kipwinger

Let's not get too excited. Tomorrow is a different day. lol

I'd have to think about it more, but on the face of it I think that it sounds okay. Refs already have the power to blow the play dead for a number of other reasons, why not stop it if a player is stalling the game? If you threw your body down on top of the puck so that nobody could move it they would stop the play. Likewise, closing your hand over the puck is already a penalty. I see some rationale, and precedent, to what you're saying.

I agree with the first part, but don't agree with the 2nd part. The past DOES give an indication of what's going to happen. But the winner ISN'T unexpected IMO. For example, if winning the President's trophy made you a Cup favorite then why do most President's Trophy winners not win the Cup? Likewise, if having the best player in the world makes you a Cup favorite then why have guys like Gretzky, Crosby, and McDavid lost far more often than they've won in the playoffs? How many times in the past have we seen goaltending win or a lose a series for a team that clearly didn't deserve that outcome otherwise? It happens ALL the time. Yet you can almost set your watch to it. Next season the same dumb dumbs will say the same stuff...almost certainly because their job is to sell interesting narratives and not to actually say anything intelligent about the game.

There was a game earlier in the playoffs, I can't remember which one, where a team was on the PK and a dude pinned the puck on the boards with his skate for a good 20 second. It was SOOOOOOO boring.

It's not that I expect everyone to get it right all the time, I don't (and didn't). It's that the margins are razor thin in the NHL and it seems odd to me that none of the so-called experts A) acknowledge this, and B) ask themselves "are there any valid points that go against my line of thinking". It's just "durrr...McDavid...durrr". I expect that from fans, but it's fun to watch the media guys do it and then flounder.

I think my favorite thing about the playoffs has been how wrong all the so-called experts have been about everything, pretty much the whole way through. I listen to a lot of hockey podcasts and it's always fun to observe the awkward silence when someone makes a "Toronto is clearly the better team here" comment before a series, and then not even bother to address how wrong they were afterward. -Boston will run away with the Cup -You never bet against McDavid and Draisaitl -Toronto's outplaying Florida all over the ice -Dallas is the most complete team left in the playoffs What's especially fun about it is that almost all of these declarations were obviously flawed to begin with, but nobody in hockey media bothers to think about things before they say it. It's social media mentality flooding into everyday interactions. It doesn't matter whether it's true or not, it only matters if a bunch of people agree with it. -Boston's top six centers are injured and 87 years old. -If Draisaitl and McDavid were such an unstoppable duo why didn't Edmonton win their division? -Toronto's offense is almost entirely dependent on powerplay goals -Dallas' goaltending has been a no-show for two rounds.

This whole thread is the softest sh*t ever on LGW. "I...I...I...um...I can't believe it. I...*wipes away tears*...I can't believe how rough the game of hockey is". I imagine Jamie Benn's crosscheck on Mark Stone last night had you all in fits. Don't worry p*ssy babies, I'm sure your therapists can fit you in this week.

Clearly

Patience and trades aren't mutually exclusive. We've got four 1st round picks, and at least four 2nd rounders, in the next two drafts. It's not like trading a few of them is going to gut our already top of the league farm system. If the playoffs this year has taught me anything it's that when premier talent becomes available you need to act. There are a million excuses to talk yourself out of going all-in on guys like Eichel, or Tkachuk, or Stone, or Pietrangelo, or Reinhart, or Bennett, or whomever. Most teams do. But it definitely seems like its paying off for the teams that go out and get what they need. We need a 2C, some scoring, and a top four defenseman. We're not getting that without giving up assets. I'd rather it be picks than guys like Berggren, Mazur, Wallinder, Sodorblom, Lombardi, etc.

And? At some point we've got to stop kicking the can down the road and try to actually win games. We've been making our first round picks since Mantha and it's gotten us nowhere. Maybe we should try to flip those extra 1st rounders for established talent this time. Or we could just keep using them on guys like Veleno and Cossa and cross our fingers.

Gotta make it to the playoffs for that to matter. Your roster above is a long shot to do that.

Woof.

Trade 1: To Det: Timo Meier To NJ: 2023 17OA, 2023 2nd, Perron, Albert Johansson Trade 2: To Det: Mark Scheifele To Winn: 2024 1st (Boston), 2023 2nd, Zadina, UFA Signings: Miles Wood Scott Mayfield Meier-Larkin-Kubalik Copp-Scheifele-Raymond Ras-Kasper-Wood Berggren-Veleno-Mazur Fabbri Walman-Seider Edvinsson-Mayfield Maatta-Chiarot

Does it give you the vapors? Are you just beside yourself with worry? I imagine it's hard to sleep.

I. Don't. Caaaaaarrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeee. Joe Veleno could cut Nino's head off with his skate and it wouldn't be much worse than what I see on the news all day everyday. Grow up.

Maybe playing meaner is the key to unlocking JV as a player. Maybe he's always been this guy, but he's been shoehorned into a "scorer" archetype because of his early success in the CHL. Maybe he just needs to embrace being the new Claude Lemieux. I've got a lot of time for JV after this.

Is this where all the wilting flowers hang out? LGW used to be full of "we need to get tougher" and "Zadina is a soft manlet" and "old time hockey" and now it's turned into this? For shame.

They do. And no it wouldn't. Conspiracy theories persist because half the believers are suspicious of things they don't understand and the other half think it's entertaining to perpetuate a lie. Showing the actual drawing (which the NHL already does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHySdt4YLAI) is just one of number of steps the NHL takes to ensure the transparency of the process. These steps include: -Hire an independent accounting firm to conduct the lottery itself, including calculating the odds and randomizing the selection process. -Publicly releasing the randomized codes to show that the number of coded lottery balls corresponds to each team's respective lottery odds. -Allow witnesses to view the entire process, including representatives of each team (if they so choose) and the media. There were roughly 20 witnesses for this year's drawing -Recording and releasing video of the drawing -Allowing the press unfettered access to report on the entire process. Here are links that help describe the process for anyone who A) genuinely wants to learn something, B) isn't a troll. https://theathletic.com/4453404/2023/05/05/nhl-draft-lottery-format-rules-odds/ https://www.nhl.com/kings/news/how-does-the-nhl-draft-lottery-drawing-work/c-306599032 https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2023/05/09/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/2023-nhl-draft-lottery-behind-the-scenes.aspx https://apnews.com/article/nhl-draft-lottery-connor-bedard-blackhawks-6c165f262ea37abc5056a61decb6d250 https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2018/04/23/detroit-red-wings-nhl-draft-lottery-ken-holland/543873002/

Wasn't Datsyuk hurt until Game 6 or 7?

The NHL has expanded dramatically under Bettman. If you think the size of the city isn't an important consideration I don't know what to tell you.

Every team in the league has representatives in the room when the lottery takes place. What reason would they have to allow the league to rig the lottery against them and in favor of their competitors? "Sure Gary, go ahead and screw our team over in the draft year after year. I definitely don't mind because...reasons?", says Chris Ilitch (of the the most powerful and well respected owners of one of the most profitable organizations in the league).

Funny that you didn't mention this before when you were making your first erroneous argument re; The Bulls. It's almost like you're just throwing things that the wall and seeing what sticks. But I'll play along. If fans were actually upset about the scandal (they aren't), then wouldn't cleaning house and getting rid of Toews and Kane (along with Quenneville and Bowman) actually make fans happier? Make them more inclined to give the team a fresh start? Conversely, if Toews and Kane were such big draws and the league was willing to stack the deck in Chicago's favor, wouldn't they have done so any of the last three years so that the organization could leverage all that Toews and Kane star power? They could have gifted them top two picks in any of the last THREE drafts BEFORE the Blackhawks traded Dach and Debrincat and Kane. Before Toews retired. Hell, if they're rigging the thing they could have done it in ALL THREE drafts. They basically did something similar for Edmonton and the Rangers right?

Not really when you consider that A) the Bulls suck too, and B) the Blackhawks are one of the most profitable teams in the league despite missing the playoffs 5 of the last 8 years and losing the first round the other three years. Which just proves my point. Chicago will make money even if they're bad, just like Detroit. So if the league was going to rig the lottery for someone, why do it for them? Wait, so the league has no problem letting Arizona play in a college arena for the next four seasons and lose massive amounts of gate revenue but they won't gift them a superstar prospect who will just go with the team to the next city IF they relocate? Good call.

NHL Fans (2005-2023): Bettman's salary cap punishes successful franchises!!!!! NHL Fans (Today): Bettman is biased in favor of successful franchises!!!!!

Except that literally everything Gary Bettman has ever done in the NHL runs counter to this philosophy. He has consistently invested in new and emerging markets despite a chorus of detractors missing no opportunity to suggest that he should be doubling down on established markets. He's overseen the NHL while draft lotteries handed 1st OA picks time and time again to small markets, instead of the large "honeypot" markets you're suggesting. We watched Edmonton win time after time despite the fact that Montreal would have been a better choice if he wanted to prop up "honeypot" markets. We've seen Jersey win twice. Buffalo win twice. He's bent over backward to expand the NHL market share to places like Arizona, Atlanta, Vegas, Seattle, Dallas, Tampa and Miami, and that philosophy has been extremely lucrative for owners BTW. If he wanted to rig the lottery wouldn't he have Arizona win? Since that's consistent with everything he's ever done vis-a-vis that team/market? Most importantly he helped usher in a salary cap that benefits small markets and punishes larger ones. What he has definitely never done is demonstrate that he thinks it's better to have a league centered around a handful of big cities in the Northern U.S. and Canada.