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Around The NHL #13

Man, lots of folks devaluing NHL starts here. It is the top professional hockey league in the world still... right?

Also, the average NHL career is around 320 total games. So even if you loathe Demers and think he should be vivisected live on national TV, the fact that he had more than 7 years of playing time in the NHL means something important. Any milestone past 400 likely takes on greater significance the higher the number goes.

Ah, well, maybe I'm just being soft as baby shit.
 
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Kai Yo T said:
Coaches will notice 999 games, probably don't bat an eye at 699 when it comes to the lineup. I've heard him complain about it, but not that he actually spoke to the team about how important it was to him. Maybe he did and maybe he didn't.

Edit: The Oilers haven't gone out of their way to help him get there until now either, but we're the bad guys.
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So are they. It's like what Seattle did, allowing Joey to play in Tempe a bit in front of home town fans.
 
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The Feckless Puck said:
Man, lots of folks devaluing NHL starts here. It is the top professional hockey league in the world still... right?

Also, the average NHL career is around 320 total games. So even if you loathe Demers and think he should be vivisected live on national TV, the fact that he had more than 7 years of playing time in the NHL means something important. Any milestone past 400 likely takes on greater significance the higher the number goes.

Ah, well, maybe I'm just being soft as baby shit.
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I just STRONGLY dislike Demers and I am not inclined to wish that NHL franchises bend over backwards to make nice gestures for him.
 
The Feckless Puck said:
Man, lots of folks devaluing NHL starts here. It is the top professional hockey league in the world still... right?

Also, the average NHL career is around 320 total games. So even if you loathe Demers and think he should be vivisected live on national TV, the fact that he had more than 7 years of playing time in the NHL means something important. Any milestone past 400 likely takes on greater significance the higher the number goes.

Ah, well, maybe I'm just being soft as baby shit.
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In all honesty....

Demers was playing like crap the last few games he played right up until he got benched. He looked like he just didn't give a shit out there and I don't think I was the only one who noticed.

So it was kind of a "damned if he does and damned if he doesn't" situation for Tocchet.

What sucks is.... nobody realizes that all happened under Chayka and Tocchet, and now they all think it's no different today.
 
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TheLegend said:
Demers was playing like crap the last few games he played right up until he got benched. He looked like he just didn't give a shit out there and I don't think I was the only one who noticed.
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I think 700 games is impressive and I have no ill will towards Demers. But... Looking back I feel like Demers was lucky to get to 699 games and here we are, thought of as jerks for not giving him just one more. His last half dozen games were handouts to begin with lol. His career could've ended at 692 games and no one would be talking about it.
 
Kai Yo T said:
Seattle also scratched Wright for a 3 game home stand in which his grandparents were in town visiting. They went home without seeing him play.
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Yeah, see, this is a real dick move, and teams do this all the time to send a message. It sucks shit, though, because honestly if Wright was having motivation issues, wouldn't the franchise letting him play in front of his family be a pretty big motivator? Seems like basic human nature to me, but then again, this is the National Hockey League... :sarcasm:

TheLegend said:
In all honesty....

Demers was playing like crap the last few games he played right up until he got benched. He looked like he just didn't give a shit out there and I don't think I was the only one who noticed.

So it was kind of a "damned if he does and damned if he doesn't" situation for Tocchet.

What sucks is.... nobody realizes that all happened under Chayka and Tocchet, and now they all think it's no different today.
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Look, I'm not gonna apologize for Demers' play. He sucked. He may have been checked out or he just may have lost whatever it was that kept him in the league. Buuuuuuut... to me, the thing to do would have been to let him play game 700, and then sit him for the rest of his contract. Stopping at 699 just seems needlessly petty to me.

Kai Yo T said:
I think 700 games is impressive and I have no ill will towards Demers. But... Looking back I feel like Demers was lucky to get to 699 games and here we are, thought of as jerks for not giving him just one more. His last half dozen games were handouts to begin with lol. His career could've ended at 692 games and no one would be talking about it.
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Oh, I think he was tremendously lucky to get there. Which, I think, is why I feel the way I do - people love round numbers, especially big ones, and I think for him to be able to say he played 700 games (even if he was only effective in, like, 27 of them) is a pretty special thing. I think you're right - if the Coyotes had stopped him at 692, nobody would have whispered a word.

I guess to me, this really underlines how shitty Chayka and Tocchet could be as people. Can you imagine Tourigny doing that? I can't. He and Armstrong would find a way to get the milestone out of the way somehow, just to be fair to him. Chayka, on the other hand, was the guy who told Doan he was done and then didn't even pay for his lunch, and Tocchet might be the most lunk-headed human I've ever seen in the NHL, and that's saying a LOT.
 
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The Feckless Puck said:
I guess to me, this really underlines how shitty Chayka and Tocchet could be as people. Can you imagine Tourigny doing that? I can't. He and Armstrong would find a way to get the milestone out of the way somehow, just to be fair to him.
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I'd like to think that as a Coach I would've helped him get there. I agree that this current leadership most likely would've too and it would've been the cool thing to do. I just don't like the expectations that every number of games played ending in 00 deserves a team effort to make sure the player hits the milestone. Ending in 000, yes!
 
Kai Yo T said:
I don't know about petty. I think maybe 699 games didn't really get their attention all that much. There's no pre-game ceremony for 700 games played.
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I doubt he wanted a ceremony. I think he just wanted to play the game. And I think if he bothered to mention it for this Oilers story, he would have mentioned it to Tocchet. "Just one more game, Coach."
 
The Feckless Puck said:
I doubt he wanted a ceremony. I think he just wanted to play the game. And I think if he bothered to mention it for this Oilers story, he would have mentioned it to Tocchet. "Just one more game, Coach."
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Not suggesting he wanted one. I'm suggesting that it's not a milestone celebrated by the NHL, therefore was easy to not think much of it. I understand that it would be important to Demers.

If he mentioned it to the coach, we still haven't heard that part of his story two years later. I'm just now hearing he was disappointed at all. Maybe I missed it.

Edit: I suspect Tocchett isn't too good with math. He probably just saw 699 and said "69 dude!" before moving on lol.
 
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I figure I ask here than a potential dumpster-fire main thread..

is there/are there any whispers of a potential Matthews homecoming as a potential UFA next season? Really rooting for you guys turning it around (as a Ducks fan). You and Buffalo have real promising futures that seem to get dumped on by a lot of folks.
 
The Feckless Puck said:
Yeah, see, this is a real dick move, and teams do this all the time to send a message. It sucks shit, though, because honestly if Wright was having motivation issues, wouldn't the franchise letting him play in front of his family be a pretty big motivator? Seems like basic human nature to me, but then again, this is the National Hockey League... :sarcasm:



Look, I'm not gonna apologize for Demers' play. He sucked. He may have been checked out or he just may have lost whatever it was that kept him in the league. Buuuuuuut... to me, the thing to do would have been to let him play game 700, and then sit him for the rest of his contract. Stopping at 699 just seems needlessly petty to me.



Oh, I think he was tremendously lucky to get there. Which, I think, is why I feel the way I do - people love round numbers, especially big ones, and I think for him to be able to say he played 700 games (even if he was only effective in, like, 27 of them) is a pretty special thing. I think you're right - if the Coyotes had stopped him at 692, nobody would have whispered a word.

I guess to me, this really underlines how shitty Chayka and Tocchet could be as people. Can you imagine Tourigny doing that? I can't. He and Armstrong would find a way to get the milestone out of the way somehow, just to be fair to him. Chayka, on the other hand, was the guy who told Doan he was done and then didn't even pay for his lunch, and Tocchet might be the most lunk-headed human I've ever seen in the NHL, and that's saying a LOT.
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Just to make a NHL roster is a milestone, playing 700 games is something to be proud of. You guys can hate Demers as much as you want, but he was a pretty good Dman in his prime. He may have been crappy the last couple of years, but so were many other Coyote's that dropped in to play a season or two. To play 700 games in the NHL has everything to do with talent, not luck.

Smirnov2Chistov said:
I figure I ask here than a potential dumpster-fire main thread..

is there/are there any whispers of a potential Matthews homecoming as a potential UFA next season? Really rooting for you guys turning it around (as a Ducks fan). You and Buffalo have real promising futures that seem to get dumped on by a lot of folks.
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Matthews is not signing with the Coyote's.
 
Smirnov2Chistov said:
I figure I ask here than a potential dumpster-fire main thread..

is there/are there any whispers of a potential Matthews homecoming as a potential UFA next season? Really rooting for you guys turning it around (as a Ducks fan). You and Buffalo have real promising futures that seem to get dumped on by a lot of folks.
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TBH the though of Matthews returning home is making a lot of people giddy. AFAIK Matthews hasn't hinted even once that he wants to come to Arizona. His agent hasn't hinted. His mother hasn't hinted. There is no steak to this sizzle at all. None. Just a lot of hope from us fanboys.
 
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Smirnov2Chistov said:
I figure I ask here than a potential dumpster-fire main thread..

is there/are there any whispers of a potential Matthews homecoming as a potential UFA next season? Really rooting for you guys turning it around (as a Ducks fan). You and Buffalo have real promising futures that seem to get dumped on by a lot of folks.
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I only hear it here. I think if he ever plays for AZ it will be his retirement contract in 2032, when he's a 34 years old NHL senior citizen.
 
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