GDT: G3: Wild @ Habs 6pm CT (BSN)

[57special]

I get why people say that, and I don't even think they're necessarily wrong, but I think the truth has a little more nuance than that. The Golden Knights beat the Avalanche, who were most certainly a good team. The Canadiens went on to beat both them and the Leafs, who were also a good team, though always a bit hapless in the playoffs.

I was being a little bit of a devil's advocate in that last post, as I made it sound like I think the Canadiens were a good team that year. They weren't, I'm fully aware of that, they just had a hot goalie and got some puck luck. That's sort of my point, though. Covid, as an excuse, doesn't hold weight because the way those playoffs played out wasn't an aberration, it was the norm. It happens every couple of years that a Cinderella team goes far in the playoffs.

People say the best team won most years, but I think that's almost never true. The playoffs are short enough that usually a skilled team (but not necessarily the best team) that has a couple key players get hot ends up winning, and unskilled teams who have a goalie get hot can go far. So why bother with the asterisk? The result was no different than any other year.

I think it's a little bit rich that we can't give any team credit for reaching the Cup finals. I mean, look in the freaking mirror.

 

[MK9]

I think it's a little bit rich that we can't give any team credit for reaching the Cup finals. I mean, look in the freaking mirror.

I think I'm comfortable looking at their record in the 2 seasons before, the finals year and the 2 years after and where they've been awful. Then, making a deduction that they were an aberration in '20-'21. If you want to give them credit for that, then...ok. I'm not going to. I'm also not going to tout the Wild as some amazing world beater either. Especially as they seem to be next in line for Toronto's record for 1st year playoff exits. What the conversation went to though was, 'Montreal sucks and has for years.' Regardless of the Wild and their record over the same time, one fluke blip on the radar of the Habs making the finals doesn't make them any better than what they really are. I wouldn't expect their fans to be impressed with the Wild had they done the same thing over the same timeframe either.

 

[Webster]

Not fun to be JEEK out there, they all want to punch his face, even the refs

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

Not fun to be JEEK out there, they all want to punch his face, even the refs

Honestly, if I were Dean after that off season coach-ref video the NHL made them watch, I would have had the video team put together a montage of JEE getting punched in the face and taking penalties for it and sent it right back to them.

 

[Sota Popinski]

Can someone explain to me how advancing that year was easier than other years, and why the better teams failed to do so? I would genuinely like to hear an explanation that sells me on it, but nobody's ever given me an adequate explanation before. One that applies more to the Canadiens and Lightning than the rest of the teams, which it must do since it did not apply enough to any other teams for them to be successful, though the same season and rules applied to all teams.

The Canadiens only played teams from Canada all regular season and in the playoffs up til the semifinals. No Canadian team had been to the finals in 10 years and had only come within one game once in that time. Their division only had 7 teams instead of 8 like the other divisions, and going into the playoffs was considered a joke. Montreal had the fewest points of any team that got in.

 

[Sweetnut]

Honestly, if I were Dean after that off season coach-ref video the NHL made them watch, I would have had the video team put together a montage of JEE getting punched in the face and taking penalties for it and sent it right back to them.

What is this about?

 

[Digitalbooya]

What is this about?

Pretty sure that’s the reason Dean isn’t exploding at the refs every 2 seconds lol

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

What is this about?

NHL to its 32 head coaches: Shut the (bleep) up!

The NHL is asking coaches to cut out the televised histrionics and "world-class" profanity aimed at refs. Here's what coaches say about it.

theathletic.com

Paywall, but if you have a reader mode you can bypass. Essentially they were shown a montage of coaches blowing up at refs and told not to do it anymore.

 

[AKL]

Pretty sure that’s the reason Dean isn’t exploding at the refs every 2 seconds lol

Imagine the problem is coaches yelling at refs for making bad calls and your solution is to tell coaches to stop yelling instead of telling the refs to make better calls.

 

[Sweetnut]

Imagine the problem is coaches yelling at refs for making bad calls and your solution is to tell coaches to stop yelling instead of telling the refs to make better calls.

Maybe some refs get sick of all yelling even when they make the right calls and just decides to punish teams in the wrong way. I think it makes for better hockey if we can cut the refs some slack sometimes. Less yelling, better coaching should benefit the fans too. Just my view of it

 

[AKL]

Maybe some refs get sick of all yelling even when they make the right calls and just decides to punish teams in the wrong way. I think it makes for better hockey if we can cut the refs some slack sometimes. Less yelling, better coaching should benefit the fans too. Just my view of it

For sure you have a point too, but I just watched Ek get called for two minor penalties and a misconduct for getting assaulted by Canadiens and no one yelled at the refs about it. So the [lack of] yelling definitely didn't affect their performance yesterday, at least.

 

[TaLoN]

The Golden Knights beat the Avalanche, who were most certainly a good team.

Their goaltending was downright atrocious, and it was prior to their recent run... they were a very erratic team that year.

I think it's a little bit rich that we can't give any team credit for reaching the Cup finals. I mean, look in the freaking mirror.

People give them credit for the run, they got hot and played well for a time... what people are doing is just keeping it in context... a not very good team that was lucky to be in the playoffs at all, that just got hot at the right time.

Props to them for doing so, but it was the easiest thing ever to predict their inability to sustain that success... just like us after 2003. We were not a good team, and should not have even come close to being expected to maintain that success... but DR was going to DR.

 

[Sweetnut]

For sure you have a point too, but I just watched Ek get called for two minor penalties and a misconduct for getting assaulted by Canadiens and no one yelled at the refs about it. So the [lack of] yelling definitely didn't affect their performance yesterday, at least.

Yesterday was horrible in that regard. Sometimes I think there is a grain of truth in the old saying "Montreal reffing"

 

[BagHead]

The Canadiens only played teams from Canada all regular season and in the playoffs up til the semifinals. No Canadian team had been to the finals in 10 years and had only come within one game once in that time. Their division only had 7 teams instead of 8 like the other divisions, and going into the playoffs was considered a joke. Montreal had the fewest points of any team that got in.

Yeah, I get that people think their path was easier because of that, and that they wouldn't have been in the playoffs under normal circumstances is a very legitimate point of contention, but they did still win in the semifinals, so that sort of detracts a bit from the argument. I think the covid argument is a little faulty, but what really gets me isn't even the Montreal side of the covid argument, it's the Tampa Bay side. They went through Carolina, who people at that time were saying was one of the best teams in the league, in 5 games. Credit where it's due, the Lightning was the last team standing. If they didn't play well enough at the right time, they would not have been.

I think it's more valid to put asterisks in front of all the Cup winners before 1975 than it is to put one in front of Tampa's 2021 win, and I wouldn't do that either.