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2019-2020 NHL Thread - Ice Hockey Baby!!!

Dragonfly

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With preseason NHL hockey starting in less than 10 days, I’m shocked there’s no new NHL thread.
So here ya go.

Who’s going to be the 2019-2020 Stanley Cup Champion?
What are your hopes and predictions for your favorite team?
Which basement dwelling team from last year shakes up the league this year?
Which front runner from last year tanks this year?

For me, and the Flyers, I’m just hoping for some consistency. Our future hopes and dreams lie with the young goaltender Carter Hart. Our fears lie with basically everyone else not really changing.

I feel, as last year, the Flyers will struggle to make the playoffs. If they make it, they’ll get bounced first round. I just don’t see any true reason to believe “this year will be different”.

I hope I’m wrong.

Let's get this going. I need some ice hockey talk.

Florida Panthers? Quenneville. Bobrovsky. Are they a force to be this season?
Will Tampa Bay prove they can actually win a playoff series this year?

And just to get it out there from the start: F The Penguins!!!

:mrgreen:
 
I'm just hoping that the Redwings can do a little better this year. They haven't been doing well at all as of late.
 
First, the Prospects Tournament has started, and most(all?) the games can be streamed I think for free on the Fox sports app. Watching NY/Columbus right now.
 
Dragonfly said:
With preseason NHL hockey starting in less than 10 days, I’m shocked there’s no new NHL thread.
So here ya go.

Who’s going to be the 2019-2020 Stanley Cup Champion?
Click to expand...

St Louis could really repeat. Best team after Xmas last year, and basically same team this year. Tampa will likely be in the mix again, and might bounce back strong after last season's disappointment.
What are your hopes and predictions for your favorite team?
Click to expand...

Detroit will be terrible this year, but things will start to improve next year. The rebuild process is painful, and after depleting the system to keep the playoff streak alive, it will take time, but there is good reason to hope.
Which basement dwelling team from last year shakes up the league this year?
Click to expand...

Rangers. NJD.

Which front runner from last year tanks this year?
Click to expand...

Pitt could be in trouble. Between salary cap issues(if they do not make a move, and they say they are not going to, they will start season with less than a full roster due to cap) and aging stars, they are on the decline.


Flyers are stuck in that inbetween area, not bad enough to get high draft picks needed to rebuild, not good enough to challenge. Getting out of that area is kinda luck based.


Panthers will be in the playoff mix, but they do not have enough to go deep. Remember when Bob was a Flyer and they traded him because they thought they had a better solution to their everpresent goaltending failures?
 
Ikari said:
I'm just hoping that the Redwings can do a little better this year. They haven't been doing well at all as of late.
Click to expand...

Wings will be a bottom 5 team again this year, by design. They are more interested in trading players away from draft picks than winning. Yzerman has a plan(and as a Wings fan, Yzerman being back is godly), and I don't think he is going to rush it. Lots of money will be freed up after this season, so they can start to look at signing free agents.
 
Redress said:
Remember when Bob was a Flyer and they traded him because they thought they had a better solution to their everpresent goaltending failures?
Click to expand...

Bryzgalov. :failpail:


The list of players who were once Flyers, but then went on to be highly successful on other teams is rather long.

Quite frustrating.

I've told numerous folks around me that if you like/love Giroux, Coturier, Voracek, and would prefer to see their names on the Stanley Cup, then the best way to insure that happening is to hope they're traded to another team.
 
The 2019-20 NHL standings as predicted by oddsmakers | Offside

 
Dragonfly said:
NHL Power Rankings - Rating every team heading into 2019-20

#1) Tampa Bay

#31) Ottawa



Generally nothing surprising, but seeing The Carolina Hurricanes position is somewhat questionable to me.
Click to expand...

I seriously think Carolina will be better than that. Gardiner was added after that power ranking list, and that really pushed an already good team in a good direction. Carolina is able to easily trade for an impact forward that they need, and still have one of the best bluelines.
 
Championship game for the prospects tournament is today at 5 EST(FOX sports go app, or youtube). Detroit and Dallas. Been a really fun tournament and Detroit's first round pick from this summer is really making a splash.
 
Youtube live stream for the tournament final here:

 
To provide a little hope for those whose teams didn't make the playoffs last year and a little fear for those whose teams did, it's pretty common for anywhere from 6 to 8 teams to rotate out/in the playoffs each year - that's close to half the playoff teams from the previous year missing the playoffs the following year, so who are the likely candidates?

My primary sleeper team to make the playoffs this year would be Florida - they've significantly upgraded in goal and they've been touted as an up and coming team for a long time but have never quite made it. As a Leafs fan, this concerns me somewhat considering that Tampa and Boston continue to remain strong and the Leafs weren't exactly solidly in third last year even though they had plenty of talent. They'll need a strong start and their moves on defense will have to pay off and the Marner distraction will need to be settled in a much better manner than Nylander was handled last year.

Anyway, all the best to DP's many hockey lovers - enjoy the year and good luck to your team going forward.
 

What is the latest word on Marner?
 
Redress said:
What is the latest word on Marner?
Click to expand...

Nothing - apparently quite far apart - talk of giving him a short term deal that raises annual salary to the Tavares/Matthews level in the third year, lower amounts to begin.

None of the top level RFA's are signing, so I guess there's some "collusion" on the part of teams and/or agents - maybe they're waiting to see if the players' union will trigger new contract talks even though the league declined.

For me, I'm pretty much done with it - I'd rather see Marner traded than give in and if he decides to play the Nylander cards and wait until the last second, I'd let him sit out the entire year on principle - it's not like we've won cups with him in the lineup so far.
 
The Blackhawks are considering just not putting any defensemen on the ice and just going with all forwards. This solves their major weakness of fat, old and slow defenseman.

I mean... it couldn’t be worse than last year, right?
 

I would love to believe that Boston peaked last year, and will quickly fade away over the next few years as the core of that team ages.

I don't think we'll see a repeat of the first round exit from Tampa though. They've got a rather nasty taste to remove from their mouth.
 
Marner signed, 6 years, just under 11 million AAV. This puts Toronto way over the cap, so they will probably have to make a move before start of season(they will have almost 11 million going on LTIR at season start, but are 13 million over cap).
 
Redress said:
Marner signed, 6 years, just under 11 million AAV. This puts Toronto way over the cap, so they will probably have to make a move before start of season(they will have almost 11 million going on LTIR at season start, but are 13 million over cap).
Click to expand...

Earlier reports had Marner turning down an offer of 11 million per over 7 years back in June, so not sure what the hang up was the past 3 months. Although, here in Toronto, Marner was losing the PR battle, badly, with a lot of fans pretty angry with him and his camp not taking that previous offer.

I'm not fully up on the cap issues, although they do have a guy on staff who worked for the NHL head office and negotiated the league's cap language from the last contract and is apparently pretty good at working the loopholes. Just glad it won't be a Nylander like distraction this year.
 

I don't understand why Filpula went back to Detroit. Oh well, I hope Brassard makes a come back.
 
Hari Seldon said:
I don't understand why Filpula went back to Detroit. Oh well, I hope Brassard makes a come back.
Click to expand...

Because they offered, and he is friends with Yzerman. If he does well, he will be traded to a contender. If he doesn't, he can transition into a front office job when he retires. From Detroit's perspective, he has a skillset that should be in demand at the deadline, low cost, and will help mentor the young players.
 
My Wild are unlikely to do well this year (again). The firing of our GM gives me hope, but his (possibly shady) legacy will plague us for years to come. (Mats Zuccarello for five years at $6M/year????) I fear Bruce Boudreau will get fired (or retire) before he gets a team that can perform at a Stanley Cup level. It looks far more likely that we will, for the time being, be stuck in the middle of the pack, unable to gather the talent needed for a Cup run, but also too good to get really good draft picks.

So, whenever the Wild are eliminated I'll be pulling for my reserve team, the Vegas Golden Knights or the San Jose Sharks. Alternatively, anyone but St Louis, Colorado, or a Canadian team (especially Winnipeg).
 
Not just the Bolts, either. I don't think anyone would have seriously predicted that all four division champions would be knocked out in the first round (first time in NHL history). I think the Flames, Caps, Bolts, and Preds will all come back with something to prove.
 

I'm hoping the Caps had their time, and will slowly fade too. Cap spent many years winning division and even Presidents Trophy, yet failed to win The Cup.
They finally won it. Now it's time for them to fall backwards. Hopefully.

Hopefully.
 
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