NHL 2013 - 2014

[WayAbvPar]

Maybe they were trying to dump salary for other moves? Penner hasn't been consistent for about 5 years now, so he was expendable.

[Speedy Cerviche]

we got vanek for peanuts so everyone pretty happy here

[WayAbvPar]

Yeah, the few remaining Islander fans are unamused.

[Ceryse]

I haven't watched a ton of hockey since that last lockout season but why would the Ducks give away Penner for a who cares round draft pick? Even if a) he's gone next year anyways b) he's not half the player he was. I don't see how the hell that makes sense.

Penner was actually having a decent-ish season. Not fantastic point-wise, but he was working very well on that top line, was friends with both Getzlaf and Perry, popular on the team and is a proven playoff performer (even when his regular season efforts have been shit). The trade only makes sense if they were going after someone like Vanek (freeing a roster spot, some cap space and so forth) or even Cammalleri. The fact that they did absolutely nothing means they either weren't willing to pay the price asked or wanted to promote from within (Etem?). The former doesn't make sense as the price for the scoring forwards ended up fairly low (especially Vanek.. man, Snow fucked up good on that one) so it was likely that the price was too high and when the price finally lowered it was too late to get a bidding war going. Second option just doesn't make sense given Penner was doing well and was cheap.

All in all? Anaheim fucked up. One of the only playoff teams that got actively weaker.

[Phildo]

Might have to try and get tickets to the Washington - Pittsburgh game on monday so I can see Penner and Halak in action.

And also Marcel Goc and Lee Stempniak, I suppose?

[Strazos]

Yeah, the few remaining Islander fans are unamused.

Poor Islander fans - I feel so bad for them. It's gotta be tough to stick with a junk team all this time.

[Ginaz]

I wonder if some jobs are in jeopardy in Vancouver after last nights debacle?

[Bunk]

How many more do we have to lose to get a better draft spot than the Alberta teams?

[Ceryse]

The whole Vancouver thing is, well, getting sad. Still hilarious, though, so there's that.

Sadly, all three of these teams (Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton) are getting double-fucked. Fucked because they suck (and for differing reasons!) and fucked because they're in the toughest division in hockey right now. Its unlikely Vancouver can catch Calgary in terms of draft position as Calgary seems to finally realized they actually need to be losing games. Ironically, Edmonton has been .500 since the end of December when goaltending started to get fixed (and is 5 games above .500 from when it was actually fixed) and is just paying the price for absolutely horrendous goaltending the first three months of the season (Oilers still suck, of course, they just suck a lot less now.. but that was a bar so low it was buried a hundred feet into the ground).

As an Oiler fan I am at least getting two of the three things I want to be pleased about from the NHL these days; Vancouver is imploding, Hemsky is doing very well in Ottawa (dumb trade for the Oilers, fantastic for Hemsky -- if only to get away from the Oiler shit-show of coaching and into the easier conference). Alas, the third thing isn't going well in that the Maple Leafs are continuing to be blessed by the Hockey Gods. That team does not deserve anything even close to their record and it will be fun to watch them get destroyed in the playoffs when puck luck is no longer enough, especially if they end up in the final and have to face one of the dominant Western teams.

[Phildo]

I had a pretty good time yesterday going through all the current NHL lineups and playing "find that guy who used to be pretty good for the Oilers."

[Ceryse]

I had a pretty good time yesterday going through all the current NHL lineups and playing "find that guy who used to be pretty good for the Oilers."

That's... a long list. Tambellini was the worst thing to happen to the Oilers. He did one thing right in his time as GM; fixing the minor system. Pity he bent the team over and screwed it good with indecision and trading NHL players for non-NHL players. Hell, he wanted to let Hemsky walk to UFA two years ago (and get nothing for him), until Lowe stepped in and forced him to re-sign Hemsky (one of the few good things Lowe has done since '06 trade dead line). If it weren't for the Islanders the Oilers would likely have the crown as the most mis-managed team in recent history.

[Fordel]

Define recent. 

[Speedy Cerviche]

Epic collapse underway in leaf land.

The pile on to Reimer is gross though, he's just a young backup, he's not paid big bucks. The rest of the team is playing mediocre at best, kind of disturbing how all of tdot's rage is focused on this guy.

[Shannow]

All I have to say is:

[Speedy Cerviche]

We'll see if you're still cocky tomorrow morning !!


edit; just saw Budaj is starting, guess Price still having some lingering injuries, gonna be tougher now.

[Fordel]

Epic collapse underway in leaf land.

The pile on to Reimer is gross though, he's just a young backup, he's not paid big bucks. The rest of the team is playing mediocre at best, kind of disturbing how all of tdot's rage is focused on this guy.

I've said this before, Reimer is going to get traded to an actual hockey team and be really successful and we're going to be really really sad.

[Ceryse]

The issues with the Leafs are hilarious, honestly. They finally stop getting goal-tending above the league average (and at times, well above) and the team basically collapses in on itself because its just not a very good team (as evidenced by the fact they are now the most out-shot team, 5-5, in a season since advanced stats was a thing in the NHL). I mean, let's be blunt here; if you have a worse shot differential than Edmonton and Buffalo? Maybe your personnel or coaching isn't up to snuff.

Toronto has been riding high shooting percentages, good goaltending and luck more than anything else and things have begun to break down. Personally, I dearly hope they miss the playoffs by just a point or something, so they continue the course.

Oh, and thanks for taking Clarkson. Oilers dodged a bullet there.. especially since we offered even more money for one of the most over-rated off-season acquisitions in years. Seriously, how anyone thought he was worth that kind of contract is insane (and remains one of the few truly worrying signs of MacT's year here).

[Fordel]

Keep in mind it was above average goal tending with a substantially below average team defensively. Leafs will say shit like 'Oh our goal tending wasn't up to par tonight because he couldn't stop four consecutive 2 on 1 rushes' . 

[Azaroth]

Epic collapse underway in leaf land.

The pile on to Reimer is gross though, he's just a young backup, he's not paid big bucks. The rest of the team is playing mediocre at best, kind of disturbing how all of tdot's rage is focused on this guy.

The problem is that Reimer seems convinced he should be a #1.

(Not that I'm piling on to anyone. I don't care about the Leafs.)

[Fordel]

Well they keep throwing him in that spot, then taking it away, then giving it back, then oh no he can't really be a #1, can he?


All the while he gets shit on like he was/is the #1 no matter what his actual position is.



He could be a number 1 and do very well, if he was on a team that understood how to play hockey. He's not on a team that knows how to play hockey though, so we'll probably ruin him like we've ruined half a dozen previous goalies in recent history.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Well I am not convinced he is one of the top 30 goalies in the league, but he could still have a fine career as a backup in the top 60, no shame in that. Leafs nation expects him to play like a top 10 goalie though.

It's funny to even contrast this with Montreal, where Price's post-olympic injury has really limited his starts and we have seen a lot of Budaj. His win last night against the Bruins has been his first really great game in that span (2 wins, 5 losses), but nobody was dumping all the blame on him like Toronto is doing with Reimer during Bernier's injury. People accepted this is a backup goalie with limits, forced outside of them. As the losses mounted people got more mad at the team/coach for not stepping up better in the face of that challenge of losing the normally stellar goaltending of Price.

[Fordel]

Toronto's fan base is unquestionably broken, like on a religious-fundie/battered housewife level of broken. This is a team that should honestly have zero fans at this point and in any other city they probably wouldn't have any.

Yet they have one of the most loyal and blind fan bases in all of sports. God only knows why.

[Fordel]

Tonight's game was a fantastic example, team allows like 50 shots on net and we have people blaming the goalie again. Not even Reimer in net this time! 

[Azaroth]

Toronto's fan base is unquestionably broken, like on a religious-fundie/battered housewife level of broken. This is a team that should honestly have zero fans at this point and in any other city they probably wouldn't have any.

Yet they have one of the most loyal and blind fan bases in all of sports. God only knows why.

It really is amazing. They can abuse that fanbase as much as they please and it'll never go away. Ever.

Just make the playoffs once a decade and everything is cool, really.

[Fordel]

Years ago, when we swapped Calgary our garbage for their garbage, I thought we got the better end of that rubbish exchange.

Phaneuf has clearly proven that incorrect, time and again. How much are we paying this chuckle fuck?

[Speedy Cerviche]

4th highest paid dman in the league, for a guy who probably wouldn't have even made a hypothetical team Canada #2 this past olympics. They are going to need a REALLY good shutdown Dman paired with him, just to babysit and attempt to cover his numerous game killing errors. So you're gonna end up spending a ridiculous 12$ million (probably most in league) on a disfunctional top pairing.

Add in 5 million for Clarkson, and then another big 8 million chunk on Kessel, and you're spending 35% of your salary on four flawed parts of your team. Now Kessel obviously is pretty good, but is not the kind of player cup winners are usually built around. So basically you're now trying to build a high quality team after a 25 million cap penalty, and compensating for having liability players on the ice for a significant part of every game.

These problems are now locked in for the next 6-8 years so even if you fire Nonis and get some super genius GM, he's still competing against 29 other GMs who are for the most part pretty smart, and aren't working with one hand tied by so many bad contracts. So basically there is no light at the end of this tunnel, it's going to be 5 more bad years at least for Leafs fans.

[Shannow]

So basically there is no light at the end of this tunnel, it's going to be 5 more bad years at least for Leafs fans.

How much did you enjoy typing that sentence? Be honest now. :D

[Speedy Cerviche]

Heh I gotta admit, I get about as much pleasure seeing the Leafs lose as watching my Canadiens win although publicly I try and temper that reaction.

I think most of Canada feels the same, and it's not because people hate the city (I go there multiple times per year, nice place, although the food is mediocre), it's mostly due to the Canadian sports-media all being there and you get them 24/7 cheerleading the leafs, at times arrogantly when they are playing hot. I guess the best analogy is why so many MLB fans enjoy seeing the Yankees bellyflop.

[Fordel]

The Leafs aren't the Yankee's, the Leafs are the Cubs. 

[Ceryse]

As someone who has been delighting in the Leaf collapse I'll just say this; the Flames can't do anything right. At least the Devils and Blue Jackets got points as well.

[Azaroth]

There's not really anything to delight in anymore. It's over.

[Ceryse]

There's not really anything to delight in anymore. It's over.

True. Now I'm hoping teams like the Canucks, Leafs, Panthers and Flames win out the season to screw up their draft position.

Also; Gillis fired in Vancouver. Was a bit disappointed in that, as he'd lost the plot and I'd hoped they'd somehow retain both him and Torts for next year. Like-wise, I'm hoping Carlyle survives as coach for the Leafs because, well, it'd be awesome for every non-Leaf fan.

[Fordel]

http://deadspin.com/the-maple-leafs-collapse-is-a-victory-for-rationality-1559848856

What kills me, is you don't need the new stats to see this was coming, anyone who watched a game could see they are playing like utter ass. They get out shot at like a 2:1 ratio.

[Azaroth]

There's not really anything to delight in anymore. It's over.

True. Now I'm hoping teams like the Canucks, Leafs, Panthers and Flames win out the season to screw up their draft position.

Also; Gillis fired in Vancouver. Was a bit disappointed in that, as he'd lost the plot and I'd hoped they'd somehow retain both him and Torts for next year. Like-wise, I'm hoping Carlyle survives as coach for the Leafs because, well, it'd be awesome for every non-Leaf fan.

Ah, old 9th place.

Or "True Last Place".

[WayAbvPar]

Glad to see Gillis go. His handling of the team the past couple of years (especially the goaltending) was not far short of criminally incompetent. I am sure Torts is next. I don't dislike him from what I have seen, but I really hate his current play style. Whether he overreacted to injuries or just thought he couldn't play uptempo with the roster full of 3rd liners that Gillis handed him I don't know. If he went back to his Tampa style rather than his Ranger style I would be ok with him hanging around, I think. I like his sarcasm and his fire. Guessing whoever takes over the team (pretty sure #16 will be involved some way or another) will want to hire their own coach. Hopefully a younger guy with some idea of how to play 'new' hockey.

Just glad this nightmare season is almost over. Hope they find a way to unfuck things before the Sedins are in wheelchairs. They are already starting to break down. 25 minutes a game from Torts probably didn't help. Also hope Kesler sticks around.