Around the League Thread | Pre-Season Approaches

[JT Milker]

Neely said $64 million, not $8 x 8 though, so wasn’t really rounding up.

Seravalli also said Swayman was asking for $8.5 per so that’s almost meeting in the middle relative to their negotiating positions.

If you believe Friedman instead their last offer was $7.5 so it’s a bigger jump.

Not sure we know enough to really know if he’s justifiably annoyed.

$7.5M is a completely reasonable offer for Swayman’s resume, selfish behaviour.

 

[RandV]

Even if the thing that contact his head was the stick, saying he hit himself with it is extremely disengenous.

Yes the point you can make with this analysis is that it's hard to catch at live speed but it was his stick that knocked the helmet off, not a shoulder/elbow. Still though, you can get a bit disingenuous sometimes getting too far into the slow down/still shots, as at live speed Xhekaj clearly lined up an extremely dangerous headshot attempt. That's the type of play where with an inch or two difference you can end a guys career.

 

[Hodgy]

Neely said $64 million, not $8 x 8 though, so wasn’t really rounding up.

Seravalli also said Swayman was asking for $8.5 per so that’s almost meeting in the middle relative to their negotiating positions.

If you believe Friedman instead their last offer was $7.5 so it’s a bigger jump.

Not sure we know enough to really know if he’s justifiably annoyed.

I mean, if they offered 7.8 x 8, then the round up to 64 million is like a 2.5% difference. But, whatever it is, its a huge amount of money given what Swayman has accomplished so far. Again, he has like 130 regular season games.

 

[MS]

Swayman's numbers over the last 3 seasons are actually worse than Ullmark's.

It's a crazy ask for a platoon goalie with one 7th place Vezina finish and no postseason success. And very team influenced numbers.

 

[Caspian]

I think Korpisalo plays fine and Swayman starts sweating. at least that's what I would like to see to increase the drama

 

[pitseleh]

I mean, if they offered 7.8 x 8, then the round up to 64 million is like a 2.5% difference. But, whatever it is, its a huge amount of money given what Swayman has accomplished so far. Again, he has like 130 regular season games.

When the gap between them is only ~$5.6 million though the extra $1.6 million is a pretty big move to the middle.

Don’t get me wrong, Swayman is shooting for the moon and I don’t think I’d pay him that much either. The Bruins are probably at the end of their rope and reasonably thought this was their best shot of getting to a resolution. But given the specific interaction it’s not unreasonable for him to be pissed when the Bruins’s strategy was to do something that was going to either embarrass him into submission or piss him off, particularly if they were fast and loose with the facts.

 

[LemonSauceD]

They supported us against Boston, that’s all I care about.

Yeah I got no “issues” with the Habs. They’re tolerable for the most part.

Good for Tkachuk who's actually a great damned captain. Jack Eye should get a serious suspension for that.

Good for Cam. Speed up the negotiations for a goalie who's never had more than 44 GP in a year.

People whining about the amount of pre season games are out to lunch. This is a physical game played by men on ice that are bg, strong and athletic. I mean Celebrini blew a tire ffs.

Great to see some passion.

Tkachuk’s a great captain?

I guess being a great captain means throwing temper tantrums, taking bad penalties when your team is trailing a goal with 5 minutes left because you couldn’t keep your emotions in check. Or trying to fight a goalie after missing a penalty shot.

I love Tkachuk, he’s a damn great player. But he’s not captain material. Like at all. Yes he defends his teammates, but that isn’t the only thing that makes you captain material.

 

[VanJack]

Wow!....this building list of pre-season injuries is bordering on alarming. Seeing Reinbacher and Laine go down for months if not most of the season is a gut-punch for Habs fans.

Now you add to the list Macklin Celebrini in San Jose, who crashed into the end boards and left a game earlier this week. He's listed as 'day to day' but nobody is really saying much.

I you look around the league, I think the NHL decided that 'regionalizing' the six exhibition games would cut down on travel and fatigue. Hence the Canucks played two games each, against Calgary, Edmonton and Seattle. And of course the Leafs, Sens and Habs were grouped together for games.

Problem is, some of these teams are bitter rivals....and even exhibition games can take on an ugly tone. Some of those hits last night between the Sens and Habs were borderline vicious. And guys were going down like flies.

The regular season can't start soon enough for all NHL teams.

 

[StreetHawk]

Wow!....this building list of pre-season injuries is bordering on alarming. Seeing Reinbacher and Laine go down for months if not most of the season is a gut-punch for Habs fans.

Now you add to the list Macklin Celebrini in San Jose, who crashed into the end boards and left a game earlier this week. He's listed as 'day to day' but nobody is really saying much.

I you look around the league, I think the NHL decided that 'regionalizing' the six exhibition games would cut down on travel and fatigue. Hence the Canucks played two games each, against Calgary, Edmonton and Seattle. And of course the Leafs, Sens and Habs were grouped together for games.

Problem is, some of these teams are bitter rivals....and even exhibition games can take on an ugly tone. Some of those hits last night between the Sens and Habs were borderline vicious. And guys were going down like flies.

The regular season can't start soon enough for all NHL teams.

I think NBA/NHL are similar in that they don't like having their teams travel that far in PS. Unlike the East, no reason for the West to go outside the division due to time zones and distance.

Don't think we are going to see Van/STL or Van/Dal in pre-season.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

I think Korpisalo plays fine and Swayman starts sweating. at least that's what I would like to see to increase the drama

I would prefer to see the Bruins totally implode, cave to Swayman's demands... and then have him totally shit the bed.

That's what I'd like to see.

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

When reading your posts it seems like you're just out to vilify him.

Or I'm just acknowledging his entire career and not cherry picking data points. He does not have a rosy past and he has not exactly said great things (over there.)

I know you didn't ask me but a bad coach is one who doesn't know the X's and O's, subtilties (finer points) of the game, or is unable convey them to his team, can't control his players, motivate them, keep the team on task, set up proper training, build them up, win games, and have care, concern and personally build relationships. Stuff like that.

I don't think I've seen any players come out and go 'yeah, Green really helped my career' or been complimentary about him. And if he's great at the subtleties (thanks for clarifying what your typo meant), we really haven't seen that with the non-existent systems play, bench minors, etc. that were part and parcel.

As MS mentioned, he was anything but a team player as a player and it seems to have continued on in his coaching career. But we can't mention him doing things that would indicate that because we don't know the context. C'mon.

The funny thing that I see when these criticisms come up is these are all things you can't see through your TV screen. You have absolutely no idea what he's teaching them, what his "pillars" are, how their training is set-up, what he's asking them individually, the finer points on instruction, and whether the players are responding appropriately or not on a losing team. In short it's very difficult to judge coaching through your TV. So whenever people start piling on like this it's usually just a bias or collective frustration they've formed, which appears to very prevalent with Green for Vancouver fans.

So now we've moved on from people praising the 'intangibles' of players to the intangibles of coaches.

If you can't articulate why Green is a good coach, is it possible he isn't?

Just like any other coaching situation it would be fairer to start judging his results moving forward, not his first kick at the can with a horrible hockey team, or a mercy finish on an already floundering team.

Or his stint with Team Canada. Or the entirety of his season with the Devils, not just his tenure as interim coach.

I can remember all the people calling RT garbage because of his previous record and "apparent" coaching ability too. Recall the same with Torts here and then he won the Jack Adams the next year with Columbus. You can gain hockey knowledge by watching ... coaching not so much.

Tocchet and Torts were both respected by players and are character guys. That specific situation with Torts is a weird one to bring up given that he full on admitted he was checked out during his time in Vancouver.

Even though he was divisive ("Goalies and Brads HATE this one weird coach!"), you had guys like the Sedins saying they liked to play for him, or Martin St. Louis saying he changed his career.

I was impressed by how he became a student of the game during his later years and really bought into being a team player, helping young players, and learning from his coaches. Surely people can mature.

If he's a student of the game, his GPA must be atrocious.

 

[Diversification]

I think Korpisalo plays fine and Swayman starts sweating. at least that's what I would like to see to increase the drama

I'd like to see Patera go on an absolute heater while Swayman throws out his back picking up a cracker days after inking an 8 year contract for maximum chaos.

 

[Jerry the great]

Yeah I got no “issues” with the Habs. They’re tolerable for the most part.

Tkachuk’s a great captain?

I guess being a great captain means throwing temper tantrums, taking bad penalties when your team is trailing a goal with 5 minutes left because you couldn’t keep your emotions in check. Or trying to fight a goalie after missing a penalty shot.

I love Tkachuk, he’s a damn great player. But he’s not captain material. Like at all. Yes he defends his teammates, but that isn’t the only thing that makes you captain material.

so he's not captain material because he runs a little hot? How does that prevent him from being a good captain? He draws more penalties than he takes, so while i think it's an area that he can improve, it isn't some massive issue. I guess i'm a little old school....but he's kind of exactly what i'd want in a captain. Not sure there is better mix of abrasiveness and skill in the game. he's like a bigger, meaner version of JT .

 

[arttk]

I'd like to see Patera go on an absolute heater while Swayman throws out his back picking up a cracker days after inking an 8 year contract for maximum chaos.

I like to see Korpisalo sit the bed big time and the bruins caving to Swayman and give him like a 9.5M contract.