pi2000

I remember back in the 70's and 80's, the larger goaltenders were not quick enough to be effective. In the 90's and 00's, goalie equipment grew larger and larger and larger to the insanity it is today. Larger equipment has allowed the taller goaltenders to compensate for their lack of quickness by simply covering more of the net, notably in the butterfly. Butterfly technique wasn't popular in the 70's and 80's because if you went down on your knees, then entire top the net was open to shoot at. So they made chest protectors, gloves, and blockers bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger to take away the top of the net. This allowed taller goalies to flourish in the butterfly... which is where we're at today. Take away the larger chest protectors and shrink the other equipment back down and the taller goaltenders no longer have as much of an advantage.... we'll go back to shorter quicker, more athletic goaltenders. I'd much rather watch a Grant Fuhr doing the splits than a Ben Bishop motionless on his knees hoping the puck hits him.

Ennis and Ullmark for Barrie seems about right. A 1st, Girgensons and Pysyk for Duchene is probably not enough to get it done.

I've experienced blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Earthquakes are by far the most frightening... just the suddenness and no where to hide from it. Without warning the ground beneath your feet is rolling and everything is shaking, you don't know if or when it will stop. The world as you know it seems to be disintegrating before your eyes. I've been near tornadoes, but not in the direct path, in those cases I would imagine it would be just as terrifying as an earthquake if you can't get away from it. Was stuck in the direct path of a hurricane and while not as terrifying, the duration of the event was most troubling. The eye passed over, then wind starts up again in the opposite direction snapping everything in half as everything is bent back the other way. It lasted about 10 hours. Destroyed the windshield on my car, all the shelters were full, was on vacation camping. Tent was gone, only shredded pieces of it left with some camping boxes inside holding it down. Spent the entire day in my car. Parked near a beach as anywhere else had too much debris flying around. The wind literally pushed the car across the parking lot while it was parked. Was in my early 20's so I didn't feel like my life was in danger. If that happened now, I'd myself.

my prediction... Lehner comes back, gets the starting job back right away and they send Ullmark to Roch to start every game. Lehner starts slow, but comes on in late Jan and has success to the end of the season. Ullmark stays in Roch for the remainder of the season, winning rookie of the year honors. Ullmarks name comes up as a key piece in trade talks as part of a larger deal (Ennis, Pysyk, Girgensons, Ullmark, 1st) for Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie.

I think it's more that Ted Nolan and his staff were just really really bad, moreso than Bylsma and his staff being one of the best in the league.

I had a better relationship with the sport when there was more fighting... 80's and early 90's hockey was the best. Not enough raw emotion in today's game. It's more fun watching teams play that have a deep down hatred for each other, instead of this fist bump after a fight . These days, instead of looking forward to the heavyweights squaring off we get to watch AHL level talent dump the puck in to the other teams zone and setup a neutral zone trap.... how exciting!!!

Right, a fully electronic system, while possible, would be prohibitively expensive at this present time. A less expensive method would be a system similar to the HawkEye in tennis. Keep the same challenge rule in tact, but use the hawkeye system for speeding up the review. Hawkeye uses cameras positioned at the top of the stadium to triangulate the exact position of the ball. Could this work in hockey? Maybe? It would like be a much cheaper solution than planting chips in pucks with trackpads under the ice, etc...

Gave my 11-y/o son a red bull before his peewee game Sunday. I told him Jack Eichel drinks it before games. He played his best game of the season, he was flying up and down the ice. That said, I did not give my 9 y/o an energy drink before his 7am game, and he was terribly sluggish (maybe i should've spiked his water bottle?). Back in the early 90's when I played in college, energy drinks weren't a thing. We were just naturally jacked up for games, it didn't seem like we needed any extra boost. Some guys drank coffee a few hours before, but that was it. Even at the pro-level (I played one season in Florida), it wasn't a thing. When I moved to California and transitioned from hockey to triathlon, I did use plenty of caffeine enhanced energy gels, and that did make a difference, although once you start taking them, you need to keep up the intake so you don't crash. It worked well for shorter sprint/olympic distance races, but there was less of a benefit when doing the ironman distance events. There's also some studies that show too much caffeine can dehydrate your body leading to cramping and so forth, so it was important to monitor electrolyte intake (salt tablets, etc..) as well. These days if I have caffeine after noon, I'll have trouble fall asleep so I stick to decaf or half-calf for the most part.

Ullmark is playing well, but he's too scrambly and floppy. That's just part of being a young goaltender, he needs to be playing a ton and he can do that in Roch while he fine tunes his game. It's just a matter of time before he lays an egg at the NHL level and you don't need to crush his confidence while he's young.

I have no doubt such a system could be built quite easily with readily available technology. Put a chip in puck with a perimeter sensor to detect when the puck has FULLY crossed the blue line. You could either build cameras into the boards along the blue line for detection, or better yet just inlay an electronic track pad under the ice. Put chips in the players skate chassis. The blade is conductive, so that makes it easy to detect when blade #2 on the player without the puck has completely crossed the line. There are much smarter people than I who can work out all the details, but there's not doubt it's do-able... Why not inlay a tracking pad under the entire ice surface, that way you can instantly track the puck anywhere on the ice. Would it be expensive? Probably, but we need to start somewhere.

We have the technology to electronically detect offsides. This would kill all these plays before they happen.

Caffeine is just a gateway drug. Just wait until he gets the good stuff.

who's in the cage? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kosTQ4xXtOQ

Babcock is one of the game's most respected coaches by way of line combinations, match-ups and overall game strategy. The Red Wings won the Central 5 of his first 6 years with the team, putting up over 100 points in 8 of the 10 years he was with Detroit.

This is absolutely ridiculous..... The pads are up to his ears, and the arms, especially at the elbow are massive. The only reason they're that big is to stop pucks that otherwise would go by them. It will be fascinating to watch if they streamline the chest protectors and pants. Imagine all the goalies who are making a living simply because of their size and ability to play angles. With streamlined pads the emphasis may shift back to more quick, athletic goaltenders.... which traditionally means shorter in stature.

Agree 100%. IMO, the most important pieces of equipment to make smaller these days are chest protectors and pants. Bulky pants and tall/wide chest protectors are ideal for butterfly goalies, and a big reason all goalies are now butterfly style. The only problem is how to regulate this. What's going to stop a 5'11 goalie from wearing a chest protector designed for somebody who is 6'6? Maybe the league has to approve all goalie equipment on a per player basis?

Moulson. Invisible.

Yes, the schedule is terrible this year. Next week they play DAL, STL ,DAL then STL again, then NSH, CAR and NSH again. wat

I think it would be somewhat underwhelming. I could see it become useful when advanced stats are available for display by the viewer, eg time on ice, hits, shots, etc... with 4k and upcoming 8k, the size of displays will grow ever larger, giving more screen real estate for statisitcal overlays etc.... it's coming.

Chips in pucks and skates, sensors on the goal line and blue line for automating goals and offsides. How cool would it be if the posts on the net lit up, or some other automated notification (goal horn?) when the sensors detect a goal. There is no good reason this couldn't be done tomorrow. Think back to the Cup winning goal by Patrick Kane vs the Flyers. Nobody new what was going on for a few minutes except Kane. That needs to be fixed yesterday.

This is great. Maybe we can trade them a traditional gritty defenseman like Mike Weber for Tyson Barrie.

"Eichel Eichel motorcycle!" would be an improvement over "Yeichel"

Losing becomes somewhat tolerable when you're not expected to win. They have much more talent now than they did the past 2 season, so losing is not tolerated... not just because they "decided" they weren't going to lose.

All the taller athletic kids in NA are playing football or basketball, two sports you can't play competitively if you're a club hockey player as a kid/teenager.

If he continues to play well in Lehner's abscence he'll be a very attractive piece to add to a larger deal for somebody like a Tyson Barrie (pending RFA). Murray has too much invested in Lehner who is only 2 years older than Ullmark.