NHL 2015 - Weeks 1-27

Post by **brian** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 12:20 am

BSF21 wrote:Since I'm an ECHL season tix holder I figured I'd throw my two cents in here.

The ultimate idea as far as I know is to have each team have direct affiliates all the way down from NHL to AHL to ECHL. That's the leagues goal afaict. The SPHL, FHL, and others may be called upon but have no direct affiliations and no plans to do so at this time. It has taken some time but in recent years you've seen lower tier teams move away from having multiple affiliations to a more streamlined format, though there are still outliers. Our ECHL team has recently made several moves between us and Peoria (SPHL if I remember correctly).

That's correct. They want the AHL to be the essential Triple A of hockey. So a direct comp would be the American Association and PCL (though granted that's two leagues). But it's a 1:1 ratio. It wasn't like that even as recently as like two years ago. The AHL and NHL have made moves (including absorbing a bunch of ECHL teams into the AHL to try and make that happen.

There are still some ECHL cities (like Salt Lake and Indy) that would make perfect AHL members. So if the NHL adds teams or needs to reshuffle things a little I wouldn't be surprised to get them "called up" to the AHL.

That said the quality of play in the ECHL is well below the AHL.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 6:41 am

brian wrote:
BSF21 wrote:Since I'm an ECHL season tix holder I figured I'd throw my two cents in here.

The ultimate idea as far as I know is to have each team have direct affiliates all the way down from NHL to AHL to ECHL. That's the leagues goal afaict. The SPHL, FHL, and others may be called upon but have no direct affiliations and no plans to do so at this time. It has taken some time but in recent years you've seen lower tier teams move away from having multiple affiliations to a more streamlined format, though there are still outliers. Our ECHL team has recently made several moves between us and Peoria (SPHL if I remember correctly).
That's correct. They want the AHL to be the essential Triple A of hockey. So a direct comp would be the American Association and PCL (though granted that's two leagues). But it's a 1:1 ratio. It wasn't like that even as recently as like two years ago. The AHL and NHL have made moves (including absorbing a bunch of ECHL teams into the AHL to try and make that happen.

There are still some ECHL cities (like Salt Lake and Indy) that would make perfect AHL members. So if the NHL adds teams or needs to reshuffle things a little I wouldn't be surprised to get them "called up" to the AHL.

That said the quality of play in the ECHL is well below the AHL.

Indy needs to draw a more consistent fan base before they'd ever be considered for a "call-up". They've struggled to find the sweet spot between cost and experience, and they're hamstrung with certain things (EX: people not being happy they have to pay 5$ to park for every home game if they're season ticket holders, beer is 8$ minimum, etc).

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 12:15 pm

8 American dollars for a beer! That's outregeous!

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 2:37 pm

Sharks are doing their Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde thing again. In their last five games they have wins over the Capitals, the Bruins, and the Rangers. But, losses against the Coyotes and the Devils. Strange.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:13 am

Hey, Mr. D. What's your take on this?

IIRC, you were once a Girard fan, and then you soured on him (or at least soured on his contract/contribution ratio.)

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:41 am

Oh, its mostly dead on, although I think there's a mitigating factor or two.

Correct: His contract is a disaster, his usage is two levels above his skillset and he should be traded if at all possible.

Incorrect: This isn't just Lambert, but I feel like most people who blast Girardi don't fully account for his usage and its impact on his numbers and results. 189 D have over 500 ES minutes this season, Girardi is 9th in terms of defensive zone faceoff percentage. I've read a lot about how zone starts don't really matter overall, how most starts are on the fly so O vs. D starts are mostly noise, but then I've run correlations between ZSO% and Corsi/Fenwick for D and the correlation is huge. And if a guy's starts change dramatically from year 1 to year 2, his numbers move with it, which seems to indicate a decent independence from performance. On top of that, not only is he getting the worst starts, but he's 19th in the league in TOIC, which is average TOI for his competition. This one is like three-pronged bad: (1) He's paired with McDonagh who does and should play a ton, which is a drag on one of the better young D in the league, (2) he's being used by AV as a matchup D despite not having that skillset and (3) other teams are perfectly fine allowing him as the matchup D, there's no attempt to get away, even if it means McD out there as well.

Sad Conclusion: If they would sink the contract and make him the most expensive 3RD in the league, they could mitigate a lot of the damage. McD + Klein + Yandle is 3/4 of a very solid top 4, the problem is they have another RD who is probably a bigger liability and Staal who is just as fucked right now as Girardi. If they didn't have Boyle, who can't handle anything but incredibly sheltered shifts (182nd in D zone faceoffs) against lesser competition (164th TOIC), it might work. And given that Boyle is producing only a 1/2 point per 60 despite that favorable time, there's no reason besides his veteran-ness and AV's undying loyalty to older players to not run him up to the press box, pair Girardi and Staal on the 3rd in easy minutes and hope for the best. It won't happen, we'll be out in whatever round Lundqvist can't steal and things will keep getting worse as everyone gets older. Hooray.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:46 am

(Maybe a good comp is a decent enough hitter who has to be platooned because he's so horrific against lefties. He's not ideal because of his flaws, but in the right usage, you can salvage a little value. In the worst of situations, like when a guy with speed takes him to the outside like the Hertl video, which was depressing as F in real time, he looks like he shouldn't even be in the AHL.)

Post by **Sabo** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:55 am

mister d wrote:(Maybe a good comp is a decent enough hitter who has to be platooned because he's so horrific against lefties. He's not ideal because of his flaws, but in the right usage, you can salvage a little value.

Lonnie Chisenhall says hello.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:05 pm

Concussions

http://www.tsn.ca/link-between-fighting ... s-1.460651" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:29 pm

Bought a new t-shirt online. I'm going to wear it to the Sharks/Kings game tonight.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:00 am

That's glorious.

Post by **Sabo** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:04 am

Jonathan Quick is good in goal.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 9:47 am

Random NHL conversation
So back in Ye Old day the NHL moved away from conference/division names based history and old dead dudes to geographic organization as to make it more accessible to fans. Clearly the NHL is way more popular than years ago, but most sports are. Do you think the conference name thing has really had any benefit for the league.

I think everything else about the league evolution has helped the game (HD, less fighting, marketing of stars, rules change, etc). So looking back did shunning the conference names help?

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 10:00 am

wlu_lax6 wrote:Random NHL conversation
So back in Ye Old day the NHL moved away from conference/division names based history and old dead dudes to geographic organization as to make it more accessible to fans. Clearly the NHL is way more popular than years ago, but most sports are. Do you think the conference name thing has really had any benefit for the league.

I think everything else about the league evolution has helped the game (HD, less fighting, marketing of stars, rules change, etc). So looking back did shunning the conference names help?

I can't imagine that mattered in the slightest. You could call it the Itchy and Scratchy conference for all I care.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 10:32 am

BSF21 wrote: I can't imagine that mattered in the slightest. You could call it the Itchy and Scratchy conference for all I care.

You got it!

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 10:46 am

sancarlos wrote:
BSF21 wrote: I can't imagine that mattered in the slightest. You could call it the Itchy and Scratchy conference for all I care.
You got it!

Remember kids, we're 3rd place in the Itchy Conference.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:16 pm

What Duncan Keith did tonight is a 20 game suspension if he's not Duncan Keith.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:28 pm

mister d wrote:What Duncan Keith did tonight is a 20 game suspension if he's not Duncan Keith.

I hate when players you generally like do stupid things.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:31 pm

Its pretty much annual for ol' Dunc.

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 7:40 am

degenerasian wrote:Concussions

http://www.tsn.ca/link-between-fighting ... s-1.460651" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and a response from Colin Campbell:

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 10:42 am

BSF21 wrote:
mister d wrote:What Duncan Keith did tonight is a 20 game suspension if he's not Duncan Keith.
I hate when players you generally like do stupid things.

Especially stupid and violent things.

Ugh. The Hawks are so done. I guess the worst thing they could do was win 12 games in a row.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 11:44 am

Unless they aren't indicted ; )

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 1:02 pm

These are nuts!

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:11 pm

Colin Campbell is one of the worst people ever in the NHL.
You listen to him during interviews and just want to punch him in the face.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:01 pm

In Canadian you spell wuss 'woos'?

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 5:53 am

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:05 am

Exhibit A+ #1 Top of the List for "you aren't qualified for a business position just because you played the game". That guy can fuck off forever.

Post by **brian** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 10:26 am

rass wrote:

Calgary must really get tired waiting in lines at Disneyland.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:40 am

Last night it was a bit excessive for Boudreau to go for 2.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:22 pm

Watch the NHL announce the 20 gamer Keith deserves then yell April Fools and give him the 5 we know he'd get. Unless there were only 4 games left in the regular season. Then he'd get 4.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:42 pm

I think he'll get the regular season, plus one playoff game, just to show they are really taking this seriously!

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:24 pm

You on the committee?

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:25 pm

sancarlos wrote:I think he'll get the regular season, plus one playoff game, just to show they are really taking this seriously!

Super serious.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 8:02 pm

What a bunch of bullshit. The guy has a prior record and that was a horrible move. But, completely predictable that he'd only get a few meaningless games plus ONE playoff game, because he's a star and plays for a marquee team. If a guy with a worse prior record like Raffi Torres did the same thing he'd get life (and deserve it.) But, they are treating Keith like he has never gotten in any trouble before this.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 11:12 pm

If he was a Flame he would have got 20

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Apr 01, 2016 11:28 pm

That point should kinda matter. The NHL has shown it can be serious about suspensions with the Wideman case ... I guess just not player versus player? McSorley aside, it doesn't get any more egregious than swinging your stick at someone's face. There was no possible argument for other intent.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Apr 03, 2016 1:06 pm

Jagr(s)...

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:02 pm

Just saw a surprising stat. The Avs are 0-13 this season in 5-on-3s. That's horrible.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:15 pm

“There’s no surprises. We need Strome to be better. We need Brock to be better. We need Bailey to be better. We need guys to be better if we’re going to have any chance at all. They see it, it’s black and white. The video doesn’t lie. It doesn’t come down to X’s and O’s, it doesn’t come down to systems. It comes down to how hard you want to compete.”

“We’ve struggled with a few guys, for sure, about their compete level and their work ethic. It has to be better. There’s no doubt that those guys they have to figure out at some point…The guys mentioned need to pick their pick their shit up and start playing.”

Capuano is lucky Patrick Roy is around so people overlook how terrible he is relative to his team's potential.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:51 am

sancarlos wrote:
govmentchedda wrote:
wlu_lax6 wrote:So he frames that picture and places right above the mvp award in his office right?

So what happens to Scott now? Back to the NHL? Toils away in the AHL? I love that the NHL screwed this up from the start, made it right, and then took full advantage of the media hype around it. Well done Gary B.

Also, what are the chances that we see All-star voting change next year.
Scott goes to AHL, and maybe makes it back to the NHL, but if so, not for long. Some were surprised that the Coyotes signed him at all at the beginning of the season.

100% chance that the voting changes next year.
Harrumph, harrumph. I think Chedda is right on all counts.

Hit this one on the head. Will finish up the season with the Canadians