NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[SilverEagle]

Game 3 tonight! Time to watch a boring mutant version of hockey because of that damn 1-3-1 trap. Agh..... Here's to hoping the Pens get out to a quick 2-0 lead, then maybe, just maybe we can see some hockey. Honestly I don't know why the Sens just won't play the Pens straight up given how beat up the Pens D is right now.

[StCapps]

Marc Andre Meltdown. That's how the Pens choke in the playoffs right there.


The Pens better show up in Game 4 or they are screwed.

[SilverEagle]

Marc Andre Meltdown. That's how the Pens choke in the playoffs right there.


The Pens better show up in Game 4 or they are screwed.

The first and fourth were his fault. It was a team melt down and the Pens are done most likely. Way to banged up on the defensive side of the puck. A new era of Trap hockey is coming and I will boycott it until the NHL fixes it because I'm not watching late 90's and early 00's hockey ever again. The only way to stop it is if the refs start calling penatlies like they are laid out in the rule books sooooo......its up to the NHL if it wants to commit suicide.

[StCapps]

The first and fourth were his fault. It was a team melt down and the Pens are done most likely. Way to banged up on the defensive side of the puck. A new era of Trap hockey is coming and I will boycott it until the NHL fixes it because I'm not watching late 90's and early 00's hockey ever again. The only way to stop it is if the refs start calling penatlies like they are laid out in the rule books sooooo......its up to the NHL if it wants to commit suicide.

Nah just because the Pens are having trouble with the trap while they are this banged up doesn't mean the Sens brand of hockey is going to takeover the NHL. If anything teams are a lot more likely to start modeling their team after Nashville, Anaheim and Pittsburgh than Ottawa. Smashville is a lot more balanced using their back end to produce offense, as opposed to making games boring, so does Anaheim, even Pittsburgh with a lot less depth still build their back end that way.

The Sens have an easy run to the final as you can imagine, and they still might not make it. Boston, New York and a banged up Pittsburgh who can't even score anymore, that's soft ass competition. Beating a banged up Pittsburgh with the trap is one thing, beating the best team in Western Conference with the trap, that's a whole hell of a lot tougher. Playing a 1-0 or 2-1 game plays right into Nashville and Anaheim's hands, hard to win a series against them playing that.

If there is new era of NHL hockey that is about to dawn, it's going to be based on a top 4 like Josi-Ellis-Subban-Ekholm, with at least two franchise players on offense like Johansen and Forsberg, a hot goalie like Pekka Rinne, and a lot of depth contributions. That's the new brand of hockey, and it's way more exciting than watching the Sens.

[SilverEagle]

The first and fourth were his fault. It was a team melt down and the Pens are done most likely. Way to banged up on the defensive side of the puck. A new era of Trap hockey is coming and I will boycott it until the NHL fixes it because I'm not watching late 90's and early 00's hockey ever again. The only way to stop it is if the refs start calling penatlies like they are laid out in the rule books sooooo......its up to the NHL if it wants to commit suicide.

Nah just because the Pens are having trouble with the trap while they are this banged up doesn't mean the Sens brand of hockey is going to takeover the NHL. If anything teams are a lot more likely to start modeling their team after Nashville, Anaheim and Pittsburgh than Ottawa. Smashville is a lot more balanced using their back end to produce offense, as opposed to making games boring, so does Anaheim, even Pittsburgh with a lot less depth still build their back end that way.

The Sens have an easy run to the final as you can imagine, and they still might not make it. Boston, New York and a banged up Pittsburgh who can't even score anymore, that's soft ass competition. Beating a banged up Pittsburgh with the trap is one thing, beating the best team in Western Conference with the trap, that's a whole hell of a lot tougher. Playing a 1-0 or 2-1 game plays right into Nashville and Anaheim's hands, hard to win a series against them playing that.

I wouldn't bank on that. A lot of mediocer teams that are struggling to get to the playoff level will find this most attractive. Fair enough to say that there are 10 bubble teams and if 2 or 3 of them convert to the trap and they have success.......then Boom, it's the late 90's all over again.

[StCapps]

I wouldn't bank on that. A lot of mediocer teams that are struggling to get to the playoff level will find this most attractive. Fair enough to say that there are 10 bubble teams and if 2 or 3 of them convert to the trap and they have success.......then Boom, it's the late 90's all over again.

Shit teams will love it, as they always have, this is nothing new. Don't be too worried about it, the top teams are not going to play uber boring hockey going forward just because the Sens had success against a Pens team who is just too banged up and out of gas. The shitty teams usually do play that style when outclassed in playoff series anyway, it's an adaptation to being the worst team, especially offensively. It's not like the best teams of the world are going to build themselves in the Sens model just because Guy Boucher is minimizing the biggest holes on his hockey team, they are going to try and build a team with less holes instead, so they aren't force to play that way.

A more defensive style will come into vogue at some point, but it's not just going to be the same old boring neutral zone trap at the highest levels. Just look at Nashville, they are built from the back end out, and they don't play boring trap hockey despite that defensive advantage. Defense comes in more forms than just the neutral zone trap. The trap will always be part of the game, but I really don't see the NHL going back to mid-late 90's style of play where every team plays it for most, if not all, of the game.

[SilverEagle]

If they do it will be the nail in the coffin of the NHL. People like you and I will stick around but as far as expanding the sport.....

[StCapps]

If they do it will be the nail in the coffin of the NHL. People like you and I will stick around but as far as expanding the sport.....

The Nashville Model is the way to go when looking to rebuild. So jealous of the job that Dave Poile has done with that club over the years, truly remarkable stuff.

Roman Josi ($4 million), Mattias Ekholm ($3.75 million) and Ryan Ellis (2.5 million) are all making less money per year than Nikita Zaitsev ($4.5 million), and will do so for at least two more years after these playoffs. Ryan Ellis is a UFA in 2019-2020, Roman Josi is a UFA in 2020-2021, Mattias Ekholm is a UFA in 2022-2023.

How do you compete with that? That's just next level cap management, it's fucking ridiculous. I'd be shocked if the Preds don't win at least one Stanley Cup in the next three years.

[Smitty-48]

Nashville's window is tight though, they've got a declining Subban at $9 million, and Josi is going to get $9 million too, Zaitsev is signed through 2022, so there's an extra million or two on that contract to buy up UFA, this is why I see Subban being moved soon, they can't afford both Subban and Josi, before Josi hits UFA, they'll have to restructure.

[StCapps]

Nashville's window is tight though, they've got a declining Subban at $9 million, and Josi is going to get $9 million too, Zaitsev is signed through 2022, so there's an extra million or two on that contract to buy up UFA, this is why I see Subban being moved soon, they can't afford both Subban and Josi.

They don't have to pay Josi for three more seasons, they got him locked in at $4 million until 2020-2021. For two whole years they have three defensemen of the best top four in the league locked up on the cheap. That's the scary part.

Also not buying that Subban is declining because he had a bad regular reason. Jumping the gun on that one and Subban is the only overpaid player on the team aside from Rinne. They don't have to pay Ellis more for another two seasons, they don't have to pay Ekholm more for another five seasons. Poile is the man and he didn't even get to draft a generational superstar to put this team together. That's how it's done.