***Official 2017-18 NHL Season Thread***
 

The thread to talk about the NHL.

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Bracket Challenge Stuff

https://bracketchallenge.nhl.com

Blues up 3-2 over Penguins in the 2nd.

Sadly, I can barely muster enough interest to care this season. I can't imagine the Avs are going to be any good.

Leafs seemed to do well tonight.

4-2 Blues in the 3rd.

Plenty of good talent to watch, even if the Avalanche do a spectacular job of wasting theirs.

First of hopefully many....**** the Pens! Go Blues...

I really wish KC had a pro hockey team. I enjoy watching hockey around playoff time, but have never had an actual team to root for.

Follow the Blues. They are the Chiefs of the NHL. Franchises are pretty much the same thing.

****...

JFC

Bullshit...damn

That is Blues hockey folks.

Schenn gave them this tie with that dumb play.

Blues win!!!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

That was a good game as a Pens fan. I'll take the point since we shouldn't of gotten any lol.

Last year my browsers thought I was in Louisiana, so I was blacked out of Preds games on nhl.tv.... other sites now know where I'm located, but nhl.tv now thinks I'm in Colorado (or NYC?).

Might not be the worst blackout... :hmmm:

October hockey is pretty much me sorting out who still plays for who.

Hawks 3 goals in 2 minutes.

Damn, Blackhawks.

Niemi pulled. He tripped leading them onto the ice and it went downhill from there.

Well, hey, the Avs won. There is hope yet.

The only reason I was keeping the Blackhawks on was to see if they could score 10.

Well done.

I expected the Penguins to struggle early this season. Tough schedule, fatigue, and a target on their backs night in and night out....but Jesus, I didn't expect them to be this bad.

I always find it funny how the first 8 games or so I am not always sure who is on the ice. After that I remember their skating and playing style and you can tell who is who without even seeing the number or their linemates.

Damn, that is brutal.

Rangers/Leafs, Pens/Preds, Canadiens/Caps, Jackets/Blackhawks, Flyers/Ducks, Kings/Sharks, and Oilers(/Nucks) :drool:

Leafs may not need to worry about scoring this season...

Blues d men getting plenty of action this year.

Got the W.

I like Schenn so far. I know he wore out his welcome in Philly though.

Fun night at Scottrade tonight. Tarasenko's snipe happened right in front of us. Dude has such a ridiculous release.

2 games, 8 goals, 4 points. With a top 6 FW and top pairing defenseman out injured.

Didn't see that coming.

Gotta love daytime hockey.

Vladdy has 2 so far and Bortuzzo just took the greatest 'ah, **** it' penalty you'll ever see. Nelson hits Paajarvi behind the play and late, wipes him out. Bortuzzo cross-checks him, Nelson goes sprawling to the ice like a sniper hit him and so Bortuzzo gives him two more whacks to the spine after the whistle has blown.

Hit him hard enough to bounce the guy's face off the ice and then his teammates stick to draw blood. But since it was the ice/stick that drew the blood, Bortuzzo didn't get a major for it - LOOPHOLE!

Bortuzzo pretty much decided he gave zero ****s, he was gonna get Nelson back. Maybe not smart but in game 3 of the season, I'll allow it.

https://twitter.com/islesnoah/status/917452174388367360

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This Brayden Schenn is gonna be a big hit with fans in St. Louis. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stlblues?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#stlblues</a> <a href="https://t.co/bdmNvGPL4g">pic.twitter.com/bdmNvGPL4g</a></p>&mdash; St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) <a href="https://twitter.com/StLouisBlues/status/917447789952552962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Blues are 4-0.

Avs are 4-1. What the hell is going on here?

If it keeps up, I might have to start using a proxy to correctly report my location.... :banghead:

Blues beat the Hawks tonight. Schwartz with the hat trick.

Weren't the Blues originally in KC a LONG time ago? Just the Kings were in basketball.

Front page of ESPN doesn't show anything regarding the match-up between two of the NHL's elite: McDavid and Crosby.

If this game doesn't even get front page mention, then one has to wonder how much the sport is really growing in the US.
...or maybe ESPN is just reeruned, I dunno.

....and why is this game not on NBCSN? Wouldn't you want to showcase this game?

ESPN is reeruned... okay, World Series game 1, but somewhere on the front page.

No idea why Wings/Sabres is on NBCSN instead... they've had some odd choices so far this season, even if they were made 2 months ago and not week by week.

The Kings are on fire early. Check out this OT winner:

<iframe src='https://www.nhl.com/kings/video/embed/toffolis-last-second-ot-winner/t-277443716/c-53995003?autostart=false' width='540' height='360'></iframe>

The Devils were the kc scouts. I enjoy that connection.

How are the Pens soon to be 7-5-1 with a -13 goal differential? When they're bad, they're really ****ing bad.... 10-1 and 7-1 losses so far, and down 5-0 to the Jets in the first period.

I don't expect the Devils to keep this up, but man are they exciting to watch.

Oh yeah, that look like they forgot how to play hockey when it comes to the second half of a back-to-back. No excuses either, because everyone in the league has to run through back-to-back's. I read a stat that says the Penguins have been outscored 29-7 on the back half of back-to-back's thus far.

It's abysmal and I have no idea where you even start to try and fix that shit.

Actually there was a KC Blues, back when the CHL was AAA they were the farm team for the STL Blues

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas...es_(ice_hockey)

Really wish I could sympathize :D

I actually think they are going to, at least offensively. They have a ton of speed and youth that is only going to get better. They have a number of offensive players still in the minors on top of that. Their defense is a disaster though.

#PietrangeloForNorris

Fun game tonight in STL. Blues score 3 unanswered in the 2nd and then the teams combine for 6 goals in the 3rd.

4 point night for Schenn, 2 goals for Pietrangelo.

Sounds like a Duchene deal is done.

Damn. Took him off mid-game. Glad it's done finally, though I'm sad to see him go. :sulk:

2 more assists from Schenn. Schwartz puts em in front 2-1

What a haul for the Avs in that deal, though. I know it sucks to trade a star like Duchene, but it seems like Sakic did ok.

Yeah, all things considered, I can't complain. Hopefully it'll help the Avs get back into contention in a few years.

Blues put an ass whooping on Edmonton tonight. 8-3.

Murdered. Holy shit.

Schenn is ****ing incredible. What a steal.

They'll be fine. They got an impressive haul for arguably the most overrated player in the league.

What I fail to understand is why Ottawa traded Turris+ for Duchene. Could easily argue that Turris is the better player. Nashville killed that deal IMO.

Spot on - 100%.

The rumor of a Oliver Ekman-Larsson trade for William Nylander made me shart my pants a bit this week.
BTW - Shenn was an awesome acquisition for the Blues and Colorado & Nashville made off like bandits in their trade. I don't get it from the Ottawa perspective.

They've been fun to watch so far this year.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

This cannot be stated enough. That trade was a complete rape

Tarasenko with the Gordie Howe Hat Trick.

And people bitched when we traded Reaves - that we needed someone to protect 91.

Dude can handle himself just fine.

That he can.

But I agree with Yeo and that a player of Tarasenko's caliber cannot be throwing blows. I think it sent a good message to the rest of the team, though.

The Blues are terrible hard to keep up with, going to be a good race for the Central.

We may slow down a bit after the Annual Jaden Schwartz Injury on Saturday afternoon.

:( 6 weeks.

Duchene since the trade: 2-2-4 in 14 games.

I was told he's upgrade on Turris though. ROFL Ottawa is ****ed.

Bobby Ryan - 1-8-9 in 20 games with a $7.25M cap hit. Ottawa is super ****ed.

They may actually trade Karlsson (among other good players) because their owner is a cheap ass who already has to pay ~20+ mil to bums like Duchene, Ryan, and Phaneuf.

Karlsson's gonna get 10+ M once his contract is up next offseason. Melnyk isn't gonna give that to him. Just wonder who would trade for him. Would absolutely love for the Rangers to be in on that, although I imagine the price would be ungodly.

Tough situation... Trading for high end pending UFAs usually means negotiating a contract extension before trading. No matter what, any team trading for him would be giving up a huge part of their future in high end picks and prospects, not to mention the impact to their cap situation.

With Doughty and Karlsson beating their chests recently, saying they're going to get as much as they can on the open market, this reduces their trade value in a sense since other teams know their current teams are in a pickle to extend them and they have no loyalty to their current teams vs. $$$.

Melnyk needs to decide if he wants to do a deep dive rebuild, or, let things play out as they are, while in a Canadian Market that can't even sell out their playoff games. Tough situation...

As a Leaf fan, with some glaring needs on defense, I wouldn't even be sniffing around Karlsson or Doughty. Both teams will be far more desperate to get far less for them next year. Even then, the cap damage would be hard to defend.

I'm actually starting to fear that the 1st rounder we got for him might get pushed to 2019 (it's top 10 protected in 2018).

As for Duchene himself, he's always been streaky as hell. I think he gets way too far into his own head, and feeling like he has to prove himself on a new team is certainly the kind of situation I'd expect him to struggle with.

41 points last year in 77 games. Is it really that surprising? Dude isn't some star player and wasn't before they dealt for him.

Blues down Schwartz, Pietro, Bouwmeester and Hutton against the Bolts tonight.

US vs Canada World Junior match up on NHLN. Tournament is in Buffalo.... game is outside. 11 degrees and a wind chill of 6.

About what it is here and it sucks.

Is that eye black all over that guys face?

Not sure why, but yes.