sens @ Leafs - Oct. 2nd, 7:00pm - SN, TSN 1050

[Bill_Berg]

I honestly can't wait until fights are officially banned from hockey.  I'm getting tired of the "you don't know how tough it is" whinefests when we don't kiss the behinds of AHL/ECHL calibre players who only exist because they fight.  You are making 70K a year to have 10-12 fights a year against equally crappy fighters.  I don't view that as "how hard it is" but a blessing that they are even playing hockey professionally when this is their only skill.

There are plenty of boxers/MMA fighters who make fractions of that while having noone give a damn about their career.  I'm all for supporting guys who contribute to the on-ice performance but fight occasionally.  I'm done with the guys who don't contribute anything to the game outside of cheap shots and fighting another fighter for a meaningless fight a dozen times a year.

It just goes to show how out of touch some people are. 70k to play hockey? Yeah it's hard work, but there are a lot of jobs out there that suck, aren't to play a game, and pay less than half that. Oh yeah, and they have zero chance every year for the workers to hit it big in September.

 

[dappleganger]

I honestly can't wait until fights are officially banned from hockey.  I'm getting tired of the "you don't know how tough it is" whinefests when we don't kiss the behinds of AHL/ECHL calibre players who only exist because they fight.  You are making 70K a year to have 10-12 fights a year against equally crappy fighters.  I don't view that as "how hard it is" but a blessing that they are even playing hockey professionally when this is their only skill.

There are plenty of boxers/MMA fighters who make fractions of that while having noone give a damn about their career.  I'm all for supporting guys who contribute to the on-ice performance but fight occasionally.  I'm done with the guys who don't contribute anything to the game outside of cheap shots and fighting another fighter for a meaningless fight a dozen times a year.

It just goes to show how out of touch some people are. 70k to play hockey? Yeah it's hard work, but there are a lot of jobs out there that suck, aren't to play a game, and pay less than half that. Oh yeah, and they have zero chance every year for the workers to hit it big in September.

It goes both ways. In my job, I don't have to worry about being concussed or suffer a serious injury. I don't have to worry about being relocated and separated from my family. Don't think it's easy because it's a "game" or because it's a "high" salary. Just keeping your body in shape is hard work. Like any job, there are pros and cons. Not to mention the anonymity most of us enjoy. To be scrutinized in national press is not easy on anyone.

It's a job and the players are paid accordingly. I don't begrudge them. There's a lot of sacrifices professional athletes endure although most of the time it seems pretty glamorous. 

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/1179403361004728320

So, not the new-Marleau then.

 

[L K]

I'm kind of surprised given they are playing his main old team but I'm not disappointed either.  He's not an 82-game player at this point in his career but I did expect him to be that 4th line guy with PP time especially with Hyman out of the lineup and the Leafs only using 1 defenseman on the blueline.

 

[herman]

Babcock actually talked to Marleau about sitting out games down the stretch but they decided not to because of the Iron Man streak.

 

[princedpw]

I'm not sure if this is really the opening of the regular season or not seeing as we are playing an AHL team.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I'm kind of surprised given they are playing his main old team but I'm not disappointed either.  He's not an 82-game player at this point in his career but I did expect him to be that 4th line guy with PP time especially with Hyman out of the lineup and the Leafs only using 1 defenseman on the blueline.

It's just weird to me because unless either a) a trade occurs or b) Sandin gets sent back down (both are still possibilities I guess) then according to Capfriendly it appears as though we wouldn't be able to fit Shore's additional $50k AAV compared to Spezza's once we're healthy. But like I said maybe the Leafs have some more cards to play there.

 

[Kin]

Babcock actually talked to Marleau about sitting out games down the stretch but they decided not to because of the Iron Man streak.

Well, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/1179404906245099523

So they're going from Spezza to Trevor Moore on the powerplay.

 

[Frank E]

I can only imagine that Spezza is banged-up.

 

[Zee]

Well , we know Spezza isn't captain

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/lukefoxjukebox/status/1179415552047140876

Ok, cool, I just don't get why you scratch him against Ottawa if it's just a random rotation. He was obviously looking forward to this one since he signed.

 

[Coco-puffs]

I'm kind of surprised given they are playing his main old team but I'm not disappointed either.  He's not an 82-game player at this point in his career but I did expect him to be that 4th line guy with PP time especially with Hyman out of the lineup and the Leafs only using 1 defenseman on the blueline.

It's just weird to me because unless either a) a trade occurs or b) Sandin gets sent back down (both are still possibilities I guess) then according to Capfriendly it appears as though we wouldn't be able to fit Shore's additional $50k AAV compared to Spezza's once we're healthy. But like I said maybe the Leafs have some more cards to play there.

Yeah, there are only a few combination that works with Hyman and Dermott healthy:

Matthews 11634 Rielly 5000 Andersen 5000
Tavares 11000 Muzzin 4000 Hutch 700
Marner 10893 Ceci         4500
Nylander 6962.366 Barrie 2750 Kessel 1200
Kerfoot 3500         Sandin 894.167
Johnsson 3400         Dermott 863.333
Kapanen 3200         Holl         675
Hyman 2250
Mikheyev 925
Moore 775
Spezza 700
Goat         675 TOTAL 81496.866

Spezza can only be subbed for Aberg or Timashov.

The only work around for this is running 20 guys.  And while I thought that would be untenable before, Bob Mackenzie explained that once you play one game shorthanded due to injury or suspension, you can make an emergency recall and exceed the cap (but the player must make 800k or less)

 

[cujo4ever]

Looking forward to 4 goals from Matthews and 2 points in the bank tonight  8)

GO LEAFS GO!

 

[Frank E]

https://twitter.com/lukefoxjukebox/status/1179415552047140876

Ok, cool, I just don't get why you scratch him against Ottawa if it's just a random rotation. He was obviously looking forward to this one since he signed.

Hmm...he missed the last game too though.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Well , we know Spezza isn't captain

But maybe Shore is?!

 

[Kin]

The Spezza thing does kind of read as strange. Both in the smaller "Why scratch Spezza for Ottawa" sense but also in the larger way of really wondering about the decision to bring him in at all unless you were pretty sure he was going to be on the team.

My hunch is that this is indicative of them being more or less convinced he's not going to play much and that we'll probably see a mid-season retirement.

 

[Coco-puffs]

The Spezza thing does kind of read as strange. Both in the smaller "Why scratch Spezza for Ottawa" sense but also in the larger way of really wondering about the decision to bring him in at all unless you were pretty sure he was going to be on the team.

My hunch is that this is indicative of them being more or less convinced he's not going to play much and that we'll probably see a mid-season retirement.

Thats just not tenable.  He retires and he's taking up cap space.  More likely a Robidas Island or demotion (at which point, maybe he says he won't report and thats the end of it)

 

[Kin]

Thats just not tenable.  He retires and he's taking up cap space.  More likely a Robidas Island or demotion (at which point, maybe he says he won't report and thats the end of it)

I was just talking about the general sense of things. Yes, I'm sure that if that was the direction things were shaping into the Leafs would demote him first.  Thank you for the reminder of the cap implications of my previous post.

 

[Coco-puffs]

Thats just not tenable.  He retires and he's taking up cap space.  More likely a Robidas Island or demotion (at which point, maybe he says he won't report and thats the end of it)

I was just talking about the general sense of things. Yes, I'm sure that if that was the direction things were shaping into the Leafs would demote him first.  Thank you for the reminder of the cap implications of my previous post.

I can certainly be pedantic about the semantics.