Around the League - 2023/24

[expatriatedtexan]

Dirty play by Strome

I'd like to see a better replay but it did look a little like Strome veered to his right at the last minute which led to the leg on leg contact.

I'd just like to see the whole play unfold to get a better feel for how it happened.

 

[Avsboy]

Hope the Avs dont have to play the Oilers anytime soon. They would destroy the Avs.

Nah, Makar would give McDavid the "Dramatic Look Gopher" and blow his brains

 

[dahrougem2]

I think in slow motion that's easy for us to say dirty play.

At regular speed, I don't think Strome is trying to go knee-on-knee there.

 

[chet1926]

I don't like those first two throws when Cousins is already turtling. He's putting his entire body weight behind those punches. That could seriously injure someone.

That first boarding only being 2 minutes is complete BS though. Refs need more accountability.

I don't give a shit Cousins deserved every second of that shit.

He could of ended Gusbranson's season with that egregious boarding, it's only fair that Gudbranson gets the opportunity to do the same.

If the refs and aren't going to police the game and give a shit about player safety, then the players will have to resort to protecting themselves from reckless players throwing ugly hits.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Evan Bouchard. 6 points behind Makar now. The amount of dman better than him now is crazy. Hes really fallen off.

1. Quinn Hughes
2. Evan Bouchard
3. Josh Morrissey
4. Adam Fox
5. Miro Heiskanen
6. Brock Faber
7. Filip Hronek
8. Rasmus Dahlin
9. Drew Doughty
10. cale makar

 

[Vk1ing]

Sharks just tied it against Vegas lol

 

[JWK]

Sharks are easily in the top 5 of entertaining teams to watch

 

[dahrougem2]

Gotta give SJ credit.

That team started so poorly and could have packed it in for an easy year, getting beat badly every night and getting a 1st overall pick.

Instead they are playing very hard for each other and coming back against a lot of teams.

The team has hardly any talent but they have shown a lot of heart.

 

[Vk1ing]

Sharks are easily in the top 5 of entertaining teams to watch

Better than the avs currently that's for sure

 

[NOTENOUGHRYJOTHINGS]

Hope the Avs dont have to play the Oilers anytime soon. They would destroy the Avs.

I usually trash the Oilers for having RNH as the 2C. But the Avs have Ryjo. Yikes.

 

[AnimalMother73]

Can't help but think the Landy situation is just too big an issue to enable the team to win the cup again soon. All their moves have to be made knowing he could come back but with the duration being two years its just too big a time period for a player making what he makes to not understand why the team is where it is. Ryan Johansen as 2C would have been a total no go if Landy retired. It may have led to sacrifices elsewhere but I bet they would have gone after Lindholm much harder or someone like him, or possibly used his retirement as a stake in the ground for a mini-reset. Instead the team has been collectively waiting, hamstringing what are able to do talent wise (in case he comes back) while the rest of the core continues to age. I can't imagine what this place will be like if he does come back as a shell of his former self either, basically would kiss their chances goodbye.

 

[dahrougem2]

Can't help but think the Landy situation is just too big an issue to enable the team to win the cup again soon. All their moves have to be made knowing he could come back but with the duration being two years its just too big a time period for a player making what he makes to not understand why the team is where it is. Ryan Johansen as 2C would have been a total no go if Landy retired. It may have led to sacrifices elsewhere but I bet they would have gone after Lindholm much harder or someone like him, or possibly used his retirement as a stake in the ground for a mini-reset. Instead the team has been collectively waiting, hamstringing what are able to do talent wise (in case he comes back) while the rest of the core continues to age. I can't imagine what this place will be like if he does come back as a shell of his former self either, basically would kiss their chances goodbye.

I mean that's not entirely true.

The Avs could still treat Elias Lindholm as a pure rental because they know the earliest Landeskog returns is the 2024 playoffs, but the more likely scenario is the start of the 2024 - 2025 regular season.

The Avs didn't NEED to acquire Johansen. They could have spent the assets elsewhere and ensured a better chance at winning this season.

Johansen's 4M plus Tatar's 1.5M is enough money for the Avs to have absorbed Lindholm without retention, Yanni Gourde without retention, Brock Nelson with only 500K retention needed. You get the idea.

What I've gathered from CMac's tenure as GM thus far is that he, like so many GMs, wants to think both now and 5 years from now. Case in point last season: he'll give up a 2nd round pick for the corpse of Lars Eller to show his team "hey, I moved an asset to bring in a body for the run" but really, he isn't all that willing to part with futures to fix the Avs' biggest issue.

If he was, he wouldn't have made either of those 1st round picks last season. That was the time to fix this issue. Instead here we are.

 

[Foppa2118]

The Avs didn't NEED to acquire Johansen. They could have spent the assets elsewhere and ensured a better chance at winning this season.

We'll see if RJ can at least pick things up a little the rest of the season, but in hindsight, the better move might have been the one that everyone would have hated here, but would probably prefer now.

That's being patient and waiting for the right in season trade. It would have given them a lot more cap space for a potential Lindholm trade too.

I'm still convinced that all year last season their plan was to trade for a 2C at the deadline, but either the injury callups ate up all their cap space, deals feel through because players got injured, or some combination of the two.

Ironically the front office might have let impatient fans, and their overreactions to last year, pressure them away from their usual MO of being patient and just waiting for the right deals for the right players, which has served them so well in recent years.

 

[dahrougem2]

We'll see if RJ can at least pick things up a little the rest of the season, but in hindsight, the better move might have been the one that everyone would have hated here, but would probably prefer now.

That's being patient and waiting for the right in season trade. It would have given them a lot more cap space for a potential Lindholm trade too.

I'm still convinced that all year last season their plan was to trade for a 2C at the deadline, but either the injury callups ate up all their cap space, deals feel through because players got injured, or some combination of the two.

Ironically the front office might have let impatient fans, and their overreactions to last year, pressure them away from their usual MO of being patient and just waiting for the right deals for the right players, which has served them so well in recent years.

I think last year the Avs were freshly dealing with the loss of Landeskog and Kadri (and Burakovsky), the injury bug, hardly any Summer to rest, and teams coming for the defending champs. I get it now, it probably wasn't the Avs year.

However, a Johansen acquisition was just short-sighted. Five 1st round picks from 2023-2026 at your disposal on top of Behrens/Olausson/Foudy/Kovalenko and - without Johansen and Tatar - 5.5M in cap space.

Just a strange, strange way to supplement this roster.

 

[Grigowski]

This team is, as it stands now, another 1st round out.

If CMac goes out for another comical Lars Eller-Trade and calls it a day, his ass has to be fired on the spot.

No capable 2C means no deep run for this team again.

Lets hope our new GM has learned his lesson last year.

 

[Frenchy]

Evan Bouchard. 6 points behind Makar now. The amount of dman better than him now is crazy. Hes really fallen off.

1. Quinn Hughes
2. Evan Bouchard
3. Josh Morrissey
4. Adam Fox
5. Miro Heiskanen
6. Brock Faber
7. Filip Hronek
8. Rasmus Dahlin
9. Drew Doughty
10. cale makar

Adam Fox only at number 4 ? come on man .

 

[redacted]

Sharks are easily in the top 5 of entertaining teams to watch

Yeah their games are frequently a mess, but they are more fun that way.

 

[myperbixhurts]

Evan Bouchard. 6 points behind Makar now. The amount of dman better than him now is crazy. Hes really fallen off.

1. Quinn Hughes
2. Evan Bouchard
3. Josh Morrissey
4. Adam Fox
5. Miro Heiskanen
6. Brock Faber
7. Filip Hronek
8. Rasmus Dahlin
9. Drew Doughty
10. cale makar

You convinced me by having Cale’s name in lowercase

 

[MacKaRtin]

However, a Johansen acquisition was just short-sighted. Five 1st round picks from 2023-2026 at your disposal on top of Behrens/Olausson/Foudy/Kovalenko and - without Johansen and Tatar - 5.5M in cap space.

Johansen was certainly a relatively risky acquisition, coming off of a major injury and with known issues with consistent effort. But, on the other hand, our coach knew the player well, his retained contract fit very well into our cap puzzle (we have the Landy space this year, the cap bump next year covers his salary, and he expires when Rantanen and Byram are up for extensions), he didn't cost any assets except cap space, we haven't seen "playoff RyJo," and, if the experiment fails hard, I don't think it's that difficult to move an expiring contract.

I also don't think there was any other legitimate 2C that moved during the deadline last year (Horvat was in January) or this past off-season, so you can't claim that the Avs got outbid for someone. Compher was the shiny UFA center prize, and for obvious reasons, he wasn't coming back.

I think looking back at the Tatar signing thread, most posters were very excited about the Tatar acquisition (I remember because I was rather skeptical having watched him in the postseason a few times). Obviously, it hasn't panned out yet, but it's very little risk, almost fully buryable contract, and maybe he still gets hot and provides some secondary scoring.

The whole second line horribly misses Lehkonen to do the grunt work or a top 20 NHL player like Mikko to carry it (as he did Compher's line for much of last season).

 

[dahrougem2]

Johansen was certainly a relatively risky acquisition, coming off of a major injury and with known issues with consistent effort. But, on the other hand, our coach knew the player well, his retained contract fit very well into our cap puzzle (we have the Landy space this year, the cap bump next year covers his salary, and he expires when Rantanen and Byram are up for extensions), he didn't cost any assets except cap space, we haven't seen "playoff RyJo," and, if the experiment fails hard, I don't think it's that difficult to move an expiring contract.

I also don't think there was any other legitimate 2C that moved during the deadline last year (Horvat was in January) or this past off-season, so you can't claim that the Avs got outbid for someone. Compher was the shiny UFA center prize, and for obvious reasons, he wasn't coming back.

I think looking back at the Tatar signing thread, most posters were very excited about the Tatar acquisition (I remember because I was rather skeptical having watched him in the postseason a few times). Obviously, it hasn't panned out yet, but it's very little risk, almost fully buryable contract, and maybe he still gets hot and provides some secondary scoring.

The whole second line horribly misses Lehkonen to do the grunt work or a top 20 NHL player like Mikko to carry it (as he did Compher's line for much of last season).

I get why it happened - he was a free player with a good playoff reputation.

However, looking at the makeup of this team I think it's obvious there was a disconnect between CMac and Bednar. Johansen's playing style doesn't mesh with Bednar's preferred playing style.

 

[redacted]

I think there is some disconnect, but I honestly think more of the issue is Bednar being very stubborn on style of play. The guys the Avs locked into with term were perfect fits for Bednar's system. Wood and Colton play the way Bednar loves. Bednar's stubbornness/inability (I don't know which) to adjust the system to make players like Tatar and RyJo fit is a hurting the team. Along with that instead of even trying, he's basically given up. I get and agree that roles should be earned at a fundamental level... just early in the season with a soft schedule, this is the time to work through things to get them to work. Not basically bench the 2nd line.

 

[Nihiliste]

I mean that's not entirely true.

The Avs could still treat Elias Lindholm as a pure rental because they know the earliest Landeskog returns is the 2024 playoffs, but the more likely scenario is the start of the 2024 - 2025 regular season.

The Avs didn't NEED to acquire Johansen. They could have spent the assets elsewhere and ensured a better chance at winning this season.

Johansen's 4M plus Tatar's 1.5M is enough money for the Avs to have absorbed Lindholm without retention, Yanni Gourde without retention, Brock Nelson with only 500K retention needed. You get the idea.

What I've gathered from CMac's tenure as GM thus far is that he, like so many GMs, wants to think both now and 5 years from now. Case in point last season: he'll give up a 2nd round pick for the corpse of Lars Eller to show his team "hey, I moved an asset to bring in a body for the run" but really, he isn't all that willing to part with futures to fix the Avs' biggest issue.

If he was, he wouldn't have made either of those 1st round picks last season. That was the time to fix this issue. Instead here we are.

Yeah Cmac has the Roy disease of acquiring players thinking he’ll get what they’ve done in the past. He’s also playing a little too cute trying to get all these ultra value deals in terms of not spending assets but the reality is now we have a bunch of cap tied up in net negative players

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I get why it happened - he was a free player with a good playoff reputation.

However, looking at the makeup of this team I think it's obvious there was a disconnect between CMac and Bednar. Johansen's playing style doesn't mesh with Bednar's preferred playing style.

I very much doubt that decidion was made without talking to Bednar first considering he coached the guy and saw him play against the Avs quite a few time every year. I could maybe see the Drouin and Tatar decisions but even those I would be surprised. Obviously he doesn't have the last word on roster makeup but he has been way too long with the team to just be ignored.

IMO the way the summer decisions went is something like this: "Bedsy, here is what we think of doing. RyJo, Drouin and Tatar. Because of our cap situation it is very hard to go another way. Do you think you can make it work?"
"I understand the situation. Let's give it a shot."

 

[Balthazar]

I think there is some disconnect, but I honestly think more of the issue is Bednar being very stubborn on style of play. The guys the Avs locked into with term were perfect fits for Bednar's system. Wood and Colton play the way Bednar loves. Bednar's stubbornness/inability (I don't know which) to adjust the system to make players like Tatar and RyJo fit is a hurting the team. Along with that instead of even trying, he's basically given up. I get and agree that roles should be earned at a fundamental level... just early in the season with a soft schedule, this is the time to work through things to get them to work. Not basically bench the 2nd line.

To be fair it worked with Drouin

 

[redacted]

To be fair it worked with Drouin

I'd say that is an early declaration. He's playing better now, but players go on hot streaks all the time. Along with that though, Drouin needs to produce. He's not a defensive guy, not a physical guy, not a PK guy. His role is going to be offense, and that hasn't been there yet. Even in this stretch he's played well in, he has just 2 points in his last 7 games where both of those came in one game. In his last 13 games, he has 5 points while only scoring in 3 games. If you include the prior two games where he scored points... he has 7 in 15 with points in 5 games. That's a ~38 point pace coming over ~33% of the games. That's not nearly a consistent enough of an impact for me to consider it a success. Maybe unfair a bit to put so much on production, but that's what he's brought here to do.

We give RyJo (deservedly mind you) a lot of shit for his 5v5 production... but he's got 5 points (4G 1A) and Drouin has just 6 points (2G 4A). That's kinda a wash.