PLUS: The Coyotes landing Taylor Hall. This isn’t recent news, but it’s worth celebrating because Taylor Hall combines with goalie Darcy Keumper to make the Coyotes something they haven’t ever been: a real Stanley Cup Contender.
MINUS: The +/- stat remains widely used despite being a misleading and stupid statistic that is based mostly on how goalies perform when a player is on the ice.
Routinely you will see goals, assists and +/- listed in quick player summaries or re-caps. This, despite the fact that it's been well known for years to be a misleading, goalie dependent, luck based stat that provides more confusion than illumination.
Shot attempts occur at a frequency of about 10:1 to goals and are not affected by goalies. Corsi isn't a perfect stat, but it's quite literally 10 x better than +/- and should be used in its place.
The refusal to adapt is just lazy. Using +/- or mentioning even it is an embarrassment.
PLUS: My daughter is 11 and a kid who is older than her used the phrase "OK, Boomer" to insult her.
I don't love the accuracy of this kids usage, and I generally despite catch phrases, but I do love the sentiment.
MINUS: The scandal of teams cheating in baseball by stealing signs.
1. Every single team does it.
2. If you’re stupid enough to let other teams steal your signs, you deserve it. You gotta change those signs frequently, son!.
PLUS: The movie Keanu which is an underrated masterpiece. Keegan Michael Key is the funniest person alive.
MINUS: I won't miss Don Cherry. Regardless of what you think about what got Cherry fired, it's his own fault for failing to even try to adapt with the times.
That said, going from Don Cherry to Brian Burke is like replacing your lawnmower with a louder even worse lawnmower.
The other day, after a game where William Nylander scored three points (including the game winning goal) and had a spectacular 72% puck-possession rating, Burke said "I think he played three or four good minutes."
For the love of God, get this guy off my TV.
MINUS: Even worse than Burke: TSN's Dave Poulin. Hockey broadcasts could be so much better in general, but it's just sad that two of the league's flagship broadcasts are unwatchable.
Yeah, he once played in the NHL. But this is like asking the guy from Liimp Bizket to head a lyric writing seminar just because he was once in a popular band.
MINUS: The Edmonton Oilers. Who could have predicted that going with the "they were good in the 90s so they must be good now" philosophy of hiring a coach and GM would work out so poorly.
Oh what's that? I predicted it? Amazing. And anyone who followed the Red Wings or Coyotes in the last decade could also have told you the same thing?
Weird.
The team is run so poorly its an embarrassment. How about you stop wasting the prime of two of your best ever players, and I don't know, trade some assets for a ___ goalie?
PLUS: When you look at the Leafs 3rd and 4th line players who are on league minimum deals it's just embarrassing to see what teams like Buffalo and Edmonton trot out.
Knowing that the math says to pay your star players a lot and your bottom of the lineup players nothing, the Leafs went out and got Kenny Agostino, Nick Shore (lost to waivers) Nic Petan, Jason Spezza, Garret Wilson, Ben Harpur, Jordan Schwartz, Pontus Aberg and others to go along with a whole bunch of no-name prospects who are talented, but not "top six talent' and who would never have made the NHL under the old "grinders only on the bottom six" philosophy.
It'd be one thing if this was revolutionary thinking, but basically everyone who knew what Corsi was in 2012 could have told the Oilers et. al this exact same thing.
MINUS: Darcy Kuemper still doesn't get enough Vezina consideration. He's only been the NHL's best goalie for a year and a half.
MINUS: The Coyotes refusing to play possible Team Canada MVP Barrett Hayton, despite being unable to score most of the time. He is currently injured, but this criticism is pre-WJHC.
PLUS: I thought it was weird that Will Smith made Gemini Man and then a cartoon that seemingly has the exact same plot, but I have to say that while I will wait in line next week at Dougs DVD Emporium to get a copy of Gemini Man, that the cartoon was great.
PLUS: Ryan Wilson's article last week about Crosby's first game which reminded me that Lemieux was on his team and scored twice.
PLUS: The Ottawa Senators.
They were mocked for their trades, but now the Stone trade looks decent and the Karlsson trade looks genius. I'm hoping they get the two top picks.
PLUS: The Sharks failures bring me great joy because while I continue to not have an NHL team to run, the guys who do continue to over-think and make terrible decisions. Even though those decisions are telegraphed long in advance.
Trading away your first round pick and going for it without a goalie? Whoever could have seen that failing to work out?
MINUS: Greg Millen. The reason God invented the mute button. (I am no scholar of religion, but I feel God, at the very least, should get credit for the mute button).
MINUS: When people say "folks" like as in "tune in later today, folks" I hate that crap. Don't say folks.
MINUS: People are always pumping up stats like how many goals Wendel Clark scored or whatever without ever mentioning that there were like three extra goals per game in the eighties and early nineties.
MINUS: I feel like Ghost Rider 2 really failed to live up to the promise of the first one, but what bugs me the most was that it makes no sense. At the end of GR1 Johnny Blaze refuses to give the Devil back his powers, but then in GR 2 that's his main goal.
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