27 YEARS SINCE A CANADIAN TEAM WON THE CUP WILL THIS BE THE YEAR (no): THE NHL 2019-2020 THREAD (INCLUDING BLUES HANGOVER AND OFFSEASON SHENANIGANS. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

prefer to think of them as ‘the team that’s won one cup in 80 years’

Will this Cup have full legitimacy in your (everyone's) eyes y/n?

For me it'll definitely be asterisked, and a bit less than fully legit.

there are so many cup champs whose key to success was "we had a hot goalie with giant pads", 2020 is fine imo

depends, for me. if chicago wins it despite not actually deserving to be in the playoffs, that would be bad. however i can't see myself complaining about, for instance, tampa.

but to a certain extent i feel like it's a truer test than ever. never before have we had playoff teams this healthy. there's no 'we played like shit for four months but caught fire in march' momentum. neutral ice means the western teams aren't being screwed by all the extra travel. absolutely it's a weird situation, but a truly great team (unlike, say, the penguins or oilers) should be able to rise to the occasion.

let’s set some records

Am enjoying listening to the Blue Jackets radio guy who does the broadcast solo. Seems like the game will never end.

seth jones has played 53:20 ffs

This is crazy considering they hadn't played in 4 months before a week or so ago.

i don’t think i’ve ever seen this quality of play for this long. these guys are amazing

Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones played 65 minutes, 6 seconds, the most by any player since the NHL began tracking individual ice time in 1997-98.

Imagine trying to explain this tweet to the January version of yourself. https://t.co/WPhR6S1eeh

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) August 12, 2020

and they've gotta get out there and go again tomorrow afternoon. brutal. awesome.

Tom Wilson is a player who makes me wish for the time of heavyweights.

as in so he'd get smashed more?

As in, where's a Schultz, McSorley, or Brashear to punish him. Of course if no one could end Claude Lemiuex in the golden days of heavyweights I guess Wilson's too much to ask.

I'm getting 2011-2012 MA Fleury vibes from Holtby. He doesn't seem right at all.

Isles <3

Did not expect that comeback after the first half

Isles could be a tough out. Not sure their D is quite good enough, but their forwards scare me. They also got healthy during the break.

Flyers weren't remotely at their best, but found a way to win.

And if you haven't seen Price's stick save on Laughton, it's one of the best saves ever.

Carey Price is absolutely ridiculous. He gets a piece of the shot with his stick when the net was wide open.

Are you actually kidding me!? #Habs #Flyers pic.twitter.com/i0pA1GXCp7

— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) August 13, 2020

*bmx bike skids into frame*

The best save is still richter on bure

that save/game made me cry

https://youtu.be/ulUFtK2xLnY

that leetch won the conn smythe is still baffling to me

here's another great save on bure, pavel's reaction is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyeJOBUI7qY

94 conn smythe should have gone to the post

I can't stand Torts, but you have to hand it to him; his teams play hard, don't give up, and are very resilient.

Wow, Flyers forgot to set their alarms for Gm 2.

beautiful goal by horvat

he's been on another level last few games

well that was a stressful game

islanders forecheck is really quite something

They look great so far! Especially since they were slumping and injured at the pause.

carolina uniforms are so bad that i almost want to root against them

I like the solid red ones way better

Flyers strangling teams with D and winning on soft goals by opposing goaltenders is something new.

Was it wrong to tell my wife that the Flyers getting a good, young goaltender was the sports equivalent of dating a supermodel? Y/N

Every TV shot of Caps coach Todd Reirden seems to be him glaring angrily into space with his arms crossed

whelp somebody activated ovi. he's looked like he's miserable being there til now.

a bloodied gallagher and the habs live to fight another day! and some excellent late night stuff from the canucks!

that canucks game last night was so fun

Sort of shocked that Niskanen only got 1 gm for the crosscheck on Gallagher's face.

i don't think niskanen exactly *meant* to hit him in the face, but . . . hey, that's what he did. and it's not like he hasn't done it before

tbf any time the puck is in the zone for more than seven seconds, everyone starts crosschecking each other and it's never called. whenever announcers talk admiringly about how the net-front presence guys take a beating, it's somehow never mentioned that the beatings are like 75% illegal

lol AV

Alain Vigneault took it up a notch in French: “I don’t know if he aggravated his injury through force of speaking to us and the officials. I’m not a doctor, I can’t say. What I can say is I commented on what I saw. I saw a guy who got up and his jaw didn’t stop moving for 5 min.”

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) August 21, 2020

LOL

his adrenaline was PUMPING at that point

I hated AV when he was with the Rangers but I kind of love him now. Wish Giroux had some of his fire.

despite him coaching some of my least favorite teams i kind of love him since

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxfeFXdwqmA

mookie otm about the cross-checking and non calls, it's something that has long annoyed me