French Collection

Bedard with his 2nd goal. Nice play by Nick Paul.

Lots of polite chatter between the players, not exactly NHL playoff animosity.

Power growing a playoff like beard. Britain had a good power play, kept Canada’s PK unit out there for 2 minutes plus.

Cozens with a faceoff win and tip but a good save. 1-1 early in the second.

Plus he smoked Export A greens, some of those strongest darts in Canada.

He’ll get a close up look at Cozens, Power and Byram in Prague.

Canada just added Tavares, mixed emotions. He’s there for the right reasons, I’ll cheer for Canada while he is on the ice.

So, it’s too early to give up on Owen Power?

They don’t evoke any strong feelings for me. I like Shesterkin because he is fun to watch and I want a similar sized Levi to get to that level. I find the Canes are like vanilla. I do love to watch Aho, except when he plays the Sabres. Always kills them.

Great line! Assembler of talent vs team builder. I find the first person has more of a scouting bias while the second leans toward a coaching mentality.

Ludwig with the 10 inch shin pads.

It hurts my ears to hear Zach Parise pronounced Parisi. I remember hearing that he wanted it pronounced that way. His father was French Canadian, from near my hometown, who pronounced it Parizay.

Not a bad introduction to an NHL bench for Peca. I’m sure there is a lot to learn from Laviolette.

Rangers will be the healthiest team going if they sweep both series.

Looks like Brooks Koepka.

Again, my anti Leafs bias prevents me from seeing him as a defensive stalwart like Bergeron, Kopitar, Barkov O’Reilly and Toews. He would have to be 25% better than the next guy for me to consider him the best, it’s just the way I am wired. I can’t even strike up a conversation with someone wearing a Matthews sweater.

Svechnikov has more edge to his game than I recall.

NYR PK had more chances than the Canes PP. I would have never bet on a sweep, I thought the Canes could win this series. Maybe Brind’Amour does move.

Is he your Hart candidate? My anti Leafs brain prevents me from seeing him as the best of the best. I’m in the MacKinnon camp this year with Kucherov being second.

Well said. The lazy guys fell to the wayside well before the NHL. As much as Gretzky talks about taking time off and playing other sports, these guys train almost year round, and their training is hockey specific. Laziness shows itself in cheating defensively or giving up on puck battles, things that coaches try and eliminate and we fans criticize. I like to think there are no stupid doctors out there and definitely do not want to be seen by one. I knew an engineering student who was a serial cheater on exams. It wasn’t so much laziness or not being smart enough, he was under tremendous family pressure to become an engineer. Now I know why some bridges collapse and other engineering mishaps we hear about come to be.

They run a franchise that is the best in the OHL. They have a large rink for junior hockey and fill it, so they are making tons of money. People hate Vegas for using the LTIR rules to the nth degree. London has advantages other teams don’t have. They are a desirable place to go so kids they always seem to get guys that commit to the NCAA and are not picked by other teams. Somehow, London gets a lot of these guys to play the OHL instead. They have money so there are a lot of stories about side deals. Their billet program treats kids first class, living in gorgeous homes and having access to high end vehicles while other small town teams have to work hard to find good living accommodations. Dale Hunter is also a great junior coach, who churns out NHL prospects. Almost any kid would want to play there. Both Hunters could be working in the NHL but they prefer being in London, out of the spotlight, still making great money.

He is undeniably the best goal scorer in the NHL right now. There has to be selfishness to his game to score 69 goals with only 38 assists. I’ve said it in other threads that they award 2 assists for every goal so there should rarely be a player with a ratio like his. Ovechkin, not known for his playmaking, has averaged 1.22 goals for every assist over his career. Matthews scores 1.31 goals for every assist. He is definitely not the typical center, who sets up his linemates. I believe it is no accident McDavid got 64 goals last year, after Matthews was given the Hart for 60 goals the previous year when McDavid outscored him by almost 20 points. McDavid could probably score 75 if he was more selfish.

The average fan hears “he’s the next Steve Yzerman” instead of brings a two way game like Yzerman had at the end of his career.

Konecny is giving up 5 inches and 30+ pounds but I would put money on him in a battle.

Hence the term 80% league, until the playoffs.