NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[StCapps]

The Oilers buying out Pouliot, that's how much they hate that contract. Now he'll only cost them $1.33 million a year on the cap for the next four years.

[StCapps]

RIP Dave Semenko

[Smitty-48]

Can someone explain why Timothy Liljegren was selected by Niagara Ice Dogs in the CHL Import Draft. It makes no sense to me.

Drafting him just in case he ever decided to come play Major Junior, like the Leafs second round pick Rasanen, who was imported drafted by Kingston Frontenac. Whether or not Liljegren ever pans out to be an NHL star, he would definitely light up the OHL, so what the heck, maybe they didn't have any other import players which were of any interest to them, so they just burned the pick on a long shot. He can of course go straight to the A like Nylander did, but just on the off chance he might want to try a year of OHL first apparently.

Mind you, playing in the O would be smart of him, better NHL style coaching, if he was dominating that would just help his game get back on track, and CHL play would up his NHL stock considerably, as even tho boys, better league than Europe in terms of NHL style competition.

Rogle in Switzerland is a good development program, but nowhere near as fierce in terms of competition, game not as fast, players not a skilled.

If you look at Nylander v. Marner, similar elite level skill, Nylander better shot, Marner better vision, but Marner has the much more complete NHL game, even tho Nylander was a centre and Marner was winger, in the NHL, Marner could play centre right now, Nylander not so much.

[SilverEagle]

RIP Dave Semenko

Damn! Cancer Sucks!

[Smitty-48]

(Really? Jealous much?

Nah, not really, tbh, I don't care that much about the Stanley Cup anymore, my father is dead, so even were the Leafs to win the cup, there's nobody to celebrate it with, my wife doesn't really care, she would just say "oh well that's nice" and then move on two seconds later, so would be the ultimate in anticlimactic.

I'm just looking for some entertaining hockey to watch at this point, I'm more into the process now, if the Leafs are doing it right, that's all I ask, it's not about other teams taking things away from them, Leafs ownership has always been the problem, the franchise has always done it to itself, for the team to just stop doing that and start running things right, that's really all the fun I can get out of it now, there's nothing in a parade for me at this point, I wouldn't even go.

The thing that was bad about the Leafs, if you're a student of the game, is that they just failed to ever follow the process, so it was boring, no A to B, now that they have gotten off that circular track, they're already entertaining, whether or not they win the cup, that requires some considerable luck, in the end, getting the generational cornerstone like a Crosby or a McDavid or a Matthews, is just a product of the lottery balls, can do everything right and still not win, the bounces have to go your way, all they can do is just follow the process, if it culminated in a championship, good for them, but wouldn't actually do much for me, the next day I would just be back to the process, it's not like I win anything, if I had to expend all my luck downrange on something, I'd rather me win the Lotto Max than they win the cup.

I'm perfectly happy to see the Pens win the cup, it's not like they stole it from me, and I like Mario Lemieux, and he's personally invested, so better them than some American corporate owned team, and it's a hockey market, so better them than Carolina or Florida, as with most NHL teams, if/when they're not playing the Leafs, more power to them, I only ever root against one team continuously, and that's Montreal, Toronto doesn't have any rivalry with Pittsburg Pennsylvania.

[SilverEagle]

(Really? Jealous much?

Nah, not really, tbh, I don't care that much about the Stanley Cup anymore, my father is dead, so even were the Leafs to win the cup, there's nobody to celebrate it with, my wife doesn't really care, she would just say "oh well that's nice" and then move on two seconds later, so would be the ultimate in anticlimactic.

I'm just looking for some entertaining hockey to watch at this point, I'm more into the process now, if the Leafs are doing it right, that's all I ask, it's not about other teams taking things away from them, Leafs ownership has always been the problem, the franchise has always done it to itself, for the team to just stop doing that and start running things right, that's really all the fun I can get out of it now, there's nothing in a parade for me at this point, I wouldn't even go.

The thing that was bad about the Leafs, if you're a student of the game, is that they just failed to ever follow the process, so it was boring, no A to B, now that they have gotten off that circular track, they're already entertaining, whether or not they win the cup, that requires some considerable luck, in the end, getting the generational cornerstone like a Crosby or a McDavid or a Matthews, is just a product of the lottery balls, can do everything right and still not win, the bounces have to go your way, all they can do is just follow the process, if it culminated in a championship, good for them, but wouldn't actually do much for me, the next day I would just be back to the process, it's not like I win anything, if I had to expend all my luck downrange on something, I'd rather me win the Lotto Max than they win the cup.

I'm perfectly happy to see the Pens win the cup, it's not like they stole it from me, and I like Mario Lemieux, and he's personally invested, so better them than some American corporate owned team, and it's a hockey market, so better them than Carolina or Florida, as with most NHL teams, if/when they're not playing the Leafs, more power to them, I only ever root against one team continuously, and that's Montreal, Toronto doesn't have any rivalry with Pittsburg Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh not Pittsburg

[Smitty-48]

Whatevs, only ever been there once, wasn't too impressed, if America ever builds the coast to coast Autobahn, no doubt I'm going cannonball from New York to Los Angeles, but there's no cause to stop in Pittsburgh along the way, sort of the armpit of America.

Truth is, I pretty much hate the NHL now, there's only the Leafs keeping me paying any attention to it at all, I don't like the the way they play the game, I don't like the way they call the game, and I'm not spending money to buy tickets neither. I've become a much bigger Major Junior fan, after the Leafs are out, I stop watching the NHL, NHL playoffs are on, and I'm flipping to the Memorial Cup and World Championships, NHL hockey itself, is boring, the NHL I was raised on was a war on ice, now it's pretty much frozen soccer, if I want that, the competition is better in the IIHF, Canada v. Sweden was way better than any game played by Pens v. Preds, IIHF WC; those are the real super teams now, the cap era No Hit League is no longer the gold standard for excellence, was a time when the International game couldn't compare to the NHL, now it's the opposite.

The Stanley Cup Finals; just hour after hour of chip it in chip it out, until somebody gets a lucky bounce, all due respect to Crosby, he may be the greatest grinder of all time, but a Wayne Gretzky he cannot touch with a ten foot pole for entertainment value.

[SilverEagle]

Whatevs, only ever been there once, wasn't too impressed, if America ever builds the coast to coast Autobahn, no doubt I'm going cannonball from New York to Los Angeles, but there's no cause to stop in Pittsburgh along the way, sort of the armpit of America.

Truth is, I pretty much hate the NHL now, there's only the Leafs keeping me paying any attention to it at all, I don't like the the way they play the game, I don't like the way they call the game, and I'm not spending money to buy tickets neither. I've become a much bigger Major Junior fan, after the Leafs are out, I stop watching the NHL, NHL playoffs are on, and I'm flipping to the Memorial Cup and World Championships, NHL hockey itself, is boring, the NHL I was raised on was a war on ice, now it's pretty much frozen soccer, if I want that, the competition is better in the IIHF.

The Stanley Cup Finals; just hour after hour of chip it in chip it out, until somebody gets a lucky bounce, all due respect to Crosby, he may be the greatest grinder of all time, but a Wayne Gretzky he cannot touch with a ten foot pole for entertainment value.

That's because they don't call jack shit in the playoffs and if they do call shit you and your kind start screaming....this ain't hockey....but yet bitch and moan that it's boring chip in and chip out hockey (which it is). As I've said all along call the fucking playoff games like you do in the regular season and you'll have amazing hockey. It's not that hard but you Canadian's can't get that through your thick skulls. The team that can best adjust to jungle hockey from real hockey wins the cup. If you would like to see that change then the refs have to stop swallowing the whistles in the playoff. FYI the Great One's numbers would be just a little higher than Sid's (maybe, he was not a physical guy) if he played in this era and Mario's would be above both of them due to his physical size.

[Smitty-48]

Has nothing to do with us, that is all decided in New York, the problems you are kvetching about, comes from the American owners wanting to pander to the American fairweather fans, so they started messing with the rules, dictating how the refs would call the game, took the red line out, and banned the players from policing themselves, so that's all America, nobody in Canada ever had any complaints about the game as it was, nobody in Canada told New York to go and blow it up.

So now it's all chip it in chip it out, the refs don't know what a penalty is anymore, and it's open season on the star players, but don't brame us, roundeye, that was all done by the Americans in New York, Gary Bettman & Co.

[SilverEagle]

Has nothing to do with us, that is all decided in New York, the problems you are kvetching about, comes from the American owners wanting to pander to the American fairweather fans, so they started messing with the rules, dictating how the refs would call the game, took the red line out, and banned the players from policing themselves, so that's all America, nobody in Canada ever had any complaints about the game as it was, nobody in Canada told New York to go and blow it up.

So now it's all chip it in chip it out, the refs don't know what a penalty is anymore, and it's open season on the star players, don't brame us, roundeye, that was all done by the Americans in New York.

They took the red line out because of the trap since the refs we're not calling shit. Then after the lockout they called interference with the red line out and players could generate offense again. Now the NHL has reverted back from calling interference and boom you end up with a sub par team running the trap in the Eastern Conf Championship series.