Adding two intradivisional matches while increasing the NHL schedule to 84 games next season is tantamount to putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.
Such a move, which we’re told has a good amount of momentum inside the Board of Governors, would represent a rise from 32 percent of the schedule being played contained in the division to 33 percent.
That may be a difference with no distinction.
In truth, altering the schedule to make sure 4 matchups between division rivals (as an alternative of 4 against five opponents and three against the opposite two) would only serve to codify the NHL’s infuriating setup that deprives paying customers of entertainment value.
The thought is to maximise meaningful confrontations over the 12 months and to boost rivalries in a league wherein skill is spiking, but intensity often flatlines. It’s to highlight showdowns down the stretch in playoff races. The present matrix does exactly the alternative.
Do you understand that under the present system, it doesn’t matter whether the winning team goes to extra time within the 39 percent of games played out of conference while it has great bearing on the standings within the 61 percent of games inside the conference?
What sort of loopy system is that?
The treatment is evident. It’s time for the NHL and NHLPA to desert their insistence that each team visit every venue at the very least every year.
Every other 12 months would just do effective under a matrix wherein clubs would play six games apiece against clubs of their division, three games apiece against clubs in the opposite division inside the conference, and either a home-and-home against clubs in a single division of the opposite conference or a home-and-home against half the clubs in each division of the opposite conference on a yearly rotating basis.
That may compute to 51 percent of the schedule inside the division, 80 percent inside the conference and only 20 percent of games with diluted meaning. It could restore competitive integrity to the schedule.
Snapshot. Elite Eight: 1. Boston; 2. Carolina; 3. Toronto; 4. Pittsburgh; 5. Dallas; 6. Vegas; 7. Rangers; 8. Tampa Bay.
By the way in which, anyone hear any apologies to Lindy Ruff these days?
So Matthew Tkachuk had 100 minutes of hockey spread over two games and 4 nights to challenge Nico Hischier straight up if he truly believed the Devils captain had gone down and dirty on a crosscheck chop to Aleksander Barkov’s knee on a face-off at 19:57 of the primary period of the match in Newark on Dec. 17 that injured the Florida center.
But no. In fact not. While numerous his teammates took multiple low-cost shots against Hischier throughout the rest of that game, Tkachuk waited until Tomas Tatar scored an empty-netter with 39.1 seconds to go within the rematch at Sunrise on Dec. 21 to drag his weasel act and jump Hischier from behind in a scrum.
Page Six believes that might have made Sean Avery proud.
Caught the thrilling end of regulation between Vancouver and Seattle on Thursday wherein Elias Pettersson tied it with 1:20 to go for his fifth point of the night after which was nearly put to sleep by the extra time period, wherein the Kraken consistently regathered and brought the puck out of the offensive zone with the intention to get possession changes.
I get the strategy to some extent, but it surely perverts the entertainment value of extra time, which features three-on-three only due to its entertainment value. I’ve seen greater than a number of of those this season wherein the shootout is much more compelling than extra time.
PS: That match in Vancouver was one among them, with Pettersson himself getting the shootout clincher.
Up to now a lower percentage of extra time games have been required to be settled by a shootout (29.7 versus 35.4 last 12 months), so possibly the wet blankets behind the bench haven’t succeeded in ruining it entirely, but when possession hockey in OT becomes the norm, the NHL just may need to legislate against it.
You hear John Tortorella saying: “You [writers] are attempting to pit him against me and me against him, which is so ludicrous. So I’m not providing you with any update on Kevin Hayes.”
I hear John Tortorella nine-plus years earlier saying: “Don’t interfere with my friendship with Gabby [Marian Gaborik]. We now have an important relationship.”
In discussing the potential haul the Blackhawks might demand in return for leasing Patrick Kane: Is that this the time at which someone is allowed to indicate that No. 88’s 0.37 five-on-five goals per 60:00 rank 76th of the 79 forwards with 450 minutes (per NaturalStatTrick)?
And who am I to point that the common denominator between the wildly surprising Jets and the terribly disappointing Puddy Tats appears to be … Paul Maurice?
Possibly it’s just me, but why each time I see a photograph of a mustachioed Auston Matthews do I see Forged Iron Mike Keenan?
This just in: Gary Bettman says a poll he commissioned this week reveals that season ticket holders prefer paying to look at as many meaningless games as possible.
Adding two intradivisional matches while increasing the NHL schedule to 84 games next season is tantamount to putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.
Such a move, which we’re told has a good amount of momentum inside the Board of Governors, would represent a rise from 32 percent of the schedule being played contained in the division to 33 percent.
That may be a difference with no distinction.
In truth, altering the schedule to make sure 4 matchups between division rivals (as an alternative of 4 against five opponents and three against the opposite two) would only serve to codify the NHL’s infuriating setup that deprives paying customers of entertainment value.
The thought is to maximise meaningful confrontations over the 12 months and to boost rivalries in a league wherein skill is spiking, but intensity often flatlines. It’s to highlight showdowns down the stretch in playoff races. The present matrix does exactly the alternative.
Do you understand that under the present system, it doesn’t matter whether the winning team goes to extra time within the 39 percent of games played out of conference while it has great bearing on the standings within the 61 percent of games inside the conference?
What sort of loopy system is that?
The treatment is evident. It’s time for the NHL and NHLPA to desert their insistence that each team visit every venue at the very least every year.
Every other 12 months would just do effective under a matrix wherein clubs would play six games apiece against clubs of their division, three games apiece against clubs in the opposite division inside the conference, and either a home-and-home against clubs in a single division of the opposite conference or a home-and-home against half the clubs in each division of the opposite conference on a yearly rotating basis.
That may compute to 51 percent of the schedule inside the division, 80 percent inside the conference and only 20 percent of games with diluted meaning. It could restore competitive integrity to the schedule.
Snapshot. Elite Eight: 1. Boston; 2. Carolina; 3. Toronto; 4. Pittsburgh; 5. Dallas; 6. Vegas; 7. Rangers; 8. Tampa Bay.
By the way in which, anyone hear any apologies to Lindy Ruff these days?
So Matthew Tkachuk had 100 minutes of hockey spread over two games and 4 nights to challenge Nico Hischier straight up if he truly believed the Devils captain had gone down and dirty on a crosscheck chop to Aleksander Barkov’s knee on a face-off at 19:57 of the primary period of the match in Newark on Dec. 17 that injured the Florida center.
But no. In fact not. While numerous his teammates took multiple low-cost shots against Hischier throughout the rest of that game, Tkachuk waited until Tomas Tatar scored an empty-netter with 39.1 seconds to go within the rematch at Sunrise on Dec. 21 to drag his weasel act and jump Hischier from behind in a scrum.
Page Six believes that might have made Sean Avery proud.
Caught the thrilling end of regulation between Vancouver and Seattle on Thursday wherein Elias Pettersson tied it with 1:20 to go for his fifth point of the night after which was nearly put to sleep by the extra time period, wherein the Kraken consistently regathered and brought the puck out of the offensive zone with the intention to get possession changes.
I get the strategy to some extent, but it surely perverts the entertainment value of extra time, which features three-on-three only due to its entertainment value. I’ve seen greater than a number of of those this season wherein the shootout is much more compelling than extra time.
PS: That match in Vancouver was one among them, with Pettersson himself getting the shootout clincher.
Up to now a lower percentage of extra time games have been required to be settled by a shootout (29.7 versus 35.4 last 12 months), so possibly the wet blankets behind the bench haven’t succeeded in ruining it entirely, but when possession hockey in OT becomes the norm, the NHL just may need to legislate against it.
You hear John Tortorella saying: “You [writers] are attempting to pit him against me and me against him, which is so ludicrous. So I’m not providing you with any update on Kevin Hayes.”
I hear John Tortorella nine-plus years earlier saying: “Don’t interfere with my friendship with Gabby [Marian Gaborik]. We now have an important relationship.”
In discussing the potential haul the Blackhawks might demand in return for leasing Patrick Kane: Is that this the time at which someone is allowed to indicate that No. 88’s 0.37 five-on-five goals per 60:00 rank 76th of the 79 forwards with 450 minutes (per NaturalStatTrick)?
And who am I to point that the common denominator between the wildly surprising Jets and the terribly disappointing Puddy Tats appears to be … Paul Maurice?
Possibly it’s just me, but why each time I see a photograph of a mustachioed Auston Matthews do I see Forged Iron Mike Keenan?
This just in: Gary Bettman says a poll he commissioned this week reveals that season ticket holders prefer paying to look at as many meaningless games as possible.
