Follow @james_tanner123 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: It's been a week, but the best thing is still that the Leafs have the #1 overall pick. Also, as I tell everyone I meet whether they want to hear it or not, they have: the Best Player in the AHL (William Nylander) the best player in the OHL (Mitch Marner) and the two most underrated players in the NHL (Jake Gardiner and Nazem Kadri).
Auston Matthews to the Leafs still seems surreal after a week. I guess when you're just used to something (i.e the Leafs never having anything good happen) it's hard to adjust.
PLUS: The Coyotes hiring 26 year old GM John Chayka. Some of the reasons why this is so great:
A) because it's amazing they hired a 26 year old.
B) because of how pissed off it makes Doug Maclean, and all the "insiders" in general.
C) because it's a fantastic move for the organization.
D) because using analytic principles is so much better than not using them that it's kind of ridiculous it took this long for an organization to make someone who understands this a GM.
E) how much more time do you have?
MINUS: The completely fabricated crap about who the Leafs will choose at #1. It's Auston Mattews and no amount of fake garbage reporting or fictionalized crap suggesting that Laine is the better pick will change that.
Remember that, even last year, fools would talk about how 'some teams' might want to take Eichel first and how even 'Edmonton wasn't 100% taking McDavid' ? Remember how the second they both played their first game it became hilarious that anyone, ever, under any circumstances, could think Eichel was going to have gone #1?
Mattews is going first overall because you simply do not pass on a guy who can be the Mario to McDavid's Gretzky. Laine and Eichel are good, they could be Modanos or Sundins or even Malkins. But if there is even a chance that Matthews is on the upper level, which there is, you do not even consider passing on him. And no one will.
MINUS: Extremely disappointing that the Senators were too cheap to pay Bruce Boudreau. You had the first interview, you have to get that done. Pay what it takes, Boudreau is a difference maker when not to many coaches are.
MINUS x 1000: Already hearing the worst people saying how Ovechkin is not a Playoff performer and how he just can't get his team over the hump (even though the series, you know, is not over).
This kind of reductive analysis just enrages me - as far as anything can, as I am a fourth degree Zen Master - because it's really, really dumb.
Ovechkinn has almost a point per game in his career in the Playoffs (80 in 83) and 10 in 11 this year. Also, he's rocking an other-worldly 5v5 possession rating of nearly 58%.
Just so I'm being clear: he is playing at a Hall of Fame, Conn Smythe level. Also, in my opinion, the Capitals have been the better team in the series so far and don't deserve to be down 3-2.
Furthermore, the NHL has seeded teams in such a way that The Lightning get to make the Conference Final by beating two relatively crappy teams, but the Penguins and Capitals - essentially the two best teams in the Conference, have to play each other for the right to face a worse team.
PLUS: It's the Tweet of the Week:
Remember when Drouin felt he was getting screwed and then ruined his career and never played again and wasn’t totally right all along?
— Sapp Macintosh (@MacSapintosh) May 7, 2016
MINUS: It's worth saying again: The reaction to the hiring of John Chayka by the NHL's talking heads was sad and bordering on petulant. Here's what a real Talking Head should sound like:
For a team who's defense "sucks" that also happens to have Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid, that is INSANE and also pretty much the best group of young defensemen in hockey.
MINUS: Reason number 402 that the NHL Awards are a joke. Alex Ovechkin not getting a Hart Trophy Nomination. Personally, I think the Hart should go to Ovechkin or Karlsson.
The end.