Hes paid like the BEST player in the world, not sure hes underrated.
- annoyed

I don't equate that with overrated or underated. And he's 2nd highest

Why are people shocked that Kovalchuk is good? He left for 6 seasons and is still 4th in goals among active players. He's not some scrub...he's Ilya Kovalchuk. Did these people just start watching hockey?
- BestRapperAlive

Maybe because he signed for big money with LA and sucked ass for 81 games

Dermott+Kapanen for Parayko
- Steven_Seagull

is this before or after the acquisition of Ekholm?

Doing my CPR and first aid retraining. Some douchebag in back of the room feels he needs to demonstrate his superior knowledge by loudly agreeing with everything instructor says and interjecting his own facts. I’m about to drill him in his (frank)ing head so hard he goes into cardiac arrest and needs CPR and first aid.
- Atomic Wedgie

The proper passive aggressive move is to interject right after he does with the exact same point word for word

It seems we're all (at least me anyway) just waiting for the Leafs to go on this epic run, you know take the ball and run with it. We all see the talent is there but they just can't seem to gain any forward momentum. This steady cycle of win one, lose one, win 2, lose 3 is highly frustrating. Never in a game, no matter if we have a 2 or 3 goal lead you ever feel comfortable.
There's always that lapse where they just get hemmed in there own end and can't take control of the game. Also lately they seem to be just careless with giveaways, just blindly throwing the puck to whoever.
They're just so hard to figure out, everybody see's the potential, but they just can't seem to execute it with regularity. The playoff hopes could very well come right down to game 82...against the Habs!

Maybe because he signed for big money with LA and sucked ass for 81 games
- winsix

Turns out it's just the Kings that are sucking the life out of every single one of their players.

I suspect it's to feed a machine that will make Luc Robitaille young again.

also - i feel like a lot of these GAR or total value measures understate star player impacts. partially because these guys consistently out-perform expected goals.

Matthews is carrying the team on his back this year.

68 points, 40 goals.

on ice:

- pp, 29 goals, 4 against. +25
- es: 64 goals for, 47 against. +17

on the ice for 42 more goals for than against between pp and es time.

next best is marner at +25.
- Steven_Stamkos

It's an interesting exercise when you look at just how much better Matthews has been. Tavares is +23, but -3 at EV. Nylander 22 (18 / 4); Rielly 20 (15 / 5).

I don't equate that with overrated or underated. And he's 2nd highest
- RogerRoeper

And proper comparison would include using Cap% to make sure we're comparing apples to apples.

Matthews is the 7th highest in the Cap era. But, 4 of those (Ovy, McD, Toews, Kane) signed for longer term.

5 year deals, post ELC, in the cap world ...

1Crosby
2Malkin
3Matthews
4Stamkos
5 ...

It's an interesting exercise when you look at just how much better Matthews has been. Tavares is +23, but -3 at EV. Nylander 22 (18 / 4); Rielly 20 (15 / 5).
- Monkeypunk

Matthews has been dominant ever since the previous coach was fired. I think he's getting closer to Crosby/McDavid level.

Matthews has been dominant ever since the previous coach was fired. I think he's getting closer to Crosby/McDavid level.
- PatC80

Matthews not cracking top 60 in TOI was ludicrous.

is this before or after the acquisition of Ekholm?
- RickJames77

I know its a hockey blog - but how do the mighty Red Sox trade a top five player plus Price plus cash for a big mac and fries? Is this a precursor to the 3 or 4 draft picks that the Sox are going to lose for the sign-stealing cheat?

Turns out it's just the Kings that are sucking the life out of every single one of their players.

I suspect it's to feed a machine that will make Luc Robitaille young again.
- Scabeh

It seems we're all (at least me anyway) just waiting for the Leafs to go on this epic run, you know take the ball and run with it. We all see the talent is there but they just can't seem to gain any forward momentum. This steady cycle of win one, lose one, win 2, lose 3 is highly frustrating. Never in a game, no matter if we have a 2 or 3 goal lead you ever feel comfortable.
There's always that lapse where they just get hemmed in there own end and can't take control of the game. Also lately they seem to be just careless with giveaways, just blindly throwing the puck to whoever.
They're just so hard to figure out, everybody see's the potential, but they just can't seem to execute it with regularity. The playoff hopes could very well come right down to game 82...against the Habs!
- NewfieStud

hard to go on a winning streak when your backup goalie is unrealiable / starter is injured.

hutch finally winning a few finally allowed for it a one point.

freddy coming back and having campbell could put us on track for a couple nice winning streaks to end the year.

It seems we're all (at least me anyway) just waiting for the Leafs to go on this epic run, you know take the ball and run with it. We all see the talent is there but they just can't seem to gain any forward momentum. This steady cycle of win one, lose one, win 2, lose 3 is highly frustrating. Never in a game, no matter if we have a 2 or 3 goal lead you ever feel comfortable.
There's always that lapse where they just get hemmed in there own end and can't take control of the game. Also lately they seem to be just careless with giveaways, just blindly throwing the puck to whoever.
They're just so hard to figure out, everybody see's the potential, but they just can't seem to execute it with regularity. The playoff hopes could very well come right down to game 82...against the Habs!
- NewfieStud

they kinda did go on a good run with Keefe, 9-0-1 or whatever.

But for me the goalies have been just below average enough to give us that feeling.

if the goalies are not stealing a few hear and there, its going to play out like that. If the Leafs werent built they way they are, getting sub .900 tendin they would be close to a lottery team.

they can score a lot, so they are able to stay above water when they get a stinker or 2 every damn game

Matthews has been dominant ever since the previous coach was fired. I think he's getting closer to Crosby/McDavid level.
- PatC80

I liked what he was looking at, so these were some observations I made looking at each team when a stat was interesting or jumped out at me. The best player compared to his team mates is Palmieri on Jersey @ +24. Panarin, Eichel, and Matthews are all +17 relative to their team mates.

Arizona is a net positive team. They have a few Even Strength negative players (Keller @ -6, Stepan @ -5 and Oesterle @ -7). Phil Kessel is -20 at Even Strength.
(Hall is -3 at Even Strength since joining Arizona).

Marchand, Pastrnak and Bergeron are +57, 55 and 53 (20, 18 and 18 at Even Strength). Jerks.

Props where they're due - Eichel is +17 better than the next closest Sabre. He's +19 at Even Strength. The next closest on Buffalo is Vesey at +14; Skinner is -13.

Gardiner is -12 worse than the next closest Hurricane at even strength (Gardiner is -20). By contrast, Hamilton is +24 and Slavin is +22. He's playing the easy assignments, too.

On Colorado, Kadri has the best cumulative value @ +38; MacKinnon is +35. Defenseman Ryan Graves is +34 @ Even Strength play. This is noteworthy because it's tops in the league; 3 better than Kucherov and 5 better than Point. Colorado has one negative guy at EV - Landeskog @ -3.

I expected to see this massive variation on Edmonton between Draisaitl, McDavid and everyone else. RNH at a cumulative +39 is ahead of McDavid's +38. Then you have Even Strength play of James Neal -14 offset by his +22 on the power play. Khaira's -18 is not offset by anything.

Danault on the Habs is +17 at Even Strength. Gallagher is +10, who's the next closest. Kotkaniemi was -10, which is probably why he's finding his game in the AHL right now. We also all like Petry, but it should be noted that he's -5 at EV on a team that is predominantly not negative.

Kyle Palmieri is the only player actually playing on the Devils. He's a net +28 (+8 at EV). The next closest cumulative value is +4 (Vatanen). No one else is positive or even at EV. Subban is -14. Thankfully Severson is -17, so Subban isn't the absolute worst - but Subban is -1 on the Power Play in 128 minutes of ice time. How is that even possible?

Artemi Panarin is 17 points ahead of the next closest Ranger (Strome); he's at +52 total.

Right now the most effective guy on Vegas is probably Pacioretty.

The best player at EV on the Jets is Laine. He's +14; Scheifele @ +6 is second.

Carlson (+46) is 15 better than the next guy on the Capitals (Oshie). While Ovechkin is +23 on the Power Play, he's +1 at EV. They have one negative player - Jensen @ -9.

Both St. Louis and the Islanders play real boring 5v5 hockey, but St. Louis is making teams pay with the PP. The Islanders PP has been pretty meh this year.

Doing my CPR and first aid retraining. Some douchebag in back of the room feels he needs to demonstrate his superior knowledge by loudly agreeing with everything instructor says and interjecting his own facts. I’m about to drill him in his (frank)ing head so hard he goes into cardiac arrest and needs CPR and first aid.
- Atomic Wedgie

He interrupted the class to tell a two minute story of how a diabetic asked him to go buy her a bottle of Boost.

Some heroes don’t wear capes.

I liked what he was looking at, so these were some observations I made looking at each team when a stat was interesting or jumped out at me. The best player compared to his team mates is Palmieri on Jersey @ +24. Panarin, Eichel, and Matthews are all +17 relative to their team mates.

Arizona is a net positive team. They have a few Even Strength negative players (Keller @ -6, Stepan @ -5 and Oesterle @ -7). Phil Kessel is -20 at Even Strength.
(Hall is -3 at Even Strength since joining Arizona).

Marchand, Pastrnak and Bergeron are +57, 55 and 53 (20, 18 and 18 at Even Strength). Jerks.

Props where they're due - Eichel is +17 better than the next closest Sabre. He's +19 at Even Strength. The next closest on Buffalo is Vesey at +14; Skinner is -13.

Gardiner is -12 worse than the next closest Hurricane at even strength (Gardiner is -20). By contrast, Hamilton is +24 and Slavin is +22. He's playing the easy assignments, too.

On Colorado, Kadri has the best cumulative value @ +38; MacKinnon is +35. Defenseman Ryan Graves is +34 @ Even Strength play. This is noteworthy because it's tops in the league; 3 better than Kucherov and 5 better than Point. Colorado has one negative guy at EV - Landeskog @ -3.

I expected to see this massive variation on Edmonton between Draisaitl, McDavid and everyone else. RNH at a cumulative +39 is ahead of McDavid's +38. Then you have Even Strength play of James Neal -14 offset by his +22 on the power play. Khaira's -18 is not offset by anything.

Danault on the Habs is +17 at Even Strength. Gallagher is +10, who's the next closest. Kotkaniemi was -10, which is probably why he's finding his game in the AHL right now. We also all like Petry, but it should be noted that he's -5 at EV on a team that is predominantly not negative.

Kyle Palmieri is the only player actually playing on the Devils. He's a net +28 (+8 at EV). The next closest cumulative value is +4 (Vatanen). No one else is positive or even at EV. Subban is -14. Thankfully Severson is -17, so Subban isn't the absolute worst - but Subban is -1 on the Power Play in 128 minutes of ice time. How is that even possible?

Artemi Panarin is 17 points ahead of the next closest Ranger (Strome); he's at +52 total.

Right now the most effective guy on Vegas is probably Pacioretty.

The best player at EV on the Jets is Laine. He's +14; Scheifele @ +6 is second.

Carlson (+46) is 15 better than the next guy on the Capitals (Oshie). While Ovechkin is +23 on the Power Play, he's +1 at EV. They have one negative player - Jensen @ -9.

Both St. Louis and the Islanders play real boring 5v5 hockey, but St. Louis is making teams pay with the PP. The Islanders PP has been pretty meh this year.
- Monkeypunk

This is the craziest one for me. How??

This is the craziest one for me. How??
- BestRapperAlive

on for a couple shorty's vs? lol

Reading into what Mirtle said about saying there
Is a deal to be had for Larsson and Puljujarvi...I agree but I wonder if that’s an off-season move.

I think Larsson loses a lot of value because he’s a UFA after this summer. But if he’s willing to sign an extension then that lost value comes right back.

on for a couple shorty's vs? lol
- Lucas.Neilson

I guess, but how has he not scored a goal? I could score a goal in 128mins of PP time

I guess, but how has he not scored a goal? I could score a goal in 128mins of PP time
- BestRapperAlive

3 for, 4 against. Brandon Pirri is also - 1, but that's in 28 minutes and it's just the 1 shorty against.

add all of them win with none of them, those are the

surcumstances.

It's worse when a Director is in a meeting, constantly feels the need to interject when she knows absolutely zero about the subject... and then is promoted to VP a couple months later.

I can't wait to retire Wedgie.
- Aetherial

Retire?

Reading into what Mirtle said about saying there
Is a deal to be had for Larsson and Puljujarvi...I agree but I wonder if that’s an off-season move.

I think Larsson loses a lot of value because he’s a UFA after this summer. But if he’s willing to sign an extension then that lost value comes right back.
- Santo_44

What does Edmonton want in return? They are probably going to be buyers at the deadline, considering their standings in the league..

Do we give them someone that they think is better than Larsson? If so, who? Barrie?

What does Edmonton want in return? They are probably going to be buyers at the deadline, considering their standings in the league..

Do we give them someone that they think is better than Larsson? If so, who? Barrie?
- PatC80

Kapanen for sure.

There would have to be other pieces... but it is a deal that makes both teams better now for what they need.

Kap straight up for Larsson is too much for the Leafs given his contract status. Adding Pulujujarvi is too much for the Oilers so other pieces would have to be added.