Hot Takes – Jan. 29th, 2018

So let’s just get right to it because if you’re reading this then you know I do a blog pretty much every Monday, and you know what I’m going to be most fired up about, so why the hell would waste your time with some ridiculous opening?!

Well, I have to give the jack asses in power a little bit of credit, because it does sound like they’re going to at least some what try to fix the problem.  But man, it really has to get to the point of well beyond humiliating for anyone to get off their asses and fix a problem in the NHL doesn’t it?!  It’s absolutely incredible that these dip shits can’t get out of their own way to fix things.  The officiating is disgraceful, and it’s not the fault of the officials, it’s the way that they are being asked to officiate.  I wrote about it last week, these knobs running the league (*cough* Colin Campbell *cough*) have unwritten rules that supersede the ACTUAL rules!!  I watch Connor McDavid play every night, and he’s mauled every night.  He’s not only the fastest player in the game, he’s the fastest player with the puck in the game, and beyond THAT, he constantly is putting himself in positions with the puck where he’s a threat to a defender where the choice is to either take some kind of penalty or allow a grade A scoring chance.  He probably draws four penalties a night on average if the game is being officiated properly.  He’s 10th in the league in drawing penalties.  Number one?  Matthew Tkachuk….known league pest who the league will also adjust their rules to as I hit on last week to allow him to play his game.  And do NOT get that twisted, I’m not an Oilers fan right now crying because a Flame is getting the most calls while my beloved Oiler isn’t.  I applaud Tkachuk, because he’s smart enough to understand that the league and officials are so stupid that adjust the way they officiate to allow him to play that way!  If McDavid was more greasy about things, I truly believe he’d get more calls!  But because he doesn’t, and because he draws so many that it would slow down the game (which is the big mandate for officials is to call as few penalties in a game as they possibly can, it’s become clear that they believe flow and keeping the PP’s even for both sides is more important than properly officiating it).  This league is completely fucked, there is just no two ways about it.

Would you believe that this is 100 times a nicer rant against the league than I originally had written?  There was a lot of name calling in the original, which I still would have had no problem with, because none of them deserve respect from hockey fans.  If any of us were as incompetent as these people are at their jobs, we wouldn’t have jobs.  And yet these completely unqualified jack asses just keep getting or remain in these gigs.  And it’s league wide.  It isn’t just in the league offices, it’s around the league.  Each team (and I’m talking on the ice here, not off) is a business and these businesses are being run by “hockey men” whom have no business training at all.  We are living in a day and age where you have fans (far from every fan, but a small number) who are not only more intelligent about the game and how to run these businesses than the “hockey men” are, but can publicly document it for everyone to see.  And I’m not saying that the “hockey men” hold no value, they absolutely do.  But they shouldn’t be running the businesses, whether we are talking on ice or off ice.

And yet the king of all these businesses is Gary Bettman, and when his name gets tossed out as being a shitty commissioner people will talk about revenue “well when he took over revenue was only here and now it’s here so he’s done incredible”.  Nothing like comparing something to nothing and giving one fact with nothing behind it to support it.  Revenue’s have gone through the roof while he’s been commissioner hey?  And they didn’t while John Ziggler was running things?  And they haven’t for the commissioners of the other sports leagues?  And inflation in his 25 years as commissioner has nothing to do with this?  If you’ve tossed that stat at people you’re a complete moron.  And just because revenues have gone up in NO WAY shows what could be.  What if scoring is way up and there for offensive records are put in jeopardy and there for the game becomes much more marketable?  You think revenues might go up?  I bet they would, and under Bettman the large majority of his tenure has seen scoring much further down than when he took over as league commissioner in 1993.  Another thing a massive spike in scoring would do as I’ve hit on before is make the sport much more enjoyable and interesting to gamble on.  Currently, the spread in every hockey game is -1.5, and those odds are normally astronomical to win.  We should live in a world where you can bet the Pens favoured by 2.5 against the Kings and the odds be near 50/50 for it to happen.  8-7, 8-5, 7-4, 9-5, these are scores that we should be seeing regularly in the league.  It would make the sport so much better in so many ways.  But again, the people running it, who are led by their 5’4 troll at the top just refuse to make that happen.

Anyway, I could go on about this all night, let’s get to some good news before I sign off…

What a week for the Flyers Ethnic Club!!  Two wins which extends the streak to five…or ten….or something like that.  Big win over the Wanna-be’s led by their star player, you all know him, #14, Massive Douche.  And don’t get me wrong, Massive Douche played great.  He was on his game that night.  Couple of cheap shots, couple of horrible chirps, got off the ice every time shit got heated, he played his game to perfection.  But it wasn’t enough as it turns out it’s a good idea to be decent at hockey for all that to be effective and his squad fell to the Flyers.  Then last night (as you likely saw on TMZ), with the Flyers rolling, and the Mustangs still reeling from the beat down they received at the hands of the Flyers just two weeks prior, decided to forfeit the game just hours before the Flyers were to arrive.  And yep, you guessed it….Tyler Campbell ONCE AGAIN with the GWG!  And not just that, but the Soups on Hockey camera’s were rolling and caught Campbell celebrating his latest snipe amongst the Flyers faithful after the game:

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