2012 NHL Season

I'm surprised that this topic has not been brought up yet, but the NHL is at it's mid-season break. Unfortunately I have only been able to watch about 12-13 Rangers games this year of the 47. It sure has been fun to watch though, 31 wins this year, which is good for the 2nd best record in the league behind Detroit. Top team in the East (although the Penguins are on a 7 game win streak and coming up fast). Hank got his 40th shutout in a Rangers uni last night against the Winnipeg Jets. It's great to see Gaborik back to his best this year after a year to forget last year, 25 goals and 14 assists. Brad Richards has been a great addition to the team, not only for his 16 goals and 17 assists but just to have a reliable dependable centre on the ice for Gabs. Calalhan, Stepan and Del Zotto all having good years.

Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the year goes.

Well it's difficult for me to get excited. It's great that the Sharks are once again having a great season, but memories of successive post season disappointment tend to put a dampener on it.

It's also difficult to take any sport seriously that spends the best part of six months just to eliminate half the teams from the post season crap shoot.

Yeah its been a strange NHL season for me as well!

I normally get into gear when selecting fantasy teams etc but it didnt happen this year probably due to looking at ESPN America listings around October & thinking the season hadnt started not realising said channel were not covering it anymore!

I have actualy got Setanta Sports so i can see the games if i choose but unless its the Coyotes i i dont seem to be able to muster myself to record it,they dont do as good a coverage as ESPN & often are late in getting back to the action from a comercial break!

I'm on holiday this week so might watch HNIC this Saturday as i really do like that production when i have the time to sit through the best part of six hours of Ice Hockey!

To be honest i've been getting most of my Ice Hockey fix from the KHL,at least three of there games are covered every week on the live streaming which is now available on betting sites (great stream),the league is super competitive & the standard is really high.

I've kinda gotten latched on to the Latvian giants Dynamo Riga who are really great to watch,have two brilliant netminders Chris Holt & Mikhael Youssers,can soak up the pressure & burst forward at will,they reached the final of the Spenglar cup as well before bowing to hosts Davos!

I see ESPN America have recently started showing the AHL in the evenings?

I'm getting a 42" TV installed today so i might just watch a bit more Ice Hockey me thinks!

We got off to an awful start to this season which resulted in Randy Carlyle being fired as our head coach and he was replaced with Bruce Boudreau. It took a while for us to get going after the change in coach but we have been playing some excellent hockey over the last month or so and now sit 10 points off of a playoff spot. It will still be difficult for us to make the playoffs but we at least are in with a small chance of doing it if we continue to play like we have been.

Sharks are having another great year and top of the division, especially Marleau, Couture and Pavelski who I think already have 20+ goals each, and Joe Thornton is a rock, he's my favourite player. Good defence too, just set a club record when they went almost 200 minutes without conceding a goal, hope for something better than last year when the playoffs begin, that was quite disappointing losing so badly to the Canucks in the Conference finals.

With there being no NHL franchise in Cleveland, I've tended to look north of the border for a hockey team to follow. Mainly due to the passion for the game when I've visited the country and their quest for a first cup since 1993.

The last couple of seasons I've followed the Canucks because I've visited Vancouver recently on holiday and they probably represent the best chance of a Canadian cup win. I was a bit peeved when ESPNA dropped their NHL coverage this season but have bitten the bullet and subscribed to Premier Sports since December. While their coverage is nowhere as good as ESPNA at least they show plenty of games including loads of Canuck's ones recently.

Vancouver are desperate to go a game further than last year and once again are proving to be one of the best teams in the league. Their main challenge in the Western Conference is coming from Detroit and the big guns in the east usually get motoring in April/May. Canucks look nailed on for the Playoffs but that's when the hockey season really kicks on.

Interesting to see some AHL games on ESPNA recently especially as they featured a Lake Erie Monsters game. A team most hockey fans in Cleveland follow.

Is there a better feeling than going into Philadelphia and beating the Flyers 5-2 in their backyard to take complete control of the division.....Managed to catch the game yesterday and it was great to see the power play actually working for once. Three goals on the PP and el Capitan Ryan Callahan notched his secound career hattrick.

We now hold a 5 point lead over the Bruins in the Eastern Conference and a 6 point lead over the Flyers in the Atlantic and we have played 2 less games. It's looking good at the moment.

21 straight wins at the JL Arena for us! We're playing some great stuff at the moment.

I don’t know if we are going to make the playoffs but the Ducks are certainly giving it a good shot. After trailing the 8th seed by 20 points on January the 6th we are now only 6 points back of the current 8th placed Coyotes.

This 8 game roadtrip was always going to be big in terms of us getting back in the playoff mix and it has started well with us winning 3 of the first 4 games with our only loss coming in a shootout in Detroit. The last 3 games were always going to be difficult with us playing in Minnesota and then Pittsburgh on back-to-back nights. In Minnesota we left it until the 3rd period to come from behind to win 2-1 after starting the game slowly. We didn’t get to Pittsburgh until about 4a.m and it showed as we started slowly trailing after 1 period but we came out strong to tie the game in the second before Teemu won it for us in the 3rd.

I was watching a Pittsburgh Penguins feed for the game and between the 2nd and 3rd one of the analysts said that the Penguins should really be looking to stick a few goals past a team that wasn’t in the playoff race well he might want to look at the standings as the Ducks certainly are in the playoff race.

GO DUCKS!

I have to admit that I haven't really been keeping up with the NHL this year but looked at the standings last night to see the Leafs in the number 8 spot in the Eastern Conference!! My interest has just been ignited!

GO LEAFS!

I only really follow what goes on in the west, though I root a bit for Carolina in the east but theyre hopeless, even though they beat my Sharks last night, so it's not been a vintage year really, the Canucks are ridiculous as they are already miles ahead of everyone else in the northwest, LA and Phoenix are improved, though my Sharks should be ok in the Pacific, and Detroit look the best in the central, if I put money on anything it would be a Canucks v Boston Stanley Cup, same as last year, though the Rangers could be a big surprise.

Bruins are not great at the moment, although they have had jekyll and hyde periods throughout the year. I fancy the Red Wings and a team from nowhere in the east (Capitals?) to play in the stanley cup.

St. Louis are quietly going about their business. They're playing a nice game, too.

Bruins are very mentally tough, the way they fought last year to beat Tampa 4 games to 3 in the conference final, and then they came back from 2 games down in the Stanley Cup was impressive I thought, and they also beat Montreal 4 games to 3 in the QF so that's 3 out of 4 series went to a game 7 and they won them all, so they are a real never say die team.

They're too streaky, especially this season, for my liking. And Thomas hasn't replicated his postseason form from last season, although his age would probably make that make sense.