The Swamp

In a perfect world, the Flyers did gauge market interest in Ristolainen and when no teams offered half what they gave Buffalo, they doubled down. I'm so happy.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 9:45 am In a perfect world, the Flyers did gauge market interest in Ristolainen and when no teams offered half what they gave Buffalo, they doubled down. I'm so happy.

sunk-cost fallacy for sure

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 10:06 pm

Buffalo fans must have loved seeing Krebs and Tuch both score, too, eh?

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 1:23 am

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:55 pm Is there anyone here who still thinks the NHL shouldn't just reseed conferences right off the bat? I feel like every year, I'm indifferent to where the Pens finish as long as it's top 4.

NHL playoffs are such a crapshoot. I don’t think seeding matters near as much as in other sports.

Is every division as top heavy as ours every year?

Jerloma wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:40 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 1:23 am

Jerloma wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:55 pm Is there anyone here who still thinks the NHL shouldn't just reseed conferences right off the bat? I feel like every year, I'm indifferent to where the Pens finish as long as it's top 4.

NHL playoffs are such a crapshoot. I don’t think seeding matters near as much as in other sports.

Is every division as top heavy as ours every year?

I say maybe 2 because it's the NHL, but that's pretty vicious.

Also, it’s one of the league’s poster boys.

Sharks better hope the cap doubles. Interesting way to rebuild!

I think I'm happy with that. Hertl was a big NYR rumored target and obviously an upgrade at 2C, but he would have either been an insanely costly rental or an absolute landmine of an extension given the cap situation. Us not getting him and no one else getting him is best case.

Long-term contracts always scare me, but I'm happy to keep him around. Hertl is one of the four or five best players on the team, and it would have been discouraging to lose him.

One of the better quotes I've read...

Feels like the Sather days with this concern about just how bad the Rangers can choose to fuck their future today.

Ran across this stat. Guess I am not surprised that Gretzky will be nearly 1K fewer.

Career shots on goal

Ray Bourque 6,209
Alex Ovechkin 6,001
Jaromir Jagr 5,637
Marcel Dionne 5,363
Phil Esposito 5,166
Al MacInnis 5,157
Mike Gartner 5,090
Wayne Gretzky 5,088
Brendan Shanahan 5,086
Brett Hull 4,876

The lag on the Copp trade is driving me insane. Its going to be really good or really bad!

Justin Braun should be a nice fit for the Rangers. He doesn't do anything much above average, but he's a dependable defenseman who understands his role and responsibilities.

It was a package deal, but it was nice to see the Red Wings get a second-rounder when they parted with Nick Leddy.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:29 pm Justin Braun should be a nice fit for the Rangers. He doesn't do anything much above average, but he's a dependable defenseman who understands his role and responsibilities.

I'd like it more if I thought he was replacing Nemeth and not Schneider. Either way a net positive for the depth.

Minnesota’s been upset about their goaltending, so they go into negotiations to get Fleury from Chicago. Then, Talbot gets hot, three good wins in a row, including a shutout right after they finalize the deal to get Fleury. Kind of ironic.

Have you guys been following this odd Evgeni Dadanov situation? It appears his agent properly filed his 10-team no-trade list last summer, before Ottawa traded him to Vegas. But, Ottawa apparently didn't tell Vegas the no-trade clause existed in his contract when they traded him. Now, Vegas is in real danger of missing the playoffs and thought they had traded the underperforming Dadanov to the Ducks at the deadline to get enough cap relief to activate Alec Martinez or Mark Stone from IR. So then, Dadanov and his agent point out that trade partner Anaheim is on his no-trade list, and this clusterfuck emerges. The league apparently still hasn't figured out how to solve it.

It seems like a bigger deal than it really is, right? Any team eating his contract isn't going to make the playoffs anyway so, at worst, Vegas just has to find a different taker and maybe up the incentive a bit.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 12:40 pm It seems like a bigger deal than it really is, right? Any team eating his contract isn't going to make the playoffs anyway so, at worst, Vegas just has to find a different taker and maybe up the incentive a bit.

Tiny bit of a timing issue now. Pretty sure he can't play for any other team if he wasn't on their roster prior to trade deadline.

I think its just the MLB rule where you're ineligible for the playoffs.



(Also, who the fuck voluntarily signs with Ottawa and asks for a NTC?)

Last night, the guy Anderson for Buffalo got beat far side and the puck hit the butt of the top of his stick and then the crossbar and the announcer said "Great save by Anderson." He should be fired, right?

Jerloma wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 7:26 pm Last night, the guy Anderson for Buffalo got beat far side and the puck hit the butt of the top of his stick and then the crossbar and the announcer said "Great save by Anderson." He should be fired, right?

If you’re prepared to go through 10 announcers a year after firing one every time they miss a bang bang call from 200 feet away sure.

brian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 9:08 pm

Jerloma wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 7:26 pm Last night, the guy Anderson for Buffalo got beat far side and the puck hit the butt of the top of his stick and then the crossbar and the announcer said "Great save by Anderson." He should be fired, right?

If you’re prepared to go through 10 announcers a year after firing one every time they miss a bang bang call from 200 feet away sure.

No, no, no...this is after he watched it 3 times from different angles on slo-mo replay and his analysis was that the dude intentionally saved a puck with the butt of his stick that he wasn't even looking at. You could never have watched a game in your life and knew that was just complete luck.

jeez man, can you just fucking give Buffalo *ONE* thing this yea.... decade??

Jerloma wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 9:22 pm

brian wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 9:08 pm

Jerloma wrote: ↑Thu Mar 24, 2022 7:26 pm Last night, the guy Anderson for Buffalo got beat far side and the puck hit the butt of the top of his stick and then the crossbar and the announcer said "Great save by Anderson." He should be fired, right?

If you’re prepared to go through 10 announcers a year after firing one every time they miss a bang bang call from 200 feet away sure.

No, no, no...this is after he watched it 3 times from different angles on slo-mo replay and his analysis was that the dude intentionally saved a puck with the butt of his stick that he wasn't even looking at. You could never have watched a game in your life and knew that was just complete luck.

Should be happy that Xfinity’s ongoing fight with MSG spared me from both a ass-kicking by the Devils about a month ago and the shit show at the station’s namesake this evening.

Only thing it’s missing is MAF skating to his right side half boards after every Rangers goal.

VGK just won for the first time in team history after being down 3 goals in third period.

Flames also scored 9 even strength goals.

Wasn't there a baseball betting thing for this, except it was runs for?

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Sun Mar 27, 2022 10:49 pm Wasn't there a baseball betting thing for this, except it was runs for?

Oh yeah!

rass wrote: ↑Sun Mar 27, 2022 7:42 pm

Last night seemed a little unnecessary. Not undeserved, but unnecessary.

Some random notes:

Þ Cale Makar is still awesome. Don't think I posted this before, but he's averaging a point per game over his career now, one of four defensemen to do so. Can you name the others? Answers at the end of this post.*

Þ Second year in a row that I'm gutted about an Aaron Ekblad injury. Sounds like he might be back for the playoffs this time, tho. I hope so. I really like Florida.

Þ The Pens and Rangers have played a couple of times recently. If this is a first-round preview, I'm not encouraged. The Shesterkin hype is real, eh?

Speaking of the Rangers, I saw that they shut down a reporter trying to ask Lafreniere a question in French during a media availability. That seems rather selective. I thought that players were asked questions in their first languages all the time.

Pens at Minnesota tonight. Fleury was just traded there, so I guess I'm a Wild fan now.

Þ The Oilers still haven't addressed the goalie situation. (And their current best goalie is in the AHL.) So much good, so much bad about this team. I don't have the energy to get into it. Feels like another wasted season.



*Bobby Orr, obviously. 1.39 PPG. That's still a staggering number, even without adjusting for eras. Paul Coffey scored 1.09 PPG. Harry Cameron averaged a bit more than Coffey, but he only played 106 NHL games, and that was back in the Spanish Flu Era. (Potvin and Bourque are just under a point per game.) Here's the list, which excludes players like Makar and Cameron who haven't scored 250 points yet.

bapo! wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 10:29 amSpeaking of the Rangers, I saw that they shut down a reporter trying to ask Lafreniere a question in French during a media availability. That seems rather selective. I thought that players were asked questions in their first languages all the time.

I saw a report that it was a result of Chris Drury wanting to know all questions and answers from media availability.

bapo! wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 10:29 amThe Pens and Rangers have played a couple of times recently. If this is a first-round preview, I'm not encouraged. The Shesterkin hype is real, eh?

Absolutely. The run of goaltending I've had in my lifetime is beyond unfair. Vanbiesbrouck -> Richter -> (small gap with Dunham) -> Henrik -> Igor. Atleast they seem intent on building a full roster rather than the Lundqvist era "pay a lot for a few guys and just assume he'll do the rest".

Georgiev, on the other hand, kinda sucks.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 12:24 pm Georgiev, on the other hand, kinda sucks.

I was really high on Georgiev a few years ago. And then I started to hear about Shesterkin and thought, 'What do they need him for? They already have Georgiev.' As always, I know nothing about goalies.

The talk around Pittsburgh recently has been that the Pens are the better team, but that Shesterkin could win a series by himself. After those last two games, tho, hockeyfolk are wondering if the Rangers might actually be better. The underlying numbers don't say so (Shesterkin seems to be bailing them out a lot), but that's going to be a very tough series for both teams.

When do the playoffs start? I'm ready.