JR Ewing

That's the problem with off-the-glass-and-out defensemen: a lot of the time, the puck is RIGHT back in the defensive zone. Yeah. Given the cost, they can't really afford for this to not work out.

@OccamsRazor@FD19372@mojo1917 Oh crap, that's right. Players all over the place. lol Well... Umm... Rasmus Ristolainen is a Philadelphia Flyer. THAT I know for sure.

If he were still on the team, I'd have said that Ghost would have been the natural guy to put him with: not bad at defending zone entries, and good at zone exits as well. Looking at the blueline now, I guess Philippe Myers wouldn't be bad to try him with: he defends the blueline well, but needs help getting the puck out with control.

This is the biggest problem with Ristolainen: he spends too much time in his own end because he's weak at defending zone entries. edit - I had meant to include a quote and link to an article from almost 10 years ago which was great: "Dave Tippett and Thinking About Defense Differently". "We had a player that was supposed to be a great, shut-down defenseman. He was supposedly the be-all, end-all of defensemen. But when you did a 10-game analysis of him, you found out he was defending all the time because he can’t move the puck. "Then we had another guy, who su

I'm a fan OEL's and since the first time I saw him, made sure to pay special attention. I do hope he can bounce back, but I honestly have my doubts: I think he's been starting to slip in the skating department. Most of his teammates had a better share of the goals, expected goals, chances, dangerous changes, shots, and possession when they weren't on the ice with him compared to when they played together, and it definitely wasn't because they were facing the toughest opponents. Chycrun and Goligoski were doing that. He'll very likely be on the 2nd pair in Vancouver, but he was in A

Urban legend, actually. Sockalexis played about 1/4 of a season for Cleveland about 16 years before the team changed its name, and was (aside from everything) constantly demeaned, abused and humiliated by the fans during his time in Cleveland, which would make him an odd choice to name the team after. https://didthetribewinlastnight.com/blog/2018/01/30/louis-sockalexis-separating-fact-from-myth-2/

In pretty short order, the Canucks are going to regret having Ekman-Larsson on their (already bad) blueline. He hasn't been good for several years now, there's no sign of him getting better, but he's getting paid like he still is. Garland is a nice complimentary piece, but he still has to sign his RFA contract, and will need to be paid. I think that in not very long, the Canucks will rue this day. edit - if OEL doesn't bounce back, at least somewhat, this could be a crippling trade for Vancouver. The cap hit they traded out was for one year, but the cap hit they brought

Do I have this right? 1st, 2nd and 3rd to get rid of Ghost and pick up Risto. 30-yr old Ellis with 6x 6.25M for Myers @ 2×2.55 and losing Patrick as well. At best Philly is expending assets just to tread water.

Yes, there was the telephone survey. There have also been other studies which captured a wider swath of opinions: https://news.umich.edu/native-american-mascots-names-chants-more-offensive-than-previously-reported/ I like that you're keeping your sense of humour.

I get that it was never a problem for you if Indigenous people were called redskins, endured "whoop whoop whoop" tomahawk chants, or saw themselves caricatured in demeaning ways so that teams could make billions of dollars, but it was a problem for them. This wasn't suddenly a problem; it's that the people who were complaining were largely voiceless. Those people have been protesting and complaining for decades before very many people paid them the courtesy of listening to what they had to say, and while I understand that the most convenient thing for you is to blame it on soy boys and leftist

If this is all there is to the deal, then this is a terrible trade for the Flyers. I just don't at all get the love for Risto. He gives up the blue line far too easily and, as a consequence, spends far too much time defending. Hagg wasn't much to give up for him, but the draft pick cost is dear. The success of this ALL hinges on the hope that Risto's horrible results are because he played on a bad team, and not because he was a key reason that the Sabres were bad.

Human beings aren’t mascots, and not one of them exists on this earth so that some football or hockey or baseball club can use their name or likeness (be it realistic or crude caricature) to “pay homage” to their bravery and courage. Doing that with people, as we would with animals or forces of nature is to treat them as if they’re just part of the flora and fauna and, at least in some small way, strips of them of their humanity.

It's obviously a different sport, but I know that Bill James looked into some of this stuff, and found that baseball players VERY often perform better in seasons where they're heading into free agency. Whether or not this holds true in hockey I don't know, but I would be surprised to hear that it's very different.

@TropicalFruitGirl26 I'm sorry about the delayed response. I only had access through a tablet for the past couple of days, and tapping/typing on a glass screen is for the birds... Yes, I'm thrilled with the AAV, though the term is a little bit longer than I would have preferred. This is the kind of thing you can get with a contract where the player gave up some money to stay in a city he likes. Nugent-Hopkins is a versatile player and, as Bill James pointed out many years ago, the kind of player who does a bunch of things really well, as opposed to one or two great, is

Agreed. It's true; Sakic may well decide to move on from Kadri. He hurt the team this year and, aside from not playing after game 2 of the first round, may have also been a distraction with his appeal. Kadri was outstanding last playoffs, but things often come down to "what have you done for me lately", so his time there could be ending soon. Either way, Vegas has a deeper team, and just seem to be built so well for the playoffs, so it was going to be a tough series Colorado anyway. As you said, the better team won.