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2023-24 NHL Misc. Thread

Swayman has been so good this post season and is about to get paid while Ullmark is about to find a new team to play for because of his buddy’s exceptional play. Never gets old seeing the Panthers get beat like a drum!
Swayman went to arbitration last year and was awarded $3.475 million. He‘s still a RFA so he might have to go that route again. Ullmark has 1 more year at $5 million. If they don’t move Ullmark, they’re gonna have $10+ million tied up in goalies.
 
Well, they're spending next to nothing on their top 3 centers ... $12 million total for Coyle, Zacha and Geekie ... which helps a lot. Of course, nobody else in the league would be happy with that group down the middle, so ... yeah. You'd think Boston would make the simple choice to move Ullmark for quality down the middle or on D to back up McAvoy and Lindholm, but they've been successful with that unconventional setup so who knows? Both of their AHL goalies are undrafted so it's not like they have a ready made No. 2 in the pipe.
 
The Blues removed the interim tag from head coach Drew Bannister and signed him to a 2 year contract. He went 30-19-5 after replacing Craig Berube on 12/14.
 
Seems smart to stick with Bannister. He got them playing a more flexible system and relying less on squashing people on the boards and hoping one of their speedsters could collect the puck in the right position to break out. Best as I cold tell, that and leaking a forward out of the D-zone and hoping Faulk or Krug could connect on a long pass was 90% of their offensive gameplan under Berube.
 
The Senators hired Travis Green as head coach. He took over the Devils on an interim basis after Lindy Ruff was whacked, they went 8-12-1 under him. In his previous head coaching job with Vancouver, he was 133-147-34. This is the best they could come up with?
 
The Senators hired Travis Green as head coach. He took over the Devils on an interim basis after Lindy Ruff was whacked, they went 8-12-1 under him. In his previous head coaching job with Vancouver, he was 133-147-34. This is the best they could come up with?
It's the NHL ... coaches fail and fail and fail but keep getting hired because "they're experienced" ... in failure. The Sens may have new ownership, but they're stuck in old thinking. Staios front office experience is pretty much exclusively in front offices with an old school mentality. So ... yeah.
 
If you want to put the miserable quality of NHL officiating on a global scale, Bayern Munich just got screwed out of a tie in the Champions League semifinal by a quick and questionable offside flag. Instead Real Madrid advances to their 732nd final.
 
Hate both teams but this Boston-Fla game is a travesty. This shit needs out of the game. Call it playoff hockey if you want but if that’s what they want they should call it that way all season. Giving a comparative advantages to the most ruthless goonish players and teams during the playoffs is absurd. Pasternak fought douchchuck and lost but the refs let him get punched twice on the ice but then kept him from returning the favor. If they’re gonna let them fight then get out of the way and let em go until one beats the other one bloody or his mates come to his rescue. Fans would love it. MMA on Ice.
 
Hate both teams but this Boston-Fla game is a travesty. This shit needs out of the game. Call it playoff hockey if you want but if that’s what they want they should call it that way all season. Giving a comparative advantages to the most ruthless goonish players and teams during the playoffs is absurd. Pasternak fought douchchuck and lost but the refs let him get punched twice on the ice but then kept him from returning the favor. If they’re gonna let them fight then get out of the way and let em go until one beats the other one bloody or his mates come to his rescue. Fans would love it. MMA on Ice.
That third period was an absolute gong show and both coaches need to wear it a bit for letting it get that far out of hand.
 
The Leafs put Sheldon Keefe out of his misery. He has 2 years left on a contract extension that hasn't started yet.
 
So ... this thing with Utah not naming the team until 25-26. Does anybody really give a crap or is this more made up media angst because they don't get to write a ton of articles about how great/awful/stupid/possibly offensive and/or insulting to Mormons the team name is?

Personally, I figure the team has more than enough on their plate to get a functioning front office put together in the next 6 months that I'm willing to cut them some slack on not wanting to dilute manpower on accumulating market data on something as defining as team branding. Why rush something that important?
 
So, apparently the NHL basically put Boston and Florida on double secret probation after the clown show that was Game 2 in that seies, and promptly got a game featuring an "accidentally on purpose" knockout of Marchand (courtesy of Sam Bennett, because of course it was) and the fans throwing literal garbage on the ice in Boston as Florida routed the Bs in game 3. Marchand is out for game 4, both coaches sound like they'd like to meet their opposite number in a dark alleyway and Bruins fans might actually riot should they get a single sketchy call against them. Meanwhile, the NHL is gleefully marketing the mayhem.

Is this fun? Are we enjoying this? Because the whole thing has devolved into 1970s regional amateur wrestling on public access TV level crap at this point.
 
So, apparently the NHL basically put Boston and Florida on double secret probation after the clown show that was Game 2 in that seies, and promptly got a game featuring an "accidentally on purpose" knockout of Marchand (courtesy of Sam Bennett, because of course it was) and the fans throwing literal garbage on the ice in Boston as Florida routed the Bs in game 3. Marchand is out for game 4, both coaches sound like they'd like to meet their opposite number in a dark alleyway and Bruins fans might actually riot should they get a single sketchy call against them. Meanwhile, the NHL is gleefully marketing the mayhem.

Is this fun? Are we enjoying this? Because the whole thing has devolved into 1970s regional amateur wrestling on public access TV level crap at this point.
Reminds me of how much they marketed Scott Stevens back in his heyday. They made T-shirts featuring how many other team's stars he took out... Kozlov, Lindros, Langkow, Kariya, Francis, Willis, Domi...
 
So, apparently the NHL basically put Boston and Florida on double secret probation after the clown show that was Game 2 in that seies, and promptly got a game featuring an "accidentally on purpose" knockout of Marchand (courtesy of Sam Bennett, because of course it was) and the fans throwing literal garbage on the ice in Boston as Florida routed the Bs in game 3. Marchand is out for game 4, both coaches sound like they'd like to meet their opposite number in a dark alleyway and Bruins fans might actually riot should they get a single sketchy call against them. Meanwhile, the NHL is gleefully marketing the mayhem.

Is this fun? Are we enjoying this? Because the whole thing has devolved into 1970s regional amateur wrestling on public access TV level crap at this point.

Don’t leave out Zacha saying the Bruins “have to really go after their top guys”. It’s really not that hard to officiate shitty behavior. It’s obvious that the NHL gives two shits about it.
 
So ... two games in a row featured Boston fans littering the ice with ... well, litter. This time they got hosed* by a goalie interference non-call on (drum roll) Sam Bennett that led to the game winner and a lost challenge. So weird to see the dirtball stuff going against Boston, when the Bruins have been at or near the top of the league's filth standings for a long, long time. Turns out the NHL actually rewards teams that just don't give a crap about the rule book that the league obviously doesn't give a crap about either. Again ... is this fun for anybody? McDavid took a cross check to the neck last night. Let's see what they do with that, because otherwise this whole mess is turning into Dodge City**.

*yeah, I'm not 100% convinced that Coyle didn't over-sell the contact and take out his own goalie a bit harder than he wanted. Still, Mr Plowing a guy into the keeper HAS to be freaking interference

** substitute Fallout if you're under 40.
 
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