The NHL18 Leafs Advance to the Stanley Cup Finals

The Maple Leafs beat the Canadiens 7-2 in game five of the conference finals to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Edmonton Oilers who overcame a 3-2 series deficit against the Chicago Blackhawks to advance. Auston Matthews closed out Montreal with four goals in game five.



Game one of the Stanley Cup Finals was a double overtime thriller in Edmonton. The Maple Leafs won 2-1, assaulting Cam Talbot with 70 shots. Nazem Kadri buried the game winner upper tank for the win.

NHL 18: Game 7, First Round Stanley Cup Playoffs: Bruins at Maple Leafs

This was a back and forth series with each teams trading blow game by game. No team won consecutive games in the series.

Auston Matthews is rated 87 overall in NHL '18

So I definitely think I am buying NHL 18. There is some discussion on Auston Matthews' rating of 87 overall in the game that will release September 15th, 2017. 

Here are more details:

Connor McDavid is not only the cover athlete; but the top rated player in the entire game at 93 overall. I will talk a lot about my franchise or 'Be a GM' play on this blog after I buy the game. I am 95% set on being the Maple Leafs and 5% chance I'll try out McDavid and the Oilers. 

Picked up NHL '16 for Playstation 4

There's Connor McDavid scoring his first goal of his career for me. Right now he has four goals and I believe four assists. I played two games tonight and lose to the Wild in overtime and got beat by the monstrous Canadiens after getting up 2-0. I'm 4-6-1 thus far. 

I'll continue to update things as my season goes along with the PS4 Oilers. 

UPDATE: on Sunday morning the Oilers lost in Edmonton on PS4 5-4 in OT to the Flyers after tying it up with like :20 seconds to go. They're 5-6-2 on the year in my franchise. Connor McDavid scored goal number seven.

NHL 11 Doesn't Suck After All

After finding the right slider set, it's a pretty good game. I'm 10-10-1 right now with Edmonton in my second season with Hall - Kopitar - Parise on my first line flanked by Doughty and Ryan Whitney on D.

I really have no complaints except the illustrations during game play, all the players have the same face. Then you go to replay and several guys have custom faces but then 80% of guys all guys have the same 5 recycled faces.

Like in MLB the Show, all of these guys need to have custom illustrations done for their face and every single draft pick needs to have a different face scan like in the old Madden games. IF they want to make it perfect.

I grew up on NHL 93

Taylor Hall first goal on NHL 11

Last night at the United Center in Chicago, in a 3-0 victory over the World Champion Blackhawks, my franchise player Taylor Hall scored the first goal of his career. He later on in the night added one in Hockeytown at Detroit. He's now got 2 goals and 3 assists in his short career.

I am actually winning a few games now. Four wins and eight losses with several of them being overtime losses. I'll continue to update on my dynasty here. Man, Zdeno Chara is a freaking beast on the game.

Good read about the rebuilding process going on in Edmonton right now in real life NHL in the Edmonton Journal. Actually some mention of Taylor Hall ending up on a PK line or two before the year is out.

And there's a game tonight, the Colorado Avs come to Edmonton for the 36th game of the year.

Sid's point streak ended last night at 25. I think it's better than even money that he starts a new one Saturday at Heinz Field.

If I'm going to be a full-time NHL fan now, I need to learn more about this Alumni Game that I'm reading about around the hockey blogs.

....More to come later tonight in recap or response to the Oilers game. Or if I think of anything before that.

Passing the time with NHL 10

While I wait for the brutal stretch to pass for the Blackhawks without Jonathan Toews, I have found myself playing a lot of NHL 10 on the XBOX 360. I gotta say it's a lot of fun, the gameplay is smooth and really a great game of hockey gets carved out. I wish it were a little bit easier to score but I guess it makes it all that much more special when I do.

Operation Sports had a nice article about the top five EA Sports hockey games ever made.

You have to love how they gave NHL 94 on the old Genesis some props. That game literally made me and my friends hockey fans. We used to fight over who would be Steve Yzerman. It was a blast growing up with that game.