2020-2021 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

[Bender]

Well I certainly touched on something here.

Like I said, I'm not excusing him of anytihng.

You asked why there's scrutiny around Babcock being hired by a university and your position was "can't we move on?" And I think there's plenty of better arguments as to why he might not be the best pick for young, developing players and that he hasn't apologized and is even defiant for well documented transgressions (Franzen, Commodore, Marner, Holl etc.)

I get it. He's an idiot. Perhaps I just tire of talking about idiots sooner than the average Joe. There's arseholes hired every day and some of them are in positions they shouldn't be.

And when I say just move on, I think he's an okay guy that was great with young players. I mean, I'm pretty tired of hearing about this pompous a$$. If Saskatchewan wants to hire him, that's on them. I guess I'm cold for not giving a crap if they do.

Note: I did not realize he started this "redemption tour"...and if that's the case, I just wish the tour would die quickly.

The redemption tour is why we and literally every sports media outlet is scrutinizing him right now! [emoji23]

 

[Bender]

https://twitter.com/koshtorontosun/status/1365378854144143374
Make full coverage mandatory, be it cage or visor/cage combo, and get rid of the silly 4-min penalty for a highstick that bleeds.

100%. They all wear the visors, surely they can figure it out so you don't get broken jaws and facial bones and whatnot.

 

[Bender]

Make full coverage mandatory, be it cage or visor/cage combo, and get rid of the silly 4-min penalty for a highstick that bleeds.

I really don't get what the beef is with the double minor rule. Like, if it's just that it means that the difference between 2 and 4 is fairly arbitrary and down to chance then, sure, but most high sticks are unintentional and the difference between them hitting a guy and being a penalty at all is likewise fairly arbitrary and down to chance. All it does is just, hopefully, provide added disincentive to be careless with your stick.

I think you picked the right wording here: hope is not a plan to protect player health and safety. Pretty much every other hockey and stick+ball league has gone with the route to eliminate grievous facial injuries by implementing full protective coverage. Trying to disincentivize with an extra minor for accidentally making someone bleed is arbitrary as you say, and clearly ineffectual (especially if a followthrough high stick is for some reason A-OK).

Go full coverage, and no one has to lose their career to a freak stick to eye mishap, and the league gets to have more players drawing fans/eyeballs to games, especially when the risk is so easily mitigated. If people think this will give players license to start whacking faces, then refs are still well within their duty to call a slash, or intent to injure.

Side benefit: bye bye fighting.

 

And then we could call it men's figure skating  NHL style.

If I wanted to watch grown men fight each other I'd watch the UFC or Boxing.

 

[berserker]

Make full coverage mandatory, be it cage or visor/cage combo, and get rid of the silly 4-min penalty for a highstick that bleeds.

I really don't get what the beef is with the double minor rule. Like, if it's just that it means that the difference between 2 and 4 is fairly arbitrary and down to chance then, sure, but most high sticks are unintentional and the difference between them hitting a guy and being a penalty at all is likewise fairly arbitrary and down to chance. All it does is just, hopefully, provide added disincentive to be careless with your stick.

I think you picked the right wording here: hope is not a plan to protect player health and safety. Pretty much every other hockey and stick+ball league has gone with the route to eliminate grievous facial injuries by implementing full protective coverage. Trying to disincentivize with an extra minor for accidentally making someone bleed is arbitrary as you say, and clearly ineffectual (especially if a followthrough high stick is for some reason A-OK).

Go full coverage, and no one has to lose their career to a freak stick to eye mishap, and the league gets to have more players drawing fans/eyeballs to games, especially when the risk is so easily mitigated. If people think this will give players license to start whacking faces, then refs are still well within their duty to call a slash, or intent to injure.

Side benefit: bye bye fighting.

 

And then we could call it men's figure skating  NHL style.

If I wanted to watch grown men fight each other I'd watch the UFC or Boxing.

Quit trying to change the game if the Refs would call the game as per the rulebook
things would be as it should . Crosschecking for example is overlooked too many times.
It is the N.H.L not rec hockey

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

Six years ago today:

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/571087770304823296

The biggest non-blockbuster blockbuster trade.

 

[ZBBM]

Good God those days were awful from top to bottom.

 

[Zee]

Six years ago today:

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/571087770304823296

The biggest non-blockbuster blockbuster trade.

I remember when that happened I was picking up my kid from skating and I checked the board and someone posted "am I dreaming?"

 

[Kin]

The Clarkson thing is interesting because there's really no getting away from the fact that a guy who was legitimately a useful player in Jersey, even if the goal scoring numbers were a little bogus, just completely fell apart here and wasn't even a useful bottom 6 guy.

We've seen a lot of guys fail to live up to the scoring expectations of their deals but I don't know if we've seen another case of that quite so acutely.

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

Clarkson has better hands than Gary Roberts by a wide margin.

 

[Bill_Berg]

https://twitter.com/koshtorontosun/status/1365378854144143374
Make full coverage mandatory, be it cage or visor/cage combo, and get rid of the silly 4-min penalty for a highstick that bleeds.

It's pretty silly in mind that flipping the puck over the glass, or an accidental trip or a simple hook is the same as a high stick and often a boarding penalty. There should be three tiers of penalty commonly used often.  Like all high sticks are a double minor.  Make major and minor 2 min, minor expires on a goal, major goes the full 2. 

 

[Bender]

Make full coverage mandatory, be it cage or visor/cage combo, and get rid of the silly 4-min penalty for a highstick that bleeds.

I really don't get what the beef is with the double minor rule. Like, if it's just that it means that the difference between 2 and 4 is fairly arbitrary and down to chance then, sure, but most high sticks are unintentional and the difference between them hitting a guy and being a penalty at all is likewise fairly arbitrary and down to chance. All it does is just, hopefully, provide added disincentive to be careless with your stick.

I think you picked the right wording here: hope is not a plan to protect player health and safety. Pretty much every other hockey and stick+ball league has gone with the route to eliminate grievous facial injuries by implementing full protective coverage. Trying to disincentivize with an extra minor for accidentally making someone bleed is arbitrary as you say, and clearly ineffectual (especially if a followthrough high stick is for some reason A-OK).

Go full coverage, and no one has to lose their career to a freak stick to eye mishap, and the league gets to have more players drawing fans/eyeballs to games, especially when the risk is so easily mitigated. If people think this will give players license to start whacking faces, then refs are still well within their duty to call a slash, or intent to injure.

Side benefit: bye bye fighting.

 

And then we could call it men's figure skating  NHL style.

If I wanted to watch grown men fight each other I'd watch the UFC or Boxing.

Quit trying to change the game if the Refs would call the game as per the rulebook
things would be as it should . Crosschecking for example is overlooked too many times.
It is the N.H.L not rec hockey

Right, because I'm petitioning the league and getting signatures and "trying to change it." Get a grip. I think fighting is outdated and makes the league look like a sideshow and disagree that taking out fighting makes it Rec league or "men's figure skating" and I'm allowed to have that opinion.

 

[Champ Kind]

The Clarkson thing is interesting because there's really no getting away from the fact that a guy who was legitimately a useful player in Jersey, even if the goal scoring numbers were a little bogus, just completely fell apart here and wasn't even a useful bottom 6 guy.

We've seen a lot of guys fail to live up to the scoring expectations of their deals but I don't know if we've seen another case of that quite so acutely.

We might be seeing an even more egregious example in Buffalo with Jeff Skinner.  Time will tell, but he?s got a $9m cap hit and signed for five years after this one.

 

[Kin]

I appreciate fighting in hockey, I think it added to the character of the game and while I understand why it happened, the fact that it left the game left the game, to my mind, makes the sport less interesting and very potentially worse by leaving the Tkachuks of the world as the vanguards of "physical" hockey.

That said, I think arguing about that aspect of this is pretty pointless.  Even the most die-hard advocate of fighting in hockey, if they're being realistic, would have to acknowledge that within 5-10 years it'll be all but gone from the game. The conversation is over.

 

[Kin]

We might be seeing an even more egregious example in Buffalo with Jeff Skinner.  Time will tell, but he?s got a $9m cap hit and signed for five years after this one.

I think that's more an example of what I said about guys failing to live up to the scoring expectations of their deals. I never thought of Skinner as a particularly physical or two-way player.

 

[Guilt Trip]

The Clarkson thing is interesting because there's really no getting away from the fact that a guy who was legitimately a useful player in Jersey, even if the goal scoring numbers were a little bogus, just completely fell apart here and wasn't even a useful bottom 6 guy.

We've seen a lot of guys fail to live up to the scoring expectations of their deals but I don't know if we've seen another case of that quite so acutely.

We might be seeing an even more egregious example in Buffalo with Jeff Skinner.  Time will tell, but he?s got a $9m cap hit and signed for five years after this one.

He's got 6 more after this year....yikes

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

Jack Campbell is now 3-0, 1.33, .951.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/dylanfremlin/status/1365913620299702278

 

[CarltonTheBear]

No, he got lost in his eyes.

 

[herman]

No, he got lost in his eyes.

That?s how it starts, but he still needed a professional excuse to keep seeing him

 

[Arn]

Isn't it possibly the most Leafs thing ever to finally have a team that stands atop the NHL standings, the top scoring team in the league, a candidate for the Rocket Richard, a candidate for league MVP, a team playing a fun style of game to watch. After decades of mediocrity or worse.

And nobody is allowed in to see them play in person.