[Tournament] 2011-12 NHL regular season discussion

Gamingforce may be dying/dead/a zombie but that doesn't mean we can't have a hockey thread for the first time in forever.

The 2011-12 NHL season starts tomorrow, and it is a season of transition. The Winnipeg Jets are back, but they're still in the Eastern Conference, and the former Jets in Phoenix are possibly on the move too, meaning the NHL may have a much different look once the league decides on realignment.

The league is also struggling to deal with the growing issue of concussions. Stiffer rules, but no outright ban on hits to the head. Which other major player(s) will have to be knocked out for months/years/their career before the league will make any serious changes?

Still, the season starts on a high note for many teams wishing to make a long playoff run for the first time in years. For Boston fans, their time came this past June, and that's good news for fans in Los Angeles and St. Louis. Those two teams are figured to be at the very least dark horses and at most Cup contenders (the trade deadline brings good things to those who can wait for Zach Parise).

For the Penguins, it's been three years since everything clicked for them but the last two seasons felt like missed opportunities. Last year was particularly bad; despite challenging for the two-seed down to the last day of the season, the Penguins bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. Injuries to Crosby, Malkin and others made a 106-point season a disappointment. Now it seems as though Crosby will be back within the first half, if not the first quarter of the season and Malkin has been playing with a fire unseen from him in a couple of years. As long as injuries do not plague the Penguins again, they should be good for the postseason once more.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Malkin's already injured. WHAT IS GOING ON

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It's still early, but I read an article on Boston.com that said that if you want to make the playoffs you should be in the top eight by Thanksgiving. That being said, four points currently separate the 14th-seeded Hurricanes from the 8th-seeded Capitals in the East, while in the West the 14th-seeded Ducks are seven points behind the 8th-seeded Red Wings. A lot can still change.

It's hard to identify Hart candidates right now. Phil Kessel obviously deserves consideration, but he'd get his votes dragged down a little by his own teammate, Joffrey Lupul, as both are in the top five for goals and points.

How about those Panthers, huh? Out of nowhere. The Capitals aren't running away with that division this year.

Oh, and

YouTube Video

Most amazing jew boots

Stories of the first quarter

• Toronto Maple Leafs: Stanley Cup contenders?
  Finally, some respectability in Maple Leaf country, as the Leafs are in first place in the Northeast division with 30 points, and in second overall in the East. Leading the charge is Phil Kessel (16g-15a--31p), who seems to be fulfilling the promise of that first-round, #5 pick by the Bruins five years ago. The real surprise however is Joffrey Lupul (11g-18a--29p), who with two more points will have scored more this year than in the last two injury-shortened seasons combined; he's nipping at league-leading Kessel's heels. Toronto is crummy defensively however, allowing almost as many goals per game (3.1) as they score (3.2).
• Panthers on the prowl
  Maybe the red jerseys are getting to their heads, but Florida fans haven't seen their team play this well since 1996 when they reached the Cup Final. No Scott Mellanby or John Vanbiesbrouck here, though; instead it's former Leaf Kris Versteeg (12g-14a--26p) and Jose Theodore (9-4-3, 2.37 GAA, 92.2%) helping keep the Panthers ahead of the meandering Capitals.
• The year of the Breakouts
  Lupul and Versteeg aside, the league's seeing a lot of names on the leaderboard that haven't been there before. Of note:
  • Claude Giroux (29 points), out from behind Jeff Carter's and Mike Richards' shadows, is two points behind Kessel for the league lead.
  • First-year rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (25 points) led the Oilers on their early charge, but the steam has gone out of the engine it seems and Edmonton is out of the playoff race for now.
  • He was brought to Pittsburgh to be Sidney Crosby's linemate, but James Neal (23 points) and the rest of the first-place Penguins have done well enough for themselves without Sid. Not a bad dilemma for the Pens to have.
  • The return for the Kessel investment may not have been worth it for some, seeing how well he's doing, but to others Tyler Seguin (23 points) has certainly proven his worth, even with Boston's slow start this year.
  • The Blues wouldn't be where they are right now without the stellar play of Brian Elliot (10-1-0, 1.31 GAA, 95.1%), an early Vezina candidate.
  • Likewise the Kings without Jonathan Quick (10-6-4, 2.02 GAA, 93.3%), who backstopped Los Angeles to their league-leading fourth shutout this year.

Stories for the second quarter?

• Realignment in the cards
  The winter GM meetings will bring further discussion about the future landscape of the NHL, particularly how the league will be aligned for the 2012-13 season and beyond. There's still great potential for teams to be moving in the next few years, and how the league's Governors decide to divide the league up may mix things up considerably.
• Who will rise and who will fall?
  Already we've seen the Oilers plunge and the Bruins surge, but who else will fade (Washington? San Jose?) and who will rise (Tampa Bay? New Jersey? Colorado?)?
• Crosby vs. Ovechkin
  Now that Sid is back and on fire (9 points in 4 games) and there's been a coaching change in Washington, all eyes will be on Ovechkin (17 points in 22 games) the rest of the year to see if The Great 8 can drag the Caps out of their doldrums.
• A Winter Classic to remember?
  The Rangers and Flyers, fifth and sixth in the conference, will meet on January 2 in Philadelphia in the fifth-annual Winter Classic. Two great hockey cities, two very good teams, and a nice setting (Citizens Bank Park) for what will undoubtedly be an exciting matchup.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Why Am I Allowed to CABLE INSTINCTS

Christ, I hope not.

If that man gets hit by a bus tomorrow it would not be early enough.

Ovechkin's just suffering from "I've Got Ten More Years On This Contract With This Team?" Syndrome. He'll snap out of it at some point, almost guaranteed.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Meanwhile Washington still sucks.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

REALIGNMENT YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH

Quote:

The top four teams in each Conference qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first-place team would play the fourth-place team; the second-place team would play the third-place team. The four respective Conference champions would meet in the third round of the Playoffs, with the survivors playing for the Stanley Cup.

CONFERENCE A (Gretzky Division?)
Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

CONFERENCE B (Howe Division?)
Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg

CONFERENCE C (Orr Division?)
Boston
Buffalo
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto

CONFERENCE D (Lemieux Division?)
Carolina
New Jersey
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

Thoughts? I was expecting some more extreme changes, most notably with Detroit, Columbus, Nashville: none of those teams got lumped in with "Eastern" teams as all the talk was supposing, and not only that, but they got stuck with the Jets. (Though I guess Winnipeg is in the Central Time Zone? So I guess it worked out.) It looks like the Governors preferred to keep any existing rivalries in tact. That said, it'll be interesting to see how any future relocations (Phoenix, Islanders, Carolina) work out, and how the conferences may change further.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by TheKnightOfNee

Eager to see what they name these conferences too.

Yeah the naming is what's going to fascinate me; the conferences are basically set up to not follow a direct geographical convention, and fans have been crying for a return to named divisions/conferences. I'm assuming that if they do go with naming the conferences after people, it won't be the old guys like Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe, and it probably won't be any contemporary owners, either. I'm not 100% sure about the names I suggested either. Considering the teams in their divisions, I'm thinking Gretzky, Lemieux and Howe are pretty much locks, but Boston and Montreal could argue it out forever about the Orr/Richard Conference.

Additional Spam:
Just had a silly idea: the team that wins their conference every year votes to name the division for the next year.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

If he starts scoring more goals I'll agree 100%. So far he's got the tenacity down pat.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Filthy Hockey Beast

He's currently on pace for 32, his exact output from last year, with more assists and a minor bump in PIMs.

When you say "Cam Neely reborn," I think of a guy who, at 21 (two years younger than Lucic is this year), scored 36 goals in his first year in Boston and followed that up with 42, 37, 55 and 51 goals in the regular season and 5, 9, 7, 12 and 16 in the playoffs. That's what I mean when I say he needs to start scoring more goals before I consider him the second coming of Neely. Maybe in another couple of years, but he's not there yet.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah this season's starting to shape up almost exactly like last season, injuries all over the place.

How ya doing, buddy?

YouTube Video

Patrick Kane, in his head: trololololololo

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by TheKnightOfNee

Everyone hates Chris Pronger, but just as when this happened to others, it's never good to see players injured, have their season ended, or anything of the sort. Hopefully that jerk can recover and come back sooner than expected.

As a fan of hockey, I'm in no position to argue with this. The NHL is a better league when all its best players are healthy and playing. I don't care if your name is Crosby, Savard, Giroux or Pronger, but concussions are slowly causing the league's talent to deteriorate and the Board of Governors really need to address it by penalizing hits to the head more aggressively.

I was speaking idiomatically.

So it seems that the Pittsburgh Penguins want to relive last season and then some. Crosby's out, Staal's out, Neal's out, Letang's out, Adams's out, Asham's out, Jeffrey's out. These Wilkes-Barre kids are gonna need to come up big.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

So Deni, how did you mourn the death of the hip check? Because the NHL just mourned it by giving Brad Marchand a five-game suspension for what I thought was a damned good hip check.

FELIPE NO

First of all, Salo's got six inches on Marchand, so anywhere Marchand would hip check him would probably be considered a low check.

Second, though Marchand's legs were angled, thus making his body even lower, his legs were straight because he trying to stop, first and foremost, then applying the check to win the one-on-one battle for the puck (which invalidates a possible interference call). If he had crouched or bent his legs that would make more sense for a clipping penalty because at that point Marchand's hip would be around Salo's upper knees.

Third, I don't know what Salo's thinking when he's turning around, but he clearly got the wrong idea, which explains why he got up so pissed off, probably at himself.

Watch Shanahan's explanation, as if listening to or reading Shanahan's explanations isn't maddening enough:

YouTube Video

Quote:

"As the video shows, Marchand skates towards Salo along the boards."

Uh, looks to me like his primary focus is the puck.

Quote:

"...we do not view this play as defensive or instinctive."

It's called a hip check. Since when is a check "defensive" or "instinctive"? Idiot.

I understand that Marchand is a "repeat offender" and that Salo was injured, but if he was trying to take out Salo's knees he could've done a lot worse.

Here, watch this video of some hip checks and tell me how many of those were penalties for (a.) clipping, (b.) tripping, or (c.) intent to injure.

YouTube Video

(Edit: and, of course, I'm trying to find videos of Brendan Shanahan throwing hip checks but the NHL erased them from the Internet. Needless to say, my search came up with more results of Canucks fans whining, flipping over and torching cars, etc.)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I offered the hip check video as evidence that what defines a good hip check and an illegal hit is all subjective. You and me, Don Cherry and Brendan Shanahan, we all think something different on hip checks and I worry that the League's Office of Player Safety might've come down a little too hard on Marchand on this particular hit.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

So I don't know about you guys but I'm excited for the playoffs. Crosby's gonna be in the lineup on Thursday against the Rangers and a win will put them two points behind the Rangers for first in the conference. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty ecstatic for the next few weeks.

Anyone else excited? I know the Bruins are kinda mediocre right now, but they still have Tim Thomas.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Orpik's gone downhill the last couple of years, but he's still solid. I hope he isn't suspended long.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.