Around the League Thread | Holiday Season!

[valkynax]

ooooo dramaaaaa



also more Hall scratches incoming?

Drury: "All I did was torpedoing the team's morale into the abyss of shit and now they keep losing? How is that possible?!"

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Drury: "All I did was torpedoing the team's morale into the abyss of shit and now they keep losing? How is that possible?!"

Conned the Rangers into giving him a stupid retirement contract in 2007 that had to be bought out.

Somehow f***ed over the franchise a 2nd time.

Imagine bringing in Loui Eriksson to be our GM?

 

[valkynax]

Conned the Rangers into giving him a stupid retirement contract in 2007 that had to be bought out.

Somehow f***ed over the franchise a 2nd time.

Imagine bringing in Loui Eriksson to be our GM?

Don't make me hurt you.

 

[thecupismine]

I'm not for anymore expansion, but the logic from the NHL is that every other major sports league has 29-30 American markets that can support the league. The NHL does not have that many. Therefore, there is room to expand.

The Canadian markets are just a unique part of the NHL, in that Canada has a disproportionate interest in hockey and several Canadian markets are capable of supporting a pro franchise.

I think more franchises will, at some point, dilute the talent level too much. I just don't really find the dilution argument persuasive because you could have said the same thing any other point in time, going from 6-12-20-28-30-32, teams, etc. The players are still good.

Possibly? I'm still suspect, because interest in hockey in the US hasn't had a particularly significant uptick, and the markets you'd think have potential (Atlanta, Phoenix, another Texas team, etc.) have already failed multiple times or have significant competition from other sports like Football.

Even a market like Winnipeg that people thought would rebound in the 2010s has had significant problem generating gate revenue despite their spot in the standings. Teams like Tampa and Florida have shown you can turn attendance around with good teams, but the more teams in the league, the harder it becomes to qualify as a "good" team - which presumably will make it hard to turn around teams with lower interest levels.

 

[thecupismine]

I also still find it hilarious that Edmonton is going to torpedo their last year with Bouchard & Drai on great contracts with modern day Dan Cloutier in net

Imagine they had someone as good as Alvin in their GM booth picking up solid role players for cheap to round them out. Drai is so damn good he can make someone as mediocre as Podkolzin look respectable (to be clear, I'm very happy for his success, the guy works his butt off and deserves it).

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

I also still find it hilarious that Edmonton is going to torpedo their last year with Bouchard & Drai on great contracts with modern day Dan Cloutier in net

Imagine they had someone as good as Alvin in their GM booth picking up solid role players for cheap to round them out. Drai is so damn good he can make someone as mediocre as Podkolzin look respectable (to be clear, I'm very happy for his success, the guy works his butt off and deserves it).

To be fair, beach ball sales increased by 150% the summer of 2002 because of Cloutier.

 

[bossram]

Possibly? I'm still suspect, because interest in hockey in the US hasn't had a particularly significant uptick, and the markets you'd think have potential (Atlanta, Phoenix, another Texas team, etc.) have already failed multiple times or have significant competition from other sports like Football.

Even a market like Winnipeg that people thought would rebound in the 2010s has had significant problem generating gate revenue despite their spot in the standings. Teams like Tampa and Florida have shown you can turn attendance around with good teams, but the more teams in the league, the harder it becomes to qualify as a "good" team - which presumably will make it hard to turn around teams with lower interest levels.

I'm not evaluating the accuracy of this reasoning. But this is the logic from the NHL (and IIRC Bettman himself said so). There's more American markets out there that the NHL isn't in.

Discussion of WPG with this is mostly irrelevant. The NHL doesn't want and wouldn't be there, had ATL not rapidly folded and with Chipman/TNSE being able to operate an NHL team on short notice. It's by far the smallest market in the league. Then there are also revenue issues because of the Canadian dollar.

The NHL wants to go to all the big American markets because there is a floor of business + corporate money just from the sheer size and general wealth of the market.

 

[andora]

I don't understand this consistent wish that some people have with never wanting a player to be traded ever.

Should Florida have never traded Huberdeau? Come to think of it, they might have never won a cup then.

See how dumb it sounds when you look at it as stupidly as you did.

You'd pay Garland 7M a year would you?

Deflect all you want it's still stupid

 

[ManVanFan]

Deflect all you want it's still stupid

The idea of trading players is stupid. You should let NHL GM's know that then.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Conned the Rangers into giving him a stupid retirement contract in 2007 that had to be bought out.

Somehow f***ed over the franchise a 2nd time.

Imagine bringing in Loui Eriksson to be our GM?

Philly may not have been cup relevant for years but damn have their sleeper agents in Pittsburgh and New York done work.

 

[StreetHawk]

I'm not evaluating the accuracy of this reasoning. But this is the logic from the NHL (and IIRC Bettman himself said so). There's more American markets out there that the NHL isn't in.

Discussion of WPG with this is mostly irrelevant. The NHL doesn't want and wouldn't be there, had ATL not rapidly folded and with Chipman/TNSE being able to operate an NHL team on short notice. It's by far the smallest market in the league. Then there are also revenue issues because of the Canadian dollar.

The NHL wants to go to all the big American markets because there is a floor of business + corporate money just from the sheer size and general wealth of the market.

Then why didn’t the nhl go to Houston in the 90’s over Columbus? Arizona they blew that under Zeigler when he told coangleo that the nhl would not expand to Az. And all those years of trying to make it work down there when the team didn’t love their lease. Only when the city was giving them $25 mill per did they find it ok.

Atl, like all others it was them who decided to have bad expansion rules and give them all bad teams.

 

[bossram]

Then why didn’t the nhl go to Houston in the 90’s over Columbus? Arizona they blew that under Zeigler when he told coangleo that the nhl would not expand to Az. And all those years of trying to make it work down there when the team didn’t love their lease. Only when the city was giving them $25 mill per did they find it ok.

Atl, like all others it was them who decided to have bad expansion rules and give them all bad teams.

I don't even know what you're getting at here. This response is incoherent.

 

[calnuck]

Drury: "All I did was torpedoing the team's morale into the abyss of shit and now they keep losing? How is that possible?!"

Kakko for Hoglander, Desharnais and a 2nd?

 

[credulous]

Then why didn’t the nhl go to Houston in the 90’s over Columbus? Arizona they blew that under Zeigler when he told coangleo that the nhl would not expand to Az. And all those years of trying to make it work down there when the team didn’t love their lease. Only when the city was giving them $25 mill per did they find it ok.

Atl, like all others it was them who decided to have bad expansion rules and give them all bad teams.

they didn't go to houston in the 90s because leslie alexander didn't want competition for the rockets and sandbagged the process

 

[VanJack]

Wow! This has to be a first. A team-only meeting in Ranger-land, but not a revolt against the coach Laviolette....instead they have the GM Chris Drury in their cross-hairs.

Could it become a trend around the league for GM's that run guys out of town, or at least drive them to the airport for immediate disposal, like Jacob Trouba?

Why couldn't this have been a trend when Benning was GM of the Canucks?

 

[valkynax]

Already 2-0 Habs, Armia and Laine (PPG), and this is with a 5v5 goal taken away from Montreal.

SOG is 9-0 in Montreal's favor.

The powerplay Laine scored on, four Sabers on one side of the ice leaving Laine in no-man's land, and of course all it takes is one pass and zip goes the puck.

Holy shit the Sabres are bad. I'm seeing no team cohesion on ice.

 

[Tact]

Sabres are really bad. There’s not even effort from no one - kinda sad really. No back check, forchecking and the defence is a mess

 

[valkynax]

Sabres are really bad. There’s not even effort from no one - kinda sad really. No back check, forchecking and the defence is a mess

Dach left the ice with maybe an arm injury from the fall earlier, it appears. The kid just cannot catch a break, his numbers look horrendous, and it's just been one setback after another which probably screwed up his development badly.

Sabers are playing like 1v9 hockey out there, no teamwork, no coverage, everyone's doing their own shit.

 

[Deeds26]

Sabres are really bad. There’s not even effort from no one - kinda sad really. No back check, forchecking and the defence is a mess

But as the players who are doing all of the bad hockey say, "the answer is in the locker room."

Obviously the have the wrong answer, but they have the answer, and that counts for something.

 

[ManVanFan]

Dach left the ice with maybe an arm injury from the fall earlier, it appears. The kid just cannot catch a break, his numbers look horrendous, and it's just been one setback after another which probably screwed up his development badly.

Sabers are playing like 1v9 hockey out there, no teamwork, no coverage, everyone's doing their own shit.

Lindy Ruff setting those boys straight.

 

[valkynax]

Lindy Ruff setting those boys straight.

I think this is beyond what Ruff can fix, it is actually core culture. We see this in Oilers before, it took them two generations talents and years of rework to purge that loser culture - the boat load of draft picks didn't do jack shit.

The Sabers are truly f***ed, and they are starting to sicken me (much like how the Hall/Yakupov era Oilers disgusted me back then) - a team sucked in the best talents of the generation only to let said talents waste their career away for nothing. TSN showed that players like Eichel, Reinhart, O'Reilly all went on to win the cup after leaving Sabers. Once the loser culture sets in, the franchise is stuck in a giant bear trap. I truly don't know how they can get out of this shithole situation.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

To any idiot who thought Bryam and Cozen for EP is a good trade

Go watch some Sabres games I dare you

 

[bossram]

Already 2-0 Habs, Armia and Laine (PPG), and this is with a 5v5 goal taken away from Montreal.

SOG is 9-0 in Montreal's favor.

The powerplay Laine scored on, four Sabers on one side of the ice leaving Laine in no-man's land, and of course all it takes is one pass and zip goes the puck.

Holy shit the Sabres are bad. I'm seeing no team cohesion on ice.

I said at the time, bringing in Ruff was just a laughably bad decision. Just a wacko coaching hire. Ruff is horrible on systems and it's obvious the Sabres have no structure. They needed a structured, disciplined coach.

I'd say clean house, but they've done that enough times already. Just fold the franchise.

 

[andora]

To any idiot who thought Bryam and Cozen for EP is a good trade

Go watch some Sabres games I dare you

But bad team bro

 

[bossram]

To any idiot who thought Bryam and Cozen for EP is a good trade

Go watch some Sabres games I dare you

Cozens is such a huuuuuuuuge downgrade from Petey. Anyone proposing this doesn't know puck at all.