Since +/- is the NHL's worst stat, I thought it would make sense to appropriate it and make it useful as we review the best and worst of the past week in the NHL.
PLUS: Just four days until the Draft- using my patented Optimist's Countdown System, which doesn't include the day you're on or the day it happens.
Let's say your favorite team was set to draft one of the best prospects the NHL had ever seen - a player whose career is likely a disappointment if it doesn't end in a Hall of Fame induction - that would be pretty exciting.
But exciting doesn't cover it when your favorite team has spent 12 years being run by the most incompetent men the sport has to offer, who made terrible decisions and then consistently compounded those decisions with worse, even more short-sighted decisions. Who took what should be the NHL's most prestigious, preeminent team and turned it into a sub-expansion laughing stock.
An Original Six Team that made the Playoffs once in twelve seasons is so ridiculous as to hardly seem possible, but it happened.
And now we get Auston Matthews.
And we get to put them with William Nylander (the best player in the AHL) and Mitch Marner (the best player in the OHL).
You could realistically argue that the Leafs now have the three best player's in the entire world that aren't in the NHL. Would you be right? Who cares? It's fun to think about.
The draft is going to be awesome. The Leafs are finally getting some payback for nearly a decade and a half of putrid management and greedy abuse of a fanbase that is like one of those plastic clowns that you can hit and which just pops right back up asking for more.
In the entire time I have been following the Leafs, the only time even approaching this level of excitement was when we acquired Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuck - but if that was a 8/10 this is a 10000000.
PLUS: Brendan Shanahan. In two years since taking over the Leafs, Shanahan took a team built around two players who should always have been complimentary pieces, with no prospects to speak of (besides Morgan Rielly), who were buried in perhaps the most untenable salary cap situation the league had ever seen, and turned it completely around.
Typically people think "Five Years Rebuild" but the Leafs now have a franchise centre, two other A+ level prospects, a foundation of excellent B level prospects, good salary cap position, and a management team (Lamoriello, Dubas, Hunter, Babcock and himself) that is the envy of the league's other 29 teams.
How good of a job has Shanahan done? You could already put a bronze statue of the guy out in front of the ACC in Legends Row and no one would blink. I'd vote for the guy if he ran for Prime Minister or give him a kidney if he needed it.
PLUS: The Coyotes trading for Goligoski's rights. Very smart move.
MINUS: The Coyotes naming their AHL team the Roadrunners. That is so lame it makes me sick. Just kidding I don't care that much, but it is pretty lame.
MINUS: The Stars are on crack if they think Goligoski is replaceable. If this is because of their ill-advised trade for Kris Russel, then it is doubly terrible.
MINUS: The Ducks hiring Randy Carlyle. One of the worst management decisions in NHL history. And you can quote me on it because, having watched the Leafs for my entire life, I'm sort of an expert in terrible management decisions. Also, I covered Don Maloney's tenure as GM of the Arizona Coyotes pretty explicitly, so you can trust me on this one.
PLUS: Did signing Vatanen yesterday mean that the Ducks will trade Lindholm? If the team didn't just trade Boudreau for Carlyle I'd say it was impossible, that no one would dare move Hampus 'Hans Gruber' Lindholm just a season before he ascends into the NHL's elite defenseman.
PLUS: Dominec Galamini, the guy who created the Hero Charts.
This week he added the ability to compare between players, and it is fantastic.
His site is ownthepuck.blogspot.ca and it is fantastic. Try not to fall down the rabbit hole and waste your entire day there. It's comparable to many of the things I like but which are not appropriate for talking about in a hockey blog, which is like the highest compliment I can pay.
PLUS: The new Radiohead album, which is a beautiful masterpiece.
I know of no other band that has continued to make music 25 years into their career which matches their best work. The only comparison is Mario Lemieux who, even when retired for three years still managed to be the best player in the league by six miles, or a point-per-game player at age 40 AFTER another year off.
In my opinion Mario Lemieux is the greatest hockey player to have ever lived and Radiohead is the greatest band - better than the Beach Boys or even R.E.M.
Well maybe not R.E.M, let's not get crazy.
Also, in an era of lame-ass streaming, when almost no thought is put into packaging, and even though they made me wait for an extra month to hear it on a physical copy, the packaging is brilliant and beautiful.
MINUS: Is there seriously still four days until the draft?
MINUS: Malkin trade rumors. Why on earth would the Penguins consider breaking up the band after just winning the Cup? Let's hope they don't do it.
PLUS: the Amy Schumer show, specifically 'the Snake Doctor.'
MINUS: At least two people didn't put Phil Kessel on their Conn Smythe Ballot. If you didn't think Kessel was at least in the top three best players of the Playoffs, you are way too petty and unobjective to have a vote. That is pure incompetence.
The argument for Kessel winning Playoff MVP was sound. He should have won it. And he did, really. He was just robbed by two anonymous hacks with no business voting in the first place.
Shame on the NHL for making voting anonymous.
PLUS: The Flames accidentally avoiding Randy Carlyle. Good for them. Now just don't trade Sam Bennett for Marc Andre Fleury and y'all might be OK.
MINUS: Everyone just assumes Stamkos wants to stay with the Lightning. Which doesn't really make sense since they played him on the wing, decreased his ice time and you know, haven't signed him yet.
I agree it's the safe pick, but when nearly all the things I read are predicting that he re-signs, it just looks like everyone is trying to get it right rather than look at the situation and actually say something that makes sense.
He is going to get offers that are just bonkers. He is the best UFA in NHL history by the about the same distance that Kanye is better than Pitbull. Tampa doesn't have the greatest salary cap / guys they have to re-sign situation and he's from Toronto and a UFA at a time when they have the best (or because of the Oilers) second best young team in the league.
They also have Mike Babcock, whereas the Lightning have Jon Cooper.
All signs point to the Leafs on Stamkos.
MINUS: I just read an "insider" article that I could have written using rumours I've already heard. That term gets thrown around more often than ____ (make up your own analogy here).
MINUS: Bob Murray. The Vatenan contract is fine, he's a good young player. But why don't you sign Lindholm first? I am confused.
MINUS: The Blackhawks trading away Teuro Teravainen. Panarin is older, worth more in a trade, will cost more to sign and doesn't play as good defense.
The Hawks should have gotten creative, but they made the easiest move. They will regret this too because TT is 21 and if his offense improves even fractionally, his defense will make him an indispensable player.
MINUS: The Las Vagas Black Knights? That is the worst name in professional sports. The NHL could have done better by calling them literally anything else. Terrible.
Also, screw them for not getting Quebec here. Adding one team is dumb, and Quebec deserves a team. You have teams in Arizona, Carolina, two in Florida, one in Dallas and like five or ten in California. Put a damn team in Quebec City you idiots.
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