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 Coyotes. Ever since half-way through their eight game road-trip when they lost to the Flyers in a shoot-out and then beat the Leafs the next game, they seemed to have turned some kind of corner, with the exception of the beat-down they took from the Senators.
Since the Flyers game, the team is 3-2-2 and could easily be 6-1. Now, draft-wise, it's probably good that they aren't six and one, but what more can you ask for than good hockey with mediocre results during the situation they find themselves in right now?
In last night's game, they missed a penalty-shot, and lost by a single goal (there was an empty-net) against what is now the top team in the East.
PLUS: Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored his 16th goal of the season last night. That ties him for 14th most in the NHL. Other guys with 16 goals? Giroux, Gaborik, Getzlaf, Benn and Iginla - good company, no?
OEL leads all D in the NHL in goals scored, 3 more than Trevor Daly and his 15% shooting clip.
Ekman-Larson is shooting 8% and I don't know if anyone else remembers, but at the end of November I wrote about his bad-luck based 3% shooting when I had to stick up for him after he only posted three goals in the season's first two months.
Imagine the points he'd put up if he also played on a team where the forwards scored goals and he could get assists at even strength?
PLUS: If we're talking awesome young defensemen let's talk about Morgan Rielly. Since the incompetent Randy Carlyle was fired and replaced with the superior Peter Horachek, the new coach of the Leafs has played Rielly as his top defensemen.
Now, this probably also has something to do with the coinciding injury to Dion Phaneuf, but even before #3 was injured Rielly's ice-time was going up. Check this goal, it's the goal of the year.
PLUS: NHL.com bringing advanced stats to the masses by putting them on their site. Great news.
MINUS: I don't really want to talk about Evander Kane anymore, but after I wrote yesterday that the Coyotes should go after him, I received so many Tweets and Comments about how he has too much baggage for a rebuilding team - how his supposed attitude will infect the rebuilding process like an Airborne Toxic Event.
This really annoys me. I know a lot of people who would be considered "locker-room distractions" or "bad influences" but I don't find them unduly influencing me and I am sure most people can relate. I really find the idea of one"bad-guy" infecting the attitudes and atmosphere of an entire team to be unrealistic and preposterous.
According to a popular narrative, people are so easily influenced by others that 19 other guys can't over come the terrible attitude of one guy, and are so weak and ineffectual that whatever it was that let them become the best in the world at what they do, will be ruined because one guy doesn't buy-in to the team first concept which I suspect is more prevalent inside the heads of fans than real-life professional dressing rooms.
Kane might be the most famous current locker-room problem but I can guarantee you that nearly every team in every sport has guys who don't get along with each other. Face it: when you put 20 people together, some of them will hate each other and some will be duds.
All I am saying is that even if Kane is twice the distraction/problem he's made out to be that it wouldn't make much difference in comparison to his talent.
PLUS: Deven Dubnyk and his fourth shut-out since being traded. Good for him. Too bad I was asleep at the wheel and had Kuemper all year in my Yahoo Pool but missed out on the waiver wire for Dubnyk.
Really nice to see the former Coyote doing well and the Wild, who have built a pretty nice team, finally getting enough goaltending to keep them in games and maybe make a late Playoff run.
MINUS: Due to the stupid three-point-sometimes system the NHL employs and because of the equally stupid Wild Card system, the NHL playoff races this year are weak and lame.
In the East, even though there is still nearly half a season to go, we already know all eight Playoff teams and that is boring. In the West since the top three in the Central are all ready likely decided (Sure, Winnipeg could catch the Hawks, but they won't) it means that only two of the Wild, Jets, Stars and Avalanche can make the Playoffs.
It isn't impossible that teams that miss the Playoffs from the Central could end up more points than a top three team from the Pacific. Not likely, but it could happen. Why not just take the best eight teams in the conference? Or better yet, the best 16 teams in the League and then have first round matchups that are inter-conference?
This would eliminate the problem of superior teams missing the Playoffs and the Cup winner would more often be the best team in the NHL. It would also allow better Finals - St.Louis v Chicago anyone?
MINUS: Anyone spouting any version of the sad, intellectually dishonest, and flat-out wrong narrative that Randy Carlyle "clearly wasn't the problem in Toronto." He quite obviously was the problem and any review of Horachek's tenure that doesn't account for the historically bad luck he has had to deal with should be completely disregarded. There's the injuries (played his first nine games minus 1/3 of his top nine forwards, which suck even when healthy and his top defensemen is also injured). Then what about the 3% shooting? The lowest any team's ever shot over a full season is 7%......and also, there's that pesky problem with the goalies and how they have played like garbage.
The one thing a coach can do: get his team to commit 100% to defense and cut down on shots has been accomplished. It's also true that the one thing that makes smart people smart is their ability to look beyond results and evaluate the process. If you do that here you almost have no choice but to praise Peter Horachek.
The only thing comparable to Horachek's first 12 games as Leafs coach? Eight of the nine ringers Mr. Burns brought in to help him win his softball bet getting injured on the same day.
Thanks for reading.