2011-12 NHL Season

[evanmaldonado]

I see down years for both the Wings and Hawks, and Nashville may not be the most talented team, but they work their asses off more than any team I've ever seen. And they're always right in the thick of things, so I believe this is their year. Rinne is ridiculous, and the team is strong enough to be a major threat.

And yeah, I forgot how sad Dallas' roster is this year. I'll change them to last, but if Calgary hits the injury bug.....

[oddball]

I love people forecasting the Kings to be good and get to the finals and whatnot, but I'd hold off on those predictions until Drew Doughty resigns. Without him the Kings are a good team, but not an elite team. Sure Jack Johnson can score, sure Alec Martinez knows how to get the puck on net, but Drew Doughty changes the game like few defensemen do both offensively and defensively. He's got that something offensively that Jack and Alex don't. Without him, they're gone in the first round. With him they should advance at least to the second round if not further.

[ninersdd]

Detroit seems like a team where ultimately, this could be their last stand. With Lidstrom back again, they are definitely capable of going all the way, and he could go out as a champion. Probably, though expect a 2nd round to a team from Northern California .

I'll try(From the West)

1. SJ

2. Detroit

3. Vancouver

4. Chicago

5. Anaheim

6. LA

7. Nashville

8. Calgary

9. St. Louis

10. CBJ

11. Minnesota

12. Edmonton

13. Dallas

14. Phoenix

15. Colorado

[Funky Bunky]

I hate the preseason. No games on T.V. for me...

[ninersdd]

I hate the preseason. No games on T.V. for me...

You could go to the games(sadly paying the same price for regular season )

[The_Admiral]

The Western Conference is the better of the two conferences. We don't like the Eastern Conference.

01 Vancouver

02 San Jose

03 Chicago

04 Detroit

05 Los Angeles

06 Anaheim

07 Calgary

08 Nashville

09 Minnesota

10 Edmonton

11 St. Louis

12 Columbus

13 Colorado

14 Phoenix

15 Dallas

The NASCAR Division's Last Stand

01 Washington

02 Pittsburgh

03 Boston

04 Buffalo

05 New York

06 Montreal

07 Tampa Bay

08 Philadelphia

09 Toronto

10 Florida presented by Party Zone Confetti Manufacturing

11 New Jersey

12 Long Island

13 Carolina

14 Winnipeg

15 Ottawa

[Viper]

When all the talk the next day at the water cooler is about the ice condition during a preseason game at 1st Mariner Arena, then you can surely remove Baltimore from the future expansion (relocation?) list:

Washington Examiner.

MSNBC

Sloan says the ice was melting into puddles right from the opening faceoff.

“It was new ice, so I don’t think it had time to totally solidify…Big chunks (of ice) come out and you’re down to the concrete. If a guy catches a toe in there and twists a knee or something, it could be pretty ugly.”

I seem to half-remember something about Baltimore having a new downtown arena in the works. I don't see why they'd bother - other than the odd college basketball game it would probably end up becoming another Sprint Center - but if it does get built, at least the NHL (and AHL?) could play there instead of the dump they played in the other night.

[Don]

Yeah last night the ice was pretty miserable in Baltimore, perfectly conducive for the style of play employed by the Preds.

[RyanMcD29]

Prediction Time!

East

1. Tampa Bay

2. Boston

3. Pittsburgh

4. Washington

5. Buffalo

6. Montreal

7. NY Rangers

8. Carolina

-------------

9. Philadelphia

10. Toronto

11. NY Islanders

12. New Jersey

13. CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON! Florida

14. Winnipeg

15. Ottawa

West

1. Vancouver

2. Detroit

3. San Jose

4. Nashville

5. Los Angeles

6. Chicago

7. Anaheim

8. St. Louis

--------------

9. Calgary

10. Minnesota

11. The Parking Lot, I mean Phoenix

12. Edmonton

13. Columbus

14. Dallas

15. Colorado

Tampa Bay over Buffalo in the ECF

Detroit over Nashville in the WCF

Tampa Bay over Detroit for the Stanley Cup in 6

[The_Admiral]

Tampa Bay over Detroit

Oh just kill me now then.

I'm trying to make sense of the Hawks' roster and not really succeeding. Too many one-way contracts on the books right now; someone's gotta go. It should probably be John Scott, since Dan Carcillo makes him completely redundant: Carcillo will take up the fighting, he's just crazy enough to go after actual offenders and not engage in prepared goon-on-goon sideshows, and he'll probably be good for about 20 points on the year. Also, his lumbering sideshow act is perfect for Rockford, a UHL town hosting an AHL team. Marcus Kruger and Jeremy Morin aren't listed as roster players yet, and Kruger is expected to make the team out of camp owing to a paucity of centers, so that probably means making Rostislav Olesz disappear somehow as well.

[BrySmalls]

East

1. Pittsburgh
   
2. Buffalo
   
3. Tampa Bay
   
4. Washington
   
5. Boston
   
6. Philadelphia
   
7. NY Rangers
   
8. Montreal
   
9. Toronto
   
10. Florida
    
11. NY Islanders
    
12. Winnipeg
    
13. New Jersey
    
14. Carolina
    
15. Ottawa
    

West

1. San Jose
   
2. Vancouver
   
3. Chicago
   
4. Los Angeles
   
5. Detroit
   
6. Nashville
   
7. Anaheim
   
8. Minnesota
   
9. St. Louis
   
10. Calgary
    
11. Edmonton
    
12. Columbus
    
13. Dallas
    
14. Phoenix
    
15. Colorado
    

[Sport]

1 Vancouver

2 LA

3 Chicago

4 San Jose

5 Detroit

6 Anaheim

7 Columbus

8 St. Louis

9 Calgary

10 Nashville

11 Minnesota

12 Edmonton

13 Colorado

14 Phoenix

15 Dallas

[DelayedPenalty]

Tampa Bay over The Detroit Red Wings presented by Amway

FYP

[Lee.]

The thing about the east is that you've got six teams who could finish anywhere in the top six (Washington, Tampa, Buffalo, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh), 8 teams who could finish anywhere from 7th through 14th, and Ottawa.

I think Vancouver wins the NW by default, LA takes the Pacific, and Chicago takes the central. Anything after that doesn't matter because Winnipeg won't make the playoffs in the east and Vancouver will get taken out in the first round by oh, I don't know, let's say Edmonton, and I'll have no reason to watch hockey again until mid September, 2012 so who cares.

[pollux]

Shanahan explains Shelley's suspension

Shanahan explains Letourneau-Leblond's suspension

I hope he keeps those videos going throughout the season. I particularly like that he mentions that the resulting injury AND previous suspensions play a role in how much games players get suspended.

I like that kind of transparency from the league. Loud and clear message from Shanahan.

[The_Admiral]

His video explanation of Todd Bertuzzi's next dickhole move will be a re-enactment of that one Garth scene in Wayne's World.

I don't really...have anything to...say...right now...HEY' date=' WHAT'S [i']THAT?!?

ah, ahhh

[HedleyLamarr]

His video explanation of Todd Bertuzzi's next dickhole move will be a re-enactment of that one Garth scene in Wayne's World.

I don't really...have anything to...say...right now...HEY' date=' WHAT'S [i']THAT?!?

ah, ahhh

"I'm having a great time.....not."

[The_Admiral]

Welp, all Ray Emery had to do to get an NHL contract was not completely suck ass in glorified scrimmages and he couldn't do it. I wonder where he'll get to have his next comeback story. Probably Phoenix.

[BLUELANDbeliever]

Dear Calgary,

TANK

sINCERELY,

The NHL community

[oddball]

I hate the preseason. No games on T.V. for me...

If you have Time Warner cable try and find the NHL Network on it, because they have games on every night.