James

June 25 is the deadline. Still holding out hope for a miracle trade, ha

Pens gotta make room for Tavares!

They've got 28 million in space, and need to sign 4 F, 2 D, an a goalie. Carlson, Grubauer, and Tavares combined is at least 20 million... probably more like 23. Plus you've got Anders Lee and Beauvillier up for new contracts next year, and barzal the year after. Yeah, it ain't happening.

Jim Rutherford making room for Tavares? IT COULD HAPPEN, PEOPLE.

Haha yeahhhhhhh

Just want to make sure it's clear -- if Tavares re-signs on June 20, you'll still lose him. He needs to have a deal done, with at least 2 reliable sources reporting on it, by the end of the day on June 19. Good luck!

Except when Crosby didn't get it in 2009, of course

Ha!

By the way, Kuznetsov only being the 5th person with 30+ points is fake news. Gretzky (x6), Lemieux (x2), Coffey, Malkin, Bossy, Gilmour, Sakic, Messier (x2), Leetch, Recchi, Stevens, Middleton, Pederson, Kurri (x2), Simpson, Bure, Crosby, MacInnis have all done it. 6 players have hit 35 points... 2 have topped 40 points. Also, the playoffs only switched to 4 rounds in 1980, for what it's worth. Now, if we're talking about "modern times"... say, post 2004-05 lockout? Then Kuznetsov would be tied for 2nd with the 2009 Crosby (5 points behind 2009 Malkin). Either way, I think Ovechkin has been much more of a catalyst for this team overall with his league-leading 14 goals. Also, did you know Kuznetsov is at 38% in faceoffs? Woof. THIS IS THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME I WILL EVER ARGUE IN OVECHKIN'S DEFENSE. DON'T GET USED TO IT.

I think it'll go to ovechkin. Heart and soul of the team. Kuznetsov is very deserving though. Prior to this series I would have said fleury was in the running, even if they lost. Not so much anymore. Not to say these losses have been his fault, but they've put a dent in his numbers for sure.

I think we forget to count gretzky as a great goal scorer because he wasn't the same kind of sniper that we generally think of now... honestly I'm too young to know if bossy was that kind of player, too. But gretzky was definitely a great goal scorer in the way that Crosby is... It's like his third or fourth best attribute, but he still did it better than almost anyone else.

For a more complete picture we should probably be weighing things like TOI, power play goals, power play goals as a percentage of total goals, shooting percentage, shooting percentage vs. League average, etc.

Nhl.com's stats engine is truly incredible. Makes all of this research relatively easy to do. It's just a matter of picking the data points that are most relevant. It is maybe a little unfair to use percentage of team's goals as a focal point. Ovechkin has played with some great players, but bossy had to share with trottier his entire career. Trottier of 9 consecutive 30+ goal campaigns, 5 of them 40+

I think the only fair way to compare players across eras is to compare them relative to their contemporaries. During Bossy's career, the Islanders had 3,322 goals, of which Bossy scored 573 (17.2%). So far in Ovechkin's career, the Caps have 3,093, of which Ovechkin scored 607 (19.6%). If you look at the top goal scorers in Ovechkin's era... his 607 dominates the next best... 411, 384, 382, 379, 375. His goals per game is also tops... 0.61 to Kovalchuk/Stamkos's 0.52 and Crosby's 0.48. Bossy also dominated goal scorers in his era (with the exception of Gretzky, of course)... 573 for Bossy to Gretzky's 543 and Dionne's 461. Trottier is 4th with 378. Looking at goals per game, Bossy is second to Gretzky... 0.86 to 0.76. And ahead of Kurri's 0.68 and Tim Kerr's 0.61. And then, of course, you have to look at the NHL as a whole... in Bossy's era there were 24 different teams that combined for 61,085 goals (2545 goals per team). In Ovechkin's era, 33 teams have combined for 85,953 goals (2604 goals per team). Of course, that's only 10 seasons for Bossy vs. 12.585 seasons for Ovechkin. So goals per team per season for Bossy... 254.5. Goals per team per season for Ovechkin... 208.32. This assumes that the players each played full seasons. Worth noting that Bossy missed some time over his career... a total of 48 games, or 4.8 games per season. Ovechkin has missed 63, or 5.0 games per season. So factoring that in... Ovechkin has scored 22.8% of the Caps' goals in games that he's played. Bossy scored 18.3% of the Isles's goals in games that he played. So I guess I'd conclude... If Ovechkin played in Bossy's era for an average team, averaging approx 3.18 goals per game, and if he played the same number of games as Bossy (752)... you could argue that he'd score 545 goals. And if Bossy played in Ovechkin's era for an average team, averaging approx 2.54 goals per game, and if he played the same number of games as Ovechkin (1003)... you could argue that he'd score 466 goals. So I've spun myself in a circle. All in all, I think I'd say Ovechkin's the "greater" goal scorer, mostly on the grounds that he has nearly a full 0.1 goals per game more than the next guy. Bossy wasn't even the most productive goal scorer of his era... that goes to Gretzky.

Just a look at what's on the line tonight for the Tin Cup Series... Only 3 people still have a shot at winning the overall title... Ralphdog, Salros, and me. If Tampa wins tonight, Ralphdog wins the Tin Cup Series. If Washington wins tonight but loses the Finals... Ralphdog and I will tie for the title. If Washington wins the Cup, Salros will win the title.

Not sure if they'd allow Rinne to stay in the division... I'd rule out STL. Philly doesn't make sense either -- that team is heading very much in the right direction, and Hart is the goalie of the future. No sense in rushing things by trading away quality prospects for Rinne. Carolina could make sense, although it would mean admitting a mistake on Darling. NYI makes a lot of sense to me, especially if Tavares goes. You're already getting Halak's 4.5 mil off the books, and it doesn't look like any of their prospects are ready to be NHLers alongside Greiss yet (Sorokin, Soderstrom, Chris Gibson). If I had to guess though, I think Rinne stays.

If they're learning from the Penguins, they'll keep him around. It is scary to think what Nashville could spend that $7 million on, though.

Serious thoughts on the penguins: - if this is the new Kris letang, he needs to be on the second pairing with oleksiak. Dumoulin and Schultz can be a top pairing. And we need 2 new D to round it out. Ruhwedel and hunwick are fine for depth but they should be #7 And 8. Maatta is a fine NHLer but absolutely doesn't fit this system. Move him. - the forwards are fine. Can't wait to find out what's been wrong with kessel. If he can form some chemistry with brassard next season, that's a fine 3rd line. - sheahan and kuhnhackl are a tremendous 4th line. Almost doesn't matter who is with them. But it might be blugers next year? ZAR, rowney, and others competing too. - with sprong, Simon, rust, sheary, and hagelin competing for 3 spots in the top 9, there should be no shortage of depth. - Matt Murray does not have an NHL caliber glove hand. Period. He needs to fix it, or the penguins need to give jarry a legitimate chance to win that job next year. Fleury had to be the one to go... I get that... But Murray still may not be the goalie of the future in Pittsburgh - jim Rutherford is a brilliant GM, but the brassard trade was a swing and a miss. Should've been more patient with sheahan and brought in Cullen (or comparable low cost 4th line center) at the deadline. I reeeeally think he needs to be shopping maatta and hitting the free agent market for a couple D. Worth mentioning that hunwick, reaves, and niemi were also all failed acquisitions this year, albeit less costly ones. Big props for getting sheahan and oleksiak as cheaply as he did though. - Mike Sullivan is a truly terrific coach. He did a great job with the wrong personnel this postseason. I would've liked to have seen kessel off the top PP, but Sullivan's other decisions were terrific all around. And the level of play he's been able to get out of Crosby is remarkable. All in all, a good learning year for the pens. Looking forward to next year already.

🤔

I feel like any of the 6 remaining teams has a legitimate shot at winning the cup... but my money's on Winnipeg vs. Tampa. And I have no idea who wins that one... would be a great series. In two terrible television markets, ha.

But also I think kadrishould've gotten 5...

I think severity of injury must've played into it. And I wonder if they give him more time because there was no penalty called on the play. Like an "oops, our bad" by the league.

Personally I think it's just right. But I'm a Penguins fan, of course. The hit was borderline, but you can't give this guy the benefit of the doubt again. Third head shot THIS PLAYOFFS. And a suspension history. Plus the injury was severe. Seems like a no-brainer, to me. Four games might've made more sense though -- watch him come back for Game 7 and play hero somehow.

I still think it's hard to beat the Penguins 4 times out of 7. Lots of series left. But I agree with the general sentiment here... this is the best chance the Caps have ever had to get past the Pens. I think Holtby has gotten into the Penguins' head a bit... they're trying way too hard to pick corners rather than just getting pucks on net. And that's leading to a lot of shots going JUST wide or JUST over the crossbar... and lots of those are leading to odd-man rushes coming back out. Not to mention all the shots that are going off the post. There were at least 3 quality scoring chances last night that went off the post. Holtby's a great goalie, and playing extremely well in this series, but if you put 40 shots on him... even low percentage shots... he's going to let in at least a couple. I'd rather see the Penguins doing that -- forcing him to make saves, getting offensive zone faceoffs, etc -- than picking their corners and starting Washington on the breakout. Especially given the Penguins' structure... 3 men deep, plus at least one slow guy on D at all times.

Ugh that's awesome. I've seen Pens games in LA, N.Y. (rangers), buffalo, and Washington, and DC was by far the nicest, both in terms of how I was treated and how good the game experience was. I would definitely go again.