NHL season 2015-2016

Great to have new NHL thread, thx!

Chicago will probably be again one of the best teams but because they rebuild the team now, I don`t believe they`ll make it as long this season.

Anaheim, solid pick from you. One of the favourites from west by far.

Horrific goaltending is Dallas is mostly because that horrific defense. Btw. what do you think about now when they bought Niemi in the team? Do you think both Lehtonen and Niemi will play equally as much or will another one steal the spotlight?

Rangers overrated? one of the best teams last 2 seasons, havent followed whats new in the teams this season yet,, to early to start think at a wintersport for me but great thread

Originally posted by NutzAreOk
Great to have new NHL thread, thx!

Chicago will probably be again one of the best teams but because they rebuild the team now, I don`t believe they`ll make it as long this season.

Anaheim, solid pick from you. One of the favourites from west by far.

Horrific goaltending is Dallas is mostly because that horrific defense. Btw. what do you think about now when they bought Niemi in the team? Do you think both Lehtonen and Niemi will play equally as much or will another one steal the spotlight?

Sorry for the late response. Well I have to agree with you that the troubles in net were mainly due to goaltending. I have a hard time to read the situation in Dallas but I think we will see a similar situation to Winnipeg last season. This means that Niemi and Lehtonen will split time at the start of the season and then they will go with the goalie who will go on a hot streak. I personally think Niemi is a little bit more solid but we will see.
Think the Winnipeg situation is even more interesting with Pavelec, Hutchinson and Helleybuck. Pav had his best year ever but still is one of the worst starters in the league, Hutch is inconsistent and Helleybuck made humongous steps last season.

I can't wait to watch Penguins games this season (never expected me to say this). Offensive lines have so much talents:
Perron - Crosby - Kessel
Plotnikov - Malkin - Hornqvist
Kunitz - Bonino - Dupuis
Bennett - Cullen - Fehr

That third line has to be the best of the league (if they stay healthy). Furthermore having and under appreciated player like Fehr on the fourth line (he's arguably a second liner on most teams) is a big plus. They will have a lot of trouble at the defensive side of the game although I think that they will address this matter before the trade deadline.

Originally posted by rompas
Rangers overrated? one of the best teams last 2 seasons, havent followed whats new in the teams this season yet,, to early to start think at a wintersport for me but great thread

I think the Rangers are pretty good but that they finished too high a couple of years in a row due to great goaltending (Just like the Price/Montreal situation). The team itself is not that great imho (Corsi statistics show this as well, although Corsi is not always right). Btw that Skjei guy is pretty good, hope he makes the final cut for the Rangers.

Just a quick heads up. My fellow countryman Daniel Sprong has surprisingly made the Penguins roster for opening day. The highly skilled winger fell in the 2015 draft to the 46th pick but will get a chance for at least 9 games. He will be the first dutchy in the NHL in over 20 years.
http://penguins.nhl.com/club/m_news.htm?id=781540

So the NHL has begun, already some nice games. I watched a couple of games.

The first goal was made by Max Pacioretty (for the second year in a row) against the Leafs. The Leafs actually played really well but a lack of snipers is a problem. I think we are going to see a lot of games this year where they will dominate but loose.

Dallas won 3-0 over the Penguins yesterday with Niemi stopping 37 shots and getting 2 assists, the first ever goalie to get a shut out and record two assists. Sprong didn't see a lot of ice time, but had some on the power play. He played pretty good.
Players who did make their first ever NHL goal: Eichel (BUF), Fabbri (STL), Arvidsson (NHL), Petan (WPG).

Most fun game I watched was Flyers vs Lightning. The Flyers really have improved. It was the first official 3-on-3 overtime game. http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2015020007&navid=sb:recap&intcmpid=sb-highlights

As a Leafs fan this is going to be a long season....

Glad to see i stumbled upon this thread.
Hard to find any Hockey talk on most poker threads, so cheers to the OP.

Recently went to see my first live NHL game a few weeks ago, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Nice to hear that you have enjoyed it. Maybe I will watch a match live there, but it's a long journey for me than.

Originally posted by JuiceClouds
Glad to see i stumbled upon this thread.
Hard to find any Hockey talk on most poker threads, so cheers to the OP.

Recently went to see my first live NHL game a few weeks ago, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Very nice, which game did you go to?

So we're a couple of weeks in. Some highlights from the first weeks....
- The Montreal Canadiens were 1 win away from tying the record for best start ever (10 wins in a row). They lost the tenth game to the Vancouver Canucks.
- The Anaheim Ducks, one of the favourites preseason to get the title, have a very bad start to the season and only managed to get 4 points so far. They have a lot of trouble scoring and first line center Getzlaf is now out for a week (or slightly more) so they will have a difficult uphill battle.
- The Central Division is absolutely brutal. The teams from this division will probably clinch the two wild card spots in the west, but at the moment 6 teams are playing great hockey from that division. This means one team won't make the play offs out of: Dallas, St Louis, Nashville, Minnesota, Winnipeg, Chicago. Chicago is out of a wildcard position at the moment.

I haven't seen a lot of games yet but this game from yesterday afternoon was a great one: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20152016,2,156&navid=sb:highlights
My favourite so far.

Lots of things happened over the week.
-Connor McDavid (1st draft pick this year) is out at least 8 weeks. He will be dearly missed by Edmonton who were aiming to stay in the race for a play off spot in the 'weak' Pacific Division. Anaheim is coming back and only 2 points out of a play off spot at the moment (they won 4 out of the last 5 games).

-Patrick Kane is free to roam the world. Two weeks ago he was spoken free in the alleged rape case. I'm not going into detail whether I think he did it or not, point is he's always fun to watch on the ice. At this point he leads the league with 23 points, his line with russian newcomer Artemi Panarin is extremely hot:

1. Patrick Kane - Chicago Blackhawks - 10 GOALS, 13 ASSISTS
2. Tyler Seguin - Dallas Stars - 9 GOALS, 14 ASSISTS
3. Jamie Benn - Dallas Stars - 10 GOALS, 11 ASSISTS

Not a lot of activity here but I will just keep spamming. We're almost at a quarter of the season and I'll do a short analysis of the Eastern Conference (standings in the picture).

-The Atlantic Division is the weakest division of the eastern conference. Teams are mostly underachieving, of to weak starts and too inconsistent. Montreal is playing great but the rest of the division has been mediocre at best. Tampa, the SC finalist last year, hasn't been playing well (particularly the triplets line of Kucherov, Johnson and Palat who got the most regular season points last year). I also expected more from Detroit and Florida but they are still very well in the race. Only bright point has been Toronto who are playing pretty great hockey the last couple of games with a very weak roster. Boston is also playing pretty good but their defense is awful and Rask hasn't been up to the task so far (save percentage of only 89%!).
I expect the standings to be the following at the end of the season but Tampa really has to improve:
1. Montreal Canadiens
2. Tampa Bay Lightning
3. Detroit Red Wings
Ottawa and Boston will be close to the numbers 2 and 3 in the standings and can snatch the last wild card spot. Florida has been too disappointing and I don't see them turning it around.

-The Metropolitan division is stacked with great teams and the top 3 are the teams we expected to be there. The Rangers are playing great hockey and are on a great regular season run again. Washington has been exciting so far, rolling out now 2 great offensive lines with splitting Backstrom and Ovi. The Islanders and the Penguins haven't reached their full potential yet but still have so much skill that they're already in play off positions. Big surprise here are the New Jersey Devils who have one of the weakest rosters around but play great hockey, the line Cammaleri - Henrique - Stempniak has been the biggest surprise so far. Keep in mind Stempniak played recently at the fourth line in New York, crazy turn around. However, even though they are amazing at shot suppression and have great goaltending I don't expect them to make it in the long run. Columbus has improved. After losing the first 8 their record is currently 7-12-0, keep an eye on them.
I expect the following standings for the Metro division:
1. New York Rangers
2. Washington Capitals
3. Pittsburgh Penguins
4. New York Islanders (WC)

Nice update sir. Would be nice to follow the season like this

Mike Johnston, coach Penguins, fired. The Penguins are 1 point outside the wild card spots but played garbage hockey with all the talent up front.

Edit: Patrick Kane has now a 25 point streak, the best streak since 1993. The NHL is much more defensively aym so this is a great achievement.

Edit2: Dupuis from the Penguins retired due to blood cloths. He will be missed although his play started to decline the last couple of seasons.

I watched Anaheim lose with 3-0 from Buffalo last night and I have to say I don't think they will make the play offs anymore. They're not close to what they were last year and their offense is extremely ineffective. They're in last place with Toronto and Columbus at the moment (27 points in 30 games).

Teams who after a rough start have renewed chances are the Calgary Flames (won 7 in a row, now 3rd in pacific) and Colorado (won 4 in a row, only 3 points out of last wild card spot).

Washington played one of the best periods of hockey I've seen so far this season in the third against Tampa. Nice comeback.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20152016,2,478&navid=sb:highlights

Originally posted by AmsterdamCalling
I watched Anaheim lose with 3-0 from Buffalo last night and I have to say I don't think they will make the play offs anymore. They're not close to what they were last year and their offense is extremely ineffective. They're in last place with Toronto and Columbus at the moment (27 points in 30 games).

Teams who after a rough start have renewed chances are the Calgary Flames (won 7 in a row, now 3rd in pacific) and Colorado (won 4 in a row, only 3 points out of last wild card spot).

That’s too bad for them. It can’t play every season good off course, but it’s indeed a big different if you compare it with last year.

Dallas (west) and Washington (east) are now running away from the rest of the field. http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm?season=20152016&type=LEA

Who will win the regular season? I would put my money on Washington. Dallas was owning St Louis big time last night but still not convinced about their goalie tandem. Washington has solid tending with Holtby in net. Other surprise is that the Florida Panthers are in the lead in the Atlantic, the first time in a looong time. They have a pretty nice squad with a lot of young talents like Huberdeau, Barkov, Bjugstad, Ekblad and (old) veterans in Jagr, Campbell and Luongo.