Happy New Year as Dec 31st/Jan 1st with the Winter Classic ends this week. It's a Leap Year and the NHL trade deadline is Feb 29th, making our FUNHL trade deadline on Monday, March 7th.
WD2 should scheduled ether Week 16 or 17, either last weekend of January or the first weekend of February. Anyway,on to our weekly business -
Thanks to Corey and Brian for keeping things on tracks with the MASTER and online stats.
Please post your Week 13 Line-ups here and i shall humbly post the rest from email.
Some major trades occurred during the Week and we shall see if they helped or not...
Please submit your Week 11 rosters by email or post them here. Ultimately I will make sure all line-ups are pasted to this blog post as per usual.
Corey, more work for you with trades and online adjustments. Brian, I think you put out a new master but a Challenge Cup update would be nice if possible.
Corey -many thanks Again.
Please post your Week 11 rosters here.
Thank you!
PS 4 more days 'til Star Wars Ep VII - i hope it's better than Eps I, II or III...
Time to enter your week 10 line-ups either by emailing them to the league or by posting them here or even putting them on the website, though you still need to email them/post your line-up here on the blog.
Many thanks to Corey and Brian and Doug for their work with respect to stats and with respect to keeping track of player movements in the league.
Please post your line-ups here.
Thanks!
P.S. Happy Hanukkah as today is the first day of Hanukkah!
As we start week 9 the Edge has vaulted into first place! Congratulations.
Thank you all who were on Skype during WD1 and participated to attempt to make it as smooth as possible.
Double thanks to Brian for the master list and to Corey for his website management. I'll be pasting the line-ups from the email to the blog here unless you post it yourself.
Please post your line-ups here. Thank you.
Good Luck to all as we enter the second quarter of this season!
USING THEHOCKYPOOL.COM website, THEFUNHL has been keeping our stats.
For WD1, the Wolves will be drafting first per round and the Personal Vendetta last as per these stats.
1. PV 232.57
2. BL 231.39
3. EDGE 231.03
4. SHAD 222.56
5. SCR 221.42
6. SH 220.11
7. BARB 217.96
8. KT 217.33
9. RAM 197.25
10. HL 184.01
11. GW 181.32
12. WLF 159.74
AND YOU HAVE THE WD1 ORDER - 12 TO 1 ETC. PER RND.
THANKS TO COREY, BRIAN, DOUG
GOOD LUCK ALL!
Please post our Week 5 Rosters here for Doug and Corey (online) and Brian (Master)
WD1 Will occur on Sat. Nov 28th towards the end of Week 8 as there were a couple GMs who couldn't do Dec 5th towards the end of Week 9. Dec 12th is too late. Of curse Sunday is also an option
Your line-ups from email will be posted here for Week 5.
As you know we had a spirited discussion proor to the draft tegarding the failed rule proposals - proposals that nevertheless held majority support from members of the league.
Out of that conversation came a suggestion that we combine elements of the proposals to address some of the concerns felt by a majority of the pool;
- That the waiver wire system is too complicated and unwieldy, and that resolving waiver wire conflicts has xreated a huge and unecessary complex body of rules
- That teams are using the wire rather than making trades
- That teams with promotable prospects are unfairly punished for trying them out in ways that real NHL teams are not
The proposal that emerged was;
A. Eliminate the waiver wire and IR rules.
B. Create a true 'Farm team' system , where prospects can be promoted to and from the team without cost in waiver picks of in placing players on the wire. (Players displaced by prospect promotion would now be listed under 'Farm Team' instead of IR or waivers)
C. Maintain current rules regarding number of players protected at WDs, ensuring that excess talent would still be made available at WDs.
The benefits of this proposal are projected to be;
- End the practice of 'drafting to cut', where a team with a promotable prospect drafts a player at that position with no intention of ever playing them but purely so they can be placed on waivers.
- Stop the ongoing madness of waiver wire rules, tracking, multiple bids, etc., and simplify our rulebook substantially.
- Improved utility of prospects.
- More accurate representation of how NHL prospects are used.
There was a great deal of verbal support for this measure, and I'd like to think it borders on unanimity. PLEASE put your comments and suggestions below so we can debate this properly long before we have to consider viting on it.
Eliminating WD2 and moving WD1 to the half way mark of the season.
If unanimous, for the start of the 2015-2016,
If 9/12 GMs agree effective for the start of the 2016-2017 season.
So far have not found any significant position changes.
Coyle MIN now C
Gigarenko COL now LW
Perron Pit now LW
Boedker ARI now LW
Hudler Cal now LW
Ennis Buf now RW
Teravanen Chi now LW
Strome NYI now RW
Burrows VAN now RW
Linholm Car now RW
Schenn Phi now LW
not sure where Glenncross, R Smith and Conacher are now located
It has been pleasantly encouraging that my last post on this topic garnered so much traffic but "calling" Quebec and Vegas as the only two NHL expansion aspirants with both the deep pockets to stomach the $500M expansion fee and the only aspirants with actual, near-completion, arenas wasn't that impressive. The NHL all but gave Las Vegas it's blessing when they sanctioned a season ticket sale to "test" the interest. I remain somewhat skeptical that the long-term interest of local Vegas fans will be there for desert hockey once the initial euphoria wears down but I'm not putting up the money - they may well surprise and the Vegas Knights (apparently this is Mr. Foley's preferred team moniker) will at least be given the chance to lay down their bet when the NHL Governors meet again in September to rubber stamp their intention to cash those expansion fee checks.
There are still some rumblings by certain members of the media that the NHL might balk at going back to Quebec. Gary Bettman did leave himself and the League an out when the process was announced and with the Canadian dollar under 75 cents and headed lower some owners may pause to consider if expansion to Quebec is as prudent a plan as it might have seemed a year ago. Still, by almost every metric one could come up with, Quebec should outshine the far riskier move into Las Vegas and Quebecor is already a significant business partner with the NHL. Everyone talks about the big money that Rogers shelled out for the Canadian National NHL rights. The TVA French-language TV deal is a substantial sum of money in its own right.
Garry Bettman is much maligned by hockey fans, particularly in Canada, who are upset about multiple work-stoppages and a perception that he's been too focused on non-traditional hockey markets but he has also shown himself to be very committed to those who have been good partners for the NHL - like Quebecor. I also suspect that, as with Minnesota and Winnipeg, he has a personal stake in restoring the NHL to those cities who lost teams on his watch. Les Nordiques, and their rabid fans, will be back in the NHL come the 2017-2018 season. But where do they go?
Realignment Issues
If, as many commentators had thought prior to the NHL's July 20th deadline for expansion applications - and $2M non-refundable fees - the two finalists turned out to be Seattle and Las Vegas then the realignment issue would be no issue at all. Seattle and Vegas would move into the Pacific division and a team or two shuffles between the Pacific and Central divisions to balance the numbers. Voila, two equal 16 team conferences. Familiar East-West structure and everyone goes on their way none the worse for wear. Quebec, well, that complicates things.
Realignment is always a challenge, particularly for teams that find themselves drawing the short straw and having to sacrifice natural geographic or historical rivalries (and the $ those factors generate) for the need to satisfy the scheduling needs of their business partners - and competitors. Time zones and travel distances aren't just issues for the players (who, frankly, with first-class hotel rooms and chartered flights, are far less impacted by the divisional and conference set-ups than ever before). Time zone shifts impact local TV numbers, and your ability to build your fan base. Similarly, teams are very mindful that travel costs are not chump change - airline fuel adds up.
Reality, however, is that you need to find a set-up that is minimally inconvenient and bears some semblance of rationality. The history of NHL expansion and divisional alignments is not always driven by such considerations. We all remember that the Jets were recently in the South East Division but what about the Habs and Kings both being in the Norris division from 74-81.
The most recent realignment, from 2014, was used to resolve the oddity of the Winnipeg Jets being in a South East division but it also afforded the NHL the chance to redress a long-standing complaint by both Detroit and Columbus that being in the Western Conference all of there divisional and conference games (save and except those against each other) were out of their time zone, sometimes 3 time-zones away. A 7:00pm start time in LA is a 10:00pm puck-drop in Detroit. How does one add two teams and not create the same problem all over again? Maybe you can't.
Before offering some possible suggestions, here are some of the assumptions I am going to make. The NHL (and NHLPA) will not want to increase or decrease the number of games played by teams. For now we are going to assume an 82 game schedule. Secondly, the policy of ensuring that everybody, regardless of division or conference, will play at least one home and one away game against every team - the Crosby/Ovechkin rule. Where at all possible the goal would be to minimize additional games across multiple time-zones and to maintain existing geographic and historical rivalries.
It might be useful to review how the NHL sets up the schedule based on the current conference and divisional alignment. If you haven't committed the schedule rules to memory, here they are as per the NHL's site. See, clear as mud. Suffice it to say that there is a general principle that you play your opponents within your division more than those within your conference more than those out of your conference. Those schedules are NOT, however, balanced between teams in the same divisions let alone different conferences.
As we go through the options, lets look at a pair of example schedules from the current format to keep in mind as we compare the alternatives. At the center of the Hockey Universe, we have the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs schedule includes 54 games within Conference (all Eastern time zone) and 28 games with the Western Conference - 14 of which are at home so the Leafs only play 14 games out of their time zone: 6 in the Central; 4 in the Western; and 4 in the Pacific. Pretty sweet. The Western conference teams are more difficult to calculate but last year the Vancouver Canucks had a schedule that included 34 games out of the Pacific time zone: 16 games in the Eastern time zone; 9 games in the Central; and 9 more games in Western time zone. There is a reason Vancouver hired a sleep specialist. Still, that's what the league is doing now so keep this standard in mind as we examine alternate options.
Steady As She Goes
One option, that has the virtue of some simplicity, would be to maintain the existing 4 Divisions (Pacific, Central, Atlantic and Metropolitan) and just tweak them a little. Vegas is easy, just add it to the Pacific and now you have an 8 team division. Done. The time-zones line-up and you maintain the existing rivalries within the division with the prospect of generating new ones between Vegas and Arizona. I live in Edmonton and yes, I could easily see grabbing some friends and a flight to Vegas centered around a Connor McDavid-led Oiler road-trip to Sin City.
Ok, now for the hard part. We add Quebec to the 7 team Central division. As with Detroit and Columbus before the last realignment, we are placing an Eastern time-zone team in the Western Conference. Using the existing schedule template (with the Crosby/Ovechkin rule), Quebec would have a total of 26 games outside the Eastern time-zone. They would have 12 road games against Pacific division teams (6-9 against Pacific time-zone teams and 3-6 against Western time-zone teams) and 14 road games against Central division teams (12 in the Central time-zone and 2 in the Western time-zone). Yes, that would be against "historical" rival Colorado Avalanche.
The map would look something like this:
The playoff format looks like it does now. Top three teams from every division seeded 1-3 and two wild-cards per conference. Understand, however, that the possibility exists that with the existence of the wild-card, Quebec could potentially play a West coast team in the first round. Last year Pacific champ Anaheim faced off against Winnipeg in the first round. As the series was a sweep, and because the return of Winnipeg to the playoffs was such a great story, nobody mentioned that Anaheim's "reward" for being the top point-getter in the West was to open the playoffs with the longest road-trip of anyone. Imagine if the series had gone seven, do you doubt that we might have heard something about the travel then? Now replace Winnipeg with Quebec and one begins to see the problems with this option.
Back To The Future
The Red Wings fought tooth and nail over many years to finally escape the Western Conference. To borrow a phrase: "Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in!" Still, better the devil you know. As we are working with a familiar problem perhaps the solution is to simply make an effort to return Detroit to the Central Division. As we have noted, this jumps Detroit's number of road games outside the Eastern conference from 15 (remember we now have Vegas) to 26. A jump of 11. It does restore some traditional divisional rivalries in Chicago, St. Louis and Colorado but, as discussed, creates the potential, with the wild-card, to have Detroit opening the playoffs against a team from the West Coast. Here is how that map would look:
A Jump To The Left
I think there will be considerable sympathy for Detroit (or Columbus) being asked to return to the Western conference based on the long history of trying to get into the East that the NHL might be open to more radical options, which we will discuss in Part Two, but one potential tweak that I have not seen before would be to put Detroit into the Metropolitan division and move Carolina into the Central. At first blush this would seem as ridiculous as Quebec and more so because Carolina is struggling at the gate and wasn't just gifted an expansion franchise with the small-print advising the new owners to take what you are given and be happy about it. The reason I think this shift might work is that Carolina doesn't have a natural rival with the current arrangement even though one is sitting just across the state-line in Tennessee.
Watching an out of market Predators game one night I noticed that the local broadcast rights holders, Fox Sports South, was advertising upcoming games. Normal enough, except that in addition to the upcoming Predator games they were also advertising the upcoming Hurricane games. I live in Edmonton and my Sportsnet package includes both Oilers and Flames games so on the surface this didn't seem strange to me until it hit me, about a second later, that these two teams with overlapping fan bases only play each other twice a year. This should be a tailgate rivalry to threaten the barbeque pork surpluses of both states. All of the out of market issues remain but maybe the prospect of an outdoor game in the deep south between two non-traditional markets is enough to get the ownership group in Carolina to look at the idea. Here's how it would look:
Time To Break The Mold
Whether the NHL choses Quebec, Detroit, Columbus or even Carolina, somebody in the Eastern conference and, perhaps more importantly, the Eastern time-zone will be shifted out of their comfort zone. Western GMs probably aren't too sympathetic to their Eastern colleagues complaints about time-zones given that that is just part of the reality for every Western conference team but it is a real consideration. Couple that with the additional travel burden, especially at playoff time, and the issue becomes even more notable.
This is not an unusual problem for sports leagues in North America. The bulk of the population, and hence sports teams, are in the Eastern time-zone. Even relatively close teams in the West, Calgary and Edmonton or San Jose and Los Angeles, are much further apart than the NY area teams that are all within a commute ride from each other.
In the next Part I am going to reprise an option proposed in my April piece and throw out some variants on it with an aim to rethink how the NHL should look at realignment by borrowing from the most financially successful league in North American pro sports - the NFL. Four team divisions.
With the Flames amazing playoff run at an end (and the Hawks and Bolts now in the final stages of their Cup quest) thoughts turn to the NHL draft.
I am hopeful that a trial I am scheduled to be conducting will be resolved well before June 26th and that I will be able to journey south and raise a glass to Corey and his Ramapithicines as 2015 Predator Cup Champions. Well earned sir.
I understand the plan is to plunk ourselves in front of a big ass TV, consume alcoholic beverages, mock my Oilers and pine for Bob McKenzie's calming voice guiding us through the draft instead of the shrill duo of Damian Cox and Doug McLean - but while we wait for the day, I'd like to do a Mock Draft Pool/Contest.
Prize is pretty straight forward I'll buy the winner (or winners, if a tie) his first pint. If I win, I'll happily accept a collection of small change from the other participants to by my first pint.
Scoring as follows.
1pt for every player correctly predicted to go in the first round.
1pt for every player correctly slotted in their draft position.
5pts for any pick correctly identified as traded (on draft day).
-1pt for any pick incorrectly identified as traded.
The gold standard tool is Bob McKenzie's list here. That said, there are oodles of mock-drafts out there - many with nice little bios to go with them.
NHL Draft Order (as of today) is as follows:
1 EDM
2 BUF
3 ARI
4 TOR
5 CAR
6 NDJ
7 PHI
8 CLB
9 SJS
10 COL
11 FLA
12 DAL
13 LAK
14 BOS
15 CGY
16 EDM*(fr PIT in Perron trade)
17 WPG
18 OTT
19 DET
20 MIN
21 BUF*(fr NYI in Vanek trade)
22 WAS
23 VAN
24 TOR*(fr NSH in Franson trade)
25 WPG*(fr BUF in Kane trade, fr STL in Miller trade)
26 MTL
27 ANA
28 TBL*(fr NYR in St.Louis trade)
--- either ---
29 Cup Finalist [PHI*(fr TBL in Coburn trade)]
30 Cup Champion [ARI*(fr CHI in Vermette trade)]
--- or ---
29 Cup Finalist [ARI*(fr CHI in Vermette trade)]
30 Cup Champion [PHI*(fr TBL in Coburn trade)]
With another exciting FUNHL season now in
the books (congratulations to Corey on the dramatic last day victory!!) and the
NHL playoffs in full swing, I thought it might be a good time to compile a list
of theme songs for our FUNHL franchises. So I delved in to my music collection
and came up with the following tracks that I felt reflect each team. The songs were chosen based on lyrical content rather than musical merit, and most of it is heavy metal. So if that is not your cup of tea, my apologies. I hope all the hyperlinks work. Now without
further ado and in no particular order…
This “band” should really just be called
the Jon Schaffer Project, as he writes all the music, calls all the shots and
everyone else is just a rental player. The count of current and former band
members now stands at 32, including 5 different singers, 7 guitarists, 9
bassists and 10 drummers since forming back in 1985. This is the title track
from their latest album, and features Canadian Stu Block on vocals.
So if you're asking yourself, "Why?"
Your eyes are blind to the raging storm
Will they cleanse the earth of humanity?
Unleash the plagues of Babylon?
This song comes from the self-titled debut
album by this SoCal punk band, long before they became famous with songs like
“Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” or “Why Don’t You Get A Job”. However, it still
displays a lot of their trademark wit and is perfect for Cam’s team.
Mommy
doesn't have her head anymore
Keep it underneath my bed on the floor
That's alright though
That's ok
She never really used her head anyway
Star One is just one of the myriad projects
of Dutch musician/composer Arjen Anthony Lucassen. All of the Star One songs
are based on his favorite science fiction movies and television series. This
song, clocking in at almost 10 minutes, is of course based on Ridley Scott’s classic
film, Bladerunner, and its source material, “Do Androids Dream Of Electric
Sheep” by Philip K. Dick.
Living a life with
nothing left to gain
moments are lost, like tears in the rain
watching my dreams break down and decay
I can't give up, there must be a way
facing death with nothing to lose
no way out, no matter what we try to do
is this real or this is a lie?
will I dream, or will I just die?
Technically, this song is about werewolves
not wolves, but it is one of my all-time favorite Metallica songs so it gets
the nod. It is taken from one of the best-selling albums in history. “The Black
Album” is certified 16x platinum in the US, has sold more than 30 million copies
worldwide and spent more than 282 weeks on the Billboard 200 list, making it
the ninth longest charting album of all time. Canadian connection: the album
was recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver and produced by Bob
Rock (of Payolas fame).
Off through the new day's mist I run
Out from the new day's mist I have come
I hunt
Therefore I am
Harvest the land
Taking of the fallen lamb
Honourable mention here to “Templars Of
Steel” by Hammerfall, which also would have made a fine selection for Mike’s
team, but I love this song by American progressive metal band Symphony X.
Singer, Russell Allen, is one of my favorites and really gets around. You have
already heard him performing with Star One on the Bladerunners track. He can
also be found singing with Ayreon, Avantasia, Adrenaline Mob, Allen/Lande,
Level 10 and more. Interesting fact: on any Arjen Anthony Lucassen project, he
is always credited as Sir Russell Allen. This is not because he has been
knighted by the queen, but rather because before Russell starting earning
enough money to live as a professional singer, he worked as a jouster at
Medieval Times restaurant.
Across the seas through sands of time
Knight of the Templar
A charging steed through lands unkind
A legend forever
A heart of gold pumps within his metal skin
A noble line he carries on
It is quite convenient that both the song
and the band name apply to Bob’s Shadowmen. The FUNHLs most prolific trader is
no stranger to cutting deals and is usually more than willing to sacrifice the
future for the war effort. Mmmm pie… get your fingers out of there. Mine!!
How
long till we realize the truth?
The bottom line of defense and world security
The bankers and the ministry of arms
Just cut the deal and the war is on
The village burned, the desert set ablaze
Who are these men with their fingers in everybody's pie?
Big rockets and their profits all the rage
Their business plan calls for war for sale
The Megalodon was a prehistoric species of
shark that could grow to a size of 60 feet long, weigh 50 tons and have teeth
over 7 inches long. How frighteningly awesome is that? Thankfully these
monsters went extinct about 2.6 million years ago. It is also a good thing that
Mastodon provides the lyrics for their songs, because with their harsh vocal
style you would never be able to tell what they were singing without them.
Sensing
the blood of prey
Swimming in fear for life
Rolling over
Falling into jaws
Teeth that chatter
It distracts them all
The Fiji mermaid
She will let it know
Time is coming to feed and gnaw
When it comes to songs about cave men, the
pickings are slim. In fact, this is all I could find, but it works nicely for
Corey’s Ramapithicines. Every year we all embark on the same quest, seeking
Predator Cup glory rather than fire. This song is based on the 1911 Belgian
novel by J.-H. Rosny and its 1981 film adaption about early mankind’s struggle
for control of fire.
So
they ploughed through forest and swamps of danger
And they fought the cannibal tribes and beasts
In the search to find another fire
To regain the power of life and heat.
For Mike’s horde of unruly Barbarians I
chose this song, primarily because the members of this Finnish band like to
paint their faces and dress up like Viking warriors as part of their stage
show. Also, they are possibly the only heavy metal band with an accordion player
and are known to play most of their solos on electric violin, rather than
guitar.
What a relief it would be to end this all,
How
easy to fly the white flag and give up,
But
would I run today just to die another day,
Give
up now and every fight has been in vain,
Stand Up and Fight
Edge:
“The Edge” by Blind Guardian Lyrics [Sadly the YouTube videos are blocked] MP3
This was probably the toughest choice I had
to make. My first thought was to pick “Livin’ On the Edge” by Aerosmith for
Collin’s team, but everyone knows that song. So I instead opted for this lesser
known track by German power metal band Blind Guardian. For you Lord of the
Rings fans, I suggest you check out their 1998 album “Nightfall in Middle
Earth”, which is based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion”.
This
is the edge now
It's all we're living for
Rain on me
Love you will rain on me
Duh! Do I really need to provide an
explanation for this choice? There can be only one. The only other possible option
would have been to find some bagpipe music, which seems to be a bit lacking in
my collection.
And
here we are, We're the princes of the universe,
Here we belong, Fighting for survival,
We've come to be the rulers of you all
Many options to choose from here. I passed
on good candidates like “Vendetta” by Slipknot, “The Grudge” by Tool, “Revenge”
by Papa Roach, “Vengeance Is Mine” by Alice Cooper and “Justice In Murder” by
Coheed & Cambria in favor of this track from Canadian rocker Danko Jones.
These three lines seem to me the very epitome of vengeance.
I
know I'm gonna live through this
And when the wound on my back heals
I'm coming to get you, I'm coming to get you
Ok, so here is my long promised, poorly delivered FUNBA recap.
- First off, I wanted to note that if we were using the same format for determining a champion as we do in the FUNHL, it would be the Thunderbay Murderball's title as they scored the highest total number of points, whereas Brian won a series of HTH competitions to take it all.
Which isn't to detract from the fantastic season the Sharpshooters had at all, they were full marks in defeating two excellent teams in the playoffs (the Skywalkers and the Goodfellas). What's more, they didn't just beat these two teams in the last two rounds they crushed them in a pair of week+ long matchups that each ended in lopsided Sharpshooter victories.
Congrats to Brian, the third champion crowned in the FUNBA!
Other notes:
- So far, half the league has gone to their team page and indicated their 'keepers' (Brian, me, Darrell, and Bob). If the rest of you could please go in and input your keepers we can avoid some of the issues we struggled with this year.
- As of yet it won't let me set the date for the next draft. I will however be more dilligent in pre-warning everyone that it is coming up. Note, the NBA season roughly correllates to the NHL season. If you are prepping your draft list for hockey, take two minutes to check your FUNBA stuff as well.
- Bob made a staggering 47 changes (waiver drops/adds) to his roster over the season. Some things, never change.
- There were exactly zero trades this season. I have to believe that is going to be as bad as it gets, because mathematically it couldn't be any worse.
- As I expected, the changes I made to scoring for blocks was all but invisible over the course of the season. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary though was super sophmore Anthony Davis who would seemingly threaten to hit double digits in blocks nearly every game.
- Here are my favourite 8 players of the year, and why;
#8 Blake Griffin - PF LAC / Murderball
What you don't see is that Griffin has evolved into much more than just a one-dimmensional dunk machine (that would be DeAndre Jordan, his front-court partner in crime), and added some veteran moves to defense, footwork, passing, and shooting from deep. When Paul was out, Griffin carried the mail.
Fun fact, the Thunderbay Murderball had the highest scoring team in the league, but had exactly zero players in the top 10 in scoring. Griffin was the closest.
#7 Anthony Davis - C NO / Flatlanders
Make no mistake, Davis is much, much, much more than a big dunking machine. He has the superior size, length (his arms are seemingly 5x as long as the comparatively short-limbed Griffin), he's an elite defensive player at his position, a bona-fide rim-protector, and shot-blocking dynamo.
He's a true 'C' in a league with fewer and fewer of them. At some point he's going to start destroying the league offensively as much as he already does with his rebounds and blocks. Future MVP.
#6 LeBron James SF Cle / Skywalkers
IMO, still easily the best basketball player alive. He can not only play all five positions at an All-Star level, what is more, he can GUARD all five positions at an All-Star level. He has point guard skills in a power forwards body. The love child of Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, he has the best combination of size, speed, efficiency, defensce, and...well everything. If not for a two week 'rest' in the beginning of the season, and a ton of chemistry issues with hs new team mates, LeBron would be league MVP. Again. He'll be the playoffs MVP though, so he's got that going for him.
Take note in the highlights of how many of them are thread-the-needle-no-look assists, or chase down blocks. He can do whatever wants.
#5 John Wall - PG Wsh / Goodfellas
The former 1st overall pick has matured into the all-round offensive force he was envisioned to be on draft day. Big (for a PG), strong, fast, and posssessing an arsenal of offensive skills, Wall is the quick strike PG all teams crave to have to run their offense.
#4 Russell Westbrook - PG OKC / Pirates
Westbrook has long been the poster child for a kind of warp-speed point guard who is even better at scoring than at creating assists. Always considered to be the 'second banana' to Kevin Durant, an injury to Durant put Westbrook in the spotlight as he tried to will his team to remain in playoff contention despite missing a league MVP caliber running mate. All he did was EXPLODE and for a month and a half put up numbers that were simply staggering, averaging over 30pts, 10rebs, and 10assists to single-handedly keep his team with the best in the loaded Western conference.
Above are the highlights from his 54pt game, but it is worth noting that Indiana has one of the best rim protectors in the league in the giant 7'2" Roy Hibbert, but Westbrook simply gets to the rim at will against him (and everyone else).
#3 Chris Paul - PG LAC / BallBearings
I love Chris Paul. He's not the best offensive PG (Westbrook), nor the best passing PG (Rondo), but he is without a doubt the most complete PG in the league.
One way that his greatness can be assessed outside of his 'counting' stats, is to look at the work Kirk Goldsberry has done on assessing how players perform defensively
The chart on Paul is mind-blowing (especially when you compare him to James 'the Matador' Harden). Injuries and bad teams have allowed Paul's greatness to go overlooked but the facts are the facts, he was the 2nd highest scoring player in the FUNBA.
#2 Steph Curry - PG/SG GS / Chumfeeders
Here's the thing, if a Golden State game is on TV, watch it. You'll be viewing the greatest shooter in NBA history (by a wide margin) in his prime. He's utterly unique, and watching him is watching sports history get written.
#1 James Harden - SG Hou / Sharpshooters
Fear. The. Beard.
Harden's game is tailor made for the modern NBA. He has two fantastic skills, he can reliably gun from anywhere - but especially for 3, and he gets to the rim at will where he draws a ton of fouls whenever he doesn't outright score. In the 'real world' Harden wouldn't be in my top 5 (see the chart comparing his defense to Chris Paul again), because guys who are that casual on defense (bordering on comatose) don't make for the greatest champions.
But man, can Harden ever score.
*******************
Thanks to everyone for participating again this year, I hope to have everything ironed out for the league's mechanics in the next few days. If you have adjustments you would like me to consider, just drop me a line and let me know.
And somebody buy Brian a drink. Dude sweated out this season like a sunbaked wolly mammoth with malaria. He should get some alcoholic love from the rest of us.
Legend: TTL - Points To Date PLN - Points Last Night
Doug (8 left) is still powered by the powerful ANA TB combination
Rob (9) is CHI MTL and Parise
Dan (10) is ANA, TB, CAL
Brian (7) is WAS, CAL
Bob (10) has NYR (8) Ovechkin and Keith
The NHL has expanded multiple times since the original six swelled to the original twelve in 1967. There are good reasons, from the economic health of some (sun belt) franchises to the quality of the on-ice product, not to expand ever again but there are about a billion reasons, by which I mean two $500 million expansion fees, why I am convinced that the NHL will be expanding again and soon.
Nothing will be official but shortly after the NHL Awards are handed out this June in Vegas the NHL will give a nod and a wink to Bill Foley's group to apply for a franchise even if the formal announcement is still a year away. The only question for the NHL Governors is do they want to go with a single team or with two? Please refer to the $500 million expansion fee, money that does not need to be shared with the NHLPA by the way, should you be curious as to why the answer will be two teams and not one.
Las Vegas and... Quebec City
The unstated hope had been to put two teams into the current Western Conference, Las Vegas and Seattle, so you can proceed to play with two now equal 16 team Conferences (ending the unbalanced 16-14 East/West split). One reason to hold off making any formal announcement this summer is the faint hope that Seattle politicians will approve a hockey-usable arena in the Emerald City but absent an NBA franchise shaking loose in the next few months, which could prompt the public funding of a Seattle arena, hockey fans in Washington State will continue to wait for the NHL.
Kansas City has a nice arena, but no prospective owner (or hockey fans), so it will continue to be a plan B for any team that needs to go look at a shiny new arena in the hopes of one being built at taxpayer expense in their home town. Alternatively, it may be the next stop for the Coyotes when the people losing money in Arizona decide they will lose less money in Kansas.
No, if there are to be two expansion teams the NHL will need to go north of the border for one of them. The Leafs have made it very clear that they will exercise the territorial veto, that the NHL denies they have, ensuring that no NHL hockey is played anywhere near (or within) the ACC for years to come so Gary and his Governors will need to find another hotbed of pent-up hockey demand with an NHL ready arena set to come online. Enter the return of the Nordiques and the new Centre Videotron and the legal tender of Quebecor CEO Pierre Peladeau, spelled Pela-dough by Bettman and friends.
How to Square the East-West Circle
The "problem" with Quebec is that it is most clearly NOT in the Western Conference. The NHL has been prepared, in the past, to make geographic sacrifices with respect to divisional and conference alignment if it means that underserved hockey fans get to experience NHL hockey (read, if the NHL can cash expansion and relocation checks). Recall that the Winnipeg Jets were in the same division as the Florida Panthers only two years ago. Still, the competitive balance question is real as are the desires of certain franchises, most notably Detroit and Columbus, to remain in an "Eastern" conference after so many years being "trapped" in a conference where many games are two to three time zones away. My proposed solution is to move beyond an East-West Conference model to one with eight divisions and four conferences.
Eight Divisions of Four Teams, 6 Games Against Division Rivals (18 Games)
The eight divisions are geographically tight and will enhance the regional rivalries that fuel the passion of hockey fans. For example the Pacific Division would have the three California teams and the new expansion Las Vegas (insert your preferred name here, I went with Posse). The New York area teams are joined by historic rival, Boston, in a revamped Metro Division. Nashville moves into a new South East division and can regularly compete with boarder state rival Carolina. Teams would play divisional rivals 6 times over a season, enough to develop a good hate but not so often that you get sick of seeing the same teams over and over again. For example Ranger fans would only need to out shout/out drink Devil or Islander fans three times per year at MSG.
Travel within divisions is quite manageable. The longest trip within these new divisions is the Arizona to St. Louis trip (2051km), dwarfing even the Vancouver to Winnipeg distance (1887km). That said, right now Montreal and Florida are in the same division (2302km) as are Anaheim and Edmonton (2251km). Also, with the exception of Vancouver and Winnipeg in the newly proposed Can West division, every divisional rival is no more than one time-zone away.
Four Conferences of Eight Teams, 4 Games Against Conference Rivals (16 Games)
For years the Detroit Red Wings fought to escape the travel and time-shifting necessitated by being, along with Columbus, an eastern team in the NHL's Western Conference. Quebec expansion money, even at $500 million US, is not going to make them any more eager to move back. The new set up creates three American conferences (West, Central and East) and one Canadian conference. With four games against each of the non-divisional rivals within each conference still builds on familiar rivalries developed through the current divisional set-up while still keeping travel and time-zone shifts, at least for the American teams, quite manageable. So Nashville and Chicago can continue their recent playoff tilt over four games in the new American Central Conference just as Flyer fans can continue to torment Ranger and Bruin fans in the new American East Conference.
Travel within the American conferences is better than the current set up. The longest trip in the America West Conference would be from San Jose to St. Louis (2784km); in the America Central it would be from Minnesota to Florida (2421km). While they are more than double the distance from Boston to Columbus (1062km), the longest trip within the America East Conference it still compares favourably to the distance from Chicago to Vancouver (2898km) in the current Western Conference. While St. Louis is still two time zones from California, that has been the case since the Blues were granted a franchise in 1967. Detroit, one of the teams who would be most opposed to any re-relocation into the current Western Conference, will actually play more Conference games against the Eastern time-zoned Hurricanes, Lightning and Panthers then they do within their own Great Lakes Division.
The Canadian Conference, admittedly, will get hit hard by travel and time zones. Vancouver to Quebec City is an incredibly long haul (3835km) over 4 time zones. Still, tell me that Canadian hockey fans won't relish the chance to see the Habs (or even the Leafs) come to town twice during a season. It can be done and the rivalries are already established, they will simply get a chance to flourish under the new set up.
Everyone Sees Crosby, 2 Games Against Non-Conference Teams (48 Games)
One of the changes that was enshrined in the NHL's most recent re-structuring of the schedule was an assurance that every team visits every NHL city at least once. The NHL deserves some credit for this, even if it is simply smart marketing, but knowing that Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin will be visiting Edmonton or Glendale is important to fans. That the Blue, Blanc et Rouge will be headed to Hollywood, if only once a year, does matter and my proposal maintains that set up from the current NHL schedule.
Playoff Set-up To Produce A Final Four
Playoff races, even in an NHL with both two point and three point (read: loser point) games, are fun and regardless of the system chosen to set up the NHL's playoff brackets, the races will be intense. While once the NHL playoffs consisted of 16 of 21 teams making the post-season, essentially reducing the regular season to an 8-month long seeding tournament, a 32 team NHL with half the league absent from spring hockey makes regular season contests and playoff positioning important from puck drop in October.
With the small, 4 team Divisions, rivalries as a result of Divisional play will, in my view, become even more intense. Battles of Ontario, New York, California, (and hopefully Alberta and Quebec) become amplified with less teams to "get in the way". Given the importance TV seems to place on such regional rivalries, I would presume focus on Divisional play would continue into the post-season. Option one would simply be to have the top two teams from each Division play in the first round. The second round would pit the Divisional winners against each other for the Conference crown. This takes us down to one team from each of the four Conference. Teams are ranked from 1 to 4 to establish the semi-final series with the winners off to compete for Lord Stanley. Based on this season's standings, the set up would look like this:
Option two would still ensure that regular season Division leaders make the playoffs but, especially with the addition of two expansion teams, some Divisions may be seen as markedly weaker than others. This problem addressed by simply adding a play-in game for those situations where the third-place team in the Conference's other division would play the second place team in if they had more points. Who doesn't love a play-in game? If, for example, San Jose finished with more points than Dallas (they didn't this year, but play along) the two would have a play-in game for the right to challenge St. Louis in the opening round. The effect of this undermines Divisional rivalries somewhat but not as much as simply taking the top four teams in each Conference - presumably still seeding Division leaders 1 and 2, which would be a third option.
Advantages and Disadvantages, Ratings and Nationalism
The good people at Rogers just spent a mint on NHL rights in Canada. While they have not found the ratings bonanza they might have hoped for during the regular season, I suspect that their first round numbers will be (already are) fantastic - even with the "Center Of The Hockey Universe" (Leafs) on the outside looking in. Why wouldn't they be? Fully 5 of the 7 Canadian teams made the dance. The record is 7 of 7 (before Ottawa) in 1982-83. One of the downsides of my proposal is that 5 or 6 or even 8 Canadian teams will NOT make the post-season. While the NHL Offices in New York might like the idea of selling their NBC and FoxSports partners less Canadian content, the fact remains that a quarter of the league is Canadian and even a larger number of its fans are. My proposal ensures that there will always be a Canadian based semi-finalist, there will be no Calgary-Montreal Cup finals. Last season, only Montreal played post-season hockey. CBC and TSN did a fine job selling an almost exclusively American based NHL playoff product but what does the money want?
If you are Rogers, having spent more cash than God on a decade plus of NHL rights, do you want a guarantee that every Canadian team will get 34 all-Canadian regular season games each and every year; a guarantee of two opening round all-Canadian first round match-ups, each and every year; a guarantee of an all-Canadian second round all-Canadian match-up, each and every year; and one guaranteed Canadian semi-finalist each and every year?
Now NBC and the American Regional networks do not pay as much as Rogers, but if you were told that American teams would play only 16 regular season games against Canadian teams. That no American team would play a Canadian team until, at the earliest, the semi-finals. Would that be a selling point? I think so, and selling - and the money involved - is going to guide this discussion as the NHL expansion train moves forward. Just remember, adding Quebec doesn't have to force Detroit (or anyone else) into a Western Conference. There is an alternative option.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
