It has been a couple of days since the news broke about the Penguins being sold to Fenway Sports Group. What we haven’t heard is a dollar amount for the sale. Elliotte Friedman speculated about the situation recently
The Canucks are reeling from top-to-bottom. So where does the organization go from here?@FriedgeHNIC explores that question and more in a new 32 Thoughts blog.
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5. The Pittsburgh sale has ramifications around the league. I’m very curious to see if it gets to $900M. That would be a big number. No one has ever confirmed it, but there were rumours a couple of years ago that previous sale attempts fell through because the NHL said nothing less than $750M. That was before the new US TV deals and should the Penguins get to $900M, you have to wonder if we could see more sales. Fenway Sports Group wasn’t the only bidder, so there’s interest. Also curious to see if Fenway sees the Penguins as the final piece of the puzzle with their other properties — the MLB Red Sox, Premier League Liverpool — to create their own streaming platform.
It would be tough to blame the current owners for selling if they are in line to sell the team for a league record amount. Ron Burkle has no attachment to hockey. It was an investment for him. Mario can get his money and stick around in a minority role. It’s wise to get out before the real downturn begins. The next ownership group sounds more equipped to handle such a task anyways. As far as the last sentence in the passage cutting the cord and streaming was good while it lasted. It was only a matter of time until the ala carte concept tipped the scales back the other way. Every media entity wants their own streaming platform and we’ve gotten to the point where we are back to having individual channels again, but not bundled. For a few years we had a sweet spot where it was economically advantageous to the consumer to cut the cord. With news like this it is starting to swing dramatically the other way which ironically leaves us back where we started as far as value is concerned.
As for the game tonight the Canadiens are suffering a hangover after their surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final last year. Montreal is 4-12-2 to start the year. Carey Price is rightfully taking care of his personal health, Cole Caufield has been demoted to the AHL, and Brandon Gallagher has been one of the unluckiest players in the league as far as goals below expected. Things aren’t great. Their PDO is low and they are due for some regression, but they have also been playing middling hockey.
Brendan Gallagher might be the unluckiest player of the bunch, but Jason Zucker is right there with him near the bottom of the league
It isn’t just those players. The teams as a whole have had trouble finishing their scoring chances. They rank 30th and 31st in the league.
Cole Caufield might be in the AHL, but Nick Suzuki is thriving at the NHL level. He has 14 points in 18 games so far this year. He is the team’s leading scorer with Tyler Toffoli in second with 9 points. He is on track to be quite a good player if the results hold given his age.
Sidney Crosby does not have a large sample size of games this year. He’s played three games in about six months time. He’s rusty and coming off a wrist injury. He’s in his mid-thirties. Even given all of that I am still surprised he is sitting at 39.64 xGF%. It is the worst mark on the team. Perhaps playing against his childhood team in Montreal will snap him out of it. It’s early in the year. He isn’t going to stay in the thirties. There is cause for concern given his age even if he’s the kind of player that can defeat the aging curve better than most.
Thanks for reading!