WordsOfWisdom

NHL should definitely pull out now. Team Canada should pull out now. Make the right decision Gary (for once in your life). Or if Gary won't do it, ATTN: Connor McDavid: Now is your time to shine by pulling out of the Olympics. As soon as you do it, the rest of the NHL and Team Canada will follow suit. Now it's a legitimate threat.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-announces-diplomatic-boycott-of-beijing-olympics-athletes-will-still-compete-1.5698625 Canada announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics, athletes will still compete OTTAWA -- Canada will proceed with a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, meaning government officials won’t attend but athletes can continue to compete. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Wednesday during a press conference alongside Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge. “We are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government. That is why we are announcing today that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic, Paralympic Games this winter,” Trudeau said. ... I think Canada should boycott the games altogether. A diplomatic boycott is taking a tiny bit of a stand against China, but not much of a stand. I'm fully expecting China to retaliate over this. If anything, our athletes are actually in more danger now than ever. If and when the time comes where Canadian Olympic athletes are "mysteriously" poisoned prior to their event or held captive in a Chinese prison after the games and can't fly home, then you heard it here first.

Oh. My bad. Given the widely different versions of football out there, it makes sense to have a different name to describe each of them. To me, they're three completely different sports when you speak of soccer, football, and rugby. (I guess football and rugby are quite similar, but soccer bears no resemblance whatsoever to American-style football.) I think it's too niche to be considered as hockey (at the global level). It will always be known as field hockey.

Just because something appears in the Olympics does not mean that there is a professional league where players can earn a living from doing it. Plus, even if there IS a league, it doesn't mean that it's a major pro sport. (Lacrosse has leagues in Canada, so does the CFL. They're both minor sports or minor pro leagues. They don't compare in any way to the big four.) Also, shot-put is in the Olympics, but there is no such thing as a professional shot-putter. Hockey as a professional sport is in Canada, US, Europe, and Russia. It's the same game everywhere you go with only minor differences such as rink size or rule alterations. It seems that Australia is the outlier here.

The four major North America pro sports are: Football Baseball Basketball Hockey Since the NHL is based out of North America, and represents the game of hockey at its highest professional level, they get to set the name, and it's hockey. Just hockey. Field hockey is a high school level game (usually played by girls). The soccer vs football comparison doesn't hold because you have professional football in Europe and you have professional football in the US, and they're completely different games. The term soccer was created to avoid confusion between the two. When you talk about professional level hockey, there is no confusion. When you say hockey you are referring to the NHL game and that's it. There are no other professional hockey leagues playing it wildly different in other parts of the globe. I imagine it's as irritating as someone referring to the NFL as "American football" every time... to American football fans. (Who probably look over and scowl.)

Unless/until the day comes when the game of hockey is played on anything other than ice at its highest level, people (and by people I mean anyone who isn't Canadian) are hereby ordered to stop referring to the game of hockey with the word "ice" in front of it. NOBODY in Canada calls it that. It's just HOCKEY. (End rant.)

But for statistical integrity, you can't label two different events in hockey with the same stat. It would have to be given a separate name because a player who saves 50 goals in a season (by shot blocking) is not an offensive dynamo like Auston Matthews. I think you could realistically call it a "save" (as it is with goalies) and that's all there is to it. Simple.

I just thought it was hilarious that the Leafs played more games in the playoffs by reaching the conference finals than they did when they last won the Cup lol.

Thanks. Hmmm. Since it's based on W-L record, I guess you could do it for goalies. Not sure how it could be done for skaters. If we looked at the "Stanley" rating for a goalie, it would measure which goalies play better in the playoffs than in the regular season. You mean when a skater slides down to block the open net and prevents a goal? Why would it be added to his goals scored? Wouldn't you just want a stat called "SAVES" and credit him with a save for preventing a goal?

Perhaps a new name is in order? Instead of calling it "clutch", how about if I called it "Stanley"? Since the Stanley Cup is the ultimate objective, it only makes sense that a team statistic called "Stanley" would evaluate how each team did towards achieving that goal, based on the expectations placed upon them going in.

For one thing, I don't understand why the NHL wants to be in the Olympics instead of hosting their own World Cup. They literally shot themselves in the foot by destroying their own tournament. (I guess the NHL is acknowledging that nobody wants to watch their league outside of Canada and the US so if they sneak it into the Olympics maybe they can sucker unsuspecting viewers into watching it.) If the NHL thinks they are going to "grow the game" with this, they're stupid. If the NHL thinks the players (or any fans who travel there to watch) are safe in the world's most dangerous and evil communist controlled country, they're stupid. What fan in their right mind would fly to China to watch these games given what they did to Kovrig and Spavor?

Best comment ever. Agreed.

So let it be written. So let it be done. --------------------------------------------W--L---T-------------------GP-W 1982–83 1982–83 Wales Patrick 3rd 80 39 25 16 — 94 306 283 4 1 3 — 11 19 Lost Division Semifinals to New York Islanders, 1–3[6] 1983–84 1983–84 Wales Patrick 2nd 80 48 27 5 — 101 308 226 8 4 4 — 28 25 Won Division Semifinals vs. Philadelphia Flyers, 3–0 Lost Division Finals to New York Islanders, 1–4[7] 1984–85 1984–85 Wales Patrick 2nd 80 46 25 9 — 101 322 240 5 2 3 — 12 14 Lost Division Semifinals to New York Islanders, 2–3[8] 1985–86 1985–86 Wales Patrick 2nd 80 50 23 7 — 107 315 272 9 5 4 — 36 24 Won Division Semifinals vs. New York Islanders, 3–0 Lost Division Finals to New York Rangers, 2–4[9] 1986–87 1986–87 Wales Patrick 2nd 80 38 32 10 — 86 285 278 7 3 4 — 19 19 Lost Division Semifinals to New York Islanders, 3–4[10] The Clutch stat for the Washington Capitals: (1/4) / [39 / (80 - 16)] = .410 (4/8) / [48 / (80 - 5)] = .781 (2/5) / [46 / (80 - 9)] = .617 (5/9) / [50 / (80 - 7)] = .811 (3/7) / [38 / (80 - 10)] = .789 The 1982-83 season was an epic choke job.

That's a pretty awesome accomplishment right there. I know the "C" is a throw-away item on many of the newer franchises, or treated like a cheap gimmick, and I know many fans don't "get it", but to be captain of a century old franchise like Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, Boston, Chicago, etc.... means something. It's not a throw-away title when you examine the players who had it before you.

My suggestion would be for the NHL to skip the Olympics in China (maybe indefinitely) and just have the World Cup of Hockey. That way the NHL can control the location of the tournament and all the content.

I generally enjoy the NHL teams in the Olympics, but I think it would be an insult to Canadians if we sent our best athletes over to a country to entertain their people when their government held our citizens hostage in jail (solitary confinement) for ~2 years over make-believe crimes as retaliation for arresting a Huawei executive. Meanwhile she stayed on house arrest at her ~$25 million dollar home in Vancouver. Just imagine if the NHL was the FIRST pro sports league to take a stand AGAINST China. There's virtually no risk to the NHL. Nobody watches the NHL in China. They couldn't possibly lose any business from doing so. If any league could do it, the NHL could. It would set them apart from the other copycat sports leagues.

Well if it were up to me, I'd pull all of Team Canada out of the Olympics citing safety concerns. The fact that China has a track record of holding random Canadians hostage over fictitious crimes, is a security concern. They can't be trusted. China could decide on a whim not to allow the Canadian athletes to return home, and try to use that as leverage to get something from Canada. Nobody else in the international community would come to Canada's aid, just like nobody did anything over the recent cases of hostage taking. It didn't even make the news outside of Canada and Britain. China is considered "too important" of a trading partner that nobody wants to anger them.

I think you meant "nor".

You know what? I change my answer. I think the Toronto media is soft on everyone. Nothing but softball questions and politeness. It's the fact that you can never get away from the media attention that drives people crazy. Maybe Torts would be in heaven being in Toronto. He would be outspoken and have the biggest platform in the NHL to shout from. I think this is the last kick at the can for the current administration here in Toronto. There are two people who likely won't be in Toronto next season if the Leafs lose in the first round again this season (or miss the playoffs entirely). Mr. Glasses with no glass in them (Dubas) and Mr. Keefe (gone when new GM comes in). The problem is, if you bring in Torts, then a player like Matthews or Marner would demand to be traded.

The Toronto media would eat Torts alive. He wouldn't last a month in Toronto. They would tear him a new a-hole so quick lol.

The Leafs usually suck hard against Buffalo. They haven't been past the first round since 2002? 2004? Here's an interesting bit of trivia: If the Leafs make the Stanley Cup final, it'll be the farthest they've ever gone and the most games that they've ever played in the playoffs. Why? Because the Leafs have never been in a Cup final since the league went to FOUR rounds. They're the ONLY non-expansion team in the NHL not to appear in a 4-round Stanley Cup final.

Kind of analogous to calling out Wayne Gretzky after his 215 point season. (This is the point where people need to stop putting a microphone in front of Torts and just walk away. Let him talk to the wall.)

The time to make a strong political statement against China's human rights abuses and bullying tactics is NOW. No other sports league has shown any courage or will to stand up to China. The NHL (a league with NO footprint in China, and a league that will NEVER have a footprint in China) has the opportunity to make a strong statement against China, rather than pander to China like the NBA has. Here's WHY this is so important to Canadians: China recently held two innocent Canadian citizens hostage in jail for years over the arrest of a Chinese businesswoman here in Canada. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58687071 Relations between CANADA and China are at ROCK BOTTOM. I'm not sure how/why the United States manages to ignore them so well. Nothing China does on the world stage seems to penetrate the minds of Americans. America is quite literally "asleep" on the issue of China. While America sleeps, China presses on to greater and greater international abuses of power. Examples: Routinely violating Canadian waters in the North channel for example. A clear act of war that would get them bombed into oblivion IF they ever did it to the USA. I already mentioned the hostage taking as retaliation. China is the greatest threat to world peace. They have no respect for human life. No respect for other countries. No respect for international agreements/treaties. No respect for fair trade. No respect for borders. I don't think the NHL should be sending its best players over there to compete. There is no guarantee that China wouldn't try to do something to harm the Canadian players. If the NHL won't withdraw, Team Canada SHOULD withdraw immediately from these Olympics.

As evidenced by the number of Habs and Sens fans in attendance when Toronto plays those teams, nobody is being prevented from buying tickets. The only factor is the difficulty in getting them.

Fair or unfair, the Leafs are the most valuable ticket in the NHL. Why on earth would they reserve tickets for fans of OPPOSING teams when there are 5 million people in Toronto who desperately want to see them play live and can't? Sabres fought hard but got outgunned by the Leafs last night. The way you beat a team like Toronto is with stiffling defence and physicality to push the Leafs smaller players around. It's tough to out-skill the Leafs with firewagon style hockey.