PLUS: The Capitals play. It's unfortunate that they've now lost three in a row, however they've been the best team in this series by eight miles. They played good enough to get the sweep. Last night, down 3-1 in the third, they played for their lives and were absolutely crushing the Lightning.
Shot attempts were 20-6 in the third, for a 76% possession rating. Everyone is talking Marc-Andre Fleury, and rightly so, but Andre V. is the only reason the Lightning weren't swept.
MINUS: The Jets are tire narrative. Sometimes following hockey is just embarrassing. The secret of the Knights success isn't smart drafting, it's not unheralded players, and it's got nothing to do with the Jets.
Their goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury (PLUS) (by all accounts the nicest guy this could ever happen to) seems to be invincible.
So Marc Andre is awesome, but the attempts to "solve" what's going on with this team are the worst. The goalie is amazing. End of story. There is no mystery. A goalie this good would prop up any team, expansion or not.
Fleury's regular season save percentage (.927) was the 35th best of-all time in one season. (45 games played minimum).
Fleury's playoff save percentage, including only goalies who've played as many games as he has so far (14) is third of all time. Jean-Sebastien Gigure and Jonathan Quick are the only two goalies to ever play this good, for this long in the playoffs. Their records are currently only one one-hundredth of a percentage point higher than Marc-Andre's. Both won the Cup.
So there's no mystery. They are getting what is quite possibly the best goal-ending performance of all time.
And next season, if the Sabres, Coyotes, Canucks or Senators get one of the best all-time performances from a goalie, they too will play for the Stanley Cup and everyone will say "how did they do it?"
PLUS:Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri This is among the best movies I've ever seen.
PLUS: Found a copy of Black Market Clash in the local record store the other day. It's out of print, so that was pretty fun. I could always have ordered it on Amazon, but there's something fun about finding it organically. Plus, I always love a good B-Side record where you're like 'how did these songs get left off of a real album."
MINUS: Bark-Andre Fleury. This pretty much combines everything I hate: people who like puns, people who make social media accounts for their pets, and things that can be described as 'cutesy.'
I don't know why ten different people thought they should show this to me.
PLUS: Kyle Dubas. This is not only great for my favorite team, but it's great to see all those old-school protectionists who keep Dale Tallon employed struggle to come up with reasons the job should go to the someone who's a member of the club. Good times.
MINUS: The Carolina Hurricanes. Once among the most progressive organizations in the NHL, they were league-average goaltending away from being one of hockey's best teams. Certainly their roster is 100x superior to the Golden Knights. But that's goaltending for you. Ron Francis, a great GM is fired for guessing wrong on Scott Darling. While George McPHee, a much worse GM than Ron Francis, is venerated for lucking on on Marc-Andre Fleury.
McPhee will win the NHL's least meaningful award (which says A LOT), the GM of the Year Award, for being the luckiest manager ever. Screw measured analysis, whoever wins is the best!!!!!
PLUS: Joey Votto doesn't care about being Canadian. OR rather, he's annoyed to always be asked about it. Good for him.
MINUS: An athlete says something interesting and candid, and then everyone just whines about it until he gives a fake apology. So sick of people crying whenever they hear something they don't like. Just shut up already. If you're mad that Votto is just a ball player and doesn't want to be your national mascot, that's on you.
MINUS: Vlad Guerrero JR is still in the minor leagues. Can you imagine if the Leafs made Auston Matthews play in the AHL? What a joke baseball is sometimes.
PLUS: The best bands of all time are as follows: REM, the Clash, the Cure, Talking Heads and Wilco. Honorable mention to the Pixies who's two comeback albums are incredibly interesting and underrated and only suffer in comparison to their flawless original four-album run.
PLUS: The Jays should re-sign Donaldson. We already watched Edwin and Jose leave, so I think that regardless of cost, the Jays should keep JD.
PLUS: I still stand by this: Winnipeg vs Washington final.
PLUS: Ovechkin has played incredible so far. I hope they win just so he can finally get the credit he deserves.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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