2021-22 NHL Regular Season

[spartacat_12]

On 10/14/2021 at 2:37 PM, GDAWG said:

Hopefully Dallas will have a better season than last year.

 

Also, what is the travel to Canada like?

 

As long as you're double-vaccinated there's no quarantine requirement when you enter the country. Any players who aren't vaxxed are not able to play in any road games happening in Canada.

 

On 10/21/2021 at 9:49 PM, Ridleylash said:

Sens attendance remains below 9k for the second game in a row, and this was the return of Tkachuk and Karlsson to boot. Eugene Melnyk is, in fact, a bit of a terrorist.

 

Much like the Sabres, the Sens' season ticket base has almost disappeared. A downtown arena could possibly attract some walk-up traffic, but not many people are making last-minute decisions to drive out to Kanata on a weeknight. Also, they only found out they'd be allowed full capacity a week before the season, so I'm guessing the ticket sales staff weren't out there pounding the pavement much.

[Ridleylash]

8 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

Much like the Sabres, the Sens' season ticket base has almost disappeared. A downtown arena could possibly attract some walk-up traffic, but not many people are making last-minute decisions to drive out to Kanata on a weeknight. Also, they only found out they'd be allowed full capacity a week before the season, so I'm guessing the ticket sales staff weren't out there pounding the pavement much.

The Sens were doing well in Kanata when the city wasn't in active revolt against ownership, which makes it pretty obvious where the blame lies for this tumble in attendance.

 

Surely it's not because of the owner that everybody in the city hates with every fiber of their soul, the owner who threatened relocation at the centennial game, the owner who sunk LeBreton because of petty infighting, the owner who's the living embodiment of the Curb your Enthusiasm theme, a Mr. Eugene Melnyk?

 

Really, I honestly don't know if ticket sales staff pounding the pavement would've helped all that much with how toxic Melnyk's reputation has become in the market, especially with Covid still a thing.

[spartacat_12]

45 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

The Sens were doing well in Kanata when the city wasn't in active revolt against ownership, which makes it pretty obvious where the blame lies for this tumble in attendance.

 

Surely it's not because of the owner that everybody in the city hates with every fiber of their soul, the owner who threatened relocation at the centennial game, the owner who sunk LeBreton because of petty infighting, the owner who's the living embodiment of the Curb your Enthusiasm theme, a Mr. Eugene Melnyk?

 

Really, I honestly don't know if ticket sales staff pounding the pavement would've helped all that much with how toxic Melnyk's reputation has become in the market, especially with Covid still a thing.

 

The dwindling season ticket numbers are definitely because of Melnyk. Alienating the greatest player in franchise history & one of the team's founding fathers, who happens to be beloved in the local hockey community, will do that.

 

I also think that the opening of TD Place & the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park opened up a lot of people's eyes to how much better a live sporting event can be when you're actually in the downtown area and are surrounded by bars/restaurants instead of parking lots. The fact that a downtown arena for the Sens was dangled in front of people's eyes then quickly pulled away by Melnyk has definitely contributed to the bitterness.

[The_Admiral]

There's a lot I understand about this Blackhawks story, but a lot that I don't. Protecting the organization at all costs in service of winning at all costs, yeah, that's the way hockey works everywhere, for better or worse. That still doesn't explain why they couldn't have put the guy on administrative leave. It doesn't explain why they helped him get another job. I'm glad Bowman is gone and effectively banned for life, as is McDonough, though he's retired anyway. 

 

Everyone is going to get to kick the Blackhawks while they're down, which, fine, whatever. But maybe a meme team will get caught molesting players, too, so I wouldn't, just to be safe.

[Kevin W.]

14 minutes ago, the admiral said:

that's the way hockey works everywhere,

That's the way sports works at every high level. This isn't just a hockey problem.

  

14 minutes ago, the admiral said:

But maybe a meme team will get caught molesting players, too, so I wouldn't, just to be safe.

Every team has skeletons somewhere. That doesn't excuse what the Blackhawks did.

 

What the Hawks did pales in comparison to the pedophile ring operating out of MLG back in the day, for example.

[The_Admiral]

Finding out who the player was really explains a lot of things on a lot of levels, like why a much smaller prospect got his ass kicked in training camp so bad the next season, or why some of his teammates may have been less than compassionate about the whole being-made-to-get-blown thing, or why "I'll keep you out of the league" may have seemed like a valid threat. I don't think "you miss your boyfriend" jeers would have happened had it been, I don't know, Colin Fraser or Jordan Hendry.

[JayMac]

So can the Flyers retroactively get the Stanley Cup for the 2010 season?

 

But seriously, this is just sick. I know this was almost a dozen years ago but even then, I can't believe that the organization thought that they could cover this up.

[Sport]

15 hours ago, the admiral said:

There's a lot I understand about this Blackhawks story, but a lot that I don't. Protecting the organization at all costs in service of winning at all costs, yeah, that's the way hockey works everywhere, for better or worse. That still doesn't explain why they couldn't have put the guy on administrative leave. It doesn't explain why they helped him get another job. I'm glad Bowman is gone and effectively banned for life, as is McDonough, though he's retired anyway. 

 

Everyone is going to get to kick the Blackhawks while they're down, which, fine, whatever. But maybe a meme team will get caught molesting players, too, so I wouldn't, just to be safe.

 

This was most headscratching. They wrote him a letter of recommendation for his next job and then he abused multiple high school boys, which is what sent him to prison. You can trace those kids' trauma straight back to the Blackhawks. What are you doing helping him?

 

14 hours ago, the admiral said:

Finding out who the player was really explains a lot of things on a lot of levels, like why a much smaller prospect got his ass kicked in training camp so bad the next season, or why some of his teammates may have been less than compassionate about the whole being-made-to-get-blown thing, or why "I'll keep you out of the league" may have seemed like a valid threat. I don't think "you miss your boyfriend" jeers would have happened had it been, I don't know, Colin Fraser or Jordan Hendry.

 

Who was the player?

[CS85]

15 hours ago, the admiral said:

Everyone is going to get to kick the Blackhawks while they're down, which, fine, whatever. But maybe a meme team will get caught molesting players, too, so I wouldn't, just to be safe.

 

This is a slippery slope to go down that ultimately always leads to the, "humans are awful, so we may as well off ourselves just to be safe" conclusion.  Sexual misconduct and shady dealings isn't exclusive to the Blackhawks, certainly isn't exclusive to hockey, and the rotten culture of the Blackhawks organization isn't unique to that building. 

 

The Kraken, memey as they seem, are new enough that their eventual scandals and soulless behavior will at least have a refreshing lemon scent and new car smell.

[Glover]

16 hours ago, the admiral said:

Everyone is going to get to kick the Blackhawks while they're down, which, fine, whatever. But maybe a meme team will get caught molesting players, too, so I wouldn't, just to be safe.

Or we could just point out when any organization does something horrible - whether they are an Original Six team, a meme team, or something in between. 

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, Sport said:

Who was the player?

An early first-round pick who never made the NHL. Scan the draft history and it's plain as day. It contextualizes, while not justifying, the way his teammates treated him at that training camp. This guy who is supposed to be your answer to Kesler and Bieksa with Byfuglien gone can't even keep this puny little guy from blowing him? This is how he's going to make the league? Power dynamics are complicated, and it's easy for teammates to simplify them thus. I don't like it, but I get it.

[Scrumptious Ham]

What are the chances coach Q gets fired from Florida?

[CS85]

35 minutes ago, Scrumptious Ham said:

What are the chances coach Q gets fired from Florida?

 

Hard to say.  I would imagine the league would love from a PR perspective for him to resign and join the other 2010 no-see-ums in hockey exile, but I doubt he does that.  Florida will be heavily pressured to fire him, but Florida as a state has zero qualms about harboring cretinous liars and scumbags, so

[CS85]

6 hours ago, Sport said:

Who was the player?

 

Will be revealed later tonight, apparently.  I think I already know who it is, but either way:

 

 

[The_Admiral]

I wish he'd had the courage to knock the nonce's teeth out of his mouth, something he had no misgivings about doing to a teammate

[CS85]

3 minutes ago, the admiral said:

I wish he'd had the courage to knock the nonce's teeth out of his mouth, something he had no misgivings about doing to a teammate

One thing to do it to a peer, another to a person in a position of power over you, even if they're just a video coach.

[monkeypower]

56 minutes ago, CS85 said:

One thing to do it to a peer, another to a person in a position of power over you, even if they're just a video coach.

 

Yeah, just a basic misunderstanding of sexual assault there. (Not from you)

[CS85]

 

Pretty incredible.

[DEAD!]

Joel Quenville is behind the bench 

[The_Admiral]

It's really gonna be unfortunate if we have to act like Joel Quenneville is tantamount to Joe Paterno because of freaking Kyle Beach.