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: The Sharks finally making the Cup final is a great thing for hockey. Not only is it cool for a team to make it for the first time, but Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are two of the best players to never play in a Final.
Because - on the whole - we, as a people, are terrible at evaluating anything, we do not properly credit people for their success unless they win the Championship of their league or profession.
MINUS: Joe Thornton, who was seventh in 5v5 scoring overall this year, and scored 82 points in 82 games while also playing elite defense, does not get the attention he deserves.
You could easily argue that Thornton is ahead of Jagr and Forsberg on the all-time greatest player list and just below the level of Lemieux, Gretzky, Lindros, Crosby, Ovechkin.
I also think he should have been nominated for the Hart Trophy. Put it this way: Your Hart Winner, inevitably Pat Kane only scored 11 more 5v5 points than Thornton, but he played garbage defense while Thornton was one of the best at defense. I think it's a 100% guarantee that Thornton made up those 11 points with his amazing defense.
NEUTRAL: In a league where speed is the perhaps the single most important attribute a player can have, how is Joe Thornton (AKA the guy voted most likely to be a puppeteer at your local library) so good?
PLUS: I put this song in yesterday's too, but it's one of the greatest songs ever, so I'm putting it back in again today. The Tragically Hip aren't just a band that is famous in Canada, they are a band that deserves to be mentioned among the best bands of all time. Certainly when they are compared to other mainstream nineties bands like STP, Pearl Jam or the Chili Peppers it's not even close.
To be honest, the fact that Pearl Jam, the Chili Peppers or Foo Fighters are more world-wide famous than the Hip is one of the world's great critical injustices. Their true place among the world's elite rock bands is with Springsteen, Wilco, REM, the Smiths, the Cure and Radiohead. Sucks about all the bros trying to co-opt them as like a national symbol, but they are truly a great band.
MINUS: One thing I think is problematic about the way we view and evaluate players: we don't properly rate defensive players who don't score much.
We know that if you take a lot of shots, you'll eventually score, and if you prevent shots, you'll prevent scoring. But the thing is, you can't see shots being prevented. I think most of the truly good defensive defensemen don't look like they do anything.
Take Gudbranson, since he was traded this week. He is known as a "defensive defenseman" but he allowed 31.73 shots per 60 minutes of ice time this past year. Good for 27th worst out of roughly 200 defenseman in the NHL (7 x 30 =210).
Gudbranson allows a lot of shots against (Matt Bartowski is the worst, at 35.30 SA/60) but because he crushes guys with his body, he appear to be an effective player.
Compare EG to a player named Josh Manson of the Ducks. Now, Manson, if you watch him, doesn't really lay thunderous checks. (One of his scouting reports suggests he should be more psychical and derides him for not being the intimidating presence his father was). Manson also doesn't score, was drafted in the 6th round, and didn't make the NHL until he was 23. If you watch a Ducks game, you might not even notice him.
But Manson is the absolute King at limiting shots. In 71 games this year, he held opponents to just 22.45 shots/60. That's a ten shot difference every 60 minutes compared to a player who's bigger, has better pedigree and a better reputation. But you don't really notice him, so people think he isn't good - and yet, arguably, he's one of the NHL's most effective defensemen.
From a shots limiting and shot taking perspective, Manson and partner Hampus Lindholm were the best pairing in the NHL this year. Since I don't believe that it would be possible to be so good at defense that you allow a high number of lower quality shots over the long-term, I think that just makes them the best pairing in the NHL. Period.
MINUS: The Canucks trade for Gudbranson. That trade is terrible no matter how you look at it. An F- is how I would rate Jim Benning's tenure as the Canucks GM, and I'd consider that a generous review.
PLUS: If you are the Arizona Coyotes and you have the worst (possible exception being Vancouver) defense in the NHL, and you are a budget team who needs to find value in players who are not properly deployed or respected by their current team, then have I got a player for you.
He's a sixth round pick from 2011, and he has four points in 45 career games. He shoots right, he's 23 and the Sharks would rather acquire and deploy Roman Polak ahead of him. And yet, for those 45 games he has played, he has allowed the same number of shots against per 60 as my boy Josh Manson.
Clearly, acquiring him should be a top priority - if he is a Manson then he is the perfect partner for Oliver Ekman-Larsson. His name is Dylan DeMelo and he is a potential superstar to the team who understands the true value of shot-prevention.
PLUS: Team Canada adding Jake Muzzin to their team. This is a step in the right direction and something I did not expect from the people who felt it was important to name Shea Weber to the team months ago (not to mention Jeff Carter).
MINUS: Leaving off Taylor Hall was a move you wouldn't have expected though. That is a decision that makes no sense at all. There are multiple players on team Canada that aren't even close to Hall, but people just don't believe that there are good players on bad teams I guess.
Also, leaving Brodie and Giordano off Team Canada is an insane decision. I don't care who you have to cut to get them there, they should have been among the top choices.
PLUS: That Swedish Defense. Good Lord. They left Hampus Lindholm off the team (which is crazy, but their team will barely suffer for it, that's how good they are).
MINUS: While it's not like the Sharks (Kings) and Penguins (Capitals) didn't have to beat awesome teams to make the Final, let us not forget the guantlet the Blues had to run to try and make it. Beating Chicago and Dallas is quite the accomplishment. To have then beaten the Sharks and Penguins would have been one of the hardest fought Cup wins of all time.
Not like they care what I think, but congrats to them.
PLUS: The move the Big Short it's the kind of entertainment product that rarely comes around: it's as educational as it is artistic and well done. In that sense, it reminds me of another masterpiece, the Wire.
I don't care who you are or what your political leanings are, the Big Short is a must watch. It is not only educational and not only provides necessary information about how our world works that no adult should be without, but it's also entertaining as hell.
It's the movie Wolf of Wall Street wanted to be, and it's amazing. The best part is that such a serious, important movie was directed by the same guy who brought us Anchor Man and Step Brothers. (Movies I also consider to be works of genius, for the record).
MINUS: Summer. Give me the Winter anytime. As I write this, it's like 105 degrees Celsius in my office.
PLUS: The Phil Kessel trade for the Leafs.
Some are retconning this as a mistake by the Leafs because the Penguins are having the exact kind of success you would expect from a team that can run out three separate lines featuring one of the league's best offensive players.
The Leafs had to move Kessel because they had him as their central player on a huge cap-hit for seven more years (three of which he projects to be terrible in). It doesn't matter that they didn't receive "equal value" for him in terms of players, because they did in terms of flexibility.
It's a cap league, so you better know what a sunk-cost fallacy is if you're running a team.
Retaining some of Kessel's salary-cap hit isn't a bad thing. You were paying $8, now you're paying $1.2. This is a positive no matter how you view it.
The Leafs got (sort of) what they paid for him: Two Firsts (Kapanen, #29/30th pick in 2016) + Scott Harrington. Sure, it's not Seguin/Hamilton, but when you consider that a) Kessel's cap hit, reputation and bad play during the 14-15 season made him close to untradable b) the Leafs had no choice but to move on because he was symbolically and literally a part of a plan that failed spectacularly and which led to all those involved being fired, the Leafs actually made out quite well.
And Kessel's success doesn't change that one bit.
PLUS: The Toronto Blue Jays. I don't care what anyone says, they are winning this division.
PLUS: Phil Kessel himself. The guy is crazy underrated and so fun to watch.
MINUS: Still one week until Popstar comes out. I'd have to say this is the most anticipated movie of my life.
MINUS: Team USA is a joke. That is the most poorly constructed roster I have ever seen. Where is Phil Kessel? Nick Leddy? Shattenkirk? Tyler Johnson? Alex Galchenyuk?
Jesus. Whoever picked this team needs to retire from hockey.
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