Montreal looks very good but I’m pretty sure it’s because they are a good team playing against mostly shitty teams.
there is some truth to that but they are not winning 3-2 either. They dominated Toronto and lost on a bad break. I think they are to be taken seriously but we will see. Many teams have only played shitty teams.
That was against Arizona and Minnesota, these are two shitty teams and I learned in this thread that we should not care about things people do against shitty teams :)
Mea Culpa on Chris Tanev. He can’t move the puck but the Canucks bleed high danger chances against without him, and he and Hanifin have started the year a dominant pair in Calgary, mediocre as the team has been.
I bought 2 sticks last year and was absolutely shocked at the cost. Then again, the last time I bought a stick was the late 90s
We had a good discussion here a few months ago about this, hockey is a sports for rich people. It got completely inaccessible for a good portion of people in the last 20 years. imagine having a kid who wants to be a goalie. You have to change gear every 2 years, plus the cost of the season and traveling
I’ll take a shot a premature US roster.. Goalies Hellebuyck Gibson Bishop Defensemen Werenski - Jones Hughes - Carlson Krug - McAvoy Slavin - Fox Forwards Tkachuk - Matthews - Boeser Gaudreau - Eichel - Kane Connor - Larkin - Wheeler Pacioretty - Pavelski - Hayes Tkachuk - Miller - Kreider
Hopefully it’s only 1 kid and not 3. I grew up in Florida and me and my 2 brothers played. I eventually gave it up bc it conflicted with football (which was my best sport). But my 2 brothers kept playing and the costs were astronomical, especially the ice time. Neither of them were very good either, but my parents weren’t going to stop them from playing.
I think Oshie gets a spot again because of how the shoot out rules allow multiple attempts, but other than that, pretty good
Some of the kids in the GTHL their parents are spending upwards of $50K a year. Ridiculous. What are too kids in USA paying for hockey but also other sports? I get part of that might be travel costs
The sport has always been held back by inaccessibility. When I played half my protective gear came from garage sales etc as I grew. All I cared about was having skates that didn't kill my feet. Nice gloves and a stick. My mother didn't care what helmets cost because she didn't want me losing my teeth. Buying kids new gear is a waste if they plan on sticking with it. Getting ice time and waking up early ruined any chance I could play by HS. I just wasn't waking up at 4am. GTFO with that.
I got my first set of new goalie pads my freshman year of high school. Everything else was bought used.
We were pretty well connected so I could get some gear that pro players tried for a practice or two and did not like so that was nice. I had a few used gear too when I was too small to get those. But nowadays it looks like every kid has a brand new gear.
Cost of gear has come down a little bit, that's for sure. It used to cost 1.5k+ for leg pads alone. Now you can get a decent set of pads on clearance for $500 and not feel like you were robbed blind. Thank god for goaliemonkey.
yeah I was surprised the last time I bought a pair of pads. It was alright. You can also go nuts and pay 2500. But that type of gear is not needed when you only play games. The practices were where I would destroy my gear
Lots of kids around the province will move there for a year to play. Unless you are first round talent OHL teams don't look to fondly on kids/parents who do this. Does this happen in Montreal??
Seems like communities do a good job nowadays loaning out goalie gear for kids under 16. Helps offset the costs tremendously.
JMO of course for the sake of discussion, but a couple changes I’d make- Probably can’t have Hughes and Carlson together. Hughes is still a work in progress defensively and defense left the station on Carlson last year. Hughes and Fox or Slavin and Carlson for the 3rd pairing I think. Id probably flip Boeser and Kane for similar reasons between Kane and Gaudreau. Neither play a lot of defense and they both need the puck on their stick too much to be real effective together. If we’re talking the Olympics in another year I might bet on Jack Hughes over an aging Pavelski, with Hayes at C and Hughes on the wing.
They are usually pretty weak. It’s basically mtl, Quebec and few good players from the regions but gatineau is never a team we would worry about when I was younger. It might have change but I don’t see it. the south side near Quebec got a lot better though, with the prices going up in the city and many offices opening up near the bridge many young families decided to move out to Levis. They’ve had a few good teams in midget aaa the last few years.
Hughes is a guy that can obviously be on this team. I just think Pavelski is the perfect type of player that has experience and can still play a serious role. Im obviously just shooting the shot here though. Edit - Our RW situation looks weak, that’s why I like Hayes there