2018-19 NHL Season

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, lots of people went wild over the latest iteration of the Penguins because not only did they "innovate" a very analytics-friendly form of the good old dump-and-chase where you just keep coming in waves so fast that no one can keep up, they also did it with a ton of cost-controlled Wilkes-Barre callups, thereby Playing The Young Guys as everyone wants their teams to do. But of course, it wasn't Playing The Young Guys and being really fast that was the key, it was having Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and also being able to add Phil Kessel for a pile of crap. In the end, it's stars, not systems, same as it ever was. Because without being able to count a hand's worth of Hall of Famers, it's just sloppy passes, footraces, and shots you'd have to have brain damage to think are worth taking. Unfortunately, I don't know how you unring a lot of these bells, like overreliance on young (read: cheap) players, or ever-shortening shift length, or the belief that any shot in service of your Corsi numbers is a good one. Even softening the cap can't roll back the coaching philosophies. It's bad.

[habsfan1]

- So Habs get a mini hot streak going, 2 quick goals, quick 2 goal lead vs Caps.

 

- Immediately afterwards, Price makes 2 huge saves, good 2nd period.

 

- 3rd period, Price fails to preserve lead, lets in bad goal in OT. Rince, repeat year after year.

 

---

 

Carey Price is a good follower. Imo, he's a terrible leader. Doesn't carry bad teams, can't even carry an average one.

 

But media says he's the best goalie in the world, he steals games, he's the leader & the heart and soul of the Habs, worth every penny of the 10 mil a year.

 

No wonder Price gets criticized. I wish this overhype would stop! As critical as I've been towards Carey, even I'll admit he doesn't deserve this heat caused by all this overhype. Price has strengths. But enough with this high pedastal.

[ninersdd]

Yeo is gone is St Louis. Former Flyer goon and coach Craig Berube to replace him.

[Still MIGHTY]

6 hours ago, the admiral said:

Yeah, lots of people went wild over the latest iteration of the Penguins because not only did they "innovate" a very analytics-friendly form of the good old dump-and-chase where you just keep coming in waves so fast that no one can keep up, they also did it with a ton of cost-controlled Wilkes-Barre callups, thereby Playing The Young Guys as everyone wants their teams to do. But of course, it wasn't Playing The Young Guys and being really fast that was the key, it was having Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and also being able to add Phil Kessel for a pile of crap. In the end, it's stars, not systems, same as it ever was. Because without being able to count a hand's worth of Hall of Famers, it's just sloppy passes, footraces, and shots you'd have to have brain damage to think are worth taking. Unfortunately, I don't know how you unring a lot of these bells, like overreliance on young (read: cheap) players, or ever-shortening shift length, or the belief that any shot in service of your Corsi numbers is a good one. Even softening the cap can't roll back the coaching philosophies. It's bad.

 

I mean, examples of all this are both of last year's Stanley Cup Finalists.

 

Washington - Why did Washington finally get over the Pittsburgh hump and finally win the Cup? Was it any particular coaching move? Was it a new style? Was this the best version of the Ovechkin Capitals? I mean, no, not really. At best, just as good as they've ever been. At worst, still pretty good. They just got timely goals (namely against Columbus and Pittsburgh) and got things to finally go their way. Maybe there was something more scientific to it, but to me, beyond finally not  ing their pants, it just kind of finally happened for them.

 

Vegas - What were people praising about the Knights all year last year? "WOW!!! THEY'RE SOOO FAST!!!" Sure, they were an aggressive forechecking team that pounced on other team's mistakes and they had a goalie that covered up any defensive lapses they had. But what happens when teams get by that forecheck? What happens when things bounce on the other side? Speed's no good if you're flying by people, no brakes. Speed's no good if you're not connecting on the other end, career years regressing to the mean.

 

I agree, a lot of this can't be changed midstream. You have too many teams "Playing the Kids" so you have a lot of teams in weird places. Hell, just look at the Ducks, Kings, Blackhawks. All teams that succeeded in the last decade, all pretty much in similar spots. They've tried to keep up with the rest (and live with their big, top contracts) by "Playing the Kids" and that's come to mixed or subpar (Ducks/Blackhawks) or terrible (Kings) results. So when you have an older core and the "future" you're playing isn't ready for the now, where does that put you?

[IceCap]

3 hours ago, Still MIGHTY said:

Vegas

Got punk’d by the Flames 7-2.

 

SO GOOD YOU GUYS

[monkeypower]

McLellan out as Oilers coach, Hitchcock in.

[Still MIGHTY]

The Blues, who are 4 points behind the Ducks with 3 games in hand and more goals scored and less goals allowed than the Ducks, fired  Mike Yeo.

 

The Oilers, who are 2 points behind the Ducks with 2 games in hand, 11 more goals scored and a -9 differential to the Ducks’ -17, fired Todd McLellan.

 

Randy Carlyle is still employed.

 

Carry on, I guess.

[LMU]

#LoseForHughes #GKG

[ninersdd]

Hitchcock is the Brett Favre of coaches. How many "retirements" has he had?

[The_Admiral]

So after all that talk about too much speed that isn't in service of skill, the player whose speed is in service of skill gets to be coached by Ken Hitchcock, the trap era's rash on your nads that never stays gone. Of course!

[habsfan1]

On 11/20/2018 at 3:55 PM, LMU said:

#LoseForHughes #GKG

 

Habs tank is finally back in effect!

 

It's going to be a race.

[Cosmic]

Meanwhile, the Sabres are having their best winning streak in 12 years. I don’t remember how to feel these feelings.

[habsfan1]

[RedRenesis]

On 11/19/2018 at 2:06 PM, Still MIGHTY said:

How're the Penguins in last with a +1 differential? What exactly is going on in Pittsburgh?

 

That stat was padded by a 9-1 win vs Calgary, and a good Canada road trip in general earlier in the year, otherwise things have been a bit of a mess outside of that.  Also, you can count on one hand the number of periods this season Murray has played that he hasn't conceded at least two goals.  For the most part when CDS has played, he has played well, and with Murray being injured long term again, CDS is going to have to scrape together wins for them. 

 

Key organizational losses in the last eighteen months, and, as I see it, complacency / hubris taking hold in the players in the same time frame have the Pens where they are now.  Some of these issues can be fixed during the course of a season, but I don't think the ones that can, can cover for those that can't.  

[BBTV]

Flyers fire GM / EVP (and my favorite all-time hockey player, and 2nd favorite all-time sports player) Ron Hextall.

 

I'd imagine their coach is out before the end of 2018.

 

 

 

[AnPheitseog]

It's insane how good this Sabres team is.

 

 

I LOVE IT SO MUCH

[habsfan1]

5 in a row. Keep em' coming!

 

[The_Admiral]

Welcome back, Sabres. I put on the radio broadcast just in time to hear Skinner score the winner and Jeanneret say "you asked for it: these guys are good...scaaaary good." Made me want to check in on the population of Pominville.

 

In other news, Oil beat the Stars 1-0 in overtime, yeah, that's Hitchpuck, all right!

[Cosmic]

 

[BBTV]

On 11/26/2018 at 11:26 AM, BringBackTheVet said:

Flyers fire GM / EVP (and my favorite all-time hockey player, and 2nd favorite all-time sports player) Ron Hextall.

 

I'd imagine their coach is out before the end of 2018.

 

 

 

 

The Flyers have said that they're going to look outside the organ-eye-zation for a GM, which flies in the face of thier "you need to have been a Flyer to understand how it works here!" mentality, but maybe they actually want to win now.

 

The guy that's running the team this month (since Ed Snider died, it's just been Paul Holmgren reporting to whoever from Comcast has been appointed to run the Flyers that month) said that Steve Yzerman and Ron Francis are candidates for the job.  He then went on to say that neither have been contacted or contacted them.  He went further and said that he doesn't think Steve Yzerman would be interested and doesn't think he could lure him.  

 

Yet... they're "candidates".  LOL OK.