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Now I'm officially excited for the playoffs.
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He's a goalie.

Goalies are like kickers. They're all !@#$ing headcases except for a handful of the true greats.

You name a goalie, no matter how great, and unless he's a HoFer, he's had a year or two where he's just eaten shit. And Binnington is weird even for a goalie - so you're looking at nuts squared.

That said, I'm not sure Binnington has EVER been that great. He wasn't a highly regarded prospect. He doesn't have much of a pedigree. He wasn't great the year after the cup run.

He's probably a fairly average goalie. He'll have some good years and some bad years. He'll win some series he should lose, he'll lose as many he should win.

He's probably a roughly 91% save percentage sort of goalie who shouldn't have a 6 year deal with 5 more still in front of him. Armstrong hasn't made a lot of mistakes in his time in St. Louis - but he made one here. Ideally the cap will start to creep up with the NHL getting involved w/ ESPN again. As it does, that deal will be slightly less painful.

And maybe a few years down the road when some of the $$$ has been paid and the Blues have accumulated some draft picks, you can attach a 2nd round pick to him to get out of the last 2-3 years of the deal.

Or they can just continue forward w/ an overpaid but probably average goalie.
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I think Preds/Avalanche could be a fun yet dangerous series, given Duchene and and Forsberg have 40+ goals and they're a pretty middle of the road team (with a good PP)... and the potential preview tonight.

I'd rather them sweep the Stars though... definitely wouldn't mind making quick work of them and the team getting some rest (of course I say that and it'll go 7).

And if not the Blues, get out of the first round and would be interested in this "new Wild" that's top 5 in goal scoring with three 30 goal scorers (even if they drop off steeply after that) and one of the worst PKs in the league.... the antiWild.


...and it's kind of shitty for the league to schedule a bunch of back to back games in the last two days of the season, given two days of rest before the playoffs. :-)
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Yeah, I think I'd take the Stars matchup if I had to pick, though it doesn't matter a ton either way. It's a bit ironic that we kind of have some control over it tonight - if we want to play the Stars, we take it easy and let the Preds win. If we want to play the Preds, we need to beat them tonight.
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I've been a bit surprised the Preds didn't capture the top WC spot earlier, but then went and look at their schedule... and crap it's been brutal. Flames twice, Blues, Wild, Lightning. Yotes tomorrow, at least.

But yeah, believe they need 3 points if the Stars were to win tomorrow night since they at least have the tie breaker, so have to at least get to OT against the Avalanche.

I didn't plan very well... should have done a camping trip or something for the hockey-less weekend.
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I wanted to see Calgary vs. Nashville. That would be a fun series. Instead, Nashville concedes a goal with 0.1 seconds left and drop a point in the standings.

Dallas vs. Calgary won't be as exciting. Certainly from a physicality standpoint it won't match Nashville/Calgary.
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Yeah, would love to see more Preds/Flames after the game the other night.... probably wouldn't even tune in to Stars/Flames.
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I'm likely tuning into Eastern Conference only for the first round.

If Nashville plays Colorado, I'm interested in how much Nashville goons it up. They were by FAR the league leaders in fighting majors. There's little to no fighting in the playoffs, but they have no other edge over Colorado.
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So, the fifty loss Coyotes after losing 10 straight and 17 of 19.... beat the Wild, Stars, and Preds for some playoff drama (and took the Blues to OT).

Preds scored on their first 3 shots and were up 4-0 halfway through the first and lost 5-4. :-)


Stars/Flames is probably the one series worth skipping... looking forward to the others though (and hopefully Ovechkin is good to go).
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A surprising number of penalties in the TB/Toronto game... TB may need to adjust.
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Highest scoring season in years. A lot of 100 point teams. Read it's the Blues' highest scoring season in 30 years and the Wild's highest scoring team ever. Only day one, but penalties are being called in both games.

Just maybe we won't see another Knights/NYI/Canadiens/Lightning final four (and there's hardly a worst case unless the Stars advance).
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Probably the best team the Wild have ever had, and a terrible draw for the first round - they just don't match up well with the Blues. Hoping this is just nerves of a young team, and they put on a lot of good pressure in the first period, but I don't have high hopes for this series.
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I love the NHL on ESPN theme. Love that it is back.
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