Official 13-14 NHL Regular Season Thread

[philou21]

http://images.wildammo.com/wp-content/u ... cently.gif

ROFL Man that one is freaking awesome where do you guys find those things.

[Primis]

http://images.wildammo.com/wp-content/u ... cently.gif

ROFL Man that one is freaking awesome where do you guys find those things.

I follow hockey people on Twitter and read around on team blogs. A good GIF makes the rounds pretty quickly in those places, and in this case they stick out in my mind so I can just Google image search for them to dig it back up. The Thornton one is apparently searched for enough that Google literally autocompleted "JOE THORNTON LIGHTSABRE" for me, which is both impressive and kinda' terrifying.

[philou21]

Muller fired in Carolina. Seems like Francis didn't liked his coach that much....except Brind'Amour. Looks like Edmonton to me.

[Primis]

Muller fired in Carolina. Seems like Francis didn't liked his coach that much....except Brind'Amour. Looks like Edmonton to me.

You look at what Carolina has, and that they still somehow missed the playoffs in a weak East, in still the weakest division in the league.... and I'm not surprised. CAR can be better. Let's see what Francis does.

[philou21]

Carolina doesn't have that much I think. Except from Staal brothers, Skinner and Semin when he wants to play they don't have that much offense. In defense they have Faulk who is good but not a Weber or Doughty kinda guy. Hainsey can be ok, Sekera too but Liles, Komisarek suck and Pitkanen could be their best d-men if he wasn't such an injury prone. Ward was looking better in the past as well.

I don't see where it's a problem that they missed the playoffs in a weak division, they're part of the weaker team. The Pens are good and the Rags as well. Philly and Columbus are way better than them as well. Washington, despite his stats, have Ovy and Backstrom and those two are better than Staal and Skinner. There's just New Jersey that I think the Canes could've passed. Islanders without Tavares injury could've passed them as well but without Moulson AND Vanek now they are on the same level almost.

[jesterx7769]

Unfortunately the Hurricanes are in a bit of a weird spot but I think they can bounce back. They have some very good positive things that make you laugh at the notion of rebuilding but then you look on the other side and see a lot of holes.

It seems Khudobin and Peters are the future in goal, not sure if they will try to move Ward and his money.

Staal's are still young enough to contribute for years so its not like their core is old.

Lindholm finally started coming around for them towards end of the year.

They really need help at D though and their Wingers aren't very good in Tlustky and Gerber. Skinner did good and will hopefully develop further.

[Primis]

Carolina doesn't have that much I think. Except from Staal brothers, Skinner and Semin when he wants to play they don't have that much offense. In defense they have Faulk who is good but not a Weber or Doughty kinda guy. Hainsey can be ok, Sekera too but Liles, Komisarek suck and Pitkanen could be their best d-men if he wasn't such an injury prone. Ward was looking better in the past as well.

I don't see where it's a problem that they missed the playoffs in a weak division, they're part of the weaker team. The Pens are good and the Rags as well. Philly and Columbus are way better than them as well. Washington, despite his stats, have Ovy and Backstrom and those two are better than Staal and Skinner. There's just New Jersey that I think the Canes could've passed. Islanders without Tavares injury could've passed them as well but without Moulson AND Vanek now they are on the same level almost.

Carolina has a lot. When you look at the teams that made it in the East, you wonder how CAR didn't make it but oh, Columbus did.

Pitkanen is not really "injury-prone", he had one catastrophic injury that has kept him out for what seems like forever. His contract is up and if CAR doesn't re-sign him I want DET to push reeeeeeeeeeally hard to land him. The rest of that blueline is kinda' hodge-podge, but in the East that's enough (I mean, look at CBS's blue line, and DET's blue line, and they both made the playoffs).

When you say all they have is Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Alex Semin, Brett Skinner, Lindholm... that's not anything to sneeze at in the East for offense. Eric Staal needs to be more consistent with scoring for sure, that'd help, but that also just seems to be who he is by now.

In net you have Cam Ward, Khudobin, and Peters. That's a trio a lot of teams would envy. I think Khudobin could start for a few NHL teams.

We'll see what Ron Francis does but I think he saw a big culture change was needed or something. They have some talent. An offseason of carefully bringing in some depth pieces and I don't see why CAR can't be in the mix for the top 3 Metro teams next season.

[Manimal]

When you say all they have is Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Alex Semin, Brett Skinner, Lindholm... that's not anything to sneeze at in the East for offense. Eric Staal needs to be more consistent with scoring for sure, that'd help, but that also just seems to be who he is by now.

Yeah, BRETT skinner is really good
Almost as good as principle Skinner
but not as good as Jeff Skinner

[philou21]

Columbus is superior to Carolina is every way. Their defense is way better, their goalie is way better as well. Their offense is probably similar but when you look at how hard the Jackets worked in the playoffs this is probably the advantage they have over Carolina. I think your hate from the Detroit/Jackets rivalry is clouding your judgment about Columbus but that wouldn't be new coming from you.

[philou21]

Laviolette confirmed as the new head-coach of the Preds.

[philou21]

Finally some changes in Philly but not sure if they're good though....Hextall named GM and Holmgrem as president.

[CJ]

Finally some changes in Philly but not sure if they're good though....Hextall named GM and Holmgrem as president.

Where was Hextall before this?

[philou21]

Hextall was GM assistant. I hope for Stinson and the Flyers that he wasn't that much influenced by Holmgren or that Holmgren will not influence him that much from upstair.

[batdad]

Hexy will be an awesome GM, and he will not back down on what he wants to do. Holmgren and more importantly Snider will be told to eff off if they want to do something Hexy thinks is counter to what should be done. Hextall was given this job because he had other options with other teams. No way he takes it without full control over everything hockey related.

[philou21]

I hope so because I think it's going to be more interesting now in Philly.

[batdad]

Canucks hire Benning as GM. Next word out of reporter's mouth here? Thornton? LOL. Right off the hop to signing him as UFA here. apparently because Benning is in Vancouver the Canucks and Bruins will trade their entire rosters and staffs for the other teams rosters and staffs. LOL I love this city and it's insane Canuck fans.

You should hear the outcry over the possibility the Canucks may sign Shawn Thornton. It is worse than when there was thought they may go after DAve Bolland.

Oh yeah, and Benning will deal Sedin, Sedin, Burrows, Kesler, Edler and Bieksa all by the draft.

[bruins72]

Canucks fans are nuts. But are they as bad as Habs fans?

Benning is a good hire. He's been a key guy in Boston.

[batdad]

No not as bad as Habs fans. Because they make the same rant double the times Canucks fans do. Once in English, once in French. Just ask philou...he knows....he does it. LOL

[philou21]

Once in English, once in French.

Oh no they're not doing it in both language. Most of those fans can't write english in a proper way. What they do instead is feeding the media with those kind of stupid topics by repeating them 3x in french on social network.

[CJ]

Islanders signed Halak! Now they have at least a pretty good goalie!

[batdad]

THey do? Who is he?

[CJ]

THey do? Who is he?

Compared to what they've had... the best goalie they've had in a looong time. (R)
Well the old Nabokov was decent in that team though.

But let's see how Halak manages in a bad team

[philou21]

I'm not sure Halak willl do well with that defense. I think the Blues made him look better because of that defense they have. Sure he is a good goalie but not a starter. Playing 40-50 seasons is okay like he did in St.Louis with Elliot but a 70+ game season I'm not sure.

[Peter_Doherty]

Halak is a good goalie, will be interesting to see how he manages when playing almost every game.

[philou21]

Trotz head coach and MacLellan GM in Washington. I think Trotz could do something good for them, especially with Ovy. As for MacLellan, don't really know the dude.