Math

I watched him a couple of times in the LHJMQ when he was pretty dominant in St-John, in a team that was dominant at that time. I wasn't expecting him to install himself so quick in the NHL but after the Karlsson trade people immediately saw him as a replacement. I also attend some Sens games and he managed to succeed in that quick jump in the league. Also on the plus side, he's playing in a trainwreck, unfortunately, but NOT in Montréal, away from distractions and all the negative pressure that surrounds the Habs. Still needs to work on his defensive game but he has a good margin of progression. I think he can be a regular 60+ pts Defenseman.

it's somehow the new reality of these days' contracts. I'm not so shocked because he will be Ottawa's D-man #1 for the years to come and it's the price to pay for that. I'm pretty sure he will increase his stats as well.

I think the League stated than this will be done when Seattle comes in. Coyotes to the Central and Seattle in the Pacific. That being said, I think the Coyotes' future is settled. Once they move in a new area in downtown Phoenix, things are gonna be on the track and they will remain there unless a major catastrophe happens. Maybe Buttman's message shook a bit the organisation when he was surprisingly vague about the future in Arizona, in opposite as when the was speaking about the Hurricanes', insisting that the franchise will "never, ever, ever move elsewhere".

Amongst all keywords related to the Wild's current situation (GM, owner, Coach,...), one word is the centerpiece IMO: Culture. I honestly don't know what it takes to have a bit of a resolution to this giant mess, but one thing has to change: the team culture. If you want to change that, you have to remove every malignant cell in the entire body. If you let just one single sick entity in the system, the cancer will spread again, soon or later. I'm really afraid that this can only be validated when the Parisé/Suter era is over, when it's absolutely certain that these guys (and some other) have an absolute zero influence on anything that touches closer or farther the franchise. In that sense, letting the assistant GM in charge for the whole next season seems to be the least worst option.

Nice try, but it's not the 1st of April. Oh wait...

Even NHL.com uses sarcasm in their team reset articles. They wrote "key substractions", "Bitetto" and "Åberg" in the same sentence.

That's why you have all those beautiful job descriptions such as "second general advisor to the special team assistant coach", "special consultant of the third alternate scout assistant" or "second executive assistant to the alternate back-up goalie advisor". Seems that you are absolutely essential to the organization, but in fact you are just there and probably cut the lemons or prepare the warm-up towels.

I vote for the same circus than happened in the 1st round: Sharks' sweep and I put 10 bucks on it. If I win, my summer vacation will be paid.

3 shots in like 45 minutes. The Blues' domination was quite embarrassing, moreover in a 7th game. A Dallas win would have been one of the biggest steal in NHL history, but that was close to happen, having Radulov be able to adjust his one-timer instead of chasing flies with 1:30 remaining... Game #6 was quite the same with a lesser extent. Seems that the Stars just ran out of gas after game #5. Benn was absolutely ordinary, playing heavily with no emotions and no urgency.

I also picked the Stars in 6, but Bishop has been inconsistent so far vs the Blues: terrific games followed by so-so performances. After game 5 I was sure Dallas would close the series at home, but they remained in the locker room, so here we go with a 7th game and everything is open, it will be 50-50...

Really close series there, but I feel the Bruins a just a bit superior (experience, depth). The insertion of Backes seems to work, Rask did great against the BJ. Bruins to the limit, in 7.

May 3, 2019 AWAY HOME N.Y. Islanders 1 Carolina 6 7:00 PM Dallas 4 St. Louis 2 9:30 PM

May 2, 2019 AWAY HOME Boston 3 Columbus 2 7:30 PM San Jose 2 Colorado 5 10:00 PM

May 1, 2019 AWAY HOME N.Y. Islanders 2 Carolina 1 7:00 PM St. Louis 2 Dallas 3 9:30 PM

April 30, 2019 AWAY HOME Boston 3 Columbus 2 7:00 PM San Jose 3 Colorado 2 10:00 PM

April 29, 2019 AWAY HOME St. Louis 2 Dallas 3 8:00 PM

Pwaaa, that's a tough one... Both potential Cinderellas. I'll go with the Isles in 7, that's what my coin tosses told me.

You get to the playoffs with the talent, you can make a run for the Cup with a strong defence, but it's the bottom-6 that makes you win a SC (I think this comes from Mike Bossy, I don't recall..) Shut down the Avs 1st line and they are toast. Sharks in 6.

CBJ hype will end in this series. I'm not a fan of the Bruins - far from that - but I just don't see the Jackets making another upset. Bruins in 6.

First I thought it was a typical whining Québec thing: "Boohohooo, we lost, we have been robbed by the mean WC teams, it's the league's fault, let's have a second chance, we deserve it". But... no. And if the 2nd round also finish with upsetting surprises like the Blues out in 4 and the Bruins out in 4, would there be a "NHL Bracket Challenge Third Chance", and then a "Fourth chance" if the results don't please the majority of the predictions ?!?! Lame and Stupid. In that sense, why not replaying the 1st round for real ? All division winners are out, it's not normal, let's replay this. I'm 2-8 overall in the first round, and that could have been worse if I haven't picked the Blues in 6, my only fully correct prediction... And the guys who didn't pick TB for the cup, well, congratulations to them. There's one poster who picked the Isles as SC winner, and they actually win, big up and much respect for him, no more no less. I'll pass my turn on the losers' 2nd chance bracket.

The first thing to do in the offseason is to kidnap Fenton, Leipold and all the scouting staff around the 30th of June and put them in a bunker with no possibility to have any contact in the outer world (cut electricity, cellphones, internet, etc.). Then, free them around the 10th of July when we are absolutely sure that all old overpaid UFA have been signed elsewhere. Finally, use the usual BS to justify this ("it was a Coup from the Russians", "It's the NSA", "North Korea was behind all that", "Neil Armstrong never walked on he Moon", blah blah blah.)

That's a thing that drives me nutz! Honestly, I'm totally fine with losing if the guys give a 100% effort, young guys that are actually trying. Finishing the season like this is unacceptable, a real shame. For the last game, you want to finish well, playoffs or not. I watched the Habs' last game, and they really had a hard hit in the head when they failed to reach the postseason 24h before. But it didn't matter: they came strong, played Poehling who had a hatty and the SO winner in that game. Everybody gave the maximum in that game. As far as I loathe the Habs, I was jealous. They really managed to change the culture there and even if they didn't make it, they were all happy with this good ending because they all did the maximum. No cheaters. Another quick stories here (yeah, I love to dig them out these times): As I was still covering my team in a semi-final playoffs, we were leading 3-0 and as soon as we lost the game #4, everything collapsed. They tied the series 3-3 before going back at home to play the final game. We already knew that we would lose this one and I wrote the paper before the game. Of course, we lost it (at home in a packed and raucous arena), losing the series 4-3. Only One single player had the balls to say thanks to the fans, embarrassed and receiving beers and spits. I didn't need to change one single comma to the article and when I entered the team's restaurant like at midnight, some players were partying and joking. An absolute disgrace. Only the late Zarley Zalapski (who ended his career in Switzerland) was dramatically shocked. Only him. At that point, it is a whole culture that has to be changed. Like the Oilers are trying to do, unsuccessfully so far, for years and where the Wild is going through right now made me remind of that story because of the similarities. If this is true, Boudreau has to resign. No choice. It's called micromanagement and no coach should be tolerating that. I'm already afraid for the return... Let me guess: Zucker to the Isles for Andrew Ladd.

About the jeseys, just a quick story here: we have a baseball pro team here in Québec City named "Capitales" with an "e" that is playing in the Canam league, a independant baseball league. Sometimes they play interleague games and when the St-Paul Saints came here to play a series some time ago, they wore Nordiques, resp. North Stars gear especially for that occasion. That was quite fun to watch.

I exactly get it. Same feeling for me. For guys in North America, the reason of being a fan of this or that team is pretty obvious: it's your origin place, the city you live in, the place with natural bonds I would say. As a former european living 4000 miles away, it's less evident. Sometimes it's just a detail, a friend who's a fan, something special, the logo you just like, a gift... In my case, I became a North Star fan because former North Star defender Frantisek Musil was a friend of my mother (both came from the same city in Czech Rep. and were nearly neighbors). So I received a North Star jersey when I was a kid, and I also met Musil during the summer break back in Czech Republic. Furthermore, I liked the jersey very much, I was the only guy with a green jersey in my hockey team, that was original and kinda cool. And it all started from that (I'm a Raider fan because I received a Raider keyholder and a Raider magazine with a beautiful girl sitting on on a helmet in the front page; I'm also a Cubs fan just because I found the name "Cubs" cool...) Anyway, after the Stars departure, I lost interest in the NHL but I was thrilled when they announced a new franchise for Minnesota (drawback point was, I had to wait like 3 more years). But when the team name was chosen, I was like: "Wild ?!?! Meh... weird..." (I was rooting for Northern Lights). The main color was green, which was essential to me (Like above, sometimes it's just as stupid as that), but the combo forest green/iron red was unfortunate and led to all jokes about X-mas. Moreover, the early 2000's was a terrible period in terms of hockey uniforms design. The Wild somehow avoided a bit horror things like the Preds'yellow mustard or the fisherman Islander, but still. During the first Stars-Wild game, I was jealous. Damn the Stars had a gorgeous jersey while the Wild had this strange color combo with the clunky Wild shoulder patch. Being a original North Star fan, I always have the feeling that something is lacking, a thing that could finish a 100%-completion of this team embracement. Sorry for the long personal post, I quite lose it when all this things come into my mind