2021 NHL regular season thread

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/02/hockey-goalies-are-too-big-now/

Really good read. Dryden on goaltending.

 

Having enjoyed "The Game" and "Home Game," I was disappointed with his book on Scotty Bowman. But I'm about 150 pages into "Game Change"
-- about Steve Montador and head injuries -- and really like it.

 

I liked the Bowman bio part of that book, as much of an authority as Bowman is to talk about mythical matchups between the 1950s Canadiens and the Gretzly-era Oilers, I didn't have much interest in reading them.

His book about Steve Montador is very good.

 

Anybody watching the outdoor games from
Tahoe? Definitely an interesting look.

 

The Knight mascot trying to get the 5 people in the lake excited was just sad.

Looks like they’re having a bitch of a time trying to keep that ice in shape

 

They could have used a nice cloudy Lake Tahoe day. Instead, it's just above freezing and the sun is shining, which is making for slushy ice at the end facing the sun. And what the hell is Rutledge doing there? Does NBC really need comic relief at every major event? He's a really nice guy but he adds zero to the broadcast.

 

One of those things that never dawns on you until it happens: The coloring of the center ice logo, goalie creases and blue lines underneath the top layer of ice absorb more heat from the sun than the clearer (light blue) areas, so the ice is mushy in certain spots. The blue lines are literally tripping guys.

I see they've now put down insulated covering in those areas and are talking about delaying the game until perhaps this evening or tomorrow morning. They've also moved tomorrow's game past sunset.

 

He's going to drive an SUV with (league sponsored) tires over the ice during intermission. Or something like that.

 

NBCSN was obviously caught with its pants down to some extent. Kind of an interesting feature filler story on the 1960 "First Miracle" Olympic gold medal team, including a story about the captain of the Soviet team coming into the locker room of the US before the Americans' final tourney game against the Czechs and delivering, without translation, the rough equivalent of Herb Brooks' 1980 remarks immortalized as the "Fucking Graves" speech.

 

These cancellations would never have happened if the games were held more than 15 seconds away from Tahoe.

 

The news just said the game is getting pushed to 9 pm local time.

 

I loved that they showed Harvey's in the distance and talked about how you could walk to the rink from there. Yeah, but not in 15 minutes!