NHL 2015-16 Season Thread

I remember feeling the same way this time last year....

But yeah, Caps finally have all the right peices it seems. I remember watching them in the playoffs last year and thinking they were soooo close to tipping the metaphorical scale. A couple of key moves in the offseason later and they done threw a cinder block on it. The east is theirs to take right now, so long as they win the war of attrition.

So hath I spoken, so hathest thou been jinxed!

In other newz, great game in BK tonight up until one terribad kid blows the game wide open....again. I honestly don't understand how K. Hayes keeps getting ice time while way more capable players sit. All in all, I like what i'm seeing though in terms of progress. Sunday's re-rematch will either make or break us confidence wise. We can recover from another loss sure, but playoff spots in the east are looking VERY contested and I don't see that changing.

StoiCynic_sl said:

I remember feeling the same way this time last year....

But yeah, Caps finally have all the right peices it seems. I remember watching them in the playoffs last year and thinking they were soooo close to tipping the metaphorical scale. A couple of key moves in the offseason later and they done threw a cinder block on it. The east is theirs to take right now, so long as they win the war of attrition.

So hath I spoken, so hathest thou been jinxed!

In other newz, great game in BK tonight up until one terribad kid blows the game wide open....again. I honestly don't understand how K. Hayes keeps getting ice time while way more capable players sit. All in all, I like what i'm seeing though in terms of progress. Sunday's re-rematch will either make or break us confidence wise. We can recover from another loss sure, but playoff spots in the east are looking VERY contested and I don't see that changing.

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Hell we've already lost Beagle long term, and both of our top pair D (Carlson/Orpik). The Richards signing will be interesting down the stretch. If he can be what they want him to be, it frees up Johannson to move anywhere in the middle 6 really. Burakovsky is finally showing signs of life again, and with what Kuznetsov is doing on that line with Williams already makes it scary. I actually feel like the top line could be doing even better still, but hard to have complaints.

Long as Holtby stays healthy, I feel good about the chances for a deep run. Match ups could be interesting though.

Valderen_sl said:

The Caps will meet the Islanders in the first round and then Halak...well you remember how that went.

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Yup, I do.



But yeah, I think the media tries to overplay Trotz being the guy to get through to him and overlooks the fact other coaches didn't ask him to do as much as Trotz. I'm leaving out Oates because...yeah, Oates. But earlier this year Trotz said Ovechkin came up to him and asked why he wasn't on ice late in games with a 1 goal lead and Trotz told him if he does certain things he'll trust him out there. He did it, and now he plays him. I wish other coaches would have asked more of him sooner, but maybe age and experience helped out and a coach like Trotz came in at just the right time.

My big concern right now is the top D pair being out still. As good as guys like Chorney and Ness/Carrick/etc have filled in as a 3rd pairing, they won't fly come playoff time.

McDavid being on the verge of returning from injury would be a perfect time for RNH to break his hand and miss 6-8 weeks. Oh, that's what happened last night? Well that just makes perfect sense.

Fuck the hockey gods, seriously.

Hey the Lightning are finally clicking Eomer so you can be happy about that! Five in a row including a regulation win over the Panthers.

Meh. It's just incredible to me how many injuries the Oilers suffer to their key, core guys. So far this year Eberle missed the first dozen or so games of the year due to a banged up shoulder, and has only recently started playing well. We all know about McDavid. Yakupov missed a bunch of games because a linesman fucking tackled him, of all things. Pouliot missed 10 games or so. And Klefbom went out with a broken finger, expected only to be gone for a few weeks, and he's now been out over a month because apparently he developed a completely unrelated staph infection in one of his legs. A staph infection? For fuck's sake, what next? It's quite likely that by the end of the year Chiarelli will still not have seen the complete lineup of the team in a single game.

Eomer_sl said:

Meh. It's just incredible to me how many injuries the Oilers suffer to their key, core guys.

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Yeah, it's fun=/

Carlson is supposed to be a game time decision tonight, so hopefully he's really close to finally coming back. Not that it hasn't been fun to watch Chorney and the AHL revolving door guy in the 3rd pairing, but I really hope we have Carlson and Orpik back for the playoffs.

Rumors still swirling about us making a move for Big Buff. Someone would have to be going back the other way or Orpik would have to go on LTIR (most likely both) though, so would take a lot of maneuvering. Between those two, Beagle's injury, and random bottom 6 suspensions (including noted goon Marcus Johannson)...I've seen far more of our depth than I've wanted too. Fortunately none of the issues have been to Ovechkin/Backstrom/Holtby/Kuznetsov though.

This Drouin saga is getting messy:Jonathan Drouin suspended without pay by Lightning for not reporting to AHL game - NHL on CBC Sports - Hockey news, opinion, scores, stats, standings

On the one hand, I have pretty much zero tolerance for entitled assholes who think they can dictate to their teams that they should be traded, or get more playing time, or whatever. The fact is, is that Drouin has not lived up to his potential and the Lightning weren't willing to play him 20 minutes a night while he went through the motions. They control his destiny and he should have just put his head down, put in the work, and quietly asked for a trade at some point while working his ass off to get better.

On the other hand, this is now the third major player to have a falling out with Yzerman and/or Cooper. St. Louis left on very bad terms, and it's looking like Stamkos will as well. Where there's smoke, there's fire. I'd love to know every little detail of what's gone on with Drouin and with the Lightning in general. They're a team that has a huge amount of upcoming talent, and if I was a player on that team I'd want to stick around and try to win a Cup or two with them, which they have the potential to do in the next few years. But apparently something about the way the organization is run is causing guys to nope the fuck out.

Both the team and the player are in a tough spot here. Drouin's trade value is falling like a rock the longer this shit goes on and the less he plays. And he didn't do himself a lot of favors with his play in the AHL, by some reports. 3 points in 7 games is not anything to be too thrilled about coming from a player who at one point was thought to have the potential of being a point a game guy in the NHL. It'll be interesting to see how quickly they can move him, or if they just go nuclear and suspend him for the rest of the year. He really doesn't have a lot of leverage at this point, either.

I can't imagine he helped his trade value by not reporting. I'm sure some teams won't be scared off given his potential even with him acting like a petulant child, but most teams probably will see a major red flag.

Valderen_sl said:

I read that and I hope the Habs get out of this trade negotiations. We don't need an entitled little diva who's proven nothing I the nhl.

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I mostly agree, but the Habs need goals pretty badly and probably feel they're one of the few organizations who can ingest a personality like that and make them toe the line - no one player bigger than the shirt, etc. They might be right, and they might be able to get him at a low enough price now that the gamble is worth it.

Mercy, it is depressing watching Toronto play. We just passed 21 consecutive power plays without a goal. And the announcers are clearly not Toronto haters, but they're bewildered (with the rest of us) why the franchise can't fucking score. Seriously, what the hell is going on?

lurkingdirk_sl said:

Mercy, it is depressing watching Toronto play. We just passed 21 consecutive power plays without a goal. And the announcers are clearly not Toronto haters, but they're bewildered (with the rest of us) why the franchise can't fucking score. Seriously, what the hell is going on?

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Wasn't this pretty much a complete tear down of the old roster for the most part (well...the overpaid and perceived underachieving part of it) while Babcock installs his system? Was never going to be anything but a rebuilding year.

Merrith_sl said:

Wasn't this pretty much a complete tear down of the old roster for the most part (well...the overpaid and perceived underachieving part of it) while Babcock installs his system? Was never going to be anything but a rebuilding year.

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This isn't rebuilding. This is shit hockey. Rebuilding has bright moments as the new system seems to be taking hold. Just once in a while. Most expensive team in the league, tied for the second lowest point in the league. Shit's not good.

Geno went all BEAST MODE today. Pens are in the Wild Card now, lookout! =P

And tomorrow's Pens/Caps game in DC has been postponed. No date yet.

Grimmlokk_sl said:

Geno went all BEAST MODE today. Pens are in the Wild Card now, lookout! =P

And tomorrow's Pens/Caps game in DC has been postponed. No date yet.

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At least Pens/Caps is easier to make up than Anaheim/Caps. Not sure if Anaheim is coming east on another trip anytime soon.

Dennis Wideman suspended for hitting official - NHL on CBC Sports - Hockey news, opinion, scores, stats, standings

This Wideman thing is kind of bizarre. He meant to hit that linesman, there's no doubt in my mind. It wasn't just an accidental collision as he was trying to get off the ice. The only question is how badly his brain was scrambled by the hit he had taken just before.

Eomer_sl said:

Dennis Wideman suspended for hitting official - NHL on CBC Sports - Hockey news, opinion, scores, stats, standings

This Wideman thing is kind of bizarre. He meant to hit that linesman, there's no doubt in my mind. It wasn't just an accidental collision as he was trying to get off the ice. The only question is how badly his brain was scrambled by the hit he had taken just before.

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Do you mean he meant to throw a hit, but was woozy and didn't realize it was a linesman he was hitting? I can buy that.

The minor blowup over Ovechkin bowing out of the ASG is silly. Toews does it and barely a peep. Other guys do it yearly it seems. It's been obvious at times he's had something nagging at him all year, rest it up for a hopefully deep playoff run. Plus everyone gets to see Kuznetsov playing 3 on 3. They'll thank him later.