2016-17 NHL Season: Happy 100th Birthday, National Hockey League

[Kramerica Industries]

Quote

The Penguins had a Hall of Fame coach that won nine Stanley Cups. The Blue Jackets have a coach that tried to fight another coach, ran Team USA into the ground at the World Cup last year, and has been fired twice since 2013.

 

That Blue Jackets head coach also has his name on the Stanley Cup, too. Maybe not nine times; he wasn't blessed with being able to be head coach of the '70s Canadiens, the Mario/Jagr Pens, or the dynasty Red Wings, but he's also accomplished a lot more than about 95% of head coaches in the sport's history, too.

 

Jeezus.

[The_Admiral]

5 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

You could tell the winning streak was so annoying to a segment of the hockey press because it meant they couldn't dump on Tortorella in the same way that they loved that Team USA crashed at the World Cup because it meant they could dump on Tortorella.

 

It's very fashionable for certain writers to care very much about the fortunes of USA Hockey. As I've said a thousand times before, the battle for supremacy between dudes who grew up in Canada and dudes who grew up in states adjacent to Canada has never really done it for me, and in fact, trying to cook up the importance of national programs has had a negative effect on North American hockey by stressing defensive systems and short shifts as soon as kids are potty-trained. Altogether, I'd prefer it didn't matter. (It seems like there's a lot of overlap with people who care very much about the fortunes of the US Mutant Ninja Turtles: it's an in-group-sanctioned form of patriotism for people who wouldn't be caught dead chanting "USA! USA!" with the people normally compelled to do so. When you cheer for America in niche sports that stupids/poors aren't as likely to follow, you're cheering for the good parts of America. Dissent is the real patriotism.)

 

Tortorella has been a bad coach and at times a disgrace to the league, but I don't think the Blue Jackets had this streak by blocking shots and winning 2-1, did they? I'd wager with the construction of their roster, they probably played closer to the ideal game for internet hockey writers: fling a ton of shots even if they're bad, take lots of draws in the offensive zone, and never fight. 

 

[Sport]

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

Tortorella has been a bad coach and at times a disgrace to the league, but I don't think the Blue Jackets had this streak by blocking shots and winning 2-1, did they? I'd wager with the construction of their roster, they probably played closer to the ideal game for internet hockey writers: fling a ton of shots even if they're bad, take lots of draws in the offensive zone, and never fight. 

 

 

They're 19th in blocked shots last I saw. They won close games in the streak because they were playing hockey, but 10 of the 16 wins were by more than 2, many of them were offensive dismantlings of the opponent with mistake free defense and world class goaltending. Writers should love this team. Most do, should be fair to them. It's the Lozos and Lamberts of the world that stick in my craw. I don't understand what they have to lose by giving a team some manner of credit. 

 

What's so annoying about the coverage of the streak was that it wasn't "here's why this is happening" instead it was "here's why this not very good hockey team shouldn't be doing this and why their fans are stupid". It's like if they'd beaten Montreal 6-2 or 5-1 instead of 10-0 it somehow would've been seen as more legitimate of a win. If they'd gone 15-1 or 14-2 in that stretch it would've been seen as more legitimate. Sports are stupid. 

 

Now they've lost 3 of 4 so they get to say I told you so, but you have to do some tough backbending to ignore the fact that the team has the best record at the halfway mark and even with those 3 Ls in 4 is a 17-3 in their last 20. 

[The_Admiral]

Speaking of Lozo, oh boy, 

 

http://thecomeback.com/nhl/when-a-hockey-writer-responds-to-thoughtful-comments-regarding-his-anti-fighting-stance.html

 

As for my “fat :censored:,” I’m confused as to why you think a vagina doesn’t need protection and how the size of it would matter. Yes, if I had a “fat :censored:” I would not wear a cup, but I would wear a pelvic protector or shield, because I would like to soften the impact of a direct shot with a puck or stick to my special area. Do you think women hockey players don’t opt for padding? I guess I should not be surprised about your lack of knowledge in that area.

And if you’re using “fat :censored:,” because that’s something you’ve been called all your life, end the cycle of abuse and wipe that from your vernacular, Tom. We are here for you.

Oh, I'm a vagina? You mean I'm strong? DOUCHEBAGS ARE A HYGIENIC PRODUCT I TAKE THAT AS A COMPLIMENT

 

That's as far as I got. I took one look at the size of the scroll bar and knew I wasn't up for the Infinite Jest of "random people are dumb."

[The_Admiral]

Also to clarify for a thousandth time: I'm no fan of fighting. I don't flap my arms and scream for Teacher when there is one, but altogether I can do without it, and as a Blackhawks fan, I do, because they scarcely fight. But you know who else scarcely fights nowadays? Everyone! (Except Anaheim, because they are coached by a caveman.) 29 teams have fewer than 20 fights halfway through the year. Ten have ten or fewer. Fighting is going away faster than articles about getting rid of fighting are. The problem solved itself. At this point, writing about fighting is just cheap heat: it draws out angry people, you lord over them, and do it again in a month. Just like fighting, 99% of it serves no purpose.

[Sodboy13]

There was a great piece on Sportsnet mid-streak that argued though, obviously, the streak had to end sometime, the Beej's winning was sustainable and not just a lucky fluke. The writer pointed to the team's excellent power play system, its defense, and its ability to constantly roll four productive lines, having unloaded worthless plugs like (Alternate Captain!) Jared Boll. Stephen Whyno has a piece on AP today on Torts dumping morning skates, because all they do anymore is exert players unnecessarily.

 

I thought at the start of the season you had a hot contest for worst coach in the league between Tortorella, Carlyle, and Therien. It seems like Torts got the message that he was behind the times, fixed his approach, and I'm as surprised as anyone. I'm sure he's still a redass and his practices are intense from all I've read, but it seems like he's learned to curtail the bull .

[Brass]

20 hours ago, McCarthy said:

He wrote a dickish thing about why the Blue Jackets are worse than the 93 Penguins because he felt the need to settle a debate nobody was having. 

 

Ooooh you really got us, dude. You're right, we are the worst team in NHL history to win 16 games in a row. Good thing you're here to make sure nobody's having any fun. 

 

F*** that guy.

 

I'm thinking of working a hockey blog under the pseudonym of Dale Lazo and I already have a few article topics, in the same vein as our hero, that I'm working on. Great reads, such as:

 

"Why every fan who has ever bought a jersey should be euthanized"

"Why Sergei Krivokrasov belongs in the Hall of Fame"

"The Top 6 Connor McDavids in the NHL"

"TRUMP: This article has nothing to do with sports, I just need hits on my page to justify my pay from VICE"

"Why everything in the NHL everyone likes is wrong and why I'm the only one allowed to be right"

 

[Brass]

29 minutes ago, the admiral said:

That's as far as I got. I took one look at the size of the scroll bar and knew I wasn't up for the Infinite Jest of "random people are dumb."

 

At least he provided substance this time. I saw a few people make comments on Twitter about his stance, and his response would routinely be "and which level of professional hockey have YOU played at."

 

What a dunce.

[habsfan1]

I got a lump in my throat reading this.

 

Hockey fan shovels P.K. Subban portrait into backyard rink.

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, Brass said:

 

I'm thinking of working a hockey blog under the pseudonym of Dale Lazo and I already have a few article topics, in the same vein as our hero, that I'm working on. Great reads, such as:

 

"Why every fan who has ever bought a jersey should be euthanized"

"Why Sergei Krivokrasov belongs in the Hall of Fame"

"The Top 6 Connor McDavids in the NHL"

"TRUMP: This article has nothing to do with sports, I just need hits on my page to justify my pay from VICE"

"Why everything in the NHL everyone likes is wrong and why I'm the only one allowed to be right"

 

 

Pep Raleigh: Why The Canes Don't Need To Make The Playoffs To Be The League's Top Team

The NHL's Top 100 at 100 And Why I'd Trade Any Of Them For PK Subban

Five Things The NHL Could Learn From The NWHL

Life: Unsustainable?

[The_Admiral]

3 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

I thought at the start of the season you had a hot contest for worst coach in the league between Tortorella, Carlyle, and Therien.

 

 

 

 

[T-ROY]

3 hours ago, Brass said:

 

At least he provided substance this time. I saw a few people make comments on Twitter about his stance, and his response would routinely be "and which level of professional hockey have YOU played at."

 

What a dunce.

Sounds like Patrick O'Sullivan

[Unocal]

7 hours ago, Kramerica Industries said:

 

That Blue Jackets head coach also has his name on the Stanley Cup, too. Maybe not nine times; he wasn't blessed with being able to be head coach of the '70s Canadiens, the Mario/Jagr Pens, or the dynasty Red Wings, but he's also accomplished a lot more than about 95% of head coaches in the sport's history, too.

 

Jeezus.

 

John Tortarella has as many Stanley Cups as Mike Keenan, Mike Babcock, and Ken Hitchcock

[crashcarson15]

14 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

You could tell the winning streak was so annoying to a segment of the hockey press because it meant they couldn't dump on Tortorella in the same way that they loved that Team USA crashed at the World Cup because it meant they could dump on Tortorella. Nevermind it was a dumb tournament that didn't matter and USA wasn't playing with a full deck because Lombardi hates Kessell and Team NA poached at least 5 of our best players. Whatever. Also they can't stand it when teams don't fit into their predetermined boxes because it means they're wrong. And then he found a way to goof on a team who'd just won 16 straight games. You can almost see him fist pumping in his home office when he came up with the premise. You're right, we are worse than the 93 Penguins. I've never felt so owned. We should probably just fold the franchise and kill ourselves. 

 

 It takes a special kind of wet blanket to see a team and fanbase experience some success for the first time ever and say "this needs to stop. I'm going to put an end to this"

I still think my favorite line of thinking was:

 

“The Blue Jackets’ PDO is too high, so their success is unsustainable,” followed by “their goal differential is overinflated because they won a game 10-0, so they aren‘t actually as good as it indicates.”

 

Gee, almost like having an “overinflated” goal differential would correspond with having an “overinflated” PDO. And almost like scoring 10 goals on 40 shots skews the data early in the year.

[Sodboy13]

I've been listening to Jackets games on my drive home lately, and Bob McElligott operates a pretty solid one-man booth. There was lots of stretch-and-fill because the St-Louis retirement ceremony went full Canadiens tonight, and he just ran about 20-30 minutes of pregame by himself, with no cutaways to anyone else or pre-recorded stuff. I don't even know if there were ad breaks. I'd be marking time with armpit farts after five minutes.

[The_Admiral]

I'm not a fan of the one-man radio booth in hockey. It works in baseball with the right people (an endangered species), but with as much speed and information as NHL play-by-play on the radio dictates, I feel like the circumstances call for a second voice if only to break up the aural fatigue of one person shouting at you like an auctioneer. Troy Murray is a good analyst, certainly a lot better than he used to be, but not someone whose analysis I seek out; still, if it were just John Wiedeman (who is very good) talking nonstop all period, I think I would find Hawks games very hard to listen to. If you're an NHL team, spring for a second person in the booth.

 

The Panthers had Randy Moller calling games solo on the radio until the coke boys decided they were stop treating their broadcasts as a joke and hired Cleveland's AHL guy to do radio for the ten lost souls in Palm Beach/Broward who listen to the Panthers on the radio. I think he was the only former NHLer doing play-by-play, too.

 

1 hour ago, crashcarson15 said:

“The Blue Jackets’ PDO is too high, so their success is unsustainable,” followed by “their goal differential is overinflated because they won a game 10-0, so they aren‘t actually as good as it indicates.”

 

Gee, almost like having an “overinflated” goal differential would correspond with having an “overinflated” PDO. And almost like scoring 10 goals on 40 shots skews the data early in the year.

 

PDO is no more valuable than the rule of thumb that says conversion rate + kill rate should add up to at least 100, but it's treated as a "fancy stat." You know what PDO stands for? Nothing! It's, like, an in-joke from an Edmonton Oilers blog/forum from ten years ago! That's how inchoate hockey analytics are compared to baseball's. Hockey's cognoscenti may as well be writing thinkpieces about how stick work will injury you.

[TheGrimReaper]

16 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

There was a great piece on Sportsnet mid-streak that argued though, obviously, the streak had to end sometime, the Beej's winning was sustainable and not just a lucky fluke. The writer pointed to the team's excellent power play system, its defense, and its ability to constantly roll four productive lines, having unloaded worthless plugs like (Alternate Captain!) Jared Boll. Stephen Whyno has a piece on AP today on Torts dumping morning skates, because all they do anymore is exert players unnecessarily.

 

I thought at the start of the season you had a hot contest for worst coach in the league between Tortorella, Carlyle, and Therien. It seems like Torts got the message that he was behind the times, fixed his approach, and I'm as surprised as anyone. I'm sure he's still a redass and his practices are intense from all I've read, but it seems like he's learned to curtail the bull .

 

and other than (ironically) playing Jared Boll too often, Carlyle hasn't been a total disaster either. I dont think Carlyle is a great coach, but he gets too muck crap for his time in Toronto when that roster was hot garbage.

[HedleyLamarr]

13 hours ago, the admiral said:

I'm not a fan of the one-man radio booth in hockey. It works in baseball with the right people (an endangered species), but with as much speed and information as NHL play-by-play on the radio dictates, I feel like the circumstances call for a second voice if only to break up the aural fatigue of one person shouting at you like an auctioneer. Troy Murray is a good analyst, certainly a lot better than he used to be, but not someone whose analysis I seek out; still, if it were just John Wiedeman (who is very good) talking nonstop all period, I think I would find Hawks games very hard to listen to. If you're an NHL team, spring for a second person in the booth.

 

The Panthers had Randy Moller calling games solo on the radio until the coke boys decided they were stop treating their broadcasts as a joke and hired Cleveland's AHL guy to do radio for the ten lost souls in Palm Beach/Broward who listen to the Panthers on the radio. I think he was the only former NHLer doing play-by-play, too.

The Thrashers had a one-man booth for a long while.  Their first season had Scott Ferrall doing PxP, but they knew he needed a leash, so Dan Kamal was the analyst.  Kamal did the Knights games, then assumed PxP when Ferrall wasn't renewed and ran solo until Billy Jaffe came along.  It is kinda weird for a fast-paced sport to not have an analyst, even for giving the PxP man a chance to slow tempo during a stoppage.  I want to say the Thrashers held open tryouts for the radio analyst position.

[Sport]

15 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

I still think my favorite line of thinking was:

 

“The Blue Jackets’ PDO is too high, so their success is unsustainable,” followed by “their goal differential is overinflated because they won a game 10-0, so they aren‘t actually as good as it indicates.”

 

Gee, almost like having an “overinflated” goal differential would correspond with having an “overinflated” PDO. And almost like scoring 10 goals on 40 shots skews the data early in the year.

 

14 hours ago, the admiral said:

PDO is no more valuable than the rule of thumb that says conversion rate + kill rate should add up to at least 100, but it's treated as a "fancy stat." You know what PDO stands for? Nothing! It's, like, an in-joke from an Edmonton Oilers blog/forum from ten years ago! That's how inchoate hockey analytics are compared to baseball's. Hockey's cognoscenti may as well be writing thinkpieces about how stick work will injury you.

 

PDO's been pretty roundly debunked by the Advanced Advanced Analytics community. It's just one of many stats that when used together can determine a team's true strength/weakness, but anyone using it as their lone predictive stat, is at this moment, a dumbass. 

 

The problem most cited is that a single team's shooting percentage and a single team's save percentage have nothing to do with one another so it doesn't make sense to add them together. If all shooting and save percentage stats are compiled across the league at the end of the year then yes, it will level to 100, but the same is true of wins and losses and we know that every team doesn't go 41-41 every year. Also, it's prejudiced against teams with good goalies where long term save percentage is more skill than luck. A team with Carey Price will have a higher PDO than average. A team with a former Vezina winner who's healthy will have a higher save percentage than the average goaltending bum.

 

Also, it's never been properly explained to me why shooting percentage is a measure of luck. Why can't that just be a skill that a team has? 

 

The best predictor of future success is still good old fashioned goal differential because scoring more than you give up is how you win the games. 

[Sport]

15 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

I've been listening to Jackets games on my drive home lately, and Bob McElligott operates a pretty solid one-man booth. There was lots of stretch-and-fill because the St-Louis retirement ceremony went full Canadiens tonight, and he just ran about 20-30 minutes of pregame by himself, with no cutaways to anyone else or pre-recorded stuff. I don't even know if there were ad breaks. I'd be marking time with armpit farts after five minutes.

 

I couldn't stand McElligott at first, but after listening to him for a while I accepted his schtick as genuine and now I enjoy his work. I listen to every CBJ in 30 podcast he puts out. They're good stuff. It's usually just him, sometimes with Jody Shelley or Jeff Rimer, talking about the Blue Jackets interspersed with player and coach interviews. 

 

Also, Martin St. Louis might be my favorite player ever, but good grief. That game didn't begin until 8:30.