Around the NHL 2024-2025

[Louie the Blue]

after they got beat up for 2 rounds.

its the same issue the 2016 blues had vs ref jose.

put the oilers in the central bracket and they are done by round 2 at most. LA every year is a free pass of a first round for them

2016 Blues quite simply didn’t have the top 6 talent to compete with SJ.

Dallas didn’t get any depth scoring.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Is there a general dearth of athletic talent these days? Sure seems so.

Why do you say that?

 

[TheDizee]

dallas and carolina are playoff chokers

 

[The Note]

dallas and carolina are playoff chokers

Is it really choking if you’re just getting your ass kicked by a better team?

 

[BlueOil]

dallas outclassed even with heiskanen

stars are the new sharks

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Why do you say that?

Because each of the major sports has fewer talented athletes. NHL teams are always looking for great centers, which there are few. NFL teams are always looking for QBs because the talent pool is not good enough. These are just two examples that stand out to me.

I think fewer truly athletic people are playing organized sports these days. I’ll have to look it up, but I read an article on a review of Pop Warner football and the result was that more Mother’s today are not allowing their sons to play organized, full-contact football because of injuries.

I’ll look for that when I have a moment.

Could be wrong and we could always generalize and say that talent pools fluctuate and all that.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

dallas outclassed even with heiskanen

stars are the new sharks

Imbalanced TOI AGAIN!!

That was the reason I started down the Stars rabbit hole in the first place.

Paper tiger roars bacon.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

dallas and carolina are playoff chokers

They’re imbalanced like I’ve been saying all along.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

As much as I hate to say it, the Oilers have earned their way to the Cup Final.

That lame ass team they assembled has finally come together.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Because each of the major sports has fewer talented athletes. NHL teams are always looking for great centers, which there are few. NFL teams are always looking for QBs because the talent pool is not good enough. These are just two examples that stand out to me.

I think fewer truly athletic people are playing organized sports these days. I’ll have to look it up, but I read an article on a review of Pop Warner football and the result was that more Mother’s today are not allowing their sons to play organized, full-contact football because of injuries.

I’ll look for that when I have a moment.

Could be wrong and we could always generalize and say that talent pools fluctuate and all that.

That seems like illusion created because there are more teams. The game is faster than ever.

NFL teams always looking for qb because game has changed and position is more important than ever. Not like there were 32 great qb 20 or 40 years ago or at anytime ever.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

I'll root for McDavid and Company.

Let's get this over with. Then we can stop hearing how the guy is the greatest player of his generation, but hasn't won the Cup.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

This is gonna be interesting…

 

[ChicagoBlues]

That seems like illusion created best there are more teams. The game is faster than ever.

NFL teams always looking for qb because game has changed and position is more important than ever. Not like there were 32 great qb 20 or 40 years ago or at anytime ever.

Illusion created. I like that.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I'll root for McDavid and Company.

Let's get this over with. Then we can stop hearing how the guy is the greatest player of his generation, but hasn't won the Cup.

And the Oilers won again without Hyman!!

For the sake of the League, McDrai needs to lift the Cup.

And Gretzky predicted that Skinner would win a Cup with the Oilers. That was a few years ago.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

This is gonna be interesting…

That's one way to make sure you're fired.

 

[Spektre]

And the Oilers won again without Hyman!!

For the sake of the League, McDrai needs to lift the Cup.

And Gretzky predicted that Skinner would win a Cup with the Oilers. That was a few years ago.

No no no no and no. Corey punch in the face Perry should never again lift the cup and I hate to see the Oilers rewarded for tanking 12 years in a row.

Hopefully Florida sweeps and every game is 15-0

 

[STL fan in MN]

This is gonna be interesting…

That’s going to be one heck of an exit interview…

How do these two even work together again after comments like that? Yikes. I thought coaches were supposed to motivate their players? Just don’t think DeBoer is a winner. He has the crazy Game 7 record but apparently it’s only good for the first 2 rounds as he hasn’t even gotten to a Game 7 beyond that.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

No no no no and no. Corey punch in the face Perry should never again lift the cup and I hate to see the Oilers rewarded for tanking 12 years in a row.

Hopefully Florida sweeps and every game is 15-0

Or that.

 

[TheDizee]

Is it really choking if you’re just getting your ass kicked by a better team?

when you do it every year, yes

 

[TheDizee]

This is gonna be interesting…

yep hes gettin fired or the goalie is gettin traded.

 

[Stealth JD]

Would love to see McDrai lift the Cup. Those guys are the cream of the crop. The best players should get their flowers and it would be a shame for them to get labeled like Ovechkin did prior to him winning his Cup.

And for Perry to lose, Marchand would have to win. Either option sucks.

 

[Xanadude]

Dallas' strength, at least on paper, was productive vets (Duchene, Seguin, Granlund) adding depth to the young guns (Robertson, Johnston, Rantanen, Hintz). Well...turns out those vets were utterly neutered, so EDM could focus on shutting down Rantanen and Johnston's line was just caved in all playoffs.

Their weakness on paper was RHD...and yup, it was utterly disastrous. Cody Ceci is atrocious and Lindell was dragged right down with them.

Doesn't help that EDM has figured it out on the backend: Bouchard is electric, Ekholm is just what they always needed and Walman and Klingberg have been massive pickups. Add that to Henrique and Janmark's lines playing solid defense and you have a team with best of the best scoring talent and enough defense to protect even a slim lead.

I agree with some posters that STL is way closer than people think. Dallas' vets look cooked; Colorado has completely fumbled a potential dynasty; Minnesota cannot help but be mid; We were 1.6 seconds away from beating Winnipeg; Utah has pieces but are really young and LOL at Nashville and Chicago. The central is filled with great teams with clear flaws. Shore up ours (2c and 2hd) and I like our chances.

 

[SirPaste]

DeBoer stinks, he has never been able to win the big one and likely never will. Great regular season coach but continually gets outclassed in the playoffs and judging by his comments last night it doesn't seem like he has learned anything at all after all these years of big losses.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

DeBoer stinks, he has never been able to win the big one and likely never will. Great regular season coach but continually gets outclassed in the playoffs and judging by his comments last night it doesn't seem like he has learned anything at all after all these years of big losses.

He’s got that Hitchcock like ability to piss you off, and that can motivate you for a while for sure, but it comes with an expiration date. In this case, I would guess he expedited his expiration because he couldn’t handle the situation better than this, but we’ll see how it plays out.

 

[Louie the Blue]

DeBoer stinks, he has never been able to win the big one and likely never will. Great regular season coach but continually gets outclassed in the playoffs and judging by his comments last night it doesn't seem like he has learned anything at all after all these years of big losses.

How many teams would you argue he seriously should have won a cup with?

New Jersey and SJ weren’t beating LA and Pittsburgh. Him getting NJ that far in the first place was a surprise.

I’m not sure 2017-2018 SJ would have beat if they had advanced over Vegas.

2020-2021 Vegas was probably his best team and should have won the West. Beating Tampa would have been tough, but they were capable of winning it all that year.

Otherwise, I don’t think his teams are constructed to go that far and win.