Plus/Minus is the most erotic of all the stats. Use it at your own risk, and always with protection.
MINUS: The NHL handing out only a six game suspension to Gustav Nyquist for his viscous attack to the face of his opponent with a six foot piece of whatever synthetic crap hockey sticks are made out of this week.
MINUS: I watched the Leafs / Senators game last night. It was easily the most boring nine-goal game I've ever seen. Guy Boucher has a terrible roster in a Playoff position and he should be coach of the year. By a mile he should be.
Mike Condon has five shut-outs. Two of their top pairing D are Phaneuf and Methot. The roster is so weak that not playing Curtis Lazar is a "controversy."
Yes, Guy Boucher is good at his job. But he makes hockey so, so, so boring.
PLUS: Crosby getting his 1000th point. He is every bit as good as Gretzky and Lemieux.
MINUS: Vermette appealing his suspension. There is video of him hitting a ref with his stick. Who is his agent, Kelly-Anne?
PLUS: Steve Simmons has been doing his column for 30 years. That's impressive. Congrats to him.
Here's the thing about Simmons: I have read his column since I could read. My old man had a Toronto Sun subscription when I was a kid ("I hate the Sun, but it's the only good sports page in town.") and I would have to read the news, the TV guide, entertainment section and the comics while I waited for him to finish with the Sports.
The thing is, I think having a subscription to a paper whose politics were opposite to our family's was a really good thing for me, developmentally. To this day I almost never agree with Steve Simmons either. I find him, at times, hypocritical, repulsive, idiotic, thoughtful, intelligent, entertaining. If I'm a 'sports writer' then Steve Simmons is my biggest influence.
The thing is, I almost never agree with him. He's blocked me on twitter. If he knows who I am - which he almost certainly doesn't - he almost certainly hates me. But to me, no one walks the line between trolling and thoughtful dissent better than he does. He is entertaining and while I want to acknowledge a true master of the industry, I also want to make the point that you can and should be a fan of people you don't agree with.
Do not trust anyone who tells you what you want to hear.
PLUS: The Red Wings beating the Capitals. The Capitals absolutely killed them, but at least hockey is fun enough that anything can happen.
MINUS: Everyone complaining that there is a competitive disadvantage to being off for a week. Boo-hoo!
So what if teams who take a week off have a terrible record in their first game back? Making things a little uneven and less predictable is a good thing.
PLUS: People always ask me why I'm always including political opinions in this blog. They get all offended - "keep the politics out of it."
While I understand to a point, I just don't get why people think they have a right to dictate what they read or come into contact with.
Who cares if you read something that makes you uncomfortable, makes you think, makes you angry, distracts you from your distraction or whatever??...Get over it and move on.
Part of why we're so "divided" is this idea that we have the right to complain about anything that diverts from our expectations.
People usually tweet me that I'm a snowflake at least once a day, but I'm not the one whining about things that don't confirm my world views.
This is my forum for expressing myself, it's how I deal with and process things that are important or interesting to me. I can't just pretend that I'm not worried about a world where anything you don't agree with is biased and fake.
This is a hockey site and hockey is neutral. If you read something in the neutral zone that is outside of your bubble, it's probably good for you. We mostly all just read things that reinforce what we already believe - it's basically the root problem. Here, at least, you stand a chance of coming across someone with a different idea or opinion. And if that scares you, makes you mad, or bothers you, you ought to spend some time asking yourself why.
Whatever. I am not here to tell anyone how to think, only to express myself. And reading something you don't agree with shouldn't bother you.
MINUS: The idea that any smart or intelligent person can sit there and say that any idea that challenges their beliefs is fake, biased, or repeated by "sheep." I have an M.A; I literally spent six years learning how to become a professional researcher. I know how to discern truth from lies. The people who accuse me of not being able to are barely literate.
Just saying.
PLUS: The Florida Panthers are a good team? You mean they were having trouble because all their best players were injured and not because they went in an analytics direction?
You mean to tell me that the educated people knew better than Patrick O'Sullivan? Shocker.
MINUS: I built an outdoor arena and we're getting Arizona weather here in Toronto. Not good.
PLUS: I don't know if it's good or bad, really, but I do like that this wasn't the first time the Canadiens hired Julien to replace Therien. I guess ultimately it's bad. The Canadiens might be a better team if they didn't focus so much on only getting the best French coaches.
Not that getting Julien isn't a coup, it's just kind of weird to keep recycling the same guys all the time. Personally, I look forward to the 2020 season when they re-hire Guy Carboneau.
MINUS: Once again, the idea that anyone other than Guy Boucher deserves the Jack Adams trophy is preposterous.
PLUS: Another of my heroes is Bill Maher. I watch Real Time every week and this week he had a guy on called Milo Yiannopolous on. This is a far-right crazy person whose opinion on everything is extreme and pretty much stupid. I don't read or watch anything that would usually have this guy on. I'd only heard of him in the context of how horrible he is.
While some people are criticizing Maher for putting this idiot on mainstream TV
(and he is a huge idiot) I thought it was a great segment. Who cares if the guy has repulsive ideas? They aren't contagious. The entire existence of a guy like this is a backlash to people who get offended over the slightest things. I found the guy charming and entertaining. Doesn't mean I agree with him. But he does have a good point: While you're off worrying about whether someone runs like a "girl" or a "person" a billionaire with very scary ideas took advantage of how annoying liberals are and used it to become President.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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