Toggle sidebar

Around The NHL Discussion 2021-22 Part IV Into the Playoffs Edition

Status
Not open for further replies.
Stupendous Yappi

Stupendous Yappi

Idiot Control Now!
Sponsor
Aug 23, 2018
8,877
14,055
Erwin, TN
Brian39 said:
I have such mixed feelings. Because I fully agree with you that injuries and not the coach were behind the playoff miss. But I also think DeBoer is a below average coach and that his replacement will do a better job. Do two wrongs make a right and 'correct' the decision to hire him?

Impatience is definitely becoming the calling card for the Knights.
Click to expand...
The bigger mistake was firing Gallant and hiring Deboer. I guess they don't need a rationale to fire the coach...just do it whenever you want to. That's how it felt with Gallant, and its kind of similar now. I wonder how attractive of a job that looks like for a guy like Trotz, who can take the year off and make 4M from the Islanders.

I could be wrong, but I think DeBoer wouldn't get fired unless a coach became available that they coveted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vladys Gumption and Brian39

Allens Five Hole

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
234
235
I thought 4 out of 5 Game 7's lived up to the hype this weekend. Not sure what it is, but I could never get into the Kings/Oilers series even with McDavid putting on a show. The series, and especially the Game 7, just seemed like such a formality.

Round 1 started off as a bit of a dud with blowouts seemingly every game aside from Rangers v. Pens Game 1. But, in the end, it was an extremely entertaining first round.

Moving forward to Round 2, I think the only matchup that the NHL would change is maybe Boston over Carolina to set up BOS/NY. Regardless, these four matchups are box office. I think CAR/NYR will be a fun mix of defensive stalwarts vs a young up-and-coming team with lots of speed. We get to watch the Battle of Florida again with even higher stakes. We get the Blues vs. Avs which for a neutral, should be high danger chances galore on top of the budding of what looks to be a pretty serious rivalry. Then, last but certainly not least, Battle of Alberta, which is going to be bonkers. No other way to put it.

This is what it is all about and the NHL must be loving their divisional format right about now.
 
Xerloris

Xerloris

reckless optimism
Jun 9, 2015
7,504
8,128
St.Louis
Stupendous Yappi said:
The bigger mistake was firing Gallant and hiring Deboer. I guess they don't need a rationale to fire the coach...just do it whenever you want to. That's how it felt with Gallant, and its kind of similar now. I wonder how attractive of a job that looks like for a guy like Trotz, who can take the year off and make 4M from the Islanders.

I could be wrong, but I think DeBoer wouldn't get fired unless a coach became available that they coveted.
Click to expand...


I bet he can get 6m from Vegas.
 

Frenzy31

Registered User
May 21, 2003
7,300
2,154
Allens Five Hole said:
I thought 4 out of 5 Game 7's lived up to the hype this weekend. Not sure what it is, but I could never get into the Kings/Oilers series even with McDavid putting on a show. The series, and especially the Game 7, just seemed like such a formality.

Round 1 started off as a bit of a dud with blowouts seemingly every game aside from Rangers v. Pens Game 1. But, in the end, it was an extremely entertaining first round.

Moving forward to Round 2, I think the only matchup that the NHL would change is maybe Boston over Carolina to set up BOS/NY. Regardless, these four matchups are box office. I think CAR/NYR will be a fun mix of defensive stalwarts vs a young up-and-coming team with lots of speed. We get to watch the Battle of Florida again with even higher stakes. We get the Blues vs. Avs which for a neutral, should be high danger chances galore on top of the budding of what looks to be a pretty serious rivalry. Then, last but certainly not least, Battle of Alberta, which is going to be bonkers. No other way to put it.

This is what it is all about and the NHL must be loving their divisional format right about now.
Click to expand...

I personally like the divisional format. Best case, is that the teams continue the anger into the next season's games. The playoffs can create rivalries.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bye Bye Blueston and Xerloris
Brian39

Brian39

Registered User
Apr 24, 2014
7,492
14,017
Allens Five Hole said:
Moving forward to Round 2, I think the only matchup that the NHL would change is maybe Boston over Carolina to set up BOS/NY. Regardless, these four matchups are box office. I think CAR/NYR will be a fun mix of defensive stalwarts vs a young up-and-coming team with lots of speed. We get to watch the Battle of Florida again with even higher stakes. We get the Blues vs. Avs which for a neutral, should be high danger chances galore on top of the budding of what looks to be a pretty serious rivalry. Then, last but certainly not least, Battle of Alberta, which is going to be bonkers. No other way to put it.

This is what it is all about and the NHL must be loving their divisional format right about now.
Click to expand...
Yup. As much as I dislike the format, these playoffs are exactly why the NHL wants it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xerloris

Allens Five Hole

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
234
235
Frenzy31 said:
I personally like the divisional format. Best case, is that the teams continue the anger into the next season's games. The playoffs can create rivalries.
Click to expand...
Brian39 said:
Yup. As much as I dislike the format, these playoffs are exactly why the NHL wants it.
Click to expand...
I liked the idea of this format when it was first introduced but it doesn't seem like it has created many rivalries like it should have. We've played a myriad of teams in the first round since its inception and I still don't really have a hate-on for anyone but Chicago which existed well before this format.

We've actually played the Wild the most (3 times) and I still don't really care all that much about them one way or the other even after their captain tried to amputate Buch's foot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stealth JD
mk80

mk80

Registered User
Jul 30, 2012
8,195
8,801
The issue with Vegas is their ownership is impatient, and thus if the results aren't there they are quick to make a change, and or buy whichever next great player is available. In the process they've severely mortgaged their future trading picks, and some great prospects away, and also removing actual good pieces of the organization like Gallant out.

I don't think Deboer is the best coach in the NHL so they will likely upgrade with this move, especially with this year's coaching market. Also it's hard to tell if it's because of the internal and ownership pressure whether or not McCrimmon is really a good GM or not.
 

Allens Five Hole

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
234
235
PocketNines said:
It's a great point about the divisional format. So much grief is given to the way seeding was done. But when the favorites play well and hold serve it sets up great round 2 matchups
Click to expand...
Agreed. This year turned out really well for them because the West is pretty lopsided with Avs being heavy favorites against NSH as well as CAL and EDM having clear favorable advantages on their R1 opponent. Whoever came out of our series would create good storylines regardless.

In the East, all 8 teams were very good so there wasn't really a losing situation over there. The wild card teams were big markets/big star power so they could have gotten almost any mixture of results and been pleased.
 
PocketNines

PocketNines

Cutter's Way
Apr 29, 2004
13,638
5,704
Badlands
The division format also needs a little cumulative effect to develop. Blues have played Minnesota 3, Chicago 2, Dallas 2, Colorado now 2, Winnipeg 1 and Nashville 1. That's almost everyone in the division during the 7x of the last 8 playoffs when a division focused format was used, and the other team Arizona just joined (and the Blues also did play a 7 game series against them, just in the regular season). If you let this develop over another 15 years now there's some real division animosity and rivalries going.
 
MissouriMook

MissouriMook

Still just a Mook among men
Sponsor
Jul 4, 2014
7,990
8,475
To me, the problem with the division rivalries is that I feel like we only have two natural rivals in our division - Chicago and Nashville. There are others there to build on in Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado and even Winnipeg, but when you only play them 3-4 times a year you just don't have enough meat on the bone to build up any kind of animosity.

If they really want to dial this up they need to be satisfied with 2 games a year - home and away - with the other three divisions (a total of 48 games) and keep the other 34 games in the division. Maybe it even takes sacrificing another 8 games outside the division by having one cross-conference division be home-and-home each year and the other only being one or the other. That would leave 42 games (or roughly half the schedule) to play each team in your division 6 times and each Eastern Conference team would still be here 3 out of every 4 seasons. You'd play 42 games each year against the Central Division, 24 games each year against the Eastern Conference and 16 games each year against the Pacific Division. That might create some divisional rivalries, plus you'd have the added bonus of lower travel costs and more games each year in your home time zone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bye Bye Blueston
Itsnotatrap

Itsnotatrap

Registered User
Oct 6, 2013
1,319
1,640
MissouriMook said:
To me, the problem with the division rivalries is that I feel like we only have two natural rivals in our division - Chicago and Nashville. There are others there to build on in Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado and even Winnipeg, but when you only play them 3-4 times a year you just don't have enough meat on the bone to build up any kind of animosity.

If they really want to dial this up they need to be satisfied with 2 games a year - home and away - with the other three divisions (a total of 48 games) and keep the other 34 games in the division. Maybe it even takes sacrificing another 8 games outside the division by having one cross-conference division be home-and-home each year and the other only being one or the other. That would leave 42 games (or roughly half the schedule) to play each team in your division 6 times and each Eastern Conference team would still be here 3 out of every 4 seasons. You'd play 42 games each year against the Central Division, 24 games each year against the Eastern Conference and 16 games each year against the Pacific Division. That might create some divisional rivalries, plus you'd have the added bonus of lower travel costs and more games each year in your home time zone.
Click to expand...

This is a great point, and a good idea, but I’d maybe like to wait another year or 2. After the year and the schedule we had last year I do like having the balanced regular season schedule right now.
 

Allens Five Hole

Registered User
Jan 17, 2017
234
235
MissouriMook said:
To me, the problem with the division rivalries is that I feel like we only have two natural rivals in our division - Chicago and Nashville. There are others there to build on in Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado and even Winnipeg, but when you only play them 3-4 times a year you just don't have enough meat on the bone to build up any kind of animosity.

If they really want to dial this up they need to be satisfied with 2 games a year - home and away - with the other three divisions (a total of 48 games) and keep the other 34 games in the division. Maybe it even takes sacrificing another 8 games outside the division by having one cross-conference division be home-and-home each year and the other only being one or the other. That would leave 42 games (or roughly half the schedule) to play each team in your division 6 times and each Eastern Conference team would still be here 3 out of every 4 seasons. You'd play 42 games each year against the Central Division, 24 games each year against the Eastern Conference and 16 games each year against the Pacific Division. That might create some divisional rivalries, plus you'd have the added bonus of lower travel costs and more games each year in your home time zone.
Click to expand...
I feel much more animosity between us and Colorado than I do with anyone outside of Chicago. Part of it is because we're both good teams at the same time but the other factor is its Kroenke's team. That part is one sided because Colorado doesn't have a way to reciprocate that but it's a very real piece of hatred for a lot of our fanbase, myself included.

I think the sweet spot is home and home with everyone outside of the division, leaving 34 games left which is 4-5 games against divisional opposition. I think having too many games inside the division waters it down a bit for the players and the fans. You could tell the players were tired of playing the same teams over and over and as a fan it was extremely stale for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brian39
Linkens Mastery

Linkens Mastery

Conductor of the TankTown Express
Jan 15, 2014
19,813
17,385
Hyrule
I wonder which high value free agent Vegas throws a ton of money towards this off season and who they will trade to make room for them. Bergeron maybe?
 
MissouriMook

MissouriMook

Still just a Mook among men
Sponsor
Jul 4, 2014
7,990
8,475
Blueston said:
Bergeron I suspect has too much class to pull that. Would be shocked if he didn’t either stay in Boston or retire.
Click to expand...
I think he said as much at his post-season press conference yesterday. Still hadn't decided but I think he'll come back for a year or two.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bye Bye Blueston
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Latest posts

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom
X