On December 02 2013 14:01 Slaughter wrote: At least the Wings have somewhat rebounded from their "lets lose in OT/SO" mode they went into =\
Thats what happens when instead of Dan Cleary and Samuelson eating top 6 minutes you have Nyquist and Tatar up there. Plus the team is actually playing better in front of Gustavson.
Darren Helm might actually become a legit 2nd line center if he keeps this up. Definitely a pleasant surprise, I'm pretty sure no one expected him to be such a spark after that much time off. The only real disappointment thus far this season has been Weiss (I expected Cleary and Sammy to be as shitty as they've been, so that wasn't much of a surprise), but as he's on a long contract anyway, there's not much you can do about it.
Buy him out if he continues to suck all year long. Which I do believe he will since anyone playing in Florida inevitably is much worse than they are statistically. I think Helm is having a career year the way Draper had his when he scored 24 goals in 04.
Hockey Canada making some... interesting choices for their World Juniors Roster...
Nurse, Klimchuk, Domi, Brown, Matt Murray, Poirier, no Comrie / Jarry (the best goaltenders in the WHL)...
The Selection camp only has 2 goaltenders but you are required to bring three to the tournament. Both Fucale and Paterson who they taking in net are having awful years so far...
HC says they didn't take Nurse because they expect him to get a suspension with physical play, yet they are bringing Reinhart who has four games to serve not playing because of a suspension from last year... And then they take far more aggressive players in Lazar, Horvat, Laughton.
Some sketchy looking picks going on here. Some interesting politics going on. We have not taken a good goaltender to the tournament in years. Every year we just take the kid from last year drafted in the first round that is playing mediocre at best. For a team that has shit the bed in 4 straight tournaments... I dunno about that. Taking Adam Pelech over Nurse blows my mind. Nurse is better at every facet of the game, especially in his skating and puck moving. Bigger, faster, stronger, smarter... Its like passing up on a Prime Chris Pronger for a prime Darian Hatcher. On the big ice....
The fact that they cannot even meet the required roster limits with the named list makes me scared for who they bring to Sochi. They have time to add to this list right?
And no Nurse is a travesty. He could dominate this tourney. I don't know the rest of the squad well or in some cases at all so I won't throw my two cents in.
On December 03 2013 11:36 Orcasgt24 wrote: And no Nurse is a travesty. He could dominate this tourney. I don't know the rest of the squad well or in some cases at all so I won't throw my two cents in.
Hockey Canada's reasoning for not inviting Nurse: "He is doing too much."
Here is some footage of the geniuses at Hockey Canada trying to coach Nurse into simplifying his game during the Can/Rus series:
"The less you do, the more you do."
Any time team Canada is selected, it's 50% politics and 50% people out-smarting themselves - thinking they are clever and have some special insight into what makes a team 'good' instead of choosing players that are actually good.
On December 04 2013 00:55 Flaccid wrote: Any time team Canada is selected, it's 50% politics and 50% people out-smarting themselves - thinking they are clever and have some special insight into what makes a team 'good' instead of choosing players that are actually good.
Get ready for first liner winger Chris Kunitz!
Russia takes the fucking cake with that bullshit though haha
On December 04 2013 03:18 xDaunt wrote: So what's the over/under on how badly the Sharks outshoot Toronto tonight?
I'll take 45 to 21 and oh brother. I just saw Randy's post-practice interview the other day and laughed out loud because I had a good idea of what he wanted to fix. Yeah, we've been taking one too many penalties but still Randy. Are those three things all you want to fix? I know a few guys are out of the line-up, but I expect at least some improvement when it comes to getting a cycle going.
Despite this, Canada should still win the gold medal because the talent level in this country is so much better compared to every single nation in the world that it should be nearly impossible to screw up. Yet Hockey Canada somehow has for five years now, and it's decisions like these that prioritize "heart" and "grit" and "winningness" over "ability to play hockey" that play a major role in those failures.
Despite this, Canada should still win the gold medal because the talent level in this country is so much better compared to every single nation in the world that it should be nearly impossible to screw up. Yet Hockey Canada somehow has for five years now, and it's decisions like these that prioritize "heart" and "grit" and "winningness" over "ability to play hockey" that play a major role in those failures.
Don Cherry-Brian Burke loudmouth school of 'hockey analysis' really has done some prolonged damage to Canadian team selection, I agree. That and the good old boy network on top. But hey, at least Gretkzy embarrassed himself as both coach and GM in the mid 2000s so at least you dont have to worry about him .
I made a post about Hockey Canada on a hockey blog I read:
It often feels as though the staff involved in selecting Canadian hockey teams favors over-complication as a means to justify their own jobs and then point to the obscurity of their choices as evidence of their expertise.
They basically have the job every year of re-assembling The Avengers, selecting from the largest, most popular stable of superheroes available. Sure, they select Spiderman (who wouldn’t), but they leave Hulk off of the team in favor of Howard the Duck even though the math shows that Howard’s Quack Fu is bullshit. Meanwhile, any kid who has ever walked into a comic book store knows intuitively that Hulk is a decent guy to have in your roster. But he tries to do to much and they don’t like him when he’s angry.
The luxury of choice is something these folks routinely abuse to our national detriment
thats a good point too. If you just pick the obviously best then why do you even need a job? Fuck I hate good old boyism in Canada. Its so insidious in so many spheres.
Anyone else thinks that giving bigtime money to star goalies is not the optimal way to go anymore? I mean the average NHL goalie is so good nowadays, why break the bank for a top tier one?
example: Wouldnt there be more hope for the preds if they had an average goalie AND Ryan Suter on the team?
And im tempted to say Lundqvist wont be worth 8.5 mil a year at age 37-38...
On December 05 2013 05:34 Kevin_Sorbo wrote: Lundqvist got a huge 7 yr deal today.
Anyone else thinks that giving bigtime money to star goalies is not the optimal way to go anymore? I mean the average NHL goalie is so good nowadays, why break the bank for a top tier one?
example: Wouldnt there be more hope for the preds if they had an average goalie AND Ryan Suter on the team?
And im tempted to say Lundqvist wont be worth 8.5 mil a year at age 37-38...
I'm not a big fan of sinking a ton of money into goalies. The "average goalie" is usually good enough. More importantly, goalies have a tendency of being wildly inconsistent from year to year. You never quite know what you're gonna get (look at someone like JS Giguerre or even Bryzgalov). There are very few goalies who are worth a long term contract. That said, Lundquist may be one of them. Still, that's a huge chunk of cap space gone, which will gimp the team.
On December 05 2013 05:34 Kevin_Sorbo wrote: Lundqvist got a huge 7 yr deal today.
Anyone else thinks that giving bigtime money to star goalies is not the optimal way to go anymore? I mean the average NHL goalie is so good nowadays, why break the bank for a top tier one?
example: Wouldnt there be more hope for the preds if they had an average goalie AND Ryan Suter on the team?
And im tempted to say Lundqvist wont be worth 8.5 mil a year at age 37-38...
The Preds example is a little off because they did offer Suter a huge deal (they matched the offer from the Minnesota) but he decided to go to the wild to be with family among other reasons. But yeah I see what you are saying. If Marek Mazanec for example keeps doing as well as he is now, I would rather have Suter and Mazanec on the team without Rinne, even though Rinne is a fantastic goalie.
Not even necessarily that goalies are inconsistant, I think aside from extraordinary specimens defensive schemes usually have a large say in how well a goaltender plays.
A guy like Bryz especially... went from Pronger-Niedemeyer Anaheim, to we have no talent and all system Pheonyx and played well. Did it really surprise anyone that he was less than stellar for Philly?
The Wings always seemed to have better luck when they played with average goaltenders, even the one they won with Hasek probably could have been won with almost anyone that team was so stacked.
Just rangers being rangers. Like everyone said, the system really helps if you want to go the playoffs with a cheap-ish team. Blues/La/Pheonix and even Boston to an extent benefit from the scheme they play as much as the players they have.
Lundqvist is the best goalie in the league in my mind, but this is still an overpay. He was on a somewhat below market deal for the past few years, so maybe it'll balance out in the end.
EPT
