8 ARMS TO HOLD THE STANLEY CUP THE NHL 2021-2022 SEASON THREAD (INCLUDING LIGHTNING HANGOVER AND KRACKEN SHENANIGANS. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

I wonder if Hextall is really there for the inevitable tear down/rebuild more than anything.

perry to tampa is very heartbreaking

xp i'm still not clear on why rutherford suddenly abdicated in january; i think hextall was just the best available candidate (i cannot explain burke's involvement at all)

pens did win their division and had excellent advanced stats, so i'm not sure tearing it all down because the goaltending was an utter disaster vs. the isles makes sense . . . but of course they haven't addressed the goaltending either

tbh i don't think ownership will allow hextall to tear it down yet. they might not re-sign malkin or letang after next year -- much more likely to let letang go, i'd imagine -- but crosby (and probably malkin?) is there as long as he wants to be. which i'm fine with

Not suggesting they will tear it down yet, just that Crosby/Malkin can't be good for too much longer and then . . . .

i'm still not convinced pens fans' goaltender panic is warranted, but i too am fine with just minor tweaks to the roster cuz i like what so many of them bring and the chemistry has largely been solid. gonna remain butthurt about mccann for awhile though. on the other hand, as a "reba" fan, we have a brock now. HAAIIEEE!

;_;

After a Hall-of-Fame career and 46 years of broadcasting Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Mike Lange will be retiring from his play-by-play duties.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left the building.

Thank you, Mikey: https://t.co/zMePmPrTmM pic.twitter.com/M4jForHpSq

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) August 9, 2021

well scratch my back with a chainsaw, grandma, mikey is retiring!

it sounds like he'll be popping in from time to time on penguins radio to shoot the breeze with the ole two-niner, so that's good.

RIP Tony Esposito

indeed

An MTU Huskies legend

Lundqvist done

also r-r-r-r-r-r-r-ick jeanneret to retire after season

https://c.tenor.com/BOBSv9PBFdEAAAAC/lundqvist-net.gif

Carolina's poison pill offer sheet to the Habs' Kotkaniemi is hilarious.

the pettiness is funny — and i guess it helps distract from both teams drafting or signing assholes this summer — but idg why carolina would trade away a good young goalie, let dougie hamilton walk, then offer $6m for a forward who scored five goals last season

habs should take the picks and use them to get eichel or something

mookie, I am a very petty person.

Yeah, I would probably take the picks. I believe the qualifying offer is 10% of expiring salary, so Carolina will have to offer $6.7M next year to keep his rights. I guess Carolina can walk away if he isn't worth $6M after next year, but if that happens those picks will hurt even more.

really wonder how often restricted free agents are offered offer sheets and *don't* sign them

just reread my post above and qualifying offer is 110% of expiring.

well, i hope the hurricanes are happy now!

Big Z back to the Island after a 20 year break.

i admittedly cannot say lou has done a bad job on the island, but he really does like his old guys

It's true, Isles have to be the oldest team in the league now. No one thinks the final piece to getting this team to the finals is 44-year-old Chara and J.P. Parise's 37-year-old son, but with flat cap + everyone overpaying for D-men, I'm ok (although not thrilled) w/taking a chance on them for a year.

The Red Wings have a player named T-BONE CODD at tryouts.

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/529226/davis-codd

His real name is Davis but who cares

I don’t think demoting your franchise player ever ends well

https://www.nhl.com/news/jack-eichel-stripped-of-buffalo-captaincy-placed-on-ir-with-neck-injury/c-326273214

no idea what they hoped to accomplish besides making everything worse and reducing their leverage

buffalo deserves so much better

i'm pretty excited for today's canucks-kraken game. i'm curious how much kraken is going to try to push the canucks around this season

there are two players on opening-night rosters who were born in 2003

Do they even remember 9/11

kraken have a bunch of their top forwards out for covid protocol already, does not bode well for tonight.

it is wild to see hockey featured in the top spot on espn dot com

love to see one’s team get three empty netters

Yeah I don’t fully get why the bolts pulled the goalie so early and so often.

Looking forward to seeing the two new arenas this year.

excellent game, pens

sounds like things might get a little chippy in DC tonight

Couldn't happen to nicer teams.

Gretz is not TV ready

The #leafs don't have the cap space to call up a goaltender to take Petr Mrazek's spot behind Jack Campbell tonight. They will likely sign U of T goalie Alex Bishop to an amateur tryout to back up Campbell.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) October 16, 2021

Should sign the zamboni guy who had to play against them as the emergency goalie

ITL manon rheaume does analysis for DET

evander kane is a real piece of work

Details are sketchy. What happened?

Defector and others saying it was a fake COVID vaccination card

thought they wouldn't notice. he bet wrong.

i really don't understand why anyone would bother to do this

the whole olympics thing has me worried, as well

if i recall correctly, i think half of the players on the canucks got covid

if something like that happens now, they would probably suspend all nhl games

sabres: unstoppable

Hahah I was thinking the same thing. Good for them.

lol leafs

i don't even know who these guys are

i absolutely love that garland gave that kraken fan the stink eye

nucks played a bit sloppy at times, but they got a w

blackhawks are 0-5-1, have been outscored 27-12, and seth jones is a -9

Good stuff. Love watching the Probert/Clark vid but the aftermath is such a bummer

love sean mcindoe

also love all this first-ballot Canucks HOF class

Wings hire Derek Lalonde as head coach, I like it.

mike grier is about to become the first black general manager in NHL history (with the sharks)

i couldn't imagine that hughes and gorton would ever choose juraj - from what i had read, he seemed totally outclassed by several of the other top 10s

but even still, and as a habs fan, i love the chaos of all this

hope the dach thing works out though, romanov was a darling

kinda think Juraj had the highest ceiling, idk

loving the Canucks pick

Flyers manage to find someone in the top 5 to draft who has skating problems smdh.

Then the Flyers just traded three picks for scumbag Tony DeAngelo. I'm done with this team and I am actively rooting against them now.

#ThatSealsTheDeal

Pens refusing to break up their core. Might work? Seems like they could some more young guys.

Johnny Gaudreau is apparently leaving Calgary to be closer to family. Which means either Philly (they have no cap space), the devils (tons of cap space) or the isles (I can only dream).

1) asking 75+ regular season games from both Syd + Malkin and then run the table against other, younger teams seems... unlikely.

2) Gaudreau leaving Calgary to join one terrible team (Philly) one team stuck in liminal space (isles) or one plucky team that is still maybe 3 years out with flabby goaltending is WILD to me

having a core that old isn't ideal, but the other options were worse. they weren't going to find a point-per-game second-line center better or cheaper than malkin at $6m. they weren't going to find a #1 defenseman who plays 23 minutes a game and is coming off his highest-scoring season who is better or cheaper than letang. rust is also a deal at $5m.

those guys weren't the reason they've lost five straight playoff series (the last two were absolutely due to goaltending), and i don't think those salaries should prevent them from addressing other needs. (really wish hextall hadn't extended jeff carter last year tho -- he fell off a cliff in the second half of the season.)

also it would have been pretty painful seeing malkin in another sweater.

the only takeaway i have from gaudreau is that he must fucking hate calgary, or darryl sutter, or something

also we need a new thread jimmy

i mean the pens are going to be utterly fucked when crosby retires no matter what happens; not much point trying to cushion the fall with half-measures now

yeah I was thinking the same thing—-the rebuild is on hold until Crosby retires

we're getting into the 'for how much?' part of the day

e.g. the flyers just gave nic deslauriers (8-5-13 and 113 PIM in 81 games last year) a four-year deal at just under $2m per

columbus just gave erik gudbranson (6-11-17 in 78 games last year) four years at $4m per

just insane shit

None of these deals are brick stupid yet i usually wait until something truly crippling happens

That Deslauriers deal is incredible. The guy has never scored 20 points.

OK then

50-PERCENT CAPACITY IN PHOENIX: THE NHL 2022-2023 SEASON THREAD (INC AVALANCHE HANGOVER & SALARY CAP SHENANIGANS. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)