2013: The NHL season that almost wasn't

I looked it up on capgeek as well. I thought it was high. I was looking at what the league cap will be for next season, not where their cap is. Oops.

 

Blackhawks down 5-1 against Colorado.

Huggy' "boy" Duchene with four points.

 

Hawks lose 6-2. Their 24 game streak has ended

 

Fire the coach. He's got 100 losses now. Took him 345 days to go from 99 to 100, but still, that's ridiculous!

 

Big night from my man Duchene, he'll be bouncing off the walls tonight!

 

Hawks got completely dominated, too. No "well, they were better but the bounces didn't go their way" or anything like that.

 

Oh, well, had to happen sometime.

To concur with what someone else said, when you win a bunch of one-goal games, it's more than luck. It's knowing how to play in tight games. There's an art to that, although I'm not denying that in a streak that long, there is some luck involved (like Jonathan Ericsson shooting the puck into the seats in the final three minutes in Detroit last week, leading to a Chicago powerplay and tying goal).

 

And Dan Carcillo scoring his first of the season in the final minute two nights before. Still...an impressive run.

 

Meh. I thought they outplayed Colorado in the first game. The details of Carcillo scoring? Sure, that's flukey. But they were the better team that night and deserved the win.

 

Agreed. People tend to forget there are A LOT of one-goal games in hockey. Not sure the current percentage this season. But one of the things I like about hockey is you can buy a ticket (or tune in a broadcast) and, regardless of the season records of the team, chances are good you'll get a hard-fought, competitive game.

 

Leafs lose 5-4 to Pens in OT. Came back twice from a 2 goal deficit including Kessel's tying goal with about three in reg.

Leafs completely dominated in the third and in OT. Sid scores the winner in OT of course.

Malkin was nailed by James Van Riemsdyk in the third. Malkin didn't play a minute of OT

Leafs stay in 5th, Pens now only two points behind the Habs for first in the Conference

 

Dreadful performance by the Capitals against the Rangers on Sunday. I don't see them regularly, but whenever I do they look like one of the worst teams in the league.

Alex Ovechkin was never a great defensive player, but now he doesn't even seem like the offensive dynamo that was so fun to watch a few years ago. Maybe it's the coaching, maybe something else. But he just doesn't seem like the same player anymore. Neither does Backstrom (although Backstrom was good on faceoffs on Sunday).