is to spend large chunks of the game in the box, you should probably look into a different career.

Devils seem to be handling the canes pretty easily. I expected a closer game

~ No kidding, forever.

~ For sure, and that goon is lucky he didn't cost his team at least 1 more goal. In a close game, that will come into play. What a goon. I would never want him on my team.

A friend of mine had an interesting idea: since teams play a best of seven series, why not make penalties carry over from one game to the next? That would be one way of punishing teams for playing dirty in the final two minutes of these games.

As for Hartnell's hit, I got hit a couple years ago with almost the exact same hit at the end of a game once. It's cheap as hell, incredibly dangerous, and takes no skill whatsoever to execute. A knee on knee hit basically has a 50/50 chance of causing serious damage (depending on which leg your weight is on when you get hit) and any player throwing one is obviously trying to injure somebody.

If you want to send a message, be a man and drop the gloves with someone.

~ Interesting concept, indeed.

Stupid Canucks. If the Sedin twins didn't have facial hair they would look like women. Hopefully the Blues start playing better against the Can'tucks.

we owned ward!


brodeur almost tied the all time shutout record for playoffs, oh well.

What an awful game by the Flyers. The only positive spin I can put on it is that maybe they'll be pissed off for playing so badly and come out with some fire in game 2.

Edit: LOL Ovechkin got first star.

So many freaking penalties.

Go Canucks.

Yay! I love Boyes.