2016 NHL Off-Season Thread

[Cosmic]

Every kid is different. Babies under 9 months or so are helpless little meat blobs that would still be gestating in all other mammals. It's very possible they could just sleep through the whole thing, especially with newborns.

 

It's kind of funny seeing all these childless people puzzled by how someone could possibly function while caring for a child.

[The_Admiral]

On 9/13/2016 at 7:07 PM, the admiral said:

Carey Price coming back will make the Habs much better, but the improvement in going from AHL goalie to arguable best goalie in the world will still be attributed to Shea Weber's dressing-room presence.

 

Conversely, Pekka Rinne's hip socket is going to crumble like a rotting tooth and all the blame will go to P.K. Subban.

[BeerGuyJordan]

On 9/17/2016 at 0:39 PM, Cosmic said:

Every kid is different. Babies under 9 months or so are helpless little meat blobs that would still be gestating in all other mammals. It's very possible they could just sleep through the whole thing, especially with newborns.

 

It's kind of funny seeing all these childless people puzzled by how someone could possibly function while caring for a child.

I don't muse at that, I've been to enough games to know that it can work. If you take your newborn and they cry the whole time, maybe you try again in a couple of months. If they do it again, maybe you wait a few more months. But to take your kid to at least 11 games and they scream and cry for the majority of the game? At that point I question your ability to parent and function as a responsible member of society.

 

[Cosmic]

5 hours ago, BeerGuyJordan said:

But to take your kid to at least 11 games and they scream and cry for the majority of the game? At that point I question your ability to parent and function as a responsible member of society.

 

I forgot about that part of your story by the time I replied. That is definitely excessive.

[habsfan1]

On 2016-09-14 at 6:29 PM, BeerGuyJordan said:

As someone who doesn't ever want kids, I struggle more with how people can commit to a kid when they have season tickets.

 

Either the parents get a babysitter or only one of them goes to see a game.

[Sport]

Is this where we're talking about the World Cup? 

 

That was some game between Team Russia and Team Millenial Monster Mash. The kids are so fun to watch. Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel playing together on a 5 on 3 was ethereal. Too bad Bad Matt Murray had to show up in the second period. I wish he would've shown up in the finals last June. 

[FGM13]

49 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

Is this where we're talking about the World Cup? 

 

That was some game between Team Russia and Team Millenial Monster Mash. The kids are so fun to watch. Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel playing together on a 5 on 3 was ethereal. Too bad Bad Matt Murray had to show up in the second period. I wish he would've shown up in the finals last June. 

Holy Hell is this Young Gunzz team fun. I hope they go far in this tournament because they're the most entertaining hockey I've seen in a while.

[Cosmic]

Wow... Pavel Datsyuk playing in an NHL-run tournament while ducking out on the last year of his contract to go play in Russia is almost up there with Chris Pronger being in the hall of fame and working for the league while under contract level weird. Let's go 'Yotes!

[Still MIGHTY]

As much as I'm an American hockey fan, 1) Team USA kinda got what it deserved for putting that team/coaching staff together, 2) Team USA needs new blood. It's been the same team for the last 6+ years. Their problem is that their future (Eichel, Gaudreau, Saad, Jones, Trouba, Gotisbehere, Larkin, Gibson, Matthews, etc.) is all on Team North America.

 

So yes the USA is eliminated, but luckily we're all North Americans. #YoungGunzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Sport]

5 hours ago, Still MIGHTY said:

As much as I'm an American hockey fan, 1) Team USA kinda got what it deserved for putting that team/coaching staff together, 2) Team USA needs new blood. It's been the same team for the last 6+ years. Their problem is that their future (Eichel, Gaudreau, Saad, Jones, Trouba, Gotisbehere, Larkin, Gibson, Matthews, etc.) is all on Team North America.

 

So yes the USA is eliminated, but luckily we're all North Americans. #YoungGunzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

In a way I'm sort of glad they got rocked last night. It should be a wake up call and a learning experience. Grit and toughness aren't important in these quick international tournaments. Speed and skill are. And get John Tortorella a thousand miles away from the bench (and away from my Blue Jackets while we're at it. I hate this guy) America has speed and skill, but they either inexplicably left them off the roster (Kessel) or they were too young to play for us. I love Dubinsky and Jack Johnson, but they shouldn't be on this team, but then if you're going to put Dubinsky on the team specifically because of how he plays Crosby then use him when you play against Crosby!

 

And yeah Team North America has a handful of guys that would've been upgrades for Team USA that USA couldn't use. U23 hurt us more than it hurt Canada. McDavid and maybe one other would've probably been on the big team, but our future (5-6 guys by my count) was stuck in black and orange/salmon. I love watching Team NA, but a true World Cup shouldn't have a team playing in it that handicaps one of the countries playing in the tournament. 

 

We are not this bad. We were right there with Canada in Sochi and Vancouver and our young talent looks promising. We just need the next roster to actually include our best for the next Best v Best tournament, and I hope that's in the 2018 Olympics. 

 

Here's what I think happened:

1. The team was poorly constructed

2. many of the best American players are playing for a different team in the tournament

3. I feel like the USA guys don't really like each other, at worst, and at best just lack chemistry

4. They don't like playing for Torts (WHO DOES?!)

5. I would've played Schneider or Bishop instead of Quick

6. Patrick Kane and some of our other big names don't really give a s***

 

 

Sidepoint: Hull and Chelios have been one of my favorite parts of this tournament. They are what Milbury and Roenick should be. 

[Sport]

Kessel! This is one of the best tweets ever. 

 

 

[The_Admiral]

I thought Kessel was recovering from surgery and couldn't play. Whatever, wouldn't have made a difference with that idiot coach.

[CS85]

How does Torts keep getting jobs?  He's sub-.500 in his coaching career, makes an ass of himself routinely, and coaches this awful meatball hockey style that wins precisely dick.  

[chcarlson23]

As much as I "care" about the World Cup of Hockey, it would have been nice to see a little more effort from the US last night. They were playing like a bunch of middle-schoolers... They were chasing the puck instead of playing their position. Even on a few 2-on-1's the two American players would be right next to each other, and could be defended by 1 Canadien. They would dump the puck in the zone, and kinda hope Canada would turn it over. It was probably the worst hockey I've ever seen in a long time...

[JayMac]

Go North America!

 

I know the plan moving forward is to have a play in type of format for the last 2 spots. However, the Europe team and North America Young Guns are faring well. Any chance they change their minds?

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, CS85 said:

How does Torts keep getting jobs?  He's sub-.500 in his coaching career, makes an ass of himself routinely, and coaches this awful meatball hockey style that wins precisely dick.  

 

I don't know. He didn't really have a fireable offense in New York that I can think of so much as he just ran out of whacks at the pinata with a solid roster. The Vancouver year, on the other hand, was the kind of slow-motion trainwreck that should have resigned him to a life of intermission analysis gigs, never to work behind an NHL bench again. So of course the Beej bring him back right away, dropping him into a terrible situation, which just he may have made worse. Inexcusable, really. I don't know how the guy went from one of the league's more progressive coaches to one of the dumbest, but damned if he didn't.

[CS85]

I don't know much about Columbus management, but the hire felt so bizarre for a franchise that was, at least from a distance, on the up.  Torts getting that position felt like a massive gamble for such a little potential payoff.

[The_Admiral]

It made sense on the most elementary level of hockey orthodoxy, which is that you replace a good-guy coach with a hard-ass coach. But in this case, the hard-ass coach was a guy who seemed like he was trying hard to wash himself out of the NHL and couldn't be trusted around young players, old players, or even other teams' coaches inasmuch as he had recently tried to kick one's ass. If I had to guess, there must be enough people with enough power in the Columbus front office to subvert the European GM and keep him from doing things too Europeanly, for instance, hiring hockey coaching's Ugly American.

[FGM13]

The Young Gunzzzzz are fun as hell.

[2001mark]

3 hours ago, FGM13 said:

The Young Gunzzzzz are fun as hell.

 

If the NHL doesn't want the Olympic costs, send the World Jrs over.  I don't care about CHL scheduling.