✨🥅 2023-24 NHL GENERAL SEASON THREAD 🥅 ✨

[Brewin Flames]

1 minute ago, Math said:

 

Definitely an all-time top-3. 

 

They plan to wear the Cooperalls pants though, and that's a bit too vintage for me.

 

 

What i would give to have the Whalers return.....

[Math]

4 minutes ago, Brewin Flames said:

What i would give to have the Whalers return.....

 

At least the Hurricanes are acknowledging the past of the franchise with these unis, the Brass Bonanza and stuff, which is cool.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Watching Bos-Buf...

I know the Bruins are good (again!) this season....but Buffalo is looking like a complete minor league team out there.

Not only that, but the Bruins put the smasher on Tage, who had to be escorted down the tunnel, and frankly, looking at this game (and I KNOW the personnel is different), I am getting shades of the Lucic led Bruins flattening Miller and owning Buffalo for the next decade!

Sabres better start defending better than what they have...or at least get their scoring legs.
3-0 Bruins in the 1st, and this game has been ALL Bruins. And they are looking to turn this into a 'laugher'...

[SaucyJack]

9 hours ago, Brewin Flames said:

I love the passion of fans, using the middle finger happens every nhl game, almost a rite of passage.

I suppose.  Now, my frame capture wasn’t from live play, it was a celebration replay before going to commercial for the 2nd intermission.  
 

What are the possibilities?  Some might guess that the Capitals producers at Monumental Sports Network hadn’t noticed the, um, passion of the two front row Devil’s fans…

 

…but I hope and prefer the other possibility, that the producers were aware and were of a schoolboy naughty disposition at the time and thought it great fun to show the full festive air after a Caps goal.   

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

FINALLY!
The Vasilevskiy has come BACK..... to the Lightning....

[SaucyJack]

I realize that Edmonton is not having the season they expected, what with players like Draisaitl and Mick Jesus.  So I gather that they’ve recognized the need to diversify, raise revenue, whatever, so as to overcome their slow start.  ==> Apparently there is money in timepiece hygiene.

 

So…in a get out of Dodge Black Friday Washington DC matinee (Oilers finishing 7 of 9 on the road, Capitals finishing 9 of 11 at home) Edmonton personnel put their newfound skills to good use and cleaned Washington’s clocks during their 5-0 drubbing.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Just now, SaucyJack said:

put their newfound skills to good use and cleaned Washington’s clocks during their 5-0 drubbing.

 

Yea, well, ya gotta admit....no sense in having filthy timepieces.
Gotta get a good srubbin now and then  

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

With Andrei Vasilevskiy back for the Lightning, that collective 'thud' you hear in the background, is fantasy owners collectively dropping Jonas Johansson from their lineups.....

Seriously though, Johansson did a better than average job than what many thought he would, but the Bolts are certainly a much better team with Vasy in there over him.
Although, that all said, the Bolts HAVE to defend better.

Still too many turnovers, still losing too many battles along the boards and in the corners, and still making too many errant passes at the WORST possible times (such as, ahem...exiting their zone), and Vasilevskiy or not, that won't improve them much.

The Bolts  and their returning star netminder (how long before he fully gets his NHL legs back???) take on the Carolina Hurricanes and are underway as I type, in Raleigh, NC.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Dmitry Orlov certainly is a rugged player and defender, but I wonder if he may wanna watch it.
Poking the bear, so to speak with continued runs at Tanner Jeannot....

So far, Jeannot has done little more than throw a few glares Orlov's way, but well, we will see how that plays out.

Also, already seeing a HUGE difference in the kind of goaltending Vasilevskiy delivers vs. Johansson:
He has much less 'wasted movement' in the crease, and is usually in position BEFORE the enemy can set up their shots....springing in another direction only as needed.

As game as Johansson was, he scrambled a bit too much and left more than a few holes in the lower area for my liking.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Flipping between the Lightning vs Canes game and the Wild vs Avs game, I got the opportunity to watch both the Bolts and Wild's PP on back to back occasions.

TB's PP is ridiculously good (over 31% efficiency on the season so far!)....while MIN's is ridiculously horrid (0 shots on goal on the one I watched, and sadly, that is the norm for those guys!)

These next two seasons (the Parise-Suter cap hell years) can't go by fast enough to suit me...Minnesota badly needs an infusion of offensive skill injected in that lineup.
The type of players they simply cannot get under the cap right now.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Michael Bunting.
STILL being a little s&^% stain.
Getting under the skin of the opposition.
Whether a Leaf or a Cane, he does what Bunting does: PO players, draws penalties....then follows through and scores on the ensuing PP.

Yea. Classic s^%$ stain.
But an EFFECTIVE one...and that is, as they say, the bottom line...

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Time to settle in, and see just what the hell is wrong in Ottawa as they take on the Florida Panthers, who have seemed to figure some things out, in the Tkachuk Cup.

Matt's team visits Brady's.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Florida gets a quick early goal on Korpisalo as if the Senator netminder wasn't even there...

Turnovers, poor defense, and being limited to just 2 SOG after 13 minutes of play isn't helping the Senators' cause either.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Easy way to tell when a team just isn't confident, desperate, and downright lost?

Whenever the other team makes perfectly fine hockey plays (checks that knock players down for instance), and EVERY player on Ottawa is looking at the ref, hoping, pleading, demanding, a call....

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

ANNOUNCER for Struggling Team: "You may as well finish the hit if you travelled all that way across the ice after a guy"
**(He apparently makes no differentiation whether the guy still has the puck or not).
"It'd be a shame to go all that way and not lay body on the guy..."

Also ANNOUNCER for Struggling Team after witnessing an opposing player lay out his guy after going across the ice:
"No charging call was made on that?? Did you SEE how far across the ice he went to lay the hit? Puck wasn't even there!
There is no room in this sport for this!!"  

[IllaZilla]

17 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

ANNOUNCER for Struggling Team: "You may as well finish the hit if you travelled all that way across the ice after a guy"
**(He apparently makes no differentiation whether the guy still has the puck or not).
"It'd be a shame to go all that way and not lay body on the guy..."

Also ANNOUNCER for Struggling Team after witnessing an opposing player lay out his guy after going across the ice:
"No charging call was made on that?? Did you SEE how far across the ice he went to lay the hit? Puck wasn't even there!
There is no room in this sport for this!!"  

That wasn't Jack Edwards, was it?

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

That wasn't Jack Edwards, was it?

 

Haha...no.
I was exaggerating on the Ottawa announcer who DID say a Senator player should have finished the check after traversing a mile to make a hit.
The rest was just a commentary on homerism in announcing...especially for struggling teams.

Although, I can very well see where you might think it was Edwards! 
That guy is horrible! 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Ottawa with the PP on a somewhat weak call by the officials....called tripping when the Florida player simply went to block a shot and his momentum took him into the Senator player.
Meh...should have let that one go, but whatever.

Ott had a four minute PP earlier and nearly got scored on by the Florida PK'ers

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Senators outplay Florida for good stretches during this second period....yet the Sens go from being down 1-0 to being down 3-0.

Ottawa fanbase not happy, and I wonder how soon before stuff starts getting thrown on the ice...wow.
Guess the Sens haven't hit rock bottom.

[Math]

Yeap, surprised to ear them booing. Usually it's a Montréal trademark after every missed shot.

[Math]

If that Senators-Panthers game was played in the 1990s, it would've finished with a giant bench-clearing brawl. Instead of that, the ref gave to all players on the ice a 10-min misconduct penalty during the last scrum with seven minutes remaining in the game. First time that I see that with the ref making the sign of a home-run with such a call.

 

Now both teams have 11 players remaining, the current total is 167 penalty minutes.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

31 minutes ago, Math said:

If that Senators-Panthers game was played in the 1990s, it would've finished with a giant bench-clearing brawl. Instead of that, the ref gave to all players on the ice a 10-min misconduct penalty during the last scrum with seven minutes remaining in the game. First time that I see that with the ref making the sign of a home-run with such a call.

 

Now both teams have 11 players remaining, the current total is 167 penalty minutes.

 

That was pretty weird to watch.

I've never seen a game where the coaches outnumbered the players on the bench! 

[Math]

2 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

That was pretty weird to watch.

I've never seen a game where the coaches outnumbered the players on the bench! 

 

A couple of years ago, the Halifax Mooseheads of Drouin/MacKinnon (the year they went something like 71-5-3 and won the Memorial Cup) were in Québec City against the rebuilding Remparts of Duclair and Erne. $15 the seat, not too bad. Game start scheduled at 7pm.

 

First period, complete domination of the Mooseheads as expected but they scored only one goal to get a short lead after the first break. Second period: one dumb penalty by Halifax, one Québec goal. Another dumb penalty, another goal for the locals. And then the Moosehaeds completely lost it. They tried to fight everything, chopping every Remparts players like they were holding axes and swords. The Moose got a couple of majors and game misconduct and Québec scored almost everytime, increasing their frustration. The refs were so discouraged that they finished by randomly tossing players in the showers, including coaches Ducharme and Roy. Halifax players almost the entire third period on 3 vs. 5. Eight players remained on the Mooseheads bench, the same number was sitting on the penalty box. Hard to distinguish which bench it was.

 

At the end, the Remparts completed a 8-2 upset and a total of something like 350 PIM were called. It's still in the top-3 of game with the most penalty in North American Junior hockey. The game ended short before midnight. The best $15 ever spent for a ice hockey game.

[SaucyJack]

Caps lose at lowly San Jose last night.  (Egads, on the heels of the Oiler drubbing.) 
 

Apparently the Washington Post decided it was not worth waiting for the dismal final result to become official, so published their final Monday edition without the result or a story.  
 

LOL…I guess the pain will be less when it is chronicled in the Tuesday paper.

[SaucyJack]

7 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

so published their final Monday edition without the result or a story.  
 

LOL…I guess the pain will be less when it is chronicled in the Tuesday paper.

…and of course I am confused, as is the usual case.  Meant to say Tuesday, then Wednesday.