**** Official 2023-24 NHL Thread ****

[RockChalk]

Time to reboot for the upcoming season.

Anyone interested in doing a fun (or even low cost $25) Fantasy NHL League?

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Oh shit - you're canadian.

You probably ARE a better skater than Pegrave.

And yeah, there's no way in hell I'm playing rec-league hockey. I played a fair bit of roller hockey as a kid and the barrier to entry SHOULD be high but it really isn't. If you can stay upright, you can play. But you're a danger to yourself and others.

Combine that with people who are skilled/mature enough to be genuinely heavy - naaaaah.

A girl I know registered her husband for our league , he played mostly ball hockey his whole life never ice , she assumed he would just get better over time , I told her that her husband was going to experience probably one of the most painful and difficult things to learn to do as a non Athletic 225 lbs adult . After two year he was probably improved to the point of competing with average 5-6 year old canadien kids.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That's where I kept getting to.

We've played with guys like that in basketball or baseball (and if you haven't, you were that guy). I get playing with energy and intensity, I respect it. But to a point. You can't be the guy throwing 80 mph behind a girl that's strayed too far off 1b in co-ed rec league softball. You miss by a little bit and suddenly 'playing hard' leaves a girl in the neurology ward overnight because you didn't throw it where you meant to. Know the situation, know your talent level and don't get people hurt.

This is just a guy who was barely on the fringes of the bottom rung of hockey; essentially semi-pro shit. Who was out there mucking it up and being a goon when he really didn't have much else to offer.

If anyone is to 'blame' it's the guys that rostered a guy like him.

I tried to explain it along these lines "Okay, think of the worst player in the NHL - that guy's better than 90% of say the AHL and orders of magnitude better than the worst player in the AHL. Now think of the worst player in the AHL - THAT guy is better than 90% of the ECHL and orders of magnitude better than the worst player in the ECHL. Now think of the worst guy in the ECHL - if he can't make an ECHL team, he MIGHT end up in the Elite League. If he didn't get a call back from a a more lucrative european/russian league. That's the caliber of talent you're seeing in the EIHL here.

Put it this way - if you lived in a northern state, Matt Pegrave wouldn't be the best skater you know.

A more skilled player just doesn't do that, IMO.

Ya it’s hard to explain even to hockey dads the gap that exists at each level , we got the dads together to play my sons u18 rep team which consisted of about 10 kids that had played at AAA at some point , dads team consisted of 45-50 years most who had not played in years but it included 3 OHL draftee , 10 that had played some level of junior and few that could have , they kids never touched the puck lol , those same dads playing against retired NHL players would suffer the same fate.

My friend was 7 round LA kings draft pick , 1 round OHL , only played 1 year of professional hockey in Waco , hey at least he centred a line at kings training camp between Gretzky and Kuri .

[ChiefsCountry]

Blues are going to be an average mediocre team this year.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Weird stat, at least as of the time of this post.

11 games into the season and the Avs are undefeated in games in which they've scored at least 1 goal. But they have 3 losses. They've been shutout in every loss. Didn't score in the 1st period tonight.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHammersticks

Weird stat, at least as of the time of this post.

11 games into the season and the Avs are undefeated in games that they have scored a goal. But they have 3 losses. They've been shutout in every loss. Didn't score in the 1st period tonight.

Yeah, and they're scoring like 3.5-4 goals per game in their wins.

On another note, had the Lightning on for a bit earlier and damn they looked terrible tonight... several bad turnovers, just weren't into it at all.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Man this (Avs/Kraken) is one of the more intense early-season NHL games I've ever seen. 3rd period has been like the playoffs. Crazy physical. 3-3 with 5:00 left if anyone streams and is still up. It's on ESPN+ and Streameast.

[Bearcat]

JFC

Artturi Lehkonen went to the locker room after this hit with Oleksiak
byu/BCLetsRide69 inhockey

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

JFC

Artturi Lehkonen went to the locker room after this hit with Oleksiak
byu/BCLetsRide69 inhockey

I'm an awful, awful, AWFUL person for laughing at that.

But c'mon - dude's head is jammed into his shoulder pads and he looks like a cartoon turtle. How am I supposed to NOT laugh about it? Especially since I didn't get an update on my phone last night saying some Godless heathen (i.e. Avalanche player) died on the ice last night.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Blues are going to be an average mediocre team this year.

Yup, definitely looking that way.

They're pretty much gonna be dead-ass middle of their bell curve of possible outcomes.

The defense has improved enough to take the bottom 5 out of the equation. The forwards haven't progressed enough to really make playoffs a realistic outcome (though I suppose stranger things have happened).

They'll be predictably mediocre. I suppose if the power play could un-**** itself, they could be a little ornery. But that seems pretty unlikely at this point because of just HOW bad it's been. This isn't a PP that is inconsistent - it's a power play where I'd just as soon decline the penalty and just run the clock or something.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I'm an awful, awful, AWFUL person for laughing at that.

But c'mon - dude's head is jammed into his shoulder pads and he looks like a cartoon turtle. How am I supposed to NOT laugh about it? Especially since I didn't get an update on my phone last night saying some Godless heathen (i.e. Avalanche player) died on the ice last night.

I hope you stub your toe!

[ChiefsCountry]

Blues putting on an ass whipping in Denver tonight

[JohnnyHammersticks]

That hot start to the season by the Avalanche and Georgiev seems like years ago.

[ChiefsCountry]

Schenn and Buchnevich have hat tricks tonight

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHammersticks

That hot start to the season by the Avalanche and Georgiev seems like years ago.

Their ability to not show up some games this year is gonna be a problem.

[Bearcat]

Oddly stated article... we can't tell you who they arrested, but there's only one person who they would have arrested...

Man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in Adam Johnson's death

Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
Nov 14, 2023, 12:44 PM ET
A man was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of former NHL player Adam Johnson, the South Yorkshire (England) Police announced Tuesday.

The arrest comes more than two weeks since police began investigating the incident that led to Johnson's death on Oct. 28. Johnson was playing for the Nottingham Panthers in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) when his throat was cut by a skate blade during a collision in a Champions Cup game in Sheffield, England, against the Sheffield Steelers. Johnson was 29.

South Yorkshire Police said in a statement that a postmortem examination confirmed Johnson died from a fatal neck injury. The man, whose identity was not released by the police, remains in custody.

"Our investigation launched immediately following this tragedy and we have been carrying out extensive enquiries ever since to piece together the events which led to the loss of Adam in these unprecedented circumstances," South Yorkshire Chief Superintendent Becs Horsfall said. "We have been speaking to highly specialised experts in their field to assist in our enquiries and continue to work closely with the health and safety department at Sheffield City Council, which is supporting our ongoing investigation."

The player whose skate blade cut Johnson's neck was Matt Petgrave, 31, who plays for Sheffield.

Johnson's death has since prompted a number of different leagues throughout the sport to examine their player safety measures when it comes to potentially using neck protection devices.

It started when the English Ice Hockey Association announced two days after Johnson's death that it would make neck guards mandatory starting in 2024 as part of a three-step plan.

While any mandates at the NHL level would need to be agreed upon by the NHL Players' Association, there have been NHL players who started wearing neck guards at practices and in games.

Johnson's former NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, said it would mandate that its AHL and ECHL affiliates wear neck protection devices. A few days later, the Western Hockey League announced that it would be making neck protection devices mandatory for its players.