2019-2020 NHL season thread

Whoever blinked missed it.

 

Penguins looked done. Nonverbals were garbage before the Canadiens' late goal, and nothing improved down the stretch. Montreal's defensive structure locked them down. Not trying to not give the Canadiens credit, but as long as Sid, Geno and the heart of that team has been around, not buying that it was anything they hadn't seen before. Carey Price deserves a lot of credit, too, but the lockdown that Montreal executed in front of him made the stops in the series clincher frighteningly easy for a goaltender of Price's caliber.

 

Thank you for the assessment and the link. Appreciate it.

 

I thought about this, but I doubt decisions like that are going to be made off a five-game series in a bubble after four months off. They need a reset on the back end (Letang is 33 and there's not much depth behind him and Doumolin) and probably need to make a choice between Murray and Jarry as top goalie.

Much like the Caps, though, you don't want to waste what's left of your superstars' careers, so there's a sense of urgency.

 

What advantage to Toronto and Edmonton have?

Or Carolina is simply far better than the Rangers.

 

Stunning stat that came across last night -- Penguins have lost 9 of their past 10 playoff games. That digs deeper than a five-game series after four months off. Maybe they kept the wrong goalie.

 

They did keep the wrong goalie, but it’s not all Murray’s fault. First, the defensive play of Shultz and Johnson made Murray look worse. Second, Pittsburgh goalies never have been about stopping the puck. A deflection to the right defensive player can start a breakaway, or at the least, a 2-1 the other way. But if the defensemen aren’t there, the deflection just leads to a second or third shot on goal.

 

One clarification ... Dundon had zero intention of offering Don Waddell a contract - because he was trying to NOT offer contracts to anyone. Waddell took an interview to be Minnesota's GM after Chuck Fletcher was canned. Only then did Dundon actually offer Waddell a contract. Well, that and the NHL says that all GMs must have contracts.

Dundon interviewed a lot of hockey execs for the GM job in Raleigh. A bunch went back to their organizations believing that being AGMs and such where they were was a better alternative ... the press releases came (too) quickly that the potential candidates were staying put. Obviously, we'll never know how many were aiming for raises. But there were some stories that Dundon was offering absurdly lowball figures to be the GM.

It makes zero sense to sacrifice this many PR points and cause this much stink over these sorts of moves ... the personification of penny wise, pound foolish.

Dundon has consistently challenged NHL protocol since taking over in Raleigh. The good news is that it has made some sorts think about changing the "we've always done it that way" line of thought and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that not only has he come across like he's the smartest guy in the room when he's anything but, but also he has gotten his nose smacked with a newspaper on some issues where some protocol and structure is not as bad a thing as some want to realize.

 

Is this the official team account? And if so, WTF?

 

That is the official account. Vegas just beat Colorado to clinch the West’s top seed.