Miscellaneous NHL Discussion XCIV: From Ghost to Hakstol and all things in between

[Sombastate]

Welp, I guess it goes:

Oilers
Panthers
Stars
Canes

Any other outcome would be awful

 

[Devonator]

One things these playoffs have shown is that there is great parity in the NHL....if we can just get lucky during May 8 and somehow even land one of those top 3 drafts, we would not be far off either in a couple of years.....

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Anyone but Toronto

 

[GKJ]

Hak has the three biggest things he didn’t have here:

- goaltending
- veteran experience from actually useful players
- inability to falsely identify bad depth players as good because they aren’t available to him

 

[DancingPanther]

I f***ing hate Hakstol

 

[RANKKA]

 

[Sombastate]

Hak has the three biggest things he didn’t have here:

- goaltending
- veteran experience from actually useful players
- inability to falsely identify bad depth players as good because they aren’t available to him

Mason was lightyears better than Gru.

The latter point is honestly the biggest reason for his "turn around"

 

[GKJ]

Mason was lightyears better than Gru.

The latter point is honestly the biggest reason for his "turn around"

The one series he had Mason, he put up an .852

 

[Sombastate]

The one series he had Mason, he put up an .852

Oh that's totally fair. I was looking at the totality of the body of work. But you're dead on. Mason stunk it up a bit that series.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Mason was lightyears better than Gru.

The latter point is honestly the biggest reason for his "turn around"

This. The 2 new expansion teams were able to start out with quality depth. Also the Avs were sorta a paper tiger and not the teams they had the last few years. They are very top heavy now basically without their entire second line from last year and missing VN for most of the series with that weird drunk hooker human trafficking ordeal

 

[GKJ]

Oh that's totally fair. I was looking at the totality of the body of work. But you're dead on. Mason stunk it up a bit that series.

With Mason, it still hovered above mediocre. Even as he played well they still didn’t like him.

Seattle was not impressed with Hak last year. But they got him help in scoring and depth. And a few of those guys have succeed because they needed to be used in very specific ways.

You look around and see all the ex-Flyers people succeeding. Well, except one…

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Incredible.

In one night, 8 seed FL eliminates the Boston team coming off the best regular season in NHL history.

And Dave Hakstol’s 2nd year Kraken eliminate the defending Stanley Cup Champion Avalanche.

First expansion team to pick up their first series win against the defending Cup champs. Useless fact, but there it is.

@ponder719 posted that above...

 

[deadhead]

Guess he is. Maybe it's the Flyers that weren't very good.

 

[deadhead]

Do teams choke?
Watch the Bruins the last 5 minutes and OT - they were leaving sawdust all over the ice.

I think one reason teams that have great regular seasons often fail in the playoffs is that it is too easy, they get a big lead early in the season and don't play many "must win" games during the season - and that's not good preparation for PO hockey.

As far as the Avs - guess they lacked depth, huh?

 

[ugiswrong]

::eyeball-and-soul-cleanse from leading questions and from I-told-you-so-itis::

 

[Larry44]

This. The 2 new expansion teams were able to start out with quality depth. Also the Avs were sorta a paper tiger and not the teams they had the last few years. They are very top heavy now basically without their entire second line from last year and missing VN for most of the series with that weird drunk hooker human trafficking ordeal

Avs lost Kadri and Burakovsky up front and were without Landeskog and Nichushkin. Offensive depth wasn’t there.

I think Nichushkin going awol affected the team too. Very strange situation. Drugs and hookers are bad for you. New details emerge about Valeri Nichushkin’s absence

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Anyone but Toronto

We’ll see but it’s breaking nicely for them with Boston & Colorado out now.

 

[BiggE]

Anyone but the Leafs or the Rags/Debs please.

Sco Canes!

 

[Ghosts Beer]

Seattle is a deep team, yet look at their roster: Would you have called it a deep team before the season?

Hakstol deserves a ton of credit for getting the most out of those guys.

They're playing like his North Dakota teams. They're all over you all game, wave after wave.

Their goaltending blew in the regular season and they still had a good record.

They lost their 40-goal scorer for the last 3 games of the first round and still beat the defending Cup champs in Game 7 in Colorado.

Credit where due.

 

[Larry44]

We’ll see but it’s breaking nicely for them with Boston & Colorado out now.

A good lesson in why if you have a very good team you should go for it, even if other teams look like juggernauts. Bruins, Avs, Bolts all out. It’s anyone’s Cup. I wouldn’t rule the Leafs out in the East. Will the Oilers make it too?

 

[Ghosts Beer]

I'm really rooting for:

- An all-expansion Las Vegas - Seattle Western Conference Final.

- A southern, non-hockey market Carolina - Florida Eastern Conference Final.

What a final four that would be -- the TV networks would writhe in pain.

Let the NHL reap what it sows in the form of low ratings.

 

[Rebels57]

 

[Strawberry Fields]

Literally anyone but the Rags. I don't care if that means the Laffs have to knock them out in round 3.

 

[Redpath]

Toronto is winning the Cup.

Reminds me of how the Capitals finally broken their 2nd round curse and immediately won the Cup. Now the Leafs are doing the same with their 1st round curse.

 

[BiggE]

Credit to Seattle winning but this wasn’t last years Avs. No Landeskog, no viable 2nd line, a worse starting goalie than last year and coming off a late season injury I doubt Makar was anywhere near 100%.

Seattle is a good team and they play hard but I don’t think they get past Edmonton.

I see Dallas vs Edmonton in the West and Carolina vs Toronto in the East. In the final, I have Dallas over Carolina with Oettinger winning the Smythe.