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Around the League 2019-2024 Edition

CTheBigPicture said:
I really wonder. What happens if Jeff Molson comes out and announces an English GM and and an English coach? In the news conference he poins to lack of success the past two decades. And then leaves the stage.

He'll get hammered. And then what happens? People won't go to the games? won't buy Merchandise? And for how long?

In other words, is this a manufactured threat?
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It would never be that categorical. They would make sure assistant positions were designated. The Habs are still viewed as a entry channel for legit talented coaches and execs from Quebec into the NHL (e.g. Julien BriseBois, a bunch of coaches.)
 
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LeafGm said:
I know a lot of hockey nerds adored "Team North America". But if your goal is to establish the World Cup as a credible replacement for the status the Olympics has as the premier best-on-best international hockey tournament, gimmicks like that are counter-productive.
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It was the most out of the box thinking the NHL has ever done and imo it was a smashing success. The NHL as a league needs more ideas like that, not less. League is too boring and rigid but that was a rare moment of pure fun.

But yes, it wasn't a "traditional" international competition and I'm not sure it tried to be. For my own tastes I've never cared much about international hockey so I quite enjoyed it.

As a business I know they aren't trying to satisfy me though so if they feel it's necessary to replace the Olympics then yeah, less gimmicks and they can easily do it.
 
Preston said:
It was the most out of the box thinking the NHL has ever done and imo it was a smashing success. The NHL as a league needs more ideas like that, not less. League is too boring and rigid but that was a rare moment of pure fun.

But yes, it wasn't a "traditional" international competition and I'm not sure it tried to be. For my own tastes I've never cared much about international hockey so I quite enjoyed it.

As a business I know they aren't trying to satisfy me though so if they feel it's necessary to replace the Olympics then yeah, less gimmicks and they can easily do it.
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It's kind of weird to say that it didn't try to be an international competition when six of the teams were straight-up national teams, a seventh was an amalgamation of several countries, and only the eighth team was built around something other than pure nationality.

Which was the problem. If you want to have a tournament where the league's young guns face off against the veterans, that does sound pretty fun. But then do that, rather than some weird Frankenstein mash-up of that idea and an international competition. Or better yet, come up with fun, out-of-the-box ideas for tournaments and do those in addition to a credible international tournament.
 
They could never build an entire tournament around teams like that though.

So then we would never have had the pleasure of watching the most fun hockey team of all time.
 
zeke said:
They could never build an entire tournament around teams like that though.

So then we would never have had the pleasure of watching the most fun hockey team of all time.
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Why not?

You don’t even like international competition in hockey, and yet you think the one and only way this under-24 all-star team that you loved can exist is when it’s shoe-horned into an international tournament?
 
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CTheBigPicture said:
I really wonder. What happens if Jeff Molson comes out and announces an English GM and and an English coach? In the news conference he poins to lack of success the past two decades. And then leaves the stage.

He'll get hammered. And then what happens? People won't go to the games? won't buy Merchandise? And for how long?

In other words, is this a manufactured threat?
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He will get hammered for a while but fans are tired of the stench in the front office

Get the right people in place , fans won’t show up to watch this shit

Plenty of empty seats already even if many are paid for this season at last
 
LeafGm said:
It's kind of weird to say that it didn't try to be an international competition when six of the teams were straight-up national teams, a seventh was an amalgamation of several countries, and only the eighth team was built around something other than pure nationality.

Which was the problem. If you want to have a tournament where the league's young guns face off against the veterans, that does sound pretty fun. But then do that, rather than some weird Frankenstein mash-up of that idea and an international competition. Or better yet, come up with fun, out-of-the-box ideas for tournaments and do those in addition to a credible international tournament.
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What I meant was that it didn't try to replace the Olympics. Because that probably would have felt like a watered down Olympics for most. They did something new and fresh and I want more of that, not less. We'll never get to see those guys on NA play with each other again. That was incredible.

But I think an underrated factor was that a lot of these guys just came off months of practicing with their skills coaches in the summer and as we've seen in NHL seasons, that level of freedom and skill in games tends to dwindle by mid-late season as you have less time working on that part of your game. So it was a bunch of teams with no time to work on their systems or defensive approach who relied on skill and almost nothing else. So having the tournament in the summer was sort of the perfect storm for the best hockey you'll ever watch. It was everything that the NHL isn't and I spend my fair share of time complaining about the NHL product so it would be hypocritical for me to not acknowledge the entertainment that the tournament gave me.


I think a lot of people tried really hard to not like it because it wasn't the Olympics but those folks were lying to themselves. If you like the sport there's no way you didn't like that tournament.
 
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LeafGm said:
Why not?

You don’t even like international competition in hockey, and yet you think the one and only way this under-24 all-star team that you loved can exist is when it’s shoe-horned into an international tournament?
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Break down how a different tournament with a team like that would work.
 
Krustchev said:
Given that Mellanby doesn’t speak French, it’s highly unlikely that he was ever promised anything of that sort.
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It’s more likely that Bergevin went to bat for him (they are both members of the Good Ol’ Boy network after all) and raised expectations.

But Molson told them to go pound sand.
 
Krustchev said:
Given that Mellanby doesn’t speak French, it’s highly unlikely that he was ever promised anything of that sort.
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Speaking French means more than a cup. You could get by decades ago with this. There are declining francophone #'s in the NHL now. It won't work. But Quebec was all too happy to throw their economy away over language, so they'll gladly choose French over cups.
 
JackBurton said:
Speaking French means more than a cup. You could get by decades ago with this. There are declining francophone #'s in the NHL now. It won't work. But Quebec was all too happy to throw their economy away over language, so they'll gladly choose French over cups.
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No one disagrees with you.
 
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