Official NHL Season 2016-2017 Thread

[ClassicSwarley]

Halak has been placed on waivers, bit of a surprise to me. I think someone is going to pick him up.

[Peter_Doherty]

Garth Snow just waived a top 10 goalie in the league, that's crazy unless he banged JTs wife or something.

[CJ]

Why wave him?! He should have some trade value I'd say..

[nino33]

It'll be interesting to see if anyone claims Halak...I don't think he's that good myself, and at $4.75 million isn't an inexpensive option, and I'd think most teams would have to put a goalie on waivers themselves if they claimed him (having three goalies is not a good situation, which I'd think is why he was put on waivers)...Halak had one good playoff seven years ago, and my understanding he's injury prone, and this year his SV% is 0.904 (and he's given up 19 goals in his last 5 games; a 4.25 GAA and a 0.900 SV%)

IMO if he really is a "top goalie" it just means that top goalies are average at this time, and easily replaceable
IMO, at this time, while the "very top" handful of goalies are "special" after that "not so much"

[philou21]

Halak is a very good backup goalie. Not permanent #1 IMO. I'm still surprised that he's getting waived though. Maybe his salary is the problem.

[Peter_Doherty]

He's about an average starter (this means he's good, in the 10-20 range in the league) according to just about every metric there is. A bit inconsistent which is his only real flaw. He might not get claimed though because of his contract (which is not bad, just hard to fit in mid season without a trade).

Calling Halak a backup is just wrong imo. He's not the kind of starter who plays 60+ games though, he's what you see when you look up 1a/1b in the dictionary, and the funny thing is that they have pretty much the 'perfect' 1b in Greiss, yet they waive one of them because they have J.F Berube who has barely played hockey in the last 2 years :s

[philou21]

I was trying to remember who were their two other goalies when I saw that Halak was getting waived. Still a weird decision to me after I remembered. Mayne they try to fall down the standings to pick higher...

[Peter_Doherty]

Yeah i dno, they have some weird fascination with Berube so they refuse to waive him.

[MWE]

Columbus vs Minnesota is the free game on the NHL website tonight.

[ClassicSwarley]

Columbus vs Minnesota is the free game on the NHL website tonight.

Sweet! Hope I'll be home to watch it as it is on New Year's Eve

[nino33]

62 year old Mike Palmateer stops a penalty shot in the Winter Classic today http://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2016/ ... e-deserved

While he wrenched his back doing so, he made the save wearing the same equipment he wore when he last played in the NHL in 1984!
He hadn't played since the 2014 Winter Classic the Leafs were involved in (and had a knee replacement since then!)

Palmateer was so much fun to watch, especially in the late 70s with the Leafs

[philou21]

15 for the Jackets!

Halak has not been claimed.

[nino33]

Halak has not been claimed.

Doesn't surprise me at all...

[CJ]

This thread is too dead for my taste I'll just start something here..

What NHL teams do you not follow the least or at all?

My Top3:
Vancouver Canucks - Really boring team. Last time I was interested in this team was when Näslund and Bertuzzi dominated there.
New Jersey Devils - Nothing interesting about them at all... Kovalchuk had something but that was all. Nothing after he left.
Arizona Coyotes - Hasn't been interesting in MANY years

If it wasn't for this season I'd say Winnipeg, but since Laine is there... well I wanna follow.

PS: I don't follow LA, Toronto nor Detroit, but that's more or less cuz I dislike them.

[nino33]

What NHL teams do you not follow the least or at all?

I don't follow any specific team; while I do live in Edmonton, I barely pay attention to the Oilers
I lost interest in following specific teams/players many years ago...

Now that I can get CBC on my IPad for free I'll usually tune in to HNIC on Saturdays, but more often than not lose interest and don't watch complete games; my interest is slightly more for the Oilers, but I turn them off before they're done too; I do dislike the Leafs moreso than others as a result of decades of hype/focus that the Leafs have had from CBC

My understanding is the CBC IPad app will work for the playoff games the CBC shows, so I'm looking forward to the playoffs (games that matter more!)

[Primis]

This thread is too dead for my taste I'll just start something here..

What NHL teams do you not follow the least or at all?

Any team in the Mountain or Pacific time zones. Particularly the Pacific ones though.

Pretty sure part/most of that is from years and years of DET being in the West and sitting through sooooooo many 10:30pm start times for west coast swings and especially playoff games. I just couldn't care less what those teams do or are doing.

[philou21]

Can't say I'm following any teams. Here I can't watch the Avalanche games and even if I could I don't have much time to do so. Anyway they are so bad this season that I don't miss anything spectacular.

I only check from time to time the Canadiens playing but that's about it.

[CJ]

Sounds good. We're on a hockey based site and no one really follows anyone.

[philou21]

It's mostly of question of priorities now. When I was single and at my parents's house I had plenty of time to watch hockey.

[ClassicSwarley]

I've never been too interested in the Pacific division teams(except for play-offs). Also, I don't know why but I've never cared for teams like NJD, CBJ and CAR.

[nino33]

Sounds good. We're on a hockey based site and no one really follows anyone.

We're on an EHM based site, and follow EHM Roster development & Archi's progress on the Editor closely! HaHa

[Edgars]

Also, I don't know why but I've never cared for teams like NJD, CBJ and CAR.

Even when Ozoliņš and Irbe played for them?

[Ukko]

I do follow Blackhawks, Sharks and Canadiens (although I can't watch many games live), I don't have much interest in a lot of teams from the East and Pacific, I'd say teams like Canucks, Devils, Hurricanes and Coyotes are really not in my sight at all.

[philou21]

Gallagher and Byron got both injured yesterday against teh Stars. With those two now, I think more than 50% of MTL regular players are injured right now.

[ClassicSwarley]

Also, I don't know why but I've never cared for teams like NJD, CBJ and CAR.

Even when Ozoliņš and Irbe played for them?

Nope, I probably would have but I wasn't following the NHL back then as I was pretty young at the time.