NHL 2012-2013 thread

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by Denscity

I still think the Oilers might go on a win streak and make it into the playoffs. Heck on paper Edmonton has had a better offense than my team Vancouver for at least two years now surely this is the year?

Except Edmonton can't score 5 on 5, and their defense is at least Calgary bad.

[Surrealplaces]

If the Habs knew at the time how PK Subban would turn out they would have picked him in the first round instead of Ryan Mcdonough. Same for Mark Streit and Jaroslav Halak.

2007 wasn't a great draft year, but take the 2006 draft which was supposedly one of the deepest..... of the top two rounds, the top 5 turned out to be solid NHLers, and the next 55 players....not so much. Same for 2008. The top 4 players...great, the next 56 players...not so much. It's much same every year.

Not that there's anything wrong with having numerous high draft picks....it gives teams a better chance, but draft picks are still mostly a gamble. Year after year, the top 3 or 6 players turn out really well, and then it drops off, and is somewhat of a crap shoot after that.

Originally Posted by Nicko999

PK Subban was a second round pick.

Generally speaking, Timmins is good at finding late round gems. Gallagher (5th round), Sergei Kostitsyn (7th round), Mikhail Grabovski (5th round), Mark Streit (9th round), Jaroslav Halak (9th round) are just a few examples.

We'll see how it goes though, those 4 picks in the top 60 can also be used to trade up the draft.

[suburbanite]

Watching Philadelphia is so frustrating. I don't get how a team can be such polar opposites from day to day. I thought they were finally turning it around and then they go and get completely shut down by one of the worst teams in the conference. They need some serious rebuilding on the blue line if they're going to have any chance of making the playoffs.

[Nicko999]

These kind of losses are so frustrating...

We dominate 2-0 (shots are 14-2) after the first period so we decide that we have to stop playing D because it's the Islanders.

Take the point and go hide... that was a HORRIBLE third period.

Anyway not the end of the world, we're still first in the East. I know we're probably not going to finish 1st but the team is still 11-4-2 which a lot better than I expected.

BTW-Max Pacioretty is the real deal.
10-11: 14 goals, 24 in 37 games (31 goals and 53 pts pace)
11-12: 33 goals, 65 pts in 79 games
this season: 13 pts in 13 games so far

No more fluke... this guy is really good.

[Boreal]

I do not expect the Habs to finish in first either. However, like the Blue Shirts last year, who rode Lundqvist from start to finish, I feel that Montreal can do something similar this year with Carey Price.

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

If the Habs knew at the time how PK Subban would turn out they would have picked him in the first round instead of Ryan Mcdonough. Same for Mark Streit and Jaroslav Halak.

Well the 2 players we picked before PK in that draft were McDonaugh () and Pacioretty...

The team doesn't randomly chose players after the first round... Subban was known to be very skilled offensively but scouts were criticizing his defense. I remember reading somewhere that one scout said about him that he didn't know what D was...
Timmins liked his skill set and we selected him. After all, you can teach D, you can't teach talent. Turns out to be a pretty good risk.

[Coldrsx]

Brutal Edmonton, brutal.


Yay schmitty, happy birthday.

[Hybrid247]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not Anderson!!!!! Just when I thought the Sens situation couldn't get any worse....

[Nicko999]

The Sens must have really pissed the hockey gods.

[suburbanite]

Even with their injuries the sens are keeping the Northeast the tightest division in the league. Four teams within 2 points of each other and all of them looking solid.

[Copes]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

The Sens must have really pissed the hockey gods.

Yeah its rough. I got the shaft in my hockey pool when it came to goalies. Anderson was my saving grace... and now...

I'm loving Boston though, despite how little they've played compared to other teams in the division. 4 games less than Toronto and Ottawa, yet still tied. Only two points behind Montreal, who has three more games than them. The Northeast Division is a blast to watch, and as a Boston fan, I couldn't be happier with how its going. The boys are playing great.

[The_Architect]

Stupid 3 point games. When is this league going to smarten up and make all games equal? 3-2-1-0 system makes sense if this league wants to hand out a loser point.

It's amazing the Leafs haven't had a single shootout so far, and have only played a single game that goes into overtime. Apparently when they lose they really like to lose. Not that I'm complaining about the ROW wins, those will help in a tiebreaker at the end of the season (if they get that far).

[Coldrsx]

How many games for Hall's hit... 2-3 is my bet.

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

How many games for Hall's hit... 2-3 is my bet.

In my opinion, he shouldn't get any. The guy had the puck and Hall led with his hip. Then again, the NHL suspension dartboard dictated that Sean Avery got 6 games for an off-ice joke, Torres got 20+ games for an elbow, and Matt Cooke got nothing for severing someone's achilles tendon. So nothing will surprise me.

And guaranteed, if that was Taylor Hall who got creamed while skating across the ice like that, everyone around the league would be saying "This kid needs to learn to keep his head on a swivel, not skate so recklessly into dangerous areas, etc."

Clutterbuck is the type of turd that the NHL needs less of anyway. Every other team in the West should thank Hall for that hit.

[Calgarian]

Hall shouldn't be suspended, he meant to hit Clutterbuck with his shoulder and actually almost missed, the result was his thigh hit Clutterbucks knee.

[The_Architect]

Originally Posted by MrOilers

In my opinion, he shouldn't get any. The guy had the puck and Hall led with his hip. Then again, the NHL suspension dartboard dictated that Sean Avery got 6 games for an off-ice joke, Torres got 20+ games for an elbow, and Matt Cooke got nothing for severing someone's achilles tendon.

Not this again... Please don't make me explain why that's a terrible comparison.

[MrOilers]

Originally Posted by The_Architect

Not this again... Please don't make me explain why that's a terrible comparison.

Fine. Use any of the last 5 times Cooke should've been suspended for a blatantly dangerous play on another team's player, but didn't.

[Surrealplaces]

Overall Montreal picked well in the draft that year, but looking at picks from the first two rounds in other years....not so the same success.

Pacioretty and Subban panned out that year, but what about the other first and secornd rounders who weren't in the top 5 (Ryan McDonough, David Fischer, Kyle Chipchura, Danny Kristo, Louis LeBlanc, Mathieu Carle, Guillamue Latendresse

I'm not trying to say Montreal is bad at drafting....they've been drafting better than Calgary has, I'm just saying that outside of the players in the top 5, they are mostly a crap shoot.

Nothing wrong with building draft picks, I just don't get excited about draft picks unless they are in the top five and wouldn't even if I was a fan of another team. As much as I hate the Oilers, I would be excited as an Oiler fan with those three straight #1 picks.

Originally Posted by Nicko999

Well the 2 players we picked before PK in that draft were McDonaugh () and Pacioretty...

The team doesn't randomly chose players after the first round... Subban was known to be very skilled offensively but scouts were criticizing his defense. I remember reading somewhere that one scout said about him that he didn't know what D was...
Timmins liked his skill set and we selected him. After all, you can teach D, you can't teach talent. Turns out to be a pretty good risk.

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

I'm not trying to say Montreal is bad at drafting....they've been drafting better than Calgary has, I'm just saying that outside of the players in the top 5, they are mostly a crap shoot.

We'll have to disagree here. A player picked in the top 5 should have a pretty big impact on your team while your first rounder should at least be an NHLer. The draft is far from being a crap shoot. Even in late rounds, the scouts will select a certain player because they see a quality in him.
Some of the late round gems are European because there are less scouts there and sometimes very few teams are aware of that player's potential (see Datsyuk, Zetterbeg in Detroit). It's all about scouting!

Carey Price and Alex Galchenyuk are the two top 5 picks. One is an elite goalie in the NHL (top 5) while the other is on his way to become a superstar.

These 2 are supported by solid draft picks made by the club (or in Eller's case trades because they dealt a surplus at one position)... Max Pacioretty (1st round), Lars Eller (1st round, from Halak trade), Tomas Plekanec (3rd round), Andrei Markov (6th round), Brendan Gallagher (5th round), PK Subban (2nd round), Emelin (3rd round)

The draft weekend are the 2 most important days in a season. That's where all Stanley Cups are won.

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

Nothing wrong with building draft picks, I just don't get excited about draft picks unless they are in the top five and wouldn't even if I was a fan of another team. As much as I hate the Oilers, I would be excited as an Oiler fan with those three straight #1 picks.

Speaking of top 5... man this Galchenyuk kid is insane. He already has more highlights reel plays than the entire team combined.

He's also 6'1", 196 lbs already!!!

His latest goal is a beauty and if you watch closely, the whole play starts with him in the defensive zone. He's really good defensively for a kid learning the game (leads the team with +8).

He took Callahan out of the play.

• Video Link

[Nicko999]

Wow, congrats to Chicago for their 17th straight game with at least a pt to start a season, a new NHL record!

They look unstoppable...