Other NHL games 2013-2014 season

[Tico Rick]

Good to see Ted Nolan back in the NHL after being blacklisted for so long.

[mikey287]

Pat LaFontaine is a great hockey guy. He's been coaching youth in the Long Island area, 15 and 16 year olds, really great hockey guy, very well liked. This is about as big of a jump as one could expect really...in terms of non-playing resumes, Lafontaine and I are pretty similar relatively speaking...though he's probably about 1000x smarter than I am. But this is still a huge career jump...youth coaching to running an NHL team. soyouresayingtheresachance.jpg

This is all very interesting...I like some parts of it, I don't like others. Ted Nolan will get these guys playing hard, but is he really a good nurturer for skilled youth? I'm not sure. For a name that is so familiar to us, he really doesn't have that much NHL head coaching experience. A couple years in Buffalo, a couple years for the Islanders, a .500 record more or less. I don't know the finite points of Ted Nolan's player development skills, but that's the kind of coach they need there. Someone that can develop talent, not someone that can get them to play a hard, physical defensive style to pump out a few more wins. Yeah, learning defense is part of it, yeah, winning is part of it. But the last thing you want is to finish 10th in the Wales Conference and Mikhail Grigorenko turns into Oleg Saprykin instead of Alexander Mogilny.

Maybe Ted Nolan had a hand in finishing off Keith Yandle's youth development - in which case, he did a fine job on the offensive skills side. I don't know the answer to that though.

It doesn't sound like this was a plan though, it sounds like this was talked about over drinks and then they decided to change the face of a professional sports team. Pegula had never met Nolan until last night. LaFontaine was only in the picture for about a week. LaFontaine seems to be one of the few that is friends with Nolan in the professional landscape.

I like Pegula, I like his passion for the game and all. But he's got this Michael Scott vibe to him. The last thing he heard is the greatest idea ever.

Side note, I guess I'm wrong that you let the new guys take over before you uproot a lot of players. Dallas let Nieuwendyk make a bunch of deadline moves and got all these prospects and all this and then fired him. Buffalo lets Regier trade Sekera and Vanek for whatever and then they fire him. I guess I can see it both ways, but it seems odd that if their impending doom was imminent that they wouldn't get the chance to make major organizational decisions on their way out the door.

[Gaucho]

Nazim Kadri is such an idiot. He just blatantly ran Backstrom and I hope he gets suspended for it.

[Gaucho]

He won't, of course.

[pens2005]

Anyone else bothered by how tsn is displaying their standings?

It's nowhere near accurate. They have the Pens as the 4th seed even though they are the 2nd.

I'm not getting why that's tsn's default standing.

It's going to confuse the average fan when they lol to see where everyone is.

TSN's standings are identical to NHL.com's.

And the Pens aren't 2nd... they're 4th. Tampa, Boston, and Detroit all have more points than they do.

No...the pens would be 2nd seed so they will be 2nd. See, you are falling for it too.

The standing are not accurately showing how the playoffs would be.

[MRandall25]

The playoff format is different this year.

[shafnutz05]

Nazim Kadri is such an idiot. He just blatantly ran Backstrom and I hope he gets suspended for it.

Terror attack

[columbia]

That's poor form.

[shafnutz05]

That's poor form.

The joke or the hit?

In all seriousness, I didn't even see the second hit until just now. Those are two pretty awful plays in one game. Does he have a noted past?

[Gaucho]

Besides being Lebanese?

[shafnutz05]

Besides being Lebanese?

Are you saying he is on Secretary Bettman's watchlist?

[Gaucho]

I sure hope so.

[Gaucho]

Not really.

[MRandall25]

@reporterchris 19s
NHL players have exceeded 35 minutes of ice time just 10 times since 2007. Three of those were recorded by Ryan Suter in the last week.

[pens2005]

The playoff format is different this year.

Uhhhh, yeah. But both division winners own the top two seeds. The pens (although not for long) would be the 2nd overall seed.

[MRandall25]

I was under the impression the format was:

Division 1, Conference A:
1 v 4
2 v 3

Division 2, Conference A:
1 v 4
2 v 3

With wild card teams from A or B possibly taking up spots 3 and 4 in the other division.

[TheHammer24]

@reporterchris 19s
NHL players have exceeded 35 minutes of ice time just 10 times since 2007. Three of those were recorded by Ryan Suter in the last week.

Wow. That must be limited to the regular season. If it includes the post season, it's just plain astounding.

[pens2005]

I was under the impression the format was:

Division 1, Conference A:
1 v 4
2 v 3

Division 2, Conference A:
1 v 4
2 v 3

With wild card teams from A or B possibly taking up spots 3 and 4 in the other division.

No you would thnk that would make sense but that's not it.

The two division winners are #1 and #2. The 2nd and 3rd place teams in each division automatically are slotted to play against each other. That leaves two more wildcard slots for whoever has the best two remaining records. In that situation the best division winner record plays the worst wildcard and the other division record plays the other wildcard.

It's stupid, it's confusing...it's the NHL!

[PghSkins]

Edmonton Oilers have been shut out in 3 straight home games.

Nice job.

[mikey287]

Yeah and they wasted the best performance of the season from Devan Dubnyk. Not a lot of quality chances either way, but Lehtonen was very sharp early on before Edmonton gave up. Dubnyk held the Oil in it as Dallas continued to fire the puck wide. A rare occurrence this season where Dubnyk isn't perforated for more than three (he only surrendered one) and the Oilers can't light the lamp...even with several power plays including a 91 second 5-on-3.

[shoeshine boy]

I really don't understand why Dallas Eakins hasn't been fired yet. with Buffalo you can pretty much understand why they're losing. they have almost no talent up front. the Oilers though, all those first round picks and they can't score?

[columbia]

I really don't understand why Dallas Eakins hasn't been fired yet. with Buffalo you can pretty much understand why they're losing. they have almost no talent up front. the Oilers though, all those first round picks and they can't score?

see: Pittsburgh Penguins

[PensHckyFan79]

so for Kadri, how do you think punishment comes down. I think he could be suspended for both hits on there own so do they look at it as two incidents or one big one? I can't see him getting less than 3 games but what do I know.

[tfrizz]

I was under the impression the format was:

Division 1, Conference A:
1 v 4
2 v 3

Division 2, Conference A:
1 v 4
2 v 3

With wild card teams from A or B possibly taking up spots 3 and 4 in the other division.

No you would thnk that would make sense but that's not it.

The two division winners are #1 and #2. The 2nd and 3rd place teams in each division automatically are slotted to play against each other. That leaves two more wildcard slots for whoever has the best two remaining records. In that situation the best division winner record plays the worst wildcard and the other division record plays the other wildcard.

It's stupid, it's confusing...it's the NHL!

It's really not that confusing. They've just gone to a divisional playoff system. The only times conference rankings come into effect are (1) placing the wildcard teams into divisions, and (2) determining who gets home ice in the conference final. Based off the current standings, here is how the Eastern playoffs would look:

Round 1 - Divisional Semi-Finals
(M1) Pittsburgh vs Detroit
(M2) Washington vs NY Rangers
(A1) Tampa Bay vs Montreal
(A2) Boston vs Toronto

Round 2 - Divisional Finals
(M3) Winner of M1 vs Winner of M2
(A3) Winner of A2 vs Winner of A2

Round 3 - Conference Finals
Winner of M3 vs Winner of A3

[MRandall25]

Kadri gets a 3 gamer