What's Happening: Pacific plays mostly the Atlantic, and Central plays mostly the Metropolitan. A couple surprise teams will continue their upward trajectory or fall back down to Earth, and some teams that were predicted to be better will have to play better this week to move in a positive direction of their own. Here was the "S30 Week 1 Recap": https://www.leaguegaming.com/forums/index.php?threads/s30-week-1-recap.275001/ Games of the Week Sunday June 17th - 10 PM EST Dallas Stars at Philadelphia Flyers Two teams that definitely had a first week that didn't quite meet their expectations for various reasons meet Sunday night. The best way to remedy that situation is have a big second week which both teams are hoping to do by starting off with a couple wins on Sunday. Monday June 18th - 11 PM EST San Jose Sharks at Toronto Maple Leafs Likely the opposite of the Stars and Flyers, here are two teams who are likely almost up to their own expectations through one week. The Leafs lead the Atlantic with a tie-breaker over the Senators, and the Sharks are bested by only the Oilers in their division. We'll hopefully see two high-powered offenses attempting to outdo each other. Tuesday June 19th - 10 PM EST New York Rangers at Colorado Avalanche The Cup finalists get a rematch versus the Cup champs. Don't think I need to say much more about this game. Wednesday June 20th - 10 PM EST Calgary Flames at Detroit Red Wings Two teams with 10 points that find themselves in different situations and with different issues. The Flames are 4th in the Pacific while the Wings are 6th in the Atlantic. When the Wings aren't scoring a lot of goals, they're giving up a lot, and the Flames can't seem to get away from one-goal games with 6 of them last week. Both teams will try and break the mold in their second week. I'd expect both teams to be trending up, but one of them has to lose tonight. Players to Watch @l 17 l He's scored 30+ goals the last 11 seasons he's played, and he's already off to a hot start; 8 goals has him tied for 1st in the league. He's playing with two guys who he's played with for most of last season in @BlG STlCK NlCK and @WelcomeToTheWeb . It's safe to say they are at least familiar with each other. Furthermore, they don't need to slug it out in the Pacific this week, so I bet the Sharks are looking for similar production. @sh4rpshooterrr The player that leads the entire league in shots has to be an entertaining player to watch, right? One of the couple Panthers that went 3-0 through one week. He has a few less goals than you'd think with a name like that, 3 goals and 6 assists. The Panthers are going to need this sort of production out of him especially if they get some harder lines thrown at them, but him and his linemate @Lethalsniper007 will likely continue to pour rubber on net with 37 shots between them in 3 games. @Drew x 8 The man, the myth, the legend. Drew is on a new team, though it remains to be seen if this is his final team of the weekend. Regardless, a big week going 3-0 and allowing a total of zero goals against has to feel good. It'll be fun to see how Drew performs on Minnesota as they've been an up and down team through one week and would definitely like a little more consistency on the back end. Milestone Watch Goals: @l 17 l is 3 goals away from 500 career goals Assists: @SouPerSaiyan is 5 assists away from 300 career assists Points: @WelcomeToTheWeb is 1 point away from 600 career points @Tenacious RD is 4 points away from 600 career points @BLicK12 is 5 points away from 500 career points Games Played: @Suter x 20 is 1 game away from 300 career games played Saves: @x NoDnArB is 11 saves away from 1500 career saves The Hot Seat Tampa Bay Lightning - @l Volcom x 28 l There's really only one choice here, and I'll try not to beat a dead horse so to speak. The Tampa Bay Lightning have zero wins. They're 0-8-1. It's tough to blame any one person, but, like in real life, it falls on the coach (or the owner in this case). It almost seems a little unfair because almost all of their nine games were just straight mismatches, and I didn't personally feel like they were as bad as a zero win team. There's been a ton of trade action involving multiple players to try and remedy the situation, but we won't know if these trades have any impact until we see how it plays out. We'll see how many first lines get thrown at them trying to pad the stats a little, but even if that doesn't happen digging yourself out of a hole like this is tough. The Atlantic standings, like most divisions, will be pretty volatile for a few more weeks, so maybe with some shrewd moves and line-matching they can at least grab some wins.
Listen, I was upset. I was lied to. I didn't want it to happen like this. @DONNYWOOD leads the league in takeaways. I'm so sorry @Jack Bauer tuna .
"The Cup finalists get a rematch versus the Cup champs. Don't think I need to say much more about this game." Except that I'm not part of the rematch.
