NO MORE FLORIDA MEN PLEASE: THE NHL 2024-2025 SEASON THRED (INC PANTHERS HANGOVER & SALARY CAP CONFUSION HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

No one wants a Florida repeat amirite dudes

I kinda like their jerseys

How strongly did Sidney Crosby demand that the cap hit on his new contract (8.7M) match his number (87) ?

Wings signed Lucas Raymond to an 8 year deal, that is good now do Seider plz

Their colors are very nice i like the kitty cat on their jerseys xp

kyle okposo has retired

xxp crosby's salary has been $8.7m basically since his rookie contract expired back in the 2000s. i think it was kind of a joke back in the day when that was a high number but now he doesn't really seem to care that much about money? needless to say, i love him

oh that’s funny that he managed to keep it that way his whole career

who had dylan guenther for first utah hockey club goal

btw crosby was born on 8/7/87 which is where all this 87 stuff comes from

Apparently I can watch all the Stars games for free on their new streaming service. Maybe have to finally give hockey a chance.

they're pretty good! probably an ideal time to give it a go

We got goalie goal

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5846676/2024/10/16/wild-filip-gustavsson-goalie-goal/

This year for me is all about having fun watching Michkov hopefully grow into a star.

Still hate this Flyers organization/front office with a passion and think they haven't a clue.

evgeni malkin now leading the league in scoring (2-9-11 in five games)

tristan jarry *not* leading the league in save %

roughly midway through a scoreless game in edmonton, the penguins are being out-shot 31-8

needless to say, it did not end scoreless

wicked burn in the nyt crossword today

27D: Vessel that hasn't crossed the Canadian border since 1993

not accurate, but yes that's well met, New York (1994)

oh yeah, technically incorrect, but still

First game listening with the sound on this season *waves arms at NY political commercial dogshit* and let me tell you the rangers’ booth is truly the sign of a declining empire. Hang em up boys.

fuck jeremy roenick

how about them jets

haven't watched a rangers game on MSG in forever (i no longer have cable and am blacked out on espn+) but just saw this clip of gabe villardi's great goal against them and yeah, sam rosen does not sound well.

this is his final season, at least; let's hope he can go out with just the one cup in forty years in the booth

penguins are absolutely cooked

quite a run though. they have been resisting the rebuild for awhile.

islanders somehow getting by despite injuries to nearly a third of their opening day lineup.

can't say it pleases me, but man ovechkin is running amok

I am deeply emotionally involved in Ovi's season this year and I am deeply concerned about the injury.

I have super mixed feelings about him but as a lifelong Capitals fan it’s hard not to have a major soft spot for the dude.

Week to Week but a proper medical eval tomorrow when they're back in DC. This team this year has been a shock and I don't want anything to mess with that momentum.

all three 2023 jack adams coach of the year finalists have now, 18 months later, been fired

one bad start / long losing streak and you are toast

like it doesn’t matter that Montgomery went 120-41-23 in his coaching tenure

In that vein, lots of Wings fans calling for Lalonde's head now too

what will it take for them to call for stevie y's head

I heard his contract got extended to 10 years so idk

Dead Wings 2: The Curse Of Little Caesars

crosby scores 600th goal while getting blown out at home by Utah Hockey Club

Layla plays

penguins have now played 114 regular-season games in boston all-time; tonight they (very improbably) got their 30th win

v. sad to see the rangers in such (still mild) disarray

v. sad to see them dispatch their captain to a bad western team. not sure why anyone would want trouba at $8m/yr, but the ducks are nowhere near the cap, so whatever

v. funny for larry brooks to suggest the rangers were targeting brady tkachuk as a return! fucking be serious, larry (and chris drury for presumably leaking it to him)

almost felt bad for trouba -- apparently his doctor wife still has another year of residency at a hospital in NYC -- but then i remembered all the elbows to the head, so fuck him

Everyone else just fires their coach after a losing streak, this seems more of a downer for the team spirit in general

freeing up space to extend shesterkin is pretty canny tho

I think everyone saw Jim Montgomery as a bit too hasty so Laviolette ain't going nowhere. Ducks got a raw deal here.

man the sabres

^^^

Investing in the Sabres is not a good idea

The Hockey Guy did a video on the Caps and cursed us! Is it exposing some frailties and some goal scoring issues? Absolutely not. It's a Youtuber.

a) someone tell me why elias petterson and j.t. miller hate each other?

b) panthers have 10 SHG; no other team has more than four

c) saw a bit of celebrini vs the oil the other day; seems promising

Lalonde out in Detroit, bout time

the NHL, where you will be fired roughly every 3.5 years but then instantly rehired (often enough by someone who fired you earlier!)

torts: five teams
laviolette: six (including five of the eight metro teams!)
lindy ruff: five (counting buffalo twice)
deboer: five
mclellan: four
maurice: five (counting carolina twice)
bylsma: three
montgomery: three
berube: three
tocchett: three
cassidy: three
sheldon keefe: only two, but i feel like he's gonna go a long way

hitchcock: six (counting dallas twice)
quenneville: five (counting colorado twice)
bowman: five
darryl sutter: five (counting calgary twice)
lemaire: five (counting new jersey three times! because lou lamiorello is insane!)
burns: four
julien: four (counting montreal twice)

feel like laviolette is gonna get a chance to make it seven very soon

i wonder how many times and in how many combinations of teams tortorella and laviolette have faced each other

The pool of people who want to coach in the nhl is not getting any bigger it seems

Caught the second half of that Latvia/Canada game on TV and it was super awesome

Winter classic in Miami lmao

not too often you see a team straight up waive its no. 1 goalie making $5m/yr, but that's where the penguins are (and it's about time)

they've played 46 games this season and have allowed a goal on the first shot faced in nine of them!

That's gonna be an expensive AHL contract

will miss the isles beating up against Jarry

his legacy in pittsburgh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4X0eXbz4TI

<3

so last night the sabres did not have a shot on goal in the third period . . . but they nevertheless scored:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du69htQwz_8

waive tristan jarry --> score a goalie goal

mikko to the canes!

Someone explain to me what Chicago was doing with that trade.

wanted to see an islanders home game around my birthday, and saw they were playing a rare weekend back-to-back at home this past week. drove down from
Boston and to my surprise, they won both games, including a come from behind OT winner against the canes. had great seats, and seeing the players up close really accentuates how fast these guys go all the time. got to see some sweet goals on odd man rushes.

the giant lighthouse in the arena blowing steam and shooting a tracking light when they score is a fun touch. Thought it was also cool that the isles team store had an upcycled gear section which had some really unique and hip designs.

nice!

i have no idea what chicago was doing in the rantanen deal beyond wildly overpaying for a third-round pick

rip utah yeti : /

maybe the takeaway is that teams continue to be eager to trade Taylor Hall

dislike shitting on a(n essentially) pittsburgh kid but j.t. miller sounds like an asshole and also fuck the rangers

Do we know precisely what was the conflict between him and Pettersson? (also fuck the rangers)

i never heard any details, just stereotypes (pettersson the laid-back enigmatic european, miller the intense in-everyone's-face competitor)

there's rumors going around local media of JT getting into a fistfight with a video editor after a game

2 goals and -1 for JT in a 6-3 Rangers loss

cue every single hockey writer demanding a chaotic trade like the NBA just provided

a) an NBA star plays like 85% of every game; an NHL star plays maybe 33%
b) sports writers seem to think news is owed to them
c) i mean i really like mcindoe but its a matter of hours until he complains that the nhl has failed him by its lack of similar trades

Cap is gonna go up to something like $113m in 4 years so maybe then!

a j.t. miller for everyone is possible

it took 1 hour:

https://bsky.app/profile/downgoesbrown.bsky.social/post/3lh6cmmjlzk2a

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/slovenian-stars-kopitar-doncic-will-reunite-in-los-angeles/

I don't understand. Is the argument that blockbuster, illogical and fanbase enraging trades is what the NHL needs? And are they aware that this is so unique and bizarre everyone is losing their minds because of how unique and bizarre it is?

year 45 of my time on earth and bozos still want hockey to be more like basketball

Gukbe otm

a single NBA move really has the power to stop a franchise from being competitive for a decade, NHL doesn't work like that fortunately

starting to think this is going to be the most heated Four Nations tournament ever

https://i.imgur.com/9aDGvLN.jpeg

at least no twines were bulged, i guess

interesting article in the athletic. some of the issues sound similar to the 'crisis' in baseball pitcher injuries

https://i.imgur.com/xcvM5xk.jpeg

Canada’s ‘mind-boggling’ goalie crisis has been a decades-long descent

now watch binnington shut out sweden tonight

chills for mario

That's what they get for holding grudges against Logan Thompson

Super gross

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/article/seattle-dad-charged-after-teen-referees-shoved-to-ice-at-youth-hockey-game/

Guentzel sounds a little like Kessel if you say it fast enough.

why did they ask michelle kwan to do that introduction and why did she agree

As a hockey fan and Canadian, all the events building with unfathomable electricity to McDavid's goal, were emotional beyond belief.

Imagine your BFF suddenly starts openly considering harming you, and reasoning makes it worse. You didn't want it to come to this, but they need to be confronted somehow. A hockey rink in Montréal happens to have an event at the exact right moment. A political, cultural, athletic event they're going to write books about.

(from a bipartisan, sports-relates perspective, what a moment for USA hockey as a whole, bravo)

That McDavid goal was something else. I know he took the pass in stride, but he is so incredibly fast with the puck.

oh man rip mike lange

https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/mike-lange-colorful-calls-brought-pittsburgh-penguins-hockey-to-life

his schtick could be corny -- he worked for the home team -- but he was a great play-by-play guy, both on radio and tv. and he was never an asshole like jack edwards. and he loved jazz, and hockey, and i will miss him

rip

listening to mikey and the old 29er helped me love to learn listening to hockey on the radio. rip.

go canada.

SMOKED HIM LIKE A CHEAP CIGAR

you love to see it

Yay Canada--woke up the seven-year-old kid in me. (Beautiful goal.)

that was an amazing game, as intense a sporting event as I've seen really

insane stuff by binnington in overtime

prez sure knows how to pick em

Binnington was poetry in motion, some of the most fun I've had watching hockey in years

"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup."

- Terry Pegula, Feb. 22, 2011https://t.co/1hCmrNJrVy

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) February 22, 2025

the penguins are absolutely dire now but it's still nice when evgeni malkin caps a four-point night with an overtime winner against the flyers

suddenly the lumbus-wings outdoor game this weekend is pretty huge!

I went to the last two Caps games and I feel I've jinxed them.

they'll be fine but i'm hoping you can attend their games ~seven weeks from now . . .

hadn't realized gretzky was such a trump guy. disappointing

Why Canadians are stung by Wayne Gretzky’s silence

well well well, Ovi ain't looking so bad anymore is he

i'll stick with mario

wau dallas

adding marchand to tkachuk and sam bennett makes florida the most hateful team in recent memory

Too late to bring back Avery eh

too busy doing short hits for brodude. jacob trouba was probably available tho

things suddenly look much more difficult for winnipeg

i've seen ppl suggesting that the varying tax regimes were the difference between rantanen signing an extension in dallas rather than carolina but i suspect the former already having a shitload of finns was important (sorry to sebastian aho; i guess you weren't enough)

Surely it was his inability to thrive with that team.

this is a bad loss for the rangers

rantanen looked good with dallas last night (despite taking some big hits). very scary scene with roope hintz taking a puck to the face but it *sounds* like his eye is okay

congratulations to my buffalo sabres for scoring on their own empty net last night

Canes have won 8 straight w/o rantanen i believe

• congrats to sidney crosby on his record 20th consecutive point-per-game season; at age 37 he leads the league in scoring at 5-on-5 and is tied for 11th overall
• torts out! hardly his fault this flyers team is bad, but he's a weirdo and you can't say 'i'm not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season' after your team's been blown out for its sixth straight loss. all nhl coaches (apart from jon cooper, apparently) eventually lose their players, but nobody does it more rapidly and thoroughly
• well, except for mike babcock in columbus, good lord remember that fiasco?
• rangers now at about 20% to make the playoffs, could become the fourth presidents' trophy winner to miss the 'offs the following season (and second rangers team to do so)
• marchand supposedly making his panthers debut tonight
• colorado-dallas is gonna be an intense first-round matchup. florida-tampa also a possibility

solid post

Please do this every day thru the playoffs least?

admittedly the metro division is garbage, but it's interesting how no one seems to believe in the caps despite them running away with (at least) the eastern conference

the athletic has them at 14% to reach the finals, behind florida (27%), carolina (20%) and tampa (19%), and just ahead of the leafs (13%). despite having home ice and a much easier first-round opponent than any of them

idk logan thompson seems pretty good! they already have asshole tom wilson, so it's not like they needed to trade for grit! i've never even heard of aliaksei protas but he's fucking +43! monumental multiple-team failure pierre-luc dubois is +32! i honestly hope not, but they might actually be really good

They made a bunch of acquisitions that have all hit, big time. Luck or smarts? And they’re deep. And they have good, kinda under-the -radar defense. They also have a storied history of flailing in the playoffs. As a lifelong fan I have low expectations.

I'm gonna look back on this season and wonder why I wasn't more consistently elated with the Caps. I don't think they get any credit from the pundits/odds makers because they don't believe in Ovi as anything other than a poacher or a specialty player so there's no real superstars on the team. The goals come from a really wide range of players and lines, with Protas, Wilson, McMichael for bits of the year, and Strome all producing high points numbers. It's also a little unbelievable that the -37 GD team from last year that somehow squeaked into the playoffs before getting swept by the Rangers just needed Chycrun, Thompson, and Mangiapanne to be in the running for the President's Trophy.

lol flyers with 13 goals in two games since firing torts

he'd have been healthy-scratching half the team because they gave up eight

also the st. louis blues have won nine straight and i don't think calgary or vancouver are gonna catch them despite their many games in hand

two years ago the bruins blew away the NHL record by winning 65 regular-season games. now they've lost nine straight (one of them in OT) and are last in the east. yes, behind buffalo

starting to think Ovi's gonna do it. His form on his slapshot is so aesthetically pleasing.

since march 3 the rangers are 2-for-43 on the power play, with 3 SHG against

sounds like a JT Miller team

ovi

beautiful shot too. good on him.

a bonus would be if after today we don't have to hear from gretzky as much.

can't believe he was dragging Kash Patel around with him from city to city, Gretzky must have gone deep Q

fuckin beauty goal

I don't like Ovi but I will allow this is a big moment

It was Gordie Howe's birthday the other day (Mar. 31), and I was talking about him and showing a little mini-bio to some intermediate students. Was surprised to find out he was still third on the list; thought he would have been a little lower by now.

Real tears from me today. Bless that man.

Canucks just won after being down 5-2 to Dallas and scoring 3 goals in the final minute. Must be one of the biggest comebacks in NHL history, at the end of a wasted season.

that was incredible. and could cost dallas the division

latest in a game a team has ever overcome a 3-goal deficit. also the first time a team gave up an empty netter down two goals and won anyway.

rip former penguins and devils GM ray shero, 62

he was the son of former rangers and flyers coach fred, and also the reason i have to pause when someone quips about female heroes

also former goalie and HNIC commentator greg millen, 67

seems rather young on both counts, sad

chris kreider has five assists in 65 games this season, and four of them are secondary assists. he's on the second power play unit and averages 17 minutes of ice time; i don't even know how that's possible

lol the blackhawks, in a shootout, just narrowly avoided becoming the first club to lose to 31 other teams in a single season

also this is the first time all four american original-six teams have missed the playoffs

Blackhawks also kept the bluejackets slim playoff hopes alive

vibes very bad in montreal this morning

well, that's only half-true (Demidov!!!) but people have been acting as if playoffs were assured

Happy LTIR to Logan Couture:

"Couture has been dealing with a condition known as osteitis pubis, which, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is inflammation in the joint between the left and right pubic bones. It can cause pain and swelling in one’s groin or lower abdominal and can be commonly found in athletes due to the repetitive usage of the hips, pelvis and groin."

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6279432/2025/04/14/logan-couture-sharks-injury/

Jackets win again, so habs must get a point in their last game against the Canes, otherwise they need the isles to beat the jackets on the last game of the year.

I love that they had to move the French language federal election debate because of the Habs game

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/french-language-debate-quebec-1.7510909

in the mix!!

jaroslav halak had better be on hand for game three in mtl

chris drury has been rangers GM for less than four years and has now fired three head coaches; not sure why you'd want him in charge of hiring the next one

hoping he does something revolutionary like bringing back torts -- that's the kind of guy you want when your locker room has been poisoned by mismanagement. i'm gonna guess quenneville tho. perfect MSG choice

anyway: let's go jets love the whiteout baby

Stoked. First few weeks of the playoffs rule so hard.

I would like to see Connor Hellebuyck be good in the playoffs actually

yeah idk that any of those goals were specifically terrible, but a .800 save pct isn't gonna cut it

that'll do

go avs imo

carolina totally dominating nj

didn't realize you could do a coach's challenge on the puck-over-glass penalty, what a great rule for everyone

the hockey is good today

these oilers are such a flawed team that is impossible to kill

that goal was just fucking unfair

lol lol lol. Oilers defend the net better with Stuart Skinner on the bench.

great games tonight

LOU OUT

and it's about time

do not like kevin weekes as a color guy. way too much ‘that’s right’ and ‘well said’ and general amening of buccigross

tbf i don’t like buccigrass either; not sure they do games enough, especially together, to get playoff series

anyway, not an impressive performance by the leafs thus far

big habs win; caufield tied the franchise playoff record with 11 SOG

logan thompson’s injury did not look good at all

that Kings challenge might have just lost them the series, what the hell

landeskog <3

hellebuyck : /

why is he like this

Good lord

sullivan out in pittsburgh; guessing the bruins and rangers will fight over him

Lou is out as isles GM too btw, although it seems more mutual

kings are doing the hockey version of what the lakers did yesterday in the NBA (when redick played the same five guys the entire second half, including the 40yo lebron)

essentially playing only three lines and two defensive pairings

forwards: malott 2:27, lewis 5:19, helenius 1:44
defense: moverare 2:26, clarke 11:58

byfield led the forwards at 28:31, edmundson the d-men at 36:16

result: in four games, edmonton has 11 third-period goals (plus one in OT)

between this and the terrible goal challenge in game three, not too sold on jim hiller as a coach

I was actually comparing the Oilers to the Lakers to a hockey fan buddy of mine yesterday (have the best two players in any series but a terribly constructed roster around them). Really dumb of the Kings not to exploit their depth.

The Oilers always have the option of putting McD and Draisatl on the same line, so teams just need to try to keep scoring on them no matter how big their lead is.

i guess hiller was hampered by not having last change on the road, but even so

mcindoe today described this as the greatest shot in NHL history and i find it difficult to argue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RdJrzNHHg

Fantastic moment, remember it like it was yesterday. I worked in a kitchen and we heard it on the radio, then rushed out to the bar to see the replay.

oh shi

wonder if there's been two goals in 11 seconds by both teams before

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

If you're long-suffering (I'm not), sympathy.

the leafsening

rip habs

Panthers feel like a really tough out. Wonder if anyone has enough to keep up with them.

i thought tampa did, but i seem to be mistaken

yeah I did not expect this series to be so one-sided

oh god

what a moment

Couldn't watch tonight, but yay.

wow

what a moment

yes

poor LA

colorado’s GWG was just silly

https://www.nhl.com/video/dal-col-mackinnon-scores-goal-against-jake-oettinger-6372199683112

not really a goal by Nathan MacKinnon in any way shape or form

happy trails to marc-andre fleury <3

go jets

oh no Hellebuyck

ffs

rantanen revenge game

pete de boer 8-0 in game sevens

tough to blow a 2-0 lead in the third tho

tbf if colorado can't beat dallas with the latter's top defenseman and top goal-scorer out injured, that doesn't bode well for them

jfc hellebuyck

omg

wild night in Winnipeg

I don't know these two teams from Adam, but just got home and caught that amazing finish. That's got to be the latest game-7 tying goal ever, I would think.

five game sevens in NHL history where the winner overcame a multi-goal deficit in the third period

two of them were this weekend

I tuned in half way though the second and watched the rest. What a roller coaster. Could not believe they squeaked in that game tying goal when they did and by the time they scored the winner, I didn’t think scoring was possible for anyone! Everyone looked gassed out there

yeah that was not a threatening final minute

I started feeling really bad for Hellebuyck honestly

Watched the whole overtime--pretty exciting.

yeah a lot more chances than most OTs. Jets still had the energy to forecheck and finish their hits, after losing their top defenseman minute eater at the start of the game. guess you're just running on adrenaline after that comeback.

Happy trails rob blake u couldn’t find a goalie

kuemper is a vezina finalist!

I still don't believe that

Leafs are flying.

(xpost) Shut the fuck up!

I can't keep up--it's like this is a fast-paced sport or something.

congrats to michael f gill for winning the draft lottery

god the leafs never make it easy

I had zero intention of watching the overtime had it happened.

clinching goal was a beaut

I had zero intention of watching the overtime had it happened.

otm

playoff hockey is an absolute fucking nightmare when your team is involved

which is among the reasons that these playoffs are so fantastic (and for me personally)

Let’s go Caps eh??? I have that fresh optimistic feeling this morning. I’m sure it will be dashed as soon as Carolina scores. Then the nightmare sets in.

the quintessential rod brind'amour carolina hurricanes game: a 2-1 OT win with a 33-14 edge in shots

never take a 2 goal lead in the NHL or a 20 point lead in the NBA

fuck the panthers

That was about as intense a game as I’ve seen in a while (not connoting the epic Jets comeback)

Rantanen is the first player in Stanley Cup Playoffs history with multiple three-goal periods in the same postseason. He is only the fourth player in NHL history to pull the feat at any point in his career, joining Wayne Gretzky, Maurice Richard and Tim Kerr.

maybe don’t trade rantanen mid season

The city of dallas has a one star in one star out policy

Also welcome utah mammoth

tired of ryan callahan referring to the golden knights as ‘vagas’

wau

oilers love giving up those late breakaways

Oilers have provided endless entertainment in these playoffs

ffs mikko

Jeez the capitals look downright unprofessional

a parade of dumb penalties

no one should ever get hatsed by mikael granlund, and yet

rip leafs

god bless (former penguins great) kasperi kapanen

rip caps

nice to see the Jets finally get some bounces

At a movie tonight...Could there be a better illustration of fatalism among Leaf fans that there's no posting here? Just a resignation that they had to win G6 to make G7 sting that much more.

i'm not sure we actually have any leafs fans here

we have habs, islanders, flyers, penguins, capitals, hurricanes, red wings, kings, canucks . . .

feel terrible for mark scheifele

90% of my friends are leaf fans, and i get sucked into their bs every once in a while.

lol/aww

one of my best friends is a die-hard fan and i'm absolutely rooting for them (at the safe remove of not being devastated when they yet again lose)

my friend has long since been taught to temper his expectations, but i worry about his kid

I assumed from your posting that you were (and figured Thermo too, and maybe symsymsym). Against my better judgement, I will start watching tomorrow's game from the beginning and stay with it until and unless Tampa goes up by two.

Uh, Florida.

It’s not looking great but i would LOVE to have 3 canadian teams in the conf finals

until and unless Florida goes up by two

this was my dad's rule watching the penguins

the oilers and jets have recently made a case to continue watching, but it's tough if you really care

xp same

wow scheifele goal

Ha ha! My best friends kid has got into the leaf’s hard and he (my friend) has thusly become a big fan as a result - he knows not to get his hopes up, but man his kid… 4 seasons deep into this and still getting suuuuper emotional about it. I preach keeping their fandom tempered; but then I go turn on the jays, so…

This stars jets game is wild rn btw

lol a year or two ago i was counseling my friend to let his kid stay up late to watch a leafs playoff game go to OT

clearly i am a monster

I am most certainly not a leafs fan

my dad grew up there so I don't hate them with the fire that everyone else in the canucks fanbase seems to feel, I have a bit of a soft spot for their constant failure. but it's also funny when they lose, so

that Jets loss with Scheifele in the box, on the other hand, was heartbreaking

ugh

Ex-Leaf fan here, but I scarcely pay any attention anymore

Tense for me. Must be worst than torture for real fans.

"worse"

lotta time left, but

Sigh. Time for a movie break.

Yup. Time for other activities and then checking in on my leaf fan friends in about an hour.

Goddamn Florida men

Tonight is that cruel night every spring when, for the first time in weeks, there is no playoff hockey on TV. Reality bites, man.

well that was just brutal. leafs utterly outplayed apart from the second half of the first period. booed out of the building, sweaters on the ice, media in a feeding frenzy today.

despite marner being a toronto kid, i don't think he wants any more of that no matter how much they offer him. (and someone like chicago will presumably offer more.) shanahan's contract is up; can't imagine they extend him. tavares is getting up there but still useful at the right price and actually wants to stay. i wonder how kyle dubas feels about it all.

on the bright side, they did show some grit in game six, auston matthews is a really good #1 center, and maybe if their top goalie hadn't been concussed with impunity things might have gone differently. but probably not

As a Habs fan I think I am obligated to always cheer against the Leafs but the last couple of years I was actually hoping they finally manage to win something. Nobody deserves this kind of team, one that just continually fails achieve. The habs have been by most metrics much worse than the Leafs over the last 15 years or so, but they at least managed a couple of deep playoff runs.

*one that continually failes to achieve*

last night:

• florida hit everything that moved
• svetchnikov gave bobrosky a fly-by elbow to the head almost exactly like bennett gave stolarz in the last series. needless to say, florida was upset and it wasn't even penalized
• several of florida's goals were fantastic shots into very small openings
• marchand took a (late, high) run at gostisbehere; didn't get much of him but ghost bear was pissed and subsequently deliberately shot the puck at him. think it hit him in the chest. marchand went apeshit, perhaps understandably, dropped the gloves and went after gostisbehere, drawing an extra two minutes and 10-minute misconduct. the game was already over by then, however
• lot of 'dark arts' shit going on which the league evidently has no intention of discouraging. puck over the glass is automatic tho!
• carolina still outshot florida, of course, but unless bob completely falls apart i don't see the hurricanes generating enough offense to win more than two games
• go oilers

looked like the panthers are already inside svetchnikov's head in particular; would not be surprised to see him do something egregious in retaliation

ffs

I was out for 20 minutes! Wtf

shanahan out in toronto

rip canes

iirc that is 15 consecutive losses for them in the eastern conference finals, dating back to 2009

also apparently canada lost to denmark in the world championship quarterfinals despite having crosby and mackinnon in the lineup?

but they had Ehlers. I don't get how this is USA's first time in the world championship finals since 1934, what kind of rosters have they been sending

hey, the USA won. primary assist on the OT winner goes to pittsburgh's own logan cooley

nice goal by Tage. Oilers looking ready for the rematch huh

yeah -- first rematch since red wings-penguins in 2008/2009?

i thought dallas' whole thing was they're supposed to be incredibly deep, but it hasn't panned out at all. i know plus/minus is a flawed stat, but these are nightmarish: https://www.nhl.com/stars/stats

captain jamie benn is -8! matt duchene is -13! wyatt johnston is somehow -17 for a team that's reached the conference finals!

edmonton would get home ice vs. florida. not that it matters a whole lot as neither of them have had it in their first three series

really hate rooting for corey perry

well i was not expecting dallas to bow out so meekly to . . . stuart skinner

feel like the loss of hyman (so to speak) will loom large, but let's fucking go oilers

otm re: teh Oil

i'm gonna need esa tikkanen to drop the game one ceremonial faceoff

maybe punch barkov while he's doing it

getting Ekholm back could be big. Panthers still looking invincible unfortunately.

they are so (incredibly annoyingly) good

and now six days off until the finals start

ffs

next wed: g1
next fri: g2
the monday after that: g3

Time-out from the playoffs: learned this morning that one of the guys I play euchre with at the library is Mike Bossy's cousin.

Am I the only one watching?!

Saw the third period and OT. Awesome action. When FL came out strong in OT I kinda thought, “just survive this and you’ll be fine Oilers” and that proved pretty OTM. I find myself pulling hard for them, if for no other reason than they’re a Canadian franchise that’s not the Leafs or Canadiens.

yeah once the oilers got revved up in OT they didnt stop, fantastic game

pleased with the result but man the puck-over-the-glass penalty is such a garbage rule

i actually felt bad for florida man when that happened. then i got over it.

you can murder a guy on the ice in playoff overtime with no call, but a misdirected puck gets you two minutes. I guess the puck-over-glass rule turns offensive zone pressure into an advantage, but in the most inane way. They should just start calling real penalties.

^^^

the league/refs like it because they don't have to use any judgment/cannot be blamed for the results

they could easily just turn it into a defensive zone faceoff and no lineup change, like with icing.

they *could*

but they actually *want* more power plays -- they just don't want to be on the hook for the outcome. which, as you said, is why breaking your stick crosschecking someone won't be called, because 'let the players play'

Holy heck, that McDavid assist

Dammit

Seeing El Wayne at intermission makes me want to puke.

never been as excited about anything as eddie olczyk is when somebody loses/breaks a stick

or there's *almost* too many men

crazy game

ohhhh my god

and it keeps getting crazier

oilers were so close to getting out of it, panthers are a horror movie

that was fun

i'm in the uk, watching 10 min highlights on youtube the morning after, and even that arrangement is unbelievably tense

go oilers!

i got too attached and can't bear to watch the oilers lose : /

Not over yet but not looking great

itll be tough if they go down scoreless here

well this sucks

Reinhart can’t be stopped

Congratulations Florida Men, even if most of you don't know alligator from lutefisk

not finding any positives here

rats on the ice

Fuck a Florida

i got too attached and can't bear to watch the oilers lose : /

yay?

do we need a new thread with free agency opening tomorrow and the draft/trade talk already getting going

i vote yes

sí

Jimmy mod help us out

Ya

Marner going to Vegas was a surprise

ffs jmod

Gotta come up with a good thred name

LOL @ EVERYONE SIGNING 30-YEAR-OLD DEFENSEMEN TO RIDICULOUS CONTRACTS 2026 (HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

also props to the kings for signing (asshole) corey perry; his impeccable history of losing in the finals would be a step up for them

WHEN WILL BETTMAN DIE: THE NHL 2025-2026 SEASON THRED (INC PANTHERS HANGOVER 2 AND SAD ATTEMPTS TO DETHRONE THEM HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

IM ON VACATION OK I CAN’T DEAL

<3