2011-2012 Pro Hockey Thread

[trwi7]

trwi7 wrote:

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The Admirals continue their AHL record. With an overtime loss and a win in Abbotsford on Friday and Saturday they have now gone 20 road games without a regulation loss.

Make that 21 games. 27 if you include the playoffs. Now 3-0 against the Woofs this year.

[RightFieldCoder]

The NHL is going with a radical re-alignment plan. Instead of 2 conferences of 3 divisions each with 5 teams they are going to go with 4 conferences, no divisions, and 7-8 teams per conference. There will no longer be wildcard teams. Top 4 finishes in each conference go on to the playoffs. The schedule will also feature a home/away against every team in the league with the remaining games being conference games.

What does everyone think?

[valpocrewsader]

So, the conferences that contain seven teams will be sending playoff representatives from the bottom half of their standings? That's stupid. The rest of the realignment plan doesn't sound bad, but they should have just done the top three teams from each of the conferences. (I know, a step back from the 16 teams they currently allow, too much money at stake blah blah, but 16 teams was way too many anyways.)

 

Why didn't they just move Nashville to the southeast to take Atlanta's spot and make a corresponding move of Winnipeg to the central? Other than timezone inconvenience, Nashville would be completely at home, geographically, in a conference with Carolina and Tampa. Winnipeg fits okay geographically in a conference with Chicago and Detroit -- relatively great compared to being in southeast. Or, go one step further and move Minnesota into the central and Winnipeg into the northwest.

[trwi7]

They wanted to help out West teams by teams like Detroit, Columbus and Nashville making long trips to San Jose, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Anaheim several times a year and they wanted to cut down on two time zone division travel. They fixed that but the East still has an advantage since 8 of 14 teams make the playoffs in the East compared to 8 of 16 in the West.

[stoutdude04]

Tri...you mean like the AL having 4 out of 14 and the NL 4 out of 16? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif Didnt they mention that they werent sure which conferences were going to play each other in the playoffs? Because the 1st 2 rounds were going to be against their own conference if I read correctly.

[RightFieldCoder]

Correct. 1v4 plays 2v3. It will be interesting on what happens with the conference champs. Do they get listed by record and repeat the process? Do they have set Conferences play each other? Do they have the Conferences play each other that differs year to year.

 

Another question mark is how will the ASG work?

[zurch1818]

It looks like the realignment won't happen next year after the union blocked it. Their argument with 7 vs 8 teams in a conference sounds eerily similar to the problem that the NL central just fixed. Link

[trwi7]

So we only get one IR spot in the fantasy league? That's lame. I have 4 guys on IR right now and 2 more that are DTD.

[stoutdude04]

Correct. 1v4 plays 2v3. It will be interesting on what happens with the conference champs. Do they get listed by record and repeat the process? Do they have set Conferences play each other? Do they have the Conferences play each other that differs year to year.

 

Another question mark is how will the ASG work?

Th ASG will probably still be that fantasy draft type thing they have going.

 

 

[valpocrewsader]

Predators on a four game winning streak, including two victories against the Blackhawks, and have won nine of their last 10. Tied for 5th in the conference with Chicago, one point off of 4th behind St Louis. Super tough stretch coming up... @MN, @Philly, vsSTL, vsVAN, @OTT, @BOS, vsCHI, @DET.

[trwi7]

Josi and Ellis have really helped stabilize the defense. Getting Blum and Hillen either out or to the 3rd pairing was huge. Pekka has been dominating lately as well yet all you hear is Tim Thomas and Henrik Lundqvist.

[valpocrewsader]

The wife's parents live in Smashville and are season ticket holders for the Preds. Her dad has had some really great things to say about Craig Smith so far. (Meanwhile, I've really heard nothing about Geoffrion lately....)

[valpocrewsader]

Amazing comeback win for the Preds on the road tonight at the Wild. Four unanswered goals in the last 10-ish minutes to win in regulation, three goals in the last 3.5 minutes, with the game winner coming with about 20 seconds left. Probably one of the best comebacks in the franchise's history, and best of all it was televised for us fans in WI.

[Eck17]

The Nashville Predators have traded Blake Geoffrion and Robert Slaney and a 2nd round draft pick for Hal Gill and a 5th round draft choice from Montreal. I honestly don't know what to think about this deal.

[trwi7]

I like the deal a lot. Fills a big need. A big bodied defenseman who's great on the penalty kill. Makes Bouillon and Hillen scratches every game now.

 

Geoffrion, really looking at it objectively best case scenario is a hard working 3rd or 4th liner. The Preds have plenty of those guys who are more talented than Geoffrion. Bourque, Spaling, Tootoo, Halischuk etc.

 

Now they need to get a top 6 forward. Preferrably a sniper who can put the puck in the net.

[trwi7]

Congrats to burniebrewer on winning our fantasy league. I came in 2nd and also came in 2nd in the other 16 team league I was in.

 

Regular season is now over and playoff matchups are set.

 

East:

 

(1) Rangers vs (8) Senators

(2) Bruins vs (7) Capitals

(3) Panthers vs (6) Devils

(4) Penguins vs (5) Flyers

 

West:

 

(1) Canucks vs (8) Kings

(2) Blues vs (7) Sharks

(3) Coyotes vs (6) Blackhawks

(4) Predators vs (5) Red Wings

 

So, who ya got?

 

I have New York, Washington, New Jersey and Pittsburgh escaping the 1st round, New York and Pittsburgh meeting in the ECF and Pittsburgh advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

I have the Kings, Blues, Coyotes and Preds advancing past the 1st round, the Kings and Preds meeting in the ECF and the Preds advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

I have the Pens beating the Preds in the Stanley Cup Finals.

[stoutdude04]

I think SJ is going to be tough on Stl. I also I think the Wings will end up winning...which sickens me.

[owbc]

Got to see the Panthers clinching game in person on Saturday. Great atmosphere and should be a close 1st round matchup with NJ. I think people are too high on New Jersey, the Panthers have home-ice advantage and a roster with more playoff experience.

 

The most likely 1st round upset is probably Blackhawks over Coyotes. I agree that the Sharks will be a tough out also, but they are not as strong as past years and will fall to the Blues.

 

Pittsburgh over Vancouver is my cup prediction.

[trwi7]

Blackhawks have had trouble with the Coyotes this year. Unless Mike Smith pulls a Bryzgalov I think the Coyotes win that series and the Blackhawks winning wouldn't really be an upset anyways, they have more points than the Coyotes.

 

I don't like New Jersey but they're much better than Florida. Florida is lucky they play in such an awful division because any other division they don't make the playoffs. Just a bunch of mediocre role players surrounded by a couple solid starters. I think New Jersey takes that series in 5.

[rwa12]

I'm hoping the Blues continue their regular season dominance of the Sharks in the playoffs. They owned them this year. Didn't like the slide at the end of the season, but they have everyone healthy now, and I'm not sure Hitch knows who to play. Hoping D'Agostini is relegated to the bench, if the Blues make it through the first round, they are going to be dangerous.

[trwi7]

I'm liking that I picked Los Angeles over Vancouver, not so much about picking Pittsburgh to win the Cup. Bryzgalov has been pretty bad in the series but Fleury has been worse, much worse. That first goal he let in today was ridiculous.

 

Admirals also clinched a playoff spot today with a 6-1 win over Charlotte clinching the 5th seed in the Western Conference. First round is a 2-3 format so they open at home on Friday at 7 against Abbotsford.

[Funketown]

Here's the silver lining in Vancouver's abysmal start to the 2012 playoffs:

 

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/04/21/move-over-schneider-kevin-bieksas-ryan-kesler-impersonation-is-amazing/

 

(Bieksa went to Bowling Green, Kesler to Ohio State, so that's where the Bowling Green reference comes from)

[trwi7]

Perfect for my first round predictions in the West. Still have a chance for three in the East. I should be an analyst.

[zurch1818]

What a series by the Yotes! As a Yotes fan (thanks to the NHL xbox game for creating this fandom), I watched the confidence evolve over the second half of the season. Knowing that a deal is in place for them to stay in Phoenix has me even more excited. Going 11-0 in February was a lot of fun to watch. In that stretch, those games were actually quite similar to the games 4 and 5 of this series. Good defense, active sticks, and a lot of one goal games. Everyone contributes.

 

It was a great battle by the Predators. After they scored that goal, I thought it would turn into another OT game. Mike Smith played a huge role in this series win. I really think a lot of it has to do with the style of defense the Yotes play. Still can't believe he was a waiver claim. Believe me, it was really hard rooting against the Preds in this series. They have done everything right plus I really enjoy watching ex-badgers. Suter is a superstar in the making. I really hope the Preds can sign him long-term this offseason. I would hate for the Wings to gobble him up. Time to try to get to sleep. Should be fun getting up at 6 for work tomorrow.

[valpocrewsader]

You realize that this community would lean Predators due to the Admirals connection, right? Thanks for immediately jumping in and gloating. I hope Phoenix gets murdered by LA.

 

Teams that play in a 120 degree desert shouldn't have hockey anyways. Asinine.