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2018-2019 NHL Thread – Thunderstorm Warning

It's pretty sad but the Flyers will probably have a better defensive group in a split squad preseason game than their regular season defense.

Tonight's D:
Streit - Schultz
Sanheim - Gostisbehere
Provorov - Medvedev

Projected Regular Season D:
Streit - Schultz
MacDonald - Del Zotto
Schenn - Medvedev

The Flyers D is going to be so bad this season if that lineup stays the same for the entire season. But there's hope in the future with all the good young guys (Sanheim, Provorov, Ghost, Morin, & Hagg).
 
So far, we only have 5 teams that have renewed for the boards fantasy league, and we're just a couple weeks out from the start of the season. If you haven't renewed, please do so soon. If you know anyone else that may be interested in playing, have them PM me, so I can send them an invite. Thanks.
 
 
Looks like the Boards hockey league isn't going to happen this year. Only six people have joined, and the season starts in a couple days.
 
Yes, thanks for organizing! I doubt we'll be able to round up enough people, but I'll post on the chat thread to see if there are any takers.
 
BIG NEWS

 
Out of those teams, I'd say the BJs. They have the least fan support on this board (DeaconForever...maybe no one else?).

My submission is the Florida Panthers. They're #1 in social media (see above), they've never won a Stanley Cup, they're division rivals with historical/present giants (B's, Habs, Red Wings, Leafs...and also Buffalo, Ottawa, and defending EC champ Tampa Bay), and they like throwing rats on the ice.
 
You caught me when I'm excited about the season starting and have some downtime at work while I'm waiting on something, so this got long. Flyers to come in a separate post.

All three have a good chance of heartache, and none would be considered frontrunning at this point. The Blue Jackets have the most near-term hope and are certainly the most likely to make the playoffs, Flyers and Hurricanes are both rebuilding but have some young guys with a lot of potential.

Blue Jackets - hired a new GM that seems like a smart dude, and made waves because he is the first European GM (The NHL is weird about Europeans.) (Plus he has a killer name - Jarmo Kekäläinen.) They don't have any really hateable players, though Jack Johnson tends to be the target of the stats crowd. Took advantage of Chicago's tight cap situation and got Brandon Saad this off season, which is a bit of a coup because it's not easy to get young talent outside of the draft. Their goalie is a former Vezina winner and is adorable. They have a prospect named Boone Jenner. They shoot a cannon when they score a goal, which could be a plus or a minus. (It's loud.) Young team, which is fun. OH, and Scott Hartnell is the absolute best. (Some rival fans hate him, mainly from his time as a Flyer, but they are wrong.)

Flyers’ Scott Hartnell falls down for charity, hangs with Sedins and chirps Phaneuf at All-Star Game

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Hurricanes - plenty of fans here, so they can probably sell you better than I can. They accepted that they'd have to rebuild last year, but they still have some big contracts on the books, so they're kind of in transition. The coach they hired appears to be good, and they convinced him to take their opening instead of the Penguins, which was funny. They just signed goalie Eddie Lack to an extension, and he's good at Twitter (possibly at least in part because he was mentored by the king of NHL twitter, Roberto Luongo.) It would involve cheering for Jeff Skinner, which could be considered a good thing (he's been described as the Justin Beiber of hockey (wait, is that a good thing?), and he has some sweet moves since he has a background in figure skating) or a bad thing (see:

SkinnerHissyFit-Carolina11042011-01.gif
 
Flyers – hired a former star player as the new GM last year, but he was an assistant to a very good GM before, so I'm hopeful it's more successful than their usual "just hire a former Flyer" strategy. (He was also the first goalie to score a goal in the NHL, and was known for fighting, which goalies generally do not do.) He's forcing a patient approach, which is new for the Flyers, because the team owner is in constant win-now mode. The team in general is known for doing crazy stuff, mainly because the owner is crazy and wants to win at any cost. (They just sent a guy with a $5MM cap hit to the minors.) Goalie has zombified teammates on his mask. You'd get to cheer for this guy:

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And this guy:

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(Obvious pandering.)

And this guy:

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And this guy:

 
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Hail to the Deacons, you are probably correct that I am indeed the only Blue Jacket fan on the boards. I grew up in Columbus and I've been a fan since the club's inception in 2000. I never really followed hockey until the Blue Jackets.

Townie, now is the time to get on the bandwagon. You've dodged all the misery. After being the most anonymous professional franchise in all of sports for the majority of their existence, the Blue Jackets are finally ready to turn the corner. They've only appeared in the playoffs once in franchise history only to be beaten in six games by the Penguins in the first round. They have recently been notoriously bad in the beginning of the season only to catch fire late. Last year they were tied for last place with Edmonton as late as January I think. They then finished the season on a 15-1-1 tear over the last six weeks and finished 9 points out of a playoff spot. They winning streak coincided with a roster that was finally getting healthy after losing 508 man games due to injury over the course of the year, the most in the NHL. The expectation is that with a healthy roster, this team could be dominant all year.

Columbus has accumulated a wealth of young talent over the years. There are lots of NHL ready guys in the Jackets' AHL affiliate in Cleveland. Jarmo has done a great job of accumulating 1st round draft picks through trades. Ryan Johansen is one of the best young centers in the game. He will center a line with Brandon Saad and Nick Foligno. The first line has generated a lot of buzz already in the preseason. The Jackets should be able to roll 4 lines with ease this year since they have an incredibly talented group of forwards. Brandon Dubinsky is the pest every hockey team needs. Just ask Siney Crosby. Boone Jenner is a young winger who excels at playing a gritty style of play and he is a beast on the forecheck. Add Scott Hartnell, the former Flyer to the mix and there is a real possibility that the Jackets may have 3 or 4 guys who are capable of 30 goals. This team will score goals.

Sergei Bobrovsky is an elite goaltender. The defense is young and unproven. Ryan Murray should be the anchor of the defense for years to come if his knee can stay healthy.

Bottom line: The Blue Jackets have an incredible array of talent among the forwards. They play a "hard" brand of hockey with a suffocating forecheck. Also, the budding rivalries with the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins make life interesting. The Metro will be a dogfight.

If you love heartache, the Jackets are your team. There has been plenty of that in franchise history. Hopefully this year is different. Get on board now before you're labeled a front runner.
 
The Hurricanes are a great bandwagon team. Maybe perfect. Because the majority of the time they miss the playoffs. But on the off chance they get there, they almost always manage to make a deep run. Lighting in a bottle about twice a decade.
 
TownieDeac said:
If I'm just getting started, is cable going to cover many games? I doubt I'll pony up for Center Ice in the first year. I'm sure I'll get most of the Flyers games on TV.
Click to expand...

The plus is that the Blue Jackets are in the Flyers division, so you'll get those games. The minus is that they are only on the NBC / NBCSports schedule once, Feb 23rd. There is also the NHL Network (if you get it), which has no idea what it's doing, but MLB Advanced Media is taking over it this year, so there are hopes that it will be better. They generally show some live games and then recorded games during the day, so you might be able to get a few that way.

The Blue Jackets are another team that is good at Twitter. Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) is a good follow for news. (Or at least, he's who I always see getting RT'd.)
 
I'm a Canes fan and I recommend the BJs, seems like a good wagon to hop on. Not even a fan of them and I follow Portzline, he's a beast.

And LOL at NBCSN only showing them once. As much grief as a Fox gets for always showing the NFC East or other such examples, NBC is the worst with its hockey scheduling
 
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