2013-14 NHL Season: "We Are North American Scum"

[monkeypower]

Great game to be at! Loved the atmosphere at the game and got a new jersey. First line of Teemu, Getzlaf and Perry were all over the ice and a great game by the Ducks. Just an awesome time. My dad, who is a die hard Flames fan, said he loved watching the Ducks play.

[FiddySicks]

I wouldn't do that. Not because of that "be a true fan/real fan and support your team" viewpoint, but considering how much replica jerseys cost anymore ($120-130), I couldn't bring myself to throw away that much money, no matter how frustrated I was.

I bet it was a fake.

[BigBubba]

Cheering for a Leafs loss is much more rewarding and plausible for me now than cheering for a Sens win.

Dropped five in a row and six of seven, all against middle-of-the-pack Easterm Conference teams.

Collapse coming early this year, I see.

[Still MIGHTY]

Carolina GM Jim Rutherford expected to step down after season, and it's about time.

Likely to be replaced by Ron Francis.

[DaRadniz29]

Sharks lead 1-0 over the Flames at the end of one. Starting the day ,the Sharks clinching scenarios:

From NHL.com:

The San Jose Sharks would clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs if they get at least one point against the Calgary Flames OR if the New York Rangers defeat the Phoenix Coyotes in regulation OR if the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Dallas Stars in regulation OR if both the Coyotes and Stars lose in overtime or a shootout.

The Rangers defeated the Coyotes in Overtime. So if my understanding is correct, not including the Sharks getting at least one point at Flames, the Jets must beat the Stars in any fashion and the Sharks would clinch a playoff spot. The same scenario would also clinch a spot for the Ducks. Is all this right? Brodie Brazil was confusing me when he said the that since the Coyotes/Rangers went to OT that the Sharks can only clinch with a win at Calgary. The above scenario from NHL.com seems to contradict Brodie's statement. Sharks should forget the confusing portion of the scenarios and just win tonight and that would get them in.

[sportstar1212]

The Bruins 12-game win streak has been snapped in the shootout. Ah well, it was a good run.

[TorinK92]

I don't expect much from Ottawa anymore but a win is always nice. These stupid penalties they're always taking cost them a ROW though, could have been the game as well.

Side note: Erik Karlsson has 17 points in his last 15 games and 11 in his past 7 Also notching 20 on the season tonight for the first time in his career. He's been playing like a Norris winner during that stretch.

Now if the other 5 defensemen could actually try...

[Kramerica Industries]

by the way, this happened last night. FS Kansas City is impressed.

[HedleyLamarr]

Good to see the Jets carrying on the franchise tradition of pooping their pants late in the season and finishing out of the playoff picture.

[Still MIGHTY]

You're going to come in here every year just to say that until it's not true, aren't you?

[HedleyLamarr]

I come in here pretty frequently. Don't know how many posts I have.

But yeah, pretty much. Uniforms changed, address changed, and now the conferences changed....but they're the same bumbling franchise. I saw it for 11 years here and for now three years there. It's now been seven seasons of doing just enough to finish in 9th or 10th in the conference. Get everyone's hopes up, only for some untimely losing stretch in the second half of the year, only to finish the year strong and miss out on the playoffs by 2-4 points. Sign a couple marginal players, repeat the process. Seen that a ton of times.

What the franchise needs to do is get rid of everyone that's covered with the stench of losing, whether it be from playing with the Thrashers for multiple years, or other players associated with losing. Jokinen, Bogosian, Slater, Pababib, Kane, Thorburn, Little, etc. Blow the whole thing up since their core knows nothing but losing.

Winnipeg is going to give the team only so much of a grace period. They should have chunked the Thrasher plan and treated this grace period as an expansion-like build. Granted, they've only had one real offseason to try to improve themselves (the summer of the franchise relocation and the summer of the lockout uncertainty certainly didn't help matters, but it doesn't fully excuse their moves), but this is a team spinning in circles.

[NEW.ERA]

They've been drafting for the Western Conference ever since they came from Atlanta. They don't use a Thrasher model, that wasn't even a thing. Each year they've been getting bigger and faster, planning out a better future then whatever was waiting with them in Atlanta. I agree more things have to be done, like being active in free agency, but their prospect pool is top 15 in the league and is only going to get better. They were a sinking ship before the new year, then when Maurice came aboard, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they were going to be in a playoff spot at this time if Mark Scheifele didn't get hurt. That kid meant a lot to this team, if they could ever get some stable goaltending, look the hell out.

And maybe your distrust in these guys will change. These aren't the Thrashers, nor will they ever be. Sorry.

[ninersdd]

I know the Flames are a tough team to play against, but you have to get 2 points against them instead of 1. Next up, SJ should hopefully get 2 against a team that has gotten outscored 11-2 in their last two games against Buffalo and Calgary. Of course we pelted them with 60 shots and it still was a shutout.

[FiddySicks]

This pretty much defies physics. It also kind of defines the Flyers pretty well, if you ask me.

[Kramerica Industries]

I know the Flames are a tough team to play against, but you have to get 2 points against them instead of 1. Next up, SJ should hopefully get 2 against a team that has gotten outscored 11-2 in their last two games against Buffalo and Calgary. Of course we pelted them with 60 shots and it still was a shutout.

yeah, I know this feeling from last night as well. The Lightning have only scored ONE goal throughout six shootout competitions since the middle of December, and what makes it more annoying is that all of these shootouts are at home. They've been remarkably Devils-esque of late and it has cost them points in the standings.

that said, these things are the very definitions of crapshoots and, thankfully, it's not like shootout wins or losses are foreboding of anything come playoff time. In many ways, they are no different than settling a game in a tie from 10+ years ago, but America's general intolerance for ties is the whole reason this charade exists.

[The_Admiral]

Carolina GM Jim Rutherford expected to step down after season, and it's about time.

Likely to be replaced by Ron Francis.

GOOD. Screw Rutherford. What a terrible GM that guy has been for twenty years, coasting on the nonexistent expectations of his bosses and his customers. I don't know of many GMs more myopic about what it takes to comprehensively build a hockey organization than Rutherford. Of course, go figure that they'd make Ron Francis the new GM, as if Ron Francis has any significant player-personnel credentials beyond having played for the Whalers/Hurricanes. Of course, that's all it takes at the Karmanos Country Club -- isn't Rod Brind'Amour in management? What's his title, "Executive Vice-President Of Showin' Off These Sweet Guns"? Congratulations, Carolina Hurricanes! You're the old Chicago Blackhawks/current Edmonton Oilers. Enjoy the warm embrace of old players hanging around to do real work, a/k/a irrelevance.

[The_Admiral]

I come in here pretty frequently. Don't know how many posts I have.

But yeah, pretty much. Uniforms changed, address changed, and now the conferences changed....but they're the same bumbling franchise. I saw it for 11 years here and for now three years there. It's now been seven seasons of doing just enough to finish in 9th or 10th in the conference. Get everyone's hopes up, only for some untimely losing stretch in the second half of the year, only to finish the year strong and miss out on the playoffs by 2-4 points. Sign a couple marginal players, repeat the process. Seen that a ton of times.

What the franchise needs to do is get rid of everyone that's covered with the stench of losing, whether it be from playing with the Thrashers for multiple years, or other players associated with losing. Jokinen, Bogosian, Slater, Pababib, Kane, Thorburn, Little, etc. Blow the whole thing up since their core knows nothing but losing.

Winnipeg is going to give the team only so much of a grace period. They should have chunked the Thrasher plan and treated this grace period as an expansion-like build. Granted, they've only had one real offseason to try to improve themselves (the summer of the franchise relocation and the summer of the lockout uncertainty certainly didn't help matters, but it doesn't fully excuse their moves), but this is a team spinning in circles.

People are going to give you crap for this but I find it hard to argue much of what you said. I will agree with NewEraPanda that losing Schiefele for the year (and Trouba for a significant period of time) were major setbacks, but for the most part they're stuck in neutral. They need to strongly consider packaging some assets for a very high draft pick this year. Everything has been too deliberate, too conservative. They need to show some huge balls, just once.

[-kj]

New Winnipeg, complete with old Winnipeg smell.

[Kramerica Industries]

the 'Canes have the stupidest looking past 15 or so years of any franchise in the league. Either they missed the playoffs, or won multiple playoff rounds. No in-between. It's been fun the past several years seeing them flail around and I hope to see this continue.

[The_Admiral]

The Hurricanes' roster is always like what everyone was afraid salary-cap hockey would look like: all the money tied up in top-line players and a goalie, then a bunch of dog crap to fill out the rest of the lineup. Everyone else seemed to figure it out, including, ironically enough, the Hurricanes themselves, who actually won a championship with what might be the worst roster of any championship team in the modern era. But this is what happens when you're allergic to drafting and development. I don't have the patience to comb over twenty Jim Rutherford drafts, but of the last few, holy guacamole, what a bunch of duds.

EDIT: http://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/CAR/draft.html

Other than Saint Eric, what few players of consequence they've drafted in the last ten years wound up being traded for other assets: Andrew Ladd for Tuomo Ruutu (in turn traded for Loktionov, a sequence reminiscent of "Smart" by Shel Silverstein), Jack Johnson for Tim Gleason, Brandon Sutter for Jordan Staal. I'll give him credit for Jamie McBain for Andrej Sekera, but mostly because I seem to operate under this pesky misconception that Jamie McBain is Chad LaRose, and Chad LaRose really sucked.