NHL 2018-19 Season

74 is relatively young - especially for someone of Japanese heritage.

He was born in Shanghai.

My bad. Not sure why I thought he was Japanese.

Moved to the states with his family when he was a young boy.

Winnipeg Jets, the defending conference finalists in 2017 slipped on another banana peel last nite, barfing up 3 goals in the 3rd period to Toronto.

Jets have a major problem on their hands. They’re healthy - and they’re losing. Jet coach Paul Mice has gone from featuring 44 goal gunner Patrik Laine to actually hiding P. Laine, a complete defensive liability who suddenly is as impotent as Tiger Williams in a rage!

The other atrocity (for Wpg fans anyways) is that Leaf superstar Auston Matthews left the game early with a suspect shoulder injury - and the Leafs were still able to catch the Jets late and overpower a poorly coached group of guys. Also, suspect goaltending by Vezina candidate Connor Hellybuyck didn’t help.

Its obvious by now that Matthews is a true NHL superstar but subject to occasional injuries, mostly injuries of effort, trying to hit and receive hits from stronger and more vicious men. Laine rarely gets injured mostly cuz his effort level is tepid at best and lazy at worst. He’s quickly morphing into another NHL draft dud - now on pace to score 21 to 23 goals after 2 seasons of 36 and 44.

On paper (the game is still played on ice) the Jets are superior, especially on defense. However, this year the Jets 3rd and 4th lines have disappeared from the stats sheet. Star-wise, Matthews, Marner & Tavares are easily superior players (in most facets) to Wheeler, Schiefele, Laine, Ehlers, Connors; the 5 best Jet players. And Kadri is superior to all the remaining Jet forwards by a long shot.

Jets could be heading for a no playoff appearance after last year’s “parades before every game” playoffs. Same with the group of scrap heapers and dumpster divers from Las Vegas - a miracle season followed by a jolly old dump.

And without that money the Argos would likely be dead. I’ll keep watching the NHL - because I enjoy it.

The Leafs game last night was BY FAR the most entertaining game of about 6 different games I watched yesterday on a miserable day here in Southern Ontario. Any of the CFL and NCAA games I watched turned out to be one sided duds yesterday. The fantastic finish by the Leafs salvaged my day of sports watching.

Jets got side-swiped by the awful Florida Panthers yesterday in Finland.

When you hear screaming by the local Jets coach & mgmt. about playing 60 minute games you just know it ain’t gonna happen.

Jets played with all the intensity of a mid September exhibition game in Mexico City. Lots of siesta time.

Laine potted another snapper yesterday but otherwise Luongo stone-walled the Jets. Watch Luongo in his next outing - yesterday’s win over the Jets was more a full pad-thumping display by the woeful Jets vs. Glenn Hall-like work by Bobby Lou.

Jets checking seemed listless. Their penalty kill was atrocious - and last year it ranked among league’s best.

Look for Brendan Lemieux - the Jets Temper Tantrum leader to be moved back to the cattle ranch before the Jets plane lands in Finnipeg. (ie. Manitoba Moose)

Lemieux prolly cost his team a point - the Jets might have been able to hang on for a tie - before their inferior shooters succumbed in a shootout or in 3 on 3 play!

The embarrassment called the Ottawa Senators continues to be the gift that keeps on giving.

Though bad mouthing coaches happens quite frequently, but still this is 2018. One would think...perhaps not that what one can say in private becomes not so private in a hurry.

The gong show continues.

Andersen looking really good in the Leafs nets again last night with 42 saves as the Leafs win on the road again. This time 5 - 3 over San Jose.

The Leafs are turning into a real force on the road. Only 5 - 5 at home - which has to be considered disappointing, yet a fantastic league leading 8 - 1 on the road. Go figure.

Well this doesn't look good for the Ottawa Senators and a new downtown arena deal.

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk sues partners in 'failed' arena venture - $700M lawsuit accuses Trinity's John Ruddy of 'egregious conflict of interest'

Could be the end .

Melnyk looking for a scape goat .

Leafs and Nylander’s camp take talks well into the 11th hour before reaching a 6 year deal 6.9 million Average.

Leafs get a solid road win 5-3 in Minnesota. With Nylander coming back in the fold, their ceiling may be still to come.

Who would have thought that the Buffalo Sabres would be playing games in the first week of December against Nashville Monday and the Leafs Tuesday - that are basically a battle for the top of the standings in the entire league.

Right now it is Tampa with 39, Leafs with 38 and then the Sabres are tied with Nashville and Colorado at 37 as the top five teams in the league.

I sure didn’t have the Sabres in my Top 5.

an even bigger surprise to me is the Kings at the bottom.

I would love to see a Nashville/Buffalo cup.

Winter board of governors meeting going today and yesterday.

The big ticket item is awarding the 32nd franchise to Seattle and very likely a start date in 2021.

With this, it’s expected Arizona will be moved to the central division to accommodate Seattle in the pacific. Will the Coyotes move somewhere else? Their future is expected to be discussed today as well.

Unanimous vote approves Seattle as the 32nd franchise in the NHL

Team to start in 2021 with Arizona going to the central.

Quite the game in Buffalo last night played in a great atmosphere with thousands of Leafs fans battling Sabres fans all night. And what a shot by Matthews to win it with 2 seconds left in overtime.

And for those of you not fortunate enough to be in the TSN4 ‘Leafs Region’ - this clip will give you a sense of that Key Bank Arena crowd.

Five wins in a row for the Leafs.

Counter suit filed by Trinity today for damages over a billion

tps://www.tsn.ca/melnyk-being-countersued-for-1-billion-over-lebreton-venture-1.1228282

Claims Melnyk never intended to contribute financially to the project. Wanted either the city or Trinity to pay for the arena, have the Sene play there rent free for 30 years and also have the team control allot of the development.

This mess doesn’t seem like it’s going to end anytime soon though the developer who was behind the 2nd place bidder - Devcore, has shown interests to take over the project and have ties to people who want to buy the Sens.

Matthew and Marner doing the quintessentially Toronto Christmas thing tonight. Appearing in the National Ballet's Nutcracker.

so here we just past the halfway mark.

teams I like that are doing well, for now

nsh
sjs
vgk
wpg
cbj
wsh

teams I wish would take a nosedive

tbl
tor
pit
cgy

teams I would like to see do better

phi
nyr
lak
stl
van
min

I learned to share in therapy :slight_smile: