Hot Ice: NHL Thread

[Snake Plissken]

What was Varlamov doing?

[ursus arctos]

Setting up a dramatic ending

[Hot Pepsi]

I think the Bolts will pull this one out.

[Hot Pepsi]

8-0. Beat down.

[Flynnie]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[Snake Plissken]

It's 1993 all over again. Unbeatable in overtime.

[Snake Plissken]

Partly wondering if Cinderella has struck midnight for the Canadiens or it could be like Vancouver and Boston in 2011.

[ursus arctos]

The Habs' principal problem is that Vasilevskiy appears only to be beatable by shots that take multiple deflections on their way to him (and has even stopped more of those than the two that went in).

I thought they played well last night, but just made two bad mistakes against a team that punishes errors mercilessly.

Tampa Bay are really good at hockey.

The change of venue may well change things up. Even with the health authorities restricting le Centre Bell to 3500, they will almost certainly create more atmosphere than the full house in Florida.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm feeling more confident in the Bolts chances. If they can beat the Habs 3-1 playing as badly as they did last night, it's hard to see how Montreal will win four of the next five. It's not impossible, but not very likely.

I enjoy watching the highlights in French.

I don't know much but I heard a lot of "Arrêt Vasilevskiy" and learned what "Filet désert" means. I'm not sure why it isn't "But désert."

[WOM]

Nice work with the extra man. Just two more goals in 4 minutes and you'll force OT.

[Hot Pepsi]

Hedman is the first player in NHL history to have a recorded a goal in 12 different calendar months. The Lightning are the first team to play a game in every month.

[Hot Pepsi]

Two cups in 10 months!!

[danielmak]

Happy for the Lightning. On one hand, it's nice that the NHL is so competitive that teams don't repeat much anymore. On the other hand, it's also good to have a team that everyone wants to catch. And as someone who grew up on hockey in LA, it's always nice to see hockey thrive in areas where one would expect problems.

I have mixed feelings about Montreal. They used to be in the same conference as the Kings and squashed the Kings year after year. I dig the uniforms and tend to like them more than some of my other most hated teams, but still I prefer to see them lose.

My most hated list:

1. Toronto. Crazy owner refused to let the Kings have a pre-game skate back in the day. Plus the Canadian media goes crazy when they lose, which is fun.

2. The Flyers. Beat the Kings for 13 straight years if I remember correctly and they always had fighters who were tougher than the Kings' fighters.

3. Edmonton. Although the Miracle on Manchester was one of my all-time favorite hockey games, Edmonton was too dominant for too long and often were responsible for the Kings being bounced from the playoffs.

4. Detroit. Traded Dale McCourt to the Kings for Rogie Vachon. McCourt refused to go to LA. Detroit seemed fine with this.

5. Montreal. See above.

Although I started watching the Hawks when I moved to Chicago, I don't have any concerns about their rivals in the same way as I do with the above list. Plus Detroit seemed to be the main rival before the shuffling of divisions and they're already covered. Haha.

[Snake Plissken]

Best team in the NHL won. They are a buzzsaw against most other teams and can beat you in a number of ways. Vasilevsky has now shutout the opposition in the past four (or is it five) series-clinching games, which is a ridiculous thing to do.

Montreal couldn't defy the odds four times in a row. Or sixteen times over all. A good run but they really shouldn't have got there if any of their opponents had actually got their shit together.

And for this B's fan

1. Pittsburgh (winning everything thanks to managing to land superstars, plus Ulf Samuelsson)
2. Philadelphia (always a bunch of goons, and this is a Bruins fan saying it)
3. New Jersey (I'll be over their boring, boring hockey of the late 90s in about two more decades)
4. Montreal (They've got a history, you know)
5. Detroit (never seem to beat them)

[Hot Pepsi]

I don't really hate anyone except I don't really care for Vegas, Miami or Arizona. I don't think there should be cities in those places, let alone NHL teams. I kind of feel the same about Carolina. I'd rather have The Whale. Same with Dallas.*

I don't feel that way about the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg. Winnipeg never should have lost their team to begin with and Atlanta had two chances.

I'm ambivalent about the Avs. It sucks that the Nordiques left and that logo isn't in use. The Avalanche is a dumb name and that's a dumb logo (although the Yeti-foot alternative logo is great), but Denver is a logical market for the NHL and there's a long history of hockey in Colorado.

I've come around on Philadelphia. I've learned that their fans aren't all racist meatheads. I'm fine with the Penguins, but I've never been able to really embrace them as my team even though they're technically the most local team.

New Jersey has a lot to answer for by killing the game, but if it wasn't them, it would have been somebody else. It wasn't really their fault for doing the best with what they had and what the rules allowed.

I like that the Devils - unlike the Nets, Giants or Jets - have always identified as a New Jersey team. Red Bulls needs to follow that model. I don't have any strong feelings about New Jersey one way or the other, but I like that it knows what it is. Same with Islander fans, the once-and-future Whalers fans and, perhaps, Anaheim.

Another team in southern Ontario could follow that model.

*But, in the long run, Minnesota is way better off with The Wild and the XCel Center than they would be if they still had the North Stars, who would now probably be playing in the Target Center and threatening to move.

[BallochSonsFan]

I'm not sure where another southern Ontario team would get fans from? Hamilton has previously shown interest but It's just too close to both Toronto and Buffalo. London might be the only serious option for another Ontario team - population of over 400,000 and kind of in a sweet spot between Toronto and Detroit. Quebec would be great to have back in the league. Neither Saskatoon nor Regina are big enough to support an NHL team on their own and I'm not sure that between them it would be practical to have a team. You could add a bit of balance by giving Milwaukee a franchise. They've got some history of hockey in Wisconsin, although the Admirals have faced some financial difficulty due to Covid. You could create a decent conference with teams that are relatively close by - Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Columbus and even St Louis. That would be a boost for that group of teams who would have a better geographical fit.

I hate Vegas. Bettman stacked the odds in their favour with their entry draft and he's protecting them from the Seattle entry draft. I'm a traditionalist and I just don't like seeing hockey in the desert. Same for Arizona.

[Hot Pepsi]

Nobody thought Vegas were going to be very good so its not clear that Seattle, using the same system Vegas did, will be good.
Even after they set their roster, the bookies had Vegas at 500-1 to win the cup. But they've got Seattle at 50-1 - better than Detroit or Buffalo - despite having no players on their roster right now.

The expansion draft will be interesting.

I've been spending a lot of time lately listening to podcasts about the off-season. Ask me anything.




The new Abbotsford AHL affiliate of the Canucks will be called the Canucks and use Johnny Canuck as their logo. It looks pretty sweet.
https://abbotsford.canucks.com/

As we discussed on that other thread, minor league hockey can try fans patience.

The Abbotsford Canucks were the Utica Comets from 13-21, but Vancouver wanted its AHL affiliate closer. That's become a big driver of minor league moves in the last few years.

The Utica Comets will be reborn with new colors next year because they were previously the Binghamton Devils, affiliate of the NJ Devils. The owner was going to call them the Utica Devils, because there used to be a team called the Utica Devils, but decided to be the Utica Comets and just change the colors from blue and green to red and black. Uticans are probably most likely to be Sabres or Rangers fans, but it's impossible for every NHL team to have its affiliates in its own fanshed. The geography just doesn't work out.

Before they were the Utica Comets, they were, at various times stretching back 90 years, the Quebec Beavers, Springfield Indians, the Syracuse Warriors, Springfield Kings, Worcester IceCats, and the Peoria Rivermen.

Abbotsford used to have the Abbotsford Heat, an affiliate of the Flames. Initially, the Canucks wanted to get Calgary to move the Heat to Utica and then put their team near Vancouver or in Seattle. Instead, it got the Rivermen and moved them to Utica and waited to sort it out with Calgary.

Peoria then got an SPHL team of the same name. Somehow, the SPHL still exists but the Rivermen didn't play last year. The SPHL refers to itself as "semipro" so that was a big step down.

Before they were the Binghamton Devils, they were the Albany Devils and before that the Lowell Lock Monsters.

Meanwhile Calgary moved the Heat to Glen Falls, NY as the Adirondack Heat, using the old Atlanta Flames logo, but then they moved them to California to be the Stockton Heat and then moved their ECHL affiliate, the Stockton Thunder to Adirondack to become the Adirondack Thunder playing in Cool Insuring Arena.

That's a step down for that market. Adirondack had the AHL Adirondack Red Wings from 79-99. Detroit wanted to move them to Toledo to be closer, but couldn't make a deal so it made them dormant for a few years before moving them to San Antonio - which is nowhere near Detroit - as the Rampage. The Rampage have since become the Henderson SIlver Knights and are affiliated Las Vegas. Detroit's current affiliate is Grand Rapids.

Before they were the Stockton Heat, they were the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, the Birmingham Bulls and a previous version of the Cincinnati Cyclones.

I suspect Calgary will take the heat from Stockton and put them closer to Calgary at some point.

The cosmic ballet continues.




The WHL Portland Winterhawks have, at long last, ditched their Blackhawks logo and created a much better one. It allows them to have their own logo and ditches all direct Native American imagery. They should have done it years ago.

https://katu.com/news/local/native-a...nterhawks-logo


The Chicago Blackhawks will probably do something similar eventually, but the local indigenous community hasn't really reached a consensus on it, giving them cover not to change it.

[Snake Plissken]

The Vegas draft wasn’t rigged. Remember that Pittsburgh gave Vegas players in order to ensure that they chose this years Vezina winner.

What Vegas had over the other teams (and Seattle does now) is simple. No shitty contracts against the salary cap.

[ursus arctos]

It is also true that Vegas and Seattle were given a significantly better deal in terms of the draft than were previous expansion teams.

At the same time, it has generally been the case that each wave of expansion teams gets a better deal than its predecessors.

Abbotsford have embraced Johnny Canuck, whose roots have always been in minor league hockey

[caja-dglh]

The Vegas draft wasn’t rigged. Remember that Pittsburgh gave Vegas players in order to ensure that they chose this years Vezina winner.

What Vegas had over the other teams (and Seattle does now) is simple. No shitty contracts against the salary cap.

LET'S GET KRAKEN!

[Amor de Cosmos]

It is also true that Vegas and Seattle were given a significantly better deal in terms of the draft than were previous expansion teams.

At the same time, it has generally been the case that each wave of expansion teams gets a better deal than its predecessors.

Abbotsford have embraced Johnny Canuck, whose roots have always been in minor league hockey

I like the 'A' on the sleeves, the 'C' patch on the shoulder less so.

[jefe]

Hate list:
Ottawa
Edmonton
Capitals

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Sens? How can anyone hate the Sens, they're totally harmless. It's like hating Big Bird.

[ursus arctos]

Lots of people in and around Ottawa hate them

[jefe]

The Sens? How can anyone hate the Sens, they're totally harmless. It's like hating Big Bird.

The bastards were 1 and 41 on the road in their expansion year.

I was at the 1.

Their thug got a hattrick on Glenn Healy and we lost 5-3