NHL 2014-15 Season Thread

Ten games out, Toronto is already eliminated. What a hot fucking mess that organisation is.

Valderen_sl said:

Shaping up to be an interesting race between Boston-Ottawa-Florida for a playoff spot in the East.

Ottawa seems to have the best schedule.

Boston is pretty brutal almost only playing top teams.

Florida is probably out of it, but they play Boston 3 times which could have a big impact either way.

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Ottawa definitely benefits from playing the Leafs 3 more times. I just can't see Florida putting together the kind of run needed to overtake both Boston and Ottawa at this point. Ottawa is showing they can do that, but at some point I expect Boston to break out of this mini funk. Should be fun to the finish, plus all the jockeying for position in the East for the top seed between Habs/Rangers/Lightning and the jockeying in the Metro.

Merrith_sl said:

Ottawa definitely benefits from playing the Leafs 3 more times. I just can't see Florida putting together the kind of run needed to overtake both Boston and Ottawa at this point. Ottawa is showing they can do that, but at some point I expect Boston to break out of this mini funk. Should be fun to the finish, plus all the jockeying for position in the East for the top seed between Habs/Rangers/Lightning and the jockeying in the Metro.

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I think Ottawa would be better/more fun to watch in the playoffs, too.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

I think Ottawa would be better/more fun to watch in the playoffs, too.

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Imagine if Montreal is able to hold off the Rags for the top seed and Ottawa overtakes Boston somehow for the 2nd wildcard. Price v. Hamburglar. Would make for a pretty good story.

Merrith_sl said:

Imagine if Montreal is able to hold off the Rags for the top seed and Ottawa overtakes Boston somehow for the 2nd wildcard. Price v. Hamburglar. Would make for a pretty good story.

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That would be an awesome series - the tension between the teams would be outstanding!

Valderen_sl said:

As a Habs fan, I hope we don't get Ottawa in the first round. Has nothing to do Hammond, just don't like how we do against them.

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Yeah, you're right to fear them!

Though Montreal makes it to at LEAST round two, regardless of who they face. They're great this year, and they switch into beast mode in playoffs.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

Yeah, you're right to fear them!

Though Montreal makes it to at LEAST round two, regardless of who they face. They're great this year, and they switch into beast mode in playoffs.

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I'm not sure I'm willing to bet on anyone in the East as a lock to make it out of Round 1 save maybe the Rangers. I just worry for the Habs if Price isn't playing out of his mind. Feels like every team could do some damage but also flame out early save the Rags. I'm not really sure if they have any holes that can be exploited.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

Yeah, you're right to fear them!

Though Montreal makes it to at LEAST round two, regardless of who they face. They're great this year, and they switch into beast mode in playoffs.

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Unless by some unholy miracle they get paired against the Lightning, who have absolutely owned them this year. 4-0 record at a combined 16-5 score.

Fadaar_sl said:

Unless by some unholy miracle they get paired against the Lightning, who have absolutely owned them this year. 4-0 record at a combined 16-5 score.

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Ouch. I didn't realise that was the case. Wow.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

Ouch. I didn't realise that was the case. Wow.

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Shouldn't worry too much about it, Detroit would have to overtake both or one would have to fall all the way to a wildcard for them to meet in Round 1. Either scenario falls into the extremely unlikely category.

Stoic, wanted to elaborate further on complaints about secondary scoring and Trotz' personnel decisions. These two pics kind of sum things up.



Why Chimera and to a lesser extent Troy Brouwer are so protected in our lineup I have no idea. Brouwer has been dragging down Kuznetsov at evens a lot of the year, and owes a lot of his production to being on the 2nd best PP in the league (or best? not sure if we passed Detroit). Chimera has dragged down the 3rd line of Ward and Fehr (who had been doing a decent job with Laich on the 3LW). Meanwhile Burakovsky has the possession numbers in general, and especially playing with Ovechkin and Backstrom, that makes it clear he's probably the top candidate to play 1RW. But he's buried in Hershey right now cause Trotz thinks he needs more seasoning or whatever. Which would be fine if we hadn't let him play up here all year and burn a year off his ELC.

As for the secondary scoring...yeah.



Stole these from Japers Rink.

Lots of articles today about The Buffalo Tank Job (tm). Probably because I live in the market but I think it's funny this is getting the sort of attention it is. Buffalo was a legitimately bad team long before this year, it's only being harped on because of Conner McDavid (I keep wanting to call him McCloud).

moontayle_sl said:

Lots of articles today about The Buffalo Tank Job (tm). Probably because I live in the market but I think it's funny this is getting the sort of attention it is. Buffalo was a legitimately bad team long before this year, it's only being harped on because of Conner McDavid (I keep wanting to call him McCloud).

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This is likely due to the fans cheering an OT loss last night.

You know Stoic, would have been nice if WE could have gotten rusty Lundqvist instead of you guys throwing him to Boston. Ah well.

Slaythe_sl said:

You could have made an argument a couple weeks ago that our huge run of success was mostly against soft teams, but hard to not call them the hottest team in the league right now after this latest stretch.

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Price will win the Vezina for sure (and probably the Hart as well), but if Dubnyk isn't 2nd or 3rd in the voting there is no justice.

Tarrant_sl said:

I would not want to be the team who has to face the Wild in the first round.

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And it's likely going to be Anaheim, Nashville, or St. Louis.