NHL 2015-2016

I'm still both thrilled and terrified at how well the Caps are playing this year. Top in points with 3 games in hand? The last time this happened(which has been talked up, but I'm going there again) we got wrecked in the first round of the playoffs.

AnimeJ wrote:

I'm still both thrilled and terrified at how well the Caps are playing this year. Top in points with 3 games in hand? The last time this happened(which has been talked up, but I'm going there again) we got wrecked in the first round of the playoffs.

To be fair that playoff loss was a complete fluke. Following it up by going away from what made the Caps a great team and eventually bringing in Dale Hunter was pretty dumb though.

It's a shame Ovechkin's playing in such a low-scoring era and has lost 1.5 seasons to lockouts (with another half-season on the horizon). His counting numbers are absurd when you consider that:

The first round bounce against the Habs that year wasn't a fluke. The Caps have had pretty terrible defense for over a decade. This year everything is clicking, and I really don't see how any team in the league isn't scared of Washington. Even their 4th line is scary productive.

They have injuries too, and to some big players. If they get back and no one else gets hurt? Steamroll through the playoffs. Bring on the Hawks in the Cup.

Great LA/San Jose game last night. It's always downright delicious for the Sharks to lose to LA in heart-breaking fashion.

Leafs have been a basement team all season, but Babcock has taken it pretty well. For all that they're pretty terrible, the team has done well to show up most nights. They have a lot more fight in them than the last few seasons versions of the Leafs. So that's about what I was hoping for? Babcock desperately wants to win though - you can see it eat at him.

The good news here is that the Leafs' AHL affiliate, the Marlies, are dominating the league. They're +67 goals right now, which is best in the league by a pretty good margin. A whole bunch of those players are going to be up on the Leafs next year - Babcock will certainly have a lot more to work with next year.

For now, Toronto needs to sell their rental players for picks. Roman Polak, P.A. Parenteau and Shawn Matthias are all free agents in July and available to playoff teams. If anybody wants a Joffrey Lupul or Dion Phaneuf, they're available too, but have term on their contracts. Jonathan Bernier is also apparently available, which has to be interesting to somebody - most still believe he can play, but Toronto seems to have warmed to Reimer (finally / for now).

I'll just leave this here without comment: Jones: Steven Stamkos to Toronto makes sense

It's a shame the Stamkos everyone has in their heads isn't the guy he actually is anymore.

Any thoughts on Drouin being a big baby and literally refusing to go to the AHL team because he wants to be traded and isn't getting his way?

Vrikk wrote:

Any thoughts on Drouin being a big baby and literally refusing to go to the AHL team because he wants to be traded and isn't getting his way?

Seems to me like Drouin and the Lightning are each cutting off their nose to spite their face. I think Tampa's handled things pretty badly ( a lot like the St. Louis situation a few years ago) but aren't helped by how illiquid the NHL player market is. Drouin's already established himself as a good top-6 forward (even though he wasn't getting the playing time his performance merits) so they're hurting themselves a fair bit by not having that calibre of player in the lineup.

Unless a deal was close I don't know why Drouin went public with the trade demand since that couldn't help things and I don't think the injury risk of playing in the AHL is all that much larger than if he were still playing in the NHL and I doubt we'd see him sitting himself out if he were still with the big club.

But i'm pretty pro-player when it comes to these types of things though. After all, there's only a little more than 4 1/2 years until they're locked out again.

Allan Walsh is his agent. He's a good agent but is a pain to deal with. Enjoy going public with as much as he can. I imagine that's part of the problem.

I don't imagine his agent going public without Drouin telling him to. Drouin is basically pulling a Kyle Turris with this one - he's going to miss games and hurt his trade value, but he'll get signed somewhere. Wherever he lands, he needs to produce immediately. As the agent, Walsh needs to stand up take all the public flak he can, but this is Drouin deciding he doesn't want to wait for Tampa.

I do also agree that Tampa is showing itself to be a bit inflexible here. But if you're Yzerman you can't let your players push you around. The real failure is the not selling Drouin on the plan there.

Then again, we're not going to know the inside story of how this mess happened. It really does look like both sides were being stubborn and refused to back down.

Vector wrote:

It's a shame the Stamkos everyone has in their heads isn't the guy he actually is anymore.

No doubt he's going to be overpaid after this season. The rumour is that Tampa offered him 8.5 million a year, which to mind is actually quite reasonable. Much more likely is that he'll get paid in the 10 million a year range.

My completely unrealistic dream is that Stamkos holds out until he's a free agent and signs for Toronto with a hometown discount around 7-8 million.

nihilo wrote:

I don't imagine his agent going public without Drouin telling him to.

I'd imagine you're correct about that, but it's telling that the only agent who's name I actually know is Walsh.

He just seems to be in the public awareness far more than any other agent out there and it never seems to be for a positive reason. He may not be making the decisions but I think he encourages holdouts, is more willing to anger teams trying to get the most he can, and tries to hold teams hostage more than another agent would. I just have the impression that he likes being in the limelight himself, and I've never been able to decide if he's doing right by his clients as they may get a bit better deal now but they also get a reputation for being uncooperative.

Still, he seems to be a fairly successful agent so his clients must think he's okay.

He gets his clients what they want and, this is just going by second hand information and rumors, is really well liked by players. As a fan, I don't want to hear any of it. I don't want to care about contracts.

So, does anyone in here buy that Wideman leveling a linesman was unintentional? Because after watching video of it, I can't see how on earth he didn't realize that was an official in front of him.

AnimeJ wrote:

So, does anyone in here buy that Wideman leveling a linesman was unintentional? Because after watching video of it, I can't see how on earth he didn't realize that was an official in front of him.

I was watching it live on TV (whoo go Preds) and there's no doubt in my mind it was on purpose. Peter Laviolette had the biggest WTF look ever lol.

There's no way that hit wasn't intentional unless Wideman temporarily went blind on the ice.

Ok, cool, not just me. Heard about it this morning on Mike & Mike, and Golick agrees that it was definitely intentional. Makes me wonder what Barry Melrose was thinking, since he's willing to give him a pass on the hit.

Only excuse for it is he had a concussion. Similar thing happened to Chris Simon when he was the islanders. Took an elbow to the head then a few seconds later cross checked the offending player from behind. Claimed he had no recollection of the incident. Was diagnosed with a concussion after the game. If I remember correctly, he came to when he asked the trainer why he was in the dressing room.

This is way better than the Pro Bowl.

It was a great All Star Game. I now love John Scott, mainly for getting right in the league's (and Jeremy Roenick's) face and flaunting it.

Roenick: "I was wrong."

Scott: "This isn't the first time you've been wrong."

Roenick: -sad and angry ogre face-

Rat Boy wrote:

This is way better than the Pro Bowl.

That's not saying much. But that aside, all-star hockey is indeed pretty great.

Of course the all star game was great, it was in Nashville

Phaneuf traded to Ottawa, no salary retained, for a prospect and a 2nd round pick. A bunch of other players thrown in there too, but they won't matter much.

Great trade for the Leafs I say, he's a decent defender right now, but he's going to be paid 7 million a season for another 5 years. This is a move to give the Leafs cap space in a couple years.

nihilo wrote:

Phaneuf traded to Ottawa, no salary retained, for a prospect and a 2nd round pick. A bunch of other players thrown in there too, but they won't matter much.

Great trade for the Leafs I say, he's a decent defender right now, but he's going to be paid 7 million a season for another 5 years. This is a move to give the Leafs cap space in a couple years.

Unless I've read his contract wrong the cap hit is 7 but the years left are actually trending down salary wise.

So 6.5/6/5.5/5.5/3

Sens don't spend to the cap so the hit is whatever. Does create a problem moving him unless there's exceptions where teams can spread the salary cap implications.

ya it works for both teams because leafs have more real money and need cap space while Sens have more cap space but less real money.

getting rid of Greening and Cowen is a huge relief.. sad to see 9mm and Lindberg go though

That's a nice trade for Toronto. Funny that they managed to dump Phaneuf and Clarkson without having to retrain salary (although Horton eats up the summer cap cushion) while with Kessel they had to. A Cowen buyout next summer is also shockingly cheap: $650,000 of cap credit next year and then a $750k cap hit the year after.

Yeah, real money doesn't matter to Toronto, just cap space. It's kind of amazing how they've gotten out from under a few hideously bad contracts in the last year or two. They'll play all the cap games with LTIR as they need to (including some questionable stuff, like the Robidas situation).

I'd argue the Phaneuf contract isn't hideous.

It's hideous if you're against the cap or trying to move him to teams that can't fit him.

If the Sens keep Phaneuf for the length of his deal it means he's playing well and his actual $$$ pay is a 5.3m average. Next year at 6.5 he's pricey. Every year after (assuming he doesn't turn into a plug) he's good value for $$$ and sadly this is what the Sens need to do to compete.

Long term I totally expect them to absorb another one of these 'bad' contracts.

edit: not sure if my #'s for salary are right as I'm not sure and cant find out if the signing bonus portion of the salary is already paid or is spread over the years. It gets kinda ugly then if its spread as were talking about 6.5 million spread over the years.

those are the numbers that Bob McKenzie was using yesterday so i'd take them as fact

haven't read anything about a signing bonus though.