Ongoing NHL Thread Part IV - A New Hope

[KennyBanyeah]

trade to announce, etc.

Inconsistent goalie traded to the Flyers. I see no way this could go wrong.

 

[DragonfromTO]

I think that's just the label that superstar players get stuck with as I certainly agree that McDavid is the least of the Oilers problems. The other thing to keep in mind is that last year everything went right for the Oilers, they had a cupcake schedule playing tired teams on back-to-back nights 19 times last season plus they experienced very few injuries last season. The chickens as they say have come home to roost this year. That said, none of this can be blamed on McDavid, but he also probably received too much credit last season as well (Cam Talbot was a strong 1A behind Connor as team MVP last season).

I also think the importance of games needs to be taken into account as well and right now, the Oilers are just playing out their remaining games. If somebody (let's say for sake of argument Taylor Hall) continues to put up points and help the Devils into the playoffs, shouldn't the fact that he put up these points in meaningful games helping the Devils to a possible playoff spot carry more weight than points that McDavid puts up?

If McDavid scores 3 goals in a 3-2 win over a team fighting for a playoff spot (they don't play the Devils I don't think ) it weighs pretty heavily for the guys in the losing dressing room. I just don't believe that any games or player contributions are meaningless. And it's not like this is September baseball with a bunch of minor league callups on the mound making things easier, if anything things might get more difficult for McDavid if the Oilers trade pieces away.

...they had a cupcake schedule playing tired teams on back-to-back nights 19 times last season...

So if he ends up with similar numbers this year it will be more impressive than last year?

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Inconsistent goalie traded to the Flyers. I see no way this could go wrong.

Mrazek with the same save % as anders nilsson this year

 

[forty_three]

trade to announce, etc.

Awesome, the Flyers finally got their goalie!

 

[UTVolCountry]

Predators vs Senators game last night. Downtown afterwards. I don't remember much and have a headache. Good Morning.

 

[BGDave]

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Predators vs Senators game last night. Downtown afterwards. I don't remember much and have a headache. Good Morning.

You did well to post these by 8 am

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

But if we were the Oilers' front office playing "what the fuck happened?" in June 2018 and trying to fix things I don't think you'd be leading with "McDavid has to be better next year".

Just chiming in here to say yes, I fully believe the crackheads running the Oilers will at some point in their offseason review say “Ya know, Connor just has to be better than this!”.

 

[KennyBanyeah]

I see these as the same award with different voters.

That being said, I'm not interested in a 3 page discussion of what "valuable" means and I doubt anyone else is either. So let's move on to something else

I don't consider outstanding and valuable the same. Don't get me wrong, I hate some of the arguments for denying players of major awards. However, I think the Hart almost always has to have some context of winning involved with it. It may not be the player's doing (obviously in this case) but I see "value" as being worth a tangible return.

I'm not an economics guy and I get the vibe that you are, but I'll try this analogy anyways. Connor McDavid is a known oil reserve under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It's high grade oil that would need minimal upgrading. It's good quality and there's lots of it. It's described as excellent when mapped by geophysicists and petroleum geologists. In hockey Es it is driving play, scoring points and dominating other known oil reserves.

It's also under 1000-3000 metres of ice, has no pipeline or other infrastructure nearby, is illegal to extract, and is a bazillion miles away from having a viable workforce around to extract it, etc.. In hockey Es, it's in 2017-18 Edmonton. This oil is excellent but through no fault of it's own it just doesn't have as much value as Saudi reserves, Venezuelan reserves, etc. because it just can't get to market; market being wins and playoff spots in hockey terms.

As dash said, if he was head and shoulders above everyone in the league then he'd be a worthy choice, but with other players having statistically similar seasons AND driving team success, I just don't see McD being a choice here.

FWIW I think McDavid is the best player in the league.

 

[scoutyjones2]

Does McDavid make those better around him?

 

[forty_three]

 

[dash]

Iggy!!

 

[dash]

It would be pretty scary to have him alongside McDavid in Edmonton. Oh well.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Iggy!!

uh oh !

 

[tducey]

Iginla would be a good add for Boston, as good as they are this year a Cup win for him would be icing on the cake of his career.

 

[dash]

“Since coming here, John Hynes, he’s probably given me the most accountability than any coach I had in Edmonton,” Hall added on Tuesday. “That’s been really good for me personally. In Edmonton, I didn’t really want to talk to coaches. I didn’t want to go and have dialogue with coaches. I just wanted to play and a lot of guys are like that. I think, here, Hynsie, we talk about a lot of stuff. He listens to what I say. He’s been a good sounding board on a lot of things. I think he’s been a big reason why I’ve been able to have some success.”

https://www.northjersey.com/story/s...hn-hynes-nhl-edmonton-oilers-trade/355885002/

 

[elocomotive]

It would be pretty scarring to have him alongside McDavid in Edmonton.

fify

 

[dash]

Blackhawks ban 4 from home games for racist taunts toward Smith-Pelly | CBC Sports

 

[forty_three]

“Since coming here, John Hynes, he’s probably given me the most accountability than any coach I had in Edmonton,” Hall added on Tuesday. “That’s been really good for me personally. In Edmonton, I didn’t really want to talk to coaches. I didn’t want to go and have dialogue with coaches. I just wanted to play and a lot of guys are like that. I think, here, Hynsie, we talk about a lot of stuff. He listens to what I say. He’s been a good sounding board on a lot of things. I think he’s been a big reason why I’ve been able to have some success.”

https://www.northjersey.com/story/s...hn-hynes-nhl-edmonton-oilers-trade/355885002/

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

Blackhawks ban 4 from home games for racist taunts toward Smith-Pelly | CBC Sports

I feel like the Blackhawks have handled this exactly as they should (with the caveat that it doesn't specify if it's a lifetime ban, which it should be).

 

[Nasty_Magician]