Interesting during the Blackhawks home opener, the backup goalie was introduced and skated out in full pads. Brad Richards was the last player introduced and he got a huge applause.
The Dallas Stars are morons for starting their backup goalie, Anders Lindback, tonight. A well deserved loss. You don’t start a backup goalie in the second game of the season.
Well, Toronto won a game and so did Ottawa, miracles do happen.
So far the Most Undefeated Team is Montreal, having won three; they face Tampa Bay today, a tough test to go 4-0. Too many teams to list are 2-0.
Note: I’ll just get this out of the way now, but it remains an absolute travesty and an offense to sport that an NHL team can be awarded a “point” for losing a game. Thanks for listening.
I was perfectly fine with regular season games ending in a tie. Apparently the tie game ended with expansion into the US market, at least that’s the word on the street, Johnny.
I don’t know why ending in a tie is apparently so verboten in the US.
Ties suck. I hate ties, and I’m as Canadian as anyone I know. The NHL has been trying to eliminate ties in steps for a long time now, and the steps don’t appear to have much connection with expansion into the USA; of course, the NHL has been mostly American for longer than either of us has been alive, anyway.
5-minute overtimes were reintroduced to regular season play in 1983, and the shootout was added in 2005. It’s kind of hard to demonstrate a correlation between those dates and more NHL expansion.
In any case, ties or no ties, a team should not get a point for losing a game. You lose, you lose. Teams should be ranked according to the number of games they won. If you want a point for not winning, vote to bring back the tie.
I had heard that they were considering a seven minute overtime with a switch to 3-on-3 at the first stoppage after four minutes. Are they testing this at one of the lower levels or did it die in committee?
I’d favor a three-point system so all games would be worth the same total points with overtime games going 2-1 to the eventual winner.
I’d love to see that 3-on-3 scenario. I saw a couple of games last year that had a short 3-on-3 situations in an OT, and it was pretty wild to watch. It’d probably cut down on shootouts, and I’m all for that.
I’d really like to see them go with a point system where it’s 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for an OT win, and 1 point for a shootout win. You don’t win the game, no points for you.
I’d be totally ok with going back to two for a win and 1 for a tie. You lose, you get nothing. Good day, sir.
Gimmicky subsets of player combinations and shootouts can suck it.
Fuck, Pascal Dupuis was cross-checked in the back by Alex Gologoski, and then took a puck to the neck. They had to take him off on a stretcher (he was conscious, at least). Jesus Christ.
I really like shoot-outs, but I’d be cool with it if they decided to ditch it in favor of continuing over time (like in the playoffs).
No ties, though. Ties suck.
The cross check was not any worse than happens hundreds of times a week in the NHL. It was a fluke that the puck hit Dupuis where it did, but his injury had nothing to do with the cross check.
I didn’t say it was, I was just reporting what happened. I don’t think of Gologoski as a dirty player, nor do I think it was a particularly viscious hit. But it was a freak accident, and it was scary to witness. Especially since Dupuis lost how many games last season because of injury to his knee – right around the playoffs?
Great game for the Wings against the Metrically sucky Leafs. They finally played the game that they needed play for the last three years. Full of energy, hard on the forecheck, fighting for every puck, and making the other team fight to hold the puck at all. With a young team, fast and aggressive that is what they need to do every game, but
can they do it for the rest of the year?
But the big news here is rumors of the Tyler Myers trade. Yeah it would be nice to have him. but the price? Not for me. Nyquist is looking like a serious big time deal, and Mantha has been my man-crush since before the 2013 draft, and Tatar once he’s on a line with the other two makes a 10 year HOF line(yes I am calling it now).
The Sabres can have the rest, but not those three If I was GM.
10 God damned motherfucking cock sucking seconds away from the shootout. Fuck me up the ass with a bastard file.
ETA: Ahem. This is for the Saturday night game: the second of the home-at-home series.
ETA Again: How does one Metrically suck?
Ten minutes of OT, 5 on 5 hockey, after that, it ends in a tie. 2 points for a win, 1 for a tie. No more stupid gimmicks like 4 on 4, 3 on 3, or shootouts. What’s next, picking 2 random fans to play goalie during overtime?
LOL!
Dude there’s a whole lot of hockey left to play, you’re gonna burst something if you’re this upset already 
I’d be totally okay with this, except I’d do a full OT period. Twenty minutes.
I really don’t understand why OT is limited to five minutes. I can very much understand not wanting to have playoff style OT where a team could play three straight overtimes and be hopelessly beat for a game the next day. But professional athletes should be able to play a fourth period.
Network TV needs their revenue stream: news, commercials, late night shows, etc.
The Canes are in a dogfight with the Oilers and Sabres for Conner.
Um, The NHL expanded into the US in the 1920’s.
I had no great expectations for the Canes this year. The early injuries reinforced my feelings(although it’s funny that with both Staals out, we lead the league in faceoff%)
At least do not do a full-period of OT like in basketball. Sudden death, please. Much, much more nerve wracking. That’s one of the best things about hockey.
As for the OT situation, I like the current format because if you’re tied at the end of regulation, you didn’t lose. Granted, you didn’t win, but you didn’t lose either. So each team gets a point for the regulation tie, then you skate for 5 minutes and possibly shoot out for the remaining point.
As for predictions, well, my beloved Blackhawks are a heavy favorite again (duh) but I think the surprise team of the NHL this season will be the Minnesota Wild. They had a good run last year, young and hungry, and I think they’ll go deep in the playoffs.