The Swamp

Rangers absolutely took the Sabres to school last night. I think it's something that coach Granato can definitely help with but holy hell they/you guys stacked us up so [boringly-effective] skillfully that we had maybe 2 good scoring chances all night. Sabres can be fun but also can look like a bunch of schoolkids who have no idea how to break a system which...was last night.

Unfortunate for the home opener which was the best atmosphere i've seen there in easily 12+ years; finally some volume in there. a historical run of miserableandshittingalloveryourselfness <-- will do that to even the best of places...

Real nice ceremony for Rick Jeanneret in pregame.


oh most importantly: there was a very old couple sitting in front of us last night ...one wearing an Eddie Giacomin sweater and the other an official-looking 1994 Richter complete w/ the Cup shoulder patch. I always try to find the best jerseys in a crowd and there was an impressive showing last night but they won.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Oct 12, 2023 8:12 pm Definitely no Ranger who needed a Game 1 goal, and to play as well as he has, thank Lafreniere.

Jeez

rass wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 9:00 pm Jeez

Jeezus indeed! Just wailing like a HS girl fight.

Facepunching contest.

Phillips for the Caps got his first goal and an assist last night in a 3-2 (SO) win over the Flames. Phillips (from Calgary) is listed at 5'8 160 lbs. And from what folks are saying that height and weight may be generous.

Other interesting item from last night's caps game. Sellout streak of 14 years goes down. 588 sellout games.

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 6:31 am Phillips for the Caps got his first goal and an assist last night in a 3-2 (SO) win over the Flames. Phillips (from Calgary) is listed at 5'8 160 lbs. And from what folks are saying that height and weight may be generous.

Other interesting item from last night's caps game. Sellout streak of 14 years goes down. 588 sellout games.

That's awesome for him. The Flames treated him like shit last year and never gave him a chance. He was up with the big team for months at a time but only got in 2 games, so he wasn't even developing at AHL level. They really screwed him.

https://calgarysun.com/sports/hockey/nh ... s-got-away

Last night when interviews on radio, Phillips first sent his thoughts to the Snow family. The Flames mismanagement let a good one get away.

"First and foremost, would like to send my thoughts to the Snow family back in Calgary. Pretty heavy thing for everyone involved. It's a difficult thing but they're making the most of it, so just sending my thoughts there."

I've followed hockey long enough to know that if I checked to see why he never got a chance, it was going to be height/size.

Last night there was a forward matchup of Cooley versus Cuylle and they're both pronounced the same as coulis.

Even with the SO win... Hoo boy are the Caps not good.

When Calgary put the first goal in, the shots were 11-0 in favor of the Flames.

I'll give them credit for sticking it out and I know SOG aren't a great analytic, but, the eye test and years of watching iterations of this team = They gonna suck this year.

They actually won the xG battle 3.94 - 3.54 (per evolving-hockey).

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 3:59 pm Even with the SO win... Hoo boy are the Caps not good.

When Calgary put the first goal in, the shots were 11-0 in favor of the Flames.

I'll give them credit for sticking it out and I know SOG aren't a great analytic, but, the eye test and years of watching iterations of this team = They gonna suck this year.

You've seen the Flames MO in action. Score first, Double the shots. Get forced to OT, Penalty in OT. Hit the post and crossbar. Loser point. 17 loser points last season!

Besides being not very good, the Sharks got this schedule of opponents to start the season:

Vegas
Colorado
Carolina
Boston
Nashville
Florida
Tampa Bay
Carolina

Pretty much 7 out of 8 against top Stanley Cup contenders

Bad game tonight but this Karlsson kid looks like he might be a player!

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 9:14 pm Bad game tonight but this Karlsson kid looks like he might be a player!

He looked good!

Ovi goes shotless in back-to-back games for the first time in his 19 year career. He has only gone shotless 19 times total. This caps team is bad and I am not buying the "new system adjustment".

Ovi taking over for Miguel Cabrera in the “rapidly deteriorating legend on a bad team” role.

It sucks but it will be cool when he gets the record and he probably still will but maybe not until 25-26.

First defending champs to start 5-0 since 86 Oilers.

brian wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:47 pm First defending champs to start 5-0 since 86 Oilers.

First team in NHL history to start 6-0 after winning the Stanley Cup. 16 players have scored and 22 players with a point - both lead the NHL.

brian wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 9:44 pm

brian wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:47 pm First defending champs to start 5-0 since 86 Oilers.

First team in NHL history to start 6-0 after winning the Stanley Cup. 16 players have scored and 22 players with a point - both lead the NHL.

Amazing how that team has been built.

Arizona Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott used Pride Tape on his stick last night. The Coyotes will host the first Pride night of the NHL’s regular season on Oct. 30.

In 2021, during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dermott told reporters "I have some family that is involved in the LGBTQ community. So I'd like to step forward and in the future take part in supporting them more vigorously.”

The NHL told the Athletic, "We will review it in due course."

Interested in both the result and how long it takes for them to announce it.

Love it

Red Wings are really good, totally exposing how bad the Flames are.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:15 pm Red Wings are really good, totally exposing how bad the Flames are.

It is a hot start, fueled by unsustainable shooting percentage (16.0%) and power play (39.1% after going 0-for-5 last night), as well as hot starts by Larkin (tied for league lead in assists) and Debrincat (leads league in goals). I am not complaining about it, just aware that things will slow down, almost certainly very soon.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 8:22 am

degenerasian wrote: ↑Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:15 pm Red Wings are really good, totally exposing how bad the Flames are.

It is a hot start, fueled by unsustainable shooting percentage (16.0%) and power play (39.1% after going 0-for-5 last night), as well as hot starts by Larkin (tied for league lead in assists) and Debrincat (leads league in goals). I am not complaining about it, just aware that things will slow down, almost certainly very soon.

They were 0 for 5 last night but the first two looked really really good despite not scoring. The last three they mailed it in late in the 3rd (last one was at 19:18). It's a hot start yes but they look really fast, organized and dangerous. And they've had a stupid schedule, road, home, road, home, road, home.

Which brings me to another rant, it's stupid how the NHL continues to use 0 for whatever for PP efficiency. Some powerplays are 5 minutes and some are 2 seconds. They should be using minutes of powerplay time per goal. It's like baseball continuing to use Avg. instead of OPS+ For example the Red Wings have scores 9 goals in 26:49 of PP time, New Jersey have scored 9 goals in 26.47. But NJ is at 42.9% and Detroit 39.1%

In bigger news, McDavid is expected to be out 2 weeks and will probably miss the Heritage Classic.

i get that but i always assume that over 82 games it really levels off and you get a pretty accurate count across all teams - like i suppose one could do this more accurate tallying at end of season and i would suspect the rankings that way wouldn't be far off from the current methodologies.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 10:01 am
Which brings me to another rant, it's stupid how the NHL continues to use 0 for whatever for PP efficiency. Some powerplays are 5 minutes and some are 2 seconds. They should be using minutes of powerplay time per goal. It's like baseball continuing to use Avg. instead of OPS+ For example the Red Wings have scores 9 goals in 26:49 of PP time, New Jersey have scored 9 goals in 26.47. But NJ is at 42.9% and Detroit 39.1%

Yeah, you both make good points!

MaxWebster wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 10:36 ami get that but i always assume that over 82 games it really levels off and you get a pretty accurate count across all teams - like i suppose one could do this more accurate tallying at end of season and i would suspect the rankings that way wouldn't be far off from the current methodologies.

And it could kinda be backwards, like it'll measure goals per minute or whatever, but the implication that's better likely isn't true. Situation neutral, so like 5 minutes into a 0-0 game, do you want to score 10 seconds into the PP or 1:55 in? I'd assume the latter?

mister d wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 11:29 am

MaxWebster wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 10:36 ami get that but i always assume that over 82 games it really levels off and you get a pretty accurate count across all teams - like i suppose one could do this more accurate tallying at end of season and i would suspect the rankings that way wouldn't be far off from the current methodologies.

And it could kinda be backwards, like it'll measure goals per minute or whatever, but the implication that's better likely isn't true. Situation neutral, so like 5 minutes into a 0-0 game, do you want to score 10 seconds into the PP or 1:55 in? I'd assume the latter?

Really? I've never seen a powerplay purposely try to score later. You're complicating things. We are simply measuring PP efficiency so the more goals in the lesser amount of time, the more effective it is. I just find that if there's a penalty and then 5 seconds later the other team take one (even up call) then both teams are 0 for 1.

No, not purposely. But if you know you're going to score, wouldn't you prefer to wear them down over 1:55 versus 10 seconds? Kinda like if you know your batter is going to homer, you'd love it in 10 pitches and not the first pitch.

This actually seems fun? (from home, at least, if you’re not going to a game with a weird weeknight start time)

That explains why the VGK game is starting at 8 PT. Never seen a start time that late.

brian wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 7:39 pm That explains why the VGK game is starting at 8 PT. Never seen a start time that late.

Bolts had that weird 5:30 start for opening night, and kept our normal 7:00 start for this.

Such a great idea. And it’s a perfect night to do it too - no other leagues with opening nights or game 7s.

Ryan wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:18 am Such a great idea. And it’s a perfect night to do it too - no other leagues with opening nights or game 7s.

It wouldn’t be the NHL if it was administered flawlessly.

Funny day to announce they've unbanned the stick tape that says "I'm good with non-straight people".

Commercial breaks?

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:03 am Ovi goes shotless in back-to-back games for the first time in his 19 year career. He has only gone shotless 19 times total. This caps team is bad and I am not buying the "new system adjustment".

Ovechkin has 13 shots after 2 periods. Finally did get his first of the season very late in the second.

Frozen frenzy is pretty great.

Love that ESPN is making new “This is SportsCenter” commercials.

So had a free $5 bet on betmgm. Figure back to back nights for the caps is a sure thing. Plus starting a goalie in his NHL debut because they back up is hurt. So take the Devils -1.5.

Pick up my daughter from Dance and the Caps are up 3-0. But NJ just put 4 goals in under 6 minutes.