Around the NHL 20-21 pt. 1: the season begins

[joshjull]

This meme will have many uses.

 

[Fjordy]

Is it? Hextall proved nothing as a GM. Burke as president does nothing for me. Will he and Hextall even get a long? Two names that are famous in NHL circles but I’m not convinced they do anything to move the needle in Pittsburgh.

Why didn't he prove it? He seems like a very good GM for a team that will inevitably be rebuilt in the near future. Philly's fans were delighted with his draft pick. My comment was mostly about Hextall, but I don't know about Burke.

 

[Man of Principles]

This is just so unusual and surreal. I do nothing but complain about the on ice product we've been forced to watch...but I still find myself missing it so much right now. Hurts even more watching other teams play. Sabres have all the reason in the world to be pissed right now.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

This is just so unusual and surreal. I do nothing but complain about the on ice product we've been forced to watch...but I still find myself missing it so much right now. Hurts even more watching other teams play. Sabres have all the reason in the world to be pissed right now.

I just still can’t get over the incompetence of it- did the NHL not know? Did Devils not communicate the issue? It’s just so insane that they allow that one game to occur when it clearly shouldn’t have, and now the Sabres are out for 2 weeks. In an already rushed schedule. Accountability, I want it. Explain exactly what happened, explain how you’ll avoid similar mistakes in the future- nah, NHL just makes players show up to the arena earlier. Which is fine IF the league is making sure infected teams aren’t iced in the first place, but well.. that’s somehow less a priority. Unreal.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[Jim Bob]

Ron Hextall hire could bring massive shift in how Penguins are built

LeBrun: Inside the Brian Burke hiring and why the Penguins changed course

Ron Hextall, Brian Burke and how all of this will work for the Penguins

 

[Man of Principles]

I just still can’t get over the incompetence of it- did the NHL not know? Did Devils not communicate the issue? It’s just so insane that they allow that one game to occur when it clearly shouldn’t have, and now the Sabres are out for 2 weeks. In an already rushed schedule. Accountability, I want it. Explain exactly what happened, explain how you’ll avoid similar mistakes in the future- nah, NHL just makes players show up to the arena earlier. Which is fine IF the league is making sure infected teams aren’t iced in the first place, but well.. that’s somehow less a priority. Unreal.

Trotting out Bill Daly to lie to us seems to be their idea of accountability.

 

[sabremike]

My friend just sent me this:

 

[Jim Bob]

'We've moved on': Blue Jackets' Patrik Laine makes up with coach after squabble

Patrik Laine stepped onto the ice several minutes before practice on Wednesday and skated a straight path to Blue Jackets assistant coach Brad Larsen.

Laine and Larsen peeled away from the group and had a lengthy one-on-one conversation in one corner of the rink while the rest of the players swirled and fired pucks on goal at the other end.

It appeared an amiable chat, and it ended with Laine tapping Larsen twice on the chest and Larsen lightly swatting Laine’s shinguard with his stick blade. That’s how hockey players say, “It’s all good, man.”

And this part was gold:

Tortorella seemed almost incredulous at the question when asked if Laine would be in the lineup on Thursday in Chicago. (The answer was yes, by the way.)

“You guys (the media) are a little bit more worried or anxious about it than we are,” Tortorella said. “We’re just trying to do it the right way, problem-solve when we need to, and try to get about our business.

“We’re by it, and we’re getting ready to play Chicago. Yeah, we’re done with it. Everything’s fine, guys.”

 

[Der Jaeger]

My friend just sent me this:
View attachment 394793

The king has spoken.

The PCR test kills me. If you're going to get anything out of that, it needs to be a rapid test on site, with immediate results.

I can get a PCR test, get a negative, go out and act irresponsibly afterward, and come spread the virus.

The mask and social distancing is enough.

 

[Gras]

The king has spoken.

The PCR test kills me. If you're going to get anything out of that, it needs to be a rapid test on site, with immediate results.

I can get a PCR test, get a negative, go out and act irresponsibly afterward, and come spread the virus.

The mask and social distancing is enough.

The black market will provide

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

'We've moved on': Blue Jackets' Patrik Laine makes up with coach after squabble



And this part was gold:

Didn’t Mac flip out on a coach and get nothing from it? Haven’t we all had a time where we snapped at a higher up, or at least felt it woulda been called for?

Clearly I just don’t like Torts, but- the benching is still the most visible issue to me. No one knows about the asst. coach thing if you don’t bench one of your most dangerous players over.. back talk. Right after you benched and traded a different star.

At what point is putting a player in timeout an ineffective strategy?

Whatever, glad Laine made it through that major crisis that wasn’t totally magnified by Torts’ inability to respond with anything but one tactic.

 

[Jim Bob]

Didn’t Mac flip out on a coach and get nothing from it? Haven’t we all had a time where we snapped at a higher up, or at least felt it woulda been called for?

Clearly I just don’t like Torts, but- the benching is still the most visible issue to me. No one knows about the asst. coach thing if you don’t bench one of your most dangerous players over.. back talk. Right after you benched and traded a different star.

At what point is putting a player in timeout an ineffective strategy?

Whatever, glad Laine made it through that major crisis that wasn’t totally magnified by Torts’ inability to respond with anything but one tactic.

Given Laine being new to the team, I get why Torts benched him if he blew a defensive assignment and snapped at a coach who was trying to talk to him about it.

And now that we know more about it, I think the benching for not being receptive to coaching makes way more sense than benching him for a blown defensive assignment.

 

[jc17]

Where can we find a guy like that?

 

[brian_griffin]

I've never had an issue with Torts from the following standpoints:
1. It's abundantly clear he cares about winning
2. Understands that exceptions and double-standards become problems. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually.
3. His teams are accountable to him, his staff, each other, and the fans. The media can kiss off if they feel they are in a higher tier.
He's certainly not perfect. He may lose factions or blocks of his roster for stretches of time. His pride / stubbornness may have burnt some bridges or all but lit the match. And certain other coaches may have far more effective, sophisticated, and nuanced methods.

But, I'll take the imperfections of Tortorella over coaches who are dispassionate about losing when victory was in the grasp, who either look away or are inconsistent in handling players / situations, and who permit a laissez faire approach and tolerate the concomitant bland outcome.

 

[brian_griffin]

Where can we find a guy like that?

It was his choice. If you set the hook, you need to land the fish. Sometimes they get away.

 

[Jim Bob]

It was his choice. If you set the hook, you need to land the fish. Sometimes they get away.

The question that the Sabres organization needs to look at is how can they create a more attractive organization?

Cal Pete went to LA in part because of wanting to work within their goalie system because he respected Ranford and the other coaches.

 

[Kyndig]

Quite the line change.

 

[Jim Bob]

I hope they don't shelve these just because they lost 1-0.

 

[Jim Bob]

This

 

[Kyndig]

Trying to make sense out of something that makes no sense is a fools folly. Just remove the lottery.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Trying to make sense out of something that makes no sense is a fools folly. Just remove the lottery.

This. The lottery is dumb. Remember what sparked them to change the odds? Edmonton winning the lottery too much. Then they won another 1st overall pick because of the odds changes. Just let the worst team pick first. This doesn't need to be that hard, nobody needs the manufactured "excitement" of a draft lottery, and a competitively healthy league shouldn't want a good team that barely missed the playoffs drafting 1st over a genuinely bad team that really needs to add talent.

Caveat: I'm OK with a draft lottery for this season since there's no inter-divisional play, and the standings can't honestly tell us who the worst team is.

 

[Myllz]

The lottery was a stupid idea from the beginning.

 

[Fezzy126]

 

[Jim Bob]

Gotta love the Cooperalls reference.