Board 8 > NHL Discussion Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

lol nevermind, Blackhawks can't muster anything against a Kucherov and Stamkos-less Lightning.

Welp, looks like I'll be cursed with Babcock coaching the Blackhawks by Christmas. The funny thing is he'd be an upgrade to the current dope in charge...
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The Leafs may never lose again
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https://twitter.com/MarkLazerus/status/1197732407664926721?s=19
https://twitter.com/MarkLazerus/status/1197734071201337344?s=19

Lol forget Christmas, Babcock will be the Blackhawks coach by the end of next week.
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Ah, for some reason I thought it was a rule that he wouldn't be owed any remaining part of the contract if another team hired him, but on further analysis guess that's not the case...

Ehhhh Colliton's barely into his second season, surely he gets some more leeway...

Wild win again...yay?

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MartinFF7 posted...

Ehhhh Colliton's barely into his second season, surely he gets some more leeway...

Well, the Blackhawks' next five games are against Dallas, Colorado, and St. Louis. They probably need a minimum of 6 points to even have a shot at the playoffs. They shit the bed and Colliton is likely getting launched.
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Do they really want to make the playoffs, though? I mean, Crawford's still starting half your games... ;)

Gotta commit to the tank!

Alas, Lehner and Crawford likely will win the Blackhawks out of prime lottery contention and I'm not counting on another miracle jump into the top three again.
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The Red Wings just finished a stretch of games against the Sharks, Kings, Senators, Blue Jackets, and Devils, five teams who are all low in the standings and out of a playoff spot. The Red Wings have also lost the past five games they've played.

Let's just fast forward to the draft lottery
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On the plus side:

-4 of those 5 were on the road (just the Ottawa loss at home)
-4 of those 5 were 1 goal games (until today's blowout)
-Blowout is probably because of Bernier?
-Mantha and Bertuzzi are keeping up the gangbusters performance from the latter half of last season into this season

On the down side I see Mantha was apparently injured... not great (for my team), great (for the lottery)

Wild getting points, but still proving they are shit at OT


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Well, the Hawks got a point at least. What a bullshit phantom Too Many Men penalty in OT.
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The fact that the Wild (and many others) are in the at 21-23 point range is kinda sad. The team was just dead in the water, and now closing in on Wild Card contention.

How bad is the league this year?

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The Western Conference is pretty mediocre this year. Plenty of underachieving teams.
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The Sens are literally at .500

lots of parity this year!
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Yeah but the Leafs have never lost a game when Chief Keefe is running the show
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Ive never seen the Stars go on a run like this before, like they cant lose it seems. Started 1-7-1 and now 13-1-1 since that.

Thought they were dead in the water but no!
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Okay I just need 1 of 4 different guys to get one penalty in the remaining games to flip the category in my favour.

....okay 2 of the 4 have gotten no PIMs in the past 8 games and the only other ones in the past 8 were Bertuzzi (one penalty two games ago) and Nurse (6 PIMs in one game... 6 games ago)

I hope for an errant slash or hook nevertheless!

https://twitter.com/Account4hockey/status/1198767995432120320?s=19

Bah, can't wait to watch this asshole coach the Blackhawks around Christmas.
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Jesus, the absolute cruelty. What an asshole.

And apparently it was Mitch Marner, and apparently he admitted to it, and possibly did it in Detroit too.

https://twitter.com/twolinepass/status/1199046947132321792

Edit: Marner confirmed, https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/video/marner-on-babcock-s-controversial-motivational-tactic-it-s-just-surprising~1837771

honestly I rate that as "kind of a dick move" but not nearly the level of unbelievable cruelty everyone keeps acting like it is
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SmartMuffin posted...

honestly I rate that as "kind of a dick move" but not nearly the level of unbelievable cruelty everyone keeps acting like it is

It's more than "kind of a dick move" it straight up is a dick move.
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Babcock is legit a horrible human being.

Jeff O'Neill straight up ripped him a new one on Overdrive today. It was a very cathartic watch for me. Fuck Mike Babcock.
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Wild continuing to get points.

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

It's more than "kind of a dick move" it straight up is a dick move.

Eh, I dunno. I think you can pretty clearly see what the idea was here. He had the opportunity to use his scheme to motivate Marner to try and motivate other players as well. Imagine Marner ranks Matthews like 15th or something. Babcock then takes that to Matthews and says "Hey! This young guy who we're all counting on to take us to the next level - who isn't playing hard - doesn't see you as someone who plays very hard either! What does that say about you? Be a better role model! Play harder!"

Now maybe there's a way to do that without "outing" Marner as the guy who made the list. Then again, maybe "increasing friction between Marner and the other players" was a deliberate and intentional goal. Maybe Babcock thought the other players were going too easy on Marner and something like this would help motivate them to ride his ass as well, so it wasn't just coming from the grumpy old coach.

All of this falls under the overall umbrella of "it's bad because it didn't work," but it seems pretty damn obvious to me that if a couple bounces go Toronto's way in Game 7 and they beat the Bruins, we aren't even having this conversation right now, so whatever. He's a "horrible human being" for the sin of not winning. If he wins, all of this is forgiven at the least and possibly heralded as psychological brilliance.
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Man, I don't know. My uncle is the most traditional "old school hockey" guy I know, and he's been playing his entire life. On top of that he loves Babcock from his Red Wings days, and even he couldn't put aside how much of a bully, high school move that was from Babcock.

The man literally preaches mental health and safe spaces at the same time as he bullies his players and makes his locker room the furthest from safe by ensuring the players need to always watch what they say to him. What kind of garbage is that?
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I think it increases friction in the team, but it's not some unheard, impossible to believe mental trick. Babcock's job was to get the team to play better. If he felt that they were overpaid, underperforming dipshits (Gee, I know that feeling), then it's just some tactic he's going to try. The issue probably is that most of them make so much money, they weren't going to listen to ANYBODY. It probably just fell on deaf ears.


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Also I don't think that every room needs to be a "safe space" or anything like that, I feel like that's the first thing SmartMuffin would point out.

I'm just using Babcock's own words. He himself said he wanted to make Toronto "safe for the players", so that they would want to play here, and again often advocates for mental health. In what world is that Mitch scenario not the exact opposite of what Babcock said he wanted to do?
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Oh no. Some players think I don't work hard enough *cries into piles of money* WOE IS ME!

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That is not in any way psychological brilliance. Its just how to lose someones trust early.

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So Bill Peters is the "hold my beer" guy for Mike Babcock now, I guess.

20 minutes ago there were claims he's been fired but now there's other reports saying a determination on his job hasn't been made yet.

Does he dodge the axe, somehow? Do we even make that a bet?

https://twitter.com/YahooSportsNHL/status/1199398025078231045?s=19
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Mantha out "a few weeks".

Fuck. I literally just got Letang back yesterday and I have no IR spot since Crosby is already there. Bye Mantha

Edit - I also had Tarasenko which was the biggest heartbreaker this season so far

Bill Peters is gonna get fired.

Man I would not wanna be anyone in any position these days. Being fired for a comment 10 years ago is some wild world we live in.
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Pretty solid competitive advantage to be had by any owner/GM ballsy enough to ignore the woke hysterics and just hire the best available person (although Bill Peters almost certainly isn't that)
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Apparently Bill Peters physically abused Canes players behind the bench, including kicking Michal Jordan in the back.

Happened a few years ago though so I guess its okay as well.
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Whiskey_Nick posted...

Bill Peters is gonna get fired.

Man I would not wanna be anyone in any position these days. Being fired for a comment 10 years ago is some wild world we live in.

I wish we could go back to the good old days of 2009 when we could all say the N word to each other in a clearly discriminatory way and it was okay.

I am clearly being sarcastic, if it wasn't apparent.
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Oh I am not saying what he did was okay.
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I mean apparently it was because he did it and nobody cared until now?
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Stars and Blackhawks playing some entertaining hockey.
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Shadow Dino posted...

Stars and Blackhawks playing some entertaining hockey.

Get your actual hockey talk out of the hockey topic
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Hell of a win there for the Hawks. Does not get any easier with two against the Avs this weekend.
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Yet again, the Wild getting point happy. It's almost as if the first month never happened, and someone on the team said, "FUCK IT! ME SCORE NOW!"

That or Dubnyk's injury allowed Stalock and Kaaponen to get opportunities and they didn't suck.

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https://twitter.com/MarkLazerus/status/1199704364560134144

The Western Conference, everyone!
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Looks like the Sutters are next on the "horrible people who did bad things" list
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Holy mediocrity, but if it means the Wild have a chance to slip past everyone who falls and gets a Wild Card (after the shitstorm first month), that'd be a surprise.

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Strife2 posted...

Holy mediocrity, but if it means the Wild have a chance to slip past everyone who falls and gets a Wild Card (after the shitstorm first month), that'd be a surprise.

NO. STOP. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS. THEY NEED TO TANK. THEY NEED TO TANK NOW.
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The Sens are messing up tanking so badly. Only the Kings and Red Wings seem to get it
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SmartMuffin posted...

NO. STOP. YOU DO NOT WANT THIS. THEY NEED TO TANK. THEY NEED TO TANK NOW.

I'm joking.

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in b4 Guerin trades whatever picks and prospects he has left at the trade deadline to go "all in" for a playoff run