NHL 2023-2024 Season

[Zaxxon]

Would be nice if the Wings were back in the West, even though it'll never happen.

[LordMortis]

Not so much. Too often 2200 starts and too much lag travel.

[Zaxxon]

Not so much. Too often 2200 starts and too much lag travel.

Yeah, it won't (and shouldn't) happen. But there's a lot of history between the Wings and both my Hawks and my Avs. I guess we have to root for an SCF meetup someday.

[Isgrimnur]

[The Meal]

NHL trade deadline is Friday but the major moves started yesterday, with some very interesting trades on the books. Colorado Avalanche (at least on paper) made a couple of killer trades, getting Sean Walker (D) from Philly and Casey Mittelstadt (C) from Buffalo Sabres. Can't wait to see how these guys play with the team. Although even before they get here, last night's ass-kicking of Detroit Red Wings (sorry, Meal!) was one of the best Avs' performances in months.

That *was* an absolute ass-kicking. We were flying out first thing the next morning, so I felt safe turning it off at 4-2 (Avs won 7-2 in the end). It's been a bad stretch for the Wings. (They just got scored on in the second minute of their game against BUF tonight as well...)

Anyway, I'm 4 days behind on the Block 9 update because I was out in Vegas to watch the Detroit/Golden Knights game at The Fortress. Best seats I've ever had to a professional sporting event, and it was a great time. Isgrim's tweet above happened during the game we were there. Vegas sure knows how to entertain (folks have lots of options, so they'd better!).

Onto my short update (now it's 2-0, BUF. Ugh.)... Teams average 8.875 games over this block, so numbers should be artificially high. I'll get back on track for Block10 (which should have artificially low corresponding results). (BUF was offside! Still 1-0, whew!)

BPs for 17 teams this time around:
CGY, SEA, EDM, VAN
MIN, NSH, COL, WIN, DAL
WAS, NYI, CAR, NYR
BUF (their first!), TOR, BOS, and FLA.

I'll be back on 3/23, with some extra context for the playoff races.

[Isgrimnur]

Penguins forced to postpone Jagr bobblehead giveaway after shipment stolen

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced Thursday that a shipment carrying bobbleheads of the franchise icon was stolen after arriving in California.

The team had intended to give the bobbleheads away to fans during Thursday night's home game against the San Jose Sharks. Instead, the club will give fans a voucher that will allow them to pick up the item at a later date.

Penguins president of business operations Kevin Acklin said in a statement the club has contacted state and federal authorities to look into the incident.

[Unagi]

Fed's #1 Suspect is a Dr. Octavius David Brine

[Hrdina]

Does anyone know where Gritty was at the time they were stolen?

[The Meal]

Okay, here's the update for the Block 10 portion of the season. Recall that Block 9 ran long (I was out of town), so Block 10 is correspondingly shorter. it'd probably be more meaningful to lump those two together as a two-block period, but I'll just leave this disclaimer and be done with it. Since this is a bit lazy, I'll make up for it with an analysis of where we stand for the post-season at the 85% complete stage of the season.

The Shorter Block 10 (teams averaging 5.125 games played) means it's tougher for teams to achieve their block point (which requires at least two more points earned compared to the actual games played). We've only got 10 teams who got there:
BOS, TBL
NYR, CAR, WAS
COL, NSH, STL, MIN — Clearly the Central Division has the greatest number of teams pushing to "get there" at this time of year.
EDM

In terms of overall block points (out of ten):
7 BP: VAN, NYR, FLA, BOS
6 BP: EDM, WIN, COL, CAR, TBL
5 BP: MIN, NSH, DAL, PHI — thirteen teams so far, and of this list, the Wild are the only team on the outside of the post-season fighting to get in.
4 BP: VGK, LAK, WAS, DET, TOR — now up to 18 teams, which includes all 16 currently holding down a playoff spot but also including MIN and WAS who're on the outside
3 BP: SEA, CGY, STL, PIT, NYI
2 BP: SJS, NJD, MTL
1 BP: ANA, ARI, OTT, BUF
0 BP: CHI, CLB — Sorry, Seth Jones teams...

Teams are averaging 1.104 points per game played (so 2.208 points in the standings doled out for each game due to the goofy way the NHL treats games which are tied at the end of regulation).

As a tool, this does a remarkable job for identifying contending teams, but the big question for me will be how well teams in those upper four divisions do once the playoffs begin. One contending team really stands out as overachieving relative to their positioning in the standings, and that's Tampa Bay. (Minnesota also stands out, but they're not in a good position for actually making the post-season.) On the other side of the coin, there aren't really any first-round home ice playoff teams that don't fall into the 6-7 BP categories. Squint really hard and call out the Stars? Doesn't feel too meaningful...

But at the 70 GP stage of the season (give-or-take), it *is* a lot of fun to look at where teams stand relative the the post-season. Both conferences currently have a distinct top-8 teams (more distinct in the West than the East), but you don't have to go too far back in time to see competitive races for the final playoff spots. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get there again in the next week. Detroit, especially, has a rough stretch of games coming up, and it wouldn't be impossible for the Devils, Islanders, and especially the Capitals (despite the Tom Wilson six-game suspension just levied out yesterday) to make up some ground. Out West, the defending Cup champs have a multi-game cushion over the Blues and Wild.

So with that said, let's look about a month into the future at some likely playoff matchups! In the West our best bets are:
EDM-LAK
DAL-WIN (or COL-DAL)
VAN-NSH (or VAN-VGK)
Still some figuring to be done as the fate of the Central Division (COL, DAL, WIN) and the Wild Card spots (NSH, LAK, VGK) are determined.

A lot murkier in the East:
BOS-TOR (or FLA-TOR)
CAR-PHI
FLA-TBL
NYR-DET
Really too soon to settle on any of this as both top seeds (BOS, NYR, CAR, FLA) are up in the air and four teams are in the mix for Wild Card spots (including the Caps, who are dogs to make the post-season): TOR, TBL, DET, WAS. Really the only team with a firm(-ish) grasp on their post-season seeding are the Flyers at METRO-3.

We're at the point where things are still changing quickly, especially on an 11-game Saturday, 10-game Sunday, 12-game Tuesday, and 14-game Thursday this week. Stay tuned!

[Zaxxon]

Both my teams go down 4-0 only to win 5-4 in OT in a span of under 24 hours? Sure, I’ll take that.

[The Meal]

We're at my penultimate check-in of the season, and I've lost motivation. MHS and I lost a friend yesterday, whose star shone so bright. Existing is hard right now. Creativity is impossible.

The 11 block scorers from the most recent 1/12th of the season:
BOS, TBL, BUF, OTT, MTL
NYR, CAR, NYI, PIT
DAL
VGK

[Zaxxon]

Condolences.

[telcta]

Sorry to hear about your friend, Meal and I understand the immediate loss of motivation. I'm glad you have MHS for support and I wish you both strength during this time. I look forward to your detailed insight into these teams and I hope you'll continue soon.

[LawBeefaroni]

Watching TBL/PIT and Haydn Fleury and Steve Kozari (ref) just collided. Kazari is getting stretcher-ed off. Some.hand movement but it looks bad.


Edit: unintentional helmet to helmet hit behind the play.
Very hard, Kozari was definitely unconscious.

[pr0ner]

The NHL is drafting two schedules for next year, one with the Coyotes still in Arizona, and one with them playing in Salt Lake City, Utah.

That saga just got a whole lot more interesting.