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davidponte posted...

It doesn't help that their average age is 45 and their average speed is a third of that.

Eh, the whole "they're too old" thing just doesn't fly.

If you wanna look at the core of the Kings, Kopitar is 31, Doughty is 29. If you look at the Blackhawks, Kane and Toews are both 30.

Now I know that seems old in comparison to Matthews or McDavid or whoever, but if you want to look at actual recent cup winners, Crosby is 31 and Malkin is 32. Ovechkin is 33 and Backstrom is 31.

You can win the cup with players over 30.

I don't know exactly what's wrong with LA and Chicago (just think - 4 years ago these teams played in an all-time epic seven game WCF that might as well have been for the cup and now they're the two worst teams in the league) but it's not nearly as simple as "too old."
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Just accepted a trade: Couture to me, DeSmith going the other way.

Goalies are valuable but the way I see it, he was a waiver wire guy for me. I'm currently leading the league (roto) in SV% and GAA and doing horribly on all shooting stats. And eventually Murray will be healthy and not suck (right? otherwise letting Fleury go to Vegas might stand as the stupidest thing of all time?)

I still have Rask, Rantaa, and Brian Elliott on this team, and if I need another spot starter, McElhinney is still unclaimed in this league. And the guy I'm trading to is currently holding 4 mediocre goalies and will almost certainly drop one once the trade goes through.
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I've watched the Avs 3 times this year, and every time their top line has done jack shit.
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davidponte posted...

Matthews is way cooler but coolness doesn't win the games.

It must, because Matthews is winning a lot more than McDavid is.

(More accurately, non-shitty goaltending wins games)
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Rangers: Our giving up a 3 goal lead will be the most pathetic thing of the day.
Caps: Hold my beer.
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Cap hits are all I ever care about/pay attention to.

Anyway, the guys on Sportsnet keep talking like Marner is the single best player in the league and is going to demand 12, so good luck Leafs lol
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davidponte posted...

Alright, this deal isn't as good as I initially thought.

I assumed 6.9 was the number, which would put the AAV at around 6.5 in years 2-6 because of how that stuff works with in-season signings.

Instead, the number is actually 7.5, with an AAV of 6.9 in years 2-6. Still solid, but Dubas caved here much more than I would have liked him too. Nylander's dad essentially got what he wanted.

I'm honestly kind of surprised Nylander would take this at a 6-year term.

If you're going to sign long term then you hold out for what you think you'll be worth in the mid-late years of that term. And if Nylander ends up being as good as people seem to think he will, he'll be a steal at 6.9. I could see him being willing to take 6.9 for 2-3 years so that he could ring the register after that and demand 9+ (assuming he develops well and the cap continues to rise). But this situation is just weird to me.
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This was Wilson making a dumb, unnecessary play, as usual.

I don't disagree. As a Caps fan, that's a pointless play. Even if it was properly called as 2-minute minor, I'd be super annoyed at Wilson if the Devils scored on that PP, as should/would Wilson's coaches and teammates.

But not every "unnecessary" hit deserves a 10 game suspension. Even if you're a repeat offender.

If the league wants to change the rules such that any "unnecessary" contact is now a 5-minute major, they should do so transparently and out in the open. But the current system of "some guys get 2 minutes for certain hits, other guys get 5 and a game, and oh we also adjust it based entirely on how long the guy stays down on the ice" is a convoluted mess.

If you want less hitting and more diving in the game, that's how you get less hitting and move diving.
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hockeydude15 posted...

And yet the NHL has done it before to players like Wilson and will continue to do it. If you play dirty then you will get called for anything and everything with no benefit of doubt that you didn't mean to do it. Don't like it then clean up your game, that normal interference call was completely avoidable by him and didn't need to happen and now maybe next time it won't.

So, just to be clear, you support having different rules and different enforcement for different players on the ice by the referees, and not just by DOPS in deciding suspensions?

That's a joke. I 100% guarantee the league would never publicly admit to doing this (although it wouldn't surprise me if refs were secretly pressured to do it anyway)
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I really just want to know if Wilson is an idiot or if he intentionally is trying to hurt people

If he was intentionally trying to hurt the dude, he might have, you know, actually hit him in the head, which is the thing he has done previously which is why you hate him in the first place, remember? He might also have hit him a lot harder and squarer rather than just glancing against him on his way by?
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https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1068987803701112832

our long national nightmare is over, eh?
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If you don't want to get called for all borderline hits then don't be a dirty player, it's as simple as that.

He wasn't being a dirty player on that play. He was committing routine interference. If the only way he is allowed to play the game from now on is to never commit any penalty ever then you might as well just ban him for life now, because that's an unrealistic standard that no player could possibly live up to.
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Maybe he would get called like everyone else if he constantly wasn't trying to end people's careers.

And this is really stupid, tbqh.

I sort of understand the idea that when it comes to DOPS suspension decisions, a player's "past history" is taken into consideration (although the fact that "past history" only counts if they decide to suspend is a little bullshit, Malkin has had like 5 borderline suspension worthy plays in his career, but since they always decide not to suspend him, he isn't considered a repeat offender which is then used as the justification not to suspend him this time either.)

But when it comes to the refs, on the ice... no, just fucking no. There is one set of rules. For all players. You don't call a 2 minute minor a 5 minute major and a game just because Tom Wilson did it. As soon as you start having different rules for different people you become a laughingstock, or, the NBA.
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Man, I know you've got the Caps fan bias, but I can't fathom thinking there wasn't anything wrong about that hit. Sure, he didn't hit him in the head, but I don't think there is a place for blindside hits in the NHL regardless of where the point of contact is, and I don't think that's an unreasonable take. Why do guys need to be making hits like that? I'd love to hear an explanation of how that benefits the game.

It's not a "good" hit and it doesn't benefit the game in any way.

But there are like 10 plays like this which happen in basically every game. It was a shoulder to shoulder hit on a player who didn't have the puck. That's interference. Lots of players get called for interference without everyone screeching about how they need to be banned from the game for life.
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Bullshit call on Wilson. That was shoulder to shoulder. If that's anyone else, it's 2 minutes for interference and everyone immediately forgets about it.
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So, does everyone have big plans for Nylander Day tomorrow?

If Sportsnet has any sense of decency they'll do a whole 30 minute special, ala The Decision.
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The point of Offer Sheeting Nylander isn't to get him, it's to force the Leafs to pay him more than they want to.
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249USDollars posted...

davidponte posted...

The one that I hear most often is that it's kind of a respect thing, where if GMs start offer sheeting players, they put themselves in a position to be cut-off as trade partners from other teams.

This is always overblown. Ottawa trades Hoffman to the Sharks for the sole purpose of keeping him out of the division. What do the Sharks immediately do? Trade Hoffman back into the division. You would think this would cause damage to the Ottawa/San Jose relationship, but a few months later, Ottawa trades Karlsson to San Jose.

Granted Dorion is an atrocious GM

I dunno man Karlsson ain't looking like such a steal right about now. Costing himself more and more money every game.

How bout Nylander for Karlsson straight up? It's become abundantly clear that the Sharks didn't need another offensive defenseman. Their forward depth is still a little shaky though. And unlike the Leafs, their path to the cup is wide open in that shit division. The Leafs could do everything right and still get bounced in the first round provided that either Rask or Hutton gets hot.
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Oh hey this is up again.
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Pettersson is actually that good tho unlike previous years

Well yeah, and the Oilers eventually got McDavid too...
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Don't the Canucks get a shiny new rookie that everyone obsesses over every year (until they get a better one because as a team they still suck?)

Are they gonna be the new Oilers?
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davidponte posted...

https://twitter.com/OttawaCitizen/status/1059607412913700864?s=19

Here is your Sens drama of the week

This is the stupidest scandal ever. Literally every employee talks shit about their bosses with their fellow workers. In every job. Ever. The coaches almost certainly talk shit about the players behind their backs too (especially Duchene, who is probably the most disappointing trade acquisition since Martin Erat).

Complete nothing here. Everyone should ignore it.
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lol @ the BJs getting schooled by Dustin Brown

they're on course to lose their two best players AND their coach by the end of the year

hope they enjoyed their half season of being on the fringes of relevance

too bad seth jones is going to spend his whole career wallowing in mediocrity, the blueline version of rick nash
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I think everyone from all fandoms can agree that Leafs fans are the worst!
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https://babylonbee.com/news/trump-criticized-for-using-us-military-for-bizarre-purpose-of-defending-nations-borders
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foolm0r0n posted...

wat

Will he be there?

Also can I stay at your place in Houston for a few days in February?

1. Hells yeah.

2. I dunno, I moved in with the GF, not sure if she will approve. Also I live in the suburbs now about 40 minutes away from wherever you want to be.
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Seriously though, I got invited to a dinner at Ron Paul's house coming up soon. So that'll be fun.
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and of course im matched up this week against the guy who's been hanging on to Kadri all year...
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Man, who gives up a 28 point lead to the Beavers?

Colorado's coach should be fired. Out of a cannon. Into a brick wall.
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I feel like the Red Wings played the Jets as well as they could possibly have hoped to tonight... and still lost.
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Watched the Kings again.

Seriously, I feel like this is mostly on Doughty. He's supposed to be a leader on this team and is playing like absolute dogshit.
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Not sure who had the better move last night, Crosby or Marchand.
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I swear all I get from watching every highlight show is gushing and gushing about how great McDavid is, but every time I actually watch the Oilers, he does fuck all (like last night)
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Kings going for the #1 pick I see.
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I dunno... I've been a Leafs skeptic for a couple years, and nobody loves Ovechkin more than I do, but man... it's looking like Matthews really is the real deal and this really is the year for him to make his mark.

Will he cool off? Sure.

But I still believe in the Caps Stanley Cup Hangover thesis, and the Leafs as a team can still get a lot better on defense, and even if Matthews personally cools down, he's still going to be surrounded with great players.

If you want hits, go grab Dustin Brown off the waiver wire and be done with it. Especially if you have an IR slot!
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davidponte posted...

Right before the game: "Doughty hasn't given up a goal while on the ice this year".

45 seconds in: "oh"

Of the three goals Toronto scored that mattered, two of them were when Doughty was without his stick, and the other went off his skate

I hate to say it and I still don't really understand it, but it's time for a rebuild here. Get a massive package for Doughty, rebuild around Kopitar.
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holy shit Jack Campbell is trash

Budaj time PLEASE
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Clemson is the one that to me is massively overrated. Close calls against A&M (which is their strongest opponent now, and likely will be at the end of the year too) and Syracuse. Their only convincing wins have been against literal nobodies.
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So on the ESPN scoreboard, before games have started, it shows the goals, assists, and points leader for each team.

Today's goal leaders:

Red Wings - Larkin (3)
Canadiens - Tatar (2)
Stars - Benn (4)
Senators - Lajoie (3)
Wild - Zucker (3)
Predators - Forsberg (3)
Kings - Iafallo (2)
Leafs - Matthews (10)!!!!!!!!!!
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I mean yeah it was unnecessary and all that. But it wasn't exactly a "headshot" as we know them. I'm not sure this deserves any more than 1 game.

If it wasn't against a hot young player who got injured, it probably gets nothing and nobody thinks twice about it.
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Para if the Ducks go on to win the conference (and possibly make the playoffs) I am holding you PERSONALLY responsible
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*watch the Kings for the first time this season*
*one of the worst and most pathetic performance I've seen in years*

yep, sounds about right, this team is going fucking nowhere
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Man I never realized how incredibly shitty Jake Browning is.
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I mean I definitely expected them to be a lot better than they were last year.

I've got them penciled in as "fighting for one of the last couple playoff spots in the central."

And speaking of the central, that division looks like it might be interesting as hell. Nashville and Winnipeg haven't looked as strong as we thought. Chicago and Dallas both look improved. As of now, I feel like every team in that division might, or might not, make the playoffs.
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Last year I was all anti-Vegas and they just kept winning.

This year I'm anti-Leafs sooooooooooo
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Shadow Dino posted...

https://twitter.com/WatchStadium/status/1049827604478361600

"Regular Season Western Conference Champions" banner.

Come on...

I'm okay with this for relatively new franchises with no other accomplishments.
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That Rangers/Hurricanes game sure was something. Entertaining in a "so this is what it looks like when nobody plays defense and the goaltenders are both godawful" sort of way.
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Grapes crushing the Leafs for dropping McElhinney.

And unsurprisingly taking Marchand's side in his jumping of Lars Eller.
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After having used them for about 5 years now, I defected to Yahoo this year because of how shitty everything was pre-draft.

Amazing how every website on Earth that has something good decides to actively ruin it.
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Really hope the Leafs implode this year BTW.
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