conundrumed

For the many line combos we've seen, all I ever asked from the outset was Huberdeau-Lindholm-Dube. So now I'm just bitter. So let's do this.

Hope you like 0.5 to 1.5% odds. I hate the lottery. Just build in rules. If you're last, you get 1st pick. Next year, the highest you draft is 6th, then 5th, then 4th, then 3rd, then you have a shot at 1st again. If you get 2nd pick, the highest you get is 5th next year, then 4th, then 2nd. There HAS to be a better algorithm. What are we doing now? 10 teams fighting for a lottery pick? I hate the lottery setup, and not just because Detroit gets cold-dicked with no grease every year. It's poorly designed, pretty much a knee-jerk reaction against teams doing it on purpose. Again with Detroit...dead last, by a lot. Not because they wanna be, but because they are that bad. So they got punished for being horrendous. It's pretty ridiculous to say that they did it on purpose.

The college battles between Minny and Michigan are epic. #4 ranked Michigan vs #1 Minnesota in the Big Ten final next week. Minnesota State vs N. Michigan in the CCHA final. Sad WMU lost out in the NCHC though. McAllister's team.

"Flowchella" bwahaha, that's priceless. I spent a few months working around the state in around 2000. Mullet's per capita are on the high side. Love the people though, had a great time. I think they secretly wanna be Cdn. How many asked me to pronounce things like South Park was funny. They were kinda disappointed. Then you bring up the movie Fargo, which is pretty accurate, and they get outright offended.lol That's N. Minny, Bemidji, Grand Rapids etc. Toured all over though. Great experience, never a dull moment.

Saw this image and thought I'd share. The State of Hockey. This is from Minnesota's High School Hockey Tournament. Insanity. Saw one person's comment that if their team makes it, their town is a ghost town. Now I wanna go, lol. This is epic support.

Add in we don't know who's managing our draft. This is definitely no man's land. Then of course we'll finish strong, miss the playoffs and use the strong finish as an excuse to do the same thing next year.

Not sure is this is the right place, but Sergeev's and UConn's season is over after a 2-1 loss to UMass Lowell. Watched the game. Sergeev started and 2-1st period goal's killed them. Not much chance on the first one, second was a squeaker. Shots ended up 41-15 UConn and they totally deserved a better fate. Matthew Wood for UConn I wish I could watch more. Skating needs work but everything else is pretty high end for a 6'3"RW. Excellent shot and good hands. Good vid:

Walked in from the point and sniped a wrister from top of the circle and I believe he had an assist. Nothing really stood out to me in his game. He's a puck-moving Dman so he's a good passer and joins the rush but avg skater/defender. Kitchener was on their 3rd game in 2.5 days so there's that. I think this draft will be a challenge after about the top 10 picks. Then it's looking like total toss-ups for the next 30 odd. I'm not sure this is the draft to focus on Dmen. I'd rank Brzustewicz likely around 10th for dmen, and likely a 2nd rder. I don't think this draft really has a lot of depth personally. Just high end guys up front. If Michkov is the big faller, just take him. You'll be spending 3 years of dev on anyone else regardless. If not, I'm currently in the Matthew Wood camp around where we'll be picking. Only Pellikka or Reinbacher as dmen. I think our farm is pretty much weak all over so position doesn't matter much.

Same. It will be telling if he walks away. Because if I were him, another contract would have a lot of, "stay the Blockchain out of my way" clauses. They can't, so all of that hockey knowledge will walk. It's sad. He knows the NHL upside downside, but that isn't enough for this franchise apparently. Burke passed it off and left pdq. It's a sinking franchise that refuses to get out of the way of itself. The worst part is fans are married to players like Backlund, Lindholm and Tanev like there aren't other players in the NHL. Just to add to the annoyance.

So this is what "unfinished business" looks like. Hmm. It looks a lot like Sutter is railroading BT. If one goes, get rid of both. I wouldn't pay to watch this gong show. Hopefully STH feel the same. Everything's a joke. You can't build an arena without massive public dollars. You can't let a GM operate without interference. A coach comes in that seems like he's running even more interference so the GM tries to satisfy his wants too. What a Satoshi Nakamotoshow. Wtf even is this? I can watch Yzerman be very poignant and honest about his team. Then in Calgary the whole thing just looks like a giant mess of nobody being forthcoming. A world of subterfuge. Zero, "we're all in this together". Just a world of misery and treachery. So much to unload. Or the alternative of, "Blockchain this, I've stopped caring". Which isn't far off. What a mess from top to bottom.

Does anyone follow the Brooks Bandits? I'm wondering about Aiden Celebrini for a 4th rder. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/635383/aiden-celebrini Now look at his younger brother Macklin. Looks like yet another hockey-centric Vancouver fam. Shattuck is one of the top development schools around if you look at his background.

No playoffs and a strong finish would be the worst outcome. Then they'll try to sell us that, "you can see by how strong we finished, this is a good team". Like we don't have eyes. Without spectacular goaltending every single game, we are Anaheim. But without lots of young talent. I swear if I hear more stats painting us just as bad luck I'm going to rip my eyes out. "That Andersson chance was an xGF and high danger". So what? Who cares? He tried to pass the puck instead. It's over. That stat means <zero. And the heat maps mean zero. They show how the opposing goalie might need to replace the crest on his jersey. But we have set an NHL record for most losses after outshooting the opponent by 10+. Now that stat tells me something. Shooting attempt and ability is <mediocre.

Now just lose out and trade away the low skill in the offseason....but no. This thing will stay on life support.

This is a bad team.

Holy low skill team and endless low %age shot attempts. Can't blame fans for booing.

And Lucic is out again already jfc.

I've never seen an NHLer standing still like Lucic does constantly. Nice pass Andersson...

Coleman didn't see 88?...

Any chance we come out flying and full of emotion for the last 20 minutes?

Fresh in from another Sting win. Should I bother letting this kill my mood?

The joys of no man's land...no playoffs, not a top 10 draft position.

I mentioned BT to buddies and all I got back was, "why tf would the Flames let him walk".lol

I should add as opposed to Beniers at the U of M. There's a sizeable difference between the 2. Looking forward to a playoff-laden wkend in lots of leagues overseas and the NCAA. I wish Sergachev could be UConn's starter, but it's playoffs, so likely not. But they do have Matt Wood whom I'd like to see. I like this site to stay NCAA stealthy. https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/icehockey-men/d1/2023 The USHL's site is really good too, and the Flo site has good write-ups in the affiliate link. https://ushl.com/sports/2023/1/27/GEN_0127234708.aspx NCAA streams are top shelf, USHL is about 60-40 hit and miss for me.

Those guys have a dozen scouts that are their guys and it's their full-time jobs. If you've ever been around a pack of scouts, you leave unimpressed with a large majority of them. It's pretty annoying watching them hobnob together. There is zero wonder why there is always consensus a handfuls of players that slip away. They're all so busy being a member of the consortium of common opinion it's a wonder anyone would find that diamond in the rough. Take the Sting for example. My friends are beside themselves that Marco Sikic is my fave player. The Sting are loaded with point machines that he isn't one of. But he is the mistake-free big RWer that plays a very calm, smart game. You know what you get every shift. Banging, no retaliation, shots hit the net, smart passes, no turnovers. I love that in players. Sure Del Bel Belluz got the hatty, he never passes, and missed the net by 3' 6 times that got odd man rushes going the other way. I also like to look at prospects fortunes in life to assess. That brings me to an uneasy feeling about Fantilli. He's had massive talents around him always. His USHL days were with a completely stacked Chicago Steel team. His U of M days are with completely stacked teams. He's definitely not doing it alone as opposed to Bedard. I always struggle with where to give credit when teams are stacked. I get U of M games on the regular so I do watch him. He's getting tons of spotlight so I feel for him that way. I feel like the hype is way too heavy so he's over-extending himself to match it. He's a solid top 5 for sure, but the stacked teams need to be taken into account. I wouldn't expect him to be an NHLer next year, so I worry about the expectation.