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:Waking up to news of a trade. I love this time of year. Sunday is always notable for its music and newspaper combo - but to get a trade on top of that? I love it.
PLUS:Whoever the Leafs current GM is, that guy nailed it. If it's Nonis, good for him because to turn two UFAs into a first, and a decent - highly skilled - prospect is a good move. Even better? 1/3 of the remaining games left in the season occur before the trade deadline. That means by moving early the Leaf also added huge value to their own first rounder because they just lost two of their best players.
Oh, and four million in Cap savings and the ability to flip Jokinen for even a super-low pick is cool too.
PLUS: By winning at poker on Friday, I had some found-money and so I took it to the comic-book store, which I had neglected for far too long. I picked up Arkham Asylum, a collection of Alan Moore Superman and the sixth volume of the Sandman. It was a seriously good day.
PLUS: Last night I watched the Calgary/Vancouver game. Since the two teams I normally watch are a combined 43-59-12 I had forgotten what a real hockey game was like.
This was a fantastic game: it felt like a Playoff game (I sort of remember what those are) I must say, all I've thought about is prospects and draft picks for so long I really liked watching two teams play for a reason.
MINUS:It's always bad when a player as fun to watch as Tyler Seguin goes down with an injury and it's even worse when the injury was preventable, from a dirty hit and will impact the Playoff race.
But what get's me frustrated is how bad the NHL is with suspensions and player safety. Nick Kypreos said "Its not a ten game suspension." That's the problem.
One assumes Kypreos was assessing the play based on the NHL's track record of discipline and not the hit itself. I agree with Kypreos, it's probably a five gamer, at max. But it should be more like twenty.
If the NHL offered up a suspension that would actually deter this kind of stupidity, it would be a great day for hockey.
PLUS: Speaking of suspensions, Slava Voynov has now served the longest suspension in NHL history (except for some guy from the 20s who was banned for life).
If it in fact turns out that he is guilty of assaulting his wife, I think the NHL should consider banning him for life too. There is no excuse for that and the NHL shouldn't associate itself with pieces of &^%$ who hit woman.
However: one of the very foundations of our legal system (and society) is that you are innocent until proven guilty. Varlomov was in a similar situation last season and while the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, he still faces a civil suit.
Why is one of these players playing and the other not?
Look: I love the fact that the NHL is taking a hard-line stance with domestic abuse. It is a subject that is not talked about enough and because of the difficulty a woman can face in being believed in the first place, maybe this is actually a great thing that we just assume she is telling the truth and suspend the player.
But as much as I like that - the logical side of my brain says this is a slippery slop from a legal perspective. Ultimately, I don't know 100% if the NHL is doing the right thing here or not: even murderers are entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence.
But so what? The NHL is not the law. The NHL can't send him to jail so they don't need to follow the same rules of jurisprudence. If we have come to a point in our society where no one even questions a guy being suspended so long without a trial because no one wants to side with an abuser, or even look like they are, then that is amazing. Obviously one of the biggest problems with domestic abuse is the silence in which people suffer and the fact that no one talks about it.
Over half of all woman over the age of sixteen report at least one physical or sexual assault (canadianwoman.org) and if Voynov never playing again lowers this even marginally, then I hope he never plays another game in the NHL.
MINUS: Hey I thought Tanner was a comedy writer. That is too serious for me.
PLUS:Today is Movie Day. I am going to finish this blog and then do absolutely nothing but watch movies until I fall asleep. Top Gun is on the docket...maybe some Bourne Identity........Nothing tops Movie Day.
MINUS: Family Day. I love the fact that Canada added a holiday in February. The more holidays the better is my basic life philosophy. But come on, they couldn't have done better than Family Day? Clearly honouring any political figure - Louis Reil, Pierre Trudeau, Ron McLean - would be too polarizing, but to just pick a generic fake-day no one can complain about is just so Canadian it makes me want to puke.
What we should have is Lafontaine/Baldwin day. They are the reason we have responsible government and no one could complain about that. Instead we get Family Day. If I spend tomorrow with my family, that's cool, I prefer to do that on most days anyway. But I actually have met people who feel obligated to do so because the calendar told them to. And that is weak.
MINUS: The way people are treating Phil Kessel. While the Leafs have sucked terribly, losing something like 22 of their last 26, Kessel - who is playing through multiple injuries and has all year, according to various reports - continues to put up roughly 4 shots per game, as he has done all season.
Instead of shooting his career average of approximately 12%, since the Leafs have taken their annual dive, he's going around 3%. Clearly this has nothing to do with anything other than bad luck. What the guy has accomplished on a crap team with a crap centre means he deserves better than this. I saw people - one an ex-Leafs executive - suggest the Leafs will have to retain as much of his salary as allowed to retain him.
Why should they even trade him? He's awesome.
PLUS: The Coyotes lost last night. Finally. After picking up points seemingly like mad-dogs lately, the team took a good old fashioned beatdown, losing 5-1 to the Rangers.
I seriously think they should out-tank Buffalo and just start pulling their goalie in the first period. I don't think there is a rule against it and it would hilariously exploit the stupidity of the league for creating a situation that rewards failure.
PLUS: The Jets. They essentially got Stafford (a 30 goal scorer) two late-firsts and a second for an injured player they have nothing but problems with. They also flipped defenseman and got the better player with the better contract. This is a great trade, the more I think about it.
MINUS:To the "Tyler Myers had one good year" narrative. He scored 37 points as a sophmore, which is still fantastic. 6'8 40 point defensemen don't exactly grow on trees.
In year three, he was injured but still scored at a 35 point pace. Again, that is very good. In the three years since then, Buffalo has been the worst team in hockey and he's been their best defensemen: ask Phaneuf how that works out.
I predict Myers will end up being a 50 point player again and that it will one day be considered hilarious he got traded for Bogosian.
PLUS: I think the Leafs might have just trade Bozak to the Rangers. PlUS relevant as long as you aren't a Rangers fan.
Thanks for reading.