NHL 2017-2018 - All Out Discussion

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Watched the Rangers top Boston 4-2 last night. King Henrik was in fine wine form in net. I just LOVE watching a great goalie at the top of his game.

[The Whovian]

Watched the Rangers top Boston 4-2 last night. King Henrik was in fine wine form in net. I just LOVE watching a great goalie at the top of his game.

Same here (unless we're playing against them )

[Arfguy]

Looks like the Senators are doing well with Matt Duchene in the line-up. I think he may have gotten an assist on today's game, but the Senators beat Colorado both games in Sweden.

No surprise here, but the Oilers lost to the New York Rangers. The team can't generate too many scoring chances and their penalty kill is absolutely atrocious. Bright side? Jesse Puljujarvi scored in his first game and seems to be a pure shooter, which is something the Oilers sorely need. Now Maclellan just needs to realize you can't have slow-ass Milan Lucic on the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' left wing and maybe they might get a couple of scoring lines going.

It is basically desperation time for the Oilers to make a move if they want to climb out of the cellar.

[The Whovian]

No surprise here, but the Oilers lost to the New York Rangers. The team can't generate too many scoring chances and their penalty kill is absolutely atrocious.

It's the opposite for my Hawks. Our PK has been great, but our PP is complete garbage. I don't understand it either. I don't get how we're not scoring more goals than we are, for that matter. I mean, how does a team with Kane, Saad, Toews, Sharp, Panik and others not score more? It's like the whole team is going through a drought at the same time.

[Arfguy]

It's the opposite for my Hawks. Our PK has been great, but our PP is complete garbage. I don't understand it either. I don't get how we're not scoring more goals than we are, for that matter. I mean, how does a team with Kane, Saad, Toews, Sharp, Panik and others not score more? It's like the whole team is going through a drought at the same time.

It's a solid line-up, but it almost seems like the team is lacking a spark. That would be my guess. No way that much talent can be about a .500 team. It almost seems like Stan Bowman may have to do something even more drastic than the Panarin-for-Saad trade. I thought for sure that would be the shake-up the Hawks needed.

I dunno, Whovian...both are teams are doing poorly. I think I understand why my team is doing poorly. They have one-dimensional scoring. Our defence core cannot seem to generate scoring chances and our forwards are slow.

I am at a loss as to why the Hawks are struggling.

[The Whovian]

It's a solid line-up, but it almost seems like the team is lacking a spark. That would be my guess. No way that much talent can be about a .500 team. It almost seems like Stan Bowman may have to do something even more drastic than the Panarin-for-Saad trade. I thought for sure that would be the shake-up the Hawks needed.

Well, they said before the season started that with Hossa on LTIR, they would have about $5 mil to make an addition to the team if needed. It's still early, but they should be looking at acquiring another good scorer. Our defense and goal tending has been great to outstanding, so that's not the problem.

Bowman needs to use that money to get a great piece to add to the team. And Q needs to stop with the line blender. Everytime they struggle for a couple games, he starts moving guys up and down the lines. It's stupid. Let the players get comfortable playing next to each other and time to mesh. I could see if they were struggling for a month, but he started the blender up after a five game stretch where they weren't scoring a lot. That's not enough games to start worrying and fretting over.

IMO, the lines should be this and stick with it (unless they acquire another forward):

1st line Toews/Saad/Panik
2nd line Kane/Schmaltz/DeBrincat
3rd line Hartman/Anisimov/Sharp
4th line Bouma/Wingels/Hayden

For some reason, Q has made Hayden a healthy scratch tonight *smh*

[Arfguy]

Well, they said before the season started that with Hossa on LTIR, they would have about $5 mil to make an addition to the team if needed. It's still early, but they should be looking at acquiring another good scorer. Our defense and goal tending has been great to outstanding, so that's not the problem.

Bowman needs to use that money to get a great piece to add to the team. And Q needs to stop with the line blender. Everytime they struggle for a couple games, he starts moving guys up and down the lines. It's stupid. Let the players get comfortable playing next to each other and time to mesh. I could see if they were struggling for a month, but he started the blender up after a five game stretch where they weren't scoring a lot. That's not enough games to start worrying and fretting over.

IMO, the lines should be this and stick with it (unless they acquire another forward):

1st line Toews/Saad/Panik
2nd line Kane/Schmaltz/DeBrincat
3rd line Hartman/Anisimov/Sharp
4th line Bouma/Wingels/Hayden

For some reason, Q has made Hayden a healthy scratch tonight *smh*

Maybe the cap will go up a little more significantly next season to allow for some relief for the Hawks.

Also, they made a nice comeback win last night. Good on them. Although, I am surprised to see Carolina perform so poorly, thus far. I thought the Hurricanes would be a lot better this year. Their defence core is one of the most highly-touted in the NHL, yet they are constantly getting scored on. I don't think it's their goaltending either, as Darling has been doing a pretty steady job of keeping them in games.

[The Whovian]

Maybe the cap will go up a little more significantly next season to allow for some relief for the Hawks.

Also, they made a nice comeback win last night. Good on them. Although, I am surprised to see Carolina perform so poorly, thus far. I thought the Hurricanes would be a lot better this year. Their defence core is one of the most highly-touted in the NHL, yet they are constantly getting scored on. I don't think it's their goaltending either, as Darling has been doing a pretty steady job of keeping them in games.

Yeah, that was a nice come from behind win. We won with our backup goalie, so that's always nice. And we beat Darling, so that made the win even sweeter. I would have been ticked if we lost to him. Saad had the nice GWOTG

[Arfguy]

That was a nice goal.

Did you see that save by Bobrovsky on Andreas Athanasiou last night? WOW!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Speaking of the above, my Flyers made Devan Dubnyk look like Jacques Plante in a 1-0 shutout loss to Minnesota last night. URGH!

[Arfguy]

Speaking of the above, my Flyers made Devan Dubnyk look like Jacques Plante in a 1-0 shutout loss to Minnesota last night. URGH!

It's funny, because the Wild are one of many teams where it is hard to figure out where the problems lie. For them, only Jason Zucker and Eric Staal seem to be scoring. Their defence core has not been hit with injuries, as far as I know, but they've lost some games due to giving up untimely goals. Now, Dubnyk has a shutout in 2 games straight. WTF?

[Arfguy]

Watching the highlights from the Lightning vs. Ducks game...gotta give credit to the Ducks. They kept a high-scoring team like Tampa Bay to 2 goals and John Gibson made 2 or 3 amazing saves. I am thinking that the Anaheim team is gonna soar when Getzlaf and Kesler get back in the line-up.

[The Whovian]

So these are my 2017 Hawks. They scored 4 goals in the first period and held a 4-1 lead heading into the second period. Great right? NJ proceeded to score 5 unanswered goals and went on to beat my Hawks 7-5.

They have been struggling to score goals lately and the one game they score 5, Crow decides to have his worst game of the year. Sickening. smh

[Arfguy]

So these are my 2017 Hawks. They scored 4 goals in the first period and held a 4-1 lead heading into the second period. Great right? NJ proceeded to score 5 unanswered goals and went on to beat my Hawks 7-5.

They have been struggling to score goals lately and the one game they score 5, Crow decides to have his worst game of the year. Sickening. smh

That was a tough loss, man.

Anyone else laughing their ass off with how average the Dallas Stars are? Ken Hitchcock is a lousy choice for this team. They should have gone with someone like Alain Vignault, who can actually guide a team with high scoring potential.

[Arfguy]

Ok, this whole thing with Vegas and their goaltenders...someone definitely cursed this team. My guess is someone wanted Marc-Andre Fleury from Pittsburgh and George McPhee denied them, so they placed a curse on the Golden Knights goalies.