nieder

I wouldn't be surprised if Larsson is on the way out. We have a lot of other defensemen lining up for those last 2 spots.

I love hockey and baseball, hate football as I find it boring (both American and Soccer). To each their own.

Yes, you have to quarantine at home for 14 days when entering the country. However the government gave an exemption to the NHL because they are going to be staying in their own bubble away from the general public and the fact that they will be testing themselves. So they don't need to worry about it. But like you say, there are a lot of young guys coming to these hub cities. Let's hope they all stay isolated from the general public and don't venture outside their bubble. I do wonder how it works with servers and hotel staff etc. that will have contact with the players. I am guessing they don't have to quarantine right? So there's possible community transmission right there.

Probably because deaths are not the only metric to be concerned about. There have been cases of people battling this for months and having other complications caused by the virus, i.e. blood clots necessitating amputation, etc. Also, even if the deaths aren't skyrocketing due to Covid, the hospitalizations in a number of places are very high, which is going to have a trickle down effect onto other people that need hospitalization for non-Covid reasons. I was just reading that there are a number of ICUs in Florida that are already full, which is bad news. However, the stats fluctuate each day due to different methods of reporting, but I am not seeing anywhere that says the daily death rate in the US is currently half of the EU. Where are you getting this stat? Genuinely curious, not trying to accuse you of anything. For example if you look at the stats on Worldometer for the last 3 days, we have USA with 1,106 deaths over the past 3 days and 1,061 in Europe over the same time frame. So the death rates look pretty similar right now. Considering the EU population is twice as big as the US I would expect their daily death rate to be a lot higher simply because of their larger population as a whole.

Yeah, I would sorta expect there to be a bunch of positives on the way into camps though as there will be a lot of asymptomatic cases out there. Obviously these players will need to quarantine but hopefully they will all be fine. It's possible for young, healthy people to get serious complications but unlikely. If players start testing positive once play actually starts and they are all inside the bubble, then we have a problem.

This is it right here. The pandemic is nowhere near over, things could look dramatically different in a year for both countries. Hopefully by then we have a vaccine. There are some promising signs, if everything goes right we could have vaccines later this year (but since nothing in 2020 seems to be going right, I wouldn't hold my breath). I just want everything to get back to normal. At the moment the number of cases in the US is trending up while Canada is trending down, which is why the NHL decided to base their hubs in Canada. But the US is 50 different governments doing things differently, so places that have completely failed like Florida are dragging down the stats for the rest of the country. In Canada everything is managed differently between each province as well, but there are only 10 provinces (and 3 of them are huge land masses with small populations) so it's harder to have crazy outliers that skew the overall stats I guess.

Not to make this an America bashing thread but....this is insane. I can go to a testing centre right now and walk in and get a test for no charge. Also our pharmacies are about to start offering free tests in store. I'm glad to be in Canada right now.

I think that shortage has more to do with how the healthcare system works in the USA. It is crazy that you can't just get a test if you want one! I don't think the NHL will be getting tests at the expense of the general public, there are a lot of places making the testing kits now. I would assume that the league is going to pay some private lab to run all the tests.

Well, looks like it is going to be Canada. Edmonton and Toronto reported to be the hubs. Which makes sense considering what is going on in the US right now. Here in Edmonton we have had a bit of a spike in cases, but we are also testing anyone who wants a test now so there is a lot of asymptomatic testing happening that is increasing the positive numbers. The numbers are likely similar as before, it's just that the people without symptoms weren't getting tested before. From what I understand, the NHL will basically take over Rogers Place downtown, which has an additional practice arena attached to it, as well as a hotel with direct access via pedway. So they can block all that off and make it NHL access only. The hotel won't be big enough so there are a couple of other nearby hotels they will also have to take over - I'm not sure how they limit players interacting with the general public if they have to walk to their hotel that is block away, unless they force the players to take a van or bus or something to the hotel even though it is only a block away. The NHL will also take over our biggest community arena in town which has 4 ice surfaces and is about a 25 minute bus ride from Rogers Place.

I think this is similar to last year's draft. 2 or 3 top end talents, then 7 -8 guys that are as close to guaranteed good NHL players you can get, then after the top 10 picks it drops off quite a bit. Picking in the top 10 should net us a very good player.

It's not like they can redirect the money buy a #1 overall pick.

The team is rebuilding. Why go hard up against the cap right now? They were pretty much spending to the cap from 2013 to 2017 when the team was competitive.

This whole thing makes the league look like a joke IMO. I can't imagine what casual fans are thinking. A team that is still alive now has a chance at the Cup and at the first overall? The entire thing is comical. It really makes me think less of the NHL and makes me less likely to watch games.

Kesler was on Ask31 a couple of days ago. Not a bad interview, he talks about what it was like joining the Ducks and the 2017 series against Nashville. https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/ask31-anaheim-ducks-centre-ryan-kesler/

Plans just released today, the Samuelis plan to revitalize the area around the Honda Center. This could be great, I have been to arenas that have a 'district' around them for pre and post game, like Wrigleyville around Wrigley Field, and it is fantastic. I'm especially excited about having more hotel options within walking distance of the Pond. https://www.ocvibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/mQlBqJs1D2A?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

I think Murray moves guys that file for arbitration or hold out when he doesn't think they are a good enough player to do so. I liked Ritchie for what he brought but he was not a good enough player to think he could hold out for a big contract. Murray seems to want to put guys like that in their place. Lindholm on the other hand is a legit top 3 defenseman so I don't know if Murray would jettison him the same way. I tend to agree re: Mahura, I think they are trying to take it really slow with him because they see his potential as being higher than Larsson or Guhle. He's also a year younger than those 2 guys. Hopefully he has a breakout season next season, whenever that may be.

I had not even thought about that, but you are right. The games played requirement would surely have to change now. I can't remember - does the 40/70 game requirement include playoff games? If not, the league is not considering the 'play-in' round as playoff games, so will those games count to the player totals? They surely can't count differently for different teams. I thought his comment about Daly and 'things we're planning' may have been referring to bringing the Draft to Anaheim since the Ducks have never hosted a league event. But it would make sense that teams are in communication with the league about the ED requirements.

I think the sample size in Anaheim is still too small to say that. While I agree that he played well in Anaheim this past season, playing more minutes on average than he has played in the past, his history on other teams would suggest that he's going to start struggling and making more mistakes when playing higher minutes game after game. I feel long term he would be a more effective player when playing around 18 minutes per game instead of 20+ minutes per game. I would like to see more of him before penciling him into a top-4 role. Ideally I would add another guy to fill that top-4 spot (Pietrangelo would be nice but that's a pipe dream, maybe a guy like Shattenkirk) and then have Guddy on the third line - that would be a nice deep defensive unit. I'm not sold on Hakanpaa being a long term solution on that right side either. Fortunately we don't have to make a decision right now, but if Guddy outperforms Manson next season I would not be opposed to moving Manson as he still has good trade value and could bring back a nice haul at the trade deadline to help our rebuild. However he is part of the leadership group on this team and Murray seems to be a big fan so I am not sure if he would pull the trigger.

There was no way of knowing Despres would suffer a career ending injury. If that didn't happen his contract would have been great. The same with Eaves - he had injury issues in the past but there was no way of knowing he would pick up some mystery illness that would prevent him from playing again. Bad luck doesn't equal bad management. The Bieksa extension was crap, as was losing Theodore to Vegas in order to protect Vatanen and then trading Vatanen 25 games into the season.

Gudbranson could be a solid third pairing guy on a contender. If we are expecting him to play top-4 minutes then this team is not very good.

They recently had 6 straight playoff appearances including 2 trips to the Western Conference Finals. One of which they were up 3 games to 2 and should have gone on to win. Murray put together some good teams. They also finished last in the division in 2011-2012 before turning things around, so Bob has already been in this situation before. There's plenty to be critical of Murray about but there's no real evidence to back up your assertion that the Ducks will not be a contender with him in control. In saying that, it seems like every year he comes out and throws players, the leadership, the coaching under the bus. At what point does this fall back on him? I would have liked to see a fresh start this last off season with a new GM and new coach.

From memory Buffalo had half of their team out injured by the conference finals. Those Buffalo teams in 2006 and 2007 were really good when they were healthy. I think at the start of the 2006-2007 season the best odds for Stanley Cup winner were between Anaheim and Buffalo.

So all 8 teams that lose the 'play-in' 5 game series will also be in the draft lottery. 5 game series could swing heavily on goaltending - if your goalie gets hot and steals a couple of games then the series is basically wrapped up. If Pittsburgh lose to the Canadiens in that 5 game series then they have a chance at the first overall pick - despite finishing with the 7th best record in the entire league during the regular season. Absolutely ridiculous that the league is leaving the door ajar for something like this to potentially happen.

I originally didn't think Getzlaf would get anywhere near the $8.25M he is getting now if he signed an extension. But then I remembered big Joe Thornton scored 50 points in 2016-2017 and signed a 1 year $8M deal at age 37. If Getz scores 50 points next year at age 36 will he get a similar deal? Maybe less per year if he gets a 2 year deal? $6.5M per year over 2 years?

Ugh. I shouldn't go on Twitter. Went down the rabbit hole, ended up on Dustin Penner's page, which is filled with conspiracy theory nonsense. Twitter is such a cesspool.