I guess I didn't miss much by not seeing the All Star events. Hockey heads around here said it was lame. I watched a few video highlights and I wasn't excited about it. Oh well I caught some nice cold water walleyes for the freezer.

Back to real hockey now. The schedule gets pretty intense for the Wild making up missed Covid games. I have been hoping the Coyotes would get moved to Milwaukee. I can't figure out why Wisconsin does not have a NHL team. Lots of hardcore hockey people there. They would draw from Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville at least.

I stopped going to games several years ago. Just costs too much money. And at my age I spend most my time waiting in line to use the bathroom after a few beers.

I’ve started to watch a replay of the skills competition a couple of times, but just didn’t have a burning desire to sit for a couple of hours wasting time. They might be wonderment for the kids, but I now find them tedious and boring. Guess I’m getting grumpier as I age……

Anyone catch the TNT post game show last night? Anson Carter went all racist on Mike Russo the Wilds biggest analyst and reporter. The two had a little Twitter battle going and Carter decided to dump on him while on the air last night. At the end you can hear Carter say "It sounds all white to me" He also tells Russo "Stay on code it's the wrong month for this" whatever stay on code means.

Here's a link with a video clip of Carters remarks. This is what a racist looks and sounds like.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Anyone catch the TNT post game show last night? Anson Carter went all racist on Mike Russo the Wilds biggest analyst and reporter. The two had a little Twitter battle going and Carter decided to dump on him while on the air last night. At the end you can hear Carter say "It sounds all white to me" He also tells Russo "Stay on code it's the wrong month for this" whatever stay on code means.

Here's a link with a video clip of Carters remarks. This is what a racist looks and sounds like.

What a maroon. Reminds me of the Thomas Sowell "racism isn't dead" quote. You can't even "chirp" someone who is black without it being turned into something racist anymore.

Did you hear about the minor league player who was suspended and released by his team for a "racist" gesture towards a black player? Turns out it was a form of bodybuilder "flexing", something he's done before to non black players, something Tom Wilson has done in the NHL without incident. But the woke mob took him down before any of the facts came out, and no matter how things play out if he does return to pro hockey he will be forever branded as a racist and any team that employs him will be in the crosshairs.

I was really worried after the summer of Floyd that the NHL would go woke like the rest of the sports world. They certainly stepped in that direction, but I'm happy that so far they haven't gone much further. There is definitely some surface level woke, especially on the broadcast and publicity side though. Hopefully that's as far as it goes.

Yeah I heard about that kid that got hung out to dry for the body flex move. They claimed he was making monkey moves to mock the black kid. Ridiculous. I'm waiting to watch the NHL highlight and commentary shows later to see if Carters racist remarks last night even gets mentioned. My guess is it will be crickets. I didn't intend or want this thread to derail into talk about how woke or not woke the NHL is but this is hard to ignore.

Back to hockey. The Wild got totally out muscled and out hustled by the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night. I hope this isn't the same movie I've seen before where the Wild will dominate for the first half of the season and then get dominated the second half.

Looks like the Yotes have a short term solution to their venue problem. They are playing the next two possible more seasons and the new Arizona State University complex set to be finished by the start of the next season in Tempe, Arizona. Don't know how many seats this barn holds, but it can't be as many as a normal NHL facility.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
Looks like the Yotes have a short term solution to their venue problem. They are playing the next two possible more seasons and the new Arizona State University complex set to be finished by the start of the next season in Tempe, Arizona. Don't know how many seats this barn holds, but it can't be as many as a normal NHL facility.

The arena holds 5000 people. Less than a third of any other NHL venue and I doubt they will be able to fill that most of the time. This is a franchise begging to be moved. I'd like to see them moved to Milwaukee. Never understood why Wisconsin never had a NHL franchise. Lots of hard core hockey nuts there plus they have several other teams nearby they would draw from. But the NHL does not make money moving franchises they make money on creating new ones.

I see your Avalanche shut out the Stars today. Rumors of Fluery and Giroux being picked up by you guys before the trade dead line. I think this is the year for the Avalanche to push all the chips in.

So many rumor swirling. Most of these deals involve a blue chip defensive prospect Justin Barron. I'd rather not lose that kid.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goose5,

Every team has their holes they need to fill. For the Wild they need a 1 or 2 center. Hard to come by and the cost is always steep at the trade deadline. The Wild are prospect rich right now and our GM Bill Guerin has said he's not going to forfeit the future. Plus we have a crazy cap hell coming up with the buy out contracts of Parise and Suter the next couple years.

The Wild are playing well and they have a couple guys who had been over achieving the first half of the year and are seemingly cooling off. Ryan Hartman and Nico Sturm to name a couple. I'm just not seeing the Wild in the same class as Tampa, Florida, the Avalanche and probably Vegas. If Eichel comes off surgery back to anywhere near his old self Vegas is going to be hard to handle for anyone.

About Vegas we'll have to wait and see. Good players going to new teams sometimes it doesn't work the way you think. The Avs had that when they got Selänne and Kariya. Also who are they going to move out to make room. I'm thinking its going to be at least two players. That could create problems. You just never know. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think the Avs have it yet. The top line is one of the best in the league, but your three best forwards on the same line makes it easy for good teams to match up. If the Avs can solve this problem they'll win more than one. Remember Sakic and Forsberg both had multiple 100 point seasons, and they did most of that on separate lines. Our top guys need to learn how to produce on their own.

And, just like that Eichel first game will be against the Avs. Vegas moves Stone to the LTIR so his contract no longer counts against the cap. The Tampa Bay loophole. So Vegas sacrificed their best player for a better player, but still one player. They are better but by how much?

With regard to Phoenix’ situation, I don’t think Milwaukee is an option. Even though it’s 90 miles away, the Blackhawks consider everything closer than La Crosse to be “their fan territory.” Plus, the team still wields a large anount of influence on the NHL Board of Governors.

So where could the Coyotes move? Kansas City is out as an option (Scouts failed), so are San Francisco/Oakland. My personal bet is that the team plays in the small arena for a year or two, folds, and the players end up in a dispersal draft to the remaining 30 teams.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
And, just like that Eichel first game will be against the Avs. Vegas moves Stone to the LTIR so his contract no longer counts against the cap. The Tampa Bay loophole. So Vegas sacrificed their best player for a better player, but still one player. They are better but by how much?

I hope that Eichel does well. I've seen him play when the Sabres came to town and he's a great player.

Now about that neck...

I simply don't have full faith that his neck post-fusion is as good as an uninjured neck. For an everyday lay person the fusion might be an option but full contact sport I've got a bit of a pucker going on. Manning had one for the NFL but he had burly people to give some protection but skaters don't have that luxury.

I hope he doesn't hurt his neck but if something bad happens, there's plenty of insurance coverage and salary to give him 24/7 care.

If I remember the Eichel story he didnt have the fusion surgery. Be had a disk replacement procedure that is not sanctioned by the NHL. On expansion and moving the Yotes I think Oklahoma City would be a good choice. They already have an NBA franchise there, or move them to Quebec City and revive the Nordics.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
If I remember the Eichel story he didnt have the fusion surgery. Be had a disk replacement procedure that is not sanctioned by the NHL. On expansion and moving the Yotes I think Oklahoma City would be a good choice. They already have an NBA franchise there, or move them to Quebec City and revive the Nordics.

You are absolutely right about it being a dis replacement and not a fusion. I knew that but like a kid hopped up on too much Valentine's Day candy, I typed fusion.

As I understand disc replacement, it's done on the civilian side but at risk of placing additional stress above and below the replacement disc to the point that degenerative disc disease is accelerated beyond what you'd find through the natural aging process and that leads to eventual surgery.

I hope he's a pioneer of sorts for a successful procedure that perhaps can be used for other players and in other sports.

My wife had the exact same surgery in the exact same place Eichel had. But last I checked she's not a center in the NHL. She had a cadaver replacement disc. She went from not being able to move from the couch to fully functional in a rather short period of time. It's amazing what they can do but a lot of perfectly fit healthy bodies cannot withstand NHL punishment.

Vegas took a big roll of the dice on Eichel. But Vegas be Vegas.

We get him on the second game of a back to back. Commonly referred to as scheduled loss. I imagine any hit that is a millimeter over routine is going to draw a huge response. Better have Dermie in the line up that night. I was not aware a couple of posts ago the Mark Stone can play post season. This is exactly what the Bolts pulled last year. If the cap was in effect for the post season that team was 18 million over, and Vegas will do the same maybe not quite as bad. This is a greasy move really. Completely within the rules, but those rules need to change. The cap was put in place for a reason, and now two years in a row a team has taken advantage of the league and other teams. The NHL needs to extend the cap for the post season under current roster contracts, or get rid of the cap entirely.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goose5,

Revive this thread heading into playoffs soon and today is trade dead line day. So the Wild have tapered off quite a bit and goal tending went south on them. So enter Marc Andrey Fluery. Not sure what to make of it. It's wait and see. Is Fluery better than what he showed in Chicago or was Chicago just that god awful? I didn't see enough Chicago games to get a feel for it.

Wild also trying to beef up the D getting Middelton from the Sharks for our back up goalie Kahkonen. Getting Tyson Jost from Colorado is the more interesting trade they've made so far. I think Jost has a lot of upside to him.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
So many rumor swirling. Most of these deals involve a blue chip defensive prospect Justin Barron. I'd rather not lose that kid.

And, we just lost that kid. Well, we traded our top defensive prospects so I guess the Avs are win now all in mode. The cupboards are pretty damn empty now. Here I was giving Vegas a ration for what they are doing, but it looks like Landeskog's surgery the Avs might just pull the same trick.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
So many rumor swirling. Most of these deals involve a blue chip defensive prospect Justin Barron. I'd rather not lose that kid.

And, we just lost that kid. Well, we traded our top defensive prospects so I guess the Avs are win now all in mode. The cupboards are pretty damn empty now.

Your Av's aren't holding anything back but they need to be all in this year I think. They might be overpaying for some of their moves. They gave up a lot for Manson.