Re: The NHL Thread
 

Theres obviously a lot of factors at play, including mason and kimmo coming back and playing at the level they can and the 1st line playing like they did early in the season. But they do have a shot.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yeah, I definitely wake up more than she does just to make sure she's still breathing. Which of course she is, but as you know every moment you can't have your eye directly on them is the scariest moment ever. My dog has done very well with her, which is a huge relief because he's rambunctious. But he's like her guardian now. As soon as she starts crying he starts panicking like, guys?!?!?! Do something?!?!?! It's adorable

Re: The NHL Thread
 

That's awesome about the dog. My sister's dog was/is crazy but when they had their first, the dog was totally cool with it. My cat, hated Griffin as soon as he came in the door and still does.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol :lol :lol

cats are awesome.

Also, would love the Flyers to make the playoffs this year.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Can't believe none of you are mentioning Florida. The Panthers are 2 points behind Boston. Could be a team that makes a big splash trade...... Kessel?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

wait, I'm just kidding. I can't root for the Flyers because if they don't win the Stanley Cup then they are just a complete failure, thanks Paul Holmgren.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol Florida (seriously, though, Lastpig is kinda right...lookout)

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Wait, you mean Tampa Bay, right?

I kid.

Florida has remained under-the-radar in making some really solid drafting decisions, with Aaron Ekblad being at the very top of the list. But Bjugstad, Barkov, Huberdeau, and Gudbrandson are all great young players coming up through the Florida system. Also, I may be in the minority in thinking this, but Luongo was a great acquisition.

They're headed in the right direction. Still need to shed some of that veteran dead weight, but they're getting there.

EDIT: Just looked at FLA's roster. Add Mitchell to the list of solid acquisitions, and Kulikov to promising young players. They're quietly assembling a really solid roster.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol glad to hear you've got a good attitude about it. The sleep will come, hang in there. Such a cool time.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

4 points out and are 4-4-2 in their last 10. They are there, but they need to put a streak together. For the Leafs to trade Kessel in the division, I'd think it would cost a lot, which FLA probably won't give up the other way either. Just my thoughts.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yeah, TOR would definitely want at least one of the youngsters I mentioned in my last post, along with a high pick.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I wasn't saying they're going to make a big playoff push. But they are right there. I just really like what they have done. Ekblad is awesome

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Many of you may already be using this site, but I'm bringing it up now in case you haven't.

http://nhlnumbers.com/

A good replacement now that capgeek is gone.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

It's alright. Better than nothing but capgeek was like a hockey nuts wet dream.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yep. Hence me using "good" instead of "great" or "perfect". It gets the job done when you wanna look at salaries, term, etc.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Girlfriend got me tickets to the pens wings game next month. May just be able to get her to wear a pens shirtsey

Re: The NHL Thread
 

If the Flyers were Pokemon. This is hilarious

http://philly.barstoolsports.com/aro...-were-pokemon/

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haha luke schenn's the best.

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Exactly what my one friend said hahahah

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also becca, I got some tissues for you to use after we take the lead in the third.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

getting ugly in pitt. ovie going to shoot a puck and hits letangs ankle, letang crashes into boards. pens not happy. haven seen replay to see of malicious.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yeah I'm not watching but I here it's getting a little out of control in the 3rd. Heard Ovie got away with something blatant then Letang got away with an even more blatant retaliation

edit: Kunitz with the retaliation, not Letang

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Not malicious but he should've been boxed. Crowds definitely letting him hear it.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

kuntiz cross checked ovie on the following face off

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Sounds like a Pens/Caps game to me

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I will take those tissues.

Letang couldn't skate, crashed into boards and over sold a non-injury. Kunitz cross checked ovechkin and Ovi just laughed at him. Penguins fan threw beer into caps bench almost hitting ovechkin.

Did the penguins not learn from Erhoff to not mess with Ovi. Dude is a beast


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Hate having to watch the game on Root. Announcers are atrocious


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Re: The NHL Thread
 

After the disappoinment of tonight, I'm just glad they are inducting Desjardins into the Flyers Hall Of Fame when I'm down there Thursday night.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Cool. I'll be there. It's my birthday too. Funny that's it the Sabres. They played the Flyers the night of my 21st birthday too.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Wait a Pens fan threw a beer into the Caps bench?

Come on Pittsburgh, you aren't Philadelphia

Re: The NHL Thread
 

not as bad as watching on csn. these guys are really bad.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

officiating really ruined this game. such a shame.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

CSN DC? Their regular is out sick tonight, Joe B. He's actually really awesome. Al Koken is filling in and he's quite possibly the most boring pxp guy ever. Laughlin is a goober but he's a lovable one.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Wish I was watching. Sounds like a fun game

Re: The NHL Thread
 

The only time I remember the Flyers crowd throwing beer at someone was in '98 when we played the Sabres. A guy poured an entire beer on Lindy Ruff's head. :lol:lol:lol

As for your immaculate Caps fans, they threw a pizza box at Joffrey Lupul after Game 7 of the '08 ECQF.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Nice! fully expecting them to bounce back.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol yeah I remember that 08 incident. Good stuff

On going 3-on-5, Root announcer: "If someone touches you at all, you fall. You dive." Lol. Stay classy


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Re: The NHL Thread
 

On the goalie interferences on csn: "Fleury gets barely touched and theres a penalty, meanwhile Holtby has been run and gone down a dozen times and nothing." LOL. Stay classy.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Love all the chirping in here tonight

Lol. Rattled much? Crosby charged at Holtby in the 2nd. No call.

Ovechkin should have gotten a 2 min slashing. But that's not why the Pens lost, Holtby was on point all game. That's why the Caps won


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Re: The NHL Thread
 

Agreed, Root announcers are horrendous. As great as it was beating the Penguins they way the Flyers did in the '11-'12 playoffs and being in State College for it, having to listen to the Root announcers call some of the games in that series was nauseating. We turned it on mute for one of the games I remember.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I heard Steve Downie was in full form tonight

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol:lol yes and that boarding on ward was clearly boarding.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

he scored and was in some scrums. nothing major really.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Heard he threw a punch to the back of Jack Hillen's head, just another scrum in his eyes I guess

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they were face to face. Hillen went down like he was shot.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Hillen does go down easily. No surprise there

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol Barbo, you're a good dude. Brohan has spoiled my view of caps fans but you're helping change that.

Holtby has been amazing against the Pens so far this year


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Re: The NHL Thread
 

My response would have been this: "First, who the fuck is Jack Hillen? And second, who the hell cares?"

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Thanks bud, I try

Little known fact about Jack Hillen: huge DMB guy. Been to many shows

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Wish I could say the same about my wife

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yeah, for real

Scored my first big 1st place on FanDuel tonight. 1st out of 389 http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...6411aea451.jpg


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Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol:lol

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Because you punch like a girl?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

CBJ owned the flyers this year.

they're 11 points behind Boston with a game in hand, should i have any hope?

next 3 are @PIT @MTL and @NYR so that will probably officially finish them off.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Ovie is a real piece of shit, isn't he?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yeah, he's pretty reckless.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Pens can't score to save their life

Ovie acts a fool

Pens get the lesser of the PP time, again

just another tuesdsay night in the Metro

Re: The NHL Thread
 

i actually developed a soft spot for him as a human being at the all star game.
hate him as a hockey player though.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol i don't give a fuck about him as a "person"

he's a danger to everyone on the ice most nights

Re: The NHL Thread
 

:lol :lol :lol

You mad?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

of course i'm mad, he acts like a jackass then plays dumb after the game? what an asshat

i don't care about the loss, a 5-on-3 PP with under 5 mins left is a gift wrapped win for the Caps, i care about Ovie blatantly trying to injure

it never ends with him

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Before I jump in let me actually watch a highlight package of the game. Still haven't seen any tape of last night's events

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Alright. Some thoughts.

-Ovie's play was pretty reckless. No doubt. There's hasn't been as much of that from him this year as there has been in the past, but that didn't look good. Should've been penalized.

-If the Pens don't wanna go down 3 on 5 at the end of the game, perhaps they shouldn't lose their cool quite so easily. That's a very easily rattled hockey team. Letang' slash on Marcus Johannson that made it 5 on 3 was really dumb on Letang's part.

-Holtby's breakout season is finally here. Good god.

-Nick Backstrom continues to be the best passer and most under appreciated player in the entire league.

-Steve Downie continues to be one of my least favorite players in the league.

-Can't wait till next Wednesday night. Should be another fun one.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

There's a lot of deserved critique about how Ovie conducts himself on the ice, but Becs is spot on here. He does a lot of really good stuff off the ice. He's an asset to the community up there in DC. You won't even have to look very hard to find many examples of what I'm talking about. And he's always been that way.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

the Kunitz boarding was ticky-tack IMO. sure, Letang's was a slash, but as i said, the result doesn't really matter to the penguins. i think they responded appropriately and weren't really rattled. they felt slighted since Ovie should've gotten at least 2 minutes, if not more.

i'll take a loss + standing up for your teammate any night with this team. the pens are making the playoffs and thats all that matters

Ovie should be fined and given at least a game suspension IMO. he used his stick as a weapon and has a reputation/history of being dirty.

all in all, i hate the NHL. it's the worst thing to happen to hockey maybe ever

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Ovie's play was reckless, but it's not suspension worthy. The argument can be made that he was going for the puck, which was in Letang's feet. I'll agree it was a bad play, but I think calling for a suspension is a bit of a stretch

Re: The NHL Thread
 

And you're right, the boarding call was ticky tacky. But since it happened, probably the one thing you shouldn't do is commit a blatant and stupid penalty when it's a tie game with less than 5 minutes left. Can't blame the refs for Letang being stupid

Re: The NHL Thread
 

shut your mouth, penis cannon.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

the argument cannot be made that he was going for the puck

i've been watching hockey for 20+ years and have never seen someone "go for the puck" by 2-hand, baseball swinging their stick at a guy's ankles, no matter where the puck is

it's a fucking garage league, and it always will be as long as plays like Ovie's are not punished. it's kind of embarrassing.

and don't get me wrong, i know Ovie isn't the only guy that does this, and i know the penguins are guilty from time to time as well, its just the most recent incident which is why im highlighting it.

the NHL is a terrible product right now

Re: The NHL Thread
 

i already addressed the bolded....but again, the result is not the issue here, i'm not complaining about the loss...

if we wanna go there though, we can. IMO, the penguins might be one of a handful of teams that gets that boarding call against them with 5 mins left in a tie game

it was a hard hit right into the chest and it basically gave the Caps the game. Sure, the Pens should kill the penalty, but in most games, the whistles get swallowed there

Re: The NHL Thread
 

The pens get the obligatory powerplay with five minutes left in the game.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

The Capitals got a 2 man advantage with 5 minutes left, not the Penguins

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yeah, I'll concede. It's a reckless play that looks bad. Two handed baseball bat swing is a correct description of the play

Whether the boarding call was soft or not (it was) the fact remains the Pens exacerbated their own problem by taking a dumb and blatant slashing call right afterwards to make it 5 on 3. 5 on 4s are much easier to kill, obviously. I would say THAT is what gave the Caps the game, not the boarding call. That part is on them, not on the guys blowing the whistle

Of course, I don't believe one single play determines the outcome of any game ever, and really the biggest reason the Caps won is Braden Holtby

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Also, let's not pretend like the Pens didn't get a power play of their own at the end of the game. They did.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

The Caps won because they were better on special teams, and props to them for that

what i'm really mad about is there was a great 2 periods of hockey being played between division rivals, and then the 3rd period turned into a circus for a number of reasons, starting with the slash. IMO, if the refs see it, and call it, or teams are able to challenge and call for a review, the ensuing bullshit can be avoided.

this all goes back to the good old canadian boys running the league who don't want it to change. its hurting the product

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yea, they did...but again, i couldn't care less about the result. the loss is whatever, its the product that keeps suffering

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I know, but didn't the Pens get a powerplay after that too?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yea with 2 mins left

damage was already done though

Re: The NHL Thread
 

H2P, you're making a lot of good points. It does seem as if the league is almost encouraging this circus nonsense that happens basically every time two rivals play one another. It's a joke and it holds hockey back amongst the big 4 sports in this country

Re: The NHL Thread
 

also, i might add, i really miss Brooks Orpik :(

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Saw the Ovechkin replay. That's an obvious slash. :lol

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yea no 2 ways around that one

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Of course it was a slash, but suspension worthy? Still think that's a stretch

Re: The NHL Thread
 

It's been an absolute pleasure watching him this year, I don't care what the fancy stats say

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Orpik's the type of player whose contributions often can't be measured by stats.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Exactly. Yet the fancy stat advocates will tell you he's been the Caps worst player all season. It's hogwash.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Anytime Corsi is brought up as a principal point of discussion around a player's abilities, my eyes glaze over. Not that it's not an interesting stat and can provide some insight into players and teams, but it seems to be the en vogue thing for hockey writers to base a lot of their arguments on. It feels like an excuse to not actually watch them play and just look at their stats.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Bingo. Especially when we're talking about a stay at home defenseman. Corsi and Fenwick don't do those kinds of players justice

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I actually turned the game off when it started going the circus route in the third period. The Pens just simply lost it. My nickel's worth is that Ovie's play was ugly whether or not he was going for the puck as he claims. There wasn't a tree in the way, so he did not need to take a two-handed swing like that.

But I also agree that the Pens are easily rattled. They were playing well that game, and Fleury was again standing on his head. And then they totally lost their cool. The best revenge would have been to win the game and put more distance between them and the Caps in the standings. But no, they had to keep trying to "make a statement" and putting themselves on the short end of a 5-3 in the process.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Nah not suspension-worthy but should have been a penalty.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I notice this a lot when I watch the Pens. Very easily rattled hockey team

Absolutely

Re: The NHL Thread
 

i completely disagree

the Pens didn't need that win, the regular season is a time to work things out for the penguins. i'll take a loss coupled with a response of standing up for Letang any night

Bylsma's penguins would've melted and crawled into a shell instead of standing up for themselves

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I really don't see the 'rattled' this season. Someone took a penalty with minutes left. Every team does stuff like that. Its not like Letang went crazy and swung his stick at the dude. Also, that pens penalty at the end was so clearly an even up call.

Also, I loved what Kunitz and Perron, then Lapierre did after the incident. This game could be a catalyst for the rest of the season.

The PP is so bad, that last one was really a microcosm for how it has been. Too much perimeter passing

Re: The NHL Thread
 

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2...rd-day-to-day/

big blow to the Jets.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

yep i loved their response. forget the 2 points, send a message

and don't even get me started on the PP...Crosby needs to shoot the damn puck when he has an open look...PP should look like this:

Crosby: down low/goal line
Malkin: half wall/right circle
Perron: net front
Letang: left point/left circle
Pouliot/Martin: Right point

i'm tired of the tinkering, Tocchet needs to step it up