NHL Hockey

[Linus]

Originally Posted by EnderD_503

First game of the season and the Leafs actually won 2-0...first opening game shutout since 2001. They should definitely stick with Reimer in net.

Eh. It's early in the season. They still have time to choke.

Kings beat the Rangers in OT in Stockholm. Was a good game and Quick was definitely performing well. It'll be interesting to see if he is more stable this year. I watched some of the pre-season and Philly has some possibilities. Their trades during the off-season suggest some possibilities.

I don't know if the Penguins will take it this year. Might be a bit of a longshot. Boston still has one of the best goalies around and some decent offense.

I would love to see Vancouver try again this year (as I know my favs, the Habs, suck and will suck this year again!)

[bigbutchmistie]

I am a huge Dallas Stars fan. I am so proud of their 2-1 win tonight over Chicago Blackhawks.

They are looking really good. If they can keep it up they will be hell to contend with in the playoffs. I am excited to see what will happen.

I just wished someone would buy them already.

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Linus

Eh. It's early in the season. They still have time to choke.

Way to stomp on my early season/pre-disaster hopes

Originally Posted by Linus

I would love to see Vancouver try again this year (as I know my favs, the Habs, suck and will suck this year again!)

Same here as far as Vancouver. The Habs aren't doing well so far as far as pre-season/first games. Which does suck, cause they're usually the ones I look to in the early playoffs. Before they dash all of eastern Canada's hopes...

I'm actually really interested in how the Jets will do this year. It would be amazing to see them come in and kick up a storm their first season back in the league.

Originally Posted by Ranger Butch Force

I'm a Ducks fan, live with a Red Wing fan, but I think that the Penguins might take it this year.

Meh, I find it doubtful. No doubt they'll make a good run, but I can't see them winning the Cup.

[Kelz]

As a devoted Leafs fan I'm happy with their impressive 2-0 start. Although yesterday's game against the Sens, I thought with their 5-1 lead it shouldn't have ended 6-5 but thanks to Kessel and his hat trick they still pulled off the win.

As a hockey fan, I'm definitely watching the Jets season opener after my football game. Those Peggers are serious about their hockey.

So good to see so many sports forums on BFP!

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Kelz

As a devoted Leafs fan I'm happy with their impressive 2-0 start. Although yesterday's game against the Sens, I thought with their 5-1 lead it shouldn't have ended 6-5 but thanks to Kessel and his hat trick they still pulled off the win.

As a hockey fan, I'm definitely watching the Jets season opener after my football game. Those Peggers are serious about their hockey.

So good to see so many sports forums on BFP!

Another Torontonian on BFP. Our numbers increase!

Agree on the Leafs vs. Sens game. Then again, that's the Leafs up to their usual tricks. Big leads...big giveaways. I'm glad they still managed to put that one away, though.

As for the Jets, it's too bad they suffered such a huge loss on their big night. As much as I love the Habs, it would have been great to see the Jets win their first game or at least end in a tie. But the Habs played great and deserved that win. The Jets defense really need to work on their game. Not a stellar performance on their part.

[Hack]

Lifelong Red Wings fan. Though, I go to more Carolina Hurricanes games than anything because my sister's law firm has season tickets. So, whenever I am in Raleigh during hockey season and it's a home game, we go.

I'm still highly distracted by the MLB playoffs...but once baseball is gone I will be focused on hockey.

Jake

[Apocalipstic]

Hey, what about the Predators??? Awesome win!

[Kelz]

Originally Posted by EnderD_503

Another Torontonian on BFP. Our numbers increase!

Agree on the Leafs vs. Sens game. Then again, that's the Leafs up to their usual tricks. Big leads...big giveaways. I'm glad they still managed to put that one away, though.

As for the Jets, it's too bad they suffered such a huge loss on their big night. As much as I love the Habs, it would have been great to see the Jets win their first game or at least end in a tie. But the Habs played great and deserved that win. The Jets defense really need to work on their game. Not a stellar performance on their part.

You're from Toronto too? Right on! And a Habs fan? Ouch LOL. I agree with you a tie would be better than a 5-1 loss. Then again, this is after all the former Thrashers team that wasn't the greatest to begin with. It was nice to see the fans happy despite the loss sorta reminds me of Leafs fans lol.

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Kelz

You're from Toronto too? Right on! And a Habs fan? Ouch LOL. I agree with you a tie would be better than a 5-1 loss. Then again, this is after all the former Thrashers team that wasn't the greatest to begin with. It was nice to see the fans happy despite the loss sorta reminds me of Leafs fans lol.

Leafs fan, but I also have a soft spot for the Habs and the Sens, and since the Leafs have been no show in the playoffs the last few years, I've stuck with rooting for the other two. My family's French so I've got no problems with the Habs the way Torontonian Anglos do

Anyways, it's been a good run for the Leafs so far! I'm actually getting a bit hopeful, they're really coming together well as a team and Reimer, Kessel and Lyles are stellar so far. Even if they lost their last game in OT to the Aves, the Aves have a pretty strong team so I think it's saying something about this year's Leafs that they just about managed to steal that game from under their noses.

Feeling really bad for the Jets cause I wanna see them succeed, but I think they'll be adding another loss come tomorrow night's game against the Leafs.

[Starbuck]

My Boston Bruins are 3 wins and 2 losses for the season thus far, not too great if you ask me. But there's a lot of hockey left to play. I'm just excited I get to see them play in Dallas on New Years Eve when they play the Stars, that's gonna be a blast!

[EnderD_503]

Well, the Leafs suffered their first big loss last night to Boston, but I'm still feeling pretty good about this season. Out of 6 games they've won 4, lost one in OT and still getting a point from it at least, and then the loss to Boston last night. If they can keep this up, they'll be doing pretty well this year. At least much better than they have throughout the 2000s.

I'm hoping this will give the Leafs coaching staff a heads up to keep Gustavsson firmly benched. I don't think it's complete coincidence that with him back in net, the Leafs ended up with that many in the back of the net. Weak goaltending...get it off the ice. Reimer, on the other hand, has already proven this year that he can keep the gates shut when the Leafs are in a tight spot.

[Linus]

Originally Posted by EnderD_503

Well, the Leafs suffered their first big loss last night to Boston, but I'm still feeling pretty good about this season. Out of 6 games they've won 4, lost one in OT and still getting a point from it at least, and then the loss to Boston last night. If they can keep this up, they'll be doing pretty well this year. At least much better than they have throughout the 2000s.

I'm hoping this will give the Leafs coaching staff a heads up to keep Gustavsson firmly benched. I don't think it's complete coincidence that with him back in net, the Leafs ended up with that many in the back of the net. Weak goaltending...get it off the ice. Reimer, on the other hand, has already proven this year that he can keep the gates shut when the Leafs are in a tight spot.

You can't have Reimer doing all the games. He'll burn out before they get to the Playoffs. Additionally, Gustavsson wasn't solely responsible for all those goals. As a former goalie, if those in front of me aren't doing their job (aka defense and scoring) there is only so much a goalie can do (he faced 43 shots on net compared to Thomas who had 28). Additionally, there were a lot of stupid penalties.

And the Bruins shut down Kessel since they knew what he was like. Even the Leafs admit to allowing too many turnovers. (see here, last paragraph: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=...0&cmpid=ggl1bx )

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Linus

You can't have Reimer doing all the games. He'll burn out before they get to the Playoffs. Additionally, Gustavsson wasn't solely responsible for all those goals. As a former goalie, if those in front of me aren't doing their job (aka defense and scoring) there is only so much a goalie can do (he faced 43 shots on net compared to Thomas who had 28). Additionally, there were a lot of stupid penalties.

And the Bruins shut down Kessel since they knew what he was like. Even the Leafs admit to allowing too many turnovers. (see here, last paragraph: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=...0&cmpid=ggl1bx )

It's game 6 of the season. There wasn't such a huge risk of burning out Reimer that they had to throw away all strategy in putting in Gustavsson against Boston of all teams. It was poor strategy and poor decisions in this team aren't exactly counter to history. When a goalie lets in two goals in barely more than a minute's time and three goals in the span of five minutes...there's a goaltending issue. If they're going to rest Reimer then they should realise Gustavsson has never been a strong goalie (Gustavsson himself acknowledges he's been doing a shit job), and they would have been better off bringing up a back up from the minors than even keeping Gustavsson as the official backup. The more a team is in the hole, often the more stupid penalties players take and the more enforcers step up which never really helps.

Not to mention poor decisions in other line shuffling: inserting Kadri is a poor choice. Inserting Rosehill instead of MacArthur is a poor choice. Another attribute of a poor Leafs team this last decade...not allowing lines to solidify and work together, but pointless shuffling when current lineups are working well. Every time they get the opportunity to insert Kadri because he's supposedly the "new up and comer" yet it doesn't translate into consistent contribution. Instead they've got real "new up and comers" who are doing a better job. So yeah, neither Gustavsson and his poor goaltending nor the staff who made these decisions get any sympathy from me They need to stick with what worked the last 5 games.

[EnderD_503]

Jonas Jerebko, apparently a Detroit Pistons player (can you tell I don't know shit about basketball? ) tries to play hockey...hilarity ensues:

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...d=35&id=129694