The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Good old NHL.

Marchand with a dirty move, injures a guy, he's now out until at least December, and that play wasn't even called a penalty and no fine or anything either.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Auston Matthews does what he wants when he wants

The Leafs win when they want to...it just doesn't always line up with when they should.

[Kobalt]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Are the Sharks ok?

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Is it possible the Vancouver Canucks are the best Canadian team this season?

This start is far too good to be true, but...

[bhurst99]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

This start is far too good to be true, but...

Enjoy the ride while it lasts.

I mean being the best team in Canada means you're the only team to have won more than 50 per cent of the games you've played.

On a more serious note, I'm paying close attention to what the NBA is doing this season with their mid-season tournament. I like the idea. There's so many teams that they need to take the European soccer route and have a chance to fight for more than one trophy. (Frankly, I also don't think winning the President's Trophy gets enough respect).

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

On a more serious note, I'm paying close attention to what the NBA is doing this season with their mid-season tournament. I like the idea. There's so many teams that they need to take the European soccer route and have a chance to fight for more than one trophy. (Frankly, I also don't think winning the President's Trophy gets enough respect).

Please no. Both the NBA's mid-season tournament and 7-10 seed play-in reek of flopsweat. The NHL's regular season doesn't really need fixing.

One of the few things I will give Bettman credit for is resisting the urge to expand the postseason: remarkably, the number of NHL playoff teams has remained static at 16 since Gretzky's rookie season, and thank goodness.

As far as an NHL mid-season tournament goes, I already have one in mind: I call it "the Olympics".

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

As for the President's Trophy, you can have it. All it confers is a big fat target on your back.

If the NHL really wanted to make it meaningful, I'd suggest giving the President's Trophy winners 5 home games in every playoff series (2-2-3). If not, I'm fine with scrapping it altogether.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Players don't even care about the president trophy or trophy for winning their conference in the conference finals, I doubt they'll ever care about some in season tournament.

The only tournament the league should ever do is an international one.

We need the world cup of hockey to return, but I'm not sure how you really even do it where guys care about playing in it in September before their season begins. It's such a shame that this era will barely have any sort of best on best with the talent they have.

We might not get an Olympic or World Cup with Crosby and McDavid together!

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Oilers have 18 shots on the Canucks...in 10 minutes of action!

Auston Matthews now has more goals than the entire Sharks team combined.

[bhurst99]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

Players don't even care about the president trophy or trophy for winning their conference in the conference finals, I doubt they'll ever care about some in season tournament.

The only tournament the league should ever do is an international one.

We need the world cup of hockey to return, but I'm not sure how you really even do it where guys care about playing in it in September before their season begins. It's such a shame that this era will barely have any sort of best on best with the talent they have.

We might not get an Olympic or World Cup with Crosby and McDavid together!

They really ruined the World Cup with the stupid format last time with Team Europe and the Team North America under 24 team. Not to mention the September calendar is such a heavy sports one. I can't blame owners if they look at the Edwin Diaz injury in the World Baseball Classic and think "No thanks".

Hopefully, we can get NHLers back in the Olympics.

I don't really care that the players may not have interest in a mid-season tournament. I think the fans would have a lot of interest in a mid-season tournament something like pitting all the Canadian teams against each other for a Canadian winner. (and all the US teams against each other in the US. I admit less interest in that).

I just think with so many teams and future expansion, teams need more than just one thing to complete for like European soccer. We're just 11 games into the season and the season is pretty much already a wash for Calgary Flames (San Jose isn't even trying). Just my opinion.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

I wonder if a July tournament would even be worth it for guys either.

You have time off after your season is done, and time after this tournament is done before training camps start. If someone does get injured, they have a few months before the season starts.

But how many guys would want to sacrifice their July vacation for that?

Maybe guys who participate in the world cup get a few weeks exemption from training camps?

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

I don't really care that the players may not have interest in a mid-season tournament. I think the fans would have a lot of interest in a mid-season tournament something like pitting all the Canadian teams against each other for a Canadian winner. (and all the US teams against each other in the US. I admit less interest in that).

I just think with so many teams and future expansion, teams need more than just one thing to complete for like European soccer. We're just 11 games into the season and the season is pretty much already a wash for Calgary Flames (San Jose isn't even trying). Just my opinion.

I'd be embarrassed if the Canucks won that. Talk about a participation trophy.

Even putting aside the history and the opportunity to play teams in different tiers/leagues, all Euro Cups offer the winner something. There are real financial rewards involved, and real reasons for fans to want their club to win aside from just the hardware.

If you win the Carabao Cup, you get a spot in the Europa Conference League.
If you win the FA Cup or Copa del Rey, you get a spot in the Europa League.
If you win the Europa League, you get a spot in the Champions League, etc.

What does the NBA Mid-Season Tournament offer? A few extra bucks for the players and a weekend in Vegas? Who cares?

If the NBA (or NHL) wants anyone to care about crap like this, there need to be stakes. If the winner of a mid-season tournament received something like one or more of the following:

a.) a guaranteed playoff spot
b.) if you end up qualifying for the playoffs anyway, all your 1st round games are at home
c.) the lottery odds of the last-place team (ie, if Vegas won the tournament, they'd be treated as the 32nd best team for the 2024 draft and have the best draft odds)
d.) an extra 5M in cap space for the following season

...then hell yeah, I'd watch, and so would everyone else. If you're fans of a no-hoper like Calgary or Columbus, you're thirsting for something like this. But if nothing's on the line but a cheap hunk of metal, hard pass.

[Majingir]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

I'd be embarrassed if the Canucks won that. Talk about a participation trophy.



Even putting aside the history and the opportunity to play teams in different tiers/leagues, all Euro Cups offer the winner something. There are real financial rewards involved, and real reasons for fans to want their club to win aside from just the hardware.



If you win the Carabao Cup, you get a spot in the Europa Championship League.

If you win the FA Cup or Copa del Rey, you get a spot in the Europa League.

If you win the Europa League, you get a spot in the Champions League, etc.



What does the NBA Mid-Season Tournament offer? A few extra bucks for the players and a weekend in Vegas? Who cares?



If the NBA (or NHL) wants anyone to care about crap like this, there need to be stakes. If the winner of a mid-season tournament received something like one or more of the following:



a.) a guaranteed playoff spot

b.) if you end up qualifying for the playoffs anyway, all your 1st round games are at home

c.) the lottery odds of the last-place team (ie, if Vegas won the tournament, they'd be treated as the 32nd best team for the 2024 draft and have the best draft odds)

d.) an extra 5M in cap space for the following season



...then hell yeah, I'd watch, and so would everyone else. If you're fans of a no-hoper like Calgary or Columbus, you're thirsting for something like this. But if nothing's on the line but a cheap hunk of metal, hard pass.

For the NHL, what stakes could make it worth it for the players/team?

Extra cap space could definitely be an incentive. Maybe you get an extra 10% added to your cap for that season, runner up gets extra 5%?

Could make that trade deadline more interesting for the team because now you can take on more salary and make a bigger playoff push.

Players obviously get a bonus in money out of it too, and their team being able to spend more that year means their chances to win a cup goes up and they might have basically "won" a new teammate.

Maybe add a draft pick after the rounds (like how the MLB has the compensatory round) where the winner gets pick 33 (so round 2 starts at 34), runner up gets pick 67 (round 3 starts at 68), 3rd place gets a pick after round 3, 4th place gets pick after round 4? Those picks are tradeable too. Winning cap space and basically a late 1st pick, you're guaranteed to be adding a top 2 line guy via trade.

[bhurst99]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

I'd be embarrassed if the Canucks won that. Talk about a participation trophy.

Even putting aside the history and the opportunity to play teams in different tiers/leagues, all Euro Cups offer the winner something. There are real financial rewards involved, and real reasons for fans to want their club to win aside from just the hardware.

If you win the Carabao Cup, you get a spot in the Europa Championship League.
If you win the FA Cup or Copa del Rey, you get a spot in the Europa League.
If you win the Europa League, you get a spot in the Champions League, etc.

What does the NBA Mid-Season Tournament offer? A few extra bucks for the players and a weekend in Vegas? Who cares?

If the NBA (or NHL) wants anyone to care about crap like this, there need to be stakes. If the winner of a mid-season tournament received something like one or more of the following:

a.) a guaranteed playoff spot
b.) if you end up qualifying for the playoffs anyway, all your 1st round games are at home
c.) the lottery odds of the last-place team (ie, if Vegas won the tournament, they'd be treated as the 32nd best team for the 2024 draft and have the best draft odds)
d.) an extra 5M in cap space for the following season

...then hell yeah, I'd watch, and so would everyone else. If you're fans of a no-hoper like Calgary or Columbus, you're thirsting for something like this. But if nothing's on the line but a cheap hunk of metal, hard pass.

Sure. I'm all for adding more incentives to a mid-season tournament. That's why I'm interested in the NBA mid-season tournament and to see how it evolves. Who knows maybe people will hate it and the league will kill it off. Maybe next year, they'll add team incentives for the winners.

What I don't want as a NHL fan is to have another season like last year where the top eight teams in the East were locked in by early January and they played the final 40 games for seeding. (We all know how meaningless that is in the NHL). That's a hard pass. Give us more to get invested in.

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

What I don't want as a NHL fan is to have another season like last year where the top eight teams in the East were locked in by early January and they played the final 40 games for seeding. (We all know how meaningless that is in the NHL). That's a hard pass. Give us more to get invested in.

If there were no stakes involved, how would that change how the fans of those bad Eastern teams feel? "Well, we were out of the playoffs by Christmas, but at least we won the John Ziegler Memorial Trophy in February!" The "winners" would be meme'd into oblivion. It could even have a detrimental effect; I can easily imagine the GM of a struggling team using a mid-season trophy as a rationalization to stay pat.

Like I said earlier, the stakes need to be big. If a playoff spot is on the line and San Jose somehow wins the tournament, the West is in chaos for the rest of the regular season. Not only does that reduce the number of playoff spots available from 8 to 7, there's now a huge incentive to get the top seed and face the Sharks.