2021 NHL regular season thread

Isles played really well last night, which made the win even better. They killed off a five-minute power play just before the game winner and tilted the ice for most of the second period. Samsonov may not be the Caps' No. 1 goalie when he's eligible to return. Vanecek has been a revelation.

 

Canuck fans hate each other. There’s a huge divide between pro and anti Benning, starts with the 2 radio stations in town. One waves Pom poms and refuses to criticize anything(the rights holder) and the other is anti Canuck management.

Benning should be fired, he should have never made it this long, he’s been a disaster. People will point to his drafting, fine, he’s also had 2 big misses in the top 10. But I agree with your point, teams should never make rash decisions. Ride this out and re-evaluate in the off-season.

 

Ducks got their second 1-0 victory last night at Arizona. They almost had a third, but in their second game, Vegas pulled the goalie and scored in the last minute then won in OT. Ducks continue with the worst offense in the league. They still haven't scored a power-play goal, but their PK is pretty good.

The Coyotes suffered their second consecutive 1-0 loss. Ducks announcer Brian Hayward said it must be difficult to look at your stats and see you gave up 2 goals in the past 2 games and have nothing to show for it.

 

Jim Rutherford just resigned as GM of the Penguins for personal reasons. Hmmmh.

 

That would be a tough team to takeover. Not much depth, but you can’t really go full rebuild with Sid and Malkin there.

Slightly related but Matt Murray is a disaster in Ottawa at $6.25 for four years.

 

Vancouver isn’t as big a market as Toronto or Montreal, and the spotlight isn’t as large. However, pound for pound I think it’s the craziest market in the country.

 

For years, the mandate has been to do what it takes to compete for a Cup as long as Sid and Geno are there.

The problem becomes who wants to try to keep that organization going for the years of already-spent draft picks and prospects the team will be without trying to kick the can down the road to keep them at that level now?

Makes me wonder if they're finally realizing this.

Having said that, wishing JR nothing but the best. Yeah, he won two Cups with Sid and Geno. Try winning a Cup with a lot less. He did that.

 

I thought it was funny for two reasons:
The broadcast had just gotten done making a big deal how the Caps had played in four straight OT games
and
They had just said at the end of the period, don't do anything that will cost you the game and that guaranteed point.

Sure enough, Caps get a break away and beat the keeper.

And on a separate note: The Avalanche are fucking good.

 

I think this is accurate.

What do you think @Elliotte Friedman ?