It’s late July, we’re two months away from video games that matter, and NHL GMs have apparently taken the rest of the summer off. Let’s get Contrarian.
That is the characteristic the place you ship in your most blatant takes, and I let you know that you simply’re flawed, whether or not I imagine it or not. Prior to now, we’ve made the case that Mark Messier was a great Canuck, Ray Bourque’s Cup win was bad, however Brett Hull’s crease goal was good and Bobby Orr’s flying goal photo is overrated. Final time, we made the case for Alex Ovechkin being an overrated bum, and in addition for Alex Ovechkin being an underrated legend, as a result of we’re flexible like that.
This time, we’ve received a brand new CBA, an outdated legend and all the pieces in between. Let’s dive in.
Observe: Submissions have been edited for readability and magnificence.
The NHL and NHLPA agreeing on a brand new CBA shortly and with none work-stoppage drama is an effective factor. — Kevin S.
Quite the opposite, Kevin S., you twit. Except, after all, you’re an proprietor.
Are you an proprietor, Kevin? Are you?
As a result of if not, you ought to be involved about what we simply noticed play out. We had the 2 sides of this multibillion-dollar trade come collectively, and the outcome was a one-sided victory for the homeowners, one which appeared to come back with subsequent to no resistance from the gamers. Certain, they received a number of minor concessions within the type of payroll taxes and an elevated playoff fund. However in as we speak’s NHL, these “wins” signify pennies on the greenback. In the meantime, the homeowners received extra video games, shorter contracts and smaller bonuses. And so they’ll hold all the approaching enlargement cash, a multibillion-dollar windfall that the gamers didn’t even appear to attempt to get a chunk of.
And positive, you’ll be able to see why it performed out that method. In any case, that is Gary Bettman’s NHL, the place historical past exhibits us how these items normally go. If the gamers attempt to rise up for themselves, even a bit, Bettman shuts all the pieces down. Typically the players win, typically they lose, and typically nobody’s even sure, nevertheless it all the time comes with a value in a league the place careers are brief. In terms of work stoppages, Bettman isn’t bluffing. He’s confirmed that over time. So why even strive?
The place was summed up completely by a participant quoted in this excellent piece. “What can we do? There can’t be one other lockout,” the participant mentioned. “These don’t go our method. It’s higher to get it executed.”
“What can we do?” certainly. That’s rational, on some stage. Nevertheless it’s not wholesome. And it’s not honest to the gamers, who’re the rationale we watch this league. No person thinks that Marty Walsh ought to have are available with weapons blazing, making an attempt to recreate the animosity of the Bob Goodenow period. But when this had been a hockey struggle, it positive seems to be just like the homeowners wiggled their gloves and the gamers instantly turtled.
After three a long time of Bettman’s “shut it down” strategy, we now have labor peace. However that peace apparently simply means the gamers roll over with none signal of a struggle, whereas the homeowners tilt the ice even additional at each alternative. That’s excellent news for followers who simply wished to observe hockey with out listening to from the accountants and mediators. Nevertheless it’s not a very good factor for the sport.
The 4 Nations Face-Off was an amazing success for the NHL. — James
Quite the opposite, James, you clodpoll.
Was it enjoyable? In fact. Did it blow away expectations? I’d say so. Did one of the best group win? Indisputably.
However that final bit is the issue. You’re speaking about what’s finest for the NHL. And in the case of best-on-best tournaments, right here’s what’s finest for the NHL: Staff USA lastly profitable one among these items.
That’s it. That’s what must occur. When you may hook Bettman and associates and as much as lie detectors, they’d let you know that’s the entire level. From the league’s perspective, shutting down a season for a best-on-best showdown is in the end a advertising and marketing train. And in the case of advertising and marketing this sport within the USA, just one outcome strikes the needle. And Staff Canada profitable — once more, like they all the time do — isn’t it.
In need of a Staff USA win, this yr’s match delivered all the pieces you could possibly ask for, together with a signature second: The notorious 9 Seconds from the spherical robin, the uncommon hockey recreation that appeared to take over the sports activities discourse for days. Followers of different sports activities had been hooked as a result of what they had been watching didn’t look something just like the leagues they had been used to.
Sadly, it didn’t look very like the fashionable NHL both, which means that wild night time in Montreal couldn’t attract new followers by itself. The match wanted the fitting final result, and it didn’t get it.
American sports activities followers will dip in to pattern best-on-best hockey, because the record ratings for the 4 Nations final present. However they wish to see a contented ending. They didn’t get it this yr, identical to they didn’t in 2002 or 2010 or some other yr past 1996, which is simply too way back to matter. And that’s why they don’t stick round. Lower than 4 months later, we received a Stanley Cup Ultimate that includes a rematch between Connor McDavid, who scored the OT winner, and Matthew Tkachuk, who labored exhausting to make himself the face of Staff USA. Nobody watched.
(Properly, they watched in Canada, as they all the time do. However the NHL has been clear over time: In terms of Canada, the one precedence is to money as large a test as potential from Sportsnet each decade or so. Past that, they couldn’t care much less.)
The underside line: There’s a motive that the standard American sports activities fan nonetheless thinks a round-robin upset from 1980 is an important hockey recreation ever performed. Till a Staff USA can ship that type of second once more, nothing goes to be a “success” for the NHL, in any method that issues to league management. American gamers can hold kicking the can down the highway, all the time telling us that the next tournament is the one that matters. However finally, they’re going to wish to do greater than speak a very good recreation.
The decentralized draft was terrible, and the GMs of this league proved their incompetence by voting for its return. — Jackson S.
Quite the opposite, Jackson, you dumbbell.
I imply, you’re proper in regards to the first half — the decentralized draft that all of us watched a number of weeks in the past was, certainly, terrible. I wrote that at the time, and never lots of you disagreed.
However was it terrible as a result of it was a decentralized draft? Or was it terrible as a result of it was the first decentralized draft (of the fashionable period, that wasn’t pressured on us by a pandemic)? Or did the NHL simply strive a number of issues that didn’t work, in a method they will be taught from and repair for subsequent yr’s version?
The reply is we don’t know. However we’ll discover out, as a result of they’re doing it once more subsequent yr.
That’s upset some followers, particularly the form of whiny babies who never like anything. However the actuality is that we had a long time of centralized drafts and one yr of the choice. We are able to’t know if the brand new method can work. All we all know is that it didn’t, as soon as.
The league deserves an opportunity to ditch the cringey Zoom interviews, work out a approach to velocity issues alongside and check out once more. If that one stinks, then advantageous, assault the GMs in the event that they insist on sticking with it. Simply not but.
Remark sections are trash. — Paul W.
Quite the opposite, Paul, you (tries to consider probably the most insulting label potential), commenter.
Remark sections might be nice … typically. If I needed to guess, I’d wager that 90 % of the commenters on a typical put up of mine are fairly cool, even when they don’t agree with what they’ve simply learn.
In fact, that quantity can get lots increased relying on whose put up it’s and what the subject material is perhaps. I typically get to play on simple mode, as a result of how fired up can you actually recover from stuff like this? I’ve seen some actually fascinating discussions get away in my remark sections, to not point out having some actually neat strategies for future posts.
Nevertheless it doesn’t take a lot to smash the vibe, even when 90 % of individuals are cool — no person’s advantageous with 10 % turd content material of their punchbowl. And yeah, a few of you might be simply bizarre. That features the backyard selection trolls and people who’ve made a everlasting state of grievance into their entire persona. It additionally contains some sports- and hockey-specific sorts, just like the super-homers, or the “sluggish information day?” slugs, or the Leaf-pilled anti-fans who make all the pieces about one group after which complain about it, or the single-issue obsessives, or the stick-to-sports losers, or Bruins followers. It’s what it’s.
So what are you able to do? Not a lot, sadly. You possibly can ignore the troll, upvote the primary man telling them they’re an fool, after which transfer on. (Piling on in the identical thread simply makes it appear like that remark is an important one on the piece.) Aside from that, simply be cool, remind your self that we’re speaking a couple of recreation right here, and keep in mind that typically it’s OK to only not put up something.
That story in regards to the Oilers studying tips on how to win from the Islanders in 1983 is one among hockey’s finest. — Sean M.
Quite the opposite, Sean, you … wait, that is me. I’m submitting my very own questions. That’s form of pathetic, however in my protection, I mainly requested you guys to ship this one in a number of weeks in the past and no person took the bait.
So yeah, quite the opposite, Sean, you absolute magnificence. The Oilers/Islanders story is dangerous, and we have to cease bringing it up yearly at playoff time.
When you’ve by some means missed it, the story goes like this: It’s 1983 and the upstart younger Oilers are going through the Islanders within the Stanley Cup Ultimate. They’re the higher group, when it comes to regular-season document, and have all of the items in place. However the Islanders are a dynasty, having gained three straight Cups. Certain sufficient, the Isles sweep the collection. After the deciding recreation, numerous Oilers gamers (together with Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier in most tellings) stroll by New York’s dressing room, anticipating to see a raucous celebration. As a substitute, they see a bunch of beaten-up gamers with ice packs, barely celebrating in any respect due to how a lot they’ve left on the ice. At that second, the Oilers lastly perceive what it takes to be a winner, they usually go on to beat those self same Islanders one yr later for the primary of 5 Cups in seven years.
Right here’s Gretzky himself spinning the story:
It’s an superior story. You possibly can see why followers adore it. It’s additionally utterly pretend.
I imply, come on. Let’s use some frequent sense. We’re speculated to imagine that the Islanders have simply gained the Stanley Cup, they usually’re all sitting of their locker room with the door open for some motive. No person’s celebrating. No person’s pleased. They’re simply all strapping ice packs to their damaged limbs or no matter, not even a lot as cracking a beer, though just some minutes earlier they looked like this.
You’re shopping for that? Actually? As a result of in that case, I’m inviting you over to play the brand new Tremendous Mario that I received from my uncle, who works at Nintendo.
Now, does this imply I’m calling Gretzky a liar? Not essentially. He’s not a historian, he’s a storyteller, and he’s going again 40-plus years for this one. He’s not making issues up out of nothing. I don’t doubt that he might have walked previous that room, and possibly issues weren’t as boisterous as he anticipated. He’s simply exaggerating, being dramatic and shaping a narrative over the a long time in a method that performs finest. However what he’s describing didn’t occur that method.
And for those who don’t imagine me, why not ask someone who was there: Islanders’ legend Bryan Trottier. He was on a podcast a number of months in the past and talked about the legend of the quiet dressing room. He says it’s not true, or at the least not correct, the way in which Gretzky tells it. “That’s not the way we remember it,” he says. As a substitute, he says that someone instructed the Islanders gamers when the Oilers had been on their well beyond the room, in order that they quieted down the continued celebration out of respect for his or her opponent, not wanting to look like they had been rubbing it in. However they had been celebrating. In fact they had been. They’d simply gained the Stanley Cup!
That model is smart, and squares with the place Gretzky (and others) received this concept within the first place. However over time, it’s morphed into the Islanders’ post-Cup room being a morgue. That’s not true, it was by no means true, and it’s not a very good lesson about tips on how to win. Once you obtain a lifelong dream, you completely ought to have a good time. And the Islanders did.
You realize who else did? The Oilers! If the story had actually performed out the way in which the fashionable model does, and was so instrumental to Edmonton studying tips on how to win, shouldn’t their celebrations have been muted? As a substitute, that is the group that invented the Cup handoffs and group images and possibly did some other things.
Does that sound like a group that had realized that the important thing to profitable was being too beat as much as be pleased about it? No, as a result of that by no means occurred. Let’s cease pretending it did.
When you’d prefer to submit a take for future editions of The Contrarian, you’ll be able to do that here.
(Photograph of Islanders’ Bryan Trottier hoisting the Stanley Cup in 1983: Bruce Bennett Studios through Getty Photographs Studios / Getty Photographs)
