The Everything NHL Thread

Jackal

I'm not retarded I'm Canadian it's different
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Well the season officially started today with the Ducks vs Kings in London, England, a pretty sweet way to get things rolling.

My leafs are shit, and I just cant bring myself to cheer for my hometown team if it means cheering for years of mediocrity and hopeless management.

Early prediction for Stanley Cup Champion is the Minnesota Wild, as they have a great system going with veterans and young talent. They were something ridiculous like 38-6-8 last year with Gaborik in the lineup, and I have faith in him that he will stay healthy (he is my favourite player!!). He is a bullet on the ice.

So post away, it is time for you Americans to start caring about hockey!! (PS if there is enough interest for a smogon fantasy league I will start one up again but last year we only got 10 people and at least half didnt check it once. I won it no problem ;( )
 
I'd definitely be up for fantasy hockey


I was happy to see(and by see I mean read F5 the boxscore since they didnt show the game in the US) the ducks lose to the kings, partially because the kings are my best friend's favorite team but mostly because the ducks are pretty high on my 'list of people or groups I would like to stab repeatedly.' At least my Wings' preseason game is on the air tonight !

Speaking of said Wings they should do fine in the regular season at least, they are still in an awful division which should be more than enough to vault them to a good playoff spot. I like some of their prospects(namely that russian dude) although I the roster will look very much like it did last year. I am kind of alarmed that nearly every year most analysts were predicting the Wings to have an epic collapse that has never really occurred and mostly this year they are predicting us to do well so I am sort of fearful of an epic collapse.


Anyway after enduring like five months of baseball or something I am very excited about hockey season!


EDIT: Also I think we could probably get a pretty solid Fantasy league rolling with some effort, as expected I know most of the canadians are at least somewhat into hockey so I suspect like Arti and Vineon could be coaxed into playing, and as far as the US smogonites at least a lot of the northern users (DoomMullet, Carl, me, etc.) follow hockey at least to some extent and I know of at least a few users farther south that follow their home markets. We'd probably be able to get a solid league imo!!

edit2: NOT arti he is a big jerk :(
 

Jackal

I'm not retarded I'm Canadian it's different
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Speaking of your wings I saw them last night ;P I was at the Leaf/Red Wing game last night, quite the goalfest at 6-4. You guys should have no problem wrapping up your division, Nashville isnt a threat anymore, and the other three are crapshoots (maybe the blues surprise and take second?). Datsyuk and Zetterberg are quite talented, and Lidstrom will be a god as usual. Hopefully hockey wont die in Motown, those empty seats in the WC final last year were horrible to see.
 
I don't think it'll be an issue again, I don't think it's exclusively the problem but Michigan's economy kind of sucks right now, a lot of it is based on the auto industry(particularly around by Detroit) which has been doing poorly lately and is having a pretty big strike right now. Ticket prices are a lot lower this year(including comedy 9 dollar tickets in the nosebleeds) so if they are reduced in the playoffs as well(although not reduced as much obviously!) we should be ok I think. A lot of people just found different ways to spend their money during the lockout which hurt us pretty badly. All of that said it's still hard for me to imagine not having a packed house that late in the playoffs though, ugh.


I think the Blues could be a lot less pathetic this year, although they are my 'team that will suck less in the central than usual' pick almost annually. Chicago is just not a very good team and are perpetually picking up not very good players, and Nashville is kind of working backwards lately having had a pretty good roster in the past couple years that has almost completely disintegrated now. Columbus and St. Louis I think will be 2/3, I like St. Louis better. Legace is pretty underrated imo and I sort of wish we'd kept him around in Detroit, and they have a handful of pretty solid offensive threats.

I hope Toronto does better this year even though it isn't likely they will, they are one of the few teams other than Detroit I normally root for. Sundin is one of those awesome players that I am disappointed that will likely never get a cup but the roster there has really watered down since a few years ago when they were getting at least halfway through the playoffs pretty consistently. Curtis Joseph has been hard to replace(even though he was terrible while he was in Detroit!), but I think Toskala will be pretty good in net this year which should help them a lot.
 

makiri

My vast and supreme will shall be done!
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DUCKSSSSSSSSSSSS!


Sorry Synre

Also I was in last years league and I was in first until my strategy of picking up the hot players fell through and I was destroyed in the playoffs.
 

DM

Ce soir, on va danser.
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Own what?

I'm really excited about the start of the season. I really want to see the Sabres fight through the people saying they can't contend this year without Drury and Briere and take the East by storm. Especially with how scary the Atlantic Division is, good LORD.

Yeah, I should be up for some Fantasy too.
 

Vineon

Fleurdelysé
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oh believe in the Penguins this year. I said it first! Really looking forward to see them leap majorly forward.

I'm curious, how did the game in London go, did the NHL create significant enthousiasm by visiting? What a weird place to have NHL games in Europe, why didnt they have it in a scandinav country, in russia or the czech republic instead.

Really looking forward to that outdoor game between buffalo and pittsburgh later this year.
 
They managed to sell both the games out with nearly no advertising which is a good sign I guess although the games weren't amazing(4-1 wins each way) themselves which isn't great for publicity I guess; it would have been nice if they were a bit closer but at least ticket sales were good!


in other news fantasyhockeyletsmakeithappen
 
the NW division (by far the hardest in the league)
No way, DM is 100% right with the Atlantic division being this year's force. Five of the six teams in it were in the playoffs last year. Of all the teams in the Northwest, none of them ever manage to make it that far in the playoffs other than Calgary.

Of course, I'll be siding with Hockeytown again, we need cup #11, this time with Lidstrom as captain. I think we have a decent shot again this year, let's see if our mediocre playoff play can finally be put to an end.

Also Jackal, as #2 in regular season standings, I'd be willing to take you up on a 2nd season of fantasy hockey.
 

Articuno64

1 to 63 were taken
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No way, DM is 100% right with the Atlantic division being this year's force. Five of the six teams in it were in the playoffs last year. Of all the teams in the Northwest, none of them ever manage to make it that far in the playoffs other than Calgary.

Of course, I'll be siding with Hockeytown again, we need cup #11, this time with Lidstrom as captain. I think we have a decent shot again this year, let's see if our mediocre playoff play can finally be put to an end.

Also Jackal, as #2 in regular season standings, I'd be willing to take you up on a 2nd season of fantasy hockey.
there are only 5 teams in each division, not 6.

and 4 teams in the northwest division had over 100 points last season, all of them just kept winning and winning at the end.

calgary is definitely a huge (BAN ME PLEASE) though, vancouver is where it's at
 

Jackal

I'm not retarded I'm Canadian it's different
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
im willing to give this a shot so I started the league, join up if you want, if we get enough people i will keep it up.

League ID: 81182
pass: smogon

I have it as head to head right now with standard catergories, if you guys want rotisserie or something let me know. Also the draft time is not by any means finalized.

EDIT: ALSO lol fivek not to burst your bubble but yahoo saves last years stats and omni actually came in second!
 

Vineon

Fleurdelysé
is a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
im willing to give this a shot so I started the league, join up if you want, if we get enough people i will keep it up.

League ID: 81182
pass: smogon
for someone thats never played in a fantasy league online but considers it. Isnt there a link to go with this.
 
for someone thats never played in a fantasy league online but considers it. Isnt there a link to go with this.
I pmed him with a similar complaint, this is useless to me and/or I am retarded


going with both








Anyway I am excited for tomorrow, finally regular season action <3 I get to see both my favorite and my least favorite(again) teams duke it out too, should be fun


hopefully more fun than last time said matchup occured
 
k signing up !!


multiple sites do fantasy hockey so just having the league number did little but deeply confuse me >< but yeah whatever i am ON THIS SHIT

edit: team Synre's Jerkstaches is registerd. I would have done Synre and the Jerkstaches but it was too long even using & :(
 

Jackal

I'm not retarded I'm Canadian it's different
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
weve got 4 guys, hopefully we can manage 10 again, and this time more of them will stay active too.
 

Chill Murray

get well soon jacoby..
Back in action in the league.

My Isles are gonna have quite the struggle going for them, what with half the roster being new and us being in the most competitive division this year. I'm not expecting a playoff berth. =(
 
Working on setting up my autodraft bullshit just in case, surprised at how often I disagree with the default rankings, goalies especially make me lol(rofl snow angel #20 overall)


Going to be recruiting hardcore in the next couple days in hopes of hitting 10-12, have a few people in mind and hopefully DM and 5k join like they said they would to help getting us there!
 
I got 3rd last year in the playoffs I think Jackal. I said that I got 2nd in the regular season, which I believe I did.

Anyway, I joined. It's a retarded team name, I know but I wanted something with a Pokemon in it.
 
Back in action in the league.

My Isles are gonna have quite the struggle going for them, what with half the roster being new and us being in the most competitive division this year. I'm not expecting a playoff berth. =(

LOL the Northwest was the most competative the last 2 years and it should be nasty as hell this year...Avalanche, Vancouver, Calgary and Minnesota beat the crap out of each other all year long. The oilers are there too, but they suck.
 
I am PUMPED for hockey today, god the offseason feels long compared to other sports even though it mostly isn't =[ Fantasy hockey theorycraft has been a good distraction the last 20 hours or so at least !

Speaking of which since I noticed he didn't bother to actually post here after he found the right thread xocmin is Psycho (http://www.smogon.com/forums/member.php?u=3677), he'll be active(although if you move up the draft date he will likely be stuck playing hockey in Iowa which will make it likely I will get stuck drafting for him over the phone). If DM gets off his semi-internet-retired ass we'll be at 9 which isn't bad for less than a day imo !! Would still be cool to add 1-3 more although I am mostly out of potential victims !
 
My leafs are shit, and I just cant bring myself to cheer for my hometown team if it means cheering for years of mediocrity and hopeless management.

Early prediction for Stanley Cup Champion is the Minnesota Wild, as they have a great system going with veterans and young talent. They were something ridiculous like 38-6-8 last year with Gaborik in the lineup, and I have faith in him that he will stay healthy (he is my favourite player!!). He is a bullet on the ice.

I must say, i easily agree with this. It is sad to go all fanboy over a team that has not won the Cup in 40 years, but hey, Toronto (And other Canadian Cities!) hockey fans are fucking crazy.
 

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