Running NHL 2023-24 regular season thread

[HanSenSE]

The year is 2035. The Coyotes have been pushed out to play in the freezer section of a Safeway in Gallup, N.M. Gary Bettman insists this is a temporary arrangement while details are finalized on a new Phoenix-area arena and entertainment district.

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[Tighthead]

It's a turtle derby for the final playoff spots in the east and the Flyers are in free fall, losing 8-3 in Montreal last night.

Charlie Lindgren, always a favourite of mine, had a big night getting the Caps two points.

Slafkovsky had a hat trick in Montreal and his surge in the last 40-50 games has gone a long way to validating his draft status.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Charlie Lindgren is a favorite of mine, too. It started because he's Ryan's brother, but I also love the way he plays goal.

The turnaround in Slavkovsky has been remarkable. Last season, he was like a child in a grown man's body, and he looked really lost and overmatched against NHL players. I suspect Montreal was really wondering if they had made a big mistake. He became a beast of a player in a shorter amount of time than I have ever seen.

Rangers-Islanders was tough last night. The Islanders were obviously playing like the playoffs were on the line and the Rangers came out flat and fell behind 3-0 in the first. But they dominated after that, they just couldn't put the puck in the net late when they needed to even though they were pouring it on. There was some dirty play from the Isles. Laviolette was incensed about Mike Zibanajed getting hurt by Adam Pelech. He uniqivocally said after the game that he thought it was intentional and it was "vicious," but to me, it looked totally accidental -- Zibanejad wasn't looking and I thought he ran into Pelech. The Rangers seemed to think differnetly. The cross check / boarding that wasn't called in the last seconds (that led to the empty net goal by the Islanders) was definitely no accident. Vincent Trocheck can be a rat of a player, but he always seems to have a smile on his face and seems to take as good as he gives, so he's not a complainer. I have never seen him that upset. He went after Kelly Sutherland and was screaming. He was right. Sutherland is usually one of the better refs too.

 

[Cosmo]

Bummer that Lindgren had to lose his shutout with 1 second left, but what a massive win for Washington, which has no business lingering around the fringes but somehow is still there. Remaining schedule for the teams still scrapping for those last two playoff berths (M3, WC2).

NY Islanders (87 pts, current M3): vs. MTL, at NYR, at NJ, vs. PIT
Washington (85, WC2): at BUF, vs. TB, vs. BOS, at PHI
Pittsburgh (84): vs. DET, vs. BOS, vs. NSH, at NYI
Detroit (84): at PIT, at TOR, vs. MTL, at MTL
Philadelphia (83): at NYR, vs. NJ, vs. WSH

The way this thing has gone back and forth the last couple of weeks, I'm hesitant to make any predictions. Philly looks to be in major trouble, can't get to more than 89 points. Washington just lost to Ottawa and Buffalo so I'm taking nothing for granted there, though the Caps may catch a break with Tampa because the Lightning don't have much to play for an will almost certainly be WC1 unless Toronto flops. Pittsburgh-Detroit is a massive game. Should be a fun final week.

 

[Justin_Rice]

Bummer that Lindgren had to lose his shutout with 1 second left, but what a massive win for Washington, which has no business lingering around the fringes but somehow is still there. Remaining schedule for the teams still scrapping for those last two playoff berths (M3, WC2).

NY Islanders (87 pts, current M3): vs. MTL, at NYR, at NJ, vs. PIT
Washington (85, WC2): at BUF, vs. TB, vs. BOS, at PHI
Pittsburgh (84): vs. DET, vs. BOS, vs. NSH, at NYI
Detroit (84): at PIT, at TOR, vs. MTL, at MTL
Philadelphia (83): at NYR, vs. NJ, vs. WSH

The way this thing has gone back and forth the last couple of weeks, I'm hesitant to make any predictions. Philly looks to be in major trouble, can't get to more than 89 points. Washington just lost to Ottawa and Buffalo so I'm taking nothing for granted there, though the Caps may catch a break with Tampa because the Lightning don't have much to play for an will almost certainly be WC1 unless Toronto flops. Pittsburgh-Detroit is a massive game. Should be a fun final week.

I'm not sure how it plays out, but I did manage to hit the season points O/U bet on the Caps last night!

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Caps are -40 in goal differential. The only teams worse than that in the Eastern Conference are the two bottom feeders: Montreal and Columbus.

Kind of amazing they're in the hunt. Must have a knack for winning a lot of one goal games.

 

[Cosmo]

24 of their 30 regulation losses came by three goals or more. When they lose, they get their asses kicked.

 

[melock]

Caps are -40 in goal differential. The only teams worse than that in the Eastern Conference are the two bottom feeders: Montreal and Columbus.

Kind of amazing they're in the hunt. Must have a knack for winning a lot of one goal games.

And those two bottom feeders just beat the Flyers by a combined score of 15-5. Flyers are cooked. Going to lose 11 straight to end the season more than likely.

 

[The Big Ragu]

And those two bottom feeders just beat the Flyers by a combined score of 15-5. Flyers are cooked. Going to lose 11 straight to end the season more than likely.

The Rangers have the Flyers next. Carolina can still win the division and Boston and Carolina can still win the conference. And I want the Rangers to win the President's Trophy even if the team with the best regular season record never seems to win the cup.

I give Torts a lot of credit with Philly. Talent wise, they are not on par with any of the teams around them in the standings, but they played hard this season. Losing Carter Hart didn't help them. I wonder if he hadn't gotten in trouble if they could have squeezed out a few more wins and gotten one of the wildcards without sweating.

 

[melock]

The Rangers have the Flyers next. Carolina can still win the division and Boston and Carolina can still win the conference. And I want the Rangers to win the President's Trophy even if the team with the best regular season record never seems to win the cup.

I give Torts a lot of credit with Philly. Talent wise, they are not on par with any of the teams around them in the standings, but they played hard this season. Losing Carter Hart didn't help them. I wonder if he hadn't gotten in trouble if they could have squeezed out a few more wins and gotten one of the wildcards without sweating.

Instead of trading for a cooked Erik Johnson at the deadline they needed to bring in a competent backup goalie. They ran Ersson into the ground. A putrid power play hasn't helped. Even just a middle of the road one probably has them with 10 more points.

 

[matt_garth]

 

[Michael_ Gee]

At least it snows in Salt Lake City from time to time.