NHL Playoffs | Page 6 | Syracusefan.com

NHL Playoffs

Once you get close to 75% vaccinated things should open.
Here in the USA it’s amazing how many vaccinates we have that should be sent to the rest of the world.
If you aren’t fully vaccinated here in the Us it’s because you don’t want the vaccine.

Canada should be first in the line for Pfizer and Moderna to send their vaccines.


We are now close to good shape procurement wise with Pfizer and Moderna, especially Pfizer.
It does appear that by the end of September everybody that wanted to get fully vaccinated will have it. We will take any help to reach that line sooner, but at least that end line seems there. In Q1 2021 things were moving so slowly, that comments by the feds that we would be there by end of September seemed like a total lie. I think we were helped by the fact that Pfizer and Moderna doesn't have much US procurement any more.

The US sent us some AstroZeneca vaccines early on that have been a total crapshow. The governments (federal and provincial) seem to change their mind every week on their use -- and some provinces had different rules on their use. But is only a small % of the doses we use. But there is certainly some AstroZeneca hesitancy in this country.

The US, and Canada in a few months, will have a responsibility to help other countries get this under control.
 
We are now close to good shape procurement wise with Pfizer and Moderna, especially Pfizer.
It does appear that by the end of September everybody that wanted to get fully vaccinated will have it. We will take any help to reach that line sooner, but at least that end line seems there. In Q1 2021 things were moving so slowly, that comments by the feds that we would be there by end of September seemed like a total lie. I think we were helped by the fact that Pfizer and Moderna doesn't have much US procurement any more.

The US sent us some AstroZeneca vaccines early on that have been a total crapshow. The governments (federal and provincial) seem to change their mind every week on their use -- and some provinces had different rules on their use. But is only a small % of the doses we use. But there is certainly some AstroZeneca hesitancy in this country.

The US, and Canada in a few months, will have a responsibility to help other countries get this under control.
I would never get AstroZeneca unless I had no choice.
The Pfizer and Modera are the gold standard IMO.
Really no different at all except the moderna requires an extra week between shots.
Both of them are solid. They are 93% and 92% effective against the virus and have a 100% survival rate if you get the virus.

Johnson &Johnson is 73% effective and the same 100% survival rate. The only benefit to J&J it’s one shot instead of two. It’s surprising how many people that makes a difference too.

AstroZeneca is 67% effective it’s not that good if you can afford to wait for the better option.

The US now should be offering vaccines to the rest of North/Central/South America now.
We have plenty.
Here if you want the vaccine you have had plenty of time to get it.
It’s our responsibility to offer our regional neighbors the assistance now.
 
The next round is going to be interesting to see with Canada vs Vegas/Colorado. The Knights had a full house tonight. Imaging going from that environment to 500 fans in Winnipeg? I’m sure the NHL would love Montreal to advance in this series as they allow more fans in than the Jets. At least optics wise, I’m sure the league wants to see as many fans as possible in the stands for the semifinals.

The other thing on this is that the Canadian Government has still not provided a travel quarantine exemption (the exemption was expected by now) for teams being able to play in Canada in the semi's.
So as of now there is no guarantee that any semi-finals will happen in Canada.
 
The other thing on this is that the Canadian Government has still not provided a travel quarantine exemption (the exemption was expected by now) for teams being able to play in Canada in the semi's.
So as of now there is no guarantee that any semi-finals will happen in Canada.
I bet the Canadian government will get the NHL to schedule game 3 and game 4 of the next round as a back to back so they will allow the team into the country and just have them stay in their hotel play 2 games and leave.
Most of these American teams have their players vaccinated.
MLB, NHL and NBA teams have incentives to get their players vaccinated so they don’t have to wear masks, can play cards etc.
 
I bet the Canadian government will get the NHL to schedule game 3 and game 4 of the next round as a back to back so they will allow the team into the country and just have them stay in their hotel play 2 games and leave.
Most of these American teams have their players vaccinated.
MLB, NHL and NBA teams have incentives to get their players vaccinated so they don’t have to wear masks, can play cards etc.
I'm not so sure. Logistically there are no issues to doing this. It should be allowed.

But Politics are at play here over border control and who gets exemptions.
 
A Montreal-Boston Stanley Cup Final could theoretically still happen.

I doubt I'd watch that. Maybe if it's raining and there's nothing on Netflix.
 
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I bet the Canadian government will get the NHL to schedule game 3 and game 4 of the next round as a back to back so they will allow the team into the country and just have them stay in their hotel play 2 games and leave.
Most of these American teams have their players vaccinated.
MLB, NHL and NBA teams have incentives to get their players vaccinated so they don’t have to wear masks, can play cards etc.

Thinking about this further the logistics though are not just on the US team coming in for 2 days.
Just as much of a logistical issue is the Canadiens / Jets going to the states for game 1 and game 2 and coming back with no quarantine.

We have a quarantine period for when people travel outside of the country -- and if you come back to your home it must be observed by all your family mates (includes Kids, wives and / or Girlfriends).

So the Canadiens / Jets players would probably also need to sign off on all of their players staying at a hotel for the rest of the playoffs before the government would even approve it. Some old school coaches would probably like it that way!
 
I completely agree with you and understand how things are going there. My mother was born and raised in Toronto. Half my family is still there(a few in Calgary as well). They were all able to get the first dose a while ago but are still waiting on the second dose. They need to do what they have to do to keep people safe. If that means slowly letting people back in arenas, then I’m all for it. Watching the Vegas game last night and seeing what looked like 100% capacity seemed risky to me but hope it works out for them.

So, I might not be the only one here who wears SU gear? Cool! :)
 
the canadian players could also go sometime of rapid testing to help with the quarentine period
 
Pains me to say this, but in between the staged celebrations of the NYJ players in the stands and scrub plugs like Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck, I’m rooting for the Bruins in this series
 
Oh Leafs fans you are so silly.

A masterpiece article from a Leafs fan that I came across today.
It was written 11 months ago before the NHL season.
It was terrible at the time, and looks worse now.
Part of me thinks it is so bad that it has to be a troll but that does not appear to be the case.



So much terrible but let's focus on a handful of highlights.
  • Starts off with "The Toronto Maple Leafs are on the rise, their GM and coach are at the leading edge of the industry, and their rebuild couldn’t have been more successful, short of winning an accidental early Stanley Cup. " How about winning one playoff round before the 2020/2021 season. Is this not a reasonable expectation for a team ready to embark on a 5 year dynasty?
  • "If this were another franchise, you can guarantee people would be asking if this team was building a dynasty. It would be one of the main topics of conversation in the NHL – much like how everyone talks about Colorado despite the Leafs superior roster and system." Leafs superior roster to the Avs and whatever there system is.
  • "No other roster in the league has anything close to: Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Rasmus Sandin and Nick Robertson to build around. If this were any other franchise with these seven players, people would get sick of the word “Dynasty.” First that is six players. Second Sandin and Robertson are fine but lets not pretend they are anything close to legends. And to pretend they are "much" better or even better than Colorado's under 26 group of McKinnon, Rantanen, Makar, and other good young players like Byram, Newhook, Burakovsky. Oh Leafs fan.
  • "Add in an all-star goalie, Hall of Famer John Tavares, and a group of secondary players only a salary cap running genius could have assembled (Kerfoot, Hyman, Johnsson, Kapanen, Dermott, Barrie, Muzzin, Mikheyev) and it’s clear the Toronto Maple Leafs are approaching having the best roster of the salary cap era.
  • "Add in an all-star goalie, Hall of Famer John Tavares, and a group of secondary players only a salary cap running genius could have assembled (Kerfoot, Hyman, Johnsson, Kapanen, Dermott, Barrie, Muzzin, Mikheyev) and it’s clear the Toronto Maple Leafs are approaching having the best roster of the salary cap era." The best roster ever since 2005. I can't make this stuff up.
  • "The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t just set up to compete for a Cup for the next five years, they are set up for absolute domination." And that is how this masterpiece concludes.
 
Oh Leafs fans you are so silly.

A masterpiece article from a Leafs fan that I came across today.
It was written 11 months ago before the NHL season.
It was terrible at the time, and looks worse now.
Part of me thinks it is so bad that it has to be a troll but that does not appear to be the case.



So much terrible but let's focus on a handful of highlights.
  • Starts off with "The Toronto Maple Leafs are on the rise, their GM and coach are at the leading edge of the industry, and their rebuild couldn’t have been more successful, short of winning an accidental early Stanley Cup. " How about winning one playoff round before the 2020/2021 season. Is this not a reasonable expectation for a team ready to embark on a 5 year dynasty?
  • "If this were another franchise, you can guarantee people would be asking if this team was building a dynasty. It would be one of the main topics of conversation in the NHL – much like how everyone talks about Colorado despite the Leafs superior roster and system." Leafs superior roster to the Avs and whatever there system is.
  • "No other roster in the league has anything close to: Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Rasmus Sandin and Nick Robertson to build around. If this were any other franchise with these seven players, people would get sick of the word “Dynasty.” First that is six players. Second Sandin and Robertson are fine but lets not pretend they are anything close to legends. And to pretend they are "much" better or even better than Colorado's under 26 group of McKinnon, Rantanen, Makar, and other good young players like Byram, Newhook, Burakovsky. Oh Leafs fan.
  • "Add in an all-star goalie, Hall of Famer John Tavares, and a group of secondary players only a salary cap running genius could have assembled (Kerfoot, Hyman, Johnsson, Kapanen, Dermott, Barrie, Muzzin, Mikheyev) and it’s clear the Toronto Maple Leafs are approaching having the best roster of the salary cap era.
  • "Add in an all-star goalie, Hall of Famer John Tavares, and a group of secondary players only a salary cap running genius could have assembled (Kerfoot, Hyman, Johnsson, Kapanen, Dermott, Barrie, Muzzin, Mikheyev) and it’s clear the Toronto Maple Leafs are approaching having the best roster of the salary cap era." The best roster ever since 2005. I can't make this stuff up.
  • "The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t just set up to compete for a Cup for the next five years, they are set up for absolute domination." And that is how this masterpiece concludes.

Just took a look at his recent articles since the end of the Leafs series. He still think all is great.
Mitch Marner had a great playoffs according to this guys based on analytics.

 
Scheifele gets 4 games. There hasn't been a 4 game suspension in the NHL for charging in 5 years. Never underestimate the NHL's desire to advance the interests of the Montreal Canadiens. It's almost like Sammy Pollock* still runs everything. I hate Montreal so much when they play the Russians I have to flip a coin for someone to cheer for. Those bastards f-ed up the NHL for decades with their "regional draft protection" which assigned the top two juniors from Quebec every year to the Canadiens so they could "protect their habitant tradition." F every last one of them. They're a pox on the NHL.

* "If it's good for the Montreal Canadiens, it's good for the NHL."
LOL.
 
His whole point on regional draft protection "lasting decades" is off base to put it kindly. The NHL draft started in 1963. And in the first few years (up to 1968) hardly anybody of value was available in the draft because players were claimed via sponsorship much earlier than their draft year.

The Canadiens like the Leafs had the ability to get players within a radius of their city prior to the NHL draft era. This was an unfair advantage too both teams in the Orginal 6 / pre draft era as the American markets did not have much hockey played in both of them.

Fact is during the NHL draft era the Canadiens had the special regional advantage to select 2 players for 1968 and 1969!!! Two years -- not decades -- two years!. In 1968 they got Michel Plasse and Roger Belisle. In 1969 they got Marc Tardif and Rejean Houle. How someone can claim that was the basis for the Sam Pollock late 70's dynasty era blows my mind.

Those late 70s teams were built on the draft and shrewd trades -- with no regional protection.
It’s factually incorrect. I’m not sure he is a hockey fan rather just one of the anti Quebec people.
 
Scheifele gets 4 games. There hasn't been a 4 game suspension in the NHL for charging in 5 years. Never underestimate the NHL's desire to advance the interests of the Montreal Canadiens. It's almost like Sammy Pollock* still runs everything. I hate Montreal so much when they play the Russians I have to flip a coin for someone to cheer for. Those bastards f-ed up the NHL for decades with their "regional draft protection" which assigned the top two juniors from Quebec every year to the Canadiens so they could "protect their habitant tradition." F every last one of them. They're a pox on the NHL.

* "If it's good for the Montreal Canadiens, it's good for the NHL."



Cowtown makes a blatantly false historical claim, and makes a correction.
And it is still wrong. Time to correct him again with another history lesson

Cowtown's new corrected claim is that Montreal had the exclusive protection ability to get the top 2 kids from Quebec for decades. And that is somehow a major reason for their success. These so called "French Canadian Rule" occured in two situations. Between 1937-1942 and 1963-1969. It didn't really add any players in either era as existing sponsorship rules made the pool of players available to Montreal essentially non exist.

Let's start with 1937-1942. This is an article from Liam Mcguire who is a hockey historian.

"In 1936 the Montreal Canadiens nearly folded. The Depression had already claimed several franchises including the Ottawa Senators. What the NHL's brain trust decided to do was they would attempt to help Montreal's attendance and thereby hopefully their bottom line financially. So they decided that the Montreal Canadiens could take any two players from the province of Quebec in a special draft. There was one rider however. None of these players could have already been previously signed which in those days meant to an A, B or C form. The letters meant different levels of commitment to a team but either way, those players already signed to those forms were not eligible."

"Unfortunately for Montreal none of the players who I definitively could find that were signed due to this rule ever played a minute in the NHL. Reason being, anybody who could tie their skates and chew gum at the same time were already long signed by other NHL teams including the Canadiens who certainly weren't going to survive solely with this rule. The hope was that there would be a spark from signing a French Canadian kid, even better if he could play a bit. The thought was that this could help attendance and thereby help Montreal. It never did. What really helped Montreal at that time were two shrewd moves. One, a trade with the Montreal Maroons which brought them Toe Blake and two, the signing of Elmer Lach to a C form, who was from Saskatchewan by the way"

So its pretty clear that in the first version of the "French Canadian Rule" it was granted with the other teams realizing it was not much of a benefit nor did it add much benefit to the Canadiens. Yes the Canadiens were getting a lot of Quebec born players to sign with their sponsored teams, because shockingly a Quebec born kid given the free choice wanted to sign with Montreal. Its almost like asking why doesn't that kid go to Rutgers instead of Kentucky or Duke?

Now let's move forward.
Prior to 1963, all six teams in the NHL had sponsorship teams and could get whomever they want. The two teams that obviously benefitted the most from this were Montreal and Toronto as there were not many American players. Montreal also sponsored the most kids. That was their choice. This just wasn't a Montreal rule nor was it anywhere close to the entire province of Quebec, nor did it give rights to Montreal to the two top players in the province of Quebec. The majority of Quebec players however were available to sign up and be sponsored by anybody in the league in the Original 6 era. But who would have thought that a Quebec kid would like to play for Montreal or an Ontario kid would like to sign up with Toronto if given a choice. The sponsorship era greatly benefitted Montreal and Toronto because guess what, kids from Ontario and Quebec wanted to play for the Leafs and Habs. It appears that I may have even erred in claiming there was a small radius around each NHL city -- thought that was the case but I cannot find anything clear on that especially based on the article below.

So let's get to 1963. "The amateur draft was instituted by NHL President Clarence Campbell as a means of phasing out the sponsorship of amateur teams by the league's member clubs. The NHL wanted to create what Campbell called "a uniform opportunity for each team to acquire a star player". Prior to the creation of the draft NHL teams would sponsor amateur teams and players, pre-empting other NHL clubs from acquiring new, young talent, and limiting amateur players' prospects in the NHL to the team which sponsored them"
"This first draft consisted of four rounds, however few top prospects were available to the draft in the early years as most of hockey's top junior players had already been assigned to NHL clubs through sponsored junior teams."

The draft era was obviously going to hurt Montreal and Toronto the most as they benefitted the most from the sponsorship era. And it was the correct thing for the NHL to do. Like it was the correct thing for MLB to do around that time (Due to Yankees dominance).

Members of the league had to agree to the change in the draft. Both Montreal and Toronto had to agree to the draft. While I suspect Toronto was likely compensated in other manners to agree to the draft, Montreal appears to have got a version of the "French Canadian Rule" implemented from 1963-1969 as a means to agree to the change.

From the above noted article
"Having built an unequaled and powerful empire of feeder teams across North America, the Montreal Canadiens stood to lose the most by the institution of the new draft system. In recognition and as compensation, the NHL granted the Canadiens the choice of either drafting in turn with other teams or selecting the two French Canadian players of their choice before any other team drafted."
"This may seem like an outrageously biased allowance, given the importance of the NHL’s Entry draft of today. How could they grant so much leverage to one team? But this was 1963, don’t forget — all of the valuable junior talent was already signed and wrapped up through sponsorship. There simply wasn’t much highly desirable talent left to be drafted. Nobody raised an eyebrow. In fact, the Canadiens didn’t even make use of their French Canadian privilege in the inaugural draft"

In fact the Canadiens didn't use the rule in 1964 either. Or 1965, or 1966, or 1967. Finally in 1968 the Canadiens used the exception to draft two players.
Michel Plasse and Roger Belisle.

Above is a link to the esteemed career of Roger Belisle. He played 11 games in the IHL. That was his pro career.

Michel Plasse had a servicable NHL career playing 300 games.

In 1969 they used the exemption on two players that were decent NHLer's. But neither really added to the dynasty era of the 1970's. Rejean Houle was a decent player.

If you want me to admit that it was fair that Houle and Tardif came to the Canadiens in 1969. No it was not fair. But these were not difference makers - Tardif left early on and Houle was a role player for the Habs.

You can claim that these two things were unfair. I can live with that. But in the case of the 1963 draft it was likely negotiated compensation. But to claim the "French Canadian Rules" propped up their success for decades is totally ludicrous. All it propped us was Rejean Houle who unfortunately stuck around and became an awful GM.

Fact is the team that dominated the sponsorship era, was the first team to become a dynasty in the draft era (unless you consider Philly to be a dynasty). That first dynasty in the draft era had nothing to do with any protections.
 
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Win or lose (or depending on the result) do the Habs dare bringing in Jake Allen, a competent backup in game 4, given that it will be another back to back.

11 games in 19 days is quite demanding.
 
Win or lose (or depending on the result) do the Habs dare bringing in Jake Allen, a competent backup in game 4, given that it will be another back to back.

11 games in 19 days is quite demanding.
It’s been thrown around on the Reddit Habs blog but I just think it’s way too much a gamble. It is 3-0 but hey the Habs came back from 3-1 so I think you play Price and try and end this in 4.
 
What a time to be a Tampa sports fan.

Lightning won the Cup last year. Are in a position to do it again.
Bucs won the Super Bowl last year. Will be a strong contender to win it again.
Rays went to the World Series last year. Currently have the best record in the AL.
 
Its not like Price is really getting a ton of work right now.. the D has played well and limited the shots. He asked to play the back 2 back last time so I suspect he will again. if they win then they get time off as the other ones will be playing much longer. he also had a ton of rest before the playoffs so he wasnt worn down before it started.
 
Its not like Price is really getting a ton of work right now.. the D has played well and limited the shots. He asked to play the back 2 back last time so I suspect he will again. if they win then they get time off as the other ones will be playing much longer. he also had a ton of rest before the playoffs so he wasnt worn down before it started.

The forwards are also playing really well.

It’s like they have 3 really good third lines going, no fourth liners, and they are all playing their role to a T.
 
Its not like Price is really getting a ton of work right now.. the D has played well and limited the shots. He asked to play the back 2 back last time so I suspect he will again. if they win then they get time off as the other ones will be playing much longer. he also had a ton of rest before the playoffs so he wasnt worn down before it started.
With 11 games in 19 days, with big minutes for some D, they are about to hit a wall.

It would be really nice for them to finish this tonight and get some rest.
 
what did the Petry injury end up being.

getting a hand/finger injury because it went into a hole in the glass would suck



Yeah they dont have any real #1 guys like the other teams but a whole bunch of decent 2-3 line guys. Tatar is not that bad and he is now sitting.

The D is the issue, when they dont just give away goals they been tough all year.. but they had a stretch where every game they gave away 2-3 goals on mistakes. cutting that down has been huge.

if they can get a break here and some rest that would be good for them.
 
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Vegas-Colorado winnervs.Tampa seems like the Stanley Cup Finals.

I hate how the Lightning cheated the salary cap and nobody cares. If Bill Belichick did what Tampa did it would cause riots.
 
Vegas-Colorado winnervs.Tampa seems like the Stanley Cup Finals.

I hate how the Lightning cheated the salary cap and nobody cares. If Bill Belichick did what Tampa did it would cause riots.
Facts.
 
I bet the Canadian government will get the NHL to schedule game 3 and game 4 of the next round as a back to back so they will allow the team into the country and just have them stay in their hotel play 2 games and leave.
Most of these American teams have their players vaccinated.
MLB, NHL and NBA teams have incentives to get their players vaccinated so they don’t have to wear masks, can play cards etc.
i dont know that most teams have been vaccinated. I hear its the tier 1 staff and some of the players.
 

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