Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Hannibal]

Next year the streak ends. Bank on it.

No Datsyuk and no cap room to pay for him. That's $7.5 Million of cap room being taken up for nothing. Another $4 million flushed down the toilet on a worthless Franzen and another $1.4 million being paid to Kindl and Weiss for buyouts. In the meantime, we also have $5.3 million going to Howard to be the world's most expensive backup goaltender and Mrazek is due a big pay raise. They will probably have to let him go, use Howard as the starter, and then bring up a backup from GR for $750K. Abdelkader is getting a raise so there goes another $2.4 million of cap space. My guess is that Quincey goes and he gets replaced by a guy making league minimum and at least one or two other middle of the road guys like Dekeyser or Helm are gone as well. Next year's team will be poop unless about four or five young guys like Nyquist, Pulkkinen, Mantha, and Athanasiou make big improvements.

Take away a couple of Holland's recent shitty deals and we would have enough cap money to buy a franchise player like Shea Weber or Alex Ovechkin.

[Hannibal]

You cared about seeing Columbus?.

If Columbus had ever gotten good I think that would have been an excellent rivalry.

[WingsFan]

Datsyuk walked it back a bit today “Everything is possible,” Datsyuk said. “It’s not final decision 100%.”. If not, Holland could be able to trade the Datsyuk contract to a team looking to hit the cap floor, + a prospect (Chris Pronged trade) or be fired. It's all hypothetical it this point, I'm really think the Wings will do better than most in the playoffs and that's the only thing I'm concerned about right now.


One thing that this playoff scenario does is give us a nice, clean bracket. Since there is no longer reseeding you know in advance who the potential opponents are in each round, the Wings wouldn't have to play Cindy or The Capitals (who probably will choke anyway) untill the conference finals.

[iam416]

A 1v8; 2v7, etc w/ no re-seeding cleans things up, too. In a rational way.

Instead, the in the West the 3 top seeds are on the same side of the bracket. In both the E and W, there's a possibility of 1v2 semifinals.

I really don't get it, but, eh, whatever.

[Hannibal]

I haven't been paying super close attention but I think that they do reseed still. It's just the first round that is weird.

[WM Wolverine]

Two best teams in the entire league could play in the second round. Makes no sense.

[Prime2]

Packfan, if I were a Wings fan, I'd be more concerned with Pavel Datsyuk defecting BACK to the Soviet Union or mofo Russia or whatever they call themselves these days then my team backing into the playoffs.

Although Stamkos had surgery to remove a blot clot in his arm (out 1-3 months), Bolts are gonna roll them.

Nice to see some fresh hockey posters, there are many reasons why the NHL ditched their 90+ year-old playoff format which I will address soon.

As you know, in the playoffs it comes down to goaltending, Tampa has it, Detroit doesn't.

Glad to see Talent over here, does he have a permission slip from Liney?

[Hannibal]

I'll be watching this first round but if the games are as shitty and boring as last year (IMHO the worst playoff year since the lockout) then I might be done with the NHL. I'm tired of soccer on ice.

[Prime2]

At least wait until the true Canada Cup/World Cup returns next September in Toronto. World's best-on-best Tournament, the speed & skill will be staggering. Our NHLers will be well-rested, they do give up a couple of weeks of their summer but the honor to play for the Nation supersedes.


New playoff format blows but it has been heading in this direction for years.

Playoffs, 4 rounds, potentially 28 additional games, the hardest trophy in sport to win, hands down. Just to mention a few, the Northeast has enjoyed countless subway series while teams out West must travel 1000's of miles, physically exhausting plus additional operational costs among many other reasons.

https://www.nhl.com/news/realignment-plan-approved-by-board-of-governors/c-660138

ANALYSIS
The Explainer: New NHL playoff seeding format
Top 3 teams in each division gain berths, plus 2 wild cards
By Justin Piercy, CBC Sports Posted: Apr 13, 2016 10:41 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 13, 2016 10:41 AM ET
Now that everyone (well, mostly everyone) is over the shock of new NHL division names, it may be a good time to look beyond the cover of this NHL realignment book to see what it actually means in terms of playoff implications.

Gone is the simple format that sees the top eight teams in each conference gain Stanley Cup playoff spots. Now, there are 16 teams on one side, 14 on the other and 16 playoff spots to divvy up.

This is how the teams would be seeded in their new divisions based on last year's performance. Because they'll play out-of -conference games this season, comparisons to last season are fairly inapplicable. This is purely a mock-up to illustrate what could happen in the upcoming campaign, not an exercise of “what-if.”

Metropolitan Division

1. Z- Pittsburgh
2. Z - Washington
3. Z - NY Rangers
4. NY Islanders (55 points)
5. Columbus
6. Philadelphia
7. New Jersey
8. Carolina

Atlantic Division

Z- Montreal
Z - Boston
Z - Toronto
X - Detroit (56 points)
X- Ottawa (56 points)
Buffalo
Tampa Bay
Florida
Central Division

Z - Chicago
Z - St. Louis
Z -Minnesota
X - Winnipeg (51 points, 22 ROW)
Dallas
Nashville
Colorado
Pacific Division

Z - Anaheim
Z - Vancouver
Z - Los Angeles
X - San Jose (57)
Phoenix (51 points, 17 ROW)
Edmonton
Calgary
Key:

Z – These teams are the top three seeds in their division, and gain automatic entry into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

X – Wild card teams are the teams outside of the top three in their division, chosen because they have with the next highest point totals, regardless of the division. Three seeds can come from one division and five from another.

Matchup breakdown:

The division leader in each conference with the most points plays the wild card team with the fewest points.
The division leader with the second highest amount of points plays the wild card team with the most points
3 & 4 – the second and third seeds in each division face one another in the first round.

This is what the first round would’ve looked like had realignment happened a year earlier:

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh vs. Ottawa
Montreal vs. Detroit
Washington vs. NY Rangers
Boston vs. Toronto
Western Conference

Chicago vs. Winnipeg
Anaheim v. San Jose
St. Louis vs. Minnesota
Vancouver vs. Los Angeles
So that’s what the 2013 playoffs would have started out like had realignment occurred a year earlier, and those teams managed to keep the same records despite facing new divisional opponents.

What do you think of the new seeding system? Is it perfect? Is it flawed? Let us know in the comments and have your say!

[Hannibal]

Bleh. Wings had their chances to win Game 1 but didn't take advantage of them. Couple of really nice saves by Bishop too.

[WingsFan]

Hollands boy Howard needs to stop that first goal, but as usual it's the playoffs and he's just good enough to lose. Ben Bishop looked like the man again as Tatar, Nyquist already are in playoff form. Riley Sheahan was terrible all game, 'Hands of stone' Helm wasn't any better. The ?Euro-Twins? time is clearly over. Note to Blashill - Hank is not in a funk, he's done, he's a liability on the ice. Let him take the opening FO and give him 7-8 minutes on the 4th line. Dats is still good, but just doesn't have the strength to be magic anymore.

The Red Wings need to make Bishop handle the puck more, that's his weak spot and he almost flubed another one last night. I would also put Smith in, at least he can shake things up. Dylan Larkin is clearly looking like an 18 year old kid now in over his head, he is really gripping the stick.


Must win already Friday, good luck with that... Fuck :-( :-( :-(

I just watched the St Louis win in OT over Chicago so that helped my mood.

[Hannibal]

Nyquist missed the net on a golden opportunity. Three or four guys did that while the Lightning hit bullseyes. From where I was sitting, Kronwall had a shitty game too.

Note to Blashill - Hank is not in a funk, he's done

:( Yeah. He's a pale shadow of what he was four years ago, which was a pale shadow of what he was four years before that.

[Hannibal]

We could replace waterboarding with the Chicago-St. Louis game from last night. 1-0 in OT with the winning shot a deflection that goes in off of some guy's skate.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[WingsFan]

I loved it, even better seeing Kane & Co lose after the puck goes in off their own defenseman. Close playoff OT games are great, whether it's 6-6 or 0-0. Actually 0-0 in OT is better drama, who can finally score and game over. Totally disagreement that is soccer on ice, nothing and I mean nothing is more boring than soccer.. and I have giving it more than adequate time to change my mind.

[Hannibal]

I loved it, even better seeing Kane & Co lose after the puck goes in off their own defenseman. Close playoff OT games are great, whether it's 6-6 or 0-0. Actually 0-0 in OT is better drama, who can finally score and game over. Totally disagreement that is soccer on ice, nothing and I mean nothing is more boring than soccer.. and I have giving it more than adequate time to change my mind.

Stop trying to defend shitty hockey.

0-0 games are wretched shit and the league should be in Red Alert mode trying to come up with rules to get rid of them. Defense nowadays is about sticks in passsing lanes, goaltenders playing dump-ins behind the net, and shots hitting bodies in front of the net. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Goaltending is about just squaring yourself to the shooter and taking away the bottom of the net. It's all boring as fuck to watch.