OT: The OT Social Bubble Thread

[F A N]

The COVID situation is getting really bad - starting to think we might see the NHL go out of business within a year or two. It's such a gate driven league that I don't see how it'll be financially viable with empty stadiums for the forseeable future. Where is the money going to come from without fans in the stands? At the end of the day it's a business and the billionaires who own teams didn't sign up for this level of guaranteed medium to long term financial sinkhole.

Nah. The NHL can easily survive 2 years. Longer term if watching hockey games live is not possible there will simply be a new reality. The "NHL" will survive in some capacity. There will be enough TV viewers to generate profits. Revenues and profits will be down and players will be paid less.

 

[Zombotron]

I want maximum chaos for the Turkish Grand Prix. First pole position for a Canadian since Jacques Villeneuve in 1997

 

[Hansen]

Nah. The NHL can easily survive 2 years. Longer term if watching hockey games live is not possible there will simply be a new reality. The "NHL" will survive in some capacity. There will be enough TV viewers to generate profits. Revenues and profits will be down and players will be paid less.

Yeah it can definitely survive.

For local sports or junior I would be investing in getting streaming services set up for PPV - charge a little more than door price. It still is shit though because you dont capture the beer and hotdog and other high margin goods

 

[Zombotron]

no churros no live

 

[Chairman Maouth]

Good times. And f*** the Rangers announcers.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Good times. And f*** the Rangers announcers.

man if only murzyn had just decked messier at the end there instead of standing there doing nothing while hunter was losing his mind

classy of adam graves to third man in while diduck was on top of kypreos

and omg jiri slegr sighting

but let's be real, as big and scary as momesso was, he is lucky he didn't actually have to fight joey kocur

here's their only real fight —

 

[Hit the post]

Temporary lapse

Temporary.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

man if only murzyn had just decked messier at the end there instead of standing there doing nothing while hunter was losing his mind

classy of adam graves to third man in while diduck was on top of kypreos

and omg jiri slegr sighting

but let's be real, as big and scary as momesso was, he is lucky he didn't actually have to fight joey kocur

here's their only real fight —

Is that longtime Red Wings Colour commentator Mickey Redmond as the primary announcer?

 

[Hit the post]

man if only murzyn had just decked messier at the end there instead of standing there doing nothing while hunter was losing his mind

classy of adam graves to third man in while diduck was on top of kypreos

and omg jiri slegr sighting

but let's be real, as big and scary as momesso was, he is lucky he didn't actually have to fight joey kocur

here's their only real fight —

Well Kocur was a legit feared fighting heavyweight in the NHL. Up there among the best in that 'ability' at the time. Momesso wasn't the 'nuclear option' on the Canucks. Team had a bunch of tough guys (even if you exclude Gino Odjick).

 

[bandwagonesque]

Well Kocur was a legit feared fighting heavyweight in the NHL. Up there among the best in that 'ability' at the time. Momesso wasn't the 'nuclear option' on the Canucks. Team had a bunch of tough guys (even if you exclude Gino Odjick).

The team had three guys who were more or less complete goons in Odjick, Hunter and Antoski. It's so strange to look back on the era and realize there were 1-3 guys on most teams who could barely play hockey.

 

[I am toxic]

The team had three guys who were more or less complete goons in Odjick, Hunter and Antoski. It's so strange to look back on the era and realize there were 1-3 guys on most teams who could barely play hockey.

A lot of those players could play hockey (well, not Antoski) but it wasn't their role. Probert and McSorley come to mind as well, especially McSorley's '93 playoffs.

 

[bandwagonesque]

A lot of those players could play hockey (well, not Antoski) but it wasn't their role. Probert and McSorley come to mind as well, especially McSorley's '93 playoffs.

Some certainly could, but I'm not really including them, or maybe I'm letting them shelter under the deliberately broad "1-3 players" umbrella. In the Canucks' case, probably none of Odjick, Hunter or Antoski would have been in the league if they didn't fight regularly, although Antoski would have had plenty of chances to try due to his speed and effort level. Odjick had pretty good hands and timing but I think his skating would have sunk him. Tim Hunter didn't really have any NHL level skills.

I always thought McSorley could have been a top-pairing defender for years had his personality been suited to it. He could also have gone to jail for most of his adult life if he'd never heard of hockey.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Well Kocur was a legit feared fighting heavyweight in the NHL. Up there among the best in that 'ability' at the time. Momesso wasn't the 'nuclear option' on the Canucks. Team had a bunch of tough guys (even if you exclude Gino Odjick).

The team had three guys who were more or less complete goons in Odjick, Hunter and Antoski. It's so strange to look back on the era and realize there were 1-3 guys on most teams who could barely play hockey.

A lot of those players could play hockey (well, not Antoski) but it wasn't their role. Probert and McSorley come to mind as well, especially McSorley's '93 playoffs.

Some certainly could, but I'm not really including them, or maybe I'm letting them shelter under the deliberately broad "1-3 players" umbrella. In the Canucks' case, probably none of Odjick, Hunter or Antoski would have been in the league if they didn't fight regularly, although Antoski would have had plenty of chances to try due to his speed and effort level. Odjick had pretty good hands and timing but I think his skating would have sunk him. Tim Hunter didn't really have any NHL level skills.

my original point is only that kocur was imo the greatest heavyweight ever and no one should ever try to fight him.

but yeah it is totally bizarre that once upon a time three stanley cup finalists in four years dressed fourth lines with two fighters on it. we had hunter/mcintyre/antoski, minnesota had churla/bureau/mcrae in '91 and the blackhawks had stu grimson and mike peluso with a grab bag of randos at center in '92. then grimson and peluso would meet in the '95 finals on opposite fourth lines.

wingers who could legitimately play include peluso, who's most famous for being on new jersey's memorable fourth line with randy mckay and holik, joe kocur, who was on the '94 rangers and both detroit teams that won in the 90s, chris nilan on the habs was a real player. but that kind of player became more and more rare through the 90s, and in the last twenty years it's a small list: brashear, chris neil, domi, probably a few others that i'm forgetting but not many.

and then you have guys who were legitimate good players who just happened to also have heavyweight fighting ability, or who came in as fighters but worked their way into becoming legit good players: mcsorley, wendel clark, bob probert, dave manson, al secord, rick tocchet. a guy like momesso fought a lot of tough guys and could hang with heavyweights now and then, but he would never survive fighting guys at that level every game like these other guys sometimes had to.

of our guys, tim hunter was the most legit player imo. he knew how to play safe hockey and forecheck effectively. not a coincidence that he was a regular player on three teams that made the finals. also not a coincidence that he became a coach later, he was a smart player who knew how to play his role.

 

[Hansen]

Gino is a family friend and apparently Bure always told him to just go to the net and keep his stick on the ice and that he'd find him

 

[Hit the post]

Gino is a family friend and apparently Bure always told him to just go to the net and keep his stick on the ice and that he'd find him

Yeah I think Quinn got on Burke’s case about quit trying to feed Odjick the puck. So much for the “selfish Russian”. Though Odjick *NEVER* forgot his friend and would STILL try and go after anybody who cheapshot Bure even after Odjick was playing for another team. No surprise those two are kind of like brothers today.

 

[Hansen]

Yeah I think Quinn got on Burke’s case about quit trying to feed Odjick the puck. So much for the “selfish Russian”. Though Odjick *NEVER* forgot his friend and would STILL try and go after anybody who cheapshot Bure even after Odjick was playing for another team. No surprise those two are kind of like brothers today.

Id bet he still wants a piece of Mike Keenan

 

[Nazzlind]

anyone here experienced with optimization modelling using Excel or Matlab? I have a math modelling term project due at the end of the semester lol. I was thinking of doing my project modelling an expansion draft; maximizing a certain stat like points or whatever, with constraints such as can only pick one player from each team, has to be under cap etc.

just need some help with how to approach the problem in terms of coding and stuff lol

 

[Peen]

anyone watching the canucks sharks game five 2011 on snet?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

anyone watching the canucks sharks game five 2011 on snet?

I watched all the playoff rewind games they did back in March. That 2011 team was a juggernaut until they ran into injuries.

 

[MS]

I watched all the playoff rewind games they did back in March. That 2011 team was a juggernaut until they ran into injuries.

And referees.

The one thing ever with this franchise that I can't fathom hasn't made it into public consciousness or the media is that we had a circa-40 game stretch in the back half of that season and into the playoffs where we had more PPs than the opposition on exactly 1 occasion (a blowout vs. LA where they started gooning it up in the 3rd period). This from a team that was the best possession team in the NHL built on discipline and capitalizing on PPs. Overnight, the PPs just ... ended. For months.

I still can't watch any of the 2011 games knowing now what a total rigged sham that whole thing would end up being.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

man if only murzyn had just decked messier at the end there instead of standing there doing nothing while hunter was losing his mind

classy of adam graves to third man in while diduck was on top of kypreos

and omg jiri slegr sighting

but let's be real, as big and scary as momesso was, he is lucky he didn't actually have to fight joey kocur

here's their only real fight —

All Momesso did was hang on.

 

[RandV]

anyone here experienced with optimization modelling using Excel or Matlab? I have a math modelling term project due at the end of the semester lol. I was thinking of doing my project modelling an expansion draft; maximizing a certain stat like points or whatever, with constraints such as can only pick one player from each team, has to be under cap etc.

just need some help with how to approach the problem in terms of coding and stuff lol

I don't know if it helps here specifically, but a little trick to help 'coding' in excel is to start recording a macro, do a bunch of stuff, stop the recording. You can then open the macro in VB and see how the code works step by step to do stuff in excel, and work from there.

 

[4Twenty]

And referees.

The one thing ever with this franchise that I can't fathom hasn't made it into public consciousness or the media is that we had a circa-40 game stretch in the back half of that season and into the playoffs where we had more PPs than the opposition on exactly 1 occasion (a blowout vs. LA where they started gooning it up in the 3rd period). This from a team that was the best possession team in the NHL built on discipline and capitalizing on PPs. Overnight, the PPs just ... ended. For months.

I still can't watch any of the 2011 games knowing now what a total rigged sham that whole thing would end up being.

I've only been able to watch game 2 and 7 vs Chicago and all I could notice was how far off the current team and even the other contending teams are.

That team was big. That team was really fast too. Henrik and Daniel were quick back then and they were probably the two slowest forwards on the team. We were so spoiled back then.

Ryan Kesler at his peak was as explosive as Nathan Mackinnon is now (there used to be a link to where accleration was tracked and Kesler was very high, I can't find it anymore). I don't think people quite remember how special of a player he was at that time. He absolutely dominated Toews that series and didn't even score a goal (and I forgot how unreal Crawford was in that game 7, it shouldn't even have been a close game).

Seeing the PK units that team could roll out, not just to avoid getting scored on but to put pressure on the PP was incredibly. Burrows/Kesler/Hansen/Raymond were all over the ice. As an aside, Raymond looks a lot better than my memory of Raymond had him.

The injuries killed them. I recall the same thing about the PP's, and I think we've already kind of seen that happen to this years team in the playoffs. The PP was the only thing keeping them in some of the playoff games that it looked like the refs started lettting more go, because the teams PP was keeping the series competitve and refs don't like the idea that they're affecting outcomes, but that's exactly what evening up the PP or putting the whistles away is doing.

 

[iloovRMB]

I don't think we'll ever see another player like Kesler. You're right that the Sedins and Luongo took away the spotlight from him.

A guy who can score 40 goals, one of the fastest in the league, elite defensively, could throw bone crushing hits that were clean, would happily block shots with his face, and his grit and work ethic and competitiveness level was the highest I've ever seen in a player before and since.

Nope, I doubt you'll see that combination of tools ever again in a Canuck uniform and probably not in the NHL either.

If it were up to me his number would be retired.

 

[rypper]

I don't think we'll ever see another player like Kesler. You're right that the Sedins and Luongo took away the spotlight from him.

A guy who can score 40 goals, one of the fastest in the league, elite defensively, could throw bone crushing hits that were clean, would happily block shots with his face, and his grit and work ethic and competitiveness level was the highest I've ever seen in a player before and since.

Nope, I doubt you'll see that combination of tools ever again in a Canuck uniform and probably not in the NHL either.

If it were up to me his number would be retired.

I wouldn't even put him in the ROH to be honest.