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: Say what you want about yesterday's unwatchable Sens/Coyotes game, but I was happy to see Don Maloney - after just declaring that everyone on his team is available - look like he was about to have a breakdown.
A pissed off GM, in an unstable mood, with full permission from ownership to tear everything down and make a splash is a great recipe for entertainment. The hockey hasn't been fun to watch, but it all is starting to seem like it might be worth it.
PLUS: Erik Karlsson. Every single game in which he plays is worth watching. I am so sick about hearing of his "defensive liabilities" and I just wish people would take the time to understand "proxy defense" by which I mean players who's main defensive contributions are in keeping the puck in the other team's zone with their great offensive abilities.
In the last five years, Erik Karlsson has had the puck in the offensive zone roughly 54.2% of the time. I don't think the best defensive-defenseman in the world could play good enough defense to make up for the puck just not being near their goalie for that much time.
Consider too, as effective as he's been, hockey is a team sport and Karlsson's team has pretty much sucked over this time. If they ever have a team worthy of their best player, I don't think it's impossible that he could win a scoring title one day.
MINUS: I keep hearing about how ratings for Hockey Night in Canada are down. It's no wonder: the product is terrible. First of all, the Leafs - their main attraction - are brutal, so that doesn't help, but it goes much deeper.
Rogers took what was a broadcast built on tradition and quality and tried to flash it up to terrible results. They need to face up to a few things: Getting rid of Ron Maclean in favor of George Stroumboulopoulos was designed to appeal to younger "hipper" hockey fans, but it backfired terribly because Ron Maclean knows hockey and George S does not.
Also, Ron is likable and intelligent and George is like that hipster kid who works at the grocery store that you make fun of. Furthermore, people don't just dislike, but they actively hate Damian Cox and Glen Healy.
Healy is just not intelligent and his penchant for saying obvious things has turned into a drinking game "Take a shot when Healy says something akin to "the team who scores the most wins."
The set is ridiculous: you don't need anything more than a desk.
The level of discourse is ludicrous: Last night they where wondering if advanced stats can be used in arbitration , but dumbed it down by offensively calling them "fancy stats."
It is, frankly, offensive that the NHL's premier and flagship broadcast cannot hire people who can analyze the game in a progressive nature worthy of 2015. It's actually a joke.
Oh, and there are no woman to be seen anywhere the entire night.
The only good thing that Rogers has done is leave Coach's Corner alone. Other than Elliotte Friedman and Don Cherry the entire thing has been a disaster.
PLUS: To both the records I bought this week: S/V by St. Vincent and Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels which are two of the best records I've picked up in a very long time. St.Vincent is - for me - the most original interesting artist currently making music.
MINUS: To all the sad OEL trade proposals Don Maloney's posturing put me through in the past 48 hours, both here, on Twitter and in other hockey blogs that I read around the internet.
Just to be clear: OEL cannot be had for a package of decent to above average players. Why in the hell would Arizona trade the - hands down- hardest kind of player to acquire (elite #1 defenseman) unless it was in exchange for a chance to have a player who could one day have their name mentioned with Gretzky, Lemieux, Lindros and Crosby?
MINUS: What's phonier than the damned Superbowl? All sorts of people who would never even watch football suddenly care about a bunch of commercials? I mean, the Superbowl is so sick and messed up that they've actually convinced people to be excited about commercials? Just take a minute and consider how crazy/unhealthy/messed up/wrong that is.
Damn do I ever hate the Superbowl. If you're wondering, I'll be watching the Coyotes play the Habs and then Taken 2
MINUS: To this reasoning, which I came across this morning in Steve Simmons' weekly blog: "What the firing of Randy Carlyle has proven: the Leafs Problems were not coaching related."
In the wake of the Leafs' inability to score in the month of January and the recent post-coaching change losing streak, it's easy to think they shouldn't have fired Carlyle.
But get this: Randy Carlyle was an empirically bad coach. This can be, and has been, proven a million times, but the people who just keep spouting the same BS just won't listen or don't care about facts.
The Leafs have improved their defense under Horachek significantly, but they are never going to win a lot of games until they have a number-one centre and a number-one defenseman. It will just never happen.
It doesn't matter that the team has lost under Horachek - only disingenuous, intellectually dishonest person could look at the facts and conclude that Carlyle's coaching was not a major problem.
The lack of offense? Well, the Leafs scored less in January 2015 than any other single month in the teams 100-odd year history. And guess what? I guarantee you that they played tighter, more offensively stifling defense at other times in their history than they do now. Their lack of offense is not from "Horachek concentrating too much on defense" or a "lack of scoring chances, or rush chances."
No, the Leafs aren't scoring primarily because of bad luck. Second, they have faced a lot of good goaltenders. Third they are a psychologically fragile group. Fourth, they aren't very good under optimal conditions but this year has been a gong show from the non-saluting, the Kessel coverage and the coaching change.
I mean, you don't need a degree in advanced mathematics to know that if the NHL average shooting percentage is 8 or 9% and your team has one of 3% - and yet employs both Phil Kessel and James Van Riemsdyk - that it can't be due to anything other than luck.
But please, if you have any respect for your intelligence or mine, don't sit there and tell me that Randy Carlyle is a victim here or that he wasn't the problem. He was the problem - the biggest one outside positional deficiencies.
PLUS: The Interview It's not Taken, but it is fantastic on so many levels.
MINUS: Anyone who listens to Maroon 5 on purpose. I am not a snob, but please, have some self-respect.