General Sports Water Cooler

Is that how you hear that commercial?

Yes, each and every time

Nice call... That might be the game on a bad call

FUCK FACE

wow unreal. bull shit call ref thanks

Ref just saved Hogie's night

The MacKinnon dream is alive!

bag of dicks

Remote broken

Does Ovechkin score 15 goals this year?

Was going to preface that with "serious question," but lol.

glad we have a full decade of this ahead of us

This is a draft that has been anticipated by scouts for a couple of years, led by talented center Nate MacKinnon and American defenseman Seth Jones. But once scouts get an opportunity to truly examine a draft class, the enthusiasm typically dissipates with focus turning toward the next great class. So I checked with a couple of respected scouts to see if this draft still has them excited.

In short, the answer is yes.

"I would say there are maybe six guys that could change the fortunes of a team," said one team's head of amateur scouting.

How does that compare with last year?

"If you looked at last year's, the thing was -- was there one? It's not that it wasn't a good draft but when you start looking at players that can actually alter the landscape or really have a significant impact on a daily basis, that's what everyone is waiting to see," he said.

Another scout was kinder to last year's draft, saying there were two or three players who potentially could be considered franchise players. When I presented him with the suggestion that there were six players in this year's draft that may alter the landscape of a franchise, he agreed.

"Yeah, and I think you even go as high as 10 being impact players," he said. "It'll be interesting to see. We could have the most first-round picks next year playing in the NHL [immediately after the draft] in recent memory."

This year's draft in New Jersey will be the first under the new CBA. In the previous system, only the five worst teams had a chance at the No. 1 overall pick, with the remaining teams moving up a maximum of four spots if they won the lottery. That limitation is gone now.

According to an NHL source, the league and the NHLPA still haven't finalized exactly how the weighted lottery will look. According to the source, if the two sides don't agree to a change, the percentages will be the same as under the previous CBA with the difference being that any team can earn the No. 1 pick. Using those percentages, the team that finishes with the worst record has a 25 percent chance of picking first. The No. 14 team is 0.5 percent. If the season ended Tuesday morning the Capitals would have an 18.8 percent chance of picking first and the Flyers a 10.7 percent chance. Putting Seth Jones on the Flyers and MacKinnon on the Capitals could significantly shift the balance of power in the Eastern Conference.

That game reminded me of many of the Terps games this year, borderline unwatchable. Agreed everyone looked slow, terrible play on both ends, and of course blowing a 2-0 lead and not even getting an overtime point. I'm so sick of rooting for average or bad teams.