NHL 2022-2023: FA July 13th - LET IT BEGIN

[gmillerdrake]

Nice road win in Vegas tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Denver tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

Nice road win in Chicago tonight by the Blues. Looked like a real hockey team.

I mean, it is Chicago.

Which could have been a 'let down' game.....especially after beating Vegas and Colorado back to back. So I'm happy they throttled the Hawks because they 'should' have.

[axeman90210]

Devils up to ten in a row. Should be a fun game on Thursday Chad.

Indeed.  I don't mean to diminish the Devils' streak (I already said they're the most surprising team to me), but 6 of the 9 teams they've played on this streak were not playoff teams last year (and most don't look like they'll be so again this year)*.  Now, victories aren't always easy to come by (the Leafs have LOST to the Coyotes, Ducks, Sharks and Canadiens already this year!), so it's impressive that the Devils are taking care of business - and taking the Ws in OT (where the Leafs are falling short).

All in all, it should be an entertaining game.  I'll be tuning in for sure.

*only Avs, Oil, Flames they've beaten on this streak.  And in looking at their entire record, they've played mostly non-playoff teams so far this year (11/16 games).  I'm sure I'll be eating crow Thursday night for this blasphemy!   

Oh for sure, definitely aware that we've played an easier schedule so far this year. There are a couple quality wins tucked in that streak and I'm looking forward to seeing how we measure up as the schedule toughens.

[KevShmev]

Weird game. I went from "The Blues are rolling" to "I just hope we can get to OT to get a point" to "Hey, we won the game!" in a little over two hours. 

[gmillerdrake]

Weird game. I went from "The Blues are rolling" to "I just hope we can get to OT to get a point" to "Hey, we won the game!" in a little over two hours.

Yeah. I'll take the 'W'. Second game of a back to back.....back up goalie playing who honestly isn't all that good but he played his butt off tonight......legs just weren't there after the road trip and back to back.

But it's a 'win'. Five in a row and Back to .500.

[jingle.boy]

Devils were the better team last night - I'm not sure how much of that was their good play, or the Leafs poor play.  Some combination of a very good forecheck by the former and/or very sloppy d-zone play by the latter.  The Leafs had no right to even get it to OT, and then the last 10 seconds of the game was the perfect encapsulation of the previous 60 minutes of play.

Two of the last three teams to have an 11-game winning streak went on to win the Stanley Cup.

[axeman90210]

I only half caught the game because I was on the phone with the parents, but it seemed like the Leafs had the better play out of the gates and the Devils seemed to only really wake up after they got on the board.

Two of the last three teams to have an 11-game winning streak went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Great stat

[King Postwhore]

Ahem.

[KevShmev]

Weird game. I went from "The Blues are rolling" to "I just hope we can get to OT to get a point" to "Hey, we won the game!" in a little over two hours.

Yeah. I'll take the 'W'. Second game of a back to back.....back up goalie playing who honestly isn't all that good but he played his butt off tonight......legs just weren't there after the road trip and back to back.

But it's a 'win'. Five in a row and Back to .500.

It's uncanny. This team looked dead in the water 10 days ago. Now, a 5-game winning streak later, they are back in the mix. 

[gmillerdrake]

Weird game. I went from "The Blues are rolling" to "I just hope we can get to OT to get a point" to "Hey, we won the game!" in a little over two hours.

Yeah. I'll take the 'W'. Second game of a back to back.....back up goalie playing who honestly isn't all that good but he played his butt off tonight......legs just weren't there after the road trip and back to back.

But it's a 'win'. Five in a row and Back to .500.

It's uncanny. This team looked dead in the water 10 days ago. Now, a 5-game winning streak later, they are back in the mix.

It's weird.....a lot of teams playing with multiple personalities this year. It's the no in between that's odd. They've looked 'really good' or 'really bad'. 

[TAC]

The Bruins have had a pretty favorable strength of schedule so far, but after tomorrow's game against Chicago, their next 10 games are:

@ TB
@ Florida
Canes
TB
Avs
Vegas
@ Avs
@ AZ
@ Vegas
NYI

[King Postwhore]

Plus 10 of their games have been at home too so far.

[King Postwhore]

B's up 5-1 outshooting the Blackhawks 40 - 16. 

That's insane.

[TAC]

Holy shit Chicago blows. The game hasn't even been that close.

The B's run the gauntlet for their next 10 games though.

[King Postwhore]

Time to win on the rode.

[jingle.boy]

Buffalo be Buffalo'g - hot October followed by an ice-cold November.  Man they did not look good last night, and when they did get their chances, Matt Murray looked REALLY good.  If Samsonov comes back and plays like he did before he got injured, this has a very good chance of being a nice tandem between the pipes.

[KevShmev]

Weird game. I went from "The Blues are rolling" to "I just hope we can get to OT to get a point" to "Hey, we won the game!" in a little over two hours.

Yeah. I'll take the 'W'. Second game of a back to back.....back up goalie playing who honestly isn't all that good but he played his butt off tonight......legs just weren't there after the road trip and back to back.

But it's a 'win'. Five in a row and Back to .500.

It's uncanny. This team looked dead in the water 10 days ago. Now, a 5-game winning streak later, they are back in the mix.

It's weird.....a lot of teams playing with multiple personalities this year. It's the no in between that's odd. They've looked 'really good' or 'really bad'. 

Really good again last night! 

[jingle.boy]

Weird game. I went from "The Blues are rolling" to "I just hope we can get to OT to get a point" to "Hey, we won the game!" in a little over two hours.

Yeah. I'll take the 'W'. Second game of a back to back.....back up goalie playing who honestly isn't all that good but he played his butt off tonight......legs just weren't there after the road trip and back to back.

But it's a 'win'. Five in a row and Back to .500.

It's uncanny. This team looked dead in the water 10 days ago. Now, a 5-game winning streak later, they are back in the mix.

It's weird.....a lot of teams playing with multiple personalities this year. It's the no in between that's odd. They've looked 'really good' or 'really bad'. 

Really good again last night! 

Keep it in your pant, tiger ... it was the Ducks* - they don't even have a regulation time win yet.

*(he says somewhat tongue-in-cheek since the Leafs blew a 3-1 against the Ducks)

[axeman90210]

Up to an even dozen for the Devils with yesterday's 5-1 win over Ottowa. A couple nice things to see from that W: 1) Balanced scoring, our first three goals came from our 3rd line, 4th line, and 2nd unit power play. One of our strengths this season has been our ability to get contributions from the entire roster. 2) Ability to recover from a loss of momentum. Ottowa started picking up some momentum late in the 2nd period, Cam Talbot made an absolutely ridiculous save to keep the game at 3-0, the Sens scored shortly after, and then they picked up a power play right after that. All of a sudden the building got *loud* for the start of that PP, but a quick shorthanded goal stopped all of that momentum and effectively sealed the deal.

Also saw a fun fact that we're possibly the first team to sweep both the Western Canadian (Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver) and Eastern Canadian (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa) road trips in the same season.

[King Postwhore]

Bergeron's assist gives him 1,000 points. The whole team came out to congratulate him. B's beating the Lightning 4-1.  They are trucking.

[TAC]

Lot of B's fans there tonight.

[King Postwhore]

Lots of bluebirds down there.

[TAC]

We've seen the Bruins a couple of times in Tampa.

[TAC]

The Bruins have had a pretty favorable strength of schedule so far, but after tomorrow's game against Chicago, their next 10 games are:

@ TB  W 5-3
@ Florida
Canes
TB
Avs
Vegas
@ Avs
@ AZ
@ Vegas
NYI

[jingle.boy]

Man the Leafs need to work on their 3-3 game.  1-5 in OT this year so far.  Welp

Just like last year, they may find themselves regretting not earning those points come the end of the season.

[gmillerdrake]

Blues set a record last night with their 7th in a row..... Blues now have the longest winning streak in league history following a losing streak of eight or more games. they had lost 8 in a row.....and have now won 7 in a row. What a random stat.

[King Postwhore]

A huge Sine Wave Gary. 

[SchecterShredder]

Quick takes on the Oilers at the quarter mark of the season:

• Connor being Connor. He's almost certainly going to win the Art Ross, and he's looking good to compete for the Rocket
• No complaints about Leon either
• Goaltending, as expected, is sketchy. Skinner has been mostly OK, but still lets in too many softies. That being said, he's getting almost no offensive support (I forget exactly but something like 2 goals per game support). Campbell is a train wreck of a signing at this point (much to the delight and relief of Leafs fans, I'm sure)
• Defense looks like they don't know how to play defense
• While they're not yet in too deep a hole, playing .500 hockey in the Pacific isn't going to get a team invited to the dance in the spring

[jingle.boy]

Statistically, Campbell wasn't terribly strong last year - he had a really good 1st half, but mediocre (at best) 2nd half.  The sniff-test says he's playing way worse this year.  So yeah, while I was not a fan of letting him walk, Dubas clearly made the right call.  I dunno the circumstances of the bad tone by which he left Toronto (Friedge hinted at something a few weeks back, iirc), but apparently it was the right call to make.  I don't know if he still has to find a groove in the Oil 'system', or if their D is just really that bad (the actual defensemen, and the defensive play overall (ie, incl forwards)), or if he really is just a mediocre goalie that had streaks last year of punching above his weight class.

[pg1067]

Quick takes on the Oilers at the quarter mark of the season

It took me a minute to realize that "Quick" is being used as an adjective here and that you weren't referring to Jonathan Quick and last week's Kings/Oilers game.   

[TAC]

The Bruins have had a pretty favorable strength of schedule so far, but after tomorrow's game against Chicago, their next 10 games are:

@ TB  W 5-3
@ Florida L 5-2
Canes
TB
Avs
Vegas
@ Avs
@ AZ
@ Vegas
NYI

Bruins owned the first period but were stoned by the Panthers' goalie. Swayman did not match their goaltender, and after the first, the Bruins got all out of sorts with frustration and got away from their game.

[King Postwhore]

Yup yup.

[jingle.boy]

Jingle.son and I were at the Sabres/Blues game last night.  It was 90s-throwback night, and boy was it ever.  The crowd did the Wave on 3 separate occasions, and serenaded the Blues with na-na-na na.... na-na-na na.... hey-hey-hey ... good-bye after the 6th goal.  Binnington looked like shit - 4 of the goals were terrible and completely on him.

Also, if anyone needs a lock for a bet, I'll let you know ahead of time when jingle.son and I are going to a game - he's never seen a L by the Sabres when he and I go.

Nice to also see the Leafs gut out a victory over the Devils - along with the help of 3 over-turned goals.  LMAO at  how the ref botched the 1st. instant replay call.  "The call on the ice has been confirmed, we have good goal .... er no, it's not - no goal".  Literally - check the highlight.

[TAC]

Literally - check the highlight.

That's hilarious.

The East is nasty again this year. Bolts, Panthers, Leafs, and Bruins. The Bruins hot start is great and all, but it's not going to matter come playoff time.

[jingle.boy]

Well, at least Tampa looks mortal.  And Detroit is keeping themselves in the mix.  If not for Buffalo's 7-game losing streak, they look almost legit too - they are very strong and consistent up front; D and G is where they still need to develop/improve.  Although, OPL (goalie... don't ask me to spell that out) was stellar last night.  So long as 41-year old Craig Anderson is their #1 goalie, they aren't going anywhere.  Either OPL has to continue to develop, or they need to make a move on someone.

[TAC]

Well, at least Tampa looks mortal.  And Detroit is keeping themselves in the mix.  If not for Buffalo's 7-game losing streak, they look almost legit too - they are very strong and consistent up front; D and G is where they still need to develop/improve.  Although, OPL (goalie... don't ask me to spell that out) was stellar last night.  So long as 41-year old Craig Anderson is their #1 goalie, they aren't going anywhere.  Either OPL has to continue to develop, or they need to make a move on someone.

The thing is, the other night I didn't notice Stamkos until midway through the 3rd. I thought he was out.

For Detroit or Buffalo to make a move up, then someone else is going to have to fall out, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.