Ongoing NHL thread - Part III

[sabresfaninthesouth]

That's really my beef with the current draft lottery system - When there was no hard salary cap and you had some teams spending 70+ million on salaries and some spending less than 30 million on salaries, it was pretty clear that you needed a mechanism to aid the teams that couldn't compete financially with the big boys. However, now that the playing field has been somewhat leveled as far as what can you spend on player salaries, all non-playoff teams should have the same chance at the number 1 overall draft pick or have a chance to move up as high as possible to that number one pick.

The way I see it though is that, with competent management and scouting (which, I know, very few teams have), you can be good for an extended period of time, even in a salary cap era. There are teams that managed to avoid a full-on rebuild and return to the league's top tier extremely quickly.

 

[forty_three]

The league should come here to the 'Hoop, and let us decide which team has the stupidest contract currently on the books and deserves to be rewarded by getting a good player to offset the albatross.

It's only fair.




They could make any arbitrary line in the sand. Out of playoff team with closest goal differential. Least number of major penalties. Highest number of man games lost. Doesn't matter. It will screw someone, and benefit someone.

The best thing is - you win, you are ineligible to go first overall for 5 years. That SHOULD be easy. A first overall pick should fix most teams.

 

[dare2be]

Holy shit, Letang! What a save!

 

[dash]

Isles have clinched a playoff spot.

 

[Dacks]

Great game in Ottawa! Or I should say, great 2nd and 3rd, the first period was a snoozer.

Looks like a few teams clinched tonight, so does that leave Philly, Detroit and Boston fighting for one spot? Do they have any games in common?

 

[esls79]

Engelland is worth every penny of that contract.

 

[dash]

Engelland is worth every penny of that contract.

Shinky with his 1st NHL goal at the Saddledome as well tonight.

 

[dash]

Of course, that Lethbridge born dbag sends the game to OT.

 

[dash]

Oh well

 

[davnlaguna]

Oh well

Sorry that we couldn't beat you in regulation.
But Kings still alive for the division.

 

[dash]

Sorry that we couldn't beat you in regulation.
But Kings still alive for the division.

1991 forever

 

[davnlaguna]

1991 forever

I don't really care about the division. Not even going to be too upset if they end up in third. It is just all the Ducks fans at work thinking the division banner is a big deal. And the Ducks broadcasters mentioning it every 5 minutes in tonight's game.

 

[elocomotive]

Where do you work? Anytime I bring up a logical argument at work I'm labelled feisty.

(I'm sure my condescending tone has nothing to do with it...)

Lol. That comment was not in response to yours, Dacks. Someone said Caps haven't won before as a reason they won't do well this year. I just thought some series from three years ago wasn't pertinent to the current team. Related to that, Florida has sucked for most of it's existence, but this years team is pretty formidable and has played the Caps well.

 

[dare2be]

Engelland is worth every penny of that contract.

I never would have expected to see those words, facetious or otherwise.

 

[pixburgher66]

Great game in Ottawa! Or I should say, great 2nd and 3rd, the first period was a snoozer.

Looks like a few teams clinched tonight, so does that leave Philly, Detroit and Boston fighting for one spot? Do they have any games in common?

Detroit and Boston face off in what will basically be for the final spot. And Detroit plays Philly too, but ultimately I think it comes down to Detroit/Boston grabbing the final Atlantic spot. A lot of moving parts though, especially after Bostons SO loss last night. Basically, the break down is this:

ALL have 91 points
BOSTON- 2 games remaining (37 ROW) vs. DET, vs. OTT MAX points 95
DETROIT- 3 games remaining (38 ROW) vs. PHI, @ BOS, @ NYR MAX points 97
PHILLY- 4 games remaining (36 ROW) @ DET, vs. TOR, vs. PIT, @ NYI MAX points 99

So, Boston did the most damage to itself. Even if they win out, they would need Detroit to lose to one of PHI or NYR because of the ROW advantage. Philly is basically set in that second wildcard, IMO. They'd have to lose 3 of 4 to really be screwed.

To get in BOS-win out, DET lose to PHI or NYR
To get in DET-win out, or win @BOS +win one other, or win vs. PHI @ NYR, and BOS lose vs. OTT
To get in PHI- win 3 of 4, or many other cluster effs of scenarios.

That's probably not even all the scenarios...just what I could think of simply.

 

[dash]

I think you will quickly see Claude Julien being served with his walking papers if the Bruins don't make the playoffs.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I think you will quickly see Claude Julien being served with his walking papers if the Bruins don't make the playoffs.

And he will be hired by the Habs.

 

[dash]

And he will be hired by the Habs.

Oui.

 

[pixburgher66]

I think you will quickly see Claude Julien being served with his walking papers if the Bruins don't make the playoffs.

What's funny is that I don't think he really deserves it. He was given a pretty rough roster. Honestly, if Marchand didn't have this coming out season, they're buried anyway. Not many people had them making it to the playoffs this year...many had them in the bowels of the standings. Now, the end of the season tank job is obviously not acceptable, but Julien will be scooped up in about a nano-second (*cough* MONTREAL *cough*). I guess what I'm saying is the guy probably deserves coach of the year consideration for even having them this close. Their defense is not pretty at all. It's an aging Chara, Krug, and a clusterf*** after that.

 

[bt08]

I think you will quickly see Claude Julien being served with his walking papers if the Bruins don't make the playoffs.

sadly though, can't see this being his fault. Marchand, Eriksson and Bergeron having career years only reason club in even close to making playoffs. Below avg D and goaltending+ total lack of secondary scoring has killed them. Signings of Belesky and Hayes=big disappointments