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: To the World Cup of hockey and all their whacky gimmicks. I think people are just so negative that they hate anything new and interesting. How dare they leave Slovakia out of a tournament?
If they really wanted to make it good, they'd let Canada put in two teams, they'd let the States and Russia make a super team and have another one combining Finland and Sweden to go along with the under 23 and the Europe All-Stars.
This way Canada wouldn't be such a heavy favorite and it'd be way better to watch.
MINUS: To all the whining and complaining I've heard this week about All-Star games, Jerseys, All-Star drafts and World Cups. People just whine and whine and whine and whine. Ohhhhh ________ isn't exactly how I want it, let me cry about it for an hour, drop some tweets and write a letter to my congressman.
There's lots of a real stuff to complain about but how about people lay off new ways of doing fun, harmless stuff for a while?
PLUS: Lost in the Max Domi-mania that has been going on since the WJHC, is the rise of Coyotes' prospect Christian Dvorak. The 2014 second rounder (58th overall) is currently second in the OHL with 81 points in 43 games.
Craig Button ranked him the seventh best affiliated prospect in the NHL. In his draft year, he averaged a half point per game. One year later he's almost doing 4X that. It's beginning to look like the Coyotes have found a Patrice Bergeron-like second round gem. (As in a potential star, not suggesting Dvorak plays like Bergeron).
PLUS: The Coyotes are near the bottom of the NHL standings and hope to have a shot at drafting Connor McDavid or consultation prize Jack Eichal. However, if things do not work out there, they may be able to get their hands on Mitch Marner - the OHL's leading scorer and the guy who centres Domi and Dvorak on the London Knights.
If the Coyotes could replicate this line in the NHL eventually, that would be something to behold.
PLUS:
This:
MINUS: I live in what is basically Toronto for all intents and purposes. So, watching the Leafs collapse and the media surrounding it is at times both annoying and interesting. But what gets the MINUS here is the mindless drivel posing as analysis: "Blow It All Up" they say. "It will take five years" yada yada and no one speaks up and says "these are really stupid, mindless, moronic narratives."
Like the Coyotes, the Leafs have a bit more in the cupboard than people probably think. The "Five Years" thing is a constant reference point, so let me ask you this: if your last five first round draft picks were Kessel, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Bernier wouldn't you be pretty pleased with yourself? Any team in hockey would be psyched to have five such successful drafts, so tell me why this team needs to "tear it down"? Toronto is a stupid city when it comes to the media and the coverage of the Leafs. Whatever's happening this season, that is as solid a core of players to build around as there is in hockey.
MINUS: I have my DVR set up to tape Sports Centre every morning so that when I wake up I can watch it commercial and NFL free. But all week long there has been a stupid Austrailian Tennis tournament that - due to time zones - they play in what is the middle of the night here. So instead of Sports Centre, I get 30 minutes of random tennis.
I bet you could never guess this: I hate Tennis and consider it the national sport of fat-cats and people who have maids.
MINUS: To the unchecked proliferation of technology in hockey equipment.
I am talking about hockey sticks. In 1993 Al Iafrate shot the puck 105 MPH, but looking at the surrounding years, I suspect heavily that that was not a legitimately recorded speed. It used to be that anything over 96 was crazy hard and that 100 MPH was insane.
Last night Shea Weber shot the puck 108MPH and one day someone is going to get killed. That is too insane. The NHL did nothing last week when Eric Staal intentional fired a slapshot at Dion Phaneuf and they have done nothing to keep technology from making people able to shoot pucks at speeds which should not be possible and which are potentially dangerous. The NHL has an illegal curve rule, but hasn't it become kind of a joke when hybrid material sticks with super-flex allow guys to add power to their shots at the cost of control? Why does the NHL not care about the amount of sticks that blow up ever game on simple passes?
Should they outlaw these sticks in the same way MLB outlaws aluminium bats? I can't say, I'd need more information, but it is something I'd like to know more about.
PLUS: Took in a Barrie Colts game last night. Good times were had by all. I really like the way there is a restaurant that overlooks the ice, but I gotta say: there is no way they sent us four pounds of wings. Three, maybe. Probably like two and a half.
Old Gordon Ramsey wouldn't have responded well to the food service, but the game was great.
PLUS: I have been counting down my Top Ten Albums of All-Time. So far:
10. The Smiths The Queen is Dead 9. Warron Zevon Excitable Boy 8. Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion 7. REM Document
Coming in at #6 from 1989 is The Cure Disintegration
Not until I made up this list could I have envisioned this record coming in so low. It is an all-time favorite that gets played around my house constantly. It might be an even more depressing record than the Queen Is Dead if not for the fact that the Cure's sadness seems undercut with a sense of camp and romance in a Percy Shelly kind of way. Morrisey on the other hand always feels like he could just up and quit in the middle of a record and his jokes have a way of making everything darker.
#5 is a much happier album, um, sort of. From 1996, Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister
Amazingly, I never heard this record growing up. I bought a couple later period B&S records and liked them all-right, but didn't think they were anything world changing. Then, a few years ago, I found this in a used CD bin for $2 and thought 'what the hell' since I always like to try to fill out the complete library of a bands output in my collection. Since that day I doubt I've gone three days without putting it on. It is easily one of the greatest records ever put out.
Thanks for reading.