Official 2011-2012 NHL Regular Season Thread; Puck Drop

[FretlessMainly]

A double post 24 hours apart? C'mon lads, let's keep this going.

Broons dismantle the Sabres and have scored 30 goals in their last 5 games. At +17, they are far and away tops in that statistic, which obviously means nothing in the standings. But, a survey of past teams and standings indicates a clear trend in that department. Let's see how things play out as the B's go on the road later next week.

 

[warwick.hoy]

I heart Milan Lucic.

 

[arbitrary]

I heart Milan Lucic.

ha! No one responded from the Sabres. Miller was pretty whiny afterwards. wuss.

 

[warwick.hoy]

I'm not sure what the rules are about touching a goaltender when the play the puck outside of their crease (I think it should be fair game) but I know the league is protective of goalies.

That charging penalty was a bit of a joke and to be honest,...having only seen one small clip of the hit,...it looked like the contact was pretty incidental and only a result of Miller playing the puck. My feeling is that Miller was likely intentionally trying to draw a penalty.

I'll admit bias since the Sabres are on my S-List for Kaleta headbutting Voracek earlier this month.

 

[MJ5150]

Tough loss for the Pens in Carolina, but it sure was a fun game to listen to. Jordan Staal led the charge back from down 3-0, and Malkin made some good plays to help in the comeback. In the end, Cam Ward came up big to make sure Carolina held on.

Any of you other guys listen to games? I really dig it now, almost more than watching it.

-Mike

 

[dangnewt]

Miller and Lucic were both going after the puck, but Miller got there first. My take is that Lucic did not do enough to avoid Miller and put a bigger hit on him then he should have (although clearly less of a hit than he could have) - perhaps out of some understandable frustration at not handling the puck well enough to get a clean breakaway. What Lucic did is recognizable to anybody who has ever been the parent of two or more children over the age of 3 - that was an "accidently on purpose" hit.

I think Lucic deserves and will get some sort of suspension and fine for this. And this will actually be a good thing for the Bruins. The last thing the Bruins need is for Thomas to be fair game each time he strays from the crease.

Buffalo probably should have retaliated stronger.

 

[jp58]

Game 1000 in the books for the Preds. Hard to believe for me, really. It's been a long road to 1k, I can only hope that we get a cup before getting to number 2k.

Trotz and the team got a 1000th game banner. Pretty nice touch to me, although some of the purists claim banners are only for HoFers and championships.

 

[mkandolf]

Lucic knew who was on the ice and knew he wouldn't have to pay. What's worse, for the rest of the game, no one was put on the ice when he was out there to make him pay.

Whatever happened to goalies who kned how to take care of themselves? Where is that Hextall character? Cheevers? Parent?

 

[dangnewt]

Lucic knew who was on the ice and knew he wouldn't have to pay. What's worse, for the rest of the game, no one was put on the ice when he was out there to make him pay.

Whatever happened to goalies who kned how to take care of themselves? Where is that Hextall character? Cheevers? Parent?

Miller did take a reflexive wild swing with his stick as he was heading down to the ice - fortunately for Lucic (and probably Miller too) he didn't connect.

 

[Darth Handsome]

Lucic knew who was on the ice and knew he wouldn't have to pay. What's worse, for the rest of the game, no one was put on the ice when he was out there to make him pay.

Whatever happened to goalies who kned how to take care of themselves? Where is that Hextall character? Cheevers? Parent?

Different game these days. The players aren't able to police themselves anymore.

 

[warwick.hoy]

Definitely enjoyed last nights PHI@FLA game a lot more then the PHI@TB game.

Lot's of end to end action.

The biggest gripe I've had with the Flyers through that lousy stretch was the lack of cohesion between the D corps and the Goalies. Seemed like a lot of goals against were as a result of the Defensive players trying to overplay the shot.

Flyers Blueliners that have been here a while must have gotten used to needing to bail shoddy goalies out by way of getting sticks on high shots and skates to pucks, an doing so now is deflecting the puck past and otherwise in position goalie.

Seems like now they are starting to figure out that they can have some confidence in their goaltenders and are allowing Bryz to make the saves rather than doing too much.

Here I go complaining about the refs.

I thought the early call on the Zac Rinaldo his was bull. It definitely looked like a violent hit,...but legitimate hit. I didn't see any evidence of a charge which was what the call was. Zac didn't leave his feet,...and you normally look for two strides before the hit,...but Zac was already in coast mode a good ten feet before he made contact.

Also thought the Talbot double minor was a little bull too. They had to look hard to find any blood on Campbell (although I won't complain about the penalty shot and subsequent goal by Matt Read on the ensuing PK) and he was obviously not injured enough to miss the first shift of their ensuing PP.

What was even more annoying was a few minutes later Talbot got high sticked,...an obvious double minor from my house (the evidence was all over the ice) but I guess neither referee saw that. I do chalk that up to the Refs aren't going to see everything,...but come on now.

Flyers need to do a better job staying out of the box,...but the good news is their PK has been pretty excellent as of late. I love what Sean Coulturier is bringing to the PK. The kid is every bit as a good of a defensive forward (at least in his defensive skills) as Mike Richards is.

 

[MJ5150]

Here I go complaining about the refs.

What warwick.hoy post is complete without it???

Seriously, thanks for hanging around and providing your analysis. I like reading it.

-Mike

 

[dwm74]

Been moving the past few weeks but thought I'd catch up on this thread...

Saw Lucic's hit on Miller, but the lack of retaliation from Sabres player was more aggravating.

The no-star Coyotes are starting to play the standard Dave Tippett hockey again...all four lines contributing combined with defensive efforts from everybody on the ice have seen them come up with a couple of nice wins. That shutout in San Jose made up for the stinker they played on opening night there.

The Pens continue to amaze me with their winning while missing big names due to injury. I guess Dan Bylsma's Jack Adams trophy was justified after all, as he's getting it done this season, too.

 

[dangnewt]

So much for my predictions, the NHL says no suspension or fine for Lucic. This is bad news for Thomas and Rask.

 

[mkandolf]

Much has been written lately about Bryzgalov and the Flyers defense getting the feel for each other. They are starting to let him just play the puck and getting confidence all around.

That game the other night just got way out of hand with the refs and their look at us attitude.

 

[Jeff K]

Pretty good effort by the Flyers tonight in Carolina. Giroux had two goals and an assist. I thought he had a hat trick, but apparently Simmonds deflected it because he got credit for it. On the replay, I thought Giroux got it; but I'm sure the officials had better camera angles than I saw.

Scary moment on the goal by Matt Read. He took a sweet feed from Voracek (I think so, anyway) and beat Boucher. (Boucher came in to relieve Cam Ward after Ward gave up 4 goals on about 17 shots.) But Read crashed heavily into the boards and needed help getting off the ice. I hope he's okay.

I'm still concerned though with the amount of times the Flyers fail to clear the puck out of their zone when they have the opportunity. They need to work on that.

On one of Giroux's goals, Jagr fed him a perfect pass enabling Giroux to skate in alone and beat Ward. Nice assist and nice finish by Giroux.

 

[Rage1331]

I didn't even know a thread like this existed on TB. Shows you how much I'm in OT. There goes a few more hours out of my week...

My team (The Avalanche) is having some defensive problems, and maybe some coaching issues. Erik Johnson is -9 and Jan Hejda is -12. Varlamov was played the game right after Giguere had one of his best in the past year, and proceeded to $#!% the bed. Joe Sacco didn't even pull him after 3 goals in 7 shots. At least we finally have a captain, Milan Hejduk.

And the start of the season looked so promising...

 

[warwick.hoy]

Pretty good effort by the Flyers tonight in Carolina. Giroux had two goals and an assist. I thought he had a hat trick, but apparently Simmonds deflected it because he got credit for it. On the replay, I thought Giroux got it; but I'm sure the officials had better camera angles than I saw.

Scary moment on the goal by Matt Read. He took a sweet feed from Voracek (I think so, anyway) and beat Boucher. (Boucher came in to relieve Cam Ward after Ward gave up 4 goals on about 17 shots.) But Read crashed heavily into the boards and needed help getting off the ice. I hope he's okay.

I'm still concerned though with the amount of times the Flyers fail to clear the puck out of their zone when they have the opportunity. They need to work on that.

On one of Giroux's goals, Jagr fed him a perfect pass enabling Giroux to skate in alone and beat Ward. Nice assist and nice finish by Giroux.

Such a sweet pass on that 1st G goal man!

That potential injury on Matt Read was scary as well.

I thought the officiating was horrible again. Prior to the shorthanded goal Jagr had a stick broken as a result of a Cane slash,...no call. If it is called like it should have been, The Canes touch the puck on the ensuing play that resulted in the SH goal by Dwyer,...the whistle is blown and the Flyers wind up on a 5 on 3.

Then the concurrent on Vorecek after Skinner shot the puck on the Flyers net after getting called? A PP opportunity owed to the Flyers negated by a ticky tacky call.

So many slashing penelties on the Canes not seen,...I think there was a high stick that got let go as well. Are these refs out there playing their vaginas or what?

Seriously,...I try to give the refs the benefit of the doubt,...but there is no way these guys are that blind. PP opportunities should have been 8 or 9 for the Flyers; not the 5 or 6 they wound up with.

 

[warwick.hoy]

I didn't even know a thread like this existed on TB. Shows you how much I'm in OT. There goes a few more hours out of my week...

My team (The Avalanche) is having some defensive problems, and maybe some coaching issues. Erik Johnson is -9 and Jan Hejda is -12. Varlamov was played the game right after Giguere had one of his best in the past year, and proceeded to $#!% the bed. Joe Sacco didn't even pull him after 3 goals in 7 shots. At least we finally have a captain, Milan Hejduk.

And the start of the season looked so promising...

Could be worse

Eric Staal -17 (going into tonight's [well last night's] game).

Stick around,...I don't really have much interest in the rest of TB as of late,...but I love my hockey fan brethren that keep this thread alive and it is the only thing that keeps me coming back.

 

[Rage1331]

Could be worse

Eric Staal -17 (going into tonight's [well last night's] game).

Stick around,...I don't really have much interest in the rest of TB as of late,...but I love my hockey fan brethren that keep this thread alive and it is the only thing that keeps me coming back.

Will do. I don't have many people to talk hockey with, even though I live in Canada.

I can't get over how bad the Avs backcheck is recently. And how much they suck at home so far. When they played Calgary on Saturday, they were getting their defence sliced to pieces. Should have been an easy win against the Flames. I feel so bad for Gabriel Landeskog, he works his a$$ off the whole time, and half the team looks like they aren't even trying. If they're not careful, they will lose a potential future great. His line (the 3rd line) is the only consistent one they have right now.

Sorry, I needed to vent. I miss the good years.