**** Official 2022-23 NHL Thread ****
 

Didn't see one, so figured with the season starting tonight, we better get one going.

Anyone have any bold predictions? I think mine might be that the Wild make the Western Conference Finals.

Just for fun...

Atlantic Toronto Maple Leafs
Metro Carolina Hurricanes

Central Colorado Avalanche
Pacific Edmonton Oilers

Eastern Finals Maple Leafs over Lightning
Western Finals Avalanche over Wild

Stanley Cup Champs Avalanche over Maple Leafs

Anyone doing a fantasy league?

LET'S GO AVS!!!

#Repeat #BackToBack

finals

rangers over who cares

The NHL offseason is much shorter when your team wins the Stanley Cup. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for hockey, but here we go!

I think it'll be a really interesting year. Not a lot of people picking the Lightning, but of course they should still be pretty damn good.

Avalanche are of course the team to beat in the West until proven otherwise, but will see what the Oilers and several other teams can do.


....and if the Blues find themselves sellers at the trade deadline, would ya'll mind giving us back O'Reilly for a few months? :D

Can't say I pay close attention to these every year, but cool they let Jack Johnson join in on the pregame fun from the other bench.

NEVER!!!

jk, I don't know. i haven't had the time to follow anything Blues related during the off-season or preseason, so i have no idea what they're up to.

Towards the end of last season i started to feel like the Blues might be getting a little long in the tooth, but what do i know? I hope they stay healthy which was a huge problem last season and make a deep run, but i have no idea how they'll do this year.

Go Predators! But damn the Central is no joke. Avs The Champs, Blues, Wild, Stars could be good. Going to be tough!

It's so tough, they gave the Preds a two game lead before the season even started!

I love Zegras, Terry & McTavish but my God Verbeek needs to do something about the Ducks defense. It's definitely the worst in the league.

If it's not, it's 2nd to worst.

Calgary a good sized favorite over the Lanche tonight...Are they that good this year? Thought they lost some good players

I'm not entirely surprised. If nothing else, the wrath of Kadri is something to fear. Plus, it's Calgary's opening home game, and the Avs played last night.

I seriously have to wait two more days before I can see a Blues game? This shit is rigged, I tell ya.

It's weird seeing 'official drink of the Avalanche' on the boards in Calgary.


For more context... https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl...153359581.html

Let me know when it's not too early to start worrying about our new goalie.

I'm sure he'll be fine...

A B2B for another team's home opener was not very nice. :harumph:

Never mind about our new goalie. Watching it with the sound down and didn't realize until now that Frankie was in net. Should've figured since we played last night.

KADRI TRIED TO HURT OUR GOALIE!!!


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I'm sure Blues fans will sympathize with us. :D

welp :shrug:

Getting outplayed badly tonight

It's incredible the physical abuse an NHL goalie can be subjected to, including just flat freight-training him at 20 mph, and there's no penalty.

A QB gets his head touched it's 15 yards and an automatic first down. Plus, the offending player gets fined.

Oh, and the Yotes still suck. Ack.

They play 20 of their first 24 games on the road. :)

Oh, that's . . . that SUX.

LET'S GO BLUES

Go Golden Knights!

Who hoo

Avalanche defense wasn't good tonight, but fortunately the Wild have missed several golden opportunities by either great save or bad bounce... has made for a pretty entertaining game.

9 goals total. Fun early win. Go Avs!

Jordan Kyrou gives the Blues the early lead over the Kraken. Game on TNT tonight

Might be a wild one tonight in Seattle. 3-1 Blues in the first.

The Nashville Predators suck!

The Blues are just a lost cause right now. Damn they suck.

What the hell happened? Everyone hurt or what?

Goddamn it. I thought he was doing really well.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Altitude and KSE family are saddened to announce the passing of our friend, Peter McNab. Our hearts go out to his family and friends, and the McNab family asks for privacy during this unimaginably difficult time. <a href="https://t.co/fdnQ9zD1dL">pic.twitter.com/fdnQ9zD1dL</a></p>— AltitudeTV (@AltitudeTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltitudeTV/status/1589347082992644097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

My Devils are perhaps an actual NHL team for the first time in years.

Wow that sucks. Just saw him do an in-studio piece last week.

Some day people will look back in amazement about the fact that chemo was still the go-to cancer treatment well into the 21st century.

Man, Bortuzzo really launched himself into Vasilevskiy there...


:Poke:

They were until they ran into the Leafs.

I'll have to deal with this when Mike Lange goes :(

I mean I still loved their game that night. They dominated the third period. You can't win them all, especially against a talented team like Toronto. Add in 3 goals getting called back, regardless of correct or not, its a weird night. Murray was also crazy good in net.

This entire streak I was more curious how they would respond once it ended. How they played against Toronto in the third period and how they played tonight against Buffalo makes me feel as good as the streak itself. Crazy young team that has a lot to learn still.

It really looked that way. It's strange, because I don't remember him ever being that way. He's not really known for dirty play, iirc.

But in the replay it didn't look like he lost his balance or was driven into the goalie (a little, but not really).

It's just odd, because Bortuzzo just isn't a dirty hit kind of player like Kadri, for example.

Is the West that weak this year or are the standings misleading.

Agreed. I would have lost my mind if the Leafs had 3 goals called back.
Interestingly, apparently, the whole beer throwing thing started with a fan throwing a hat, indicating a hat trick of called back goals.

Seems like NJ & Tor are benefiting from Was poor decisions with their goalies.

Between the Devils, Knights, and Kraken, I don't know WTF is going on.

Yeah the Devils needed a real goalie bad. I didn't know that about the hat. I was embarrassed by it so I didn't really read anything about it. I don't think that happens in a regular season game except the fans really wanted that streak to continue.

I know right lol. Analytics showed that last year the Devils would have been a borderline playoff team with average goal tending. Just been waiting for a semi real goalie and the kids to work out.

Damnit. :cuss:

Blues going all out on burn it down.

Colton Parayko and Ivan Barbashev got to be next out of the Lou.

Damn. Blues are going to tank. Shit.

I'd tear it down to the studs.

If they have to attach some of these 1st round picks to guys like Krug or Binnington to get them moved, they should consider it.

You can't be this old, this shallow and this tight against the cap. There may not be a franchise in worse shape for the next 4 years in the entire NHL.

Why?

Krug’s contract is compounded by Parayko’s and Scandella’s. Krug is actually performing at the level he’s getting paid at.

Binnington’s contract is one I’d do all over again and it won’t hurt as the cap continues to go up.

The firsts shouldn’t be moved unless it’s to bring a player similar to how Buchnevich was brought in.

The team might be 2-3 years away from contention again as opposed
to 5+.

Hey, at least they did it the day before we played them. :shrug:

Still waiting for the Sabres to make a big trade for blue line help. If they can figure out defense, they will be as fun to watch as the '77 Candiens.

The trade was good for both sides. The Blues acquired picks for pending UFAs. The Leafs got deeper before the playoffs.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Breaking: The Eastern Conference has acquired the Western Conference, apparently</p>&mdash; Matt Larkin (@MLarkinHockey) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLarkinHockey/status/1630276222784552963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="reddit-embed-bq" data-embed-height="407"> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ColoradoAvalanche/comments/11cn9z0/uh_oh_life_rn_in_the_central_division/?ref_source=embed&amp;ref=share">Uh oh.... life rn in the central division</a><br> by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/blondespikes22">u/blondespikes22</a> in <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ColoradoAvalanche/">ColoradoAvalanche</a> </blockquote><script async="" src="https://embed.reddit.com/widgets.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>

It's crazy they're winning so many games right now. Sakic must be feeling pretty good if guys can simply get healthy, despite not really having a 2nd line center... or much scoring beyond a couple healthy guys at a time.

And Patrick Kane is a Ranger.

Haven't watched the Avalanche much lately, but last night's game was a bit crazy... getting outshot 17-3 in the first period, then got a goal from a shot off the back glass that hit off the top of the net and was fumbled by LA's goalie to make it 1-0. Also led 4-2 while being outshot 30-10.

Kept pace with the Stars (****in' Knights can't do anything right) with a game in hand.

BIG game tonight boys.

Any word on Makar's status for the playoffs? Just when we were starting to get guys back, too. Freaking injuries have been crazy this year, can't believe they're on top of the Central with seemingly half the lineup out all season.

Bednar said he expects both Makar and Manson back for the playoffs. The issue from my perspective is just that we've been consistently banged up all year, so I'm fairly certain the hockey gods won't change their minds once the playoffs roll around.

I'm hoping for the best this year, but I'm OK with whatever happens. It's hard to ask for much more than both the Chiefs and Avs winning their respective championships in one year.

Good to get a point and they have the tiebreaker over the Stars.

Also wouldn't mind seeing the Oilers snag the Pacific from the Knights at the last second, so hopefully those 2 points end up help with pushing them over the top.

We lose the tiebreaker to the Stars right (regulation wins)? To me, that's why the point was critical - keeps us in the drivers' seat since a tie would go to Dallas.

Yep, must have looked at the wrong column.

And maybe the Blues can help out a bit, too. After the Cup last season and all the injuries this year, like you said it's just gravy.

Yeah, and I'm with you on the Oilers - hopefully they can at least keep the Knights out of it. It wouldn't hurt my feelings too much to see McDavid get to the finals.

Sure seems like Boston is a juggernaut regardless. Of course, history has not been kind to President's Trophy winners, but they're so far out in front it seems like they're a good bet to buck the trend.

Yeah, the Bruins are nuts... they were picked as a wild card by most and to run away with the Atlantic of all divisions is even crazier. And if it was seeded 1-8, they could have played TB and Toronto, but will only play one of them now (not that the Metro is a slouch).

A fully healthy Avs team vs Boston in the finals would be so sick.

But at this point it's hard to envision the Avs ever getting fully healthy this season.

I wonder how them not winning the Stanley Cup would be viewed in light of what they were predicted to do vs them setting a points record. If they were expected to be this good then I could see it as one of the biggest disappointments of all time.

Yeah, in a perfect world, Landeskog and others would have come back with a couple weeks left in the regular season and we'd have a relatively fresh squad if everyone was at 100%... but who knows if he'll be available at all during the playoffs, and of course not banking on the injury bug suddenly disappearing.

I've seen mixed opinions on reddit from Bruins fans... people saying it's been a helluva season and (at least at this moment) saying it doesn't matter if they win the Cup, while others thinking it's only about the Cup.

If I was a Bruins fan, I'd probably be a bit disappointed if they didn't make it to the ECF and at least beat a WC team and the Leafs or Lightning... but that area's had like 20 championships in the past couple decades, so they'll cope, heh.

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Shit. Brutal news for the Avs

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog will not play in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs due to a knee injury, the organization announced this afternoon. The 30-year-old forward has missed the entire 2022-23 regular season. <a href="https://t.co/TpUtjRKEQs">pic.twitter.com/TpUtjRKEQs</a></p>&mdash; x - Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) <a href="https://twitter.com/Avalanche/status/1646624114948587520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Smh the hate is still strong I see ROFL

Why are you guys hating on VGK? We've been the best team in the conference from day one despite dealing with injuries to ALL of our starters. Stone has been out for ages, we've lost three GT's, Eichel has missed several games, our best defencemen have missed several games and so have most of our other best point scorers but our farm system has saved us plus Cassidy has worked his magic. But it seems like bitterness towards us will never cease despite us doing everything the hard way this year smh.

Man, what a bummer. His injury has put a damper on this entire season. Hopefully he can just continue to heal up and be in good shape for next year.

User who has constantly talked shit for years despite his team never winning anything wonders why people hate his team. Film at 11.

We would tell you once again why Vegas is one of the most hated teams in the league based on multiple sources and fans everywhere (for none of the reasons you make up, like the Avalanche losing or "haters hate"), but you'd once again ignore all of it and make up your own reasons.

Doesn't seem like there's much point, ya know? :shrug:

I talked crap because the AVS and VGK had a clear rivalry two years ago throughout the regular season and then the playoffs. But you guys then went and won a championship whilst we missed the playoffs due to injuries and you're still thinking about us? Come on man it's time to let it go :D