Math

2 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

@OccamsRazor

Hintze was banged up going into this series. 

This shouldn't be a surprise to the Stars.

Yeap, he was already injured and almost non existant this whole series except game #3.

I'm surprised that he's officially injured that late in the season.

Re-signing St-Louis is a mistake IMO. I admit I'm not really objective when it comes to him but if Montréal want to finally take the next step and compete for a play-off spot or more, they need a real experienced technician behind the bench. It was ok to go with a local and good motivator when the Canadiens were dead last and had nothing to lose when they cleaned the FO but I don't think he's the guy capable of bringing these guys to another level. Having a french-speaking coach is a non-negotiable requirement in this organization, so they have to assume all the barriers and pitfalls they are putting in the middle of their own way. Personally, if this contributes to have them glued at the bottom of the standings for a while, I'm completely fine with it.

Just now, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

I can appreciate Darnell Nurse's physicality, but that punch to Dakota Joshua's face was just stupid...
PP Vancouver.

Not to mention the cross-check prior to that. Nurse has probably the worst quality/price ratio among Dmen in the League.

Who would've bet on a Silovs-Pickard match-up on the playoffs second round a couple of weeks ago...?

2 hours ago, notfondajane said:

I heard that Meruelo received $1 billion on top of the price of the team. In case he wins the bid for the land somewhere near Tempe. (Seriously) I am not sure how true that is!

That is dramatically true... In fact, the NHL bought the franchise $1 billion and the Smiths bought the team from the League at a price around $1.2 billion reportedly. So it's a benefit of $200M to be shared between all the other team. Yipee, win-win deal, everybody's happy!

But technically, it's not a true relocation per se. Utah inherits all hockey assets related to the Coyotes but the logo, name and team history are frozen and will stay inactive for the time being. Meruelo has been given these guarantees but he has to have an arena ready in five years. He must first win a land aunction that is set in late June (again, in a terrible location btw). If he wins, he still needs to come with a project and build this thing. Considering that it takes 1 to 1.5 years to construct it, a real project has to be achieved and accepted in 3.5 years approximately. So there are many hurdles to overcome. If he fails to win the aunction bid, he's toast, which I truly hope: he has been an awful owner and it's crazy that the League still considers him to reactivate the franchise in the future.

Game #3

Overall domination of Colorado but somehow the Stars were able to strike first and not look back. The Avalanche had a strong push but failed to capitalize on the special teams. One would think that Öttinger stole the game (and I was thinking that grabbing the win was on this shoulder) but I wasn't the case, though he remained sharp. The Stars' defensive structure by clogging the neutral zone and pushing Avalanche's players on the side was the key, the same recipe served for Vegas, and it worked. The Stars shouldn't have lost game #1 but Colorado should've won this one. 2-1 in the series makes sense overall.

Game #4

This was was absolutely bizarre: I was expecting Colorado to start strong and to be relentless in a game where they had the pressure on. And it was exactly the opposite: the Stars completely dominated the Avs in the first two periods. In the middle of the game, it was 24-4 on SOG and 12-2 in scoring chances. Unbelievable. Makar was a ghost of himself, MacKinnon tried to do everything by himself to salvage this thing with very few success. There was no response whatsoever, like if they were giving up. I'm sure the Nichushkin news shook that locker room.

The Colorado bear is wounded, but there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal...

2 hours ago, notfondajane said:

To be brutally honest, I actually liked the team and having a team in the desert. 

I'm not sure of the reason why they left Winnipeg? 

For the same reasons that the Nordiques left and that the Oilers — yes, even the Oilers — were that close to be packing for Houston: small market, no revenue sharing, no salary cap, exchange rate, growing salaries, obsolete arenas, higher taxes, and also a new commisoner who was tasked to grow and develop the League with new markets in the south, where the potential is.

But hockey will be back in Arizona some time for sure. Two conditions to be successful however to start: 1) if a decent and properly located arena is built and 2) not with Meruelo as an owner. If at least one of the two conditions is not fulfilled, it's a no-go.

2 minutes ago, notfondajane said:

I think and I am guessing that the mistake was moving from Phoenix to Glendale. 

Yeap, that was the catalyst of many other epic mistakes and failures that this franchise has made in terms of marketing, management, business and sports-related fields.

Holy fúck... O_O

https://www.tsn.ca/colorado-avalanche-s-valeri-nichushkin-placed-in-stage-3-of-nhl-nhlpa-player-assistance-program-1.2120495?tsn-amp

It's tough to define what's a true rivalry nowadays with so many teams, the divisonal realignment and the playoffs format. For me, a rivalry has to check the following points:

Geographical proximity - I know it's tempting to go with Boston vs. Florida but there's not much of a common history here and the level of intensity is created since the playoffs match-up from last year. It might be intense right now but it can disappear quite quickly if those two teams don't meet regularly in the future.

Animosity between teams - Again, Montréal/Boston hates each other and contribute to propel the intensity level when those teams play against each other. For not so long it was tempting to cite the Stars/Preds building rivalry because they faced in the playoffs a couple of times but there's more indifference between the two teams.

Long and storied previous match-ups - Fresh rivalries have more risks to disappear whereas rivalries that are lasting for decades are now printed in each teams' DNA. Rivalries are created from events, not articifially. On the other hand, the fact to pay too many times against the same teams is counter-productive. At some point, you were playing the teams in your division eight times per season. Too much rivalry kills the rivalry.

Same level of competition - Teams have to be competitive as well and meeting in the playoffs. If team A is a contender and team B is rebuilding, the patented rivalry between those two somehow cools off.  

I'd say the Toronto/Montréal will always be there. As the Montréal/Boston one. All O6 teams with a lot of shared history. Same for the battle of Alberta. You guys can tell me but I think the Philly/Pittsburgh will always be present as well.

2 hours ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

Don’t the Avalanche have a Yeti foot as one of their logos?

That was their first alternate logo used as a shoulder patch. Then they switched to the lame Colorado "C" emblem. 

Oof, they almost blew it, once again. This time it turned on their favor because they managed to go over the worst 3-goal lead and the Avalanche only had one period left to turn things around.

Overall, the Stars were clearly better for the forst two periods. More scoring and high danger chances, they controlled the puck way more often and kept attacking even with the lead while being good on special situations. But again, they missed a ton of breakaways and odd-man rushes anf were a bit on their heels twice in the third period, which immediately led to two Avs goals, and it was to stressing and nail biting. It bent but it held. Both goalies were absolutely great. Hintz surprisingly played like if he was at 100%, Johnston is becoming a Selke-caliber player and Seguin is clicking again. On the other side, very rough game for Duchene and Pavelski. It's sad but Pavelski should the odd-man out if DeBoer goes to another roster change after a loss. He's completely lost and overwhelmed again that skilled and fast Colorado team. 

This is so different than the Vegas series. Colorado is relentless and I feel that anytime they want to score, they just push on the accelerator and they get the goal. That's a punch and clutch team compared to the Diesel-balanced Vegas. It's way more fun to watch also. The chess game is over, time for full attack mode. The question for next game is: should the Stars try to get a 17-goal lead to be confident enough or should they stop scoring while keeping on attacking if they have a 2-goal lead...

20 minutes ago, Icechipper said:

Will be Utah Hockey Club year one. Colors will be established before poll-based name marketing experiment.

Utah Hockey Club forever !

I hope they won't go with a lame blue/red/white scheme but I don't think they will. I see more a palette including black, gold, silver and something like light brown, brick, sand-like color. It would be cool if they go with something that is not used anymore by anyone in the league: purple. But they won't...

I'm gonna send a cyberattack to create millions of AI generated bots with the objective to make Utah Ice, Utah Powder, Utah Caribou and Utah HC be the four retained names for the final choice.

That was some good ol' badass 1990s hockey there.

3 hours ago, Brewin Flames said:

I'm Guessing sometime soon Sheldon Keefe (Toronto) will be is added to the list.

Didn't take long...

That's lazy. More than one and a half year to find a name and logo? It's like a PWHL team will be playing one season in the NHL. At least the option of sticking with Utah Hockey Team is still alive.

Ha, that's the doping substances he was taking about...

9 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Man...shame on you, Dallas Stars!

I don't care HOW good an offense the Avalanche have, if you are a division champion, if you have then down n out 3-0, you NEED to get the job done.
Somehow, some way, the Stars found a way to lose this one.

Well yeah, shít happens...

When Benn missed the wide open net to make it 4-0 with 2 secs remaining in the first, I immediately thought that the 3-0 lead, the worst lead in hockey and more specifically in Stars history, won't be enough. And there it went...

It was a curious game, with many bumps and big ups and downs throughout the game. The game started very slowly on the Stars side, like they were the rusted ones, but then they capitalized on every opportunity. That lead came maybe too quickly because that let the Avalanche to be pissed and play hockey like they had nothing to lose. The Stars weren't prepared to that and they played an awful second period, including the first minute of the third where they completely forgot MacKinnon. Surprisingly, they didn't collapse like they used to do and they had the best scoring chances from that point, including in OT.

But of course, it's the Stars. They have to lose every game #1, in OT if possible, because that's their trademark. 5-6 huge scoring chances, missed wide open nets, and then one Colorado breakaway on their first rush and poof.

Overall it was a tight game but adjustement is really needed. Colorado is completely different than Vegas and it's not favoring Dallas. The Avs are much faster and can score on every opportunity when MacKinnon/Rantanen/Makar are on the ice. Öttinger was the usual Öttinger that we see in games #1 to #3, nothing surprising there, but Georgiev probably played his best game of the season with a stellar .864 in sv% and a bit below 3.00 GAA. I'm worried about the injured Hintz because he isn't doing anything since the postseason started. Shoulder/arm/wrist, upper body for sure. Pavelski is painful to watch as he looks so washed up. Also I'm wondering if they can sustain that 5D rotation.

High points of the year: I think they beat the Oilers 1.0 (the team that piled up losses at the season start) but they blanked the Blues in St-Louis and this should be painted in teal everywhere in Missouri.

Holy smoke, Keith Tkachuk is enormous.

Goalies: 

Defense: 

Offense: 

Special teams (PP/PK): 

Coaching: 

Mental: 

Experience: 

Robustness: 

Depth: 

Bennett will be the X-factor there. I've always thought that the Bruins' centerline is their weakness but it's not really apparent so far. For this revenge, it has to go to the limit.

Panthers in 7.

Goalies: 

Defense: 

Offense: 

Special teams (PP/PK): 

Coaching: 

Mental: 

Experience: 

Robustness: 

Depth: 

This series is like the Stars-Avalanche one. A more balanced team vs. a lethal offense that can clutch at any time. I think Vancouver can succeed where the Kings fell flat and if Demko plays and is stellar, the Nucks can push it to the limit. Still, Edmonton's special teams and offense can make the difference.

Oilers in 6.

Goalies: 

Defense: 

Offense: 

Special teams (PP/PK): 

Coaching: 

Mental: 

Experience: 

Robustness: 

Depth: 

I don't know why, some sort of feeling but I really don't trust Carolina in this series. The Rangers seem to be a bit better everywhere.

Rangers in 6.

Sheesh, that was close. Now that DeBoer inserted Faksa makes him look like a genius.

But that was a series of details in the middle of a chess game. Two brain farts lead to be a 1-1 tie after two periods, and then Faksa scored almost the same goal as the Hanifin one: shot that deflected on a body, going past over the shoulder of the screened goalie.