Has Connor McDavid lost his love for the game?

[Cascade Youth]

3 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Sometimes I wonder (okay, I don't wonder, I assume) if young players don't fully understand the reality of pro sports insomuch as they put their faith in the "adults in the room" to get things right and then after a few years in the league the crushing reality sets in that these "wise elders" don't actually have any idea what they're doing and your faith in them was totally misplaced.

McDavid might be looking at guys like Thornton and Stamkos and is wondering "what's really going on here?". And he would be right to do so.

Many fans do the same exact thing...

[Georgia Blizzard]

50 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

McD finds himself in exactly the type of situation -- being married to a crappy organization with zero prospects of winning anytime soon -- that has driven LeBron, Durant, Kawhi and many other NBA stars to sign a series of short-term contracts instead of long-term deals.  This gives the player the ability to walk away if the team doesn't hold up its end.  OTOH, the price the player pays for this freedom and flexibility is the risk of foregoing the huge guaranteed $$ that is available in a long-term deal.

It isn't exactly apples to apples, as NBA contracts are shorter anyway, and NBA teams have a shorter period in which they can hold onto their young players, but I think the core concepts are still applicable.  McD could've signed a deal that took him to UFA and no further.  If he had done so, he would've held the Oilers' feet to the fire to build a good organization around him.  He took the money instead (which is what I would've advised him to do) -- but that security comes at a price.

Lebron - yes, he had to bail on Cleveland, but Kawhi and Durant ?? --- they both left solid teams, hell, at one point Durant was playing side by side with 2 other MVP's and Kawhi left one of the best run organizations in team sports

 

As for McD, he is stuck, but, he chose to be stuck by signing for 8 years -- 

 

 

[nfreeman]

21 minutes ago, Georgia Blizzard said:

Lebron - yes, he had to bail on Cleveland, but Kawhi and Durant ?? --- they both left solid teams, hell, at one point Durant was playing side by side with 2 other MVP's and Kawhi left one of the best run organizations in team sports

You're certainly right about KD's and Kawhi's teams not being crappy organizations.  My point as to those 2 was more on the trade-off between the huge long-term contract $$ on the one hand and freedom/flexibility/leverage on the other that the players have to evaluate.

[Georgia Blizzard]

1 hour ago, nfreeman said:

You're certainly right about KD's and Kawhi's teams not being crappy organizations.  My point as to those 2 was more on the trade-off between the huge long-term contract $$ on the one hand and freedom/flexibility/leverage on the other that the players have to evaluate.

got it, agree on that point.  NBA is clearly seeing a shift of power from owner/gm to player.  NHLer's have always lagged the other leagues on that dimension

 

[DarthEbriate]

We're losing McD. We don't know why... he's lost the will to play. But it's OK, because he's carrying twins. Ooobah... Ooobah.

[Zamboni]

Apparently he’s a cancer too.

Who knew!

[Thorner]

8 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

For sure. We talk about Jack speaking better and sounding like a leader, McDavid sounds miserable and like he hates his job. 

He lives in Edmonton.

[Ogre]

8 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

We're losing McD. We don't know why... he's lost the will to play. But it's OK, because he's carrying twins. Ooobah... Ooobah.

I swear that the laser wash I frequent is saying this to me as its guiding me in. I flash back to that scene every time.

[Thorner]

4 hours ago, darksabre said:

Sometimes I wonder (okay, I don't wonder, I assume) if young players don't fully understand the reality of pro sports insomuch as they put their faith in the "adults in the room" to get things right and then after a few years in the league the crushing reality sets in that these "wise elders" don't actually have any idea what they're doing and your faith in them was totally misplaced.

McDavid might be looking at guys like Thornton and Stamkos and is wondering "what's really going on here?". And he would be right to do so.

Care to elaborate?

3 hours ago, Georgia Blizzard said:

Lebron - yes, he had to bail on Cleveland, but Kawhi and Durant ?? --- they both left solid teams, hell, at one point Durant was playing side by side with 2 other MVP's and Kawhi left one of the best run organizations in team sports

 

As for McD, he is stuck, but, he chose to be stuck by signing for 8 years -- 

 

 

The Spurs and Kawhi had a massive disconnect in regards to how to manage his injury. Him and the Raptors then wrote the blueprint on "load management" to the tune of smashing success. 

[darksabre]

16 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Care to elaborate?

Sure. A guy like Thornton should maybe have gone somewhere else at some point but he has kept his faith in the SJ owners and GMs since he was traded there and he may never win a cup because of it. Stamkos may be in a similar boat if he stays in Tampa for the rest of his career. 

Maybe McDavid is looking at those guys and wondering if "toughing it out" is really worth it? Does Edmonton even deserve the same leniency that San Jose, Tampa, and Washington got/is getting from its stars? 

[Eleven]

10 hours ago, darksabre said:

I honestly think the Sabres are in better shape. It will require this season to let it materialize, but I can't see how Edmonton is better than us next year (if there's hockey).

Goalies.  Our goalies suck.  Mike Smith is no Vezina winner, and also shares his name with the actor who plays Bubbles (and probably many others), but he's better than what we have.

[darksabre]

28 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Goalies.  Our goalies suck.  Mike Smith is no Vezina winner, and also shares his name with the actor who plays Bubbles (and probably many others), but he's better than what we have.

I like Mike Smith, but our two goalies are better than their two goalies. That deal they signed Koskinen to is bananas. 

[Eleven]

8 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I like Mike Smith, but our two goalies are better than their two goalies. That deal they signed Koskinen to is bananas. 

Yeah, if you're considering them as tandems.  But Smith is better than either of the Sabres' two.

[darksabre]

8 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Yeah, if you're considering them as tandems.  But Smith is better than either of the Sabres' two.

You have to consider tandems because none of the four are NHL #1s. They're all platoon guys, and I like our platoon's chances a lot better. Koskinen is a debacle in the making and Smith is just about done. The Oilers might be playing goalies from Craigslist by the end of the year...

[Randall Flagg]

24 minutes ago, darksabre said:

You have to consider tandems because none of the four are NHL #1s. They're all platoon guys, and I like our platoon's chances a lot better. Koskinen is a debacle in the making and Smith is just about done. The Oilers might be playing goalies from Craigslist by the end of the year...

The most bizarre thing to happen in the last  year of the NHL is Chiarelli signing him to that contract, both because of the absurd size based on such a small sample, and because the Oilers let him do that before firing him

Edited August 29, 2019 by Randall Flagg

[darksabre]

49 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

The most bizarre thing to happen in the last  year of the NHL is Chiarelli signing him to that contract, both because of the absurd size based on such a small sample, and because the Oilers let him do that before firing him

GMs who do weird things with goalies are something that shouldn't even exist in the modern NHL, but here we are. 

They don't even have anyone in their system who can step up if both their current goalies end up being tire fires this year. 

No wonder McDavid is sad. He's already thinking about all the extra goals he's going to have to score to try to overcome a terrible case of goalie purgatory. 

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

 But Smith is better than either of the Sabres' two.

I don’t think he is. Not any more.

[PerreaultForever]

I think he simply doesn't see the situation in Edmonton getting much better any time soon and it gets really really cold up there in the winter. All that money and nothing to spend it on....................

IFF we crap out again this year and JBot's fired etc. you can pretty much expect the exact same article next year with Jack's name inserted for his.

[That Aud Smell]

18 hours ago, Taro T said:

The guy is human.  

...

He'll get over it.  ... But the toilet will still clog at the most inopportune time and people he cares about will get sick and die and others will find a spouse and lead a family and he'll celebrate those joys with them as well.  It'll be better, but not a fairy tale.  

...

And yeah, his life will be easier than most of ours, but it's only better if we don't make of ours what we can.  (Easier isn't better, it's simply easier.)

Dude. That was awesome.

Edited August 29, 2019 by That Aud Smell

[miles]

I will be honest, this article was almost entirely editorial without any real factual evidence. I'm not saying it is false or true but I suspect that it was written for clicks

 

Its pretty sad what passes for journalism these days. 

[That Aud Smell]

1 hour ago, miles said:

I will be honest, this article was almost entirely editorial without any real factual evidence. I'm not saying it is false or true but I suspect that it was written for clicks

Its pretty sad what passes for journalism these days. 

Well, yeah. It's a column, not a news report. He was providing takes, not really reporting facts.

[MattPie]

11 hours ago, darksabre said:

You have to consider tandems because none of the four are NHL #1s. They're all platoon guys, and I like our platoon's chances a lot better. Koskinen is a debacle in the making and Smith is just about done. The Oilers might be playing goalies from Craigslist by the end of the year...

Is that why I see some guy named d4rkoiler spamming edmonton.craigslist.org with goalie available posts?

[DarthEbriate]

16 hours ago, Ogre said:

I swear that the laser wash I frequent is saying this to me as its guiding me in. I flash back to that scene every time.

Sith flashbacks sounds like a bad trip to me. But more importantly, you are able to take showers/baths with lasers, which is awesome. I need that technology in my star system.

[Weave]

2 hours ago, miles said:

I will be honest, this article was almost entirely editorial without any real factual evidence. I'm not saying it is false or true but I suspect that it was written for clicks

 

Its pretty sad what passes for journalism these days. 

I dunno.  I think the problem is that “we” have lost the ability to discern what is news and what is opinion.  This piece wasn’t passed off as news by the author as far as I could tell.

[Huckleberry]

On 8/28/2019 at 5:30 PM, darksabre said:

I honestly think the Sabres are in better shape. It will require this season to let it materialize, but I can't see how Edmonton is better than us next year (if there's hockey).

I can see them ending higher than us simply because the pacific and the west is weaker.