LindG1000

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!!

The fair point here is "okay, what the fuck do we do with playoffs?" because the 3/3/2wc layout is odd, especially since it's not entirely clear which conference gets the Canadian division and which gets the Central. That's a serious competition issue for the playoffs. The rest of it is ridiculous - flipping Pitt and CBJ for Boston and Buffalo does utterly nothing to the competition level in the division. There are some very legitimate gripes here for some other teams (Minnesota and Dallas are trading travel for competition quality, Vegas probably isn't too happy to swap Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary for Dallas, Minnesota, and Colorado), but not for us.

Jaromir Jagr has been playing professional hockey since the Reagan administration.

Is today the day?

"This French term refers to the predicament of having thought of the perfect reply too late" "what is.." "I always have the perfect reply. The best replies. I tweet them all the time whenever they come to me. Never think of better ones." "What is... l'espirit de l'escalier?" "Sure, whatever, I can't read that French stuff"

Liberty jerseys incoming.

Ain't even mad. That's good. Easily the most important decision happening today.

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1324367107388301315

David Clarkson.

For a hot minute there I thought they were going to try glow-in-the-dark jerseys and I lost it. Those look real cool

I always have a bag of locally roasted coffee on my weekly shopping list. I change it up pretty regularly though. Recently, I've been drinking more floral coffees.

I always have a bag of locally roasted coffee on my weekly shopping list. I change it up pretty regularly though. Recently, I've been drinking more floral coffees.

Probably because the GMs want to blame the draft/draft lottery and started this discussion because they can't say that five or six teams have shitty owners and poor front offices and disproportionately benefit from the draft because they won't actually compete.

Sure, but why are we still rewarding endlessly shitty management with great talent? I have zero issue with what the Kings did, or what the Lightning did, what we're doing, or what Detroit is doing, or even what Philly did for a little there. I have issue with continuing to see the same damn teams in the lottery every single year with no progress, and I have issue with Edmonton, Buffalo, and Florida continually getting spoonfed talent and doing nothing with it.

Back then, the lottery was just 1 pull and there were limits on the length of the jump to 4 spots. So teams tanked for bottom 5 - and oh, were those early post-lockout Caps/Pens/Hawks teams awful - and hoped for the bounce. It's not quite analogous. Then there was Pittsburgh's stupid luck in the Crosby lottery, but we're not going there. Now, any pick below 15 is a wildcard shot at #1, #2, or #3, and there are a number of teams who seem completely unable to get out of that range regardless of how many top picks they have (or their endlessly shitty lottery luck in a few cases). It's at least arguable that there are some teams that no matter how many high picks they get are not reaping the value of the draft in a way that moves the needle - Edmonton, Buffalo, Florida, Minnesota, Ottawa, the Islanders, the Thrasherjets franchise, the Coyotes, perhaps, CBJ, Calgary, and Montreal. It's not even cyclical with these teams - they're just always somewhere between playoff hopeful and lottery hopeful with the occasional lucky as hell deep playoff run, but there's only so long that you can keep sending these teams excellent talent and see nothing for it without considering a change to either the draft, the CBA, or imposing some sort of competition requirement.

I'm going controversial hot take here. Detroit crying about being record-shattering awful and not getting their "just reward" for a machinated decision to be that awful isn't a good reason to change the system. That said, the general spirit is right - the lottery, and possibly even the draft, needs significant change. I'd look to Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, among others, anyway, as better reasons for change. All too often, the lottery puts exceptional or game-changing talents in places where they're completely unable to positively impact the game at large. Connor McDavid wasting away in the mismanaged miasma that is Edmonton, Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin trapped in Buffalo, Patrik Laine probably stuck in Winnipeg, Barkov fucking stuck in Florida... The "crime" of the lottery is not it's fairness outcome - it's that it precludes top talent from meaning a goddamn thing to the league for years on end. Once in a while, you get lucky, and Auston Matthews goes to Toronto, or Alexis Lafreniere goes to New York, or Nathan Mackinnon goes to Colorado, but all too often, it's "great player goes to mismanaged shithole". If the game is ever going to grow beyond it's current walls, that has to meaningfully change.

Sure, but we're talking trade. Not FA here. Though, I'll guaran-damn-tee Getzlaf hits FA if he isn't traded. While the Bruins and Sabres probably don't want to move on just yet, the Ducks would probably pay someone to take Getzlaf. They're over the cap as it is (prior to sending Backes to San Diego, anyway), and they're likely on another growing pains season - doubly so with no obvious backup to Gibson under contract.

So do I. Neither. The cost to acquire Toews by trade will be higher than he's really worth, and I see no good reason why you pay through the teeth like that for him when you can have Getzlaf, Krejci, or E Staal, for way cheaper and probably more cap savings if you think longer term.

But again, why? Why are we selling the farm to bring in Toews right now? Next offseason, I get it, sure. It's palatable. Why now?

Yeah, I wanted more here, but dude....that's a fucking tiger on the ice. A TIGER. Russia's fuckin weird. Or this is awesome. I can't honestly tell!

thankfully they kept him away from this tiger too.

I do not for the life of me know how this team thought Daniel Jones was the guy. I know he's a smart guy, a hard worker, a good thinker, whatever, but he can't hold the damn ball. He seems blissfully unaware of pocket pressure. He can make throws, he can make runs, but he lacks the talent to convert a lot of that into gameplay. How do you fall on a clear TD like that!? All in - this division is complete and utter dogshit and dropping this game was completely inexcusable.

I don't see a point in adding Toews for at least another year. I definitely don't see the point in adding Toews right now while paying through the nose to do the Blackhawks a solid. Toews is the guy you add - at this point, anyway - when you're looking to add the wily veteran who's been there and can really step up in the playoffs. He's not the guy you add when your team is as young as we are. If you're going to add a Toews-ish figure, go throw 1.5M at Corey Perry this year, or go "bail" the Ducks out of Getzlaf for just one season.

That's before my time, unfortunately, but, you can probably add the Maloneys and Greschner there too. Regardless, this is by far the most exciting collection of young talent the Rangers have had in my lifetime.