NHL season 2017/2018

[esquire]

^ In sports terms, it's hard for there be much of an existing rivalry when the cities barely compete in sports. Their only pro teams that even play each other, the Whitecaps and Sounders, have been going at it now for what, 8 years maybe?

[HomeInMyShoes]

For better or worse, Canucks extend Benning, want to bring back Sedins


Speaking ov Vancouver, is it too early to start the playoff death watch?

By my estimate, Arizona is already done. Maximum of 90 points they could get now. Vancouver is almost there with a 100 point season still possible, Edmonton with a 104 point season, and Chicago with a 106 point season possible. Current esimate puts the WC second spot no lower than 94 points and more than likely around 99.

It's only mid February. That's a month and a half of pointless hockey for four teams in the West.

[JiminyCricket II]

Originally Posted by theman23

I don't know, maybe I haven't been here long enough but I really don't sense any "rivalry" between Vancouver or Seattle. The two cities are close to each other and people travel back and forth, but for the most part each city is content to let the other do its own thing.

There's a really good rivalry between Seattle and Vancouver in the MLS, actually between PDX-SEA-VAN that is by far the best regional rivalry in the MLS and compete for the Cascadia Cup. So I can see a pretty good rivalry between the cities' NHL teams.

Originally Posted by esquire

^ In sports terms, it's hard for there be much of an existing rivalry when the cities barely compete in sports. Their only pro teams that even play each other, the Whitecaps and Sounders, have been going at it now for what, 8 years maybe?

Goes back way longer than that, back to the '70s in the NASL days.

[Horus]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

For better or worse, Canucks extend Benning, want to bring back Sedins


Speaking ov Vancouver, is it too early to start the playoff death watch?

By my estimate, Arizona is already done. Maximum of 90 points they could get now. Vancouver is almost there with a 100 point season still possible, Edmonton with a 104 point season, and Chicago with a 106 point season possible. Current esimate puts the WC second spot no lower than 94 points and more than likely around 99.

It's only mid February. That's a month and a half of pointless hockey for four teams in the West.

We are getting close the 3/4 mark of the season, and the trade deadline, so it's certainly the right time to start crossing teams off from playoff contention.

From the East you can safely cross off Buffalo, Ottawa, and probably Montreal too. Both Detroit and Florida are pretty far back of a Wild Card spot and do not seem very good candidates to go on the kind of tear they would need to in order to get back in contention.

Surprisingly, the entire Metro Division is still realistically alive, but the Rangers have pretty much publicly thrown in the towel.

[Bluenote]

Originally Posted by Horus

We are getting close the 3/4 mark of the season, and the trade deadline, so it's certainly the right time to start crossing teams off from playoff contention.

From the East you can safely cross off Buffalo, Ottawa, and probably Montreal too. Both Detroit and Florida are pretty far back of a Wild Card spot and do not seem very good candidates to go on the kind of tear they would need to in order to get back in contention.

Surprisingly, the entire Metro Division is still realistically alive, but the Rangers have pretty much publicly thrown in the towel.

OUt of all the divisions I’d say the central is the one with the most close race for playoff spots. Even poor Chicago in last place could still make it. The rest in the division are all extremely close. It’s not like the other divisions where the top teams are very clear.

[Black Star]

Well the Oilers sure know how to disappoint.

I'm not even gonna try to analyze this anymore.

All strategy and excuses are exhausted.

Only recourse is pray to hockey Gods.

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by Black Star

Well the Oilers sure know how to disappoint.

I'm not even gonna try to analyze this anymore.

All strategy and excuses are exhausted.

Only recourse is pray to hockey Gods.

You guys have to start from the top, but it seems like it will never happen. The Leafs were lucky enough to have Shananan have some misguided hometown dream of bringing the cup home and clean house in the first year he was there. The Oilers, however, seem fixated on clearing out the middle where they bring someone in who still has some ties to the old boys club and will never truly start from scratch... but i'm drunk and the the only other thing I'll say is it would be truly disappointing if Mcdavid's prime years are wasted because of Chiarelli.

[TorontoDrew]

Just looking at the current standings and we have 5 Canadian teams that will struggle to get into a wild card spot at this point. Not a great season for Canadian NHL Hockey.

[DoubleK]

Flames come up big in a game they had to have.

Here's hoping they don't look past a hot Florida team on Saturday for their chance at revenge on the Bruins.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Never is a very long time.

Current NHL standings as of 12/07/2017.

01.Tampa Bay
02.Los Angeles
03.St. Louis
04.Nashville
05.Winnipeg
06.Toronto
07.New Jersey
08.Vegas
09.Columbus
10.NY Islanders
11.Washington
12.Pittsburgh
13.Dallas
14.NY Rangers
15.San Jose
16.Vancouver
17.Calgary
18.Boston
19.Anaheim
20.Montréal
21.Minnesota
22.Chicago
23.Philadelphia
24.Carolina
25.Detroit
26.Colorado
27.Florida
28.Ottawa
29.Edmonton
30.Arizona
31.Buffalo

It looked quite a bit better in early December. Only Edmonton and Ottawa have been on a complete suckage line for most of the season, and even Ottawa had some glimpses of relevance.

[jawagord]

Originally Posted by Black Star

Well the Oilers sure know how to disappoint.

I'm not even gonna try to analyze this anymore.

All strategy and excuses are exhausted.

Only recourse is pray to hockey Gods.

I don't think Hockey gods can undo the mistakes Chiarelli has made. It should be obvious to even the most orange goggled Oilers fan that trading Taylor Hall for stay at home defenceman was a horrid mistake, trading Jordan Eberle for a non scoring plugger hurt the teams offence, signing Lucic, Draisidal, and McDavid to huge long term contracts has put the team in cap hell aka Chicago but without any Stanley cups. Do what Gretsky does and just have another glass of wine.

[theman23]

Speaking of mistakes, I just noticed that Mikhail Sergachev has more points than Jonathan Drouin. I guess you could argue that Sergachev is on a much better team, but still - not looking good!

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

It looked quite a bit better in early December. Only Edmonton and Ottawa have been on a complete suckage line for most of the season, and even Ottawa had some glimpses of relevance.

Ya, as it stands now is not so good.

01. Tampa Bay
02. Vegas
03. Boston
04. Nashville
05. Winnipeg
06. Toronto
07. Washington
08. St. Louis
09. Dallas
10. San Jose
11. Pittsburgh
12. Minnesota
13. Calgary
14. Anaheim
15. Colorado
16. Philadelphia
17. New Jersey
18. Los Angeles
19. Carolina
20. Columbus
21. NY Islanders
22. NY Rangers
23. Florida
24. Chicago
25. Detroit
26. Montréal
27. Edmonton
28. Vancouver
29. Ottawa
30. Buffalo
31. Arizona

[Berklon]

^ The battle of Canada for 1st place... in the draft.

[DoubleK]

Toronto/Boston first round would be all kinds of awesome.

[Andy6]

The Jets seem back on track again after struggling a bit for the last four; the 6-1 win over Colorado looked like an NHL team playing a major junior team.

[suburbanite]

Ya Buff punching the guy on the ground repeatedly reminded me a lot of junior hockey.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Ya Buff punching the guy on the ground repeatedly reminded me a lot of junior hockey.

The goon that Colorado sent out against our top line with 3 seconds left, down 4-0, to try to shake things up by running Blake Wheeler? That guy?

[suburbanite]

That's the one

[logan5]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ In sports terms, it's hard for there be much of an existing rivalry when the cities barely compete in sports. Their only pro teams that even play each other, the Whitecaps and Sounders, have been going at it now for what, 8 years maybe?

Well, there is the MLS rivalry as mentioned by the San Jose guy, but I don't think you necessarily need pro teams that play each other to form a rivalry. The 2 cities do tend to compare themselves to each other a lot, and Vancouver has a pretty big connection to the Seattle sports scene. The huge contingent at Blue Jay games in Seattle for example. That would stoke the rivalry between the 2 cities. And you're going to see lots of Seattle fans in Van, and vice versa. It's definitely going to be a rivalry.

I think Seattle has a great chance of becoming one of the better hockey markets in the states. Hopefully the NBA doesn't come back to Seattle too soon. That'll give the NHL team a better chance to establish itself.

Four games already complete this afternoon, including the Oilers losing 1-0 to the worst team in the league. Looks like the Oilers are gunning for the Canucks draft lottery position. I was hoping that the Canucks would at least get the second best defenceman in the draft. Must tank harder than the Oilers.