EHM The Blue Line

There you go, the new thread for the next NHL season! Are you happy now Swarley?

I am very happy, yes! GO FLYERS!

Yay !

Go Oilers GO!

Anyone on here supporting Vegas this year

MWE wrote:Anyone on here supporting Vegas this year

I will if William Carrier is in the lineup!

philou21 wrote:Go Avalanche

I know that feeling, 'til McJesus came along.
#Wepickedyakupov
#fastbutlast
#teamsmurf

visualdarkness wrote:

philou21 wrote:Go Avalanche

I know that feeling, 'til McJesus came along.
#Wepickedyakupov
#fastbutlast
#teamsmurf

LOL

I don't have high expection. All that drama with Duchene makes it worse. I wonder how he will act/play and if it's going to be a distraction.

DOUCHEne?

visualdarkness wrote:DOUCHEne?

If at least Sakic could lower his demands and go for a one on one for a good defenseman I'll be happy but I doubt it's about to happen anytime soon. They're not better than last year and can't be worse!

Wow, already a hat-trick for McDavid, he's got no time for average play it seems

Ukko wrote:Wow, already a hat-trick for McDavid, he's got no time for average play it seems

And he played well enough for even more goals.

Yeah, I wasn't on the hype train so far, but he really deserves his (growing) reputation when you see him play..

Solid start to the season for the Flyers, I'll take that W!

philou21 wrote:Go Avalanche

So who gets more points this season, Avs or Red Wings? And no you can't pick "C.) Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies".

Primis wrote:

philou21 wrote:Go Avalanche

So who gets more points this season, Avs or Red Wings? And no you can't pick "C.) Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies".

Wings can do better I'm sure of it.

philou21 wrote:Wings can do better I'm sure of it.

Wish I shared your optimism. Here's the DET lineup tonight, with nobody really notable on IR:

Tatar-Zetterberg-Nyquist
Mantha-Larkin-Frk
Abdelkader-Nielsen-Helm
Booth-Sheahan-Glendening

DeKeyser-Daley
Kronwall-Green
Ericsson-Jensen

Howard-Mrazek

That sure looks like a team that'll finish last in the East and be in contention for the worst record overall. The forwards aren't atrocious but the defense is truly one of the worst I've seen in the league in a long time. I'm genuinely not sure Vegas' roster isn't better outright because of it.

At least everyone in DET loves that Mantha-Larkin-Frk line. Let's see if it survives the first game.

philou21 wrote:

Primis wrote:

philou21 wrote:Go Avalanche

So who gets more points this season, Avs or Red Wings? And no you can't pick "C.) Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies".

Wings can do better I'm sure of it.

I think Avs will. They just had a really bad season last year! Wings are getting worse, Avs "should" be getting better.

Primis wrote:That sure looks like a team that'll finish last in the East and be in contention for the worst record overall. The forwards aren't atrocious but the defense is truly one of the worst I've seen in the league in a long time. I'm genuinely not sure Vegas' roster isn't better outright because of it.

I just checked my 17/18 NHL work, which is basically done for the next update. (I have automatic calculation of Teams Top 7 D-men in my Excel). And it seems like Wings has the worst D. Many teams are close but Wings are last.

If Johnson stays healthy and it's a big IF, the Avalanche has a better defense than Detroit but not by a huge margin. With Jost and Rantanen that will probably keep getting better, the Avs are better offensively though but then again, that's depends on how the team will play. It will be difficult to be as bad as last season but like I said, I don't like what's going on with Duchene and it's dragging for too long already.

CJ wrote:I just checked my 17/18 NHL work, which is basically done for the next update. (I have automatic calculation of Teams Top 7 D-men in my Excel). And it seems like Wings has the worst D. Many teams are close but Wings are last.

I believe it. Kronwall, Ericsson, and Jensen probably aren't NHL caliber right now IMHO. Kronwall's hockey sense and all is still there, but his knees/legs are shot, and so is his skating. DeKeyser is a 2nd pairing d-man (and yet still probably DET's best d-man). Daley is a 2nd or 3rd pairing, complementary kind of guy. And Green is genuinely good enough to be a first pairing guy with the right partner, but otherwise probably is a 3rd pairing guy at this point. The extras -- Ouellet and WItkowski --.... Ouellet is a 3rd pairing guy at best right now... Witkowski has no business even being on an NHL roster.

In DET, a lot of fans are already looking at the season in hopes that they can get Dahlin in June, and literally nothing more.

That's not to say DET has no hope at all. Theoretically all of Tatar, Nyquist, Larkin, Sheahan, and Nielsen all really underperformed last year, and a few more Goals For for the team might make a big difference. But sheesh, with that defense behind them they could score 5 goals a game and I'm not sure it'd be enough.

I'm old enough that I lived through this with them before though. I remember a number of years before The Streak.

Detroit went down like a house of cards after Datsyuk left it seems. Of course it has an impact when such a great player leaves. He's still killing it in KHL.

And don't forget Mrazek. He has his issues.. but could be a great goalie though.

----------------------

Sorry guys. I made a mistake. Colorado has the worst D- Wings second.
BUT Colorado has Andrei Mironov, those KHL players are hard to predict how they'll do. If he's bad. COL is worst. If he's good, COL will go before DET (in my research )

That's good to know...or not!

Midway through watching the first period of Chicago VS Pittsburgh.

I must say it is a delight to see such a good momentum for BHs attack (and first line, Saad already has two)