I've never understood why Milbury as a color guy was a thing anyways, he's never been good at it.
I've never understood why Milbury as a color guy was a thing anyways, he's never been good at it.
I have a feeling they will this time. Hockey is trying to get rid of that Old Boys Club moniker, that's why Don Cherry is gone, Mike Milbury is next to get the axe. Those who don't evolve and adapt in hockey broadcasting and keep on with the same tired diatribe that those guys have both spouted, are the ones shown the door.
We have a radio show in Buffalo, 2 hours EVERY DAY just dedicated to hockey, called The Instigators. It's anchored by two fourth liners we once had who were, at best, enforcers, good at fighting. All they do every day is bitch about how soft the game is, and all the retired old men who are listening to the radio from 10-12 every day call in and talk about how Jack Eichel has no guts and doesn't deserve the C because he isn't a real leader of men.
Thankfully not all older hockey fans are stuck in the old ways. My grandfather loves watching this generation of the Leafs, same with the Jays. It's not old time hockey, but when you are in your 90's and you've seen a lot in life, it's great to watch these young kids play and it can be thrilling. Old time hockey of guys beating the crap out of one another is nothing more than a meme for most of the young players today.
My dad and grandfather are half like that too. The problem with them is they read or hear shit from media and don't realize how much it impacts them and then refuse to accept it's not identical to the 70s anymore.
"Kessel will never win the Cup"
"We should have drafted Ritchie over Nylander"
"This Marner guy is too small, why didn't we take Hanifen?"
"Clarkson will bring the physicality this team needs"
"Marner should get paid more than Matthews"
"Now that the Leafs are out I'm gonna root for the Habs"
I love them but sometimes, just... man.
100% of my investment in these finals was just wanting Corey Perry to lose, so hurray for that.
/s
Yeah, I still bear a grudge against the Stars since Brett Hull's No Goal in '99, so I'm fine with the Lightning winning it. Even though we literally waived Zach Bogosian because we were gonna send him to our AHL affiliate and he refused, and then TBL signed him and he raised the Cup over his head tonight cause fuck the Sabres, amirite?
As usual, the Sabres passed up the kid in the OHL who played center and scored 126 points in 53 games, for his teammate who scored 80 something for the RW on a fluke year (he sucked the year before)....
...all because the C is 5'10", and the RW is 6' (the only metric where the right winger is better than the center by any standard). I can't stand these old school "hockey guys" who think height and weight has orders of magnitudes more importance by the inch.
From my twitter timeline - "How NHL GMs see height:"
https://imgur.com/v3LKEw6
Last edited by eschatological; 2020-10-07 at 01:57 AM.
And it's such a negligible difference too. But most of the best centres in the NHL aren't small either. Like, the Habs are sheltering the crap out of Kotkaniemi because he's like 5'9 or something, but he also isn't built either. Matthews is 6'3 220, it can be argued that he's a Rocket candidate every year if he continues to eclipse 40 goals like he has. If he played 82 games the last 3 seasons he probably would have hit 50 in each of them easily. But he's also a goal scorer, rather than a play maker so I think that's also a difference from other centres in the league, as a lot of them are play drivers while the wingers score more goals.
I'd argue that Ovie, McDavid and Matthews are the most similar because they all play centre, they can all score like crazy and they are hard to muscle the puck off of due to their size. While McDavid is 6'1, he's still strong, smaller guys tend to be lighter and lean, which is a disadvantage for a play making centre, I think.
I'm glad we wasted resources on Wayne Simmonds for 7 games in which he did nothing.
Was pissed when we signed him, not sad to see him gone, but hate that we spent anything for him.
It's a risk vs reward signing, but in hindsight, we had those types of guys a few years ago in Matt Martin and Leo Komarov and Dubas let them walk. Now the only guy we've had on the roster similar in that play style is Hyman, but he's only one guy. If I had it my way, we'd have another guy like him on our second line because it sorely needs that guy who can battle in the corners and get the puck whole still chipping in goals while being physical.
Isn't that what Robertson is supposed to be? Though he's more of a third/fourth liner.
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Ceci was better than I expected (wasn't expecting much) but what a disappointment Barrie was especially when we gave up Kadri on a great contract with good term. Hopeful for Brodie but also seen too many players come here and try to put the weight of everything on their shoulders and end up shitting bricks instead of playing how they used to play. Pretty good contracts from what it seems now though.
Nick Robertson is a high skill, great hands forward. He had a breakout year in the O this past season, he's got potential to be another Nylander type of player, though I'd argue Nylander is a bit more rounded of a player whereas Robertson can skate really well and has good hands, I doubt he'll get much PK and defensive zone time either. But hey, if Marner can become an OK two way player, so can Robertson.
Well this has been an interesting offseason. Looks like Hall is down to Nashville and Boston supposedly. Based on our recent history I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not.