mikey's Thread of Penguin Randomness

[mikey]

I think we acquired Conor Sheary again, didn't we? That kind of sounds familiar...maybe this was why...?

[MR25]

He was injured after the deadline...

I mean, I guess Sheary would be insurance in case someone got hurt but I don't think getting Sheary was a reaction to Simon getting hurt 5 days after the deadline.

[mikey]

Oh...heh...yeah I suppose you're right...welp, that pretty much sums it up, the season feels like it was 20 years ago at this point to me...

[Jim]

Why would you wait two and a half months to get the surgery?

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

It's like there is something going on that's restricting the health care system...

[NTP66]

It could just be them waiting for inflammation to go down, or any number of other medical reasons. It’s not that uncommon.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Or thinking they could make it heal through PT

[Gaucho]

Maybe they were hoping it would just go away.

[faftorial]

It's probably considered elective surgery which just started again.

[meow]

They ran out of Neosporin

[willeyeam]

I have a take. I'm starting to think it's best to just scrap this season. As much as I'm jonesing for sports and especially the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sadly it won't even feel like the same season anymore

[NTP66]

That’s been my stance all along. Start fresh in the fall.

[offsides]

Unless some reopening gets going I want something to do at home and I'll take watching fan less hockey over fan less baseball any day.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Bad take, imo. Re cancelling the season

[mikey]

Keep hope alive for this season. It's not like there's going to be a magical refresh in of life and love in September anyhow. Just because it's a new season, doesn't mean it starts on time and the same way and everything is fine. So, if you've got something that's 80% done already...finish it out. Because it doesn't take that much more effort than the thing that matters less that's 0% done...there's a point where it becomes untenable, sure...but that point is not now...

[King Colby]

You'll be happy they restarted on the day of the first game.

[King Colby]

Its going to take a while to play it out though. Even if they started July 1, which they're getting to the wire here on that being the date, and started with 24 teams... do you really make 9-16 play 17-24 to get to your field of 16? Probably not. Its probably more like a NCAA conference tournament with single, double, maybe even triple byes.

And then its not like you're going to have the 24th seeded team do this whole ramp up and be one-and-done, or even two-and-done. Whether its various play-in rounds or a round Robin to advance... good chance it takes a month to even get to a field of 16. At which point I would find it highly unlikely the NHL does anything other than 7 game series. So there's another 2 months.

So if you start 7/1 maybe you get done by 9/30, then start a 60 some game season the day after Thanksgiving? I can see it happening.

But if 7/1 cant happen, the question is how late are they willing to start 2021? I can't see them wanting it to drag out to January and doing another 48 game season. They can probably get 60 if they start 12/1. Before any further cannibalizing of 2021, they'll start getting real creative and weird with the 2020 finish.

[mikey]

Obviously, all of this is very fluid. I was talking with someone yesterday morning for a while about where this is all at now...and here's the upshot...

One of the scenarios right now that's getting a lot of traction is something along these lines:
- 24 team playoff (12 per conference). In 4 host cities. Maybe something like Edmonton, Vegas, Minneapolis, Toronto...
- 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, 8v9 by conference standings in a best of 3 play-in series. 1 v highest, 2 v second-highest, etc. in a best of 5 "quarterfinal" and a three "normal" best of 7's after that for the semi-final, conference final, Cup final...
- Limit lottery to the 7 non-playoff teams

##
How I could see it...

So, you probably get those 6 or 7 votes at the bottom. You probably get most of the eight teams who get a "bye" to give their support because they'll likely face a weaker opponent than they would have...i.e. Philadelphia goes from Pittsburgh in a death match, probably like Toronto or New York or something...while Dallas goes from Colorado to getting a warm-up series against Chicago to get rolling...

The players and league are cool with about a six-week offseason. So, let's map this out...

June 15-25: Camps and exhibitions
June 27: Best of 3 series begin
July 2: Last day for play-in series
July 3/4: First day of quarterfinals
July 12: Last day for quarterfinals
July 14: First day for semifinals
July 27: Last day for semifinals
...
You're done the Stanley Cup Final before the end of August and can fit a draft in there. Hold the Cup in Vegas, throw together an awards presentations.

Have all staff/players contracts that would have expired 6/30, expire 8/31.
Sept. 1 free agency window opens
Sept. 7 free agency begins
...
Nov. 1 season start...I'd prefer a 76 game season. But I think the press is for 82 still. But you lose the bye week in there, that's three more games. Tidy up the schedule for a couple more home-and-road sets. You can still end the season in just about the same place without much effort and then you're back on the rails from a scheduling perspective...

Now, playing again on June 27 is a tight squeeze, like you said...and that's fair. I think there's a month of wiggle room there. I think the league would start 2020-21 on December 1st give or take...I think they become uncomfortable after that...so, realistically, that gives you most of July to get a puck dropped...that's a good chunk of time for something that's so fluid...

[nocera]

Might not be the right thread for this, but the Lower Hill development is never going to happen.

Pittsburgh Penguins pull out of Lower Hill development plans
https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-a ... ent-plans/

Pittsburgh's arena "district" is trash compared to other cities with arenas of similar age. Columbus has a 20 year old arena district that puts Pittsburgh's to shame. The Pens don't want to put in the time or money to develop land when they can just charge ridiculous parking rates on a gravel lot instead. And the Urban Redevelopment Authority will only accept development if it's 100% done in their vision. It's a **** mess.

[mikey]

I've probably been to like half of the NHL arenas at this point maybe...the area immediately around the arena is one of the worst I've seen...I seem to recall San Jose being trash too, but it's also been like 8-10 years since I've been there...and also San Jose is a pathetic "city" for night life anyhow...but Pittsburgh vs expectation is not good...missed opportunity to capitalize on the Crosby era and now it's too late...

[MR25]

Unrelated but was looking through old tweets I favorited and found this

[Jim]

Might not be the right thread for this, but the Lower Hill development is never going to happen.

Pittsburgh Penguins pull out of Lower Hill development plans
https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-a ... ent-plans/

Pittsburgh's arena "district" is trash compared to other cities with arenas of similar age. Columbus has a 20 year old arena district that puts Pittsburgh's to shame. The Pens don't want to put in the time or money to develop land when they can just charge ridiculous parking rates on a gravel lot instead. And the Urban Redevelopment Authority will only accept development if it's 100% done in their vision. It's a **** mess.

I am glad that Morehouse pointed fingers, and that he did it directly, not even bothering to be coy about it. There is far too much sludge in Pittsburgh bureaucracy (not even politics) and it would be nice if a spotlight would shine in that direction. I wonder if there was a little more kickbacks, would all of these buildings already be built? Again, it's not even a politics thing, its not D or R, its big egos and rubber stamps.

[King Colby]

Unrelated but was looking through old tweets I favorited and found this

A rare correct interference call haha

[nocera]

Well the Pens sat on that land and delayed any work being done for 10 years. So many fingers can be pointed in many directions.

[willeyeam]

That sucks. I was excited to see some things finally start to happen. The area around the arena sucks.