2014-2015 NHL Season

[Warren Zevon]

Plus Pat Quinn passed away, too. Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe may be next, sadly. I saw a picture of him fishing back in the day and was surprised to see he was built like a brick shithouse. And the Oilers squeaked out their first win against a conference opponent and ended an eleven game skid. Thanks, NHL schedule man, for feeding them a team playing its fourth game in six nights on the tail end of a back to back.

[Ernest Jones]

Habs' 20 year old Galchenyuk nets his first carrer hat-trick! The kid is a real gem. Hard to believe he didn't go first overall in the draft.

"Tour de Chapeau" is a hat trick in French.

[mcanadiens]

Gave up the Center Ice package this year, so I've seen precious little of the Habs, but AG has favorably impressed me when I've had the chance.

It's been a really nice three-game stretch. I see the Ducks are looming Thursday.

[billchao]

Hard to believe he didn't go first overall in the draft.

Yea, he's a great player, but that happens all the time with draft selections. You never know how they will pan out until years after they were picked. I didn't follow the 2012 draft that closely, but I would guess the Oilers were hoping Yakupov was going to have a Kovalchuk or Ovechkin type of impact. I just don't why they would draft another LW, especially when they already had Taylor Hall. Generally speaking, centers are more valuable than wingers, so if the talent level is comparable, I'd go center. Just ask @iacas if he thinks drafting two all-star centers in consecutive years is a good idea for a team. Then again, the Oilers are grossly mismanaged, so just throw all logic out the window when talking about them ;-)

[Warren Zevon]

Did I hear Oilers and mismanaged in the same sentence? How shocking. As a lifelong Oilers fan, there's three words the fan base both shudders and scoffs at whenever mentioned by anyone in the organization : accountability, effort and process. The term visually will probably be added by the end of this season. For example, when the Oilers GM says "The team looked better visually but still lost by a goal." Again. I thought Yakupov was going to be awesome after his debut in the lockout shortened season. When his second coach arrived things went south pretty quickly. Fourth line minutes at best and a very short leash compared to the rest of the inept team. This season he's really worked hard at improving his 200 foot game, but you can tell his confidence when it comes to scoring is shot. There's also rumblings that the Oilers owner vetoed his staff and told his cronies that they were picking Yak, and that was that. There's a few decent players from the 2012 draft. That Forsberg kid in Nashville is really playing well in Nashville. And I can't imagine what the team would look like with Galchenyuk on it, although I'm envious that Montreal has a decent staff that can actually develop players, even ones not drafted in the first round.

[billchao]

With each passing game, the Devils get closer to being able to draft Connor McDavid. I'm not getting my hopes up, though.

[boogielicious]

The Bruins are mediocre this year.

[Ernest Jones]

The Bruins are mediocre this year.

You guys have had a TON of injuries to key players.

[iacas]

You guys have had a TON of injuries to key players.

Unfortunately, the Pens are climbing that list yet again… We've had cancer, blood clots, broken wrists, the mumps, and far more this year already. Last night the top line was somewhat intact. The second line had two of the original players on it. The third and fourth lines were filled with AHL call-ups. And three of the starting six defenders were from the AHL. They dressed seven D actually so that one could kind of fill in as a forward, in fact. :P

And yet… they still have one of the best records in hockey. :P Can't last at this pace though. Comeau is out for 4-6, Maatta is done for the year, Dupuis is possibly done for his career… PFFFFT.

[boogielicious]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

You guys have had a TON of injuries to key players.

Unfortunately, the Pens are climbing that list yet again… We've had cancer, blood clots, broken wrists, the mumps, and far more this year already. Last night the top line was somewhat intact. The second line had two of the original players on it. The third and fourth lines were filled with AHL call-ups. And three of the starting six defenders were from the AHL. They dressed seven D actually so that one could kind of fill in as a forward, in fact. :P

And yet… they still have one of the best records in hockey. :P Can't last at this pace though. Comeau is out for 4-6, Maatta is done for the year, Dupuis is possibly done for his career… PFFFFT.

The mumps was the weird one.

[iacas]

The mumps was the weird one.

And the cancer, and the blood clots (two players in the last 14 months)…

[Warren Zevon]

I think you'll like David Perron on your team, Iacas. He's a little prone to taking dumb penalties, but has decent hands and does an outstanding job protecting the puck one on one. What's the skinny on Rob Klinkhammer?

[iacas]

I think you'll like David Perron on your team, Iacas. He's a little prone to taking dumb penalties, but has decent hands and does an outstanding job protecting the puck one on one.

Looking forward to it. The Pens may try to snag another top six or middle six type forward, but we'll see.

What's the skinny on Rob Klinkhammer?

Meh.

He wasn't here very long. Few weeks? Bottom six guy. Got two assists and a goal pretty early, or something like that, and hasn't done much of anything since.

[jmanbooyaa]

The Pens and Isles keep winning. My Rangers have strung together a very impressive 9 games going 8-1. We can handle Crosby and the Pens but a bit worried our beginning of the season may hurt in the end. We need a solid face of specialist.

[Warren Zevon]

Meh. He wasn't here very long. Few weeks? Bottom six guy. Got two assists and a goal pretty early, or something like that, and hasn't done much of anything since.

I have been impressed with Klinkhammer so far. He's been playing a solid, physical role on the shutdown line. The Oilers beat a tired and slumping Blackhawks squad last night, and Klinkhammer had ten hits by the end. Hopefully he can keep it up, the castoff line of he, Boyd Gordon and Matt Hendricks have been very consistent.

[iacas]

[mcanadiens]

I used to be able to do that. I just didn't want to.

[onthehunt526]

The Flames look like they are for real, but in my estimation this Flames team looks more like the 1986 team, than the 1989 Cup Champion Flames (ok the 2004 Flames)... They may be the one team in the Campbell (Western Conference), that absolutely no one wants to play a 7-game series with, especially Vancouver...