Not sure he’ll pick up where he left off, but kap should help him out if he can keep going like he has been. Has McCann been that good w/ carter line? Seems like a lot of his goals have been on PP. I like spreading the wealth to make the team deeper, but McCann geno n kap were pretty dominating, although it was only a short stretch.
- wsldck

That happens a lot. Players score a ton on the PP and people think it's because of the line they're on. Without looking it up, I'd guess the Crosby line hasn't been that dominant, but they're killing it on the PP and Picking up quite a few EN points.

So I took down the 18 team $100 buy in Yahoo championship and won it all this past week. Fvck yeah. My MVP of the playoffs was hands down Sam f'n Bennett. The league counts 10 skater stats (goals, assists, +/-, shots, PPPs, faceoff wins, hits, blocks, game winning goals and blocks) plus 5 goalies stats and he was a f'n monster in all of those categories except blocks. Picked him up as a free agent after watching him play his 1st period with the Cats haha

I would also like cliff notes.
- j.boyd919

Great article. It was a mixed bag of responses:

1) CBJ doesn't do a good job of trying to sell/shmooze players on coming to Columbus.

2) Players, while recognizing how tough Torts is, respect the hell out of him since he doesn't treat top players with kids gloves like other coaches do. Some pointed out his system/process doesn't necessarily work and can stifle some players, and also mentioned that his message may be lost at this point and they should probably move on.

3) That while they respect Jarmo and the task he has, some just don't feel like they're valued. They understand its a business and all GM's want players under market value, but they expect loyalty while being underpaid. Especially the RFAs.

I would also like cliff notes.
- j.boyd919

3 former Blue Jasket players were interviewed. They all said they liked the city if Columbus.

They all said that they were treated well and had good facilities while there.

They all said that they respected Torts (though only one said that he should be fired)

Main reasons players don't go to Columbus is they negotiate too hard in RFA, sonwhem the players become UGA's they want out because they are butthurt...

Columbus doesn't do a good enough job advertising the city and team...

So I took down the 18 team $100 buy in Yahoo championship and won it all this past week. Fvck yeah. My MVP of the playoffs was hands down Sam f'n Bennett. The league counts 10 skater stats (goals, assists, +/-, shots, PPPs, faceoff wins, hits, blocks, game winning goals and blocks) plus 5 goalies stats and he was a f'n monster in all of those categories except blocks. Picked him up as a free agent after watching him play his 1st period with the Cats haha
- MattStrat

Congrsts, so drinks on you tonight?

So I took down the 18 team $100 buy in Yahoo championship and won it all this past week. Fvck yeah. My MVP of the playoffs was hands down Sam f'n Bennett. The league counts 10 skater stats (goals, assists, +/-, shots, PPPs, faceoff wins, hits, blocks, game winning goals and blocks) plus 5 goalies stats and he was a f'n monster in all of those categories except blocks. Picked him up as a free agent after watching him play his 1st period with the Cats haha
- MattStrat

I made a bet early on for the division winners. $10 on the Pens going off at +2000 and on the caps going off at +1800. I should be getting paid!

Rob Rossi
@Real_RobRossi
·
1m
Evgeni Malkin will play for Penguins in Philadelphia.
Expected.
Exciting, still.

Woo hoo!

Matt Vensel
@mattvensel
·
48m
#Pens lineup at the skate...
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen
McCann-Carter-Gaudreau
ZAR-Blueger-Sceviour

Dumoulin-Letang
Friedman-Ceci
Pettersson-Marino

Looking like MM is going to miss the game. Him and ERod both not in practice. Interesting combinations. I guess Zucker gets one more crack at the 2nd line.

EDIT: Matheson is week-to-week. ERod is day-to-day.

Cliff notes
- 10inchTerror

Major theme is that all three players loved playing for CBJ and there’s a lot of positives about playing in a small market with some anonymity, but you have to sell it and recruit cus a lot of guys, especially younger guys, Wanna go live a rock star life. The guys said that basically Jarmo’s honesty and frankness when trying to get players over is appreciated but he also puts absolutely zero effort into that kind of recruitment. They also said that Jarmo doesn’t make players feel valued at all. He plays extreme hard ball in contract negotiations and expects guys to take significant hometown discounts despite the fact that he doesn’t put in the effort to sell team or town. Generally the guys said they got it, and they understood that you had to keep an eye on the future and not overpay for vets, but at the same time it’s very jarring when they feel they’ve had a good season and want to be there long term, but in the exit interview got the sense that there would be no effort to retain them. One of the guys really emphasized this saying that the year his contract was up they had had an excellent year and the locker room felt like this was the start of a long term thing and Jarmo basically told all the vets to kick rocks.

The main suggestions the guys had was basically change the culture just treating players like assets. Identify who wants to be there and who doesn’t. Get value for guys that you know don’t want to be there and then make a real effort to make your young RFAs feel like a valued part of your future and make sure they have a good team around them and don’t just be in a constant state of rebuild. One of them also said Torts should be fired which I thought was pretty funny given that they all seemed to love Torts, but the guy basically said Torts has been there for too long and has expired.

To me it sounds like Jarmo should be in the hot seat. They were all really respectful about it but you could tell that the guys didn’t think Jarmo was doing a good job at all at managing his relationships with his players.

I agree that it sounds like Jarmo should be in the hot seat, not just Torts. The article also pointed out players will go where they believe they have a chance to win and that is a reason players will take a little less. I don't think Jarmo has ben aggressive enough, but we also don't know how much he's hamstringed, if at all, by ownership.

If ownership is being super strict on how he spends, then you really can't put much blame on him.

Looking like MM is going to miss the game. Him and ERod both not in practice. Interesting combinations. I guess Zucker gets one more crack at the 2nd line.

EDIT: Matheson is week-to-week. ERod is day-to-day.
- Rinosaur

Kind of surprised but not shocked to see Zucker there. Hope it clicks better then earlier. Feel a little bad for McCann who is also off the top PP.

Gaudreau at 3 RW is a little surprising just because he seems more a defensive player, but I guess there aren't better options with Tanev and ERod out. Nice to know he can play RW if one of those guys isn't ready for the playoffs

Tough break with MM. He's been playing his best hockey all year since playing with Ceci. Surprised myself I'm not happy he's out.

Kind of surprised but not shocked to see Zucker there. Hope it clicks better then earlier. Feel a little bad for McCann who is also off the top PP.

Gaudreau at 3 RW is a little surprising just because he seems more a defensive player, but I guess there aren't better options with Tanev and ERod out. Nice to know he can play RW if one of those guys isn't ready for the playoffs

Tough break with MM. He's been playing his best hockey all year since playing with Ceci. Surprised myself I'm not happy he's out.
- Tojo.

Well, I’m not sure we know he can effectively play RW yet, but we will see lol.

I honestly would have taken Rust off the PP over McCann. Not that I think Rust is bad on the PP, but I just think McCann’s style fits better. I like how he moves the puck on the PP, not just his scoring.

It will be interesting to see how Zucker pans out. I think if Zucker plays more of a shooting role he has a good chance of success. He was deferring far too frequently to Geno previously.

I agree that it sounds like Jarmo should be in the hot seat, not just Torts. The article also pointed out players will go where they believe they have a chance to win and that is a reason players will take a little less. I don't think Jarmo has ben aggressive enough, but we also don't know how much he's hamstringed, if at all, by ownership.

If ownership is being super strict on how he spends, then you really can't put much blame on him.
- Rinosaur

I don’t know for sure if CBJ is a budget team, but I assume given the size of the market that they are, so your point is well taken. That being said, the job of a small market GM is to mitigate that by doing the exact things these players said Jarmo wasn’t doing. He’s not recruiting, he’s not selling the franchise on people, he’s making people feel like there’s no long term plan for them, and he’s driving people away during negotiations. And that’s not exclusive to vets either, from what these guys are saying, which would be a lot more understandable. He’s doing it to his RFA, which is really bad. The key to small market team on a budget success is to take advantage of restricted free agency where young talent can only take a big contract from you to invest heavily in a young core and then bargain shop for vets to surround them with. Alienating guys like PLD and Werenski isn’t how you get it done in Columbus.

This is pretty common in pretty much any sector regarding how small companies attract talent vs big companies. My company is a pretty small FMS consulting firm that doesn’t have the resources as a Booz Allen or Accenture. So why don’t I want to try and jump ship to one of those Titan companies now that I have the experience to land a job there that I Didn’t have when they originally told me no when I applied out of grad school? They would certainly pay a lot more. It’s because 1) my company invested in me when those others didn’t (sponsoring security clearances is absurdly expensive and you don’t get the money back if the potential employee is denied). 2) I know I’m valued here and have a personal relationship with upper management and the CEO, I doubt I’d have the same kind of leeway if I were to start to struggle in a huge company where I’m just a number. 3) Its been clearly communicated to me that there’s a long term plan for me at this company and what that looks like, so I know I have both job security and a career path without having to seek out and leverage competing job offers.

It sounds like Jarmo’s GM style would probably play well at a “big company” where you never have a shortage of people that want to work for you. “You want market value? Feel free to go to one of those three teams you mentioned because John over here can do your job for less.” Extracting value is extremely important and you don’t want to fill your team with bad contracts. But if you can’t play the relationships and at least keep the talent you draft to offset the limits of being in a small market, you’re not cutting it.

I really don't understand Friedman, on his off side, being played over POJ. I still think the negative perception of POJ is unfair. He excelled in a 3rd pairing roll and only started to struggle once he was paired with Letang. He just isn't ready for the those kind of minutes and assignments. I think he can handle the 2nd pair.

I really don't understand Friedman, on his off side, being played over POJ. I still think the negative perception of POJ is unfair. He excelled in a 3rd pairing roll and only started to struggle once he was paired with Letang. He just isn't ready for the those kind of minutes and assignments. I think he can handle the 2nd pair.
- Rinosaur

Yea I really wanted to see POJ in there. (frank)ing Friedman has to play again his former team again lol. Hopefully he doesn't get hurt haha.

Yea I really wanted to see POJ in there. (frank)ing Friedman has to play again his former team again lol. Hopefully he doesn't get hurt haha.
- 668710

I hope not. It's not that he didn't play well. He played on his off side last time and was solid, but I just think POJ is the better option.

I hope not. It's not that he didn't play well. He played on his off side last time and was solid, but I just think POJ is the better option.
- Rinosaur

Yea Frieds was definitely solid, so something to watch here.

And also we get to see the Zuck-Geno-Kap lime again.

And also we get to see the Zuck-Geno-Kap lime again.
- 668710

Zucker will score tonight. Mark it down.

Zucker will score tonight. Mark it down.
- Rinosaur

☑️

I'm very curious to see how Gaudreau works at RW.

I'm very curious to see how Gaudreau works at RW.
- Rinosaur

Honestly I expect about the same play from him. Here's a question. When Tanev comes back does he play on the third line and Gaudreau move to the 4th?

Honestly I expect about the same play from him. Here's a question. When Tanev comes back does he play on the third line and Gaudreau move to the 4th?
- 668710

IF Gaudreau works at RW, then I'd expect Tanev to go back with Blue and ZAR. That said, a lot could also hinge on how Zucker looks with Geno. If Zucker just blows donkey Richard there, we'll probably see quite a different look.

Well that sucks.

Well that sucks.
- Rinosaur

So did that.