NHL 2022

[Ruki]

14 minutes ago, damshow said:

So is Ovechkin not good at hockey or something?

He's not even the best goal scorer of all time (yet)! So bad. 

[Gabriel]

We aren't quite ten games into the season yet, but the Flames sure are making me eat my words. I didn't think this off-season was good enough, but they're sitting just one point back of Edmonton and they've been playing Darryl Sutter hockey like their lives depend on it. Who knew that putting an emphasis on defense would lead to chasing games a lot less?

It's also insane to me that Mangiapane and Lindholm are sitting tied with Ovechkin with seven goals on the year.

[Ruki]

Q is out of Florida. Good. Chevy needs to be out of Winnipeg. Toews and Kane should lose their letters. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Is Bergevin going to get through all of this? How could he have not known what was going on?

[Krabby]

2 hours ago, Ruki Returns said:

Q is out of Florida. Good. Chevy needs to be out of Winnipeg. Toews and Kane should lose their letters. 

 

15 minutes ago, damshow said:

Is Bergevin going to get through all of this? How could he have not known what was going on?

Did they all know?

I haven't seen all the details of the thing

[Ruki]

Yeah, lots of people knew and did nothing.

[gunnar hendershow]

I find it impossible that the Director of Player Personnel couldn't have been at the least informed. Maybe just below the rung on the ladder where action can have an impact, but silence should still be punishable.

You also look at a number of his other personnel moves while GM of the Habs and it paints a clearer picture that wins come before everything else.

[The Buscher]

Golden Knights get:
Jack Eichel, 2023 3rd round pick swap

Sabres get:
Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch, 2022 1st round pick, 2023 3rd round pick swap

[Krabby]

Hey good luck with that Vegas!

[Ruki]

.... what a bad trade. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Tuch is hurt all the time. No idea if Krebs will develop. So uhhh, not great Buffalo. And also not great Vegas.

The classic net negative trade.

[SeanDMan]

On 04/11/2021 at 09:18, damshow said:

Tuch is hurt all the time. No idea if Krebs will develop. So uhhh, not great Buffalo. And also not great Vegas.

The classic net negative trade.

I love it.

Meanwhile the offseason swap where Arizona and Vancouver traded each other a car trunk full of hot garbage is actually working out for both teams.

[Gabriel]

Jacob Markstrom has four shutouts in nine games played this season.

I am in awe of this Flames team and how they've managed to both improve defensively AND offensively under Sutter. They aren't just winning close shut-down games. They're scoring in bunches. 6-0 over the Rangers last night. Tree and Sutter have definitely put any concerns that I had in the off-season to rest.

[gunnar hendershow]

Sounds like the Penguins are about to be purchased by Fenway Sports Group. Probably not particularly noteworthy given the new arena and the salary cap. However Lemieux will no longer be an owner of the team and for basically the first time since the mid-80s not involved with Penguins hockey.

[Ruki]

On 23/10/2021 at 19:10, Ruki Returns said:

Leafs are just... so bad right now. Wow. 

I'm glad things have turned around in a month. The Leafs reddit was dreadful during that cold streak. 

 

Also, what's going on with Vancouver? Weren't they supposed to be good?

[Beeker00Zero]

3 hours ago, Ruki Returns said:

I'm glad things have turned around in a month. The Leafs reddit was dreadful during that cold streak. 

 

Also, what's going on with Vancouver? Weren't they supposed to be good?

I will let SDM go into (far) more detail but basically yes but also no.

Last year was supposed to be an abberration and with the team healthy were expected to be playoff possibilies. Alas, no one informed the team that scoring was required and they are on a goal-strike to protest... erm... something. I think.

[SeanDMan]

Okay, so I actually sent an email to Beeker about this earlier (cause the Canucks beat Montreal, and they should have, and they looked okay), and he's not allowing me to drink soda so I made myself a hot chocolate and time to dive into the stats.

So let's analyze the top producing players from three teams: a surprise, the Flames, someone who is about what we expected them to be, the Leafs, and the Canucks.

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TOI	ATOI	OPS	DPS	PS	BLK	HIT	FOW	FOL	FO%
1	John Tavares	31	C	22	10	12	22	3	8	7	3	0	1	10	2	0	73	13.7	408	18:32	2.1	0.7	2.8	16	21	206	149	58.0
2	William Nylander	25	C	23	9	12	21	2	6	6	3	0	4	7	5	0	82	11.0	436	18:58	1.8	0.7	2.5	3	5	7	7	50.0
3	Auston Matthews	24	C	20	10	9	19	5	4	6	4	0	3	6	3	0	85	11.8	408	20:23	1.8	0.8	2.6	14	17	173	139	55.4
4	Mitch Marner	24	RW	23	6	13	19	3	4	5	0	1	3	6	7	0	59	10.2	480	20:51	1.2	0.8	2.0	12	7	3	2	60.0
5	Michael Bunting	26	LW	23	6	8	14	0	14	5	1	0	1	7	1	0	49	12.2	330	14:22	1.1	0.5	1.6	4	25	1	1	50.0
6	Alexander Kerfoot	27	C	23	4	10	14	10	4	4	0	0	1	10	0	0	34	11.8	344	14:58	0.9	0.9	1.7	12	17	20	33	37.7
7	Morgan Rielly	27	D	23	3	11	14	9	2	2	1	0	2	7	4	0	58	5.2	555	24:09	1.0	2.2	3.2	21	27	0	0
8	Ondrej Kase	26	RW	21	5	3	8	1	6	5	0	0	0	3	0	0	54	9.3	274	13:03	0.5	0.4	1.0	13	12	1	3	25.0
9	Wayne Simmonds	33	RW	22	3	5	8	2	15	3	0	0	1	5	0	0	40	7.5	219	9:56	0.5	0.4	0.9	3	34	1	2	33.3
10	Jason Spezza	38	C	23	4	3	7	-1	12	2	2	0	0	1	2	0	36	11.1	266	11:33	0.4	0.3	0.7	10	10	107	94	53.2

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TOI	ATOI	OPS	DPS	PS	BLK	HIT	FOW	FOL	FO%
1	Johnny Gaudreau	28	LW	22	9	16	25	14	4	8	1	0	3	13	3	0	73	12.3	398	18:06	2.5	1.0	3.5	2	4	1	0	100.0
2	Elias Lindholm	27	C	22	9	14	23	18	2	5	3	1	2	8	6	0	66	13.6	441	20:03	2.2	1.2	3.4	14	20	206	189	52.2
3	Matthew Tkachuk	24	LW	22	10	9	19	11	22	5	5	0	1	6	3	0	73	13.7	390	17:44	2.0	0.9	2.9	6	25	7	8	46.7
4	Andrew Mangiapane	25	LW	22	15	2	17	5	6	10	4	1	4	2	0	0	57	26.3	341	15:29	2.5	0.6	3.1	5	20	8	11	42.1
5	Oliver Kylington	24	D	21	3	10	13	10	4	3	0	0	0	10	0	0	32	9.4	366	17:27	1.2	1.5	2.8	20	13	0	0
6	Rasmus Andersson	25	D	22	0	11	11	15	10	0	0	0	0	6	5	0	32	0.0	495	22:30	0.5	2.2	2.7	32	8	0	0
7	Sean Monahan	27	C	22	2	8	10	-6	4	0	2	0	2	2	6	0	31	6.5	321	14:34	0.4	0.2	0.5	10	14	121	123	49.6
8	Dillon Dube	23	C	22	2	7	9	0	4	2	0	0	0	5	1	1	48	4.2	294	13:21	0.4	0.4	0.7	3	18	41	42	49.4
9	Milan Lucic	33	LW	22	6	2	8	0	31	6	0	0	0	1	1	0	29	20.7	266	12:04	0.8	0.3	1.1	6	53	2	4	33.3
10	Mikael Backlund	32	C	22	4	4	8	3	10	4	0	0	0	3	1	0	44	9.1	379	17:14	0.2	0.6	0.8	6	16	162	178	47.6

Rk	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TOI	ATOI	OPS	DPS	PS	BLK	HIT	FOW	FOL	FO%
1	J.T. Miller	28	C	23	7	13	20	-2	8	5	2	0	1	7	6	0	57	12.3	496	21:35	1.4	0.5	1.9	12	54	171	134	56.1
2	Conor Garland	25	RW	23	7	9	16	0	12	6	1	0	3	8	1	0	65	10.8	386	16:47	1.3	0.5	1.8	4	13	3	4	42.9
3	Quinn Hughes	22	D	22	2	14	16	1	14	2	0	0	0	6	7	1	47	4.3	539	24:29	1.2	1.2	2.4	15	3	0	0
4	Bo Horvat	26	C	23	6	6	12	-4	12	5	1	0	0	5	1	0	62	9.7	475	20:40	0.5	0.4	0.9	16	23	324	235	58.0
5	Elias Pettersson	23	C	23	4	7	11	-6	6	0	3	1	0	3	4	0	61	6.6	435	18:54	0.3	0.3	0.6	10	5	48	85	36.1
6	Nils Hoglander	21	LW	23	5	5	10	1	12	5	0	0	0	3	2	0	57	8.8	337	14:39	0.6	0.4	1.0	5	10	0	0
7	Brock Boeser	24	RW	20	4	5	9	-8	2	3	1	0	0	2	2	1	51	7.8	374	18:42	0.3	0.1	0.4	12	10	3	5	37.5
8	Tanner Pearson	29	LW	23	3	4	7	0	8	2	1	0	1	4	0	0	53	5.7	367	15:57	0.0	0.4	0.4	13	24	4	8	33.3
9	Tyler Myers	31	D	23	0	6	6	-1	13	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	34	0.0	496	21:33	0.0	1.0	1.0	46	46	0	0
10	Vasily Podkolzin	20	RW	21	4	1	5	0	4	4	0	0	1	0	1	0	30	13.3	246	11:42	0.2	0.3	0.5	10	28	2	0	100.0

Okay, so lets keep that sorting, and add what percentage of the team's cap hit each player represents.

1    John Tavares        13.5
2    William Nylander    8.5
3    Auston Matthews      14.3
4    Mitch Marner   13.4
5    Michael Bunting   1.2 
6    Alexander Kerfoot  4.3
7    Morgan Rielly     6.1
8    Ondrej Kase  1.5
9    Wayne Simmonds   1.1
10    Jason Spezza  0.9

1    Johnny Gaudreau  8.3
2    Elias Lindholm    6.0
3    Matthew Tkachuk      8.6
4    Andrew Mangiapane   3.0
5    Oliver Kylington        0.9
6    Rasmus Andersson        5.6
7    Sean Monahan  7.8
8    Dillon Dube  2.8
9    Milan Lucic  6.4
10    Mikael Backlund 6.6

1    J.T. Miller  6.4
2    Conor Garland   6.1
3    Quinn Hughes    9.6
4    Bo Horvat   6.7
5    Elias Pettersson    9.0
6    Nils Hoglander       1.1
7    Brock Boeser    7.2
8    Tanner Pearson  4.0
9    Tyler Myers      7.4
10    Vasily Podkolzin   1.1

 

Pretty easy to see the issue. Canucks are the only team whose top paid forward isn't among their top five producers. Hell, look at the Leafs, that top four are right where they should be. Canucks are a mess. Conor Garland and JT MIller are dragging this team kicking and screaming while Boeser and (primarily) Pettersson are lagging behind. Pettersson seems to be coming around. I think the big issue is, what fixes this team?

IMO there are two ways to go: Pod and Hog, JT and Garland, these guys look like gamers. They can score. Boeser is slow out of the block, but I think a lot of that is matchups and if you start mixing in the Pod and Hog up front, teams will have to move away a bit from that matchup. I think the Canucks need a second line center. Horvat is fine for 5 on 5, and PK, but he's not a PP1 center. If you can find that as the Canucks, get him in. If it's affordable do it. Pettersson with his wrist the way it is should be the third man into the circle, not the second, not the first. Let him grip and rip, not fight for possession. I really think that with a better look on special teams, the team could do well. Their defense has been better than expected. OEL looks like an NHL level player again. They just need to get a complimentary piece for the powerplay. Kill can sort itself out. That is probably something that needs to be handled on the personel side.

The other option is to just blow it up entirely, but I don't even think that fixes anything. Replace the coach, he's still working with sandbagging players. Replace the GM, he is still stuck with same players. Put new people in, you are still stuck with the same chucklefuck owner. Canucks made a bunch of good moves in the offseason and one very stupid one, but this team is what it is as long as Tony Soprano is running the team from his boxseats at the Raiders game. There is no hockey ops side of the team; it's Jim, and Frankie, and even if Jim's head rolls, they'll put in another yes man. Canucks are a crooked business and they're designed to make money, not win games. It's not impossible to win games, but if you really think their owner gives a shit, you haven't followed this team for the past five years.

[gunnar hendershow]

Speaking of teams with weird front office management structures, Geoff Molson cleaned house and fired Bergevin the other day. But as it stands he's still going to have some weird level of oversight over hockey ops that he probably shouldn't. It's not just an NHL thing but sports leagues should prevent team ownership from also having roles in the front office, it is just a bizarre conflict of interest that has been allowed to go on for years. Hockey ops/football ops/etc. should all be directed only to create a competitive team and eschew profitability. If ownership isn't happy with an unprofitable winner they can clean house and deal with the outrage from fans. Seems fair.

The Canadian teams especially have some very bad ownership situations, Vancouver and Ottawa at the very top of the list but Montreal not terribly far behind.

[SeanDMan]

This is the Pension Plan Problem: Sports teams are a business and are designed for maximum profitability. Chasing success is not always how you do that. Teams being successful is in the better competitive interest of the league but not always the best interest of the teams themselves and anti trust laws etc etc etc. Sports and money just shouldn't mix.

Slightly unrelated, but probably one of smartest minds for sports and sports business that I know is Jer/GYS, if you ever want to hear his thoughts on stuff you should check out his socials, and or his twitch.

 

[Ruki]

Tyler Bertuzzi has COVID. What an idiot.