NHL 15-16: wife-beaters, adulterers, cokeheads, rapists, pill-poppers, AND METHODISTS

[The_Admiral]

Also, I hope the Nashville faithful don't feel compelled to do their little singsong Division III college chants after every goal in three-on-three all-star play or that crap is going to get about ten times more tiresome than it already does.

[Alex Houston]

I don't know what to make of these Sharks these days. One game they seem kind of competent, the next game they're breaking down defensively and letting in goals like it's nobody's business.

Though I will say the Thornton goal yesterday versus Boston was a thing of beauty.

[HedleyLamarr]

Sounds like the NHL is going to change the All-Star Game from a 60-minute East vs West game to a 3-on-3 mini tournament with a team representing each division.

1st "Period" - Metro vs Atlantic, 2nd "Period" - Pacific vs Central, 3rd "Period" - East winner vs West winner. Supposed financial incentives to make sure players try to win the thing, rather than lose the first game and go home.

I hate three-on-three for deciding games, but this could be a fun wrinkle to an otherwise useless exercise.

wait what no

Always seemed like the obvious thing to do once we ran out of compelling Winter Classics (we did) was move the All-Star Game outdoors and do Olde-FashionedSticks-in-a-Pile Pond Hockey so that lots of people could watch lots of star players scoring lots of goals. But I'm sure we can squeeze one more Rangers-Penguins game out of the old jalopy before we have to resort to anything as crowd-pleasing as that.

When the All-Star festivities were in Atlanta, the Young Stars Game on Skills Competition Night was a 3-on-3 (plus two veteran goalies) for like a 10-minute game. You had line changes (well, player changes) with play going on. Aside from the faceoff to start the game, there were no faceoffs after goals or goalie stoppages.....the offensive team had to exit the offensive zone while the other team got a free release until they left their defensive third of the ice. Not many down-time moments. It wasn't that bad, actually. But that was due to it being a meaningless contest and being just a 10-minute period for the young guys to show their skills. There's not going to be much of any strategy going on for the All-Star Game, I would think.

Aside from the names of the teams, going with the Fantasy Draft for the weekend festivities was actually a really neat idea. Certainly was a good enough idea that the NFL copied your idea and the NBA contemplated using your idea.

[The_Admiral]

Always seemed like the most natural fit for the NBA, of all leagues, though perhaps they feared it would be putting too fine a point on the Miami Heat stuff by actively promoting the notion of players picking their teammates. I thought it was cool for the NHL because its conferences don't mean anything anyway -- unless you're the Red Wings, of course.

Arguing for the sanctity of an all-star game is a fool's errand, for sure, but at the very least I would like for it to be an actual game and not A Star-Studded Night Of Some Guys Doing Some Stuff.

[HedleyLamarr]

Always seemed like the most natural fit for the NBA, of all leagues, though perhaps they feared it would be putting too fine a point on the Miami Heat stuff by actively promoting the notion of players picking their teammates. I thought it was cool for the NHL because its conferences don't mean anything anyway -- unless you're the Red Wings, of course.

Arguing for the sanctity of an all-star game is a fool's errand, for sure, but at the very least I would like for it to be an actual game and not A Star-Studded Night Of Some Guys Doing Some Stuff.

The draft certainly could be completed swiftly for the NBA, but the players wouldn't go for it, simply because one of those 24 star players would have to wear that collar of "I got picked last by my peers.". These NBA players need their egos fellated as it is...being picked last won't help that.

It'll be interesting to see. Makes all three periods during the "game" more competitive instead of just the last 10 minutes of the third period (if the game's close). Don't believe we've ever seen a division-vs.-division-vs.-division format for the All-Star game. With the World Cup of Hockey being this coming year, I'm willing to experiment with this format for a year when we'll have a reasonable facsimile of "All the stars on one sheet of ice"/Olympic hockey a few months later.

[The_Admiral]

Do we need an all-star game to be competitive? What's wrong with just playing it like a Harlem Globetrotters game? The Globetrotters had room to do stunts with all ten players on a basketball court, too.

[HedleyLamarr]

I personally don't think the game itself needs any changing, but many consider the game to be the afterthought and the lowpoint of the All-Star weekend. Seeing the game was getting less love than the part where the rosters are getting put together. It's worthwhile to see if a change in format puts some spark into All-Star Sunday, especially if they're going to try to attract viewers in that dead week between the AFC/NFC title games and the Super Bowl. I'm all for intellectual curiosity.

[Cosmic]

Finally, we'll get all the offense that was missing from previous all-star games!

What would the over/under be on a 60 minute, 3-on-3, all-star game? 40? 45?

[2001mark]

3-3 for 60 minutes might be too much, though making it into essentially 3 unique games does help.

11 players each roster- fans vote each captain, NHL names the rest. 6 forwards, 3 defencemen, 2 goalies.

I'm all in. We're talking about the worst ASG on the pro slate, it's been barely watchable since the days of Campbell vs Wales. Anyone against the idea, for the sake of trying something/anything, must love bad hockey.

Roster projections already abound... I'd include McDavid. We're talking about an NHL celebration tournament, not which baseball league wins home field advantage.

[OnWis97]

How much advantage might there be to the finalist from the first period given the extra rest? Or is the advantage to the finalist from the second period because the extra rest will tighten the first team up?

--

While I don't love this, I think anything that can get us away from "team Smith" vs. "team Jones" is a good thing. "Division Teams" is better. "North America vs. the World" is better. But how about this for a crazy idea...Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference. That may just work.

This obviously will not last too long; I think people are already tiring of 3-on-3. But as long as it's going on, the players should wear their game jerseys.* Admittedly, I am a fairly casual fan and I like to know who's on the ice...putting them in their team jersey will go a long way.

*I know with this format is that most players would need to bring both home and away jerseys, so it's not going to happen...

[2001mark]

This obviously will not last too long; I think people are already tiring of 3-on-3.

Agreed... which makes this an even better way of speeding up the NHL reverting to tie games process.

[Walter Sobchak]

NHL implementing bye weeks in 2016-17.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/14173014/nhl-implement-bye-weeks-teams-2016-17-season

[2001mark]

NHL implementing bye weeks in 2016-17.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/14173014/nhl-implement-bye-weeks-teams-2016-17-season

Alrighty.

[Cosmic]

NHL implementing bye weeks in 2016-17.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/14173014/nhl-implement-bye-weeks-teams-2016-17-season

I think it probably sounds like a bigger deal than it is. Teams often end up with long breaks between games due to scheduling quirks; the big change seems to be no practice. The Sabres have 6 days off around Christmas and 8 days off around the all-star game this year. It wouldn't take much to turn a two or three day gap into a five day "bye week".

[monkeypower]

[Bmac]

I gave it a shot but I don't like this 3v3 OT business. If a penalty is committed it goes to 4v3, because you can't have less than 3 skaters on the ice. It's dumb to add a skater for a penalty, proving 3v3 is dumb. 4v4, 5 minutes, please.

[Sport]

Do you hate the shootout? Hate 3 on 3? Hate the loser point? Hate the extra column in the standings? Hate that ROW is a thing? Then boy do I have the team for you. 21 games into the season and the Blue Jackets still have yet to play in overtime. When it comes to hockey the Blue Jackets make it simple. Watch them win in regulation or mostly lose in regulation, but one thing's for certain there's no fussing with all that extra nonsense in Columbus.

I don't know the record, but 21 games feels like a lot of hockey games in a row to not have one of them go to overtime.

edit: I was researching this overtimeless to no avail and stumbled upon this factoid - The 1992-1993 Ottawa Senators were 1-41-0 on the road. I knew they were bad their first year, but they only won one road game! ONE! I feel confident in saying that's a record that'll never be broken.

[Kramerica Industries]

They were 0-39 on the road, too. The g-ddamn Islanders, the same Islanders who a few weeks later ended Pittsburgh's mini-dynasty, lost 5-3 to Ottawa at Nassau in April. Glenn Healy was New York's goaltender, yet another re-affirmation of how this guy screws up everything he's a part of.

On an inversely related note, I wanna say that the 72-win Bulls were 37-0 at home and then lost two of their last four games. They didn't lose a home game in the playoffs, either. For all intents and purposes, every single home game worth a damn that season was won by the Bulls.

[FiddySicks]

95/96 Bulls and 14/15 Warriors both were 39-2 at home in the regular season.

[sparkychewbarky]

Early last summer, somebody on these boards predicted that, not only would the 3-on-3 be successful (fewer games going to shoot-out)...

it would also be so popular and entertaining, that the NHL would adopt a version of it for their All-Star game....

Who was that?...Can't...remember...Oh yeah, it was ME.

Here's another thought. Refs are reluctant to call any penalties in an All-Star game.

In the 3-on-3 tournies that I was in, any penalty called, resulted in a shot for the other team in a period-end shootout.

The penalty is noted: nobody goes off: and play just keeps on rolling.

I could see scheduled "Game Time-outs" at the 5, 10, 15, and 18 minute marks for breathers and commercial breaks.

...Should be fun.