2019-2020 NHL Regular Season Thread

[Math]

Puke, and they charge almost $200 for this *poo poo*. Man, funk dat !

They'd better make another batch of Winter Classic jerseys, just to kill the ridiculous speculation witnessed on eBay & Co.

[Troy McClure]

What's strange about them is how they chose to only use one color for each team's logo. Some are fine because their logo isn't multicolored, but for some, it doesn't work. Look at Columbus and Chicago. I guess they couldn't pick which color to use and went greyscale instead.

[ScubaSteve]

[Math]

League warning: The hazard Ray Shero has just been freed, threatening franchises that might look for a GM change. High potential of damages due to this hazard are expected for the concerned teams.

[Troy McClure]

[slaps]

Kassian absolutely brutalized Tkachuk:

[ScubaSteve]

He skated all the way from the blueline for that hit, but other than that is that even a penalty? He didn't jump, no head contact, and no boarding. MAYBE charging? It's crazy that the game has evolved to the point where a check occurs and it's a controversial news story.

[slaps]

Tkachuk hit Kassian with like 3 or 4 similar hits that night before that one. Like, targeting Kassian specifically.

[Troy McClure]

I think the last one was charging. If I remember the rule right, taking more than two strides to hit a guy is supposed to be charging, and K-chuck took about 6.

[mookie1010]

Fell like that's the first good and justified fight all szn.

[slaps]

I think the last one was charging. If I remember the rule right, taking more than two strides to hit a guy is supposed to be charging, and K-chuck took about 6.

There's no defined amount of steps.

https://theathletic.com/1429652/2019/12/04/down-goes-brown-a-guide-to-some-things-you-might-expect-to-find-in-an-nhl-rulebook-but-wont/

What you might expect to find in the rulebook: Some sort of definition of what charging actually is.

What you get instead: An almost comically ambiguous description of charging that could be applied to half the hits in a typical game, or none of them at all.

Seriously, go check out Rule 42. It’s one of the shortest rules in the rulebook, just over 300 words; half of those are the standard-issue breakdown of minor versus major versus match, and half of what’s left is just a reminder that goalies aren’t fair game for hits. The actual description of charging is just two sentences long, and neither is very helpful.

The first tells us that a charging penalty “shall be imposed on a player who skates or jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner.” The first problem here is that we’re using the word “charges” to help define what “charging” is, a turn of phrase that sounds like it should be read by Smokin’ Joe Frazier. But more importantly: any manner? That seems a little vague, no? It can be read as saying that skating into an opponent is always against the rules. Is every hit a potential charge?

Well, yeah, as it turns out, it kind of is. The next line clarifies, but only a little: “Charging shall mean the actions of a player who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner.” Now we know that we’re looking for violent checks, and that distance traveled is an important factor. But that’s as far as we go. Despite what you may have heard, there’s nothing in the rulebook about how many strides a player can take. And while there is that reference to jumping into an opponent, it doesn’t explicitly say that leaving your feet is an automatic charge, at least any more than skating into someone should be.

I'll skip the rest, but that whole article is an interesting read.

[wonko80]

It was charging.

[Troy McClure]

The two strides thing is in the USA Hockey rule book. https://www.usahockeyrulebook.com/page/ ... 7-charging

I guess I'm used to it being the unwritten standard in the NHL.

[Math]

Reminds me the good old Cherry's Mother Of All Elbows when Bure hammered Churla with every aggravating circumstances.

[ToddM]

I think the whole sequence was fine. Tkachuk charged him because he's a cheapshot artist, then Kassian pummeled him. That's how things are supposed to work.

[Knives Out]

[SaintAngerBH]

Kudos to Kassian for continuing to play after that. I'd have been out cold.

And *f-bomb* Tkachuk. Payback is a *goddess*. Somebody is going to knock him into next week if he keeps pulling that *poo poo*.

[ScubaSteve]

Ovechkin is absolutely unreal. He just scored goal #685 to pass Selanne for #11 on the all time list. He will break into the top 10 and pass 700 goals within the next month or two. Everyone ahead of him on the list played a significant portion of their career before goaltending was invented around 1990. I remember when Hull got to 700 and he was so old at that point he could barely move, he just camped out for one timers on the powerplay. Ovy looks like he's still in in prime. If there are no more lockouts and he doesn't get injured, he will pass Gretzky.

[SaintAngerBH]

I honestly think Ovechkin is the best scorer in NHL history. McDavid may actually turn out to be better but it's too early to tell.

Imagine transporting Ovechkin to 1985. He'd probably score 10 goals a game. Maybe more.

I also think Gretzky would be below average in today's game. Too slow.

[Troy McClure]

Ovechkin is absolutely unreal. He just scored goal #685 to pass Selanne for #11 on the all time list. He will break into the top 10 and pass 700 goals within the next month or two. Everyone ahead of him on the list played a significant portion of their career before goaltending was invented around 1990. I remember when Hull got to 700 and he was so old at that point he could barely move, he just camped out for one timers on the powerplay. Ovy looks like he's still in in prime. If there are no more lockouts and he doesn't get injured, he will pass Gretzky.

Don’t worry, Canadians will say it doesn’t count because they will cling to Gretzky’s WHA goals as still making him #1.

[Troy McClure]

[ScubaSteve]

https://twitter.com/PeteBlackburn/status/1216916837029597184?s=19

I'll raise you Dennis Wideman

[slaps]

I honestly think Ovechkin is the best scorer in NHL history. McDavid may actually turn out to be better but it's too early to tell.

Imagine transporting Ovechkin to 1985. He'd probably score 10 goals a game. Maybe more.

I also think Gretzky would be below average in today's game. Too slow.

Ovechkin is the best goal scorer in the history of the NHL. Everyone knows exactly what he going to do, yet he’s so *Dang ol'* good that he can’t be stopped.

[slaps]

[Math]

Quite difficult to compare Gretzky with Ovechkin/McDavid because it's two different sports. Some numbers will be approached, sometimes even beaten, while others will remain forever untouchable.

[The Frugal Gourmet]

You never know. Goaltenders might go back to standing up on saves.

I think we can also agree that the worst invention in hockey in the last 100 years is the goalie mask. Take those back outta the game the way God meant it to be played and scoring will go way up.

[cdanew]

Interesting - Vegas is making moves. Frees up Gallant as a possibility for the Stars

[slaps]

Whoa.

And yet, Bowness is still our coach.

[ToddM]

Interesting - Vegas is making moves. Frees up Gallant as a possibility for the Stars

Why the hell would they fire Gallant? They're 3 points out of 1st place.

[ScubaSteve]

Maybe he did a Monty.