belowthegoalline

Please check out the full article at Below the Goal Line. Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out BTGL's complete preview of the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament exclusively here. NHL Game Updates: Pittsburgh Penguins @ New York Islanders, Matt Murray returned for the Penguins, but Pittsburgh struggles to score as te Islanders win 4-1. Columbus Blue Jackets @ New York Rangers, That's nine straight wins for the Jackets, who climbed into the third spot in the Metropolatin Division from out a playoff spot a few weeks ago. They win 5-3 thanks to an Artemi Panarin hat trick. Dallas Stars @ Washington Capitals, Dallas has fallen hard after sitting in a Central Division playoff spot a few weeks ago. The Stars are now on the outside looking in thanks to a 4-3 loss to the Capitals. Edmonton Oilers @ Carolina Hurricanes, The Oilers light up the 'Canes for seven goals, win 7-3. Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators, The Panthers also score seven, and creep even closer to a Wild Card spot with a 7-2 win. Seven different Panthers score in this one. Philadelphia Flyers @ Detroit Red Wings, The Flyers pick up a big point in the shooutout against the Red Wings. The could have used two, but they fall 5-4 n Detroit. Los Angeles Kings @ Winnipeg Jets, Kyle Connor scores twice, including the game winner in overtime. The Jets win 2-1 in a rugged, hard-hitting battle between two playoff teams. Colorado Avalanche @ Chicago Blackhawks, The Blackhawks are officially eliminated from the postseason, the first time since 2007-08, and just the second time in the careers of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Avalanche win 5-1. Vancouver Canucks @ Vegas Golden Knights, Good news: Vegas wins again, this time 4-1, pushing their points total to 99 in their first season. Bad news: Marc-Andre Fleury was hurt again. New Jersey Devils @ San Jose Sharks, The story here is the depth scoring. The Sharks get goals from Eric Fehr (3rd of the season), Jannik Hansen (1st), and Barclay Goodrow (7th) to win 6-2. Toronto Maple Leafs v Tampa Bay Lightning: The Tampa Bay Lightning host the Toronto Maple Leafs in a potential first-round playoff preview. Tampa Bay is the only Eastern Conference team to qualify for the playoffs so far this season, and Toronto is firmly locked into the third place in the Atlantic Division. The Maples Leafs race out to 3-0 lead in this one. James van Reimsdyk gets the only goal in the first period. JVR wrists a puck past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy after receiving a pass from Mitch Marner in the slot. van Reimsdyk picks up another tally in the second when he flips a rebound in past the Lightning goalie. The Toronto forward is all alone in front of Vasilevskiy, and picks up his 33rd of the season on the backhand shot. Toronto would make it 3-0 at 15:41 of the second period when Zach Hyman finds a loose puck and wrists a puck to the top, left corner of the net for his 14th of the year. The Lightning would answer in the second period when Victor Hedman gets the Bolts on the board. Hedman cuts into the left faceoff circle and fires one past Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen, who is screened in the Toronto goal. It was all Tampa Bay in the third period. Goals by Ryan McDonagh, his second as a member of the Lightning, Nikita Kucherov, and Alex Killorn give the Lightning their first lead of the game at 4-3. Toronto would not answer, and Tampa Bay would finish the game victorious with a 4-3 win. Both of these teams impressed me at stretches in this game, both showing off their speed in this one. This felt like a playoff matchup, with some hard-hitting and good defensive play on both sides. The Lightning seemed a little sloppy early, which is indicative of their play lately. They seemed to have lost their drive to play consistently well after getting out to such a good start to the season. The Lightning also were undisciplined, taking four penalties, which lead to a Maple Leaf powerplay that went 1/3. Come back tomorrow when we recap the Boston Bruins taking on the St. Louis Blues in an important tilt in the playoff races in both conferences. Thanks for joining us. Please subscribe for email updates of future posts on the right side of the page (or after the entire article on your mobile devices). Don't forget to check us out on Twitter and Facebook!

4 divisions would cut down on travel if you change how many games you play against your division and other divisions. (Hint: that topic is coming up soon) Also, how does having eight divisions make things shallow? It would all depend on how the playoffs are structured. (Again, a topic I will talk about soon). If they give every division two teams in the playoffs, yeah you are going to screw someone over. But if every team gets one, and then you have 4 wild card teams, that would make it a little easier for teams in deep divisions to get in, and it keeps a bad team out of the playoffs. Like @WordsOfWisdom said. I agree the four division system makes sense. I just don't agree it's the best solution.

Please check out the full article at Below the Goal Line. Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out BTGL's complete preview of the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament exclusively here. NHL Game Updates: Columbus Blue Jackets @ Boston Bruins, In a match-up of two teams that could potentially meet in the playoffs, the visiting Blue Jackets score the game deciding goal in overtime to take the 5-4 win over the banged up Bruins. Columbus has now won eight in a row. Rookie Ryan Donato scored in his NHL debut. Nashville Predators @ Buffalo Sabres, Nashville how has points in 15 straight games after a 4-0 shutout of the Sabres. Florida Panthers @ Montreal Canadiens, Roberto Luongo made 28 saves for his 76th career shutout. Aaron Ekblad scored his 15th of the season in a 2-0 win over Monreal. Calgary Flames @ Arizona Coyotes, Calgary continues to struggle to stay relevant in the Western Conference playoff race as they lose to the Arizona Coyotes 5-2. The score is a little inflated after Arizona scores two empty-net goals, but a loss is a loss for the Flames who sit six points out of a playoff spot. Los Angeles Kings v Minnesota Wild: On a night with lots of playoff implications, the Los Angeles Kings visit the Minnesota Wild in a clash between Western Conference playoff hopefuls. The Wild entered the day in the third spot in the Central Division, three points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche. Los Angeles began this contested in the second Wild Card spot in the West with 84 points. The Dallas Stars are tired with the Kings in points, but the Kings have a game in hand. The St. Louis Blues also sit just one point back from the Kings for that playoff spot. This was another thrilling game between two playoff teams. The Kings race out to a 2-0, thanks to Tanner Pearson and Jeff Carter goals. Pearson gets his 15th of the season when he finds the soft spot in the Wild defense and puts the puck past an overly aggressive Devan Dubnyk for the early lead. Jeff Carter adds to that lead in the second when he deflects a powerplay shot from Jake Muzzin past Dubnyk. The Wild would answer with three goals. Zach Parise would get his 9th of the season when he drifts into the zone with the puck and floats one past goaltender Jonathan Quick, who was sprawled out several feet from the grease. Quick basically gave up most of the net when he committed to the save and Parise kept his legs moving to open up a better chance. Eric Staal tied the game at 19:04 of the middle period with his 39th of the season. Staal receives a great pass from defenseman Ryan Suter, and breaks in with some space before wristing a puck past Quick's blocker side. Quick was overly aggressive again, but this time it was the skill of Eric Staal that found the tiniest of openings for the tying goal. The surge would continue for the Wild in the third period. Rookie forward Joel Eriksson Ek scores at 17:29 of the final frame to give the Wild a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for the home team, as Dustin Brown is able to tip in a goal with just 47 seconds left to send the game to overtime. Jeff Carter scores his second of the game in overtime when he picks up a rebound and wires a shot past Devan Dubnyk for the extra point. This pushes the Kings to 86 points on the season, good for third place in the Pacific Division. By getting to overtime, the Wild hit 90 points on the year, four points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche for third place in the Central Division. For me, the Wild looked like the strong of the two teams in this game. They had, at times, a significant speed advantage over the Kings, but they were the hungrier team throughout much of the game. The Kings played strong defense in front of their goalie, and generated a good number of scoring chances of their own. The goalies were the story of the game for me in this one. Quick stopped 24 out of 27 Wild shots, and Dubnyk allowed four goals on 30 Kings shots. Both goalies had some sensational saves in this one, but then had moments where they were just lost while the other team scored. Jonathan Quick was out of his crease a lot, which lead to some good saves, but also left him vulnerable to several good chances by the Wild. Devan Dubnyk survived several opportunities where he overplayed a puck behind the net, or was way off to one side of the net and the Kings were able to get a good chance at a somewhat empty net. Both of these goalies are very good, and should play well for their teams down the stretch and into the playoffs. Look for these two teams to play well in all three zones as they attempt to make deep runs in the postseason. Thanks for joining us. Please subscribe for email updates of future posts on the right side of the page (or after the entire article on your mobile devices). Don't forget to check us out on Twitter and Facebook!

And you're going to shove Dallas from the Central Time Zone into the western most division? And bring Calgary and Edmonton over to the "Central"? Doesn't make sense to me.

32 is perfect for me. There is conference and division balance. The talent pool is big enough for 32 teams. I would not add any more for any reason. I thought 30 was fine, but 32 is good with me too.

@WordsOfWisdom I agree that this is not ideal for the Leafs. I'm not saying that this will be the final setup. I think they will ultimately end up being with Montreal, Ottawa, and Buffalo. There are so many different ways you could align everything (like the Pacific Division). Maybe what looks better is putting Boston with the New Yorks and then putting DET, CBJ, PIT, and PHI together. I like that, too. Let's stop pretending that Columbus is a joke of a team for five minutes here. Everyone goes up and down. Detroit will be a solid team in say five years, and the Leafs have been awful for how long? Toronto gets a lot of say, but they're not above any other team in this league. Who do you shift out of the Pacific for Seattle? There will be 9 teams in the Pacific Time Zone. Vegas would be the eastern-most team. They would have a ridiculous amount of travel to Nashville and Chicago numerous times every year. Either way, I think the 8-division format is better because it alleviates some of those issues.

Please check out the full article at Below the Goal Line. Thanks for reading! NHL Game Updates: Chicago Blackhawks @ Buffalo Sabres, Jack Eichel returned to the lineup for the Sabres, who picked up one assists after missing 15 games. The Sabres score three in the third to pick up the 5-3 win in a match-up of two non-playoff teams. New Jersey Devils @ Los Angeles Kings, The Devils shut out the Kings, thanks to Kieth Kinkaid's 38 saves, and a shorthanded goal from Michael Grabner, his 27th of the year. Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs, First NHL goal alert: Andreas Johnsson of the Maple Leafs scored his first NHL goal tonight. This goal was extra insurance for Toronto, who scored four goals, while goaltender Curtis McElhinney stopped all 33 attempts that made it his was for the 4-0 shutout. Boston Bruins @ Tampa Bay Lightning, The Boston Bruins have been chasing the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first spot in the Atlantic Division all season. It was Boston who was victorious tonight, thanks to 23 saves by Tuukka Rask on what seemed to be a stale bunch of Lightning. David Backes scored before leaving with injury, and the Bruins win 3-0. Philadelphia Flyers @ Carolina Hurricanes, The desperate Flyers scored four in the final frame to win 4-2. They maintain their spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture: third in the Metro. Ottawa Senators @ Columbus Blue Jackets, Scary moment when Ryan Dzingel take a shot off the head and leaves the game. We want to wish him the best moving forward. Markus Nutivaara of the Jackets scored his 4th of the year in the second period. That goal turned out to be the difference in a 2-1 win for Columbus. The goal was Nutivaara's first NHL game winning goal. New York Rangers @ St. Louis Blues, If the Blues have any hope of getting back into the playoff consideration, they need to pick up two point almost every night. That was the case tonight, as Alex Pietrangelo, who opened the scoring in the first, got his second of the game in the third to send the game to overtime. Brayden Schenn scored in overtime to propel the Blues to the 4-3 victory. Minnesota Wild @ Arizona Coyotes, Devan Dubnyk picks up his 200th NHL win, this time a 3-1 win over the Coyotes. Rookie Clayton Keller scored his 20th for Arizona. San Jose Sharks @ Vancouver Canucks, The red-hot San Jose Sharks maybe aren't playing their best defense of the season, but are scoring at a higher clip than at any other point this season. After wins in Edmonton and Calgary, the Sharks sweep the Western Canada road trip, beating Vancouver 5-3. Edmonton Oilers v Florida Panthers: The Florida Panthers entered today three points out of a Wild Card spot, but they had two extra games to play over the New Jersey Devils, who hold that last Eastern Conference playoff spot. The Panthers, who are 8-1-1 in their last ten games, have been on fire since the All-Star break, and have rocketed up the Eastern Conference standings. After beating the Boston Bruins on Thursday, they look to keep rolling against a Edmonton Oilers team that has been on the outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference the entire season. Both teams played a heavy, physical game in this one. Several different big hits happened in the neutral zone. The biggest of the hits in the first period was Michael Haley crunching Zack Kassian, which lead to a fight between Haley and Oiler Jujhar Khaira. The hitting continued into the second period, where the scoring picked up. Frank Vatrano, former Boston Bruin, scored at 8:02. This after the puck hops over a Oiler defenseman's stick, and Vatrano races in, beats goaltender Cam Talbot to the puck, and scores an easy one into the open net. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins responded with his 20th goal of the season, this time shorthanded. The goal, at 11:09 of the second, was the result of a 2-on-2 shorthanded with Leon Draisaitl. Nugent-Hopkins sneaks the puck through goalie Roberto Luongo's left side, and the it trickles into the net. Panther Vincent Trochek answers on a wrister nearly five minutes later. He takes a pass from captain Derek MacKenzie, and fires the puck past Talbot for the 2-1 lead. Roberto Luongo had the play of the game, however. After making an initial stop, the puck finds Anton Slepyshev, who fires the puck at the net. Luongo, who was sprawled out in front of the net, dove back to his left and got enough of the puck with his stick to keep if from tying the game. Talbot makes a huge save of his own in the second period. This time, he stops a Aleksander Barkov breakaway chance with a little over a minute left in the second period. Barkov is having a true breakout year offensively this season. The Finnish forward has 25 goals and a career high 45 assists for a career high 70 points in 68 game so far this year. Unfortunately for the playoff hopefuls, it was all Edmonton in the third period. Goals by Connor McDavid, Adam Larsson, and Ty Rattie pushed the Oilers over the top for the 4-2 win. The Panthers just seemed to run out of gas when the Oilers picked it up in the third period. It was captain Connor McDavid who lead the push for Edmonton, pick up a point on all three goals in the third. He now sits tied for second in the NHL with 89 points. The Panthers have been on an incredible push since the All-Star break, but it remains to be seen if they have enough in the tank to catch the other teams in the Wild Card race. New Jersey, who sits in the second Wild Card spot, won today, and now sits five points ahead of the Panthers. Next year might yield better results for the Panthers, who will look to get off to a better start to the season. Playing catch up at the end of the year is a lot harder than getting off to a hot start and playing well enough to fend off teams that didn't.

Please check out the full article at Below the Goal Line. Thanks for reading! As I’m sure you are all aware, the NHL is most likely going to expand to Seattle in the next several years. Seattle has always been on the NHL wish list, and they finally have a plan to renovate their arena for hockey and basketball. The investment group has already filed for an expansion team with the NHL, and their season ticket drive to gather investment capital and gauge the interest in the team was a complete success. The Seattle group made their ticket sales goal in a matter of minutes, which was not as fast as anyone expected. So with the talk that Seattle will be joining the league sometime in the next couple of years, I want to talk a little about what they are going to look like when they come into the league. The NHL has stated that Seattle will have very similar Expansion Draft opportunities to what the Vegas Golden Knights did in 2017. The current NHL teams will be able to protect certain players from Seattle, but Seattle will have a very good chance to pick up some quality players from the rest of the league. But don’t expect Seattle to have the instant success that Vegas is having right now. NHL teams have learned just how strong their hands were tied in certain cases, and they will take a better look at what they can do to protect the players they value most. Maybe we will see a team like the Columbus Blue Jackets hold on to a player like William Karlsson, who is currently leading the Golden Knights in goals. Vegas also had the perfect combination of players and coaching. I’m not sure that Seattle is going to be able to get the same level of coaching as the Golden Knights are getting from Gerard Gallant. Vegas certainly picked up players that fit the way Gallant wanted the team to play, and they have been unprecedentedly successful this year. I would expect some natural regression from Vegas next season, but time will tell just how far they will regress, if at all. Seattle will probably struggle a little bit more coming out of the gates, but don’t expect them to not be competitive. I would image the ceiling for that team should be set at a Wild Card level, even though Vegas is going to win the Pacific Division in its first year. We are not going to see Seattle struggle like the 2016-17 version of the Colorado Avalanche. So, what is this going to mean for the alignment of teams in the NHL. The natural fit would be to stick them into the Pacific Division, but that would put that division at nine team, while the Central only have seven. I think splitting the league up into two conferences and eight divisions makes the most sense. Think about the NFL’s division system, and you get the idea. This system would allow for more regionally-based divisions. Let’s take a look at the East: Eastern Conference Division #1: Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Washington Capitals. Division #2: Philadelphia Flyers, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, and New York Islanders. Division #3: Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators, and Montreal Canadiens. Division #4: Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Pittsburgh Penguins. The first two divisions are easy to put together. You can use the geography to put Division 1 together, and you maintain the rivalry of Tampa/Florida. The second division also makes sense, since all of those teams are basically right on top of each other. It gets a little trickier after that, but in keeping a “northeast/west” theme here would make sense. You can lump the Sabres and Bruins together, as well as the Jackets and Wings. So then it’s about putting the other four teams in good spots, but those could easily be flipped around a bit. What about the West? Western Conference Division #1: Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes, and Dallas Stars. Division #2: San Jose Sharks, Seattle, Vancouver Canucks, and Vegas Golden Knights. Division #3: Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, and Winnipeg Jets. Division #4: Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues, and Nashville Predators. Obviously, the West doesn’t have that natural geography like the East, but that is due to the teams being so spread out compared to the East. I tried to keep a geographical theme here, but there a few different ways to do it. Honestly, the hardest part is determining where the California teams go, because the Sharks just fit in a couple different spots. The point, though, is that I think the best way to line things up would be a eight division breakdown of teams, as opposed to the four division format we have now. If we stick with four divisions, you are going to be moving the Golden Knights to the Central, which wouldn’t be the end of the world, but wouldn’t be my favorite thing. Time will tell us what we can expect for NHL re-alignment, but that’s my pitch for the eight division. Stay tuned for a comment about the NHL playoff format, as that is a very hot topic around the hockey world right now.

Good morning boys and girls! This is my inaugural Below the Goal Line post on HockeyForums.net. I have partnered with HockeyForums to bring you exclusive updates from around the hockey world. I host my own site, Below the Goal Line, where I keep you up-to-date with the latest game info, trades, and other important topics from the NHL and beyond. Please join me as we take a deeper look into the world of hockey. Here's how we are going to work this who blog business. I am going to publish my posts on my site. I will then post select articles from my site on here, so that you guys have an avenue to stay informed about the latest hockey news. Don't forget to check out Below the Goal Line for exclusive content regarding the NHL and other hockey leagues. I am not going to backlog my posts, but I will start publishing new posts on here shortly. For those who would like to see what I have posted so far (including a three-part look into the CHL before their playoffs start and other posts), please visit www.belowthegoalline.com. Thanks for your support, and please let me know if there is any topic you are interested in hearing about. I'll see you guys on the ice!