Marvin

Welcome back! Welcome back!

Welcome back! And welcome back to you too!

Welcome back! I feel you -- and I never miss a game.

Welcome back!

Seconded. Please pin this.

The Nashville players sure fall easily when the puck heads to their defencive zone.

From ice level, it is really obvious why Nashville is the most penalised team in the league. On the other hand, if you commit 4x as many penalties as the opposition, but only get 1/4 more penalties, you come out ahead.

My family went to that game!

I heard about that from my siblings. I was in college our of town when they all went to that game. They called me at about 11:30 PM to tell me about it.

Rick J-J-J-J-J-Jeanneret is the greatest yet!

You probably need to get the pre-game on WGR 550.

Overlooked by much of the NHL media: Dadonov has been better than he had been since he went back into the line-up. LVGK look like they are playing better with him. Does his extra spark just lift them enough without needing to alter the LTIR players?

Sounds like where the culture around the team started plunging.

I had heard that he was a dictator in the locker room when he first came here. Then again, he had Cup rings and made the young guys take notice. And the team got better. So no one really cared because what he did worked.

If anything, you understate the case. We had often had unreliable goaltending and we were either two F lines short and one D pair short of NHL players or one F line short and two D pairs short of NHL players. I find it hard to put too much blame on Eichel and Reinhart for getting disgusted.

You said it. Even though I never miss a game, I can feel the anticipation ramping up for this team.

Primo! Marvel at Marvo!

Clarification: I meant in April.

All other things being equal, a little extra will beats a little extra skill. We still need more skill, though. The fundamental question we are asking in this and similar threads is, "can you win a Stanley Cup with a superstar C/D/G?" IMHO, the answer to all 3 is a resounding "yes." You can always win with strong ensemble play, but you need very good depth and goaltending.

Can you imagine going DeLuca 0.500 with this schedule? I dare to hope.

"Average goaltending in the Playoffs" is far, far better than "average goaltending in the regular season." I have statistics for both the regular season and playoffs from 1945-2021. Goaltenders at the top in the playoffs were almost always near the top in the regular season. You get the odd exception, but if you want your team to win a Cup, the overwhelming evidence is that either: you get consistently upper quartile goaltending; you have such an overwhelming advantage with skaters that the goaltending is not as decisive; you have extraordinary injury luck in the opposition through much of the playoffs; or you have some guy come out of nowhere who somehow sustains his play through the playoffs. Consistently above average or better goaltending is far and away more reliable than average goaltending plus extenuating circumstances. Edit: for the record, from 1945-2021, in the playoffs: shots on goal / 60 minutes decrease about 10%; save percentages go up about 15-25% -- both tend to happen regardless of what they were in the regular season.

Fair enough. We do need to see what we have seen this month for a full season without the obvious problems extended periods of AHL forwards and ECHL goaltending to confound our evaluations. I feel obligated to point out that Disco Dan had a far better roster overall, particularly in goal, than HCDG has had.

I live in Amherst near the Buffalo border. I have the cheapest house in the neighbourhood (least square footage, not brick, no updates since before 2000). Houses here for $100k.

Just stating that it looks like Dahlin now genuinely believes he can be one of the best D in the league. After the ASG, he has been playing with confidence that I had not seen before the ASG. And I think if Eichel were still here, Dahlin does not get invited, whence we don't see this kind of improvement.

IMHO, XHCRK's departure was more instrumental. But getting to go to the All-Star game probably does not happen if Eichel is still here. I think that radically accelerated the process.