This is embarrassing. Lol Loved to see the hat trick. My brain doesn’t recognize 8-3 as a valid hockey score. Good season Panthers. You exceeded expectations.
One week to go until the first preseason game. Leafs lose Bunting to the Hurricanes but are holding onto Nylander for now.
My Habs have to trade a goalie. There is a rumour they still may end up with Corey Hart from Filly for Primeau, a defenceman and a draft choice (2nd) or prospect.That won't happen until the charges Hart and others face are cleared. If he's found guilty no one will touch him as he will probably be suspended. Montreal is not going to light anyone on fire this year.If there were zero injuries they might make the playoffs. That said the Leafs no matter what they do never win. They have to trade Nylander. That is a no brainer. The Leafs I am not high on this year. I think Mathews is a lunk head. He just looks like a dumb stoner. Marner I like but not enough to carry the team. Their defence and goaltending are suspect. Good balance up front. Domi I can tell you is an idiot. Stupid penalties. That is his problem. Idiot penalties. Also he is highly over-rated. In Toronto he may have a little extra in the tank but he is not anything but a 4th line winger. He's like Kadri. They never fail to get dumb penalties. No I do not like Colorado, Carolina, LA. The Ranger nah. Colorado with Babcock? I think there will be an initial playing over their heads then a crashing to earth. I have no idea who will do it.Given the wild card and parity Toronto is just as likely as anyone else. If Jersey picks up Hellybuckteeth from Winnipeg I would say they could go far. Sorry Leafs fans I just don't rely on Matheson as a clutch guy. He is an enigma.
OK, folks, the 2023/24 season has started. My Hurricanes are the bookmakers' consensus to win the Stanley Cup, followed by the Avalanche, the Oilers, the Leafs, the Devils and the defending champs the Golden Knights. Not that I think that these odds mean that the Canes will make it, but I'll take the prediction. I watched tonight the Canes' first game, and we played very significantly better than the Senators, winning 5-3. If not for a brief period in which the Senators scored two goals in 35 seconds, Carolina dominated the whole game. Without that brief period, the score would have been 5-1. Good start!
No mention of the Panthers, who send Leafs, Canes etc home and made it to the finals, and previous year had the best regular season record? Weird. Well, they did have some top players who had surgeries this off season, so that might be a problem.
So happy the Leads were able to retain Nylander. So many new faces. Just watching the game now. Go Leafs.
...and Nylander snipes to take the lead. Leafs come back from 2-0 down to go ahead in the last minute of the 2nd.
The Hurricanes are leading the Kings 5-3 at the end of the second period but it's been a tough game. The Kings are playing better. Carolina had two short-handed goals.
Canes had a bad first and second periods. We gave away four goals. I'm not happy with Raanta's goaltending. Then we caught fire and played much better in the third one, with a barrage of shots and opportunities. The Ducks defended well but we scored 3 times. So, 4-3 with 2 and a half minutes left. We went empty need and gave away two empty net goals. Full time, Ducks 6-3 Canes. I'm thinking, I really don't like the empty net thing. I believe that more often than not, teams give away empty net goals instead of scoring equalizers. The Canes were dominant in the 3rd period and the Ducks were under enormous pressure. Maybe without emptying the net, we'd have scored an equalizer during the last 2 and a half minutes, 4-4, taking it to OT. Instead, the two empty net goals took the wind out of the Canes' sail and the game was lost. I would like to see stats: do empty nets result more often in equalizers, or instead cause even larger losing scores due to empty net goals? I'm prepared to bet that the latter is true, so I don't understand why teams keep doing the empty net thing. Sure, I understand the "lost by one, lost by one thousand" concept but I just feel that this strategy actually decreases the odds that a team will equalize and will successfully take a game to OT. Not to forget, 6 on 5 often is not such a big advantage. I think sometimes it is actually harder to score with an overcrowded ice. Teams tend to get disorganized when they have six players as this is not a skill that is likely to be rehearsed very often in training. In summary, I felt that the Canes had a real chance of equalizing as they were overwhelming in third quarter and the Ducks were at the end of their rope... but it all went down the drains by allowing the Ducks to score two empty net goals, deflating the Canes' momentum. What do you all think of what I'm saying? Am I right?
I think it works often enough to keep teams doing it. The Leafs' first game for example. Down 4-5 with three minutes to go and Matthews scores with a minute to go. Then went on to win the shoot out. I'm sure you are right that it doesn't work more often than it does but I'm also sure that keeping your goalie on has an even lower success rate.
Very frustrated with Raanta. At one point the Canes had 24 shots, the Sharks 6, and Raanta had already conceded 2 goals. End of 2nd period, Canes 2-3 Sharks. The third Sharks goal was in my opinion Raanta's fault.
Actually was something like the 12th shot, not the 14th as they miscounted, Raanta did save an almost certain goal. Currently the Sharks have had 13 shots, the Canes 35, and the Canes recovered the lead 4-3 with 2 PP goals. Some 8 minutes left. Let's go 'Canes!
Wow the 'Canes caught fire. 6-3 now with 5 minutes left. 2 goals in 15 seconds. Fast enough for ya? LOL Full time, Canes 6-3, 41 shots versus 16 for the Sharks.
