thegx.ca

42 minutes ago, Villella McMeans said:

Yeah I think Winnipeg is strongest in the West too...for me it's like this:

 

The East:

 

NY

CAR

TOR

 

Are the best chance to win it all in The East...New York is just stacked and with elite goalie...Carolina don't have to explain every year they lead the east...Toronto I put up there just because they are going all out and will spend to improve because their window is closing they know they might lose Matthews at free agency so depending on who they buy/rent cannot ignore the chance they make more moves on top of O'Reilly...

 

Teams I didn't include are TB too many changes from their back to back cups...BOS and NJ I don't think they can keep up their pace they have so far...

 

The West:

 

WPG

CGY

 

Winnipeg and Calgary on paper have no weaknesses they were expected to make the playoffs easily but Calgary still haven't gotten their **** together but I'm confident they will in time...

 

Western teams I didn't include are Los Vegas/Dallas they won't keep up the pace like BOS/NJ in East...Colorado on same boat TB was after back to back cups they got too many changes I mean losing the goalie that won you the Cup is a sign for me they won't repeat...Edmonton has chance if they improve on defense they goal tending is mediocre and that can't be fixed this year it seems unless they get Fleury somehow or maybe even Buffington since St Louis is having a fire sale so to improve their defence might be enough to push them past Winnipeg who swept Edmonton before and who I think can do same this year...

 

Seattle/LA/Minnesota/Nashville/etc are all just benefiting from weak divisions and from CGY/LV/EDM/COL/etc not being as strong as expected...

 

For me Calgary doesn't have to make many changes...if they could have kept Jarncrok and Gudbranson from last year I think they wouldn't have as such a weak start and at least wouldn't have blown as many leads as they have...

 

Forgot to mention that out of those few teams I think New York and Winnipeg are best chance to reach the final round and New York/Carolina/Toronto are the 3 teams I think will ultimately win Cup this year...

On 2/16/2023 at 10:26 AM, yave1964 said:

Here is why I feel Dallas is quite capable of making it out of the West, ure and simple,

 

At least the top five teams in the game are in the East. at least.

 

Boston

Carolina

Rangers

Leafs

Lightning

 

Just for starters.

 

out West, you  have 

 

Edmonton

Dallas

Vegas

Colorado

 

All could make it, Edmonton if their offense outplays their goaltending, Dallas if their goaltending outperforms the bottom six forwards, Vegas if they can get healthy and draw an inside straight, colorado if they get healthy but it feels as if something is absolutely missing from last years magical year.

 

In the East you also have

 

Florida

New Jersey

 

I wont but some would argue that both are better than any of the top four in the West.  Truth is the balance of power is so clearly bent towards the East, it almost looks as if the fight for the Cup is the fight to come out of the East. I think Dallas has as good a shot as anyone in the West mostly because of their Goaltending. And frankly, because of said goaltending I would say they are probably the only team in the West who has a realistic shot against any of at least the top five clubs in the East. Of course the deadline is not yet here, things can change, and whoever makes it through the grueling gauntlet in the East may be so weary and beaten down just getting there that whoever escapes the relatively easy West if unscathed might get lucky. But yeah, at least top five teams in the East are the top five teams in Hockey-period-full stop.

 

 I guess I should give Winnipeg a shot out of the West with Hellboy in net, they probably deserve to be part of the convo. 

 

 

 

 

Yeah I think Winnipeg is strongest in the West too...for me it's like this:

The East:

NY

CAR

TOR

Are the best chance to win it all in The East...New York is just stacked and with elite goalie...Carolina don't have to explain every year they lead the east...Toronto I put up there just because they are going all out and will spend to improve because their window is closing they know they might lose Matthews at free agency so depending on who they buy/rent cannot ignore the chance they make more moves on top of O'Reilly...

Teams I didn't include are TB too many changes from their back to back cups...BOS and NJ I don't think they can keep up their pace they have so far...

The West:

WPG

CGY

Winnipeg and Calgary on paper have no weaknesses they were expected to make the playoffs easily but Calgary still haven't gotten their **** together but I'm confident they will in time...

Western teams I didn't include are Los Vegas/Dallas they won't keep up the pace like BOS/NJ in East...Colorado on same boat TB was after back to back cups they got too many changes I mean losing the goalie that won you the Cup is a sign for me they won't repeat...Edmonton has chance if they improve on defense they goal tending is mediocre and that can't be fixed this year it seems unless they get Fleury somehow or maybe even Buffington since St Louis is having a fire sale so to improve their defence might be enough to push them past Winnipeg who swept Edmonton before and who I think can do same this year...

Seattle/LA/Minnesota/Nashville/etc are all just benefiting from weak divisions and from CGY/LV/EDM/COL/etc not being as strong as expected...

For me Calgary doesn't have to make many changes...if they could have kept Jarncrok and Gudbranson from last year I think they wouldn't have as such a weak start and at least wouldn't have blown as many leads as they have...

Lines for Saturday overtime win against New York with Lindholm out expecting his first child:

Dube/Ruzicka/Toffoli

Pelletier/Kadri/Huberdeau

Mangiapane/Backlund/Coleman

Lucic/Lewis/Ritchie

Hanifin/Andersson 

Weegar/Tanev

Zadorov/Stone

Markstrom

Good effort by entire team tonight to hold off New York tonight for most part and lucky they didn't blow it again in overtime...

Got lucky they didn't blow it again haha but they played good tonight and finally got it done past regulation...

Yeah I think every NHL does have the dad road games at least I've heard of it lots for many teams...

20 minutes ago, Brewin Flames said:

 

 

I know you are a big fan of the "sutter" system....but it's not going to work when the defense is poor and markstrom has struggled.

 

I think sometimes sutter forgets that you have to score goals sometimes too.

Yeah...haha I'm a Sutter fan for sure and I do like the Sutter defensive system too...youre right about Markstrom this year though the Ottawa game the first 2 goal then the outside shot by DeBrincat he's gotta stop...the Detroit game they should be taking the man and the pass option away instead of all rushing towards the shooter...oh well they gotta perfect the Sutter system more too if they want it to be successful...

Exact same lines as loss to Ottawa and they were even worse than before in the loss to Detroit today...

10 hours ago, Brewin Flames said:

Meh...they are sliding fast.

This year I didn't think defence and goaltending would be problem...

Ovechkin's father, Mikhail, dies at 71

I'm surprised nobody posted the sad news yet...here's the link anyways:

https://www.thegx.ca/forum/index.php?threads/ovechkins-father-mikhail-dies-at-71.1049/

Exact same lines as in Buffalo and Calgary just dominated all game until last 2 minutes to blow 2 goal lead...

Just disgusted Calgary blew 2 goal lead with 2 minutes to go no excuse for that...

Same lines as last game except Markstrom in net and Ritchie in for Ruzicka on fourth line for the Buffalo win today

Goalscorers goal by this guy he sure sparked Calgary in this comeback win today

Man I thought they were done for after those two goals in three shots by Buffalo haha

Good defensively only allowed less than 20 shots even with all those penalties...but man losing all these one goal games is annoying...

Andersson injured so Gilbert in with Stone the forward lines same and Vladr in net...played good defensively under 20 allowed in this loss to Detroit of all teams...

Anyways New York is ****** stacked holy ****...

46 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

I also miss the days when hits like this were more common and when clean, just meant you tried to get it back later.

 

Fighting over clean hits or someone taking an  whack at the puck because the ref hasn't blown the whistle always has and always will be dumb.

 

I also miss hip checks.

 

 

Good announcer hahaha HIT BY THE BIG BUTT OF MCLAREN

Tanev/Trouba - Draw...

Weegar/Cuylle - Weegar easily...

Dune/Trouba - Trouba in a beatdown...

Lucic should've beat up Trouba early on because when Lucic beats people up Calgary usually wins...

34 minutes ago, Brewin Flames said:

Trouba destroys Kadri, BEATS UP Dillon...

 

 

More accurate now haha...if only Lucic would've beat up Trouba early in the game...oh well...only Lucic and Ritchie is a match of Trouba and Ritchie wasn't playing tonight...

If only Lucic would've beat up Trouba in the start Calgary would've won...

Same forward lines and Tanev/Markstrom replacing Mackey/Vladr...lots of fights(3) but none with Lucic...so the moral of the story is still that when Lucic doesn't beat anyone up Calgary usually doesn't win...

2 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

Indeed.  Perhaps the NHL ‘enterprise’ is a better business for owners under his reign.  But I could give a fleeing fork about that.

 

Is the game better?  Number One on my list:  and I know I am a broken record…but his asinine OT points rule has made it hard to stay interested in the regular season horse race.  Nearly two decades into it, I still loathe that it is not a Zero Sum Game with “some games are 50% more equal than others” thank you Mr. Orwell.

 

Plus the OT isn’t real hockey. 
 

Exactly...obviously teams the high offense teams benefit more in regular season if they can get it to overtime...and I agree regular season OT isn't real hockey...

Some other rules I hate are the dumb trapezoid behind the net...how they didn't allow the Vegas owner to call his team what he wanted after the guy already paid the five hundred million price tag...obviously the all star formats and voting etc...too many to name and even more I don't even know about in bargaining process too...

4 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

 

I guess he's earning the money the owners have been paying all these years: those were all things that they wanted, but he gets all of the hate.

 

Yeah that's why they'll never fire him he has earned his pay and more because he's made NHL marketable like the NBA and NFL etc and there's still room in the market to make even more closer too what those leagues earn...and he earns all the hate too obviously because fans don't care what the owners make we only care that he made hockey less fun to watch...

5 hours ago, Hockey Junkie said:

I just found out. Do you know how injured Thompson is?  We don’t play for over a week.  Granato must get them to play at home like they do on the road.  The Penguins and Capitals are ripe for the picking

Well he's listed and day to day...which is funny because he and Dylan Cozens both were listed day to day few days ago before the Carolina game but then were both cleared to play and obviously Thompson got injured in that game and now listed as he was before as day to day with upper body injury...without Thompson Pittsburgh and Washington probably thinking Buffalo are ripe for the picking now hahaha...but with a weeks rest that might be enough for him to recover in time to face Ovie and Sydney...