OT: Around the NHL: Cup or bust for the Leafs and Oilers? Bust it is!

[Sidney the Kidney]

How tf did Tavares just miss a game due to injury?

Maybe his magic pendant and his tin foil hat cancel each other out?

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Maybe his magic pendant and his tin foil hat cancel each other out?

Do you think he tries to cast spells with it back in the locker room between periods?

Like a way lamer version of Cerrano from Major League except instead of praying to Joboo he prays to Russel Brand?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Do you think he tries to cast spells with it back in the locker room between periods?

Like a way lamer version of Cerrano from Major League except instead of praying to Joboo he prays to Russel Brand?

It would explain his painfully slow skating. He hasn't unlocked the ability yet that allows him to cast spells and move at the same time.

 

[Turin]

Nashville looks old and overrated like I thought they would

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Buffalo 1-4-1
Ruff start.

 

[Coffee]

Predators, Red wings and Senators all slumping, yikes

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Avalanche and Red Wings looking like prime destinations for Jarry. We'll see if Dubas can make it happen, or if he even wants to. I still expect Jarry to be back the second Blomqvist falters a bit.

 

[OtherThingsILike]

ZAR scored his first goal as a Blue Jacket tonight.
It ended up being the game-winner.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

So how many more games before Lindy Ruff is fired? Lol, I knew this would bite them in the ass. Kevyn Adams should be fired right along with Lindy Ruff before the end of November I'd say, maybe sooner. This can't just be Ruff being fired (again) by Buffalo, it's time Adams is gone right with him. It's funny the Sabres can't figure out how to hire the right blokes in Management. Botterill got a far shorter leash, deserved more time (Funny that Botts has reunited with Bylsma twice since their Penguins years).

Adams has been a GM since summer of 2020, in 4 seasons he's had 3 different coaches - Krueger (wasn't his hire), Granato (his hire) and Ruff. 3 coaches in 4 years, that should get a GM canned.

I still wish the Pens could have gotten Greenway off them, ah well and that sucks for Zucker, still a fan of his like his Wild days, I bet he wishes he chose a different team right now rather than what he's seeing in Buffalo guided by Lindy Ruff. This league really needs to look outside of the usual rehash of veteran coaches, some make sense sure, but when you're a 64yr old that has lost the plot as a coach, hire him for a different job. Ruff should have gone the way of Hitchcock and Martin and just retired from coaching. Boudreau is likely being forced into that with zero jobs at 69yrs old, he turns 70 in January. This isn't the days of legendary Al Arbour coaching at 75.

Anyways regarding the Sabres - Pens dunked on them 6-5 and then Columbus 6-4. Ruff was losing his shit last year in NJ questioning random things a coach shouldn't question in public or outside of closed doors, this year he's already saying dumb shit about Samuelsson and what not and the Sabres look worse under Ruff than previous coaches. Meanwhile Keefe is killing it in NJ and Jake still hasn't scored in his Tampa tenure 3 games in but has 4 assists in 3 games, I am still expecting an insane 70 goal season out of him with Kucherov.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Avalanche and Red Wings looking like prime destinations for Jarry. We'll see if Dubas can make it happen, or if he even wants to. I still expect Jarry to be back the second Blomqvist falters a bit.

Do you? I don't. I think Ned being healthy and getting his conditioning assignment to be back up will seal that fate unless Ned continues his play from last season like Jarry, then we need to hope Larsson can show a better outing in WBS to earn a call up, otherwise it's a rookie tandem (which I think would be f***ing awesome and hilarious but mostly awesome) of Blomqvist and Murashov. Dubas couldn't rely on Mrazek with his injury issues and Mrazek was ass that year but still better than Jarry at the time of his trade and rebounded in Chicago, yet and he still gave up a 1st with Mrazek (a 3.8m cap hit) for the Hawks higher 2nd round pick. To move Jarry and his 5.375m cap hit that has 3 more years left on it, Dubas would have to part with a 1st unconditional and a B level prospect or higher. Then you're hoping teams have so few options while being desperate enough to entertain the idea of taking on Jarry. This is a compliance buyout move imo to get away from the contract, otherwise he should be in the AHL - If Jarry goes beast mode in WBS and plays well back up in the NHL by some miracle, I move his ass asap with maybe a lower pick and lower level prospect dump or a change of scenery type (Poulin). Then you can use the compliance buyout on Graves, haha.

Avs have to be frustrated though - They're not bad defensively, they've had the worst goaltending this season. If we joke that Jarry is allergic to stopping the pucks, I don't even know what to joke about the Avs goalies really, but Detroit - Lyon and Talbot haven't been bad for the most part, they just suck defensively like usual under Lalonde and their offense is struggling (Between Raymond, Larkin, DeBrincat, Tarasenko, and Kane - that's a collective 5 goals total out of that group in 4 games).

Avs will need to do something, they'll probably pray Kaapo Kahkonen could build off of what he did in NJ last year and is their new hope before they trade anyone, at this point waiving Annunen or Georgiev shouldn't even be a worry, they probably don't even care if either of them is claimed and will look at the cap relief as the only benefit, if Kaapo sucks, he likely won't suck as much as either of those two sieves. I'd probably waive Georgiev for the cap savings vs Annunen's ~800k salary.

Btw, remember that name? There was a Wild fan bloke that absolutely lost it on me and others here that Kaapo would be an elite #1 goalie in Minnesota. Since then, Kaapo has bounced from the Wild, Sharks, Devils and now Avs. I wonder what happened to that bloke.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

There seems to be far too many incidents like this coming out of the CHL it seems. From years ago or recent, there's just a lot. There's also so many previous cases where some awful stuff happened and the legal system failed the victims and those players went on to play in the NHL.

The alleged victim goes by the pseudonym, Anne Marie.

'I thought it was my fault'​

Anne Marie said she phoned a female friend while she was driving home and told her what had happened. W5 independently contacted that woman, who corroborated her phone call in 2014 with Anne Marie. The friend said she recalled Anne Marie telling her that she didn’t know whether she would contact police because some of the hockey players were 16 and had seemed to be pressured to take part in the assault by the 19-year-old player who invited her to the home.

Ontario woman alleges sexual assault by junior hockey players; details what happened when she called police

The Ontario Provincial Police has acknowledged that one of its employees did not follow the organization's policy when an alleged victim of sexual assault called a local detachment earlier this year to report an incident involving eight former junior hockey players.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

So how many more games before Lindy Ruff is fired? Lol, I knew this would bite them in the ass. Kevyn Adams should be fired right along with Lindy Ruff before the end of November I'd say, maybe sooner. This can't just be Ruff being fired (again) by Buffalo, it's time Adams is gone right with him. It's funny the Sabres can't figure out how to hire the right blokes in Management. Botterill got a far shorter leash, deserved more time (Funny that Botts has reunited with Bylsma twice since their Penguins years).

Adams has been a GM since summer of 2020, in 4 seasons he's had 3 different coaches - Krueger (wasn't his hire), Granato (his hire) and Ruff. 3 coaches in 4 years, that should get a GM canned.

I still wish the Pens could have gotten Greenway off them, ah well and that sucks for Zucker, still a fan of his like his Wild days, I bet he wishes he chose a different team right now rather than what he's seeing in Buffalo guided by Lindy Ruff. This league really needs to look outside of the usual rehash of veteran coaches, some make sense sure, but when you're a 64yr old that has lost the plot as a coach, hire him for a different job. Ruff should have gone the way of Hitchcock and Martin and just retired from coaching. Boudreau is likely being forced into that with zero jobs at 69yrs old, he turns 70 in January. This isn't the days of legendary Al Arbour coaching at 75.

Anyways regarding the Sabres - Pens dunked on them 6-5 and then Columbus 6-4. Ruff was losing his shit last year in NJ questioning random things a coach shouldn't question in public or outside of closed doors, this year he's already saying dumb shit about Samuelsson and what not and the Sabres look worse under Ruff than previous coaches. Meanwhile Keefe is killing it in NJ and Jake still hasn't scored in his Tampa tenure 3 games in but has 4 assists in 3 games, I am still expecting an insane 70 goal season out of him with Kucherov.

I have no idea why that Front Office hasn't been nuked.
My friend is a Sabres fan and is in misery

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I have no idea why that Front Office hasn't been nuked.
My friend is a Sabres fan and is in misery

Remember when Pegula wanted to buy his hometown Penguins off of Mario? It's wild to imagine there was a worse option than FSG.

Pegula had to be told by the Bills that the blokes he wanted to see run the team would only come if he agreed to piss off. He did. But then he and his wife confused all of their annoying attention to the Sabres and hired a puppet in Adams.

I still want Mark Cuban to buy the Penguins.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

The Penguins are now bottom 4 for attendance lol.

The Sharks and Ducks have better attendance than this team. FSG, Rep your mans.

Also ouch for the Devils are actually at capacity so they're technically not even below the Pens with that.

Penguins Capacity is 18,187.
They're averaging 16,917 this season in 3 home games.

Almost 1,000 less fans than the year before 17,909 (17,816 before that).

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

How tf did Tavares just miss a game due to injury?

He forgot his magic amulet at home??

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

The Penguins are now bottom 4 for attendance lol.

The Sharks and Ducks have better attendance than this team. FSG, Rep your mans.

Good!!! Serves our front office right for stucking with that Bostonian twat Sullivan seemingly no matter what.

f*** him and f*** FSG. They’ve turned what used to be a premier model NHL franchise into a laughing stock in what….under 5 years???

Hope our barn ends up a ghost town. Maybe then we’ll see a change?? Even though Sid and Geno will be gone before then I’m sure….

 

[Andy99]

Hate to burst everyone’s bubble but for the second year in a row the Caps retool with younger players looks way more successful than the Pens…look like a better team this season too…just a much better front office

 

[Gurglesons]

Hate to burst everyone’s bubble but for the second year in a row the Caps retool with younger players looks way more successful than the Pens…look like a better team this season too…just a much better front office

Dubas is a f***ing joke.

No idea why we expected anything positive from bringing in a career loser.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Not sure what is up with the Preds. Brunette is a pretty decent coach, them being 0-5 is definitely odd. I get that adding two new top 6 wingers sometimes throw teams off a couple of games but even Saros looks off.

Hate to burst everyone’s bubble but for the second year in a row the Caps retool with younger players looks way more successful than the Pens…look like a better team this season too…just a much better front office

I'm not shocked.

Carbery is a very good coach and because of that, they aren't picking up veterans left and right that he wants to use because he understands mixing youth with these old legs and making adjustments when required. GM'S look a lot better when their coach is like that.

Unlike ours, who acted like wbs was never good while wbs got kudos from other execs and Sullivan refused to use them past limited and highly restrictive 4th line usage.

Like what the f*** does he have for Beauvillier? Is Beau dating his eldest daughter?

 

[heysmilinstrange]

Hate to burst everyone’s bubble but for the second year in a row the Caps retool with younger players looks way more successful than the Pens…look like a better team this season too…just a much better front office

I think the Caps are in a very different situation because they haven't seemed to care about winning Cups or even playoff series since they won in 2018. The franchise's only goal is to get Ovechkin the goals record, even if it's a Weekend at Bernie's situation by the end.

You could say that they're being more realistic than the Penguins, which is probably true, but their franchise player is no longer playing at an elite level, so it's easier to say the jig is up.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Avs and Preds being bottom two in the central div was not on my bingo card for the season, even after 5-6 games in.

Utah I expected to jump up with the additions they made on D and they still don't have Marino in their lineup yet and lost Durzi.

Must be nice to have coaches that understand how to use their roster and make adjustments.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I think the Caps are in a very different situation because they haven't seemed to care about winning Cups or even playoff series since they won in 2018. The franchise's only goal is to get Ovechkin the goals record, even if it's a Weekend at Bernie's situation by the end.

You could say that they're being more realistic than the Penguins, which is probably true, but their franchise player is no longer playing at an elite level, so it's easier to say the jig is up.

I think this narrative is insanely incorrect. You don't hire a damn good up and coming coach like Carbery if you're not trying to retool and still be competitive. Just like the Pens made their promise to Sid about being competitive and failing miserably because they think Sullivan can figure it out, except for the Caps, they understood mixing youth with the vets and making adjustments to how they play.

You should give up the notion that all they care to do is get Ovy goals. Sure they want him to reach a milestone he wants to hit. No different than Sid and Geno wanting to hit theirs.

One team just understands how to do it better right now (well for a couple of seasons now).

By your logic, they should be trying to get Ovy his goals while also tanking to find the next franchise star. Yet they aren't.

Good!!! Serves our front office right for stucking with that Bostonian twat Sullivan seemingly no matter what.

f*** him and f*** FSG. They’ve turned what used to be a premier model NHL franchise into a laughing stock in what….under 5 years???

Hope our barn ends up a ghost town. Maybe then we’ll see a change?? Even though Sid and Geno will be gone before then I’m sure….

I wonder if other coaches see Sullivan healthy scratch Bunting and not Beauvillier and are like "Oh ok, I guess that's a thing someone would do if they are trying to give you an example of how not to do things."

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I feel like the only thing the Caps will regret is having hope in PLD like 3 of his ex teams did.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I feel like the only thing the Caps will regret is having hope in PLD like 3 of his ex teams did.

f*** both the Craps and PLD

 

[Andy99]

I think the Caps are in a very different situation because they haven't seemed to care about winning Cups or even playoff series since they won in 2018. The franchise's only goal is to get Ovechkin the goals record, even if it's a Weekend at Bernie's situation by the end.

You could say that they're being more realistic than the Penguins, which is probably true, but their franchise player is no longer playing at an elite level, so it's easier to say the jig is up.

Their coach and GM are miles better and they’ve won more in the past season +, so who cares…they look pretty dangerous and fast to start the season but we’ll see…I wouldn’t be surprised to see the top 4 in Metro again be: Rangers, Devils, Caps and Canes.