2012-2013 General NHL Hockey Thread

[SoCalBronco]

Nice 6-3 beat down for PIT. 2 division road wins to start the year. Huge.

[Requiem]

Flying so high.

[gyldenlove]

I have never seen a Mike Babcock team play this stupid, undisciplined and lazy. I understand that the passing game is not going to as crisp as it was, when you replace Nicklas Lidstrom and Brad Stuart with Carlo Coliacovo and Kyle Quincey, you lose almost a year of hockey and you add in several guys who have never played with the team before, there will be some rust. But I have never seen players at this level make so many stupid plays, 4 Red Wings carry the puck out the zone, all skating on a straight line across the ice, nobody curls back and gives a passing outlet, nobody drops to the far boards, they just happily keeps skating in straight lines so one opponent can block all passing lanes.

This Red Wings team is taking so many stupid penalties because of lazy play and poor positioning.

[RedskinBronco]

Originally Posted by gyldenlove

I have never seen a Mike Babcock team play this stupid, undisciplined and lazy. I understand that the passing game is not going to as crisp as it was, when you replace Nicklas Lidstrom and Brad Stuart with Carlo Coliacovo and Kyle Quincey, you lose almost a year of hockey and you add in several guys who have never played with the team before, there will be some rust. But I have never seen players at this level make so many stupid plays, 4 Red Wings carry the puck out the zone, all skating on a straight line across the ice, nobody curls back and gives a passing outlet, nobody drops to the far boards, they just happily keeps skating in straight lines so one opponent can block all passing lanes.

This Red Wings team is taking so many stupid penalties because of lazy play and poor positioning.

I feel like they will have a down year this year and really struggle. Only so much Babcock can do IMO.

They will go as far as Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Kronwall take them. Franzen is always hurt and the other guys are complimentary type guys.

I'm just not sure 40 and 13 have the energy to carry the team. Two guys that are so good and very competitive but I just see Detroit struggling this year.

[SoCalBronco]

I was certainly shocked to see Ken Holland say they might not make the playoffs this year. I could never imagine Holland saying something like that.

[24champ]

Ducks are looking pretty dangerous, granted its only 2 games but they are showing some serious firepower.

Overall, lots of rust across the league and injuries are already popping up. Kings lost Matt Greene for the season.

[Aftermath]

Blues probably my favorite to come out the West. That team is stacked. Add Tarasenko (Tank) and Schwartz to the mix. My god.

[socalorado]

Originally Posted by 24champ

Ducks are looking pretty dangerous, granted its only 2 games but they are showing some serious firepower.

Overall, lots of rust across the league and injuries are already popping up. Kings lost Matt Greene for the season.

Ducks got big. Added some serious bulk, and now they are throwing it around. They also went to 4 lines, and the Koivu line is scorching hot.

[gyldenlove]

Originally Posted by RedskinBronco

I feel like they will have a down year this year and really struggle. Only so much Babcock can do IMO.

They will go as far as Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Kronwall take them. Franzen is always hurt and the other guys are complimentary type guys.

I'm just not sure 40 and 13 have the energy to carry the team. Two guys that are so good and very competitive but I just see Detroit struggling this year.

Franzen has not been playing well since the playoffs a few years ago, he is more than willing to play in that space in front of the net but he doesn't have the reaction time to make big plays in that area and away from the net he is surely turning into Thomas Holmstrom, slow and not very strong on the puck - his decline has really been dramatic.

One problem I am seeing with this team is the reliance on experienced players, there are young players in the system who provide energy and speed, which the roster is very thin on currently, but over the last 3 years we have seen the young players again and again be benched in favour of older and slower players.

Detroit will definitely struggle this year, the team is traditionally slow starters who ramp up this time of year. I think the team needs to rethink a lot of their strategies, especially the special teams seem to to completely out of tune with what is current. The power play has only 1 point man which results in a lot of shots from the half boards where the angle is cut way down and a lot of moving the puck up and down the boards instead of side to side. On special teams the reliance on the tight square formation means giving up a ton of shots from just above the circles since the box collapses completely around the net when the puck is low and then when it is moved back to the point they can't expand quickly enough to get in shooting lanes. If they went with the diamond formation instead and kept one guy higher to harass the point more consistently I believe they could force shots to come from worse angles.

[gyldenlove]

Originally Posted by Aftermath

Blues probably my favorite to come out the West. That team is stacked. Add Tarasenko (Tank) and Schwartz to the mix. My god.

I like the Blackhawks from the West.

[broncocalijohn]

Originally Posted by socalorado

Ducks got big. Added some serious bulk, and now they are throwing it around. They also went to 4 lines, and the Koivu line is scorching hot.

Very much so. Visnousky was shown the door to bulk up on power plays. Getting pushed around doesn't help a high % scoring opportunity. Blowing out Vancouver was huge and still chugging along in Canada against the Flames. Key is selanne still kicking ass at 42 (short season should help) andGetzlaf stop sucking as a captain.

[socalorado]

Originally Posted by broncocalijohn

Very much so. Visnousky was shown the door to bulk up on power plays. Getting pushed around doesn't help a high % scoring opportunity. Blowing out Vancouver was huge and still chugging along in Canada against the Flames. Key is selanne still kicking ass at 42 (short season should help) andGetzlaf stop sucking as a captain.

Rumors abound that the Sharks are looking to dump Ryan Clowe. Cap issues.
Man, if the Ducks could throw a goalie and a player at them , that would be huge. Ducks are literally loaded at goalie. Keep Gibson though.
Hard to trade or move players in the division though.

[Lestat]

the Blues scare the crap out of me in the west. just stacked at every level. no elite goalie but two really good ones.

[oubronco]

Yea Hockey

[SoCalBronco]

Washington looks punch less so far. Bad loss at home to Winnipeg to go to 0-2. Still early.

Philly is a few minutes away from 0-3....in a 48 game season that is not good.

[chadta]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

Washington looks punch less so far. Bad loss at home to Winnipeg to go to 0-2. Still early.

Philly is a few minutes away from 0-3....in a 48 game season that is not good.

3rd game in a row down by a goal in the first 5 minutes, going back to last year i think thats like 20 out of the last 25 games.

As bad as the D has been, Bryz hasnt really been that bad, when you only score 3 goals in 3 games you arent going to win many.

Weve had 4 goals go into our net off our own players, and weve had 3 goals called back by the refs.

This year is already starting to remind me of the year we were so bad we lost the draft lottery. Can we have the lockout back.

[SoCalBronco]

Originally Posted by chadta

3rd game in a row down by a goal in the first 5 minutes, going back to last year i think thats like 20 out of the last 25 games.

As bad as the D has been, Bryz hasnt really been that bad, when you only score 3 goals in 3 games you arent going to win many.

Weve had 4 goals go into our net off our own players, and weve had 3 goals called back by the refs.

This year is already starting to remind me of the year we were so bad we lost the draft lottery. Can we have the lockout back.

I think Briere is still out so thats a factor, offensive production will improve when he returns.

[Requiem]

Sid and Geno are going to be drinking Patron out the Stanley Cup.

[24champ]

Kings blow it in the third period. Oy.

[maher_tyler]

Originally Posted by Requiem

Sid and Geno are going to be drinking Patron out the Stanley Cup.

Have you seen Chicago? They've looked good in all 3 games they've played. Nice win by the Avs tonight. Though I fully expect them to play like ass their next game. If really hope the prove me wrong but its been the same story for the Avs the last 2 years.

[bronco militia]

Originally Posted by 24champ

Kings blow it in the third period. Oy.

the kings first blown lead after two periods in 3 seasons..

GO AVS!

[bronco militia]

ooooof!...the avs lost steve downie for the year with a torn ACL

[maher_tyler]

Originally Posted by bronco militia

ooooof!...the avs lost steve downie for the year with a torn ACL

Seems like the Avs get hit with the injury bug every year. Maybe they need some of those Power Plates.

[SoCalBronco]

Sid with a goal and assist.....unfortunately almost no one else showed up against Toronto.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

Washington looks punch less so far. Bad loss at home to Winnipeg to go to 0-2. Still early.

Because they are a very bad team. 3 bad losses to 3 non-playoff teams from last year.

GMGM sucks. Time to clean house.