Starting to get into NHL..who's worth watching?

[ryne candy]

I've decided to get NHL Center Ice. I wanted to know who are the elite teams? On the brink of winning it all? Upcoming? Terrible teams?

All I know is that Chicago won last year against San Jose. This might also help me pick a team in NHL 11 to play with and build up.

edit: My wife & I are planning to go see the Houston Aeros next month and see a Blackhawks game when we go to Chicago in April (as well as Cubs Opening day & Bulls game).

[leaffan]

Big 3s:

East: Washington, Pittsburgh and New Jersey
West: Vancouver, San Jose and Chicago

Watch if you have a chance:

East: Tampa Bay, Philly and Montreal is always good for atmosphere.
West: Detroit, Colorado and Los Angeles.

[Fappin Raptor]

Detroit may interest you but if you like high scoring ,beautiful goals, fighting, you may want to watch something else.

[JOHNNYTHECLOWN]

check the bruins out - they're always good for an entertaining game

[Ravin]

You also can't go wrong with what Nashville is doing if you want to watch some solid goaltending. If you want to see rebuilding teams look at Edmonton and Toronto, and if I would also say look at the New York Islanders. They are playing very good hockey, have a lot of young guys and things are coming together for them.


As far as a team goes in NHL11, I'm currently Tampa Bay and it is a nice challenge. I'll give you a quick list of teams I think would be fun to be in an NHL11 and build up. Just a note, I will never suggest a shitty team because a) the NHL season is long, and with that comes a long time to "rebuild". I'm finding that out now as I'm about 65 games into my season and I am having a hard time finishing it off. and b) it is hard to get sliders right when you are a shitty team (think Atlanta) because your team is suppose to lose every night, so it is hard to judge good sliders off that.

Western Teams
Phoenix - They have a lot of good pieces, and would be a fun team to be. Even more so as you can add in the storyline of all the "will the team move" shit into your chise if you are doing one. But if not, they are still a good team to continue building. On the cusp and need just that little more to take them over the top.

Nashville - As I said, they have the goalie and they do have good players. This is a team that in game, no one plays as, but they are a playoff team. They just don't have the big names and no one gives them a look. They would be one of my teams to piick if I was redoing my chise.

Columbus/Minnesota - These two I almost picked. Again, they have pieces, but they need some work. Can't really go wrong with either. They habve some star players, so you won't get to pissed off. I was going to do a Blue Jackets chise because of Filatov and Nash.

Teams to avoid: Dallas/Calgary (Don't know why, I just find them to be a yawn to play with) Anaheim (To much top young talent, so not much fun) and of course, San Jose, Chicago, Detroit, Vancouver because who you want to rebuild.

Eastern Conference
Southeast divsion minus Washington - The entire division needs a rebuild. It is why I picked the Lightning. Atlanta is a damn challenge and a nightmare to play with. Florida and Carolina have a little bit of talent, but again a lot to do. Tampa has two top lines and a good defence core, but they need work on the depth and goalies.

Ottawa - The fun with Ottawa is that they have no real identity. Long gone are the days of always listening to "the big three" so now you just have a sens team who is a good team to start as when playing NHL11, as you won't be thrown into the wolves, but a lot of room for growth.

Islanders/Leafs - Islanders give you a lot of young talent, so you get the reverse of things in that you need the experience to make the team better. Toronto is kind of the same, as they have loads of you guys, a hard hitting defence core, and lately have been my team online and a lot of fun to play with.

Teams to avoid:Altanta (unless you want to throw your controller a lot), New Jersey/Washington/Pittsburgh (big three teams, with way to many stars, so it gets boring)

Hope that helps in picking a team.

[Senators26]

Florida is a great team to watch and on the brink of a Cup win

[Ravin]

Florida is a great team to watch and on the brink of a Cup win

I am going to have to disagree and say that Florida is at least 2-3 years from making a legit playoff effort, let alone a cup win. Even as they are now, they are bottom of the Southeast division. They do have only 6 games played compared to everyone and with two wins could be on par with Washington, but from that divsion, it is either Washington or Tampa coming out of it. 2007 was the last year in which two teams were in the playoffs from the Southeast, (Atlanta 3rd, Tampa 7th, both out first round) and three teams from that division just doesn't happen and hasn't I don't think ever (or at least since 2002 when I stopped looking).

I think people tend to throw "On the brink" around to easily. Teams on the brink of winning it in my mind are Vancouver, San Jose, Washington, Los Angeles. Florida would be 20-25 in my mind in terms of teams winning it. Maybe a little higher, but not top ten at all. They have some pieces, and some young talent, so now they have to build that up.

[Rudi]

Capitals are where its at

[wr50l]

I am going to have to disagree and say that Florida is at least 2-3 years from making a legit playoff effort, let alone a cup win.

Plus let's be honest here. Within the next 2 or 3 years they're almost guaranteed to have lost a good player they are trying to build around because nobody wants to be in and nobody can get paid in Florida.

[Ravin]

And just a little note that Tomas Vokoun is an UFA after this season. The guy is 34. You think he is really going to want to wait around for a rebuild to happen. He very well might, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the move this year, which leaves a big hole for Florida to fill. Vokoun could be a cup winning goalie. The guy keeps the Panthers in games and wins games for them. If he had the offence in front of him like some goalies do, he would be on the cup already.

[theMINI]

Just watch the Canadiens because we have the best fans and the best atmosphere.

[Irish]

I love cheering on the Predators. The more that they become relevant, the more I watch them. Hockey games are my most enjoyable sporting event I have been to, besides Day game Wrigley field.

Nashville actually loves them too and usually have a decent crowd despite what you would expect for a southern town.

I wouldn't give two shits about hockey if it wasn't for the Preds. Still don't follow a ton but I can name a good majority of the players which I couldn't say 5 years ago.

[PEYMAN18]

If you want to see hockey play the way it should watch the Red Wings, nobody plays as exact and as smart as the Red Wings.

But no one is as "boring" ethier.

Detroit may interest you but if you like high scoring ,beautiful goals, fighting, you may want to watch something else.

May I re-introduce you to Pavel Datsyuk?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDunhlq3h4&feature=related[/ame]

[Fappin Raptor]

We have Datsyuk, yes, but we also have Franzen, Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, and all the other guys who don't have the hands like Datsyuk does to score like that. That's why I said we don't score pretty goals.

[PEYMAN18]

We have Datsyuk, yes, but we also have Franzen, Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, and all the other guys who don't have the hands like Datsyuk does to score like that. That's why I said we don't score pretty goals.

We also have zetterberg and Filpulla. Plus, Tatar in the future is hopfully going to be a human highlight reel.