NHL: 2014-2015 Season

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JohnBM01

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The National Hockey League is ready for another season of good old hockey action. Franchises in the United States and Canada will be ready to throw down yet again. You have the Original Six (Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Detroit Red Wings) and the various other teams. You never know what you can expect when you have three 20-minute periods of action. As the temperatures wind down, the action heats up on the ice. All we know is that the Los Angeles Kings are the team to beat. Can the Kings retain their throne, or will a new challenger acquire Lord Stanley's Cup at the end of the season? We have many months and hundreds of games to determine contenders from pretenders.

This is the first time in my 10.5 years on GTPlanet that I've started a thread on the NHL. I invite all NHL fans to this thread. I don't usually watch hockey or consider myself a hockey fanatic. However, I do want to try to make active discussions regarding NHL hockey. So welcome to the new season!

Tonight (as of this post) marks the first of the Preseason games. The Preseason runs between September 23, 2014 through October 5, 2014. The regular season begins October 8, 2014; and the season ends on April 11, 2015.


Welcome to the new season's thread! Good luck to all of your teams this season.

[UPDATE] For more news and info on the NHL, please visit http://www.nhl.com.
 
I usually don't watch much preseason Hockey, but I certainly follow the Red Wings- even on Facebook. I should be able to update the scores for most Wings games, but I might miss a few here and there.
 
Houston doesn't have an NHL team, and we used to have the Houston Aeros of the AHL (now the Iowa Wild). I do kind of keep up with the Dallas Stars. But I don't have any real favorite team.

Of course, these Preseason games don't mean anything towards the regular season. These games just exist to get you excited for the regular season. Keep enjoying these games!
 
Yesterday, the Red Wings lost the the Chicago Black Hawks by a score of 2-1. Today, The Wings announced that Pavel Datsyuk is going to miss a month with a shoulder injury he got earlier in the year. But it could be worse- Carolina Hurricanes Center Jordan Staal broke his leg in yesterday's 2-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. No timetable has been revealed for his recovery, but it looks like he might be done for the year.
 
Nothing is more disparaging than losing players in the Preseason. That means if you get some kind of season-ending injury, that means your season could be over before it even starts! Hope for the best for these injured players.

Any of you fans of other teams want to offer your outlook on the 2014-2015 season? How do you all feel about your team(s) this upcoming season?
 
Well, for the Red Wings, it'll be Playoffs or bust. Some of the young talent seems to be promising, but the season will really depend on how healthy the veterans are at the end of the season.
 
Go Sabres..right?

I don't really know who's on the team, after they traded Vanek, Ott, and Miller.

All I'm hoping for this year is that the future core of the team can stay healthy and progress. Hopefully Enroth can dominate, and they don't start Neuvirth over him.
 
I listened to the Tampa Bay game on the Tampa Bay radio stream. My Stars lost 6-3 yesterday, but I hate the fact that I can't stream what is going on in the arena even though I'm in Texas, and my team doesn't offer TV or, at the very least, radio coverage of the pre-season.
 
oilers_47602.jpg


Do you think that the Oiler's are ready for the season? By the way, they were on the PP, so this was a SHG.
 
Last season's Stanley Cup Final came down to Los Angeles and the New York Rangers. Of LA and NYR, which team do you think is more likely to return to the Stanley Cup Finals?

Remember- the 2014-2015 season starts on October 8! Teams have already unloaded certain players to trim down the rosters.
 
I'd say the LA Kings are more likely to return. First of all, the Rangers would have to claw through the Eastern Conference again, and they'd have to beat the Bruins, a potent Tampa Bay Lightning, and probably the Red Wings as well. The only team that could really threaten the Kings in the Western Conference is probably the Chicago Black Hawks, and as a team trying to get to the Cup, it would be advantageous to be a Western Conference team.

The other thing is that the Kings are well sorted in the Playoffs, and they really out-played the Rangers throughout the series. The lack of playoff experience really hurt the Rangers when it mattered, and while they might fare better this year, they still have to go through the teams I mentioned in the first point. Oh, and don't forget about the Pittsburgh Penguins. Never count out the Penguins.
 
The Eastern Conference as a whole is a lot more competitive than the Western Conference. At least, it is if based off of how last year panned out.
 
If you are saying that the Eastern Conference has depth in talent, sure, I would agree with you. A lot of that has to do with the League restructuring from six divisions to four (as a result Winnipeg moved to the West whereas Columbus and Detroit got booted to the East).

I think that once all of the big players hit free agency, the balance of who is the more dominate conference will ultimately settle itself out. Once Spezza signed with the Stars about a month a go, that is ultimately what the league will do.
 
Less than 24 hours away, people... the new season of NHL Hockey is approaching! It will soon be time to meet at center ice, drop the puck, and get ready for a new season of hockey mayhem.
 
Tonight is opening night! Your Wednesday just got more interesting with these games slated for tonight:

* Montreal Canadiens at Toronto Maple Leafs
* Philadelphia Flyers at Boston Bruins
* Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames
* San Jose Sharks at Los Angeles Kings

Go enjoy some Hump Day hockey tonight. And of course... good luck to all of your teams as the new season begins tonight.
 
The Red Wings open the season with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins. Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist. got the goals for the Wings, and Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins.
 
It's a weird time; for the first time in 24 years, the New Jersey Devils played a regular season game without Martin Brodeur in their roster. The era of the stand-up Goalie is finally at a end. It was fun while it lasted.
 
Did you see the goal put on in the Colorado Avalanche at the Boston Bruins? The game was tied 1-1 until Colorado cashed in a game-winning goal with about 0.6 second left to beat Boston. Both Colorado and Boston are currently 1-2 on the season. Also, the guy who scored that goal ended up being the 300th goal in the career of Daniel Briere. Pretty cool, huh (not so much if you're a Bruins fan, obviously...)?
 
In a bit of hockey related news, the Stars won Lord Stanley's Cup in 1999. Yesterday, I come across this shirt in my grandfather's possession celebrating their winning season:

Stars shirt.jpg


Note: It may look generic, but I took the picture up close AND it is a 2XL US

Naturally, as a Stars fan, I took the shirt and took it home. Now I finally have something proper to wear for Stars games.
 
I saw most of Buffalo at Carolina last night. The game went to a Shootout won by Buffalo. The game ended 4-3.

Tonight, among other games, we got Original Six action as Boston pays a visit to AnthonyD1993' Detroit Red Wings.


Enjoy some NHL hockey tonight.
 
I'm liking what I've seen from the Wild thus far, granted I'm worried this long gap between games may have stalled whatever momentum we may have gained during the first two games.
 
Today, the Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0 in Overtime. The goal was scored with 10 seconds remaining in OT.
 
The Sabres are playing horrendously. 2 points in 6 games, only 8 goals scored, with 22 given up. The defense is giving Enroth absolutely no support. And to top it off, there has only been 4 different goal scorers.
 
Yeah I think it's going to be a rough year in Buffalo. It'll pay off in the end, there's an embarassment of riches at every position in the prospect pool.
 
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