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: Game Five. Fantastic. One of the best and most intense third periods I've ever seen. I think it's pretty great to see a game that good in the Finals. They don't always live up to the hype of it being the last and deciding series, but I think these two teams have been evenly matched and both deserve to win.
PLUS: Corey Crawford. Funny how, collectively, we just sort of refuse to give some players any credit. This guy must see the love given to Bishop, or Dubnyk, or Hammond or whoever the flavor of the week is and just use it as motivation.
He has a career record of 147-79 .917 / 2.34, his Playoff stats are slightly better and he's on the verge of winning his second Cup. He is our generations Chris Osgood.
I hope he gets the Con Smythe.
PLUS: Here's my music recommendation for the week. Galaxie 500 On Fire from 1989.
PLUS: It's the season of crazy trade rumours. The post-Cup, Pre-draft is the best time of the year unless your favorite team actually makes the Playoffs. So, if you happen to be a Leafs/Coyotes fan, it's just the best time of the year, period. Hopefully one day it won't be.
MINUS: If you've been following the Coyotes Saga this week, then surely you saw the lady who yelled at the mayor and then got to taser him for charity.
This is bat - ___. I don't even know what to say. Only in America? Like, people die from tasers when they aren't treated like real weapons and are deployed in an almost casual fashion, and idiocy like this isn't going to help.
This whole thing is creepy and psychotic. The Mayor embracing that people hate him enough to do this, like how can you possibly be more cynical about politics? It's insulting. The woman, whose inarticulate and confused speech was not inspiring, but rather came off as childish and annoying.
Instead of addressing any real concerns, she just seemed like some ill-informed sports fan yelling at an official because its 2015 and reality TV and constant cameras in our face have made us into a style-over-substance society where we cheer her for speaking out, but don't listen to anything she actually says. What she said was terrible, and really had nothing to do with anything. She was angry because the mayor doesn't support the team by paying for tickets to games. I mean, you "hauled butt" (seriously, just say "ass") all the way from a Phoenix to yell at the mayor of a town you don't live in? And your biggest concern was that he doesn't pay for his tickets?
This whole thing was already a sideshow and it's perfectly encapsulated by a raving, naive lunatic, a cynical mayor and a bunch of psychopaths who want to see a guy tasered on TV. This whole thing says a lot of things about our society, and none of them are good.
MINUS: Having to spend another off-season constantly engaged in talk about the Coyotes moving.
MINUS: The fact that it deflects from attention being put on one of the better groups of prospects/young players in the NHL - with four more first round picks in the next two years, the Coyotes are a young, exciting team on the verge of maybe having something special, and it's being lost/ignored etc. because of this never-ending soap opera.
PLUS: The Blue Jays are on a ten-game winning streak and may, possibly, play relevant baseball in July for the first time in recent memory. The Raptors made the Playoffs this year, which should be all Toronto gets for the next five years, but the Jays are looking to absolutely spoil us here with two professional teams being good enough for the Playoffs twice in one year.
Crazy.
MINUS: People ripping Phil Kessel this morning because they don't like his no-trade list.
Phil Kessel earned himself a big fat contract with some trade protection and now that the team wants to trade him one year into the deal, he's the jerk? Come on. Toronto fans regularly treat players horribly, and I just don't see in what world a player is supposed to consider the salary cap and trade likelihood of the teams he puts on his list. Chicago, LA, Boston.......are we shocked this list doesn't include AZ, FLA and Nashville? Phil Kessel owes the Leafs and their fans nothing.
MINUS:The NHL made its annual foray into D-list level talent this past week when it announced that Daughtry - possibly the only band in the world worse than Mumford and Sons - would be"headlining" the Awards Show.
If you wanted to suck on purpose you couldn't pull this off any better. How can the NHL possibly be this clueless about the entertainment it books. Chaka Kahn, Def Leppard and now Daughtry?
What a joke.
Thanks for reading.