Quick Note: Season is half over. Keep your eyes peeled for a quick mid-season review and a look back at my predictions if I have time this weekend. Super 16: Flames Won't Be Extinguished 1. New York Rangers Hit: Week 4 wasn't a fluke. Once again, they've managed 8 wins in a single week and are 1st in the Metro. Miss: Will be missing @Lingross this week 2. Calgary Flames Hit: Best week they've had all season. Offense was scoring, defense was suffocating, goalies were making saves. Big team effort. Miss: Their goalie quit? They have their best week yet, trending upwards and with new acquisitions like @Nuge and a player decides they've had enough. 3. Pittsburgh Penguins Hit: They've got the Art Ross leader, the Rocket leader, the player with the most assists. 7 wins this week, barely outmatched by the Rangers. Miss: A 3-0 loss to the Devils, who are in 7th in the Metro, 4. San Jose Sharks Hit: Hard to not like a week where you ended up first in the division. The got 4 more points than the Ducks and Oilers this week. Miss: Maybe a miss, the line that's been so good centered by @BlG STlCK NlCK went 1-1-1 this week; they played pretty good competition, though. 5. Colorado Avalanche Hit: Most wins of any team in the Central this week and allowed just 13 goals in their 9 games. Miss: Sunday was just a rough day it seems. The Avs scored just a single goal altogether against the Sharks and Stars. 6. Buffalo Sabres Hit: Four road wins in Week 5 which is their season high. Miss: They got shut out twice at home against the Canadiens and Penguins. The fans definitely don't like to see that. 7. New Jersey Devils Hit: Just a huge week for the Devils finally able to string a few wins together. Miss: I hear they had a trade set up to bring a talented player to Newark, but alas it was not to be. 8. Arizona Coyotes Hit: The line of @TheGreatMP7 @Saucin Pucks and @gunass0910 went 3-0 (with @TheGreatMP7 getting a fourth win against EDM) and against some division rivals to boot. The trade with CGY seems to have worked out nicely for both teams. Miss: A couple missed opportunities like an OT game against EDM and a loss to a struggling Vancouver team. Also, a player they traded away in @Nuge got a win in his debut against his former team. 9. Minnesota Wild Hit: Were able to best Chicago in OT which didn't allow the Hawks to shorten the Wild's lead in the standings. Miss: Lost the last 3 games of the week which definitely hurts after starting out so well. 10. Chicago Blackhawks Hit: Another week where the Blackhawks are averaging over 3 goals per game. Miss: Their hit looks even better when you realize they got shut out in both of their games Wednesday. They were outscored 9-0 on their Wednesday night games. 11. Boston Bruins Hit: 5 wins and 11 points for a team that a lot of people counted out at the beginning of the season. They acquired @Breaky who should fit their team a little better than @J a IMI e S x22 , and @GRAZoMatic should be a decent shutdown defender if he stays with the club. Miss: It's tough to lose close games when you need every point you can get (which Boston does sitting 1 point out of the playoffs currently). They dropped three one-goal games and lost to FLA 4-2. 12. Columbus Blue Jackets Hit: The Jackets are here to announce they aren't quite out of it yet amassing the most wins they've gotten since the first week of the season. Something else interesting, they were able to shut out the opposing team 4 times this week. Miss: This offense is anemic scoring just 16 goals in 9 games. That's really not far below their average, either, which is likely a reason for their struggles this season. 13. Philadelphia Flyers Hit: They hand the top team in their division a 1-0 loss and the line up of @Dups77 @DeeSa Ali @kcut @mayweddaa @ThatZachGuy go 4-0, ya love to see it. Miss: Missed opportunities to have a strong week are disappointing for the Flyers. The trades this week also seem a bit strange, but mastermind @DeeSa Ali probably has something in mind. 14. Los Angeles Kings Hit: The boys from Hollywood were likely feeling a little down, but were able to get 5 wins in a week for the 2nd time this season. Playoffs are far off, but at least still in sight. Also, new players @JDoolus and @The MainEvent go 4-1 and 3-1, respectively, proving that they were worth what went the other way. Miss: Where has this offense been? Averaging 3 goals a game this week is technically a hit, but it's well above their average and makes you wonder if there's a regression coming. 15. Nashville Predators Hit: Besides spoiling the last undefeated records in LG, not much happened else for these Preds this week. @iTz x Luigi x places into the top 3 in scoring among defensemen in the league is cool and shows he's repeating his success from last season. Miss: Tough losses to some division opponents; 1-0 to the Saint Louis Blues and 3-2 in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche. 16. Ottawa Senators Hit: Huge 5-0 win over the Leafs could serve to be a statement game of sorts and possibly hype up the rivalry as it seems these two teams could definitely collide in the playoffs. Miss: It seems like they allowed a lot more goals than usual; they had 22 goals against this week. Maybe this is one of the reasons they were shopping a defenseman and went after @MiNiNooch l3l who was acquired Thursday night. Rookie of the Week: @rG Breezyy (C) The Hurricanes have been a top 3 team in the Metro all season, and they've made plenty of roster changes since the beginning of the season. One of the constants has been the line centered by @rG Breezyy . Fitting that he'd get ROTW honors this week as their line accounted for another 3 wins this week. Breezy was 3-1-0 with 6 goals and 13 points against the Ducks, Flyers, Penguins, and Rangers. A pretty good 56.25% in the dot looks good for this stretch of games. Something else that stands out, the giveaways are way down from the past few weeks. Maybe this is because the Hurricanes acquired @Odieeeeee and Breezy didn't have to focus quite as much on creating offense himself. Whatever the reason, the Canes had a down week but this line mitigated some of the damage which could be huge for Carolina as the end of the season nears. Surprise of the Week: @Gerbe x 42 @stev and @xxIArmy0f0neIxx Continue to Dominate @stev and @xxIArmy0f0neIxx haven't been able to play together every game and have played with all 3 LWs on the Penguins this season, but keep finding a way to get it done. They've been on the same team since S27 and are plenty familiar with each other, but this has been their best statistical season by far. Outpacing their previous seasons on NHL 18 by a large margin, they're also both top 3 in scoring with @stev in 3rd and @xxIArmy0f0neIxx leading the league. That's not the only surprise so far, though. @Gerbe x 42 still holds the league-lead for the Rocket Richard trophy with 29 goals adding 5 goals this week (one hat trick), and has only played 14 games this season with a variety of linemates. He actually has more goals this season than he has had points in either of his previous two seasons (S28, S29) in the NHL. He's definitely not the flashiest player, but the ability to put yourself in the right position to create chances has been a big asset on the S30 Penguins. IRL Player "Awards" Mark Giordano "Puck Thief" Award @Dumba x 55 for recording 11 takeaways in a game (7/9/18 EDM at CGY) Dominik Hasek "Dominator" Award @Big Tony 16 for 3 saves in 3 seconds (7/10/18 CGY at COL) Carter Rowney "Who's That?" Award @Skiffingtxn 1-0-1 with 3 of the 4 goals VAN scored in those games and he's on CHL TC? Daniel Sedin "1000 Point Club" Award @Sbass19 for reaching the 1000th point milestone (most recent NHL player was Daniel Sedin)
You know, you'd think I'd have remembered this after you telling me yesterday. I apparently snubbed @Sbass19 from milestone watch because maybe I didn't think he could get 9 points after he just had a game last week WITH 8 POINTS. Clearly, I'm losing it. Congrats @Sbass19 and thanks for reminding me again @TKOxHelocentric .
Oh, that pesky July 4th week throwing off some schedules totally got me with a bunch of teams I bet. Forgive me
Sometimes I queue up a couple streams with multitwitch, and your game was more interesting than the others at the time haha.