2018-19 NHL thread

I drove to St. Paul on Tuesday to watch Kings-Wild (and had to leave after a period because I got sick). The Wild are just goofy. They have nothing resembling a game-breaker (nobody in the NHL top 50 in points, nobody in the top 30 in goals, nobody in the top 45 in assists), but their base line talent level is equal to or better than most of their competition, so when they don't screw around and Dubnyk doesn't suck, they'll sneak into the playoffs as a wild card and get bounced in five or six games in the first round just like they always do. They're not bad. They're just not good either.

 

I was at Buff/Cal game where Eichel scored in OT after hitting the crossbar earlier both in overtime and regular time. He has everything. Dahlin played well, too. They have a v good team. Skinner was around the puck the whole night.

 

Too bad they only have one line that can do anything. Slow road to death since its 10-game winning streak. There hasn't been any noise about trying to resign Skinner. I'm curious if he even wants to stay in Buffalo after this year. Eichel is the real deal.

 

Anybody know how Ryan Kessler is doing?

 

Hey @ChrisLong you still haven’t answered my question above. The refs must be really killing your team over this last 20 games.

Jake Muzzin I think summed up your team perfectly after this most recent debacle.

 

Refs must be killing the Ducks these days.

 

I posted about the guy who I think you're referring to a few weeks ago. Not sure, though. A person as learned as you usually knows how to spell.
If you meant Ryan Kesler, I wrote that he has been awful. It's sad when the guy goes from being the best player on the team to the worst player on the team in 2 years because of injury.
I haven't posted about bad officiating because it hasn't been bad, nor the reason for their skid. They are lousy because Randy Carlyle is a horrible coach. On that, we agreed before it even happened. Their better players are or have been hurt, and a lot of others are just no good.
They have embarrassed themselves and it was doubly embarrassing tonight to have Muzzin get over on them. That's what happens when you have a stupid-ass like Nick Ritchie skating a regular shift.
The Ducks will probably be in last place by the end of the season.

 

It’s almost like nobody could see this coming a few years back when they signed these deals.

 

I don’t think anybody was complaining about the Getzlaf, Perry and Kesler contracts when they were signed. Bieksa was a problem from the beginning. All of their core defensemen — Fowler, Lindholm, Manson and Montour — was regressed this season under Carlyle.

 

There were plenty of people saying what disasters those contracts would be in a few years.

 

This was from 2016