xXx..CK..xXx

I said last man back (checking), not the first man back. I get how it can be interpreted multiple ways though. In my opinion, there came a point where Subban stopped recovering as well after his turnovers. In his first few seasons and in junior, he’d be the first man back even after he was the one to turn the puck over because of his anticipation and blazing speed. I noticed even when he was on the Habs that this was starting to fade away a little. I was saying that in response to how he recovers well after making mistakes, although it seems that the comment was specific to how it’s a myth that he’s not good in his own zone. I agree that P.K. is solid in his own zone. It’s more the offensive blue line turnovers and neutral zone turnovers that can prove costly (for any player). I just found that P.K. used to recover better from those situations than he does now.

https://www.nhl.com/video/andrighettos-late-go-ahead-goal/t-297850294/c-60028603 Looks like Subban was the last man back on Colorado’s game winning goal today. PS: I don’t miss him but I liked Andrighetto. Everyone was fine with the trade but I think Andrighetto for Martinsen was one of MB’s lesser trades.

It’s not the biggest deal to me but last year we had the three highest offensive point totals by defensemen get nominated for the Norris. This year Burns was second highest in points and didn’t get nominated so I’m not sure it can be said that he was nominated for his defensive play last year, otherwise he’d be in the running year after year. The criteria seems to be different each year. Burns had a rough start this year and I wasn’t saying he should have been nominated, but the point was that since he wasn’t nominated this year, I don’t believe that he’s necessarily outstanding defensively and that being the reason he won last year. He won because of his offensive output with admittedly an outstanding 29 goals. Outside of the goals, he won last year after having won the scoring race with only 8 points more than Carlson had this year and only 4 more points than the second leading scorer amongst defensemen last year. He didn’t blow them away. I think Hedman wins as well but if I’m Carlson, I have to believe that I’ll never win the Norris in this league after not even having been nominated after a season like this. Some will say that’s fine and he shouldn’t. I think Washington’s defense is only slightly less porous than ours and he carried the load.

Yes, and we drafted Subban? My Norris votes would have gone to John Carlson, Victor Hedman and Seth Jones this season. Carlson isn’t as good defensively as many others but not many people would have picked him to be the best scoring defenseman. I thought Jones had a great year and Columbus’ success owes a lot to him as well.

Pacioretty is Montreal’s best forward and Craig Smith is Nashvilles’s fourth or fifth best player. Even on Montreal, he would be our fourth or fifth best forward. I would take Craig Smith on my team but what’s the point in arguing we shoukd take him at .5x dollars compared to Pacioretty’s x dollars? I’d rather have them both. One thing has nothing to do with the other and I don’t see how he’s Pacioretty light. Because he’s not incredibly fast and has a good wrist shot? I could just as well argue that Evander Kane is Pacioretty light during the regular season based on their statistical history. Pacioretty has spent years being one of the best 3 goal scorers in the entire league and that’s obviously elite. The “50 goal” expectation numbers are completely made up and Galchenyuk is not a top line center even if I want him to be. He’s been bad overall in the playoffs but he’s only played 4 playoff seasons. In one of them, our team got swept and against the Rangers he disappeared. I’m not making excuses for him but there could be several reasons, like injury, that make that the case. In any scenario, 38 games is less than most players you can think of when it comes to how many playoff games they’ve played so its’s not entirely indicative of how he will perform in the future. As for international play, Pacioretty has 13 points in 19 games. People look at his olympics where he was being Tortered by Torterella and overlook that he had 12 points in 8 games for team USA at the world’s in 2012. Again a small sample either way.

I’ve often felt as though there is a very small subset of the fan base who want Pacioretty gone partly because of the Subban deal and how there was perceived to be a Pacioretty vs Subban divide amongst the players. It’s like they are saying “see MB, you should have traded Pacioretty and kept Subban”. People can disagree with me and I’m not saying this applies to anyone here so please don’t feel that way. In addition, there are obviously valid reasons to trade Pacioretty at this point time. But I can’t help but feel as though these subconscious waters are still churning amongst some.

Pacioretty has had two seasons with 10 and 11 game winning goals respectively. He was a disappointment last season. He hasn’t been one in general.

My hypothesis is that during the 20 year stretch where you found girls, you were also living in the bedroom.

He was quicker but you lasted longer. I also think this is good news but have no real level of excitement because it’s been discussed for so long. I’ll be interested in learning who will take over.

I’ll be surprised if they do but they’re top 4-5 favorites.

I’m not sure how I feel about the strategy used by New Jersey and Washington this post season. I guess strategy may not be the right word, but both teams used their second string goalies to start the playoffs and both teams started off their respective series’ down 0-2. By game 3, both teams have decided to go back to their more conventional starting goalie. In both cases, Schneider and Holtby had been struggling during the regular season and their backups had been playing well, but it feels no different than had we entered the playoffs starting Niemi over Price. It’s still early, but this shows me that having the goaltender position locked up is extremely important. I think having a capable backup is also extremely important in the playoffs but to start them? Is Holtby Grubauer’s backup game 1 next season? Is Kinkaid the number 1 over Schneider come October next year? One New Jersey player even went as far as to say that Schneider has been their backbone all season, and this is despite the fact he hadn’t won a game since December. Clearly, we know how the players feel. I think both cases are doubtful and these decisions may be the reason these teams get knocked out in the first round.

Who do people have winning this year? It’s still early enough to be honest. My pre playoff bracket had Pittsburgh besting darkhorse San Jose in the final for their 3-peat. Feels unlikely because it’s the same final as two years ago. Tampa and Winnipeg are looking pretty good as well but I’m going to stick with what I went with pre playoffs because I have to! Pittsburgh > Sharks in 6

On one hand Pacioretty is our best player. On the other hand, depending on what the moon is, I don’t see how he can demand it when he had a season like he did this year. He is not McDavid. He is not even Taylor Hall who makes 6 million dollars a year. I think Pacioretty deserves 7 million because it is indeed a veteran contract and I don’t see the cap as an issue on our team for the next few seasons. I don’t think it’s a given he gets 8 years. Even if he did get 8 years, I find it convenient that if we traded Pacioretty to a team this off season, they would be able to find a way to ship him out for value at the trade deadline, yet if we resigned Pacioretty, it’s always out of the question that we could still trade him a few years into his new contract for value in return. The argument will then be “but his 64 million 8 year contract will be basically untradeable because it’s an albatross.” If that’s the case, then I doubt any team actually signs him to that in the first place. People are overthinking things and developing reasons to worry about Pacioretty before it actually happens. Of course this is called foresight but I don’t agree with all that is envisioned.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy to me. If we do trade Pacioretty for a younger asset, it’s true that it may help us in the long term but it will also solidify the fact that we won’t be able to win for a few years. It actually will be part of the reason. Things won’t look too different to those who knew we couldn’t be competitive anyway but again, trading Pacioretty for young assets and nothing yet proven will have been a major part of othe reason for our short term woes. On the other hand, those who think we can turn things around in the short term without completely derailing the future are looked at with a funny eye. I do admit that as a fan I don’t want to go through more seasons like this one and it is indeed part of the reason I don’t want to trade Pacioretty without a proven player coming back the other way. But I don’t think my fandom has made me overly blind in thinking that it’s possible to turn things around. I’m fine with a Pacioretty trade, although I don’t see it happening, but there are once again other avenues I would explore before trading him. I also don’t understand why people think it’s going to happen any time soon. At this point, I find the likeliest time a deal would be made to be next year’s deadline. As “smart fans”, some people might simply worry that this would be a mistake, because if we are in a competitive position next deadline, we may end up not trading Pacioretty at all and either lose him for nothing, or sign him to an unwanted extension. But I will never be able to be on the same page as those fans. I’ll be happy we’re competitive next year if it were so.

Is it common sense for Carolina to trade Jeff Skinner?