Didn’t see a thread yet so here goes.
This just in. Hawks annihilate Penguins 10-1. Nixxter decides to end the season now.
Hah, too bad they don’t have Fleury anymore.
And that marks the limit of my knowledge and interest in the NHL. See you all at the playoffs.
The Red Wings won their first game in the new Little Caesar’s Arena! I fully expect that this is the high point of Detroit’s season.
My younger bowling teammates talked me into joining their NHL Fantasy League this year. I was surprised how many players I did know, but still quite a few I didn’t recognize. So far so good as I have a decent lead in my week one match.
Also, Wings up to 2-0 and actually won a shootout! Whoa!
Excited to see Jagr will still be playing.
Not excited to see my team waffle around league last place, again. It’s hard being motivated to watch the Avalanche right now. That being said, they look better.
Saad will come back to earth at some point, but I’ve always loved the kid, and was glad when they brought him back.
Right now they’ve come out shooting hot, so I’m looking forward to the season.
The Seattle City Council finally okayed an arena solution, and the NHL wasted no time. Within a few days of the green light for the Oak View Group to basically rebuild Key Arena, the NHL gave the green light for an ownership group to apply for expansion and to begin selling season tickets.
The worst kept secret in NHL is that they want badly to be in Seattle, which is by far their #1 priority. Vegas only got it first because Seattle’s notorious governmental process took so damn long.
That’s awesome news, and yet another reason to eventually make a trip to Seattle!
Amazing comeback tonight for the Coyotes against the Wild on the road. Notable because Minnesota has been almost unbeatable at home as well as Arizona falling behind 3-0 in the 2nd, then scoring the tying goal with 18 seconds left. Game winner in overtime by Clayton Keller, who was really impressive, to complete the night. They’ve really got some talented young guys on offense when everything clicks.
Also notable because it knocked 4 teams out of our hockey pool, leaving just 5 other teams surviving right now out of a pool of 332 to start the year. Hoping for a Boston win Saturday over Buffalo to put us through to next week and a chance at winning this thing!
The Blackhawks announced Foster’s signing earlier in the day, an Amateur Tryout (ATO), which does not require any kind of compensation. He last played in a competitive hockey game on October 15, 2005 for Western Michigan when he allowed three goals in relief against Robert Morris, according to Sportsnet Stats. In his four seasons at Div. I Western Michigan, Foster posted a 20-22-6 record with an .875 save percentage and 3.44 GAA. While Foster will become something of a beer league legend in short order, he’ll be back at his office desk tomorrow.
Foster took the ice wearing No. 90. He finished the night with seven saves on seven shots—including one on sniper Patrik Laine—in 14:01 of ice time and was named the game’s No. 1 star for his efforts in the Blackhawks’ 6-3 win.
I always smile when I see stories like this. It probably made his night.
The Washington Post’s story has a better human-interest angle, with details about his rec league and such.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/30/nhl-stunner-a-36-year-old-accountant-whos-never-played-pro-stars-in-blackhawks-win/?utm_term=.0a28054d52c3
This isn’t the first time Foster has been tapped for the emergency backup role. In a postgame interview, he said he had been designated as the emergency goalie for 12 or 15 games this season, but his usual duties involved sitting in the press box and taking advantage of the free food.
Pretty sure 90% of NHL fans are pulling for the Golden Knights by now. Oh, your team is out? Jump on the Knight-wagon!
I mean, the flip side of this is that if they don’t go all the way at this point, it will be the biggest letdown we’ve seen in probably 20+ years of NHL play, barring a few folks that just never quite get there, every time.
I wonder if the sense of how amazing things are for them also takes into account that they will be the biggest target ever next season? They are literally making rivalries as they play.
And it is so damned fun to watch them.
Who let the Dogg out?
There’s a whole series of these things! Clearly one of the great sports culture moments of our time.
The Blues thing in 1968 is stupid. When the second 6 teams came into the league, they formed their own conference. So of course an expansion team was going to win multiple rounds - all the teams that made the playoffs in that conference were expansion teams.
I’m a die-hard, lifetime suffering Blues fan. Don’t try to make it better by pointing out they made the finals their first three seasons. That wasn’t a special achievement. It was rigged by the league - not for the Blues, but for some expansion team to make the finals. Since they did away with that, the Blues haven’t come close once. Well, technically, I guess they were within one game of the finals in 1986, but they were never beating Calgary at home.
I’m fine with removing that one, that way it’s a once-in-a-hundred years thing instead of “only” once-in-fifty-years!
Golden Knights punched their ticket to the Cup finals today by beating Winnipeg 2-1. You’re gonna win a lot of hockey games when your goaltender is averaging less than 2 goals a game. And the whole team just looked better than the Jets for most of the game.
Good run for the Jets, but they looked tired at the end to me. Or maybe just not completely focused. Hard to blame them after being constantly turned away by Fleury, not to mention lack of rest after going seven games last round.
I had thought the Knights peaked early in the playoffs, I was very wrong. They seem to be hitting on all cylinders at the same time, and recovering from mistakes pretty quickly. This team is learning so much, so quickly. What a way to earn a fan base from the get go.
Who are you guys pulling for this evening in the Lightning v. Caps game 7?
I generally like Tampa Bay since they have Stevey Y in the front office. When the Red Wings are terrible, I can at least cheer for the captain’s current endeavor.
But if the Lightning do win tonight, I’m abandoning them for the Golden Knight bandwagon in the finals. How can you not want to see this run go all the way?