Hot Ice: NHL Thread

[jefe]

QUITTING IT
LEAVING IT
WALKING IT
DEPARTING IT

BIG DRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE AWAY

Mike Emrick's retiring.

[Hot Pepsi]

I know. Bummer, but I understand he wants to do other things.

[Snake Plissken]

Arizona go from bad to worse after they cut ties with one of their draft picks for his involvement with the racial abuse of a classmate a few years earlier.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah. It’s not like they didn’t know anything about that before they picked him. They’re paying a steep price for their stupidity, though.
Edit: I thought he was their first round pick. Not so. He was their fourth pick. So not much of a loss for them, really. Just a PR disaster.

[Hot Pepsi]

The Ontario Government thinks the OHL can somehow play without contact and that would somehow reduce the spread of the virus. That is unbelievably stupid. There is no way to play street hockey, let alone competitive ice hockey, without people being close enough to breath on each other. They’d be better off not playing at all.


https://www.tsn.ca/ontario-governmen...ason-1.1545965

[Hot Pepsi]

[Hot Pepsi]

Enormous upset. Canada was the Red Army for most of the tournament. They beat Germany 18-2. Germany isn’t bad.

[jameswba]

The USA went the equivalent of nearly four full games without conceding a goal - between the last one Russia scored in the first group game and the first Slovak goal in the QF. That's a remarkable run in ice-hockey. I didn't see the final, but the mental strength they showed to beat the Finns after being pulled back from 3-1 to 3-3 was seriously impressive.

Germany finished third in the group, despite that 2-16 loss!

Slovakia finished 8th for the third year running, but it was a much better showing than last year.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yes, the US got it together after the Russia game, while Russia seemed to fade as it went on.
Perhaps they were better than Canada in the final because they'd actually been tested earlier in the tournament.
This is one area where I want the US to beat Canada because it's the one human endeavor in which Canadians seem to be far more obnoxious and chauvinistic than Americans.




Slovakia just didn't have it this year. Neither did the Czechs. Germany had some COVID problems, obviously, but at least gave Russia a game. They are not in the class of the top teams, but are making progress. The Swiss seem stuck.

Austria scored just one goal, I think. However, because of COVID-19, there won't be any relegation and the same field is going to be in next year's tournament in Red Deer (hopefully. Red Deer was supposed to cohost this year, but they put the whole thing in the bubble in Edmonton and shifted Gotenburg's turn to 2023, I think).

But the Austria team that qualified are mostly different than the team that came to this tournament. Its dumb to have the qualifier so long before the tournament that a team turns over because of age.

It might also make sense to have a smaller field.

https://www.si.com/hockey/news/how-t...-world-juniors

[jameswba]

Thanks, both the ideas in that link make better sense than the current format. I'd probably also be for an 8-team tournament, partly to stop teams playing as Slovakia did las year, when all they were interested in was scraping a win against Kazakhstan. They were better than that this time, in fairness.

But it's now 58 medals out of 60 for the top 5 countries since 2002 - that's worrying.

[BallochSonsFan]

I have no idea how Germany managed to get through the group stages. Squad decimated with Covid infections. Stutzle was red hot but they didnt have Moritz Seider available. He's having a great season with Rogle in Sweden. Swedish league rules mean he can't be recalled until the end of their season, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him ice for Detroit in the NHL at some point at the end of this season.

[ursus arctos]

They beat Austria by one goal, which was all they had to do

[jameswba]

They beat Slovakia (in overtime) and Switzerland to finish third. Then only lost 2-1 to Russia in the QF. Not a bad run of results after a 2-16 defeat.

Was Stutzle the guy who had 30 mins ice-time in one of the games? Or it may have been Elias.

[Hot Pepsi]

Thanks, both the ideas in that link make better sense than the current format. I'd probably also be for an 8-team tournament, partly to stop teams playing as Slovakia did las year, when all they were interested in was scraping a win against Kazakhstan. They were better than that this time, in fairness.

But it's now 58 medals out of 60 for the top 5 countries since 2002 - that's worrying.

I don't expect hockey to ever have the reach of rugby or cricket, let alone football, but it would be cool if there were at least 8 or 9 countries in the mix in men's hockey and at least four or five in women's.

It's worrying that the Czechs have fallen so far off the pace.

Slovakia and Switzerland haven't emerged as it looked like they could, but Germany is looking like it could do something soon - at least start producing NHL talent regularly. I don't know how that will translate to the DEL or Champions League.

[BallochSonsFan]

I don't expect hockey to ever have the reach of rugby or cricket, let alone football, but it would be cool if there were at least 8 or 9 countries in the mix in men's hockey and at least four or five in women's.

It's worrying that the Czechs have fallen so far off the pace.

Slovakia and Switzerland haven't emerged as it looked like they could, but Germany is looking like it could do something soon - at least start producing NHL talent regularly. I don't know how that will translate to the DEL or Champions League.

The Swiss looking to increase import numbers is a worrying move. There just isnt the young talent coming through and staying in the country to keep squad quality up without relying on imports. Wages in Swiss hockey outstrip other European leagues and teams can pay for a strong quality of import. As strong as some KHL and most SHL teams. Sweden and Russia will always put up a challenge to Canada and the USA. There will always be a big 4 in hockey. I think you're probably looking at another 4 teams in Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic and potentially an emerging Germany in the next few years as being the best of the rest.

Will we see a stronger DEL? I'm not sure. Krefeld are lucky to have survived their financial troubles. Red Bull are still spending money like it's going out of fashion and are throwing cash around. There are plenty of decent teams in the DEL. I've been pretty impressed at how Bremerhaven have done since moving up to replace Hamburg, but its a shame that a city the size of Hamburg no longer has a hockey team. If you remove Red Bull Munich who are only there because of their ownership's money then you've got Berlin, Mannheim, Cologne and Dusseldorf with very good arenas and strong clubs. The teams below them are good on their day, but they just cant sustain that for any length of time.

I know there was talk of KHL expansion at one point. Jokerit joining the KHL was a real shame as Finland has it's own league with some real quality in it. The biggest Swedish sides would never jump ship, although a cross Scandinavian top division may well be a great option if they could make it happen. I don't see many Czech or German teams wanting to join an expended KHL. Expansion didnt work in Croatia or Slovakia. I'm far from convinced that Kunlun Red Star will be around for that much longer. We'll never see the oft proposed London KHL team that Stevie Lyle was involved with. Neil Black was involved too but he can't even get his proposed London EIHL team off the ground.

I do think that there is room for some changes in European hockey. You could see a Dutch team joining the DEL - they already play in the German 3rd tier Oberliga and promotion to DEL 2 would be a step forward. Maybe a change in Danish domestic hockey? A Scandinavian league would make sense for the biggest Danish sides. The Norwegians too, although the Alsvenskan having promotion to the SHL makes that a difficult prospect. I also think we need to see something change in UK hockey as the current set up of 3 big teams, Cardiff with their rich owners and sweetheart rink deal and the deep pockets of Guildford Flame just isnt healthy. None of that will challenge the big 4 at international level though, even if I do think that Germany are going to establish themselves as a top 8 side in the coming years.

I should add that I don't see the DEL continuing it's run of top 10 draft picks this summer. There are some good youngsters out there but perhaps not quite another Seider or Stutzle right now.

[Hot Pepsi]

In recent years, at least, Finland has been better than Sweden.

Finland seems to embrace North American hockey a bit more than Sweden, so maybe that's why they do better in tournaments in North America. My understanding is they have NHL-sized rinks or hybrid sized rinks and there are a number of Finnish players in US college hockey.


Instead of all those teams joining the KHL, is there a possibility of expanding the Champions League or just creating a European Super League?


I don't understand how Red Bull supports so many sporting organizations. Is the margin on energy drinks that great?

[jason voorhees]

Good 9 minute video on how Red Bull makes money in sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBRNQMolTPw

[Hot Pepsi]

Good 9 minute video on how Red Bull makes money in sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBRNQMolTPw

That's helpful.

I don't get how so many supposedly smart business people in the late 80s didn't see a market potential for it.
It makes me sick - really, my stomach cannot properly digest it - but the appeal to kids is obvious.

There are so many competitors selling essentially the same thing, that I'm surprised they can maintain that margin. That's also why they have to spend so much on marketing.

[BallochSonsFan]

In recent years, at least, Finland has been better than Sweden.

Finland seems to embrace North American hockey a bit more than Sweden, so maybe that's why they do better in tournaments in North America. My understanding is they have NHL-sized rinks or hybrid sized rinks and there are a number of Finnish players in US college hockey.


Instead of all those teams joining the KHL, is there a possibility of expanding the Champions League or just creating a European Super League?


I don't understand how Red Bull supports so many sporting organizations. Is the margin on energy drinks that great?

The Champions League can't really be expanded. It's an add on tournament rather than a proper league.

As for a European super league? I don't see enough teams being willing to move from their own domestic competitions. The SHL is a strong enough and well established enough league. The DEL is growing and German teams work pretty closely together to try and develop their home league. I don't see NLA clubs wanting to move to a cross European league.

The one thing I'd like to see is for European leagues to try and aim for better exposure outside of their own countries. I can't legally watch DEL matches because the DEL signed an exclusive media deal with Deutsche Telekom. I can't subscribe to DT's Magenta Sports platform from outside of Germany without a German billing address. The DEL don't offer an international option online in the same way that the NHL. Even the OHL will allow me to buy streams internationally. It's incredibly short sighted that European hockey leagues don't seem to want to sell themselves as well as they could. Thats probably a discussion for the European hockey thread though, but with Draisaitl doing so well and both Seider and Stutzle likely to be great in the NHL then it seems incredibly short sighted for the Germans not to try and take advantage of the growing interest in their hockey.

[jason voorhees]

Pretty wacky format this year.

4 divisions, and ALL....meaning ALL 56 games will be played only be in-division. Kind of like Major League baseball until the late 60s as far as the American and National playing in-league then the league champions meeting for the World Series. In this case the top 4 teams make the playoffs.

Old school Patrick-Norris-Smythe-Adams playoffs, all in-division as well. Then the final four will then be seeded by record in the regular season, 1 v 4, 2 v 3.

North (basically Canada)
Calgary
Edmonton
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Vancouver
Winnipeg

West
LA
Anaheim
Arizona
Colorado
Minnesota
San Jose
St. Louis
Vegas

Central
Carolina
Columbus
Chicago
Detroit
Florida
Dallas
Nashville
Tampa Bay

East
Buffalo
Boston
Philadelphia
Washington
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
DEVILS
Pittsburgh

[Hot Pepsi]

The divisions all have official corporate sponsors this year.

[jason voorhees]

Hopefully
https://norrisinc.com/
http://smytheco.com/
https://www.theadamscompany.com/
and
https://www.patrick.eu/en-eu/

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Canadian division is going to be a blast. Fans have been wanting it for years, and (Ottawa aside) it should be really competitive at the moment.

[Hot Pepsi]

Ahem, it's the North Division, brought to you by Scotia.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...-new-divisions

[Amor de Cosmos]

There's no way anyone here is going to call it anything but The Canadian Division, except talking TV heads.