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.
MINUS: Last night's Coyotes/Flames game. Maybe it was fun to watch if you are a Flames fan, but it wasn't for me. The Coyotes once again demonstrate that they are the least offensive team in the NHL - perhaps even including the Sabres.
The team created next to no offense, all night. They were over-matched by a Calgary team that was just better in virtually ever facet of the game - they worked harder, played better, their best players were better - everything. The shots being even at the end of the game was not even close to representative of the actual play, in my opinion.
I hated watching this game. The Coyotes have frustrated the hell out of me to be honest.
MINUS: To the people I heard/saw ripping Keith Yandle for his turnover that lead to the 2-0 Calgary goal. What is he supposed to do? His team can't score, they create no offense, and you're seriously going to blame him for trying to create some? Sure, he turned it over, but you could even say the puck jumped away from him and he did nothing wrong.
The puck went the other way, it was an odd man rush, basically a break-away, and the game is over because whatever lord or entity you're into, you know they can't help the Coyotes score two goals in the same period, let alone game. Yes, it was the worst possible outcome, but I don't think it's fair to knock Yandle for trying to do something the forwards on his team are incapable of.
MINUS: Just sick of seeing the same cliches game after game - we just have to work harder, we just have to stick with it.........jfkalsjfkasjdklfqsd How about the coach sits a star player, how about the GM comes out and blasts his team or makes a trade or gives some kind of indication that there is a GM.
It seems to me the Coyotes are just killing time until this new ownership takes over. But come on, you've lost 5 of 6 (and I don't care about loser points) and in four of those games the amount of goals scored were: 1, 1, 1, 0.
That's pathetic. And yet I am an idiot according to someone yesterday who got all condescending with me because I suggested that Vermette probably shouldn't be the team's top power-play ice time leader among forwards. MINUS to anyone who refuses to be unconventional, to think out side the box or use any creativity - like the whole Coyotes organization that is way too conservative (not politically) for it's own good.
MINUS: To all the struggling teams like Edmonton, Philly and Arizona for their measured, conservative, patient responses to being garbage. I want a knee-jerk reaction dammit. Seriously, there's such a thing as being too patient; just make a frigging move already. These guys are way too afraid to make mistakes. Just bite the bullet and do something.
MINUS:To Mikkel Boedker. What the hell was that buddy? First shift, he tries to avoid a hit that he should just take - he's in the damned NHL - and in doing so he carves up the face of the Flames player Jooris.
First of all, it's a MINUS for utter stupidity, but it's also a MINUS to the refs and the NHL because accident or not, that amount of recklessness should get Boedker kicked out of the game. The NHL's lackadaisical approach to player safety borders on being comically inept.
PLUS: Getting to watch the Coyotes play on Hockey Night in Canada. No offense to Tyson Nash and the boys, but the difference in production quality is night and day. The analysis on HNIC is great and having Paul Romanuk do the play by play is a welcome change. The guy is - outside of Bob Cole - the Best in the Biz.
I love their second period intermissions where they break down plays on a simulated ice surface with ex-NHL players really going into the details and subtleties of plays. This is exactly what hockey on TV needs more of.
I also loved that they had Adam Oates on while the Capitals played - he coached them last year - and his thoughts were incredibly interesting. Also PLUS to Coaches Corner, still the best intermission program in the league.
MINUS: If we're talking HNIC there's a couple of problems. 1. Not enough Ron MacLean. 2. Damian Cox is not good on TV. 3. No analytics talk at all. The mainstream media ignoring what amounts to a revolution in how hockey is watched and perceived seems protectionist and immature. I compare it to countries charging huge tariffs on superior products so they can prop up their own inferior home-made crap. 4. It needs more than just a token woman. There is no need for it to be such a total sausage fest.
The HNIC broadcast is generally very solid, but it needs more ladies, less Cox, more analytics and more MacLean.
PLUS: My new Ariel Pink album finally came in the mail and it is outstanding. I might even venture to say it is their best yet and perhaps it even ascends to the top of my year end list. If you like a guy with obvious talent but who uses it to be insane and wierd, this is the record for you.
PLUS: To the Canadiens for losing twice in a row to the Sabres. As someone who grew up on Ontario, this is a magical feeling.
MINUS: To the guy who shall remain nameless who twice this week made me trade offers by text message and then reneged on them when I accepted. Worse, after pulling the offer off the table, he attempted to trade me a player I had dropped only two days before.
For shame.
PLUS: To Tyler Bozak. What is the deal with that guy? He is 20th in league scoring. He sits just outside the top-ten. His 11 goals tie him for 7th overall. He has 71 points in his last 81 games.
So, I repeat: What's the deal with him? I started off a huge fan. I once wrote, in my first published piece of writing - four year ago - that he was on a career trajectory not dissimilar to Martin St. Louis. I cheered for him, and I argued that he was one of the NHL's most underrated players.
Then I started reading as much as I could about analytics. I mean, if I'm going to do this job, I figure I have to know as much as I can. While doing this I read stat after stat about how players who play with Bozak get worse, how he is actually a terrible defender and that he just rides the coattails of better players. So I came to believe the Leafs should rid themselves of him and save the $4 million against the cap that he costs them.
I don't know anymore. What to even believe or think? He's played like a legit #1 centre for over a seasons worth of games. He scores and he looks good doing it.
I know analytics are valuable and I know that anomalies occur. I also know that if you score enough and do it consistantly - Ovechkin, St.Louis - then you can basically throw the Corsi out the window, because you don't need a proxy to explain things that keep happening.
So, while I try to have an opinion on everything: I'm lost on Bozak.
Whatever.
MINUS: To all the people who line up and trample people to get things they don't need and invert the spirit of what is meant to be a nice holiday, and instead approximate the insidiousness of the real reason there is a thank-giving in the first place.
Black Friday is disgusting. People are sick.
You know how your Mom would just give up when you wouldn't listen to her and she'd say "well don't come crying to me when you get hurt," ? Well that's pretty much how this insane commercialized stupidity makes me feel.
PLUS: To Barrie Trotz for taking time off from plotting against Sonic the Hedgehog to return to the NHL.
MINUS:To Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, who for some un-hilarious reason feels the need to troll advanced stat people every week in his weekly column. I like his column, even if, since the advent of Twitter and his appearances on TV I've stopped liking him; I've basically read it my whole life.
But every week he uses his giant platform to take another shot against people who, let's face it, are not as rich as he is and who don't have the same platform. I wouldn't even mind so much if they weren't so non-nonsensical, repetitive and totally playing to the lowest common denominator. Steve desperately needs to learn what probability and anomalies are.
MINUS: To kids movies like Elf, Home Alone and the Polar Express, which raise doubt to the existence of a certain Mr. Clause. I don't know....I just want the magic to last as long as possible and whenever there's something on TV that might raise a question I get pissed. Thoughts?
PLUS:To the Vince Vaughn movie the Delivery Man which I loved. Full disclosure, I loved Fred Clause and even the Internship, so maybe this movie wasn't all that good and I just love Vince Vaughn. He certainly is the only celebrity,except maybe Bruce, who I'd like to meet. But not because he's famous, just because we'd obviously be great pals. Vaughn is the greatest actor of this or any other generation and you should see the Delivery Man. I liked it a lot.
MINUS: To the Coyotes being out of it by American Thanksgiving. Come on. They sit seven points out of a playoff spot, and to put that in perspective, that's the same amount of points that separates the Wild, who are in 9th, from FIRST IN THE NHL.
So, since the Coyotes are virtually eliminated from post season contention, they need to be honest about this fact and start working on getting to the bottom of the standings. That means trading Yandle tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.