2018-19 NHL Season

[The_Admiral]

I hate to see the Flyers get away from being so insular. I think Mike Richards could be a great GM, given a chance. Who would be a better expert on cap circumvention?

[JayMac]

7 hours ago, the admiral said:

I hate to see the Flyers get away from being so insular. I think Mike Richards could be a great GM, given a chance. Who would be a better expert on cap circumvention?

Being insular is a huge part of the organization's credo. 

[masterchaoss]

So the Kings are bad at hockey and you know what I'm okay with that given that they have 2 cups won this decade which is more than I can say for any other team in LA, I'm looking at you Dodgers! 

[nash61]

WILL NY THE SIGN-ED GUY!

WILL!

WILL!
 

WILL!

WILL!

 

6 years, 6.9 per.

The Leafs just got even scarier.

[habsfan1]

1 hour ago, nash61 said:

WILL NY THE SIGN-ED GUY!

WILL!

WILL!
 

WILL!

WILL!

 

6 years, 6.9 per.

The Leafs just got even scarier.

 

I'm not a Leafs fan, but that was a good way to put it.

[GDAWG]

3 days away until Seattle joins the NHL.

[The Six]

Randypuck is back!

[Still MIGHTY]

On 12/2/2018 at 3:12 PM, The Six said:

Randypuck is back!

 

I flew out for that Ducks/Caps game in DC (Down 5-1, storm back for 6-5 win), and I still don't know how in the hell that happened. The Ducks went 4-1 on that trip with wins over Tampa and Washington and a couple stunning comebacks, and I still don't understand how they did that.

 

This team was on the way to ruin and coach firing, and for no real discernible reason, now they're not. 

 

(I mean, I kind of know. It's pretty good goaltending allowing them to hang around just long enough to scrap out some goals and pull these things out of their asses, but games like Sunday are totally inexplicable.)

 

[Sport]

 

 

This is funny and also troubling. The NHL needs personalities, not the exact same dude on every single team answering every question the exact same way. They're trained to do interviews this way. 

 

This is why I never watch the Blue Jackets pregame, intermission, or postgame. 

[monkeypower]

Like my junior coach in Moose Jaw used to say, got to get pucks in deep and roll four lines. 

 

 

 

[The_Admiral]

I forgot who said it on the Coyotes, but someone in a pregame interview said "first things first, we have to get started," and it's been a running gag with a friend of mine ever since.

[Crabcake]

21 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

 

This is funny and also troubling. The NHL needs personalities, not the exact same dude on every single team answering every question the exact same way. They're trained to do interviews this way. 

 

This is why I never watch the Blue Jackets pregame, intermission, or postgame. 

This is probably especially the case in hockey, but I feel like this happens in a lot of sports. Listen to the postgame interview that FOX or CBS does at the end of an NFL game. I watched one recently with Drew Brees, who’s probably one of my favorite non-Ravens players, and I don’t think he said one non-cliche thing. 

[Sport]

It's been going on in sports for as long as the media has covered sports. That's why the scene in Bull Durham when Crash teaches Nook Laloosh how to talk to the media is so good. 

 

But hockey's interviews are a special kind of cliche. Maybe it's because the game really is as simple as getting pucks deep and getting pucks on net and playing hard and sticking to your system. Maybe it's because asking a guy before the third period what he needs to do to win is a stupid question because it has such an obvious answer - "score more goals than them", but these guys are all such good polite Canadians that they try to give an answer that doesn't make the reporter look bad. Maybe the NHL should step in and suggest the players try to be a bit more thoughtful in their interviews. 

 

One thing they didn't do was a supercut of guys starting sentences with "obviously...". When I need a touchstone to get into a Canadian accent I always start with obviously. 

[The_Admiral]

Patrick Maroon is in that clip and sounds Canadian. He's from St. Louis! Chelios, from Chicago, was like that too. Is it possible that Canadian hockey jargon just makes you sound Canadian, like how saying "bless your heart" almost coaxes itself into a southern accent? HMMMMMM.

[IceCap]

5 hours ago, McCarthy said:

It's been going on in sports for as long as the media has covered sports. That's why the scene in Bull Durham when Crash teaches Nook Laloosh how to talk to the media is so good. 

 

But hockey's interviews are a special kind of cliche. Maybe it's because the game really is as simple as getting pucks deep and getting pucks on net and playing hard and sticking to your system. Maybe it's because asking a guy before the third period what he needs to do to win is a stupid question because it has such an obvious answer - "score more goals than them", but these guys are all such good polite Canadians that they try to give an answer that doesn't make the reporter look bad. Maybe the NHL should step in and suggest the players try to be a bit more thoughtful in their interviews. 

 

One thing they didn't do was a supercut of guys starting sentences with "obviously...". When I need a touchstone to get into a Canadian accent I always start with obviously. 

I can say this from experience. It's just how hockey culture works. And I'm not someone who ever had a shot at the CHL, much less the NHL. I just grew up playing the game in a hockey hotbed. It's just the mentality that surrounds the game. I'm sure that when you get to a certain level? They train you to talk a certain way to the media, but even then...it's probably not much of a transition for a lot of these guys.

 

Even as someone whose hockey career peaked in high school? Where we didn't have media to talk to? We were taught good sportsmanship above all else. Don't trash the other guys, it's not right. Even if we beat them 5-1 they're a good team with some talented guys. You acted humble in the handshake line even if you got a shutout. And skaters? Well didn't matter how talented they were compared to the guys around them, you played your part in the team game. No hot dogging unless you just got a really lucky break (yes, I heard my HS coach tell a friend of mine "no more hot dogging" unironically). You keep your head down, you play your game, and if you act like you're as good as you are? You need to be reminded it's not all about you.

And again. I'm talking high school. None of us were ever going to have a career playing hockey, but even then. This is just how we were coached.

 

In a lot of ways this attitude, which began in Canada before seeping into the US, was the start of the problems Canadian NHL clubs have had signing players. So many "good Canadian boys" don't want to play in Canadian markets, much less their hometown markets, because the media scrutiny and the public recognition is too much.

And in some ways? I don't blame them because they've been taught their entire hockey playing lives to keep their head down and not stand out in a crowd, even if they're the best guy on the ice. And so yeah. I can get how Steven Stamkos dreads the idea of being a Leaf and being recognized at Loblaws. It would make him feel uneasy given how he's been taught to carry himself since he began playing hockey. Better to resign with Tampa where he can shop at Publix and not be instantly recognized. It's more comfortable, given that he's been conditioned to shun any sort of behaviour that would make him stand out in a crowd.

 

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

Patrick Maroon is in that clip and sounds Canadian. He's from St. Louis! Chelios, from Chicago, was like that too. Is it possible that Canadian hockey jargon just makes you sound Canadian, like how saying "bless your heart" almost coaxes itself into a southern accent? HMMMMMM.

I've noticed just how...Canadian...a lot of American hockey culture seems to be since moving down here. Maybe it always was this way? I donno. I can't help but think it's sort of like soccer in the US. Where if you're carrying a soccer game on American television you almost have to get a British play-by-play guy because that just "feels" like soccer.

So you get a lot of American hockey players and coaches who are just going out of their way to sound "Canadian" in how they approach the game. Like it's hockey. It just "feels" right to talk like those Canadian boys, eh?

 

[monkeypower]

7 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

In a lot of ways this attitude, which began in Canada before seeping into the US, was the start of the problems Canadian NHL clubs have had signing players. So many "good Canadian boys" don't want to play in Canadian markets, much less their hometown markets, because the media scrutiny and the public recognition is too much.

And in some ways? I don't blame them because they've been taught their entire hockey playing lives to keep their head down and not stand out in a crowd, even if they're the best guy on the ice. And so yeah. I can get how Steven Stamkos dreads the idea of being a Leaf and being recognized at Loblaws. It would make him feel uneasy given how he's been taught to carry himself since he began playing hockey. Better to resign with Tampa where he can shop at Publix and not be instantly recognized. It's more comfortable, given that he's been conditioned to shun any sort of behaviour that would make him stand out in a crowd.

 

I never really got this line of thinking. I understand wanting to remain somewhat anonymous and not get harassed going to Chipotle Mucho Burrito, but I never think players are obligated to sign wherever they're from.

 

Being a "good Canadian boy" from Ajax doesn't mean he has to sign with the Leafs or being a "good Canadian boy" from Pincher Creek doesn't mean he has to sign with the Flames. There are other factors at play in free agent signings.

[IceCap]

1 hour ago, monkeypower said:

I never really got this line of thinking. I understand wanting to remain somewhat anonymous and not get harassed going to Chipotle Mucho Burrito, but I never think players are obligated to sign wherever they're from.

 

Being a "good Canadian boy" from Ajax doesn't mean he has to sign with the Leafs or being a "good Canadian boy" from Pincher Creek doesn't mean he has to sign with the Flames. There are other factors at play in free agent signings.

I do find it hypocritical when Canadian players wax poetically about playing for Canada in international tournaments yet freak out at the prospect of playing for a Canadian city because G-d forbid someone recognize them.

[Brass]

Tom Wilson or Zach Hyman? Not sure who is who.

[Kramerica Industries]

Can someone tell me again just which one of these years are the Hurricanes going to have the break-out that the #fancystats community says they're going to have? 

[The_Admiral]

3 hours ago, Kramerica Industries said:

Can someone tell me again just which one of these years are the Hurricanes going to have the break-out that the #fancystats community says they're going to have? 

Next year when they trade Justin Faulk and shore up their goaltending.