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Hello! We are here from Something Awful's Sports Argument Stadium subforum to answer any questions you may have about the NHL and the game of hockey. The Stanley Cup playoffs, considered the most exciting sports playoffs by many hockey and non-hockey fans alike are about to start, so if you want to start following along but have questions you want answered first we are here to help. We have many posters who can answer questions about the the NHL, local team culture, junior hockey, playing hockey, and probably anything else to do with the game. The National Hockey League 2013-4   The NHL is bifurcated into two conferences, Eastern and Western. 8 teams from each will advance to the playoffs, with the eventual winner being crowned the Stanley Cup champion. The playoffs are a "best of seven" structure, where two teams will play a series of games with the first to win four games advancing. This year's favourites are probably Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Jose. Chicago, LA, and Boston are the last three teams to win, while San Jose has never won. One of the major storylines of this season has been the total collapse of the Canadian NHL teams. Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa all fell sharply from last year, and even Montreal does not look as good as they used to. Given that this country puts a (probably unhealthily) huge emphasis on hockey, this is leading to some expected nationalist handwringing. Something to watch for will be whether or not the "all Canadians should unite behind the last Canadian team" will emerge this year when the last Canadian team is Montreal, instead of Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, or Edmonton. Some questions you may have: - I have never watched hockey but my team made the playoffs. Who are the good players on my team? - I am a fan of Buffalo/Toronto/the New York Islanders. Why is my team so terrible? - What are fancy stats? Why do people on twitter get so angry about them? - Why do people drink out of the Stanley Cup knowing that both humans and non-humans have pooped in it? - Has there been anything funnier than Toronto's collapse this year? (Maybe a few things, but not many.) Ask away! We are here to help!
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Apr 13, 2014 20:41
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:18 |
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Zat posted:- The two wild card teams will remain inside that division's playoffs even if they advance to round 2; no reseeding or reshuffling. This means that this year the Dallas Stars of the Pacific Division could be the Central Division champions and the Minnesota Wild of the Central Division could be the Pacific Division champions.
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Apr 13, 2014 22:31
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Heaf posted:Except that part where the Stars are in the Central Division to begin with and are playing in the Pacific. Except for that part, yes.
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Apr 13, 2014 23:14
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Veskit posted:Who came up with Pronger physics? What are they exactly? http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2007/05/chris_pronger_blames_physics_c.html quote:"It's a nothing play if Robbie doesn't hit him," Pronger said, stressing that he did not intentionally hit Holmstrom in the head. The contact, he said, was partly because he is 6-foot-6 and Holmstrom is 6-foot-1. Of course I'm going to hit him in the head," Pronger said. "He's quite a bit shorter than me. It's just law of physics."
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Apr 14, 2014 02:27
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Thaxxas posted:Secondly, if Randy Carlyle gets tossed out as is being speculated who's available that the leafs would be better off with? Anyone. Anyone at all. In fact, hiring nobody would probably be a step up at this point. Also I suspect that Shanahan is also in as a bit of a blame barrier for Leiweke, so that Nonis can be shuffled off either Sherman or Feaster style while eliding the fact that like 8 months ago Leiweke said "this is the guy and he has as much time as he needs" while handing out a 5-year extension.
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Apr 15, 2014 22:21
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junidog posted:I'd love to hear more about all the "fancy" stats. Downgoesbrown's stats primer is generally considered the best simple introduction. You're right that corsi - which includes shots blocked - gives a better view of who had the puck more. In fact, from the times someone has watched a game with a stopwatch to test, it syncs up almost perfectly with who actually had the puck more. The reason fenwick - which excludes shots blocked - is considered superior is that both blocking opponents' shots and having one's own shots unblocked appears to be a repeatable skill. The New York Rangers under John Tortorella are one example of a team that was exceptionally good at blocking a high percentage of opponents' shots on goal (last year they managed 52.7% of the corsi events, but 54.1% of the fenwick events), while this year's Ottawa Senators were downright dreadful at blocking shots (52.2% of the corsi events - close to last year's Rangers - but only 50.8% of the fenwick events).
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Apr 16, 2014 13:30
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Lawnie posted:It's a penalty for the goalie to cross center ice and participate in the play at all, actually! I thought it was even more harsh, and he couldn't cross the line, but he actually has to participate (play the puck or check somebody, whatever that means) for it to be a penalty. I'm not sure how exactly the NHL defines "check;" you can check someone without ever coming into contact with them simply by being in the way. If the penalty was for crossing centre ice at all then teams wouldn't be able to pull the goalie during the second period!
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Apr 16, 2014 23:42
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ll4m4z posted:So what the hell happened to the Sabres this year? Living in upstate NY, I can't help but hear about them sucking from almost everyone I know. Did they tank the season intentionally or were they just bad? My friends are split on this point and its hard to tell who actually knows what they are talking about. After the free agents signed with Terry Pegula's cash infusion before the 11-12 season either not really helping the team or being catastrophic failures (  Ville Leino), the Sabres decided to blow it up in the middle of last season when they traded Pominville to the Wild and also sold a couple less significant players for picks (Leopold, Regehr). They went into this year with the expectation of tanking, something that was reinforced by selling Tomas Vanek a month into the season. Of course, while tanking, I don't know that they were expected to be this bad. But they and Calgary were considered mortal locks for 29th and 30th. e: You should also expect them to tank next year, too. Not only will it be difficult for them to raise themselves to a 2015 playoff team from this year's depths, but the draft is expected to be bonkers with generational prospect Connor McDavid, followed by "elite, 1-1 in any other year" guys like Jack Eichel, Oliver Kylington, and Noah Hanifin. As a Sabres fan, expect to hear those names a lot next year. Hand Knit fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Apr 17, 2014 |
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Apr 17, 2014 23:30
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Admiral Goodenough posted:Tell me about the entry draft. Do teams usually know what player they want beforehand, or do you take the highest ranked player regardless of what your team needs? How are foreign players scouted? What happens to players who aren't drafted? Why does it take so long for some drafted players to start playing with the teams? Like most sports, by the time draft day rolls around each NHL team will have a big board with all prospects ranked. Usually they will take the highest ranked player on that board, although there is the rare case where a team will take their second choice higher if they think that their first choice is very likely to still be around the next time the team picks. The Toronto Maple Leafs did this in the 2011 entry draft when they traded up to take Tyler Biggs at 22 despite having him ranked behind Stuart Percy (whom they took at 25), because Detroit was going to take Biggs at 23. Drafting for need versus drafting the 'best player available' is not a question like it is in basketball or baseball due to the makeup of the team - since teams have four of each forward and six defencemen, any decent player will never be 'blocked'. Of course, within this, different teams will have a different idea of what constitutes the 'best player available,' and you'll find dumb insidious ideas here like "WE NEED SIZE." Any team not run by severe penny pinchers will have at least one European scout, and the best teams will have several: for Sweden, for Finland, for Russia, and for the rest of Europe. With the imposition of the salary cap, I think that European scouting should be one areas where the rich teams focus their spending - the Leafs basically print money so there's no reason why they can't have an extensive report on any semi-relevant overseas prospect. The NHL entry draft is different from NBA and MLB drafts in that drafted players do not have to stop playing for their teams. This means also that undrafted players can continue playing with whomever they were playing with. Players playing in the CHL (which allows players up to the age of 20 with a few exceptions) continue in the CHL, and players playing NCAA continue playing there. I don't know the exact rules, but every player below a certain age has to go through the entry draft before joining an NHL team, so you will very rarely see a late developing player selected in the entry draft (Nik Kulemin was about to turn 20 when the Leafs selected him in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft). There are generally three reasons why a player will take time to make the NHL. The first, most obvious reason is that they simply aren't developed enough yet. Very few players are good enough to make the NHL at age 18 - a handful do it every year and they're usually the ones taken at the top of the draft. There is also the (rarer) case where a player has the skill but isn't physically developed enough yet - the Panthers left 3rd overall pick Jonathan Huberdeau in junior for an extra year for this reason. The second reason is that a player may be good enough to play in the NHL, but the team thinks that their development is better suited by playing a larger role or more minutes with their junior/European team. The third reason is that players playing in Europe or Russia, especially for a top level team, are simply not interested in leaving where they are. To a 19-year-old with bad English, leaving Stockholm to ride a bus from Thunder Bay to the Soo just isn't an attractive idea.
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Apr 18, 2014 22:10
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:18 |
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Admiral Goodenough posted:Who is TayTay? Are there other common nicknames that are good to know? TayTay is Edmonton's Taylor Hall, so christened by the late forums poster Wayne Gretzky. Hall is known for being very good at hockey, an entitled and obnoxious (underage) drunk, and exceptionally stupid: 
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Apr 18, 2014 23:36
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