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)

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

when a flyers goalie steals a playoff game we know the end times are truly upon us

lol, I know. I feel like I'm a fan of the 2000 devils.

lmao at Derek Grant patting Nick Suzuki on top of the head in retaliation for Suzuki's head pat on Hart late in Gm 5. Athletes are so petty.

DEREK GRANT REALLY PATTED NICK SUZUKI ON THE HELMET 😂 pic.twitter.com/9q37Rq8awP

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) August 22, 2020

this is fleury’s agent! yikes

pic.twitter.com/FarthdT0eX

— Allan Walsh (@walsha) August 22, 2020

AV's gonna ritually disembowel someone at the period break (one hopes)

Someone needs to go by Giroux and do a welfare check. He may have passed away two weeks ago and no one knew.

I had a bad feeling about the Flyers' ability to handle the Islanders' forecheck. Bad feeling confirmed.

Lol that fourth goal

tbf it is an amazing forecheck

but it's also the kind of thing you theoretically have coaches to solve

pens/rutherford just made a mind-bogglingly bad trade

basically traded their highest draft pick in 13 years + their second-best prospect for a third-line winger who isn't even cheap

Don't like Kapanen or don't like giving up picks/prospects?

xp, ah, both.

i would not be nuking picks or prospects rn if i were the pens

Anyway, Sami Kapanen was one of my all-time favorite Flyers after he played defense in the 2004 run to ECF, so will be sad to watch his son score on the Flyers at every opportunity.

malkin is 34 and crosby and letang are 33 and i get that rutherford has a green light -- for another season or two -- to continue torching picks/prospects. but i'd rather use the first-rounder as the cost of being able to dump jack johnson than being able to acquire kasperi kapanen

in other news, i was not expecting this from the dallas stars

I don’t think *anyone* picked Dallas to win, would be great to see

I am finding I don't enjoy the ups and downs of playoff hockey like I did when I was younger. Shit sucks!

lol otm

and a three-goal lead in the first is a disaster waiting to happen

Yeah, you could see it coming a mile away after the Islanders scored their first goal.

playoff hockey is much much better when you don't care

i didn't even watch the pens-caps series 2016-18 because i hate the caps so much and it was just too intense

Wow!

flyers showing some spunk

i hate spunk

Mookie, why you have to do me dirty like that.

it is my nature

sorry-ish

Going to prolong my anguish regardless.

see! i am innocent

I was pretty sure Couturier wasn't going to play (and he is not), so I wasn't to positive about this game, but Oscar Lindblom is playing in his first game since Dec. 7 and two months since his last cancer treatment and I am hyped as fuck.

Of course I've got Flyers-Devils Gm.7 ECF 2000 Lindros vibes and the ghost of Scott Stevens.

I've really liked AV as a coach but his challenges in this series have been suicidal.

gotta take some shots, so to speak, when you're being outshot 2-1

He's 0-3 on challenges and none of them have even been close.

gotta be aware of the long change in the odd-numbered overtimes

good luck

Pure agony

o no

bzzzzt

GAME SEVEN

27 years since an (Islander) team got to the ECF, really thought they were going to get it tonight.

Yeah.

Flyers have won all their games this series in OT. I'm pretty much good regardless of the outcome of Game 7 because they've shown me some fight in Games 5 and 6.

xp fuck you for even hinting at the existence of david volek

Islanders radio guys are terrific though, pure adrenaline and emotion.

Hahaha I remember being on the couch with my father during the Volek goal, one of the favorite sports moments. Almost made up for the Dale hunter hit. It’s been 27 years of nothing close since.