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.
MINUS: If it is indeed true that the Senators are replacing Brian Murray with their assistant GM then that gets a huge thumbs down from me.
This team did several offensively bad things down the stretch: they traded away developing second round pick Shane Prince to the Islanders for a third round pick. This trade was inexplicably stupid. They talked about how Mike Hoffman has to "be a better second half player" apparently unaware of the almost random nature of goal scoring or the concept of a coincidence. They allowed a coach to play Hoffman, probably their best forward, on the fourth line for several games. And they wasted yet another year of Karlsson's prime.
Making Murray an adviser and promoting his assistant is stupid. They should clear the whole front office out and replace them with completely different people.
MINUS: Discount this if you think I'm just biased because my three favorite teams all finished out of the playoffs. It's possible that is true.
But, the NHL this year sucked. Too many injuries. Too little scoring. Too many boring games.
The replay rules are absolute garbage.
The game is too fast, causing too many injuries and it isn't any better for it, because it turns out it wasn't the speed of the game that made it boring. It was coaches.
The NHL needs to find a way to limit shot blocking.
The NHL needs illegal defense rules.
The NHL needs to allow MORE hooking and holding.
The NHL needs to drastically decrease the size of goalie equipment.
The NHL needs to completely eliminate fighting.
The NHL needs to drastically increase the penalties for suspendable plays.
And everyone needs to listen to more Grimes.
PLUS: Ultimately, Batman v Superman was a complete blast.
People complain about this movie like a bunch of entitled expletive deleteds.
Look, if you apply your film-school critiques to this movie, of course is sucked - it's not meant in anyway to be a "film." Christopher Nolan made Batman "Films" but this is just a big dumb blockbuster and it was awesome.
There are so many cool things that become terrible if you think about them too much: the show 24, why you care about sports so much, how you spend the majority of your time, etc.
Of course there are plot-holes. Everything has them and they don't bear thinking too much about. Sure, Wonder Woman failed to pass the Bechdel Test, but she looked good doing it. Sure, there were parts where even a half-way competent writer could have improved the film (thinking specifically of an apparent dream sequence where Batman wore a worse helmet than usual and wore a coat to a desert for some reason. ) But, whatever.
It's a comic book movie. Comic books are supposed to be big dumb fantasies. Some of them embrace their stupidity and sexism and revel in it. I say, don't take it too seriously. It was a sweet movie.
Probably not as good as the massively underrated Man of Steel, but still 10/10.
PLUS: The Coyotes season is over. May we never have to see Tippett, Maloney, Doan, Vermette, Michalek or Mike Smith again.
It was a nice run, but if ever a completely fresh start was needed......
PLUS: The Leafs have won the top spot in the lottery. They tanked with class and intelligence and can even defend against tanking accusations by pointing out that not only did their best player shoot 5% on the year, but that his linemates shot a similarly bad shooting percentage when he was on the ice.
PLUS: To Nazem Kadri who quite possibly just turned in the single best 45 point season in NHL history. Give the boy his six mill and make sure you lock him up long term.
PLUS: To Alex Galchenyuk for hitting the thirty goal mark and developing into an amazing player. Minus for his explosion occurring after I tried to sneak him through waivers in my fantasy league for the third time when I lost him, about a week before he went off.
MINUS: My fantasy team, whose name is not printable, will finish second place, barring a fantasy miracle. Down one point heading into the final week and playing the worst player, a Letang/Crosby healthy scratch, and the complete collapse of my brother Trev's teams, appears to have cost me the assists category and handed the league championship to a guy who now has won it three years running.
But you know what's worse than losing to the same guy three years in a row? The fact that he has a pun-based name: Eberle Hills Cop. Sweet reference, I admit, but come on!
MINUS: After the two New York teams and the Los Angeles Team, Toronto is the biggest market in the MLB. Most people don't realize it's the fourth largest city in North America after Mexico City, New York and L.A. (You could argue Chicago in place of Toronto, they're essentially the same and sources differ).
Rogers is the richest owner in the MLB.
But they let Price walk, they didn't re-sign EE or Bautista and they have the 13th highest payroll in baseball. They ruined Hockey Night in Canada, charge me too much for cable/internet and are a complete joke.
PLUS: The Penguins are getting Malkin back sometime soon. Good luck, rest of league.
MINUS: I can't stress enough how much I hate coach's challenges in sports. Just hire someone to watch every game and call down if there's a problem. Letting coaches challenge calls is a complete farce and a waste of time.
MINUS: Anyone who thinks Doughty deserves the Norris over Anton Stralman is a joke. If you think he deserves it over Erik Karlsson, you need your credentials revoked.
MINUS: The movie Daddy's Home a completely unfunny, unoriginal, hard to watch piece of crap.
PLUS: Ovechkin getting to 50. The guy is the best goal scorer in NHL history. The best. If he played in the 80s he not only would have scored 50 goals in 38 games or less, but he'd have made triple digits.
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