NHL Off-Topic thread

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Huh?

The hotdog stuff stemmed from some stupid article from a horrible writer in a major Toronto newspaper who claimed Kessel would visit a local hotdog vendor near his condo every day to buy hotdogs. The same guy was on the receiving end of the infamous Kessel interview where he was basically asked if he was happy his coach got fired, and that guy tried pinning the firing on Kessel,and Kessel lashed out at him for that and other false stories he wrote and was like "This guys such an idiot".

Media, especially ones like that guy were big reason Kessel couldn't handle playing here. Annoying media guys drive players out of this city. I believe this same guy tried doing same to Lowry in NBA.

[kehlis]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Gotcha, didn't know the backstory. Just thought the guy liked hot dogs and found it funny that he embraced it.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Gotcha, didn't know the backstory. Just thought the guy liked hot dogs and found it funny that he embraced it.

That reporters response after he saw the picture...

Just home from a terrific day at a wonderful golf tournament. Wrote about @PKessel81 26 months ago. Nothing more to say about him now.

Nice that the pic temporarily shut him up.

[Money99]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but former Sens coach and GM Bryan Murray lost his battle with cancer at the age of 74. He's one of the true lifers in the game and will be sorely missed.

R.I.P. Bryan Murray.

As a Wings fan, I always thought this guy got a raw deal in Detroit for the team's failures.
I remember after they got beat by the Leafs in '93, Don Cherry said he watched Murray exiting the Joe with his head down. He felt really bad for him. So did I.
It wasn't his fault. He built a pretty good team, but a lot of guys on that team under-performed.
Chevaldae was horrendous. I believe it was game 5, the Wings were up big and then Gilmour fired a shot from the redline right before the 2nd period came to an end. That ended up being a huge goal and ignited their comeback. (eff you Foligno).

RIP Bryan.

[Money99]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Really interesting (and long) article on the invention of the shot-clock in pro basketball:

https://www.si.com/nba/2017/08/28/nba-shot-clock-history-invention-leo-ferris-george-mikan

...in Minneapolis, the Westernmost city in the NBA, a professional basketball game is going down to the wire: It's Nov. 22, 1950, and the Fort Wayne Pistons trail the Minneapolis Lakers, the reigning champs, by one point.

But the 7,021 fans who flocked to the arena have dwindled to a small, irate crowd, as boos line the Minneapolis Auditorium. The nailbiter, as it turns out, was borne not from the natural ebb and flow of an entertaining basketball game, but a strategic exploit. Instead of oozing over the dominance of league MVP 6’10” George Mikan, fans are bearing witness to the tactical savvy of Fort Wayne Pistons coach Murray Mendenhall. He gave his point guard Ralph Johnson only one instruction: stall.

For the better part of 48 minutes, under the Pistons’ possession, the ball moves aimlessly from one side of the court to the other. Fans, Lakers’ players, and even the referees (the game’s official paragons for impartiality), implore them to try to score. In desperation, the Lakers resort to intentionally fouling to get the ball back. At the time, however, the rule book awarded a free throw for non-shooting fouls, so the Lakers’ adjustment effectively morphed the game into a glorified free throw shooting contest. In the end, the Pistons alleviate a talent deficiency, eeking out a 19-18 victory over the defending champs. It remains the lowest scoring game in league history.

Mendenhall’s innovation was truly a gimmick, designed to flatten talent disparities. D’Antoni’s strategy merely changed the type of talent that was valued, and in doing so, irrevocably changed the course of the game.

I don't know if there's one single change the NHL could make in order to open the game up, but if we were to draw comparison's, the NHL braintrust needs to use a similar algorithm used by the three individuals responsible for the 24-second shot-clock:

From analyzing box scores from the previous season, they merely deduced that the most entertaining games usually featured each team hoisting about sixty shots, or 120 per game. That number was divided by 48 minutes, or 2,880 seconds, the total time of an NBA game. The end product? 24 seconds.

It doesn't have to be as complicated.
The NHL needs to get their average goals per game to around 7.5 or 8 goals.

The question is, how do you do that?
Slim goalies? Make the nets bigger? Both would definitely help scoring up.
While I like both those ideas, and I do believe the NHL needs to average around 8 goals per game, the greater issue is the quality of those goals.
You could give me 12 goals a game, but if they're no different than to what we have now, no thanks.
All of the games are played the same. Teams drive into the offensive zone, and the defensive team attempts to prevent a goal off that initial rush.
Once that intial attempt is stymied, the offensive team now attempts to grind along the boards and corners and eventually get the puck back to the point.
All offensive players rush to the crease, as do the defensive players.
The dman then blasts a shot and hopes/prays that it deflects off of something and the puck is deposited into the net via a rebound/deflection/tip or screen goal.
The NHL has devolved into a 3-yards and a cloud-of-dust, NFL mentality.

So what to do?
The biggest change the NHL can make is one that ensures the best players are on the ice more often.
In the 50's, teams had 3 lines of forwards and 4 dmen.
But after reading a number of biographies of players from that era, it seems like the 3rd line was used sparingly as was the 4th defenseman.

In Phil Esposito's biography, he stated he'd get 90s shifts. Bobby Orr would be on the ice for close to 2 minutes at times.

Using Austin Matthews as an example, he scored 69 points in 82 games on 17.62 minutes per game.

If he gets 23-25 minutes instead (or roughly 33% more ice time), then you could make an argument that instead of 40 goals and 69 points, he scores approximately 53 goals and 92 points.

Looking at the top scorers from last year, the points would look like:
1. McDavid - 100 = 133.
2. Crosby - 89 = 118.
3. Kane - 89 = 118.
4. Backstrom - 86 = 114
.....
10. Taraseko 75 = 100 (rounded from 99.75).

It now takes 100 points to break the top 10.

Goal scorers?
Crosby - 44 = 59
...
Kane - 34 = 45.

IMO, these totals are the ones the NHL should be striving for.

But how do you do this? How do you get the stars on the ice more often than they are now?
It's simple, but one the NHLPA would fight; reduce the allowed 18 skaters to 15.
You still have 23-man rosters so there aren't less NHL paychecks. And you can have 3 skaters on standby for injury substitutions.
But while there won't be less NHL paychecks being signed, the PA will have a problem with less players on the ice.

It's a pipe dream and it'll never fly.
But the NHL needs to start thinking like the three pioneers that introduced the shot-clock.
The biggest difference is, those three men knew there was a problem and wanted to fix it.
The individuals running the NHL don't see a need to change anything. They are more than happy to keep things status quo.
And that's why the NBA went from a garage league to the 2nd most powerful and financially successful sports league in North America.
NBA fans will also watch nationally televised games. And why? Star power baby.
Meanwhile, the NHL, which at one time was far more popular than the NBA, is consistently stuck in the #4 spot of team sports. (Its further down the list when you consider individual sports like tennis, golf and perhaps even the UFC).
The reason? No national footprint. Nobody is watching nationally televised games if it doesn't include 'their' team. Why? Because of the abhorrent lack of star power.
Get the stars on the ice more often, allow them to produce offense, and the league will grow and thrive.
The NHL just needs someone with the vision to make it happen.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

I just think the game has moved on from any mechanic aimed at enabling longer shifts being possible. There are too many players who are too fit and too good at skating that can be rolled out to negate star players diminished after two minutes on the ice.

I do agree I'd like to see an NHL averaging 8 (mostly good) goal per game. It think the really high end talent is rare and dispersed across the league as well.

When I watch old hockey games, at times they remind me of soccer matches that have all sorts of different rhythms and types of possession, from a quick counter, to a controlled buildup, to recycling the ball and trying to change the angle.

It's not an exact comparison because hockey is more confined and faster, but I feel like you don't have those teams anymore that are equivalent to, say, a Real Madrid, who basically operate with mandate to entertain and win, but are also so good through their lineup that they can play their style no matter how much opponents press them, bunker down on them, or try any approach really. They are so good and deep they are nearly impossible to negate. If we could have more players like Erik Karlsson the league would be a better place, but we don't know how to train that flair, skill, and vision for the game, and certainly don't encourage a lot of that at the youth leve

We have lines that can dominate now, but then you have teams grind in between until those lines, or more often, line comes up again. It's rare to see those players that can play horizontally in possession these days, but yeah, watching Erik Karlsson or Mitch Marner do it, and the things they do is incredibly entertaining.

I also still think the goalie chest protector needs work. The thing needs to be as contoured as possible. If we can find a few more inches here and there I think it will further incentivize entertaining playmaking for the purpose of creating shots.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

All that needs to be fixed is smaller goalie equipment. The amount of shots per game and things like pp and PK % aren't much diff since those stats started being kept. SV% and goals per game are really the main stats changed the most from the 2000s VS any past era.

[Money99]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Great thoughts bad_philanthropy.
Talking about talent dispersement, just look how teams will almost never place their best offensive players on the same line.
"Back in my day" pairing Hull with Oates, Lemieux-Jagr, Sundin-Nolan, Yzerman-Gallant, Janney-Neely, Gretzky-Kurri, Lafontaine-Moginly, etc, etc was the norm.
Now you have Toews and Kane on separate lines.

Imagine basketball being played in such a way where Garnett and Curry were never on the court at the same time?

Coaches want 'balanced' attacks. They know it's impossible to score (because they coach to make sure no goals are scored), so they sprinkle talent over 4 lines and hope for a lucky bounce or break.

I was all for a salary cap in the past, but now I wish the NHL was more like MLB.
Let the big market teams load up. It's proven it's not a guaranteed Stanley Cup victory.
But at least it's fun to hate teams, and to also see some teams run over others with their embarrassment of riches during the regular season.

Besides, even with the cap, it's the same rich teams competing and winning every year while the small market teams are forced to take on bad contracts to reach the cap floor.
You could even make the case that teams like Washington (and soon Nashville) won't be able to sustain their momentum because the cap prevents them from keeping all their core players.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

The ACC will be no more as of July 1st. Apparently Scotiabank is ponying up $800 million for the naming rights.

The word is it'll be over $30 million/year. My god MLSE is rich.

[Money99]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

The ACC will be no more as of July 1st. Apparently Scotiabank is ponying up $800 million for the naming rights.

The word is it'll be over $30 million/year. My god MLSE is rich.

And none of that counts towards revenue sharing, correct?

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

The ACC will be no more as of July 1st. Apparently Scotiabank is ponying up $800 million for the naming rights.

The word is it'll be over $30 million/year. My god MLSE is rich.

40m I believe since it's 20 year deal.

MLSE gets 30m from naming rights and hundreds of millions from their teams. It's crazy. It doesn't count towards revenue sharing since it's MLSE making this money, not the Leafs.

Hate the change though. Been ACC since day 1. Scotiabank Gardens would've been nice touch to combine past and present.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

And none of that counts towards revenue sharing, correct?

I thought I read somewhere that a percentage does, but that might have been incorrect. The sum of the statement was that the percentage counted as hhr would raise the cap $200,000.

[Money99]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Peter Statsny says Quebec is getting a team. A matter of when, not if.
An announcement could come as early as Summer 2018:

http://kuklaskorner.com/hockey/comments/all-peter-stastny

It’s just a question of time. It’s all set. It’s all done. It’s all written. It’s all approved. It just doesn’t fit right now with the situation. We need some team to do poorly on the East Coast … They’re just waiting for the right moment to come, and Quebec will get an NHL team again. And deservingly so. I really believe [the announcement] could come as soon as next summer.

[Majingir]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Peter Statsny says Quebec is getting a team. A matter of when, not if.
An announcement could come as early as Summer 2018:
http://kuklaskorner.com/hockey/comme...-peter-stastny

Is that really good news though(that someone credible is saying this)? You know how Bettman feels about this type of info being "leaked".

Canes and Panthers are the obvious east choices to be moved. But if you're the NHL, would you move a team like Panthers or Canes to QC and eventually give someone like Seattle an expansion team, or does QC get expansion while Seattle gets relocation. Whichever will be most competitive soonest I think will go to Seattle(or whatever west city gets a team) since even if they're bad, QC can keep profits up for a fair amount of time.

[Money99]

Re: NHL Off-Topic thread

Parros new head of Department of Player Saftey:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/nhl-sends-wrong-message-by-appointing-parros-as-head-of-department-of-player-safety

It’s not so much that Parros is a part of the department that handles league discipline or that he’s even the head of it. After all, the FBI often hires former hackers as cyber special agents. It’s that the league continues to fill this department with these kinds of players. With the exception of short stints by the likes of Rob Blake and Brian Leetch, I can’t think of any other former players who have occupied that department who have not been known for playing at times on the wrong side of the rulebook.

Exactly.

First, don't think for a second that this hire doesn't have anything to do with the multi-million dollar lawsuit the NHL is facing concerning head trauma and the league's reluctance to protect its players.

Hiring Parros has several implications in this regard.
Its like David Duke hiring a minority to mow his lawn in order to prove he's not racist.

And let's be honest, the DoPS is nothing but a shell game. The figure-head of this department still answers to the "Hawks" (not Blackhawks - speaking about the Hawks that run the BoG and the Doves that listen to them).
Just look at what happened when Shanahan tried to clean things up. He was handing out 10 game suspensions like Pez.
But eventually he was shut-up, and shot-down before preseason was completed.
Now it's status quo. As long the National media doesn't notice the infraction, it's 2 games no matter the what. If it's really bad and the media makes note of it, then it's 4 games.
Star players - the ones that drive the league - continue to be assaulted on a nightly basis without any recourse.

As Ken said, the NHL is the only pro sports league in North America that willingly hands the keys to the kingdom to former scrubs and plumbers of the league.
It has allowed the coaches (most of whom were galaxies away from playing in the NHL) to decide that games should be won in as boring fashion as possible.
Your creativity is not welcome here, son!
The DoPS is as interested in player safety as Mike Babcock is in fun hockey.