Season Starts Tonight ? Let's Speculate!

[Giacomin]

Should be a fun losing year. What you are expecting this year and what you're looking forward to? Mixed the Blueshirts with the entiire NHL, since we are not a Cup contenders.

 

* No matter how bad you imagine the Rangers, no team will challenge the Habs and Sens for the worst record, by year's end.

 

* Are there really any challengers to the Preds, Jets and Sharks to make the finals in the west? Conversely, one can picture almost any of the Eastern playoff teams representing.

 

* Rangers will look much better than their record. I expect very very few blowouts, but piles of losses where the rangers were only down 1 goal before pulling the goalie. This year they'll learn how to play, next year how to win.

 

* Florida is gonna be good and fun. Tampa may waltz through the reg season.

 

* If Howden finds his footing and he will ascend from the 4th line. If not I wouldn't be surprised to see Howden and Lias swap spots within months.

 

* Hajek will also ascend in Hartford. Once the D pictures clears up (and it may take most of the year), we'll see Hajek back for good.

 

* McDavid may be the best, but Laine for best winger this year.

 

* DeAngelo may sit early and folks may disparage or dismiss him, but by year's end he will be one of our core Dmen.

[Giacomin]

* Lastly, the youngsters will rule the league this year, biggest rookie impact ever. Looking forward to the rooks/prospects (technically Calder eligible) to watch below:

 

Craziness in Carolina - 3 rook LWs made the team! Not just manchild Svech, but Zykov on the 1st line with Aho and Teravainen. Plus Brind'Amour fav and 3rd rounder, Foegele. Then there's Necas at C.

 

Sens - Tkachuk reshapes culture and love of the game for the Sens. Sleeper, Formenton is the only other reason to smile in Ottawa.

 

Vanc- Elias Pettersson, just wow! Rookie of the year? Hughes back to Mich.

 

Bouchard made Edm, will gets lots of burn. Watch his vision in the Ozone.

 

Robert Thomas and Kryou to start on same line for Blues. Very high on these two.

 

Detroit - sticking to their philosophy of starting guys in the A with Zadina. Rasmussen makes it as a winger, to lessen his D responsibilities.

 

Valamaki surprises and wins spot on Flames D.

 

Jets - Vesalainen makes strong F group

 

Heiskanen - not even for Karlsson. Will he be the multi-year all star everyone expects?

 

Buff - Dahlen fits right in as a top Dman, while Mittelstadt may struggle with NHL speed in his 1st year.

 

Donato - looked scary when brought up for playoffs in Boston.

 

Ducks - drafting at the level of Bolts and Blues. Time for Sam Steel. Lundestrom gonna get a 9 game look.

 

Rangers - we'll keep an eye on Hartford, but my early season focus will center around Chytil and Howden.

[4EverRangerFrank]

Who would have predicted the outright spanking WAS gave BOS? 7-0 is a shining moment.

[Giacomin]

How about that debut in Vancouver!! Parents fly in from Sweeden. First they send Pettersson out in warmups alone (typical rookie joke) and he shoots rockets into the net. lol. Then he opens the game with a sweet goal and then an assist on the next goal. That was fun, 5-2 win over flames.

[Gravesy]

* No matter how bad you imagine the Rangers, no team will challenge the Habs and Sens for the worst record, by year's end.

 

Agreed on the Sens, but I'm definitely not taking finishing ahead of the Habs for granted.

[Phil]

This is a bit all over the place as a thread. Let's keep this centered more around the Rangers' talk if it's going to live in this section and move the league-wide discussions to the Scoreboard thread, or a new thread there.

[josh]

Slate is clean for all.

 

Always start season with high hopes and expectations for all players.

[Giacomin]

Agreed on the Sens, but I'm definitely not taking finishing ahead of the Habs for granted.

 

Haha, the Habs can't score or defend. Not high on the coach. We have to be better than them, they may be the worst in the league.

 

i hear ya Phil, the thread is about hockey and what might be fun to follow this year. Feel free to take the rookie post to the NHL section. The rookie impact is a topic to itself.

[Gravesy]

Haha, the Habs can't score or defend.

Neither can we, old bean.

The Habs actually looked a lot better than anticipated last night, with Price back to form. It's only one game so it obviously means nothing, but I wouldn't be too confident we're not one of the worst teams ourselves.

[Giacomin]

Neither can we, old bean.

The Habs actually looked a lot better than anticipated last night, with Price back to form. It's only one game so it obviously means nothing, but I wouldn't be too confident we're not one of the worst teams ourselves.

 

I hear ya, just feel we are further ahead in our rebuild than them. And we have more offensive firepower and more kids who can score. Seems like they are forcing Kot into the lineup, but we'll see.

[Albatrosss]

I fully expect Hughes

[Stephen]

Who would have predicted the outright spanking WAS gave BOS? 7-0 is a shining moment.

 

Looks like WSH made a statement last night since they're the defending Stanley Cup champions. BOS has no defense since we got McQuaid who is a big defensive enforcer. And Tuukka is as good as the team that surrounds him.

[CBrowningPI]

I don't think Boston relied very heavily on McQuaid. I thought he was often a healthy scratch?

 

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[RodrigueGabriel]

Looks like WSH made a statement last night since they're the defending Stanley Cup champions. BOS has no defense since we got McQuaid who is a big defensive enforcer. And Tuukka is as good as the team that surrounds him.

I never heard a case made that he had become a defensive liability, but even he said that he fell off the depth chart.

 

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[Kevin]

I can't expect to see McQuaid play more than 50 games for us. I'd imagine he'll sit some nights just to play ADA some more and I'd also imagine that he'll be gone by the trade deadline.

[LONG LONG LONG TIME FAN]

http://www.scion.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/gochees_logo.gif

 

 

 

[Stephen]

I wonder what we will trade him for?

[RodrigueGabriel]

I wonder what we will trade him for?

Who's going to over-estimate their chances going into the playoffs the way both NJ and Boston did last year? Would be great to tap into the prospect cache of St. Louis - or even FL or LA.

 

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[Giacomin]

* Lastly, the youngsters will rule the league this year, biggest rookie impact ever. Looking forward to the rooks/prospects (technically Calder eligible) to watch below:

 

Craziness in Carolina - 3 rook LWs made the team! Not just manchild Svech, but Zykov on the 1st line with Aho and Teravainen. Plus Brind'Amour fav and 3rd rounder, Foegele. Then there's Necas at C.

 

Sens - Tkachuk reshapes culture and love of the game for the Sens. Sleeper, Formenton is the only other reason to smile in Ottawa.

 

Vanc- Elias Pettersson, just wow! Rookie of the year? Hughes back to Mich.

 

Bouchard made Edm, will gets lots of burn. Watch his vision in the Ozone.

 

Robert Thomas and Kryou to start on same line for Blues. Very high on these two.

 

Detroit - sticking to their philosophy of starting guys in the A with Zadina. Rasmussen makes it as a winger, to lessen his D responsibilities.

 

Valamaki surprises and wins spot on Flames D.

 

Jets - Vesalainen makes strong F group

 

Heiskanen - not even for Karlsson. Will he be the multi-year all star everyone expects?

 

Buff - Dahlen fits right in as a top Dman, while Mittelstadt may struggle with NHL speed in his 1st year.

 

Donato - looked scary when brought up for playoffs in Boston.

 

Ducks - drafting at the level of Bolts and Blues. Time for Sam Steel. Lundestrom gonna get a 9 game look.

 

Rangers - we'll keep an eye on Hartford, but my early season focus will center around Chytil and Howden.

 

Update on the rookies:

 

Pettersson is all that. Heiskanen showing why he was untradable. We got to see those 5 rookie forwards in Carolina first hand. Guess we know why Brind-Amour likes Foegele. Brett Hayton did not even make it close to 9 games in zona. The Ducks have even more kids in the lineup now and they looked good the last game. Mittelstadt still looks like he needs to get faster and more seasoning.

 

Howden is still underrated here. He's like Stepan if Stepan was bigger, stronger, could skate and played energetically. ;) That does not sound like a 3rd line C to me.

[siddious]

Howden has looked fantastic so far. Not a flashy player but he?s done some good stuff so far. I don?t see why he can?t be a #2c if he keeps progressing. Definitely the surprise of the season for me so far.

 

 

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[Bugg]

Was a time I thought a trade of Lundqvist was an impossibility. But looking at TML. Nylander and the goalie they would dump for Lundqvist and some other cheap old guy would work for everyone. Works even better in NYR takes a chunk of #30's cap this year. Shanahan is burning bridges with a young guy whom he cannot plausibly re-sign and their window is RIGHT NOW.

 

One concern about the rebuild; don't want to fall into the EDM trap of simply bringing in piles of young guys with no sense that there's improvement.Comes a point you have to start winning instead of promise. Obviously NYR are not there yet. But along those lines 2 guys that make me nuts in that regard are Hayes and Vesey; when do you start to being a player?

[josh]

Those teams have a window of more than 3 seasons. They shouldn’t be investing in Lundqvist unless it’s half price with a under-the-table agreement that he retires at seasons end.

[Giacomin]

Howden has looked fantastic so far. Not a flashy player but he?s done some good stuff so far. I don?t see why he can?t be a #2c if he keeps progressing. Definitely the surprise of the season for me so far.

 

Yeah, for a guy who doesn't catch your eye he sure is noticeable on the ice. He does a lot of things well. And the talk of his leadership traits and likeability bodes well. Seriously, if he is demonstrating many of Stepan's strengths, a legitimate good 2C, but also bigger, faster and better in puck battles... we have something here.

 

Bugg, Vesey's game is looking real good so far.

[Progrocker]

The Post says Howdy starting as 2C between Kreids and Zucc tomorrow. Too much, too soon? Hayes a non-entity.

[Gravesy]

The Post says Howdy starting as 2C between Kreids and Zucc tomorrow. Too much, too soon? Hayes a non-entity.

 

I think it's deserved based on the first 3 games. I'm not the one to answer whether it's too soon or not, but if true Quinn obviously believes he can deal with it.

This is what a large portion of us wanted, right? An actual meritocracy, where guys who are playing well are rewarded for their efforts and name, age and size of contract isn't a factor.