Being largely in the Americas, most of the fans here follow the American NHL. That's also the league where most of the best hockey players wind up. IIRC, the Russian KHL is probably the next place you'd want to look for high-level professional hockey.
The NHL's in playoffs right now, which is why this thread's getting so much attention. The NHL playoff's structured as an elimination tournament with best-of-four series between each team; they're currently in the quarterfinals, with New York and Washington at 3-3 going into game 7 on Wednesday, and Montreal/Tampa Bay at 2-3 with game 6 tomorrow. The Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks, meanwhile, have won their quarterfinal series already and are waiting to play each other in the semis.
That's pretty much everything you'd need to know to start watching American hockey at the moment.
I am Austrian and I also follow the NHL closely (meaning in season I regularly get up at 1 AM to watch games). My favorite team is the Philadelphia Flyers who aren't doing terribly hot recently having missed the playoffs 2 out of the last three years, but are getting better. They have great forwards and seem to have finally found a great goaltender as well, but their defencemen are sorely lacking. The hope is that some of the young defencemen they picked in the NHL Entry draft and who are currently playing in developmental leagues such as the Canadian junior leagues or the American Hockey League will soon be able to jump in and improve the team on that front. They're also currently trying to poach head coach Mike Babcock from Detroit (Rym's favorite team), who is widely regarded as the best coach in the game today.
The Flyers are an old team with a bad reputation for rough play that is kind of unwarranted nowadays but people like to still use it to hate on them, particularly fans of their rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and New York Rangers (Scott's team, but they're also the evil rich team). They are rich in history and are one of the most successful teams in its history, but somehow always fall short of winning the Stanley Cup. Also, for some bizarre reason the Flyers somehow managed to have an austrian on the roster for like six of the last seven years so that's a bonus for me.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs (as is the official title) are best out of 7 for all rounds btw, so you need four wins to advance to the next round. The Winner of the Finals is awarded the Stanley Cup, one of the most storied and best regarded trophies in all of sports. You really should read the Wikipedia article on it some time.
Currently there is also the IIHF World Championship underway, in which national teams of the best ranked nations among by the Internation Ice Hockey Federation compete. Unfortunately since the Stanley Cup Playoffs are still running many north american fans disregard that competition because they believe it inferior since a lot of players are either still playing with their clubs or have recused themselves from the competition because of injuries or disinterest after the long NHL season. Most high level players are in the NHL after all. The competition is still fun though and is highly regarded in europe.
The IIHF Worlds are held in the Czech Republic this year and everything was dressed up for the event when I was in prague 2 weeks ago. Competition is held in a group format at first in which two groups of 8 teams play each other team in their group once. After this the top 4 teams of each group advance and enter a single-elimination playoff format until a champion is crowned. Last day of group play is tomorrow. Austria managed to beat the germans today but are at risk of being relegated to the next class below in the IIHF rankings and become ineligible to compete in the world next year. They can stave off that fate if they either gets some points out of Canada, or the game between Latvia and France tomorrow ends in a regulation win (both of those teams are currently below Austria in the standings).
I don't disrespect the IIHF, I just don't have time to pay attention to it. That's why Olympic hockey is the best. Everyone has time to watch the games.
He's not the worst, but he's kind of annoying. His trademark use of uncommon synonymous verbs is slightly irritating.
Also, New Yorkers are spoiled for broadcasting. Teams in small markets have local announcer quality for their local team, we have national or international level broadcasters for our local teams because we are New York. Each team even has their own cable channels. The Rangers and Knicks are on MSG, which is a cable channel just for Madison Square Garden. The announcers are Sam Rosen, John Giannone, and Joe Micheletti. Sam Rosen is top tier, and does NFL games as well.
Sportscasters matter a lot in NY. Even in my family the quality of different sportcasters is a relatively frequent topic of discussion. People will get upset, for example, when Troy Aikman gets assigned to the Giants game because it's 4pm on FOX.
So when the playoffs come around and the games are on NBC instead of MSG, it's not really the greatest.
At least you lost an honorable series between two good teams in a game 7 OT.
I mean, sure, no cup for you. The Rangers are, by the criteria of Lord Stanley, objectively superior. But that was one of the best series I've ever seen.
At least you lost an honorable series between two good teams in a game 7 OT.
I mean, sure, no cup for you. The Rangers are, by the criteria of Lord Stanley, objectively superior. But that was one of the best series I've ever seen.
I really don't like to predict things I'm not very very sure about, but I'm comfortable predicting a final score of 2-1 for pretty much every remaining game.
I was extremely pleased by what I saw today. The Ducks matched Chicago in their intensity and their speed, both of which I thought would be areas where we'd fall behind. I'm much more confident we can win this series.
And after watching New Yorks last few games? Yeah. The West is gonna bring it. Ryms prediction that the West is hopeless is false.
Russian team leaves ice after losing, but before Canadian national anthem finishes. That is, except for...
"...Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeny Malkin, Viktor Tikhonov and Dmitry Kulikov. Fasel said he saw how Ovechkin and Malkin tried to stop the rest of the players rushing to the locker rooms..."
Also:
Stupid Ovechkin. I want to hate you so much. You are supposed to be sneaky Russian bad guy. Stop being nice guy!
Mike Babcock just signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 8 years and $50 million dollars, which is just insane. He is a fantastic coach (many have him as best in the league though I think Tippett is better), but the money is pretty crazy with coaches usually making around 1 to 2 million per season. Babcock gets 6.5 million per season. The term is also crazy when you consider that a shelf life of a coach in the NHL is around three years. In the last 8 years the Leafs had four different coaches, with Babcock now being the fifth.
Meanwhile the Flyers bowed out of the race for Babcock (if they were really ever in it) and announced that their new coach would be Dave Hakstol. He is now the former coach of the University of North Dakota, which is kind of a rarity because unlike football a head coach of a college team almost never makes the jump to the pro ranks. Hakstol is the third guy to do so directly, and the first since 1987 or so. He was kind of labelled a "no-name" by the unwitting, but he has amassed a fantastic record in the NCAA with a winning percentage north of .600 and making the playoffs every year in his 11 year tenure as head coach at UND, including 7 appearances in the Frozen Four. It was largely welcomed as a breath of fresh air for a franchise notorious for hiring former players of theirs to front office jobs. However, it remains to be seen if he can adapt to the schedule and the stronger personalities in the NHL. I'm cautiously optimistic. Also there were a lot of jokes made about the fact that the name of our head coach and GM are basically the same (Hakstol and Hextall).
Comments
Also really want to give it a crack now, looks like a super fun game.
The NHL's in playoffs right now, which is why this thread's getting so much attention. The NHL playoff's structured as an elimination tournament with best-of-four series between each team; they're currently in the quarterfinals, with New York and Washington at 3-3 going into game 7 on Wednesday, and Montreal/Tampa Bay at 2-3 with game 6 tomorrow.
The Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks, meanwhile, have won their quarterfinal series already and are waiting to play each other in the semis.
That's pretty much everything you'd need to know to start watching American hockey at the moment.
The Flyers are an old team with a bad reputation for rough play that is kind of unwarranted nowadays but people like to still use it to hate on them, particularly fans of their rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and New York Rangers (Scott's team, but they're also the evil rich team). They are rich in history and are one of the most successful teams in its history, but somehow always fall short of winning the Stanley Cup. Also, for some bizarre reason the Flyers somehow managed to have an austrian on the roster for like six of the last seven years so that's a bonus for me.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs (as is the official title) are best out of 7 for all rounds btw, so you need four wins to advance to the next round. The Winner of the Finals is awarded the Stanley Cup, one of the most storied and best regarded trophies in all of sports. You really should read the Wikipedia article on it some time.
Currently there is also the IIHF World Championship underway, in which national teams of the best ranked nations among by the Internation Ice Hockey Federation compete. Unfortunately since the Stanley Cup Playoffs are still running many north american fans disregard that competition because they believe it inferior since a lot of players are either still playing with their clubs or have recused themselves from the competition because of injuries or disinterest after the long NHL season. Most high level players are in the NHL after all. The competition is still fun though and is highly regarded in europe.
The IIHF Worlds are held in the Czech Republic this year and everything was dressed up for the event when I was in prague 2 weeks ago. Competition is held in a group format at first in which two groups of 8 teams play each other team in their group once. After this the top 4 teams of each group advance and enter a single-elimination playoff format until a champion is crowned. Last day of group play is tomorrow. Austria managed to beat the germans today but are at risk of being relegated to the next class below in the IIHF rankings and become ineligible to compete in the world next year. They can stave off that fate if they either gets some points out of Canada, or the game between Latvia and France tomorrow ends in a regulation win (both of those teams are currently below Austria in the standings).
Also, New Yorkers are spoiled for broadcasting. Teams in small markets have local announcer quality for their local team, we have national or international level broadcasters for our local teams because we are New York. Each team even has their own cable channels. The Rangers and Knicks are on MSG, which is a cable channel just for Madison Square Garden. The announcers are Sam Rosen, John Giannone, and Joe Micheletti. Sam Rosen is top tier, and does NFL games as well.
Sportscasters matter a lot in NY. Even in my family the quality of different sportcasters is a relatively frequent topic of discussion. People will get upset, for example, when Troy Aikman gets assigned to the Giants game because it's 4pm on FOX.
So when the playoffs come around and the games are on NBC instead of MSG, it's not really the greatest.
I think announcers matter a lot anywhere sports are big.
Let's see if he gets contained tonight.
I'll just leave this here.
I mean, sure, no cup for you. The Rangers are, by the criteria of Lord Stanley, objectively superior. But that was one of the best series I've ever seen.
Here's hoping the hockeying tonight continues to hockey has it hockeyed tonight.
https://giant.gfycat.com/SelfreliantPhonyAntelope.mp4
And after watching New Yorks last few games? Yeah. The West is gonna bring it. Ryms prediction that the West is hopeless is false.
The Tampa team that played Game 6 against the Habs go could toe-to-toe with the Ducks. The team that played Game 1 against the Rangers — no chance.
Russian team leaves ice after losing, but before Canadian national anthem finishes. That is, except for...
"...Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeny Malkin, Viktor Tikhonov and Dmitry Kulikov. Fasel said he saw how Ovechkin and Malkin tried to stop the rest of the players rushing to the locker rooms..."
Also:
Stupid Ovechkin. I want to hate you so much. You are supposed to be sneaky Russian bad guy. Stop being nice guy!
Meanwhile the Flyers bowed out of the race for Babcock (if they were really ever in it) and announced that their new coach would be Dave Hakstol. He is now the former coach of the University of North Dakota, which is kind of a rarity because unlike football a head coach of a college team almost never makes the jump to the pro ranks. Hakstol is the third guy to do so directly, and the first since 1987 or so. He was kind of labelled a "no-name" by the unwitting, but he has amassed a fantastic record in the NCAA with a winning percentage north of .600 and making the playoffs every year in his 11 year tenure as head coach at UND, including 7 appearances in the Frozen Four. It was largely welcomed as a breath of fresh air for a franchise notorious for hiring former players of theirs to front office jobs. However, it remains to be seen if he can adapt to the schedule and the stronger personalities in the NHL. I'm cautiously optimistic. Also there were a lot of jokes made about the fact that the name of our head coach and GM are basically the same (Hakstol and Hextall).
Oh yeah, and Canada beat the pants off of Russia on the weekend to win gold at the IIHF World Cup, including this insane pass by Claude Giroux.
Also, Andrew Shaw attempted to score an overtime winner with his head, which is not a legal play. Chicago still won in the third overtime.