National Hockey League

    Quote from YavorD

    Hell yeah ;)


    Oh, what a nice surprise! :thumbsup:


    The NHL season is in its peak now, the playoffs have started and there are a lot of surprises already. I'm a huge fan of the Red Wings and Pavel Datsyuk but again a lack of a really good scorer(Franzen didn't do anything, Bertuzzi too) and a bad goalie or rather a great Rinne and not so great Howard made the diference. Ken Holland should do sth about the squad, he did a stupid thing to trade our draft picks for Kyle Quincey, now the scouting must again prove its amazing work.


    I'm not surprised by Pens' defeat. Flyers are a tough nut to crack and Pens' coach is full of shit in my opinion. Pens can't win a title in the near future with such bad defence.


    The Coyotes are a very nice team, full of Europeans. The goalie Mike Smith is the man! Capitals also got very lucky with Braden Holtby buth both Capitals and Coyotes will find it very difficult to even pass the 2nd round(the Capitals won't probably pass the 1st round).


    For me, the real Stanley Cup contenders are Nashville and St Louis(unfortunately, the ugliest type of hockey :cursing: ) in the West and in the East it's really tight, but I'll pick Boston as much as I'd like Philly, Sens/NY or NJ to reach the final.


    Who do you cheer and what are your thoughts about the playoffs? Aren't this year's playoffs a bit over the edge with the brawls and with the dirty hits?


    Wow, I see you are quite into it ;) Unfortunately, I don't follow them that closely and am a general fan of ice hockey, don't watch it too much as volleyball and partially football are taking my sports leisure time.. I used to root for Colorado Avalanche when they had Sakic, Hejduk, Roy and Forsberg, but to be honest I could only watch a few games back when I was in university and used to spend all-nighters "studying" :D the time difference is killing me, I wish I could watch them more, but I would rather wake up early for a volley game than ice hockey... Just not enough time.


    I don't miss a game from the Winter Olympics though. I do follow them relatively more compared to national leagues, NT ice hockey is really something I admire. In November (or was it October..) close to the place I am living in Munich there was an annual ice hockey tournament, so I had the chance to watch US college guys, Germany, Slovakia (by far the best team) and Switzerland. Munich Olympiazentrum is annually hosting this tournament, was really great! The ice hockey team of Munich is also playing there, but I just can't devote myself to the Bundesliga, just waiting for NTs to appear again.


    So, sorry to disappoint you, you seem well ahead of me in this area, I am just a guy who likes the game :) Don't really know too many names either, but the world stars and Olympic heroes for sure! So, I can't comment on the current play-offs too much as I am just checking the scores every once in a while..

    Yes, the 7-10 hour distance is a real problem and I also watch NHL games only in the weekends when they start at 1pm US time. I also like international events such as World Championships and Olympic Games but the players in the NTs don't play together very often, they have bad chemistry between them and thus the level of play is dropped. Furthermore, only in Olympic Games all of the best players are called for their National Teams. Canada is entering almost every WC, especially recently, with their 2nd or 3rd squad. Maybe the best chemistry is in the Czech Team, followed by Finland and Sweden who don't call up their NHL stars unless it's the Olympics. Russian Federation calls most of it's stars but the chemistry is awful. Slovakians have the players (Gaborik, Hossa, Chara, Halak) but they never live up to the expectations(sth like Bulgarian NT in volleyball). There is a World Championship after a few weeks, I think, and it's going to be in Helsinki, so no time difference ;)


    I see you live in Germany, their team is more and more becoming a solid factor under the coaching of Uwe Krupp. Their style of play can't be mistaken - it's the same in any sport - defence, discipline, not much buzz, high effectiveness.

    Quote from triglav_kran

    This is a long shot but anyway... Is there anyone a fan of the NHL or ice hockey in general?


    No...I just like the avatar pic in general. ;) (Just kidding...) But this years NHL playoffs don't affect me very much, because all my favorite teams are eliminated. So right now I'm follwing the IIHF World Championships :) I'm quite surprised how good Italy prepared for WC. They deliver a good fight to us (Germany). The above mentioned "effectivity" (and Endras) are the only differences - as far as I can follow the match while still working.

    It's a pity that the IIHF World Championships won't be transmitted on TV in Bulgaria. So I have to screw up my eyes in bad quality streams on the Internet. I haven't watched a single game yet, but I can comment on the team rosters. The best team compiled of most talented players for me is Team Canada. They have gathered an amazing group of young guns and another good thing is that there are almost always two guys from the same team(Perry, Getzlaf from the Ducks; Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins from the Oilers; Kane and Ladd from the Jets; Phaneuf and Schenn in defence from the Maple Leafs). Add to them players like Jamie Benn, Jeff Skinner, Patrick Sharp and John Tavares and you'll get a scary good team.


    Russia has the biggest hype with the two superstars of the tournament - Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk. But after them there is not much to add. Sweden is really strong with Erik Karlsson and half of the Detroit Red Wings. They are again intending to use young talents like Landeskog but they have this year some experienced players like Zetterberg. I expect something from Finland and especially from the Czech Republic as well.For me the top 4 teams are Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Russia/Finland.


    And one more thing - Team USA is pathetic yet again.