NHL 2018-2019 Season - All Out Discussion

[sirmarkus]

I was watching the Florida Panthers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game last night and a couple of things just completely blew me away.

1. Florida Panthers have one of the worst defensive systems I've ever seen. How is it that a team with the likes of Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle so incapable of taking care of their own zone. The amount of time spent in their own zone by the Panthers was startling.

2. I was astonished to hear that if Roberto Luongo were to retire after this season, the Vancouver Canucks could stand to have a cap hit of about $4 million cap hit in 2019-2020 season and $8 million penalty in 2021. Similarly, if Shea Weber were to retire anytime soon, the Nashville Predators could be looking at a recapture penalty of a cap hit as high as $24 million in 2025-2026. Unbelievable!

Check out some of these numbers. Absolutely insane!

Roberto Luongo early retirement -> recapture penalty as cap hit

Shea Weber early retirement -> recapture penalty as a cap hit

I heard about the effects of Luongo retiring. That's wild!

If the Sharks lose tomorrow the Flames clinch the conference!

[Arfguy]

I heard about the effects of Luongo retiring. That's wild!

If the Sharks lose tomorrow the Flames clinch the conference!

And that just happened. Congratulations to the Flames. Man, San Jose looks lost without Joe Pavelski.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

My Flyers played like a team that can't wait for the season to end so they can hit the links after they were shut out 3-0 by the Rangers yesterday afternoon.

[sirmarkus]

Columbus managed to clinch a spot. Sorry to see a Canadian team miss out. Glad to see CLB make it too. Their GM can finally get a good nights sleep!

[Arfguy]

Columbus managed to clinch a spot. Sorry to see a Canadian team miss out. Glad to see CLB make it too. Their GM can finally get a good nights sleep!

Yeah, it does suck that Montreal didn't make the playoffs. They fought pretty hard at the end, but they lost a couple of crucial games where those points would have come in really handy.

However, they got a tremendous debut from Ryan Poehling. The young player scored a hat trick to tie the game up and then scored the winning goal in the shootouts. Quite a promising start to hopefully a long career.

Meanwhile, my Oilers got a huge scare last night with the injury to McDavid. The reports so far indicate that the leg is not broken, but he is not out of the woods yet. An MRI will reveal what condition his leg is in. He stood on his own without crutches or a cast, so that seems to be a good sign.

Leon Draisaitl just made a tremendous case for being one of the very best to be playing in the NHL after this season. He got 50 goals and a total of 105 points to finish off the season. The great thing about that is...he seemed to have really ramped up his production late in the season, on an Oilers team that struggles to score. This was a huge season for Leon and it makes me really excited to see what will happen next season.

A ton of firings happened. Florida Panthers let their coach go and is pursuing Quenneville. In fact, there are a lot of speculations that it is basically all but a done deal, at this point. I had expected Florida to make the playoffs this year. I checked the statistics and noticed that Aleksander Barkov had 93 points. It was shocking, because I always felt Barkov was a remarkable player, but didn't think he would be able to hit 90+ points. Both him and Jonathan Huberdeau began scoring in bunches. It was plainly obvious that the Panthers were missing a reliable goaltender, but sure...blame it on the coach. With rumours that Florida was big into Panarin and Bobrovsky prior to the deadline and you can see that the Atlantic division is going to be a tough one next season.

Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres let go of Phil Housley. I'll be honest, I don't know if what happened to the Sabres can be put on Housley. It almost seemed like the Sabres were playing above their heads when they hit that 10-game winning streak. Then the players started to under perform (Skinner had basically gone cold) and then they started losing again. I honestly don't know what that team needs, as they seemed pretty balanced.

Also, I just read that the LA Kings asked Edmonton for permission to speak to Todd McLellan. I personally blame McLellan for the Oilers season woes for one thing and one thing only: he seemed to give too many chances to Milan Lucic. Other than that, I thought he was doing a decent job with what he had. I hope he lands a coaching gig with LA and it is proven that he is a good coach, just didn't have a good team in Edmonton.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

No word as yet on the fate of interim coach Scott Gordon after the Flyers ended the season on a five game skid and looked like they couldn’t wait for the season to end and hit the links from how lackluster they looked in those defeats. I can’t imagine the front office taking the interim tag away from Gordon and bringing him back after how shitty they looked.

[Jackmando7]

I picked up a free yard sign, have my No-Name Pens jersey on, and a black and gold towel in hand.

LETS GO PENS!!!!!!!!

https://media.giphy.com/media/DqQhFf7nje2k0/giphy.gif

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Tampa strafed Columbus to the tune of three goals in the first period of their series.

[Jackmando7]

As much as it pains me to say it, Go Blue Jackets.

[sirmarkus]

Mike Smith is playing off the wall good tonight! And the Flames depth is proving to be the difference tonight.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Islanders beat Pittsburgh 4-1 to take a 3-0 stranglehold on their first round series and could send the Pens off to the golf course on Tuesday.

[Arfguy]

Mike Smith is playing off the wall good tonight! And the Flames depth is proving to be the difference tonight.

During the season I would have thought for sure Rittich was their guy. As the season was coming to a close, it was obvious the Flames wanted to go with Mike Smith. I have been wrong so far, since Smith has been playing really well. Yes, the series is tied 1-1, but through no fault on Smith's part.

Go Flames!

The Islanders beat Pittsburgh 4-1 to take a 3-0 stranglehold on their first round series and could send the Pens off to the golf course on Tuesday.

Yikes. Another thing I was wrong about. I thought Pittsburgh would win this series, but it is not looking like that will happen. Could it be that the Islanders are for real? I thought for sure Lehner's regular season was a fluke, given that he has not been a starter that was dependable until now. These playoffs are proving me wrong, as Lehner has been one of the strongest aspect of the Islanders' game.

I am also pretty intrigued as to how Colorado will proceed with the recent signing, Cale Makar. Will they play him in the next game? I am very excited to see what Makar can bring to the Avalanche.

[Arfguy]

WOW! Two trash performances by two different teams in one night.

First and foremost: WTF Washington? How do you expect to win a playoff game when you generate 8 shots in the last 40 minutes...1 shot only in the 2nd? Seriously. After what Ovechkin did, the Capitals should have been energized and pushing. They looked like they were all too comfortable not doing anything. They gave up last night. Absolutely atrocious.

Then Calgary followed up with their performance. The only player who showed up for the Flames was Mike Smith. If it wasn't for Smith, the score would have been like 10-2. Terrible.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay, owner of the best record in the league got swept out of the postseason like so much trash by Columbus after getting whacked 7-3 tonight. Talk about embarrassing! I’d be surprised if Lightning fans aren’t calling for head coach Jon Cooper’s head on a stick after that debacle.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Oh, yeah, almost forgot: the Flyers have hired Alain Vigneault as their next head coach.

Addendum: Pittsburgh was sent packing last night as they were swept by the Islanders.