Thorny

There’s a statute of limitations on all this “when the poor culture started” stuff. It can change year over year simply by fielding a winning team. The mistakes of the tank aren’t a literal obstacle anymore. We missed the playoffs by 1 point last year, and that’s all we need to shake it: we weren’t prevented from gaining that 1 point by some mystical lingering culture force

People are saying his messaging has been on point this offseason, and I can kinda see it at times, but if you watch that there still seems an incredible resistance to simply uttering the words “playoffs are the goal.” the overall tone here was one imo more so of defensiveness: “if you remember 4 years ago, I said it would take time and patience. Well, you got it. Plan continues.” And he started out by carefully highlighting that it was his 5th year of GM. At first I was impressed: ok, he’s saying year 5, he’s saying it’s been a long time now and it’s go time. But he actually brought up year 5 to separate himself from the “13 years” frank led off with Haha

Because the league also primarily exists to sell tickets and winning gets you more games you can sell tickets to: the reality of the AHL is that it’s both. It’s a development league and a professional, entertainment based league, too. Tough balancing act for every organization. It does provide a good cautionary tale in general: our alottment of prospects doesn’t translate to winning in an inferior league, we can’t just graduate guys and win in a better league, it just doesn’t work like that. I understand we don’t have all our prospects together at the same time there but no team ever does, NHL or not. We didn’t even have prime Eichel together with ROR. A lot of team building is timing. Regardless of league

Benn is such a dirtbag

He’s been excellent all playoffs Rangers Stars would be a powerhouse matchup

It all got bumped from arguably pointless speculation to legitimately worthy discussion because of those comments Adams made (and didn’t make) at the end of season conference - I can’t even remember exactly what they were but it was a distinct “they thought they were already there!” thing which he went along with so…that’s exactly what we are talking about isn’t it? If you “think you’re there”, certainly “drive” is something perhaps on the table as a discussion point

This series is fun but you can’t pretend it gives you the vibes of a Dallas / Colorado playoff series when dallas’ sweaters looked liked this:

Only the Canucks are more finished than the Hurricanes

I dunno about fancy schmancy, but he was 2nd overall in takeaways this year Crosby was 8th ”I’m literally in love with buffalo” Alex Tuch was…4th. Overall!

And now the rest of this series is noooooooot I can’t shake the impression the playoffs were better before the in-division format

Also:

Unlikely to find a timid marine relative to a civilian. Timidness in a marine relative to other marines might still be a consideration These players are all very good at what they do. Greatness is longevity and the marathon allows even some apparently strong to fall by the wayside relatively There are definitely inferior doctors. Whether that comes down to intelligence is anyones guess but I’d imagine it’s a spectrum like anything else

The thing about Matthews is he was nominated for the Selke, too. So he’s better defensively than the other points guys, he scores way more goals than any of them, and he’s as good or better at even strength? I don’t see how he’s not top 3 he doesn’t have to win but 69 goals and Selke level D NOT being nominated seems truly absurd imo I think he missed a nom by not hitting 70. I think he might have missed because of that arbitrary factor. He’s literally the same guy at 69 but I think that could he a reason

Need Carolina to win this so the series is watchable

Matthews outscored McDavid this year when considering 5 V 5 primary points. So, goals and primary assists 5 V 5. Matthews had 38 g and 17a 55 points McDavid had 19 g and 32a for 51 points. I don’t think it’s a mark of Matthews being selfish, he’s a better player provably at even strength, especially cause his D is Selke level this year apparently McDavid’s advantage is on the power play and secondary helpers

Not at his cap hit

As long as it’s not a dogfight to reach a long term contract Specifically

There’s WAY too many people who talk hockey to generalize here though. It depends on the analyst Yes even after focusing on just the “credible” ones Also the draft comparables on tsn’s draft show for example are always the hall of fame guys and or superstars. Surely there are other players below that level that compare stylistically. They aren’t stupid, they know what they are doing. It’s just selling the product. I understand why they do it. I anecdotally do feel like a lot of people take the comps pretty literally for expectation. Skinner was just referenced in this way. As sort of a reasonably achievable level for an average first round prospect. Last year Thompson was Eric Lindros in a conversation I had on here

And I’d do it again

Might be something they’d say, though You forgot rule number 1

Thankfully a draft pick comes with as many or more question marks. 11 is a very good asset when combined in a package. There’ll be some intriguing options out there

That’s a good theory, in practice that’s not how it’s being interpreted

Didn’t say you did. There is an eternal mystery box aspect to prospects that leads to overstated comparisons (not saying you) that is undeniable, though, just speaking to that. The actual nhl production thus often undervalued. This is something that no doubt exists, it’s ingrained in the entertainment aspect of the whole production watch sportsnet on draft day and you’ll see: every player has an nhl comp or either nik lidstrom or jaromir Jagr if you polled 100 random fans whether they’d be disappointed if pick 11 had the career of skinner I’d bet over half would say yes

Players that are better get paid more. Hope that helps. - - - His contract will be 15% of the cap next season. Pastrnak’s is 14% wooooooOOOoooooOooo my online GM simulator broke! It does not compute!

Skinner is top 10 in even strength goals league wide, over the course of the last *10 years.* He has nearly 400 goals. Very few nhl players have no flaws. To think we can draft some rando at 11, throw them in Rochester for 3 years and get ourselves an upgraded version of Skinner just blows my mind. Maybe an upgrade on who Skinner is in 3 years, but if that’s the argument that’s not really saying much of anything