Stanley Cup Final Continues

Florida Panthers v. Edmonton Oilers
18/21*/24* June 2024 8:00 PM EDT
Amerant Bank Arena / Mr. Rogers Place
TV ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC

Panthers had a chance to close out the Oilers on the road and skate the cup around the ice in front of tens of thousands of tearful Canadians. Instead, Edmonton reached deep, found a few balls and put a hurting on Florida tonight. Looked like the Panthers figured Oilers were done so they all went out for steak, beers and some late night entertainment Friday night.

The series returns to Florida on Tuesday night. How do they manage to have ice in that climate? Does the cup get frequent flyer miles?

The Sports Net feed remains the better of the two. ESPN is just a dreadful excuse at a hockey network. Why on earth did they buy the rights?

Zebra info available at Scouting the Refs

Once the finals are over, there will be new posts related to most of these important post-season dates:

48 hours after Stanley Cup Final ends

1/ The first buyout window opens. Teams can spread out 2/3 of their remaining base salary over twice the remaining length of their deal for players 26 and older and 1/3 for players 25 and younger. The players must first be placed on unconditional waivers before being bought out unless they have a no-move clause.

2/ This is also the deadline for the first club-elected salary arbitration window. If a team elects for arbitration with an eligible pending restricted free agent in this window, it serves as a qualifying offer.

June 28 – Round 1 of the 2024 NHL Draft

June 29– Rounds 2-7 of the 2024 NHL Draft

June 30, 5 p.m. EDT – Deadline for teams to tender qualifying offers to their pending RFAs. Players who do not receive an offer will become unrestricted free agents on July 1.

July 1, 12 p.m. EDT – The new year begins. Players on expiring contracts officially become restricted/unrestricted free agents. Party on!

July 5, 5 p.m. EDT – Deadline for eligible RFAs to file for salary arbitration.

July 5, 5:01 p.m. EDT – July 6, 5 p.m. EDT – The second window for clubs to file for salary arbitration with eligible RFAs.

July 15, 5 p.m. EDT – Qualifying offers expire unless extended in writing by the team. If unsigned, teams retain qualified players’ signing rights.

July 20 – August 4 – Salary arbitration hearings.

August 15, 5 p.m. EDT – Exclusive signing rights for unsigned graduated college-drafted players expire.

Author: Beezle

I am the new and improved Beezle

356 thoughts on “Stanley Cup Final Continues”

  2. Like

  11. it seems we forget that the Rangers were up 2 games to 1, and in overtime on the road to go up 3 to 1. They didn’t just win a throw away game that Florida pulled the plug half way through.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Brooks: The moment the NHL decided not to prosecute cheap-shot-artist-on-cheap-shot-artist crime when Sam Bennett’s Game 3 rabbit punch to Brad Marchand’s jaw KO’d the Boston center for the remainder of the second-round series is the moment the NHL endorsed the Panthers’ candidacy for the Cup.  It’s not even about officiating standards at this point. It is about player safety. But of course, it is so rarely about player safety. Isn’t it time for the league to create a Department of Player Safety? 

    Liked by 5 people

  17. What the gullible folks in Connecticut don’t fully realize as UCONN gives Coach Hurley $50,000,000.00 is that THEY are paying that $. Hurley’s the highest paid employee of the State of Connecticut.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Is there anyone close to him? Basketball and football coaches are the highest paid public employee in almost every state. These are essentially minor league coaches in development leagues. This does happen anywhere else in the world

    Like

  19. Final Exam for basketball players – How many points does a player contribute when he successfully executes a three-point play? (don’t laugh – Court testimony confirmed this at a ‘major’ university some years back.)

    Like

  20. College Coach to 6’11 recruit: “You come to me with a high school transcript of one D and Four F’s. I can tell you straight out and full on that you’re spending way too much time on one subject.”

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  21. Can’t wait for Fla to win the cup and end this season. Next year they will not have the same team and it will be very hard to play the same style all year with new players. You know they will lose 1 or 2 players to new contract. Also we just might get better and with a little luck and some better health we might be able to beat them.

    Oh to dream.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Pascal’s wager, originally proposed by Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), takes a more pragmatic approach. Pascal thought that evidence cannot settle the question of whether God exists, so he proposes that you should bet, or wager, on God because of what’s at stake: you have lots to gain and not much to lose.

    same Pascal?

    Like

  30. player for player, no thanks. Now if you dig a little deeper, you talking one year of Marner vs two of panarin. This frees you up quite a bit of cap space in 25/26, when with the Shesterkin, and Lafrenier new contracts, the rangers are really going to be up against it. I think this opens up quite a few options down the road. So for this reason, I would do it.

    Liked by 3 people

  33. Marner, in the regular season, is a better all around player than Panarin. He’s very good on the PK, and is a good two way player. This is aside from point production, which he is also really good. The issues with Marner, are the baggage, and drama. Plus he seems to be overwhelmed by the moment in the playoffs. I don’t think Panarin is overwhelmed by the moment in the playoffs. He struggles with the style of play.

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  40. you trade Panarin for Marner, not for playoff reasons, but to get out from the Panarin contract one year earlier. As I said before, Marner the better all around player. I don’t think he moves the needle playoff wise.

    Liked by 1 person

  43. Trouba has two seasons left. Ride out at least this season. Both if you can. Zibanejad is going nowhere, and it would be very difficult to replace what he does, if you could.

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  49. Chytil should be gone. Does not fit, is not exceptional, has large injury risk. Unless he wants to go, Mika is going nowhere and NYR have nobody to replace him with. Make his and lines around him a little better to give him a little less to do.

    Miller they should definitely entertain offers. He’s still young but I don’t know that he’s getting much better defensively after the efforts of a number of coaches. If this is the best, Drury has to decide if that is a) good enough and b) at what price.

    Trouba is a horrible cap hit but no better than second pair. How much can NYR eat and not make the replacement more expensive than his worth too? May have to run this another season or depending how things shake out, move at the deadline.

    I don’t think they will move on from Goodrow. He plays the style that they need more of. How much is he over paid? 1M? You can find that and more with other moves. At the least, moving him would not be a top priority and the buyout does not make sense given the one year with very large hit.

    Liked by 1 person

  50. Mika is going nowhere and NYR have nobody to replace him with but Chytil has to go and NYR have nobody to replace him with …. unless you guys are okay with Brodz or Goodrow as 3C

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  52. bobbyo

    I agree on Miller. But he could bring back a younger 3C or RW to fill out and create the 3 Muskehuggers. More than anything else Lafreniere must be on PP1, it’s time.

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  54. Drury…have a meeting w Perimeterjad ..tell him that you want to go in a different direction roster wise..see if his ego gets bruised amd asks out..also tell him that you are gunna separate him and CK20..Can’t wait for this softee to be in another uniform

    Liked by 1 person

  56. Miller flat, no head, goes against my grain. Tap into the alternatives and trade him B4 he gets more expensive and has us over the barrel for multiple years. It’s the very yeast Drury could do.

    Liked by 1 person

  62. How the hell do you put Goodrow on Waivers after the post-season he had?!?! CHYTIL is the one you buy out. Yeah- it’s official. Our management is dog sh-t.

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  66. Goodrows stock is up after playoffs and no trade does not apply to waivers—a young team trying to get to cap floor would at least think about it. It signals that Drury wants to free up cap space to make bigger moves

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  73. 11 teams under cap floor ($65M) but this is before RFA signings and UFA signings. Bruins at $64 is an interesting one; look for them to be active in free agent market.

    Trade Kreider for McAvoy; hometown boys return back to roots (never happen; Bs arent moving Mc)

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  83. Mollie:

    ”The Rangers have placed Barclay Goodrow on waivers in a cap-saving move.

    With 3 years remaining on the six-year, $21.85 million deal, which includes a 15-team no trade list, Goodrow is more likely to be claimed now and that would take his entire cap charge off the Rangers’ books. If he clears, the Rangers could bury his contract in the minors and save $1.15 million for now until a trade can be worked out.

    The other option would be to buy him out. The window opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final ends and runs until June 30

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  88. Drury needs to find a younger, faster, grittier player to replace Goodrow. I am not optimistic.

    Frank Seravalli is reporting that Patrick Kane wants to come back to the Rangers for a do-over, since he wasn’t at 100% the first go around. Personally, I think that is a mistake but If Drury does sign him, it should be at league minimum without any NTC OR NMC. He is not what they need, other than to give Panarin and ZBad company disappearing in the playoffs and whenever teams play physical against them.

    Buying out Goodrow doesn’t make sense to me either. Hope Drury has a good plan, other than Rempe or Edstrom being the 3C or 4C. Replacing Goodrow with Kane doesn’t seem like a good plan to me, but what do I know. I thought the goal was to get tougher to play against???

    Liked by 2 people

  93. Plenty of reasons not to sign Kane but the guy’s got 3 Cups and a Conn smythe trophy to his name, he didn’t become a playoff disappearing act until drury foolishly traded for him with a known injury

    Liked by 1 person

  108. that little kid behind the oilers bench is a real pain in the butt. It never ceases to amazes me to see people act like fools so they can ask all their friends,”Did you see me on TV acting foolish”. Oh well, people continue to do it so maybe I am the dumd one.

    not much time in the zone for Edmonton. They better pick it up or Fla will be carring the cup tonight.

    Liked by 1 person

  112. The Panthers will just have to suffer a few more days if they’re to finally win The Cup. And at this stage, I wouldn’t put any money on it. Things look very iffy right now.

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  124. It’s obvious to me that it’s no how good the the Panthers were but how soft, weak, and pathetic the Rangers were. I would not be one bit surprised if Edmonton wins the cup. The earl-ors would have dismantled our cotton candy crew! Knoblauch calm and collected, was the best choice going forward to rebuild the Ranger franchise, Drury dropped the ball.

    Liked by 2 people

  141. Happy that the casual fans can see McDavid do his magic. He is making a Conn Smythe statement but needs to force game 7 to win it. Bobo’s stock is crashing.

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  143. “Connor McDavid has 8 points in 2 games facing elimination. That’s the 2nd highest in a single play-off series by a player in NHL history behind only Patrick Kane (9) in the 2014 WCF.”

    Vintage Showtime.

    Liked by 1 person

  148. OUT:

    Goody (3.6)

    Trouba (8.0)

    Miller (3.8)

    Lindy (3.0)

    Chytil (4.4)

    Kakko (2.4)

    IN:

    Tiffoli ($6×3)

    Stephenson ($6 x 4)

    Zadarov ($5×4)

    Bertuzzi ($5.5×3)

    ———————-

    Kreider – Mika – Tiffoli

    Bread – Tro – Laffy

    Othman – Stephenson – Bertuzzi

    VC – Edstrom – Rempe

    Fox – Schneider

    Zadarov – Jones

    Mackey – Mancini

    Like

  151. SN, I suspect you accidentally forgot Cuylee. I don’t like Bertuzzi as much as you, and that cbtract is very high for him. Otherwise, I like your thinking upfront. The D is very weak though.

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  154. Need to spend money up front; Culleye over Othman at LW3. No doubt need a vet for 3rd pair.

    Signing Igor would be a huge mistake, basically not learning the lesson from Henk. Much rather add 2 $5M forwards who can help control play than pay a goalie $10-12M/per who is one bad stretch from watching on the sidelines the rest of the season.

    Quick had the same stats as Igor this reg season fwiw. Recency bias has everyone fall over Igor as a must have. Meh, same people who said buying out Fox’s FA years would be a steal…

    Liked by 2 people

  171. Unlikely to be a dance partner for Trouba at 8M for two more years. Whatever they would eat would go against cost of replacement. Not sure the savings will be great enough.

    Liked by 1 person

  178. Im not worried knoblauch would have put the rangers over the top to win a Cup this year like I’m not worried the rangers would have won back to back cups in 2016 + 2017 if only they still had Mike Sullivan

    Liked by 1 person

  180. Goodrow was a good Ranger. I think a problem we all fall into is how much money these players make. We judge them not by how play the game but we use there salary as a mesuring device against every player in the NHL. Many years ago I had no idea what Carol Vadanais or Wille Huber made. I disliked them for what I saw as a lack of effort.

    A guy who a lot of us liked was Dan Giradi. No clue what he made but every game you knew what ever it was,was cheap. Kind of like what we have now with Lingren.

    going forward we all have someone on this team we would love to get rid of. I trust our GM and think by opening night next year we will be a better team that this year.

    I have to hope so,31 years is getting OLD.

    LGR

    Liked by 1 person

  183. The medal Tosser and Kravstov, among other poor picks, are a good part of the reason the Rangers have not been able to get back to the finals. Drury, Gorton and the scouting staff dropped the ball on the rebuild, especially with those two loser top 10 picks. That is part of the reason I do not have a lot of faith in Drury making them a true cup contender.

    Liked by 1 person

  188. BobbyO – I know those weren’t technically Drury’s picks, but I believe Drury was the assistant GM at the time and had a lot of say with moves they made, as Gorton and Sather trusted and valued his opinion. Maybe he was dead against those two picks, but I suspect he was on board with those picks. If he was dead against them, he should have spoken up more against them and made sure they didn’t make those mistakes.

    Liked by 1 person

  189. The entire organization is responsible for the failed picks. Even the Minx knew better. I fell off my chair after both the Tosser and Whinesoft picks, I still, to this day am Smh. Clown show!

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  191. hard to say how much input Drury had on the Gorton drafts. Looking at Gorton drafts, compared to Drury drafts, there definitely is a different type of player being drafted. Gorton’s parting gift may be the 2020 draft. That is shaping up to be a good one. 17/18/19 were horrific. Drury’s first draft (21), does not appear to be strong. After Othmann, it’s a lot of eh. 22 has the potential of being a really strong draft. 23 will be about Perreault.

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  193. Drury to his credit canned the entire player personnel and scouting functions. I believe when Capt Clutch came aboard as Asst GM he was tasked with fixing Hartford, which has been done. JD had an imprint as well, supposedly adamant about getting Schneider and not another Euro Dancer.

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  194. Dreary’s Deadline moves have been a mixed bag; acquiring high end talent and wasting picks that provide depth in the org as the draft is a crap shoot (for most). This year went light on the deals and they were 2 games from the Cup Finals.

    Need to make HOCKEY trades NOW! Have to get creative on assembling a roster that can be a Cup Contender, not pretender.

    Liked by 1 person

  195. Will be very interested to see the “savings” by bailing on Goodrow. You are working with 2.3M if he is replaced by an ELC. Anything less than that and his replacement better bring more than Goodrow did.

    Liked by 1 person

  196. Any input Drury as Asst. GM on the drafts was ignored. Either because there was no input or because it was not valued enough to change the selections. I find it hard to believe the former is the case.

    Liked by 2 people

  202. In the next three drafts, the rangers have a total of 5 draft picks before the fifth round (3 firsts, 0 seconds, 1 third, 1 fourth). getting hard to maneuver and very little in the prospect pipeline. I wonder if Drury feels that noose tightening and is going to do something rash – or brilliant!

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  204. wwpd, I think that’s where Jones comes in to play. Try and move him for a couple of mid round picks.
    bobby, hard to say on Berard. I think he may have more value to the Rangers, in that they are going to need some guys on ELCs.

    Liked by 1 person

  218. Jones is listed at 5’10 and 176 lbs. Sure, he did ok for 5-10 games. Is he going to survive 82 games and a pounding in four rounds of the playoffs?

    Of the 80 drafted in 2019 that have played 1 NHL game, only 9 are lighter and none are defenders. Of the 2019 draft class, of those who played in 23/24, 8 are lighter, none defenders and only 5 defenders are under 190. Fox outweighs him by 9 pounds, Gustafsson by 13, Ruhwedel by 15, Lindgren by 17.

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  231. Just got to trade Miller; can’t take his lackadaisical approach to defense Jones’s talent is being wasted by not playing; he did help the team over a long stretch when Trouba was out. Trouba got to go & Goodrow was treated like crap, but still a necessary business decision. They’re going to miss him in the locker room; players loved him. I’m getting old waiting for kakko. He and maybe Chytil can get a great return.

    Liked by 1 person

  234. Bettman really should be hung out to dry for the scheduling of the entire season, not just the playoffs. As to the current round, game six should have been played last night. He’s turned the NHL into a 9 month season.

    2023 MLB 216 days
    23/24 NBA 237 days
    23/24 NFL 157 days
    23/24 NHL 255 days…so far

    Never mind that hockey is played on a surface that melts over 32 🤣

    Factor this in to his desire to expand the league to a number of teams greater than any other major sports league (at least in North America)

    Liked by 1 person

  235. If you move Fox and his 9.5M cap hit, you keep Jones. If you keep Fox, you move on from Jones. You are not going to have both in your regular line up.

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  237. beezle

    they were working around nba schedule especially re the finals. don’t want to play same night and both televised on same network. weren’t going to then change schedule when nba ended after game 5

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  238. 🤣 🤣

    New Columbus Blue Jackets president of hockey operations and general manager Don Waddell was candid about Elvis Merzlikins’ trade value around the league due to his contract.

    “Let’s be honest, nobody is going to trade for that contract. Nobody,” Waddell told The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline. “People say, ‘Well, why don’t you buy out the contract?’ It’s a six-year buyout, and there are Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, when you might need that cap space.

    Liked by 1 person

  239. Alex is there really that much overlap between the roughly 4M who have been watch NHL and those who watched the NBA? My gut feeling is there is not.

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  240. But Dury is not building a team..they have a team that won the president’s tropy and went to semis….. he is trying to build a championship winner and if thats the case the first one you get rid of is Zibanajad .

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  242. beezle

    nhl is afraid of competing with nba. there is some overlap. i’m not part of that overlap but i know people who prefer nba and still will watch nhl if no overlap. and both are on same network

    honestly if we didn’t have the extra day in 94 before game 7 we would not have won the cup

    Like

  243. bobby

    then better get really good scouts since we will be picking early if mika leaves. his line is the 2nd line and in the aggregate paid as 2nd line.

    you’ll never admit it but chytil needs to be gone. cost us the last few years. can’t keep that problem going forward.

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  244. Alex they can trade anyone on this team if it gets them a Cup.. You will never admit it bu Mika has no cajones and is not a winner. They can figure it out without him with 8.5 in cap space

    Liked by 1 person

  247. it depends on who comes in at 3C/checking center…. thats whats needed to replace Mika..its not like he’s doing any scoring at even strength and they have others that can take his powerplay time

    Liked by 1 person

  249. Since 2016/17

    Playoffs

    Mika 9 G 12 A1 4 A2 at ES 17 G 31 A1 7 A2 total in 58 GP
    Kreider 14 G 5 A1 3 A2 at ES 28 G 7 A1 8 A2 total in 58 GP

    For 23/24

    Mika 3 G 13 A1 0 A2 in 16 GP (6th goals, 2 pts on NYR)
    Barkov 7 G 9 A1 5 A2 in 22 GP (tied 3rd goals, 2 pts on FLA)

    Not saying I don’t have my issues with Mika but could do worse. Getting a RW that works and a 3rd line that can play matchups would certainly help.

    Liked by 1 person

  252. Mika isn’t Messier but who is? They lost because they couldn’t get the puck out of their end. He wasn’t good at it but none of them were. You can’t generate offense when you don’t have the puck.

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  253. In a team that desperately needed bottom 6 scoring, I’m just glad they were able to get rid of Goody who provided the only bottom six scoring along w physical play in the POs to save $2.5M

    Liked by 1 person

  256. You can trade him too Alex if improves the team …. but he didnt play a game for 6 months after getting concussed ….what is Zibananajads excuse

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  257. as said before, fine to buyout or trade Chytil to clear cap given his style of play is not a fit given presence of similar feather weights Mika and Panarin.

    but let’s be honest that doing so the return in a trade and/or cap space gained in a trade or buyout is t gonna be close to being enough to solve the issues of Mika independent, Mika:kreider as a pair or Panarin or Trouba or Miller

    Necessary first step? sure, but several more have to follow and likely won’t be possible due to NMCs or Drury not being ready to walk from Trouba yet

    Like

  258. we need to do what we can. we can eliminate the chytil problem even if via buyout at 1/3 rate. no moves prevent moving on from some other guys at the present time. we need the 4 1/2 million and needed it the previous 2 years as well.

    and 93 with 20 on 2nd line is not the problem some think. and btw. pk and pp count too. some think only 5 on 5 matter. 10, 16, 13 is the topline and is paid accordingly as top line

    Liked by 1 person

  259. Its a problem when your 2nd line center making 8.5 scores 8 even strength goals ..make him the official checking center and take away his PP time and he will ask out

    Liked by 1 person

  261. 26 goals in total bobby. 46 assists.

    i don’t differentiate the type of goals like you do. keeping in mind he is solid on pk and barkov didn’t light him up in the series either. hockey is played 200 feet. chytil does not play 200 feet. not even close. he needs to go asap.

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  265. Mika Mouse: 81 GP 26 G 30 A1 16 A2 72 pts 8 G 15 A1 2 A2 25 pts at ES

    Most of Trocheck’s goals were on PP as well. As BDL would say, they do all count. 65% of Reinhart’s goals are on PP, I don’t think he apologizes.

    59% of NYR goals came from five players, 17.4% from one guy (bread). 59.7% of FLA goals came from five players. 58.2% of EDM from top five, DAL 48%. You could argue DAL was one of the most balanced teams with 8 players > 20 goals

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  267. Barkov: 2 2 5 4 2 3 18 1 goal

    Mika: 2 2 3 6 0 3 16 0 goal

    If you are going to argue that Shesterkin was why Barkov had 1 goal on 18 shots, don’t you also need to argue that Bob was the reason Mika had 0 goals on 16 shots?

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  268. i don’t pay for vince articles

    googled mika

    26 g

    12 from pp

    2 from sh

    implies 12 at even strength. some could be 3 on 3 or 4 on 4.

    maybe your problem is you listen to vince too much. he has no love for 93 or 20. based on seeing his tweets

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  269. Alex – I posted at 4:15

    Mika Mouse: 81 GP 26 G 30 A1 16 A2 72 pts 8 G 15 A1 2 A2 25 pts at ES

    you can get these from nhl.com stats under scoring per 60 (5v5)

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  271. Not sure what you are citing Beezle…..Florida series stats? Bobrovsky could have put a recliner up most of the series. Barkov was noticeable…Mika was not ..he doesn’t go to the paint and he does not go to slot and he doesn’t drive to the net with the puck…thats why he had 8 even strength goals once you confirm it

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  273. their priority should another center/DMAN .. get stronger down the middle…why waste more assets because 2 players are not a good fit together. Just separate them …they can still have the powerplay together

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  274. neither is a 3rd or 4th liner bobby. and they should not break up the top line – bread and co.

    we have 5 top 6 forwards. need a 6th. meanwhile step 1 has to be chytil gone.

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  289. So.. we need to get EV his game 7 so he can throw eggs at Bettman. As to who wins.. I’m ok with the Canadian team losing as I’m so tired of the very arrogant Canadian hockey press. Unfortunately that would mean FLA wins, though I suppose until a few weeks ago I couldn’t give a rats if they won.

    Hopefully EV gets his money’s worth and game 7 goes to 5 OTs 🤣

    Liked by 1 person

  293. NHL is such a dumpster fire… they list the “rankings” of the draft prospects broken down by “North American” and “International” skaters. The #2 under NA is Artyom Levshunov who is Belarussian, played for a Belarus national team, was drafted into the USHL in 2022 and then went to Michigan State last fall.

    Liked by 1 person

  323. Dolan isn’t interested in a Cup, he wants a bunch of mid round playoff games for a long period of time. That’s why Igor will get his big contract. Convince me otherwise.

    Liked by 1 person

  325. Hank’s contract was about 17% of the cap. They can’t do that again. Once they get north of $10 million that contract is dangerous as it does if it is longer than 6 years.

    Liked by 1 person

  332. With Edmonton pushing Florida to the brink, I have concerns…. Here’s why: Do we think Drury and Co. will now think to themselves “Well, the Oilers aren’t this big/bad/tough team and look at how well they’ve played the Panthers! We can do it too!” meaning, pizza boy would make a few cheap tweaks here and there while running back essentially the same roster….. Yeah, I’m concerned. Our softies are way too soft to pull off what the oil has pulled off.

    Liked by 1 person

  333. Knoblauch has taken a prancing pony pond hockey team, and taught them the importance of a forecheck, and how to play defense. But let’s hire another retread says “I won’t let it ruin my Christmas!”

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  334. Panthers different team without the lead; trap doesn’t work as well.

    the refs actually called the off puck interference against Dry-saddle by 82

    However didn’t call Rheinhardt’s interference later. If you are allowed to grab and hit players without the puck, yes, you will win most of those games.

    If Fox and Tuba were 100%…and PP could have cashed in on a couple of early chances

    it makes you wonder

    Did Kaschmuck play last night?

    Liked by 1 person

  335. There is no forecheck without D being able to possess and move the puck. Wingers forced to back check to get possession won’t be able to forecheck.

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  337. I see most of the Oilers being willing to take a hit to get the puck out their end instead of just trying to reach with their stick and slide the puck up the boards like the Rangers did. It’s not just size. It’s also compete level and commitment. They need more of that from anyone they bring in as well as the guys they keep.

    Also Bobby Orr is the only one I can remember being able to carry the puck with speed the way McDavid can. It has been fun to watch him. He can clear the zone himself a few times a game. That makes an enormous difference even if he doesn’t put up points-which he almost always does. If the Rangers had 3 or 4 more clean breakouts per game the Panther series would have had a different result.

    Liked by 1 person

  339. “That was not the loudest Rogers Place got, and there were plenty of candidates for that distinction. The decibel meter shown on video screens reached 113.8 when the Oilers stepped on to the ice to the tune of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”

    Clearly they do not allow cell phones into Mr. Rogers place. Wonder if Mariano led them out of the lockerroom?

    Liked by 1 person

  342. Coos there are a lot of questions on both sides when it comes to player selection, toi, etc. Don’t worry, Lavi will be gone this time next year if there is not a shiny cup in the house.

    Liked by 1 person

  343. Miller’s on-ice expected goals of minus (-) 8.58 ranks DEAD LAST of all DMen who were in Playoffs. Time for him to start determining some on-ice outcomes rather than wandering and reacting. (Staple)

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  348. There obviously are a lot of if’s going around this morning. The simple truth is they were not good enough, or smart enough when it counted most. From Laviolette on down.

    Even If the Oilers lose Monday, Knoblauch has done a remarkable job turning them around.

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  349. I’ve always said the team that that gets the the other team to play their game will win. That’s what the Oilers are doing with their pond hockey speed game & unexpected goaltending. Puddy Kats have to reestablish their hard hitting defensive game & stop standing around watching the Oilers showoff. Me thinks the Rangers might have emptied the Puddy Kats gas tank. Hate the smug Oilers & their fans. This Stanley Cup Final has brought millions & millions of dollars to that very cold city. In conclusion, if the Puddy Kats don’t raise the level of play and that means their goaltending too. the smug Oilers will destroy them. c’est la vie.

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  351. St Pete eli Wouldn’t it be ironical if the the Rangers did end up playing the Oilers & we lost. We got nothing for giving up Knoblauch. One of the nicer things Dolan & Drury have done.

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  353. I’m willing to trade either Lindgren or Miller. Miller is the better player, and actually the numbers say the more physical player. What the numbers don’t say is toughness. Miller lacks the toughness that Lindgren has. Lindgren is tough. He takes a beating, but he doesn’t really give one anymore.

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