**** 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?

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I can't help but think how, for 99.9999% of the world, this move would be catastrophic.

Thatcher Demko what a freaking save #canucks pic.twitter.com/bCssq5XkmQ

— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) April 22, 2024

My hip would explode and the round head bone on my femur would have been splattered on the glass like a snowball on a windshield.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Score 6 on the road against the likely Vezina winner and lose. You can't give up 7 goals on 23 shots in the first game of the playoffs and not expect to be riding pine in game 2. Time to sink or swim with Juice, I've seen all of Georgiev I need to see for awhile.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I can't help but think how, for 99.9999% of the world, this move would be catastrophic.

Thatcher Demko what a freaking save #canucks pic.twitter.com/bCssq5XkmQ

— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) April 22, 2024

What's most amazing to me about that is that he was able to rocket to his right without a post to push off of.

That's so much strength in that left leg to drive that edge into the ice and throw his body across like that. Most of the time you see that aggressive move from side to side from a goalie they're able to use a post to shove off of. That guy just buries his left skate and gets all the way across the mouth of the net.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Yeah, a buddy said it's encouraging they got 6 goals by Hellebuyck, but of course the flip side is that's not going to happen every game and it was a wasted effort.

And at worst, they completely neuter their offense going forward trying to sit back and prevent anything.


On another note, the Canucks in the playoffs always reminds me of the good old days of pulling the division out of their grasp seemingly every season back in the day.... two guys softer than Matthews and Marner, the Sedin brothers.

Hellebuyck is the worst good goalie I've ever seen. I don't get it.

When the Blues won the cup, he made it possible. And as is his custom, the stats aren't even that bad. But he was always good for a bad goal when the Jets just couldn't have it.

Game 5 was the best example. Just a savage series to that point; home team had won every game and the energy was insane in both barns. The Jets take a 2-0 lead into the 3rd and he just spit the bit. 3 goals, 2 of which should've been stopped. Suddenly the Blues take the 3-2 advantage back to STL. And of course he promptly gets beat on the first shot of the game in Game 6...

And it's not like he's way better now than he was then. The season before that he ended up 2nd in the Vezina voting then won it the season after. He was this guy even then.

But I don't fear him at all. He's a guy who's always appeared to be lesser than his stats.

[ThrobProng]

I always find myself pulling for the Maple Leafs. Besides having what appears to be the most rabid fan base in the NHL, they strike me as similar to the pre-Mahomes Chiefs: Always competitive, but can never get over the hump.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by ThrobProng

I always find myself pulling for the Maple Leafs. Besides having what appears to be the most rabid fan base in the NHL, they strike me as similar to the pre-Mahomes Chiefs: Always competitive, but can never get over the hump.

Gross.

The Maple Leafs are the Yankees minus the success. They bring the arrogance and hubris of Cowboys fans but don't have an interesting lunatic of an owner or even brief snaps of competitive relevance.

If Clippers fans had the arrogance of Lakers fans, they'd be Leafs fans.

I'd rather see Detroit or Colorado blinked from existence somehow, but the Leafs are a not terribly distant 3rd. And while I acknowledge that my hatred of the first 2 is exclusively due to my status as a Blues fan, I thought hating the Maple Leafs was pretty much universal among all hockey fans.

[ThrobProng]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Gross.

The Maple Leafs are the Yankees minus the success. They bring the arrogance and hubris of Cowboys fans but don't have an interesting lunatic of an owner or even brief snaps of competitive relevance.

If Clippers fans had the arrogance of Lakers fans, they'd be Leafs fans.

I'd rather see Detroit or Colorado blinked from existence somehow, but the Leafs are a not terribly distant 3rd. And while I acknowledge that my hatred of the first 2 is exclusively due to my status as a Blues fan, I thought hating the Maple Leafs was pretty much universal among all hockey fans.

I was not aware of that. Shows what I know about hockey.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Hellebuyck is the worst good goalie I've ever seen. I don't get it.

When the Blues won the cup, he made it possible. And as is his custom, the stats aren't even that bad. But he was always good for a bad goal when the Jets just couldn't have it.

Game 5 was the best example. Just a savage series to that point; home team had won every game and the energy was insane in both barns. The Jets take a 2-0 lead into the 3rd and he just spit the bit. 3 goals, 2 of which should've been stopped. Suddenly the Blues take the 3-2 advantage back to STL. And of course he promptly gets beat on the first shot of the game in Game 6...

And it's not like he's way better now than he was then. The season before that he ended up 2nd in the Vezina voting then won it the season after. He was this guy even then.

But I don't fear him at all. He's a guy who's always appeared to be lesser than his stats.

Yeah, he seems to get Craig Anderson hype.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Gross.

The Maple Leafs are the Yankees minus the success. They bring the arrogance and hubris of Cowboys fans but don't have an interesting lunatic of an owner or even brief snaps of competitive relevance.

If Clippers fans had the arrogance of Lakers fans, they'd be Leafs fans.

I'd rather see Detroit or Colorado blinked from existence somehow, but the Leafs are a not terribly distant 3rd. And while I acknowledge that my hatred of the first 2 is exclusively due to my status as a Blues fan, I thought hating the Maple Leafs was pretty much universal among all hockey fans.

Much like the Cowboys, I don't pay enough attention to sports media to really care about the Leafs, but at some point even the memes get tired.... between NFL_Memes' annual cycle of 2 or 3 Cowboys memes and the same on reddit for the Leafs (the former is more obnoxious since it's 12 months/year).

The only defense I'd give for Leafs fans in recent years is they should legitimately be pissed off at this point... everyone knows the Cowboys aren't all that great and that you can fake a good season in the NFL, but you just don't fake a 69 goal season and that level of talent, just to annually not even show up in the playoffs.

Winning in the postseason is ****ing hard, but the annual lack of urgency would be like getting ~2018-2020 Chiefs offense every regular season just to see Christmas Day every... damn... postseason.

(and they're probably not a Cup team at any point in recent years with their goaltending and defense, but still)

[KC_Connection]

Will be interesting to see what the Leafs get for Marner this offseason because there's no way they can keep him long-term. Gotta be the most useless playoff performer I've seen in any sport.

[Bearcat]

That was a helluva pass at the end of the period.

[Bearcat]

Let's go?

ROSTER UPDATE: We have recalled goaltender Ivan Prosvetov from the Colorado Eagles.

In addition, goaltender Arvid Holm has been reassigned to the Colorado Eagles.

— x - Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 22, 2024

[Megatron96]

Don't really have much hate for the Leafs anymore, but I still have a lot of disdain for Marchand, and the Bruins in general. Still relish the memory of watching Marchand crying after losing to the Blues for the Cup in 2019.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Let's go?

ROSTER UPDATE: We have recalled goaltender Ivan Prosvetov from the Colorado Eagles.

In addition, goaltender Arvid Holm has been reassigned to the Colorado Eagles.

— x - Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 22, 2024

Unfortunately, that makes me think Annunen is still sick and we'll likely still see Georgiev in net tomorrow.

[Megatron96]

Ooh, that looked like a dirty play. Chopped the guy's knee.