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: The NHL draft. From Friday morning until yesterday afternoon, it was pretty fun to be a hockey fan, especially when you consider that there were zero actual hockey games played.
It's amazing the auxiliary interests that permeate beyond the actual game itself, if you really think about it. We were all so psyched to watch a bunch of guys in suits walk up on a stage and put on a sweater.
My wife called it "the most boring thing I can think of," and suggested that it was "embarrassing to be married to such a nerd." I hope she was joking, but from her perspective, I can get why the draft seems lame.
But, following the NHL is so much more than just watching hockey - it really is cool to see what moves each team will make on draft day, not to mention what order the kids get picked in, how they'll eventually work out and the myriad of other story lines.
To an outsider it may seem ridiculous, but I thoroughly enjoyed draft day.
MINUS: All those teams passing on Mathew Barzal, ostensibly because of his interview. I am not saying character doesn't matter, but I highly doubt he's a bad kid - I think hockey remains a terribly conservative, judgmental entity, even at this late date.
From what I heard, Barzal likes to ask questions and give his opinion on stuff. God forbid. For a sport that never gets sick of talking about leadership, isn't it somewhat ironic that anyone slightly different gets labeled with an attitude problem and falls in the draft?
PLUS: Garth Snow is the NHL's version of a wild west outlaw and he doesn't give any expletive deleteds about how the rest of the league conducts their business. He's been my favorite NHL general manager for years now and the rest of the world is catching on - finally.
Snow is exactly what you need in a GM: Someone who goes their own way and thinks differently than the norm. Someone who isn't risk adverse. And Snow has built one hell of a team. Not only was getting Barzal at 16 impressive, but last year he got Josh Ho-Sang at 28, meaning he's added top-ten talent two years in a row without being close to the top ten - both times because the kid in question dared to have a personality.
PLUS: The Dougie Hamilton trade. A mind-blowing blockbuster out of nowhere is always a good thing, no matter who is involved or why.
MINUS:The Coyotes, who were apparently in on Hamilton until the last minute. The Flames didn't pay very much and you'd think the Coyotes could have easily beaten that offer.
PLUS: My Dad's hilarious take on Peter Gabriel, who he apparently holds a personal grudge against dating back to the early 80s. In an unprintable expletive filled rant, which ranged from Gabriel's talent - or apparent lack there of - to his fans and the radio stations that never stop playing "Sledgehammer," Jim Sr. just went off.
If he had his own podcast where he just ripped into bands he hates for obscure reasons, I'm pretty sure it would be the best thing in the world.
This one's for my Pops (a song he called the worst ____ ever written and one which prompted him to play Doug and the Slugs as "revenge." ) Myself, I happen to think Peter Gabriel is a musical genius.
This is one of my favorite songs, recently used with great artistic flare on the season finale of one of my favorite shows The Americans (Honestly, Paul Rudd? Who knew!)
MINUS: Everyone going on and on about how the Leafs drafted small players. It's not like they're ever going to dress 18 players who are all 5'9 - but you can get big bodies anywhere.
Sure, everyone wants a size-skill combo like Getzlaf, but for far too long size has been overrated, or, more accurately, skill has been underrated. The Leafs should be commended for seeing an area that they could get an edge and exploiting it.
Both Travis Dermott (#34) and Jeremy Bracco (#61) were first rounders if they were two inches taller, so what's not to like? You can pretty much always get a Tyler Biggs, if you want one.
MINUS: So it seems like the Bruins are leaking the Dougie Hamilton is unliked by his teammates crap. Didn't something similar happen the last time they made a horrible trade of a young star for no reason?
MINUS: The Leafs' fourth pick, Mitch Marner, made some offensive tweets - when he was 14/15 years old. Who cares?
What I want to know, is, was someone going back through the Twitter accounts of every kid drafted just so they could expose one of them as.......as what? An uneducated 15 year old jock who isn't even getting 2/3rds of a real highschool education?
Give me a break. I am so sick of the gotcha! culture. Yes, we need to be nicer to each other, but exactly zero people are going to take this as a "learning moment" or a "chance to have a discussion."
I don't know what Marner said/wrote, but considering you can't even really be held accountable for anything you do (within reason) when you're 14, I think it's a non-issue.
In my opinion, all this does is desensitize people to what is a real issue. We definitely need to eliminate some words and ideas from our collective vocabulary, but shaming people for things they did when they were 14 is not the way to get there, and, like crying wolf, when there is a real problem that needs to be addressed, people will eventually just be like "Oh this again?".
PLUS:The Coyotes drafted Dylan Strome. After all the talk of trading the pick, it's awesome they kept it and it's very exciting to be writing about a team with OEL, Domi,Strome and Duclair.
PLUS: Supposedly the Leafs turned down an offer of a 2016 first, Derrick Poulliot, Kris Kunitz and Rob Scuderi for Phil Kessel.
Good. That would have been the worst trade in the history of the NHL. If you included Olli Matta I still wouldn't make that trade. Phil Kessel is really good, if those are the offers, they should just keep him.
Thanks for reading.