2015/16 NHL Season - The Ladd/Little/Wheeler circle jerk

[Life]

So the season kicked off a week and a half ago and I finally get to sport my first NHL jersey in ten years.

I'm a proud Jets fan (my mother calls it treason but screw her Leafs and Canucks). We're 4-1 with Columbus coming to Winnipeg tonight. All we need is 6 in 5 to make the playoffs and we're currently at 8 in 5.

I'll put down standings and playoff races at home. But who do y'all support?

Updated as of results from October 31:

Eastern Conference:

Atlantic Division:    GP   W   L   OT   Points
Montreal Canadians    12  10   2    0     20
Boston Bruins         10   6   3    1     13
Florida Panthers      11   5   4    2     12
Ottawa Senators       11   5   4    2     12
Tampa Bay Lightning   12   5   5    2     12
Detroit Red Wings     11   5   5    1     11
Buffalo Sabers        11   4   7    0      8
Toronto Maple Leafs   10   1   7    2      4

Metropolitan Division:
Washington Capitols   10   8   2    0     16
New York Rangers      11   7   2    2     16
New York Islanders    11   6   2    3     15
Pittsburgh Penguins   11   7   4    0     14
New Jersey Devils     11   6   4    1     13
Philadelphia Flyers   10   4   4    2     10
Carolina Hurricanes   11   5   6    0     10
Columbus Blue Jackets 12   2  10    0      4

Western Conference:

Central Division:     GP   W   L   OT   Points
Dallas Stars          11   9   2    0     18
St. Louis Blues       11   8   2    1     17
Nashville Predators   10   7   1    2     16
Minnesota Wild        11   7   2    2     16
Winnipeg Jets         11   7   3    1     15
Chicago Blackhawks    11   6   5    0     12
Colorado Avalanche    10   3   6    1      7

Pacific Division:
Los Angeles Kings     10   7   3    0     14
Vancouver Canucks     11   5   2    4     14
Arizona Coyotes       11   5   5    1     11
San Jose Sharks       10   5   5    0     10
Edmonton Oilers       12   4   8    0      8
Calgary Flames        12   3   8    1      7
Anaheim Ducks         10   1   7    2      4

Edited November 2, 2015 by Jim Moriarty

[Naughx]

I'm rooting for Ottawa!

[Life]

If Bowmeister gets called for interference on Byfuglien, Jets would be on the PP with 6 to go in the game. We could tie it up but WHAT THE FUCK, REFS?

[BBM]

Leafs fan here. Going to be a miserable two years or so. Their puck control has actually improved considerably under Babcock, but without Kessel they don't have the finishing. The next two years don't have practically-surefire-studs at the top either, and with the new lottery rule changes who even knows. Honestly their best chance to become good is Stamkos deciding he's done with Tampa, but idk why he'd ever want to go from a contender to a team that's just started rebuilding. But Babcock came so who knows???

[Life]

The Leafs are crap and always have been. I turned my back on that franchise a decade ago and I'll never regret it.

Not happy with the loss last night. Sloppy 5v5 play and too many penalty kills in the 3rd to get any sort of meaningful offense. Our powerplay is strong but we just couldn't get any shots on net during the last 20 minutes.

[Bullwine85]

Well, except for that disaster in Colorado the Stars have looked pretty good so far this season! Here's hoping they keep it up and Kari keeps playing like he did before last season

[Life]

I don't like this home stretch the Jets are on because it's a difficult one. I know that we get 5 days rest between that awful loss to the Blues and a shot at the Lightning but over the next four games, we're playing 3 teams at .500 or better (Tampa, Chicago and Minnesota) with two of those teams managing to get points on the road (both Tampa and Minnesota have picked up 5 points over 4 games on the road). The Chicago/Minnesota games are important because we need to knock them down the ladder a bit (Central division is easily the toughest division in hockey right now and it's crowded at the top).

[Jedi]

Coyotes loyalist here, then again i'm just an Arizona person to the end, we've never had all that great a run, although a few years ago we did Ok lol.

[Life]

Coyotes loyalist here, then again i'm just an Arizona person to the end, we've never had all that great a run, although a few years ago we did Ok lol.

I used to be a Coyotes fan (team originally came from Winnipeg, mind you).

Tell me, are there a bunch of hockey fans down in Arizona?

[Anacybele]

I don't really watch hockey, but it's kinda neat during the playoffs. Penguins girl here though, cause my Pittsburgh roots. :3

[Life]

Well, we lost but it's a point so that's better than nothing. Besides, I'd rather lose to the Lightning than to the Wild or Blackhawks.

[Zasplach]

Tell me, are there a bunch of hockey fans down in Arizona?

No, unfortunately Arizona is mostly a transient state (lots of us weren't born here who live here), nature of the sun belt, and a lot of people who live in the Phoenix metro area carry their sports allegiances with them.

[BBM]

^ If Arizona hadn't been one of Bettman's "pet" franchises in that he was the one to bring the original Jets there, it probably would have been moved by now. IIRC the Coyotes had to file for bankruptcy in 2009. They tried boosting its popularity by changing it from Phoenix to Arizona last year, but it didn't really work. I think at this point people are hoping that if the Coyotes get the #1 pick next year and get Auston Mathews, who's from Arizona, it'll change, but I doubt it. Tampa Bay has shown that despite how good you are, some places just aren't good spots for hockey (they lost money last year). I don't see the home-born superstar thing having that big an effect.

[Bullwine85]

^ If Arizona hadn't been one of Bettman's "pet" franchises in that he was the one to bring the original Jets there, it probably would have been moved by now. IIRC the Coyotes had to file for bankruptcy in 2009. They tried boosting its popularity by changing it from Phoenix to Arizona last year, but it didn't really work. I think at this point people are hoping that if the Coyotes get the #1 pick next year and get Auston Mathews, who's from Arizona, it'll change, but I doubt it. Tampa Bay has shown that despite how good you are, some places just aren't good spots for hockey (they lost money last year). I don't see the home-born superstar thing having that big an effect.

Even Minnesota has lost money in recent seasons, are you going to say Minnesota isn't a good place for hockey?

If you go to Tampa, they're sold out night in and night out and they have a very loyal fanbase because they win.

Put a winning team on the ice, and people will come, even in Arizona (their crowds during the 2012 playoffs showed that)

[BBM]

Even Minnesota has lost money in recent seasons, are you going to say Minnesota isn't a good place for hockey?

If you go to Tampa, they're sold out night in and night out and they have a very loyal fanbase because they win.

Put a winning team on the ice, and people will come, even in Arizona (their crowds during the 2012 playoffs showed that)

Minnesota is losing money because they're spending too much money. Their revenues are decent. Tampa on the other hand has I think the fifth or sixth lowest revenues in the league. Combine that with a high salary hit and they're I think bottom-3 in terms of income, ahead of only Carolina and Florida. I'm not sure they sell out, but if they do it's because their ticket prices are some of the lowest in the league.

Arizona has the lowest revenues in the league. The only reason they're not losing more money is because they have the lowest salaries in the league as well. I have no doubt that their revenues will increase as they become better, but so will their costs. And you have to spend to be a good team in the long-term. They might have drawn crowds in 2012, but they were still losing money and bankrupt the entire time; the league was giving them money to stay afloat.

[Jedi]

I used to be a Coyotes fan (team originally came from Winnipeg, mind you).

Tell me, are there a bunch of hockey fans down in Arizona?

It's hit and miss, back when I was still down there. Most of AZ usually focuses on the Suns for Basketball and Cardinals for Football, or our college football teams.

We used to be a good baseball state, but the Diamondbacks haven't done too hot in a few years.

Hockey turns out decent numbers, but its probably our least popular I'd guess.

[Life]

Jets beat the Wild but this game told me a lot about this Jets team.

- The Jets are fast but they know how to gas themselves and that's an issue. We need to play a full 60 minutes. Usually we suck in the 1st and pick it up in the final 40. Today, the first half hour was perfect and we simply let the Wild get back into this one with three unanswered goals.

- Penalties are an issue, especially for Byfuglien. Dude, you can't take a blatant boarding penalty with 2:03 left in the hockey game. Our penalty kill is pretty good but we shouldn't be relying on it. This isn't even the first time Byfuglien's had a late penalty this season. I want him off the team.

- Faceoffs are our weakness in generating offense. We don't have a good center who can win them. Little and Scheifele are good players but aren't good enough on the faceoff.

- Our defense is at best mediocre and downright crap at other times. Seriously, learn how to clear the puck. I almost had a heart attack at the end of the game because of four failed attempts at clearing the zone in 10 seconds.

- Blake Wheeler is god. And you can go ahead and hand Ehlers Rookie of the Year. The Wheeler/Ladd/Little line is so instrumental in generating offense and it's just so hard to defend against.

- Fuck the Wild.

Good win but there's a lot to work on before Tuesday's match with Chicago.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Jim Moriarty

[BBM]

Byfuglien has discipline problems but he's still your best defenceman by far, at least right now. Trading him would be a step back when the Jets are trying to get to the top tier.

[Life]

Byfuglien has discipline problems but he's still your best defenceman by far, at least right now. Trading him would be a step back when the Jets are trying to get to the top tier.

If he keeps playing the way he does, he's going to be throwing a lot more games. We should have been taken to OT last night and he threw St. Louis. That's two games in the first 8 where he's caused us serious damage in the final 5 minutes of play. That's not being "our best defenceman". That's being a major liability.

Sure, I'll take Byfuglien over Trouba or Chiarot as our premier defenceman when we're talking about raw skill. But I'd rather have smart players on the ice instead of oafs.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Jim Moriarty

[BBM]

well, Byfuglien is in a contract year so you might trade him just for that? shrug, I think the Jets would still be better off resigning him though, provided they keep the length of the contract reasonable. Byfuglien has a penalty problem but I think right now your opinion is being affected too much by a small sample size. And him being able to play forward also adds a lot of flexibility.

Edited October 26, 2015 by BBM

[Life]

well, Byfuglien is in a contract year so you might trade him just for that? shrug, I think the Jets would still be better off resigning him though, provided they keep the length of the contract reasonable. Byfuglien has a penalty problem but I think right now your opinion is being affected too much by a small sample size. And him being able to play forward also adds a lot of flexibility.

He can play forward but we need a center who can win faceoffs. I've been hearing rumours of trying to get Eric Staal from Tampa but I can't see a reason of why Tampa would get rid of him and it's just rumours. My personal choice would be Matt Stajan (just until we draft a center) but I don't think the Flames will part with him for anything less than a first round (they're that offensive starved).

EDIT: Can't find Stajan's faceoff numbers.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Jim Moriarty

[BBM]

Staal doesn't play for Tampa; he plays for Carolina. He's not worth it for the Jets to get; he's on a contract year and the Jets aren't contenders- he won't win them a cup. They'd be better off going for a Bozak type, who's got several years on his contract and will come relatively cheap. Bozak's also good at face-offs and PKing and a solid #2/#3 center.

[Naughx]

I'm not much of a Habs fan but it is great that they haven't lost.

[Life]

Jets host the Kings tonight. Meanwhile, Buffalo is somehow beating Philly 2-0 in the 1st and the other good games are VAN/MTL and STL/TBL.

[Anacybele]

The Penguins aren't winless anymore...good to see that. :P Apparently they have power play issues though... And I can believe it, because I recall that being the case the last time I watched them too. And apparently, one of the main reasons they won vs the Predators was badass goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. When I did watch, that guy was awesome, yo. I like his name too! It's French, and his last name has something to do with flowers, because "fleur" means flower in French. :D