Hockey Talk NHL

[thetrailboss]

Well, Bruins played well despite a last-stretch comeback attempt by the Panthers. Good to see them tighten back up.

 

[Scottyskis2]

LGR! LET'S REBOUND TONIGHT AND TAKE A COMMANDING 3-1 SERIES LEAD!

 

[Scottyskis2]

I really hope these guys find their heart. They've fallen way far from their style of play in the first two games. They had drive, desire, they finished all of their checks, they constantly put the pressure on the Devils, and they were much more creative with their plays. These past 2 games we've gone back to last year's predictable formula: let's get across the blue line, do a button hook, cross-ice pass that defenses can see coming from a mile away. We get shut down every time. I love Gallant but he needs a different game plan because this isn't working at all. Jersey made their adjustments and that's why they've won the last 2 in our house. We have to throw the body more (hit everyone every chance we get) and move north-south puck movement.

 

[Scottyskis2]

Back to Newark for Game 5. LET’S GO RANGERS!!! ⚪️

 

[LoafSkier19]

What an incredibly disappointing game as a bruins fan last night. The panthers just seem to have way more energy throughout the game while the bruins seemed gassed towards the end of each period

 

[JimG.]

Rangers force a game 7.

 

[thetrailboss]

Bruins out. My season is over early. Yet again. Watching the last game, I kept saying to myself, “I’ve seen this movie way too many times before. And it always ends the same way with the Bruins losing.“

 

[ne_skier]

Disgusting no-show in Game 7 from the Rangers. Gerard Gallant's seat is so hot right now his rear end is already medium-rare. Absolutely no excuses. Most talent this team has seen in 30 years thrown aside. No chemistry, no drive. Brutally outcoached. Unfortunately GM Drury and Igor can't carry this team to a cup on their own, so expect a long summer with important decisions

 

[Scottyskis2]

Disgusting no-show in Game 7 from the Rangers. Gerard Gallant's seat is so hot right now his rear end is already medium-rare. Absolutely no excuses. Most talent this team has seen in 30 years thrown aside. No chemistry, no drive. Brutally outcoached. Unfortunately GM Drury and Igor can't carry this team to a cup on their own, so expect a long summer with important decisions

Agreed 1000 %

 

[ne_skier]

Way too early postseason predictions:

-Miller and Lafreniere resigned to similar bridge deals. Both have shown promise this season and their respective flashes of brilliance, but there are too many gaps in their respective games to lock them down long-term.
-Motte resigned. He is one of the most underrated deadline acquisitions and represents a huge bottom-6 scoring threat.
-Whether Kane and/or Tarasenko stay with the team is, for the most part, up to them. I'm sure Drury would be happy to slide them a contract, but keeping the kids around takes priority over them. They'd have to take very-much team friendly deals in order to stick around. Both have shown a desire to play with the team, but if I had to guess, I'd say Kane is more likely to hang around.
-With Mikkola, it depends. If Jones or another young defenseman is ready to come up and play with Schneider, he's in and Mikkola's out. If they need more time to develop, Mikkola gets another year.
-Halak teased retirement in a NY Post article earlier in the season, but he hasn't yet made a decision. After the team turned itself around in December, Halak started performing great, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him resigned in the offseason. I wouldn't expect it to be long term given his age - at 37 he's among the NHL's oldest. If he's done, perhaps a Domingue call-up?

I fully expect major coaching changes, quite possibly including Gerard Gallant. This team will certainly ice a roster in October that is worse on paper than the one they have now, and if they couldn't get this group going, I'm not sure what group they could do it with. The only question is who replaces him? Very limited coaching market in the NHL, whoever you're hiring just got fired by another team not so long ago.

 

[4aprice]

LETS GO DEVILS

 

[joshua segal]

Bruins out. My season is over early. Yet again. Watching the last game, I kept saying to myself, “I’ve seen this movie way too many times before. And it always ends the same way with the Bruins losing.“

Time for an old joke: Did you hear that the Boston Bruins are moving to the Philippines where they will be renamed, "the Manila Folders"?

 

[ne_skier]

Good article by an insider:

Eight Burning Questions facing the NHL’s Eight Eliminated Round 1 teams

A topsy-turvy Round 1 is just the beginning of the turbulence for some of the NHL’s opening round exits.

www.dailyfaceoff.com

Some questions that stood out:
NYR: Will Gallant survive as head coach?
WPG: What will the Jets do with Vezina-winner Hellebuyck?
BOS: Will Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci return for another run with the Bruins?

 

[cdskier]

Disgusting no-show in Game 7 from the Rangers. Gerard Gallant's seat is so hot right now his rear end is already medium-rare. Absolutely no excuses. Most talent this team has seen in 30 years thrown aside. No chemistry, no drive. Brutally outcoached. Unfortunately GM Drury and Igor can't carry this team to a cup on their own, so expect a long summer with important decisions

The Devils wanted that game more right from the start. Loved watching the fire in the Devils. I was actually a little worried in the 3rd period when they seemed to start playing too conservatively with the lead. Knocking out the Rangers is always sweet as a Devils fan though (especially since I have a decent amount of family that are Rangers fans).

 

[ne_skier]

It's only been a week and it seems the offseason is in full swing for NYR. After only two seasons coaching the team, Gerard Gallant is out. Although this is the 4th team he's coached where he failed to finish 3 seasons, I have to imagine he'll find a job elsewhere should he want one.

After the firing, the search for a new head coach is on. It's apparently unlikely to see the team hire Chicago's old Coach Q after the Kyle Beach scandal or Darryl Sutter after being a locker room nightmare in Calgary. The 3 most likely candidates I've heard are:

• Andrew Brunette, Devils assistant coach and former Panthers interim head coach who led them to last season's Presidents Trophy
• Kris Knoblauch, current AHL Hartford head coach who's in the midst of a deep playoff run with a team that hasn't qualified since 2015
• Peter Laviolette, former HC of Washington and Nashville, arguably the safest option but one without an impressive postseason record.

 

[4aprice]

Observations from the 2nd round.

As someone who follows the not just the team (NJD in my case) but the sport it is not surprising to me to see Carolina and Florida. These 2 teams took off at the beginning of the prior season and Florida won the Presidents Trophy last year. Both are strong.

The happiest fans I've run into are the Montreal Canadian fans. Got a coworker who's one and he's just taken delight in how all the big boys have been taken down. Let me know the Devils had lost and I know he's even happier with the implosion in Toronto last night.

Nothing against either Florida or Carolina (would be more interested if it was still the Whale) but I will be interested to see the tv ratings with so many big markets (and fan bases) eliminated. Lose Edmonton and you lose Canada. A Fla/Carolina - Vegas final may not be so well watched.

 

[ne_skier]

A very strange round indeed. As a NYR fan, I expected whoever won our series to go to the conference final. Carolina looked pretty banged up going into the playoffs, missing Pacioretty and Svechnikov and nearly falling out of the #1 spot. As someone living in New Jersey though, I have to say this outcome is slightly more dignifying, haha. No hard feelings

One thing that helped define the series was goaltending troubles. Whether it was because they couldn't carry their teams (Sorokin, Shesterkin, Gustavsson), they fell to injury (Ullmark) or perhaps the lights were too bright (Hellebuyck, Vasilevskiy), most of the league's top goaltenders didn't make it past the first round. With the exception of a surprise Bobrovsky resurgence, I can't say any team's goaltending has been particularly good this time around. Even goalies who stole the show in the first round like Oettinger, Grubauer, and Schmid have been somewhere between inconsistent and consistently bad during this round. In the Devils' case, running a goalie tandem where the starting goalie never finished above a .900 sv% before being pulled/the game ending seriously cost them.

As for the matchups in general, if anyone argues that Bettman/the league favors big market or Original Six teams, just show them this coming Eastern Conference Final. Disregarding what happens in the West, not a single major market team will be making an appearance here. Not only that, but should Edmonton and Seattle lose, every remaining team will be based in the Southern US - a place that doesn't really contribute to NHL TV ratings all that much. Does your average Maple Leafs or Blackhawks fan care who wins in a final between Florida and Vegas? I'm not at all saying these runs aren't deserved - the odds were against them and they've proved themselves - just super unexpected. My bracket (below) was in shambles after the first round alone. Will be interesting to see how this next round plays out.

 

[cdskier]

One thing that helped define the series was goaltending troubles. Whether it was because they couldn't carry their teams (Sorokin, Shesterkin, Gustavsson), they fell to injury (Ullmark) or perhaps the lights were too bright (Hellebuyck, Vasilevskiy), most of the league's top goaltenders didn't make it past the first round. With the exception of a surprise Bobrovsky resurgence, I can't say any team's goaltending has been particularly good this time around. Even goalies who stole the show in the first round like Oettinger, Grubauer, and Schmid have been somewhere between inconsistent and consistently bad during this round. In the Devils' case, running a goalie tandem where the starting goalie never finished above a .900 sv% before being pulled/the game ending seriously cost them.

In the Devils' case, I'm hesitant to put so much blame on goaltending. Sure they let up a decent amount of goals in the games they lost...but the games the Devils lost were also games where they barely scored. You can't expect to win a lot of games when you put up only 1-2 goals in the game. And considering that NJD was the 3rd highest scoring team in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, the fact that didn't carry over into the playoffs is the bigger issue to me. They averaged over 3.5 goals a game in the regular season. Against the Canes they only put up more than 2 goals in a single game. In 3 of the losses they put up a single goal. That lack of scoring puts a lot of extra pressure on the goalie. Yes, Vanecek should have played better in the playoffs, but maybe he would have if the Devils scored more points. Schmid is young so I have a hard time criticizing his play too much against the Canes. I still think there's some good potential there for him to become a top level goaltender with more experience.

 

[4aprice]

In the Devils' case, I'm hesitant to put so much blame on goaltending. Sure they let up a decent amount of goals in the games they lost...but the games the Devils lost were also games where they barely scored. You can't expect to win a lot of games when you put up only 1-2 goals in the game. And considering that NJD was the 3rd highest scoring team in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, the fact that didn't carry over into the playoffs is the bigger issue to me. They averaged over 3.5 goals a game in the regular season. Against the Canes they only put up more than 2 goals in a single game. In 3 of the losses they put up a single goal. That lack of scoring puts a lot of extra pressure on the goalie. Yes, Vanecek should have played better in the playoffs, but maybe he would have if the Devils scored more points. Schmid is young so I have a hard time criticizing his play too much against the Canes. I still think there's some good potential there for him to become a top level goaltender with more experience.

As a Devil fan I do not believe we have the goalie to win the cup yet. Much of that doubt comes from years of watching Brodeur and never having to worry about what was going on in goal. If Schmid is the answer he's going to have to play a lot more during the season and prove himself. Bobrovski (sp ?) is the most impressive in this years playoffs

 

[cdskier]

As a Devil fan I do not believe we have the goalie to win the cup yet. Much of that doubt comes from years of watching Brodeur and never having to worry about what was going on in goal. If Schmid is the answer he's going to have to play a lot more during the season and prove himself. Bobrovski (sp ?) is the most impressive in this years playoffs

I agree Schmid needs to play a lot more during the regular season and prove himself. However from a purely numbers perspective, Schmid's numbers this year really aren't too different from Brodeur's in his first season in terms of GAA and SV%. The big difference is Schmid played a lot less games so you don't have enough data to fully evaluate how he'll do with more playing time. Maybe he could be the next Brodeur. Maybe not. Time will tell...I liked what I saw from him in some of the games. If he can make those impressive games become consistent...that will be the key.

Even looking at GAA and SV% in the playoffs this year, Schmid ranks 6th in both. It is really hard to say he didn't do well overall. The Bobrovsky comment is interesting too. His SV% and GAA are worse than Schmid's overall in the playoffs (although his numbers in round 2 were excellent). Against Toronto he only let up 2 goals a game, but against Boston he let up 3-5 goals in 4 games. He still won 3 of those 4 because Florida scored 4-7 goals themselves in those 3. If Florida doesn't put up so many goals against Boston in those games, you wouldn't be talking about Bobrovsky being impressive in the playoffs this year. That said, I'm rooting for Florida to take down the Canes. So hopefully Bobrovsky's success against Toronto carries over to this next round.