NHL 2015-16 Season Thread

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
No worries bro. At this point I'm pretty much expecting McDavid and Draisatl to be walking down the street and get killed by lightning. In the middle of winter.

In any case, it'll be interesting to see what changes are made in the offseason. Chiarelli was pretty emphatic that he didn't want to make major moves until he knew what he had. As I mentioned before, at no point during this NHL season will Chiarelli have seen the team play even a single game with the entire lineup (Eberle, McDavid, Klefbom and Nugent-Hopkins have all missed significant time. That's the best RW, the two best centers, and the best D on the roster). But given how inconsistent the team has been and how big the hole on D remains, I would imagine there will be some pretty major moves this summer. I doubt there's anything too momentous prior to the trade deadline, though.

It's so easy pointing out that the Oilers need a 25 minute a night, top pairing, right shot defenseman. But how you acquire one without blowing a huge hole elsewhere is the difficult part. The previous management hilariously thought that Justin Schultz was that guy, and had zero backup plan. We see how that's working out now (and amazingly, the two idiots who hatched that plan, MacTavish and Howson, are presently still employed by the organization! I would be surprised if they are still with the organization next fall. It's a fucking embarrassment that they still are). Here's to hoping that Chiarelli can figure it out. Because if he doesn't, the team will not go anywhere next year either.
Well you could have spent money on Mike Green, but frankly he's not good enough defensively to be top pairing. Also health is an issue. I guess we're lucky to have Carlson (and on a pretty friendly deal for 2 more years after this one too), even if honestly his play hasn't been all that this year. His boxcar numbers look good, but they should given the deployments he's getting and with what our PP does. Defensively he hasn't been nearing that good, and his skating is still pretty lumbering. A lot of us are looking at Hershey and following what Madison Bowey is doing (our 2nd round pick in 2013). He has a very high ceiling if he can get there as an offensive minded, right shooting D man.

Your forward corps look pretty exciting going forward, Draisatl cooled off some, but still looks to be the real deal to play 2C behind McDavid.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
Caps acquire Mike Weber from Buffalo for a 3rd round pick (2017), while Buffalo retains 50% of his salary. Depth D move. About all we had cap room for. People seem to think it could be a prelude to a bigger trade, though.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
For you Eomer

Although it's coming from a Caps centric site, and focusing mainly on Burakovsky. Also small sample size but pretty impressive by McDavid.
 

Fadaar

That guy
11,225
12,288
Get fucked Boston. The refs in this game are pretty goddamn questionable even though all the calls are going the Lightning's way. Also it's amazing what happens when you move Stamkos back to playing center instead of wing. Go figure, he's on a 6 game scoring streak now.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
Damn, Caps shipped off Brooks Laich to Toronto. Bummer.
Bummer? Finally got out from under that contract (which runs through next year). Guy is a shell of who he used to be. Winnik is a better player right now who costs half as much. Some RFA's (think Mojo and Orlov) are going to get raises this offseason. Team is better right now, and frees up money to sign those guys to new deals. Had to give up a pick and a prospect to unload that contract, but it's worth it.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
41,747
143,182
It's a bummer in the same way Manning retiring is. You're used to someone being around a long time (in this case, on the Caps) and it's strange to see them sent off.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
It's a bummer in the same way Manning retiring is. You're used to someone being around a long time (in this case, on the Caps) and it's strange to see them sent off.
Going to be sad if we win the Cup and he got moved, but in the end this deal makes us better now and it's helpful to move his contract for next year too.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
Caps/Pens tonight. Added this game in a weird spot, Pens have 3 games in 4 nights as part of this stretch and Caps have 5 games in 7 days. Retarded, but oh well. Grubauer is supposed to get at least 2 of the starts I believe.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
Best part of this Pens/Caps game so far was when Pierre tried to comment that the difference in Ovechkin's game this year was that he was hitting.
 

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
5,472
272
For you Eomer

Although it's coming from a Caps centric site, and focusing mainly on Burakovsky. Also small sample size but pretty impressive by McDavid.
The numbers McDavid is putting up are ridiculous when you consider what a shitty team and D he has to play with, and the fact that he just turned 19. After he's put on another 10-20lbs and played a few season, he's going to be unstoppable. I also love the way that he rises to the occasion. For example in his first game against Toronto, the team he cheered for growing up, he waltzes out there and gets five points. His first game back from injury he scores one of the best goals of the year. And last night in his first game against Eichel, he scores 22 seconds in and then the OT winner.

I'd also like to say that I love how much of a little bitch Eichel is about the whole McDavid/Eichel thing. He gets so fucking salty when he's asked any question that even slightly mentions McDavid or the fact that Eichel went #2. I mean I can understand some frustration on his part, he wants to be a good player in his own right and doesn't want to hear about how much better McDavid is or whatever. But holy shit, stop being such a fucking baby about it.
 

moontayle

Golden Squire
4,302
165
The numbers McDavid is putting up are ridiculous when you consider what a shitty team and D he has to play with, and the fact that he just turned 19. After he's put on another 10-20lbs and played a few season, he's going to be unstoppable. I also love the way that he rises to the occasion. For example in his first game against Toronto, the team he cheered for growing up, he waltzes out there and gets five points. His first game back from injury he scores one of the best goals of the year. And last night in his first game against Eichel, he scores 22 seconds in and then the OT winner.

I'd also like to say that I love how much of a little bitch Eichel is about the whole McDavid/Eichel thing. He gets so fucking salty when he's asked any question that even slightly mentions McDavid or the fact that Eichel went #2. I mean I can understand some frustration on his part, he wants to be a good player in his own right and doesn't want to hear about how much better McDavid is or whatever. But holy shit, stop being such a fucking baby about it.
Eichel is also 19. All people are whiny as shit at 19. It is known.

That said, I also wish he would accept the circumstances of them being tied together and roll with it.
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,792
7,363
The numbers McDavid is putting up are ridiculous when you consider what a shitty team and D he has to play with, and the fact that he just turned 19. After he's put on another 10-20lbs and played a few season, he's going to be unstoppable. I also love the way that he rises to the occasion. For example in his first game against Toronto, the team he cheered for growing up, he waltzes out there and gets five points. His first game back from injury he scores one of the best goals of the year. And last night in his first game against Eichel, he scores 22 seconds in and then the OT winner.

I'd also like to say that I love how much of a little bitch Eichel is about the whole McDavid/Eichel thing. He gets so fucking salty when he's asked any question that even slightly mentions McDavid or the fact that Eichel went #2. I mean I can understand some frustration on his part, he wants to be a good player in his own right and doesn't want to hear about how much better McDavid is or whatever. But holy shit, stop being such a fucking baby about it.
I will say that OT goal was Charmin Ultra soft. But it's Buffalo, everyone gets some freebies against them.
 

Grimmlokk

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
12,190
135
Best part of this Pens/Caps game so far was when Pierre tried to comment that the difference in Ovechkin's game this year was that he was hitting.
Yeah he never does that=P

Best part was Ovie and Oshie colliding pretty hard, then laughing their asses off about it on the bench.






So I'm way out of the loop, why is there aTeam North Americasquad of youngsters in the World Cup?
 

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
5,472
272
Because they needed an extra team or two to get enough competitive teams for a decent tournament format? Hence Team North America (young guns) and Team Europe (small Euro nations that wouldn't stand a chance on their own). Meh. I'll watch the tournament, but I don't have high hopes that it's going to be anywhere near as good as Olympic hockey, or even as good as the 2004 World Cup, which was actually pretty awesome since everyone knew the lockout was coming and therefore the players actually played hard. But it should be a step up from the World Championships.