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NHL Regular Season 2017-18

#762
Interesting article on ESPN NHL. It asks why there hasn't been any coaches fired this year?

It reasonably points out that the two worst teams, Arizona and Buffalo, have rookie coaches. Ditto Vancouver. I get that, but my take is even experienced coaches such as Boucher, Quenneville, Vigneault, and Julien are still showing up for work every night. Each of those squads have more talent than the standings would indicate. Do you think that the parity level in the NHL is that close? Or just that teams are tired of paying off the contracts of dismissed coaches?

Although there's this one team in South Florida that no doubt regrets firing it's previous coach! ;)
 
#763
Yeah, it's interesting. Last year was a weird year for coaches. Although, looking at the Habs and Bruins this year, you could easily say the Bruins made the right call. But Julien was handed a disaster of a team, which was proven by how they did when Carey was injured before that.
But I think their end statement was right, this summer may be a big firing spree of GM's, especially for the long standing bottom dwellers... those teams have shown their problems are system wide.
Sure you can say there's parity, and there's a lot of middle teams that are a few points either side of playoff contention, but consistently lingering in the middle to lower half of the league for years is a sign of management problems, not coaching.
And some of these other coaches, like Quenville, or even Blashill who was handed a once great team that is handcuffed with long term, over paid veterans, can't be blamed for the normal cycle of years of success bringing in low draft picks.
 
#764
First big trade move of the year!
Sens send Phaneuf and Nate Thompson to LA for Gaborik and Nick Shore.
Sens retain 25% of Phaneuf's salary.
I'm sure they'll try to move Gaborik along too. As is, it saves them over $5.4mil a year (even after the retention). Though it doesn't save them that much in cap space.
The Sens have officially moved into rebuild territory.
 
#765
Julien's place here in Boston is a little odd. We've got a huge and very critical media environment, but Claude seems to be very highly regarded by almost everyone. Partly because of 2011, but also because he's a good guy with generally good judgement.

And yet! There were CONSTANT calls for him to be fired. Constant. Every single season, there was doubt about his defensive mindset and his tendency to stick with veterans, with an emphasis on his disinterest in developing young guys like Seguin.

The NHL, or at least a lot of GMs, are moving younger. Given that trend, poor Claude might just be too much of a dinosaur for an NHL that's passed him by.
 
#766
The Pens are heating up, nine game home winning streak.
Rutherford is going to get Cullen back and probably another trade or two for the SC run.

Crazy how Phaneuf gets traded to the Kings who happen to be the next team to play in Pittsburgh, on Thursday. Also the next game for the Kings. I wonder if Lemieux will let him sleep over.

-Mike
 
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#767
MJ5150 said:
The Pens are heating up, nine game home winning streak.
Rutherford is going to get Cullen back and probably another trade or two for the SC run.

Crazy how Phaneuf gets traded to the Kings who happen to be the next team to play in Pittsburgh, on Thursday. Also the next game for the Kings. I wonder if Lemieux will let him sleep over.

-Mike
Click to expand...
It was a little weird seeing him leave mid-game because he was traded. Maybe his new team got him a hotel room in PIT and told him to just camp out.
 
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#769
DerekW said:
First big trade move of the year!
Sens send Phaneuf and Nate Thompson to LA for Gaborik and Nick Shore.
Sens retain 25% of Phaneuf's salary.
I'm sure they'll try to move Gaborik along too. As is, it saves them over $5.4mil a year (even after the retention). Though it doesn't save them that much in cap space.
The Sens have officially moved into rebuild territory.
Click to expand...
I don't get this deal at all. Sure, moving Dion saves some money, but at least he was playing every night. Gaborik's entire career has him spending more time in the training room than on the ice...the guy is always hurt. Plus he's on the books for $4.9M a year through '20-21. Not much in savings replacing a starter for an over-the-hill player. Who are they gonna unload him on? It would have to be a team with a lot of cap space, but who would want him? Oh well, Dorion got his extension so he'll have to ride this one out. Duchene next? Karlsson?
 
#771
dwm74 said:
I don't get this deal at all. Sure, moving Dion saves some money, but at least he was playing every night. Gaborik's entire career has him spending more time in the training room than on the ice...the guy is always hurt. Plus he's on the books for $4.9M a year through '20-21. Not much in savings replacing a starter for an over-the-hill player. Who are they gonna unload him on? It would have to be a team with a lot of cap space, but who would want him? Oh well, Dorion got his extension so he'll have to ride this one out. Duchene next? Karlsson?
Click to expand...

It's strictly money as the team (owner) isn't making any. Hoffman, Pageau, Smith, are likely trade possibilities. They won't move Duchene, and they need money to re-sign Karrlson
 
#773
DerekW said:
It's strictly money as the team (owner) isn't making any. Hoffman, Pageau, Smith, are likely trade possibilities. They won't move Duchene, and they need money to re-sign Karrlson
Click to expand...
Well, if they won't move Duchene, can you imagine how he feels now? Buried on a crappy team in Denver much of the past 5-6 years, and finally gets his wish to be traded. Ottawa was good...went to within one shot of advancing to the Finals, only to have the Sens fall flat on their face and be even worse than the team he left. I know some people think he deserves that but I'm not one of them. I'm guessing Turris, on the other hand, is feeling pretty good about now.
 
#774
The Seattle NHL stuff is picking up steam. Season tickets going on sale, and the application has been submitted.

I'll admit a little excitement over having a "local" team, even if it isn't the team I normally follow and cheer for. However, being at Seattle center (Key Arena) cools any plans of buying season tickets, or even seeing many games, as getting there and parking in Seattle center is terrible on good days. I can't imagine how crap it'll be for big events.
 
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#775
Hey, if Seattle's ownership group can learn from Vegas' management team, you may well have a contending team sooner rather than later. Perhaps looking too far into the future, but odds are you'll be better than the Canucks! A natural rivalry is born with Vancouver!
 
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#777
Jackets looked better last night, or maybe the Brooklyns are a bad team. They sure looked bad against the good guys.

I've heard that they don't like it in Barclay Center and they're moving back out to LI, so maybe that has sumpin to do with it.
 
#778
Selta said:
The Seattle NHL stuff is picking up steam. Season tickets going on sale, and the application has been submitted.

I'll admit a little excitement over having a "local" team, even if it isn't the team I normally follow and cheer for. However, being at Seattle center (Key Arena) cools any plans of buying season tickets, or even seeing many games, as getting there and parking in Seattle center is terrible on good days. I can't imagine how crap it'll be for big events.
Click to expand...

Yep. The area around Key Arena is a joke anyway, now add 15-20,000 people? Then those jokers decide not to run light rail up there? Dummies.
So stupid to kick Chris Hanson and his millions of dollars in the face and send him down the road.

-Mike
 
#779
MJ5150 said:
Yep. The area around Key Arena is a joke anyway, now add 15-20,000 people? Then those jokers decide not to run light rail up there? Dummies.
So stupid to kick Chris Hanson and his millions of dollars in the face and send him down the road.

-Mike
Click to expand...
I really think Seattle effed up by treating Chris's group like that. His location was better in just about every other way... and would bring new growth to the area he has all that land in. Pretty big missed opportunity... and Seattle center will be all the more a mess. When ticket sales are lame, they'll of course say there's no NHL interest here, instead of saying "Oh, we picked just about the worst spot possible".
 
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#780
dwm74 said:
Well, if they won't move Duchene, can you imagine how he feels now? Buried on a crappy team in Denver much of the past 5-6 years, and finally gets his wish to be traded. Ottawa was good...went to within one shot of advancing to the Finals, only to have the Sens fall flat on their face and be even worse than the team he left. I know some people think he deserves that but I'm not one of them. I'm guessing Turris, on the other hand, is feeling pretty good about now.
Click to expand...

You may be right, I've been thinking about it, and short of Karlsson and a couple other guys, Sens might just clean house altogether.
But.... if they do that, is Karlsson going to stay? He shown he's not happy, he might just go check the free trade market out next year.
 

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