The Swamp

And to think Landeskog's 'repeat offender satatus' just expired a month ago or else it would have been another game or two.

Let's see what the punishment of the next incident looks like.

Tkachuk 1 game.
Should have been 4

https://twitter.com/NHLPlayerSafety/sta ... 2670467072

Ottawa looks bad right now. They've lost 11 of their last 12 - all since acquiring Matt Duchene.

And, Alex Burrows is still a complete shithead.

fortunately they have just the cure at the perfect time...

...

but yeah what a shitshow, from a team that was a shot away from playing for the Cup in June. Karlsson is gone isn't he? there's simply no way they can keep him - if they sign him to what he's worth...what else do they have to support him?

so what is it going to take for an EK deal here? i would have made the case in spring that there isn't a more valuable player in the world. so but you can't trade $$ back, it'd have to look like multiple young players or prospects. this could get really fascinating. (of course i'm dreaming this is exactly the player the Sabres need (because they're one player away) but it would take Eichel...which won't happen and Ottawa doesn't want to take $80 onto the books which is part of the problem...)

sancarlos wrote:Ottawa looks bad right now. They've lost 11 of their last 12 - all since acquiring Matt Duchene.

And, Alex Burrows is still a complete shithead.

No idea if this is true, and I'm not going to give Ottawa the benefit of the doubt on reasoning, but I've read speculation that his ankle issues could be degenerative in nature.

yeah if you trade for him you'd get a year and a half (currently 7.5 mill/year) but he's going to get paid after that probably 8 years $100 million taking him to 37 years old. Which GM will do that? (someone will)

Probably Pittsburgh, for an underwhelming package that includes a salary dump.

Vegas should trade for him so they have a line with two Karlssons.

mister d wrote:Probably Pittsburgh, for an underwhelming package that includes a salary dump.

Rutherford is very good.

He is. I don't like his trades.

D-Bo$$......well done Detroit on embarrassing the video with a bobblehead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 2tA5dYsMQU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJAi9VgzU3g

brian wrote:Vegas should trade for him so they have a line with two Karlssons.

San Jose has Melker Karlsson, and Washington has John Carlson. It’d be hilarious to have all four on one team.

sancarlos wrote:

brian wrote:Vegas should trade for him so they have a line with two Karlssons.

San Jose has Melker Karlsson, and Washington has John Carlson. It’d be hilarious to have all four on one team.

Sounds like something you would see in a summer TSN pond hockey made for TV event (you know the ones where they play small sided games in an arena designed to look like they are playing on a pond.

I know it’s a gimmick but 3 on 3 overtime is fun.

brian wrote:I know it’s a gimmick but 3 on 3 overtime is fun.

I like it a lot more than a shootout.

Someone talk me out of thinking that John Tavares is basically just the NHL's Matthew Stafford.

Former No. 1 overall picks, can somehow simultaneously be overrated and underrated, undoubtedly one of the best players in each of their leagues though also unquestionably not in the top 5 and probably given too much blame for playoff/big game failings.

brian wrote:Someone talk me out of thinking that John Tavares is basically just the NHL's Matthew Stafford.

Former No. 1 overall picks, can somehow simultaneously be overrated and underrated, undoubtedly one of the best players in each of their leagues though also unquestionably not in the top 5 and probably given too much blame for playoff/big game failings.

It's unfair to blame Tavares for the Islanders' failings, given the perennially bad management, there, and the fact that he is annually one of the ten best players in the league. That was an interesting article and it made some great points on its way to assessing his worth ($8-9 million per). But, the price is the most that somebody will be willing to pay. And the greater fool theory says that somebody might pay more than $10 million per season.

There are probably a few people in the world who have it worse than John Tavares, but he's kind of a tragic figure. He's an excellent player, but he's not as good as people thought he was going to be. Now he's toiling away anonymously on a nondescript team. (Well, as far as the NHL goes, that could apply to all but maybe 5 players.) I just want to see him play on a decent team, in an arena without a fucking car parked in the runway.

Also, I just learned that there's an outdoor game tonight. Habs at Sens. It will be on NBCSports if you want to tune in.

No snow in Ottawa tonight (unlike the Grey Cup 3 weeks ago) but it'll be -15.

Jeez, I didn't even know there was an outdoor game tonight, and I actually pay attention to hockey. I guess they aren't promoting outdoor hockey like they once were.

sancarlos wrote:Jeez, I didn't even know there was an outdoor game tonight, and I actually pay attention to hockey. I guess they aren't promoting outdoor hockey like they once were.

Because there are no particular American teams in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sancarlos wrote:Jeez, I didn't even know there was an outdoor game tonight, and I actually pay attention to hockey. I guess they aren't promoting outdoor hockey like they once were.

Yep. I have at least a rough idea of what goes on around the league, but I didn't know about this until I read a stray reference to it this morning. If they sell tickets, and they deem it worth the expense/effort, then it's fine. And I'm sure it's getting a lot more attention in Canada.

And I don't know if -15 is in Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin, or Réaumur, but it sounds cold. I'll gladly stay indoors tonight.

The game is so big in Canada that they banned the Leafs from playing tonight.

degenerasian wrote:The game is so big in Canada that they banned the Leafs from playing tonight.

After the way they played the last couple games, the Leafs could use a night off!

Confirmation tonight that NBCSN only shows the Senators during the regular season once every hundred years.

Rams Fanny wrote:Confirmation tonight that NBCSN only shows the Senators during the regular season once every hundred years.

Ha!

1st place caps

Small sample size? If you think the players on the lower level of that pic are better than those above, I'm gonna disagree.

Maybe Washington's analytics department discovered those six are really, really good in the 2nd round of the playoffs?

sancarlos wrote:Small sample size? If you think the players on the lower level of that pic are better than those above, I'm gonna disagree.

Also, not like they had much choice on Schmidt regardless (who also doesn't score many goals to begin with being a defenseman and all). I'm pretty sure they'd gladly take the $2.25M cap hit to have him back.

Let’s do this next December with Carlson.

1st (Tampa) & 3rd (Vegas) team in NHL in points per game play in Vegas Tuesday in a possible Stanley Cup preview. Just like everyone predicted.

brian wrote:1st (Tampa) & 3rd (Vegas) team in NHL in points per game play in Vegas Tuesday in a possible Stanley Cup preview. Just like everyone predicted.

Brian, your team looks great. But, it's only December!

I think at this point any team that dismisses Vegas does so at its own peril.

We rested Vasy on Saturday night so that he'd be fresh for the Sweet Golden Knights.

sancarlos wrote:

brian wrote:1st (Tampa) & 3rd (Vegas) team in NHL in points per game play in Vegas Tuesday in a possible Stanley Cup preview. Just like everyone predicted.

Brian, your team looks great. But, it's only December!

Sancarlos' track record with responses to early season NHL thoughts may not be the best.

That's for hitting me with a chair three weeks ago.

DSafe is almost as good as Rass at remembering long-forgotten embarrassing posts.

govmentchedda wrote:We rested Vasy on Saturday night so that he'd be fresh for the Sweet Golden Knights.

Pretty low blow. But I laughed.

sancarlos wrote:

brian wrote:1st (Tampa) & 3rd (Vegas) team in NHL in points per game play in Vegas Tuesday in a possible Stanley Cup preview. Just like everyone predicted.

Brian, your team looks great. But, it's only December!

I think an underrated awesome thing about following hockey is that the national coverage seems to be less hot-takey* than any other sports (*for lack of a better word) because even I would probably be getting sick by now of Stephen A. Smith, Colin Cowherd et al beating the country over the head with "they just play the game the right way!"

Obviously, there's an important point to be made about the importance of having all of the guys on the roster working together and buying in, but that's just such a small part of it. (And also accurately describes most of the teams in the league, even those hovering around .500).

Some of it also is luck of course as well. And McPhee fleecing a couple of teams like Florida to not only get a guy like Marchessault, but also Reilly Smith. (See also: fleecing of Minnesota to get Tuch and Haula). And a lack of injuries outside of the goalie position (though come back soon, Sbisa!)

It's kind of a perfect storm that's building and building and hell, maybe still continuing to build. At least a half-dozen to a dozen things all had to break just right for this team to be 21-11.