972 replies to this topic

[Mattjvd]

I don't usually bother with office pools and thankfully didn't this year either but most of the guys got torched as they went heavy on both Lightning and Pens players. Ouch.

From the perspective of beady little Bettman and $ and TV ratings I would imagine he'd be hoping for something like the Islanders - Dallas or possibly San Jose - Bruins in spite of how unlikely that is given how Vegas is beating up the Sharks.

Could you just imagine though the horror - the horror! - in the league's NYC offices if, no matter how against the odds it is, somehow Tronna and Winterpeg made the Cup finals, lol. Maaaaaan NBC's NHL TV ratings would crater and nosedive faster than a 10 pound lead weight in the shallow end of a rubber kiddie pool....

Toronto in the finals would actually be good for ratings, Winnipeg, not so much. A disaster St Louis vs Columbus would tank ratings, but might grow the game in that region. And after this first round so far, that match up is a lot more likely than I would have thought!

[jonny]

The Jets are alive! 

 

The Flames are in trouble. SJS are in bigly trouble. Leafs can go up 3-1 tonight. 

 

I've found myself cheering more and more for the Canadian teams in general as the years go on, but man, I cannot stand Mike Smith!  

[Mike K.]

Bubbles?

[Victoria Watcher]

blues about to win the cup!

[RFS]

Blues won. Anyone who bet on the blues at the beginning of the series made some good money tonight

[AllseeingEye]

Are there any bigger crybaby-announcers in all of pro sports than the Bruins NESN on air team? Listen to "Hockey Night in Canada" you rubes to figure out how real pros call a hockey game.

 

Great road game by the Blues - wow. B's really never looked threatening beyond the first few shifts at the start of the game. Otherwise, a text book game by St Louis. Good on them......

[Victoria Watcher]

canucks and sabres now oldest teams with no cup.

[Victoria Watcher]

St. Louis was dead last in the league on Jan. 2. Instead of talk of a playoff run, the chatter around the club six months ago centred around which players would be available at the trade deadline.


But interim head coach Craig Berube's boys turned it on. They went 30-10-5 to make the playoffs and disposed of the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks in the first three rounds, respectively. They then took care of the Bruins in the seven-game final.



https://www.cbc.ca/s...recap-1.5173134

[Wayne]

Victoria Watcher, on 13 Jun 2019 - 06:43 AM, said:

St. Louis was dead last in the league on Jan. 2. Instead of talk of a playoff run, the chatter around the club six months ago centred around which players would be available at the trade deadline.


But interim head coach Craig Berube's boys turned it on. They went 30-10-5 to make the playoffs and disposed of the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks in the first three rounds, respectively. They then took care of the Bruins in the seven-game final.



https://www.cbc.ca/s...recap-1.5173134

Its a great a great story for the St Louis Blues! Well Done.

[Victoria Watcher]

Uniform refresh includes heritage jersey for Vancouver Canucks’ 50th season

Biggest change, logo no longer includes ‘Vancouver’

 

https://www.vicnews....ks-50th-season/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 June 2019 - 03:54 AM.

[Jackerbie]

The Canucks are heading to the Save On Foods Memorial Arena this fall.

 

Training camp will be in Victoria September 13-15, culminating in a pre-season game versus the Calgary Flames on September 16. It will be a "split squad" game, as both teams will be playing a concurrent pre-season game in Calgary.

 

via https://www.nhl.com/...amp/c-307887730

[Mattjvd]

Elias Pettersson wins the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie. He is the 2nd Canuck ever to capture the award after Pavel Bure in 1992.

Edited by Mattjvd, 20 June 2019 - 03:04 PM.

[AllseeingEye]

Rogers Arena is sold out for tomorrow night at the draft, tix going for up to $515/US.

 

Tourism Vancouver estimates the value to the city in the range of $8-10 million tourist dollars from the influx of players, families, fans, team execs etc. Vancouver drafts 10th so is assured of getting a reasonably impactful player in what is considered a deep 'top 20' draft class......

[Mattjvd]

Rogers Arena is sold out for tomorrow night at the draft, tix going for up to $515/US.

Tourism Vancouver estimates the value to the city in the range of $8-10 million tourist dollars from the influx of players, families, fans, team execs etc. Vancouver drafts 10th so is assured of getting a reasonably impactful player in what is considered a deep 'top 20' draft class......

Original price for those tickets was $27 Canadian. The team miss judged that price point a bit.

Edited by Mattjvd, 21 June 2019 - 11:11 AM.

[Matt R.]

Aquilini’s in some hot water over taxes... they also own the Top Table group, who are opening a fancy pants restaurant in the 1515 Douglas building.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...court-1.5183787

Matt.

[AllseeingEye]

No huge surprises in the first round tonight other than a couple of higher touted prospects dropping into the second round tomorrow.

 

Canucks IMO took a bit of a flier on big Russian winger Vasily Podkolzin; he played in the Russian second tier league for starters, and superficially at least the pick raises some questions considering they drafted him 10th overall, especially when you look at some of the very highly regarded guys that were picked well after him later in the round.

 

Regardless he has good size, some grit, some offensive ability and can skate. In spite of all the pre-draft talk of trades there was only one minor swap of drafts between Philly and Arizona. Beyond that clearly most teams felt comfortable at their designated positions drafting whichever players were available rather than trying to move up with the exception of the aforementioned Flyers-Zona draft switch.

 

Huge night for the US National Team Development program with 8 members of their 2018-9 team being picked in the top 31, far more than any other amateur program in the world, either tonight or in fact in the 55 year history of the NHL draft. Several other teams held the previous record of 4 members of the same team going in the first round. The American program smashed that record and then some....

[LJ]

I was hoping the Canucks would take Newhook, went to Colorado instead.

[AllseeingEye]

/\ ,,,,skilled player but the Canucks have a lot of physically smaller offensive players so clearly drafting a big body was a priority. Some of the higher drafts, especially the defencemen, were monsters. Clearly this isn't our dad's NHL. These kids are training machines, and it shows.

 

Newhook will do well in Colorado IMO - that is one talented and very high end team; he gives them even more offence. Scary....

[Mattjvd]

Podkolzin is a very talented player and in top 5 pick conversations all year long. They swung for the fences with this pick, time will tell if he pans out.

I was also cheering for us to draft Newhook, I was sitting with his Grizzlies' team mates at the draft and they were dissapointed he didn't go to Vancouver.

[FogPub]

Drafting a Russian this high might also be an enticement to help lure Tryamkin back for 2020-21 (he's got one more year on his KHL deal)