NHL 2014-2015 regular season running thread

Season starts tomorrow. Here are my season predictions:

WEST

Pacific Division
1. Anaheim
2. San Jose
3. LA
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4. Vancouver
5. Phoenix
6. Edmonton
7. Calgary

Central Division
1. Chicago (first in the league)
2. St. Louis
3. Colorado
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4. Minnesota(WC1)
5. Dallas (WC2)
6. Nashville
7. Winnipeg

EAST

Metro Division
1. Pittsburgh
2. Philadelphia
3. Columbus
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4. Rangers (WC1)
5. Islanders
6. Devils
7. Capitals
8. Carolina

Atlantic Division
1. Montreal
2. Boston
3. Tampa
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4. Detroit (WC2)
5. Toronto
6. Florida
7. Ottawa
8. Buffalo (Last in the league)

 

I'm pretty much with Gehrig, except for taking Boston over Montreal in the Atlantic. Central looks to be the toughest division top to bottom and I could see four teams wind up within 5-6 points of one another. And, of course, we've seen yet again that once the playoffs begin, just about anyone has a shot, regardless of seeding.

I really like the Kings a lot and think they'll have a better regular season than last year. But I'll take Boston over Chicago in the Final.

 

Announced crowd of 7,311 to watch the Panthers lose 1-0 to the Senators on Monday night.

While what is going on in Florida is unfortunate, unless the owners are not willing to take the bad with the good this team could be in major trouble soon. It's the new owners that spent the money for upgrades and player acquisitions. They've already been on record saying that this business plan is not sustainable. So things have to change there soon, and in a hurry. If this continues for 2-3 more seasons, then shit could hit the fan. They lost an excess of 20 million last year and from their 55% capacity in 2 games so far, they are on pace to lose a lot more. Opening night didn't even sell out. Opening night was 11,419. Even the Coyotes could sell out their home openers every year.

There three years ago the Panthers made the playoffs and they couldn't sell out the first game in the first round... that was insulting. Not even the Coyotes could do that

I will always believe the NHL want the Panthers and Lightning in the same area for those "Florida" trip scheduling... but, if things get dire, the NHL will not fight as hard to keep the Panthers in Florida like they did for the Coyotes in Arizona. The NHL could easily ship the Panthers to Las Vegas (*Legal troubles on that one) or Seattle. Then expansion in Quebec and another West city. Everything becomes equal.

*All four major leagues came to Canada to fight a single betting bill that is still in the Senate. Moving to Vegas is a complete and total contradiction and could, if someone had the balls, create a legal issue if the bill fails in Canada.

 

7 thousand distributed tickets, there was nowhere near that in the building.

Broward County tax payers got completely hosed in this deal.

 

I've bet on 4 NHL games so far, and three of them have been incredible games. Colorado scored with less than 1 second left on Monday to beat Boston (as a good-sized underdog, too). And two shootouts last night, which I split. The lone snoozer was a Tampa Bay 7-1 win.

This season is going to be weird, isn't it?

 

Why?

 

Just because.

 

The Board of Idiots [Governors] once again this year shot down the notion of expanded video for goals. They are very stupid. After what happened in the Detroit vs Los Angeles game with the puck hitting the mesh and falling in the net and Duschene's 5 feet off-side goal... how could they keep shooting it down?

Well, have a look at this disallowed goal from last night. Brutal. Brutal... absolutely brutal. There's no rhyme or reason why a whistle should have been blown here. Since they can not review brain-dead calls by brain-dead officials, the non-goal stands.

https://www.shnarped.com/blog/2014/10/2 ... om-penalty

 

https://twitter.com/walsha/status/530435567000248320

http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/623627


Sponsored powerplays, TV time outs and 20 minutes late faceoff times so we can have more commercials are fine. You know, things that actually depreciate ones viewing pleasure.

BUT GOD FORBID ADS ON JERSEYS!!!

Ads were always going to come, otherwise the NHL would end up like the NFL with commercials after literally every break in play.

 

If that's what it takes to get more people commenting on this thread, I'm all for it.

 

As long as the ads do not wind up dominating the jerseys like in Europe, I am fine with it. Go with a shoulder patch or a bar across the bottom of the jersey on the back, but nothing more than that.

 

Forgot to post this last week. Fox Sports West aired Elliotte Friedman's feature on Darryl Sutter's son, who has Down syndrome. Nicely done, sir.