Running 2017-18 NHL thread

Not NHL, but hell of a couple of FrozenFour games last night. Notre Dame vs. Minnesota-Duluth in the championship.

 

This is pretty cool. Henrik to Daniel for the OT winner in the Sedins' final game in Vancouver.

 

Not sure anyone who has given up four goals in a game could have a better showing than Grubauer did last night. Nashville probably should have had eight or nine. He was insane at times. He should get the net for Game 1 for the Caps.

Speaking of the playoffs ...
What a freaking mess in the Metro. Four opponents still in play for Washington ...

Pittsburgh closes tonight at home against Ottawa. Penguins SHOULD win to wrap up the Metro 2, but who knows.

Columbus is in Nashville Saturday. Preds have nothing left to play for and could still be drunk from clinching everything last night, so I'll say Columbus wins, setting up CBJ and PIT in the 2-3 series.

The Devils are in D.C. to close the year. Columbus holds the tiebreaker over the Devils due to head-to-head, so New Jersey has to finish ahead to CBJ to move into the three spot. I have no idea what the Caps' motivation level will be Saturday or if they'll rest people and get some of the rookies into the lineup. Will guess a NJ win, locking them into the No. 1 wild card and a first-round series with ... Washington.

Philly hosts the Rangers Saturday afternoon, and the Flyers only need a point to claim the last playoff spot. Conventional thinking says they get it, but they've gacked in spots like this before. Flyers win in regulation and both CBJ and NJ lose in regulation, and the Flyers could be the three seed.

There's a supposed nightmare scenario in play where the Flyers lose by two to the Rangers and Florida wins twice in shootouts, leaving them in a dead tie with 96 points and 39 ROW. They split the season series, because the second game played in Florida doesn't count for tiebreaker purposes. May be a coin flip if that happens?

 

League just announced that the Flyers and Panthers would play a tiebreaking game if this occurs. No shootout. Basically a playoff play-in game with five-on-five overtimes.

 

Why would the last game between them not count for tiebreaker purposes?

 

NHL Network just showed Phil Kessel in the locker room. He looks like Ogre from the Nerd movies.

 

Because teams from different divisions only play three times, only the first home game for each counts when deciding the season series. I guess the NHL deems it unfair that one team gets more home games than the other. It actually makes sense.

 

Gotcha. Didn’t realize that. Thanks.

 

Can't believe the Bulldogs now have two titles.

 

West is set:
Preds vs. Avs
Knights vs. Kings (good chess matchup, I suppose)
Wild vs. Jets
Sharks vs. Ducks

East is close:
Caps vs. Jackets
Flyers vs. Penguins
Devils vs. Bruins (if they win today) or Lightning
Leafs vs. Lightning (if Bruins win today) or Bruins

Bruins have to win to take the Atlantic. Lightning win the tiebreaker on ROW if Boston loses in OT/SO tonight. Huge difference in level of opponent, so I suspect Boston will be highly motivated to get it done.

 

He's not the right guy for an all-in rebuild, which is where the Rangers are trending. Would not be surprised to see him in Calgary.