JR Ewing

@pilldoc Time has gone on since then, and Hall has accrued some more track in the rear view mirror. I don't think that Hall is a Dick Allen-type of player, who actively hurts his team's chances despite having a ton of talent, but he sure as hell doesn't seem to make his teams any better despite all of that talent. I don't want to be unfair towards him, but we now have former teammates saying some of these things, and even Hall himself admitting that he spent years ignoring coaches.

A little philosophy in life which my father taught me: if the same things keep happening, but with different people, you have to ask what the odds are that it's *always* the other guy's fault or if, since you're the common denominator, you are the problem. A multitude of players, coaches and General Managers have come and gone in Pegula's time, with the same poor results. Bad ownership seems to be a problem in Buffalo.

For the sake of context, we can compare those comments about Hall to a quote from Alex Stalock just this morning: That's what the best players in this (and every) sport do: work hard in every situation.

That's pretty different. Nail has ability, but was extremely homesick and doesn't have the best hockey IQ you'll ever see. Hall is a guy who spent years (according to guys who played with him) mailing it in for big games and belittling teammates for daring to work hard in practice.

Adam Larsson, asked about Taylor Hall after the trade to New Jersey: @jammer2: Andrew Ference (not naming names, but later admitted by Hall himself that he was one of the guys in question):

@WordsOfWisdom I know it's the history of the franchise, but yeah, I generally agree. The very best thing you could really say about the jersey is that it has nothing to do with Colorado Avalanche history. At worst, it's an insult to the fans who lost a team that was turning the corner and would win a Stanley Cup immediately in another market.

Gaudreau is possibly available, but I would have to think that it would take an overpay of fairly epic proportions to pull Tkachuk out of Calgary. They can't be anything other than thrilled with his development.

Yeah, people are more likely to feel unwell after the second dose. If anything, that's a good sign: indicates that your immune system is doing its job. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/02/second-vaccine-side-effects/617892/

Wendel Clark would have loved you.

@WordsOfWisdom You're not going to pro-rate his usual 10-20 game injury period as well?

One of my VERY subjective "did he have a good game?" things is a left-over from the days when far fewer games were on TV, and we had to rely on radio. If, during the course of play, you hear the player's name over and over, getting more touches, involved in the play, etc, odds are he's having a good game. As the games pile up, and and he has more and more of those sorts of games, we're talking about a good player.

Was that the one where he gave them sh|t because they would rather cheer for a fictional white boxer from Philly than an actual historically great (Joe Frazier) black boxer from Philly?

Two things were going: a) The Leafs have some very high end guys (Matthews, Marner, etc), and b) The Canucks are a hot mess defensively, and have allowed (by far) allowed the most High Danger Chances Against in the league.

Holtby is done, and the North division doesn't have a lot of great blueliners OR goaltenders, for that matter.

Yes. There's a direct relationship between a team's goal differential and winning, but there's an important thing to remember: sample size. Even 82 games isn't enough to eliminate the noise and chance in a hockey game. In baseball, Bill James brought this relationship to light, and it's true in hockey when the games pile up. Adapting his work of Pythagorean Win% to hockey, we get: Pythagorean Win% = GF2 / (GF2 + GA2) The last column shows the difference between Pts% and PW%, and it definitely shows how, as the games pile up and random chance evens out, goal