NHL 2021

[gunnar hendershow]

Half of me thinks it would be very funny if the Senators can't beat anyone all year except the Leafs and Habs.

[Toe]

My total exposure to the Canucks is from last night's game against Toronto.

What happened to Vancouver? Losing Markstrom can't be it. Did they just expect big jumps from their young players a little too soon? I've watched most of the Leafs games this season, and Toronto had no trouble creating chances at will all night long. 

[gunnar hendershow]

One of the biggest cap-era mistakes has been teams going all-in a couple years too early and then scrambling to keep the core together.

The other biggest cap-era mistake has been everything David Poile has done the past 5 years. Never in my life did I think we'd go "hey Montreal managed to win that Weber for Subban deal" but here we somehow are.

[SeanDMan]

I think the Canucks are just earlier in their rebuild than people give them credit for. Markstrom played out of his mind last year but with Loui Eriksson on the books and a flat cap, this is a bad time to make a run for it. When Eriksson is done and hopefully budgets start moving upwards again, the Canucks will still have Horvat, Petterson, Quinn Hughes, Demko, and Hoglander as their core. If Virtanen makes another step and any of their younger defenders pan out, that is a pretty decent core. Not Edmonton good, maybe not even Toronto good, but certainly pieces in place to make a run.

Canucks have had consistency issues and part of that is the big shuffle on the backend. Tanev and Stetcher are gone, Schmitt has come in, theoretically the defense is probably better but just hasn't gelled yet. Until it does, expect good teams to exploit it. Montreal and Toronto are definitely teams where if you make defensive mistakes, they have the forwards to punish you for it.

I'm not worried. I expect the team to make the playoffs and if they get a round or two deep, great. The expensive fourth liners, Sutters, Beagel, Roussel, Eriksson, aren't on the cap forever, and we still have lots of life left in the rest of the roster.

And if not, we just kill Jim Benning with a javelin.

https://streamable.com/x4ps

Then Lou can run the team!

[Toe]

Despite being down by 2 already, the Canucks have looked better tonight.

[Ruki]

Vancouver is....just not good. Matthews though is good. 10 goals, league leading!

[Toe]

39 minutes ago, Ruki Returns said:

Vancouver is....just not good. Matthews though is good. 10 goals, league leading!

I was wrong - Vancouver was just as bad tonight.

Its great having Matthews to cheer for. I think the only player better right now is McDavid, and they play different kinds of games. 

[SeanDMan]

I think that JT Miller non-goal broke them; it was a game at that point but when you have someone who is underperforming, score, then have it be for not, it's deflating. I felt like that sucked the wind out of them.

Also, let's analyze their back end:

By average time on ice, their leader is Tyler Myers. This is bad news bears, as the guy is fine, but he doesn't contribute much in terms of offense and he takes way too many penalties. There's a reason we call him "Tyler Minors" in Canucks fandom.

Then Quinn Hughes. Sophomore, got away and around a lot of guys last year because he was an unknown commodity and wasn't playing top line minutes. Well, he is a known commodity now and the team has asked him to step up, and maybe a bit too much.

Then you have Schmidt. New to the team, new to their systems. He will come along, but he should probably be swapped with Myers in terms of time on ice, once he gets his sea legs and settles into the team.

Then there's Edler. Edler isn't getting any younger and his best days are probably behind him, but when you look at the bottom of this list, you understand why Edler is this high.

Then there's Hamonic. He's actually, if you look at plain stats (not advanced) performing better than he did last year, but he's not been entirely healthy and is also new in town. If he can continue to play the way he has been or better, and he heals up, he'd be a perfect guy to get onto the ice more often and in more situations.

Then is Jordie Benn. Guy has the misfortune of being the worst J. Benn in the NHL, but he's been a plus two on a roster that has lost their four games by absurd margins. Can't really complain about that. Probably not the guy to lean into since he's got no offensive talent, but as a shutdown guy, he has been reliable.

The remaining three guys, Jalen Chatfield, Brogan Rafferty, and Olli Juolevi, spent last year in the AHL and this is their rookie campaign.

So, when you break down their backend, you have

1 violent giraffe
1 sophomore
2 offseason additions
1 aging veteran
1 shutdown guy who has actually been half decent
and 3 rookies.

Good luck putting together a winning combo with those guys. When Schmidt and Hamonic are healthy and in tune with the rest of the team, you can probably do okay, but I feel like Myers needs to play less and Edler should be someone else. The problem is, none of the Canucks rookie defensmen are ready for top four minutes yet. 

Compare that to the Leafs. As much as the forward core of the Leafs is lauded (and for good reason), they have a very stable backend, with only Mikko Lehtonen as an NHL newcomer, the 27 year old rookie who was a PPG player as a defensemen in the KHL. When he is your biggest uncertainty, that's stability. The Canucks would love that kind of defensive depth but it just isn't there yet. If Juolevi works out, they'd be probably one guy away. You replace Edler with that one guy, give them a season to work out who goes where, and give Tyler Myers a goddamn valium or something to calm him the fuck down, and that defense will start to look pretty good.

[million$$man]

Pens have hired Brian Burke as Director Of Hockey Operations and Ron Hextall as General Manager 

[Toe]

If that means I don't have to see Brian Burke on my TV anymore, then I love this move.

[gunnar hendershow]

Brian Burke finally got Sidney Crosby.

[Ruki]

I'm really enjoying the Leafs beating up the North division. 

[Draevyn]

I am most certainly not happy with the Burke thing. However, seeing the list of those who were interviewed for the position, I'm not sure I would have been happy with any of them.

[Ruki]

The Leafs just lost in OT after being up 5-1 lol. 

[Toe]

TSN just threw out some stat about McDavid reaching 500 points in the same amount of games as Sidney Crosby, and it just made me think that I've definitely not given Sid the credit he deserves.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Toe

[gunnar hendershow]

Sid's problems are twofold. 1) He got "next Lemieux" comparisons and because scoring is just lower in the 2000s never came close to Mario's numbers, and 2) Had a rival in Ovechkin who was generally a lot more exciting to watch. Sid is like the lab created hockey player in that he ticks every box you want but doesn't have this one thing he does that makes him stand out from everyone else.

Still he's going to go down as a top 15 player all time. 

[million$$man]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/30945519/new-york-rangers-artemi-panarin-taking-leave-assault-allegations-surface%3fplatform=amp

 

New York Rangers' Artemi Panarin taking leave after assault allegations surface

EMILY KAPLANESPN11:44 AM ET2 Minute Read

New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin is taking a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons.

 

The news comes after a Russian newspaper published allegations from Panarin's former KHL coach, Andrei Nazarov, claiming the winger got into a physical altercation with an 18-year-old woman in Latvia in 2011. Nazarov's interview said Panarin "sent her to the floor with several powerful blows," according to a translation provided to ESPN. Nazarov has previously criticized Panarin's outspoken beliefs toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Artemi vehemently and unequivocally denies any and all allegations in this fabricated story," the Rangers said in a statement Monday. "This is clearly an intimidation tactic being used against him for being outspoken on recent political events. Artemi is obviously shaken and concerned and will take some time away from the team. The Rangers fully support Artemi and will work with him to identify the source of these unfounded allegations."

Nazarov, who played 571 games in the NHL, said a criminal case against Panarin was opened in Latvia but added that somebody paid "a sum of 40k Euro cash" to stop the case, though it was unclear who paid that.

Panarin was traded from Nazarov's team a month after the alleged assault.

Last month, Panarin showed his support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Instagram post. Through a Rangers spokesperson, Panarin declined to comment further on the topic in the days after the post.

Panarin, 29, was a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP last season. He has five goals and 13 assists for 18 points in 14 games this season. The Rangers have won two straight but are still four points out of a playoff position in the East Division.

Panarin, who signed an $81.5 million, seven-year contract with New York in 2019, typically spends his offseasons in Russia and still has family there, including his grandparents. It is rare to see high-profile Russian athletes speak out against Putin or the Russian government, but Panarin has been consistent in his stance.

In a Russian-language interview in 2019, Panarin said that he is frustrated to see economic development stalled and limited to the elite in Moscow.

"I may look like a foreign agent right now, but it's not like that," Panarin said in the 2019 interview. "I think that the people who hush up the problems are more like foreign agents than those who talk about them. If I think about problems, I am coming from a positive place, I want to change something, to have people live better. I don't want to see retirees begging."

Rangers coach David Quinn said he spoke with his players about Panarin's situation.

"We're going to help Artemi through this difficult time," Quinn said. "You have to continue to unite as a team. It's hard to overcome losing a player like Artemi from a hockey standpoint, but we've got to find a way to do it."

[Lint]

As noted in an article on Defector

Quote

Nazarov is not a disinterested party when it comes to the potential political angle here. A vocal Putin supporter, he has repeatedly criticized Panarin in the past for his support of Navalny. So far, Nazarov’s claims remain the only source for the allegations against Panarin.

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Got a feeling this Vladimir Putin guy is bad news.

[gunnar hendershow]

After losing to Ottawa yet again, Montreal has fired Claude Julien.