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We didn't wanna win this way anyway boys. No one will ever be able to say we didn't earn our picks.

Here's a fun thing I just noticed. 14 of the 16 best defensive teams in the regular season made the playoffs this year. Two others (Edmonton and Florida) were just outside that group, and two other top defensive teams (Calgary and Nashville) just missed the playoffs. BUT once you get to the playoffs the trend reverses. All the top defensive teams have lost, or are losing, to the better offensive teams. It's almost across the board. So the old adage "defense wins championships" seems a little bit too simplistic. You HAVE to have a good defense to get to the playoffs, but once you're there the high flying teams seem to perform better...at least this year.

I'm on the Dvorsky train assuming Moore/Smith and all that are taken

And Old Man Walman's dancing on the roof of the car.

Right on. F*** the police.

Ok, see, the NHL awards the team with the most obvious tank in league history. Plus here's your award for covering up sexual abuse for a decade. Welcome to R@petown Conor Bedard!

And that’s why I prefer the live floating balls with the law firm of Goldstein/Walman6million/Goyzerman overseeing it all.

You guys had no hype. You didn't believe. And that's why we lost.

havent announced it yet, and they announce it. totally legit they just announced the first change in the draft order before they revealed the card. totally legit lottery Are you guys watching? It's F U C K I N G Rigged!!!

horse s***

I'm never quite sure when you're being a smartass or not, but I do think there's something to this. It's been proven over and over that players reach their peak production at a pretty early age. But most teams don't win Championships until their top guys are a little older. So you score more when you're 24, but you win more when you're 28 (more or less). I think a big part of that is learning how to win. And part of THAT is learning what you're willing to do to win that Cup. Because once you get to the playoffs every single team is good. You're not going to skate circles around playoff teams like you did during the regular season. The difference between winning and losing in the playoffs might be whether you're willing to lay down and block a shot on the PK, or bust your ass on a backcheck, or get run through the end boards by a forechecker to get the puck out of the defensive zone for a change. In other words, gumption. We didn't win in 2008 because we had the best players. We won in 2008 because Henrik Zetterberg would rather die than get scored on during a 5on3.

It's more about having grit, determination, fortitude, gumption, willpower, and perserverance. If you can maximize those attibutes any team can win tactically.

I think there's an argument to be made that having super duper stars like TO or EDM have inhibits the ability to add that kind of depth. Or at the very least, if you're going to pay more than one guys 10+ million dollars you'd better hope they don't all play the same position.

IMO the new answer is depth. More than ever. Whether it's up front, on D, in goal, or all of, or a combination of these things. For example, Florida is deeper than Toronto. Everywhere. For example, Seattle won last night 7-2 and had goals from 7 different players. For example, Carolina are making hay without Svechnikov or Pacioretty and are getting some sort of production from basically everyone. Oilers are a freaky outlier and if they lose it will be because they aren't deep enough.

I’d imagine this would be the Teutonic Trio (Seider, Kasper, Reinbacher) going clubbing when the Wings visit Vegas…