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Everything posted by mll
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Zucker is an undersized skilled player that doesn't fight. Not the same as having two guys in the same weight class going after each other in a staged fight. I can understand why Boudreau felt it sparked them. The Wild were also slow to start games and were often falling behind in the 1st period. By end of January they were bottom 5 in the league in goals scored in the 1st period. Boudreau was at wit's end on how to get his team to start games on time. This was different - two known fighters deciding to get their teams going early. Fwiw the day before Foligno talked about how Williams ignited Carolina by fighting. It was fairly predictable that he would want to do the same. Would think that Ferland also watched that game.
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Given matchups Horvat was mostly playing in an offensive role. He was playing against Eriksson Ek who is their shutdown C. The Wild have scoring on all their lines but Eriksson Ek is a defensive C. They've added some scoring with Parise but half of his goals came on the PP. Their main scoring line is the Staal-Fiala line which was matched up against Pettersson and Beagle. Gaudette was left to play Galchenyuk and Koivu. The Wild are likely not going to use their shutdown line on Sutter.
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It was mostly the Ds shooting though. By the end of the game the Canucks had 17 shots from their Ds and only 11 shots by Fs. Minnesota had 23 shots from their Fs and only 8 from their Ds. The Canuck top-6 were limited to 5 shots. The Canucks were mostly shooting from the point and not enough from the scoring areas. Markstrom made some incredible saves. For what it's worth officials are evaluated. After each round they need less of them so they get removed as the playoffs go on. It's an additional income to officiate deep into the playoffs plus there's the prestige of it. Per the website 'scouting the refs' it was 18K per round worked for referees and 12K per round for linesmen back in 2014 - it's not negligible. That was 6 years ago and likely has been adjusted for inflation. There is likely an add-on for the pandemic too / living in a bubble. There are 5 rounds this time around - so some 100K to be earned if not more vs only 20K or so if they are cut after the 1st round. Last year the 1st round started with 40 officials (20 refs + 20 linesmen). They were down to 24 by the 2nd round, 16 by the conference finals and only 8 remained by the finals.
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Horvat played only 40 seconds vs Staal at 5v5. He played most of his time against Eriksson Ek. Green had Pettersson and Beagle matched-up against Staal. Evason has said in the past that he's not that concerned about how opponents want to line match, and that for them it's more important to have the right D-pairings out.
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Minnesota know Roussel from his Dallas days. He's going to have a hard time getting them off their game. They are too familiar with his ways. He even ran Dubnyk at the time and they just shrugged it off. He went on to spear Winnik and had to turtle to protect himself. If he wants to run around Foligno will challenge him. Their media/broadcasters have pointed out that he seems to get carried away against the Wild and ends up hurting his team instead.
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It sparked them per Boudreau. A fight does not guarantee a win but it can bring energy to the wrong team and they felt it helped them.
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Boudreau in his post-game said that fight got the Wild into the game. Other players made the same comment. Zucker is not a fighter so if he was willing to take a beating so should they.
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Realistic best case / worst case cap implications [discussion]
mll replied to JM_'s topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
Every player counts against the salary cap. Teams who are under the cap do not need to use LTIR, they can simply keep the player on IR which opens up a roster spot. Canucks did that with Dorsett one year where he never went on LTIR because they didn't need the cap space. The year after they needed the cap space so he went on LTIR and it created a bonus overage. Ottawa doesn't have Gaborik, MacArthur on LTIR but IR although they have career ending injuries. It would be a similar situation where Hossa's contract gets added and costs them only 200K in real salary (as the contract is insured) but the AAV counts agains the cap. As it's to reach the floor there's no reason to put him on LTIR as they don't need the cap space. Arizona is in a different situation. They are so close to the salary cap that they have to put Hossa on LTIR. LTIR is a mechanism to allow teams to exceed the cap in order to build an active roster up to the salary cap. If Ferland did not go on LTIR, the Canucks' active roster would have been at most 78M because his 3.5M count against the cap. By going on LTIR the Canucks were allowed to build an active roster closer to 81.5M. Anything above 81.5M is only LTIR money. The active roster will always be under the maximum cap of 81.5M. The issue with LTIR is that it only allows to exceed the cap up to the amount necessary to remain cap compliant. It doesn't create cap space and very often teams have trouble building an active roster up to 81.5M because of how it works. It's a real limitation to have LTIR contracts when a team is operating at the cap. It creates bonus overages, makes it harder to build an active roster up to the salary cap and limits who can get recalled from the AHL. That's why a team like Arizona will want to try and move Hossa's contract. Ottawa is in a different situation as they are closer to the floor and having someone that can't play all season like Hossa shouldn't impact them next season. -
Realistic best case / worst case cap implications [discussion]
mll replied to JM_'s topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
But allows them to not spend anything more than the very strict minimum as to not increase their losses - 200k vs 5M+ whatever additional assets they are getting. It also allows them to retain flexibility. -
Realistic best case / worst case cap implications [discussion]
mll replied to JM_'s topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
If Ottawa needs a few dollars to reach the floor, they can take the contract for future considerations. In that situation it helps both teams. If Ottawa is already at the floor they don't need that contract (or Eriksson's) - in that situation it would cost Arizona. -
Realistic best case / worst case cap implications [discussion]
mll replied to JM_'s topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
They have 13 spots to fill to reach 23 and only need 18.3M to reach the floor. In the unlikely situation that they are missing a few dollars to reach the floor, they can ask Arizona to send them Hossa's LTIR contract. Arizona would probably gladly get rid of Hossa's contract with how cap strapped they are - it's only 200K vs 5M for Eriksson and runs only 1 year vs 2. Having Eriksson's contract is an issue in year 2 when they will have key players to re-sign. -
Realistic best case / worst case cap implications [discussion]
mll replied to JM_'s topic in Proposals and Armchair GM'ing
No idea what they'll do with the excess players. Would expect the AHL to run but probably not all teams - sharing of affiliates or loans. That's why I think teams with less ambition will give roster spots to more prospects rather than bring in stop gap players that do nothing for their future - cf Sakic in Colorado during their rebuild talking about how it was a more beneficial approach to promote prospects rather than just waste a season watching vets play (they initially went down that route and he admitted it was a mistake). They have 7 draft picks in the 1st 2 rounds this year too. Last year Ottawa was looking to add bad contracts for futures. Per an Ottawa analyst they were apparently asking for a 1st round pick for the LTIR contract of Clarkson out of Vegas. The contract was insured and the bonus had already been paid. It was only 200K in real cash. Seems so unlikely for Melnyk to be willing to pay 5M for Eriksson, when they don't need his salary to reach the floor (only need 18.3M with 14 spots still open) and it will limit their flexibility in a year to sign key players. The league is talking of losses in billions for next season. Some owners don't even want the season to be played as long as they can't have fans in the building. There are firings across the league including in Vancouver. Don't see teams firing employees and then somehow finding the cash to take on cap dumps. Teams might have trouble moving mid/bottom of the lineup players to clear cap space regardless of what they are willing to give up (barring a young elite player). Not all draft picks and prospects turn out and limiting cap space is too risky in a flat cap world and with revenue uncertainty. LeBrun was saying earlier this week that some owners are struggling in their regular business and could indeed impose an internal salary cap. He thinks there will be players available that you never expected to be available for cap reasons. This makes trading unwanted contracts even more challenging. Teams with the means might prefer making that kind of trades rather than tying their cap space in cap dump deals or bottom of the lineup/support players. -
Not yet determined but it will be team 1 vs 8 / 2 vs 7 / 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5. The 4 bye-teams are playing a round robin to determine their seeding. Canucks could be seeded 5, 6 or 7. Can't be 8 because Winnipeg-Calgary will always be seeded after Vancouver while Ari-Nsh and Chi-Edm could be either before or after depending on which team makes it through.
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Matt Dumba first NHL player to take a knee
mll replied to cuporbust's topic in General Hockey Discussion
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^ Per Russo they are using the Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre which is about 25 minutes away and has 4 sheets of ice.