League News: NHL Talk - (News n' Scores n' Stuff) - 2021-22 season, Vol. 3, Playoffs Edition

[trick9]

Clear difference in expectations between Boston and Washington

As there should be.

Bruins went all-in and paid a huge price for Hampus Lindholm at the TDL. Now they don't have their 1st this summer or 2nd round picks in 2023 or 2024.

Avs right on track. Huge advantage if Tampa and Rangers play a long series here.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Really hard to comprehend that Holland hitched another year of McDrai’s prime to Mike Smith. Easily one of the worst GMs in all of professional sports.

They are wasting the prime years of two of the top five best players in the world.

 

[895]

Really hard to comprehend that Holland hitched another year of McDrai’s prime to Mike Smith. Easily one of the worst GMs in all of professional sports.

They are wasting the prime years of two of the top five best players in the world.

Yeah Edmonton made the WCF in spite of Holland, not because of him.

I don't see how anyone saw his performance in Detroit the past 10 years and thought that this is the man for the job.

 

[Melkor]

Edmonton maybe wouldn't have gotten swept but they'd still lose to the Avs regardless of whos' the GM this year. Avs are just the better team by a pretty fair margin. Holland did well with the Kane signing, many just shat their pants thinking what media would write about that and Kane was a serious factor in the postseason. Pick any of the remaining goaltenders in this playoffs and put them in the Oilers' net - they are still done by the end of this series. Avs are going to win it all barring Francouz getting hurt and them getting left with a third string goalie

 

[trick9]

Don't worry. Darnell Nurse is locked up for eternity.

 

[RedRocking]

Could get ugly in Boston, especially if Bergeron retires. McAvoy, Grizzly Bear (or however you spell it), and Marchand all out for 6 months or more.

Ugly just in time to tank for Bedard and Michkov? Maybe that’s part of why they let Cassidy go. Seems like the league would love to give the B’s one of those guys.

Lots of terrible teams to compete with, of course.

 

[sycamore]

I hear Mike Smith was so depressed after last nights loss that after the game, he walked outside and threw himself in front of a bus.

Unfortunately, it went through his legs...

 

[PlushMinus]

I hear Mike Smith was so depressed after last nights loss that after the game, he walked outside and threw himself in front of a bus.

Unfortunately, it went through his legs...

Boom tish!

The interesting thing about Smith is that he stops a lot of shots and has had some fantastic performances, but he seems to let in soft goals the end up killing his team.

Which happens to be exactly the same problem we have with Samsonov and Vanacek.

Holland is indeed a bad GM, but people around here seem unwilling to recognise that our very own GM did NOTHING to address the Caps goaltending and we couldn't even get out of the 1st round.

 

[Capsman]

I have to say I take extreme pleasure watching Cale Makar play knowing the Flyers had a chance to draft him and took Nolan Patrick instead.

 

[sycamore]

I hear Mike Smith was so depressed after last nights loss that after the game, he walked outside and threw himself in front of a bus.

Unfortunately, it went through his legs...

This is actually an old joke I heard when living in Montreal in the early 1990s. Habs fans are as passionate as they get, but they are also mercilessly critical of their team when times are tough. In the early 90s, after Patrick Roy's departure for Colorado, the team found themself with a goalie named Andre Racicot. The guy was so bad the fans started calling "Red Light" Racicot. After a particularly putrid outing, some French-Canadien fan called in the local sports call-in show and offered this joke, with Racicot in the place of Mike Smith. I literally fell out of my chair laughing!

 

[IvanMalison]

Really hard to comprehend that Holland hitched another year of McDrai’s prime to Mike Smith. Easily one of the worst GMs in all of professional sports.

They are wasting the prime years of two of the top five best players in the world.

Did you watch the series? Mike Smith wasn't great but he was not the Oilers MAIN problem. They were outplayed pretty hard the whole time, largely because the Avs had Cale Makar and the best 3 D in the series, and they barely have a second line.

You've lost the plot if you think Mike Smith was the problem there.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

We live in a salary cap world and got lucky in 2018 and had goalie prospects who blossomed like Holtby unlike Edmonton and had some picks pan out for us in the cup run like Bura, Djoos, and Stephenson. It's really tough to ice a legit competing team with two of the top five players in the NHL. Sure, I think Nurse is overrated and not worthy of his contract. If McDavid and Drai can carry a team to the WCF with the help of Kane, imagine a world of no salary cap like the good old days. UFAs have to be willing to take a discount and not to mention players still have Edmonton as a no trade zone. They had to scrounge to get Kane. Edmonton bombed on some previous top picks too.

Ugly just in time to tank for Bedard and Michkov? Maybe that’s part of why they let Cassidy go. Seems like the league would love to give the B’s one of those guys.

Lots of terrible teams to compete with, of course.

I don't think they're that bad, but who knows Gary might rig the lottery for them since they're an original team and from the Northeast.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Did you watch the series? Mike Smith wasn't great but he was not the Oilers MAIN problem. They were outplayed pretty hard the whole time, largely because the Avs had Cale Makar and the best 3 D in the series, and they barely have a second line.

You've lost the plot if you think Mike Smith was the problem there.

I guess there are problems and “main” problems….

I look at it from the other direction…..if you’re not the solution (or part of it)…….then you’re part of the problem.

He certainly didn’t stand on his head leading the way and others just let him down…..

 

[StrikingDistance]

I guess there are problems and “main” problems….

I look at it from the other direction…..if you’re not the solution (or part of it)…….then you’re part of the problem.

He certainly didn’t stand on his head leading the way and others just let him down…..

Lack of secondary scoring and Mike Smith were the key ingredients for the Loilers defeat for me. Drai being injured didn't help them either. They're the western Boudreau Caps...lots of O but not much D.

 

[Raikkonen]

strome failed them

 

[kicksavedave]

No love for TB here, but seeing Rags fans going home sad is a decent consolation prize. This series is boring and lacks nastiness.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

Go Lightning! Odd saying this, but I loathe the NYR.

 

[kicksavedave]

 

[trick9]

Rangers lose in the most devastating fashion.

Late in the game. Again.

You just hate to see it.

 

[max21]

f*** NY

 

[John Price]

Rangers lose in the most devastating fashion.

Late in the game. Again.

You just hate to see it.

Video spreading on social media of ranger fan knocking a lightning fan out completely unprovoked. Pretty sick stuff

 

[VaCaps Fan]

Tampa!

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Video spreading on social media of ranger fan knocking a lightning fan out completely unprovoked. Pretty sick stuff

Yeah, that guy will be facing a felony charge… he could have killed him or seriously hurt him. The Lightning fan looked like he was talking to someone else and this guy decided he wanted to commit assault for seemingly no reason. Credit to the Rangers fans around them though. Everyone went to his aid and got security involved to ID the guy who did it.

Booze and emotions about the outcome of a sport is a bad combination.

 

[twabby]

I don't want to embed the video, but here's a tweet about the perpetrator from a local news guy:

CONFIRMING Perp James Anastasio, 29 of Staten Island, was ARRESTED and charged with 2 counts of assault, 2 counts of disorderly conduct, and 2 counts of harassment The victim refused medical attention at the scene, so hopefully that means he is OK!!!

 

[pman25]

Apparently that guy also punched a witness in the face who confronted him attempting to get away. He's going to prison for that punch, unbelievably stupid move.

If you find yourself in a situation where you want to punch or fight someone, run away. You either end up hurt/dead or in jail.