bagopux
Well-known member
Considering that they moved from Winnipeg to Arizona to Utah, they could resurrect the old Montreal franchise—the Wanderers. (9x Stanley Cup winners, but never in the NHL)
2023-24 NHL Misc. Thread
- Thread starter jeffbear
- Start date
LJG
Well-known member
Is that Ted's kid on his right?
StormChaserBH
Well-known member
... and IF true, would also mean I wouldn't need to watch Kraken games anymore on ESPN+ as I have been the last few years. I even ran into JF at the Journey concert at PNC a couple months back and told him I tune in Kraken games whenever I can just to hear him call the game. Not gonna do that for the B's though.... forget that. Hearing the ol' "That's Hockey, Baby!" when the Rat scores would be a bridge too far.
The Arizona Coyotes are no more. But it looks like they’re doing it as an expansion-lite. The release from the league says they’re establishing a franchise in Utah, albeit with the transfer of the totality of the hockey assets from Arizona. The Arizona franchise is rendered inactive, with Meruelo given the right to re-activate should he construct a new, state of the art facility appropriate for a NHL team within 5 years.
Fayettenamcanesfan
Well-known member
No, you’re right, but it will be much much worse
Yeah, but Smith already has an arena plan basically pre-approved since they were planning a new multi-purpose arena for SLC's Olympic bid that the Jazz would move into. Given that the NHL relocation had support from the same power brokers who run public building programs in Utah ... getting that ball rolling will take nothing more than a couple of phone calls. 2 seasons in the Delta Center should be all the Utah Whatevers have to endure. For the Coyotes vets, it'll seem like a day at the beach. Pro arena (bad sight lines only impact the spectators, after all), sold out crowds, pro locker room facilities ... no long walks across parking lots trying to keep your skate blades from getting janked up. They'll warm to it pretty quickly, you'd think. And despite the wet blanket impact the LDS church has on the social climate, Salt Lake City is a great place to live.
So the West finally got through with their 82nd games last night. Vegas lost the race for the 3rd spot in the Pacific to the Kings and slipped into WC2. Dallas' prize for the 1st seed in the West? The Vegas Injured Reserves. I hope the Stars beat them like a rented mule. Dallas also wrapped up the 2nd overall seed, should that eventually mean anything. The hottest Western team going into the playoffs is the resurgent Jets who are on an 8 game win streak. Their reward? A first round matchup with the Avs. It's almost like doing well in the regular season in the West is a bad idea. St Louis ended up with 92 points, which would have nabbed them a playoff spot in the East ... which will fuel discussion of the non-Divisional 16 seed playoff qualification system again. Personally, they OUGHT to be talking about the dumb idea of having the East finish up their games a day before the West. What a stupid schedule twist that was.
Fayettenamcanesfan
Well-known member
Kind of disappointed we lost out 2nd overall to Dallas. But whatever
Here are the officials for the 1st round of the playoffs. Tom Chmielewski, Pierre Lambert and Peter MacDougall will be making their playoff debuts. No new linesmen.
scoutingtherefs.com
NHL Referees and Linesmen for 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs
The National Hockey League has selected the NHL Referees and Linespersons officiating the opening round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
scoutingtherefs.com
TheBigKahuna
Well-known member
Who pays the price after Boston eliminates the Leafs in the 1st round? Coach? GM? Half the roster? Who will they blame?
Pucking Lamplighter
Well-known member
GM is new this season, and Keefe should have been shown the door two years ago. Easy math for me. That roster could use some tweaking as well, but that's a tough job and swapping out coaches is easy. I'm sure a Leafs friend or two will show up to tell me why I'm wrong.
Florida survived a tough Game 1 against Tampa ... 3-2 in what was really a 2-1 game until some late weirdness. Tampa struggled to connect passes into shooting areas, but hung in there all game with some tough territorial play. Over 100 hits recorded. This one's gonna leave a mark.
ThinIce
Well-known member
Watched a ton of hockey games yesterday, in which the home ice team prevailed in every case. I was hoping both Tampa Bay and FL would lose, but there was some enjoyment in watching them try to knock each other senseless. The Jets/Avalanche game was particularly brutal.
The Jets and Avs combined for 13 goals, the Canes and Panthers combined for 16 in the entire ECF last year. Avs had no one to turn to behind Georgiev, backup Justus Annunen was out with an illness so all they had was Arvid Holm who has never played an NHL game and bounced between the ECHL and AHL this season. Georgiev didn’t have a good season, 3.03/.897 and was bad down the stretch with only 2 game in his last 8 with a save % above .900, and included a 4 goals on 15 shots in 15 minutes performance against Winnipeg on 4/13 that essentially gave the Jets home ice in this series.