50-PERCENT CAPACITY IN PHOENIX: THE NHL 2022-2023 SEASON THREAD (INC AVALANCHE HANGOVER & SALARY CAP SHENANIGANS. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

Alternate title:

DO YOU WANT TO MAKE MORE MONEY? SURE WE ALL DO. A FUNGIBLE LOW-TEIR PLAYER MAKES 4M A YEAR: THE NHL 2022-2023 SEASON THREAD (INC AVALANCHE HANGOVER & SALARY CAP SHENANIGANS. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

Analysis via Dom Luszczyszyn

"Erik Gudbranson signs four-year, $16 million deal with the Blue Jackets

What the hell?

Fit grade: C
Contract grade: F-"

Can’t wait to see the exciting theatrical conclusion of “Waiting For Gaudreau”

still hung up on the nic deslauriers deal.

vaguely defensible as a fourth-line depth option if you -- and god knows the flyers always do -- want muscle for a season. but for four years? at almost $2m per? and he's 31! who were they bidding against??

a whole lot of bad contracts got offered today, as ever, but -- however minuscule in the grand scheme of things -- that one has no chance of paying off even in year one

It's actually incredible. I misread it originally as 2 years $4M total and thought WTF?! but then realized it was for four years at $2M per year. Crazy.

Gudbranson actively damages your team. I'm still mad about trading draft picks for him: https://www.nhl.com/news/panthers-trade-erik-gudbranson-to-canucks/c-280805120

johnny columbus? wtf

So far, I feel the real winners are the teams that didn’t make moves today.

rip the flames

fucking rough

with the retirement of zdeno chara announced, that leaves, by my count, just one player who shared the ice* with wayne gretzky: joe thornton.**

*was at least on a roster during 98-99.

**if thornton doesn't get a professional tryout offer, he'd likely announce retirement as well i'd guess.

he'd = he'll

with the retirement of zdeno chara, there are no active players who have faced the maple leafs beyond the first round of the playoffs

i had not anticipated the retirement of pk subban. i guess he's probably got a bright future in the media

He kinda fell off a cliff didnt he? I thought he was gonna play for 20 years

tbf i can imagine playing for the devils might sap one's love of the game

He also has a rich outer life but still

https://theathletic.com/3646056/2022/10/01/seattle-kraken-team-mascot/

Just

I for one welcome this eight year Barzal extension with the Isles.

Great Leafs joke in The Handmaid's Tale's second episode of S5 (from Bradley Whitford's Commander Lawrence, one of those memorably bizarre characters who, even as the show falls apart around him, continues to walk through his own TV show different than one everyone else is in):

"We figured you'd want to get back to Canada, move on with your life...take in a Leafs game...I hear this might finally be their year."

Anyone else catch the Maple Leafs dig on The Handmaid’s Tale last night?? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/3LEzTUljGS

— Geoff Rohoman (@RadioRoho) September 15, 2022

the virtual ads on the boards are very weird even when they're working properly

also: torts 1-0

Canucks blow 3 straight multiple-goal leads, all in regulation, to start the season. cool cool cool

Fwiw the new Coyotes college home does look cool and seems very loud, awoooo. The first goal was scored by someone at ASU named Doan, awoooo.

An incredible play from Larkin results in the game tying goal for the @DetroitRedWings 🤯 pic.twitter.com/mkcKDfGTXG

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 18, 2022

they lost in OT tho ;_; but still a fantastic run of play

Should have gotten Matthew McConaughey in character from the Beach Bum to model this

CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE

☀️🌴🏒 » https://t.co/1scA7KeX0m pic.twitter.com/KH4Cdwon1m

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) October 20, 2022

orangeandteal.xls

kings . . . thanks for coming oot

FTR i am bearish on the kings

NHL Iron Man record ✅
400th career goal ✅

What a night for Phil Kessel 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Et1SZlhHJ0

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) October 26, 2022

will never not love two-time stanley cup champion phil kessel

fuck brad marchant

torts first place

might be some Philadelphia sports magic in the air

who will be first to score at MULLETT ARENA

awooo

They are giving away mullets to the crowd. The lack of a goal horn is noticeable though. Can you not just play one of the hundreds of goal horns on YouTube.

Isles have started off the year 28 for 28 on the penalty kill btw

penguins have been rapidly disabused of their decency via the western canada tour

i mean fine, oilers/flames back-to-back and second/third in four days is rough, but . . . the canucks are begging to be buried

yikes pens. too bad they didn't get VAN a few days sooner.

thought columbus would be better this year - not so far

well that is the worst northwest road trip, in 55 years, the penguins have ever had. because it's now possible to lose to seattle

Really rough stretch for the Pens. Sabres actually looking great offensively so far.

the pens have played maybe 3 good periods last 6 games. rough indeed. that said, some of the cellar-dwellers like kraken and sabes have looked good for longish stretches so far this year. great for overall league competitiveness i guess.

Am enjoying the parity so far.

I don’t like that alternate jersey for the Sabres, it looks a lot like the Preds design, but worse. The alternate neon green Dallas jersey is really cool though.

We could watch John Tavares' (@91Tavares) second goal on repeat all night long. 🤤 pic.twitter.com/AX04cMWUCg

— NHL (@NHL) November 3, 2022

why do teams keep doing shit like the bruins signing this asshole kid?

i mean the guy's a fourth-round defenseman. he's wholly unnecessary and he makes everything you claim to stand for look like garbage

Yeah, doesn’t even sound like the league wants to even let him be eligible for a pro game, so not sure what the Bruins are thinking here

great job, bruins

(actual good job by bergeron/marchand/foligno for being publicly against it, however thoroughly couched in hockey player cliche)

yeah you don't hear pro athletes willing to criticize someone's character like they did very often. as much as I hate to praise those players.

ulf sammuelsson was right

I only caught the first couple of years of Borje Salming's career, pretty much a baseball fan after that. As I'm sure you know, they had a big emotional ceremony for him Saturday night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2XAruUdTk

avs, down one, had a 5-on-3 for the last 1:45 of the third — and pulled the goalie with a minute left to go 6-on-3 — and did not score

My daughter’s pee wee A team had a tie game
this weekend with like 45 seconds left and a face off in the opponents’ zone. I so wanted the coach to pull the goalie to show the kids what GOING FOR IT looks like. But he didn’t. Game ended a tie.

kings with basically a perfect road game tonight

outshot edmonton 32-23, 29 blocked shots, held mcdavid and dreiseitel scoreless with one shot each. only oilers pp was cut short when mcdavid crosschecked someone behind the play. danault-arvidsson-moore line was killer

Highly recommended:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq5W3GxuIuw

I knew the story reasonably well--and was watching Game 8 in my grade 6 pod--but it's hard to convey just how bizarre some of that was, especially Alan Eagleson's antics during the final game. Tretiak comes across as the nicest guy in the world; what Bobby Clarke did in Game 6 puts a damper on Canada's win.

rip börje : /

glad he got that moment two weeks ago

sidney crosby *in* philadelphia (regular season): 40 GP, 25-33-58

regular season + playoffs overall, he has 67 career goals vs. the flyers, apparently the most of all time

<3 <3 <3

https://i.redd.it/tom84w2td00a1.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiyxsdLVQAAhqsV.jpg

kris letang had a(nother) stroke

anaheim has played 26 games and has one (1) win in regulation

stayed up late to see if the canucks could maintain their wild comeback v. les habs. so glad i did! matheson won't soon forget losing his edge like that.

Quite a comeback, people were saying Vancouver’s season was over a few weeks ago.

wonder if there's ever been a game with that exact sequence of goals before

(4 goals for one team, then 5 for the other, then 2 for the first team, then 2 for the other)

Probert pic.twitter.com/S63XgebuJV

— Jen (@NHLhistorygirl) December 7, 2022

lol tony deangelo is a healthy scratch for the flyers tonight

The entire Lightning franchise should be suspended ten games for the jerseys they wore last night. Sweet Jeebus!!

Isles won a wild one tonight in NJ. Devils pulled the goalie for pretty much the final 8 minutes of the game.

happy birthday jimmy mod

thank u friend i do not feel very wise!

Went to the Isles/Bruins in Boston the other night and can report that being the only one cheering for your team’s goal while 15,000 other people don’t even acknowledge that it happened is still great.

I did this at a Flyers-Isles game at the Coliseum years ago when the Flyers scored twice in the first five minutes. Each time the family in front of us briefly looked around to see what was up. A couple minutes later the Isles scored and one of the kids who might have been 12 jumps up and turns around and shoots me and my friends the most hysterical tough guy look.

so the bruins are 32-4-4

also #1 in goals for (156) and goals against (88)

19-0-3 at home

that's pretty decent

president’s trophy curse incoming?

Did not expect them to be this good honestly

During Odjick’s rookie season, for example, which took place during the Gulf War, a fan brought a sign to a game that read: “Gino is tougher than Saddam,” in reference to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The story goes — and, in truth, there are a ton of different versions — that Odjick, having seen the sign in the crowd, approached then-Canucks head coach Bob McCammon (or then-Canucks captain Trevor Linden), to inquire as to which guy exactly on the other team was “Saddam” because he wanted to fight him.

Gino Odjick RIP

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/35461463/vegas-goalie-lehner-files-bankruptcy-cites-50m-debt

Lehner's debts also included missed payments for a collection of rare snakes he purchased for $1.2 million in 2017, according to the bankruptcy filing. Lehner keeps the snakes at his reptile farm in Plato, Missouri.

i'm not even mad at ivan provorov; ideally he'd have simply gone with the flow and skated warmups wearing a slightly different sweater. but i don't know what pressure is placed on him as a russian guy playing in north america

and also i recognize that torts is trying to shield his guy

but honestly fuck torts for this whole charade. just say that 'everyone can play' is bullshit compared to his team missing the playoffs by 10 instead of 12 points. or don't. instead, he's too cowardly to make a call

Provorov is a russian guy who has played in North America since he was 14 - he doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt as a dumbass and possibly a bigot. At this point, Torts is a frozen caveman coach who fits in perfect with the org.

The Flyers used to be my favorite team in sports. Now I want the entire org gone for trying to get me to root for Kevin Hayes.

Torts sux and always has

also the way the canucks/jim rutherford are treating bruce boudreau is garbage

terrible ownership, terrible management. this year feels like a new low for a franchise with a lot of them

they're losing tonight (to the reigning cup champions), so no doubt that will be the 'reason' they fire him

like school in the summertime: no fucking class

Kirill Marchenko became the fourth player in NHL history to have each of his first 12+ career regular-season points come in the form of goals, joining Joe Malone (16 in 1917-18), John McKinnon (13 in 1926-27) and Howie Morenz (12 in 1923-24).#NHLStats: https://t.co/xJLu35WWoU https://t.co/RUVzZv08JX

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 28, 2023

I posted this a few years ago on some other thread, but me getting Bobby Hull's autograph at a book signing.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/hull.JPG

You have to be really careful with old-guy autograph stories, but: he was really cranky with me because he didn't like the book I had with me, but he let the good-looking woman behind me wear his Stanley Cup ring for a photo they took together.

I really had no idea about all the unsavoury shit in his life

Someone just passed this along to me:

https://defector.com/bobby-hull-was-not-complicated

happy 30th anniversary of gary bettman getting booed becoming commissioner

No one mentioned the Rangers refusing to wear pride-related warm-up gear. Hope they go another 50 years.

Er, another 25 years, I mean.

one cup in 82 years is, while not as satisfying as zero, brutal for an original-six club

fuck them forever

he’s having a great season but this extension seems like a lot for bo horvat

and he's almost 28, hasn't played a game for them yet...glad the canucks aren't paying that contract (instead they're paying a bunch of other terrible ones)

Am not surprised, I think Lou doesn’t make that trade without knowing the extension is happening. Isles have needed a pure goal scorer since Tavares left, hopefully this is it. Is it too much? Maybe, but I don’t think he goes anywhere else for much cheaper.

great quote:

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/islanders-lamoriello-after-signing-horvat-its-too-long-and-its-too-much-money/

appreciating the top five

Since October, The Athletic has been counting down the top 100 NHL players of the post-expansion era.

No. 1 was never in doubt.

This is the #NHL99 ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/UNFrDhVVKl

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) February 10, 2023

Props for putting Mike Bossy that high. If his career wasn't cut short, he had a very strong chance to be the all-time leader in goals.

McDavid needs a ring but could join that top 5 by the time his career is over.

Lots of points to quibble with but

No rocket Richard?

— Torrid Fergi (@FergiTorrid) February 10, 2023

Also I know I'm the resident Wings partisan but Yzerman behind Sakic on what fucking planet

no rocket because it's only since expansion

can't really speak to yzerman vs sakic but i am comfortable with lidstrom as the second-greatest defenseman

xp ah that makes sense then, thx

also who goes 'no rocket' before 'no gordie'

I realized the error of my ways quickly but no one had responded about him :(

<3

maybe Thornton put up solid numbers but I never thought he was truly one of the greats. and i used to watch lots of Sharks games when living in sf. i think Forsberg was better than Sakic, too

happy 50th to enigmatic russian alexei kovalev. he was filthy

not as filthy as mcdavid tho

Just another day at the office for Connor McDavid (@cmcdavid97). 💼 pic.twitter.com/NDuMsFlOoW

— NHL (@NHL) February 24, 2023

It’s a shame the kings’ goalies are such horseshit

kopitar is really a low-key all-time player

i mean i'm happy for dustin brown i guess, but kopitar's statue had better be twice as large

wild 2 me ryan miller is #1 on us goalie wins list considering how unremarkable most of his teams were

just learned there's a doom metal band called MALARCHUK

they are of course from buffalo

🚨 LINUS ULLMARK 🚨

WE HAVE A GOALIE GOAL. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ym7OLU0jlU

— NHL (@NHL) February 26, 2023

Nice to catch this live after flipping on the last few minutes of the Canucks game

awesome

except that it made jack edwards happy because fuck that guy

bruins outshot 57-19 tonight, won 4-3 in OT

also sounds like the jonathan quick era is over in los angeles

All hail the Pheonix Copley era

Copley era will be annoyingly brief. Their goalie situation is so very forgettable right now

I keep tabs on all the Michigan Tech alums in the league, it's cool to see him doing well for a bit (along with Matt Roy)

Been thinking about it a bit and although I don't know very much about cap management in today's NHL, I am happy the Wings re-signed Dylan Larkin and ambivalent about their follow-on trades. Larkin is local and I think there is something worthwhile in having a hometown hero.

Also I will hate Seattle sports teams forever

folks, ron hextall is a bad gm

lol at all these clubs acquiring defensemen from anaheim, one of the worst defensive teams of all time

feel like a lot of the last minute trades are barely going to move the needle for each team

I don’t know if Toronto adding like 5 people to a team that was already going to the playoffs is great for chemistry though? I know they are desperate to win a playoff series for once

actually feel bad for toronto

they can trade for whomever they want but they're basically locked into facing tampa in the first round, and if vasilevskiy chooses to be godlike, it won't matter

and if they survive that, then boston. and then carolina or new jersey. the east is a killing field

bruins 33-0-3 when scoring first

third period: bruins 91 GF, 40 GA

uh tampa has four shots on goal through two periods in carolina

and they were all in the first

Rangers and bolts have been pretty bad lately, almost bad enough that you start to think the East wild card race may get even more crowded.

Maybe this is the year the Leafs finally win a series (before getting steamrolled by the Bruins)

penguins fell behind columbus 4-0, at home, before rallying to win 5-4 in OT

if this is a test, i am going to fail it

isles have looked very trotzian since barzal went down, and it’s been working for them again.

Stars with ten goals tonight!

Isles-Pens rivalry has been very good the past couple year.

144 penalty minutes in the Tampa-Vegas game too. So many game misconducts.

mo seider first career SHG today, and it was a v. nice one

<3 Seider

<3 <3 <3 flower

MAF was mic’d up last night 😂

pic.twitter.com/Yf9GGrOCUw

— Nick Maraldo (@nickmaraldo) March 16, 2023

...WHAT?! 🤯#LetsGoBuffalo pic.twitter.com/F3fzZ8hMHh

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) April 1, 2023

banks are open

Still trying to process this Rickard Rakell goal. 😱 pic.twitter.com/VU2jfC9YuG

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 2, 2023

No games scheduled for tonight, all 32 teams play tomorrow. Good luck to The Hockey Guy.

how could the penguins lose that one

Feels like goaltending has been suspect for the pens all year. I think jarry needs a change of scenery.

The worst regular season loss in Penguins franchise history, and it is not even really close. https://t.co/ruIPnJEdEf | @Pensburgh

— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) April 12, 2023

The 2023 NHL playoffs will be the first playoff without the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, or Washington Capitals in NHL history (not parody)

— evil gritty (@DrEvilGritty) April 13, 2023

Since '67 I suppose.

[watches hockey once] this mcdavid guy is such a smooth skater

xp clearly a sign in favour of the leafs amirite

good first-round matchups imo

hextall and burke out in pittsburgh, thank god

I mean a dark era is coming for penguins hockey, but they did a number of things to hasten its arrival

NHL clearly setting Pens up to get Bedard in the draft

Hush your mouth.

xp i like the way you think

things hextall did right: trading for and then re-signing rickard rakell last year; getting malkin and letang to re-sign (although apparently the latter was an ownership demand)

two years ago he got jeff carter, who was a great rental, at the deadline. but then he re-signed him for his age 37-38 seasons, during the latter of which he was borderline unplayable

things he did wrong: pretty much everything else? when they clearly needed to get younger and faster, he resolutely went older and slower without even getting bigger. his key deadline pickup this year was 31yo mikael granlund, who managed one (1) garbage-time goal in 21 games and has two more years at $5m per ffs

Sports in the salary cap era are cyclical and they got 3 Cups. They did good (I hate them).

oh, totally. it feels good to heap blame on a flyers legend tho

TIL Don Beaupre has 268 career NHL wins

panthers have actually played quite well but it isn't nearly enough

man joe pavelski got exploded

wow what a great win for the (la) kings

Way to get a Canadian grade 7 class's attention:

(Looking at Chromebook while they work on math) "(Gasp)!"

Class looks up.

(Moves finger across screen as if reading) "Auston Matthews out for remainder of season..."

I should have left them distraught till they got home, but I let them know I was kidding. (Not that they wouldn't have Googled right away anyway.)

harsh

That is violent i love it

o god the leafs

brutal

Serious stop they’re already dead energy

GOOD CLEAN HIT, YOU FUCKIN LOSER

Incredible work by everyone all around. pic.twitter.com/jfeDcnonPX

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) April 20, 2023

see, we don't need F-slurs to chirp

hey the leafs

Devils need to wake up

otfm

if lou were still in charge he'd have fired lindy ruff during the second intermission and taken over the bench in the third

also what is going on with colorado

Love the Isles PA announcer trying to announce a goal but constantly getting interrupted by another Islanders goal. 4 goals in 2:17!

lol that is awesome. (it's so deflating when the road team scores before the home team can even announce their last goal.) fastest four playoff goals ever, right?

honestly been waiting decades to ride the winnipeg jets bandwagon but it just never seems to work out

Bandwagon idling in the garage, officially at the ready.

i've totally mentioned this before, but i miss the days where several of the western canadian teams had blue kickplates at the bottom of their boards (as opposed to yellow). bring that back imo -- let's have (however artificial) some rink individuality

Atmosphere at MSG seemed kind of tame tonight. Also, bunches of empty seats behind the benches in full camera view.

I probably mentioned this last year but really wished the bolts and leafs could differentiate their uniforms more.

On the same note, if you’re Winnipeg and all your fans wear white to your games, it doesn’t make immediate sense for you to wear your all blue uniforms and have the visiting team wear white.

congrats to toronto but still hoping they can blow it

they are never ever incapable of blowing it

Ooooooh boy oilers

Oh woops there was more space dust

awesome game

great series

draisaitl has been on the ice for all 14 edmonton goals in the series

o shit, leafs showing backbone

i mean they'll still probably lose, but forcing OT down 4-1 on the road with 11 minutes left is Character-Building

love to see an eberle OT winner

nice depth scoring from the oilers last night. hyman scored with his face!

meanwhile in the east, brock nelson scores off of aho's face!

i know hockey feature's face-offs, but this is ridiculous! ba-dum-dum.

finally saw makar's hit on mccann from the other night -- pretty egregious, and difficult to see how it wasn't a major. no doubt he only got the one-game suspension because mccann never returned

i'm not sure when we as a society decided that we needed 'rules interpreters' for games -- is the color commentator incapable of doing that? -- but these hockey ex-refs are the very worst of a bad bunch. so afraid of stepping on the current officials' toes that they end up saying a bunch of words that mean nothing

leafs lose an elimination game, crazy

This is so messed up.

A.J. Soprano was canonically a @NJDevils fan. Had the memorabilia in his room and everything. pic.twitter.com/WJPkB3ceGW

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) April 30, 2023

what a moment

Tavares has now got 2 series winning OT goals that have snapped long playoff win droughts for both teams he’s played for. Leafs finally had a series where a lot of the breaks / puck luck went their way.

thank you for not mentioning david volek

I held back on that just for you

<3

In truth i am glad the oilers won

Two Canadian teams win series on the same night. Down is up.

Leafs will win it all 12-0, calling it.

omg bruins

No comment until its over

let's gooo

Hockey!! https://t.co/4vc92TzpwR

— Conor McKenna (@mckennaconor) May 1, 2023

omg omg omg omg

otm

presidents' trophy curse strikes again

there's also something about the best ever in regular season play that just makes you so susceptible in the playoffs, no matter the sport. maybe it's the lack of adversity faced + the pressure to win, but also it makes everyone else want to root for the underdog.

Such a bummer that there were zero Marchand close-ups after that final goal.

long live the rally rat

tbf i'm not sure we really want to encourage matthew tkachuk

Was just thinking the same thing: he may be the next Marchand

I mean the rangers went wire to wire what’s boston’s problem

(at least the '93 penguins, as we've recently touched on, made the second round i guess)

pretty brutal! linus ullmark, who will probably win the vezina, getting benched for game seven. blowing a 3-1 lead, with games five and seven at home. giving up 15 goals in the final three games. making paul maurice look like a great coach ffs. sending patrice bergeron into ignominious retirement.

cam neely must be beside himself

good job kraken

not sure whether to cry or wind my watch

Such a bummer that there were zero Marchand close-ups after that final goal.

― tobo73, Sunday, April 30, 2023 8:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm X 1000000

forecheck of the year

Ondrej Palat + Michael McLeod = one absolutely beautiful goal! 😍

McLeod's first career #StanleyCup Playoffs goal breaks the ice in #Game7.#NHLStats: https://t.co/AO6KHpnk36

🇺🇸: @espn ➡️ https://t.co/RDHf3P1mpj
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet ➡️ https://t.co/g9x1gSVHQk pic.twitter.com/535TU5F4Ij

— NHL (@NHL) May 2, 2023

sure they lost, but at least jacob trouba got a head shot in

fuck the rangers

as it wound down, i was hoping the fans would chant "TROU-BA" instead of igor. good riddance, rangers.

not really rooting for him but god bless joe pavelski. what a player

RIP Petr Klima, one of the enduring players from my early Red Wings memories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88SG6R_bo_w

canes just became the fourth team in history to score three shorties in a playoff game . . . and also the third of them to lose

oilers are getting a godlike playoffs from leon draisaitl so far but I’m not sure they beat Vegas. Seems like a coin flip.

panthers may never lose again after that bruins series the way things are going

if the leafs get swept i can only imagine that everyone is fired/sold for parts

probably need to get to game seven for that *not* to happen

also not doing a lot for john taveras' legacy

this is the funniest possible thing to happen to Toronto

Tracy: WE DID IT KENNETH! WE CHANGED THEIR MINDS!

Liz: NO. NO YOU DIDNT

tanking works

i haven't watched all of the edmonton-vegas series, and i'm told that the oilers (particularly evander kane) have gotten away with some pretty egregious shit

but i absofuckinglutely guarantee that pietrangelo would never have been suspended for a baldfaced attempt to injure if they hadn't been able to take nurse as well

garbage league

oh, but george parros went to princeton! gtfo

praise bob

rip canada, yet again

also rip stuart skinner

congrats to carolina for edging out vegas as the northernmost possible cup winner

It’s as if the Stanley cup is allergic to any city that is within 700 miles of Canada

the curse is spreading

apparently las vegas is very slightly to the north of raleigh

ugh what a gross selection of teams, go hartford I guess

rip coyotes

sad awooo

let’s go to the seventh

too soon

so:

dubas out
spezza resigned even before the above was announced
keefe will presumably be out whenever a new GM is named
gonna be awesome when the new coach is joel q

at what point does any of this start sticking to shanahan?

is Theo Epstein available

let's goooo (to OT forever)

entertaining game, both teams getting tons of chances

Panthers are unstoppable in OT

nm

tkachuk just running off the ice

only panthers weakness i've seen is (perhaps) the PK; fortunately for them no one commits penalties in the playoffs

i don't like tkachuk but how fucking incredible must it be to score an OT playoff goal (let alone two in a row)

I think i want LV to win fuck florida texas and the carolinas

if bob is gonna be like this it doesn't matter what you want

Yeah he was amzng today

this is putting bob in the hof

two vezinas plus whatever you want to call this is hard to deny

dallas utterly imploding

Two teams of destiny enter, only one exits with the Stanley Cup

some real horseshit from jamie benn last night

you're down 2-0 in the series and the other team scores 71 seconds into game 3. so naturally you crosscheck a guy in the face on your first shift, draw a match penalty, see your team give up a goal on the ensuing power play and go on to be shut out

and then he split without talking to the media after the game. i'm not a fan of sportswriters being all huffy because they didn't get to hear someone say 'it is what it is' but benn's the captain. that's his job. and because *he* didn't have the backbone to go out there, three of his teammates had to answer all the questions about how stupid and selfish he was. give pavelski the C this instant

Yeah co-sign on that

tkachuk is the angel of death

it's hilarious that we're (potentially, likely) one game away from the finals and the playoff goals and assists leaders are still draisaitl and bouchard. then again.

obviously jamie benn should have been a healthy scratch

maybe tkcachuk isn't *quite* ready to become the New Messier

it will be ridiculous if the vegas fans boo gary bettman but i hope they do it anyway

𝐀𝐃𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐄 🏆🏆🏆

Phil Kessel is a three-time Stanley Cup champion!#PrideOnIce pic.twitter.com/7Uvzooz9Jq

— Minnesota Men’s Hockey (@GopherHockey) June 14, 2023

when a new GM comes in and for his first contract gives a three-year deal to 36-year-old ryan reaves, it does not bode well for toronto

also we need a new thread jimmy

Oh christ i had not seen that deal

have to say it's a bummer to see legitimately poor basketball players sign $100m contracts while the very best NHLers can maybe get $9m a year

i mean yes it's a different sport and you need more players and stuff, but i don't think the NHLPA has done a very good job at all

No they got rolled. Also kings wtf u do signing trevor lewis u cant score goals

he got sorokin re-signed, which is important, but . . . does lou even understand the salary cap? you don't have to re-sign your bottom-six forwards to seven-year deals, or your 35yo backup goalie to a four-year deal!

if parise decides to keep playing, lou will probably give him multiple years

once you're an islander, you're an islander for life

Will start new thred once i get back from holiday

The seven years to mayfield and engvall is certainly wild, although I’m assuming the strategy is that the cap is going way up in the next few years so it will look better. I guess you can’t also underestimate the friendship between Varlamov and Sorokin.

There is something to the “islander for life” mentality over the past decade though. It’s a team with very low turnover once you’ve fit in.

Debrincat to the Wings n_n

seems . . . nice for u

THE BUSTED WINDOW OF CONTENTION WON'T STAY OPEN: THE NHL 2023-2024 SEASON THRED (INC KNIGHTS HANGOVER & PANIC MOVES. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)