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The Everything NHL Thread

I haven't been to a game in person myself since before the new year now...the pessimist in me wants to get round 1 tickets since I'm not confident Detroit will get any farther than that this year! I usually hit a playoff game every year with my parents (how spoiled I am to be able to make that a tradition, both as a fan and because I never pick up the tab)... was worried this year would be the first without it, but now I feel like they could have another deep run... amazing how much better they look now that almost everyone is healthy and in practice. As much as I always hated him, I'm really happy to see Lilja back out there too... bad as he is sometimes I felt for the guy.

If they manage to make it to the conference finals I think I'll pick up the tab and go to a second game - I can't imagine being able to afford SCF tickets and frankly I can't imagine them getting there, either.
 
I haven't been to a game in person myself since before the new year now...the pessimist in me wants to get round 1 tickets since I'm not confident Detroit will get any farther than that this year!

I was at the Wings-Oilers game tonight and as awesome as it was to see them route the Oilers for a while, seeing them come back like that was scary.

However, after watching how Howard's played lately, mainly with the rest of the team healthy, I can agree with Carl making the comment to me a while back about Howard is the goalie that the Wings need to rely on. I've been very impressed by him and think that as long as he maintains a level head, he shouldn't have any problems when the playoffs roll around.
 
I haven't had this much faith in a wings goalie since Hasek in 2002. When this year started based on what I'd seen in his handful appearances in the NHL and some footage I'd seen of him in the minors I figured he'd be a free agent in a couple years but man, I'm really glad we have him. He's looked just great almost every game and his play in the middle of the season is the only reason we were close enough to surge into the playoffs at the end. Love him.

He's the least of my worries, for sure. Just hoping we don't get Phoenix - they seem like the type of team we'll underestimate and choke against.
 
Since this topic is dead lately I will post for the third time in four with an early prediction: Synre's Western Conference Playoff Predictions with two weeks left in the season (TM Pending). Feel free and do your own or flame me about them or something so we get some activity. None of these spots are assured at this point so I'll need to do a new one later probably but I need postseason and this is as close as I'm gonna get. Notice my GIANT COCK in many of these predictions. It's gonna happen folks.

1 San Jose vs 8 Calgary
2 Chicago vs 7 Los Angeles
3 Vancouver vs. 6 Nashville
4 Phoenix vs. 5 Detroit

1 San Jose vs. 6 Nashville
2 Chicago vs. 5 Detroit

2 Chicago vs. 6 Nashville


I was THIS CLOSE to having Detroit win the conference again instead, I may amend that before the playoffs start.


EDIT: and just for fun the Eastern version although I don't know the teams as well so I'll be more wrong.


1 Washington vs. 8 Boston
2 Buffalo vs. 7 Philadelphia
3 Pittsburgh vs. 6 Montreal
4 New Jersey vs. 5 Ottawa

1 Washington vs. 4 New Jersey
2 Buffalo vs. 3 Pittsburgh

2 Buffalo vs. 4 New Jersey

Hoping 6 and 7 swap for more interesting first rounds but it doesn't change my much less interesting Eastern Conference predictions.



And since I went that far...

2. Chicago vs. 2 Buffalo

(but if they didn't have Hossa I'd have picked Chicago)


Triple post avoiding edit: Guess which team was the disappointment...

2010hockeyfinal.jpg
 
5 fucking shots on goal

although i guess getting bryz as a lucky pick that carried my team was paid for karmically by the way he shit the bed this week

still, man, you deserved the win. just don't expect me to lose next year when i actually attend the draft and know what i'm doing =)

playoff wild mass guessing will go up once all teams have clinched
 
gg wer



Speaking of fantasy hockey, while people are still somewhat thinking about it until we move on to bigger and better things next year - do we want to do keepers next year (I swear to god you guys need to post instead of just chatting to me on IRC about it)? I've been leery doing it in the past largely because of owner turnover, but 10 of 12 were active last year and the two inactives it may have been an outlier for (+pookar wants to play), so I think we could feasibly do it. Obviously I wouldn't want to keep off of this year's rosters since it effects how people draft and plan, but I'd be up for like keeping 4 or something next year.

Thoughts??
 
Thanks for the Buffalove. :)

I'll do picks when the playoff fields are set, I honestly see the Flyers dropping out at this rate. Rangers or Thrashers, though, that's the question... probably Rangers, Thrashers couldn't get 2 points on a bantam team right now.
 
I'm kind of enjoying the race for my teams... 6 Detroit vs. 3 Vancouver is a bad matchup compared to 4. Phoenix, but if they win 1 San Jose is a much, much better match-up than Chicago...

I guess for my Caps it's functionally irrelevant but the Flyers have a much better chance of hurting players so I'd love them falling out for the Thrashers or something. Yes please. Though I think the Wings choking yesterday will clinch 8th for the Flyers, sadly.
 
I just did a baseball auction draft, and it is truly very fun. Much better than serpentine.

Everyone started with 260$, people nominate players in any order and everyone bids on them, plain and simple. You can never bid more than an amount that would let you spend 1$ on each player to fill out your remaining roster spots. I got into several bidding wars, and it is unbelievably strategic.

I can only hope they implement it for hockey next year.

Also, have you guys seen the history will be made parodies? so funny.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/pu...t=AqJL936mRU2t5zcOpNyH2mF7vLYF?urn=nhl,232372
 
We talked about the auction thing on IRC the other day and I think we're all in favor of doing it, especially in year 1 of a keeper. I'm not sure if I like it past year 1 (especially since after the first year the draft ranking should be reverse order of the previous year's finish rather than random), but I think it's really valuable in the first year so a random number generator isn't determining who gets Crosby/Ovechkin/etc. for life.

So yeah, in favor of auction/keeper (probably keep 4)


EDIT: oh my god some of those videos are amazing

What if Thornton started the playoffs angry?

What if all the Sharks did?


5 stars
 
the problem with that is someone could just do a max bid on ovechkin and blow this year in order to dominate every year down the road
 
Except that's like having the first pick in a normal draft and then not having your round 2-4 pick (assuming keep 4). That's retarded; I'm still going to easily beat team Ovechkin with my Thornton/Lundqvist/Lidstrom/Pronger that I had this year or whatever. It's not a good strategy.

Whoever "wants him the most" will get him, sure, but if they do that at the expense of any other valuable player they can get they'll get crushed, Ovie or no. Ovie has only won in our league once, after all.
 
I just did a baseball auction draft, and it is truly very fun. Much better than serpentine.

Everyone started with 260$, people nominate players in any order and everyone bids on them, plain and simple. You can never bid more than an amount that would let you spend 1$ on each player to fill out your remaining roster spots. I got into several bidding wars, and it is unbelievably strategic.

I can only hope they implement it for hockey next year.

Also, have you guys seen the history will be made parodies? so funny.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/pu...t=AqJL936mRU2t5zcOpNyH2mF7vLYF?urn=nhl,232372
This part sounds kind of complicated...does this mean if you mess up calculating your 'cap' does that mean you can't draft anymore players and have to resort to FAs?
 
ck, the draft wont let you bet more than that amount. It always ensures you have at least 1 dollar for each empty roster spot left, but i mean 1$ per player is pretty much just picking from the FA pool anyway. It will get to a point where most everyone will have 1 dollar left per player and then it just kinda turns into a normal draft. It might not for hockey since the rosters are a lot smaller than baseball though, so we shall see.

and master percussionist / sloppy seconds one were funniest aha
 
Dear Buffalo Sabres:

STOP BACKING INTO THE PLAYOFFS. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

DM
 
I doubt we'll have a way to mock it for hockey until next year, since the fact it hasn't been available yet means it's not around on-site to play with. We probably won't be able to practice until a couple weeks before the real thing, if the option is there at all.
 
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