On 7/1/2021 at 3:59 PM, DarkandStormy said:

The Lightning just look too good through two games.  I guess when you have a $98m payroll for the playoffs, you do end up with better players than in a hard cap regular season.

 

Yeah, Tampa Bay was just too good at basically everything.  Montreal had Price in net, but TBL had Vasilevskiy - every bit Price's equal.  And the completeness of the rest of the roster - great, deep offense; strong, deep defense.

 

Les Habs stole Game 4 in OT in Montreal, but the Lightning closed out the series with a 1-0 Game 5 win.  And that Game 5 win shows why Tampa has won back-to-back Stanley Cups after many years of previous playoff frustration.  Prior to 2020, TBL was known for top-notch regular season records, but early playoff exits - culminating in the CBJ's first-round sweep of TBL in 2019.

 

After that humbling sweep, TBL tweaked their roster for more defense and toughness to focus on assembling a team to win in the playoffs and not just set regular-season records.  Since that 2019 loss to Columbus, Tampa hasn't lost a playoff series(!)  So, this CBJ fan says, "You're welcome Tampa Bay"(!)

 

However for 2021 (as DarkandStormy pointed out) the Lightning worked the NHL hard salary cap to the limit and beyond.  Through having multiple LTIR contracts and a multiple-team salary-cap laundering trade to acquire CBJ defenseman David Savard (congrats Savvy), the Lightning were able to have a payroll over the salary cap, while still being cap compliant.

 

Now it should be noted that the Toronto Maple Leafs also did this - and they lost in the first round to Montreal.  However, Tampa had an ace-in-the-hole with Nikita Kucherov.  Kucherov had off-season hip surgery that was going to keep him off the roster for most of the regular season.  Tampa kept him off the roster for the entire regular season because they didn't need him to make the playoffs - and adding him would have required losing some other players to get under the salary cap.  So they just added a healthy and rested Kucherov to their playoff roster (which doesn't have a salary cap limit) and he scored 32 points in 23 games - boosting their already strong lineup.

And speaking of Kucherov - his post-game press conference reminded me of the three greatest things about the NHL:

1. The series ending traditions of the post-game handshake line and the awarding of the Stanley Cup from the Commissioner to the team captain to whoever he chooses to whoever he chooses ... and on and on until everyone gets their celebratory skate time with the Cup.
2. The Stanley Cup itself.  Even people that don't follow hockey still know the Stanley Cup - the oldest and most iconic of the Big Four trophies.  Plus the tradition of the team "owning the Cup" for the entire off-season and each player getting "a day with the Cup".
3. Hockey Russians are the Best Russians.

 

^For a sport that has dealt with / continues to deal with issues surrounding substance abuse, addiction, and alcoholism, maybe hockey media shouldn't be playing up a presser in which a current player was absolutely blitzed as something fun.  Some of the oddities of his phrasing may also have to do with the fact that English is likely his 2nd or 3rd language (referring to Fleury as "that guy in Vegas" for example).

 

On to the offseason where Tampa will surely find a way to circumvent the salary cap again.

 

Offseason will be about a month shorter than usual and the NHL appears to ready for next season to:

-start at the usual time or even a bit early in October

-have an All Star Game / hockey celebration as a send off for the Olympics (in Vegas)

-take a full 2-3 week midseason break for said Olympics - they promised to make a "good faith" effort to let players play in the Olympics in the last CBA

-play a full 82 game season

 

Sounds fun!

 

Many NHL reporters are now saying to expect a "flat cap" (that is, the $81.5m of the last couple seasons) for *FOUR TO FIVE YEARS.*  Things could get really strange.

OOPS

 

Stanley Cup dented amid Tampa Bay Lightning's second boat parade in 10 months

 

Nice to see Tampa's 5 month championship drought come to an end.

NHL teams have opened their training camps and the beginning of the 2021-22 season is less than a month away.  A glorious hopeful time for fans of most teams.

 

But not Buffalo Sabres fans.

 

The Buffalo franchise just celebrated its 50th season - and for the first 40 years it was a reliable playoff contender, reaching the playoffs 29 times in those 40 years.  But since then, it's been horrid.  Ten straight seasons without a playoff appearance.  Rebuild after rebuild in those last ten years - and they finished dead last in the NHL last season(!)

 

But they did get the #1-overall pick - and he elected to play in college next season - the first time since 2006 that has happened.

 

And now they have a Jack Eichel problem.  Eichel was the #2-overall pick from 2015 (drafted just after McDavid) who was going to be their generational center to lift the Sabres from their misery.  But in hockey, you can't build a champion with just one player.  And they made bad decision after bad decision, cycling through multiple HC's and GM's in his six seasons in Buffalo.

 

Now this:  https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32262693/buffalo-sabres-center-jack-eichel-fails-physical-stripped-captaincy

 

"Jack Eichel failed his physical at Buffalo Sabres training camp and has been stripped of his captaincy, as the team and its franchise player remain at an impasse over surgery options.  Eichel, 24, has been out since March with a herniated disk in his neck.  The star center and his team have battled over the proper way to treat that injury, and he's requested a trade out of Buffalo.  He'll be placed on injured reserve to start the 2021-22 NHL season. ... Eichel is in the fourth year of an eight-year, $80 million contract.  It's his last season before a full no-movement clause kicks in next summer."

Tonight marks the start of the 2021-22 NHL season.  And this season has a lot to look forward to:

• Seattle Kraken - the newest and 32nd franchise begins play
• February break to allow NHL players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics (after missing the 2018 olympics)
• New networks and ways to view NHL games.  ESPN, ABC, TNT, ESPN+ and Hulu (plus the previous regional sports channels) are available now.  Tonight ESPN will broadcast a double-header with the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning for the early game and a battle of the past two expansion teams (Seattle vs Vegas) for the late game.

On Saturday, the Seattle Kraken played their first NHL regular-season game in their "new" arena.  I said "new" because their arena was renovated in a most unusual way.

 

The new home for the Seattle Kraken was originally built as an exhibition space for the 1962 World's Fair.  After the fair was over, it was converted into an arena for the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, the WNBA's Seattle Storm, Seattle University basketball and for multiple minor league hockey franchises.

 

After the SuperSonics left, a renovation plan was devised for the arena to attract a new NBA and/or NHL team.  The renovation plan was complicated by the arena's iconic sloping roof and three original glass curtain walls being protected by local historic preservation law.  So the renovation plan would keep the existing roof and glass curtain walls, while demolishing the existing arena structure underneath and building a new arena structure.

 

So the iconic sloping roof would get propped up during the destruction and reconstruction process, while the glass curtain walls would be disassembled and stored off-site.  The below photo shows the beginning of the excavation process to expand the arena.

 

Most of the new arena seating is below-grade to expand the overall seating capacity and amenities.  Everything from the upper seating bowl down is below-grade.

 

Here is the finished arena on the Kraken's opening night.  An unusual feature is the use of two three-sided wedge-shaped video boards instead of a single centrally located video board.

 

And here is the finished exterior of the "new" arena, which looks like the 1962 design with the preservation of the original roof and glass curtain walls.  It's interesting to note the dramatic change of Seattle's downtown in the background from the first 1962 photo to today(!)

 

And here is the finished exterior of the arena.  Again, looking like the 1962 design with the preservation of the original roof and glass curtain walls.  Amazon bought the naming rights - calling it Climate Pledge Arena - and announced that the venue would be the first zero-carbon arena in the world, powered exclusively by renewable energy both on-site and off-site.

In case you're wondering about the name: 

 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90531766/what-is-a-kraken-how-do-you-say-it-your-burning-questions-about-seattles-nhl-team-answered

^^Pretty interesting - the ground level is essentially at the upper bowl of the arena.

https://www.si.com/hockey/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-chicago-blackhawks-abuse-report

 

There's a huge scandal taking down some big names in the NHL.  It stems from 2010, when a former 1st-round pick for Chicago (who was 20 at the time) made allegations that the teams' video coach sexually assaulted and harassed him during the Blackhawks 2010 Stanley Cup run.

 

At the time, Chicago Blackhawks management buried the allegations but did ask the video coach to resign at the end of the season.  The player who made the allegations never played a game in NHL for the Blackhawks or any other team and ended up playing in Europe.

 

The player (now 31) filed a lawsuit last year against the team for mishandling his sexual assault allegations.  The suit led the Blackhawks to commission an investigation by a law firm and the results were released on Tuesday.  The investigation revealed that the team's GM Stan Bowman and Head Coach Joel Quenneville were aware of the situation but wanted to bury the allegations so as not to be a "distraction" during their 2010 Stanley Cup run.  Chicago ended up winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 and later in 2013 and 2015 with Bowman and Quenneville as GM and HC.

 

Yesterday, Stan Bowman - who was still the Blackhawks GM - resigned.  Today, Joel Quenneville - who has the 2nd-most wins as a NHL head coach and was now the head coach for the Florida Panthers - resigned.

On 9/23/2021 at 7:50 PM, Columbo said:

The Buffalo franchise just celebrated its 50th season - and for the first 40 years it was a reliable playoff contender, reaching the playoffs 29 times in those 40 years.  But since then, it's been horrid.  Ten straight seasons without a playoff appearance.  Rebuild after rebuild in those last ten years - and they finished dead last in the NHL last season(!)

 

And now they have a Jack Eichel problem.  Eichel was the #2-overall pick from 2015 (drafted just after McDavid) who was going to be their generational center to lift the Sabres from their misery.  But in hockey, you can't build a champion with just one player.  And they made bad decision after bad decision, cycling through multiple HC's and GM's in his six seasons in Buffalo.

 

Now this:  https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32262693/buffalo-sabres-center-jack-eichel-fails-physical-stripped-captaincy

 

"Jack Eichel failed his physical at Buffalo Sabres training camp and has been stripped of his captaincy, as the team and its franchise player remain at an impasse over surgery options.  Eichel, 24, has been out since March with a herniated disk in his neck.  The star center and his team have battled over the proper way to treat that injury, and he's requested a trade out of Buffalo.  He'll be placed on injured reserve to start the 2021-22 NHL season. ... Eichel is in the fourth year of an eight-year, $80 million contract.  It's his last season before a full no-movement clause kicks in next summer."

 

Buffalo trades Jack Eichel to Vegas:

 

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32549854/buffalo-sabres-trade-jack-eichel-vegas-golden-knights

 

For Eichel, Buffalo got 20-year-old center Peyton Krebs, 25-year-old winger Alex Tuch, and a 2022 first-round draft pick.  The teams also swapped 2023 third-round picks.

 

Eichel, 25, was the No. 2 overall pick by Buffalo in 2015.  However his relationship soured with Buffalo last season over a disagreement about how to treat a herniated disk in his neck.  Eichel will get artificial disk replacement surgery as soon as this week.  The Sabres preferred Eichel undergo fusion surgery, as a disk replacement has never been performed on an NHL player.  Under NHL collective bargaining agreement rules, teams have the final say on how to treat injuries.

 

After his surgery, Eichel is expected to be cleared to skate in six weeks, but a minimum three months until he will be cleared for contact.  That timeline would put his return until at least after the All-Star Break.

islanders first practice in their new belmont arena!

 

https://nypost.com/2021/11/18/islanders-practice-at-ubs-arena-for-first-time/

 

indeed! --

 

plus the infamous hanson bros  ... the original hanson bros that is!  😂

 

 

 

Why ‘Slap Shot’ Captures the 1970s Better Than Any Other Sports Movie

 

Celebrating the greatest hockey movie of all time—and one the best “malaise days” Seventies films ever.

 

Rolling Stone

Dan Epstein

 

 

ver the last few decades – thanks in part to movies and TV shows like Dazed and Confused , Boogie Nights , Anchorman and HBO’s Vinyl – there’s been a pronounced pop cultural tendency to reduce the 1970s to little more than a fabulous parade of campy signifiers like mirrored disco balls, brightly-painted muscle cars, platform shoes, bellbottomed jeans, tube tops, Afro hairdos, pornstaches and piles of cocaine.

 

It’s an understandable impulse, of course. (Who doesn’t love Afros or piles of cocaine?) But taking such a superficial approach to the seventies means glossing over the grittier, grimier and more soulful aspects of a decade that was marked as much by socio-economic upheaval and spiritual dislocation as it was by debauchery and decadence. There’s a scene early on in Slap Shot – George Roy Hill’s brilliant hockey comedy, released on February 25th, 1977 – that may be one of the most quintessentially “seventies” things ever committed to celluloid, even though there’s nary a groovy shag carpet or white three-piece suit anywhere in sight. Minor league hockey players Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) and Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) walk along a dreary street in front of the local steel mill, arguing about what the factory’s just-announced shutdown is going to mean for their team and their town.

 

“What are these poor f*ckers going to do when they close the mill?” wonders Braden. “10,000 mill workers will be placed on waivers. Every sucker for himself, I guess.” Ned’s wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse) then brings the conversation to a halt by drunkenly roaring up in a dingy 1971 Ford Econoline van. Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” is blasting from the radio, and she fixes her husband with a glare as toxic as the fumes rising from the mill’s smoke stacks. “Will you ever win?” Stevie Nicks asks, and there were quite a few blue-collar workers during the Nixon/Ford/Carter years who were asking themselves the same question.

 

more:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-slap-shot-captures-the-1970s-better-than-any-other-sports-movie?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

 

On 11/19/2021 at 5:16 AM, mrnyc said:

islanders first practice in their new belmont arena!

 

https://nypost.com/2021/11/18/islanders-practice-at-ubs-arena-for-first-time/

 

The New York Islanders had their first game in the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park on Saturday.  This is the end of the long journey to find a proper home for this storied franchise.

 

The team was founded in 1972 as part of the NHL's maneuvers to keep a team from rival league World Hockey Association out of the newly built Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in suburban Uniondale on Long Island.  The Islanders won four consecutive Stanley Cup championships between 1980 and 1983.  They are the last team in any major professional North American sport to win four consecutive championships.

 

But by the 21st century Nassau Coliseum was an undersized aging venue.  After multiple team owners tried to rebuild or replace Nassau Coliseum in suburban Long Island, the Islanders relocated to the newly built Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2015.  However, because the Barclays was built as a basketball-only venue, the addition of an ice rink caused poor sightlines, obstructed views and poor ice conditions.  This, plus its location away from the Isles fan base on Long Island, led to low attendance.  So much so that by 2018 the team split their home games between Barclays Center and a newly renovated Nassau Coliseum with a reduced seating capacity.

 

So the new home on the grounds of the historic Belmont Race Track is welcome sign for this franchise.  Here is an aerial showing its location next to the horse racing tracks:

 

The exterior is traditional with modern flair:

 

And here it is lit up at night:

 

Although they moved from their historic Nassau home, they brought some of the history with them to the new Belmont arena with banners of their four Stanley Cups and eight retired jerseys:

 

Opening night:

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32904899/nhl-suspends-games-cross-border-travel-christmas-break-due-covid-19-concerns

 

This article updating the NHL's covid outbreak contained this foreboding news regarding the NHL's involvement in the 2022 Winter Olympics:

 

"Olympic participation for NHL players is now in serious jeopardy; the league is scheduled to take a three-week break to allow players to go to Beijing in February.  The NHL has a Jan. 10 deadline to opt out of the Olympics without financial penalty.  The league said on Sunday that it will announce an Olympic decision in the coming days.  League sources tell ESPN that it is "highly unlikely" that NHL players will go to the Olympics now, as the NHL schedule has been materially impacted by COVID-19."

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32913690/nhl-pause-season-wednesday-resume-scheduled-christmas-break-amid-covid-19-outbreaks-sources-say

 

The NHL will pause its season on Wednesday, two days before its planned Christmas break, the league announced Monday evening.  All NHL team facilities will be closed from Wednesday through Saturday as the league tries to weather several COVID-19 outbreaks.  Players are set to report back to team facilities on Sunday and resume daily testing.  The NHL schedule is set to resume on Monday, Dec. 27.

 

It has been a challenging week for the NHL, as 11 teams have suspended operations and the league postponed all games through Christmas that involved cross-border travel between Canada and the U.S.  More than 15% of the league's players were in virus protocols as of Monday night.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32918026/sources-nhl-not-going-olympics-due-covid

 

The NHL and NHL Players' Association have come to an agreement to not participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic men's hockey tournament in Beijing, multiple sources told ESPN.

 

The NHL and NHLPA had negotiated Olympic participation in 2022 and 2026 into the newest collective bargaining agreement after NHL players did not participate in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  The only caveat for the Beijing Olympics, scheduled for February 2022, was if the current NHL regular season was "materially impacted" by COVID-19 postponements.

 

The Olympic rosters will now be filled by a combination of amateur players and professionals playing in leagues outside of the NHL.  That could include North American minor leagues and overseas professional leagues like Russia's KHL.  This was the setup for teams in the Pyeongchang Olympics, where the Olympic Athletes from Russia won gold.

 

As of Dec. 21, the NHL has postponed 50 games because of outbreaks on teams and has paused its season through Christmas. ... Attention will now turn to using the scheduled break for the Olympics -- Feb. 6-22 -- to reschedule games.  The NHL All-Star Game is still scheduled for Feb. 5.

this holidays pause seems pretty reasonable and i do not know why the other major leagues are not following suit.

 

well, i know, money, but still.

Tonight's New Year Day outdoor game in Minneapolis is on track to be the coldest-ever outdoor game at -7.  It will be so cold that the NHL will need to warm the ice for playability(!)  And if you wonder why pro hockey players are considered a different breed, the visiting St. Louis Blues team got off their bus in shorts and flip-flops(!!) 

 

The NHL has revealed new dates for the 98 games postponed for coronavirus-related reasons, keeping the end of the regular season on schedule for April 29.

 

The changes include moving 23 other games around and scheduling 95 games to fill the February 7-22 gap that was previously scheduled for an Olympic break.  Finishing the regular season before the end of April would keep the league on track to begin the playoffs in early May and award the Stanley Cup before July 1:

 

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/33101977/nhl-reshuffles-schedule-amid-postponements-plans-end-regular-season-april

 

Here's the NHL tweet about the reworked schedule:

Although they accomplished this massive rescheduling task, some teams are really getting a super-compressed schedule during the Olympic break window.  The NHL Network had this graphic that shows the teams most affected by this:

 

lol — the saddest fan in msg:

 

 

https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=34067150

Avalanche / Lightning would be a fun series - the two best teams the last 3-4 years.  Colorado finally broke through this year but their final challenge may be attempting to slay the back-to-back reigning champs.  That or face the best goalie in the world (Shesterkin) if the Rangers come back.

 

The '16-'17 Avs remain a mystery to me.  They went 22-56-4 for 48 points, one of the worst modern era records.  They had on that roster Nathan MacKinnon, in his 4th year in the league.  Every year after '16-'17 he's score at a more than a point per game pace.  They had Matt Duchene, who wasn't yet disgruntled (I don't think).  They had a young Mikko Rantenen, who is a career point per game player.  They had Gabriel Landeskog, in his 6th year in the league and who is a very good player, contribute a career low in goals, assists, and points (only season under 20 goals for him).  MacKinnon, Rantenen, and Landeskog have made up Colorado's top line for the past several seasons now and they're widely viewed as one of the best lines in the entire league.

 

Of course, plummeting that season led them to draft Cale Makar, who might be the best player on the planet not named Connor.

i freakin love this old bruins commercial — 😂

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2OQ-KROfXq/?igsh=bnVnMmY2Zm43cTB3