Belarus

Hopefully Verbeek hires a total unknown - just to mess with you all...

You are a poet, and yet didn't know it... Congrats on the baby! Bedard is a maybe... Best wishes from Belarus. Will we also hear from Moose? 🙃

Current playoff teams and year of last Stanley Cup win: Carolina - 2006 New Jersey - 2003 Dallas - 1999 Edmonton - 1990 Toronto - 1967 (Yes, 1967) Seattle, Florida, Vegas - None

Hey, here's an interesting(?) stat. The announcers last night said "The winners of the last two Stanley Cups have been eliminated as well as the President's Trophy winner." It got me thinking... After some quick research I discovered, the winners of the the last SIXTEEN Stanley Cups are currently not in the playoffs! The last time the Stanley Cup was won by one of the remaining teams in this year's playoffs was 2006 when Carolina won it.

Pretty competitive first round so far! As of this post ALL of the series are 3-2 with the exception of Knights/Jets which finished up 4-1. In past seasons there always seemed to be one or two 4-0 blowouts in the first round. And in the category of "useless trivia," in the Knights/Jets matchup: Laurent Brossoit - Knight's goalie - .914 sv% first round win John Gibson - 32nd worst team - .899 sv% regular season Connor Hellebuyck - Jet's goalie - .886 sv% first round loss

I might be misunderstanding your post, but did you mean "Ducks?" I like the idea of hiring an unknown, for either the AHL or NHL head coach job. The problem with hiring a well-known name is that it always seems like they become available after NOT working out for their previous team - an endless process of recycling. A new hire like McIIvane could do great, or go down in flames. It'll be fun to watch either way.

Hey, he could be the next Duck's coach! Edmonton to Anaheim - a new trend! 🙃

Welcome, Deano58! I like the colors and logo the way they are ----- HOWEVER... If the Ducks DID change, I'd like to see them return to the eggplant and teal colors (purple and green for the layman). I mean, there's not too many black and orange ducks out there in the wild that I know of. Perhaps a sweater like the inaugural season with eggplant/teal split diagonally, but with black pants and black helmet instead of eggplant. Three uniforms I really don't want to see again are: 1 - The "Wild Wing crashing through the ice" sweater. (mid 90's) 2 - The "rugby" sweater. You know, with the silver and purple stripes running down the sleeve. (late 90's) 3 - The odd black and teal sweaters that made us look like the San Jose Sharks. (recent)

I agree. If a goalie lets in a soft goal from 100ft away, or if a goalie is the victim of a two on zero breakaway, it still counts as a goal as well as a shot on goal. One is on the goalie, and the other is on the team. Something that "shots against" doesn't show.

Now, I can be a bit dense at times, and I might be missing something here, but what does Prince have to do with playoff hockey?.. (Has it really been seven years ago already?) 😲

Nice article today about the Perry we know and love! https://www.nhl.com/news/corey-perry-ups-intensity-for-tampa-bay-lightning-against-toronto-maple-leafs-ahead-of-game-3/c-343754608?tid=343064084

OR --- did the complete team's failure contribute to Gibson's poor performance past season? See, it's kind of a "chicken or the egg" thing.

Gads, people. The Ducks were 32nd in shots against, 28th in shots for, 31st in the power play, 31st in the penalty kill, 31st in goals for and 32nd in goals against. And who knows how to rate our coaching staff, but it's probably not in the top 31. BUT IT'S ALL GIBSON'S FAULT!!!

Well, I have a simpler approach. The ducks had almost 40 shots against per game (39.1), more than any other team this season. Gibson was close to a .900 save percentage (.899) and close to a 4.00 GAA (3.99). The median shots against in the NHL was 31.1, and the lowest shots against was 26.0 (Carolina). If Gibson had played with a "median" team instead of the Ducks, even with a .900 SV% he would have finished with a 3.11 GAA, and if he had played for Carolina he would have had a 2.60 GAA. Facing so many shots per game was probably exhausting for Gibson as well as demoralizing.

I read that and thought, "Wait a minute - Evander Kane doesn't play for the Rangers..." 🥴

Oh goodness, you're right! Whew, that was close! I was just getting ready to post my prediction for next season - and I was going to predict a 32nd place finish in order to force the hockey gods to make the Ducks win the Stanley Cup! 😲 THANKS AKSUN!!!

Congrats to Steel's first playoff goal tonight in his first playoff game against Dallas!

How about one of these two choices? 1 - All of the non-playoff teams have equal odds. Teams 17 thru 32 each have a 6.25% chance to get the first pick. 2 - Have two tiers of non-playoff teams. Teams 17 thru 24 have a lesser chance than teams 25 thru 32. For example, teams 17 thru 24 each have a 4.00% chance to win, while teams 25 thru 32 each have 8.00% chance to win. (I'm just estimating the two percentages - any math majors here?)

Hey, work your brains with this one. I was reading in the newspaper that Eakins was the Duck's tenth coach. So I thought to myself: "Hey Belarus, without looking it up, how many Duck's coaches can you name?" I thunk and thunk, and can name 5. There IS one coach I can see in my mind, but can't remember his name! How many can you all name without looking it up? (When I DO look it up, I'm going to be mad at the obvious ones I forgot about...)

Gonna go out on a limb here with one of my wildly inaccurate predictions: WCF = Avalanche vs Stars ECF = Maple Leafs vs Panthers

That sounds more painful than it needs to be...

This has been discussed before - nobody seems to know for sure! My guess is the first drawing has a higher priority over the second drawing. If that's true, I'd say the 12th team stays put and the winner of the second draw takes a maximum of third pick overall (assuming the second draw winner is team 13 or better). ("Maximum" meaning they can't get 1st or 2nd overall. They can get 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.)

If we DO get the first overall pick, I imagine we'll do the "best available player" strategy and pick Bedard. However, sometimes a team will surprise everyone and pick according to "need" instead. Who would fill a bigger need for the Ducks, Bedard or Fantilli?

Hey, the Blue Jacket's coach got fired. Maybe we could use him. We'd go from 32nd to 31st! 🤪

I'd like all of you to pause for a moment and express your appreciation for how accurate my prediction was. (I can't understand why my voicemail is now full of messages from Las Vegas casinos offering me free rooms...)