NHL 2011-2012 Regular Season

[Jesse James]

They were reporting here that Columbus is trying, very hard, to get moved to the East over Detroit too...  They're mentioning them as much as Detroit on the talking head shows out this way anyway.  I think Nashville was mentioned too, but they said were not likely. 

I'd dig Columbus a lot, but either way I can't say I care I guess.

[Jesse James]

Go Pens by the way. 

[Morgbug]

Go Pens by the way. 

Thank you for sending the Pens on up to Atlanta Winnipeg for the first win of the year.  No Crosby, no Malkin.  Thank you.   

[Jesse James]

No Crosby, no Malkin, no Orpik, no Kennedy...  Yeah.     Wait'll we actually have a some semblance of our actual team, you, you...  You Pemmican traders!

[Jeff]

I know we are only 1/8 of the way through the season, but it's nice surprise to see EDM and MIN in the top four in the West. 

I'm sure neither team has much chance to hang on and be in the top four at the end of the year, but I've seen enough from my Wild so far this year that I'm now expecting a 7-8 seed in the West and not just "at least we were better than last year".

[Jesse James]

Good night to be a Pens fan.

[JesseVader08]

Good night to be a hockey fan.    Glad to have Crosby back in the game.

[Jesse James]

I always hate saying that with how many people hate him (usually just rivals though).  Nice post Jesse. 

When he scored that goal my heart skipped.  It reminded me of all the comebacks I watched Lemieux make growing up, and how they made me emotional when I was younger.

How many games do you have where your goalie shuts out the opponent, and winds up the #3 star?  That was a good game.

[Morgbug]

I'm ecstatic Crosby is back and I hope he gets to play many more years.  The realistic side of me says one shot to the head and he's done forever.   

[Jesse James]

I guess he's been ok for months though, they were just being incredibly cautious and rightly so...  But he's been chomping at the bit to be back, and I think he'll be ok.  Fortunately he's not one to take that many shots to the head too though, like say Lindros was (bigger/slower target).

All you can do is just hope everything's fine and he's ok for the rest of his career.  *shrugs*  Not much else to say I guess, and no sense worrying about it as a fan and all...  It'll either happen or it won't.

[Paul]

Ok Reallignment has passed the Board of Govenors (can't make the link work, I am posting from my iPad).

What are your thoughts?

I haven't read all of it, but I like Dallas not being in the Pacific (2 time zones away) and I dislike the top 4 teams from each division making the playoffs.

Dallas being moved will help viewership locally for sure. I'm sure it makes me not a true Hockey fan but it is just rough to start watching an away division game when the puck drops at 9:30pm or later.

[Jeff]

I'm in the same boat as you Paul - glad to be in a grouping that gives us less of those 9pm road games.

Should be interesting to see how things work with playoffs - inter-conference rounds 1 and 2 are going to make for some big battle matchups guaranteeing rivalry playoff games.  And I'm not really sure how the conference finals work?  1vs4 and 2vs3 or AvsD and BvsC?  Or something else more standard?  Have to see how it shakes out I guess...  also wondering what they are going to come up with for names... would be neat to see some of the older "classic" names make a come-back instead of geographical names.

I really thought they'd take the easy way out and just swap DET-WPG, but I'm glad they didn't.  I'm sure some of the decision must be a little proactive - now they can move PHX east to Quebec/Toronto and there will be a spot for them out there no matter where they end up.


And, in other news - not only still the best in the West, but kings of the NHL baby! Seriously - 17 wins, 37pts?  Crazy - still not expecting this run to last the whole year, but it's been month and the Wild are still playing like they can't lose.  I am loving the fact that this team can go into a 0-2 hole and still find a way to win games 4-2 or 3-2.  Great goaltending and timely scores are really helping us stay up top.

[P-Siddy]

the Wild are still playing like they can't lose.

Finally, a MN team that can win! (yeah, I heard the Lynx won the WNBA championship, but do they count?)

[Jesse James]

Locals were saying it'll play out as 1v4 and 2v3...  For what it's worth.

It was all the talk last night between periods so it was fun speculating that the old school names may be coming back too.  Now if the All Star game would go back to orange/black. 

[Morgbug]

  Now if the All Star game would go back to orange/black. 

That would pretty much rock.

I'm extremely happy about the realignment going the way it did but a ton of people are upset we don't have Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in our division.     Not such a big deal to me as I've always hated Vancouver and the natural rivalry was Calgary and Edmonton anyway. 

But I'm thrilled to be in a division with two original six teams in Detroit and Chicago.  I think a natural rivalry can arise between the Jets and the Wild (your team name sucks  ) that could become quite enjoyable.  I'm also quite happy about the other teams in the division aside from maybe Columbus but that one does make sense too.  Always liked the Stars (either northern or southern incarnations) and I think the Preds are a pretty neat team too. 

I think the NHL made a winner out of every team by having home and away games with each team each year.  Makes sense from a marketing standpoint to have the Crosby's, Ovechkins, original six or whatever deems a team worthy of seeing visit each team in the league. 

It's particularly meaningful to my season ticket group as we have seven guys and five of them are Habs fans.  But so is my wife, so that really makes six of seven.  It's so bad we have a "Habs clause" in our group contract whereby if you've seen them, you can't select them again in a draft until everyone else has.  That could mean, depending on how your draft lines up and who picks what team, it was a minimum of 14 years until you got to see them again    Now with the home and home it's only a seven year wait.  Still a really long time but a great improvement. 

So with Winnipeg's move to the former Western Division we'd hardly see Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, Montreal and lots of other exciting teams on a yearly basis.  Even worse we might not have seen Detroit next year with the old scheme and we didn't get a home game with them this year either.  There's a lot of talent on that team I'd like to see play a game.  Now it's a nonissue and it makes our drafts a lot more interesting for our group. 

I am very pleased.