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PLUS/MINUS: Smith, JVR, Panthers ++++

December 4, 2016, 2:09 PM ET [118 Comments]
James Tanner
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PLUS/MINUS is the NHL's worst stat, mostly because it's based on a result which varies wildly from game to game. Despite knowing this for years, it remains a standard statistic used in broadcasts league-wide that seem designed to insult the intelligence of the viewer.

PLUS: I recently used a service called DFSDatalytics for two-months to play daily fantasy NHL. I can't recommend this service strongly enough.

Every day you get projections for top scorers and usually some articles on strategy or potential good picks for the night. You also get this chat-app which lets you talk to some guys who know what they're doing and even if you just listen to what they're saying and don't participate, you learn a ton.

I will write a more in-depth look into this service and my experience playing DFS, but if you are on Draft Kings and play at all, I think it's worth looking into this site.



MINUS: The Coyotes allowed 60 shots against last night. In what has to be one of the worst performances I have ever seen, they were thoroughly dominated by the Columbus Blue Jackets - who, I don't care what their record is, aren't a great team.

In a performance that should get their coach fired, the Coyotes not only had ANOTHER game under 40% possession, they also allowed 60 shots. Not shot-attempts. Actual shots.

With 58 saves, Mike Smith set a franchise record and cemented his status as the best goalie in the NHL for the last month. He has been unbelievable. The Coyotes lost in a shoot-out that they didn't deserve to even get close to.

Six of their last nine games have gone to over-time. Eight of their last nine games have been one-goal games.

They have points in seven of those nine games.

And it's all thanks to Mike Smith. Realistically, their record should be 0-9 in the last nine games. The fact they have all these points is a joke because it covers up just how bad they've played. Which has been been 1975-76 Washington Capitals bad.

Favorable, goalie-based results should not cover up the fact that, if not for Smith, the Coyotes would be approximately 10-15 points behind the Avalanche for worst team in the NHL. The fact that they are ahead of the Avs is a cruel joke.

MINUS:Realistically, the 29th ranked team in the NHL has the luckiest record. Think about that.



PLUS: The Florida Panthers firing their coach. The NHL is the most conservative league imaginable and the palpable rage emanating from all the connected reporters and those embedded in the incestuous cycle of hiring and firing the same coaches/gms and ex-players is wonderful to behold.

In the same way the guys on TV Trade-deadline day almost choke when they are forced to credit Eklund with breaking a story, it is hilarious - in my opinion, it goes without saying - to watch them whine about a team that doesn't care about their club.

Most teams for the last twenty years have been owned by corporations and/or various hands-off part-owners and are run (almost always) by a career NHL manager who, in most cases, happens to be an ex-player.

The main reason the NHL has been so slow to adapt to the advanced statistics revolution that began in baseball is that the coaches, GM's and broadcasters are protectionists who are afraid of jobs going to people outside the normal circle.

MINUS: If you watched any broadcasts this week, whether TSN, Sportsnet or Coach's Corner, you saw closed minded people ripping the Panthers and openly cheering for them to fail.

I found it disgusting that virtually no one was willing to give them a shot, to be open-minded enough to wonder if there isn't a better and/or different way of doing things.

Ironically, the Panthers new GM and Coach is an ex-player himself. They didn't even go outside the club, they just had the gall to have a new philosophy. Even John Chayka, in Arizona, played hockey up to a fairly high level before injuries forced him to quit.

We can see that even as change occurs, people are still following the rules. Personally, I can't wait until someone just says "___ it" and installs an actual analysts in the role of GM.



PLUS: It's not a book for everyone - I suspect most people would find it difficult and extremely boring - but I am taking another run through the Pale King and I can't help but admire it in about 50 different ways.

It's a novel about the IRS and, essentially, it uses what is likely the world's most boring job to meditate on boredom for about 600 pages. The author, David Foster Wallace, died before it was complete and I believe had he lived to finish it, it would be the single greatest novel ever written.

Maybe it is anyways. Since we live in a world where I see people looking at their phones as they cross an intersection almost daily, I think a meditation on the importance of occasionally being bored as perhaps vitally important. If you're literate, this is a book you should read.

PLUS: That got me to thinking, the book probably costs about $20 and takes about 20 hours to read. $1/ hour probably makes books the cheapest form of entertainment around.

MINUS: Reading books on an e-reader. Why a person would want to voluntarily look at even more screens is beyond me. The day I stop writing writing a daily column is the day I stop going on the internet at all.



PLUS: Eventually, I want to be able to afford about three newspaper subscriptions and six magazine subscriptions, only write when I'm working on a poem or a story, and quit the internet all-together.

If I end up working in a job where the business phone number isn't my actual cell phone, then I'll quit my fantasy pools, hook up a land-line and be completely off the internet.

This might sound like a fantasy, and it probably is, but I have come to view the internet and cell phones and social media as one of the worst things in modern society. I believe, 100%, that it's a societal addiction that makes life worse for everyone.

Unfortunately, as of today, 100% of my income comes from using a cell phone and going on the internet in someway.

PLUS: If you wanted to serve your country and do more good than you could probably do by giving money to a charity, buy a newspaper subscription. I know we don't really talk about civic duties beyond maybe voting and recycling, but maybe we should.

MINUS: I don't like how the Leafs have been playing William Nylander on the fourth line. I do like that they've moved him to centre. The obvious move is to trade Tyler Bozak.

He's proven to a be a very good second/third line centre (though how he ever got a rep. as a defensive centre is beyond me) and could likely get you back some decent value in a trade.

With Matthews, Nylander and Kadri down the middle the Leafs would be either the deepest team in hockey at centre or close to it.



MINUS: The assumption that the Leafs have to trade James Van Riemsdyk. I used to think they should trade him, but I didn't realize how fast they'd restock their team to be competitive.

At least until they are forced to spend $20+ million on Nylander, Marner and Matthews, the Leafs need to keep JVR and find out how to maximize their team while those players are under ECL contracts.

If you compare the star filled roster of the Blackhawks' first Stanley Cup victory to what the Leafs currently have, I think there are a lot of comparisons.

Moving out Polak and Hunwick and replacing them with two players who are actually good is all that stands between the Leafs and being one of the best teams in the NHL.

PLUS: Austria. In a delightfully ironic twist, Austria rejected a fascist far-right crazy person in favor of an actual politician, while America continues to deal with the fallout from accidentally electing a man who continues to threaten the media and destabilize the world before he even takes office.

PLUS: Keith Olbermann, Van Jones, Stephen Colbert, Alec Baldwin and Don Lemon.

PLUS: In the week ahead, something must give with the Coyotes and Johnny Gaudreau will return. The NHL is better when Gaudrau is playing.

Where My dogs at?

xxoo Thanks for reading.
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