Men's Ice Hockey NHL 2018 - 2019

[hckošice 15,806]

the only slovak player affected by this trade window is Tomáš Jurčo who move to Carolina from Florida, but he´ll start his new journey in Charlotte the Hurricanes´s AHL affiliate

[hckošice 15,806]

Connor McGregor to Chára: "Put him through the net"

 

 

[phelps 8,389]

1st ever shutout by a Bulgarian goalie in the NHL...

 

Alexandar Gergiev, at his 30th appearance of the season (40th of his career), finally got his net unbeaten for the whole 60 mins in the game played earlier tonight by his NY Rangers in Philadelphia (they won 3-0)...

[phelps 8,389]

it was a long season...as usual, it took 82 games...

 

but here we are...the RS is over and the most exciting event in the world is ready to start...

 

here they come...the NHL playoffs!!!

 

but first, a quick recap of the Regular Season...

 

as expected, the Eastern Conference was an open book...the usual suspects are at the top of the table and the usual bunch of losers are at the bottom of the rankings...

the only real surprise is the excellent season played by the New York Islanders, that were not expected to have such a good RS after losing their superstar of the past 10 years...

Tampa Bay dominating the Conference (and the entire league) was the most obvious fact of the year...let's see if this time it's the good one to confirm their superiority also when it matters the most...

the Washington Capitals were also under the spotlight, after winning their first Cup ever and at the same time losing their mastermind, coach Barry Trotz...and they showed that the talent is there and they're still hungry by winning the Metropolitan Division...

meanwhile, when I wrote "the usual bunch of losers", I obviously thought mainly about the New York Rangers, once again out of the playoffs despite tradition, money and good players...

 

the Western conference, on the other side, was a lot more balanced and "deep" in good teams...

here some surprising results have been recorded, compared to the East...

first of all, the Conference Champions are totally unexpected...raise his hand who thought at the beginning of the season that the Calgary Flames could get the best record out West! but despite all the not so friendly previews, they did it...and quite in style, with a 6-point margin over the highly expected San Josè Sharks...

meanwhile the Central Division came down to an amazing 3-way race, which ended only in the last day of the RS...and finally the Nashville Predators (100 points) just edged out by a single point after 82 games the Winnipeg Jets and the St.Louis Blues, who both ended up 1 point shy of the 100 mark...

Last year's sensation, Vagas, confirmed themselves as high caliber team and did reach the playoffs also in their second season in the league, meanwhile Chicago, the L.A. area teams and Connor McDavid & Leon Draisaitl's Edmonton were definitely the big losers of 2019, especially Edmonton, that couldn't make the playoffs for the second year in a row, despite having 2 of the most amazing (and productive) forwards of the entire NHL...

 

here are the Final Standings of the 2018/2019 Regular Season of the NHL in full:

https://www.nhl.com/standings/2018/division

[phelps 8,389]

this is, instead, how the playoffs look like:

 

Eastern Conference, 1st Round (best-of-7 series)

 

Tampa Bay Lightning (Atl. #1) vs Columbus Blue Jackets (WC #2)

Boston Bruins (Atl. #2) vs Toronto Maple Leafs (Atl. #3)

Washington Capitals (Met. #1) vs Carolina Hurricanes (WC #1)

New York Islanders (Met. #2) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (Met. #3)

 

Western Conference, 1st Round (best-of-7 series)

 

Nashville Predators (Ctrl. #1) vs Dallas Stars (WC #2)

Winnipeg Jets (Ctrl. #) vs St.Louis Blues (Ctrl. #3)

Calgary Flames (Pac. #1) vs Colorado Avalanche (WC #1)

San Josè Sharks (Pac. #2) vs Vegas Golden Knights (Pac. #3)

 

and this is the full playoffs 1st round schedule:

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-playoffs-round-1-schedule/c-280159064?tid=287339198

 

[hckošice 15,806]

lol Tampa

[phelps 8,389]

6 hours ago, hckosice said:

lol Tampa

 

 

but remember, Washington also lost the first 2 games at home against Columbus in the 1st round of last year's playoffs...and we all know how the season finished...

 

meanwhile, St.Louis won twice in Winnipeg and the Isles beat those damn Pens twice at home...

 

overall, a lot of surprising results in these first games of the 2019 NHL playoffs...

[hckošice 15,806]

7 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

 

but remember, Washington also lost the first 2 games at home against Columbus in the 1st round of last year's playoffs...and we all know how the season finished...

 

meanwhile, St.Louis won twice in Winnipeg and the Isles beat those damn Pens twice at home...

 

overall, a lot of surprising results in these first games of the 2019 NHL playoffs...

 

I wascertain Tampa will win the SC this season, but the overall performances in both their opening play-off home matches aren´t very promising at all honnestly, but in other hand,Erik Černák would be fine for our team at the worlds so...I don´t mind if Columbus will kick them out so early and surprisingly 

[Topicmaster1010 5,716]

17 hours ago, phelps said:

but remember, Washington also lost the first 2 games at home against Columbus in the 1st round of last year's playoffs...and we all know how the season finished...

except Washington lost both their games in overtime and had an all-star goalie in Holtby to turn to in game 3. Tampa's clearly been outplayed the last 5 periods and is already using their all-star goalie. Then again, it is the playoffs and anything can happen!

[hckošice 15,806]

what a KO from Ovechkin to his young countrymen

 

 

and Boston lost again.. but Calgary...