kipwinger

Hard to imagine all this happening without his knowledge/approval if he was always going to be GM.

This is an interesting thought. Everyone said Holland was an idiot for bringing back Blashill. So if Yzerman signed off on it, is he also an idiot?

Exactly. Plus he was gifted elite talent to begin with. I do like his propensity to buyout/waive older players and hope that his arrival will mean that the free lunch for guys like Abby/Ericsson/Helm/Dekeyser/Glendening is over. Not that I necessarily want to see ALL of these guys gone, but I do think they'd benefit from knowing that their jobs aren't as safe as they once were.

I'm probably not as nuts about this as everyone else, but it is what it is. I do feel a little bad for Ryan Martin though. Have to assume he had the inside track on this GM position until the Yzerman news. I'd expect him to be running an NHL team in the near future.

I'll like Larkin, Zegras/Turcotte/Cozens, Veleno, and Glendening more though.

I was genuinely just rolling my eyes as I read that. I'd go with something like "Hats off to you Columbus, you were the better team this year...but you've got a rival for life!" At least save a little face. Sure it invites jeers this year, but you don't seem like a bunch of whiny p*ssies. Or maybe even "Our bad fam, we thought they were just gonna roll over and die too". At least it would be honest and not that mawkish bullsh*t they actually put out.

It would be really hard for me to part with AA for the sole reason that the lion's share of his points are goals, but his point totals are relatively low. 50 pts guys in the NHL are a dime a dozen, but when 30 of those points are goals you're in select company. Why does this matter? Because he'll provide a ton of goals for a more modest cap hit than you'd expect. Given that his last two years have been lackluster my guess is he'll come in around 5.5-6 per year, which is great. I'd be MUCH more skeptical of giving that money to a 50 point guy who's primarily racking up assists. Two other things, if you're going to criticize AA for being a one trick pony at least acknowledge that burying breakaways is a pretty awesome trick. Not many guys can get those types of looks in the NHL and even fewer can capitalize. I'm also not even sure it's true anymore. In the past sure, but if you look back at a lot of his goals this year you'll see him shooting WAY more, using better positioning to score on backdoor plays/rebounds, and stickhandling through defenders to get open looks. Secondly, tons of fast skaters maintain their speed well into their mid-30's and I think AA is probably better than most of those guys. Off the top of my head Grabner, Gaborik, Selanne, Bure, Fedorov, come to mind. Power guys seem WAY more likely to fall off than excellent skaters. So EVEN IF AA scores most of his goals off breakaways (which is probably less true now than in the past) I'd bet on him keeping that up for a good long time over someone like, say, Bertuzzi who doesn't have that dynamic element to his game.

BULLs***! Keenan is for closers.

Safe to say if the BJs win this then Jarmo is safe for another year after a MASSIVE gamble at the deadline. Also safe to say that if they lose he'll be fired within 48 hours.

I actually don't really mind Tampa Bay. Though I genuinely like the Blue Jackets. It's just that I hate when any team is so good that people act like winning is a foregone conclusion. I pretty much always want to see those teams lose.

And Kucherov as well. Have to imagine this is a very different series if he'd played in any of the games...oh...yikes.

My girlfriend is in Columbus right now at a brewery and she said people are going ballistic every time the BJs score. She doesn't care about hockey at all, so she's bitching to me about how miserable she is. I'm trying to explain how insane what they're doing is, and she's annoyed because she can't concentrate on her book lol.

That's basically what I meant. The future of our defense is good and will get better. I realize the current iteration is terrible, but they're placeholders. Should have specified.

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, our defense isn't as bad as people think and it's only going to get better. If Byram is there at 6, draft him. If not, sit tight on defensemen and continue to develop what we've got until Trouba hits FA. Hronek's about to be the next Roman Josi anyway so there's nothing to worry about.

I don't think it could have happened 30 years ago because I don't think a team from Columbus and a team from Tampa could both be good enough at the same time to create this scenario without the Cap. In yesteryear Tampa can't afford this team. Neither could Columbus. Neither team would have the amount of elite level talent they have now, both would likely be perennial losers, and as a result wouldn't be in this situation. The fact that both of these teams have been in the playoff hunt for the last handful of seasons is a testament to the Cap. 20 years ago the Rangers would have signed Stamkos to some MASSIVE contract two years ago, Kucherov probably sniffs free agency too. Now most max contracts are roughly the same and teams can retain their talent. Remember how everyone says fewer high end players change teams today than in the past? Why do you suppose that is? Because there's not much difference in the contract your team offers as opposed to what another team would offer? And as a result small market teams can retain their talent, and compete, and upset, and win, and all the other stuff we seem to like?

Other than the Bigfoot thing I actually don't remember these other instances which are so obviously burned into your psyche. Are there any other things I've said or done over the years that you've been dwelling on? Clearly you've been ruminating on those for a while lol. I clearly don't get how any of this works so tell me you wise Sports Knower, if I'm doing fanhood right can I talk sh*t to other sports fans? You seem not to like it when I do, so sh*t talking is un-fan-like right? How about being a d*ck, that's bad too right? Sports people are never d*cks right? I'm just confused because whenever I watch sports TV or listen to sports podcasts or read sports commentary people seem to be acting like dicks (Wyshynski, Filipovic, Cherry, Milbury, Roenick, Edwards, Jay and Dan, Lambert, Bayless, Smith, etc. etc. etc.) and my childlike brain doesn't know now to reconcile the two. So if I wanna be the kind of fan you find acceptable I have to not talk s***, and not be a dick, because those things are totally un-fan-like and quite obviously have no place in the exalted halls of fanhood. And I should definitely not tell other people how to be fans. Because you'd NEVER do that. durrrr...Columbus really seems to "want it" this year...durrrrr. Better?

Right, because there are so many people lining up to defend parity, the league, and Gary Bettman. I'm so obvious, I should be ashamed. I'm sure I'd earn your star of approval if, in response to this series, my take was something like "durrrr Tampa sure doesn't know how to fight through adversity durrr". At the very least, I doubt you'd go out of your way to challenge it as much as you've challenged me here. Here's some food for thought, when you fly in to protect the "unwashed masses/hillbillies" (your words not mine), aren't you being just a patronizing as I am? I just make fun of stupid people on the internet. You think they need your protection. I'm not even sure it's outworked as much as it's that they're being forced to play a game they're not equipped for. Tampa has a few scrappy/gritty guys but nobody who's going to beat Josh Anderson in a board battle consistently. Chances are that basic dynamic doesn't change at even strength, so the obvious solution for Tampa would be to do their damage on the PP and make Columbus open up the game because they're playing from behind. Except oops, Tampa is the more undisciplined team right now and so are taking all the penalties and therefore can't score.

Maybe true, he's got just as many Cups and one more Jack Adams trophy than Mike Babcock for what that's worth lol. I think Columbus is following the Capitals game plan from last year. I watched the Caps run pretty closely last year given that I live here, and while the Tampa series went to 7 games it wasn't really as close as it seemed. On a period by period basis Washington crushed Tampa because they did two things Tampa isn't cut out for, 1) clogged the neutral zone and forced Tampa to dump the puck more often than they like to, and 2) were extremely physical and aggressive on the forecheck. Tampa is not built to win physical battles and they wilt in those situations. There were plenty of holes in their game if any of the talking heads had bothered to stop blowing them long enough to actually look.

Was it supposed to make bad teams into good ones? That seems to be the line the anti-parity people take. Or was it designed to make the difference between bad and good smaller? Which wouldn't really upset the order of things but would make for more entertaining games and more compelling matchups? Because the latter might explain why there are still powerhouse teams, but the entire hockey world is currently talking about a series being played between a team from Tampa Bay and a team from Columbus. 30 years ago a series between these two teams would be an afterthought. Today it's the best story of the playoffs (so far).

Wait, are you suggesting that the Wings' 25 year dominance was systemic? Sure sounds like it. But that goes against your whole "the best organizations should be the best" story. Now it sounds like you're saying you're all for a system which props up teams so long as YOUR team is the one getting the advantage. Technically I'm not knocking people for disliking parity, I'm knocking them for liking it and being too stupid to realize it. But I wouldn't expect a plebe like you to realize that ;-)

Lol, who's strawmanning now? I've never suggested upsets didn't happen in the past. I'm suggesting that maybe a league that openly prioritized making more competitive teams and more compelling playoff matchups (like the one playing out right now) got it right. Everyone seems to love it. Except when there's need to call Gary Bettman names, at which point we revert back to this "false parity" narrative (that we all secretly like).

I know. It is awesome. That's my point. Maybe everyone can stop bitching about parity now since it's actually pretty cool.

You're an outlier and you probably know it.

No, I'm suggesting that there's a significant cognitive dissonance factor in bitching endlessly about parity and then reveling in the effects of it later on. Also, super teams suck and make sports boring. Nobody wants to see Tom Brady and the Patriots win year after year after year. The only people that do are Patriots fans, and winning so much has made them insufferable pricks, so how's that any fun? Also, also, the salary cap hasn't diminished the capacity of good organizations to rise to the top it's accentuated the need for it. Used to be your s***ty organization could compete just by poaching talent from poorer teams. Now you actually have to scout, draft, develop, and manage to win. How's that not better?

It's always fun for me to watch LGW members talk MAD SH*T about NHL "parity" during the regular season and then be overjoyed when a wildcard team jumps out to a series lead against a top seeded team. There's a handful of members on this thread that fall into that category. Maybe Gary Bettman actually knows something after all?