Around The NHL 2018-2019 Edition: Part I

[Christien]

Laine is a legend

 

[TheMule93]

Super 16: Lightning start season at No. 1

Looking at general power rankings... wow I feel like the league is sooo stacked right now. All of those top 10 teams are elite IMO.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Did you guys know that Brad Marchand is a piece of shit?

Here is a friendly reminder to start the season.

 

[Winger98]

I'm waiting for someone to either target Marchand or one of Boston's other stars in retaliation for his crap. that team has it coming in spades.

 

[Bench]

I'm waiting for someone to either target Marchand or one of Boston's other stars in retaliation for his crap. that team has it coming in spades.

You're not wrong, but on a similar tangent not sure Washington is the team to cast the first stone here. Their boy Wilson is serving his 4th suspension in 105 games.

Happy they finally hit him with a suitable suspension. Maybe this one will take.

 

[Frk It]

Did you guys know that Brad Marchand is a piece of ****?

Here is a friendly reminder to start the season.

I’m the President of this club.

 

[Winger98]

You're not wrong, but on a similar tangent not sure Washington is the team to cast the first stone here. Their boy Wilson is serving his 4th suspension in 105 games.

Happy they finally hit him with a suitable suspension. Maybe this one will take.

If they wanted to throw stones at each other, I'd pay for bigger stones.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

You're not wrong, but on a similar tangent not sure Washington is the team to cast the first stone here. Their boy Wilson is serving his 4th suspension in 105 games.

Happy they finally hit him with a suitable suspension. Maybe this one will take.

I think it is excessive. I get going after Wilson, but I am sorry it was a 10-12 gamer. I hate when the league just decides to switch operating procedures out of the blue. Tell you this the next crappy hit thrown by Kadri or Marchand better accompany at least 15 games because those two also have it coming. If they don't, I will agree with Caps fans that Wilson is being made an example of and the NHL is going a little too heavy handed but more importantly has no idea how to hand out discipline in an equitable way.

 

[Bench]

I think it is excessive. I get going after Wilson, but I am sorry it was a 10-12 gamer. I hate when the league just decides to switch operating procedures out of the blue. Tell you this the next crappy hit thrown by Kadri or Marchand better accompany at least 15 games because those two also have it coming. If they don't, I will agree with Caps fans that Wilson is being made an example of and the NHL is going a little too heavy handed but more importantly has no idea how to hand out discipline in a equitable way.

How is it excessive if it's his 4th suspension in a little over 1 season of games? If anything, I think they are still being soft.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

How is it excessive if it's his 4th suspension in a little over 1 season of games? If anything, I think they are still being soft.

Because that expectation wasn't set with the union or the player. It should have been mentioned on his last suspension that they were going to escalate the next one in a manner that wasn't consistent with the previous ramping up of penalties. I expected 10-12 games, which is a heavy suspension. But they just moved the bar. Again that is fine if they ring the next set of repeat offenders that routinely make stupid borderline hits. But something tells me when Kadri doe-pops someone blindside or leaves his knee in or does whatever crap he does next people won't be thrilled when he gets shelved for 15 games.

The wheel of justice needs to stop. I get they want to this case by case, but it is confusing to watch. Everyone knows Wilson plays a reckless game and I really do hope he can adjust to this and make corrections as a player. But he isn't alone which is the narrative I am hearing that he is special. Gudas last year did something similar and still got the 10 gamer esk suspension. He just wound up with the same penalty as guys using their skates as weapons, attacking guys in brutal fashion, doping cheaters and domestic abusers. The only like comparison is Torres or maybe Cooke but Wilson hasn't arrived there the same way in my opinion even if he is vilified in a similar fashion, though the league has now put him one step from the half season suspension.

It is what it is. I think people are fine with it because it is Tom Wilson. I worry about where this goes, especially since we seem to be building a fast hockey team with a little more physical bite than previous iterations. Well that might be subject to a momentary change by DoPS at any moment. I worry about the long-range implications of this as I do whenever it feels like the league decided okay here is the example. It is fine if they stick to it, but they don't have a history of it.

If the league is serious about limiting head contact they need to implement the IIHF checking to the head and penalties. Until they do so I will have trouble with decisions like this, I am comfortable with people disagreeing with that. Crackpot made up on the spot punishments isn't something a billion dollar industry should be embracing in my opinion.

 

[Bench]

I expected 10-12 games, which is a heavy suspension.

That's where we disagree. I don't think 10 games is heavy. It's 12% of the season. That's the same length suspension NFL players get for smoking weed in the off-season. 4 times in 105 games. That's just excessive by any metric. He's endangering the health of his coworkers out there.

Wilson is literally the last guy I use as an example of the NHL going too hard on this. He's been coasting through the soft punishments and finally gets one deserving of his behavior. I'm not dying on any hill that involves being softer to guys that scramble brains and ruin quality of life like in the case of Franzen.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

That's where we disagree. I don't think 10 games is heavy. It's 12% of the season. That's the same length suspension NFL players get for smoking weed in the off-season. 4 times in 105 games. That's just excessive by any metric. He's endangering the health of his coworkers out there.

Wilson is literally the last guy I use as an example of the NHL going too hard on this. He's been coasting through the soft punishments and finally gets one deserving of his behavior. I'm not dying on any hill that involves being softer to guys that scramble brains and ruin quality of life like in the case of Franzen.

Franzen was hurt routinely on legal hockey plays, the only thing that fixes a few of those is if the IIHF rules are adopted. Which is really what I dislike about this ruling, it is in keeping with what the league has done for a bunch of years. Pick a villain and go as heavy as you can. Don't actually address the problems, don't actually make it clear to the player this is what is coming until you hit him with it. That isn't prevention Bench either in my opinion.

I just don't see where this was bigger than Gudas.... He had run into a bunch of trouble, they still escalated his the way they had been doing. So also if they are going to do this fine again I want to watch them do it to Kadri or Marchand in late March as well.

Wilson just got the same punishment as a guy doing steriods... Seven less than a guy for beating his spouse/girlfriend. It is more in line with that in terms of recent company with guys doing really frowned upon stuff off ice.

I get that people will liken him to Cooke or Torres. He wasn't there yet for me, heck one of the hits people are bringing up the league itself deemed legal and was then unhappy he threw the same hit again. That is really confusing... I just am a little sick of how the NHL handles business on certain things and this is one of them. DoPS needs to be fixed badly and if the NHL really wants to be safer the IIHF stuff needs to start entering stop picking and choosing if you really mean it.

 

[ricky0034]

I think it is excessive. I get going after Wilson, but I am sorry it was a 10-12 gamer. I hate when the league just decides to switch operating procedures out of the blue. Tell you this the next crappy hit thrown by Kadri or Marchand better accompany at least 15 games because those two also have it coming. If they don't, I will agree with Caps fans that Wilson is being made an example of and the NHL is going a little too heavy handed but more importantly has no idea how to hand out discipline in a equitable way.

I would agree but I feel like the fact that it was in the preseason should mean it has a harsher penalty

no place for that stuff in the f***ing preseason

 

[chances14]

I don't think the suspension was excessive and was pleasantly surprised it was 20 games. Dude has been suspended 4 times in quick succession. Obviously he has not gotten it yet so i say keep laying the hammer down until he does finally get it or is pushed out of the league

 

[Winger98]

I'm not shedding any tears over Tom Wilson. Hopefully it's a new benchmark for repeat offenders, though to get into Wilson's territory of repeating 4 times within a year...well, at least someone would have to be pretty dedicated to their craft to pull it off. I'm also not worried about implications for our team. You can be fast and physical without constantly coming up to guys from the blindside and trying to plant your arm/shoulder/whatever across their skull.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

You can both say the league has always had an issue with consistent punishments and does a poor job at curtailing dangerous plays/players while also believing Wilson deserved the suspension he got.

 

[Bench]

You can both say the league has always had an issue with consistent punishments and does a poor job at curtailing dangerous plays/players while also believing Wilson deserved the suspension he got.

Pick a side you coward.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

You can both say the league has always had an issue with consistent punishments and does a poor job at curtailing dangerous plays/players while also believing Wilson deserved the suspension he got.

If they are not going to do it for everybody else than he didn't deserve it in my opinion. I also think Wilson is getting a lot of flack for hits the league itself looked at and deemed legal. Since I use this argument all the time for contracts that the league approved and then did dirty by changing mid-stream I have a problem with the league doing this. How hard would it have been to look at Wilson when handing him three games and saying if that hit happens again you're getting 20? Why wait on that message for those saying prevention should be at the heart of this.

 

[ricky0034]

If they are not going to do it for everybody else than he didn't deserve it in my opinion. I also think Wilson is getting a lot of flack for hits the league itself looked at and deemed legal. Since I use this argument all the time for contracts that the league approved and then did dirty by changing mid-stream I have a problem with the league doing this. How hard would it have been to look at Wilson when handing him three games and saying if that hit happens again you're getting 20? Why wait on that message for those saying prevention should be at the heart of this.

how many other players have been suspended 4 times in the past slightly over a year?(or even something close to that?)

here's a suspension list for last season:

2017–18 NHL suspensions and fines - Wikipedia

the only other player who's name appears on it more than once is Matthew Tkachuk who is on there twice and both of his were single game unsportsmanlike conduct suspensions so kinda a different thing entirely,Wilson is on there 3 times

and here he is AGAIN already this season,it's kinda hard to preach consistency when you're literally one of a kind

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

how many other players have been suspended 4 times in the past slightly over a year?(or even something close to that?)

here's a suspension list for last season:

2017–18 NHL suspensions and fines - Wikipedia

the only other player who's name appears on it more than once is Matthew Tkachuk who is on there twice and both of his were single game unsportsmanlike conduct suspensions so kinda a different thing entirely,Wilson is on there 3 times

and here he is AGAIN already this season,it's kinda hard to preach consistency when you're literally one of a kind

Gudas went through a period like this and he is on your list the big escalation was to 10 games which is really the standard operating procedure.

They have changed that, fine they better keep it up. Kadri and Marchand are going to cause a lot of tears when they do their annual head hunting moment because I want the book thrown at them for it this time.

Also the history thing is interesting anyway. So it counts against you but your fines eventually go down, I have never understood that. Again a part of what I am arguing for isn't Tom Wilson. The guy plays reckless hockey, but he isn't alone and the league is masking other issues within the game by singling out these kind of plays and punishing arbitrarily based on how they feel about players.

The NHL either needs to say hey if you hit the body and get the head it is good and we live with how dangerous that is or move to the IIHF head checking rules. We have seen the blindside rule long enough to know it isn't really preventative, we have this debate once a week in terms of looking at a play and being upset. Why not fix the actual rules?

But I do think they were duty bound to deliver to Wilson at the time of the last suspension that his next one would be a quarter of his season... Since he is so unique and they were certain they would need to punish him surely they knew this last time right? Or did they make it up on the spot because that is basically what I am arguing against... It is a mickey mouse looking league decision that seems completely made up and while Tom Wilson had a big suspension coming 10-12 games isn't nothing to begin with and if that wasn't where he was going next they should have told him.

I also get pretty sensitive on this because I think kowtowing to public perceptions cost us a playoff series a few years back, because the public wanted Kronwall run for his hits which the league routinely deemed legal and all of a sudden it wasn't. All right after a game where Palat went Jimmy Superfly Snooka on a guy in the corner. I mean again they just make it up. Because people don't like Tom Wilson well that is good. No bad league decisions are bad, especially when they can't explain them before or after and have no chance of doing it again consistently. DoPS has been brutal for a while I think it is time for an overhaul.

 

[TheMule93]

Miro Heiskanen will be a perennial all star

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Not sure if we know yet, but is Elias Pettersson wearing #40 because of Z?

 

[Ezekial]

Not sure if we know yet, but is Elias Pettersson wearing #40 because of Z?

I've seen rumblings of it, but EP is not quoted in English literature or video saying it that I can find.

But they're from the same city and both played for Timra so it's a safe bet. His actual number is 14 I believe, but he can't wear it.

 

[Frk It]

Holy hell can this kid skate...

 

[waltdetroit]

If you'd like to see Dahlin & Eichel, NHL.com is showing tonight's BUF vs Rangers game for FREE at 7pm