Resetti

That's some garbage writing.  It's funny how fans like to run their mouths with all kinds of smack talk when all they're doing is sitting on a couch pounding some brew.  I guarantee you that the Blackhawks players don't dismiss the Red Wings when they're on the ice.  They're a good team, but cocky pricks like that author ruin it for me.

Wow, this thread features way, way, way too much overrating Crosby and way, way, way too much underrating Crosby.  There's some places it's just not even worth having a discussion about him... which is a shame because, honestly, if you cut away all the undue hatred and the undue media hype that surrounds him, there's a pretty unique player that deserves a fair shake.

That's your captain?  Everybody in that organization should be embarrassed watching that play.  That kind of laziness isn't OK in the regular season.  It's downright pathetic in the playoffs.

But at least it yielded an awesome GIF.

I wanted to start a thread about it but am too chicken.

 

Anyone think the Islanders 1980-1984 consecutive playoff series wins at 19 will ever be broken?

No.

Gotta love it!  This is the kind of thing you like to see in the playoffs, and it's from wars like these that rivalries are forged.  This series smacks of hatred, and I just can't not watch a game like that.

I'm of the opinion that a penalty is a penalty regardless of what period you're playing in.  If that's a call they're making in the 1st and 2nd period of the game, there's no reason it shouldn't be called in OT. 

Every fan base accuses the other team of "gooning it up," or that there's some league bias for or against a team... it's almost pointless to debate specifics.  They're going to miss calls both ways, so the most important thing is that they maintain a level of control that prevents things from becoming truly dangerous on the ice (e.g. player violently boarded that doesn't result in a penalty so headhunting begins in earnest).

Yeah, soccer really captures the gist of it.  Sports are supposed to be entertainment.  I don't know what it is that drives some people, makes them so unconscionable.  Maybe they don't have enough going on with themselves so they live vicariously through sports and teams, and it becomes bigger than them. 

At any rate, the unbridled hate that comes out of stories like these make me a cynical man.

Wow, some of the comments here and elsewhere are really low.  While I'm not expecting anybody to be losing sleep over an injury to another team's star player, celebrating the pain anybody goes through with that kind of injury is rotten.  Sports really brings out the worst in people, especially those shielded by the anonymity of the Internet.

From what I'm reading, Crosby did not need to get his jaw wired shut.  That's significant because it means he should be able to get back to solid foods earlier than someone who required that procedure.  Athletes in particular who go through that tend to lose weight and strength, which sets back their recovery even further.  Hopefully Crosby recovers in time for the playoffs.  I, for one, prefer to watch hockey with its best players active.

Guess that's what happens when the list of teams you want to go to magically goes from 4 to 1 cause this one time in the Olympics, Iginla passed Crosby the puck and then it went in the net...  I can no longer be a fan of Iginla either way now that he's a Penguin.

"Magically"?  If I were to submit a list right now of my top four dreams jobs in film, I might list some production companies that invest billions of dollars into projects.  The chances of them taking me aren't great, but I think a place like 20th Century Fox is a place I'd want to go.  I also include Filmways, Columbia Pictures, and Warner Independent Pictures.  All of these places would be great landing spots for me.  I hear that 20th Century Fox wants me to work for them; suddenly, I'm really excited about an opportunity that's apparently mutual.  There's nothing really "magical" about it.  Why is it such a difficult concept to grasp that submitting teams that you're interested in doesn't mean that a NMC-player is bound to that list?

I think the lesson to learn from the New York Rangers is to not underestimate the value of good, hard-working role players.  Last year they were the Eastern Conference's top team, but after a big trade with Columbus, they might not make the playoffs at all.  A great "team" isn't the collection of talent, it's the sum of its parts.

If every team in the league maintains their current pace, then the standings at the end of the year will look pretty much identical to what they are now.  

Pretty close, yeah. It may not be "fair", but players aren't paid by the point. If star players have to be valued relative to Crosby, then lesser players relative to them, and so on...half the players in the league would be paying the owners.

 

Teams need stars and there's only so many to go around. Parise may be more valuable to Minnesota than Crosby is to Pittsburgh.

 

That said, had Corsby waited to hit the open market, the best he could get is ~$90M over 7 years. He's currently getting $76.8M. Decent discount, but added security of a longer deal. (Which could prove pretty valuable, given that he's already had a serious concussion issue.)

We're all entitled to our opinions, but I think if you compare Parise's contract value to Crosby's, it isn't even close.  Now, I love what Parise brings to a team.  He's a hard worker; he backchecks hard, he forechecks hard, he's valuable in all situations on the ice.  Like a lot of players inking new contracts before the lockout, he took advantage of a longterm deal with a precipitous drop in his salary the last couple years ($2m and $1m respectively) to give his team some space.  The difference is that he'll be 40 and 41 years old at the time those numbers kick in, and will probably consider retiring and coming off the books.

He's not even close to a point-per-game player either.  He was the hottest free agent on the market, and he isn't even putting up half the numbers Crosby is right now.  Now of course there was a lot of speculation about Crosby's health after the concussion which would affect his market value, but his performance to date has somehow improved on his pre-injury numbers.  That's significant when you consider that the "discount" clause in his contract (the exploit in the old CBA) doesn't even kick in until age 34 or 35.  Unless you expect him to retire, or have a new provision to renegotiate the contract - and all in spite of what figures to be an expanding salary cap ceiling looking ahead - he's a bargain.

But this is really getting sidetracked.  The real point of this, to me, is to be wary of impending free agents who push for their full market value.  There are definitely guys who warrant throwing a lot of money at, and I absolutely thought Parise fit the bill because of his excellent leadership qualities.  But the things that set franchises back are big contracts to one-time-overachievers that never live up to their expectations.  Handcuffing the organization to talent that doesn't pan out is an unforgivable mistake.  It's much better to trade and explore burgeoning talent.

I think that it's inevitable that players switch to visors.  I also think that grandfathering it in is the right way to go; players who aren't comfortable with it shoulder the responsibility for their increased risk, and players entering the league who will have already adjusted to it will wear them.  There's no perfect form of protection -- the Marc Staal injury would have happened regardless to whether he had a visor, I think, with the crazy carom the puck took -- but there's no reason for players who have worn visors up until the NHL to toss them away when they hit the pros.  

Just bear in mind how steeped in tradition this league is.  In 1968 there were few players who chose to wear helmets, and even after Bill Masterton died following an incident when his head hit the ice, adoption to helmets were slow.  It wasn't until 11 years later that the rules changed.  There's a macho culture in the NHL, and some players will refuse to switch.  Grandfather it in, let them make their choice for themselves.  I hate seeing a player squirming on the ground like what happened to Staal, and I'm sure every other player in the NHL feels the same way.  That's why grandfathering it in is the best solution; the older players who aren't comfortable with it don't have to, anybody who's worried can adopt, and new players have to wear the shield.