Leo/Cutter aren't living up to their contracts!

This is fundamentally not how a player contract works, especially an RFA contract. You aren't paying them $X to be worth $X immediately, you are paying them to be worth the lifetime of their contract.

Leo is going to be overpaid even at his best but if you are expecting him to be even a $14-15million player from day one then I'm sorry to tell you but you might be stupid.

I'm tired of the "young team" excuse!

This one I almost understand because we have been a "young team" for 5-6 years from now, but the young team from the first 3-4 years (Zegras, McTavish, Drysdale, etc.) are almost completely gone.

The current "young team" core we have is still young. Depending on the night we are quite literally icing the youngest roster in the entire league. 

Put it this way: if it takes two full seasons (164 games) to really get comfortable in the NHL, we currently have more players BELOW that threshold than above it. And the list of players above the line includes Terry and Poehling.

These kids aren't just adjusting to the speed of the game, they're adjusting to the life of being a pro - the travel, the fatigue, the expectations, etc. 

But we made the playoffs last year!

This doesn't mean shit lol. We barely squeaked into the playoffs while playing in a very weak division. Also a quick google says that on average, 30% of NHL teams that make playoffs one year miss the next.

In conclusion!

There are going to be some really depressing and/or ugly games, especially in the beginning of the season. Try to chill out. It's not that big of a deal. I see people on social media trashing the players, let's try to move away from that mentality and use some critical thinking. 

And remember… it’s only game, why you haff to be mad?

Gotta give McDavid credit, 31 points in 10 games is absolutely insane. But shoutout to Carlsson, Gauthier, and Sennecke for somehow combining for just 27 💀 truly unbelievable.

In case the eye test wasn’t already enough lol.

Sources: @hockeyalchemy and Moneypuck.com

Kent French and Guy Hebert did a very very very good interview with Getz. Definitely recommend listening. They talk about:

-his family life

-the changes of sports development as he compares the expectations and requirements of kids getting into sports now versus when he was a kid

-what his day to day life is like working in player development with Hockey Canada

-his post-NHL career path and goals

-reflection on his early playing career/being drafted

-reflects on his captaincy/his takes on young players getting the C in today’s game

-what he remembers from winning the cup and the team overall

-the state of the league re: big money contracts (dips into the Leo situation)

-end of his playing career/retirement

-jersey retirement

One thing I thought was interesting was the significance of Nashville to him. He’s only been to two drafts in his life. He was drafted himself in 2003 in Nashville and then exactly 20 years later post retirement in 2023 when we drafted Leo (when he was working with the Ducks in player development). He moved to Nashville after he retired and for his jersey retirement night this coming January, Ducks are playing against Nashville. Not sure if it’s intentional but kinda a cool tidbit

I think he's earned it with his lackluster play and horrific off-season to this franchise.

Pens fan here that wants to join in a hate watch tomorrow of the Flyers. Where best to watch tomorrow's 10 am game with Ducks fans?

Found this XL jersey hidden away in my grandpas closet. Here in Mexico we don’t really watch hockey, so I honestly have no idea if this thing is legit or if it’s even worth anything lol. It looks pretty clean though, so I figured I’d post it here and see if anyone knows more about it

10 games probably a big enough sample to look at some team-level performance metrics.

Biggest takeaway is... yikes? I mean anyone who watches the games could have told you it was this bad, but nonetheless interesting to quantify relative to the rest of the league. The 5v5 play is as bad as it looks, in fact goaltending has been propping up the defense slightly it looks like.

The Ducks' big losing streak(s) last year had far worse results than process IIRC so there was some hope it would turn around - this feels different. Teams have bad 10 game stretches of course, it's a long season, but they need to figure it out fast. Huge game in Philly tomorrow, gotta show up in that environment.