NHL voting on 24-team tournament

[KBIB]

So the teams not in go to the draft lottery then and get guaranteed 1-7?

This is why I see, let all the teams fly out to a closed casino in Arizona, quarantine your 14 days, then be isolated there to play it out. Any call ups for injuries should be there as well. 3-4 games a day, they should clean it up in a few weeks, losers leave as a bonus unless they want to watch.

The problem is going thru a training camp and playing one series and leaving after all this time off and how many potential injuries that causes.

Well, Mackenzie just said on Twitter the powers that be are hinting that say if the Hawks beat the LOLiers the Oil would take the Hawks spot in the draft.

My two cents, the teams with players who have kept in shape during all this will have the biggest advantage. The players who have kept up on cardio will be superstars, so there's one person on the Hawks who will be playing at a high level, Duncan Keith. Everyone else, I have no clue, but surely most players have been keeping in game shape.

Like I said, the Hawks will be scary for at least the first round and knocking out Edmonton wouldn't be that hard so long as Toews is stapled to McDavid and Crawford is playing like vintage Crawford.

If the Hawks do advance, seeing Dallas means the Hawks will probably be swept. Bowness took over and had them instill a defensive structure that is playoff ready and the team bought into it. The Stars will be a tough team to play against and considering the defensive short comings of the Hawks one series win would be a complete win

 

[Granada]

Let’s not be fooled here, the Blackhawks are the same Blackhawks team we saw play all year, they had there moments but there was a reason they were outside looking in, they are not very good, The Oilers offence will be to much for our weak defence. If by luck, Hawks advance they have 3 juggernaut teams waiting in the wings, Las Vegas, Colorado and the Blues and we know how our Hawks faired against them.
I would rather a nice high draft pick in the 1-5 zone, clear out salary and players and see what this team can establish next season.

Good post HIM, always the voice of reason.

I'm really not happy about this format. I know I should be, because it benefits the Hawks in a major way -- but then again, that is the reason I don't like it. Even though it benefits my team, it essentially punishes the teams that actually deserve to make the playoffs this year. I would be ticked if I were a fan of a team that had a great record this year.

Also, nobody knows how a team will respond after such a long and unprecedented layoff, but if I were a betting man, I'd say the Hawks in particular will not respond well. And players that have been out for months will still have plenty of rust and will probably do more harm than good.

At this point, I would rather have the draft pick too and watch the teams that actually deserve to be in the playoffs.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1265320435090182149

 

[CRM 114]

Hawks are built for the playoffs with Kane, Toews and Keith all raising their games for series play. I just wish they had moved on from Colliton already, he is one that does not fit.

Exactly. Captain Toews will see them through this.

 

[JimJohnson]

Hawks are built for the playoffs with Kane, Toews and Keith all raising their games for series play. I just wish they had moved on from Colliton already, he is one that does not fit.

Did Kane and Toews raise their games when they were swept in the 2017 1st round by an 8 seed?

 

[Tater]

Did Kane and Toews raise their games when they were swept in the 2017 1st round by an 8 seed?

 

[MassHavoc]

Let's just get right to it and make it true playoff hockey, what separates playoff hockey from the regular season? Sudden death overtime. Let's just combine the two and make it 3 on 3 first to score wins. We can knock out the entire playoffs in a day.

 

[anotheridiot]

Did Kane and Toews raise their games when they were swept in the 2017 1st round by an 8 seed?

Yeah, good argument, lost to the team that went to the Stanley cup as an 8 seed beating the hawks, blues and anaheim.

I guess it proves the lowest seed in the conference can make it to the stanley cup though.

 

[JimJohnson]

Yeah, good argument, lost to the team that went to the Stanley cup as an 8 seed beating the hawks, blues and anaheim.

I guess it proves the lowest seed in the conference can make it to the stanley cup though.

No shame in losing. But there is shame in being the first #1 seed in NHL history to get swept by an #8 seed in the 1st round.

 

[LordKOTL]

Hawks would actually be scary to play against in this type of scenario

Would they?

On one hand they do have a fuckton of experience in the playoffs. Their scheduled opponent, Edmonton, would give Crawford a chance at redemption over Mike "Greg Luganis" Smith for the 2012 debacle (and Crawford has been far and away the better goalie ever since). You'd hope they'd come out hungry.

On the other hand, the last time the 'hawks were in the playoffs they all shat themselves: Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Crawford, et. al. looked like lukewarm anal seepage out there--and if any of us slacked on our jobs as much as they did against Nashville, we'd be fired. So, there's that--not to mention everyone iced is 3 years older and coming in cold.

Plus, they have a so-green-he-needs-mowing coach.

I'd love to see them gird up and pull this out...but I'm not getting that vibe from this squad.

 

[Granada]

Would they?

On one hand they do have a fuckton of experience in the playoffs. Their scheduled opponent, Edmonton, would give Crawford a chance at redemption over Mike "Greg Luganis" Smith for the 2012 debacle (and Crawford has been far and away the better goalie ever since). You'd hope they'd come out hungry.

On the other hand, the last time the 'hawks were in the playoffs they all shat themselves: Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Crawford, et. al. looked like lukewarm anal seepage out there--and if any of us slacked on our jobs as much as they did against Nashville, we'd be fired. So, there's that--not to mention everyone iced is 3 years older and coming in cold.

Plus, they have a so-green-he-needs-mowing coach.

I'd love to see them gird up and pull this out...but I'm not getting that vibe from this squad.

I agree, but I will say this: I am starting to warm up to watching this core compete for a Cup again, even if they shit the bed. This is coming from a guy who predicted once the year began that this team wouldn't make the playoffs and had absolutely zero hope for them winning the Cup this year. In a way, I still don't have much hope they can go deep, but if they got past Edmonton, I would consider this year a success.

Plus, my wishful thinking is that the layoff will do wonders for this aging core; and that they'll come out as motivated as ever to play the sport they were forced to halt, in addition to the fact that this team was essentially given a golden gift here, and they'll do everything they can to take advantage of it.

That's my wishful thinking of course; my realist thinking is, this team still doesn't have a defensive scheme or PP to save their life, nor an adequate top-four, nor an adequate bottom-six, nor a competent head coach, and are still riddled with key injuries.

That said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pumped to watch them in the "post-season." Either this series will suck for the Hawks, or it will be a damn good one. Both of these teams will have something to prove.

 

[MassHavoc]

Would they?

On one hand they do have a fuckton of experience in the playoffs. Their scheduled opponent, Edmonton, would give Crawford a chance at redemption over Mike "Greg Luganis" Smith for the 2012 debacle (and Crawford has been far and away the better goalie ever since). You'd hope they'd come out hungry.

On the other hand, the last time the 'hawks were in the playoffs they all shat themselves: Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Crawford, et. al. looked like lukewarm anal seepage out there--and if any of us slacked on our jobs as much as they did against Nashville, we'd be fired. So, there's that--not to mention everyone iced is 3 years older and coming in cold.

Plus, they have a so-green-he-needs-mowing coach.

I'd love to see them gird up and pull this out...but I'm not getting that vibe from this squad.

To me it depends on whether this layoff is good for them in that gods know they needed the rest relaxation and down time, but also the otherside of that is did they stay prepared and use it to rekindle the need for hockey or realize they don't need it as much anymore. The core especially really don't have much to prove to anyone other than themselves anymore and a long layoff like this could really go poorly for some of them.

 

[Granada]

To me it depends on whether this layoff is good for them in that gods know they needed the rest relaxation and down time, but also the otherside of that is did they stay prepared and use it to rekindle the need for hockey or realize they don't need it as much anymore. The core especially really don't have much to prove to anyone other than themselves anymore and a long layoff like this could really go poorly for some of them.

I agree the layoff could be bad for them. The Hawks in particular are known to be bad coming out of prolonged time-off. But I'd say they definitely have something to prove. Yeah, they have something to prove to themselves like you say, but they also have something to prove to the league. There is a reason why every NHL team plays their back-up goalie against the Hawks in recent years.

 

[MassHavoc]

I agree the layoff could be bad for them. The Hawks in particular are known to be bad coming out of prolonged time-off. But I'd say they definitely have something to prove. Yeah, they have something to prove to themselves like you say, but they also have something to prove to the league. There is a reason why every NHL team plays their back-up goalie against the Hawks in recent years.

Yeah I can't remember how they were coming out of the Olympics last time but I remember not good? It could have been that they had so many players participating though. And I feel like they notoriously start seasons slow. I'm not sure how much of an indicator this year is given how bad they were all year but they started like 5-10... I'm interested in seeing what the plan is for warm up of this playoff structure or if they just come back and first game is do or die so for some of these teams after all the arrangements and everything else they immediately come back and are just done and go back home.

There is also a certain amount of safety involved here where it's not safe for the players to just come back and start trying to play at a high level without any amount of training and easing into it. I'm sure they have a plan I just haven't read that far.

 

[Granada]

Yeah I can't remember how they were coming out of the Olympics last time but I remember not good? It could have been that they had so many players participating though. And I feel like they notoriously start seasons slow. I'm not sure how much of an indicator this year is given how bad they were all year but they started like 5-10... I'm interested in seeing what the plan is for warm up of this playoff structure or if they just come back and first game is do or die so for some of these teams after all the arrangements and everything else they immediately come back and are just done and go back home.

There is also a certain amount of safety involved here where it's not safe for the players to just come back and start trying to play at a high level without any amount of training and easing into it. I'm sure they have a plan I just haven't read that far.

Yeah they were slow out of the Olympics; they're normally not great out of the All-star break. Even on a micro-level, if they have like a 4-day layoff, they more often than not look like crap. Yup slow starts to their seasons too.

I'm interested in seeing that too. Even if these guys are working out (in some capacity) at home, I'm assuming a lot of these guys haven't even been skating -- if the NHL rushes them to play, that could be a disaster on the injury front.

 

[MassHavoc]

Yeah they were slow out of the Olympics; they're normally not great out of the All-star break. Even on a micro-level, if they have like a 4-day layoff, they more often than not look like crap. Yup slow starts to their seasons too.

I'm interested in seeing that too. Even if these guys are working out (in some capacity) at home, I'm assuming a lot of these guys haven't even been skating -- if the NHL rushes them to play, that could be a disaster on the injury front.

Yeah for college football, they are saying that even if they get back to a place where they can play games, they will need to make sure they have enough prep time before the season to properly adjust to the game speed and such in order to not cause penalities, especially younger kids and freshman. They probably are all going to have to redshirt not because it's not fair to them to just throw them to the wolves. In Hockey with as fast as it is, if some of the guys aren't up to speed and take or give a bad penalty it could end really poorly for them.

 

[LordKOTL]

To me it depends on whether this layoff is good for them in that gods know they needed the rest relaxation and down time, but also the otherside of that is did they stay prepared and use it to rekindle the need for hockey or realize they don't need it as much anymore. The core especially really don't have much to prove to anyone other than themselves anymore and a long layoff like this could really go poorly for some of them.

The bolded to me is probably *the* salient point. I think it will hinge on whether or not play play with something to prove--to themselves or otherwise and based on their play since...I'm not getting that vibe. But, you never know.

 

[LordKOTL]

Yeah, good argument, lost to the team that went to the Stanley cup as an 8 seed beating the hawks, blues and anaheim.

I guess it proves the lowest seed in the conference can make it to the stanley cup though.

It's not who they lost to...but *how* they lost.

When your 10.5M Wunderkinder can barely manage a PP goal each and the only EV goal is managed by an AHL tweener (which is the extent of your scoring), and meanwhile both your D and G are sieves...there's an issue.

At least in 2016 they went down swinging against St. Louis. In 2017 it looked like the coaching and players to a man would rather be golfing.

 

[MassHavoc]

The bolded to me is probably *the* salient point. I think it will hinge on whether or not play play with something to prove--to themselves or otherwise and based on their play since...I'm not getting that vibe. But, you never know.

Yeah, are they really aching for another cup, or are they already eyeing life after hockey?

 

[LordKOTL]

Yeah, are they really aching for another cup, or are they already eyeing life after hockey?

Maybe it's not an either/or. Maybe they'd love another cup as long as they had other personnel that were both willing and able to chip in so it's not another 2015 scenario where it's the Duncan Keith show.

Yes, I know there are times that the core frustrated me post 2015. But as it stands now is winning a cup means Toews, Kane, Keith and Crawford and maybe Saad doing *all* of the heavy lifting because no one else can step it up to that next level--maybe they just don't want that level of grueling punishment at their ages--the 30min shifts and always needing to catch the elite talent on other squads because no one else can. IMHO that's not so much about life after hockey so much as it's the next generation (i.e. Strome, Debrincat, Dach, etc.) stepping up. This year may not be the year they can--maybe it's a year or two down the road.

Just a thought...