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Woe, Canada.

I couldn't help but notice how sad the current situation is with the NHL's Canadian professional teams. The best any of them can do is the 4th place Vancouver Canucks. Calgary & Edmonton are mopping up the West. Winnipeg is also in last place. Montreal started strong, but they now languish in 5th place followed by Ottawa, Toronto and then last place Buffalo - which is almost in Canada.



But, seriously. What happened to Canadian hockey? Has the game become so watered down that the available talent bypasses tradition? Two teams from, gulp, FLORIDA! are battling for first place.



Hockey confuses me.

Comments

  • PM770PM770 Posts: 320 ✭✭
    Wow. I didn't realize that Canada is in real danger of being shut out of the playoffs. Don Cherry may have a heart attack.
  • larryallen73larryallen73 Posts: 6,055 ✭✭✭
    It's a California sport now! #Kings



    image
  • Oh yeah, that doesn't bother me at all. GKG. Speak in monotone amongst Black Hawks fans, tho. ;-)
  • JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 11,171 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hockey has become like the NFL. Canadian teams have no advantage over U.S. franchises. If they want to return to the top, they have to do a better job drafting, playing and coaching.
    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
  • TabeTabe Posts: 5,920 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Originally posted by: UncleTwoPillow
    I couldn't help but notice how sad the current situation is with the NHL's Canadian professional teams. The best any of them can do is the 4th place Vancouver Canucks. Calgary & Edmonton are mopping up the West. Winnipeg is also in last place. Montreal started strong, but they now languish in 5th place followed by Ottawa, Toronto and then last place Buffalo - which is almost in Canada.

    But, seriously. What happened to Canadian hockey? Has the game become so watered down that the available talent bypasses tradition? Two teams from, gulp, FLORIDA! are battling for first place.

    Hockey confuses me.


    What happened? A lot of things happened.

    First and foremost is that everybody else just got better. One of those two - gulp - Florida teams is run by Steve Yzerman. He's Canadian through-and-through, an absolute legend, but the first chance he got to run a team of his own was in Florida. So that's where he went and he's built a terrific team.

    Second is that a lot of guys don't want to go to Canada if they get a choice. The taxes are rough and the media is awful. Toronto media absolutely eats up their teams and players.

    Third, in the case of Montreal, what happened is that their goalie got hurt. They were dominating before that.
  • BarndogBarndog Posts: 20,454 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have been most surprised by the woeful play of the Canadiens. I keep expecting them to snap out of it.
  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,847 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Originally posted by: Barndog

    I have been most surprised by the woeful play of the Canadiens. I keep expecting them to snap out of it.




    Corey Price is arguably the best goalie in the game. Unfortunately for the Hab's he got injured. The back ups quite frankly suck. Bobsled ride to hell ensues.



    mark
    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • Update: Canucks about to be overtaken by Ducks. Leafs cascading gently to the bottom of their dumpster.



    As an added bonus, this year's All-Star Game will be accompanied by many scenes countrified Canadian folks are used to experiencing, but they'll need to go to Tennessee for the pleasure.



    Nashville, the hoedown hotbed of hockey.
  • sparky64sparky64 Posts: 7,025 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The only Canadian NHL team I keep an eye on is Ottawa.

    And that's only because my son is a big fan and their AHL team in about 1/2 hour north of me.



    Don't know if anyone recalls but the run they made, late last year to make the playoffs, was epic.

    They were so far back yet pulled it off.

    "If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"

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  • lanemyer85lanemyer85 Posts: 1,315 ✭✭✭
    7 of the last 9 Cup champions have been GM'd by American GMs. Now those GMs have large staffs and Stan Bowman is a dual citizen, but still, besides Ken Holland with the Wings, it took most Canadian born GMs a long time to adapt to analytics in hockey. Over the last 7 years you've had Stan Bowman, Dean Lombardi, and to a lesser extant Ray Shero curb stomping 20 or so Ruben Amaro's in the front office. A bunch of those guys were a decade late to the party. The analytics and scouting staffs were severely under staffed in a ton of markets. There was always a bias against a lot of European players by a lot of those same guys, and that is largely gone now. Scouting has gotten much better with expanded scouting staffs and Internet feeds of INTL leagues and such. There really aren't that many aspects of the game to exploit like Ken Holland and Lou Lamoriello did for the better part of 15 years from the 90's to the mid aughts. You can't build a team in free agency anymore because players are getting signed long term at younger ages. Even the entry level bridge contracts are on the way out.



    So every team basically operates in the same manner. You have a core group of 6-8 players every year and then depending on how good your core is (and how much of the cap those 6-8 players soak up) determines your standing more or less. If you have a core like the Blackhawks or the Kings, you're in great shape. At least while most of those guys are in their prime. If your core is like the Oilers where you have some great young offensive talent, but nothing in goal or on defense, you have no shot. Or if your core is like the Penguins where you have 5 players (Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang, Fleury) taking up roughly 70% of your cap, you're fate is determined by a handful of young players and health. Their only hope is to luck out with some cheap free agents in the bottom six having career years...and for 7 years they haven't been able to develop any young forwards who can skate in the top six through the draft.



    As Tabe mentioned, this generation of Canadian born star players haven't exactly been beating a path to go play at home either. Now a lot of those guys aren't getting to free agency because everyone not named Stamkos is getting signed long term, but you saw it with Pronger weaseling his way out of Edmonton, you saw Dany Heatley (when he was worth a damn) orchestrating his way out of Ottawa. Of course some of this is pure luck- ie when their respective teams were terrible and rebuilding, the Penguins drafted Crosby and Malkin in back to back years, the Hawks landed Toews and Kane in back to back years. Had the Oil been terrible in '06 & '07 and had the chance to draft Toews and Kane instead of a half-decade later when they got two second liners in Nugent-Hopkins and Yakupov at number one overall instead, things could be a little different. They wouldn't win anything still, not with that defense and goaltending, but they'd at least have a shot at a second round series.
  • sparky64sparky64 Posts: 7,025 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Excellent post lanemyer.

    Learned a little something too. image

    "If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"

    My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress

  • Game on. If ever an accurate analytical point of view deserved to be placed here, then the right person presented it. Only took him a week to get here. ;-)
  • sparky64sparky64 Posts: 7,025 ✭✭✭✭✭
    6 weeks since the OP and no Canadian team making the playoffs is still looking like it may happen.



    The only other time that happened was 1970. There were only two teams then.



    I was surprised to read that Canada hasn't won the Stanley Cup since 1993.

    22 years. image

    "If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"

    My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress

  • sparky64sparky64 Posts: 7,025 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's official, no post season for our neighbors to the north.

    "If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"

    My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress

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