Some thoughts from opening night and then some about today’s season opener
Tom Wilson got a 20 game suspension for being an idiot. It’s a good suspension based on the league’s own standard. However, it shouldn’t take six suspendable incidents in one calendar year to get to that 20 game number. Wilson is in unprecedented territory according to the Department of Player Saftey. Nobody has been suspended more frequently in a short period of time than Wilson. Not Matt Cooke, not Raffi Torres, nobody else. Tom Wilson intentionally tries to hurt people. The frequency that he finds himself before the DoPS confirms that. No chance in hell you face discipline this often for accidents. Until now he hasn’t been given a reason to change. Sean Gentille of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette said it best
i’d feel pretty stupid if i paid more than $1 million to hit an irrelevant player in an irrelevant game.
— Sean Gentille (@seangentille) October 3, 2018
The Vancouver Canucks are banning Fortnite and other video games on their road trips. No word yet on if they plan on banning alcohol and cocaine. Apparently video games were the Canucks issues last year. Patrik Laine wasn’t have any of it
Patrik Laine on Vancouver’s decision to ban video games on the road: “They need something to blame after last year.… #NHLJets
— Scott Billeck (@ScottBilleck) October 3, 2018
The war on video games in the NHL correlates with those all in on hockey culture. This is a reminder that hockey culture needs to be gutted and revamped.
I planned on watching some of the Capitals game last night due to them being Pittsburgh’s opponent tonight, but the Bruins laid an egg and I found myself watching more of Toronto and Montreal. I love watching Auston Matthews. He’s my favorite non Crosby/Malkin forward. His shot release is stupid good. Mike Babcock (aka best coach in the world with little supporting evidence) finally came to the obvious decision of playing him on the first power play. Matthews ranked 152nd in power play time on ice last year among forwards. To me the best coach in the world wouldn’t let something like that happen. Toronto has loaded up their power play this year to include both Matthews and John Tavares while Mitch Marner creates havoc on the opposite side of them. They are with Pittsburgh and Washington on the DON’T TAKE ANY PENALTIES AGAINST THAT TEAM list. Crazy talented power play and William Nylander isn’t in the equation yet.
Speaking of Nylander Brendan Shanahan spoke about how he and the other Red Wings stars took less money back in the day to win titles. There’s a lot wrong with thinking that players should do that. The first is that there’s no guarantee that the general manager is going to use those savings effectively. What’s the point of taking less to give the Matt Martin’s of the world millions of dollars? Also, hockey is full of variance and when compared to other sports. The best teams don’t win as often so even if your GM does use the savings appropriately there is less of a guarantee of winning. Don’t take less.
As for the Capitals they raised their banner last night and smoked the Bruins. Their pregame video was really good with the exception of one thing, they didn’t mention or show Barry Trotz once. Seems petty.
The Capitals are going to be a thorn in Pittsburgh’s side again this year. The only forward they lost was Jay Beagle and he’s damn close to league replacement level if he isn’t already. Who will replace him on the penalty kill? Evgeny Kuznetsov. Great upgrade for the Capitals. I saw Kuznetsov skate through the neutral zone with possession instead of icing the puck right away which killed more time. Skilled players are going to be better at hockey than non skilled players, even in the penalty killing department.
Pittsburgh had an optional skate this morning so we won’t know the lines until later today. Brian Dumoulin will be a game-time decision which is good news. There really isn’t a lot to say about the team at this point. The story lines from the summer have been beaten into the ground and all that is left is to see how this group of players will play when the games are for real. Opening night against Washington should lend itself to a playoff atmosphere which should be fun. Tonight is one out of 82. Let the grind begin.
Thanks for reading!