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

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

I think this might finally be the year the Panthers win a round in the playoffs after a 25 year drought.

still kinda bitter about the last series they did win tbh

of course you are

the avalanche of rats on the ice, with visiting goalies hiding in the net, is one of my favorite hockey images though

i know i am extremely fortunate among hockey fans -- my late father was long haunted by the 3-0 collapse to the islanders in 1975, but i was much too young, and the last 30 years have been extremely kind -- but those mid-90s penguins teams were just absurdly loaded with hall-of-famers and should have never been thwarted by david volek or scott mellanby the way they were

i highly respect the wings and the avs of that era; less so the devils, honestly

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/blackhawks-chose-chase-tarnished-cup-instead-whats-right/

The Kraken hung a banner for the 1917 Stanley Cup?? Could Seattle sports teams get any farther up their own ass?

I like that the fans are calling themselves the Squid Squad.

A little weird that their TV announcer is John “that’s hockey baby” Forslund, who still feels like the eternal voice of the Canes to me. I guess you can’t ask him to make up 5-6 new catch phrases to use in every game though.

Squid Squad

say that five times fast

kinda wonder if bettman knew that the NFL and MLB would also publicly shit their beds yesterday, but fffffs

really tired of every single shitty sports organization being so incredibly worried about 'distractions'

maybe if you've won a cup it's okay to straight-up lie to everyone?

also if forslund doesn't intone 'let's get kraken' upon every opening faceoff then gtfo

I mean there is a hair metal mighty ducks song

here's the #Blackhawks' new logo, kinda the same except it's looking the other way pic.twitter.com/BgcGcwUOQT

— Steve Ferra (@AbPow) October 27, 2021

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)