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2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:04 am
by BC 1988
Such as it is, the Canucks got off on the right foot with a 5-3 win over EDM. Going into this season, I asked my best friend to finish this sentence: "the new season will be a..." Both of us said in unison "A JOKE". He was born in Vancouver the day after the first game of the Canucks inaugural 1970 season, and is about as hard core a fan as they come--spends hours studying draft prospects and really cares about the club's (mis)management. The only thing he does like about it is that a Canadian team has the best chance of winning in 28 years, but that's the problem, this will be an asterisk Cup victory like the 2 lockouts of 1995 and 2013.

I'm not old enough to remember the Original Six era of the NHL, but this has to be like four simultaneous versions of that mayhem--they will play within their own leagues until there is only four bruised survivors left to play for the Cup. Whether these grandiose plans come to fruition is of course up to the Virus, since the league decided to abandon the proven success of last summer's bubbles (unworkable over a 6 month grind). They are already making plans to have the season standings prorated by winning percentage, since they are trying to get it done before NBC's commitment to the Summer Olympics kicks in--but there is talk in Japan that they should postpone them again anyway.

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 3:28 pm
by BC 1988
In keeping with the spirit of how poorly thought out most of the US side of the NHL season has been, we have the nonsense of Lake Tahoe today. Hey it gets sunny there and the ice melts. They are going to try to play the remaining 2 periods tonight at 9pm Pacific, and have moved Sunday's BOS-PHI to 4:30 from 2pm (Good luck with that with more sun in the forecast.)
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-outdoors-g ... -321615104

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:11 pm
by KnowItAll
BC 1988 wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 3:28 pm
In keeping with the spirit of how poorly thought out most of the US side of the NHL season has been, we have the nonsense of Lake Tahoe today. Hey it gets sunny there and the ice melts. They are going to try to play the remaining 2 periods tonight at 9pm Pacific, and have moved Sunday's BOS-PHI to 4:30 from 2pm (Good luck with that with more sun in the forecast.)
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-outdoors-g ... -321615104
Philly - Bruins game went well, except for the score

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 5:53 pm
by Sir Purrcival
Yeah, watching the Canucks who can't seem to score, defend or make saves when it really counts is making for a long season. And frankly, it isn't very interesting to see the same teams over and over and over and over and over........

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 1:47 pm
by BC 1988
I'm still watching games (on streaming) from the other three divisions. No way do I want to make do with just this artificial North division (which will probably make a quick playoff exit once it's time go up against the other teams).

As for the Canucks --let this cry echo throughout the land (as it has been on twitter for all the wrong reasons) :rotf:

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:07 pm
by Sir Purrcival
Losing Tiffoli I think was a big subtraction for this team. He is one of those players who doesn't necessarily seem to be that dangerous, kind of a sleeper but he seems to be able to find the net with a surprising regularity. Right now he is at a point a game pace and on a team like the Canucks that is thin on scoring, he is badly missed. I am doubtful the Canucks make the playoffs this year and their defense seems to have regressed. Holtby hasn't been grand in net either but he has been adequate. With the porous nature of this team, I doubt any goaltender would be able to turn this team around on his own. As of yesterday, the Canucks have played more games than any other team in the league and find themselves 4 points out a spot with the Canadians having a whopping 5 games in hand. The Flames who are only 2 points up have 3 games in hand and they are on the outside looking in as well.

Oh well, I guess in a topsy, turvey pandemic world, at least you can almost always count on the Canucks to be mediocre.

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:53 am
by BC 1988
Watching ANA-ARI tonight: ex-Canuck (seems so long ago now) goalie Ryan Miller has a 3-0 lead for the Ducks going into the 3rd period, only to lose 4-3 in a SO. Sounds familiar...

https://thehockeywriters.com/calgary-fl ... k-monahan/
Another ex-Canuck goalie Jacob Markstrom is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:24 pm
by BC 1988
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/in ... -montreal/
Great article about Toffoli and his wife's move to COVID lockdown Montreal. I'm sure they would have been a lot happier making a home in West Coast Hollywood North.

THANK YOU JIM!!!

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:49 pm
by BC 1988
This is big news for the NHL--will increase their broadcast revenue and reach in the US.
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-rele ... agreement/
The Canadian broadcast agreement has four more seasons to run.
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-rogers-ann ... l/c-693152

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:08 pm
by BC 1988
Tonight's VAN vs MTL game has an 8pm Pacific start. On SN 650 several mentions have been made about "how late that is". Apparently it's to accommodate being the back half of a SN double header with the 5pm start time of the OTT vs EDM game. On Sunday NBC had their Hockey Day In America with 4 consecutive games allowing for 2.5 hours for each (and some of them ran a bit long).
https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2021/03/07/nb ... rica-2021/

I remember in the early '70s games routinely started at 8pm in Toronto. (It was a big deal when I was a new 8 year old hockey fan in 1970 being allowed to stay up until 10:30).

I wanted to look up on the NHL game Event Summaries to see when the start times shifted towards before 8pm and couldn't find hardly any of them. They used to be easy to find going back a long way. It turns out the NHL decided to lock the old ones away a few years back. Interesting article about the change.
https://sihrhockey.org/__a/public/colum ... =3&aid=510

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 11:41 pm
by BC 1988
After having almost the entire team test positive for COVID, the NHL is expecting the Canucks to resume play next Friday and complete 19 games in 31 days. The league has extended the season from the original end date of May 8th to May 16th.
https://www.nhl.com/news/canucks-return ... -323496724
A decision on the playoff start date (originally May 11th) has not yet been made.
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-to-determi ... -323497584

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:58 am
by BC 1988
After dispatching Toronto (and their porous goaltending) 2 games in a row, the Canucks can dare to dream about playoffs. With so many games in hand on Montreal (who are without Price with concussion symptoms) it could come down to all the games vs Calgary tacked on to finish the season.

With the way Twitter is, Antivaxxer COVID deniers are using the Canucks performance to try to prove their point.

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 11:49 pm
by BC 1988
Montreal clinched the final NHL playoff berth tonight, making the remaining Calgary-Vancouver games a slog to finish their miserable seasons. Bill Daly gave an interesting interview about how the league is adapting to the bizarre COVID-created circumstances. It's strange and only getting stranger.
https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-deputy-com ... -324554172
One thing we know: The Boston Bruins will play at the Washington Capitals in Game 1 of their MassMutual East Division first-round series on Saturday (7:15 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, CBC, TVAS).
But many questions remain: When will the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs start when the regular season isn't scheduled to end in the Canada-based Scotia North Division until May 19? Will teams be allowed to cross the Canada-United States border without quarantining in the semifinals and perhaps the Stanley Cup Final, and if not, what is Plan B? What are plans for the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, the 2021 NHL Draft and the 2021-22 season? Is the NHL considering changing the schedule matrix and playoff format in the future?
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly provided some answers in an interview with NHL.com.
The regular season was scheduled to end May 8 but has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Discover Central Division finished the regular season Monday. The MassMutual East Division is scheduled to finish Tuesday and the Honda West Division on Thursday. After the Vancouver Canucks play at the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, the North Division will have three regular-season games remaining, each between the Canucks and Calgary Flames, on May 16, 18 and 19.
Each of the three United States-based divisions could open the playoffs before the North Division finishes the regular season.
"Our current expectation is that we'll play out the regular season and that the playoffs in the North Division will not officially start until after the conclusion of regular-season games in that division," Daly said Monday. "I would assume that would be very soon thereafter. It could be the same day."
Quarantine requirements at the United States-Canada border were the main reason the NHL realigned and played only within divisions this season, but the playoff format guarantees a Canada-based team will play a U.S.-based team in the semifinals and could play one in the Stanley Cup Final. The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs and face each other in the first two rounds, seeded by order of finish.
Daly said the NHL has applied for a national-interest exemption with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the federal government of Canada that would allow United States-based teams to cross the border into Canada and Canada-based teams to return from the United States without quarantining.
"We're at the stage where our Canadian clubs are currently working with their local and provincial health agencies to get support for that application, and that's in process," Daly said. "We would hope that we're in a position maybe by the end of the first round of the playoffs to know where we'll be come the third round of the playoffs."
The NHL and the NHL Players' Association announced Saturday protocols would be relaxed in the playoffs for teams with 85 percent of the traveling party fully vaccinated.
"The vaccination rates are really different, and they differ market by market and team by team," Daly said. "We had reached a point where we thought we had a critical mass of vaccinations, or vaccinated teams, such that a relaxation of the protocols would be appropriate in certain circumstances. … It's something we've been monitoring all season long, and we felt like the start of the playoffs was an appropriate time to invoke those new provisions."
However, the protocols could change if necessary. Daly said the principal basis of the application for the national-interest exemption was an extensive document of health and safety protocols that would be in effect, and they must be designed to limit interaction between team members and the general public in Canada.
"If we're successful in gaining the national-interest exemption, we'll make adjustments to protocol to make sure that [the authorities in Canada are] comfortable," Daly said. "… We've made very clear to the U.S.-based clubs that we may have to adjust some of the protocols we just issued for relaxation in the case of syncing up of the national-interest exemption for travel into Canada."
What if the NHL is unsuccessful in gaining the national-interest exemption?
"I think the obvious Plan B is that if we can't do that, we'll find a market, a host market in the United States, where the Canadian team would play out of," Daly said.
None of the seven Canada-based teams has had fans in attendance this season, but each of the 24 United States-based teams has had fans in attendance at some level, varying market to market based on local regulations. The numbers have increased over time, and Daly said he expects that to continue in the playoffs.
"The clubs have a process that they go through in terms of applying for increased capacity," Daly said. "We have protocols that govern that application, and we review those applications, obviously first and foremost [to] ensure that they're consistent with local regulations, and we issue approvals if deemed appropriate."
Daly said the NHL is working on a gathering of prospects in early July to serve at least some of the function of the NHL Combine. NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer and the events staff are working with the Seattle Kraken on plans for the expansion draft on July 21, trying to be fun and creative while working around the situation.
"Don't have any announcements as to what that will look like quite yet, but my guess is, it'll be something special," Daly said. "It's going to have a personality."
The NHL Draft will be July 23 and 24, held virtually like it was last year.
"We do expect it to be quicker with respect to the second day, making it less dependent on the television production and more on the time periods for selections," Daly said.
The NHL hopes to be as close to normal as possible next season. The League and the NHLPA have agreed to return to the previous alignment, with the Kraken in the Pacific Division and the Arizona Coyotes moving to the Central Division. The schedule matrix and playoff format are to be as they were in 2018-19, the last full season before the pandemic.
That assumes the United States-Canada border situation will be solved.
"If it still continues to be a concern, we might have to have another workaround," Daly said. "We're all proceeding on the hope that by the time we get to training camp next September that the major issues with cross-border travel will have been put behind us, but again, that's a big assumption."
As for the future, Daly said the NHL has canvassed the general managers on longer-term views regarding the scheduling matrix and playoff format.
"We're still in the process of gathering that information from all the various clubs," Daly said. "We're going to have to discuss it obviously internally and also with the Players' Association. That's why it's not happening as early as '21-22. We'll put all that information together, process it, discuss it as we need to hopefully over the course of the summer and maybe be in a position to say what that looks like for '22-23 before the start of the '21-22 season."

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 12:03 am
by Sir Purrcival
I watched the Canucks game tonight and I just felt sorry for not only the Canucks, but the Jet's and the Fans. This has been a farce of a season and with the Canucks being shut down for much of the last few weeks, it has been like watching an AHL team playing against full fledged NHL teams since their return. Towards the end, it looked like even the Jet's had had enough of the game. And now two teams that have nothing to gain are going to be winding down the season days after the playoffs have already commenced. I guess the only thing at stake is the draft position but that hasn't been kind to the Canucks over the years. So the Great Covid experiment really hasn't been so great. and frankly, I am less interested in the outcome than I think I have ever been. That makes me very sad because I used to like the NHL. Now mostly it is the occasional spectacular play and maybe a few highlights. The rest just seems like a waste of time. I don't feel any investment except maybe world juniors and such.

Re: 2020-2021 NHL Season

Posted: Thu May 13, 2021 9:32 am
by BC 1988
The pièce de resistance on a Canucks season of futility. Toffoli reveals what really happened when Benning "ran out of time" to sign him.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts ... hockey-nhl
From the second I got on the ice there, I just loved it. I was on a line with Petey and Millsy and we had incredible chemistry right from the get go. I just had a different feeling coming to the rink each day. I was rejuvenated. Obviously everything got flipped upside down when the season shut down due to the pandemic, but I felt a real connection to the city. Cat and I both did.
I got hurt in the bubble and the series against Vegas didn’t quite go our way last summer, but it seemed like the start of something special out there. And I just felt like I really fit in with that group off the ice. Everything was easy.
That’s why I wanted to come back to Vancouver. I could have seen myself finishing out my career there. But hockey is a business, I understand that. And at the end of the day, there was no offer from the Canucks’ end, so we had to go another direction. It was disappointing, but I knew that there was going to be a team out there that wanted me and saw me for the player I know I am.