Hard in the Corner

Amongst all the bullshit that Toronto Maple Leafs fans are rambling on about, one question has stuck out to me. Mostly in that, nobody is asking it.. No, it's not whether Jake Gardiner's dog should be kicked, or if Leo Komarov can be both uncle & lover, it's JVR . April 27th was locker clean out day for the Leafs and a few notable players were packing up their stuff for, presumably, the last time. At least the last time as Leafs. One of those players is James van Riemsdyk. This season, James van Riemsdyk was the team's leading goal scorer, had a 7.2 point share and a 55.6% corsi player - in admittedly sheltered starts (62.7% OZs). So, why does he HAVE to go? Well, one reason is his asking price. He will undoubtedly be a 6x6 free agent this summer, and the Leafs have other priorities. Auston Matthews early extension being the most obvious. Matthews will be a minimum $10 million player for the foreseeable future, and his prime , along with Marner and Nyland...

I'm a Leafs fan, and as a Leafs fan, I have a duty to be completely miserable all of the time. Now, I thought that was kind of an interesting idea for fancy stats. How can we chart the happiness of a fanbase? What criteria go into deciding whether a fanbase is happy or sad? Well, I chose some, and charted the happiness, over the course of a season for two separate teams. First up is the sky-high 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins, not to be confused with the sky-high 2017-18 Penguins. Yes, the amazing 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins. Repeat Stanley Cup Champions led by Phil Kessel and some other guys. This is a team loaded with star players and high-octane offense. So, fans had plenty to be happy about. I was originally going to do the Edmonton Oilers, but then I remembered they blocked me from their subreddit, so fuck them! :) Anyways, let's look at the chart: There you have it, the literal ups-and-downs of an NHL season. Now, to understand what these numbers mean, we need to ...

Basically going to go ahead and just rip Elliotte Friedman's amazing 31 Thoughts article and publish my own insane ramblings from around the league. Slightly different, each number will be a separate thought for each team. 1 . Every team in the NHL is trying to keep up with the Golden Knights twitter account. Some do well like LA and Nashville, others like the Anaheim Ducks make such a horrific attempt, that it comes across as a deliberate attempt at offending. Last week we got to see Ryan Kesler, strolling around an office setting completely naked. This was to celebrate the team's 'birthday'. The social media team clearly missed the obvious correlation between that concept and the countless accounts of women coming forward to finally speak out against work place sexual harassment and inappropriate advances. This is coming from the team that has a known and vocal homophobe as their Captain though, so maybe it's par for the course. 2 . The NHL is talking a...

OK, so not as easy on the ears as CAPTAINS OF THE ATLANTIC. Ahoy there matie....but just think, eventually we will get to the Pacific, and that's even better. Here is a list of the best and worst (and everything in between) captains of the Metropolitan Division. The Best: John Tavares of the New York Islanders Sidney Crosby has so many luxuries that John Tavares never has and seemingly never will. Crosby has a team with a wealth of talent, 3 Stanley Cups, stable ownership and a real future. That's not to take anything away from him as a leader. He is as good as they come, but Pittsburgh makes it too easy for him.  Amid the complete shit show that is the New York Islanders, John Tavares has stayed put, and been a good soldier. Some speculate that he is the reason that the organization even exists at this point in time. Without Tavares, the Islanders top player is...Matthew Barzal? maybe... Bailey and Lee are Tavares' linemates so God knows what they'd be witho...

As an amateur troll - believe it or not, I don't make money with this mickey mouse blog - I spend a ton of my spare time on twitter and reading articles, listening to podcasts and wasting my life on message boards. It's starting to kill me. As time goes by, there are more and more protests about the racial inequality in the United States (and it exists everywhere). This morning I read an article on CBC  about the Houston Texans kneeling during the anthem to protest the owner calling them 'inmates.' An obviously insensitive remark, inflammatory and made all the more inappropriate when taken in the context of what this protest is about. Another example of an old white guy, that doesn't get it. Dear Comments Section, You are unthinkably stupid. I won't explain the protest to you again, because it has been forced down your throat enough. You know what it's about. And yet, here we are. Still posting your ignorance, still the racist remarks, still. If you a...

I'm a Leafs fan. I have no problem saying that. I love the Leafs. Yes, I watch other teams, but it's so I can see players, not teams. For example, I used to watch Washington, to see how Eric Fehr was doing. That has since been resolved. In any case, I love watching the Leafs which is why I hate...regional blackouts. Why is it that every Saturday night, I can be sure to see that little Filipina girl sign the anthem in T-dot, but this evening, TSN doesn't see fit to let me watch the game? Regional blackouts, that's why. What is the purpose of these fucking things? It seems to me they take more money out of the hands of the NHL, the broadcaster and the cable companies than it helps put in. And I know that every single human being on Earth hates them. So, ok...money is the name of the game. But this can't help. TSN, tonight, on TSN4, will air a black screen in place of the most popular hockey game in Canada, and therefore North America, and therefore the World....

The NHL is a league known for being old as shit and thinking old as shit. Grit, heart, Mark Messier and going 'hard in the corner' matter most. There has only recent been a league-wide shift towards favoring athletes who know how to play hockey and away from guys that know how to tough. That shift has seen the league - or at least people that follow the league - to identify a younger 'prime' for players than previously thought. Of course it isn't true of everyone, but generally speaking a player will peak between the ages 22-25, because of course. Who wasn't at their best in their early twenties? After that it's all tv dinners and family reunions, fuck. So, I want to look at some of the worst active player contracts in the league. Counting down to #1, the shitty award...I guess.Here goes: Jonathan Toews (also Anze Kopitar, but whatever) 8 years, $84 million (ends 2022-23) I am not going to pretend that Jonathan Toews is not an elite player. He is,...