The 2018/19 NHL Chat & Fantasy Thread

[mr. leisure]

Beware, Vegas might be starting Maxime Legace in goal tonight at San Jose for the back-to-back

Subban with back to back loses .

[yisman]

Monday motivation.

high priority:
Washington needs to win to clinch the division.
Islanders need to win to attempt to catch Washington
St. Louis needs to win to try and get the division.
Colorado needs to win to keep playoff hopes alive.
Winnipeg needs to win to try and get the division.

low priority:
Toronto hasn’t officially clinched a playoff spot but they’re going to be in (they’ll be at Boston round 1).
Chicago is basically eliminated but they’d have to win to stay mathematically alive.

[hotcross]

Vegas players are banged-up with some questionables for tonight: Stone, Stasny, Schmidt, and Pirri. We already know Malcolm Subban is gonna get another start in goal with Fleury resting still.

This game means about nothing to Vegas in the standings, at this point in the season, so I wonder if they will be of the mentality let's take it easy tonight and not get anyone else hurt, with the playoffs right around the corner after this week.

[yisman]

Calgary sat a bunch of players since they clinched the division

[yisman]

TB hasn’t been resting guys even they clinched home ice throughout like 2 weeks ago.
Now they have a chance at the wins record. The Red Wings have the record at 62. Tampa Bay has 60 with 3 to play.
I’d have to imagine some guys will sit for the finale.
As for the races, the Pacific is the only division that’s fully settled with Calgary-SJ-Vegas in order. Arizona does have a chance to get a wild card, though.
Realistically, Dallas is going to get one of the wild cards and the other will go to Colorado or Arizona.
Minnesota/Chicago not mathematically eliminated but they’d have to run the table and get a lot of help too so it’s not going to happen.
The Metropolitan is still in flux as you have five teams still alive
In the Atlantic, Toronto is 4 points back of Boston and each team has 3 to play. Outside chance for Toronto to catch them and get home ice for that matchup. The two teams do not play each other so it’s unlikely. Toronto would need to win all 3 and have Boston get no more than 2 points (or go 2-1 and have Boston lose all 3 in regulation).
Toronto would hold the tiebreaker if they make up 4 points as they’d have more wins.
As a reminder, the NHL changed the format a few years ago to the following:
Top 3 teams in each division make the playoffs plus the two best remaining point totals regardless of division.
Division winners play wild cards. 2 hosts 3 in each division.

[mr. leisure]

TB hasn’t been resting guys even they clinched home ice throughout like 2 weeks ago.
Now they have a chance at the wins record. The Red Wings have the record at 62. Tampa Bay has 60 with 3 to play.
I’d have to imagine some guys will sit for the finale.
As for the races, the Pacific is the only division that’s fully settled with Calgary-SJ-Vegas in order. Arizona does have a chance to get a wild card, though.
Realistically, Dallas is going to get one of the wild cards and the other will go to Colorado or Arizona.
Minnesota/Chicago not mathematically eliminated but they’d have to run the table and get a lot of help too so it’s not going to happen.
The Metropolitan is still in flux as you have five teams still alive
In the Atlantic, Toronto is 4 points back of Boston and each team has 3 to play. Outside chance for Toronto to catch them and get home ice for that matchup. The two teams do not play each other so it’s unlikely. Toronto would need to win all 3 and have Boston get no more than 2 points (or go 2-1 and have Boston lose all 3 in regulation).
Toronto would hold the tiebreaker if they make up 4 points as they’d have more wins.
As a reminder, the NHL changed the format a few years ago to the following:
Top 3 teams in each division make the playoffs plus the two best remaining point totals regardless of division.
Division winners play wild cards. 2 hosts 3 in each division.

Good info , thanks Yis

[yisman]

Coyotes with the most shots they’ve had in a game since 1998.
50 shots
They outshot LA 50-23 but lost 3-1 and that basically knocks them out of the playoffs. They would need to win their last 2 and have Colorado lose their last 2.
Colorado’s win officially eliminated Chicago and Minnesota and all but finished off the Coyotes.
Colorado at Calgary first round, in all likelihood


Also, Darcy Kuemper took a stick to the eye hole and I'm sure is out for the season.

[mr. leisure]

NHL, NHLPA reportedly agree to extend current Stanley Cup playoff format through 2019-20 season

The league will also retain its current divisional alignment for at least another season, per reports

[yisman]

Blues only team tonight playing for something.

[mr. leisure]

Big card tonite , a lot of important games .

[yisman]

Colorado just clinched the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Arizona nothing to play for but they're winning in Vegas anyway

[mr. leisure]

Blue Jackets can clinch final berth

with win; Stars would claim first wild card in West with one point

[yisman]

wish I had seen that Dallas was going to lose on purpose to try and face Calgary

they sat several guys and lost to Chicago by a huge margin

[mr. leisure]

Going to be a great day saturday watching everyone jockeying for position .

[yisman]

Columbus got the final playoff spot up for grabs last night by winning.

Positioning:

Pittsburgh can finish 3rd, or 4th in the Metro
Carolina can finish 3rd, 4th, or 5th in the Metro
Columbus can finish 4th or 5th in the Metro (obviously 4th is the first WC and 5th is the second, second one gets TB)
Nashville, Winnipeg, and St. Louis can all finish 1st-3rd in the Central.
Dallas and Colorado WC order hasn’t been decided due to Dallas’ no show last night. Second WC at Calgary, first WC at Central winner.

Everything else is clinched, so the two first round matchups we know are:

Toronto at Boston
Vegas at San Jose

[hotcross]

Who holds the tiebreaker between Columbus and Carolina head-to-head? It is possible they could end with the same number of points after today. Neither of them would love being the first opponent for Tampa.

[hotcross]

Both teams won their final game, so it didn't come to that. Columbus as the lowest seed gets Tampa.
Carolina gets Washington.

[yisman]

first tiebreaker is wins but no teams finished tied.


Toronto at Boston
Columbus at Tampa Bay
Carolina at Washington
Pittsburgh at Islanders

Colorado at Calgary
Dallas at Nashville
St. Louis at Winnipeg
Vegas at San Jose

[mr. leisure]

Tor/ Bos , Pit/ Nyi , Veg/ SJ should be great series .

[hotcross]

Florida Panthers hired coach Joel Quenneville

He says he is confident in the Panthers team bringing their first Stanley Cup to Miami

[jrgum3]

Looking forward to the playoffs I'm hoping for a Tampa Bay vs San Jose Stanley Cup Final matchup since I have that as a future I placed before the season at 5Dimes.

[mr. leisure]

Florida Panthers hired coach Joel Quenneville

He says he is confident in the Panthers team bringing their first Stanley Cup to Miami

Great hire , I was hoping the Ducks would get him .

[yisman]

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2019/04/09...-1-overall/For the second time in three years, the New Jersey Devils have won the NHL Draft Lottery. With the third-best odds heading into Tuesday night, the Devils will now select No. 1 overall in June’s entry draft and have the opportunity to select either Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko. Two years ago they grabbed Nico Hischier with the top pick.There was plenty of drama in the lottery, with the Rangers and Blackhawks jumping ahead and finishing in the top three with New Jersey.Here’s how the rest of the top 15 picks landed:1. New Jersey Devils2. New York Rangers3. Chicago Blackhawks4. Colorado Avalanche (originally owned by Ottawa)5. Los Angeles Kings6. Detroit Red Wings7. Buffalo Sabres8. Edmonton Oilers9. Anaheim Ducks10. Vancouver Canucks11. Philadelphia Flyers12. Minnesota Wild13. Florida Panthers14. Arizona Coyotes15. Montreal Canadiens

[mr. leisure]

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2019/04/09...-1-overall/For the second time in three years, the New Jersey Devils have won the NHL Draft Lottery. With the third-best odds heading into Tuesday night, the Devils will now select No. 1 overall in June’s entry draft and have the opportunity to select either Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko. Two years ago they grabbed Nico Hischier with the top pick.There was plenty of drama in the lottery, with the Rangers and Blackhawks jumping ahead and finishing in the top three with New Jersey.Here’s how the rest of the top 15 picks landed:1. New Jersey Devils2. New York Rangers3. Chicago Blackhawks4. Colorado Avalanche (originally owned by Ottawa)5. Los Angeles Kings6. Detroit Red Wings7. Buffalo Sabres8. Edmonton Oilers9. Anaheim Ducks10. Vancouver Canucks11. Philadelphia Flyers12. Minnesota Wild13. Florida Panthers14. Arizona Coyotes15. Montreal Canadiens

Why not just do this by your record ?

[hotcross]

They do it lottery with relatively spread-out percentages, to discourage teams from tanking for the highest draft picks.

Seems to work pretty good, incorporating randomness into the teams who got the top picks.

[yisman]

they only draw the top 3, after that in order of record

between TB blowing a 2 goal lead in the third and atlanta hawks blowing it in final seconds, worst night of the year

[BarkingToad]

Florida Panthers hired coach Joel Quenneville

He says he is confident in the Panthers team bringing their first Stanley Cup to Miami

Great move by Panthers

[mr. leisure]

they only draw the top 3, after that in order of record

between TB blowing a 2 goal lead in the third and atlanta hawks blowing it in final seconds, worst night of the year

Yeah , not a good night last nite . I had the sac kings +4 , they had a 25 point halftime lead and lost the game by 5 points .

[yisman]

every series now underway.

calgary leading 1-0 in the last game 1

[yisman]

Lightning keep screwing me in DFS!

[hotcross]

The first period of the Vegas at San Jose game woulda been a great stack for DFS. 3-3 score after 20 minutes.

[jrgum3]

Can't believe Tampa Bay dropped the first two games of their series against Columbus. We see this all the time in sports where teams that win the most games in the regular season flame out early in the playoffs but this is still pretty incredible because Tampa Bay was so dominant this season.

[mr. leisure]

Every under dog won friday night .

[hotcross]

yeah, so far this year's playoff results have not followed historical percentages

[yisman]

Kucherov suspended now

TB in huge trouble