The Circus Season 'Bad Choices' Thread...

[Locke]

Looking at how things are playing out this season, I thought it might be fun to analyze some bad decisions made in this league that we love.

First of all, I have to say that I can't believe we endured a lockout for this. Some of the least entertaining and least inspired hockey I can remember seeing. Hopefully the playoffs redeem this somewhat and that somehow cosmic justice is done in the draft lottery.

Anyways, I'll start with the ones that inspired this thread:

- Jordan Staal going to Carolina

Standings:

Carolina - 14th
Pittsburgh - 1st

- Bobrovsky to Columbus

Columbus - 8th in the West (maybe playoffs?)
Philadelphia - 12th in the East

- Firing Scott Howson

Columbus has gone from 13th to 8th since ridding themselves of Scott Howson

- Rick Nash to NY

Depends, but imagine if Columbus makes the playoffs and the Rags dont.

[DuffMan]

whenever I think of Ryan O'Reilly I laugh at his misfortune of the Avalanche keeping him there. He must be pissed.

[Sakari]

All but the Howson firing can be viewed as good decisions as well, though.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Not sure in a shortened season we can put too much stock in some of the results. Not saying that teams haven't played well or earned their spots, but unless something has been trending in a certain direction for a while before the start of this year (like say the Flames finally really hitting rock bottom), then I'm not sure if we know if it's an anomily or not.

For example:
- The resurgance of the Canadiens. Are they for real, or is this an overachievment aided by small sample size.
- The Leafs. Have they really made the jump? Easier time believing this is just part of the small steps forward they were making, but did they make a bigger jump than should be expected.
- The Flyers, are they really that bad? I think the shortened season is making things look worse than they are for Philly.

One thing I won't ever fault is Staal's decison to leave Pittsburg. People look at the standings and critique him for lack of loyalty and a bad decision. But I applaude him for taking a risk and wanting to be the go to guy, the key player. Those are the types of guys, the guys that want the responsibility that show character and want to be THE difference maker. The kind of guys we always want here. I respect he analyzed his situation with the Pens and basically said, I think I'm more than a 3rd line player, I think I can be the guy that leads a team to victory, and then appropriately guaged that with Malkin and Crosby a head of him in Pittsburg, he would never get to be that guy there. Time will tell if he actually can "lead a successful team" versus just being a solid contributor to a successful team, but can't fault the guy for wanting that responsibility.

[browna]

Toss in COL and ROR. Thinking they'd have their top young center in the lineup would change their fortunes this year when they matched the Flames offer. Instead, they got no better standings wise with him, and they could've had two top 8 picks in this draft.

In general, the worst "choice" was the players not signing the deal at the beginning of Decemeber when they were close and Bettman had that epic press conference. The gains for the players were marginal in January, and then the result of that, only a few days around the league as training camp, no exhibition games, killed a lot of players and teams for not having that preparation/conditioning time.

Cam Ward gets hurt early in Carolina, and him along with Kipper are Exhibit A. Kipper previously took the pre training camp skates back in town and then training camp and exhibition games, to get into shape. There was none of that, and sure enough, he got injured of a significant nature, for the first time in 9 years. By the time they sorted out who was going to be in net full time, and that guy got comfortable, 10+ games (1/4 of the season) had passed.

Other players I am sure all around the league never got the rust off and are nowhere near playing to their abilities, especially those needing to have great seasons to carry their teams as the best case scenario. Toss in coaching staffs that were unprepared (Sacco?), and the fact that games were suddenly worth 3.4 points, not just 2, had teams behind early and motivation and everything went downhill quick on many teams.

[Iggy Snipe]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Not sure in a shortened season we can put too much stock in some of the results. Not saying that teams haven't played well or earned their spots, but unless something has been trending in a certain direction for a while before the start of this year (like say the Flames finally really hitting rock bottom), then I'm not sure if we know if it's an anomily or not.

For example:
- The resurgance of the Canadiens. Are they for real, or is this an overachievment aided by small sample size.
- The Leafs. Have they really made the jump? Easier time believing this is just part of the small steps forward they were making, but did they make a bigger jump than should be expected.
- The Flyers, are they really that bad? I think the shortened season is making things look worse than they are for Philly.

One thing I won't ever fault is Staal's decison to leave Pittsburg. People look at the standings and critique him for lack of loyalty and a bad decision. But I applaude him for taking a risk and wanting to be the go to guy, the key player. Those are the types of guys, the guys that want the responsibility that show character and want to be THE difference maker. The kind of guys we always want here. I respect he analyzed his situation with the Pens and basically said, I think I'm more than a 3rd line player, I think I can be the guy that leads a team to victory, and then appropriately guaged that with Malkin and Crosby a head of him in Pittsburg, he would never get to be that guy there. Time will tell if he actually can "lead a successful team" versus just being a solid contributor to a successful team, but can't fault the guy for wanting that responsibility.

All teams get the same amount of games to play, and every team is in the situation. It is a sprint to the playoffs, instead of a marathon. The hockey this season has been much more entertaining to watch than in the past. More importance put on each game has really made it more exciting. It didn't take nearly as long to watch good, fast paced hockey, where as in a long season, teams dog it for the first half anyways.

I don't know how people can blame the shortened season or the "sample size" on how teams are doing. 48 games is more than enough games to find out who is good and who is not.

[c.t.ner]

It might just be me, but I think a lot of teams are hoping this season ends pretty quick. Besides the Leafs, Ducks, Kings, Penguin, Blackhawks, Islanders I think most teams in the NHL will be happy to get back to a normal year next year as it's been a bit of an overal disaster fan. As a fan it's been interesting, because there have been so many random story lines of things that we probably wouldn't see in a regular season.

Some other worst decisions for contentions:

- Vancouver and the whole Luongo/Schneider debacle that drags on all the way to the Trade Deadline and then nothing is solved.
- The Oilers going on a tear around the Trade Deadline and then plumpting back to earth with a five game losing streak.
- The Devils 6 game losing streak.

[Street Pharmacist]

-Colorado matching the OReilly offer sheet. They'd be much better off right now, but I suppose it's impossible to know where the picks would've ended up

-No significant player moves by the Oilers. When will they realize that a team is more than a bunch of scorers?

-Kovalev in Florida, though I guess no real risk

-All current Oilers management. Well, MacT will probably be ok, but seriously. Nashville and Edmonton are the worst teams in the last 5-7 years, so you take the GMs of those teams and you promote then to senior management??

[Sylvanfan]

How about Detroit extending Jimmy Howard, only to see him give away a crucial game against the Flames putting their playoff streak in jeopardy.

I also nominate the Jets for continually playing Kane with Hominem and Miettenen which pretty much sabotaged their playoff chances. Also enjoy 13 more years in Nashville Weber. You should have signed a one year offersheet if you wanted to go to the Flyers.

[DuffMan]

Minnesota Wild....

Both deals are for 13 years and $98 million, which locks up each player through the 2024-25 season. Each carries a salary-cap hit of $7.538 million per season.

lol.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Also enjoy 13 more years in Nashville Weber. You should have signed a one year offersheet if you wanted to go to the Flyers.

I wonder if he will be in play this offseason. The worst season in a while in Nashville can't have gone over well with fans, management and ownership, with him being the big prominent offseason move that they had to deal with, and if his heart really isn't there, I can see him wanting out and being shopped around.

Question is, who would want him (and by him I mean him as a player and the contract he's tied to)? Philly still?

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by browna

I wonder if he will be in play this offseason. The worst season in a while in Nashville can't have gone over well with fans, management and ownership, with him being the big prominent offseason move that they had to deal with, and if his heart really isn't there, I can see him wanting out and being shopped around.

Question is, who would want him (and by him I mean him as a player and the contract he's tied to)? Philly still?

With the amount of money Nashville has paid him in the 1st year of the deal, he's a Predator for life.

[McG]

Originally Posted by browna

I wonder if he will be in play this offseason. The worst season in a while in Nashville can't have gone over well with fans, management and ownership, with him being the big prominent offseason move that they had to deal with, and if his heart really isn't there, I can see him wanting out and being shopped around.

Question is, who would want him (and by him I mean him as a player and the contract he's tied to)? Philly still?

oilers.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by McG

oilers.

I don't know..That 8 million cap hit is a tough pill to swallow. Yeah they need defense but if he joined them then with him, Hall, and Eberle they would be sitting at 20 million cap hits for the next 7 years for just those three. Could hinder trying to re-sign RNH, Yakapov and and future 1sts that pan out. It starts getting difficult to fill out a roster with quality depth players, which is their current problem.

It has been mentioned, but for Nashville since they can't trade him until mid July he gets another 13 million before he can even be traded. They will have paid a quarter of his 110 million dollar contract in the first couple years. At that point you keep him with all that has been invested.