Thursday Links:
- TSN Radio: Nylander and Brown on Marlies’ season, playoffs (TSN 1050)
Connor Brown and William Nylander talk about the Marlies‘ strong finish to the season, look ahead to the AHL playoffs and discuss the Oilers winning the draft lottery.
I - James Mirtle: Why NHL teams should stop spending big on (most) goalies (The Globe and Mail)
The chart below is all 72 of the goalies that have made any type of playoff run in the salary-cap era, going back to 2006. A “run” in this case is defined as appearing in at least eight games, meaning they were into at least the second round as a starter. Over all, the younger, cheaper goalies have had slightly better results.
I - Kevin McGran: When the Leafs miss the playoffs, everybody loses (Toronto Star)
“You’d do a $4 million gate for every playoff game they have,” said Brian Cooper, President & CEO, S&E Sponsorship Group Inc., and former vice president of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment. “That’s one-and-a-half times what would happen at a normal game.”
I - Luke Fox: Watch for Leafs, Oilers bonus first-round picks (Sportsnet.ca)
“Obviously there’s so much focus on the first couple of guys, and they are fantastic players,” Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said at Saturday’s lottery, “but it is a very deep draft.”
I - PPP: A poem for Winnipeg Jets Fans (Pension Plan Puppets)
The Atlanta Thrashers franchise record in the playoffs moved to 0-8 as the Winnipeg Jets 2.0 were swept out of the playoffs at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks. The strangest things about the sweep were that somehow Ondrej Pavelec, the goalie that had really showed those dumb number jerks a thing or two, was atrocious and that the league’s loudest and best fans suddenly weren’t able to give their team a magical boost anymore.
