[News] Jack Eichel Surgery And Comeback Thread

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by MrMike

Why can’t the NHL just keep the salary cap limit for the playoffs?

The salary cap limit actually is in effect for the playoffs – technically: it says so in the CBA. But because of the screwy way the cap is calculated from day to day, it's impossible to go over the cap in the playoffs.

No, I'm serious. Each day of the regular season, a team is deemed to pay its players 1/186 (or whatever number) of their total cap hit for the year. You're compliant as long as you have enough of your $81.5 million (or whatever number) left to pay your players for the remaining days of the season. On the first day of the season, you are dividing your money available by 186. On the last day, you are dividing by 1.

The day the playoffs begin, all the salaries have already been paid and you are dividing by zero. Your only restriction is the list of playoff-eligible players in your system, whom you had to fit under the cap at some point during the year.

The geniuses who negotiated this system apparently never heard that dividing by zero is a no-no in basic arithmetic. That is where the system is screwed up.

What would make sense is a system where you have to be under the cap each and every day of the season and nothing is banked. If the cap is $81.5 million, then on any given day you can't have more than $81.5 million in cap hits on your active roster. No more BS about saving up so you can suddenly have millions of extra cap room at the trade deadline. And definitely, no more BS about having as much cap hit as you like in the playoffs because the formula contains a divide-by-zero error.

Of course, this would be fiercely resisted by everyone in the game. The media want the spectacle of big names moving at the deadline. GMs want the extra wiggle room to bury their mistakes. Capologists want to keep their jobs, which otherwise would be so simple that a chimp with a calculator could do them.

To quote one of my favourite lines from ‘Yes, Prime Minister’:

‘It's actually a very good idea. It simply mustn't happen.’

[Fire]

Anyone else with the bad feeling that the Knights are winning the Stanley Cup this year?

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Fire

Anyone else with the bad feeling that the Knights are winning the Stanley Cup this year?

Nope. Their goaltending isn’t up to it, for one thing.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Nope. Their goaltending isn’t up to it, for one thing.

Agreed. ‘Robin Lehner, starting goaltender for a Stanley Cup champion’ just does not have a plausible ring to it.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Man, so much of this thread forum is going to be so annoying to read, especially if Eichel comes back and is a dominant player anything ever happens.

Fixed that for you.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I would think they're a lot more concerned about getting Eichel into the lineup without losing other assets, than they are about finishing first

Each home game in the playoffs generates North of 1.5 million dollars.

Finishing first matters a ton. Thats a potential 6 M if they go the distance.

Eichel will be in when he is ready to be in.

Why didn't Stone play last night? How did that work out for them?

Now do you believe they will get Stone to agree not to play for 2.5 months....so someone else can? Especially when it hurts them as a team?
.
So what is more likely?

He is actually injured or its all a big conspiracy?

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Agreed. ‘Robin Lehner, starting goaltender for a Stanley Cup champion’ just does not have a plausible ring to it.

He’s been good, but he has gone steadily downhill for 3 straight seasons.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Each home game in the playoffs generates North of 1.5 million dollars.

Finishing first matters a ton. Thats a potential 6 M if they go the distance.

Eichel will be in when he is ready to be in.

Why didn't Stone play last night? How did that work out for them?

Now do you believe they will get Stone to agree not to play for 2.5 months....so someone else can? Especially when it hurts them as a team?
.
So what is more likely?

He is actually injured or its all a big conspiracy?

Obviously. But you can't predict how many games per round, the key is getting as many rounds as possible. And having Eichel, without losing another key player helps that.

To be perfectly clear here though, I am not one of the conspiracy theorists that thinks the Knights will some =how circumvent the rules

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Sure but it does make finishing 1st a lot more difficult if this happens.

You can be sure that opening at home every round is the goal there.

I've never understood how starting at home is a benefit; 3/4 outcomes are a net loss (WW vs WL/LW/LL). 2-3-1-1 format always seemed more advantageous to me.

The money aspect of home-ice is noteworthy, but only an issue if series goes 5 or 7. Across NBA/MLB/NHL 7 game series:

4 Game Series - 202 times - 16.5%
5 Game Series - 320 times - 26.23%
6 Game Series - 384 times - 31.47%
7 Game Series - 314 times - 25.73%

[Locke]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Each home game in the playoffs generates North of 1.5 million dollars.

Finishing first matters a ton. Thats a potential 6 M if they go the distance.

Eichel will be in when he is ready to be in.

Why didn't Stone play last night? How did that work out for them?

Now do you believe they will get Stone to agree not to play for 2.5 months....so someone else can? Especially when it hurts them as a team?
.
So what is more likely?

He is actually injured or its all a big conspiracy?

Well...it used to. No idea if that holds true anymore.

[Scroopy Noopers]

(*From October 2021*) Throwing your back out intercepting a puck is a really bad situation for a professional hockey player… yikes. https://mobile.twitter.com/Sportsnet...wfJVLmM3JG87tA

https://twitter.com/user/status/1448862668895498245

But you know, he’s probably just faking it
He clearly has been fighting through a longtime problem like most NHL’rs

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

(*From October 2021*) Throwing your back out intercepting a puck is a really bad situation for a professional hockey player… yikes. https://mobile.twitter.com/Sportsnet...wfJVLmM3JG87tA

https://twitter.com/user/status/1448862668895498245

But you know, he’s probably just faking it
He clearly has been fighting through a longtime problem like most NHL’rs

Nobody said he was faking it but how come if he has been fighting through it all this long time he suddenly coincidentally can't fight through it anymore at the exact same time his team needs cap relief? Coincidentally, I bet he can fight through it come game 1 of the playoffs.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Nobody said he was faking it but how come if he has been fighting through it all this long time he suddenly coincidentally can't fight through it anymore at the exact same time his team needs cap relief? Coincidentally, I bet he can fight through it come game 1 of the playoffs.

Eichel isn't ready to play yet, and Stone has not been placed on LTIR. A coincidence requires at least two things to happen at the same time, and so far, neither one of them has.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Eichel isn't ready to play yet, and Stone has not been placed on LTIR. A coincidence requires at least two things to happen at the same time, and so far, neither one of them has.

But they will. Wait and see.

[powderjunkie]

Must be playing 4D chess to fake it down 3-1 with 32 mins left in a game to avoid any suspicion.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

But they will. Wait and see.

How about you wait and see before proclaiming it as a certainty?

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

How about you wait and see before proclaiming it as a certainty?

Because it is a certainty. Why would they not do that?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Because it is a certainty. Why would they not do that?

It isn't a certainty. We don't know what his injury is, we don't know how long he needs to be out of the lineup, and we most certainly don't know that the league will cooperate in faking an injury so one team can get an advantage over the other 31. Is that enough uncertainty for you? Apparently not.

We also don't know that Stone himself will cooperate in that. I bloody well wouldn't; I'd want to play as soon as possible.

The Vegas Golden Knights have precisely two players this season who are at a PPG, and both have already missed substantial time to injury. You really think they'll voluntarily sit one of them for another 34 games so they can activate another player who (a) is hardly any better offensively, (b) is notably worse defensively, and (c) isn't even expected to play for weeks yet?

Pull the other one; it's got bells on.

[GioforPM]

I will say, as much as I tend to dismiss the conspiracy theories, a back injury would be the easiest to fudge without surgery etc.

[Roof-Daddy]

Once Eichel is ready to play, Vegas will use the LTIR without a doubt (IMO) for the remainder of the season, then we'll see what's what for game 1 of the playoffs.

But don't be the least bit surprised when ALL their key players are back, healthy and raring to go when the puck drops for round 1, game 1.