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DoctorBreakfast

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Forum: NHLJan. 11 at 10:46 a.m.
Thread: New Playoff format
I'm perfectly content with 16 teams making the playoffs. I'm also fine with the way playoff berths are determined (top 3 in each division, plus 2 wild cards per conference), but once the playoffs start I would like to see the seeding done as 1-8 for each conference. That way division play is still valuable in order to make the playoffs, but then you don't have the best teams playing each other in the earlier rounds. So it's sort of a hybrid between the current NHL system and the pre-play-in NBA system. Before the implementation of the play-in rounds, the NBA did a 1-8 conference setup, but it was just the top 8 in each conference that make the playoffs, so division play was essentially meaningless (still is even with the new play-in format); even winning your division didn't guarantee a playoff berth.

So based on points percentage of the current standings we would have:

<strong>Eastern Conference</strong>

1. Boston
8. Pittsburgh

2. Toronto
7. Washington

3. Carolina
6. NY Rangers

4. New Jersey
5. Tampa Bay

<strong>Western Conference</strong>

1. Dallas
8. Calgary

2. Vegas
7. Nashville

3. Seattle
6. Minnesota

4. Winnipeg
5. Los Angeles

And obviously with reseeding after each round.
Forum: NHLDec. 12, 2022 at 12:15 p.m.
Thread: Patrick Kane Destinations - Where does it make sense?
From a Dallas perspective, I can't see them making any moves to get Kane. Their cap is already pretty tight and Nill has been very reluctant to trade away any prospects during his tenure.

Glendening is a coaching favorite, so he's likely staying, and probably not the type of player Chicago is looking for. Gurianov is also likely reaching the tail end of his NHL career. He's been very inconsistent and has yet to put it all together at the NHL level, which is unfortunate as he's a hard worker and has some nice skill. I could see a team maybe giving him a fresh start, but probably not at his current salary. I can't see him having much value at the trade deadline.

And like you mentioned, Dallas is light on draft picks this year, and that's been Nill's main currency when making big trades; not having a 1st or a 3rd would likely make him more cautious in moving any future picks. Their prospect pool is quite good, with guys like Johnston, Bourque, Stankoven, Blumel, Harley, Bischel, and Kyrou, but like I said Nill has always been reticent to move any prospects so I would be surprised to see it happen.
Forum: NHLNov. 16, 2022 at 11:17 a.m.
Thread: Top Ten at Every Position
<strong>Center</strong>
1. Connor McDavid
2. Auston Matthews
3. Nathan MacKinnon
4. Patrice Bergeron
5. Leon Draisaitl
6. Brayden Point
7. Aleksander Barkov
8. Roope Hintz
9. Sebastian Aho
10. Mika Zibanejad

<strong>Left Wing</strong>
1. Brad Marchand
2. Kirill Kaprizov
3. Jason Robertson
4. Matthew Tkachuk
5. Johnny Gaudreau
6. Alex DeBrincat
7. Artemi Panarin
8. Jesper Bratt
9. Jonathan Huberdeau
10. Kyle Connor

<strong>Right Wing</strong>
1. David Pastrnak
2. Nikita Kucherov
3. Mikko Rantanen
4. Mitch Marner
5. Valeri Nichushkin
6. Mark Stone
7. Troy Terry
8. William Nylander
9. Joe Pavelski
10. Claude Giroux

<strong>Defensemen</strong>
1. Cale Makar
2. Adam Fox
3. Charlie McAvoy
4. Victor Hedman
5. Roman Josi
6. Devon Toews
7. Miro Heiskanen
8. Jared Spurgeon
9. Jaccob Slavin
10. Mackenzie Weegar

<strong>Goaltenders</strong>
1. Connor Hellebuyck
2. Igor Shesterkin
3. Andrei Vasilevskiy
4. Juuse Saros
5. Ilya Sorokin
6. Jake Oettinger
7. Jacob Markstrom
8. Thatcher Demko
9. Darcy Kuemper
10. Frederik Andersen
Forum: NHLSep. 21, 2022 at 10:35 a.m.
Forum: NHLAug. 16, 2022 at 11:36 a.m.
Thread: Stronger back end?
St. Louis' blue line is pretty bad, yet it doesn't really have that reputation since they have historically been one of the better defensive teams plus they were covered by good goaltending this past season; but I would still say it's better than Vancouver's.

Krug, Faulk, and Leddy are all pretty weak defensively, while Parayko is not the same high-end defenseman he was a few seasons ago. Scandella's washed, Mikkola and Bortuzzo are just third-pair defensemen, and Perunovich is just a younger, less-talented version of Krug.

Hughes is better than all of St. Louis' defensemen, but it's quite a drop-off from there. Schenn wasn't terrible last season, but I still think he's playing too high in the lineup and probably won't repeat his success. OEL was quite better than advertised, but likely won't return to his peak form. Myers is bad, but we all been knew that. I quite like Dermott, but I don't see him playing higher than the third pair. And Rathbone and Poolman are just third pairing guys.

If I had to rank them all
1. Hughes
2. Parayko
3. Krug
4. Ekman-Larsson
5. Faulk
6. Dermott
7. Schenn
8. Throw the rest down here somewhere
Forum: NHLAug. 15, 2022 at 3:49 p.m.
Thread: Analytics are ruining your brains
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>LloydminsterLarry</b></div><div>“I don't see the value in having a guy that also plays poorly on the ice.”

NHL GMs sure do though and that’s been my point over and over again. What a guy like Reaves does better than most of the league is put in a short shift but throw a couple huge hits that get momentum back to his team. He’s made an entire career out of it.</div></div>

Like someone mentioned earlier, just because an NHL GM does something doesn't mean it's a good move, as we see time and time again. How do we even know that his hits provided any kind of momentum? He's spent most of his career playing on teams that are good in spite of him, so one could argue that the teams could've succeeded and regained momentum without whatever his contributions were in the 8-9 minutes he plays.
Forum: NHLAug. 15, 2022 at 11:27 a.m.
Thread: Analytics are ruining your brains
Hockey analysis has come a long way compared to just 5 years ago. The data is better, more research is done, people are understanding how to contextualize better, and we have more now to consume than ever. If you think about it, the on-ice ideas that are emphasized by those in the analytics sphere are essentially the same as what old heads have been preaching for decades.

Getting pucks on net = increasing your shot attempts
Get to the dangerous areas = improving your shot quality, which ties into expected goals
Net-front battles = prevent the opposition from taking those high xG shots and prevent your goalie from being screened
Creating/preventing odd-man rushes = rush chances are shown to be of higher quality than chances created on the cycle or forecheck
...and so on and so forth.

I guarantee you that 90-95% of the findings from analytics spheres align with the general consensus. The problem most people have are with the edge cases, which they then use to dismiss the entirety of analytics. The on-ice arguements are essentially the same, albeit the wordings differ. Most everyone will agree that today's game is far different than the game from even a decade ago. It's a possession-based game, physicality is emphasized less, etc.

A lot of the polarization comes from how off-ice/locker room effects come into play. It's pretty clear that guys like Ryan Reaves are not valuable to the modern game, in terms of on-ice impact; he plays very limited minutes and the team does not control play when he is on the ice. The arguments for Reaves state that he provides a morale boost to his teammates, he's a locker room guy, etc. The problem with that is how can we even know that's the case when we're not around the team and we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, other than the canned statements we hear in interviews? I'm sure that most, if not all, teams have guys that are good in the room, so as long as there aren't guys that are a detriment to team morale, I don't see the value in having a guy that also plays poorly on the ice.
Forum: NHLAug. 10, 2022 at 1:36 p.m.
Thread: Bruins...Competitive?
I think they'll be better than people expect. A top six of Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, Hall, Krejci, and Smith is quite formidable; the depth is a little suspect, and any long-term injury in their top six would be a big obstacle.

Their blue line is their biggest strength, in my opinion. Lindholm-McAvoy has potential to be one of the best pairings in the league, assuming Lindholm can play like the Lindholm of old. Grzelcyk-Carlo is a very nice second pair to have, even if I'm not that high on Carlo, I'm very bullish on Grzelcyk. Reilly is a fine third pair guy, so hopefully whoever he gets saddled with (likely Forbort) doesn't poop the bed too badly.

Goaltending is a big question mark though (evergreen statement). Swayman has looked good in the games he's played, so we'll see if he can keep it up; but Ullmark wasn't great last season so if he can just be average-ish, Boston should be okay. They play behind one of the better defensive teams in the league so they shouldn't be overly taxed.