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 Coyote's Mike Smith. Smith has rebounded from an awful start and has been playing fantastic lately. Playing in both legs of the back-to-back this weekend, he made 69 saves and allowed a total of 3 goals. That's just a .958 save %, no big deal.
After getting on him for his early season woes and his terrible mask, he deserves some credit for his great play. He single-handedly beat the Ducks and almost got the Islanders last night, allowing only a single goal with just under 2 and a half minutes to play.
MINUS: To the Coyotes forwards, and their GM, Don Maloney for allowing this to continue long after it's been apparent it isn't working. In their last two games, the Coyotes have scored 2 goals. Those two goals came within a minute of each other on Friday night meaning that they have been shout out for 119 of the last 120 minutes of hockey. Even going back to the Toronto earlier in the week, the Coyotes jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but didn't score for the last 30 minutes of the game.
This team needs an injection of offensive talent.
MINUS Not only to the NHL for their sickening levels of greed in even considering putting ads on jerseys, but to the people who don't care. I get the apathetic ones, they aren't going to chime in on much. But what bugs me are the ones who care enough to argue about and say "who cares?"
Yeah, they're entitled to their opinions, but as I said on Friday, if people spoke out against unadulterated greed more often, we wouldn't live in a world where income disparity was the single greatest problem.
PLUS To Vladimir Tarasenko. Sure, you've probably seen it a thousand times by now, but what's one more? I mean, if we don't appreciate goals like this, what are we even doing here? Is this guy a flash in the pan or a 50 goal scorer? I got him in my pool, so I'm saying the latter, but if anyone has a more objective take.....
Without a top-line centre and a top-pairing defenseman, the Leafs are in no position to compete this year, so why is their coach making short-sighted decisions and benching their best young-players?
I understand that playing veterans over youth might give you a better chance to win today, but I think that if you aren't a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup, you need to coach for the future, and that means maximizing the experience of all your young players. If Carlyle isn't going to coach with the long-term future of the team in mind, he should be canned.
I was saying the same thing about the Coyotes coach and GM just a week or so ago, but they may have come around. While I would still like to see the team call up about four AHL players and jettison Klinkhammer, Chipchura and Crombeen, I do like that they brought up Reider (although he could use more than 11 minutes) and Gormley (who played 16 last night, which is nice to see).
PLUS: To the Toronto Raptors. I may divide my NHL loyalties between my home-town and my adopted team, but in the NBA, it's Raptors only. The team is off to a 5-1 start and look like they may just be contenders. In a league where you're not supposed to compete if you don't have that super elite superstar or the ability to draw free agents, the Raptors success is even sweeter than it otherwise would be.
MINUS:To anyone who criticizes a goalie's shootout record. Shootouts are all about luck and you can't judge a goalie at all by his shootout record or save %. In fact, even judging a team by their shootout record is dumb. The Devils lost something like 19 straight shootouts and are no better or worse than any other team. Sometimes a coin will just keep landing heads, it's an anomaly and doesn't mean anything.
PLUS: To Prince on SNL last week. Did you see it? It was fantastic. Not only does he demand they give him an uninterrupted 8 minute block to play, but he jams out three songs no one's ever heard. I am sure the producers were hoping for at least one hit, but Prince is just too cool for that. The best part is that even if I had never heard the new songs, they were awesome. Prince is awesome. No one is better.
MINUS: The reporters in my hometown of Toronto. They never let up on Phil Kessel, constantly complain that he doesn't talk to the media, isn't very vocal and even imply that he is fat.
Here's a counter to that: Phil Kessel is the only player to be in the top 10 in scoring in the last three years, he is (i'm pretty sure) the most consistent goal scorer in the NHL for the past 5 years, and at this point I'd be willing to bet that outside of Corey Perry he is probably the best winger in the NHL. Ovechkin picked him last in the All-Star game and then laughed at him. Nearly everyone would rather have Kessel on their team today.
And, he's never been arrested, never hit a woman, been in a gambling scandal, or a drug scandal etc etc etc. The Toronto Media treats this guy like crap, and all he does is be a professional and produce. It's embarrassing.
MINUS: To people who just won't grasp the importance of offensive defensemen in today's NHL. They see a Yandle or a Gardiner giveaway and that sticks in their head and they look at the box score and see he got an assist and their take away is that it wasn't worth it.
Of course high-risk defensmen are going to make mistakes in their own zone and of course they'll be soft in the corners, but their ability to move the puck through the neutral zone, to drive possession and to keep the puck out of their own end trumps all of their defensive errors.
Yandle is way more valuable than most people seem to think. We live in a time where every goal is dissected and blame applied. It's easy to see a goal and blame a Yandle or a Gardiner, but the fact is, two goals are going to be scored against your team every game, on average, no matter what, and blaming people is counter-productive - they just happen to be on the ice a lot, so goals are bound to happen against them.
I really don't think people value the offensive defensemen high enough. You remember those big errors, but in reality, I maintain they are more than balanced out by the dozens of smaller things those kinds of players do each game. Its all about confirmation bias: we are manipulated by low-frequency/high-impact events, like goals, and don't notice little things, like crisp passes through the neutral zone, or a neat little pinch that keeps the offensive zone alive.
PLUS: To the Flames, Predators, Canucks, and Canadiens, who have so far, some of the best records in the NHL. Good job. Now, come back to earth! Let's look for Chicago, Minnesota, Colorado and Dallas to pick it up from here on out and put the standings back to their more realistic order. Sorry, but I just don't see any of those teams lasting. I don't wish ill on anyone and certainly a playoffs that featured Calgary, Vancouver, Nashville and Winnipeg would be awesome, if just for the change, but I don't see it lasting.
Thanks for reading.