NHL GMS PLAY MUSICAL CHAIRS AS FINANCES RESTRICT DEALS
Too many players available, too little money to spend and trade talks aplenty. This is the unofficial opening of a National Hockey League off- season like none before it.
The pressure on general managers is at an all- time high with no real comprehension of when NHL games will next be played, no certainty about salary caps of the future, and for owners, most importantly, no target date for when fans will be allowed in the buildings for a league so dependent on ticket revenue.
There are 263 unrestricted free agents about to enter this insecure market. Thirtyfive of them are goaltenders, including Stanley Cup finalist Anton Khudobin and should- have- been Vezina finalist, Jacob Markstrom. The top defenceman available is nine-time all-star Alex Pietrangelo and the top forward is former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall.
And who will be spending what on whom with so many teams already in salary cap difficulty? Many teams will be prevented from spending to the US$ 81.5 million cap because of fear from ownership. And many teams have players on less- than- perfect contracts they would like to move to teams that may be juggling their own economic difficulties.
Everybody, including the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, have moves that must be made.
This is the hockey off-season of musical chairs, with GMS hoping not to fall off the uncomfortable financial tightrope they’re facing.
The star of the 1967 World Series was Bob Gibson. He started Games 1, 4 and 7 for the Cardinals, won all three, pitched three complete games, 27 innings, even hit a home run. He was his own bullpen. He was the closest thing I’d ever seen to Superman. He flew off the mound, arms flailing, when he pitched.
In the 1968 season, Gibson pitched 304 innings and had an earned run average of 1.12. No one has ever come close to that number again.
Gibson passed away Friday at the age of 84 but remains so alive to anyone who ever saw Superman pitch.
Cam Newton tested positive for COVID-19. The reports of the test came from both ESPN and the NFL Network. Funny, not a word anywhere about his privacy being violated. Guess that’s just a hockey thing. The unwritten hockey rule: We protect our own.
The names used to be linked together. Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Juan Soto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The next great ones of Major League baseball. Tatis Jr. is a show almost every night with the San Diego Padres. Acuna Jr. is a superb outfielder with a .987 OPS in Atlanta. Soto led the National League in batting, slugging and OPS with the Nationals. All of them within a year of each other in age. Guerrero, meanwhile still waiting to be something big, other than being something big ... The Toronto Blue Jays had more hits than Tampa Bay during the 60-game season, scored more runs, hit more home runs, had a better OPS and struck out 100 fewer times than the Rays. And then they got bombed by Tampa Bay, outscored 113 in the two- game series ... GM Ross Atkins says manager Charlie Montoyo makes all in-game decisions for the Blue Jays. And he says it with a straight face.
I wouldn’t want Oliver
Ekman-larsson on my team. If he doesn’t want to play with Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl, why would I want him? Ekman- Larsson has Edmonton on his notrade list. If I was a player, I’d yearn to play with the best ... Why would San Jose want Devan Dubnyk when the goalie market is flooded? What did their scouts see this season that no one else did? ... It must kill Nick Nurse watching what’s left of the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals and knowing the Raptors would have put up a much better fight against Lebron’s Lakers ... And one word on Anthony Davis: Wow. Just wow ... I’m an emotional sap when it comes to the passing of the Stanley Cup. I love the ceremony, the order, just about everything about it. Interesting to see Luke Schenn and Zach Bogosian get the Cup before Kucherov and the almost Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Brayden Point.
What do you make of the Blue Jays’ 62- game season and playoffs? Thirty- two wins, thirty losses. That’s .516 baseball overall.
The forever encouraged GM Ross Atkins likes this “exciting young group” but clearly realizes “we can play better, we will play better.”
But he has to know much of what happened this season can’t be taken completely seriously. That is the difficulty in trying to analyze what exactly happened in this strange Major League season. Sixty games is not a meaningful sample size. That’s the equivalent of a 30- game season in the NHL or NBA, or a six- game NFL season.
I looked back at 10 years of American League standings and came to the conclusion there is little correlation between your record after 60 games and what your record would be after 162.
In 2014, the Blue Jays were an impressive 36- 24 after 60 games, yet finished the season with just 83 wins, 13 games out of first place. The next year, they were 3030 after 60, and went 63- 39 to end up in first.
In 2012, the Jays were 31-29 after 60 games, good enough to get in the playoffs this year, but in 2012 finished with 73 wins, 10th in the American League.
Truth is, we don’t know what to make of the Blue Jays and really they don’t know either, other than the obvious. They need to be better defensively. That was obvious at the end of last year’s 162 game season, too.