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Around the League Thread part V

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Curious to see what happens in Montreal next season with St. Louis officially hired. They did slightly better under him, but he wasn't some huge revelation. After the brief honeymoon period they played pretty crappy. Yeah, they won those last two games but that was after a 9 game losing streak. There are some decent names out there. Not sure it would interest Trotz. Maybe Bowness, he's got a decent track record with turning a team around.
 
My unpopular opinion is that this isn't so much bad defense as it is guys who have grown up with dead puck and know how to break it. And obviously not everyone can do it, but the top players on all the remaining teams are gamebreakers like that who make ANY d-man in the league look inept. I mean Doughty is arguably a top-5 defensive d-man of this generation and there are precious few nights where McDavid doesn't have at least one highlight on him where he's otherwise often gone years without getting posterized.

When McDavid/MacKinninon/Makar/Kucherov/Panarin and their ilk are out there, the average 1st liner looks like junior varsity. We're lucky to be seeing such top-end high-end skill right now, we haven't had that this clearly in a generation or so.

The other major contributing factor is systems designed to be ultra-aggressive even at the risk of giving up some chances because you trust your teams ability to make the other team pay, like it was pretty clear Edmonton didn't give a shit about us scoring when you had their ability to generate odd-man breaks at will, now add Cale Makar to that...so what looks like 'bad defense' is often just chance-taking in a way we haven't seen in a while, encouraging dmen to join the play and create chaos even if it leads to a bad pinch situation because it will create more good than bad.

It's no surprise we haven't really seen a long OT these playoffs right? at least not since the first couple of games IIRC
 
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It also helps that defensemen can't do what the Kings did in 2012. Greene, Muzzin, and even Doughty were interfering with anything that moved back then.

Playing actual defense isn't easy. Unless you slow the game down and make it boring.
 
SettlementRichie10 said:
I’m all for a return to freewheeling pre-dead puck era hockey. The trap and left wing lock shit have damaged the game for nearly 30 years now.
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Sure thing except that era still had much more hitting and "game within the game" stuff.

Now it is empty water bottle tosses during a postgame press conference.
 
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HookKing said:
Wut? The Rangers are now the beacon of prospect development? You guys are hilarious.
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Who said rangers are the beacon of development? Dont be over dramatic.
They let these young guys play for two years. They struggled but stayed in the lineup. More than half of their fans wanted to trade Chytil and thought Laf and Kakko were busts.
 
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Nasti said:
I absolutely hate what’s been happening in these playoffs when it comes to the complete shit show defense. No defense, no physical battles, no goaltending, lots of blowouts, etc. This is more like All Star Game hockey than playoff hockey.
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This isn't exactly the Blues vs Kings series circa 2013, is it? That series was a war.

BigKing said:
Sure thing except that era still had much more hitting and "game within the game" stuff.

Now it is empty water bottle tosses during a postgame press conference.
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Water bottle not even half-full? Disgraceful. I prefer the type of playoff hockey played during the Kings best years when every inch of ice was earned.
 
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KINGS17 said:
This isn't exactly the Blues vs Kings series circa 2013, is it? That series was a war.


Water bottle not even half-full? Disgraceful. I prefer the type of playoff hockey played during the Kings best years when every inch of ice was earned.
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I 100% agree with you and @BigKing but I'm also going to enjoy it on its own merits as it's a nice change.

I mean, I liked dead puck era hockey too, it's just different shades of the game I love. And I'll say these playoffs have grabbed my more casual hockey watching friends in ways nothing but the Kings did before. Just enjoying it for what it's worth even if I think there's more 'value' in the gut wrenching 2012-2014 physical battles
 
Raccoon Jesus said:
I 100% agree with you and @BigKing but I'm also going to enjoy it on its own merits as it's a nice change.

I mean, I liked dead puck era hockey too, it's just different shades of the game I love. And I'll say these playoffs have grabbed my more casual hockey watching friends in ways nothing but the Kings did before. Just enjoying it for what it's worth even if I think there's more 'value' in the gut wrenching 2012-2014 physical battles
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It just feels like the teams are failing upwards. For example, Kings/Hawks 2014 were two heavyweights going toe to toe and playing their absolute best. It wasn’t a low scoring series either. By contrast, Flames/Oilers this year was some of the most poorly played hockey I’ve seen since Penguins/Flyers 2012. I don’t mind if it’s high scoring or low scoring. I just want to see two teams playing well.
 
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Nasti said:
It just feels like the teams are failing upwards. For example, Kings/Hawks 2014 were two heavyweights going toe to toe and playing their absolute best. It wasn’t a low scoring series either. By contrast, Flames/Oilers this year was some of the most poorly played hockey I’ve seen since Penguins/Flyers 2012. I don’t mind if it’s high scoring or low scoring. I just want to see two teams playing well.
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BTW, I blame Rob Blake.
 
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Nasti said:
It just feels like the teams are failing upwards. For example, Kings/Hawks 2014 were two heavyweights going toe to toe and playing their absolute best. It wasn’t a low scoring series either. By contrast, Flames/Oilers this year was some of the most poorly played hockey I’ve seen since Penguins/Flyers 2012. I don’t mind if it’s high scoring or low scoring. I just want to see two teams playing well.
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At least Pens/Flyers were also trying to kill each other.

So much hype for Battle of Alberta and it felt less physical than Kings/Oilers, which is pathetic.
 
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KINGS17 said:
This isn't exactly the Blues vs Kings series circa 2013, is it? That series was a war.
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So was the Canucks & Yotes series. What a run 2012 was.

drew-doughty-of-the-los-angeles-kings-laughs-as-he-watches-the-brawl-picture-id142862899
 
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Schmooley said:
Who said rangers are the beacon of development? Dont be over dramatic.
They let these young guys play for two years. They struggled but stayed in the lineup. More than half of their fans wanted to trade Chytil and thought Laf and Kakko were busts.
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It's called second guessing. Just go back to earlier in the year where right here on this board the Rangers were getting pilloried over their development failures.
 
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Maybe losing Kuemper was a blessing because Francouz is wrong-handed and at least that is something that EDM has to think about
 
Colorado is playing a strong game in front of Francouz, and Francouz is coming up with some big saves when called upon.

There is no reason for Colorado to play Oiler pond-hockey at this point.
 
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