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.
MINUS: If it's true, as my colleague Mike Augello says, that the Leafs won't make any more moves this summer because Lamoriello needs to see these players up close.
Give me a break. If that is the case, then maybe hiring him was the wrong move. The Leafs very much have to make some more moves. Currently their roster is full with no room for developing any rookies and it looks way t0o much like the crapfest that ended last season. A "rebuild" is not consummated by trading one player. No one needs to see Bozak play. He's clearly and objectively useless, which means the Leafs should trade him to the
PLUS: Vancouver Cancucks. Yes, their moves are bad bordering on hilarious, but the fact is, everyone else in the West just got a little better this week. Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to your new last place team.
MINUS: In summer of questionable moves, the Coyotes hiring Claude Loiselle, in any capacity, is a horrible move.
PLUS: Steve Simmons praising the move in his column today. It's almost cute how Simmons supports everything bad and stupid about sports.
PLUS: The Blue Jays. What's left to say other than they have assembled probably the best lineup in recent history? I mean, I can't speak for teams before the 90's, but it's the best I've seen.
I'm still not recovered from the adding of Tulowitzki, let alone Price.
MINUS: Everyone keeps saying how risky it is to "go all in," and that it will be a disaster if the Jays don't win the World Series.
As you can probably image, I disagree.
I don't think we should put so much stock in the actual act of winning. If you follow a team for 30 years and most of that time is spent trading away ever big name you develop for prospects and complaining about the cheapness of ownership, then I figure you ought to just be pumped to see the team get to a point where they are competitive and where the the ownership adds money to the team when necessary.
I'd like to see them win, but even if they don't, this is exciting. When you consider that in sports, the rate of cliches to heartfelt honesty is the highest of all human activities, that sports fans would embrace the classic "it's the journey not the destination."
Good day for guys who say bro I guess.
MINUS: While you were reading this someone just shot a lion in country with 65% poverty.
MINUS: I only use Facebook to spam people with my hockey articles, but what is the deal with people constantly asking me things like "What famous painting are you?" "What Power Ranger are You?" and "What colour of fake-outrage are you?"
If you find yourself posting or participating in this crap, the only question you really ought to be asking yourself is "Which Lord of the Rings Orc do you most resemble?"
PLUS: Being better than everyone all the time. It's exhausting.
PLUS: Stand By Me. I hadn't seen the movie since I was 10, so basically I'd never seen it cause all I remember'd was the pie contest, but the novella is one of my favorites and I'd read that a whole bunch of times and so I guess I never really felt seeing the movie was necessary.
I gotta say, that it's probably the best movie I've ever seen. Sad as hell though.
PLUS: Great week for the Flyers, locking up Voracek and Courturier. Both are great players, but the value they're getting on Couturier is insane. MIINUS: I really am turning into the kind of old bastard who yells "get off my lawn," but everything I see bugs me. The way people talk just drives me insane. "This really gives me the feels." Who talks like that and why aren't they embarrassed?
I've stopped being friends with people for less.
PLUS: Neko Case, the Scarlett Johansson of voices.
MINUS: Why does everyone keep talking about who their team would protect in an expansion draft? Here's a guess: everyone with a bad contract gets exposed.
It's going to be rough, there's never been an expansion draft in the salary cap era, so I suspect that the new teams will end up with worse rosters than usual or begin life with a Maple Leafs-esque cap situation circa 2013-15 type situation.