OT: Around the NHL: Cup or bust for the Leafs and Oilers? Bust it is!

[Honour Over Glory]

So the whole point of having the NHL deal with Amazon was to get fans access to games, instead it has very few games and NHL access is still at a typical low for most fans that sometimes want to watch other teams or just the NHL in general and experience black outs, or if you move away, you can't even get access to games on other services you normally would have so you're f***ed and end up streaming.

The NHL keeps acting like it wants to grow the game and is right there with the MLB and NBA with viewership but they lag so insanely far behind.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

That Heinen-Blueger-Sherwood line is fun, Blueger looks like he could have a career year if they stay together.

"If we don't get it going, then I'm going to start our rebuild plan a little bit," Trotz told 102.5 The Game radio on Tuesday. “What we did in the summer, as they say ‘fantasy hockey,’ until we have a good team,” Trotz told The Game. “(If) we don’t become a good team, then we’re going to see a lot more of our kids starting their process.”

Speaking to The Tennessean afterward, Trotz said, “We're never going to burn it down to the studs,” referring to a full roster rebuild. But he said if he doesn't see success, he suggested he'll look at swapping out veterans not named Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Ryan O'Reilly, Brady Skjei, Stamkos and Marchessault for a younger player.

https://thehockeynews.com/news/opinion-predators-gms-comments-about-a-rebuild-raise-doubts

Trotz's comments are interesting - He goes they will rebuild if the Preds keep losing, so what the f*** did he go all in for? The plan was always to rebuild, he got horned out by Brunette having a very good first year and then threw a bunch of new players into the mix and they haven't looked the same at all and I am sure he sold Marchessault and Stamkos on a team that is going to push for more than last year, to now hear him say he will go in for the rebuild if they don't get better...lol ouch. Also funny the contracts he threw out to Saros, etc while trading away Askarov. I thought it was dumb to let Zucker go like they did.

In that link above, I 100% agree with this take.

To be sure, the Predators defined themselves as a win-now team in the off-season by adding a slew of veterans, including star center Stamkos, Stanley Cup-winning right winger Marchessault and defenseman Skjei via free agency. Once Trotz committed to those players – and once he locked up his veterans to long-term contracts – he set the course for the team for the foreseeable future.

Trotz had every opportunity to embark on a full rebuild when he took over from longtime Preds GM David Poile in the summer of 2023, but his competitive instincts pushed him in a direction where he was retooling and not rebuilding. Despite Nashville’s awful 4-7-1 start to the year, that philosophy is almost certainly in place.

RoR thought getting out of town for a couple of games would help, well losing 3-2 vs the Caps isn't a good start and next up is Florida (9-3-1), lol. Saros hasn't been good at all, he faces around 23 shots per game, bleeds high danger goals and his 8yr contract hasn't even kicked in yet.