Tag: NHL

So Long Malcolm Subban, We Hardly Knew Ye

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ESPN – Goaltender Malcolm Subban was claimed off waivers by the Vegas Golden Knights, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Tuesday. The Bruins waited until Monday to waive the 23-year-old, with most teams already set in goal, hoping to sneak him to their Providence affiliate, but the former first-round pick was claimed by Golden Knights general manager George McPhee.

We hardly knew ye, indeed. Well, except for the 2 games you started and got absolutely annihilated by real NHL players, giving up 6 goals on 22 shots (a scorching .727 save %).

While you never want to give up on a young player you invested a lot in (24th overall pick), its been five years and it probably just wasn’t gonna happen for him in Boston. Still it sucks to have the Bruins squander another asset, getting nothing for Subban. Sweeney basically said Subban’s trade value was so nonexistent that he couldn’t get anything for the goalie. The Bruins tried to sneak him through waivers, but the Golden Knights claimed him so his trade value couldn’t have been that barren.

While Subban certainly ate a bag of dicks in his limited opportunities between the pipes for the Bruins, he is still only 23 and goalies tend to age like fine wine. You routinely see older guys figure it out or get hot or find the right situation and go on a tear for a season or more. Tim Thomas anyone?

He was 32 when he landed the Bruins starting job full-time and he was the oldest player in league history to  win the Conn Smythe at 37 years old.

So Subban could still figure it out, but its also a reminder that goalies routinely come out of nowhere. So maybe just don’t blow top draft capital on them.

 

Las Vegas Golden Knights Inscribe Season Ticket Member Names Under the Ice

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NHL – It will be the first time the Golden Knights ever take the ice for a game at T-Mobile Arena…To represent a city that’s never had a major league franchise of its own to cheer for, to be a rallying point for people in this area who recognize this place as home more than a place to visit on vacation….Just inside the blue line on the end of the ice the Golden Knights defends twice will be inscribed the names of all the team’s season ticket members. So as much as visiting teams will have to defeat Vegas, the team, they’ll also have to defeat Vegas, the people… “That it was feasible, if we wanted to do something special on the ice, that we had the ability to put texture to something on the ice, before the laid the last round of it.”

This idea is so fire that it might actually melt the Golden Knight’s ice. Being a season ticket holder for any team usually means having the opportunity to fork over thousands of dollars and buy $10 dollar beers while maybe getting access to a couple extra events and press conferences.

But this? Getting your name permanently inscribed under the ice as one of the inaugural season ticket members? That is some badass legacy right there. Props to Vegas for having some new ideas of how to entice and engage fans rather than the same old bullshit everyone else does. Take a look at the process below and check out the video here.

Great, Torey Krug Broke His Jaw

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ESPN – Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug broke his jaw when he was hit in the face with a puck Tuesday against the Red Wings and will miss at least the rest of training camp. The team said the 26-year-old suffered a non-displaced fracture and will be reevaluated in three weeks.

Goddamnit. Coming off one of his best seasons with 51 points last year, Krug was in line to build on that breakout campaign. Now he’s out for at least the next 3 weeks, but I would imagine having a broken jaw will probably have you a little gun shy about heading into the corners for a while. Hopefully its a quick recovery for Torey, T&P’s. Until then, if someone orders pancakes just sip the sizzurp.

Phil Kessel Gets the Last Laugh by Crushing Hot Dogs Out of the Stanley Cup

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Now THAT is how you clap back at the haters. If this were Beyonce or Rihanna responding to people on Instagram for fat shaming this picture would be on Good Morning America. But nay, since its Phil Kessel its just for us bloggers to champion.

For anyone unfamiliar with the reference, this is in response to the Toronto Sun hockey writers shitting on Kessel on his way out the door after the Maple Leafs traded him.

“The hot dog vendor who parks daily at Front and John Sts. just lost his most reliable customer. Almost every afternoon at 2:30 p.m., often wearing a toque, Phil Kessel would wander from his neighbourhood condominium to consume his daily snack.”

That was the lede of the story! Keep doing you man, pound those dogs like your on Coney Island on the fucking 4th of July. If only the Bruins could get players like Kessel.

If Peter Chiarelli Wins GM of the Year Tonight I Might Just Kill Myself

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NHL – David Poile of the Nashville Predators, Pierre Dorion of the Ottawa Senators and Peter Chiarelli of the Edmonton Oilers were named finalists for the NHL General Manager of the Year Award on Tuesday. Voting was conducted among general managers, a panel of League executives, and print and broadcast media following the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The winner will be announced at the 2017 NHL Awards at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on June 21 (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN).

You all remember Peter Chiarelli. The guy who did a nice job building up a 2011 Stanley Cup champion in 2011. He was responsible for signing Chara, trading Kessel and lucking into Tyler Seguin with said draft picks. Bruins were on the up, won the President’s Trophy, but then lost in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals. And then he systematically destroyed the team.

Seriously this team went from a couple of wins short of winning the Stanley Cup in 2013 to missing the playoffs entirely in 18 months. Not to mention gutting the team along the way and trading away our best young player in Tyler Seguin for a bag of pucks.

That guy finally got shitcanned last year and then waltzed into one of the best situations in the league in Edmonton, who had the No. 1 overall pick. Using that they drafted Connor McDavid who had 48 points in 45 games in his Rookie season. McDavid (along with Auston Matthews) is potentially the best young forward since Gretzky. Seriously, the guy scored 30 goals, 70 assists, and had 100 points in his first full season in the NHL. I give Chiarelli ZERO credit for that.

Now this guy is up for GM of the Year? The guy who completely fucked up the Bruins with terrible trades and signings. The guy who gave away a perennial 30+ goal scorer in Seguin. The guy who traded Johnny Boychuk to the Islanders in a salary dump and left the Bruins D-core gutted. The guy who dismantled a young, Stanley Cup caliber team and turned them into a non-playoff team in less than two years. Fuck outta here.

WNBA Daily Fantasy is Here and I am……IN

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NY Daily News – The WNBA is entering the daily fantasy sports market. The league announced a partnership with FanDuel on Thursday — the first time a women’s professional sports league will be available in one-day fantasy games…The site will also have its normal offerings of daily fantasy contests in which people can win money by picking a lineup of WNBA players and pitting them against other players. The WNBA is hoping this new venture brings more fans to the league, which starts its 21st season this weekend.

I am so, so, so IN on WNBA daily fantasy. This is it guys, this is how I build my empire. I was late to the party on NFL, NBA, NHL even Golf and MMA have daily fantasy now. But WNBA? I am diving in head first. Not to mention I could buy courtside seats with my winnings for like $35 right?

The fact that you can bet on a game at halftime is absurd enough, but now I can literally lay my hard earned cash on the table building my fantasy team around Skyler Diggins? Is a dunk worth extra points? Its gotta be right? Shore up the end of my bench with a savvy vet like Diana Taurasi. I think she still plays?

What happens when Candace Parker gets pregnant though? That could potentially tank my season. Shit, that could actually be the FanDuel commercial. Redraft your team every day so unexpected pregnancies don’t ruin your WNBA fantasy season!

Recap: I am IN on WNBA FanDuel.

Bruins Make the Right Move and Name Bruce Cassidy Head Coach

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In yet another season that could have easily gone down the tubes real quick, the Bruins finally ripped off the band-aid and axed Claude Julien in February. Enter The Boss, Bruce Cassidy. Say what you will about Claude, good coach, awful coach, whatever. One thing was clear, he had lost the ability to jolt the team. Or he just refused to make the necessary changes in style. But if the Bruins stand pat and don’t fire Julien, the Bruins 100% miss the playoffs for the third year in a row. That shit is unacceptable in a city like Boston, especially with the core they have now with Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, Tuuka, Chara and Krug. Too many good players to not at least find your way into a Wild Card berth.

Under Cassidy the Bruins went 18-8-1 and they looked like an entirely different team. Cassidy had the team playing a much more up tempo game, had the defense jumping into plays and helping create offense rather than cycling it around and slowly lugging the puck up the ice as they had under Claude. Obviously guys like Krug thrived under the renewed style that offered them a lot more freedom, which is when you started to see 4 and 5 goal outbursts.

Cassidy was the Providence Bruins head coach for 5 years and acted as Don Sweeney’s go-to guy when Don was Director of Player Development. So Cassidy has worked closely with the young players in the Bruins system and has an intimate knowledge of whats coming through the pipeline and how to best take advantage of these players skill sets. I’m excited to see what he can do with a full offseason of working with Charlie McAvoy because that kid looks like a bonafide stud who will fit Cassidy’s style perfectly.

So the Bruins made the right move in removing the interim tag from Bruce Cassidy’s head coach name tag.

Bruins Drop Fourth Straight Game; Time to Hit the Panic Button

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Are the Bruins really gonna do this again? Are they really gonna collapse down the stretch and miss the playoffs for the THIRD straight year?

Last night was an embarrassment as they legitimately could not hold a lead for more than 2 minutes. Every time they scored, the Lightning scored. Until the Bruins finally stopped scoring and Tampa Bay just kept right on, tuning them up for their 4th straight loss. That is some shitty hockey, amiright Barry?

Now with 8 games left the Bruins have slipped to the second Wild Card spot. They’re 2 points up on the Islanders as they cling to that final spot. And guess who the Bruins are playing tomorrow night? Yup, the Islanders. So if they lose yet again and blow their fifth straight then the free fall will be complete. The Islanders also have 2 games in hand over the Bruins so that’ll be fun to watch over the next two weeks. Look I did not sign up to do math equations and statistical probability. If I wanted to pretend to do math, I’d go back to playing Pokemon Red on my laptop during Math 110 in college.

Or we could ya know just start winning again and take back the 8 seed from Toronto, but with a loss to them the other night the B’s are now 3 points back and things are looking grim. I had 1/4 season ticket package last year and I swear the Bruins lost probably 8/10 of those games so naturally I didn’t renew. And now for the 3rd straight year we’re on the verge of this shit happening again.

The ONLY thing I ask is that Tuukka stays away from Buff’s Pub for the next 2 weeks because we cannot afford to have him bailing on games over a tummy ache.