Around the NHL 2024-2025

[ChicagoBlues]

It sure is looking like a SCF rematch.

They'll make sure the Oilers win this time.

The Stars went further than I thought they would, but their flaws finally caught up to them. That the Stars are being outworked and overmatched is, imo, a testament to how even more flawed the rest of the Conference is. JRob with only one goal? Ouch! That can't happen.

Losing Hintz is obviously a big blow, but they don't have the depth to make it not matter. The Panthers have the depth to win without Reinhart. Plugging in Boqvist is pretty convenient. I liked him when I followed the Devils a few seasons back.

 

[TheDizee]

stars are not out of this yet but they need more from their top guys.

 

[STL fan in MN]

stars are not out of this yet but they need more from their top guys.

Agreed. Today was bad but they’re just down 2 games to 1. Game 4 will be huge though.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Yep, series looks a lot like last year

Y'all know I was closely watching them. I got bored after a while, but have been damned curious how this season plays out for the Stars.

Nill is as good as Army and he's assembled a good roster, but one that is like Toronto's; top-heavy and not good enough D.

Something I brought up before was the age disparity. Dallas definitely has an age disparity across its roster. The Oilers do not. Dallas has a few very young players in key positions like Wyatt (22), Mav (23), Bitchsel (21) and Harley (23). JRob is only 25.

The youngest Oilers regular is Podkolzin at 23 and then Bouchard at 25. Otherwise, they are a mature team. The age disparity thing really matters, me thinks. The Stars are gassed and disconnected, while the Oilers look very much like a polished, mature, veteran team. I hate them.

Something that I did not bring up before was how not-fast the Stars are, overall. The wear and tear on their older players is evident. They pushed much further than I thought they would. That's on Nill and his good work. Obviously, the Dallas Stars are not quite there.

 

[Reality Czech]

Fowler worked out, yes. To the surprise of basically everyone! Broken clocks / blind squirrels / etc.

I hated Gunnarsson pretty much from the moment he got here though, so I don't find his inclusion persuasive.

J-Bo had a 574-game Iron Man streak when he got here. He was widely understood to be a premier defensive player, and was a no-brainer to play in our top-4. I disagreed at the time and still now in retrospect with our usage of him, but he was a good player. He didn't take any prospects' job, since we didn't have any equivalent players in the system.

Scandella was brought in to BUF to stabilize their d-corps and failed so hard he almost dropped out of the league entirely. BUF paid a hefty price to get him from MIN, and then three years later got just a 4th rounder from MTL for his services. Then we inexplicably gave MTL that 4th back, and added a 2nd rounder for his services. There were many warning signs on his way in, and giving him a 4-year contract based on a 20-game sample size (where he scored all of 1 point) was a bad decision.

Similarly, NYI gave up Leddy for Richard Panik, who only had 4 more NHL games left in him, and a 2nd. A nominal fee at best, they were trying to get rid of him. We paid way more for him less than 2 years later, when the signs of wear and tear were already very apparent. We included Walman in that trade, who later went on to fetch SJS a 1st rounder.

I don't think it's crazy to say based on the body of evidence that we overvalue veteran dmen on the decline, and undervalue our own defensive prospects.

You didn't mention the fact that all of those veteran guys did pretty well for the Blues for at least a few years after acquiring them. The Blues aren't the only team that trades young unproven guys for veteran talent when they're trying to compete. I'd argue that it is standard practice for pretty much every team.

The only reason people are even talking about Walman and Mikkola is because they happen to be playing on two of the best teams in the league that are still alive in the playoffs. I've never liked Walman's game and he's gonna get overpaid just like Dunn is now based on his offensive numbers.

As for Mikkola he's solid 4-6 guy but you can find similar guys as UFA every summer. If he wasn't playing on a stacked Florida team no one here would even think about the guy. That would have been like Leafs fans regretting letting Gunnarsson go after watching him play a contributing role on our Cup team.

 

[TruBlueFan1970]

Y'all know I was closely watching them. I got bored after a while, but have been damned curious how this season plays out for the Stars.

Nill is as good as Army and he's assembled a good roster, but one that is like Toronto's; top-heavy and not good enough D.

Something I brought up before was the age disparity. Dallas definitely has an age disparity across its roster. The Oilers do not. Dallas has a few very young players in key positions like Wyatt (22), Mav (23), Bitchsel (21) and Harley (23). JRob is only 25.

The youngest Oilers regular is Podkolzin at 23 and then Bouchard at 25. Otherwise, they are a mature team. The age disparity thing really matters, me thinks. The Stars are gassed and disconnected, while the Oilers look very much like a polished, mature, veteran team. I hate them.

Something that I did not bring up before was how not-fast the Stars are, overall. The wear and tear on their older players is evident. They pushed much further than I thought they would. That's on Nill and his good work. Obviously, the Dallas Stars are not quite there.

I hate the Oilers too, but Dallas doesn’t have a chance in this series. Agree on the age factor. And if you look ahead to next year, Dallas will look very different. Even if they bring back Benn, Duchene and Dadanov, they will continue to be older. With only about $5.0 in cap space and only 16 players signed, this year was their shot. I think they will look very different next year.

https://puckpedia.com/team/dallas-stars

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I hate the Oilers too, but Dallas doesn’t have a chance in this series. Agree on the age factor. And if you look ahead to next year, Dallas will look very different. Even if they bring back Benn, Duchene and Dadanov, they will continue to be older. With only about $5.0 in cap space and only 16 players signed, this year was their shot. I think they will look very different next year.

https://puckpedia.com/team/dallas-stars

Last season, their major issue was imbalanced D. This year, their lack of depth is glaring and the age concern is starting to borne out.

As far as this series, they came back in the 1st game, but the Oilers led 3-0 and eventually the Stars PP came alive and they kept getting calls going their way.

G2 & 3? Blowouts. Once Holloway went down, Kyrou was easy to stop. Once Hintz went down, Miko became easier to stop.

Oilers will win this series.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

No Reinhart. No Mikkola.

Hall sux. He's doing nothing on the PP. Standing around and being in the way. I guess that's doing something.

The mouthpiece chewing thing is lame.

LOL Lots of F bombs in the last couple minutes.

Spanky!!!

Robinson's been getting some good looks and a great pass to Janko.

2-0 Sugar Canes

nope 1-0

C&H Carolina Hurricane Sugar.

Freddie has been busy. Playing for Denmark in the WC and flying over to play this game. Very nice of him to do that.

Slavin has been the best skater tonight. Aho having good game as well. Canes checking well. Heck.....they're actually checking. That's a start.

 

[Brian39]

I think it is definitely too early to write the Stars obituary and/or pencil Edmonton into the Final. That is certainly what I would put my money on at the moment, but I have watched way too many Oilers games to ignore how bad they can look when things aren't rolling. Edmonton is one of the most inconsistent contending teams I've ever seen.

This is basically the same Oilers team that got outscored 11-2 in the first 8 periods of the Cup Final before waking up in the 3rd period of game 3 to make it a game, still go down 0-3 in the series, and then promptly outscore the Panthers 18-5 to tie the series at 3-3. This is the same Oilers team that went down 0-2 to the Kings this year before bailing on Skinner and winning 4 straight with Pickard in net. I will never count out Edmonton from laying a couple eggs despite looking like the greatest team ever assembled in the games immediately surrounding those stinkers.

And on the other side of the equation, this is the same Dallas team that survived the first 4 games against Colorado despite getting their doors largely blown off and then found a way to win the series in 7. Dallas has scored 3+ goals in a period 6 times in these playoffs and has scored 4+ in a period three times. They have shown a decent amount of resiliency both in-game and in-series. They also have consistency issues, but they have a goalie who can keep them in games when the team isn't going and they have the ability to score in bunches. They have looked very much like the worse team through 3 games, but that was true through 4 games in round 1 and they got the job done against a good Avs team.

And Stuart Skinner is still Edmonton's goalie. Are we all suddenly pretending like the .971+ play in 4 of his last 5 games is just the guy he is and ignoring that he's been .833 or worse every other game he's played in these playoffs? Or that he was similarly boom/bust last year? Or that he has been similarly boom/bust through the regular season in both of the last 2 years? We're confident that he's not a risk to just giftwrap a couple games to the other team?

Edmonton is rolling right now, but I've seen this team suddenly go from rolling to a mess way too many times to pencil them in for a series win at 2-1. Again, if I were putting money on a team to win this series it is them. But it doesn't seem at all to me like a foregone conclusion.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Ouch! PDB, "We're gonna need him (JRob) if we are going to win the series."

Good to see TJ. Looks great.

NOW JRob has finally scored his 1st playoff goal.

Scat Crap Fever!! Nice move Nuge!!!

Did Chicken Parm just say the Stars are "full of crack"?

Hyman's been out since mid-1st.

Hintz looks pretty good. He's giving it his all, but he is still in pain. Skating pretty well, though.

Krapanen!!!

4-1

Oilers will win this series.

EDM played with exceptional defensive structure.

 

[DoubleK81]

Not sure if this is his first night or not since I typically avoid ESPN feeds but I'm happy to see Osh again, been wondering what he's up to these days.

 

[The Note]

Oilers very much in command now

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Not sure if this is his first night or not since I typically avoid ESPN feeds but I'm happy to see Osh again, been wondering what he's up to these days.

Every stream I've watched has been ESPN and this is the first time I've seen Oshie as an analyst during the intermissions.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Did not have Edmonton dominating Dallas this series on my bingo card.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Did not have Edmonton dominating Dallas this series on my bingo card.

Me neither. I had the Canes and Stars in the Final.

 

[shpongle falls]

Our old friend Kapanen sealing away another playoff victory lol. So its looking like a Panthers-Oilers cup final rematch eh? Should be epic.

 

[Reality Czech]

Our old friend Kapanen sealing away another playoff victory lol. So its looking like a Panthers-Oilers cup final rematch eh? Should be epic.

I guess so, but it doesn't interest me that much. The first round is always the most exciting, then the excitement kind of tapers off from that point IMO. This series has been boring. Hope the Panthers can beat the Oilers again because I don't want those insufferable fans rewarded.

 

[TheOrganist]

I guess the demise of the Oilers was premature. They have been impressive. There are a handful of plays/games in a given playoffs where you’re watching in real time and thinking “this could change the trajectory of the playoffs”…the Byfield turnover in Game 4 in R1 is one such time. EDM survived, found their game, and have been steam rolling teams ever since.

 

[MissouriMook]

Did not have Edmonton dominating Dallas this series on my bingo card.

I feel like the Blues would have had a punchers chance of getting to the WCF against this version of the Stars.

 

[BlueMed]

Carolina looks outclassed right now playing Florida. These past few years, it looks like Rod isn't willing to make in-game adjustments. I can almost hear him saying "This is how we need to play. If we play this certain way, then we will win." Unfortunately, that may be his demise. He sounds like a great motivator but not a great tactician. Their goaltending is also not stepping up per usual. All things considered, I would actually feel pretty confident about a fully healthy Blues roster against a fully healthy Carolina roster in a 7 game series.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I feel like the Blues would have had a punchers chance of getting to the WCF against this version of the Stars.

Right. If a game gets into a slugfest, then I like our chances.

 

[Brian39]

Carolina looks outclassed right now playing Florida. These past few years, it looks like Rod isn't willing to make in-game adjustments. I can almost hear him saying "This is how we need to play. If we play this certain way, then we will win." Unfortunately, that may be his demise. He sounds like a great motivator but not a great tactician. Their goaltending is also not stepping up per usual. All things considered, I would actually feel pretty confident about a fully healthy Blues roster against a fully healthy Carolina roster in a 7 game series.

Swap goalies and I think this is a 2-2 series that could potentially be 3-1 Carolina. Carolina has more shots, shot attempts, scoring chances, and high danger chances at both 5 on 5 and all situations. It's not like Carolina is just flinging low danger shots to improve their possession numbers:

I think that Rod is too invested in the Hurricanes executing their system/style and isn't willing to make enough adjustments when it isn't working. But it isn't like the Panthers are playing keep away or holding them exclusively to the perimeter. I think (as usual) the biggest issue for the Hurricanes is that their goaltending isn't good enough to consistently stand up to a great team. And then on top of that Bob has brought his A game. Carolina's goalies have allowed almost 6 goals above expected at 5 on 5 in this series (which includes Freddie's shutout in game 4). That's 2 goals a night in the 3 losses. You're just not hanging with the Panthers when your goalies do that.

 

[Spektre]

All Barkov

 

[Bluesfan54]

As Dandy Don Meredith used to sing on Monday Night Football “Turn out the light, the party’s over.”

 

[TheDizee]

brindamour should 100% be fired