Mitchell Marner, Canadian Charmer, Vegas First Line Wins Should Garner - NHL 2025-26

[MartyFunkhouser]

Patrick Kane = the best American hockey player of all time. Fun to see him now first all time in points.

I'm started to be convinced that Celebrini should win the Hart trophy this year.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Celebrini v. Bedard last night was fun to watch.

I'm worried about the Sharks blocking the Blackhawks paths to winning Stanley Cups. The Sharks have a much more impressive group of young forwards than the Blackhawks. Although the Blackhawks have a more impressive talent on the blueline.

I still am not down on Arty, but man if we had Demidov playing on the wing with Bedard it would be great.

I really hope the Blackhawks can end up moving Foligno, Dickinson, Murphy, and Mikheyev. I'm not really concerned what they even get back in the trades. I think it is just time to clear the deck for the rest of the year for young players.

Try to get Frondell, Kantserov, and Boisvert over for the end of the season. Bring up Lardis again.

The playoffs are not happening. It is time to go all-in on the rebuild for the rest of the year and prep for a run next year, which I think could be done.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Panarin to the Kings. That should really help their push to make the playoffs.

The Ducks have been so odd this year. Hot to start the season. They fall off a cliff. Now 8-2 in their last 10 and back in the playoff picture. I don't know what to think of them. I do know they have the best coach in the game and one of the all time great NHL coaches ever. The Q-Stache is severely underrated.

I think the locks for the playoffs in the west: Avs, Stars, Wild. Near locks: Knights and Oilers.

The Sharks seem to be hitting a wall and I wonder how much Celebrini will have left in the tank after the Olympics. I don't see them making it.

I think the Kings are likely to make it with the Panarin trade. Mammoth are well positioned to make it as well. I still don't really believe in the Kraken.

As of now, I would guess this with be the playoffs

Avs, Stars, Wild, Knights, Oilers, Kings.

Wildcards: Mammoth and Ducks

[MartyFunkhouser]

Time to get back to NHL hockey.

Kantserov has now set the record for most goals and points for any U22 player in the KHL. The goals record he beat was held by Kaprizov. Really hope the Blackhawks can get him over to play a few games at the end of this season.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Time to get back to NHL hockey.

Kantserov has now set the record for most goals and points for any U22 player in the KHL. The goals record he beat was held by Kaprizov. Really hope the Blackhawks can get him over to play a few games at the end of this season.

Love the new profile pic, funk. Lol.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Love the new profile pic, funk. Lol.

It is a beautiful thing for sure.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Blackhawks back in action tonight. The stretch run to see where we end up picking in the draft. It is time to start thinking more about the draft.

Another interesting thing to keep an eye on right now is the Panthers. As it stands right now, the Blackhawks will get their pick. It is top 10 protected. It would be ideal if they hover right around 10th worse record in the league.

[RC Vikings]

I went down to the game yesterday, the Mammoth looked terrible, the Blackhawks got very little from Bedard and still wins. The Chicago goals were from sloppy Mammoth play. These are the games they need to win if they are going to get into the playoffs.

[MartyFunkhouser]

So are the Mammoth going to push in their chips for Robert Thomas? They have the most of any team that could get Thomas. Only teams out there with better prospect pools are Chicago and San Jose, and neither of those teams are going to make a play for him.

I think that they should even if it means including both Desnoyer and Iginla in the deal. If you can get the deal done with Desnoyer all the better. Your best case scenario with either of those players is the player developing into someone like Robert Thomas.You can't include Simashev because there isn't depth on the blueline and you need him.

Thomas is 26 and under contract through 2031. Gives you the freedom to also let Nick Schmaltz walk after this season. I think he is going to cost too much and he is too inconsistent. His age also doesn't really line up with the Mammoth's timeline.

Cooley as 1C and Thomas at 2C that is really really good. You can go the nuclear option on occasion and play Cooley on the wing with Thomas, who is an excellent playmaker. Mammoth should get it done. I'm surprised the Blues are shopping him.

[MartyFunkhouser]

The Connor Murphy trade made sense and Stanley Bowman didn't overpay. The Dickinson trade was a significant overpay. He had to throw in a 1st rounder because of his dumbass signing of Magiapane this last offseason.

McDavid was smart to sign a short deal with Edmonton. He needs to get out of there.

[MartyFunkhouser]

So, about 20 games left in the season. My predictions going forward:

Central Division

1. Avs
2. Stars
3. Wild

Pacific Division

1. Golden Knights
2. Oilers
3. Ducks

WC: Mammoth and Sharks

Atlantic

1. Lightning
2. Sabres
3. Habs

Metropolitan

1. Canes
2. Islanders
3. Penguins

WC: Red Wings, Bruins

Hart Trophy: MacKinnon
Vezina Trophy: Ilya Sorokin
Norris: Cale Makar
Calder: Matthew Schaeffer
Selke: Nick Suzuki.

[MartyFunkhouser]

I hate the NHL. Effing bullshit, Bedard takes a dirty elbow in the head and no call and then the give Vegas a power play because Blackhawks went after the dirty piece of shit that elbowed him in the head.

[MartyFunkhouser]

It is really going to be interesting to see what happens between San Jose and Chicago long term. The Blackhawks built defense first. They absolutely have the better young defensive core. They might even draft another defensiveman this year. San Jose has the better forwards and the best player.

I really think the blue line was what made the last Chicago dynasty (well that and Hossa), so I’m hoping that Chicago proves to have the better strategy.

tonight the Blackhawks had an entire top 6 defenseman under 24.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Bummer to lose to Minnesota last night in OT. What wasn't a bummer though was seeing a great outlet pass from Arty to Bedard and then an amazing pass to Nazar to tie the game up near the end of regulation. At least the Blackhawks were able to get a loser point out of that. Really fantastic play all around. There is so much talent and potential on this team.

While Celebrini is the better player than Bedard, it isn't that far off. It is like a Crosby/Ovechkin situation. Yes, Crosby was better, but you aren't going to complain about having Ovechkin.

[MartyFunkhouser]

It is absolutely great to finally see Burakovsky off of Bedard's line. Even if Frondell sucks, it is an improvement.