NHL 2025/2026 season

[Maximum Overkill]

WTF Sabres? 

[dogcows]

You can’t beat the excitement of an overtime game 7… Sabres totally outplayed the Habs but one fast whistle by a ref and a lucky shot in OT… That’s hockey for you.

Hopefully this is just the first of many playoff runs on the next few years. 

[listen2me 23]

Meh.  The no goal stinks.  Quick whistle.   But Tuch misses a tap in also.  Cant pay that guy 11 mill per.  He was a ghost.  

Was a fun season.  Either team probably gets mopped up by thr Canes anyway.  But they had their chances.  They played a solid game.  

Dahlin was awesome all playoffs.  Rest of their studs really were blah.  Benson arrived, Helenius looked good.  

It was fun for once.  

[listen2me 23]

On 5/17/2026 at 6:02 AM, dain11279 said:

I guess they gotta go with UPL for game 7, no?

I didnt love how they did it.  Its hockey but I dont quite get it.  

Sure they rotated all season and both were good.  But they didnt keep the rotation.  If a guy was in goal and they won they played them again in the playoffs. Not what they did in the regular season. 

But those are tough calls to make.   

[dogcows]

2 hours ago, listen2me 23 said:

Meh.  The no goal stinks.  Quick whistle.   But Tuch misses a tap in also.  Cant pay that guy 11 mill per.  He was a ghost.  

Was a fun season.  Either team probably gets mopped up by thr Canes anyway.  But they had their chances.  They played a solid game.  

Dahlin was awesome all playoffs.  Rest of their studs really were blah.  Benson arrived, Helenius looked good.  

It was fun for once.  

Great season… First time I’ve watched Sabres games in May in 15 years. 

Tuch was good against Boston, but totally disappeared against the Habs. Quite disappointing.

The better team lost last night due to puck luck, but it happens. That’s why they have to become more consistent t and not throw away games early in the series.

Looking forward to this new era of Sabres hockey. The future looks pretty darn bright. 

[posty]

Kind of happy that the Canadiens advanced to the conference finals...  Maybe they can get the monkey off the back of the Canadian franchises not winning the Cup...

[GobbleDog]

Watching the Vegas / Avs game and was thinking ... so, Vegas fired their coach with 8 games left in the regular season - despite already clinching the playoffs. Then they hire Tortorella. 

If Torts goes on to win a Stanley Cup... did he really win a Stanley?  

Something wrong about this whole thing. Has this ever happened before in the NHL?  Can you imagine an NFL coach getting fired after clinching the playoffs.?.  The only sport where this might happen is soccer where they fire coaches left and right. 

[dogcows]

52 minutes ago, GobbleDog said:

Watching the Vegas / Avs game and was thinking ... so, Vegas fired their coach with 8 games left in the regular season - despite already clinching the playoffs. Then they hire Tortorella. 

If Torts goes on to win a Stanley Cup... did he really win a Stanley?  

Something wrong about this whole thing. Has this ever happened before in the NHL?  Can you imagine an NFL coach getting fired after clinching the playoffs.?.  The only sport where this might happen is soccer where they fire coaches left and right. 

Firing hockey coaches mid season isn’t uncommon. I’m honestly surprised NFL teams don’t do it more often. If you’ve got the talent and the coach is blowing it 7-8 games in when you still have a chance to turn things around? Do so! Instead I hear “it takes too long to learn the new coach’s system.” 

As for Tortorella? He cost the team $100k and a draft pick. And chances are Colorado is gonna win this series.If that happens, I’m guessing there will be some buyer’s remorse.

[GobbleDog]

16 minutes ago, dogcows said:

Firing hockey coaches mid season isn’t uncommon. I’m honestly surprised NFL teams don’t do it more often. If you’ve got the talent and the coach is blowing it 7-8 games in when you still have a chance to turn things around? Do so! Instead I hear “it takes too long to learn the new coach’s system.” 

Mid-season ... chance to turn things around ... ok.  After clinching the playoffs?

Has that ever happened before in ANY of the major sports?

[dogcows]

16 minutes ago, GobbleDog said:

Mid-season ... chance to turn things around ... ok.  After clinching the playoffs?

Has that ever happened before in ANY of the major sports?

This is a great question… I ended up down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to figure it out. I think the 99-2000 Devils (Cup winning season) qualify.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999–2000_New_Jersey_Devils_season

They fired their coach with only 8 games left in the season… they were in first place and had clinched the playoffs already.

[GobbleDog]

9 minutes ago, dogcows said:

This is a great question… I ended up down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to figure it out. I think the 99-2000 Devils (Cup winning season) qualify.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999–2000_New_Jersey_Devils_season

They fired their coach with only 8 games left in the season… they were in first place and had clinched the playoffs already.

Impressive you found it.  

And of course... NHL again. I wouldn't have guessed it had ever happened in major sports. Seems strange. 

[dogcows]

56 minutes ago, GobbleDog said:

Impressive you found it.  

And of course... NHL again. I wouldn't have guessed it had ever happened in major sports. Seems strange. 

Definitely weird… Although with the NHL, the playoffs are so different than the regular season. Teams that are clinched (or close to it) at the trade deadline will go after “depth” players or types of players they might only use against certain opponents. Even this season the Sabres got some big, slow defensemen to take on the “bullying” Bruins. After winning that series, they got knocked out of the lineup against the faster, higher-scoring Canadiens.

[cmh6476]

So everyone stopped caring?

[Thornton Melon]

48 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

So everyone stopped caring?

I care, but my team is out, so I don't care enough to post about it on a low rent message board. 

[HellToupee]

59 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

So everyone stopped caring?

Bruins are out , how are the Scouts doing?

[cmh6476]

1 minute ago, HellToupee said:

Bruins are out , how are the Scouts doing?

I'm a UW-Madison (Badger band) fan.  Women's Nat'l Champs and Men's runner-ups

[cmh6476]

12 minutes ago, Thornton Melon said:

I care, but my team is out, so I don't care enough to post about it on a low rent message board. 

well, it was a crappy offsides call

[Thornton Melon]

54 minutes ago, cmh6476 said:

well, it was a crappy offsides call

Oh. I watched a little bit of the game, but I must have missed that call. Who are you rooting for (bet on?). I assume the call went against them.

[cmh6476]

11 minutes ago, Thornton Melon said:

Oh. I watched a little bit of the game, but I must have missed that call. Who are you rooting for (bet on?). I assume the call went against them.

No, my son is home from school and turned it on after asking, "dad, do you like hockey?".  So I was just casually observing.  

 

Looks like he was behind the line, and this doesn't really show who got to the puck first.

[listen2me 23]

So apparently the Jack Adams Trophy (coach of the year) isnt a serious award.  

Cooper wins it while coaching an expected (yet again) good Tampa team.  Instead of Lindy Ruff coaching a 14 years playoff drought Sabres team who won that division over Tampa.  

You cant make it up.  

[dogcows]

2 hours ago, listen2me 23 said:

So apparently the Jack Adams Trophy (coach of the year) isnt a serious award.  

Cooper wins it while coaching an expected (yet again) good Tampa team.  Instead of Lindy Ruff coaching a 14 years playoff drought Sabres team who won that division over Tampa.  

You cant make it up.  

Cooper underperformed and collapsed down the stretch because he wasted his team’s talent on goon hockey.

Looks like the voters thought it was his “‘turn” to get an award. 

[MikeMatt]

I haven’t paid much attention to the west. If Vegas was this “good” why did they fire Cassidy in favor of Torts so late in the season ?? If he wins Cup with a second team even without coaching all season. Weird. 

[kutulu]

crazy 3rd

[kutulu]

dam

[kutulu]

ot

[dogcows]

That was an epic game… 

[KSB2424]

I haven’t posted much on this bored at all. Raleigh boy here and people in Canada cannot fathom this is a Hockey Town.  I can’t either to be fair. The Canes moved from Hartford over 30 years ago.  I see kids playing street hockey as much as shooting hoops which blows my mind as a 50 year old southern man.  We won the Cup in 2006 and that energized the fan base.  
 
The main reason is the Triangle (Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill) is full of rabid college sports fans but all come together for the only Pro team in town.  It’s a perfect storm.  It’s bananas around here.  

[MikeMatt]

3 hours ago, KSB2424 said:

I haven’t posted much on this bored at all. Raleigh boy here and people in Canada cannot fathom this is a Hockey Town.  I can’t either to be fair. The Canes moved from Hartford over 30 years ago.  I see kids playing street hockey as much as shooting hoops which blows my mind as a 50 year old southern man.  We won the Cup in 2006 and that energized the fan base.  
 
The main reason is the Triangle (Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill) is full of rabid college sports fans but all come together for the only Pro team in town.  It’s a perfect storm.  It’s bananas around here.  

Enjoy it man. Take it all in and enjoy. NYC is Knicks crazy right now and I thank the baby jeebus that it’s the Knicks and not the Rag$its. 

[kutulu]

crazy, 4-0 with about 22 minutes left. 4-3 with something like 11? I turned it off, happened to see an updated score walking by my bedroom. 

l

[kutulu]

On 6/5/2026 at 4:27 AM, MikeMatt said:

Enjoy it man. Take it all in and enjoy. NYC is Knicks crazy right now and I thank the baby jeebus that it’s the Knicks and not the Rag$its. 

not likely but would be cool to see the Knicks sweep the series. would be one of the greatest playoff runs every, regardless of the sport 

[dogcows]

2 minutes ago, kutulu said:

crazy, 4-0 with about 22 minutes left. 4-3 with something like 11? I turned it off, happened to see an updated score walking by my bedroom. 

l

Carolina got 3 goals in 39 seconds... I was starting to lose interest but that woke me up!

[kutulu]

7 minutes ago, dogcows said:

Carolina got 3 goals in 39 seconds... I was starting to lose interest but that woke me up!

dang

[kutulu]

ot

[dogcows]

4 minutes ago, kutulu said:

ot

The craziest game I've seen since the 8-7 Sabres win over the Lightning (regular season this year).

[cmh6476]

I definitely could get into hockey a lot more if we had a team

[MikeMatt]

1 hour ago, cmh6476 said:

I definitely could get into hockey a lot more if we had a team

Screw you !
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI probably before your time but when the NY Islanders were negotiating a new lease for NVMC with the county - they threatened to move the team to a brand new hockey venue in KC. Obviously KC was a pawn in Islanders plan and team remained here. 

[KSB2424]

I know Vegas vs Canes isn’t the sexiest matchup for NHL old heads but this series is epic. 

[MikeMatt]

5 hours ago, KSB2424 said:

I know Vegas vs Canes isn’t the sexiest matchup for NHL old heads but this series is epic. 

You know what’s funny you say that ? When the announcer (name drawing a blank) said it was turning into a classic series I was thinking he’s paid by NHL to hype their product but he (and you) are right. This is turning out to be a great series. 

[MikeMatt]

I’m a little torn. When it comes down to coaches I am not a Torts guy and would hate to see him win again especially when he took over a playoff bound team so late in the season. I admired Brind’amour the player and no reason to dislike Rod the coach. Screw ‘Canes though. Like I said I’m torn. Give me good hockey !

[cmh6476]

9 hours ago, MikeMatt said:

Screw you !
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI probably before your time but when the NY Islanders were negotiating a new lease for NVMC with the county - they threatened to move the team to a brand new hockey venue in KC. Obviously KC was a pawn in Islanders plan and team remained here. 

I was born in 1978. I don't remember the KC Scouts or the KC Kings.  But you're right, we have a venue prime for a team but other teams just seem to use it as bargaining power when they want a new venue.