elvis15

Right in the middle of the scouting report from your link: "nor should he be considered a swift skater." He's not fast. Now, I'm not saying he's a lumbering beast, but when talking about speed I'm referring to how much faster the game is processed at the NHL level more than his skating. I'm not even saying he's bad there, but that he has to keep it simple or risk mistakes. I don't know that he has much extra to give. Now, if he can add a little extra to that simple, steady game, he's got a chance at a 6-7 spot. If he can do that consistently, maybe even a regular 5th D, but it's probably reasonable to not expect much more than that at this point.

This, I'm excited about. Went for a few years as it was a great combo vacation to go see family and watch hockey.

I'd be very surprised if he became more than a 5th/6th d-man. I'd love it, but I think the speed of the NHL game will keep him from being much more than a serviceable bottom pairing guy. He did well in the AHL, and kept out of trouble in his stints up here, but that's a big step to him being a top 4 guy.

I'm surprised I never got into it, with my brother racing motocross, riding street bikes and Harleys as well. One brother-in-law still rides Harleys, and the other had a Triumph for a while. Bought an electric bike (limited speed though) that should deliver in the fall, so first foray into anything other than tooling around on a friend's bike.

So, you're saying the player who already has position on the puck also has to find the time to put themselves in a better spot so they're facing anyone coming to hit them while maintaining control and making a play on the puck? And the player coming in off the puck should just be allowed to hit them? Got it. That might not be going full throttle into the hit, but Cizikas has to be smarter there knowing it's not going to be a legal hit. Totally fine with the suspension.

Adding to the above, we did sign a new player:

He did just fine last night, so hopefully that's not just a bonus of the whole team playing one of their best games of the year. I think he might be a solid player in the right role so hopefully we can shore up/get the performance we should out of the rest of the D. He said himself he relies on his mobility and does get some nights where if he isn't moving his feet, he struggles. I could see him having the odd night where he tries to do too much as well, particularly if he's playing above his depth, but this could be a good new start where we see more out of him than before as well.

I figured this would get to a fair number of pages, but I underestimated by forgetting how quickly people like to bicker about crap on here. 31 pages it is, and I'm not going to check if someone's posted this already. https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2022/03/20/analysis-travis-dermott-moved-to-vancouver-to-open-cap-space/ Comments on that are things like "wouldn't surprised if his play improves", "wonder if Dubas took less to trade him to a team with a better opportunity", "should have gotten a 2nd", so they don't hate him in Toronto. He's cheaper, younger and faster, so that will help a little but we'll see how he does down the stretch.

10 games, no points, 2 pims and even +/-. Not much to look at there with him playing on a good team.

Honestly, I wouldn't even compare the two. Kane can actually play except is crap with his teammates, where Virtanen was probably ok in the room but didn't quite amount to anything on the ice. Outside the rink, Kane is what Virtanen would like to be when he grows up, so maybe that's close.

Since you bring up his friends, we have to wonder how much he was enabled by them to continue acting like a small town celebrity rather than growing up and becoming a professional and an adult. He was able to keep those high school friends around being drafted to his home town. And I'm not saying they are the cause of any of this, but often players will learn to be a better professional being around the older teammates more, and making new friends who may have outgrown the high school antics. It happens with many of us, we move on and find new friends as we get older. When a lot of your shared memories are doing stupid high school things, you sometimes tend to keep doing stupid high school things.

Control and power. Enough ego to not take no for an answer. Entitled. If not that, just being a lazy asshole (i.e. wanted sex because she was there and he'd put in the effort). All the things real men wouldn't do so we don't understand why he just wouldn't be a gentleman.

Yeah, no. Boucher is way worse based on what we officially know. They're both terrible though. And Boucher might have gotten off without jail but Virtanen hasn't been proven guilty yet.

This. There is more than one AGM position. Depending on what breakdown of responsibilities wanted, there could be several in hockey ops.

The difference as I see it is Montreal hired a player agent for a GM role, which has a much broader scope and more pressure. Castonguay is hired for her experience with the CBA and contracts so is easily suited to an AGM. Canucks are no strangers to hiring a player agent to GM, so not throwing stones, but this hire makes a lot of sense and is not nearly the gamble of Gillis or Hughes as a GM. All around strongly recommended person and seems to be a great hire. Haven't seen anything even mediocre, let alone negative about this at all. Not sure we can ask for more than that!

Drink plenty of fluids.

It's very common for people who worked in media that may be critical of the organization they're being hired by to delete a fair bit of social media history. Generally required even. You wouldn't see that with people moving between teams though. Botterill wasn't being considered for the analytics role, and declined anyway. She wouldn't be qualified for the same role that Doerrie was hired for. I saw nothing other than pretty standard social media stuff, they don't get people to check out their work if they're nice and complimentary. She's qualified, and it is good to see it not being another white guy, like Kent Hughes appears to be, who really hadn't worked their way up to the role.

Lol, wut? Impressive.

Probably to do with you typing the end quote after pasting the rich text from the article. It's like if you paste a link from Twitter and have to convert it to plain text for it to embed. But disgusting. Not just the headline but the details which make it so much worse.

Bad hit to make. He really should have been holding up when he saw his back but he was accelerating even then.

I thought that maybe when he was back with Winnipeg, but even then I wasn't sure. It took a strong coach and him not having all the fame and money he does as a pro to control him in junior. I think that ship has sailed.