ruxpin

I cannot begin to understand why not. Maybe if one mistakenly believes this is actually the alternative. The alternative is delaying the start of next season until it's safe for cities to resume holding such events. Probably late December or January 1. And getting a shortened season in culminated by an actual playoffs with sensible structure and rules. Not some half-assed, half-brained idiotic horse crap like they've done in which every single person with a working brain stem understands the plan has zero to do with hockey, zero to do with fans, zero to do with sports and 100% to do with a money grab and to hell with everything else. Bleck. I've waited to be at another parade since I was at the 1975 parade. Win or lose this idiotic intramural practice-session tournament, I'll continue to wait.

This is all I'm saying.

Yep. Completely agree with this.

The problem is that the Flyers hired ALL of them. I wonder what Lavvy would do there. Short-term, I think he'd get them competitive--provided they figure out goal.

Hey bud. Same as everyone else, it's good to see you back. Risto is not the problem. I agree. But Risto is emblematic of the one of the problems with Buffalo. The problem is that they're using him in a way that exposes his weakness rather than just shows and takes advantage of his strengths. He struggles on defense -- and I wholeheartedly agree that some of this is made much worse by the goalie situation. But given that he does struggle on defense, they really should adjust his time and situation so that they can take advantage of this PP strength and offensive zone strength and reduce his exposure in other situations. It ultimately could even help his defensive ability in the long run. But the goaltending really does need to be addressed. Hopefully the kid helps. I think strong goaltending alone goes a long way to getting them back toward the WC slots. Skinner is weird. On the one hand I agree with JR. In fact, I mostly agree with JR. But I get trying to separate to two lines. Some of the problem, I think, is that so far Mittlestadt (sp?) hasn't been what they hoped. He may have come up too soon. He's still way young so he'll come around. But it hasn't helped. But Skinner's history in Carolina tells me that he was paid first line money but probably realistically isn't. Based more on Carolina but seemingly being proved in Buffalo, the guy seems to have a motivation problem. He was clearly motivated with a contract negotiation coming. Otherwise, he's hot and frigid. I've been positive on the idea of an upswing there. But management has to know the clock is ticking.

Yep. So basically very little. The place where home ice could really play a part, at least at first, is Denver. I'm not disregarding the quirk altogether. It plays its part. Ultimately, I don't think it alters all that much, though. Maybe it two teams are even in every other way. I still think it the arena is completely empty, the game might as well be played in Guam.

Doesn't that happen always for both teams whether home or away? You're always favorable bench proximity in the first and third and further in the second. I'm not following.

I honestly don't see how any place is "home ice advantage" with no fans. Seriously, I don't mean to hammer this, but I think we need to think about what creates a home ice advantage. I mean, it's not like the old days when the old Boston Gardens or the Aud had tighter corners or smaller zones, etc. They're all cookie-cutter rinks at this point. Some variance in ice surface, but that may be all out the window playing in July, anyway. And like I said to rad: last change. That can be assigned arbitrarily regardless of where you physically play. Like batting last in baseball. What is really the huge difference is fans --who won't be there. I don't think I'm overstating this. I don't think an empty arena gives anyone an advantage. Pretend it's in Pittsburgh, since that's actually on the list. I don't even think the Penguins will get home cooking advantage as I doubt they'll be able to go home during the tournament in an effort to keep players self-quarantined for protection. They allow anyone to go home and they've violated their own reasons for having an arbitrary playing location. For better or worse (I think worse), home ice advantage will be completely irrelevant. One team will get the extra game to have last change. That's about it.

If there are no fans in the building, I really don't think it matters. Without fans, they're ALL neutral. Honestly. What creates the home ice advantage? 1. Fans, their reactions, their urging on, and the opposite against the opponent. 2. Last change. They'll have that in any building in adherence to whomever is supposed to be the "home" team for any given game. So, we're back to just last change. No other home ice advantage. At this point, it's two pairs of mildly-interested teams on a random rink of frozen liquid that could be anywhere. And without fans, none of them will likely even know or care where they are while they're playing. They'll be doing it in near-silence. The only team that COULD benefit from this is the Panthers, since they're quite used to playing in silence.

It's possible, but Philly isn' t among those listed. Things could change by then, but they'll likely stay away from Philly or New York only because they've had such a rough ride and aren't yet officially in the clear. Allegheny County wasn't doing that great, either (not as bad), so I'm mildly surprised. Also surprise because while downtown Pittsburgh has some larger hotels, obviously, I don't know that they can accommodate that kind of volume.

...like all the fans, concessionaires, tertiary businesses, Red Wings, etc. etc. etc. If a hockey player scores in a forest and no one is there to see it, does it really matter?

My other post answers in a slightly more level headed way, but it's late and the short direct answer is because they give two s#### about the fans. This is about recouping some of their losses and an attempt to hedge against what more they might lose. Period. If you're looking for a hockey or sports reason or any kind of attempt to find a legit winner, you ain't going to find it. No pretense at thought was given to that.

This has nothing to do with competition, fairness or whatever. The answer to your question is again television contracts and revenue. 16 teams negates the reason for a play in that everyone can pretend isn't a playoff and counts to magically fulfill a number of regular season games. I agree with your upset with the 71 point club knocking off a legitimate team. I wouldn't cry too much for the Pens, specifically, but it was looking like quite possibly a Philly/Pitt first round. It's not what it once was, but it's still a good time. I don't know that it's rigged. I mean, I guess it's possible since nearly everything else is anymore. But it certainly lacks a drop of integrity.

No, I don't have the pro-rating thing out of my system yet. Not even close. Though, one single post from superfan88 will make me instantly forget it.