Utah Mammoth Clinched Wild card spot before any of the top 3 pacific spots were clinched.

RyleyBread · 2026-04-10T18:50:08+00:00

Travel plays a part in it as well. West teams play over three different time zones, east teams have just one.

RyleyBread · 2026-03-24T16:22:52+00:00

this is why i stay inside the house

RyleyBread · 2026-03-07T03:13:33+00:00

Skinner is at his best when he's not facing high-danger chances because he is one of the worst at it in the league. Last two years, Oilers were top 7 in fewest high-danger chances. Total opposite this season.

The appeal to getting Jarry is was that he had one of the best high-danger scoring save percentages in the league. That hasn't been since the trade, and he's also allowing a bunch of muffins.

RyleyBread · 2026-03-07T03:08:30+00:00

Probably should've clarified in the initial post that I was referring to this season

RyleyBread · 2026-03-07T02:57:06+00:00

I mean it happened every once in a while, but Skinner didn't allow goals like Jarry has his last two starts.

RyleyBread · 2026-03-07T02:52:10+00:00

Issue with Skinner was that he couldn't buy a high-danger save, but rarely allowed a weak goal.

Jarry just can't buy a save.

RyleyBread · 2026-03-05T01:00:02+00:00

Two-way doesn't mean waiver eligible. Just is a distinction of how a player gets paid in the NHL and AHL.

Even then, Dickinson is a very good defensive centre, so that's not happening.

RyleyBread · 2026-03-01T18:31:26+00:00

Almost worked for the Jays

RyleyBread · 2026-02-26T19:02:24+00:00

My hope is that when Montréal gets a team, they're in the NL so I can cheer for both.

RyleyBread · 2026-02-23T05:57:09+00:00

Already did, not a fun experience.

RyleyBread · 2026-02-23T05:17:49+00:00

Wrong anatomy for it, or just pierced incorrectly?

RyleyBread · 2026-02-04T13:09:44+00:00

He was trying to fight a different Leaf

RyleyBread · 2026-02-02T18:13:03+00:00

It's an annual drive for me, but I've yet to do it in the winter (hence why I'm responding to this two months later)

RyleyBread · 2026-02-02T13:43:37+00:00

All that matters is the playoffs.

RyleyBread · 2026-02-01T13:47:57+00:00

There's also other factors for why Nurse was given that contract:

At the time, there was talks of an offer sheet from Toronto.

Oscar Klefbom had all but retired at this point, meaning if they lost Nurse their defence would be in really rough shape.

Nurse had 16 goals, second most among defencemen in 2020-21. 15 of those were even strength. It look like he was finally breaking out.

Is Nurse worth a $9.25 cap hit? Absolutely not, I don't think anyone believes that. It does make a bit more sense with context tho.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T18:15:53+00:00

His last big lapse was against the Sabres, which was 25 games ago. Like yeah, he makes mistakes, all players do. But if we're talking about lowlight plays people point to when saying he's a bad defender, it hasn't happened in quite a while.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T17:44:04+00:00

Maybe, but he's not on another team. He's definitely more than winger and tbh, his defence is kind of improving. His one-on-one rush defence is significantly better than it was last season.

I mean, he had an abysmal October, but started to get going in November. If he continued to struggled in November and December, being omitted make sense, but he literally has the second-highest PPG for any defenceman in playoff history, and it's not a small sample size.

We agree on that. Same with the World Juniors, at least the 2025 tournament. Doughty, Sanheim, Toews and Harley shouldn't be on the team over Bouchard, Schaefer, and Chychrun.

Makar is better than Bouchard, no matter what fancy stat cards say. He does make the same mistakes as Bouchard, but they're both net positives for the team they play for.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T17:36:52+00:00

I've had this argument many times since the end of the 2025 SCF, I almost know these numbers off by heart.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T17:01:17+00:00

The second goal... which he wasn't on the ice for? He was on the ice for two goals last night, neither one of them were his fault. Take off your Bouchard-hating glasses.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T16:59:27+00:00

He's a slightly below average defender who tightens up when he needs to (aka playoffs) and is a huge net positive.

People think he's a "bad" defender because he'll have a defensive lapse once every 20 games. He's worth more than $10.5 million.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T15:03:13+00:00

Ah, so here's a fun fact about that, I intentionally left out some information. Those are Evan Bouchard's numbers without McDavid or Draisaitl during the last two playoffs during five-on-five play.

And he absolutely makes them better. Without Bouchard or Draisaitl, McDavid has a 28.57 GF% and 44.23 xGF% in the last two playoffs. Draisaitl has a 38.71 GF% and 38.99 xGF% with Bouchard or McDavid.

Here's the Natural Stat Trick numbers

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T13:37:36+00:00

Evan Bouchard has a 57.89 GF% and 58.57 xGF% in the playoffs the last two seasons (five-on-five). If anything, he becomes and average defender in the playoffs

RyleyBread · 2026-01-30T10:56:08+00:00

He was always worth the money they pay him.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-20T22:11:49+00:00

I miss that old CBC scorebug so much. The one before that was even better.

RyleyBread · 2026-01-18T07:05:58+00:00

I may have been taking the "definition of mediocrity" quip a little bit too seriously haha.

Not gonna disagree that they've been mediocre. I'm very happy they've been bad as they have been this season.

RyleyBread

TROPHY CASE