The NHL Thread

GO BRUINS!!!!

Anyone see the glove save Chara made at the end of the 3rd? It's stuff like that are why I love Bruins so much. They all do whatever it takes to win. Take the third game as well. Campbell dives to block a shot which looks like it's going in. Breaks his leg. Finishes his shift.
And Rask. I always said he was better than Thomas.

Actually missed the game last night. Was staying up to watch it then fell asleep about half hour before it started

Haha someone got a shout out for the Bruins win on Radio 1 Dance Anthems

First Original Six final since 1979 when the dynasty Montreal Canadiens faced the New York Rangers and won their 4th consecutive Cup.

Oh, and there is talk that the Penguins might trade Malkin and/or fire Bylsma now.

It would make absolutely no sense to blame Bylsma for their unsuccessful playoffs since their cup win. He's led them perfectly, and it's obviously extremely challenging to manage all of those superstars on one team and keep them happy.

I've also dreamt for the Malkin trade though, he could bring anything the Pens need. The number one need on the Pens' roster is a big, physical, skilled defenceman who can establish the #1 D-man role - much like the Zdeno Chara, Ryan Suter, Shea Weber type of players - but it's hard to acquire a player like that through trading. Letang is a pure offensive defenceman, but against Boston he looked like a kid playing against men.

Another need in that roster would be a pure sniper who can play on RW alongside Crosby as Dupuis should not be kept for the future, and he's surely off to another team for a big salary raise.

So a trade for Malkin would probably yield the Pens something like:

- 1st round pick (Top 10 pick in 2013 NHL Draft to acquire someone like Darnell Nurse or Zadorov)
- a top-6 forward (preferably a proven goal-scorer)
- a primary prospect/youngster (a defenceman like D. Hamilton or Oleksiak)

That's just my fantasy. A Malkin trade would probably happen in the near future though.

I'd expect Malkin to bring in a 1st round pick, a 2nd line centre to fill his absence and either a 1st line winger or a top defenceman.

List of things better than Stanley Cup final overtime:

3rd OT now... Faaackin' 'ell.

Penguins have re-signed Malkin, 8-years $76M, $9.5M AAV, higher cap-hit than Crosby.

Edit: Nevermind.

A bit overpriced, I think it's a move that'll trap them after 2-3 years. He really was the perfect trade bait to improve their needs. Plus, I was so impressed with the play of Brandon Sutter that I was hoping he'd step into the 2nd-line center role if Malkin did get traded.. with decent wingers he will be a legitimate 2nd line center on any team.

The ultimate proof that the NHL games are unrealistic?

This is setting up to be a classic. Keep fucking falling asleep mid game though. Too late for me, might just not watch the next one live and watch it the next day.

What an awesome ending. Great comeback from the Hawks.

Hoping that there'll be some kind of public celebration round here for Stålberg's day with the cup, would be awesome to get to see the cup in person.

Karma is a bitch. I'm seeing Leafs fans celebrating on facebook everywhere Can't say I'm sad to see Boston suffer!

Over 100 days 'til the next time a puck drops on NHL ice. What am I going to do without hockey?!?

Only 5 days left until the draft though, and this year it'll be a good one. It's been said to be the best draft since 2003 and some have even claimed that it might end up being even better than that. Thanks to the altered format caused by the lockout TSN will be airing all seven rounds too.

And it's expected to be the most important draft in club history for the Calgary Flames... Looking forward to who'll take over the team!

If you're lucky someone like Barkov will fall to you.

That's a dream for me... But he's probably going to be selected 4th by the Preds, and Nichuskin next by the Canes - who need a winger as they're too stocked in the center position to draft Monahan. Which leaves him to be drafted by the Flames unless we move up. I was hoping we would move up at least to 5th to take Barkov or Nichuskin, both of whom will be a good fit to play alongside Baertschi.

What scares me though, is the history of 6th overall draft picks in the last decade or so - they've turned out to be pretty unimpressive mostly, so I kinda hope the Flames make a hard effort to move up... The last time the Flames picked 6th was in '98 when they drafted Rico Fata, and that was a complete waste. Then later on, the 6th overall picks were like - Brian Finley, Scott Hartnell, Mikko Koivu, Scott Upshall, Milan Michalek, Al Montoya, Gilbert Brule, Derick Brassard, Sam Gagner, Nikita Filatov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Brett Connolly, Mika Zibanejad, Hampus Lindholm - I'd say Ekman-Larsson and Gagner are the only studs from that list but the rest either took too long to bloom or were complete busts. The last three 6th picks are too young to determine though. What the Flames need is someone who can play right away, and that's why it's the most important draft in team history, and I CAN'T FRUCKING WAIT UNTIL THE 30TH

Karma? I understand that a lot of people don't like Bruins because we're a very physical team or whatever, but we haven't actually done anything wrong.
Maybe these Leafs fans should focus on celebrating reaching the playoffs for the first time since the previous lockout.

It's just that the Bruins beat the Leafs dramatically and later the Bruins suffered defeat in a very similar fashion, therefore Leafs fans are getting so orgasmic about it. The reason why I'm happy to see Boston go down is because they took down Iginla's Penguins and now they won't pick crap on Iggy for not choosing Boston.

The Lightning have (somewhat reluctantly) announced that they are buying out Lecavalier. Rumours had it that the Lightning had been attempting a rule circumvention type move that would have allowed them to re-sign Lecavalier by trading him to a different team (supposedly the Leafs) along with an asset and then have the other team buy him out, the league apparently crushed those plans though which left them with the current situation.

Marc Bergevin calling Vinny's agent in 3, 2, 1......

I think Boston have every right to feel smug about that. He agreed terms with Boston, there's a picture somewhere of him wearing a Boston jersey, and then at the last second he reneged on the deal and went somewhere else. It was a complete dick thing to do and, according to Lucic anyway, it's part of why we were so determined to be Pens. But. That's Lucic.

Hey PA, brace yourself:

Bruins are really active right now. Tyler Seguin is one of the players that could be traded. Lightning is one of many teams in the mix.

— RenLavoieRDS (@RenLavoieRDS) Permalink

Not 100 per cent yet but looks like Nathan Horton will NOT be back with BOS. B's talking trade and Tyler Seguin's name has been discussed.

— TSNBobMcKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) Permalink

Love the Seguin speculation. His name is absolutely in play. Bruins with so many unsigned guys. "Kings ransom" expected.

— DarrenDreger (@DarrenDreger) Permalink

I think you might have the wrong idea here.. I mean, you know that in hockey, there's no such thing as "negotiating terms" when you are the subject of a trade right? Unlike football where a player starts a new contract when purchased or traded by the new team while in hockey your contract from your old team carries on to the new team. Hence even great players like Gretzky, Phaneuf, etc (just to name a few traded without notice) were traded unexpectedly by their teams and especially Gretzky's interview after the trade, he was absolutely shocked and didn't see it coming.

That's what kinda happened with the Iggy trade, although he did have the ultimate power to choose which team he wanted to go to, he did not "agree to terms" with any team. At the time he submitted LA, Chicago, Boston, and Pittsburg as teams he would accept a trade to. The Flames GM was informed by Iggy that he would actually prefer Pittsburg over the other teams in the best scenario, and at that time Boston first offered a 1st rd, Khochlachev, and Bartkowski to the Flames, which was held for consideration. Then Pittsburg offered a 1st rd and two college players and the Flames GM pretty much had to accept him.

I think the reason a lot of people give him crap about that scenario is because a hockey analyst (Aaron Ward I believe) first spread the news that Iginla was traded to Boston for those players and 1st rder. It was really a premature thing to spread, and the Flames GM even declared after the official announcement of the trade that he did not fully say okay to that deal with Boston.

Oh well what the f*ck ever, it's the draft tomorrow and I've been waiting for this all year.

Stream for the draft. Coverage starts in 5 mins, first pick expected in about 35 minutes.

Man, Seth Jones falling to the Nashville Predators, holy hell will their defence be good 2-3 years from now.

Monahan to the Flames, didn't expect Jones to fall that low, and Nichuskin is still waiting to be called. I'M FUCKING STOKED FOR NEXT SEASON

I fear the Habs might be picking Fucale if he's still on the board at 25. I would die a little bit inside if that happened.

Absolutely do not want a goalie in the first two rounds.

And fucking 'ell at Schneider being traded