NHL 2024-25 Playoffs your team (s)?
Early_Milled_Latin_America
Posts: 6,273 ✭✭✭✭✭
What teams are you taking for in round 1:
Winnipeg
Montreal
Ottawa
Edmonton
Colorado
Do not care for the remaining teams minus Toronto but I prefer Ottawa over Toronto. If Toronto wins I am OK with that as well.
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As a Penguins fan, my horse isn’t in the race. Don’t care for any of the Eastern Conference teams… pulling for Minnesota because of the Fleury link. If not them, then I’ll pull for Winnipeg - maybe time to finally end Canada’s Cup drought (and I’ll be fine if McDavid never touches the Cup).
Jim
Have been a Pens fan since the early 1990's but they do not seem like a playoff contender anymore. They will have to rebuild once Crosby and Malkin retire. Mario Lemieux was my favourite player.
GO WILD!
GO Celts! 🍀😅
I'd like to see Edmonton win it for McDavid
As I noted in another thread and predicted months ago, the Vilde’s fast start was over blown, they then had injuries and struggled throughout the season and barely made the playoffs. And OUT, in Round 1. They have a strong defense and a great goalie pair, but they need a couple more strong scorers to make the next step.
My Oil as usual lost the first 2 games, then figured out the opponent and went on to a 4-2 series win against the Kings. That is what, like 4 times in a row they played in Round 1 and the Oil won them all. Ouch, King fan and players must be freaked right now.
Oil win in Round 2? At this point in depends on the goalies. Skinner has been skinned alive for the past month, his head problems have come to the fore front. Oil also completely went in reverse after the 4 nations break, and have slowly regained the mid-season momentum they had. McD and Drais were hurt alot in the last month, maybe a good thing for the rest of the team to step up. I am not confident they can continue but am hopeful. Goalie(s) must step up.
Well I still a bunch of team left for round 2:
Winnipeg
Edmonton
Colorado (still in round 1)
Toronto
so you came out of hibernation immediately after Joe's Wild were beaten to thumb out more of this act, Cool....you clearly weren't sitting on that one or anything
Let's do the usual cleanup on your Operation Misinformation act: The Wild's D wasn't a "strong defense", it was already thin on the blueline due to their cap recapture situation, and even moreso when your 2nd and 3rd best defensemen (Spugeon and Brodin), and your shutdown/best defensive forward (Joel Eriksson Ek) miss half the season with injuries. Then throw in Kirill missing half the season as well.
The Wild allowed the 2nd worst high danger shots against (the area where nearly 3/4 of all goals are scored from). Their penalty kill was 3rd worst in the league and they averaged nearly 30 shots allowed per game (8th worst). But other than that, yeah, it was a strong defense, according to no one. BTW, Minny allowed 2.88 goals per game. Guess which team from the Great White Draconian Wonderland allowed 2.87?
Wild had a great season with 14 million dollars in dead cap. Team got bigger and it looks like Buium is going to be a good one! Yurov and Jiricek should make the team next year too.
Rumor has it Rossi might not be resigned. He's really small, but a good scorer and a center. Boeser might want to come to Minnesota, he would be a quality addition. One concern is goalie prospect Wallstedt, he didn't have a very good season in Iowa. That team wasn't very good.
Anxious to see what happens this off season.
GO WILD!
Since ATL doesn't have a team and the Wings aren't in it, gimme Colorado since I lived out there for a bit back in the 90s.
Game 7 tonight taking for Colorado over Dallas.
Colorado is out that sucks!!!
Never bet against the Dallas Stars in a Game 7; they always find a way. Sort of like the way Colarado always finds a way to blow a Game 7.
The Stars could beat Colorado even while missing their top defenseman and top forward, but I really hope Heiskanen and Robertson are back very soon. Go Stars!!!
I assume you mean a trade or something. No way they'll take him to arb and then walk away from his contract for nothing. But seeing as he was bumped down to the 4th line and had his ice time cut late in that series I could see them not extending him or essentially doing a sign and trade of some sort. He did fall off in the second half (largely due to Kirill's injury) and he struggled in the playoffs but I can't imagine his market soured that quickly.
Boeser is a guy you'd like to have, but at what his price will come in at (and someone desperate will give him 6 or 7 years) and him now pushing 30, I'd probably stay away. If Rossi is gone, they'd either have to move Boldy back to center or essentially move out Rossi for another center. Free agents will be Matt Duchene (who largely played RW in Dallas), your old friend Mikael Granlund, Brock Nelson, and John Tavares. If Rossi goes, I'd suspect local buzz to include calls for Nelson, but he's aging too (33)....might regret that one as well unless he's open to home state discount on a 3 or 4 year deal.
I get the feeling Guerin doesn't like Rossi because of his lack of size.
I like Marco, he's got scoring talent and he plays every game and plays hard in both ends. He IS really undersized. The Wild (Guerin) seem to have decided to get bigger, and it's hard to blame them. Unfortunately, younger big guys who can skate and score are really hard to find.
From your post, it looks like there's not much on the free agent market in the way of centers this year. Granlund is a nice player, but small. The others you mention are either old or not really centers. I heard Rossi turned down a 5 year $5M a year offer to stay here. Someone will pay him more than that, I would think.
If they trade him for a center, I don't know who they would get, but if we want a bigger, better guy, we are going to have to give up more, and maybe get an older player? Lots of the better players have no move contracts.
Tavares looks like a PERFECT fit, but he's 35 years old.
Boeser's not a center, but he would really help the team. He's still got some gas in the tank.
It will be interesting to see what Danila Yurov does when he gets here. They keep talking about him being really good and a center, but it looks like he has been playing wing.
If Jiricek can live up to what we gave up for him, and Buium is as good as advertised, the Defense should improve. Wallstedt had a poor year in goal, so back up goalie might be a concern.
GO WILD!
There may be some others available in FA. You never know who may get bought out prior to July's free agency...typically older players or those who have fallen out of favor - such as when Duchene and Ryan Johansen both got bought out a couple years ago in Nashville. If they were going to move Rossi out, that would probably be the prudent way to go. Pick up a bought-out veteran on a one year deal and sort of keep things as is for this coming season and then see if the Jiriceks and Buium and Wallstedt and other young players can stick for a full season. They're not just one or two players away right now so I wouldn't be throwing away money. I'd wait for the following season. From what it sounded like in the post-loss day after media scrum, Kirill sounded open to possibly extending on July 1. Maybe that's just agent speak, but it's better than the alternative "we'll see what happens" type of responses we normally get from players.
Those home state homecomings just haven't really worked out for Minny. Pominville, Vanek (while an Austrian, was a Gopher (and married a Gopher) and was living there in the summer when he was an Islander) so he was sort of a hometown acquisition. I wouldn't put Parise in that category, but some with a recency bias might. Regardless, the former didn't work, and a cautionary tale to overpaying guys in their 30's. Especially one with some issues on the defensive side. Nelson fits the WIld better than Boeser. Just depends on the length of the contract. He took an undervalue contract with the Islanders ($4m), so I don't know if he'd be looking to take another one.
I'll never understand the Vanek experiment. They brought him in to help the offense, power play needed improvement and he was on the 2nd unit.
Everyone bitched about his defense, but he was a "pure" scorer type. I saw him do a lot of great things, but it didn't seem to be a fit.
As I said from the onset of the season, if they can get 2 more great O players, the Vilde will be a force next year. They have the D, they have strong goaltending, and the Karp is getting better. But, you should be happy about the Vikes, their future looks extremely good.
Wow!!!! Where did that come from? Stuart Skinner, who looked awful in the first 2 games against LA, so bad that he was demoted, and Captain Pickard took over the run the ship, and then won 6, in a row. But what happened here? Well it all started after the OT goal in Game 3 against the Days, where Stuey was in there in replacement of an injured Captain Pickard. There were several D bungles by the Oil that led to that that goal that won it for the Days. After that, the Oil hunkered down for 2 games and Stuey had 2 shutouts. Wow!
What is important for these 2 games, is that it was not the McD-Drais show, they were not the standouts. The rest of the team instead raised their level. That combined with a hunkering down on D, and Stuey’s head problems apparently kept in check, and that is the result. Even so, here are the playoff leaders in scoring:
Team Scoring leaders:
It was interesting that at the beginning of the LA-Oil series, ESPN experts all picked LA to win, except Mess, the loyal Oil. At the same time, they posted the odds to win the Cup, and Edmonton had the best odds. Hmm….
If the Oil can continue their defensive/goaltending improvements against Dallas or Winnipeg, well, it could be a rematch between the Oil and Florida. The Panthers seem to be the best in the East during the playoffs so far. We will see that is why they play.
Oh, and what is it with those fugly jerseys the Days have, bluck beige, with their barely discernible logo on the chest in ‘colorful’ black? That is what we get from Vegas, what happened to the pizzazz that LV is supposed to represent in all things???
Nah, you denigrate my intentions as usual. I said at the beginning of the season that the Vilde’s early surge was overblown and I was underwhelmed by the media that were saying they were the best team in the league, LOL. I also was unimpressed how the Oil played after the 4 Nations Tourney until just before the playoffs. So I wanted to go through 1 round in the playoffs to see where things were. I am always happy to retract my opinions in sports if things play out differently - unlike many, including you Lane, who stick with your opinions to the end like it is some badge of honor. The Vilde’s weaknesses played out against a stronger team in Round 1, and the Oil surprised me after what I deem to be a dismal 2nd half of the regular season for them.
@lanemyer85, guess what, sports are played bc you just never know how it is going to go and who is going to win. None of us have any clue how it is going to go in the next couple rounds and we will see. I root for the Oil, but just by rooting for them doesn’t make them win, even if Captain Pickard or Stuey do well. And again, I noted multiple times, the Vilde is 2 players away from being great. How is that a thumb out, do tell?
Odds for Cup win as of today, I love the Oil and hope they are right, but, I think Florida should be the fave if they beat the Oak Leafs (likely). We will see………….
Please oh please let Toronto beat Florida!!! Watching game 6 right now. I just want a Canadian team to win The Cup been way to long 33 years now.
Would love to see Toronto vs Edmonton in the finals.
Here is the competition speaketh da trooth:
What can we say when GT of team playin’ w/ dee Oil speaks da gospel……………….
Oh well only the Oilers left that I care for hope they win it all. Will not be easy.
Greatest player I doubt that but one of the best sure. He may each 2000 points during his career. He needs a Cup win to cement him as one of the greatest ever.
Agree, but we’s just ameters, Oettigner is da Man……………………. Bummer on the Leafs, I was hopin’ fer an all Canook Cup final. I’d be happy if we get just one. We will see how this plays out……...
And, Gretz is the great one for a reason, after all. Oil all the way.
And if we believe the so-called experts at ESPN, it is going to be the Stars. Every series, the LA-based ESPN goes agains the Canadian teams:
Only Mess has stayed true to his team in each round. Oil played for Mess back in the day, if you messed up (LOL), he was talkin’ to you. He was the MJ of hockey in his day. We all knew that in Edmonton.