****Official 2016-17 NHL Regular Season Thread****
 

The Western Conference is going to be a bloodbath this year. This thread is for the 9 hockey fans here to talk about it!

Thoughts on the upcoming season?

Blues will choke in the playoffs is a given.

Penguins hoist the banner on Thursday.
Can't wait.

Go Hawks

I'll be honest - as good as the WC looks, I don't think the playoffs are a given.

I'm just hoping it turns out that Roy's system was just shitty and that we actually have the personnel to be competitive this year.

Interested to see what Nail is all about. Where Shatty ends up getting traded (and for what). How Allen holds up as a #1 for an entire season. How Fabbri and Parayko play in their 2nd seasons.

First time in a few years that the Devils have me excited to start the season. Defense is going to be a problem, so I see quite a few 5-4 games in the future. But Hall looks even better than advertised.

I haven't watched hockey closely for years don't know half the players

I've heard a lot of chatter about this. Why does everyone seem so certain that he's getting traded?

Official prediction is that we finish just short of 100 points, 4th in the WC.

I'm really curious to see how the Dustin Brown "de-throning" plays out in LA. It's been a rough off-season for the Kings to say the least.

I was excited to see Devin Setoguchi make the team after battling through alcoholism and a couple years playing in Europe.

I fell in love with Johnny Gaudreau through the WCH, and was glad to see him sign. Calgary could make a push, too.

All in for the disappointment!

{shrug}

I'm still trying to figure out how you beat Chicago and Dallas only to get boat raced by ****ing San Jose.

Eh, the Blues had a 4 year window and spend the first 3 years of it stepping on their dicks. Had they done in year 2 what they did in year 4 it would've been an outstanding springboard that could've propelled them to legitimate cup runs in years 3 and 4. Instead it took them 3 years to realize that playing loaf-ass hockey and then blaming your coach for it wasn't going to get them anywhere.

Seriously, **** your own face, TJ Oshie. Goddamn faux superstar. The glorified 3rd liner and puck bunny magnet fancied himself Jonathan Toews and never won shit. Then he'd have the juevos to call out management. Ugh...good riddance but I still can't believe the best we could do was Troy goddamn Brouwer.

Which leads me to my next point - do you really care what they get for Shattenkirk? It's going to be next to nothing. Army's shown very little ability to 'win' a trade to this point. His trade history is spotty at best (and really, it's mostly just bad).

They're probably a playoff team; hell they're as likely as anyone to win the Central outright.

I just wish we had more to look forward to than Mike Yeo. Gawd, how depressing is it to realize that the Blues are going to go from Hitch to Hitch's skinnier, less successful doppleganger?

There's just no light at the end of this tunnel, man.

Go Flyers