Originally Posted by Lcsulla (Post 16390412)

I hope so too. The kid is one of this years young crop who has the potential to be an impact player like McDavid, Panarin, Larkin, Gostisbehere, Eichel, Gibson and Domi.

Also, Eric Fehr will be back on familiar ice tomorrow after playing 10 seasons in Washington before being moved to Pittsburgh.

Edit: should have added Parayko to the list of potential impact players who started their NHL career's this season. Also curious if Trevor van Riemsdyk gets any votes, he is eligible for the Calder and had a damn solid season.

Originally Posted by fonzz41 (Post 16390561)

IMO, behind Pietrangelo (who was AMAZING in the Chicago series), Parayko was STL's second best defenseman. You can tell he's still learning, but immense talent. I'm impressed by his vision, especially in the neutral zone, and his speed... which is really quite remarkable considering his size.

Originally Posted by aeroshady (Post 16390800)

Second Round Picks:

TBD in 4, 5, 6 or 7.

Originally Posted by Lcsulla (Post 16390783)

EDIT: Again my guess is that Letang, Doughty or Burns will get the Norris due to their points rather than their defense.

Originally Posted by Lcsulla (Post 16390798)

Is Lockman on a Lockout? :lol

Originally Posted by fonzz41 (Post 16390892)

I agree that it would be cool to see some of the more unsung defensive heroes of the league win the Norris. There's some hardcore defensemen that do an amazing job every night and never get noticed because of the nature of their game, which only gets noticed when they screw up.

However, we live in a really cool time right now where the best defensemen in the league are REALLY good ALL-AROUND defensemen. The perennial Norris nominees - Doughty, Weber, Keith, Letang, Karlsson - all have great offensive instincts, yes, but all are REALLY good at playing their position as well. Add in those that maybe aren't getting nominated but are arguably just as effective: Ekman-Larsson, Carlson, Pietrangelo, Vatanen, Ekblad, Kulikov (this kid is GOOD, BTW), Shattenkirk, Leddy, Suter, Goligoski, Josi, Alzner, Seabrook, Bouwmeester, Klingberg, Giordano, Hedman, Brodie, Muzzin, Vlasic, Reilly, McDonagh... I could go on, but you get the point

Watch Doughty play one-on-one with a guy; his instincts and anticipation are so undeniably good in his own zone it's scary; his positioning is also key, and he uses his stellar skating ability to make sure he's everywhere he needs to be. He absolutely deserves to be on the Norris ballot almost every season. And it's so true with all the good defensemen in the league.

Of the "star" defensemen out there today, I'm not overly impressed by Burns' play in his own zone... lazy comes to mind. And of course there's PK Subban, who's about as bad a defenseman as there could be. I would've been iffy on Letang 3 years ago, but he's steadily improved in his own zone to the point that I have no hesitation including him in that upper echelon of well-rounded defensemen.

Back 10 years ago and beyond, the hybrid of offense and defense in a defenseman's game was the anomaly. Only a select few could do it with any sort of skill. Guys like Bourque, Lidstrom, Blake, and Scotty Jesus Niedermayer. They were the exception - the jewel - rather than the norm. Instead, there was more contrast between the skill sets - The offensive defenseman was very offensive... Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis (yes, MacInnis got better in his own zone as he aged, but was never that great), and the defensive defensemen had very little offensive skill. Or if they did, they didn't use it because it was an offensive defenseman's "job". For example, Adam Foote actually had some decent offensive skills, but he never used them because that was Sandis Ozolinsh's job or it was Rob Blake's job, or it was Ray Bourque's job.

We see very little of that among the star NHL defensemen today. Almost every NHL team has at least one of those all-around guys that can do it all, and that's very encouraging. :thumbsup

Nice one. But seriously, I know he's moving to Dallas for work, so he's probably busy with all that.

Originally Posted by UCFish (Post 16390918)

Lockman always goes missing when the Hawks are done....Win or Lose he will reappear eventually.

Originally Posted by trd1610 (Post 16391012)

Really poor showing tonight. Just embarrassing. Layoff clearly wasn't a good thing for this team.

Originally Posted by aeroshady (Post 16391083)

Anyone know why the games are not on the nbc sports app?

Originally Posted by Climb2safety (Post 16391130)

Bruce B....1-6 in game 7s.

I feel your pain. (Spoken as a haggled Bill Clinton.)

Originally Posted by unccrombie (Post 16391156)

C-a-p----oh wait

Originally Posted by dmbetc (Post 16391196)

Hey Chad!! Keep it up Preds!