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True, but I also expect Yzerman to look for a Marc Staal-type defenseman in free agency now. On top of filling that RHD2 hole. Assuming both Hägg and Oesterle are goners. Which they should be.

Well he out scored ever single other Bruin. Kinda an important thing. He made Pasta look like Adam Erne out there. You tend to produce more turnovers when the puck is on your stick all the time and youre the go to guy. Bruins loss was totally on the goalies and Dmen like Lindholm becoming utter ghosts out there

I saw a post online earlier that said if you take away powerplay goals from both Boston and Florida, then the Panthers absolutely dominated the Bruins at 5on5. This is be interesting because it's more or less the same story with Toronto and Tampa. Tampa carried the play at even strength but Toronto's special teams won them the series (well that and injuring Tampa's entire defense corps and 1C).

I think you genuinely need that many games to statistically differentiate between good and bad teams in the cap era. Think about how different the playoff picture would have looked this year if there were only 50 games (for example). For starters, Florida would not have made the playoffs and Washington and Pittsburgh likely would have (woof!). Because of the cap, the talent level is so even that you genuinely need 82 games to figure it out now. Not so much in 1986...or 2002. But I think it's a better product because of that. If you're a fan of Detroit, or Buffalo, or Winnipeg, or Florida, or Calgary your team was playing meaningful and exciting games into March and April. In the old days you'd have been watching spring training baseball by that point. In short, I think there are more meaningful games now than there have been in decades. Maybe not a perfect system, but a really entertaining one for fans across the league.

I think the NHL should be more like the NBA. I'd prefer to know who's going to win a championship before any games are even played. That's WAY more fun as a fan.

Ugh