Smith was part of a three man rotating third pair this year with Cole and Bear. As much as Smith has a propensity to get burned every handful of games, he at least provides much needed physicality and character. Bear on the other just gets burned every handful of games but doesn’t actually provide anything else. The definition of replacement level output.
When Connor McDavid was young, his dad lied about his age (by like 4 years) and moved him to playing hockey one town over so they could try and find him the right level of competition. Now that’s he’s grown up and everyone knows his age, he can’t seem to find the right level of competition because he’s making the best in the world look silly. Guess that proves his dad right. What a talent.
You would assume that Rangers will at least try and put their foot down on the gas at home. Not really sure why they’re playing so conservative, Gallant keeping his stars on a leash does nothing but nullify the team’s greatest strength outside of Shesty.
The system Carolinas top six is employing is making the difference. Rangers can't win a faceoff and then canes just cycle endlessly so chances come from the periphery. However rangers bottom six has done relatively well. With last change it should go better but brindamour is an amazing coach.
The faceoff point is a good one, I can’t remember the last time i’ve seen it be this lopsided. Thankfully Rod has re-united Teuvo with Aho, there was no way Aho would be able to match up with Zib/Panarin with both Jarvis and Svech on his wings after the way they got rolled over by Boston’s top line away from home.
Carolina could also sign Kale Clague or some dude who has been scratched for 40 games in AHL and turn him into a decent defenseman. It's like how Pittsburgh gets random 20 goal/40 goal seasons from Mark Donks & Bryan Rusts every year.
Might be heresy to even mention but I wonder if there has ever been serious discussions on making a part of the ice worth two goals, at least team score-wise. Bored with friends in a group chat today and we were tossing around ideas like in football a TD would be worth more than 6 of scored from certain yardage away - like a 50-89 yard pass/run TD would be worth 13 points or something. A goal from 30 feet away or something would be worth two goals, etc.
haha no respect needed. Like I said, we were just bored and shooting the shit with ideas. Some went in with the mentality of “dead of summer ESPN analyst filling time” for ideas.
There was an inline hockey league on ESPN that had a "two point line" around the faceoff circles. There was also a ramp where the endboards were supposed to be. It was very much a late 90's thing.
Send this to Jeff marek or downgoesbrown they love off the wall ideas. Marek wants to dye the ice blue and thinks penalties should end if a short handed goal gets scored.