++Official++ 2013/2014 NHL Regular Season Thread

[AMDZen]

Avs crush Oil to become the ONLY team in the NHL this season to beat all 29 other teams in the league.

Quite the accomplishment.

Thanks to the Caps last night for pwning the Blues. Blues are struggling at the worst possible time. They are having considerable issues scoring.

Hawks lose tonight, or the Avs just have to win 1 more of their next 3 or even just get one point in 2 of them, and the Avs lock their spot ahead of them. However, now that the Blues might be struggling to score and the Avs are only 2 points behind them - getting first in the division is a REAL possibility.

Exciting times to be an Avs fan. Regardless of what they do in the playoffs, this was a fantastically successful season. No matter what happens now the Avs young stars will get playoff experience to use in their careers going forward. And everyone around here honestly believes the Avs have a REALLY REALLY good chance of getting out of the first round. Chicago or whoever. I doubt they will do much more then that, but winning a series right now would be epic.

We will still have:

One of the most successful seasons in Franchise history
MacKinnon WILL win the Calder Trophy
Roy SHOULD win the Jack Adams Trophy
Varlomov will at least be in the running for the Vezina although I realize he probably won't win it.

Exciting times indeed

 

[KMFJD]

Wings clinched a 23rd straight playoffs today with OT loss to the Penguins, pretty damn good considering their injury's this year

 

[KK]

Wings clinched a 23rd straight playoffs today with OT loss to the Penguins, pretty damn good considering their injury's this year

yeah, glad to see letang back out there. Can't wait for malkin to be back out there also.

 

[Michael]

Habs lose in OT to Chicago on a late tying goal and then a "knuckle ball" shot tha eludes Budaj. Still get one point out of it but they failed late and could have had two.

They are trying to rest regulars but they need to be careful about momentum going into the playoffs as well.

Michael

 

[AMDZen]

That shootout with Jussi Jokinen was redick

Funniest thing was then the dude goes back to the bench without even so much as a smirk on his face, all serious like he meant to do that or something. LOL

Habs were oh so close to sealing it for us, will just have to do it tonight in Vancouver

 

[Wingznut]

 

[Wingznut]

That shootout with Jussi Jokinen was redick

Fleury made two phenomenal saves also.

 

[iRONic]

C'mon, Red Wings! You know what needs to be done...

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

wings/pens was fun to watch.

ducks clinched the pacific last night, forcing SJ into a nightmare first round matchup with the kings, who everyone was trying to avoid.

 

[n7]

wings/pens was fun to watch.

ducks clinched the pacific last night, forcing SJ into a nightmare first round matchup with the kings, who everyone was trying to avoid.

Yeah, going to be an epic battle between LA and SJ.

I consider both those teams better than Anaheim, but after they are done beating each up, who knows how they'll do against the Ducks (assuming they win their matchup against Dallas/Phoenix).

 

[n7]

Man the playoff positioning race is going to go down till the last games it looks like.

If the Avs can stay in 1st in the Central, firstly, wow, and secondly, that means STL vs. CHI :awe:
Of course, that means two of the best teams in the west will then be gone after the first round (SJ/LA/CHI/STL).
What a first round that would be though. :twisted:

PHI and COL might switch wildcard spots, with DET ending up somewhere in 7th or 8th.

 

[gorcorps]

Man, this is nuts. I wish I could see the Avs out here

 

[Train]

Ryan Miller (STL): Allowed 4 goals on 13 shots; .813 save pct over past 3 games (12 goals on 64 shots).

Wake up buddy, it's almost playoff time.

 

[AMDZen]

Blues are in a rut. Avs are on top of the mountain and look to want nothing to do with comping back down.

The stats and records thrown around last night were crazy. Lets see if I can remember:

Varlamov now has the franchise leading 41 wins on the season. The previous owner of that record now coaches the team obviously, that team Roy won 40 with won the Stanley Cup that year (2001).

Avs are the #1 team in the league in road wins with 26, next is the Rangers with 25 then St Louis and Anaheim with 24 each

Varlamov is a stat defying 8-1-1 when facing at least 40 shots in a game. The more you pepper him the better he plays.

Varlamov is #1 in the league in wins with 41, MAF is the next best with 39

There were lots of others but I can't recall.

Any way, thanks to my temporary favorite team the Minn Wild in taking the Blues to their 4th loss in a row. Good job guys.

You couldn't ask for a better storyline thus far, and better still if we go into Anaheim with 1st place on the line. Season started with Ducks, it'll end with the Ducks.

Funniest of all the Avs only went up 1 spot (to 9th) in NHL.com's Power Rankings.

 

[Train]

^^ Let's not kid ourselves. Avs are hot because they have a bunch of single digit draft picks. As Babs put it when the Avs were in town: "Colorado is good because they sucked for so long"

Roy could have played angry birds on the bench all year and gotten as many wins.

 

[VoteQuimby]

^^ Let's not kid ourselves. Avs are hot because they have a bunch of single digit draft picks. As Babs put it when the Avs were in town: "Colorado is good because they sucked for so long"

Roy could have played angry birds on the bench all year and gotten as many wins.

Worked for the Blackhawks

 

[KMFJD]

^^ Let's not kid ourselves. Avs are hot because they have a bunch of single digit draft picks. As Babs put it when the Avs were in town: "Colorado is good because they sucked for so long"

Roy could have played angry birds on the bench all year and gotten as many wins.

Why did they suck so bad then before Roy became coach? He definitely should be coach of the year.

 

[iRONic]

Goalie wins award

Road wins award

The ONLY team in the NHL this season to beat all 29 other teams in the league award

 

[mugs]

Goalie wins award

Road wins award

The ONLY team in the NHL this season to beat all 29 other teams in the league award

And the only one that matters:

 

[AMDZen]

^^ Let's not kid ourselves. Avs are hot because they have a bunch of single digit draft picks. As Babs put it when the Avs were in town: "Colorado is good because they sucked for so long"

Roy could have played angry birds on the bench all year and gotten as many wins.

Ya OK. How is Edmonton doing over there with their top picks? They had 3 #1 overalls

Taylor Hall #1 overall 2010
RNH #1 overall 2011
Yakupov #1 overall 2012

Plus they have #2 overall this year and who knows, might win the lottery like the Avs did last year. Seems to me they should be doing well over there regardless of who is coaching them based on your logic.

Why is it that Sacco couldn't do anything with the same team sans MacKinnon? He was a terrible coach, thats why.

The Avs basically only had 3 high draft picks.

Duchene #3 overall 2009
Landeskog #2 overall 2011
MacKinnon #1 overall 2013

Pittsburgh had 4 in the top two to get their cup

MAF #1 overall 2003
Malkin #2 overall 2004
Crosby #1 overall 2005
Staal #2 overall 2006

Four picks in the top 2 versus Colorado's 3 in the top 3. And they weren't all in back to back years like Pittsburgh. We also got RoR in the second round, Stastny in the second, and made some shrewd trades in the EJ deal and Varlamov deal just to name two.

Blackhawks also had this scenario play out with Kane #1 and Toews #3. Blues had EJ #1 and Pietrangelo #4, the former of which was key in a trade, more so for the Avs but Shattenkirk is great too. A different example would be Boston who had Kessel #5 overall whos trade was instrumental in their continued depth. Getting Seguin #2 overall and Dougie Hamilton #2 overall in 2010 and 11 respectively. They weren't part of the 2011 cup win but pieces from the Kessel trade were part of it and pieces of the Seguin trade are part of the reason they are still a contender. Insurgence of talent.

Why hasn't it worked out for Atlanta/Winnipeg?

Zach Bogosian #3 in 2008
Evander Kane #4 in 2009
Alexander Burmistrov #8 in 2010
Mark Scheifele #7 in 2011
Jacob Trouba #9 in 2012

That is a problem with NOT being bad enough for 5 strait seasons I guess.

How about Florida, what is their deal?

Erik Gudbranson #3 in 2010
Jonathan Huberdeau #3 in 2012
Aleksander Barkov #2 in 2013

They should proabably be coasting to greatness too regardless of who is coaching them, based on your logic.

Bottom line is I might agree with you if the Avs were simply having a decent season. They are not. They are having an incredible season. Ridiculous season!

Roy has obviously contributed to the Avs success, even if it has also been their high draft picks. Something Pittsburgh should understand about Dan Bylsma and now they want to run him out of town if he doesn't win the cup this year. Probably just the fanbase and most vocal national media out of Pitts but still. He is a great coach and they would be stupid to lose him. Based on your logic Bylsma didn't deserve it in 2010-11 when he won the Jack Adams. He had 4 #1 or #2 picks from 2003 to 2006 not to mention the generational talent that is Crosby so he sure as hell didn't do anything and could have played video games on the bench and won a Stanley cup.

Quinnville is also part of the biggest reason for the Hawks success regardless of their picks. How have the Rangers done lately with all their talent? Seems to me by paying for every top end FA like they do any coach should make that a winner every season. I could go on and on with examples.

Sure, your Redwings are good even though they haven't always had the best draft picks so you're jaded and think every organization should be perennial contenders but the truth is the best way is to be bad for a few years so that you can get the best players out of the draft. Or make shrewd trades like Boston did to make sure you have great draft picks to replenish talent. Avs have done both and aren't even close to their prime. Every key player is 25 or younger sans Stastny at 27 whom we might lose any way.

 

[AMDZen]

Goalie wins award

Road wins award

The ONLY team in the NHL this season to beat all 29 other teams in the league award

Thanks for being a dick about my excitement for my team. I'm regretting giving the Bruins a lot of credit in my last post about how they've managed trades in the last few years. But oh well.

I guess I shouldn't expect differently from you lot of assholes.

All I've done is show excitement on genuine accomplishments, a lot of which are pretty incredible, all of which you would probably think as well if it was your team who had accomplished them but instead lets just be a dick instead of congratulating the Avs on a great regular season.

The Stanley Cup is awesome but its not like I think the Avs will win it this year, however they have shown some great steps this season in showing that they should be SERIOUS contenders soon. It doesn't mean they didn't accomplish anything this season so no, the cup isn't all that matters. A lot of times teams need to make steps to get there. Playoff Experience is important for future runs.

Instead its "OH the Avs were shit for all of 3 seasons and Roy doesn't deserve shit for coaching a team with 3 top 3 picks" and bullshit like this. Stay classy ATOT!

 

[JujuFish]

Thanks for being a dick about my excitement for my team.

Your sense of self esteem seems to hinge upon the success of your favorite sports teams, and it makes you come off as quite obnoxious at times.

 

[Train]

lol, ya I'm not reading that wall of text.

Avs are good because of draft picks. That's my story an I'm stickin to it. Sorry if this fact makes you butt hurt. Pens made two cup appearances on draft picks, Hawks did the same. Avs, assuming they can keep that group together and under the cap, will probably do the same within a few years.

 

[KK]

Your sense of self esteem seems to hinge upon the success of your favorite sports teams, and it makes you come off as quite obnoxious at times.

Amen, and they call pens fans obnoxious.

 

[Michael]

Habs win but home ice advantage against the Lightening is still not decided. Wings get the Bruins round 1.

Michael