Yeah I like that, I’m personally still a huge believer in Dahlin

Too bad NRob isn't doing as well. He is younger though.

Give him time. DAL also had JRob play one more year in OHL and then AHL.

Patience is a virtue with prospects.

JD Bunkis (SN590) had a great take just now.

The more opinions the better on this take, so weigh in and spread it around.





JD said he loves the 56 game stretch, and it will be hard to watch an 82 game season. The urgency to win each game is awesome and adds a tense atmosphere/ intense push to the finish.

Thinking the new divisional focus is great too adding even more nerves to the already tense race.



While I don’t know how I feel about the keeping the divisional only games together (maybe just more divisional games than usual would be better going forward), I agree somewhat with this new schedule. The years super tight and super tense. Idk if I’d love 56 games overall, but he’s not wrong that 56 games is definitely exciting. 82 definitely will still be fun but these next few weeks are gonna be damn good hockey to watch.

I doubt we ever see a 56 game schedule continued but keeping more divisional games would be awesome and working some sort of way to keep the fast and tight pace going would be super interesting.

Is it 52 or 56?

I could be wrong, lemme google

Edit:

It’s 56 mb

Ya, I think Nick will be a top line guy one day.

Honestly I'd prefer having a 60-game regular season on a normal basis with the play-in round that was introduced last year. Meaning that 8 worst teams in the league would be out of party after the 60 games and then we'd get going from that. Then give one lotto pick to the 8 losers, and one lotto pick for the play-in losers who won't make the actual playoffs.

It'd certainly cut the games with no significance whatsoever out of the schedule. Might be fun to watch...I dunno.

I agree mostly. I’d say my best take would be:

- 62 games
- Emphasis on divisional games (like 33-45% divisional, the rest split on the other divisions) (less travel more rivalry, more tense)
- 3 top teams in each division (12 playoff spots taken)
- These teams have a “buy” and play like 1-3 games to keep “warm”, still valuing your regular season efforts that result in seeding. Imo they shouldn’t effect seeding or any advantages.
- Play in best of 3 for each division
- 4 & 5 from each division play in for the 4th playoff spot
- Equalling 16 playoff teams to the regular playoffs
- the lottery teams are only the teams eliminated from playoffs
- meaning the bottom 3 teams from each division has lottery chances, no one else. Only the primary eliminations get lottery odds. Meaning if you make the playoffs, you don’t get a ball for the lottery (2 lottery teams win). This way we don’t see a team who makes the playoffs/ playing get a lottery ball. We don’t need to see more lottery wins from a team in like 16th place.

In my opinion that’s the best format (or along those lines).

Not bad.

That's actually a pretty good idea, nice

Sabres shopping Staal, and Habs frontrunners

Hearing #Sabres are working on an Eric Staal trade. Sounds like #Habs are leading contender to get him. Not done yet. Stay tuned.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 26, 2021

He's definitely getting traded. No question. What do you think his potential is at this point in BOS or anywhere else? Is he a big difference maker?

Sabres just got fleeced

He's been trade to Montreal 50% reatined for a 3rd and %th

As a Devils fan, I would go all in on Dahlin. If the term had to be 7 years, I would gladly pay $7M AAV. That's how much I still believe in him. Obviously, I'd want him for less, but if he was UFA you'd need tp overpay.

Eric Staal has been traded.

The most recent episode of the 31 Thoughts Podcast may be the most infuriating hockey podcast of all time.

Jeff makes some ridiculous arguments about how makeup calls are fine because everyone knows they exist, and Elliotte says there should be more penalties drawn by star players to increase league revenue. (Friedman correctly pointed out that opinion would make a lot of people across the hockey world vomit when they heard it)

Idk about you guys but for me the Flames have been such a disappointment so far... I figured getting their best goalie in so many years (since Kipprusoff retired) in Markstrom would stabilize them yet clearly it didn't.

I was never a big believer in the Flames. I thought a good chunk of the North Division would be tight and wouldn't have been surprised to see almost anybody make it/miss, but I didn't have the Flames making the cut.

I just find them incredibly 'meh'.

Liljegren and Robertson to the Leafs Taxi Squad

I heard this similarly the other day on SN590 after the whole Peel thing.

There are people who think while its annoying, the NBA incentivizes their super stars and other stars to make "sick" plays and go for the dunk, the lay up, the big move etc. They help this happen by giving players the call. For example, if Lebron goes up for a dunk and something goes awry or he ends up on the ground, more often than not the refs will give him the call because he's Lebron (I'm using LeBron but this happens across their entire league and for most stars and most teams with the type of star player). I'm not saying it's a great thing, but it firstly makes you hesitate on doing something stupid/ reaching to stop the play because you'll begin getting called more, and secondly; it makes stars or rising stars more confident in going for the big play because they know 1) they'll have a good chance at getting a call if the defender is reaching to stop the playing (trip, slash, hold, etc) and 2) they'll have more of safer space to make the big play.

I think that's what Elliotte is meaning because while annoying, it is true. The NBA wants you to slam dunk on the defender, or "break his ankles", they want their stars to have better odds at making a highlight reel play.

I'm not saying the NHL doesn't want that, and the NHL obvi wants a mix of integrity and toughness/ grit in their game to add to the highlight being that much better because its tougher.
But I do get what Elliottes saying at least, protect the stars and then incentivize going for the big play.

Do I agree with Marek....not really, but slightly..

Like while its a cherished memory, and goes against my sharks bias. After the GAME 7 pavelski call, wouldn't you want to give a penalty back to Vegas, not a 5min game changing one, but give them a trip or a slash easier? I agree with Marek that its obvious; calls are made throughout every game or so that are "targeted". Whether it's to even things up, or make up for a missed called I think it's clear these happen all year. I wasn't surprised at all when I heard Peel say what he said. Happens all the time I'd say.

Its a very grey area.

Either you call the rulebook unbiased. Or you full commit to this "NBA" type/ gimmie call rulebook.

Id rather the rulebook unbiased that's for sure. But that's why our refs are other humans. Keeping that human factor and human error in place because we don't want robots or a million video reviews. Error happens for sure and some obvious ones happen every year, but calling the rulebook unbiased would almost take a robot/ video review "bot". I think Kris Versteeg said it yesterday on SN but; the NHL refs are the best in the world he has seen and likely will ever see; "go watch European refs or Swedish refs" he said and you'll come back fast to the NHL lol.

Keefe said Andersen’s return “is not imminent”

Should we be looking to add some goaltending depth at the TDL?

I’m fine with what Elliotte is saying, but his reasoning for the change makes me sick. The league shouldn’t be making on-ice decisions that affect the game just because of people making wagers. I do agree that the refs do sometimes tend to put a limit on the amount of penalties players like McDavid end up drawing.

And I absolutely agree that for the most part the refs do the best they can to call what is fair. But if the NHL were to leave the Peel incident unpunished, that sends the wrong kind of message. And everyone knows make up calls happen, but for a ref to actually consciously make the decision to give a penalty for no reason AND say out loud that that’s his intention is beyond what is acceptable. All I want is for refs to call what deserves to be called to the best of their ability. Tim Peel obviously wasn’t doing that.

I was just wondering about the next year's schedule myself, and the format they'd be playing through the season. Will they return to a normal format, or keep the current one...

So, the Seattle Expansion draft and the 2021 NHL Entry Draft is set to be on 21 July and 23-24 July, with the free agency opening July 28.

So we're more or less a month late on a "normal" schedule. I wonder if they hurry the offseason up and start the season normally, in October, as usual. Or will they add a month to the break and start in November-December.

Here's a thought - no matter which way they'll start playing, the season will be cut for a while due to the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are set to begin February 4th, 2022. That takes three weeks from the league, no matter what happens. I'm under the assumption that NHL players will be allowed to participate in Beijing.

We also don't know yet what's the situation with the pandemic in a year from now, but I'm not expecting a quick return to normal.

I'm just speculating here, but all things considered we might be having one more shortened divisional-based season ahead of us... NHL can use this timespan to normalize the situation time-wise, meaning we'd have return back to normal for the 2022-23 season. Perhaps by then the pandemic could be over too. With the vaccine situation developing, I feel like in a spun of 1,5 years the situation just might get tad closer to normal.

But honestly it's just me speculating at this point.