NHL

Projecting the 4 Nations Face Off: Canada

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Nine years will have passed between puck drop of next year’s 4 Nations Face Off and the last time NHL players participated in a best-on-best international event. 

Like this abbreviated tournament, the last iteration also featured some unusual wrinkles as the field of teams was rounded out by Team Europe and the legendary Team North America U23 outfit. The 4 Nations event will be a little more by the book, with the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden competing against each other, with an eye on expanded participation in a consistent international calendar in the years to come. 

The promise of NHL players once again representing their countries means that the time honored tradition of roster projection can be practiced once again. Who better to start with than the team that will almost certainly enter as the tournament favorite and whose superstar has been limited to just one international event in his career, that being the 2016 World Cup? 

Projecting any Canadian roster with NHL players comes with the challenge of determining which of their 184 number one centermen will slide to the wing and which will play the pivot. Canada’s goaltending has also been a point of contention in recent years as the lack of a true superstar has left many to point to the crease as the country’s biggest position of weakness entering this competition. 

I do feel the concerns with their goaltending are being slightly overblown. There are enough Canadian goaltenders around the league with starters credentials who should have little trouble playing behind a forward group and blue line that will be this star studded. 

My goal with the Canadian roster was to plug in players whose traits complemented their linemates as best I could. Just about any permutation of a Canadian roster is going to be a formidable unit and I had little trouble cooking up three different variations of their forward lines that would be easy favorites for gold in this tournament. The group I settled on ultimately maximizes the high-end talent the Candians boast in droves, avoiding the urge to be cute by picking a player just for the sake of being different. 

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The Instigator Podcast 12.25 – Slotting Sabres into the 4 Nations Face Off

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With the 4 Nations Face Off on the way, we take a look at how many Sabres are likely to snag a roster spot playing for their respective countries. We also discuss the Morgan Rielly suspension, the latest comments made by Kevyn Adams regarding Casey Mittelstadt and offer a brief update on the current state of the Sabres.

New NHL Skills Competition Format is a Winner

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The NHL rolled out a revamped Skills Competition at this year’s All Star weekend with events shaped with the assistance of Connor McDavid and feedback from others around the league. 

In a clear-cut case of knowing the answers ahead of time, McDavid cruised to victory in the event, taking home the $1 million prize as Skills Competition champion. 

McDavid’s win probably happens if he wasn’t the one helping creating the guidelines for the night, but his involvement adds a bit of comedy to it all. But it wasn’t McDavid’s win that was the headline, it was an energetic showing from the players chosen to participate in the reimagined event. With five events joining a trio of mainstays, the players (with one notable exception) were engaged in each event and were giving noticeable efforts at times. It was a breath of fresh air into an event that had leaned way too much into hokey events and strayed from showcasing the true talents of the players on the ice. 

The league deserves credit for taking on the challenge of reshaping the event and looking at it with new eyes. The result was an entertaining product that ought to hold its excitement for some time, especially considering there won’t be another All Star Game for two years while the league re-engages with international competition. With that in mind, here are some grades on the Skills Competition events and some notes on where continued improvements can be made. 

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The Instigator Podcast 12.23 – All Star Week Musings: Levi, Jiricek, West Coast Trip

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The Sabres are off for a week and the All Star Game is here. We have a slightly longer episode this week that tackles the Sabres’ results from their west coast trip, Devon Levi’s return to Rochester during the team’s time off and we spitball about David Jiricek who has openly complained about his situation in Columbus.

The Instigator Podcast 12.22 – Hockey Canada Investigation Takes a Step Forward

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After a lengthy period of investigation, the sexual assault case related to the 2018 Canadian World Junior Championship team has progressed as five players were instructed to surrender to the authorities in London, Ontario. With four NHLers taking leaves from their respective teams, speculation has run rampant online. We discuss the latest developments in the case and the players thought to be involved in the ongoing proceedings.

Also on the show is a conversation about the differences in standards and situations between the Sabres and Islanders after the latter replaced their head coach with Patrick Roy. We talk about Don Granato’s outlook and whether or not he has the ability to survive as Buffalo’s head coach given the struggles the Sabres continue to suffer through.

It’s Time for an NHL All-22 Product

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The NHL released their latest statistical innovation this week, pulling back the curtain on the player and puck tracking data they collect. The tool is somewhat limited in its current state, but it has laid the groundwork to make more internal league data available to the public. 

It’s a wise step for the league to take, especially with the proliferation of advanced stats in both the public and organizational realms. This sort of data will play a huge role in the future of the game and giving fans access to even a fraction of it shows that the league understands the value in opening those doors. 

Another feature that I desperately wish the NHL would build out for its fans is a form of the NFL’s All-22 product. This has been a favorite topic of mine for quite some time and it’s something that I think the NHL is completely missing the bus on. 

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The Instigator Podcast 12.9 – Frozen Frenzy and a Decentralized NHL Draft

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It’s been quite the week in the NHL. Tuesday’s 16-game slate was a hit, with ESPN’s Frozen Frenzy the highlight of the evening. We talk about the effort to put the night together and how we look forward to the next iteration of the NHL’s version of Red Zone. We also spend time talking about the league’s movement to decentralize the draft. We weigh the pros and cons of pulling most, if not all, team staff from the on-site draft and the movement to a model that more closely resembles the NFL Draft. Along the way we touch on the Sabres first seven games, where they’ve struggled, where they’re enjoying positive momentum and why we remain optimistic despite their early struggles on offense.

Make it a Draft Week with “NHL Con”

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On a recent episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman floated the idea of the NHL putting on “NHL Con” or soe other form of convention as part of the draft celebration. The idea came as an offshoot of the discussion surrounding the league’s push to decentralize the draft.

It’s a terrific idea that the league should pursue with, or without, a shift in operations for the entry draft. The NHL Draft isn’t quite the fan extravaganza that the NFL Draft has become, but it’s certainly a draw for die-hards and there’s local interest as it moves from city to city. Tying in a massive, hockey-focused festival for the week of the draft would be an excellent way to draw more fan attention to the event, and to keep people engaged beyond the first round on Friday night.

The NHL’s version of Comic Con could become an offseason Mecca for various offshoots of the hockey community. Pulling in interests from equipment, collectibles, hockey history and kid-friendly events could provide days of relevant programming that builds up to the weekend’s draft. There could even be ancillary programming like a concert or two that the NHL could help put together as part of their arrival in the city that week. Maybe, if the city’s layout made sense for it, you could create an NHL Campus. Where you have the arena as ground zero as that is where the draft will occur, but other nearby venues (whether it be a convention center, park, college campus or concert hall) are all part of the programming that takes place during the week. That way if you were a fan hoping to see the Stanley Cup and get some autographs, you’d go to the Fan Fest space at the local convention center. But if you were there for a panel discussion, maybe you wind up at a smaller concert venue close to the arena. Regardless of the shape this would take, I’d hope that Elliotte’s initial suggestion was either an educated guess or that it has caught the ear of the special events people at the NHL and they’ve started to develop something. They won’t be short on options to include.

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The Instigator Podcast 12.3 – Prospect Challenge Prep

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The Prospect Challenge kicks off this week, which means there is (semi) meaningful Sabres hockey to discuss. We talk about some of the most notable players coming to face Buffalo’s prospects and run through the Sabres’ Prospects Challenge roster. We talk about which players we’re most interested in watching, who we expect to shine, who has a chance to improve their stock and which players might be most likely to surprise. We also touch on the situation unfolding between Paul Bissonnette and Mike Babcock after Bissonnette’s comments on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast.

Expanding and Realigning College Hockey

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Tyler Roeder contributed to this post.

The tumult of realignment has turned college football inside out in recent seasons and is the most talked about subject in the sport this side of NIL.

Photo courtesy Oregon Hockey Twitter

As this summer’s round of conference poaching wrapped up, the idea of what this sort of practice might look like in NCAA hockey sprang to mind. Conference realignment isn’t foreign to college hockey either, as the formation of the B1G Conference created a domino effect when plans for the conference were first announced in 2011. The ripple effect of the B1G creation is still being felt after the CCHA’s recent reformation and the subsequent folding of the WCHA. Unlike the TV-money fueled change in football, much of the reshuffling in hockey has been driven by the need for a more manageable geographic region of conference play. Even still, several programs have had to shut down over the last five years due to budgetary constraints, something not felt by revenue sports like football. Interestingly, that hasn’t prevented schools from adding DI hockey programs. In fact, despite the struggles faced by the likes of Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska-Anchorage and Robert Morris, there continue to be reports of schools conducting studies to add the sport to their offerings. 

With that in mind and in addition to the recent college football realignment in mind, we put our heads together to come up with ideas for not only conference realignment, but further expansion of college hockey’s footprint. What follows is a combination of the ideas floated on the most recent episode of The Instigator Podcast. It is a blue sky concept for reshaping or creating various conferences, adding schools which we feel would be strong supporters of hockey and creating an ecosystem where every program can thrive in their own right. 

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