EHM The Blue Line

Watched half of the game, then decided to shut my TV...

CJ wrote:Watched half of the game, then decided to shut my TV...

Same, very disappointed with the result of the game. I have to say, even if the Predators win Game 6, I don't think they can get that needed away win in Game 7. Hopefully I'm wrong

There always a "if" somewhere but IF Nashville has won the first game they would be leading 3-2 and have the chance to win at home. I hate hockey.

Penalty to both players. How on earth?

CJ wrote:
Penalty to both players. How on earth?

Holding on Subban
Crosby should have gotten more, for sure

I don't get all the hype about Nashville...I've been watching the playoffs on CBC online, and both the Senators and Predators were simply lucky this year IMO....it happens in hockey frequently, and the fact the team makes a deep run into the playoffs one year is essentially meaningless (it's been a regular occurrence ever since I started watching hockey); the idea that either team is a "legitimate threat" next year is not true for me

I've watched the Finals, and I don't see at all the idea that Nashville's outplaying Pittsburgh; to me Nashville has essentially no offense
I think it could easily be over now, with Pittsburgh already winning the Cup



I think when the Penguins are on and trying they dominate Nashville, early and often and in all facets of the game...when the Predators are most dominant it's almost always late in a home game they're winning, and there's lots of crowd noise and they chip/dump it out of their end and chip/dump it into the Penguins end and sit back/wait and play D, skate around and but few offensive chances/show little in offensive play; Nashville's offensive outbursts connect more to Pittsburgh opening up and playing less D as they focused on scoring late in a game than they do to anything Nashville did (they're doing nothing that shows talent/dominance to me)

In the Predator so called blowout wins they had a 2 goal lead going into the third, which isn't a blowout to me - IIRC in the Penguins so called blowout wins they were up by more than 2 goals before the first period was over! Rinne has not been impressive at all (all goalies are essentially the same nowadays anyhow, so the key in modern hockey is consistency/reliability...and Rinne's inconsistent and unreliable). The "great D" that Nashville has hasn't impressed me either

I'm not overly impressed with the Penguins either outside of Crosby (for his consistency/work rate); yes Malikn's skilled but so much of the time he's not a factor (doesn't seem interested)...thinking about it now, I recall Kessel noticeably playing well too I suppose (I think he benefits greatly and LOVES playing on a team where he's not the go to guy, or even the next go to guy, and now he's not necessarily the best player on his line everytime either)






I do notice what seems to some/many like "less penalties being called" but I've for sure seen far more let go in the last 40+ years. What I've never seen is so much whining by fans.....it's via HFBoards that I get a taste of what hockey fans are like, and many of the posters make me embarrassed to be a fan of the game

The reality that no one will admit is cleaning up the game the way many HFBoards fans seem to want (call it by the book! even if it means dozens of penalties) is that doing so makes the game far more dangerous (that interference/hook is often a player trying to protect a teammate by slowing down an opponent who's about to legally hit said teammate) and less offensive in 5-on-5 play (pick plays have been used in hockey for generations) - all it does is promote the "PP only" style players, making them the most likely to be the best hockey player in the world (2-way/defensive play and work effort and toughness/discipline and consistency are now, all combined, secondary to "skill"/points production)



I don't know how long CBC (CBC is the "national broadcaster" here in Canada, "free TV" supported by tax dollars) has had the NHL online. I watched the 2016 playoffs last summer via full games being available on YouTube. This year I discovered that the weekly Saturday games and the Playoffs were available online via CBC.....I tried watching regular season games this year but lost interest within minutes every time (ever since discovering EHM I've been trying to get into modern hockey more); I've been watching the 2017 playoffs...the 1st two rounds I didn't watch much of what CBC had, and got bored trying to, but I've watched all of the semis/finals (or at least it's been on in the background)

So I'm watching more hockey again the last couple years, after many years of watching very little.....the new skilled hockey seems to rely to much on what traditionally wasn't hockey (alley oops pass from your end to the opponents end, what used to be a 2 line pass & dump the puck past the D, skate past the D and grab the puck, puck carrier turns his back to the play and faces the boards.....cycling ringette style hockey ensues).

IMO the artificial speed has clearly not been good for the game (along with the new style pads that allow goalies to slide around on their knees).
To me it's like baseball allowing an aluminum bat, or football actually calling offensive/defensive holding every time - such things would ruin the game! Hockey isn't the game I grew up loving, and I really don't see the so called skilled game and better goaltending

Players are stronger and faster but the gameplay is less skilled than it was, and IMO it's not anywhere near as much "because players nowadays are so good" as it seems many think; players don't show more skill in hockey today, they show less, because they've sped the game up artificially and created rules to do so (the towering glass and tag up offsides, short shifts/scheduled breaks within the periods that allow for the "skate around fast playing D" modern playstyle) - IMO the game has been changed by the rules/equipment way moreso than increased player skill (and I think they should "change it back")


End of rant HaHa


Nino

nino33 wrote:it's via HFBoards that I get a taste of what hockey fans are like, and many of the posters make me embarrassed to be a fan of the game

HFBoards is widely considered throughout the hockey online world as the absolute worst of the worst, and has been for as long as I can remember, even before blogs really took hold and before Hockey Twitter. There are other hockey forums and blogs that don't exactly feature a very good, knowledgeable community, and even they recognize and talk about how bad HFBoards is.

Don't ever, ever use HFboards as any kind of barometer of anything. It's akin to reading Breitbart and then deciding that's how all Americans think or something.

Primis wrote:

nino33 wrote:it's via HFBoards that I get a taste of what hockey fans are like, and many of the posters make me embarrassed to be a fan of the game

HFBoards is widely considered throughout the hockey online world as the absolute worst of the worst, and has been for as long as I can remember, even before blogs really took hold and before Hockey Twitter. There are other hockey forums and blogs that don't exactly feature a very good, knowledgeable community, and even they recognize and talk about how bad HFBoards is.

Don't ever, ever use HFboards as any kind of barometer of anything. It's akin to reading Breitbart and then deciding that's how all Americans think or something.

I discovered HFBoards via EHM, because Riz posts on it in the EHM section there, and that's why I keep returning (I only look at a few Forums, and never have looked at Team Forums/etc where apparently it's even worse! HaHa)

My HFBoards experience is from a very small part of their site (EHM Forum, International/KHL Forum, Business of Hockey Forum, and in recent weeks the main NHL Forum).
For myself, when I've looked in the past, it all seems awful; I honestly see no difference between HFBoards and any other source of fan comments that I've seen.....


Are there other fan sites like HFBoards, that cover everything about hockey within dozens of different forums (all in the same place), with a huge number of people from around the world posting?

nino33 wrote:For myself, when I've looked in the past, it all seems awful; I honestly see no difference between HFBoards and any other source of fan comments that I've seen.....

Are there other fan sites like HFBoards, that cover everything about hockey within dozens of different forums (all in the same place), with a huge number of people from around the world posting?

It depends on what you want. Some are blogs with reax to news articles (a site like Kulkas' Korner). Some team-centric blogs do a good job covering other NHL stuff, especially this time of year (some of the SBNation blogs). The team-centric thing is where most things have drifted though.

There are fan forums for things like the ECHL and SPHL (used to be CHL forums too, before it merged with the ECHL). And forums like Finish Your Check (ECHL and USHL mainly, also some Single A like FHL) where it's pretty much driven by a userbase of season ticket holders for teams in various lower minor pro leagues, that also dabble in NHL talk. Some of those come and go, but a few have been around for a while now.

And of course a site like hockeyforums.net that focuses again more on NHL

Without being amazing Nashville did the job and so is Pittsburgh. Nashville is not looking as good in the finale as they did in the last rounds and it's perfectly normal IMO. The never had alot of offense but they have a pretty solid defense and a good goalie. They still managed to get there with Johansen out, which is the only true offensive player they have. Nino you probably reads more on the internet than me but I've never seen anyone freaking out over the Preds. I think people are excited to see a new team in the SC finale and so am I but yeah...people always over exagerate on the internet. People simply ackownledge they did a good job and they deserve their presence in the finale. (Well, people who seems to know hockey and not the bandwagon P.K. Subban fans. This is ridiculous in Qc right now)

As for Pittsburgh they are the opposite of Nashville. They have better depth offensively and just by having Crosby and Malkin it makes a huge difference. Kessel is good but he seems to be a sequence player but like you said Nino he definitely seems to enjoy being in Pitts and being less "targeted". Malkin had good playoffs until the finale. In net it's mostly the same as Nashville.

Looks like the Salary Cap may not rise at all for next year http://www.tsn.ca/report-flat-nhl-salar ... 8-1.775862

The idea is to limit escrow.....I'm surprised it took them this long to choose reality over wishful thinking (I think this should have happened years ago)

Apparently Subban's "Listerine story" was just made up (aka a lie) https://sports.yahoo.com/p-k-subban-sid ... 32928.html

And Subban's not spoken to the media since the end of game 5; it seems he's been "muzzled" by the Predators https://sports.yahoo.com/predators-hide ... 26782.html

I've never been a fan of Subban, and this year's playoffs hasn't improved my view of him

So sad..

That was very frustrating, especially after the disallowed goal. Really wanted to see the Preds at least push this to Game 7 but oh well..

Always a bit depressing when the season ends. Now I have nothing to watch/follow for many months.

Looking forward to the Vegas draft and the rookie draft though.

The expansion is going to be exciting. I'm waiting to see which players teams are going to protect. There will be surprises for sure.

philou21 wrote:The expansion is going to be exciting. I'm waiting to see which players teams are going to protect. There will be surprises for sure.

Many teams are hoping to get rid of some players they have (many overpaid). I don't think Vegas needs to draft too many overpaid players to get over the salary floor, what I've seen so far.

I remember or know about the expansions of Tampa Bay, San Jose, Anaheim, Florida, Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota. But I think Vegas will have an ok hockey team after the draft?! What has changed? I think those I stated had a very bad team when they began their NHL careesr!

Atlanta was particularly bad at their beginning I remember that.

CJ wrote:I remember or know about the expansions of Tampa Bay, San Jose, Anaheim, Florida, Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota. But I think Vegas will have an ok hockey team after the draft?! What has changed? I think those I stated had a very bad team when they began their NHL careesr!

San Jose, Ottawa and Tampa Bay each paid $45 million to join the NHL, Florida/Anaheim paid 50 million (and Anaheim paid an extra 25 million to LA) & then Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota and Columbus each paid 80 million - 9 teams paid a total of 580 million...which is awfully close to what Vegas is paying as a single team.....IMO this is why (along with the fact that perhaps the NHL thinks Vegas will have to be a winner pretty quick or Vegas could be a disaster...or maybe that's just me! HaHa

My data regarding $ came from this article https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/go ... 0-million/

philou21 wrote:Atlanta was particularly bad at their beginning I remember that.

Yeah, Atlanta had 39 points in their first season. Colorado had only 9 points more than that this year. Atlanta never had that low as Colorado after their rookie season, Haha!!

nino33 wrote:

CJ wrote:I remember or know about the expansions of Tampa Bay, San Jose, Anaheim, Florida, Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota. But I think Vegas will have an ok hockey team after the draft?! What has changed? I think those I stated had a very bad team when they began their NHL careesr!

San Jose, Ottawa and Tampa Bay each paid $45 million to join the NHL, Florida/Anaheim paid 50 million (and Anaheim paid an extra 25 million to LA) & then Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota and Columbus each paid 80 million - 9 teams paid a total of 580 million...which is awfully close to what Vegas is paying as a single team.....IMO this is why (along with the fact that perhaps the NHL thinks Vegas will have to be a winner pretty quick or Vegas could be a disaster...or maybe that's just me! HaHa

My data regarding $ came from this article https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/go ... 0-million/

Oh I didn't know they paid that much.. well the economics aren't the same these days so it's not comparable to the other teams. Well everyone knows it's a high risk team. And I'm most concerned that they won't have many "real" fans there, which can destroy a franchise. Who will be a true Vegas fan and buy season tickets? They might sell tickets to many rich folks visiting Vegas yes.. but not talking about them here.

It's sad that money always comes first. Quebec would surely have fans of hockey if they would get a team!!

CJ wrote:It's sad that money always comes first. Quebec would surely have fans of hockey if they would get a team!!

I would certainly go watch them! Maybe even the tickets price would drop in MTL if there's a team in Qc. The price in MTL are so high it's ridiculous.


Also, I just heard that Fleury has agreed to lift his non-movement close.

philou21 wrote:

CJ wrote:It's sad that money always comes first. Quebec would surely have fans of hockey if they would get a team!!

I would certainly go watch them! Maybe even the tickets price would drop in MTL if there's a team in Qc. The price in MTL are so high it's ridiculous.


Also, I just heard that Fleury has agreed to lift his non-movement close.

What are the cheap tickets in MTL now?

No surprise really. Murray is top goalie in making, already super great!

I was trying to get sone tickets this winter to show my gf a game since she never seen one and the cheapest are now around 85-90. If you want a good place it's more around 150$. On top of that add all the costly food and the parking. It's ridiculous.

philou21 wrote:I was trying to get sone tickets this winter to show my gf a game since she never seen one and the cheapest are now around 85-90. If you want a good place it's more around 150$. On top of that add all the costly food and the parking. It's ridiculous.

darn! It's like a very famous bands music consert then.

Our (Finland) 2012 IIHF World Championship we had prizes like that! No one bought tickets, seats were empty even in the "good" games. And it was a huge thing here. Everyone was showing the middle finger to our hockey association here. What a farce!

No "regular" human should pay such prizes to a game. Yeah people with cash can attend the games. While 95% of all fans don't wanna spend such a huge amount of cash on one game as they can't afford it. It's so stupid.

But of course. It's a business. As long as the seats are full you can ask for any amount for a ticket.