Ok, I know, I know, I did hide the first couple of weeks this season. I admit it. But now, now?

GO KNIGHTS GO.

After a HORRIBLE start, Vegas has come to life and beaten some good times (looking at you Calgary). The team has just played better over the last few weeks than they started (Thanks Nate Schmidt) and some out there names (like Reeves and Eakin). Patches has also started to play his game, getting in his goals and overall being better on the puck. Losing Haula and Statsny to month-to-month injuries has hurt, but I’m glad they aren’t 100% season ending.

Rest of the league has pretty much gone as planned, except for buffalo. They’ve been surprisingly good (even tho we all saw it coming). Leaves look amazing, lightning look amazing, as we expected. Sharks have been struggling, which I love. Wish EK had come to VGS but getting to beat him and the sharks has been great.

Also, in the one game Vegas has played SJ, I confirmed my hatred for Evander Kane. Dudes a jerk.

I also feel bad for Ilya Kovalchuk, who I love from his time in Atlanta. Wished he was doing better, got more minutes, and wasn’t hurt, but as a King hater, I guess it isn’t all bad.

I was really excited about the news this week about the Seattle team, I might even start writing about them when the time comes.


I plan on going to my second game of the season soon to see the Islanders play either Pittsburgh or Vegas

Ah, the local mod powers have allowed me to spam my thread a bit more often!

I'm excited about a Seattle team as well. Round out the league.

I think the talk about adding after that is stupid though. You can't add teams to a league forever and expect it to continue to get better. North America is fairly saturated. You could move a couple teams around possibly but I can't see adding anything else and having it be good. There is also talk of China or Europe as a possible expansion site and I think that is the most idiotic thing ever. I don't want teams having to travel to Europe to play home games over there. That's stupid. I really hope this is the last expansion the NHL has.

Tom Wilson is a scumbag. That is all I have to say.

I heard about the Seattle team right after the Press Conference. I'm really exicted, and it couldn't have come at a better time, because I had decided to start paying attention to hockey, and had decided to root for the Predators as my team because that was my friends team.
I guess I can take some time learning the game so that by the time the Seattle time comes around, I actually know what the heck I am watching.

thing1 : Hopefully Seattle actually sucks for a little while like an expansion team is supposed to instead of instantly being good like Vegas. It's kind of unfair for them to be gifted a good team right out of the gate.

On a different note, my Islanders are INCREDIBLE right now. They've now won 9 of their last 10 games. Additionally, they are 9-1-0 with Josh Ho-Sang in the lineup and 6-0-0 with Devon Toews in the lineup.

I'm still pretty happy with what the Islanders have been doing this year.

I remember writing an article for my school newspaper after only a few games on how they can do well without their star and they proved me right.

They're nowhere near the likes of the Lightning like usual, but they're right up there at the top of the division in terms of points. They're on pace for 100 points.

tgags123 : I mean, it would be nice if they were great right away. lol.
I actually looked up how the expansion draft worked, and found it very interesting. I wonder if Seattle will be willing to eat somebody's large contract, if a team decides to take a chance and make somebody with a large contract that they don't want to foot the bill for anymore available.

If they are competitive (not necessarily playoff competitive) within 3 years, I'll be happy. And playoffs within 5, then I'll be really happy.

thing1 : They shouldn't be good right off the bat. That isn't fair to the other teams. They should have to earn it, rather than being given a competitive team to start with.

dark mode : I've been so happy with the Islanders. I though they were going to suck, and they don't lol. They're actually really good.

tgags123 : Yep. Imagine if they still had Tavares though. Who knows maybe the chemistry is a bit better now or maybe they could have been 100 times better.

I really need to go to a few games during the second half of the season.

tgags123 : Why should they be forced to be bad at the beginning? If the team is good, then the team is good. If they are a bottom feeder, then so be it.

dark mode : Eff that snake. We don't need him. Barzal is better anyway.

thing1 : They shouldn't be forced to be bad at the beginning, but the expansion draft rules should be changed so that they aren't given a bunch of good players for free.

I've been watching Calgary play Colorado and Calgary is getting outplayed badly (outshot 28-12 right now) but are up 3-2. Oh, 4-2 now on shot 13? Really don't deserve to be winning this game but they are.

I'm not upset that they are likely going to win but they aren't playing well enough to win tonight.

The Islanders sent Josh Ho-Sang down to the AHL yesterday, and I am every upset about it. He was playing great, both offensively and defensively. The Islanders were 9-1-0 with him in the lineup this season. Of course the first game without him they lose. They have as many losses in 1 game since sending him down than they had in 10 games with him in the lineup. I just don't understand why management hates him so much. He's so good, yet for some reason they'd rather keep Michael Dal Colle or Tom Kuhnhackl in the NHL instead. Terrible.

tgags123 : that's one of these strange things though. The team plays well with him in the lineup but I think he had 1 goal and 1 assist (I checked last night and that might be wrong). So personally he wasn't doing all that well but the team was doing well.

And the loss right after getting sent down. If no one else noticed I am sure he did. I'm surprised he has survived in the organization as long as he has. After all the drama between him and the organization I would have assumed they would have moved him by now. Maybe what they are asking for him isn't what anyone will pay or maybe they are hoping he "grows out of it" or something. Hard to know what goes on behind the scenes. Hopefully he continues to produce in the AHL and proves them wrong.

geeogree : His point totals weren't great, but that's mostly because Filppula and Komarov weren't capitalizing on the opportunities that Ho-Sang created for them. I don't know how much you follow advanced stats, but over the span of time that he was with the team, he was one of the best players in the league at maximizing shots for and minimizing shots against. Here's a graph from @HaberMetrics, one of my favorite Islanders Twitter accounts:



And another one showing how he made pretty much everyone he played with better:

tgags123 : ah, I don't follow too much of the advanced metrics. So, on paper (regular statistics) he doesn't look great but looking at something like this he is outperforming the entire team.... and yet gets sent down.

Maybe if they put him on a line with people who could finish he would have more to show for it on statistics most people see.

I agree with you on this one. It makes no sense.

Other than the loss on my birthday, the Islanders have been super awesome over the last 2 or so weeks. Including todays sick win against the Rangers, they won 7 of their last 8 games and are creeping up the standings.

They're still near the bottom of the playoff board but their just pointd behind. Only a couple points separate them from the top.

zanderlex : Isles play the Rangers again tomorrow at 1:00 in Brooklyn! I'm actually going to the game, I'm super excited. They were terrible in the third period yesterday, they only had 1 shot the entire period and they scored on it lol. Hopefully tomorrow they dominate the whole game like I know they can.

tgags123 : I was gonna go tomorrow but the tickets are way too expensive lol.