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2021 NHL/Miscellaneous News Thread

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Not that any of them will see this post, but a big HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! to all of those Buffalo fans who said over and over again to me at the first game Skinner played at PNC for Buffalo how dumb the Canes were to trade Skinner away to Buffalo for Pu and picks. My simple response that night was 'just wait'.

I don't feel bad for Buffalo or their fans at all. I do feel a little bit bad for Skinner, BUT he is getting paid a ton of money, so I don't fee TOO bad for him. When Buffalo came back from their Covid break he got one game with Eichel and Olofsson and then went right back to playing less than 12 minutes on the 3rd and 4th line. I would love to hear from all of those same Buffalo fans now.
 
He was clearly never going to fit on a RBA coached team. But there has to be something else going on, unless he and Krueger are always at each other’s throats. When you’re as natural a goal scorer as he is, you don’t go from 40 goals to 14 to 0. He should have more than that just accidentally.
 
He was clearly never going to fit on a RBA coached team. But there has to be something else going on, unless he and Krueger are always at each other’s throats. When you’re as natural a goal scorer as he is, you don’t go from 40 goals to 14 to 0. He should have more than that just accidentally.
They're doing that same thing with Skinner that Carolina did ... expecting him to drive a secondary scoring line ... and it's working out even worse that it did in the past. I've said this a million times, but Skinner isn't changing for anyone. I don't think he can. Put him on the first line and accept the downside of his game and at least you'll get the goal scoring. Try to force him to play an all around game and drive play and you'll get bupkis. Krueger ought to be smarter than this, but he's not the dummy who signed Skinner to that deal and maybe he just can't bring himself to tolerate Skinner's defensive zone BS on his first line. I dunno. Couldn't happen to a better franchise though.
 
That is a tough situation for Panarin to be in whether or not its true. And yes, there is ample evidence that Russian leadership may fabricate just about anything, or outright try to kill you, no matter where in the world you are and who you are, if they feel you are any level of dissident or threat to the leadership there. So its pretty hard to say either way here what the truth is.
 
On Skinner, rumors I heard years ago connect with Habsy's comments on the Hurricanes Legend, Galchenyuk---namely a hockeydad who thinks he is the only one that knows what is best for his son.

Rumors, but lots of similarity in career, albeit with Skinner having greater scoring skills
 
That is a tough situation for Panarin to be in whether or not its true. And yes, there is ample evidence that Russian leadership may fabricate just about anything, or outright try to kill you, no matter where in the world you are and who you are, if they feel you are any level of dissident or threat to the leadership there. So its pretty hard to say either way here what the truth is.
Isabelle Khurshudyan, who used to cover the Caps for the Washington Post but is now a Moscow-based correspondent for the paper said the story made some headlines in Russia but seemingly not enough attention to pressure him into taking a leave.

 
Things are different here in the US though than they were not that long ago. 'Cancel Culture' is in full effect (I don't mean that as any sort of political statement, I'm talking about both political and apolitical 'cancelling'). It doesn't take as much as it once did to cause someone to be 'raked over the social media coals', and truth isn't always necessary to cause damage.

There had to have been some reason here to cause Panarin and his handlers to elect to effectively blow this up in full view. So while that Moscow correspondent might not know why Panarin decided to bring this subject to the forefront because to here this is just 'small news' at the moment, there likely was a reason for it. I expect that part of the reason is to get out in front of this and control the narrative here with the statement that 'this is a Russian Political hit job'. Not only does that provide Panarin immediate cover in case anyone starts to ask, it also provides him a political counterattack, ie "This is how the Russian Government operates to suppress opposing views". Both of those I think are at play here. If Panarin cares to make a political statement, blowing this up rather than hiding from it is one way to do that.
 
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On Skinner, rumors I heard years ago connect with Habsy's comments on the Hurricanes Legend, Galchenyuk---namely a hockeydad who thinks he is the only one that knows what is best for his son.

Rumors, but lots of similarity in career, albeit with Skinner having greater scoring skills
Skinner in my eyes never was quite the same player after that third or was it fourth concussion? He took some vicious blows to the head that clearly affected his game and was never really able to return to the early stages of his career with his play. No team should have gambled that long term on a contract with those red flags in the past with his health, long before that Sabres contract was signed, many said he was one more concussion away from being done.
 
Buying out Skinner would cost Buffalo a total of $37,166,667. $2,472,222 per year for 12 years and $7.5 million in signing bonus before the 22-23 season. They would carry cap hits for 12 years as well:

$1,472,222
$8,972,222
$1,472,222 for 2 seasons
$4,472,222
$6,722,222
$2,472,222 for 6 seasons

Buffalo is basically screwed if Skinner cannot return to form. A buyout of his contract after just 2 seasons would be devastating. They would save $14,833,333 in real money with a buyout.
 
Slava Malamud says Andrei Nazarov’s story about Panarin is unraveling.


I mean ... of course it is. Which is probably why the Rangers decided to shut down Bread Man for a bit to let time and sunshine do their thing. Nazarov isn't credible even without ties to the regime in Russia, but including that little factoid I'd trust his word even less. I hate it for the current crop of Russian players that they have to play these stupid games just to do their jobs.
 
I mean ... of course it is. Which is probably why the Rangers decided to shut down Bread Man for a bit to let time and sunshine do their thing. Nazarov isn't credible even without ties to the regime in Russia, but including that little factoid I'd trust his word even less. I hate it for the current crop of Russian players that they have to play these stupid games just to do their jobs.
Especially if they want any chance to play for the national team. Fealty to the state is required.
 
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