2017-2018 NHL Season Thread

[B Kat]

I thought I saw that Nashville asked him to come back. If that's the case it's not much different than a trade deadline acquisition.

Except Nashville doesn't have to give up anything.

Fisher should help Nashville. He isn't a super star and he doesn't need to be one. He is 37 and didn't play this season because he was too injured. Now he feels better, but how long will that last? It's not a big gamble.

[wonko80]

I meant it more in response to the team being bitter he can waltz in for essentially just the playoffs.

[ToddM]

Is he even any good? Hopefully this messes up their entire chemistry a la Langenbrunner in 2011.

[ScubaSteve]

Will they strip someone of the C to give it back to fisher?

[Knives Out]

Will they strip someone of the C to give it back to fisher?

That's what I was thinking. And then I quickly trailed off once I realized that I don't give a *f-bomb* what Nashville does as long as Hayley Williams sings their national anthem at some point.

[cdanew]

Didn't really know where to put this, but here is an excellent read. One of The Athletic's writers went on a four day trip with the ECHL's Brampton Beasts. Really great article about what life can be like in the minors. And its open to non-subscribers as well. Its worth your time.

https://theathletic.com/206515/2018/02/02/in-one-my-four-insane-days-trapped-in-minor-hockey-hell-with-the-brampton-beast/

[ScubaSteve]

Spoiler alert: most of the time is spent on a bus.

[ToddM]

Good read.

[ToddM]

[The Frugal Gourmet]

It’s just because hockey players aren’t completely illiterate dumbasses like the people who play other major sports.

Any other non politically correct observations needed, please let me know.

[mookie1010]

Wasn't there recently a legitimately illiterate NHL coach?

[The Frugal Gourmet]

No, but there have been 2 or 3 illegitimately literate ones.

[mookie1010]

[The Frugal Gourmet]

Of course all of this pales in comparison to the fans. Hockey fans are about 11.3 times more smarterer than fans of other sports, according to a study's summary I glanced at the first sentence of.

[SaintAngerBH]

Jim Lites's Dorito-munching study debunked that study.

[Knives Out]

Wasn't there recently a legitimately illiterate NHL coach?

I'll have you know that Jacques Demers also held a seat in the senate afterwards LOL.

[Troy McClure]

Barzal had five points tonight. This is the fifth time for him to do so this season.

[#JTONTFJTGM]

[ToddM]

[slaps]

The Blackhawks perma-banned some fans who were mild-to-moderately racist to Devante Smith-Pelley.

[#JTONTFJTGM]

[Troy McClure]

[SaintAngerBH]

[SaintAngerBH]

Can someone remind me again why Vegas is the best team in the west? I don't know why, but that really gets on my nerves. They are supposed to suck and I hope they get swept in the first round (unlikely).

[B Kat]

Well, the expansion draft protected only so many players. Some GMs probably didn’t pick the best players to leave exposed. McFee picked good players. Gallant is a great coach and being “unwanted” is great motivation. And maybe even the Vegas shooting to start the season brought a weird sort of cohesion. Vegas does make the point that it’s the TEAM that wins, not individuals. I’m happy for them.

[Troy McClure]

The expansion draft was set up in a way to force teams to expose at least one decent player: a guy who was at worst a 3rd line forward or 2nd pair d-man. They picked almost entirely from the middle of the bell curve. They had a couple of exceptions on either side due to contracts or teams paying them to take a certain guy.

It means their fourth line and third pair is better than all other teams. It also means they mostly got a bunch of mid-career vets who got to where they were by being hard working depth players.

[ToddM]

They also benefitted from some really strange decisions by Anaheim and Florida, who gave them solid young players and then gave them more players on top of that. They've gotten unbelievable goaltending from Fleury and a bunch of Dallas' minor league castoffs. And William Karlsson, who had never before scored more than 9 goals in a season, currently has 34 on 24% shooting (if Seguin shot 24%, he'd have 59 goals right now with 19 to play).

So basically: lots of incredible luck, some really shitty GMing from other teams, and a team full of Eakin/Haula/Smith types who are super fast and aggressive and push the puck up ice.

Oh, and there's always the Vegas Flu, which affects players in their mid-20s who travel to Vegas the night before. Dallas overcame it by flying in with the players' dads. Anaheim just flew in on game day and thumped the Knights. But playing every single home game against a hungover team that got no sleep the previous night is a big reason why they're 24-8 at home.

[BigAl]

I think it’s because of Eakin’s leadership.

[ToddM]

This article is about Lundqvist's wasted years in NY, but I was surprised to see that the Stars have the 10th-most points in the NHL since the lockout:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/he ... e-rangers/

[SaintAngerBH]

And to think that Lundqvist could have wasted those years in Dallas.